Can Digital Retouching Go Too Far?

As I'm sure you have already heard, photographer Jill Greenberg has stirred up quite the controversy in the photography world. She captured some very unflattering images of Presidential nominee John McCain, digitally retouched them to make them even more harsh and posted them on her website. (To read more about this check out PDNpulse.) Although digital retouching is predominant in the photo world, many photographers have gotten into trouble for retouching sports shots or news images.

So my question to you, do you think digital retouching should be okay in photojournalism? Chime in and share your ideas with us—let us know what you think!

Student Journalists Arrested at Republican National Convention

Two student journalists from the University of Kentucky were arrested at the Republican National Convention (RNC) last week. Edward Matthews and Britney McIntosh, both journalists and photographers for the Kentucky Kernel, traveled to the RNC to cover the political event as a learning experience and not for assignment. Matthews and McIntosh were photographing a group of angry and destructive protesters. Eventually a riot broke out, and Matthews and McIntosh were arrested along with their photo advisor from the Kentucky Kernel, Jim Winn.

The three University of Kentucky journalists were arrested with a large group of the protesters. According to reports, all three journalists were clearly taking photographs and wearing press passes. Matthews, McIntosh and Winn were later released after spending more then a day in jail. The charges against them were dropped pending further investigation.

Sell Yourself--The Moral and Ethical Way

    Have you ever thought about showing your artwork at a gallery, hoping that one of your original pieces would sell? I know I certainly have—countless times! Well let it be known that on July 24th, On Campus Creations, an internet-based company, officially launched their website, www.oncampuscreations.com. This online gallery or "e-gallery," allows student artists to post their work for sale. The site, as described in the company’s press release, "offers an innovative, user-friendly way for art enthusiasts, collectors, alumni and designers to discover and purchase original works of art online."
    On Campus Creations promotes the advancement of art and art education by allowing student artists to post their work, name their own asking price and receive an offer from potential buyers. Joe Wiesner, founder and president of On Campus Creations, states, "It is our goal to establish a robust link between the artists, school alumni, gallery owners, art collectors and enthusiasts, friends of the artists and their schools. We believe that OnCampusCreations.com is the tool to do this." The company donates 27 percent of its commission to the artist's school in support of its art program and does not charge students a shipping or packaging fee.
Penn State University art student, Anna Handy sold off two of her paintings with a $1,300 to $1,700 price range. Anna received an offer for her full asking price and as a result, On Campus Creations donated $325 to Penn State University for her sale. Handy sold five 4 by 6-foot oil paintings. When interviewed for the press release, Anna stated, "My pieces are very large. I thought this would be a deterrent to selling them. But it wasn't."

If you're interested in selling your artwork, log on to www.oncampuscreations.com for more details and information. Good luck!

Upstate New York Gets Upscale Museum

    The Buffalo State College (SUNY) is set to experience its share of excitement this fall with the new $33 million, LEED-certified, 84,000 square-foot Burchfield-Penney Art Center (BPAC), opening on November 22nd, 2008. With 19,000 square feet of galleries and over 5,000 square feet of educational space, it is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art and artists of Western New York housing over 7,500 works of art and thousands of archival files representing the work of nearly 600 artists.
    The Burchfiel-Penney museum will be home to the largest public collection of Charles E. Burchfield’s work and is set to present works by Elbert Hubbard, Karl Kipp, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marion Faller, Susan Rothenberg, Joseph Piccillo, Robert Longo, and Paul Sharits—to name a few. A vast collection of artistic practices will be exhibited at the BPAC including contemporary works ranging from sculpture, representational and non-representational painting, photography, drawings, prints, video and mixed media.
    According to the museum’s mission statement, the museum will serve as a “learning laboratory” hub for the Buffalo State College (SUNY) campus offering education and student life exposure to art conservation, art, design, art education, and museum students, amongst other disciplines.

To view a list of future exhibitions and for more information call (716) 878-6011 or log on and visit www.burchfield-penney.org

Photos courtesy of Burchfield-Penney

PDNedu Visits the NY Photo Festival

While visiting the NY Photo Festival, I snagged an interview with the photo team of WassinkLundgren:

The Ian Parry Scholarship

Ian Parry was a photojournalist for the Sunday Times who died during the Romanian revolution in 1989 at the age of 24. In his memory, a scholarship was set up.

Each year a competition for this scholarship is held for photographers enrolled in a full-time recognized photography course or who are under the age of 24. In order to enter the competition, students must submit a portfolio of their work and a brief synopsis of a project they would like to complete if they won the award. Only digital entries will be accepted.

The scholarship is about $5,000 and Metro Imaging is also offering about $1,000 worth of vouchers to the winning student.

To find out more information and to download an entry form please visit www.ianparry.org/main.php

Getting Noticed: Guerrilla Art Exhibits

The curator of a new student photography exhibit at Middlebury College in Vermont told the weekly campus paper that before the opening of school-sponsored Center Gallery in May, students were prone to get involved in, “guerilla art shows.”

Reading this online at my tidy little desk, the term struck me. I could just picture some gallant student artists forging ahead, hanging their work on the streets. The idea felt romantic, rebellious and frankly useful. Why create if you can’t share your vision with the world, right?

I got in touch with said curator, Stuart Hurt, to find out exactly what he meant by the term. Hurt, a graduate intern at the Middlebury College Museum of Art said the type of exhibits he described had been going on for at least five years. “I mean shows that were not officially sanctioned by the school." How bohemian, I thought.

Hung in spaces that weren’t designed to be galleries such as dorm basements, lounges and the school bike shop, the shows went on without permission or help, he said. The downside of course was that students had to finance exhibits themselves and the work was sometimes left unprotected from thieves or lacked the lighting it deserved.

One of the more successful examples however, was a recent show at the campus bike shop, curated by architectural design and music major (and shop manager) Hubert d’Autremont and his photography major friend Brett Foreman. According to d’Autremont shows like his grew out of a basic need for space that could be utilized by students interested in the arts, many of which are not studio art majors, he added.

The bike shop show took place in a basement space of an old building and d’Autremont built the showcase by using pieces that interacted with the space itself. Multiple photos of a single family were placed on the old wooden door for instance, lending consistency.

One aspect of the show being “guerilla” is that it went up in about a day or so, d’Autremont said. “I like the term because it implies that art should be political in some ways or at least make people think of the current state of things and react.”

At Middlebury the reaction was in some ways the advent of its student-only Center Gallery. “Shows like this probably did help the case for a gallery,” Hurt said. While the administration wanted a space but needed funding, “Seeing students show despite the myriad obstacles helped people know the desire was there even if the space wasn’t … yet.”

I couldn’t end either curator conversation without some tips for getting noticed. From d’Autremont: “One of the best ways to get your work seen is to display it in a ways that are a little unordinary. I think that is why installation art can be so successful, especially when it’s un-commissioned.” And from Hurt: “As a curator, you want to see people who are thoughtful about their work. You want to see that it’s not just a happy accident involving a good camera and some luck.”

Photographs by Brett Foreman.

Brooklyn Bound

We support our own here at PDNedu, so when PDN Senior Editor Anthony LaSala teamed up with photographer and former PDN's 30 Seth Kushner on a new book, we had to blog about it.

The Brooklynites is a collection of images, interviews and essays on famous Brooklyn-borough residents like Spike Lee and Steve Buscemi, as well as only-famous-in-our-office Brooklynites like our very own PDN Contest Manager John Gimenez and his girlfriend Amy.

Published by powerHouse books, The Brooklynites is available through booksellers like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Also check out an upcoming FREE slideshow and book signing with the authors:

Date: November 14, 2007
Time: 7:00pm
Venue: Barnes & Noble
            106 Court St.
            Brooklyn, NY 11201

From top left: A portrait of Spike Lee from The Brooklynites; John and Amy in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Photographs by Seth Kushner.

Trend Alert: Trashing The Dress

If June is filled with wedding bells, July’s the month to see thousand-dollar wedding dresses being torn, dragged and trampled—all to the accompaniment of feverish clicking.

More post-wedding brides are commissioning photos of themselves showing off their costly togs in unconventional, and often grungy, settings. Locations have included the car wash, marshes and the deep ends of swimming pools. The trend is credited to John Michael Cooper, who took a picture a couple of years back of a bride with her dress literally on fire.

The world’s biggest “Trash Bash” to date took place last week in Atlantic City and involved 11 real brides and more than 40 professional wedding photographers. The radiant subjects were photographed splashing around in the ocean and trailing their finery through the sand dunes.

Mark Eric, writer of the Trash The Dress blog and organizer of the Atlantic City bash, says that the ritual would let women get unforgettable pictures out of a garment that would otherwise go to waste. It can also be a symbolic act of commitment; after all the abuse, the gown can’t be recycled for a second wedding.

My take on it? The brides might mean well, and some of the photographs certainly are interesting. Personally though, I’d rather see the dress donated intact to people who need it. Leave the indulgent stunts to the fashion magazines, I say.

What do you aspiring wedding photogs out there think? Speak out now, or… you know the rest.

Photograph © Mark Eric

Lange-Taylor Prize Winners Announced

The Lange-Taylor Prize 2007 was awarded to writer-photographer team Kurt Pitzer and Roger LeMoyne. Supported by a $20,000 grant awarded by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Pitzer and LeMoyne will investigate the repercussions of war on the people of the former Yugoslavia more than ten years after the region was wracked by fighting that left thousands dead or displaced.

One of the moving early images to come out of their project is LeMoyne’s shot of a Bosnian-based group called the Mothers of Srebrenica. The group’s mission is to find justice and preserve the memory of the thousands of sons, husbands and relatives lost in the war.

Like the Mothers of Srebrenica, LeMoyne and Pitzer are interested in those who are fading out of the general consciousness. Their project documents the shifting period in which fresh emotions and memories transform into cold history.

Now in its 17th year, the Lange-Taylor Prize is awarded to a pair of collaborators planning a documentary project in the tradition of photographer Dorothea Lange and social scientist Paul Taylor. The deadline for next year’s application is January 31, 2008.

Photograph © Roger LeMoyne