Charles Moore - Powerful Days

One of my favorites from the old guard of photojournalism passed away on Thursday. Charles Moore, whose name you might know but whose photos you’ve definitely seen, created a striking and complete visual history of the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s through his work with Life magazine and other publications. John Kaplan (as part of a 1998 project for his Ohio University Masters of Science Degree in Journalism) has written a great history of Moore’s Civil Rights work that is not to be missed. Represented by Black Star throughout his career, Matt and I both got a chance to work with Moore’s negatives while interning at the agency a few years back. Seeing those negatives firsthand was a visual education like no other. His Civil Rights work was eventually collected in the 1991 book Powerful Days, still available on Amazon for a reasonable price.

Jake Marsico - Blue Tram (detail)

Jake Marsico just wrote in to let us know about his new project “Blue Tram.” The pictures are interesting, and the presentation is especially worth a look. It reminds me a bit of some long photos we’ve featured previously. I asked Jake a bit about the photos and the project.

Jake Marsico: The Alexandria tram system runs the length of this city and is used extensively by the middle and lower classes. I’ve been living in/visiting Alexandria for the past four years and it has become one of my favorite cities on earth. Unlike Cairo, Alexandria is extremely laid back, especially during the winter (I’m guessing the constant sea breeze helps calm people’s nerves).

As for choosing the tram, i feel like it’s a good representation of the city as a whole; it has resisted change (still only about 5 cents a ride) and it’s in a state of a constant, but elegant decay. Most of all, it’s a window into the communal nature of alexandrians: this is a city that lives on the streets – everyone seems to know each other, even when they’ve just met. Unlike the States, it’s perfectly acceptable for an old man to sit next to you and rest his hand on your leg as a father would, and talk to you. There’s one frame in here that i particularly like, it’s of an old man speaking to a younger guy. It looks like a great story and the younger guy seems to be enjoying it greatly.

dvafoto: Why shoot it this way?
Jake Marsico: I had been experimenting with different ways to shoot the tram – from different angles, with natural light, with strobes. I ended up shooting this way for two reasons, for one it was the easiest way to be consistent: straight on, set up the camera and light and just wait for trams to pass. The other reason is that i wanted to present the tram in a unique way online. I’ve been in the process of learning basic html coding and i’ve seen horizontal scrolling before on several of my favorite photo websites, i thought this would be a great way to utilize horizontal scrolling in a unique way. I also like the dirty effect you get when using strobe on moving subjects.

In the end, it’s about getting a shot of someone in their most natural state. Alexandrians are so hospitable that natural, unintrusive street photography is nearly impossible. If they notice a camera is pointing at them, they’ll almost inevitably look straight at the camera and smile, then invite you for tea. It’s such a warm gesture but makes for boring, unnatural photos. These images also show the city’s residents in a rare down time between work life and home life. Most of them are just staring out the window, deep in thought.

Everyone’s a photographer now:

Amsterdam’s Foam Photography Museum announced this week that Alexander Gronsky has won their Paul Huf Award for 2010. I’ve heard his name before but this is the first time that I’ve really seen his work. Its spectacular.

(c) Alexander Gronsky

A friend of mine recently sent this Guardian article on World Press-winning photos of a stoning in Somalia to me. It starts off with a typical Sontag quote, but it’s worth a read. I’m not sure if Colberg’s excellent recent post (on the recently-redesigned Conscientious) Why We Must See is a direct response to the Guardian piece (it does mention the photos in question), but it might as well be:

To say that we want to read, but not see… That just seems like an easy way out. Seeing is not the same as reading. What I read about I can file away, because it is being processed while I take it in. What I see – there is a lot of processing, but there also is the unbearable immediacy. -Jörg M. Colberg, “Why We Must See”

Rob Haggart at APhotoEditor.com has been on a roll lately: Ask Anything – Does a photographer need a rep and do they really get you work?, The Value Of A News Photograph, Ask Anything – Should You Tell Your Clients If You Are Pregnant Or Have A Life Threatening Illness?, the editorial staff’s perspective on Negotiating The Editorial Contract, Ask Anything – How Do You Get Started Photographing Fashion?, Photographers- How To Deal With Infringements, a survey of Commercial Photographer Income, Ad Agency Guide To Photography Usage Terms, Ask Anything – Should Photographers be Unionized?, Ask Anything With Amanda And Suzanne – How Not To Blow The Face To Face Meeting, Ask anything with Amanda and Suzanne – How Much Money Do Commercial Photographers Make?, and especially the most recent post, Stop Accepting $200 Assignments. All well worth a read, discussion in the comments usually is worth a look, too.

The NYT Lens Blog posted today some of the only unembedded conflict photography from Iraq or Afghanistan that I can remember seeing in awhile (can you think of other examples? send them my way). Moises Saman was on assignment for the New York Times in the town of Marja in the aftermath of a recent offensive. It is strong work and provides something of a different view of the conflict there, though quite a few images do feature soldiers in the field. The perspective though, as the photographer is not working with them, is an interesting wrinkle and Saman explains how he got some of the images in the accompanying text.

This piece on Lens is a nice counterpoint to a piece published a few days ago with NYT Photographer Tyler Hicks who was embedded with a US unit which was conducting the operation/offensive in the same town days before Saman arrived. I think it is great that there are two angles on the same story by the same publication, especially from the perspective of being with and outside the military. I hope to see more, especially from the ‘outside’ perspective. I wonder how they played off of each other in the actual editions (online and print) of the paper. Again, anyone know?