Visual Journalism – Notes from aside the camera

April 16, 2022

Photographing Hell

David Hume Kennerly, in a guest essay for The New York Times, writes: The best photographs of war might make us want to look away. It’s imperative that we do not. A worthwhile read.

At Work/Ethics & Legal/Good Work/Photojournalism

February 2, 2022

“Photojournalist” Recorded Staging Photos

A nationally-known “photojournalist” was caught setting up an image and video of it was posted online. There have been several Twitter threads and now PetaPixel has picked up the story. At the time, Maranie Rae Staab was making photographs for Getty Images, which has deleted the images from that event and severed their relationship with her, according to PetaPixel. Note:...

At Work/Business & Industry/Ethics & Legal/Photojournalism

January 11, 2022

The Persistence of an Image

Carol Rosenberg at The New York Times looks back at an image made 20 years ago today, an image that has been read and misread a thousand ways since its release. “I’m always of the opinion that people should be able to see most of what the government is doing,” (Shane T. McCoy) said. “The fact that I have a...

Ethics & Legal/Photojournalism/Thoughts & Theory

January 5, 2022

A Craftswoman of Photography

I shall admit the name did not resonate with me at first, but the work … the work certainly did. Sabine Weiss, the last of the “humanist” photographers, died on December 28, 2021, according to a New York Times piece by Clay Risen. “From the start I had to make a living from photography; it wasn’t something artistic,” Weiss told...

Business & Industry/Craft/Good Work/Photojournalism

January 5, 2022

Alexia Grant Competition

This one is near and dear to my heart … the call for applications to the Alexia Grants has been posted they open on January 11. There are student and professional awards available, the latter is $20,000 to support a proposed project. Disclosure: I was a first year student when Alexia Tsairis was killed in a terrorist bombing aboard Pan...

Competitions/Good Work/Photojournalism

September 7, 2021

Adapting Coverage

The Associated Press’ Emilio Morenatti lost one of his legs while covering the war in Afghanistan. This year, he covered the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, reconnecting with a soldier he met while in the hospital and connecting with others. Connection is one of the most critical parts of good storytelling, Morenatti has a genuine way of doing that.

At Work/Good Work/Photojournalism

September 7, 2021

Parisian Wanderer

A new book and exhibit of work by Henri Cartier-Bresson is out and Blind magazine’s Bill Shapiro has a report. Shapiro reintroduced me to the word flâneur: (A) French word describing a person who strolls without a goal while carefully observing everything around him. In other words, a connoisseur of street life. I want that on my business card.

Craft/Good Work/Photojournalism

August 4, 2021

Racing Through and To History

For several years, we ran a photojournalism workshop at the Petit Le Mans sports car race, not far from our campus in Athens, Georgia. My students, predominantly women, rolled their eyes when I explained what we were doing. Then they came back to class afterwards with their eyes wide open – it wasn’t about cars or crashing, it was about...

Business & Industry/Good Work/Photojournalism/Thoughts & Theory

August 4, 2021

Small Town Wyoming, A Century Ago

Sarah Blackwood has a great piece up at The New Yorker looking at a trove of work done by Lora Webb Nichols a century ago. Anyone with an interest in portraiture or documentary work (done on a hyper local scale) needs to take a look. Beautiful compositions help us see what life was like in a copper mining town. (Thanks...

Good Work/Photojournalism

August 3, 2021

Native American Identity Through the Native Lens

From NPR, information on a new effort to take back the visual story of Native Americans.

Ethics & Legal/Photojournalism/Thoughts & Theory