Old Photos

Photo by James Jowers (American b. 1938) made in Tompkins Square Park in 1967.

The George Eastman House has put a number of photographs from its collections on Flickr.  The majority of images on Flickr are from individual collections that have donated photographs and copyrights to the museum.

Among the latest images available on Flickr is the work of James Jowers, a night porter who worked at St. Luke’s Hospital and explored New York City during the day.

James Jowers interest in photography began while serving in the United States Army where he was trained in darkroom procedures. In 1965 he became a student at the New School and studied under Lisette Model, who later became a close friend and mentor.

Jowers’ simple photographs of street-life in the City are more dimensional than snapshots and are reminiscent of the street photographs of Helen Levitt or Gary Winogrand.  The mid-to-late 1960s in New York, when Jower made most of his images, was a turbulent time filled with anti-war protests and counter-cultural movements.  The collection on Flickr doesn’t contain any of his images from public displays of the movement but there’s an underlying feeling in most of the work that indicates that there is a lot going on outside the frame.

The George Eastman House is a non-profit museum and educational institution dedicated to keeping the history of photography and motion pictures.  More information about the museum and its collection can be found on the organization’s website.

Photo by James Jowers (American b. 1938) titled Ave C.

The Great Newspaper Debate

Marc Andreessen’s proposition that newspapers give up the printed paper in favor of an online-only business model has lit a fire under the ongoing debate about the state – and fate – of the newspaper industry.  During an interview with Conde Nast’s Kevin Maney in Portfolio, Andreessen argues that newspaper have to adapt to a changing print journalism market the same way Intel adapted to micro-chip competition from Japanese companies in the mid-80s.  Intel shut off its dominant business and focused efforts on a smaller, more targeted micro-processor manufacturing because it was seen as the future.

Scott Rosenberg, writing on his blog Wordyard, doesn’t think newspapers are going to make the painful decissions necessary to survive.

If newspapers are really going to take the leap Andreessen proposes, they will have to do it while simultaneously restructuring their deals with their employees and mandating painful cuts that nobody wants to accept.

The newspaper industry is fast approaching the point where it must decide.  Is it going to make the tough choices…or will it die?

Photographer James Hill slideshow on Russian farmers in NYT

Photographer James Hill narrates a slideshow of farming photographs from Russia on the New York Times website.  The story, which has been repeated on every continent, is about a how modernization in the farm industry is affecting the workers and their way of life.

It’s an interesting show but the photographs aren’t unexpected.  Hill has some nice moments sprinkled through the story.  One example is a photograph of a young Russian woman wearing shorts and a t-shirt shopping among traditionally dressed, older, farm women, one of who eyes her wearily.

Hill’s photographic strength lies in his ability to put the broad landscape of agrarian Russia into visual order. This is an audio slideshow worth viewing.

Guardian reveals secret Taliban peace process

The Guardian newspaper’s Jason Burke writes in the Sunday Observer of a secret Afghanistan peace process with the Taliban being brokered by Saudi Arabia and supported by Britian.  Burke writes:

“The unprecedented negotiations involve a senior former member of the hardline Islamist movement travelling between Kabul, the bases of the Taliban senior leadership in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and European capitals. Britain has provided logistic and diplomatic support for the talks – despite official statements that negotiations can be held only with Taliban who are ready to renounce, or have renounced, violence.”

Given the level of success the Taliban have had in battling coalition forces this year, it is surprising that the hardline movement would voluntarily come to the negociating table.

- Scott

The Daily Show stays on top of the GOP

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show digs deep to expose the double-standards and double-talk of politicians in the Republican party.

Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak multimedia presentation

Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak has a new multimedia presentation on the Magnum in Motion website about the conflict in Georgia. Dworzak traveled to Georgia despite just being released from a hospital after having surgery. He was on assignment for TIME magazine and the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

The War on Aid

The remains of the UN headquarters in Baghdad. (photo courtesy of the UN)

Today is the fifth anniversary of the bombing of the United Nations offices in Baghdad that killed the UN’s leading diplomat, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others. The bombing was a turning point in the international body’s work not only in Iraq, but worldwide.

Journalist Samantha Power has a well-written story in the OpEd section of the New York Times about how protection of aid agencies and non-governmental organizations has diminished as militants target aid workers.

Georgian TV Reporter Shot by Russian Sniper

This is the dramatic moment a TV reporter was shot by a sniper as she reported live from war-torn Georgia.

read more | digg story

Polaroids by Philip-Lorca diCorcia at LACMA

When Polaroid announced that it was getting out of the Polaroid business earlier this year, many photographers, including myself, felt a deep loss of a very unique medium whose practitioners included some of the most influential image makers of our time. Among them is Philip-Lorca diCorcia, an American art photographer who creates images that alternate between found moments and staged theater.

In the video below, diCorcia talks about his Polaroid photographs from his show titled, Thousand, on exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until September 14th.

video used with permission

Related:

Spam on Flickr

Chris Hedges on the dying newspaper industry

What do the tectonic shifts in newspaper journalism mean as publications struggle to make money amid economic downturns and loss of readers? Former New York Times correspondent and Harvard Divinity School graduate Chris Hedges thinks it is a collision of forces that will ultimately result in our decline much like ancient Rome. Here’s an excerpt from his essay:

“The decline of newspapers is not about the replacement of the antiquated technology of news print with the lightning speed of the Internet. It does not signal an inevitable and salutary change. It is not a form of progress. The decline of newspapers is about the rise of the corporate state, the loss of civic and public responsibility on the part of much of our entrepreneurial class and the intellectual poverty of our post-literate world, a world where information is conveyed primarily through rapidly moving images rather than print.”

• More stories and essays by Chris Hedges on Alternet
• Reaction to the essay from Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine
• Jay Rosen writes more about the changes in the journalism “tribe.”