louisiana

Powerful Decade-Long Photo Project Retraces the Underground Railroad at Night

Photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales has dedicated the past decade of her life to researching and documenting the historical locations – both known and shrouded in mystery – that made up the historical Underground Railroad.

The resulting photographs make up her ongoing series Through Darkness to Light, and retrace the dark, unpaved path that thousands of slaves were forced to travel.

Controversy Crops Up Over Economist Cover Photo

The Economist is in hot water after running an extremely edited photograph of President Obama on a Louisiana beach. The cover photo shows Obama alone on the beach. But the original photo, taken by Reuters photographer Larry Downing, shows that Obama was, in fact, not alone at all.

The altered image crops out Admiral Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, but also goes an extra step to completely omit the presence of Charlotte Randolph, a Louisiana parish president (perhaps with Photoshop CS5's content-aware fill).

This is a huge problem because The Economist's omissions entirely change the tone of the image in order to make Obama appear alone, hanging his head, when in fact he is likely looking down at the beach while in conversation with the two people next to him.  Additionally, according to journalism ethics, news photos should not be altered, especially to this extent.