The idea of a Great American Road Trip may be more mythic than realistic nowadays. But one culture is still living that myth: America's truckers -- the men and women who drive 40 tons and 18 wheels across thousands of miles of American landscape every day. That trucking culture is the focus of Kim Reierson's book, Eighteen: A Look At The Culture That Moves Us.
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Born in California and raised in Bolivia, Reierson is the daughter of a truck driver. Over the course of five years, she has woken up in 20 different states while accompanying truckers in transit. Initially drawn to truck stops, she was intrigued by the stories of these men and women, and her book tells the unsung story of their daily lives. One section consists of portraits taken largely in their sleeping quarters -- a view rarely seen by most Americans. She also offers landscapes, truck exteriors and stylish cabs replete with tiger print and wood paneling.
It's a reminder of the long journey that our food and clothing (and pretty much everything else) must make before arriving in our hands -- and an introduction to the people who make it happen.
To view more of Reierson's photos, and to learn more about the book, check out her Web site.
Christina Seely has photographed Paris, Tokyo and Chicago, among many places. But she's not interested in the Eiffel Tower or other tourist landmarks. Instead, she is photographing the way entire cities glow. According to the NASA map below, three regions of the world are particularly bright at night: the United States, Western Europe and Japan. Seely's series Lux is a study of those luminous locations -- of man's visibly bright impact on the planet.
Lux, titled after the system unit for measuring illumination, presents photographic portraits of the cities within the most brightly illuminated regions of the NASA map of the night Earth.
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Click to enlarge this NASA image of the world's brightest regions and, accordingly, the top consumers of energy:
Earth at Night, NASA
Seely's work helped inspire the formation of the design collective Civil Twilight. The collective won Metropolis Magazine's 2007 Next Generation Design Competition with a proposal for Lunar Resonant Streetlights, which dim and brighten depending on the brightness of the moon. View more of Seely's work, and read more about her project, on her Web site.
The winning caption for the following photo was written by Jack Cortello: "Woman: Mine says 'Rayon' too!"
Courtesy State Library of New South Wales, via Flickr Commons
Congrats, Jack! Unfortunately, owing to high demand, we just ran out of fleece blankets. But we hope you'll accept our profound congratulations and our invitation to participate again!
Here's the next challenge:
Courtesy Powerhouse Museum Collection, via Flickr Commons
Post your submissions as comments. Happy caption writing!
People all over the world are mourning the sudden death of pop legend Michael Jackson. Despite the questionable course of his adult life, fans can't help but look back in awe at some of his best moments.
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Check out NPR's hub page for more on Jackson's life and legacy. And for a biography in pictures, take a look at this gallery:
Of course we love photos, but sometimes they can only tell part of the story. Without traveling, how can you tell what a city really feels like? This photo and audio soundscape is the closest we can take you to Mexico City without actually smelling the camotes and tamales being sold on the street.
In the radio version of this story, reporter Jason Beaubian talks about what it's like to be assaulted by sounds. When he first moved to Mexico City he was overwhelmed by the cacophony of yelling, whistles, and bells pealing from all areas of the street. Now, he's grown used to them, realizing that each sound belies a deeper meaning, helping him appreciate the distinctiveness of his new home.
Here, we invite you to experience the sounds paired with images by photographer Brian Harkin, taking you on a distinctive journey through the symphonic streets of Mexico City.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee's seminal 1989 film Do The Right Thing. Tell Me More has teamed up with theRoot.com to take a look back at the film and discuss its relevance and legacy today. Listen here.
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How can someone be a blind photographer? Or rather, why would someone want to be? A new exhibit on display at the University of California Riverside/California Museum of Photography explores these questions, through art created by some of the world's most renowned blind photographers. Evgen Bavcar, one of the featured artists in the Sight Unseen exhibit, says, "My images are fragile; I've never seen them, but I know they exist, and some of them have touched me deeply."
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Bavcar and the other 11 artists featured in Sight Unseen all use different techniques to capture their images. The New York-based Seeing With Photography Collective uses sighted assistants to help frame photographs and adjust lighting. Using a long exposure, the photographer paints light into the darkened room with a flashlight. The result: distorted and somewhat haunting images. Kurt Weston uses a scanner to capture the toll of disease. Pete Eckert constructs elaborate sets in his backyard and uses laser pointers and other focused beams of light to create images like "Electroman."
Close your eyes and imagine what you would want to photograph. Photographing in total darkness allows these artists to control what the sighted may see, and the result is a compelling take on reality. You can experience "Sight Unseen" at UCR/CMP until Aug. 29, 2009.
First Polaroid, now Kodachrome. Kodak announced Monday that it will be ending production of its most senior color slide film. It amounts to less than 1 percent of sales of still-pictures films, Kodak argues. But it accounts for a large percentage of family archives, of National Geographic magazines, of photographic collections. Listen to the NPR story here.
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Oddly enough, National Geographic had been planning a Kodachrome exhibit to open this week. It was meant to be a celebration of the impending 75th anniversary of the film that changed the course of photography. Instead, it will be something of a funeral. With the advent of digital technologies, expensive processes like analog color film photography are falling by the wayside.
Kodak has also put together a slideshow of memorable photographs taken by Eric Meola, Steve McCurry and Peter Guttman. View it on their Web site.
Mark Shaw had an eye for timeless beauty. His most famous photographs include iconic images of Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn. In 1953, he was granted special access to the set of Sabrina to shoot a feature for Life. A handful of images were published in the magazine, but nearly 60 rolls went unpublished until recently.
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His son and daughter-in-law discovered these negatives and have published them in a book, Charmed by Audrey: Life on the set of Sabrina. Juliet Cuming Shaw writes:
The revealing, true-to-life photos that Mark took of Audrey are typical of his work and his photographic philosophy. He called his favorite pictures 'snapshots.' ... He liked a natural look and in order to keep his subjects relaxed he worked with as little photographic equipment as possible. Some photographic historians credit Mark Shaw with being the first truly 'modern' photographer: his photos had a refreshingly un-posed and realistic quality.
Photography by Mark Shaw excerpted from Charmed by Audrey: Life on the set of Sabrina, 2008. Published by Insight Editions. All rights reserved. Used with permission. www.InsightEditions.com
Remember that scene where Dorothy and Toto realize they're not in Kansas anymore? That same combined sensation of awe, homesickness and hallucination probably described the crowd at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976, as they stood before William Eggleston's color photography exhibit for the first time. Until then, art photography was almost strictly black and white. Color had been the stuff of kitschy catalogs and commercial advertisements. Famed photographers like Walker Evans even called color photography "vulgar." That '76 exhibit was called "the most hated show of the year" by one bitter critic. But Eggleston didn't care what the critics had to say. In fact, he still doesn't.
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Eggleston was in town for a few days for the opening of his retrospective exhibit, "Democratic Camera," at Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art. An archetypal, bow-tied Southern gentleman, he agreed to give us a private tour through the gallery the afternoon before its opening -- a coveted experience with a notoriously reclusive artist.
William Eggleston, courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust
Eggleston was born in Memphis in 1939 to landed Southern gentry and spent much of his youth in Mississippi with his grandparents. His grandfather gave him his first camera, but not until his 20s did he really begin photographing. He shrugs off the question about switching to color. To him, that decision was tantamount to any other: somewhat arbitrary. He just so happened to make it at the right time. Bored with the black and white status quo, he simply "thought it'd be lovely to see these pictures ... in fine color prints."
As if working in color wasn't enough, Eggleston took his subversion a step further. Rather than photographing landscapes or social documentaries, Eggleston shot the things in his own backyard: old Cadillacs, piles of litter, dilapidated road signs -- things associated with Americana. For this reason, Eggleston is often regarded as an Americanist, or a quintessentially Southern artist. But don't be deceived by the Coke bottles and American flags or his lulling Southern drawl. He also has photos from Paris and Kyoto, and he says his method is exactly the same: He photographs democratically.
Untitled, 1970, from Los Alamos, 1965-68 and 1972-74, William Eggleston, courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust
For Eggleston, everything is interesting enough to deserve a photograph. And this democratic spirit is his real legacy. Although he doesn't quite understand what people mean when they tell him, "You changed the way I see the world," the fact remains that he has. Perhaps the living legend is an accidental genius, but before his lurid color prints hit the gallery walls, few people would have found beauty in their own rundown suburban backyards. Whether or not he meant to, and whether or not he cares, Eggleston has taught us to open our eyes and see the wide spectrum of colors around us. He says he doesn't think much about it. But a few subtle winks and a glimmer in his eye tell me he knows exactly what he's doing.
One New York Times writer called him a "dandyish hellraiser." When asked what he thought of this, Eggleston replied, "There are a lot of meanings to dandy ... and I don't know which one they were meaning."
"Are you a hell-raiser?" I asked.
"Sometimes."
"Where do you do this raising of hell?"
"Not any one place."
"Anywhere. Democratic hellraising," I offered.
"That's right," he confirmed.
At the end of our tour, we sat on a bench in the middle of the gallery, contemplating a lifetime of photography. I asked Eggleston what his grandfather would think of it all. "I don't have any idea," he said in his slow, soft-spoken timbre. "We were very close. I was crazy about him, and I don't know what he would think. I bet he'd like it. I bet he'd be mystified at first. ... He'd probably call it the most hated show of the year," he laughed.
The exhibition, William Eggleston: Democratic Camera; Photographs and Video 1961--2008, opens at the Corcoran on Saturday and will run through Sept. 20.
Every year, England's elite gussy up for the annual Royal Ascot races, attended by princes, princesses, dukes and the Queen herself.... not to mention judges from TV's "Britain's Got Talent." Top thoroughbred horses race for trophies during the four- day affair, but the spotlight is really on the outlandish creations atop the racegoers' heads. On display this year was a hat in the shape of a giant ice cream cone, and another festooned with a blackbird. One teen from Manchester, Jade Taylor, was weighed down in fanciful headgear made of 800 marshmallows. She told reporters, "I was eating some marshmallows and I just thought I might as well go for it; after all, they're a fat-free dessert."
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The annual event started in 1711, and has become a must on England's social calendar. The dress code for the exclusive "Royal Enclosure" section of the racecourse bans halter dresses, bare midriffs and miniskirts. Men are expected to wear top hats and waistcoats, and women must wear hats or "substantial fascinators." Every day, bookies place odds on what color hat Queen Elizabeth will showing up wearing, as she watches her own horses and others compete.
The recent unrest in Iran harkens back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Beginning in 1978, large-scale anti-government demonstrations challenged Iran's ruling monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, resulting in the removal of the shah and the creation of an Islamic state headed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In January 1979, violent protests and fighting forced the shah to flee abroad, leaving his appointed Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar in charge of the government. Khomeini, who had been exiled by the shah, returned to Iran in February. On April 1, 1979, he established the Islamic republic.
Here's a look back at some of the 1979 events:
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Two weeks ago, I headed out to Iowa to photograph and report an upcoming NPR multimedia story about the wind business in the Hawkeye State. As a side trip, I drove over to the Wilson family farm outside Paullina to shoot pictures for Howard Berkes' radio stories about rural retirement and health care. What a treat it turned out to be!
Dan Wilson, his wife, Lorna, their sons and daughters and a daughter-in-law all help raise all sorts of animals and produce on their 640-acre farm. All of it organic. Which, it turns out, is a pretty unique thing in Iowa, where almost all the corn grown is genetically modified and almost all the pigs raised are cooped up in what are essentially giant pig factories. The Wilsons raise pigs, sheep, chickens and cattle and grow corn, oats, triticale and other mixed crops for the animals to graze on. They also enjoy the company of a small herd of cats and at least two dogs.
But Dan's favorites are the pigs. He took me out to his pig pasture, where he currently has about 150 sows -- many of which had recently given birth to litters of little piglets in their little lean-to shacks that punctuated the landscape. He says this is his favorite way to raise pigs -- letting them forage in the grass for the alfalfa and clover and thistle buds they like to munch on. He supplements their diet with organic cornmeal and vitamins.
My visit to the Wilson farm made me think a lot about what I eat every day. And how it matters who grows what I eat and how they do it. Dan recommended the documentary King Corn to me, which I dutifully watched. I've been avoiding corn-fed beef and non-organic ham ever since. And though I don't know much about U.S. farm policy, I do know that whatever it is, I hope it's helping to keep places like the Wilsons' farm in business.
John is a staff photographer and multimedia producer at NPR.
Renee Maurer, coordinating curator for a new art exhibition called Paint Made Flesh at the Philips Collection in Washington (see Susan Stamberg's Morning Edition story, sent us this note about one of the works in the show: Jenny Saville's "Hyphen":
Hyphen, Jenny Saville, 2009
"Hyphen" is a double portrait of Jenny Saville and her sister, but people comment that it looks like a painting of conjoined twins.
I first saw Saville's work in 1999, at the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I had never experienced anything like these paintings; their power and scale were overwhelming. They have so much tension in them. Saville confronts the viewer with massive amounts of flesh and skin. She layers oil paint on the canvas as if she is adding layers of flesh and skin to the body.
Saville paints unconventional body types, figures that are obese, injured or disfigured, but in such a way that you can see her compassion; these are intimate works. Saville has always been interested in the human figure. She spent time with a plastic surgeon so she could learn more about people who alter their physical appearance. This influenced how she would physically shape and reform the body in her paintings, which tend to look like fragments grafted together, a patchwork of skin. R.M.
You can get a closer look at "Hyphen," and 12 more paintings from Paint Made Flesh, below.
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If you've ever lived in (or been to) a developing suburb, you may have experienced something like this: You go out into your backyard to discover a deer eating your mother's flowers. You attempt to chase it away, getting within just a few feet, but it just stares, blinks and resumes eating -- as if your presence is a mere disturbance to an otherwise peaceful dining experience.
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Or, if you've ever been camping, you may have been surprised by strangely aloof animals that allow you to come unexpectedly close to them, and they may even solicit for food. Domesticated, a photo series and new book by Amy Stein, explores these encounters between humans and animals in the "wild."
Her book won the best book award at the 2008 New York Photo Festival and was featured at this year's LOOK3 photo festival. To view more photos from the series, check out Stein's Web site.
The word "Russia" probably brings a few geographic keywords to mind: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Siberia, etc. For some, it might even evoke "Volga River" and "Bering Sea." But it's doubtful that thoughts of Japan's Russian neighbor, Sakhalin Island, would come to mind. And that's why Michael Christopher Brown liked it.
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Brown spent much of his childhood exploring obscure, remote places. Raised in rural Washington state, he eventually turned to extreme sports and photography. His fascination with the unknown and his willingness to explore have translated into stunning, award-winning photography, including a recent series called "Sakhalin," shot on the Russian island.
In an artist statement, Brown writes:
Photographed predominantly in the broken, rusted, skeletons of communities around Sakhalin Island, Russia, these images explore the wintry atmosphere of a place and its people, long scarred from the Soviet era and left behind in modern times.
Initially photographed in 2008 for Fortune magazine, the series is what made Brown a finalist for Burn magazine's Emerging Photographer Grant this year. It was featured at LOOK3 photo festival this past weekend and stood out as one of the more remarkable series. To view more of Brown's work, and the rest of this series, check out his Web site.
For three days each June, photographers and photography lovers gather in Charlottesville, Va., to view galleries, hear artist talks and take lots of pictures. The photo festival, called LOOK3, began as a backyard gathering at the home of National Geographic photographer Nick Nichols, and has evolved into an elaborate three-day production.
Some highlights this past weekend included a Q&A with the recalcitrant Magnum photographer Gilles Peress; a multimedia presentation featuring nearly 20 works, such as John Trotter's unforgettable story The Burden of Memory; and, finally, the YourSpace area, where festival attendees displayed their photos.
Although the festival is largely a showcase for established photographers, the founding backyard spirit of sharing and support is sustained through the YourSpace gallery. Canon provides one print per person, Photoshelter curates an online gallery, and a selection of images is displayed at the festival. The result is a diverse collection of images, which can now be viewed online. Check out this selection of user-submitted photos, and stay tuned for more features from the festival.
It's just what you've been waiting for (but didn't know you were waiting for): a weekly caption contest! Whoever writes the best caption for this photo wins a handsome prize -- either a mention in next week's contest or a cozy new fleece comforter, just in time for summer!
Courtesy State Library of New South Wales, via Flickr Commons
The latest Hollywood blockbuster is a remake of the classic 1974 thriller, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Denzel Washington and John Travolta are the A-list cast, but the main character is really the New York City subway. The film, actually based on a 1973 novel, is about a subway car heist. But the subway of 1973 and the subway of today are worlds apart. This raises a question: With all the improvements to the New York transit system over the past few decades, can a modern subterranean thriller be convincing? Listen to the NPR story here.
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At the National Archives, we found photos of the New York subway from the 1970s, when the original film was made. At the time, the city was facing bankruptcy and the graffiti art movement was in its heyday, which gave the transportation system a much more dangerous edge. We also asked Travis Ruse, a contemporary New York photographer, to share some photos from his modern commute series, to give us a now-and-then perspective.
Movie still from The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, 1974, United Artists/The Kobal Collection
Movie still from The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Stephen Vaughan/Sony Pictures
You can view more of Travis Ruse's photographs on his photoblog, Express Train. His photos will be on display at the 42nd Street and 6th Avenue station in Manhattan, and at the Atlantic Avenue stop in Brooklyn, from July 1 through the spring of 2010.
Remember those hot summer days at the pool, when your idea of fun was to see who could hold their breath the longest underwater? Photographer Damion Berger certainly does -- and that's because for him, those days were rather recent. By submerging his camera, holding his breath as long as he possibly could, and stealthily swimming around public Mediterranean pools, Berger produced this whimsical series called In The Deep End.
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For Berger, the choice of black and white was key. "Without the immediacy of color and the blue hue of the water to provide context," he writes, "one's recognition that these pictures are taken underwater is momentarily delayed, [which] underscores the abstract sense of suspension, movement and reality that permeates through the series."
Placing a rubber shark in front of the lens, Berger plays with proportion and scale, and also with the viewer's emotions: We've all seen Jaws and have all felt the pangs of those irrational, waterborne childhood anxieties. That's what this series does best -- its playful nature evokes memories of youth.
I make use of photography's ability to at once de-contextualize the familiar and create visual narratives, evoking a fusion of dreamlike memories and sense of childhood regression. ... Not unlike some scene from Cirque du Soleil, these unwitting cast members set the stage for a sort of contemporary choreography: The human body submerged underwater and illuminated by an ever-changing quality of light provides all the elements for a playful ballet seemingly detached from gravity.
London-born and now New York-based, Berger studied the legendary Helmut Newton. His work has been exhibited internationally and featured in numerous publications including New York Magazine and PDN. Starting June 18, photos from In The Deep End will be on display at Bonni Berubi Gallery in New York City, in a group exhibition called Hot Fun In The Summertime.
In 1975, eight young Americans -- and one German couple -- were featured in an exhibition that pretty much flew in the face of Ansel Adams. Curated by William Jenkins at the George Eastman House, the exhibit was called "New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape" and, according to some historians, it marked a paradigm shift in the world of photography, although that shift was imperceptible at the time.
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What was so impressive about photos of tract housing and abandoned buildings? Maybe "impressive" is the wrong word -- but it was unusual that they were considered landscapes. Unlike their predecessors, these new "topographic" photographers (such as Robert Adams, no relation to Ansel) were less concerned with portraying an ideal image of nature and were more interested in showing plainly how man has altered it. Their photos were descriptive, unemotional and simple -- a fusion, almost, of traditional landscape and social documentary photography, with man as the focus, but out of the picture.
The exhibit, now often cited as one of the most seminal in photographic history, suggested other changes, too. All of the photographers were (or would soon be) associated with academia, either as students or professors of photography; traditionally, photography as a trade was not widely taught in schools. Moreover, the photos of Stephen Shore, which provided the only color in the exhibition, also spoke for a shift from the old belief that fine art could only be in black and white.
The idea of photography as "fine art" was gaining more traction, too, and photography itself was becoming more democratic. This meant that as long as you had a camera and really thought about each frame, you could join the ranks with Ansel Adams. (Of course, very few photographers will ever top Adams' contributions to the medium. Still, there's something to be said for showing not just a pretty landscape, but the ways in which man has altered it.)
For the first time, the George Eastman House is resurrecting the exhibition. Teaming up with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, they've chosen more than 100 photos from the original exhibition to go on tour again, starting this Saturday. The tour will focus on the historical significance of the 1975 exhibition, as well as its continued relevance today. To learn more, check out the George Eastman House Web site.
Do you have photos that fit this genre? If so, we want to see! Add them to our Flickr group pool, and tag them "npr topography."
Photography and the Red Cross came into existence at about the same time, in the second half of the 1800s. Photographs of war quickly became some of the most disturbing, but also the most mobilizing, means of communication. Recognizing the power of a photo, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began preserving and archiving images almost from the beginning. Now it's taking a look back through the archives in a new book called Humanity in War, a collection of over 200 photos dating back to the 1860s, covering both warfare and the humanitarian action that mitigates it.
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Award-winning war photographer James Nachtwey, whose work is featured in the book, writes in the introduction, "Although it has not always been regarded like this, the fact is that documentary photography and humanitarian work exist symbiotically: one of the primary functions of photography is to complement and support the work of humanitarian agencies."
Divided into chapters by date, the photos take us from the trenches of World War I France, to a Nigerian feeding center during the Biafra conflict of the late 1960s, to the West Bank barrier today. Children wait to be repatriated from Switzerland after World War II; young women stare at a dead body in the Torola River during El Salvador's civil war in 1986; a man stands amid the ruins of his home in Lebanon in 2007. The photographs -- taken by both photojournalists and aid workers in the field -- show the total devastation of war, as well as the power of an image. Without these photos from the frontline, war would be just an idea to those not fighting it, and it certainly would not have a face. It's the faces, after all -- the people in photos, the humanity in war -- that makes us care. Nachtwey continues:
Photographs are not cold documents that merely prove something happened. They put a human face on events that might otherwise appear to be abstract or ideological ... Photography gives a voice to the voiceless. It's a call to action.
Humanity In War was released last month to coincide with International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day. It can be purchased online and in select cities.
Images courtesy International Committee of the Red Cross.
In April, the Detroit City Council voted to have its historic Michigan Central Station demolished. The decision has been met with mixed emotions: Some Detroiters feel attached to the building, viewing it as an integral element of the city skyline. Others see its sad decrepitude as a reminder of the city's decay. Listen to NPR's story here.
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Whether an eyesore or a reminder of the good old days, most can agree on one thing: The train depot is visually striking. Photographers and explorers have been sneaking into the fenced-off station for some time, traversing its cavernous innards -- a vestige of what was once a bustling hub of hellos and goodbyes. Graffiti, rubble and shattered glass have overgrown the building's neoclassical foundation, and yet citizens are still ambivalent about its destruction. The city has postponed the demolition but has not gone so far as to set a date for reconsidering the verdict.
Detroit photographer Eric Smith has documented what remains of Michigan Central Station. He describes his series:
When I heard people were getting into the abandoned shell of Michigan Central Station in Detroit, I was curious, remembering childhood train trips to Chicago. I knew that the digital techniques I have been working with (which include high dynamic range imaging) could dramatically transform this tragic and forgotten building into a "Hyper Real" reminder of its past glory.
Michigan Central Station was Detroit's passenger rail depot from its opening in 1913 until the last Amtrak train pulled away on Jan. 6, 1988. Now abandoned, the building is of the Beaux-Arts classical style of architecture, designed by the Warren & Wetmore and Reed & Stern firms, who also designed New York City's Grand Central Terminal. The main waiting room was modeled after an ancient Roman bathhouse with walls of marble.
This portfolio is one of a series of portfolios from an architectural project on the city of Detroit. The project seeks to use architecture as a metaphor to illustrate the transformation of Detroit in the 21st century.
Smith is represented by the Monroe Gallery. His series is currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago, part of a group exhibition called The Edge of Intent.
Believe it or not, it's already June, which means millions of people will be hitting the beach over the next few weeks. To celebrate the summer sun, we're taking a look back at beach scenes through the years.
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These photos were taken from Flickr commons, where cultural heritage institutions such as the Library of Congress and The Smithsonian share their archives with the public. One noteworthy set of images, called "Bondi Jitterbug," comes from the Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Taken by champion jitterbug dancer George Caddy in the 1930s and '40s, the photos document a lost form of beachside gymnastics called "beachobatics." To learn more about this rare art, watch this multimedia presentation on The Sydney Morning Herald's Web site.
You've probably seen this iconic "Tank Man" photograph from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing -- especially because tomorrow marks its 20th anniversary.
China, 1989, Jeff Widener
There were a few lucky photographers who captured that image and managed to smuggle their negatives back into the States. One of these photographers was Jeff Widener. Surely he's been interviewed ad nauseam about this photograph, but we were more interested in what came after it. Twenty years after this photo was taken, we take a look back through Widener's portfolio and ask him, "What comes after the Tank Man?"
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Picture Show: How did the Tiananmen photograph change the tide of events in your life, and how has it influenced your career? Do you ever see it as a mixed blessing? Jeff Widener: For me, the Tiananmen uprising was just another story. It just happened to be a really big one. I recall being a bit of a Charlie Brown in school. I was always dropping the ball, so from that point in life, I had something to prove to the world and I guess the tank picture helped. Though my picture of the "unknown rebel" became internationally known, it was not a free career ticket. There are many talented photographers and the competition is always fierce. I have always felt a bit typecast with "that image" and I have always concentrated on a larger body of work.
The famous image may have helped open some doors but at the end of the day it is whether you can deliver that counts.
PS: What was the month like after you took this photo? JW: It was just crazy. I recall having to speak in front of 500 newspaper editors at an Associated Press Managing Editors convention. I was really nervous. My new shoes were sliding on the carpeting and my sport coat was too tight. At the time, I would have rather faced bullets in China than speak to that crowd. The Charlie Brown syndrome had turned me into a fanatical perfectionist and there was no way I wanted to blow my lines. Not only did the first month produce praise from all sides; the months following were filled with awards from all over the world including a Pulitzer Prize nomination.
PS: Was the image instantly heralded -- and did that instantly catalyze your career? JW: Tank Man was off and running the minute it hit the presses. The day after I shot it, I received an avalanche of congratulations from around the world. London claimed I was fronting all U.K. papers. USA Today,International Herald Tribune and just about every paper in world had it fronting their publication. ... I even fulfilled a lifetime fantasy of getting a double-page spread in Life magazine. I was a pretty hot item for a while in 1989, but as time went on I had to settle back down to reality and get on with my career.
Widener in Beijing, May 2009, Courtesy Jeff Widener
PS: What have you worked on since that photograph was taken? JW: I covered assignments in over 100 countries from Princess Diana in Bangkok to penguins in Antarctica. For the last 20 years I have been fortunate to live a photojournalist's dream. I even got to have breakfast with astronaut Buzz Aldrin in Honolulu a couple of years ago. I recall how I wanted to surprise him with a signed copy of "Tank Man"; he looked at it and then pulled from his pocket a signed postcard of himself on the moon. One of the few times I got topped. Now, I have returned to my love affair with Leica rangefinder cameras and black and white Tri-X film. My work is now heading in an art direction with an emphasis on the human condition like the masters. In May of this year, I was fortunate to meet a legendary photographer, Elliott Erwitt in New York. It was one of the few times my ego looked for the nearest exit.
PS: What are some of your favorite photographs you've taken? JW: There are many but some of my new black-and-white work tops the list.
PS: Tell us about the images you've selected to share. JW: They are some of my favorite shots from my years based in Bangkok for Associated Press and at The Honolulu Advertiser. I am particularly attracted to strong graphics as well as expressing my acidic sense of humor. The Ghanaian soldier during the 1992 sponsored elections in Cambodia is a perfect example of strong design, [much like] the picture of the lone man stopping the tanks. ... The Japanese schoolgirls in Honolulu is a humorous moment that covers daily life. Princess Diana posing for the cameras shows her vanity side.
PS: What is the most commonly asked question about your Tiananmen photo? JW: What ever happened to "Tank Man"?
Images courtesy Jeff Widener. See more on his Web site.
"Who the hell is Marilyn Monroe?" In 1950, this is what Life wanted to know. Photographer Ed Clark had photographed the budding starlet in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, and sent his prints to the publication. At the time, she was relatively unknown, and there was no interest in the photos -- although a mere two years later, she would grace the cover of Life. These photos went unpublished until about a month ago, when Life.com rediscovered them.
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Somehow, the name Richard Avedon always rings a bell. He's known equally for his eerie portrait of the bee-covered man, and the iconic fashion photo of supermodel Dovima with elephants. The former was part of a documentary project on the American West; the latter was part of a Dior campaign.
Ronald Fischer, beekeeper, Davis, California, May 9, 1981 (left); Dovima with elephants, evening dress by Dior, Cirque d'Hiver, Paris, August 1955 (right) By Richard Avedon, courtesy The Richard Avedon Foundation, 2009
Two seemingly contrary endeavors were similar in ways that made Avedon's work some of the most recognizable in the industry. Across the board, his photos were provocative, inventive and memorable.
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Avedon began working as a fashion photographer at Harper's Bazaar in 1944, a mere 21 years old. And as a young photographic revolutionary, he took the medium by storm. New York City's International Center of Photography is paying homage to his legacy in a collection of nearly 175 photographs. The exhibition, called "Avedon Fashion 1944-2000," runs through Sept. 6. The show material sums up the ideas behind this collection, and the man behind the lens:
More so than any other fashion photographer, Avedon reflected the mood of the moment through his work, from postwar optimism to Pop exuberance. He was sensitive and responsive to the new sense of power, determination, and freedom gained by women during the mid twentieth century. His favorite models had character and a collaborative spirit, and he not only encouraged them to express it, but he made them famous for it. ...
Avedon's work at Vogue became more provocative in response to the sexual revolution of the late Sixties and Seventies, but his most memorable and exciting images from this period are of models in motion--sprinting across the page on a headlong rush into the future with the trademark "Avedon blur," where fast shutter speeds captured figures mid-motion. ... Throughout his nearly seven decade career, Avedon's images were infused with an undeniable sense of personal style and a unique take on the importance of fashion in our lives.
NPR reporter Tom Bowman and NPR photographer David Gilkey filed this post from Afghanistan.
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One of the key jobs for U.S. special forces, going back to the Vietnam War, is to train local forces. The only way to end a counterinsurgency is to create enough government forces to turn the tide. At Firebase Thomas in western Afghanistan, U.S. Army Special Forces, popularly known as Green Berets, train the 6th Kandak (Battalion) of the 207th Corps, the elite fighters of the Afghan army.
The Green Berets are training the commandos to mirror their own approach to warfare. Killing is just one part of it: They also want the commandos to reach out to the population -- providing humanitarian relief and building schools.
It's all a challenge. The illiteracy rate in the country hovers around 90 percent, so the commandos can mount simple operations with their American mentors. But Special Forces soldiers say it will take time, maybe years, before the Afghans are as competent a fighting force as the Iraqi commandos. An average Afghan soldier may shoot 200 rounds from his AK-47, but the commandos shoot up to 7,000 rounds. They practice driving their armored Humvees through an obstacle course that includes fake roadside bombs. They use metal detectors to pinpoint a bomb, then a combat knife to carefully lift it from the ground.
And they put their training into practice. One night, the Special Forces and the 207th loaded up and headed south, driving through the desert for hours and finally circling a group of houses that included a top Taliban supplier. As he raised his weapon, he was killed.
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