Photojournalists On War: The Untold Stories From Iraq

I watched the BBC program Imagine with the feature on Don McCullin recently,  a most touching and revealing documentary, which I implore you to watch if you can find it anywhere. In the BJP we find out about a book that merits further investigation. As with the earlier post about L1GHTB1TE the stories behind the pictures are often as important as the images themselves and give us an opportunity to understand more of the photographic process.

Photojournalists On War is the result of five years of interviews with some of the world’s leading photojournalists. However, it’s also the fruit of Michael Kamber’s frustration over the harrowing images that were never shown or published before

The longer that photojournalist Michael Kamber spent covering the war in Iraq, the more frustrated he became. His position on the frontline meant he and his colleagues were closer to the war than anyone, other than the soldiers and Iraqi civilians, yet the photos in the Western media didn’t reflect what he saw happening. “They look like sports pictures to me. It looks like a quarterback limping off the field, being helped by his buddy,” he says. “It’s not what these wars look like.”

 

With his commitment to accurate reporting shortchanged by what he saw as censorship, Kamber began working on Photojournalists On War: The Untold Stories From Iraq in 2008. The book is a compilation of interviews with 39 photojournalists from around the world, accompanied by some of their most poignant and definitive photos. The aim of the book, which will be released on 15 May in the US and later this year in the UK, is to tell the uncensored story to the general public, an audience that hasn’t been privy to much of what went on there.

The photographs in the book are at once stunning and arrestingly graphic. In one shot, by Eros Hoagland, the severed head of a suicide bomber lies in the middle of the frame, surrounded by the crumpled bodies of doves. Other images show the bodies of American contractors strung from a bridge across the Euphrates, children maimed and bleeding, or grieving and covered in the blood of their family members. Until now, many of these images had never reached the general public. 

Read more here

NY Times 2007

NY Times 2007

Read more: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/report/2262550/photojournalists-on-war-the-untold-stories-from-iraq#ixzz2ebOUxUBz
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Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award calling for entries

Photojournalists and documentary photographers have until 30 September for a chance to win a €50,000 grant dedicated to the production of a new body of work on Iran. 

“Created in 2009, the purpose of the Carmignac Gestion photojournalism award is to grant €50,000 in funding for a photo reportage carried out over a period of several months on a specific, topical subject,” say the organisers of one of the largest photojournalism grant programme. “With the profession in the grips of an unprecedented financing crisis, and the risks taken by freelance photographers the subject of much debate, the Carmignac Gestion Foundation wished to sponsor the delving work of photojournalists. Their dedication to depicting the truth requires knowledge of the country and experience of the terrain in order to represent the situation in all its complexity.”

 After themes around Pakistan, Palestine and Zimbabwe, Carmignac Gestion is calling for photographers to submit projects on Iran for its fifth edition. The deadline for entry is 30 September.

This year, the panel of jurors will include François Hebel of Les Rencontres d’Arles, photographers Reza and Jérôme Sessini as well as Christian Caujolle and Mark Sealy among many others. writes Olivier Laurent in the BJP

For more details, visit the Carmignac Gestion website.
Our dear friend Kazem Hakimi published a book on Iran a few years ago

Press Photographer of the Year Awards

Phil Coomes on the BBC website has a feature on the Press Photographer of The Year Awards

Press photographers are a talented bunch. Day in, day out they give life to photographs that capture the world around us. From the front lines to the backstreets, from breaking news to sport, they are charged with making a captivating picture from a wide variety of situations, all usually against a tight deadline.

The Press Photographer’s Year competition is run in association with the British Press Photographers’ Association (BPPA). Now in its seventh year, it sets out to “demonstrate that even in an age of rolling television news, internet and satellite communication, the traditional still image burns the keenest, fastest impression on the public conscience and is the most effective way to show the world the world as it really is”. I can agree with that…...MORE

Here are just a few images to whet your appetite

David Levene’s picture of U2’s Bono for the Guardian was awarded first place in the Arts category.

Laura Collett jumping Stonehenge on Natterjack at the Barbury International Horse Trials in Marlborough by Andy Hooper took first place in the Sports Feature category.

 

While covering the conflict in Syria, Rick Findler photographed a group of members of the Free Syrian Army launching concrete blocks into a compound housing President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Aleppo.

 

Andrew McConnell’s pictures from Gaza were awarded first prize in the Photo Essay section.

See the rest of the winners here

 

Related articles

• The Press Photographer’s Year (bbc.co.uk)
• Times photographer Jack Hill wins Press Photography Award for news images (thetimes.co.uk)
• The Press Photographer’s Year (thelizardinlondon.wordpress.com)

Burn magazine calls for entries in Emerging Photographer Fund

Photographers have been invited to submit their work for a chance to win a $10,000 grant for the completion of a personal project. From the Burn website we get this
We are now officially announcing the Emerging Photographer Fund grant for 2013.

We are awarding $15,000 to three winners and spreading the love.

One top winner will receive $10,000 and two runner-ups will each take home $2,500.

These grants are designed to support continuation of a photographer’s personal project. This body of work may be of either a journalistic mission or purely personal artistic imperative. It was initiated by David Alan Harvey in 2008 and is awarded by the Magnum Foundation.

We offer this to support emerging photographers in our craft. All types of photographers. This is not a photojournalism grant, nor an art photographers grant, but could be garnered by either or both. We just want to support committed authored photography of any ilk. Please click here and see who has secured this grant in the past and who our jurors have been. 2013 jury will be announced in the next few days!

The deadline for entry will be May 5, 2013 (6pm EST). No extensions for any reason.

© Matt Lutton

Presented by the Magnum Foundation and initiated by photographer and Burn magazine’s founder David Alan Harvey, the Emerging Photographer Fund offers, each year, grants designed to support the continuation of a photographer’s personal project.

 “This body of work may be of either a journalistic mission or purely personal artistic imperative,” say the organisers. “We offer this to support emerging photographers in our craft. All types of photographers. This is not a photojournalism grant, nor an art photographers grant, but could be garnered by either or both. We just want to support committed authored photography of any ilk.”

One top winner will receive $10,000 and two runner-ups will each get $2500.

Photographers have until 05 May to submit up to 25 photos, with the winners announced in June on Burn and at the Look3 Festival of the Photograph.

 

Amensty International Media Awards 2013

The Amnesty International Media Awards were established in 1992 to recognise the best in human rights journalism.

They celebrate the breadth and quality of human rights reporting across the media – including broadcast, digital and print.

Over the past two decades the awards have grown in prestige, recognising excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledging journalism’s significant contribution to raising public awareness of human rights issues.

There are 10 categories in total, including the Photojournalism category for photographers. Entrants may submit a series of up to six photographs from a single portfolio, some or all of which must have been published on a UK website or in the UK press.

Photographers have until 01 March to submit their entries online or by post. There is a reduced entry fee for images submitted before midnight on 01 February.

There are 11 categories in the awards, recognising newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, digital and student journalism. Each is judged by an independent panel.

Further details here

10 Photography Grants and Scholarships for Amateurs and Professionals

The last thing from Lightstalking this time is an article by:

Jacob Maentz

I’m a freelance travel, culture and documentary photographer based in the Philippines. My passion lies in creating images that communicate a strong sense of place and cultural awareness in unique, challenging situations. You can see my work at www.jacobimages.com

For many of us photographers, whether hobbyists or professionals, there are times when additional resources are needed to continue or progress our work. Photography projects can be very time intensive and often require a lot of financial resources to see them to the end. I am a big believer in hard work, but without financial support our hard work can often go nowhere. One avenue of finding those financial resources is through photography grants or scholarships. I have complied a short list of ongoing photography grants and scholarships for those amateurs, students or working professionals. Again, this is a short list and there are many others out there if you search for them. Those listed below cover most all genera of photography, but most emphasis editorial, photojournalism and documentary.

Here are just two of the grants available, go to Lightstalking to catch the rest

Focus for Humanity (FFH):
FFH offers a Fellowship of up to US$5,000 for a non full-time photographer keen to focus on photography as a career and probably within the humanitarian or cultural field, but who needs that final push or help to overcome that last barrier that is stopping them turning full-time. The fellowship is awarded by means of a competitive portfolio review and an assessment of an online application form.

Getty Images:
Getty Images offers two types of grant. The first, Grants for Editorial Photography, is available to both professionals and students. Since 2005, they have awarded five Grants for Editorial Photography annually to professional photojournalists. Each grant provides $20,000, plus editorial, logistical and promotional support. They also award four student grants of $5,000 per year to photojournalism students at accredited schools. The second, Grants for Good, consists of two grants of $15,000 annually, to cover photographer, filmmaker and agency costs as they create compelling new imagery for the nonprofit of their choice.

Click Here: 10 Photography Grants and Scholarships for Amateurs and Professionals

Photojournalist launches watermark app for iPhone photos

As told to Olivier Laurent at the BJP. Photojournalist John D McHugh has released a watermarking app on the iPhone in a bid to root out copyright theft on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram……..

“I developed the Marksta app because I was tired of people stealing my work on the web,” says Marksta’s founder, John D McHugh, a photojournalist best known for his work in Afghanistan. “I often work in incredibly dangerous situations to show the world the stark realities of war and revolution. I can’t describe how frustrating it is to find my images online without any credit or byline.”

 Rather than fight what can’t be fought, he says, “I’ve tried to adapt my thinking to the cold hard reality that as soon as I post a photograph online it will be copied, shared and posted around the world. If I want people to know it’s mine, whether for payment or just kudos, I see no way other than to write my name on it.”

To do so, McHugh enlisted the help of a developer to create an iPhone app that would streamline the process of adding a watermark to images.….MORE

Read more: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2233605/photojournalist-launches-watermarking-app-on-the-iphone#ixzz2IiVZnSBp
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Hipstamatic plans launch of Foundation for Photojournalism

Hipstamatic plans to open the Hipstamatic Foundation for Photojournalism to “support photographic storytellers” who use smartphones to tell their stories, BJP can reveal writes Olivier Laurent

Synthetic, maker of the popular Hipstamatic application for iPhone, is expected to launch, later this year, a pack of digital lenses and films dedicated to photojournalists to raise funds for its newly created Hipstamatic Foundation for Photojournalism.

 The Foundation will help educate and support “the next generation of photographic storytellers using smartphones with Hipstamatic to tell and broadcast their tales”, as the Foundation’s Facebook page reads.

In an interview with BJP in October 2011, Synthetic’s CEO, Lucas Allen Buick, explained: “The idea behind it is to create an educational platform, where professionals will be able give some of their time to educate up-and-coming photographers on how to go into Libya, for example, and not get shot.”

Read more: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2193262/hipstamatic-plans-launch-of-foundation-for-photojournalism#ixzz21IeJr16R

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Joe Raedle: Featured photojournalist

Showcasing some of the world’s best photojournalists.

“The Guardian receives many thousands of pictures every day, some days more than 20,000. Of these, many are publicity hand-outs, soft paparazzi images and material for the sports pages.

However, among all these photographs there are some real gems. The agencies that the Guardian subscribes to – AP, Reuters and Getty Images, among others – have some truly great photojournalists on their staff and under contract, although they probably would be too modest to describe themselves as such. We would like to recognise some of these unsung heroes by presenting their work in galleries, rather than publish them in the usual, one-off, spot news format.”….MORE

Joe Raedle

“Joe Raedle was a student at the Maine Photographic Workshop in Rockport. He was hired as a staff photographer at Fort Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel in 1987 and his 11-year tenure there took him across the globe. He joined Getty Images in 2000 and is now based in Washington, DC. Here, he returns to Joplin, Missouri, to cover the city’s regeneration on the first anniversary of a devastating tornado”

See more from this gallery here

Webfeed From the agencies – galleries of photo-journalism

If you are enjoying these images from the various sources of photo-journalism you would like the series in the Guardian called ‘From the Agencies’ here is a link to the page that has a number of galleries from around the world.

“Showcasing some of the world’s best photojournalists.

The Guardian receives many thousands of pictures every day, some days more than 20,000. Of these, many are publicity hand-outs, soft paparazzi images and material for the sports pages.

However, among all these photographs there are some real gems. The agencies that the Guardian subscribes to – AP, Reuters and Getty Images, among others – have some truly great photojournalists on their staff and under contract, although they probably would be too modest to describe themselves as such. We would like to recognise some of these unsung heroes by presenting their work in galleries, rather than publish them in the usual, one-off, spot news format”

Here are some from the featured photographers

Engi, five, Ziona’s youngest, poses with other children from the family Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Locals mingle at a market in Thimphu, Bhutan, on the eve of the royal wedding between King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters on the runway of the airport in Sirte, Libya. The city is of vital strategic importance and has now been surrendered by pro-Gaddafi forces, says the NTC Photograph: Manu Brabo/AP