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. . .