Visual Journalism

August 8, 2013

Why Bezos Buying the Post Makes Sense … to Me

My Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds have all been overflowing with comments on the news that Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos bought the venerable Washington Post earlier this week. Most are filled with confusion, some derision, but it wasn’t until I read John Cassidy’s piece in the New Yorker that my thoughts were clarified. Because I completely disagree with him. I...

Categories Journalism/Thoughts & Theory

August 8, 2013

NPPA Short Grant Deadline is Monday

A reminder that the deadline for the National Press Photographers Association’s 2013 Short Grants is on Monday, August 12. There are six, $3,000 grants up for grabs.

Categories Business & Industry/Photojournalism

August 6, 2013

Malware That’s Good For You?

Apparently, Dove has taken their Real Beauty campaign a little further by creating a Trojan Photoshop action and releasing it into the wild. We don’t talk about fashion photography, so you can think about the message behind it on your own time. Maybe we could bring it into the classroom by talking about the whether you should be grabbing free...

Categories Tech Talk/Thoughts & Theory

August 6, 2013

Documenting WWII Prisons from the Inside

Michael Zhang has a story up on PetaPixel about World War II prisoners, in both theaters, who hand-built cameras to document the atrocities in prisoner of war camps.

Categories At Work/Photojournalism

August 5, 2013

Jeff Bezos Buys the Washington Post

Stunning news – Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has bought the Washington Post for $250 million. Note that it’s Bezos and not Amazon.com. I’m … speechless.

Categories Business & Industry/Journalism

August 5, 2013

Life Tips from the Architectural World

I know, I know: Not photojournalism. You know what? That’s the point. Head over to Bob Borson’s Life of an Architect and read his tips for being a better architect and a better person. Those are (some of) my goals for the coming semester, make them your own, too.

Categories Journalism/Photojournalism/Thoughts & Theory

August 3, 2013

The Boston Glove Sold

The New York Times has sold the Boston Globe (and the other papers in its New England Media Group) to John Henry – the owner of the Boston Red Sox. The Times had purchased the paper in 1993 for $1.1 billion and Henry is paying, ahem, $70 million. While I'm happy the papers will be under semi-local ownership, it does...

Categories Journalism

August 2, 2013

A Voice for Those Who Cannot Shout

For several years, photography in Afghanistan was completely banned by the Taliban. In 2001, it came back and now there is a documentary project to tell the story of photography in the country over the last decade. Very cool. (Thanks to Andrew Mendelson for the link.)  

Categories Craft/Journalism/Multimedia/Photojournalism/Video

July 30, 2013

Into the Light, Behind Smith’s Walk to Paradise Garden

Nice piece on Life.com by Ben Cosgrove about the story behind W. Eugene Smith’s legendary Walk to Paradise Garden image. If you don’t know the story, you have to read this. If you do know the story, you need to read it again.

Categories Craft/Photojournalism

July 30, 2013

A Reminder on Patience

One of the greatest challenges I face in teaching is getting the practice of patience across. The concept is easy, it’s getting students to actually practice patience that I haven’t mastered yet. And, in photography, photojournalism and journalism, patience is an essential skill. And I choose the word skill specifically – it is not a naturally occurring habit. It takes...

Categories Craft/Photojournalism/Thoughts & Theory