Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2012 Contest!!!

Eric Beecroft just circulated this amongst the instructors, so here is the fresh news!

You can win ONE FULL FREE TUITION TO THIS YEAR'S FOUNDRY PHOTOJOURNALISM WORKSHOP in CHIANG MAI, THAILAND. 

Winning=ONE  free tuition AND an invite to the pre workshop faculty and staff private dinner. 

HOW TO PLAY: (read and keep the rules or you'll be disqualified)

1. You may post ONE PHOTO TOTAL on the Facebook Foundry Workshop Page. Thats one photo, over the 10 day span of the contest. 

2. The theme is 'Home.'  You can interpret that however you wish. There is no trick or secret, we aren't looking for abstract or concrete here. Just good photos. 

3. The winner will be decided by who gets the most votes/likes on their image on the Foundry Facebook page at the end of the 10 day period.  YOU MAY NOT LIKE OR VOTE FOR YOUR OWN IMAGE. 

4. Anyone and everyone can vote, invite your friends and family to visit the page and like the best photos they see.  This is open to the public.  You can come back and vote multiple times for different people's images.

5.  The voting is not meant to be a popularity contest.  We think that the best photographs will rise to the top of the entry pile. At least thats the plan. 

6. CONTEST BEGINS SUNDAY MAY 27 at 12AM MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME.  AND ENDS JUNE 5 2012 at 7 PM MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME. 

7. One winner will be announced within 3 days of contest ending. 

8. EVERYONE WHO ENTERS CAN TAKE 10%  OFF FULL FOUNDRY TUITION FOR THIS YEAR WORKSHOP! WE ARE SO GENEROUS! - THATS $100 dollars for internationals/westerners, and $50 dollars for locals/regionals. JUST BY ENTERING!

Those who enter can get this reduction in price by paying the reduced amounts via Paypal (for internationals- $875; for locals- $375) directly to:info@foundryphotoworkshop.org or pay via Western Union if you need to. 

9. Already registered/paid tuition ? Students already registered can enter but if they win they get free tuition to Foundry 2013. Where will it be held ? thats a surprise until end of Foundry 2012.

SMALL PRINT: READ IT!!!! 

We reserve the right to exclude photographers who don't fit the criteria of:

international/western photographers:  3 years working as a professional photographer or less 

locals- no restrictions on length of time worked as a photographer

We reserve the right reject entries that we feel are too manipulated, photoshopped, etc- its a photo contest not an illustration contest.

We will reject images that you steal from others. We don't even want you at the workshop if you do this. 

We reserve the right to reject entries that have multiple likes from the same person, should you figure a way to do this. 

We reserve the right to be the boss of the contest, and that means if anything else comes up, we reserve the right to reject and award the winning photograph based on principles of fairness, ethics and good old fashioned sportsmanship. We reserve the right that no one else has this right but us, since its our party. 

Cheaters never prosper. 

Read more »

POV: My Take On The World Press Photo Of 2012

Photo  Samuel Aranda-Courtesy World Press Photo

Well, the results were in from the World Press Photo 2012 contest, and it was Samuel Aranda who won the coveted title of World Press Photo of the Year 2012 award with his photograph of a veiled woman holding a wounded relative inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen.

Much has been said and written about whether this photograph deserved the award or didn't, and various opinions from respected photographers, editors and the like, literally flooded newspapers, websites and blogs...and on social network sites. Everyone has an opinion...and voiced it. NPR even compared the scene to the Pieta, writing "the image bears an uncanny resemblance to Michelangelo's iconic (and religious) Pieta. Along those lines, The New York Times describes it as having "the mood of a Renaissance painting."

Ah, well...is this perhaps too much artsy thinking?

Whatever.

But here's my take. I think the photograph is certainly powerful and compelling. Is it a great photograph? Maybe, maybe not...but it certainly hits home with its depiction of pain, anguish and upheaval arising from one of the countries least known in the Middle East...Yemen. This is not the often seen pictures of young protestors with painted faces or gas masks, civil war or brutal police or military violence. Just a profoundly sad image.

Another thing struck me. Here's a photograph of a scene of a badly injured protestor, lovingly cradled by a woman totally veiled, covered in a niqab and wearing gloves. While she is virtually faceless, I  sensed her pain, her suffering and agony by her body language...which no niqab can hide. Her being covered up so fully may even compound the poignancy of the scene.

And that's the power of this photograph.

And yes, niqab-wearing women are sentient human beings...they're mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and experience suffering, anguish. love and affection as we all do.

That's my take on it. And in my view, that's why it won.

Samuel Aranda was born in 1979 in Santa Coloma de Gramanet, Barcelona, Spain. When he was 19, he began working as a photojournalist for El Pais and El Periodico de Catalunya. A few years later, he traveled to the Middle East to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the Spanish agency EFE. In 2004, he joined Agence France-Presse, covering multiple conflicts and social issues in Spain, Pakistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories, Morocco and Western Sahara.

Read more »

Fifth Annual FCCT Photo Contest 2011

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand and OnAsia, one of the leading photo agency in Asia, are soliciting participations in the Fifth Annual FCCT Photo Contest. All photos must be taken in the Asia-Pacific region, and photographic submissions in the following four categories will be accepted:

* Spot news: for the best single image photograph taken at a news event in the Asia-Pacific region. No more than five photographs per photographer may be submitted in this category.

* Feature photography - for the best single-image non-news "feature" photograph taken in the Asia-Pacific region. No more than five photographs per photographer may be submitted in this category.

* Photo essay - for the best collection of up to 12 photos on a single topic taken in the Asia-Pacific region. No more than three photo essays per photographer may be submitted in this category.

* Environmental Issues - A special category, sponsored by Delegation of the European Union to Thailand, for the best single photo or photo essay of up to 12 images focusing on environmental topics, including issues such as natural resources and waste; climate change; nature and biodiversity; and the environment and public health. No more than five single images and/or three photo essays per photographer may be submitted in this category.

* In addition, the judges will select one Photographer of the Year to recognize either the best single image, photo essay or the most impressive collection of work submitted by a single photographer in 2011.

Submissions can be published or unpublished work but MUST have been created between Sept 1st 2010 and the contest submission deadline, Sept 23rd 2011. First-place winners in Spot News, Feature Photography and Photo Essay will each receive: $1,000 cash and one round-trip ticket for economy-class air travel in Asia,

I'm generally not fond of photographic contests, but this one may be more interesting than the others I've seen. I will review its terms and conditions before committing to participate. I think I have a photo essay that would suit this contest perfectly.

Read more »

Oskar Barnack Award 2011: The Winners

Leica announced the 2011 winners of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, and produced an 18 minute movie of their work. The movie was presented at the Arles Photo festival of 2011.

Jan Grarup received the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2011 for his Haiti Aftermath series and Jing Huang won the Newcomer Award 2011 for his photo set titled Pure of Sight.

"Regular readers of The Travel Photographer's blog won't be surprised. I am not moved by most of the photo essays that won the Oskar Barnack Award 2011."

I've watched this movie three times, and readily confess that the majority of the photo essays left me indifferent, and even puzzled. I found that the exceptions were the two projects by Jan Garup; the Haiti Aftermath and Darfur (at the end of the clip) and a poignant photo essay by Carsten Stormer titled The Acid Survivors. I just wasn't moved by the remainder of the photo essays....largely because I just didn't understand what the photographs meant to convey.

That being said,  I generally liked the multimedia production of this movie. I found the varying sound tracks (although none were ambient) to be appropriate, slow and deliberate, and in keeping the theme of the photo essays. I also like the sobriety of the typography and the titles of each photo essay....with the technique of underlining the names of the photographers to accentuate their importance to the viewers.

The transitions were mostly simple, and the dissolves were kept to a minimum. The other effects kept to a minimum were the Ken Burns effect and the panning, but only for the first half of the movie. Subsequently, there was more reliance on the zoom in-zoom out effect, and it was unnecessarily  heavy handed. I also noted that the producer(s) used alternating of verticals on a single frame.

Read more »

POYi: Adrees Latif: First Place Freelance

Photo  Adrees Latif/Reuters

I'm gratified that one of the photographs that I deemed to be outstanding last November , has just won its photographer first place in the 2011 POYi's Freelance category.

Adrees Latif, a Pakistani photographer with Reuters, has been awarded Photographer of the Year Freelance/Agency with his excellent photograph made during relief supplies being delivered to flooded villages in the Muzaffargarh district of Punjab in Pakistan.

I'm also really "chuffed" that the work of non-Western photojournalists/photographers are recognized in such a manner. Recognition has been long in coming for such professionals, but it's here now, and it was about time. As I've suggested in a previous blog post, I am still disappointed at the absence (or paucity) of imagery by local indigenous photographers being featured by the international press in the events such as the Egyptian uprising, the Tunisian revolt and the ongoing events in Bahrain. This has to change.

And while I'm am chagrined that photojournalists are blogging about being roughed up by thugs in Cairo and elsewhere, I'd remind them that it's not about them...so get a grip, fellas...and stop moaning about how you lost some hard drives, how someone stole your satellite phone or whether you had a black eye...you were in a "war" zone, where people were/are making history. Your images may too.

Read more »

In Focus: The Atlantic's New Photo Blog

Photo AP Photo/Altaf Qadri-All Rights Reserved

Another great addition to the stable of newspaper/magazine photo blogs is The Atlantic's In Focus whose editor is Alan Taylor (previously with Boston Globe's The Big Picture).

It recently featured the photographs which won recognition at the World Press Photo Contest 2011. The top honor went to Jodie Bieber for her image of Bibi Aisha, a disfigured Afghan woman, taken for Time magazine. However it being shown on the magazine's cover spoiled its impact insofar as I'm concerned...it was a blatant use of photography as propaganda since it was accompanied by the title of  What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan. A hypocritical and cynical misuse of Aisha's misfortune. And by the way, her name is not Aisha Bibi...Bibi is just a title of respect given to South Asian women.

Don't get me wrong...it's a powerful image which highlights the plight of tribal women in Afghanistan and deserves recognition for doing so. What spoiled it for me was its appearance on the magazine pushing a political agenda.

Having said that, my top favorite of the lot is by Kashmiri photographer Altaf Qadri of a funeral in Pattan, Kashmir. It was awarded the 1st prize in the the People in the News singles category at the 2011 World Press Photo awards. To me, this powerful photograph is what photojournalism is all about.

The photograph shows the sister of Feroz Ahmad (who was killed by Indian forces) wailing in grief as she clings to the platform carrying the body of her brother during his funeral in Pattan, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Srinagar, India.

Read more »

Lonely Planet's 100 Million Competition

Photo LP's 100 Million Competition/Sreesailam Pasupula -All Rights Reserved
Lonely Planet's competition celebrating its 100 millionth guidebook has ended, and the winning entry was this lovely photograph by Sreesailam Pasupula which features five women on a performance stage at the famous Pushkar Mela.

The competition received over 130,000 photos from around the world, and some of the editors' favorites are featured here.

The Telegraph newspaper in the UK also published results of the competition.

Many of the photographs featured by LP are really very well chosen, and I couldn't help noticing that 13 of the 55 photographs that are featured are of India. About 17% of the total. This is remarkable but I'm not surprised...India is India.

Read more »

Best Of Photojournalism: Dhiraj Singh

It gives me singular pleasure to learn that Dhiraj Singh was awarded Honorable Mention (Feature Audio Slideshow) in the NPPA's Best of Photojournalism 2010 for his My Name Is Dechen.

Dhiraj attended my MultiMedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali last summer, and not only received a standing ovation on showing his audio slideshow (Soundslides), but was also awarded Top Award For Photography by the workshop's instructors.

A well-deserved honor to this immensely talented photographer and photojournalist...and he's a very nice guy as well.

I don't think Dhiraj will mind me plugging the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in this post...so if you are still on the fence about your participation in the Istanbul workshop, you may want to take into account that if you do attend it, you may produce a similarly powerful project or photo essay that could earn you prestigious awards!

The Foundry offers the best instructors there is...real working professionals who will show you the ropes, and either change or reinforce your mindset. All you have to do is to leave your ego at the door...that's all.

Read more »

POYi: 67th Annual PJ Competition

Pictures of the Year International (POYi) is to launch its 67th annual competition in documentary photography, multimedia, and visual editing.

POYi plans to release a preview of the 2009 "Call for Entries" on Tuesday, Dec. 8, offering an overview of all the contest categories and guidelines. Online registration and the entry uploading platform will be available at POYi's website on Friday, Dec. 18 and will conclude on Friday, Jan. 15.

The judging period will take place from Feb. 14 through March 5, and in June the POYi Exhibition, Education, and Awards Program will be at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.

(via The Click)

Read more »

Nikon Photo Contest International 2009

Photo  Maung Maung Gyi-All Rights Reserved


Photo  Danny Ghitis-All Rights Reserved
The Nikon Corporation recently announced winners of the Nikon Photo Contest International 2008-2009. This year's theme, "At The Heart of the Image," drew over 51,000 entries by over 18,000 entrants from 153 countries and regions.

The judges were professionals working internationally in various photographic fields, most of whom were from Japan, with Ami Vitale, Alptekin Baloglu and Claudia Hinterseer. The judges selected a total of 34 winners: one Grand Prize winner and one NIKKOR 75th Anniversary Award winner, in addition to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prize winners for each category.

The Grand Prize was awarded to Maung Maung Gyi of Myanmar for his work entitled "Cave Of Hope," of a Buddhist cave some 40 miles south of the city of Mandalay, however I preferred Danny Ghitis' photograph of an elderly woman bathing in the Ganges during Makar Sankranti.

I should point out that Maung Maung Gyi is a medical doctor, not a full time photographer, while Danny Ghitis is a working photojournalist.

Read more »

Lens Culture Photo Contest

Lens Culture International Exposure Awards seeks to discover, recognize, reward and promote talented, new and emerging photographers from around the world, so it's looking for exciting images from every continent, and from diverse points of view: documentary, fine art, photojournalism, street photography, poetic, personal, abstract and human.

An international jury of photography experts will review and judge every photo submitted. Four winning photographers will each earn cash prizes  plus photo features in Lens Culture, giving them access and broad exposure to an enthusiastic, influential worldwide audience.

Additionally, 25 photographers will win Honorable Mentions, including the display of one single image each in the Winners' Gallery in Lens Culture, and a link to their personal or professional web pages.

As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms and conditions, especially since misunderstandings between organizers and contestants over terms, prizes and other issues sometimes occur.

Read more »

ViewBook Photostory Contest

Viewbook PhotoStory 2009 seeks to challenge conceptual and documentary photographers around the world to create compelling stories with a linear series of photographs in an online gallery.

The annual online competition seeks to find inspiring, high-quality photo stories within the photography community and bring them to a broad audience, and by so doing will provide a platform for emerging talents. There are already a number of submitted essays, which are quite interesting to look at.

Viewbook PhotoStory is initiated and organized by Viewbook.com in association with GUP magazine, backed by Blurb, Workbook and others.

As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms and conditions, especially since misunderstandings between organizers and contestants over terms, prizes and other issues sometimes occur.

Read more »

Editor & Publisher Magazine: Photo Contest

Editor & Publisher Magazine, in association with Photo District News and IPNStock.com, is now accepting entries for the 10th Annual News Photos of the Year Contest.

The grand prize winner gets $1,000, and other prizes include one-year subscriptions to PhotoServe.com, an $800 value. Winning entries appear in E&P's November issue and/or a special online gallery.

The deadline for entries is Sept. 14, 2009.

Lat year's Grand Prize winner was Shiho Fukada, a personal favorite photographer of mine, for her coverage of the Juyuan Middle School that collapsed during the earthquake in Sichuan province.

As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms and conditions, especially since misunderstandings between organizers and contestants over terms, prizes and other issues sometimes occur.

Read more »

PDN Photo Annual 2009 Winners

PDN presented the winning images of the 2009 PDN Photo Annual, which were submitted by an international group of photographers.

Apart from the obvious talent so amply displayed by all the photographers, I was gratified to see that most of the winners in the Web Sites category have used large images...and some like David Maitland and Dani Brubaker have used enormous images on their websites' landing pages.

I've been advocating that larger is better for a long time. My previous posts can be found here, and on Photocrati as well.

Read more »

2009 Sony World Photography Awards

 Wojciech Grzedzinski (Courtesy Sony World Photography Awards 2009)
The Independent featured winners of the 2009 Sony World Photography Awards as revealed yesterday. Each of the photographers on the list, along with the runners-up in the professional categories, will be exhibited at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, on Thursday 16 April.

Of the 12 professional category winners, one photographer will be the recipient of the LIris D'Or, the Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year. On the night they will be awarded $25,000. The winning amateur photographer, selected from the eight category finalists, will receive a $5,000 cash prize.

Wojciech Grzedzinski of Poland won the award for Professional Photojournalism and Documentary - Current Affairs, with his photograph of a Catholic priest blessing a soldier in full combat gear. Since time immemorial, religion has been used to absolve the sins of war...and why not, since most religions were, and are, the cause for violent conflict.

Read more »

World Nomads & NGA-Film Scholarship

World Nomads, in conjunction with National Geographic Adventure, is announcing a scholarship for budding video documentary makers.

World Nomads will fly the recipient of the scholarship to India between October 11th and October 25th 2008, and under the mentorship of documentary film-maker Trent O'Donnell, to shoot a "video documentary on the theme of community project travel and the impact it has on both the local community as well as the travellers that participate".

As with all contests, make sure you carefully read all the conditions and fine print that govern this opportunity.

World Nomads' Scholarship

Read more »

PDN Photo Annual 2008

Photograph © Shiho Fukada-All Rights Reserved
PDN has done a gorgeous job with its Photo Annual's website. No one will agree with all of the judges' choices, but most of the awards were certainly well deserved.

I'm gratified that Shiho Fukada was recognized for her work on the brothels of Bangladesh, especially since I've often posted the work of this talented New York City-based photographer on The Travel Photographer blog.

Here's PDN Photo Annual 2008

Read more »

PDN Photo Annual 2008

Photograph © Shiho Fukada-All Rights Reserved
PDN has done a gorgeous job with its Photo Annual's website. No one will agree with all of the judges' choices, but most of the awards were certainly well deserved.

I'm gratified that Shiho Fukada was recognized for her work on the brothels of Bangladesh, especially since I've often posted the work of this talented New York City-based photographer on The Travel Photographer blog.

Here's PDN Photo Annual 2008

Read more »

World Press Photo Interviews

World Press Photo has posted 22 interviews with the 2008 (and 2007) award winning photographers, such as Tim Hetherington, Stanley Greene, Brent Stirton, Balzazs Gardi and Vanessa Winship among others.

A very nicely produced feature with a small flash movie as an inset with each photographer's interview, and a loupe (a la Lightroom and Aperture) to magnify details of the photograph being discussed. Nice touch.

WORLD PRESS PHOTO INTERVIEWS

Read more »

World Press Photo Interviews

World Press Photo has posted 22 interviews with the 2008 (and 2007) award winning photographers, such as Tim Hetherington, Stanley Greene, Brent Stirton, Balzazs Gardi and Vanessa Winship among others.

A very nicely produced feature with a small flash movie as an inset with each photographer's interview, and a loupe (a la Lightroom and Aperture) to magnify details of the photograph being discussed. Nice touch.

WORLD PRESS PHOTO INTERVIEWS

Read more »