Just hitting the airwaves, the Noorderlicht Photography Festival, one of the great photojournalism events of the year, has been forced to remove an essay curated by Magnum’s Stuart Franklin. The festival’s press release (warning: pdf) states, in part,

The Associated Press does not object to the exhibition as such, but to the content of Franklin’s accompanying essay. This essay acknowledged that criminal acts were committed by both sides [Palestinian and Israeli], but assigned the principle responsibility for the extent of the bloodshed to Israel. Both Franklin and Noorderlicht believe this conclusion is justified by the critical reports [regarding the matter] from Amnesty International and the United Nations…”

The AP believed Franklin’s text expressed a political statement, and further that having AP photos in the exhibition, the essay associated a political statement with AP’s photos, which violates Associated Press guidelines. Whatever the case, this is the first time in Noorderlicht’s twenty years that an essay has been removed due to potential legal threats.

(via Conscientious)

Photoshelter and Look3 have just announced a call for entries for an online exhibition and projection at the upcoming Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville. Looks like a great way to sneak your work into the festival if you missed the deadline for Slideluck Potshow or can’t make it to Charlottesville.

Visura Magazine - New York Photo Festival 09 special issue

There’s been a lot of online coverage of the 2009 New York Photo Festival, mostly good but some bad. But, I hadn’t seen many of the actual photos from the festival. Visura Magazine comes to the rescue with a special issue devoted to the festival. So much work to look through…