Author: Mark E. Johnson

September 25, 2010

On Teaching and the Value of Education

John Harrington, a gentleman I admire for numerous reasons, has opened up the question – again – as to whether university programs are preparing “photographers” for the real world. He brings up several important issues and his post is worth ruminating on. His main complaint stems from ads looking for photography faculty members and requiring at least a masters’ degree...

Categories Advice & Learning/Journalism/Thoughts & Theory

September 24, 2010

Why Archiving Is Important

Over on the New York Times, there is a story about a lost television recording of the last game of the 1960 World Series that has been found in a wine cellar of Bing Crosby. Aside from the Yankees losing that game, it is a nice reminder of the value of finding long-term storage solutions for our own archives. Right...

Categories Advice & Learning/Business & Industry/Tech Talk

September 16, 2010

Optimism in Photojournalism

As promised, here’s the optimism for today … on the New York Times‘ Lens blog, James Estrin writes about Luzeo Images, a photojournalism collective founded by several UGA Photojournalism alumni, and how they are combatting the “photojournalism is dead” mantra we’ve been hearing since … um … 1930? No, wait, then we had the Farm Securities Administration work … 1936? No, that’s...

Categories Business & Industry/Craft/Journalism

September 16, 2010

Civil Rights Era Photographer Revealed as FBI Informant

The Memphis Commercial Appeal has a very detailed story up that looks at the work Ernest Withers did, both as a photographer during the Civil Rights movement and as an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Categories Ethics & Legal/Journalism

September 16, 2010

International Relations, Photojournalism and Pelé

Sitting in my office a few minutes ago, a newspaper came sliding under the partially-closed door. My name, in the classic red ink of Professor Conrad Fink, and his initials, above an obit piece on John Varley. It’s an interesting read about a photograph I’ve seen before but didn’t really comprehend that well. Varley, a British news photographer, made the image...

Categories Craft/Ethics & Legal/Journalism/Photojournalism

September 16, 2010

Journalism as a Dinner Party

Get your attention? It’s not my line, I stole it from Khoi Vinh who tossed it out during a presentation in Zurich last week (video below). He was talking about how journalism needs to be tied to user experience much more tightly now because of all the platforms it can be delivered upon. A few quotes … Even though great...

Categories Business & Industry/Graphic Design/Journalism

September 13, 2010

Social Media Meltdown

Made me laugh …

Categories At Work/Business & Industry

September 13, 2010

Twittering Students

I have my Advanced Photojournalism students on Twitter (and blogging), but I have to say this exchange that I found this morning made me chuckle. (Remember to read from the bottom up.) Makes the old D-76 in the bloodstream flow a little better seeing that. Of course, I preach that the photojournalism classes will be the least used courses they...

Categories Advice & Learning

September 12, 2010

Photography as You Remember It

Ahh, the good old days. When photography was easy … and not quite so convenient. (Thanks to Richard Hamm for the link.)

Categories Tech Talk

September 10, 2010

Hmmm … What is the New York Times Doing Next?

Sounds like the Times has something up their sleeve with their News.me domain. I’m curious … the blog post mentions a Flipboard-like service, which if it’s done legally and helps generate revenue, I’m all for it. (Haven’t looked at Flipboard for the iPad? Here’s my $0.05 review – it’s a content scraper. Stay away from it.)

Categories Business & Industry/Journalism/Tech Talk