Egypt – a Nation in turmoil

The Battle for Tahrir Square - Yuri Kozyrev / Noor Images for TIME

Related articles:

Egypt Protests – BBC: News in pictures
Egypt Death Throes of a Dictatorship – Robert Fisk – The Independent
Cairo Photographer sees hope in turmoil – Scott Nelson – NYTimes.com
Egypt’s security and armed forces: The deciding factor – Frank Gardner – BBC News
Anger in Egypt – Al Jazeera
Live updates from Egypt – Human Rights Watch
Journalists are targets of violence in Cairo – The New York Times
Turmoil in Egypt – Dominic Nahr / Magnum Photos for TIME
The Madness in Tahrir Square – Chris Hondros – BagNews

Expanding the Circle: The Engaged Photographer

Opening photograph: © Eric Gottesman

Photographer Susan Meiselas discusses ‘documentary photography’s potential to connect and move audiences by “expanding the circle of knowledge” about human rights and social justice issues’.

Links:

Open Society Institute Documentary Photography Project
Expanding the Circle – Open Society Foundations
Moving Walls – Open Society Foundations

Contacts – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Contact sheets are a visual diary, a unique look into the photographer’s thought process.

Henri Cartier-Bresson from the Arte Video series: Contacts.

Links:

HCB interview with Charlie Rose

The Future of Documentary Photography

Recently Photoshelter sponsored a panel discussion on the future of documentary photography, produced by the photographers of Luceo Images in conjunction with their Altered States gallery exhibition. The panel included photojournalist James Estrin of the New York Times LENS Blog, TIME Magazine Deputy Photo Editor Paul Moakley, director of CLAMPART Brian Paul Clamp, and Bess Greenberg of 25CPW.

Bedrooms of the Fallen – Ashley Gilbertson / VII Network

‘The purpose of this project is to honor these fallen – not simply as soldiers, marines, airmen and seamen, but as sons, daughters, sisters and brothers – and to remind us that before they fought, they lived, and they slept, just like us, at home’ – Ashley Gilbertson

Bedrooms of the Fallen

Bedrooms of the Fallen – Kickstarter Project

Agent Orange 2010

Ben Tre Provence ©David Dare Parker

It was moving to watch the affection between Pham Minh Trieu and his daughter, Pham Thi Ngoc Minh. This quietly spoken man had been in the Army from 1950 – 1975 and was a medic during the War. He remembers hiding in underground tunnels during US Air Force bombing raids. He was based in Bà Rịa, Vũng Tàu Province, when dioxin was dropped on the area, and has strong memories of leaves falling off plants, trees dying and eating fruit from dioxin-affected regrowth. Returning to Ben Tre Provence he married and had a daughter. He blames her defects on dioxin poisoning, a direct result of his exposure during the War.

Workshops and Masterclasses in 2011 and 2012

Details here soon, Workshops and Masterclasses in Western Australia, Bali and East Timor.

Machete, East Timor 1999 ©David Dare Parker

Balazs Gardi’s – Facing Water Crisis

On those rare occasions I get to catch up with Balazs for a coffee and a chat, I always leave the conversation inspired. He is out-spoken, passionate, and dedicated.

Facing Water Crisis – Rio Favelas from Balazs Gardi on Vimeo.

Balazs Gardi’s Facing Water Crisis Project.

Photographers on Afghanistan

I draw inspiration from my colleagues, and when they do something powerful, I think it is important to spread the word.

Adam Ferguson – The Sydney Morning Herald
A.K. Kimoto – The New York Times

David Guttenfelder – National Geographic

Louie Palu – The Virginia Quarterly Review

Lynsey Addario – National Geographic

Stephen Dupont – Generation AK teaser

Balazs Gardi – The Valley

Danfung Dennis – To Hell and Back

Support João Silva Photojournalist

Embedistan – Embed links

Oxford English Dictionary

“Even before a magazine journalist brought down Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the institutionalized practice of journalists moving and living with military units was one of the most controversial legacies of America’s 21st-century wars” – Stephen Farrell / NYTimes.com

Links:
Embedistan – NYTimes.com 
Embedistan articles – NYTimes.com 
Advice for first-time embeds to Afghanistan – Lightstalkers 
Media Visit Information Embed Request – ISAF 
Mike Kamber on Military Censorship – BagNews
The Medivac Stories, with Daniel Etter – dvafoto.com

RESTREPO – A film by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington

RESTREPO is a must see feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. Once you’ve seen the film, check out ‘War’ by Sebastian Junger and ‘Infidel’ by Tim Hetherington.

Also of interest is Tim Hetherington’s Sleeping Soldiers and Diary (2010)

Foto8’s Jon Levy on Intent – Open College of the Arts

Jon Levy on Intent from Open College of the Arts on Vimeo.

Jon is the founder and director of Foto8, a highly regarded platform for photojournalism.

Kodachrome: The End of an Era – 1935 to 2010

Steve McCurry blogs about the last frames shot, on the last roll made, of what I also considered to be the World’s best colour film, Kodachrome:

‘Today is the day that Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas, the last lab on the planet to process Kodachrome, stops developing the iconic film forever. When Kodak stopped producing the film last year, they gave me the last roll. When I finished shooting the final frames, I hand-delivered it to Parsons. Here are a few of those last 36 frames’- Steve McCurry

The End of an Era – 1935 to 2010

Final Frame - Cemetery in Parsons, Kansas ©Steve McCurry

Other Goodbyes:

Adios Amigo – We’re Just Sayin’ – David Burnette
Kodachrome’s Color-Drenched Life Magnum Photos – Newsweek

Emphas.is to offer insurance for photojournalists

Insurance can seem cost prohibitive to the freelance photojournalist, but covering conflict without it is foolhardy. I just read the following on the Emphas.is blog:

Emphas.is to offer insurance for photojournalists: DUBLIN, Jan. 12, 2011 (Emphas.is) –– Fifty-seven journalists were killed in 2010, according to the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. That’s a 25% drop from 2009 but still a staggering number and a reminder that journalism can be a very dangerous business. For this reason Emphas.is has reached an agreement with Reporters Without Borders and Escapade Insurances in Canada to offer dedicated insurance plans to all participating photojournalists’.

We have a saying in Australia, ‘having a go’, and the more I read about Emphas.is, the more I like what they are trying to do. The fact that they are teaming up with Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières) adds weight, especially in matters relating to the risks of front-line reporting.

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

Stunning colour photographs taken during America’s Depression by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information.

Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at Proviso yard of the Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Chicago, Illinois, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Links:
Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943: Plog Photos – The Denver Post
The Color of Memory: by Paul Hendrickson
Prints and photographs reading room: The Library of Congress

I PROTEST!

“I’m just a veteran combat photographer and foreign correspondent who cares intensely about my country and the role we are playing – and assigning to ourselves – in the world of today. And I want to shout a loud and clear protest at what has happened at Khe Sanh, and in all of Vietnam.” I PROTEST! KHE SANH, VIETNAM David Douglas Duncan’s impassioned plea for sanity in a disastrous war.

I had the honour of meeting David Douglas Duncan some years back, just long enough to shake his hand and explain to him how much his work had influenced me. Revisiting ‘I Protest!’, this small book with the powerful message, I was struck by how little our world has changed. Different wars, same insanity. My mind started to wander, reflecting on the kind of world my five year old son Luc might inherit. I have only recently started introducing him to the work that I do – shown him some photographs. I can tell when he’s moved, the look in his eyes — the questions he asks. I’m proud that he cares. I want to keep on contributing, in some small way, to help guarantee my boy’s world is better informed. The only just war is the war on ignorance.