Dennis Dunleavy

Film is History and Photo Pendants Offer a Strange Twist on Picking Up Dates

It seems like people continue to write about the fact that film cameras are history. The AP ran a story this week about the sharp decline in film manufacturing at Kodak. Staff writer Ben Dobbin reports, "At the turn of the 21st century, American shutterbugs were buying close to a billion rolls of film per year. This year, they might buy a mere 20 million, plus 31 million single-use cameras." Photo trend watchers predict film camera will be gone by the end of the decade.The unfortunate consequence of digital photography is that it displaces older technologies; and, along with this trend comes the loss of thousands of jobs.

Now that the obvious is out the way, let's move on to the bizarre.

According to a press release from PhotoScribe, a diamond and gemstone laser marking systems makers, the company is introducing something they call "social media jewelery." Here's how it works. When someone goes to a bar or any other pick up spot they can now wear laser inscribed jewelry, which then can be scanned by a suitor's smart phone. Information such as the user's Facebook profile is inscribed into the ring or pendant and store. Instead of passing around business cards or writing a phone number on a napkin, a quick scan is all that is needed. Now there is nothing really wrong with the concept, but it would just look a little awkward asking someone if it would be okay to scan them on first sight.

 

The Photo Booth Makes a Comeback: Long Live the Photo Booth

Photo: NY Daily News

Tucked away in a corner of a "Five and Dime" for decades ubitiquous photo booth sat in a corner waiting for young sweet hearts to act silly or steal a kiss. The photo booth was an unmistakable and quintessential part of American culture. That is until it was eclipse by the camera phone and the digital point and shoot.

Now, an Indianapolis-based company, Fish Face Photo Booths, is reviving the beloved ritual. The Fish Face booth is like renting a bounce house. With a 1950s vintage look, the booth produced digital prints, which can be uploaded to social media and email. The company now rents out the booths for parties, weddings, anniversaries, graduations -- pretty much any social event. In fact, the booths have been rented out even to dental offices.

 

Alan Sailer's Frozen Moments

Photo Credit: Alan Sailer

In 1957, MIT electrical engineering professor Harold Edgerton developed a special photographic strobe that allowed the camera to freeze an object that would normally be to too fast for the human eye to see. Edgerton was a pioneer in flash photography and his work has played a significant role in the history now.

Now, more than 50 years later, Alan Sailer is pushing the envelop with a homemade flash. Working in relative obscurity and with about $300, Sailer invented a strobe that captures the crashing and crunching of some of the oddest things -- such as limes smashing into meat and paint-filled Christmas ornaments exploding on impact. Sailer began uploading his images to Flickr in 2009, and has since caught the attention of the art world as well as millions of photo enthusiasts. 

 

Social Media and the Emergence of the Flash-Celebrity

Photo Credit: Stefanie Gordon via Mashable

Stefanie Gordon's unique picture of the space shuttle Endeavor's last launch was made through her airplane window and uploaded to Twitpic, a social media photo sharing site.

While Gordon's images have brought her momentary fame, her experiences may also help us to understand how our recalcitrant traditional media system works in an age of social media. 

When Gordon uploaded her short video of the shuttle launch to Twitpic she only asked that if someone wanted to use it they needed to only spelled her name right and gave her a credit line. Gordon was not asking for compensation, just recognition -- a public acknowledgement of who she was, she was presenting and protecting an image of self.

The media soon grabbed the video, some paid her for her effort, while others failed to even give her credit. Although there is a great deal of discussion surrounding intellectual copyright involving this event, an even more interesting aspect to consider is Gordon's interest in sharing what she experienced with others. Some people might say that Gordon's motive to share her pictures was motivate by attention seeking and ego-stroking.  At the same time, there is something much more complicated about human behavior at hand here. 

Gordon's perception of herself was not as a journalist, but as a passenger on an airplane flying near the launch site. Her pictures, however, changed not only how she views herself, but how others view her. On Twitter, Gordon writes, "I am speechless! Brian Williams knows who I am! Video hero of the day: Stefanie Gordon of Hoboken, NJ."  

Such events, and our ability to share them with others through words and pictures in a heart beat, is creating culture of the "flash-celebrity." In the limelight one moment and gone the next.

While Gordon's friends and family will recall her "claim to fame" for years to come, the media, through omission of credit, has already relegated her to anonymity.  It will be nearly impossible for Gordon to maintain an image of self beyond guest appearances on NBC, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC news. Gordon's frustration with the mainstream press seems less about being dismissed and more about her expectations surrounding her desire to be recognized for her initiative.

Through social media, Twitter and Twitpic, Gordon's social construction of self is historically contingent -- her images and subsequent media attention -- are directly related to a specific event. Research indicates how many new technologies such as computational photography, computer programming languages, social media, and mobile technologies to name just a few, increases productivity and creativity. At least that is the perception. 

Technologies such as digital photography, Web interfaces, cell phones, text messaging, cloud computing, and many more innovations, have made us more creative and productive. There are, of course, downsides to the immediate, pervasive, and ubiquitous nature of emerging technologies. Consider for a moment, how different writing a letter by hand is to sending and receiving a message on Twitter.

In an age of multi-tasking, we have become accustomed to making pictures with our camera phones, texting a friend, checking Facebook, sending a tweet, seeming all at the same time. Meanwhile, some may argue, perhaps with good reason, that these activities are really not making us more productive or creative at all. Instead, new technologies have created a generation of distracted, self-absorbed, and compulsive individuals. In other words, with the advance of new technologies people, even though people create words and images, they are increasingly careless about how they communicate in a digital age. 

In addition to productivity and creativity there is the idea that new technologies, especially social media, improves interaction between individuals. Like productivity and creativity, social interaction is one of the those problematic "yes" but "no" situations. At issue here is how people attempt to present a positive image of themselves, through words and pictures using new media technologies. As sociologist Erving Goffman discovered in the late 1950s, long before the emergence of social media, once somehow presents an image of themselves, in whatever form, they must work hard to maintain appearances. Goffman called this phenomena "face work." and idea that seems relevant today as illustration by the number of times people change their Facebook profiles, or the way in which we compulsively upload images to Twitter. Much of this behavior, it can be argued, is related to how social media affords individuals greater opportunities to build a sense of self-worth and self-importance. In a world seemingly out of control, images and words, construct a framework around an individuals experience -- one that can be immediately shared in order to establish and maintain a positive self image.

Maintaining a positive self image, Goffman suggests, is incumbent on the expectations and obligations an individual believes to be true about themselves. Social media, then, is a mirror in which an individual can look into as they create an identity which may or may not be entirely true. Not that this doesn't occur in the real world as well, but it seems to grow exponentially on the web.

While this analysis presents the darker side of emerging media, there are also many benefits that counteract some of the negative effects. Nevertheless, it is important to evaluate whether or not the expectations and obligations we create for ourselves through the use of new technologies shapes our self-identity in negative ways.

For example, how people present themselves while in college on a Facebook profile may not be how they want to see themselves when they are looking for a job or trying to get into medical school. In other words, the expectations and obligations of how we relate to one another changes over time. In the past, our ability to create and maintain a positive self-image may have been more easily controlled simply because opportunities for interaction seemed far fewer. Social media has changed all of this.

Considering Stefanie Gordon's experience, we can begin to understand how social media can make us more productive and creative. However, more importantly, new technologies are now affording us unique opportunities to create positive self images for ourselves -- even though often fleeting.

Flickr Nation: Joplin, MO Tornado Aftermath in Pictures

In 1906, an earthquake ripped through San Francisco setting off firestorms across the city. At that time photography was less than a century old. But people recognized the importance of documenting the event -- they could see the power of the image -- even if the pictures weren’t always made by trained professionals.

1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Fast forward another 100 years, when Aaron Fuhrman, a photography enthusiast with a well-trafficked site on Flickr, decided to leave his home in the middle of the night to photograph the aftermath of a tornado which devastated the city of Joplin, Missouri. Glued to the Weather Channel that evening with his wife Amy, they watched as the tornado advanced toward Joplin. Feeling the need to see Joplin first hand, Fuhrman decided he and his brother-in-law Lee Myers, would make the more than four hour trek to Joplin. They arrived just before sunrise.

“It was when the reporter for TWC [The Weather Channel] broke down on air that I told Amy I felt like I needed to go and photograph the damage,” Fuhrman recalled in a recent correspondence.

Navigating their way closer to the center of the city, after receiving permission from the police, the two men began to grasp the full impact of the tornado’s path. Nothing could have prepared them for what lay before them. Fuhrman notes, “I think I was numb when I arrived in Joplin. The reality for me was the damage. I had never been to Joplin before and had no idea what the area, where the tornado hit, should look like. The landscape was surreal in that it was normal to see cars wrapped up in trees and metal siding or roofing wrapped up like aluminum foil.”

Fuhrman further observed, “The landscape looked as if a giant lawnmower and run through the area. For Lee and I it was the only reality we knew because we had never been to Joplin before. What struck me at this point was the contrast of a beautiful sunrise over total destruction. After that it was the realization that I should not be able to see the sun on the horizon from that vantage point. We could see damage where we were standing to the horizon and knew there was damage behind us for some distance as well.”

Photographing as they walked through the rubble, Fuhrnman was eventually stopped and questioned by authorities – something that is very typical and important in such situations. It was by this time, after witnessing so much devastation that he felt they might be in the way.

“I believe I was in shock. I posted a picture of a red Honda with some writing on it and someone pointed out that it meant two people were found dead in it. I had been walking around while people were trapped or buried in the remains of their homes. When a person commented on the photograph it came to me and I just broke down.” -- Aaron Fuhrman

After returning home, Fuhrman posted his Joplin aftermath pictures to his Flickr account. The response to the images was immediate and overwhelming. News media from around the country took notice and he was soon contacted about his experiences and his pictures have been used across the web as a first-person account of the tornado’s aftermath. Fuhrman, by this time, could no longer be counted as an enthusiast. His work now contribute to telling the story of Joplin in a significant way.

“For me, Flickr was a way to showcase my work, at least in the beginning. What it has become for me is a way to connect with others who share the same interest. I have connected with people all over the world with Flickr,” he said.

Photo Credit: Google Images (above) Aaron Fuhrman (below)

Juxtaposing before and after images of Joplin has helped Fuhrman tell the story in a rich and compelling way.

Fuhrman believes that publicly sharing his images on Flickr has helped tell a bigger story. “I believed this before I left for Joplin and found it to be very true after I uploaded the images. I have received messages from people in other states who were motivated to help in many ways,” he said.

“Messages came in from Joplin residents and those who have Family and Friends in Joplin. Even in their quest to make contact they thanked me for the photos. My Flickr account has received over 1,000,000 hits since I uploaded the images from Joplin,”

“I have been contacted by CNN, FOX News, NPR, ABC World News, Nightline and many others who used my images to help describe the damage in Joplin. I feel this is the only good that comes from my photos. Telling this story has sent overwhelming support to a city with overwhelming damage,” Fuhrman said.

Photography, through social media, has entered a new era where the lines between professional and enthusiast seem imperceptive, Today, sharing, connecting, and the immediacy of an image’s impact are now part of our complex media environment.

Photo Credit: Google Images (above) Aaron Fuhrman (below)

For Fuhrman, “The messages I received in the days after the tornado shows just how powerful a tool the social media can be. People could not make contact fast enough through official sources and turned to me, despite knowing I was hours from Joplin at the time. They would ask if I had photographed a certain area or if I could help find Family and Friends. Through social media I would forward their request to those who I believe might be able to help.”

 

Joplin Relief Efforts

Help Joplin
Joplin Tornado Recovery
Salvation Army
Red Cross

Can 60 billion Pictures on Facebook Tell Us Who We Are?

It's almost hard to imagine, but in less than a decade more than 60 billion pictures have been uploaded to Facebook. What is even more interesting, according to a recent study, that 10 percent of the images are posted to Facebook profiles. From a sociological perspective, profile pictures tell us more about what we think about ourselves than many other forms of self-disclosure. A study by Pixable found that more women than men post profile images. In addition, women show more pictures with other women, while men prefer to be seen with women rather than other men.

Credit: Mashable

Thomas Abel notes, "Private pictures make up an inherent part of the environment and everyday life of modern societies." Interestingly, Abel believes the deluge of personal images of self are akin to a "testimony of being." In other words, Facebook pictures act as a visual fingerprint in virtual form -- represents and depict and seek to reinforce our self indentity. This makes sense when considering how often people change there personal profile on Facebook. Also, as we change our pictures, there is also a feedback effect -- a way of soliticing the attention of others and keeping a profile in the forefront. 

Photography has become even more of a ritualized form of expression in a digital age. Not only is it an essential part of creating a sense of self in a social space, it has also become a unique and validating influence in forming internal and external circles of collaboration. Photography historian John Berger observes, "The thrill found in a photograph comes from the onrush of memory. This is obvious when it’s a picture of something we once knew." What Berger is suggesting appears so obvious to us today. Pictures + Memories = Self Concept. In a way the concept of the individual self only exists within relation to others. I am who I am because others reinforce the concept. Pictures, however, voluntarily uploaded to Facebook or other photo sharing sites, such a Photobucket (8 million photos), Picasa (7 million), or Flickr (5 million), indicate how an individual's personal image of self mirror what they and others expect to see of themselves. Comments made on an individual's wall about a specific image, placing pictures in online albums, or tagging pictures to share with others, are indications of self-validation through the actions of others.

Where this is headed is anybody's guess, but as mobile clouds and crowdsourcing expand, it is likely that the process of making and sharing images in real-time may become a norm. We can already do this through Facebook, Twitter, and Twitpic, but what is suggested here is that such practices will increase dramatically in the future.  

 

Intuition, Empathy and Spontaneity: Keys to a Photo Critique

The keys to a photo critique including trusting your intuition, being spontaneous, and having empathy for others and yourself.

"It's never personal." That's the first thing to keep in mind when offering a photographer a critique of his or her works.The critique, in theory, should be based on the reviewer's experience in making and looking at a range of photographs. However, in the real world not getting personal is nearly impossible. There is always a subjective measure involved in deciding what makes one picture better than another -- a point that is especially true on a lot of social media photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket, and Shutterfly.

The process of a photo critique begins with developing trust between the photographer and the individual conducting the critique -- a relationship built upon one person's experience and another person's interest in improving their craft. If there is mutual respect in a relationship than the process of learning and improving one's work is made that much easier.

Online, there are many photo sharing sites that allow users to critique pictures. Unfortunately, the process of saying what works or what doesn't work is a little soft. Basically, anyone can

Unlike "art" photography where just about anything goes, human interest photography/photojournalism follows a predetermined set of expectations that is linked to one main objective -- telling a story. If there is something that gets in the way of the story such as poor lighting or composition, choice of focal length or camera angle, or lack of understanding between the subject and the photographer, then the images will perhaps not be as compelling emotionally.

W. Euguene Smith once said (paraphrase) that if you feel you are close to a subject than you probably aren't close enough. Photography is all about relationships. Our relationship to the world around us, the camera, the light, and ourselves. Confidence comes with experience. Like a musician, the photographer's ability to use the camera as if it were a Stadivarius violin. The camera becomes an extension of the way in which we relate to the world. If we disassociate ourselves from the mindful discipline of recognizing the relationship between photography as a science and photography as an art, we are well on our way to become great visual storytellers.

Henri Cartier-Bresson observed, "For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity."

This is a good place to start thinking about what makes a compelling photograph. Bresson's idea that the camera is an instrument of intuition and spontaneity is a brilliant. While critiquing an image the first that comes to mind is the connection between what the photographer has fixed and framed in a blink of an eye, and the process that help them get to that place. It's intuition and practice that helps a photographer get in the right position, select the appropriate angle and focal length of the lens, and wait for the decisive moment. Both Smith and Bresson were masters of the intuitive approach and it shows in all of their work. The techniques involved in using a camera can be learned, but intuition is much more difficult.

Beyond technique, the photograph should be evaluated on the photographer's ability to compose an image. Again, using the music analogy, a musician may be phenomenal in executing a tune or song, but what is missing may be expression. The photographer must develop not only technique but also an understanding of how the arrangement of elements in the frame work together. This process, after a while, is also intuitive and spontaneous. Finally, there is the issue of being able to tell a story. People respond to images emotionally,

  A good photograph offers the viewer the opportunity to emotionally connect with the subject.

Emotions are those feelings we hold toward someone or something. Feelings, are natural and intuitive -- they can draw us in or push us away. This is why it is important to evaluate an image with empathy -- the ability to understand what the photographer feels.  The reviewer, with an empathetic eye, must consider the intention of the picture-maker. Who is the audience? What is the photographer trying to convey? What elements in the image distract from clearly communicating the story?

One of the most important lessons learned earlier on about having work critiqued by a peer or mentor can be summed up in one simple question. Why should I care? These four words, early on in my career, dramatically changed the way I think, act, and make pictures. When reviewing an image, this question needs to be in the back of the mind, but not necessarily expressed openly. The purpose of a critique, ultimately, is to encourage and build-up a photographer not to discourage and destroy the ego.

 

Staggering: Viewing Joplin's Destruction from Above

Photo Credit: The Associated Press

When the Associated Press released two aerial photographs showing Joplin, Missouri before and after a devasting tornado struck on May 22, words seemed unable to convey the same message as a couple of million pixels could.

Aerial pictures function like maps -- they are indexical and provide context. Although they lack intimacy, aerials are best used to provide viewers with a sense of scale. They speak to us as though we would look upon a crime scene.

Photo Credit: The Associated Press

An aerial image is an abstraction. Aerials reduce objects into a montage of shapes, colors, forms, and lines. There is an almost grotesqueness about the images documenting the destruction of Joplin - a sense of undenied voyagerism from above.

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: Journalism in a Digital Age

Photo Credit: Kinga

Once upon a time there was a photographer and a reporter -- a person expected to make pictures and write stories. They weren't hired to tweet, curate the news, shoot video, make pictures, produce audio, write and edit copy, and design a web page. Although we think of backpack journalism as a recent phenomenon, the shift to multiple media platform began with the advance of computerization, technological innovation, as well as the downsizing of the industry.

Today, a transformation is taking shape. The demand for visual storytellers with experience and knowledge of video, audio, design, and writing, along with basic digital camera skills seems to have become the norm, not the exception. In our competitive and changing field, photographers, videographers, writers, and editors, must learn to communicate effectively across multiple platforms. For example, it is common for a news outlet to expect a reporter to not only write, but also to capture pictures and audio for the web.

Daniel Sato went to college to become a photojournalist, a field he had been interested in since high school. After graduating, unfortunately, the job market had dried up. When Daniel graduated in 2003, the job had already been on a dramatic downslide. Even when news organizations like Reuters were eliminating more 3,000 jobs, Daniel was determined to succeed. Almost immediately Daniel began honing other skills such as writing, video and web design.  As the economy began to recover, Daniel had learned a few important lessons about where photojournalism was headed – a web-based industry that would provide many different ways of storytelling. In order to promote his work and demonstrate the range of skills he had developed, Daniel set up a blog. “Students today need to realize that it is quickly coming to the point that photography is not enough,” Daniel notes. “I am not necessarily advocating that students need to master skill sets beyond photography, but they need to be aware of things like video, html, CSS, flash, after effects, etc. They need to understand how these skills/programs can add to the story they are trying to tell and surround themselves with people from a variety of backgrounds,” he said.

James Horton notes, "Although thousands of reporters still work traditionally in media conglomerates, there are a growing number called upon to use multiple media and to act as publishers by running their own blogs, for example. Not long ago, one could be a reporter/writer. Now, mainstream and new media journalists handle print, web, video and sound."

Media JobMarket blog correspondent Hayli Morrison has some words of advice for journalists in an age of digital convergence:

• The emerging technology has a ripple effect of other considerations for modern-day media professionals. From salary and benefits to competition and insta-news, technology is changing the face of media and shaking things up like never before.
• Media industry veterans may find the tech-driven changes unfamiliar and uncomfortable at first, but they would do well to embrace the inevitable.

 

From my own experience as a teacher, I encourage students to dabble in all areas of creating news content. This would range from digital image editing, photojournalism, page layout, web design, video field production, reporting, audio production, copy editing, web design, and more. Although many students will gravitate to a particular speciality such as reporting or photojournalism, someone with a larger array of skill sets may be more likely to find work.

Although many students are reluctant at first to set up a personal website to maintain a blog, but the benefits can far outweigh the determinants. Blogs are simple and practical ways to establilsh the day-to-day discipline of working across platforms that is required of many journalists today. In addition, blogs can serve as personal brands for reporters or photographers who specialize in specific fields of interest such as the environment, politics, or sports.

Sitting back and waiting for someone to hire a newcomer to the field without experience is pretty unusual. Students need to begin practicing their craft in whatever way they can as soon as possible and blogging on a specific topic is a great way to get started. As more and more news migrates to the web, young journalists who have experience with online reporting and producing visual content will have a clear advantage.

 

 

 

Soundgarden Photo Contest Offers Fans Unique Opportunity

 One of the more Intriguing and fun photo contests this year is the Soundgarden 2011 World Tour photo competition where the winners get to photograph one of the 17 tour stops.

 

Larry Little at Talenthouse said, "For someone to have access to a band of this caliber at the size of venues that they are playing is pretty incredible. We did a similar campaign with Lady Gaga and it was a runaway success, as her friends are truly religious about her and the photographers got once in a lifetime access. Having photos of this reunion tour in someones portfolio that can be used in major magazines and online publications is also a great resume builder that could lead to more work."

 

Why Enter Contests?

 

Photography is all about the experience of seeing and capturing what we see in meaningful ways. Connecting with the world around us -- being in the "present" -- of making pictures can be transformative. Perhaps why photography, as a hobby and as a profession, is so overwhelmingly popular. In 2010 alone, more than 109 million digital cameras were sold around the world.

 

One way photographers, both amateurs and professionals, is to sharpen their skills through competition. Having someone critique and compare your work to others develops confidence and enriches the experience of making picture.

Contests, although not for everyone, are undeniably one the best ways for photographers to gain recognition, have fun making pictures for a reason, and connect to a wider of like-minded people. Today, there are photo contests for just about every subject imaginable -- contests for the best baby pictures, most stunning travel shots, wildest nature images, and much more.

 

Why History Repeats Itself in Pictures

Immigrants crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico (1985).

More than two decades ago, I stood on a bridge overlooking the Rio Grande River in Laredo, Texas. The bridge separated not only two countries, but two worlds. It was a constant reminder of the disparites between nations. As a photographer telling such stories was an attempt to put a "face" on a complex issue.

As daylight approached, the amber vapor glow of U.S. Border Patrol security lights began to give way to what promised to be another sweltering summer day in South Texas. On the bridge traffic had all but stopped -- the scene was eerie and somber. All was quiet, except for a few hushed words in spanish coming from below the span. Two men, most likely day laborers, were crossing the river illegally into the United States. This was a time, when the pejorative term "wetback" was still widely used by many in the U.S. to alienate and often persecute our neighbors to the south.

This scene and others like it have been repeated millions of times since the U.S. began securing its borders in the late 1880s. More than one hundred years later demand for cheap labor in the U.S. and poverty in Mexico and Central America continues to create even more tension along the border.

Story after story, picture after picture, continues to tell us about the lives of people struggling to better their lives at all costs. 

At about the same time I made this image, I met a reporter from Sweden who was on assignment to write about America's immigration "problem." I was surprised that the rest of world was beginning to take notice. Why Sweden, I thought?

Pictures are historically contingent and function to construct a context in our collective consciousness -- one that is linked to culture, politics, history, economics, and religious values.

What I witnessed in the 1980s, however, is not what journalists are seeing today. Although people attempt to cross the border daily, the risks from drug traffickers, smugglers, and bandits has become endemic. What we see in the mainstream media today is but a fragment of the real story happening along the border -- a story so frequently told that most of the nation has lost interest. Nevertheless, the story never ends as history repeats itself as long as photographers and journalists are around to notice it.

Sarah Palin Film: Pandering for President?

Credit: All Voices

This June get ready for what promises to be a really "hot" major cinematic event. "Sarah Palin" the movie. Who said politics and Hollywood don't mix. If you're a conservative flimmaker like Stephen K. Bannon, have $1 million to spare, as well as unlimited access to the subject, the whole thing seems like a reasonable idea. At the very least such a film will be an unprecedented way of announcing Palin'e bid for the presidency in 2011. The big question is what can Bannon say about the celebripol in two hours that the public doesn't already know?

It's obvious that a Sarah Palin cannot be considered serious film making for the simple reason that it's intent is driven by overt partisanship. While one portion of the American public eagerly anticipates such a film, there is another part of this country that will be repulsed at such blatant and incredulous panderment.

 

Biometrically bin Laden: Quantifying the Old Adage "Seeing is Believing"

Sorting out the details in the death of bin Laden will take many years. Recently, however, information regarding how the U.S. military used specialized biometric technology to ensure they got the "bad guy" illustrates the convergence of cognitive science, optics, and technology. During the raid, U.S. Navy Seals used SEEK or Secure Electronic Enrollment Kits to match bin Laden's physical characteristics with data accumulated over the years, including hundreds of photographs. According to SEEK's makers, Cross Match Technologies, the device combines "Forensic-quality fingerprint capture, rapid dual iris scan capability and innovative facial capture technology."

Although the image matching software provides a strategic advantage in tracking down criminals and terrorists it may also lead to our ever-increasing surveillance culture. It is not hard to imagine that in the near distance future biometric/forensic devices will become as ubiquitous as closed-circuit camera systems. Imagine such a sophisticated device that will be able to "read" or scan an individual's emotional and physical condition. Imagine being stopped by a bouncer at a bar armed with a biometric scanner only to tell you that you've reach well above your limit and have to find another way home. Imagine a scanner able to detect the facial characteristics of a shoplifter as they enter a store. Now imagine SEEK being used to identify and collect information on citizens engaged in peaceful protest.

It is not an exaggeration to suggest that we are only at the beginning of an era where intelligent machines will be used to both safeguard as well as oppress people.  While the world awaits the disclosure of bin Laden's death photos, the release of the SEEK data may help to quiet nay sayers and inform the greater public. In the realm of scientific scrutiny, biometrics quantifies the old adage "seeing is believing."

Storify: A New and Exciting Brand of Journalism

It almost feels as though the topic of how people are using social media during and after a disaster is becoming routine. But no disaster is routine. All disasters call for empathy, compassion, rationality, and action.

Today, social media is a center for expressions of grief, sharing news and information, as well as a place of hope. In the lightening fast world of journalism today, social media has become part of a multi-layered process of delivering information. One shining example of this is the website "Storify."

The concept behind Storify is brilliant. Collect and Curate social media in a digestible and relevant way. A group of journalists track the major events of the day on Tweeter, Facebook, and blogs through a process called curation. After stories, tweets, eye-witness images and videos are selected by the curator, the content is assembled and aggregated on the Storify site. The end result is content that is accessible, interesting, and easy to share.

Following Twitter feeds, on a disaster like the tornado in Joplin, MO., can be exhausting without the help of a curator.

It is easy to see where the process of curation is headed. Now it is incumbent for the mainstream media to follow the Storify example. 

Polaroid Goes Gaga: Life After Film

Lady Gaga and Polaroid design fashion camera sun glasses. Photo Credit: Polaroid

In the pre-digital era (P.D.E.), the Polaroid was something that always seemed to make its way into the hands of a grandmother at Thanksgiving dinner, or a sunburnt father on some beach somewhere gathering up the tribe for one last memory of the end of a summer vacation. The camera's edge over other photo-chemical processes was in its immediacy. Huddled around the 4 x 5 pull apart picture, there was a sense of anticipation in watching the image appear as if by magic. People loved the Polaroid because it was easy to use and, more than anything else, it produced results on the spot. According to Polaroid history buffs, more than 1 billion Polaroid pictures were made in 1974. For nearly four decade Polaroid cameras corner the niche on "instant' -- then digital happened. Like Kodak, another household brand, the Polaroid was successful because it recognized and continues to recognize the power images hold over our emotions. There is ritual not only in picture-making, but also in holding a memory in your hands only second after it was made.

Recently, Polaroid strategically linked up with pop icon Lady Gaga a their new creative director to promote a line of collaboratively designed products including sunglasses, cameras and other items. It's not the first time Polaroid has gone to celebrities to endorse its products. Notables have included Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Jerry Lewis, Ali MacGraw, Lord Laurence Olivier, Liv Ullmann, Candice Bergen, Alan Alda, Danny Kaye, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and the Muppets. This time though, with Lady Gaga, the relationship is more than about endorsing a brand -- it seems more symbionic. It's not that Lady Gaga needs for balls to juggle, but working with Polaroid affords her some creative muscle flexing in the area of design and fashion.  In a press announcement earlier this year Lady Gaga said, "The Haus of Gaga has been developing prototypes in the vein of fashion/technology/photography innovation--blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era--and we are excited to collaborate on these ventures with the Polaroid brand."

It's hard to imagine Polaroid ever regaining the dominance it held in the industry from the 1950s through the mid-1990s, but it is refreshing to know that the company's passion for innovation and design continues. 

 

 

 

HuffPo's Use of Picture Understates Crisis in Syria

  The connection between the Huffington Post's use of a veiled woman's face and the rising death toll in Syria is a little confusing. Mysterious, provocative, gaze, and taboo are a few of the words that come to mind when describing this image. According to the AP, "Syrian security forces opened fire on a funeral procession for slain anti-government protesters Saturday, pushing the number of people reported killed in a two-month uprising to more than 900 and making it one of the deadliest of the Arab Spring." To use an image that is little more than "eye candy" suggests a couple of things. First, the editors want to down play the importance of the story by running "soft" art to illustrate the unrest? Plausible? Secondly, the editors do not wish to offend the viewers, so they "toned" down the visual. Finally, the editors were just too lazy to find more appropriate art. The image itself is a stereotype and if placed withing the context of feminist theory, it represents the "male gaze." In this reference, the relationship between men and women is asymmetrical. In other words, the concept refers to the imposition of a man's unwanted or objectifying gaze upon women. What does any of this have to do with death in Syria? It's a stretch to be sure, but it is also emblematic of how such images become iconic in Western media.It takes about 10 seconds on Google to find videos and still pictures from Syria relevant to the unrest. Here's a good example from Al Jazeera showing protesters throwing rocks at the police.

 

Soundgarden Tour Photo Contest Offers Fans Unique Opportunity

I am reposting this piece after noticing that it had dropped off the site from some reason. It's worth it.

One of the more Intriquing and fun photo contests this year is the Soundgarden 2011 World Tour photo competition where the winners get to photograph one of the 17 tour stops.

Larry Little at Talenthouse said, "For someone to have access to a band of this caliber at the size of venues that they are playing is pretty incredible. We did a similar campaign with Lady Gaga and it was a runaway success, as her friends are truly religious about her and the photographers got once in a lifetime access. Having photos of this reunion tour in someone's portfolio that can be used in major magazines and online publications is also a great resume builder that could lead to more work."

Why Enter Contests?

Photography is all about the experience of seeing and capturing what we see in meaningful ways. Connecting with the world around us -- being in the "present" -- of making pictures can be transformative. Perhaps why photography, as a hobby and as a profession, is so overwhelmingly popular. In 2010 alone, more than 109 million digital cameras were sold around the world.

One way photographers, both amateurs and professionals, is to sharpen their skills through competition. Having someone critique and compare your work to others develops confidence and enriches the experience of making picture.

Contests, although not for everyone, are undeniably one the best ways for photographers to gain recognition, have fun making pictures for a reason, and connect to a wider of like-minded people. Today, there are photo contests for just about every subject imaginable -- contests for the best baby pictures, most stunning travel shots, wildest nature images, and much more.

 

Here Today and Gone Tomorrow: Why People Fail to Backup Pictures in the Age of Instant.

Hundreds of years from now computer mediated anthropologists will be faced with an enormous problem -- making sense of trillions upon trillions of digital images.

Photo Credit: Slapstart

Many of these pictures will be made by amateurs, average citizens who use a camera phone or another device to record their day-to-day experiences. It is difficult to imagine what the future hold, but the proliferation of images made by amateurs and professionals is increasing exponentially. Imagine how historians and anthropologists will have to sift through the millions of images just to understand a single event.

Let's pretend for argument sake that these academic types begin their exhumation of our digital footprints on September 11, 2001 and end in 2100.

What will they find?

First and foremost, we have to assume that the majority of the digital files stored today may not be available to us in 100 years. Images that may survive will be found on an antiquated array of storage technologies such as CDs, DVDs, hard drive external drives, and computer servers. Unfortunately, billions of image will be lost simply because their creators failed to understand the impermance of  media. Protecting digital images is clearly not on the agenda of average computer user.

The greatest threat to image storage today is the inability to understand how antiquated computer technologies are being replaced by newer ones at an unprecedated speed.

The Internet has created a causeway for millions of people to store and share their images. Thanks to the digital camera, camera phones and the Internet, the world has witnessed the worst and the best of the human condition. Pictures of tortured prisoners in Iraq, aircraft accidents, banned images of flag-draped coffins, and many other events flit across screens around the world. Photosharing sites such as Flickr and Photobucket, as well as microblogging services like Twitpic have changed the way people create and use pictures.

From phonograph records, beta and VHS video, as well as chemical-based film, the shift from analog technologies to digital has had a tremendous impact on how we record and remember the past. No media is permanent, however, what we need to remember is that challenges of preservation are resides in quantity and longevity. Digital capture and storage media have already seen a move toward cheaper and faster materials.

Floppy and Zip disks have been replaced by external multimedia drives. We have moved from kilobytes to terabytes of storage in a matter of a decade. Pictures live in the real space of our computer hard drives but also in the virtual domain of cyberspace.  We have come to trust our memorable past -- our pictorial treasures -- to the likes of Shutterfly, Facebook and Flickr. We have come to trust our computer and external drives without considering that the machines that can read these digital files today, may not be able to in a hundred years from now. The pictures that survive in the future will be those that have been carefully curated by owners who understand the tenuous nature of digital technologies.

The best way to guarantee that our images will be around decades from now is to promote digital literacy. When a friend was presented with a 500 gigabyte external drive to preserve his images, the device was promptly put aside. A year later, it was still sitting around collecting dust. Why?  One might get the impression that the idea of backup files can be attributed to apathy and a sense of image immortality.

Our culture teaches us that "redundancy" is a bad thing. Get to the point and don't repeat yourself. It's not this way in the realm of digital storage. Picture need to have several homes -- on the computer's hard drive, on external drives, DVDs and CDs, and Online. Any one who has lived through a computer crash, where all the data was rendered irretrievable, understands the perilous dangers of computer technologies.

Our culture is accustomed to collecting personal images in scrapbooks and not in a computer folder. Pictures of significant events are typically categorized and organized chronologically, not so with computers. For many, digital images stored on a computer are the source of great angst and frustration. Finding images and electronically editing the images for size, color, and tone can be time consuming and costly to print. Many Online services provide solutions, but do we really know how if the ink and paper used will survive for future generations. Photographs printed in the 19th and 20th centuries may actually have more longevity than the pictures printed today.

At the same time, one of the many advantage of digital image technology is the ability to share images with others. Online photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Zoto, Smugmug, Scrapblog, and Snapfish provide users with a place to share, comment and organize the photographs they upload.  For example, in 2008 Flickr had more than 27 million visitors.  Many of the images on these photo-sharing sites demonstrate importance of the "visual" in our culture. The gap between what someone with a smart phone or a digital point and shoot can produce in terms of technological capacities is closing in on more professional digital single lens reflect cameras. Imperfect as they may be, the digital snaps of life fulfill a basic human need to recall and remember our presence on earth. In an age of immediacy and impermanence, it is too easy to overlook the future as we focus on the past.

 

Jumping to the Obvious: CNN headline and Photo Mislead Readers

Photo Credit: AFP/Getty

At the risk of incredulity, what other conclusion could a reader draw from CNN's headline and supporting image?

It is this sort of "no-brainer" reportage that infuriates readers and media critics. How difficult would it be for the Western media, such as CNN, to provide a little more context.

Why does CNN "spoon feed" audiences with bombast and overstating the obvious, The perspective that is absent here is that in Islam, suicide is strictly forbidden. CNN's focus is on the novelty of someone jumping from the world's tallest building and not on the apparent cultural and religious tensions.

To take a broader angle would be edifying -- a perspective often lacking from Western media.

Adil Salahi writes, "It is true that suicide is strictly forbidden, because it is an affront to God. It is like a person saying to God: “You have given me life and I am taking it away. The  World Health Organization found that Muslim nations such as Iran, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan have some of the lowest suicide rates in the world, undoubtedly because of their religious beliefs. At the same time, around the globe people commit suicide at the rate of one death every 40 seconds.

CNN's focus on the world's tallest building and not on the relationship between Islam and suicide misleads readers by not addressing some on the underlying causes for such an action. What is fascinating about this story is the cultural, religious, and socio-economic perspectives -- points of view that are complex and multi-faceted. In the end, the choice of the image and the words to describe the event do audiences disservice.

 

Breaking the Wall of Silence: Graffiti Spotlights Role of Social Media in Middle East

"Precisely how we communicate in these moments of historic crisis and transformation is important. The medium that carries the message shapes and defines as well as the message itself." -- Peter Beaumont

Photo Credit: Steve Crisp/Reuters

Photo Credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

In the United States, Facebook or Twitter are not seen as overtly revolutionary or radical ideas, but in parts of the world, where freedom of expression remains a dream, social media has become an incendiary yet unifying force for many. The "Twitter Revolution" accompanying the "Arab Spring" uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa are visible on the Internet and on the streets. Two recent images suggest public awareness of two terms that seem unique in the lexicon of any language, be it Arabic or English. In most parts of the world graffiti is typically associated with insurgency, political unrest and social protest, so when the words Facebook or Twitter appear on walls in Egypt or elsewhere in the Middle East you know things have changed. It's not clear whether Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook ever dreamed his innovation would represent a cry for social justice or a sign of free expression, yet it can be said that now, at least in the Middle East, the writing is on the wall.

Pictures Rising: Storm of Images Flowing Across the Internet Documents Historic Flood

 
A Google Image page search reveals the aesthetic as well as the informative diversity of pictures from mainstream and social media sources.

As the nation watches with great concern the extensive flooding along the Mississippi, photographers of all kinds turn their lenses onto the drama unfolding before them. Today, with the use of mobile devices, digital cameras, and social media, the way we inform one another as well as the way in which we are informed is unprecedented. Over the past decade alone, society has advanced from a culture of spectacle to a culture of participants in an endless stream of image production and consumption. What would 19th century photographic pioneer George Eastman, if he were alive today; have to say about the current state of photography?  Could Eastman possibly imagine the immediacy, intensity, and ubiquity of the photographic image? Unlikely.

Hundreds of years from now, computational anthropologists (my term for social scientists who study how human beings use computers and the Internet to make sense of culture) will exhume a sea of digital images. Many of these pictures will come from amateurs, average citizens who use a camera phone or another device to record their experiences. It is difficult to imagine that far into the future, but the proliferation of images made by amateurs and professionals will undoubtedly increase. Imagine how teams of historians and anthropologists would have to sift through the millions of images just to understand one event. In this case the flood. Beginning with September 11, 2001, the Internet has created a causeway for millions of people to store and share their images. Thanks to the digital camera, camera phones and the Internet, the world has witnessed the worst and the best of the human condition. Pictures of tortured prisoners in Iraq, aircraft accidents, banned images of flag-draped coffins, and many other events flit across screens around the world. Photosharing sites such as Flickr and Photobucket, as well as microblogging services like Twitpic have changed the way people create and use pictures.

Photo by Stephen Gipson

As a pilot and physician, Stephen Gipson has a bird's eye view of the Mississippi flood near Memphis this week. After a fly-over of the city, Gipson sent some of his images to CNN's iReport, a site which encourages amateur photographers to tell their stories.

Photos by Jonathan Serrie

At the same time, Jonathan Serrie, captured and transmitted pictures to Twitpic from the ground in the same area as Gipson. Both Serrie and Gipson are citizen journalists, individuals who believe sharing what is happening around them in the world is as much "news" as anything thing in a newspaper or on a television. The references for such images appear as hash (#) tags or short bits of code that link back to the original source. The way in which people connect today through images appears impermanent and virtual.

Jonathan Serrie's Photo and short description linking to his Twitter page:
#Flood waters cover intersection in #Tunica County, #Mississippi. #fb

Early on, as more and more people began making and submitting pictures pertaining to news events, many in the mainstream held the belief that these cheaper, sloppier, and sometimes inaccurate representations of "reality" would undermine the profession of photojournalism.

There is cause for concern. In the news industry thousands of news professionals were being laid off, downsized, and dump out on to the street to compete for what few jobs remained. The fact is that just about anyone a digital camera meant fewer opportunities for professional. Skepticism and pessimism seemed permeated any discussion about amateur photographers undermine photojournalism's role in the news process. In the meantime, the field scrambled to produce a new, more versatile, type of photojournalist -- individuals that could make images, video, produce audio, write, and build a website.

Professional news photography and amateur photography are forced to co-exist is the hyper-extended media landscape of today --  a place where temporal-spatial boundaries shift and where immediacy is everything. Deadlines seem irrelevant in an age when an eyewitness can upload a picture from their cell phone faster than a trained professional can get his or her camera out of the bag.

While a "first-person responder" type of image (amateur) has its place in the feeding frenzy of endless news cycle, there is also a lot to say about thoughtful, compelling, and more carefully constructed images made by professional photojournalists. Despite the tendency to think that social media "flattens" out how much information we receive, there is still something to say about accountability and reliability. The idea of an information hierarchy may seem to have been undermined by 10 million bloggers with cameras, but in reality the vast number of people seeking news still depend upon professionals to get it.

To become more literate of the events shaping our lives, social media photography provides a rich layer of images in which to make sense of things. But it is just a layer. Traditional media also provides the same function but with the added benefit of a self-regulated control for veracity and accuracy. Social media offers no such guarantee. 

 While there are thousands of first-person pictures available online, it is easy to see that just a few dramatic pictures made by professional can enhance our understanding of an event and inform us in valuable ways.

Recently, a picture made by photojournalist Matthew Hinton illustrates this point when laid along side first-person responder accounts. Hinton, who works for the Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans, made an image of a ship riding high in the swollen waters of the Mississippi. The picture is edifying and helps to develop a context in which to understand how the flood is affecting the city.  Hinton approaches visual storytelling methodically and conscientiously. He knows his audience and he knows what is expected of him. In addition to skills sets, his profession prescribes a specific code of conduct -- a set of beliefs and practices that others using social media may not understand.

Social media is often viewed as a one-size-fits-all formula to news judgment. Getting the picture, for many of us with camera phones, means simply that, "getting the picture." One picture. Beyond the physical act of capturing an event -- bearing witness, first-responder photographs appear to be made with little regard to the aesthetics of the frame.

If your plane goes down and you live through it, the last think you are going to worry about is composition and lighting. Moreover, the primary audience for the image is not a news outlet. Getting rich off a "one shot wonder" is very unlikely. In fact, most people make images simply to share with family and friends. Today, we might extend this sharing to Facebook and Twitter followers as well. 

When the roof on a commercial aircraft ripped recently somewhere over Arizona, one passenger began emailing and tweeting her images back to earth. Twitpics in not Time magazine, but it does generate a lot of interest. Two things can happen in a case like this one. First, the world gets a personal first-hand view of the event in real time, and, second, the passenger ends up being part of the story.

When the roof on a commercial aircraft ripped recently somewhere over Arizonia, one passenger began emailing and tweeting her images back to earth. Twitpics in not Time magazine, but it does generate a lot of interest. Two things can happen in a case like this one. First, the world gets a personal first-hand view of the event in real time, and, second, the passenger ends up being part of the story.

Matthew Hinton, The Times-Picayune

Joe Spake's love of photography and social media places him the unique position of bridging the worlds of first-responder amateurs with camera phones, and professional photojournalism. With a reasonably priced digital single lens reflect (DSLR) camera, some experience, and a Flickr account, Joe can share his work and his passion for Memphis with the world. A real estate broker by profession, Joe is also an avid blogger and user of all-things social media. One glance at Joe's Flickr site and it is easy to see how connected he is to his community.  There are pictures of the seasons, festivals, tourist spots, and much more. When Memphis prepared for one of the worst floods in history, Joe was there to make images. It made sense to take and share his work with others. 

Bottom line. Joe’s images far exceed the fuzzy quality of most camera phones. For some, Joe’s Flickr image demonstrate how photo-loving individuals, people with other ways of making a living,  can walk the line between the professional and the amateur.

Photo by Joe Spake

Several years ago, a wild fire threatened to burn down a small town in Southern Oregon. As the sky darkened with smoke, police and fire crews rushed to the scene. At the same time, a small army of shutterbugs was headed toward the fire. In this situation, the police not only had to help evacuate people from their homes, but also keep thrill-seekers out of the area. Back at the 13,000 circulation daily newspaper, a part-time photographer attempted to make a deadline in less than 30 minutes. While at the computer frantically transmitting pictures, a seemingly endless parade of people from the community came in asking whether anyone wanted to use their images for publication.

The photographer soon became overwhelmed with not only the deadline, but with the onslaught of potentially news worthy images taken by citizen shutterbugs. For more than 3 hours, the photographer downloaded memory cards and listened to countless stories from people who had better access and more time than he had to tell the story. In the end, almost all of the amateur images were uploaded to a special section of the newspaper's website. The phrase, "We are the Media" resonates loudly today. But media means different things to different people.

In the world of photography, social media represents many opportunities for people to share their experiences with others. At the same time, social media also challenges the hierarchical nature of news production and transmission. The more we can understand the relationship between mainstream and social media in terms of mutually serving a wider audience, the less ambiguous the process of making pictures will become.

 

Ground Zero After bin Laden

Photo Credit: Don Hoekwater

Images derive meaning from the context in which they were made as well as the context in which they are later viewed. Perception, how we make sense of images,is dependent on several factors, but symbols prevail as one of the major forces at play in today's digital and visual culture.

Don Hoekwater's images from "ground zero" made shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden are loaded with symbols that are closely associated with American values and beliefs.

privacy . patriotism . protection . politics . profit . pride .

ideas come to mind when reflecting on symbols 

An African American man stares with one-eye open into the photographer's lens. The man is aware of the photographer's presence. He is holding American flags. Selling them? The colors are vibrant and contrast with the rich blue of the background. Behind the man's head, slightly blurred but readable, is a sign, "No Trespassing: Violators Will Be Prosecuted." Is the juxtaposition of all that is represented in this image intentional or coincidental? Perhaps it doesn't really matter, since whoever takes the time to think about this picture will ultimately walk away with their own unique interpretation.

The flags....patriotism?

The sign....boundaries and ownership?

The man....African American?

The man....entrepreneur?

The man.....employee?

The man..... patriot?

Each image poses a number of questions to the viewer --  questions that often cannot be answered directly, concretely, or, even in terms everyone will understand.

It all depends on the meaning we place on the content, maker, and time in which the picture was made.

The elements in a frame -- the ones that engage and capture our imagination -- are not easily quantified, distilled or labeled. We often encounter images casually -- on the Internet, Facebook, or in the doctor's office. Something about pictures catch our "eye" -- color, tone, mood, composition, Then, as we are are drawn in by the aesthetics of the frame we are also subjected to the figurative, unconscious, symbolic, rhetorical, metaphoric, allegorical, and all the other forms of meaning making.

Pictures do not resonate in the conscious mind without connecting to the inner self and the unconscious mind. The image is like a mirror we look into trying to see who we are and what is happening to the world around us. Pictures trigger primal instincts such as fear, anger, joy, desire. Pictures also trigger socially constructed and conditioned emotional responses such as pride, patriotism, obedience, trust. Pictures operate on different levels -- immediacy, intensity, and even intimacy. Pictures are pervasive. Pictures are ubiquitous. Pictures are persistent. Pictures are who we think we are and who we think we are not.

The photograph as a reflection of our culture, the historical moment, and as a mirror of self, is not free from context, situation and circumstance. Being seen and seeing are bound to perception. The gun, T-Shirt, building reconstruction, flag, and man, are real, but they are also historically contingent upon what we know about them and what others have to say about them.

 

Special thanks to Don Hoekwater for his compelling and thought provoking images. Well done.

 

Selling Serial Killer's Art for Charity: A Well-Intentioned Publicity Stunt?

"Multiples: The Artwork of John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy was a horrific human being. He raped and murdered 33 young men and boys in the 1970s. He also painted. Now. many years later, an art gallery in Las Vergas is trying to selling the paintings to raise money for the National Center for Victims of Crime. The organization, however, wants nothing to do with the Las Vegas gallery or the artwork.

It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to own such works, not because of the art itself, but for what they represent -- an indelible mark on the darkness side of human nature.

At the same time, after Gacy's execution in 1994, his attorney sold off much of the murderer's work. Exhibitions of Gacy's work has always raised controversy. However, in this case, a well-intentioned gallery owner is trying to raise awareness for a victim's advocacy group as well as perhaps a little media attention for himself.

Dogs, Ponies and Presidential Photo Ops: White House Backpedals on Photo Re-enactments

Photo Credit: Air Force Times

There were a lot of press feathers ruffled last week when President Barack Obama held a middle-of-the night press conference announcing the death of Osama bin Laden. So many feathers that the White House is ending its practice of re-enacting speechs for news photographers.

According to the Associated Press, "The White House said it is ending its long-running practice of having presidents re-enact televised speeches for news photographers following major addresses to the country, a little-known arrangement that fed suggestions of fakery when Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden."

Photographers called to the press conference described how the president first addressed the nation on television, and then proceeded to conduct a 30-second reenactment for newspaper and wire service photographers.

After the event, members of the media voiced concern that restaging an event such as this would not only be unethical it could potentially comprise its objectivity.

Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute notes, "Since the Reagan era (and possibly before) it has been the standard operating procedure that during a live presidential address, still cameras are not allowed to photograph the actual event."

White House spokesperson, David Bauer wrote, "The practice of re-enactments has a long history. Washington veterans say President Harry Truman would deliver speeches over radio and then repeat them for newsreel cameras,"

It seems like the "dog and pony" show epitomizing the "telegenicity" of the modern presidency has been around for as long as, well, dogs and ponies.

Today, the White House announced it will discontinue the practice of re-enacting the president's speech. May be this means that those photographers typically excluded from the initial event, will now have to settle on computer and video screen grabs.

The bigger question, since are 11 presidents removed from Truman, is what didn't someone make a stink about this early? We can take a wild guess here and say NO ONE really cared all that much. With so many issues facing the country, not to mention the Obama administration, you would think that this sort of things belongs outside the three-ring  media circus.

 

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White House says no more photo re-enactments

 

Winona Ryden and bin Laden Face Off at Airport

What do Winona Ryder and Osama bin Laden have in Common? Nothing, except that airport facial recognition scanners can't tell the difference. It's a tale of technology's tail wagging the dog.

The London Telegraph a story today reporting, "Airport face scanners 'cannot tell the difference between Osama bin Laden and Winona Ryder.'"

Source: The Telegraph

Facial recognition technology is going to take a while to get the "wrinkles" out.

"The technology was designed to help immigration officials spot people traveling under false passports, particularly terrorists, but the multi-million pound scheme now appears to be in jeopardy," reported the Telegraph.

The timing of comparing Ryder's image to bin Laden demonstrates the Telegraph's need to put a spin on a story that connects it to a major event. There is obviously a "wow" factor here, since such public figures are so conspicious, but for very different reasons.

Staff writer, Duncan Gardham, never explains why the newspaper decided to choose the Ryder-bin Laden example, but it's easy to speculate that more people will read the story if it's sensational. No surprises there, but it is a bit over the top.

Failed facial recognition isn't a new story. In 2002, Wired Magazine ran a story about the failure of the technology used at the Palm Beach International Airport. Other reports also show major problems.

Now, 9 years later, the media is dusting off the story again, but this time it has unusal tongue-and-cheek twist.

 

 

Postulate, Pontificate, and Speculate: Images Tell Us What to Think About

"This is beyond James Bond" -- ABC News

The large-voiced baritone delivers the news over top a series of images, video, and audio announcing recent developments connected with the U.S. raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. It's hard to argue with the media's authority as such, especially when it's packaged so convincingly and deliberately.

Revelations that the military used highly classified "stealth" helicopters  are sure to challenge much of the media as it tries to tell a story without actually having much to go on. At the same time, speculation and pontification often appears to be the default mode, especially given the immediacy and competitive nature of news today.

In the mix, the screen moves off B-roll showing people scrambling around the crash site to an intriguing treatment which attempts to explain how the secret helicopters work. First, we see the city bin Laden lived in prior to his death -- night shot that does little more than serve as "wall paper." Images, text, and audio are overlaid on the darkness of the city. As the report moves along, neon green rectangles, the color of night-vision goggles, appear along with the sans serif-all cap-text identifying the standard and stealth varieties of helicopters. It's important here to notice that the place of the text is on a diagonal -- a treatment that suggests tension and movement. Finally, a box containing sound waves are used to illustrate how "stealthy" the machines really are.

The main point here is that when the media, mostly TV, lacks visual support it can easily generate it with great persuasiveness and authority. In the end, the objective seems that the media assumes that information and entertainment are one in the same.

Huffington Post's Comical Use of Ranking News: Beyond Infuriating

Source: Huffington Post

It's not surprising to learn that the Obama administration is consenting to or perhaps caving in to the demands of lawmakers to see the bin Laden death pictures. The release of the images was as inevitable as the posturing of those in power seeking to control this situation for political gain.

The Huffington Post, which was recenlty acquired by AOL for $315 million, has a fascinating way of collecting public opinion on the matter. Anyone familiar with scientific method, especially in the area of survey design, will recognize the Huffington Post's playful use of the Likert scale. The quantitative, or counting approach, system measures opinion in terms of aggreement. The Huffington Post goes a bit farther by turning public opinion into a farse. The only category they are missing is "none" of these silly catergories.

Some readers might be inclined to view this sort of story -- one that reports that Obama is letting lawmakers see the pictures -- as "typical." Others might say such news is "outrageous" or even "scary." It is highly doubtful, however, that anyone would find this news sort of "important" (other than the lawmakers) or even "beautiful" unless you spend too much time staring at computer screen.

The point being raised here is how can anyone take the Huffington Post seriously, if this news outlet cannot even take itself seriously?

What this suggests is that the Post is pandering to an audience by dumbing down the importance of the story. If the Huffington Post wants to pass itself off as a legimate news source, it may be best to consider the unintended consequences of poking fun at how they treat a story of this magnitude. Imagine the reaction of someone who has lost a loved one in the 9-11 attacks or those soldiers who have fought and are fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq. There is no category for "mortified."  Vote if you will, but there is always a darker side to toying with the grief and hardship that has been imposed upon a nation.

Photoshop and the Public Muse

Photoshopped images of news events, those generated by amateurs, play an increasingly important role in our ever increasing visual culture. Altered images often act as virtual and visual sounding boards.

Recently, a doctored image of Obama's situation room suggests a longing to put the past behind us. It's a tongue and cheek parody of an intense and potential disasterous event.

The picture has been circulating on Facebook and elsewhere on the Internet -- it has gone viral. In the image, Obama as Captain America, Hillary Clinton as Wonder woman, and Vice President Biden as Daredevil are depicted as comic book heroes. Depending on your perspective the image is as entertaining as it is illustrative of our culture.

The subtle details embedded in the picture are intriguing - top administration officials playing first-person shooter games, Hillary Clinton eating an ice cream cone, and other visual clues imply an advanced level of digital imaging skills. Like gardening, model trains, and collecting baseball cards, photoshopping images has become a national obsession.

Iconic images are often defined as representations where the original meaning of a picture extends beyond the event itself. Iwo Jima, Dorothea Lange's migrant mother, and the first steps on the moon, are all examples iconic images because they are often recalled and replicated to explain other events or feelings. Today, perhaps our 21st iconic images will be those that have been digitally altered in some way -- manipulations that extend the meaning of the original to such an extent that the primary context is forgotten or ignored.

Lots of people bash photo manipulation as a negative from of artistic expression, but when it is practiced outside the context of news it can bring, to some extent, a welcomed level of comic relief. People need to process, grieve and to reconcile such complex events as 9-11.

It is important to contrast superheroes image, and others like it, with the manipulated images that followed the 9-11-01 attacks on the Twin Towers. Shortly after two planes, under the orders of bin Laden, crashed into the towers, an image of a man standing on the roof of one tower is seen with a plane in the background. At the time, such images were unique because many people were not quite accustomed to seeing images that were manipulated in this way. In addition, the narrative that circulated mostly through email, attempted to validate the authenticity of the picture. The story that accompanied the "tourist guy" picture told of a camera found in the rubble of the destroyed towers. After the film was processed, this image appeared. It was a hoax, a not so carefully constructed ruse to dupe the American public. But it was also a way of releasing the tension and grief following the attacks. It can be said, based on the millions of people that viewed the image, that it appealed to the darker side of who we are as a culture. Perhaps the visual trickery was the product of some bored teenager sitting in the basement of his parent's home in New Jersey? Reaction to the image was immediate as other derivatives of the "tourist guy" emerged.

The "Tourist Guy" first appeared a few days after the 9-11 attacks. Soon, other images "spoofing" the original emerged.

Beyond the "tourist guy" derivatives other images, some of them outrageous, expressed a culture accustomed to parody and satire.

Today, people look upon these images as incredulous -- but there is no shortage of them. Our culture has become flooded with manipulated images. Photoshopping images has ubiquitous in our digital culture as spam and pop-up ads.

Ridiculous and surreal, such images suggest not only the poking fun of power, but also an emotional catharsis from past events. People, individually and collectively need some way of resolving events they have little control over.

Cheap shot amateurs are taking aim at politics with a few clicks of a computer mouse. Photoshop as become the preferred expressive tool of the public muse.

Looking back on the first 9-11 photoshopped images, it is clear that the viral nature of such pictures continues and will continue for better or for worse. What is funny to some, however, is reviled by others.

As the generational gap between those familiar with traditionally acceptable manipulations of photographs continues to increase, there is the sense that separating fact from fiction will increasingly become problematic in our digital age.

 

Hasidic newspaper Photoshops Hillary Clinton out of Situation Room Picture

The image showing Obama's situation room during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound has generated tremendous interest from the public.

In the first 48 hours after the raid, for example, more than 1.5 million viewed the image on Flickr. The picture compelling captured Obama and his inner circle watching the action in real time.

In the picture, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is seen with her hand to her chin looking on with great intensity.

The image, in some sense, has become iconic mostly due to the fact that pictures of bin Laden's death have been kept under wraps. Recently, Di Tzeitung, an Hasidic Jewish newspaper decided to eliminate Clinton from the frame, while still recognizing the value of the image.

Today, pictures are without question easily manipulated by individuals determined to promulgate their world view, but sometimes the motive seems absurd to others outside the target audience. Apparently, in Hasidic culture, women, whether those holding babies or those holding political office, are relegated to the sidelines of history. Photoshopping images that challenge the pre-existing power structure has become the norm. But why include an image in a newspaper if it completely changes the context in which it was made? Leaving the picture off the page would have been so much easier. It takes time and skill to manipulate an image of this kind.

Without passing too much judgment, it would seem that some members of society have no qualms altering reality to accommodate a rigidly orthodox view. Even when such pictures are aimed at a very small group of people who hold the same world view, the Internet now exposes these values to a much larger audience.

 

Cable News -- Images without Audio Dumb Down News

It's not like the just released home videos of Osama bin Laden aren't interesting.But  CNN's use of multiple composite videos showing 5 talking heads emphasizes the point that cable television panders, or thinks it needs to pander, to audiences in need of a little more drama in their lives. On television, images are everything. But what happens if there is no audio to go with them? It's easy enough. Just have announcers pontificate over top of the pictures and think they are reporting.The release of the videos is a political decision not one based on informing the American public.

On CNN, watching bin Laden on multiple screens embedded within a larger screen is a little like watching the Superbowl on the Internet with only the graphics of the play-by-play. The "Big Picture" question here is why would the Department of Defense release videos of bin Laden without the audio?

National Security?  It's hard to imagine that the Obama administration has not calculated the impact the videos would have with sound. It is as if Obama's appearance on CBS' 60 minutes tonight requires a little more B-roll. 

The media, of course, will jump at just about any bone the government tosses at them without raising questions about how they are being manipulated. In many ways the release of the videos without audio suggests that maybe bin Laden is saying something that the government doesn't want the public to know. Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this one.

The whole thing smacks of how the White House wants to strategically manage bin Laden's death. CNN and other media do not seem to have any issues taking liberties by presenting the videos in a montage wrapped around a storyline suggesting that bin Laden was "very self-conscious."

CNN does note, however, that there may be something going on here.

"Besides the missing audio, the videos, according to the intelligence official, were not altered in any other way.

Still, the release of the home movies sends a message to those who doubted bin Laden was killed: Navy SEALs got footage that likely could have been held only by bin Laden at his hideout."

Bin Laden watches video of himself

CNN reports, "It may also have accomplished something else: diminishing the bin Laden mythology of invincibility." How does CNN know this? Why is this news?

Just because bin Laden is seen watching himself on television may mean he was self-absorbed, but that's the case with most megalomaniacs -- think Hitler, Idi Amin, Mussolini, Stalin, Gaddafi. Were not talking about shy people here. Maybe he was all about his image, but why only give the American public only part of the picture, literally.

Without audio, all we get is (1) proof that bin Laden made videos of himself, and (2) that the government, with the help of the media, want us to buy into a particular slant on the story. We already know that any administration, no matter the political tilt, uses images to suit its own needs. However, there are moments, like this one, that illustrate how politicians use the media for their own gain. We know this but why accept it as the way it should be? Why doesn't the media question the authenicity of the tapes or why there is no audio? Pictures may speak louder than words most of the time, but not in this case. The media's complicity in allowing itself to be manipulated suggests that it's okay to dumb down the public by dumbing down the news.

 

Image Ethics in a Digital Age: The Floodgates of Deception

There is no turning back. No way of understanding the impact digital images will continue to have on what we call news, and, beyond that, what we call reality.

It appears that many manipulated or "faked" images emerge within hours of an event --  competing with the media's ability to inform the public in the best way it can. Other images appearing later in the news cycle often present as parody or tongue-and-cheek satire. The former class of images, those that come out first are almost undetectable on first glance. These sort of images (see below) are the most problematic for news organizations. They challenge the media to make choices it would otherwise avoid.

 Source: Flikr

Photo manipulation is a technique enabled by software that affords individuals to create new images from pre-existing composite elements of an event, place, person or thing. From this perspective, as critical theorist Jean Baudrillard argues, “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real.” As we examine the image above what do we see?

Visual perception is a function of the brain, which helps us to make sense of what we see. The brain, by itself cannot distinguish what is real. What our brain processes as reality is cognition and reason -- the ability to place what we see within a context through comparison to other visual events. In the other words, it becomes incumbent on us to evaluate the source and the context of images, even when they are disseminated by so-called legitimage news organizations. The manipulated images of bin Laden, unfortunately,   presents a context that proposes a truth -- death. By appealing to our intellect and emotions the images are presented to our rational mind and consciousness as real unless they can be disputed. Visual elements, often viewed within the context of news, appear authentic because we have been taught to trust the media. More than ever before the normalization of news is being threatening by digital photo manipulation.

Of the surface, we could discuss manipulated images in terms of ethics alone - something that wouldn't necessarily include the ideological or political economic function of such pictures.

Ethics are, more than anything else, an argument, which is subject to political, social, cultural, and other values. Ethics are social constructions of what society authoritatively prescribes as what "ought to be." Pictures that masquerade as the "truth" challenge this authority. But ethics are slippery. They challenge what is true, especially when applied to the prevailing definition of news, because they can disrupt our cognitive processes and manipulate us emotionally. A while ago I wrote, "An unintended consequence of the digital age is a growing distrust and skepticism of photography’s ability to convey truth. Digital technology makes manipulating images so easy and fast that people have begun to challenge any picture that does not conform to what they perceive as a truthful representation." But words can also deceive. Coupled, words and images, construct what we perceive to be true. Regrettably, this is increasingly less reliable. Some would also say, that this has always been the case -- and that being manipulated by the media has always been a part of our culture.

Source: The Sun

What is also confounding about image ethics is that pictures are wedded to the textual narrative used to describe what we see. Without text, meaning is even more disputable. Text, it appears, adds a finality to the interpretation of what a picture tells us. 

Perhaps this is what the Obama administration is afraid of as it deliberates releasing the images of bin Laden's death. There is no way Obama could possibly control how the images will be used and interpreted. In other words, let the world simply imagine what happened in that compound during the raid. Better yet, let the story continue to unfold with words because showing the images might reveal a truth the public could not be primed for. The argument of the assault, then, will take on an entirely new dimension. There is no predicting what a decision to release such images would mean to Obama in the arena of public opinion.

 

A Reasonable Solution: White House Should Consider Panel of Experts in Releasing bin Laden Death Photos

A Reasonable Solution

One way of diffusing the stalemate over releasing the bin Laden death photos would be to allow a handful of respected journalists and scholars to examine and report on them. By drawing from a cross-section of society, the group would represent the public's interest as well as gain insight into the veracity of the images, and, by extension bin Laden's death.

The images, at this point in time, are powder kegs, but descriptive reports and verification may go a very long way in dissuading Beltway skeptics. Fight words with words, especially this those words presented by individuals who possess the skill to communicate rationally and as objectively as possible. The images themselves could continue to be kept confidential, while proof of their existence, and of bin Laden's death, can be put aside while more serious matters may be attended to.

When WikiLeaks wanted to get the word out about secret government documents the held, a select and very small group of journalists were brought in to examine the evidence and report on the evidence. Politics aside the decision to release the information gradually through intermediaries in the press seemed practical at the time.

In other words, there is no telling what would happen if the information hit the streets willy-nilly. This is more like a controlled descent into the public sphere. In the bin Laden case, providing a narrative of what exists will give the administration and the country more time to decompress from the events. Just because you hold a time bomb in your hand doesn't mean you have to light the match. There is always a way out of a situation if all parties set aside personal agendas and work for the greater good.

What this  means is that by letting the public know of the existence of the images by having a few non-partisan experts in image analysis verify the authenticity of the pictures, public confidence in the administration will continue to climb.

 

 

 

Public Trust in Media and Bad Credit Rating

 

Sometimes it seems that public trust in the media is measured the same way a bank determines an individual's credit score. The more responsible you are with money, the higher your rating. The more responsible the media is with making sure stories and images are accurate, the more the public will trust it as a source of information and news.

When a newspaper considers running an image from "joe" or "Jane" public it often scrunitizes the source carefully for any funny business. At the same time, when a newspaper selects an image from wire services such as Reuters or the Associated Press there is a pretty good chance that they can be trusted.

But how does a newspaper know that what they are getting from the wire services is legitimate?

Truth be told, when a newspaper uses a wire service image and its a fake, it's the newspaper's credibility not the wire service that suffers.

It appears this may be the case for one small newspaper in Southern Oregon, and perhaps, many others across the country. Recently, editors at  the Grants Pass Daily Courier used an image they believed to be real based on the assumption that the source, The Associated Press, typically provides honest and balance news.

What's an editor to do?

The image was sensational and conveyed a message that many people in this part of the country could relate to. Juxtapose the bloogy mangled face of a man reportedly to have been bin Laden along side an image of the Twin Towers being attacked, and the narrative is complete. It's a tit for tat/cause and effect approach to page layout and picture editing.

In reality, it wouldn't have taken a lot of trouble to simply search Google images for "bin Laden death pictures" to find the fake. Even more so, it wouldn't taken a lot of time to read the "Photo Kill" order AP sent out later cautioning newspapers not to use the image.

Unfortunately, the editors at the Daily Courier missed this one.

Lessons learned

A few of the first rules journalists come to understand, usually the hard way, are (1) make sure you spell the name right, and  (2) check and double check everything before publication. But here's the tricky part. In an age when everyone seems to want everything immediately, 24/7 deadlines create a culture in the news business that often throws caution to the wind, and along with it, a newspaper's credibilty.

 

 

The Big Stink Over Obama's Staged bin Laden Death Announcement

The whole thing over the relationship between the media and bin Laden just seems to keep taking strange turns. There is now a controversy brewing over how still news photographers were allowed to photograph Obama after he had addressed the nation on TV. Essentially, Obama's second take for the print and online media was a re-enactment.

Is this news? Is the White House trying to deceive the public by re-creating an event that had already been created a minutes earlier? First and foremost, everything that comes out of the White House is a staged event. That the event consecutively happen for two very different media platforms be considered duplicitous by some standards is a specious argument. Does the general public really give a hoot about who took the president's picture and when? No. 

It's common knowledge that since the JFK days, any "news" coming out of the West Wing is going to be carefully groomed for public consumption.

The Poynter Institute quotes Reuter's photojournalist Jason Reed as describing how photojournalists were managed:

“As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent. Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.”

Photo Credit: Reuters

The National Press Photographers Code of Conduct states, "It is the individual responsibility of every photojournalist all times to strive for pictures that report truthfully, honestly and objectively." Taking this bit of knowledge and applying it to how the press is repeatedly manipulated by the government, there appears to be a little irony given the current situation. Ethically we are faced with a dilemma in that notions of truth, honesty, and objectivity can be pretty much thrown out the window considering the fact the media is constantly compromised by political ambitions and agendas. The ground rules are written by the media here. You either play the game as Obama wants you to play it or you just don't play. Any refusal to participate in the "dog and pony show" culture of the White House means opting out from the realm of power politics in this country. P.S.: don't count on this ever happening soon.

 

Obama Won't Release bin Laden Death Images

All the big players were there -- Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Robert Gates and many others. The U.S. Navy Seals had just landed at bin Laden's compound - and for 40 minutes or more -- our nation's elite were glued to a live feed in the situation room. Soliders with helmet cams recorded the drama and a stream of images were relayed instantly back to Washington.

Credit: The New Yorker

Transfixed by the drama unfolding before them, the decisions that would follow the raid would turn out to be as important as those decisions made before hand. Beyond the revelry after the mission's success, the nation would demand answers. Politicians soon to sharpened their tongues mounting pressure on the administration to release the images of bin Laden's death.

On the Internet, a fake picture circulated of what was reportedly bin Laden's mutilated face. Some  mainstream media were caught off guard. One newspaper, the Grants Pass, Ore., Courier, actually ran the fictious image without checking its source.

By mid-week, pressure to release the images was coming mostly from Obama dissenters and lawmakers. People want proof. People demand to know if the bad guy is really dead. But Obama held out and has remained firm in his conviction not to release the photos. At a press conference on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "It is not in our national security interest ... to allow these images to become icons to rally opinion against the United States." John Brennan, Obama's counterterrorism expert contends, “This needs to be done thoughtfully.”

Right.

In our hyper-super saturated media culture there is the perception that the faster the news gets out the more informed people will be and the more valuable it is. 

In politics, as in the news business, timing means everything. The reasons some politicians want the images released is not because they want people to become more informed, it's because they can capitalize on the sensational nature of the pictures for their own gain. For some, pictures are the equivalents of visual sound bites. Pictorial punctation marks.

More than anything else, however, is the fact that releasing the pictures would, proposedly, help bring closure to an era of political perseveration, consternation, and incompetence.

There is a lot riding on the release of the images at the moment, but they will emerge in time -- there will be a leak. Not right now, today, but maybe next week, month -- soon. It's inevitable given the speed and access to technology.

During the day, Obama told CBS News, "That's not who we are. We don't trot out this stuff as trophies. The fact of the matter is that this is someone who is deserving of the justice he received. ... We don't need to spike the football."

On the world stage, the release of the bin Laden photos would play out poorly. We are looking at a possible global backlash that would not serve anyone's objective. It's like, to use Obama's football analogy, the equivalent of a third quarter touchdown pass when your team is losing by 50 points.   

 

 

From Panoramas to Postcards: Photography's Seemingly Limitless Boundaries

The images appear at polar opposites of the photographic continuum. At one end there is the application of panoramic photography in recording the horrors following one of Japan's worst earthquake in history. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, one can find artist Lea Redmond's template for the World’s Smallest Postcard. It may seem like a stretch to make a connection between such extreme applications of photography, but there is an underlying force at work here -- one that lives well outside the world of aestethics and the arts.

Computational processes now determine the rich and vivid vidual world we live in today.  Our visual world, and in a way our reality, is being altered by computer programs that make it possible to create richer and perhaps more meaningful representations of our experiences. Computer programmers hold the keys to the kingdom in terms of an ever increasingly world in which computer graphics and photography converge. 

Damage in Rikuzen-Takada, Iwate Pref. (10) in Japan These images are stunning in the sense that they provide a unique context and an unusual context in the scale of the devastation.
Damage in Rikuzen-Takada, Iwate Pref. (8) in Japan