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?

Must see, especially if you’re into good design. The Society of Publication Designers and their wonderful blog Grids interviewed The New York Times Magazine’s Design Director Arem Duplessis in December about the magazine’s redesign, which launched last June. As with many people the NYT Mag is a beacon in the industry for me, though I don’t get to see the print edition much abroad. It is great to catch up with their smart presentations and ideas.

(Did you know that their end slug is actually the dot from the “i” in the logo? And Dan Winters does medical illustrations in addition to great photography? Awesome.)

Of all the words and pictures I’ve seen from Haiti over the last week this interview with New York Times Staff Photographer Damon Winter on the NYT’s Lens Blog is the most heartbreaking and provoking. In light of our recent discussions I think this is an important read for context and understanding of important work being done by photographers and news organizations on the ground. Winter is a class act and wonderful photographer, and this situation and what he has seen (as with everyone in Haiti) will likely haunt them for a long time. Important to remember, even as we assess how the world is reacting to and speaking about this disaster. The images are disturbing, but such is this reality.

The New York Times’ blogs keep getting better and better. Everyone knows Lens, but perhaps At War isn’t as well known. Formed out of the now defunct Baghdad Bureau blog, At War is “a reported blog from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era.” There’s always something interesting to read or see, from the above seized pictures from Pakistan’s restive Waziristan to Franco Pagetti’s grandmother’s gnocchi recipe as served to Ashley Gilbertson for a birthday to a translator’s perspective on speaking with a would-be suicide bomber to downtime on patrol with Afghan and American soldiers.

A number of photographers currently contribute or have contributed to the blog (that list isn’t up to date), and the archives are worth a look: Peter Van Agtmael, Tyler Hicks, Christoph Bangert, Michael Kamber, Johann Spanner, Ashley Gilbertson, and Joao Silva

From The New York Times: “Gates Blocks Photographs of Prisoners”

Federal courts had rejected the government’s arguments to block their release, so Congress gave Mr. Gates new powers to keep them private under a law signed last month by President Obama.

The promised/reneged release of new prisoner abuse photographs by the US Military has been an ongoing story but this, I believe, is the first use of this specific new power given to the Secretary of Defense by the Congress. He is now the final arbiter to decide what is released and what is not. End of discussion?

The New York Times Lens Blog posted a short video/slideshow/interview with the photographer Joseph Rodriguez a couple of days ago, and it is a must see. Scott and I worked with Rodriguez’s pictures as interns at Black Star and we were colleagues at the short-lived Anarchy Images agency, and seeing his archive and way of working up close left an impact on me. Rodriguez is a true in-the-trenches photographer, working hard on his own ideas and not seeking exposure for himself, just the people he photographs. He is not flashy, he is the opposite of who Christopher Anderson called out in his (controversial) recent remarks. This piece holds several revelations about who Rodriguez is and how and why he photographs.

The article mentions the final installment of a three-part book series, along with the tomes “East Side Stories” about gangs in East L.A. and “Juvenile” a profile about youth in prisons: “Reentry” (see ‘recent work’ on his website), is about the men and women returning to society after time in prison. Important work that no one is doing, or doing as well.

He is also photographing the current economic crises in the United States and I cannot wait to see more of it. He is a perfect photographer for this story.

Sorry for my lack of posting over the last month or so, I’ve been kept very busy with a roadtrip, an assignment in Albania and work on a personal project or two. But I have a lot of little things saved up to post, and will catch up on a few today.

But first I thought I’d share a couple of things from what I’ve been up to. The first of three stories I shot in Albania for the New York Times / International Herald Tribune with Dan Bilefsky, having to do with Sunday’s elections in Albania, has been published: “Albanians, Cut Off, Get Set to Vote”. We have two more stories to go to print in the coming weeks, and I’ll share those and more pictures when I can.

Last, a little peek at a project I’m working on here in Belgrade about Roma communities who are in danger of losing their homes when the city/state redevelops the land that they are squatting on. A lot of issues going on here, and I’ve been trying to unpack it over the last month or so and there is much more to do, this really is in its beginning stages. A little bit further down the line I’ll be able to share more pictures and more of the story. For now, a couple of frames:

Next up are another couple of short trips back to Kosovo and to Bosnia to continue my stories there. I look forward to having more to show you all soon, thanks for having a look!

New York Times Assistant Managing Editor Michele McNally answered readers’ questions on nytimes.com this week as part of their series “Talk to the Newsroom”. There were many interesting questions and responses, some more pertinent to the broader readership than photographers themselves, but this question that I’m quoting here I think is a very nice roundup of why it is worth trying to do this work. And it is a nice answer I can give to the people who have been asking me about how to get started themselves, or what the hell I’m thinking as I try to do this myself.

Advice for a Young Photojournalist

Q. I’ve recently graduated from college and landed a job at a daily newspaper that just announced layoffs. Away from family and friends, I’d like to think this sacrifice is and has been worth where I hope my career heads. There’s a lot of talk and glorification of the past, but photographers and photo editors then were faced with tribulations as well. My question is, is what I am doing, my education, my push to learn and grow, is it all going to be worth it someday? Did you have doubts when you started your career?
— John Tully

A. Mr. Tully: It appears you are on the right track already. You are questioning your committment and if it is worth the sacrifice. You have already recognized that the career of a photojournalist is a difficult one personally, so you’ve got to love it. I really mean that. Clarify your mission and the purpose of your photographs. Figure out what you want to say, and how you can get better and better at saying it. Understand that it is a long journey … the cliché … it’s a marathon not a sprint, does hold true in the career of a photojournalist.

And a big mighty yes — it will be worth it. How fortunate we are to do what we do! The world is your doorstep. You can be smack in the middle of history, and you can make that moment tangible to viewers worldwide. You are invited into peoples lives every day. People will share their stories with you daily — locally or internationally and you can give voice to them. You will see and do more in a week than some people will experience in a lifetime. Pretty exhilarating to me. Doubts, questions, all good things. When answered, they give us clarity and focus, for a short time — because the people I admire are always pushing, never satisfied, and continually strive.

Good luck, Michele

Taliban tactician holding a rifle that is not his - photo by Zackary Canepari - published and retracted by The New York Times

 

As PDNPulse initially reported, the New York Times issued a retraction this week regarding the above photo by Zackary Canepari.

“A picture on May 5 with the continuation of a front-page article about the porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and the strategic advantages it offers to Taliban insurgents fighting American troops, showed a silhouetted Taliban logistics tactician, who was interviewed for the article, holding a rifle, creating the impression that the weapon belonged to him. The Times subsequently learned from the photographer that the rifle belonged to the owner of a home in Pakistan where the interview took place, and that the Taliban tactician had held the weapon only for the purpose of the photograph.

“Had The Times known this information at the time of publication, it would not have used the photograph to illustrate the article.” -New York Times editors’ note

The photo was removed from the Times website, but since the initial report of the ethical breach, the photographer’s identity was ferreted out, as was the photo in question. PDNPulse’s report included this line to readers, “Do you think this is over the line?” and others online have argued that this isn’t a big issue. This is wrong.

Unlike the other recent photo manipulation charge to hit photoblogs, Danish photographer Klavs Bo Christensen’s overzealous color correction that led to disqualification in a photo contest, Canepari’s transgression purports to show visual facts that are not true. The photo misleads viewers of the photo into thinking that this particular military strategy on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border involves more armament than it actually does. There’s a temptation to discount the complaints about the photo because the photo doesn’t look manipulated and because the facts aren’t far off from what the photo shows. That is, guns are likely involved in this particular operation, as they are in most military operations, so who cares whether or not this particular person actually carries a weapon or not?

Photo manipulation is most harmful to a reporter/photographer/publication’s credibility precisely when it is most subtle. We can all laugh at the more blatant photoshop disasters, but no one mistakes the obvious manipulations of images as representations of fact. The Danish photographer’s pictures may push the bounds of acceptable journalistic post production practices, but the cartoonish colors in the image obviously stem from artistic impulses rather than an intent to mislead and misinform. One can reasonbly expect a layman to realize that the colors have been consistently pumped up a bit just because one rarely encounters such vivid colorization in reality.

But, when a picture looks like the truth (i.e., when what looks like a documentary image is, in fact posed, or when a basketball is cloned into a picture of a high school match), viewers believe that it is the truth. Guys with guns are the norm in pictures from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. A layman could not reasonably discern the manipulation in Canepari’s picture as a falsehood or artistic interpretation in a portrait situation. The image, which was presented by the photographer as a documentary account of the Taliban logistics tactician as he normally operates, is a deception. If an image that looks very real is fake, what guarantees that any images in a newspaper show the facts as they are?

The New York Times acted correctly in retracting the photo.

Your thoughts?

Perusing Lens, the NYT’s new photojournalism portal and an example of photo webdesign done well, the above photo by Lynsey Addario jumped out at me in the short slideshow “On Assignment: Taking Time Out to Heal.” The shot looks like what the situation would’ve looked like 5 minutes after Larry Burrows iconic 1966 picture from a Hill 484 south of the DMZ in Vietnam:

Addario is currently recuperating after a car crash in Pakistan that also injured Teru Kuwayama and took the life of fixer Raza Khan. Our thoughts go out to Raza’s family, and we hope for a speedy recovery for Addario and Kuwayama.