Showing posts with label photojournalist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photojournalist. Show all posts

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Photojournalist arrested at candlelight vigil for man killed on NYC subway

 

Via US Press Freedom Tracker 

color photograph of NYC Policeman escorting handcuffed photojournalist Stephanie Keith following her arrest at a protes on May 8, 2023
Photojournalist Stephanie Keith was arrested on May 8, 2023, while documenting a candlelight vigil for a man who died on a New York City subway train earlier in the month. Keith was charged and released.

 — REUTERS/ANDREW KELLY



Freelance news photographer Stephanie Keith was arrested while documenting a candlelight vigil in New York, New York, on May 8, 2023.

The vigil was organized following the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was choked to death on a subway train by a Marine Corps veteran. Keith has been documenting demonstrations in the wake of Neely’s death, with some of her coverage published in Brooklyn Magazine.

Keith was one of nearly a dozen people arrested at the May 8 vigil, according to the New York Post, which was held at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station in Manhattan where Neely was killed. In footage posted to Twitter by Oliya Scootercaster, Keith can be heard identifying herself as a press photographer as multiple officers place her in handcuffs and lead her away.

When reached for comment, a New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed that Keith was issued a summons and released, but declined to say which specific charges were filed against her.

The spokesperson directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to footage of a press conference held later that evening. During the press conference, Chief of Patrol John Chell indicated that the majority of those arrested were charged with obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct.

“The reporter interfered in at least two arrests in the middle of the street and we got very physical,” Chell said. “She interfered a third time, so she was placed under arrest.”

Keith, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, told the Daily News she was detained at the 7th Precinct.

“I was trying to photograph what I thought was an arrest but I never even got a chance to see since they grabbed me as soon as I tried to photograph,” Keith told the News. “I said, ‘I’m press’ and they said, ‘You’re not, you’re arrested.’”

New York Press Photographers Association President Bruce Cotler said in a statement to the News that the organization stands in support of Keith and that he is confident the Manhattan district attorney will drop any charges against her.

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that Keith was charged with disorderly conduct.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Gabriela Campos, born and raised in Sante Fe, New Mexico, began cultivating her photography skills in high school and her camera is now a vehicle for telling powerful visual stories

 

color photograph of Gabriela Campos with her cameras

Via Culturelines


Gabriela Campos, born and raised in Sante Fe, New Mexico, began cultivating her photography skills in high school. Seduced by the magic of the dark room film process, Campos slowly (and intentionally) transformed a creative outlet into her lifeblood. Her camera is now a vehicle for telling powerful visual stories, building community, connecting with strangers and showcasing the people and stunning natural beauty of her home state. As a freelance photographer, her incredible work has been featured in several noteworthy publications, including The Guardian, High Country News, Al Jazeera, VICE, The Daily Beast and various local publications. She’s also exhibited in Washington, D.C. alongside fellow photographer Nathaniel Tetsuro Poalinelli. 

I connected with Campos to explore the genesis of her career, her creative vision and the importance of being a homegrown creative. 

When did you know you wanted to be a photographer?

Gabriela Campos: I first fell in love my senior year of high school. I switched to a new high school and they had this program where you could take photography classes at the community college. I was always interested in [photography] because my dad used to be into [photography]. I took black and white number one, got my dad's old Pentax camera and I experienced the beauty and magic of the dark room — where you just watch something come out of darkness. From that first class, I was hooked.

Why is it important to tell New Mexican stories?

Gabriela Campos: Some people are always seeking to go outside of themselves, and they don't see the potential of their home. There are so many culturally significant things in New Mexico. I'm going through a phase where New Mexico is very much a muse. I am so inspired by the people, the places, the textures, the landscape. It's important to tell the stories that you feel passionately about.

How do you build trust when you go into a new space?

Gabriela Campos: There are two different ways that I approach it. For [The Santa Fe New Mexican] newspaper, I have to be thrown into new situations every single day and feel I can create that sort of intimacy. I show up and I'm interested, and I'm curious. I like to ask people questions. I feel genuine interest goes a long way. Because, it's not often that people get to show off their worlds. Sometimes it's about talking to people. Sometimes I go on assignment and I take photos for the first five minutes, but then people just want to sit down and tell me their story, what's really going on in their lives and the worst of their worlds. 

Have you learned a lot from other creatives?

Gabriela Campos: I learn a lot from watching other photographers work. I've been in situations where there's five [or] six photographers and we're all covering the same event. Everybody approaches it a little differently. It's fun to see if people are throwing themselves directly in there, if they're standing far back in the corner trying to get environmental things or if they're trying to get close. I try to remind myself to touch on all the things. Sometimes, I have to say, “step back, show a little bit more, there's more to the story than just people.” 

Why is natural lighting your preferred environment?

Gabriela Campos: When you step into somebody's world, you don't often have the luxury of being able to orchestrate all the details. It's about working with what you have, because then you're never reliant on having a flash or a strobe; you're equipped to do what you need to do anywhere if you just train your eye to seek out that natural light. There's nothing more beautiful, [when] it hits in that perfect way.

What’s better, color or black and white?

‍Gabriela Campos: Sometimes colors can be a little bit distracting. Certain colors, like reds and yellows, are really flashing and people are drawn to them. But maybe you're drawn to it for the wrong reasons. Maybe what I like about the frame is the expression of the person, the shapes, the lines or the way the light hits something. There is definitely a place for colors, because sometimes I'm really attracted to the vibrancy of something. 

Could you ever imagine sitting behind a desk?

 Gabriela Campos: No, I always wanted to be interacting with people and entering people's worlds; photography is the most absolute, ideal situation for that. Every day I get to be something different. Some days, I'm a firefighter. Some days, I'm a doctor. Sometimes, I drive an Impala around. It lets me see life from [different] perspectives. 



Saturday, August 24, 2013

Guy Gillette 1922 - 2013: "In a good photograph, something happens”



Via Country Life Daily News

Famed photojournalist Guy Gillette Sr.  passed away on Monday, Aug. 19, 2013, just two months shy of his 91st birthday.

Over 50 years in the photojournalism industry, Gillette created a portfolio of art that remains in circulation today. His work has graced the pages and covers of Fortune, Harper’s Bazaar, Life, the New York Times, just to name a few. His work includes images of Jacqueline Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Audrey Hepburn and Queen Elizabeth, and was featured in the 1955 landmark “The Family of Man” photography exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Gillette’s works remain in high demand today, as galleries and movie studios routinely request the use of his images.
A coffee table book, written by Andy Wilkinson, about the work of Gillette is being published by the University of Oklahoma Press this month. Through his research Wilkinson visits the history of Houston County as seen through the eyes of Guy Gillette, Sr. This book utilizes the pictures that Gillette took on his father-in-law’s ranch in Lovelady and around Houston County in the 1940s. The pictures not only document ranching in East Texas but small-town life, like Sunday School, homecoming dinners and Saturdays downtown. It was these pictures that would open the doors in New York for Guy Gillette, Sr. to become a celebrated photojournalist.

Guy Gillette, Sr. is the father of national cowboy personalities and Camp Street Cafe owners, Guy and Pip Gillette.


Arnolds, Cafe, Lovelady, Texas, 1956
Arnolds, Cafe, Lovelady, Texas, 1956

“The years of the 30s through the 70s were great years for magazine photography and for us, the photographers, who contributed,” Gillette had said. 

Actor, author, and photographer, Gillette saw the United States evolve through wars, shifting perspectives of culture, and a changing, exciting panoply of heroes — leaders of government, icons of film and theater, and mavens from the corporate world.
 
"In a good photograph, something happens,” Gillette sad. From his photograph of a gravely ill Jacqueline Susann in a limo, whisked from engagement to engagement, to his quickly caught shot of President Eisenhower at a state dinner being patted on his bald pate, there is action.

 Gillette on Salvatore Dali: "I thought Dali was a bore. Always trying to look deadpan. He sought to eliminate all emotion from his public façade. I remember he flirted a great deal with the woman who was writing his profile, saying she reminded him of a Northern Italian blonde. He refused to speak English to us, even though he spoke some. Neither the writer nor I came away very happy with him."

Trained as an actor, Guy Gillette’s stage career was halted by induction into the World War II Army. After the war, now a budding photographer, Gillette, the former actor, was sympathetic to artists such as the choreographer Agnes DeMille, who allowed him to photograph her for Dance Magazine, as she created a ballet. Photos of Audrey Hepburn, Marian Anderson, Sarah Vaughn, Elvis Presley and Rogers and Hammerstein followed. A highlight of his career is a photograph of Henri Cartier-Bresson, taken by Gillette as both photographers competed for a shot of a nun at a St, Patrick’s Day Parade, leading the notoriously camera-shy Cartier-Bresson to admonish Gillette, “Photographers NEVER photograph photographers.”

Monroe Gallery of Photography will feature a very special tribute exhibition of Guy Gillette's photographs in November/December. Contact the gallery for further information.








Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Annenberg Space for Photography offers live programming during WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY Exhibit




LOS ANGELES-- The Annenberg Space for Photography has announced the lineup of speakers for their popular IRIS Nights lecture series presented in conjunction with the upcoming WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath exhibition.
 
While the Photography Space typically hosts IRIS Nights weekly on Thursday evenings, WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY curator Anne Wilkes Tucker and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers David Hume Kennerly and Carolyn Cole will kick off the series with a special Saturday evening lecture on March 23, 2013.
 
WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY will open free to the public on March 23, 2013, and run through June 2, 2013. This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and is made possible with generous support from the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation. The exhibit encompasses over 150 images going as far back as 1887 through present-day and is arranged by themes presenting both the military and civilian points of view including the advent of war, daily routines, the fight itself, the aftermath, prisoners of war, refugees, remembrance and more.
  
Specific to the Los Angeles exhibit will be the Annenberg Space for Photography's original short documentary film entitled The War Photographers and digital image presentation produced by Arclight Productions. Together, they will feature over 500 photographs exclusive to the Photography Space from six acclaimed contemporary conflict photographers: Alexandra Avakian , Carolyn Cole , Ashley Gilbertson , Edouard H.R. Gluck , David Hume Kennerly and Joao Silva . The film offers intimate interviews that reveal experiences and life-threatening situations faced by war photographers and their subjects.
 
IRIS NIGHTS LECTURE SERIES
The Annenberg Space for Photography offers live programming through our IRIS Nights lecture series, a public program offered free of charge, by online reservation on a first-come, first-served basis. The series brings to life the most current exhibit with presentations by featured and guest photographers and notable experts. These programs give attendees unique access to the artists in an intimate setting.
 
All IRIS Nights lecture series will take place on Thursday evenings from 6:30pm-8pm unless otherwise noted. Schedule and participants are subject to change.
 
Saturday, March 23 - Anne Wilkes Tucker , Carolyn Cole and David Hume Kennerly WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: A Discussion Anne Wilkes Tucker has been the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston since 1976. Tucker has curated over 40 exhibitions, including WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY, and was selected in 2011 as "America's Best Curator" by Time magazine.
 
Carolyn Cole is a multiple award-winning photographer and a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. She has covered conflicts in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Haiti and Liberia, where she earned the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the siege of Monrovia.
 
David Hume Kennerly won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Vietnam War. He has been shooting on the front lines of history for more than 45 years and has photographed eight wars, as many U.S. presidents, served as chief White House photographer for President Gerald R. Ford and was named "One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography" by American Photo.
 
March 28 - Sara Terry and Marissa Roth
War: Witnesses to Aftermath
Photographer Marissa Roth has spent 28 years working on a personal, global photo essay that addresses the immediate and lingering effects of war on women in different countries and cultures.

Photographer Sara Terry created the Aftermath Project, a nonprofit committed to educating the public in peace building and post-conflict studies. Both photographers will share images from their work and insights into the long-term consequences of conflict and the resilience of the human spirit.
 
April 4 - Alexandra Avakian
Malibu Teen To Conflict Photographer: Journeys In The Muslim World
Photojournalist Alexandra Avakian has been published in National Geographic, Time, LIFE, The New York Times Magazine and more. Her photographic and written memoir, Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World, was named as one of American Photo's year-end best.
 
April 11Peter van Agtmael
Disco Night Sept 11
Award-winning photographer Peter van Agtmael has documented the consequences of America's wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and at home. His journey and experiences of life during conflict will be discussed. A monograph of his work, 2nd Tour Hope I Don't Die, was published in 2009.
 
April 18 -Benjamin Lowy
Innovation in Documentary Storytelling
An award-winning photojournalist, Benjamin Lowy has embraced new technology and mediums to promote stories. Lowy will discuss his work in conflict zones and the U.S. His image of Hurricane Sandy graced the cover of Time magazine, the first camera-phone image to ever be so featured.
 
April 25 - Stephen Mayes and Michael Kamber
Tim Hetherington: A Very Personal War Two years after Tim Hetherington 's death while documenting the Libyan war, this lecture will explore alternative representations of conflict. Hetherington sought to shift the emphasis from the military hardware to the "software" of conflict, making war a personal matter. The discussion will explore the legacy of Hetherington's work with contributions from colleagues Stephen Mayes , Director of VII Photo in New York, and Michael Kamber , conflict photographer, author and co-founder of the Bronx Documentary Center.
 
May 2 - Ed Ou
Personal Stories in the Context of Breaking News 
Ed Ou is a Canadian photojournalist who has been bouncing around the Middle East, former Soviet Union, Africa and the Americas since 2006. With work recognized by POYi and World Press Photo among others, Ou will discuss personal stories of how people in the news are shaped and affected by the world changing around them.
 
May 9 - Donna De Cesare Children of War
Photographer/educator Donna De Cesare has spent two decades focusing on the lives of Central American children exposed first to war and later to gangs. Her newly published book Unsettled / Desasociego: Children in a World of Gangs is both a memoir and a visual history of her experiences. De Cesare teaches documentary photography at the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.
 
May 16 - Lynsey Addario
The Saturation of War
An American photojournalist based in London, Lynsey Addario photographs for The New York Times, National Geographic and Time. She will discuss her work documenting conflict over the past decade, and the challenges photographers face making compelling images from ongoing wars, when our society is saturated by these images.
 
Friday, May 17 - Slideshow Night is a special presentation that showcases hundreds of additional images related to the exhibit themes in WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY.
 
May 23 - Jeff & Andrew Topham
LIBERIA '77 – Photo is Life
In 2010, Canadian brothers Jeff and Andrew Topham returned to the war-torn West African country of their childhood, Liberia. Discovering that much of Liberia's photographic record of its peaceful past had been destroyed by war, they created a documentary and online photo project culminating in an exhibition currently housed at the National Museum in Monrovia. They will discuss the importance of photography in the rebuilding of a society devastated by war.
 
May 30 - Nina Berman
Evidence and Fantasy: The War at Home
Photographer, author and educator Nina Berman is known for her work photographing wounded American veterans including her 2006 " Marine Wedding " image. Presenting selections from work made since 9/11, she will explain her motivations and approaches to photographing war on the domestic front.
 
The photographs in WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY and content in IRIS Nights lectures may not be suitable for all visitors.
 
About the Annenberg Space for Photography
The Annenberg Space for Photography is a cultural destination dedicated to exhibiting compelling photography. The Space conveys a range of human experiences and serves as an expression of the philanthropic work of the Annenberg Foundation and its Directors. The intimate environment features state-of-the-art, high-definition digital technology as well as traditional prints by some of the world's most renowned and emerging photographers. It is the first solely photographic cultural destination in the Los Angeles area.
 
Annenberg Space for Photography
2000 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Tel: 213.403.3000
annenbergspaceforphotography.org
Wednesday through Friday: 11 am6 pm
Saturday: 11 am7:30 pm
Sunday: 11 am6 pm
Closed Mondays* and Tuesdays.
*We will be open Memorial Day, Monday, May 27th.
Admission is free.

SOURCE The Annenberg Foundation


RELATED LINKS
http://www.annenbergfoundation.org
http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

NICK UT: “That young boy might be a photographer”



Via The Leica Camera Blog

 



Barely out if his teens, Nick Ut was thrust into the role of combat photographer after the untimely death of his talented brother, a noted actor and AP photojournalist. Here in his own unadorned and eloquent prose is the truly incredible story of how this young Vietnamese photojournalist fortuitously missed getting shot down in a helicopter and went on to use his beloved Leica to capture “Napalm Girl,” the most searing and influential picture of the Vietnam War, and become the youngest person ever to win the Pulitzer Prize. Nick Ut was honored with the Leica Hall of Fame Award on September 17 at “LEICA – DAS WESENTLICHE”.


Q: Can you tell us about the photo of your brother and the influence he had on you?

A: My brother was named Huynh Thanh My. He worked as an AP photographer in the Mekong Delta in 1965. He is number 7 in the family and after he died I subsequently joined the AP after the New Year in 1966.

Q: Did you want to become a photographer because of your brother?

A: Really I wanted to be a photographer very much. I learned a lot from him. Before my brother died he showed me all his Leica cameras. He used them practically every day to cover the war. This is a picture of him taken 40 years ago. It’s been many years since I’ve seen that image and this was really the first time I’ve also seen the negative.


Q: So when your brother died, a year later you joined the AP. How old were you when you joined?

A: When my brother died in 1965 in Vietnam they held a funeral and my entire family attended. They all looked at me and said, “That young boy might be a photographer.” They looked at me as I held a picture of my brother. I wasn’t sure about becoming a photographer at that point, yet my family clearly wished I would become one—even my sister in law. They said, “Nick, don’t you want to become a photographer?” And I said yes. So they said, “Maybe we should go to AP office in Saigon and see Horst and see if maybe you can get the job.” And I told my sister, “I’m not a photographer yet—I need to learn something to be in the AP. Hopefully they’ll give me a job as a photographer when I show them I’ve learned something about the AP darkroom.” Well I learned a lot about the darkroom and I also took pictures every day in Saigon with my Leica and every other camera in the AP office. I showed them my pictures and they said I was a good photographer. I told them I didn’t believe that. Then one day I showed them a picture of the destroyed abbey in Vietnam and that marks the turning point. From then on I really wanted to be photographer, and 3 or 4 months later I was an official combat photographer and I went everywhere. I was the youngest combat photographer. I never saw anyone as young as I was in that role.


Q: Not every young photographer gets to start out with a Leica either.

A: Yeah I first held a Leica when I was fifteen. My brother had a Leica and he would show it to me. I would hold the camera and want to take pictures with it. And my brother knew I really loved the Leica so when he came home we would take the camera everywhere. I wanted to learn. I wanted to shoot pictures all over my neighborhood. I would show my family the pictures. And then when I joined AP they had a camera. They told me I could pick which one I wanted and I told them I’d love to have two Leicas. Then they give me the Leica M3 and the Leica M2 and I carried them every day, everywhere. I would hide undercover till I saw something and then I would take a picture. Sometimes I would see the bombs in Saigon and I would take a picture of a lot of dead bodies and then take them back and show the AP.

Q: One thing I didn’t know was that your brother was an actor before he died.

A: Yes. My brother was very handsome. He was a Vietnamese movie star. He was very tall. All the women loved him. He became the CBS cameraman and he joined the AP in ’65.


Q: Now when you were shooting during the Vietnam War, you also got injured correct?

A: Yes, I was injured in the thigh and I was very lucky just it was only shrapnel in my leg. In the winter it hurts. But many other photographers were injured far more severely or even killed.

Q: And you had said someone saved your life while you were shooting pictures too?

A: Yes, my friend Henry, the best AP photographer in Saigon. In 1970 there was a heavy shelling in Laos, and Henry told me he wanted to take a vacation in Hong Kong. He asked if he could take the first helicopter out of Laos. Since he was a really good friend I let him take my seat, and I took another flight from Laos to Saigon. The first thing I did when I got in the office was to check on any more assignments and to see my boss Horst. He asked if I had seen Henry and I told him he had taken my seat. He told me gravely that that helicopter was shot and that everyone on it had died. And I told him that it was supposed to me that had died. Henry took my seat and got killed for me.


Q: So we’re going to talk a little bit about the big famous photo. What did you expect in Trang Bang the day that you went?

A: In year 7 of the war, I heard the story about heavy fighting in Trang Bang. Lots of people were fighting on highway one and they had locked down the highway. They were fighting like they were on the first day. So I told a friend of mine that I wanted to go there the next day in the early morning. At 7:30 the following morning I saw 1,000 victim refugees on the highway, many of them running. I took a lot of pictures of refugees running, and you could see the black smoke from the bombs all morning. I followed the 25th division away from the highway 2 miles away. When I went back to the highway I saw dead bodies everywhere. So I wanted to head back to AP Saigon because I had many pictures ready. That was when I noticed one Vietnamese soldier. He had thrown a smoke grenade, which erupted in yellow smoke. Then you could hear a jet come in and dive down and drop two bombs. Immediately there were two explosions. It was very noisy. And then a sky-rider dove and dropped napalm. And I shot the picture and it looked really good because I shot in black and white, not color. I took the picture and then everyone was running furiously; I had taken the picture before anyone had realized what happened. Then a woman carrying a baby came running. She is asking for help. Her grandson was dying and he was only a year old. I used my Leica to take a picture and the boy died right in front of my camera. Then I saw the naked girl, Kim, running and I ran inside right away. I took a lot of pictures. And when she passed me I saw a lot of her skin coming off. I knew she was going to die. I put my camera down on the highway and put water on her body right away. She told me no more water. I told her it was just drinking water. But she said in Vietnamese, “Too hot! Too hot! I think I’m dying”

She told her brother she thought she was dying also. But they kept running for another ten minutes and then I told her I wanted to help her. My friend from the BBC assisted with the water bottle. Then I borrowed a raincoat for her body since she was naked. I picked her up and put her in my car with all the children already inside the car. She kept telling me she was dying. I knew she was dying, but I wanted to take her to a good hospital. And the people at the hospital wanted to help her too. But the local hospital was too small. When I got there I showed them my media pass and said if these children die your picture will be on the front page tomorrow and you might be out of a job, and they were worried. Well, we got all the children into the hospital, but then I started worrying about my pictures. I held my camera and looked at it to see how many frames I had taken. I knew that number 7 would be a good shot. When I got to the AP office I told them I had a very important roll of film. I asked them to please help me develop it, so we went into the darkroom immediately. We developed all my pictures and after looking at the first photo they asked me why I shot a picture of a naked girl. I said no, it was the result of a napalm bomb. You can see it exploding. We made one 5 x7 print of it and waited for Horst to come back so we could show him the picture. I wound up talking all week about that picture. New York and Vietnam said good job. And that morning Horst and I went back to do a story about what had happened with the napalm. Later we saw Kim’s father running around looking for her. I told him she might be dying in a hospital. He screamed and then he took a small car to the hospital right away. I went back to the hospital and I saw her parents. Her father thanked me and said I saved his daughter’s life.


Q: You developed the film yourself. When did you know it was a special photo?

A: What happens when you shoot a picture on film is that you don’t see it until it’s developed and printed. Today with digital you can see the image right away. And I remember 40 years ago everyone worried about his pictures. So when I developed the picture and saw it I thought “Oh my God. I have a picture” and thought of my brother number 7. For many years he said he hated war. He told me hoped one day I would have a picture that would stop the war. And that picture of Kim running did stop the war. Everybody was so happy.


Q: How does it feel to have taken a photo that had so much influence?

A: I think I was mostly lucky. I was so happy I had taken that picture. Even now, almost 40 years later people are still talking about that picture.

Q: You mention the number 7 coming up a lot. Can you share the significance of that number?

A: My parents had 11 children. My brother was number 7. He was a wonderful photographer for AP in Saigon. And he always told us stories about his pictures. Every time he came home he would show the pictures to his wife and me. He showed me pictures of dead bodies of Vietnamese and American soldiers. He would say he didn’t want the war to go on. He wanted to see have pictures published on a front page somewhere to help stop the war in Vietnam. But he died in 1965 and he was only 27. He never continued with his pictures. Then when I got my job I overhear my boss say that he hoped I could take a picture that would stop the war. I did with the napalm girl. So I said yeah brother, I have a picture that will stop the war. And it was number 7 on the negatives too. That was from my brother I am sure.


Q: What film and camera did you use?

A: I shot it with a Leica M2 on 35mm color film.

Q: So what did your boss Horst say when he first saw the photo of Kim?

A: When he first saw the picture he had just come back from London. He asked who took the picture. They said it was mine. He asked me what happened in that picture. I told him napalm dropped. He went and sat at the light table by himself to look at my negative. He went to the darkroom and made 12 more prints to send to New York. He said that picture would cause trouble, and that he’d never seen a picture like this taken in Vietnam. But when he sent the picture to New York they didn’t want to use it because it was too naked. He said no I want that picture sent right away. He was yelling.


Q: So who was responsible for actually getting the photograph published?

A: Horst. He sent it to the director in NY and they made sure the picture got sent out.


Q: You broke a lot of records that day as far as being the youngest Pulitzer Prize winner and also getting a photo of a naked girl widely published. Can you tell us about these records that you broke?

A: I remember being interviewed. They asked how I felt about winning the Pulitzer Prize and I said, “I’m too young! I don’t know anything about a perfect photo.” They said I won something. They came to the office and opened champagne and said I had won the Pulitzer Prize! I said “Oh my God!” They told me I was too young to win the Pulitzer Prize. It was so exciting. The AP called me and said I was the best. Yes, I am still the youngest ever to this day.


Q: It’s been 40 years since you took that iconic picture. Can you say how much that one photo has impacted your life as a photographer?

A: At the time of the picture’s 35-year anniversary I took a picture of Paris Hilton going to jail. It was shot on the same I day I took the picture of the napalm girl. Nowadays they call me Hollywood Nick, so when I went back to the AP they told me my next assignment was to take a picture of Paris Hilton going to jail. So I went to Hollywood and I remembered that it was the same day 35 years ago when I shot the napalm picture. So then I took a picture of Paris Hilton. She was with her father and she was crying. As I fired off two frames I realized that her hair looked exactly like the girl from my photo 35 years ago. And she was crying. And CNN ran a story about the man who took a picture of the napalm girl and 35 years later took the picture of Paris Hilton going to jail.


Q: How does it feel to win the Leica Hall of Fame award?

A: I was very happy when I heard that Leica was giving me the Hall of Fame award. When they told me I said yes, I want to go there and accept the award.

Q: Is it also special for you because Horst will also be getting an award too?

A: I really wish I could call him and say, “Daddy, you come with me and see the Hall of Fame. I’m receiving a big award and you have to be there with me” and he would email me back and say “Nick, my son I’ll be there with you.” But I know I’ll never see him there because he got very ill. After he came home from the hospital and they told me he had passed away and I cried a lot. I miss him.

Q: You’ve had an amazing career. What advice would you give to young photographers that want to get into photojournalism?

A: I think young photographers today should shoot film first before getting a digital camera. I’ve seen many high school students in America in California that shoot film before getting into digital. And I think that’s a good thing. Because when you start with digital you shoot too fast. With film you have to make every picture count.

Thank you for your time, Nick!

-Leica Internet Team

Friday, May 11, 2012

WORLD REMEMBERS PHOTOJOURNALIST HORST FAAS

 In this March 1965 file photo by Associated Press photographer Horst Faas, hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into the tree line to cover South Vietnamese ground troops advancing on a Viet Cong camp northwest of Saigon. Faas' work in Vietnam won four major photo awards, including the first of his two Pulitzers. He was severely wounded there in 1967.
Horst Faas/AP

In this March 1965 file photo by Associated Press photographer Horst Faas, hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into the tree line to cover South Vietnamese ground troops advancing on a Viet Cong camp northwest of Saigon. Faas' work in Vietnam won four major photo awards, including the first of his two Pulitzers. He was severely wounded there in 1967

 "Horst Faas was a giant in the world of photojournalism whose extraordinary commitment to telling difficult stories was unique and remarkable," said Santiago Lyon, AP's global head of photography

 "Under his direction, AP photographers captured images that quickly became synonymous with the long war: among the most notable were Eddie Adams' image of the execution of a Viet Cong suspect and Nick Ut's picture of a naked Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm attack." --BBC



 New York Times Lens: A Parting Glance: Horst Faas

The Telegraph: In Pictures, Horst Faas, Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam War photographer

The Guardian: Photojournalist's work in uncovering the horrors of Vietnam war helped turn mainstream opinion against US offensive 

BBC: Vietnam War photographer Horst Faas dies

The Independant: Horst Faas, the photographer whose images defined the Vietnam War, dies aged 79


MSNBC Photoblog: Horst Faas, legendary Vietnam combat photographer, dies

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Storyteller Is Seen With New Eyes


Grey Villet:"Slo-Pokes", Drag Racing In Moline, Illinois, 1957



Via The Wall Street Journal


"(Grey)  "Villet really fits into that ICP/Cornell Capa tradition—not only with photojournalism but this real interest in ordinary people and their lives."
 --Erin Barnett, International Center of Photography


"My sense of his power as a photographer was very great, and I was beginning to lose all hope that I was going to get this beautiful work out there."
--Barbara Villet, Grey's widow

"Villet shot for LIFE in both its weekly and reinvented monthly iterations between 1955 and 1985, producing some 40 full-length features of remarkable emotional and intellectual range—from a 1962 visit inside Synanon House, a controversial drug-treatment facility in California, to "The Lash of Success," an allegorical look at a Chicago furniture-chain owner whose abuse of power ultimately destroyed what he'd built. His mid-'70s essay about a hospital nurse, "More Than Compassion," like W. Eugene Smith's "Country Doctor," is a striking examination of life and death. Yet Smith's 1948 essay is legendary, and Villet's is hardly known."

"Grey was able to tell a story about something people necessarily hadn't gotten their minds around," said David Friend, who worked with Villet at LIFE as a reporter and picture editor. "It's not necessarily about [Henri] Cartier-Bresson's 'decisive moment'; it's about the collision or dovetailing of images that add up to a greater whole."

Among his own kind," Mr. Friend said of his former colleague, "he was revered."

"His work is every bit as important as those who were so well known," said Sidney Monroe, whose Santa Fe-based gallery represents Villet's estate."

Full article here.
(Subscription required)



Wall Street Journal slide show
(No subscription required to view)

Wall Street Journal Interactive: Watching and Listening: The Work of Photojournalist Grey Villet
View Grey Villet's photographs during the AIPAD Photography Show March 28 - April 1 at Monroe Gallery of Photography Booth #419.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Eve Arnold: Born 21 April 1912; Died 4 January 2012



Eve Arnold: Marilyn Monroe rehearsing lines on the set of "The Misfits", 1960

"Her intimate, sensitive and compassionate ten year collaboration with Marilyn Monroe has cemented her as one of the most iconic portrait photographers of our time, but it is the long term reportage stories that drove Arnold's curiosity and passion."--Magnum Photos agency



The Guardian: The big picture: Bar Girl in a Brothel in the Red Light District, Havana, 1954



The Independant:  All about Eve: photographer blazed a bold, beautiful trail with pictures


La Lettre de la Photographie: The death of Eve Arnold, by former Director of Magnum, Jimmy Fox



Financial Times: American photographer Eve Arnold dies aged 99

BBC: Photojournalist Eve Arnold dies aged 99

BBC Slideshow: In pictures: The work of photographer Eve Arnold


Los Angeles Times: Eve Arnold dies at 99; pioneering photojournalist

NPR The Picture Show: Photojournalist Eve Arnold Dies At 99

TIME Light Box: Eve Arnold: April 12, 1912—January 4, 2012


New York Times: Photojournalist Eve Arnold Dies at 99


NY Times Lens Blog: Parting Glance: Eve Arnold


The Guardian: Eve Arnold Celebrated Magnum photographer who documented the stars, 'the poor, the old and the underdog'


The Telegraph: American photographer Eve Arnold dies aged 99

Associated Press: Photojournalist Eve Arnold dies at 99 (with video interview)


British Journal of Photography: Magnum photographer Eve Arnold dies

                                                   Magnum photographer Eve Arnold dies [update]

Photo District News: Photographer Eve Arnold Dies


Magnum: selection of UK press clippings, obits and  tributes to Eve Arnold

Magnum Slideshow


Bookmark this page for updates and more tributes.


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

If you knew the cause would take a limb or your life, or leave you beaten or raped, would you do it?

Award-winning photojournalist Tim Hetherington (right) known for his work in war zones, died Wednesday in the Libyan city of Misrata when he was hit by a mortar round. He is pictured here with Sebastian Junger, his co-director of the film Restrepo, which was nominated for the best-documentary Oscar this year.
Tim Hetherington

Award-winning photojournalist Tim Hetherington (right) known for his work in war zones, died Wednesday in the Libyan city of Misrata when he was hit by a mortar round. He is pictured here with Sebastian Junger, his co-director of the film Restrepo, which was nominated for the best-documentary Oscar this year.

Via NPR's The Picture Show

The Toll Of Covering Conflict

by Jacki Lyden



Joao Silva. Lynsey Addario. Tyler Hicks. Tim Hetherington. Chris Hondros: the names of photojournalists grievously wounded, kidnapped or killed in the line of duty since October 2010. The names and casualties of journalists harmed during conflicts seem to be mounting, leaving many of us who knew them or who have worked with them or - even those a few steps more removed - feeling a bit more vulnerable.


Nearly all journalists in conflict areas, or areas of disaster, take risks. Photojournalists, I think, are the biggest risk-takers for the cause because they must be more proximate, and the lens attracts attention.

If you knew the cause would take a limb or your life, or leave you beaten or raped, would you do it?

Phil Robertson, a New York based writer, has been close to Chris Hondros since they covered Iraq together beginning in 2002. As he told me today, "Conflict is a meat grinder and it destroys people's lives. We've seen way, way too many people get killed or injured, but this is OUR part of the war. It makes me realize more and more what the local civilians go through and how they feel."


I agree. And not only them, but the many local journalists who work for foreign organizations – like NPR. War is a terrible, uncertain, lethal condition. There will be other Misratas and Fallujahs and Korengal Valleys. I think the legacy, the honor, is to remember the people who put faces and feelings and emotions in front of us from those places, and reflect that there have always been stories, songs, and images of war and disaster. Perhaps their details blend over time, but we would not have the details except for those brave enough to gather them.


Photojournalist Chris Hondros poses with a a former Liberian government soldier, at his home in Monrovia, Liberia, in 2005. Hondros' picture of Duo jumping into the air in exultation during a battle with rebel forces in 2003 was distributed around the world. Hondros was killed April 20 in Misrata, Libya.
Photojournalist Chris Hondros poses with a a former Liberian government soldier, at his home in Monrovia, Liberia, in 2005. Hondros' picture of Duo jumping into the air in exultation during a battle with rebel forces in 2003 was distributed around the world. Hondros was killed April 20 in Misrata, Libya


Robertson is writing a book at home now, in New York. He's the father of a toddler. But he has certainly taken risks and is thinking of Chris Hondros today. They shared rides in Afghanistan and a terrifying open-air truck ride in Fallujah.


And he and Hondros shared another ride. "He drove my wife and me and our new baby home from the hospital the day after our daughter, Zaina, was born in 2009," he said. "We were together on the most terrifying and beautiful days I have ever known."

Original post and slide show here.

Jacki Lyden is a correspondent and host for NPR.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

“You don’t understand. This is history. I have to photograph it now. Later is too late.”



Via The American Society of Cinematographers
by John Bailey, ASC
Lynsey Addario: Back From the Brink


 
Khalid, age 7, wounded by shrapnel in Korengal Valley, Afghanistan

"After all I have done to get these images of war, up close, personal, soldiers and civilians, please stick your neck out in the most minimal way. To hear that you don’t want to “risk further scrutiny” after I risked my life for two months is the most offensive thing I have ever heard."

You don’t understand. This is history. I have to photograph it now. Later is too late.” New York Times photojournalist Lynsey Addario is talking to Army Captain Dan Kearney at 6 a.m. on the side of a mountain in the dawning Korengal Valley of northeastern Afghanistan. It is fall, 2007, and Kearney’s forces have dropped into a village to confront insurgents following nighttime bombing by American planes. There likely has been “collateral damage.” Afghan civilians have been wounded and Addario wants Kearney to help her get to them to document the injuries. Khalid, a seven-year-old boy with shrapnel wounds and watery eyes becomes a haunting portrait that underscores the absurdity of a term like “collateral damage.”

At first, the photo was going to be the cover image for a NY Times Sunday magazine feature story. But it was quashed. Then it was to be in the story inside, then on the Times website on a slideshow—also all quashed. Kathy Ryan, the photo editor argued for inclusion on the website; editor–in-chief Gerry Marzorati refused, citing that it could not be proven that Khalid’s and other villagers’ wounds were caused by American bombs; so, the photo was not run despite strenuous pleadings by Addario. Later, Captain Kearney affirmed that most likely the wounds were caused by shrapnel from American bombs.


Burial in Falluja, chaos even in death

This sense of urgency and fierce dedication to her assignments pervades all of Lynsey Addario’s photographs. Here is part of what she wrote to the then current editor-in-chief of the magazine in defense of her work.

"After all I have done to get these images of war, up close, personal, soldiers and civilians, please stick your neck out in the most minimal way. To hear that you don’t want to “risk further scrutiny” after I risked my life for two months is the most offensive thing I have ever heard."

She takes no prisoners in her fierce focus. There are few images of stasis or quiet moments of idyllic peace in the maelstrom of her work.

Five years after graduation from Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, Addario was working as a professional photojournalist for the Buenos Aires Herald. Shortly after, she was in Cuba for AP. The past decade she has worked for the NY Times and its magazine as well as for National Geographic. Always on the move, she somehow made time to marry Reuters journalist Paul de Bender in July 2009.


Addario may be an anomaly as a conflict photojournalist: a woman in a field dominated by men. On many of her assignments she is paired with another woman, journalist Elizabeth Warren, covering stories from each of their perspectives, in images and words. It is Warren who recalls the incident that opens this essay. Embedded in the fall of 2007 in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, much as Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger had been for their Oscar nominated documentary film, Restrepo, Warren was already months pregnant. She and Addario are self-described “partners in crime” on assignments throughout the decade’s conflict zones. Here is a PBS slideshow of the Korengal Valley story.

And here is Warren’s account of her and Addario in the Korengal.

Rubin also discusses her relationship with Addario and their history in northeastern Afghanistan in a recent feature article in the Winter 2010 issue of Aperture magazine. It is worth getting, not just for Rubin’s detailed account of her relationship with Addario, but as a lesson in the daily rigors of the conflict journalist:


Rubin writes about Addario’s penchant for using wide lenses, for working in close:

Wide angles lure me into Lynsey’s work. The intense focus that opens to another layer and then another and another. I asked her once about that. “I don’t know. I just see that way.”

There is no better introduction to the way Addario “sees” than going to her website. The stark, severe black field comes up right away. A seven-image slideshow follows.

Links to the left side of the homepage lead to slideshows of other photo essays.

Hotspots of international conflict, all the usual countries run amok with warring men, are listed, a veritable Zagat guide into hell. But what else emerges as you look, are links to essays that document women’s issues: women in the military, women’s health and maternity in Africa, female-self-immolation in Afghanistan, an Indian beauty pageant, transsexual prostitutes. She’s on the front lines in war zones, alongside the boys—but she also stalks a space and themes that most male photojournalist eschew. As you get to know her work, you realize that covering women’s issues is not an ancillary assignment. It is as much the core of her identity as an “engaged observer” as her higher profile war stories. She does not just caption the images; she narrates the story beyond.


”I saw two women on the side of the mountain, in burkas and without a man. In Afghanistan you seldom see an unaccompanied woman. Noor Nisa, about 18, was pregnant; her water had just broken. Her husband, whose first wife had died during childbirth, was determined to get Noor Nisa to the hospital in Faizabad, a four-hour drive from their village in Badakhshan Province. His borrowed car broke down, so he went to find another vehicle. I ended up taking Noor Nisa, her mother, and her husband to the hospital, where she delivered a baby girl. My interpreter, who is a doctor, and I were on a mission to photograph maternal health and mortality issues, only to find the entire story waiting for us along a dusty Afghan road.”


Here is a slideshow of an essay on maternal mortality in Sierra Leone.


Addario works so close up that she has run smack into numerous situations that could easily have meant her death: a kidnapping; a car wreak that left her driver dead and her with a broken collarbone—and most recently, an arrest, detention and beatings that put her and three other NY Times journalists in the world spotlight when they went missing in Libya for six days.The story of their capture and eventual release highlight the risks taken every day by the men and women who give witness of the world’s traumas.




Four “NY Times” journalists with Turkish ambassador (center) after their release in Tripoli.




Here is an audio interview with Addario and Renee Montagne of NPR on April 1, describing the ordeal she and her three times colleagues endured:

Margaret Warner on the PBS Newshour interviewed both Addario and Anthony Shadid who is the NY Times Bureau Chief in Beirut and who was arrested with her.

One section of Addario’s website features images of Afghan women who have tried to immolate themselves to escape violence and oppression.


“Bibi Aisha was 19 when I met her in Kabul's Women for Afghan Women shelter in November 2009. Her husband beat her from the day she was married, at age 12. When he beat her so badly she thought she might die, she escaped to seek a neighbor's help. To punish her for leaving without permission, her husband, who is a Taliban fighter, took her to a remote spot in the mountains. Several men held her while he cut off her nose, ears, and hair. She screamed—to no avail. "If I had the power, I would kill them all," she told me. I wanted to be strong for Aisha to give her hope she would be fine again. But when she described that moment, I began to cry.”





I took the bottle of petrol and burned myself," Fariba, who is 11 and lives in Herat, told me. "When I returned to school, the kids made fun of me. They said I was ugly." She now says, "I regret my mistake." The reasons for her action are unclear; Fariba claimed a woman came to her in her dreams and told her to burn herself. Many Afghan women burn themselves because they believe suicide is the only escape from an abusive marriage, abusive family members, poverty, or the stress of war. If they do survive, women fear being shamed or punished for what they did and may blame a gas explosion when they were cooking. Doctors know when the burns were intentional from their shape, location, and smell.”


 


“In Esteqlal Hospital in Kabul, doctors tried to save 15-year-old Zahra, who had doused herself with petrol and set herself on fire after she was accused of stealing from her neighbors. The teenager, from Mazar-e Sharif, suffered burns over 95 percent of her body. She died three days after I took this picture.”


Her passion to document the horror of their fate led her to move beyond these still images to a video documentary with her voiceover narration of the women’s plight. Be warned, this is a difficult video to watch.

But hope for a brighter future for Afghan women is documented in this beautifully arrayed essay for National Geographic titled Veiled Rebellion. It covers a full spectrum of the lives of women in this hardscrabble country struggling to engage the contemporary world outside its boundaries, even as powerful internal forces try to quash it. The essay speaks to the long reach of Addario’s mission letting the world know the reality and the aspirations of Afghan women.


But hope for a brighter future for Afghan women is documented in this beautifully arrayed essay for National Geographic titled Veiled Rebellion. It covers a full spectrum of the lives of women in this hardscrabble country struggling to engage the contemporary world outside its boundaries, even as powerful internal forces try to quash it. The essay speaks to the long reach of Addario’s mission letting the world know the reality and the aspirations of Afghan women.





“With face, hair, and arms in full view, actress Trena Amiri chauffeurs a friend around Kabul on a Friday. She blasts her favorite songs off a cassette and shimmies and sings along, tapping the steering wheel as she dances in the driver's seat. Even in relatively progressive Kabul, men and women glare, honk, and scream at her. It provokes men in Afghanistan to see strong women. It symbolizes a freedom they just aren't comfortable with. Amiri fled her husband of seven years, who, she says, kept her home and beat her. She left her three sons behind. She doesn't plan to remarry but knows she might have to in order to survive in Afghanistan, where women are dependent on men for so many things. When I ask about her current boyfriend, whose name is on the gold bracelet around her wrist, she says she couldn't marry him: ‘He won't let me act anymore, and I want to continue my art.’”




The photojournalists that I know personally do not seek the spotlight. The stereotype of the gung ho, half mad provocateur played by Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now, is mostly fiction. Being a weeklong international media sensation is not a fate that either Addario or Tyler Hicks would have chosen. But like my photojournalist friend, Jehad Nga, who was also arrested and interrogated in Libya a few weeks before them, the facts of their ordeals brings into all too sharp focus for the rest of us just what is the cost of these so compelling photos—images made in the face of danger, that they bring to the rest of us, who over a cup of morningcoffee impassively scan the tribulations and exaltations of our fellow man.