The Guardian has an interesting, if brief, backstory on a photographer’s heir trying to enforce copyright on the ubiquitous iconic image of Che Guevara seen on t-shirts, posters, and messenger bags the world over (above).

“For decades the Argentinian-born Guevara’s adopted spiritual home of Cuba did not recognise copyright. It was only following the collapse of the former Soviet Union that Cuba joined the World Trade Organisation and legalised copyright.” -Row rages over iconic image of Che Guevara in the Guardian

It’s now been 50 years since Cuban photographer Alberto Díaz “Korda” Gutiérrez, who died in 2001, made the image. Now Diaz’s daughter has been going after advertising companies in an attempt to recoup license fees for widespread usage of the image.

I always love knowing the stories surrounding iconic images…

(via Politics, Theory, and Photography)

I’ve written before about Carolyn Drake and her work about water issues in Central Asia, but Pete Brook on his auxiliary blog Photography Prison just pointed me to a new narrated slideshow Drake has done for Orion Magazine. Have a look at “Return to the Center of the World: Following two storied rivers through Central Asia”

In America’s mass consciousness, Central Asia has transformed from being part of a powerful communist Cold War enemy into a place where the threat of Islamic extremism is imminent—all within the short span of my adult lifetime. Amid the clutter of preformed judgments that surface during the course of this work, it is always a comfort to return to the rivers. No matter how many different names they have been given, or empires have ruled them, or canals have been made from them, I can still see the rivers. Traveling along them offers the closest thing to truth that I can find.

Noor Images has just published Jon Lowenstein’s essay from Haiti, titled Aftershock Haiti.

What do you think of this series? Of course, he has photographed in a radically different way than what I have seen before from Haiti, but also the content of the images seems more considered to me. But of course it is a risky thing to photograph a “news” story in such a “limited” way. It has an interesting effect, and I wonder how the photographs will “age” and if they’re viewed as a photo trick or not. I don’t think so, I think it adds something to the scene, but I couldn’t explain how nor really justify myself, and I doubt that I would have done the same in the situation. I’m curious what you all think, please leave a comment.

Furthermore, I think it is very interesting to look at this image in the context of the photo and caption that come before it in the slideshow, where Lowenstein wrote “Haitian National Police gather a group of ‘looters’ or ’salvagers’ and confront them. In some of these instances the looters are shot, but in many cases they are let go, especially when Western media are present.” The effect of the film in this picture, on top of a cameraman, interestingly plays into the role of the media in this scene and in this story. How much of this was due to cameras (an idea we batted around in earlier posts) and is this even a bad thing in this circumstance? Very interesting work.

The global media portrays Detroit as a post apocalyptic environment, showing picture after picture of modern ruins, buildings that were once the pride of our city. What’s absent from these images are the people. What we see instead are soulless photographs portraying Detroit as an abandoned city with little regard for the more than 850,000 people who still call it home. Decay is compelling and easy to document – and first time visitors are often fascinated by these exotic ruins. Nevertheless, Detroit’s fall from grace and its current state is not the last or only chapter in the story of this great city. “Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus”, Latin for “We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes”, is the motto written on Detroit’s seal. (introduction)

Romain Blanquart and Brian Widdis recently wrote us about their joint project Can’t Forget the Motor City. We want to share a small selection from the project and Blanquart and Widdis’ answers to some of Scott’s questions about their work.

dvafoto: Why photograph a project together? How do you balance both of your styles and approaches against and with one another? Why approach the project the way you have (one focus on people, the other focus on landscape/surfaces)?

Brian Widdis (photographed landscapes in black and white): When I first started thinking about the project, it seemed too ambitious to tackle alone. Romain and I had the same frustrations about Detroit’s portrayal in the media, so the partnership made sense. I was aware of other two person collaborations, so I started thinking about how we could make it work. For many of us, life as a photographer is a solitary existence – it’s been nice to step beyond that with Romain.
In the beginning, I was concerned with establishing our individual voices. Our styles are not overly similar, but we were interested in telling a similar story about Detroit. So if there were no parameters about what to shoot, we would surely duplicate the same scene. Structuring the way we have was also a kind of ego insurance. If we were to photograph the same things, I was afraid he’d outshoot me all the time and would have all the good photos in the project. By varying our areas of emphasis, I guaranteed myself half of the photos.

Romain Blanquart (photographed people in color): This project started about a year and a half ago over a telephone conversation. We both had just seen more images of Detroit in a publication I can’ t remember now, the Independent newspaper I think. Decay, desolation, abandoned buildings, more of the same, not a person in sight; important but so misrepresentative of our city. It pissed me off. Not so much the photography itself but the way it was used, a superficial and misleading representation of Detroit that is constantly drilled into people’s heads. I think that there is a place for photographs of Detroit’s destruction but it has to be put into context and these same images cannot be solely or prominently used by the media when talking about the history, the present or future of Motown.
My background is photojournalism working at American newspapers for the past ten years. Our life, I mean the world, is about people first. And it does not mean that photographs need to be of people. This is what I think brought Brian and I to work together. His photography tends to shy away from people but IS about people. Quiet and subtle moments where the human imprint can be felt. Perfect combination with my way of photographing that tends to be of people in a pretty straightforward way. We have the desire to tell a similar story. We always photograph together for this project to experience the same spaces, moments, people… We do not think or overanalyze our styles and what we photograph. We photograph what and who we are naturally attracted to.

dvafoto: What sort of response have you gotten from editors? I imagine you’ve had some difficulty because the piece challenges contemporary visual expectations of Detroit so much. Is that true?

BW: People in general understand where we’re coming from, but in some respects, a vision of Detroit that is not the same old thing is a hard sell, especially in a general news sense. We’re not doing a documentary project, so in the end, that’s not really our concern. Our project is different in that it’s a documentary style project that is a reflection of our two perspectives. Not a definitive look at Detroit, but different than what most people have come to expect.

RB: The feedback so far as been very positive. You can only listen to the same story told the same way so many times, unless it’s your favorite story! Our challenge is to challenge visual expectations of Detroit. I also want to say that this project does not intend to be an ultimate, statistically correct portrayal of a city. It is more the representation of what someone would experience and see if they spent the time to crisscross this city for a few months with, I would like to think, an open mind.

dvafoto: Many photographers separate portrait-style photo essays from landscape essays from documentary essays, etc. You’ve mixed styles together in the presentation. What does that juxtaposition accomplish? Same question, but for color vs. black-and-white.

BW: Since we knew that the scale of this project would be large, it made sense to have these limitations – only people in color and only surfaces in black and white. It’s a way of focusing the energy, while playing to our individual strengths. Our goal is to create a rhythm using the back and forth of the two individual visions to create a combined third vision. We have been experimenting with ways of establishing that rhythm and the specific medium will play a large part in how that comes together – the book may look different than the website, and the prints on the wall etc.

RB: The mix of portraits and landscapes is simply due to the fact that this is what each one of us is primarily attracted to. So we made it the rule of this game, stick with what you are best at for now! Similar for the color and black-and-white. What attracts me about working this way is that you can look at the project and see two voices conversing using a different vocabulary that once combined generates a third and I believe more powerful voice. And lets face it, the more the merrier.
Working together has many more advantages. It’s a great way to have twice as many ideas and I like the conversation we can have about Detroit and photography. It is also safer.

dvafoto: How are the people of Detroit responding to your presence when you are out working on this? Are your subjects appreciative or apprehensive? Do many of the subjects bring up issues about Detroit’s usual portrayal in the media?

BW: People in general and Detroiters specifically understand exactly where we’re coming from when we describe the project. Most folks have seen the same stories and have the same reaction that we have. Detroit definitely has an image problem – and it’s understandable – the city is a mess. We aren’t trying to fix that image or describe Detroit in its entirety. Our goal is to show that there is a complexity in Detroit that’s not usually seen.

RB: The people we photograph have always been happy about the fact that we want to show something else than decay. Many of them are sick and tired of the way their city is often portrayed.

dvafoto: What’s the eventual plan for the project? Have you finished the photography? Where do you see it ending up?

BW: The photography is about half way done, I think. Our ultimate goal is to publish a book. Romain and I believe strongly in the photobook. We would also like to show the work in Detroit and elsewhere.

RB: The first phase of the project was photographed by walking around the city making random encounters. Now we are looking to get more intimate in the space and people we photograph. We are starting to explore Detroiters in their personal space, their home. The final presentation of this story will be in book form. We also want to share the work through exhibits in Detroit and other cities.

dvafoto: What photography/journalism/art/etc. is getting you excited right now?

BW: I have been really enjoying Mark Steinmetz’s three books South Central, South East and Greater Atlanta . He’s an outsider in the communities he photographs, and his encounters with his subjects are random and brief, but there is still a remarkable sensitivity that he gets to. I’m also really interested in how photographers navigate their personal space and relationships. Two books that I have been enjoying are Doug DuBois’ All the Days and Nights and Nigel Shafran’s Edited Photographs: 1992-2004. Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost is a collection of essays about being lost and the unknown.

RB: Photography books that I have been liking lately are South Central by Mark Steinmetz, There Is Something In The Air by Cuny Janssen, I Am – Paradox Identity by Ilse French. I used to look at a lot of photography online; there are so many great photographers in this world but I realized that I should be doing my own work instead so I now avoid looking at photo blogs as much as possible! I also feel inspired by my friends from the photography department with whom I work at the Detroit Free Press.

You can learn more about Can’t Forget The Motor City, and stay in the loop for updates, on facebook and Tumblr.

After a couple weeks in Xinjiang without internet, I’m now in Gansu Province for the Lunar New Year Holiday. I’ll have more to show soon.

Just a reminder that a print of Duwei (above) from the China Punk story is up for bid in the Daniel Cooney/iGavel Emerging Artists Auction until Feb. 4. Get it while the gettin’s good.

Following Matt’s lead, I’ve collected a few of my favorite photos of mine from 2009. It was a relatively good year, with a few assignments, corporate shoots, other gigs, and an award and exhibition or two. Always room for improvement in that respect, and 2010 seems to be off in full swing. The work here is mostly from China, with a little bit from the northwestern United States thrown in. These aren’t necessarily the best photos I took, or representative of everything I photographed, but they’re favorites nonetheless for various reasons.

I first met Jeremy M. Lange at a lecture we were both attending at ICP in 2006. We’d corresponded by email before, and he somehow recognized me in the crowd. I left New York later that year, and shared my last meal in the city with him. He continued freelancing in the city for a while before moving to North Carolina, producing along the way a strong and varied body of work, ranging from (legal) kidnappers for hire to Mexican presidential politics to barbershops to religious faith. His recent project, “The War At Home” is a wide-ranging piece covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from the perspective of those in the US. Do yourself a favor, and spend some time on his site. I asked Lange if he’d be willing to share his perspective on “The War at Home” over email. The discussion is below:

dvafoto: First, for our readers who might not be familiar with your work, where are you based and what publication do you work for? What sort of time on the job do you have to work on personal projects? How open is your publication to your story pitches?

Jeremy M. Lange: I am based in Durham, North Carolina, my hometown, which I returned to in 2007 after 3 years of school, 6 months in Mexico, and 3.5 years in New York City. I have a slightly odd arrangement in that I am a staff, or contract photographer, for the Independent Weekly, an alt weekly that covers the Research Triangle area of NC. I work 6 months a year guaranteed for them, one month on, one month off, and freelance the other 6, but I am able to take freelance jobs for all 12 months of the year, provided that I have all my responsibilities taken care of for the paper on the months I am on. The Indy is great in many ways, but especially in that me and the other photographer have almost complete artistic freedom in how we shoot the stories we are assigned and we get a little more time to invest in denser stories because it is a weekly. Deadlines do build up, but we have the ability to work our schedules out as we please as long as everything is done on time. Also, we can pitch stories at will and with a good argument, they tend to run them, as long as the story fits into the general guidelines of the paper, news, social justice, culture, it is pretty broad. Personal projects are much more easily blended into the paper than in others I have heard of. It can still be hard to find the time, and money, for personal projects, but that is always the case it seems. I think it falls more on you to make that time than anything else.

As a freelancer, I work a lot for the New York Times, who I have been working with since I lived in NYC and ran around for the Metro section, RIP, several days a week. They were the first real paper I worked for and have been great to me over the last few years. Thanks.

Other than that, I fill out my schedule with other editorial jobs, band shoots, portraits, whatever comes down the pipe. I think in smaller markets we are all forced to generalize a bit, but it is fun in that I learn new things from shooting different types of stories all the time. My background is in news and documentary, but I really enjoy shooting just about anything, with a few exceptions. Challenges keep you on your toes and I like the idea of photographing James Taylor one day and Christmas tree farms the next.

What got you started on “War at Home”? When did you know you were on to a bigger story with so many different threads to follow?

I met a soldier named Kristian Hofeller when I lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn in 2006. A package was misdelivered to my apartment and I rode up the street to drop it off at the right house and while speaking to the lady who answered the door, she mentioned that her son had just gotten back from Iraq. I asked if he might want to talk to me about it and take some photos, and I gave her my number and he called me couple of days later. We met at his house and drank some coffee and talked a little but he seemed sort of uncomfortable in his mom’s house so we went out to his truck and he basically broke down the last 5 years of his life to me. 1st responder to the WTC, off to Afghanistan, got in some trouble there, back home, marital problems, divorce, back to Iraq, back home… it blew my mind. He must have talked for over an hour with me just sitting in his truck listening and saying nothing really, I mean what the hell did I know about that? He got in some legal trouble while back in the US and therefore could not get a job, or at least a decent one, so he was considering going back to the military fulltime, he was on Reserve, or with a private contractor. They, the contractors, were offering him big money, he came from a blue collar family, but he did not really want to go. He had lost his wife and friends because of the war, but he really had no other options. We smoked and sat in the truck and he talked and then I went home, saying we would get together soon and shoot some photos. I had no idea what to do with what he told me, so I wrote down as much as I could remember, this is why an art degree can be a disadvantage, I should have taken notes, but I got it down for the most part, I like to listen.

We met again a couple of weeks later and went all the way out in Long Island to shoot some guns with an Army buddy and an older guy from his neighborhood. He would not really let me make any photos of him, but I got a shot of an Osama bin Laden target in a sand pit that has stuck around through all the edits, as well as one of his truck with a backwards “American Hero” emblem in the windshield. So I shot some really cool guns and we talked a lot, Kristian, me and his Army buddy, and then they took me home. We never talked again, he did not return my calls after that, not sure why, but I heard he went back to Iraq not long after. It stuck with me but I was trying to hustle in NYC and that was it for a while.

Not long after I got back to NC I shot a NYT story about a private contractor killed in Iraq, Brent Gray. We went to the grave with his wife and sister and some friends and then to a bar where we met some other guys who had served with him. I was so interested in what they were talking about and how little I knew about it. This is 5 or 6 years after we invaded Afghanistan and 3 after Iraq and I knew next to nothing about what people here were going through. I am not from a military family, but I have always been interested in it, the guns, the adventure and was about one stamp away from Marine basic training after high school. So I started looking around to find stories related to returning soldiers and other aspects of the war’s affects on the country and realized I had a huge pile of ideas.

Your “War at Home” project is pretty far-reaching. What ties it all together? What’s it about?
Read on »

Four of my images (above) from the series Young and Abandoned, portraits of orphans on the verge of institutionalization in rural Jiangsu Province, China, will be included in an exhibition at Fe艺术iv’Art (Feztiv Art) in Shanghai, China, from January 22-26th, 2010. There is an opening on January 22 at 6:30 pm. I’ll be there.

The festival was created by the Artdidact, the Artistic Commission of the French Junior Chamber International of Shanghai, whose aim is “to take part and contribute to the progress of the global community by giving to the young the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, their social responsibility and the necessary solidarity for taking actions to produce positive changes. Members of the JCI identify and realize projects to serve the positive evolution of their city in all fields: arts, social, economics, cultural, community…”

The subject of the exhibition is “China Youth,” and the pictures will be on display at Art + Shanghai Gallery at Fumin Lu, Lane 22, House 2, (Near Yanan Lu). Phone: +86-21 6248 4388. In the off-chance that someone in Shanghai is reading this, I hope to see you there.

Have a look at the “trailer” for Stanley Greene’s new book Black Passport, a deeply personal journal of life and a career in conflict. Or perhaps it is, as compiled by Teun van der Heijden, a biography.

(click here to see original on youtube)

I had a chance to meet the man and see his book in Paris in November, it is a fascinating document from a dedicated photographer deserving time and respect.

(h/t Nathalie Belayche)