Official presidential photographers lead exciting lives. President Obama’s photographer Pete Souza attends secret meetings and captures iconic photos. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer was arrested last year after being accused of being a spy for Russia. Now Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s photographer is the latest to do something noteworthy: he defected to the United States. Read more…
Capture is a new show hosted by world-renowned celebrity photographer Mark Seliger. In every episode, Seliger will invite one other famous photographer and one celebrity who’s passionate about photography. The three then have a conversation about their work, their experiences, and their trade secrets. This first episode features photographer Platon and actor Dylan McDermott.
PIX magazine is a newly launched digital magazine that has women photographers in mind.
But the writers at Jezebel — and at least one female photojournalist who wrote in with a tip about the magazine — are a bit miffed over the content, which they say is “full of lady stereotypes”. Read more…
This may be a rare case in which a $695 class might actually save your life: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is offering a safety course for journalists who cover war, conflict and disaster zones. Read more…
When firefighter Joseba Etxaburu isn’t putting out flames, he works as a photo stringer for Reuters, and for the past 12-years he’s been attending the San Fermin festival in Spain, more commonly known as the “running of the bulls”. This year, however, while covering the release of wild cows into the bullring, he got a little bit more personal with one of his subjects than even he was comfortable with:
I think the cow had spotted me from the start and didn’t like the look of what she saw. She had a crooked horn and maybe she was self-conscious about being photographed. She kept her eye on me and started advancing. I tried to back away using a circular motion. It’s never a good idea to run to or from bulls or cows in a straight line. They are faster than you and will catch you. It’s better to move in a curve. They have less ability to turn than we do and there’s a chance you can out-turn her. On this day though that didn’t happen. She came at me and while I was trying to dodge, I slipped.
I grabbed onto her horn to stop her tossing me. It worked but she stepped on my elbow, which is the biggest scratch I got that day. With my other hand I held onto my camera. Those things aren’t cheap.
The whole altercation, Wild Cow vs Photog, was caught on camera by Reuters photographer Susan Vera: Read more…
Here’s a beautiful short film by Arden Oksanen titled “Pictures of a Cowboy”. It’s about the life and work of Carl Oksanen, a cowboy-turned-photographer who documented the beauty of Wyoming through stunning landscape photographs. Prepare to be inspired.
In No Great Hurry – 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter is an upcoming documentary film about influential American photographer Saul Leiter, who was a pioneer in the use of color photography in the 1940s and 1950s. Despite his accomplishments, Leiter — who is 89 this year — has never been driven by “success”, preferring instead to live and photograph his own quiet way. One of his notable quotes is,
In order to build a career and to be successful, one has to be determined. One has to be ambitious. I much prefer to drink coffee, listen to music and to paint when I feel like it.
Directed by British filmmaker Tomas Leach (who spent 1.5 years trying to get Leiter to agree to the film), the film is currently going through post-production and raising funds to cross the finish line.
Editor’s note: This post contains graphic photos that some readers may find disturbing.
Javier Manzano is a freelance photographer currently based in Afghanistan — no stranger to documenting conflict. He received a 2011 World Press Photo award for an image from his 2010 work in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The border city has been embroiled in a drug war since 2008 when the Sinaloa cartel moved to take over Juárez — located just over three miles from El Paso, Texas. Violence broke out between warring cartels, gangs and police. In 2010, Juarez recorded over 3000 homicides.
PetaPixel: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Javier Manzano: I was born and raised in Mexico and moved to the United States at the age of eighteen. Soon after graduating from college I landed a job at an advertising agency where I worked in for several years. The events that unraveled early on the morning of September 11, 2001 would change our lives forever. For me, it meant quitting my job and returning to school for what I believed was my calling in life – journalism. After completing several newspaper photography internships y became employed at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, CO. The paper folded in 2009 and over 200 people were laid off. Since then, I’ve worked as a freelance photographer producing a wide range of material, from editorial and commercial photography, to news and documentary films. Read more…
Say you’re shooting a wedding, and say for some reason you’re taking a food break, and say for some other reason you happen to be taking that break while the father is giving a toast you should probably be taking pictures of. You’d think that given all of that, you’d at least keep a low profile…
Columbus, Ohio-based photographer Nick Fancher works as the lifestyle photographer of Men’s online shopping club JackThreads, a job that has him shooting lifestyle photos for 8-12 brands every single day. The behind-the-scenes video above shows what a typical day for Fancher looks like as he hurries around to different locations in the city to photograph his models wearing different clothing items from different brands. It not only shows the process of shooting the images, but also lighting diagrams and final results as well.
