Photo News Aggregate 02/01/10
02/01/10 PDN (Photo District News) magazine came out with a list of the 30 Most Influential Photographers of the Decade but had to delete the comments posted under the story “due to the incivility of many of them”. . . Funny TV news report tutorial highlights the insipid and banal . . . LA Times story on the plight of pro photographers who struggle to make a living amid a flood of stock photos and amateurs whose images are “good enough” (translation = awful, awful, awful crap but we don’t care and don’t know the difference) . . . Along those same lines, there’s a new web zine made up entirely from stolen images . . . The great White House Photographer Pete Souza has assembled a slideshow entitled “The First Year“. . . Many of the tragic images from the earthquake in Haiti left media organizations – like NPR and NYT – discussing whether it is appropriate to show the dead. One NYT reader wrote “If this had happened in California, I cannot imagine a similar depiction of half-clothed bodies splayed out for the camera. What are you thinking?” . . . Photographer Dennis Stock passed away at the age of 81. He’ll be best remembered for his photograph of James Dean walking in the rain in Times Square in 1955 which he shot for LIFE magazine . . . The National Museum of American History has a new exhibit featuring more than 100 images by one of the premiere African American photographic studios in the country and one of the longest-running black businesses in Washington. It’s called “The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise” and it runs until February 28th . . . Best of Google Streetview slideshow from The Times of London . . . One of the world’s oldest cameras is up for auction. The ‘Daguerreotype Giroux‘ dated 1839 is signed by the inventor Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre and is estimated to sell for between 500,000 – 700,000 Euros at the WestLicht Photographica Auction on the 29th of May in Vienna, Austria . . . Check out my friend Lauren Burke’s photo blog on The Congressional Black Caucus called www.crewof42.com . . . Finally, my January Open Studio shoot went well (see photo of Dionne below) and my next one is scheduled for Saturday 02/20/10. I’ll have a pro make-up artist on hand and I’ll be shooting more than just glam pix. I’ll be doing head shots for actors, “about the author” photos, family portraits and etc. Please get in touch if you need a portrait. . .
Kieran’s Birthday Surprise
01/28/10 Yesterday was my nephew Kieran’s 6th birthday and he was greeted enthusiastically as he got off the school bus from Kindergarten . . .
[Ella Rose waiting for her big brother.]
[Nephew Tim holds his cousin Eamonn.]
[The birthday boy arrives!]
Remembering The Holocaust
01/27/10 In recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum held a special commemoration with Holocaust survivors, diplomats and the general public in the Museum’s Hall of Remembrance.
Holocaust Survivor Henry Greenbaum. As a boy, he managed to survive the death camps despite once being shot [the bullet grazed the back of his head] during an escape attempt.
[Members of the audience weep as Henry Greenbaum tells of how his family was murdered by the Nazis.]
January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, has been established by the United Nations General Assembly as International Holocaust Remembrance Day for the world to honor the victims of the Holocaust. 2010 marks the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the largest Nazi killing center by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945. More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered at the camp.
Actress At Teatro
01/26/10 Actress Kelly Carlson dines at Teatro Goldoni. Earlier in the day, she took part in a Capitol Hill press conference held by the Humane Society on the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act.
4 Stars
01/22/10 General David H. Petraeus today at The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) for a conversation with Dr. Kimberly Kagan entitled “CENTCOM in 2010: Views from General David H. Petraeus.”
Blonde Charity Mafia Premieres . . . Kinda
01/20/10 It’s been a long time coming [In contrast with Real World DC which was shot, cut and premiered in less time] but it’s now possible to see the first episode of Blonde Charity Mafia – not on TV but on the internets. Here it is.
The show’s original producer Lifetime never released it. Lifetime sold it to the CW which was supposed to run it in July but they shelved it as well. Apparently they sold it to MTV UK which used to have it on their web page but it now seems blocked.
Billed as a “docu-series” but clearly scripted, the buzz on the DC party circuit about this show was huge while it was being shot. I covered a couple of parties attended by BCM and it was always amusing to see people vying to get in the shot when the cameras were rolling.
Sophie Pyle (left) Krista Johnson (center) and Katherine Kennedy filming a segment for their show “Blonde Charity Mafia” at Teatro Goldoni in September 2008.
Dionne In Studio
01/18/10 I’ve been friends with Dionne McDaniel for almost 4 years now and she just gets more beautiful every time I see her. These images were taken at my Open Studio on 01/16/10.
01/16 Open Studio Shoot
01/16/10 Thanks to everyone who came to my Open Studio today! Especially my beautiful niece Maura who is 6. I’ll be photo editing a couple thousand images of the other models for the next few days and I’ll be sure to post some of the best up here.
[Maura with white background.]
[Maura with black background.]
Miss DC Send Off
01/13/10 Send off party for Miss District of Columbia, Jen Corey. She will be leaving for Las Vegas shortly to compete in the Miss America Pageant on January 30th. Party-goers got a glimpse of the gown she will be wearing in the competition.
Daily Caller Launch Party
01/13/10 There was hardly room enough for all the well wishers who came out last night to celebrate the launch of Tucker Carlson’s new web publication The Daily Caller. The spacious mansion of The Hostess With The Mostest Juleanna Glover was overflowing.
Daily Caller’s Editor-In-Chief, Tucker Carlson, howls along with Popper Popcorn.
Tucker and Sophia Davis
Jackie Kucinich (Roll Call) and Moira Bagley (Opinion Editor at The Daily Caller)
Ashley Samelson and Brian McGuire
Scooter Libby
It’s really not a party without having a Russian guy dressed as Napoleon.
Moira Bagley (Opinion Editor at The Daily Caller) and Becca Glover Watkins (Media Strategist at The Daily Caller)
Shannon Flaherty (VP Herald Group) and Tucker chat.
Jeff’s Dufour’s (DC Editor, UrbanDaddy) bemused smirk speaks volumes.
Juleanna, Tucker and Becca.
Oliver F. Atkins, photographer
01/12/10 The National Archives yesterday opened up a huge (280,000 pages) trove of Nixon-era materials including 7,000 images from the personal collection of White House photographer Olliver “Ollie” F. Atkins.
The collection includes negatives, transparencies, prints, contact sheets and related publications from a career spanning from the 1940s to the 1970s.
Atkins was a photographer for the American Red Cross during WWII. As such, he documented the lives of refugees, prisoners of war and combatants in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany.
[Medics offload wounded near the front-lines in Italy, World War II]
[Central European refugees arrive in Italy during World War II]
After the war, Atkins joined the staff of the Saturday Evening Post as Washington correspondent and spent two decades photographing the political and social life of the city.
[Adlai Stevenson receives the "Johnson" treatment at a fundraising dinner]
[Slums in the shadow of Federal Buildings in the District of Columbia in the post-war years, circa 1946] It looks to me like the Treasury Building in the background.
[Senator Joe McCarthy, emerging from a pool (June 1947)]
[President Harry S Truman throws out the first ball (probably Opening Day 1948) at a game between the Washington Senators and the New York Yankees]
[casual portrait of young second-term Congressman Richard Nixon, on the Capitol grounds. Undated.]
Atkins was chief photographer for the 1968 Nixon-Agnew campaign and became President Nixon’s White House photographer after the 1969 Inauguration. Of his many images of Nixon, the series documenting the 12/18/70 meeting with Elvis became the most famous and most requested Nixon photograph.
Researchers can explore the collection at the National Archives College Park, MD facility and at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, CA.
Photo News Aggregate 01/2010
01/11/10 Recent photo-related news items . . . Weatherproof Garment Co. erected (and then agreed to take down) a huge billboard in Times Square with an AP image of President Obama wearing their product in China. . . My extremely talented and blonde photographer friend Jaime Windon (she was a shooter for me back when I was Photo Editor at The Hill Newspaper) will be playing a blonde and talented photog named Jaime in a TV show about hunting UFOs . . .
[The Blonde Photographer and her evil Non-Blonde twin. From a studio session on 09/25/06. ]
Cool NYT story about a man and his Speed Graphic . . . Charis Wilson passed away. She was a model, creative collaborator and wife of one of the most influential 20th century photographers, Edward Weston . . . The Washington Times trimmed its newsroom by firing the entire photo department . . . The Museum of the City of New York has published a book to go along with its exhibit “Only in New York: Photographs From Look Magazine” . . . The Norman Rockwell Museum has an exhibit called “Norman Rockwell: Behind The Camera” which looks at how the artist used photography to create his work . . . Book review of “Who Shot Rock and Roll: A Photographic History from 1955 the the Present” . . . French legislator proposes requiring all digitally altered photographs of people used in advertising be labeled as retouched . . . George Will commentary on the most famous image by Robert Capa . . .
Finally, here’s a photo taken by my friend Al on a recent trip to New Mexico. He sent it along to me in his Christmas card:
Behold the Camera Van!
No Pants DC Metro Ride 2010
Video: CLICK HERE (“After you de-pants, spread out.”) and HERE!
01/10/10 Did you miss it? It sneaks up on us every year. Today was the day to ride the Metro without your pants. Who says DC is stuffy and boring? My rough guess is that over 100 people showed up at the pre-game briefing before descending into the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station to drop trow. I wonder how many participants could hear their mother in the back of their minds saying “If everybody jumped off a cliff would you?” Or how many were attempting to overcome that anxiety dream. You know, the one where they show up to work or church in their briefs.
[Etiquette requires you tuck in your shirt when you ride the Metro sans pantalones.]
From the instructional memo:
“Arrive at C Street Park for a brief meeting. At the designated time / location on the metro – remove your pants!
Act completely casual or unknowing that your pants are missing.
The best part about this mission is the reaction of people hearing that someone could casually “forget” their pants or not be greatly bothered by their disappearance.
*Be sure to bring a backpack or bag or a friend with a bag as you will be responsible for your own pants when they are off and they should stay hidden*
*Note* This is NOT a nudism event and some appropriateness in undergarment choice is strongly encouraged. To participate, make sure your undergarment is no more revealing than a typical non-thong bikini bottom.”
[Typical day at the Smithsonian station.]
EarthEcho International Cocktail Reception
01/09/10 It was an absolutely packed madhouse at the cocktail reception to benefit EarthEcho International at Black Finn on Saturday night. Celeb guest bartender Phillipe Cousteau, “EarthEcho’s President & Co-Founder/Animal Planet & Planet Green’s Chief Ocean Correspondent/Ocean wonder boy man” was slinging the drinks.
Journopalooza II
01/08/10 Andy Sullivan and his band Dirty Bomb rock out for charity at the second annual Journopalooza held at the National Press Club.
I normally do all I can to avoid entering the Press Club for anything other than press conferences because I find the bar there to be one of the most depressing places on earth – a place where bitter old-timers bloviate about things like Army McCarthy Hearings. I have to admit, however, that this was a fun event. It was a battle of the bands contest between bands made up of journalists. I came out to support Andy who’s a reporter at Reuters and his band sounded great. The other three groups were: Charm Offensive, Nobody’s Business, and Suspicious Package. It was a charity event because (according to the press release) “Our profession is in financial trouble. Trouble that can only be fixed by rock n’ roll.” Proceeds from Journoplaooza II go to The Committee to Protect Journalists/Journalist Assistance Program, The Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library, and Reporters Without Borders.
It was also a blast to hang with a bunch of friends I haven’t seen in a long time – Noelle, Tommy, Shannon, Stephanie, Kate and on and on.
Video snippet here.
Deborah
01/08/10 Congrats to Deborah Ayorinde! The lovely model and Howard University grad was on TBS’ “Meet The Browns” on Wednesday night. She’s now living in Atlanta and has signed up with one of the city’s top talent agencies (Atlanta Models & Talent). She says working with Tyler Perry Studios was an awesome experience: “It was pretty nerve-racking to be working with people that I had grown up watching on television (i.e. Terri Vaughn, Alfonso Ribeiro, etc.) but everyone was so kind and helpful and I learned a lot. Hopefully it won’t be the last time I get to work with them. The episode I am in has aired on television but people can watch it on TBS.com (I’m not exactly sure when it will show up but I know you can watch full episodes of Meet the Browns on TBS’s website). For updates on what I’m up to and my future projects, people can follow me on Twitter (yes, I gave in lol) at Twitter.com/DAyorinde.”
[I took this photo of Deborah at an Open Studio shoot. My next Open Studio will be on Saturday 01/16/09. It's a great deal if you need a head shot for a web page or comp card or acting CV or an "About The Author" blurb, etc. ]
Oradour-sur-Glane
01/06/10 My brother Tim gave me the 11 DVD set of The World At War for Christmas. Fantastic gift! If you haven’t seen it, this is one of the finest documentaries ever produced. Narrated by Lawrence Olivier, using hundreds of hours of original footage and dozens of interviews with key figures – even the title credits are riveting. I remember watching it as a boy on WETA. I stuck the first DVD in last night to see the opening chapter. Here it is. The program begins by telling the story of what happened at Oradour-sur-Glane, a small French village close to the city of Limoges, in 1944 and uses the incident as an allegory for the barbarity of the 2nd World War.
642 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane were brutally murdered and the town was set ablaze by the Waffen-SS on June 10th 1944. The French decided to leave the town exactly as it was that day. I’ve been there and it’s haunting. It is something like being in Pompeii but instead of capturing the calamity of a natural disaster, the collapsing town is an accusing finger pointing at evil.
Here are some photos I took of the town on 02/18/92. No kidding. 1992. I keep good records. I was 10 at the time.*
* This is a deliberate falsehood.
[Entrance to the village. Note sign with time-line of the massacre at left.]
[Main street - the houses have been left to crumble.]
[This is the rear of the church which the women and children were herded into before being murdered.]
[Altar in the church.]
[Rusted hulk of a Citreön left exactly where it was that day.]
‘09 Photo Year In Review: #11. November 2009
Here are some of my favorite photos from November 2009.
11/28/09 The Old Chatham Sheepherding Company is the largest sheep dairy farm in the United States.
11/17/09 Preview of “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” exhibit at the National Geographic Museum.
11/30/09 Q&A with actor Morgan Freeman following a showing of his new movie “Invictus.”
11/07/09 The pond on Ryan Farm.
11/24/09 Aladdin the Christmas camel arrives at Mount Vernon.
11/02/09 Partisan pooch at a rally for GOP candidate for Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, in Old Town Alexandria Va.
11/18/09 Education Secretary Arne Duncan (left) and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel roll up their sleeves and don chef’s hats to serve lunch at John Adams Elementary School in Alexandria, Va.
