Time Magazine - covers for International and US editions - February 20, 2012 | Vol. 179 No. 7

Dismissing Paolo Pellegrin’s portrait of Mario Monti as a stock photo for a heart disease ad, Jon Stewart takes Time magazine to task for the lightweight cover stories on its American editions. The current issue, shown above, the American edition of the magazine has a cover about animal friendships, while the worldwide editions have a cover featuring Italian prime minister Mario Monti. This isn’t the first time there’s been such a disparity between the various editions, though it’s not always the Americans who get the lightweight cover.

This is pretty easy criticism that shows up every time this happens with Time, and it isn’t entirely fair. The different covers make Time look bad, but if anything, a closer look shows that the difference between the editions reflects more poorly on the American news consumer than on Time magazine. The contents of the US and various international editions is basically the same; both cover stories are in all editions. The covers are used primarily to attract readers at the newsstand, and this has got to be the reason behind different covers for different markets. In the US, the magazine is on stands in grocery stores and airports alongside fluffier magazines. Time needs to compete with the likes of O, People, and Cat Fancy. Outside of the US (in my experience, anyway) the magazine is most often sold in locations frequented by business and government travelers next to copies of the International Herald Tribune and the Economist. I don’t have Time’s per-issue circulation figures at hand, but I’d bet the lighter covers sell much better in the US than covers relating to hard news and international affairs. So, while I’m usually on board with Jon Stewart’s comedy, I think the Daily Show’s reading of Time magazine’s covers misses the mark with a simple reading of the magazine and its marketing.

Be sure to check out this short video of Pellegrin’s less-than-15 minute portrait shoot with Monti.

And also on the subject of newsweekly covers, here’s a look at all the cover options Newsweek tried for its recent sex issue.

This morning I saw Newsweek’s gallery of remarkable images Alex Majoli took in Cairo last week: “The Agony and the Ecstasy”. A few minutes later I got an email from a friend at Cesuralab inviting me to look at a series of pictures by photographer Gabriele Micalizzi also from Egypt. We’ve written about the collective Cesuralab before, including an interview from last year, and their art director is Majoli. But Micalizzi’s work is also tremendous. I’ve been waiting to see work like this from Cairo.

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(c) Gabriele Micalizzi, Cesuralab

(c) Alex Majoli, Magnum for Newsweek

(c) Alex Majoli, Magnum for Newsweek

(c) Gabriele Micalizzi, Cesuralab

(c) Gabriele Micalizzi, Cesuralab

(c) Gabriele Micalizzi, Cesuralab

(c) Gabriele Micalizzi, Cesuralab

(c) Gabriele Micalizzi, Cesuralab

Be sure to check out Micalizzi’s other projects, including his recent work in Tunisia and pictures from the Bangkok Turmoils on the Cesuralab site. Newsweek also recently published a portfolio of Alex Majoli’s work from Tunisia “Postcards from a Revolution”, and a joint gallery of Alex Majoli and Paolo Pellegrin in Egypt from before Mubarak’s abdication. Clever, these Italians. Terrific work all around.

“My working outfit is very casual: jeans, a shirt, documentary photographer shoes and a jacket. When we meet in these godforsaken places, we all look alike with our Timberlands, our scarves and jackets with lots of pockets. I guess there is such a thing as a documentary photographer look.” -Paolo Pellegrin talking with Nowness

There’s a strange and small interview with Paolo Pellegrin at Nowness to accompany a small selection of pictures from his upcoming Magnum Fashion magazine “Storm.” If you’re reading this here, no doubt you already know Pellegrin’s work, but on the off chance that you don’t, go get educated at the Magnum site with Pellegrin’s portfolio.

Iranian Memoir - Paolo Pellegrin / Magnum in Motion

Via Photojournalism Links, I just found Paolo Pellegrin’s “Iranian Memoir,” which pairs the photographer’s body of work covering Iran with remembrances of the revolution and the country by expatriate Iranians. It’s a short, but provides a new context for the photos.

Getty Images has (finally) announced the winners of the February 2009 prizes. The two big winners of the $20,000 professional grants are dvafoto favorites Alex Majoli and Paolo Pellegrin, both Italian photographers from Magnum. They are continuing large projects of theirs that we have seen previously: Majoli produced a terrific ‘Magnum in Motion’ piece of his project Requiem in Samba a year or two ago and Pellegrin’s project “Iraqi Refugees” was shown in an exhibition at Visa Pour l’Image this past year as ‘The Iraqi Diaspora’ to rave reviews. Deep congratulations to both for extremely worthy projects (be sure to read their proposals on the Getty site), I cannot wait to see more work from both.

Also announced were the first in a series of Student Grants of $5,000, to Bolivian photographer (by way of the US) Maximiliano Braun for his project “Stay With Me”. He writes, “The Getty Images grant will allow me to continue a project I began in South Africa, looking into the lives of families caring for a relative living in a vegetative state due to brain damage.” The other winner is German photographer Andy Spyra for his ongoing work in Kashmir documenting the results of the long-simmering war there. Terrific pictures.

On a side note, I’m so excited to see that Alex Majoli is shooting more editorial work again. (And that picture I posted above has long been a favorite of mine). For example, see his coverage of Pakistan, to the Russo-Georgian Conflict and most recently the latest Israel-Gaza Conflict on the Magnum site.

[editor's note: this is the first in a series of interviews with photographers DVA loves]

I had the pleasure of meeting Basque photographer Jon Cazenave at the Paolo Pellegrin’s class and we ended up spending a lot of time together helping each other with our projects and edits, as well as recovering from the pace and stress with food (I recall a nice, exhausted meal at a McDonalds, where I had a bigmac meal for $17) and the occasional beer (about $10).

One of the projects he brought to show in Oslo was about the ‘underground’, life in subways in Spain and around the world. He recently wrapped up a new segment of this project and published a multimedia version of the piece titled SUBLIFE.

I’ve always adored this project and I was blown away by the new presentation. Instead of just posting the link here I thought it would be a great opportunity to ask him a few questions and have him explain his work, this project and his future plans. Jon is a fantastic guy with a huge heart and passion for documentary photography. (And, I found out today, an equally deep and historic love of Paul Simon’s Graceland as me! If that doesn’t make us brothers I don’t know what does..) Enjoy this and support him in the future.

What brought you into photography? What else have you been doing in life and work, and what has changed now that you are taking pictures more seriously?

I studied economics in Deusto University and when I got my degree in 2001 I started working in a multinational company based in the Basque Country as an accountant. I started taking photos in that period of my life to hide from the boring days spent in the office and since then, everything went so quick that in 2006 I decided to quit and go to Barcelona to specialize in documentary photography.

Do you consider yourself to be a photojournalist?

I always tell to people that “I am a man that takes photographs…” I take photographs to document the world we live in but also the world I see with my eyes and I want this personal view to be shown in the photographs I make.

How did you start this project? What was your idea? What was your plan (a story for a workshop, a book, a multimedia piece?)

I started this story in a workshop I made with Pep Bonet. He gave us a subject, “obsession”, and I thought about a very good friend I have. He is not able to enter any closed space and he feels terrified when he is forced to go down the stairs of the subway.

(please click below to jump to the rest of the interview)
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After posting that video last night of Jonas Bendiksen giving an interview in the Oslo Harbor, followed by my good friend Jon Cazenave posting a comment about our time in Oslo in the Magnum workshop with Paolo, I got a wee bit nostalgic and pulled out some of the pictures I shot that fantastic week last March. This even helped motivate me to finally put together a “Recent Work” portfolio on my personal website, www.mattlutton.com, with a few of the Oslo pictures.

Fjord near Oslo, Norway. March 2008.

Trams in Oslo, Norway. March 2008

The week was terribly cold and utterly exhausting, but it was wholly amazing and life-changing too. Never before was I surrounded by such passionate and talented people, among them Jon, and I know that it has pushed me in my work. /gush

Oslo Harbor and Ferries. March 2008.

So go have a look at the new sections of my website, the Recent Work and Clips. And stay tuned … I have a great interview to publish real soon .. with none other than Jon Cazenave!

Another thing that I imagine M. Scott and I will make a regular feature of here is the ‘photo battle’… a little thing we enjoy whenever we find two pictures, by two photographers from different sources, who have shot the same scene. Classic example: Paolo Pellegrin “vs.” Antonin Kratochvil in Basra, Iraq (2003). What are the chances that is Paolo’s shadow in the frame, too?

Anyways, just saw this image in the 9/12/08 New York Times by staffer Tyler Hicks.

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times People remembered the attack on the World Trade Center, and its victims, in many ways. Relatives and other mourners gathered at ground zero Thursday.

I recognized that photo on the fence, I took a picture of it a few years ago. My photograph from ‘ground zero’ on the 2005 Anniversary of the 9/11 event.

Not a great ‘battle’ but something I noticed. I’m really curious if it is the exact same print on the fence as when I shot in ’05. Hard to tell when the site itself (as evidenced by how the fence looks .. no view anymore of the hole in the ground) has changed so much in the last couple of years.