Terrible, shocking news today, with the report that much beloved photographer Tim Hetherington has died while covering the conflict in Libya.

Read Daryl Lang’s profile of Tim here, and The New York Times’ account of his death, here.

Tim was larger than life, and his war work incredibly resonant. His recent Oscar-nominated film Restrepo made real the perils of war as he was embedded alongside U.S. soldiers in intense combat.

A few years ago he spoke with Sebastian Junger about Restrepo:

Here are a few images from Hetherington’s series Sleeping Soldiers:

RIP, Tim.  You were loved and respected by your fellow photographers. We are so sorry.

addendum: watch this.

Diary (2010) from Tim Hetherington on Vimeo.

Read more… (via BJP)

Chris Hondros, at work in Libya – The New York Times’ Lens blog.

In Memoriam: Tim Hetherington – The New Yorker.

‘Restrepo’ director is killed in Libya – The New York Times.

Photographer Tim Hetherington killed in Libya – The Guardian.

A Tribute to Tim Hetherington – The Documentary Blog.

Tim Hetherington: In His Own Words – Human Rights Watch.

Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington – BagNews Notes.

Tim Hetherington, HOST Podcast (October 2010) – Foto8.

Chris Hondros: Life Behind the Lens – MSNBC Video.

Tim Hetherington 1970-2011 – Panos Pictures

Remembering Tim Hetherington – Foreign Policy Passport

I’ve known Lauren Lancaster and her work for some time, but I just saw her website again recently, and I was shocked by the incredible images she has made. Much like haunting film stills, the images are really unique for photojournalism, and speak to an eerie stillness in places like Kabul, UAE and The Western Front– places not known to be calm.

Have a look.

Kabul:

United Arab Emirates:

Western Front:

See much more from Lauren Lancaster.

Ross Taylor has a new blog, The Image, Deconstructed, whose purpose is to tell the story behind an image. There’s only one post so far, but we’re already loving it.

Here is Ross’s account of one of his images (each week will bring a new story and photographer)…

I had an assignment to cover a historical reenactment in Norfolk. It was billed as an event with scores of people, but in reality, there were only three reenactors and few visitors. There wasn’t much to document as far as moments and the other two reenactors to me weren’t that striking visually.

But to me, this boy was. I thought he looked interesting, and that he could make for a striking portrait.

I pulled him off to the side and requested he stand in front of a white wall for a portrait. I started making portraits of him, taking dozens of pictures. After more than 5 minutes of making his portrait, I could tell he was becoming a little uncomfortable with the attention, so I stopped.

I didn’t like the picture, and thought there was possibly more to look for – so after 15 minutes, I went back to the boy and asked if he could stand again for me. He was a little nervous but he agreed. I made dozens of more pictures but I could tell he was tense and it showed in his facial structure.

You can see the tenseness in his jaw.

It’s a common in portraiture – people bear a lot of tension in their mouth area. It’s clearly visible here.

I kept trying to help him relax but everything I did wasn’t working. I felt at this point I was asking too much of
him to keep standing for a portrait, so we parted.

I shot other aspects of the re-enactment for more than 30 minutes, but I kept thinking of the boy. I hadn’t made an image that was reflective of his unique appearance. I also knew, however, if I asked him to stand one more time that he would be very tense. His father was there, and I thought perhaps having his dad around would make the child more relaxed.

I asked the father to stand behind me and then asked him to just talk with his son, to help him trust me, and
the process.

I noticed immediately that his jaw was more relaxed and his face seemed to open up. I began making pictures of the son and showing it to them. They both liked it and at that point everyone was much more loose. It became much easier to photograph him at this point.

I finally made this image which was the one we went with for the newspaper the next day – one of close to 300 images.

This image was made in broad daylight with no flash. It was a partly cloudy day and I took the image when the sun would go behind the clouds. I photographed him with a 85mm lens shot at 1.8 in front of a white brick wall. I also overexposed it some to give it a white-washed look, which helped wash out the texture of the bricks.

See more of Ross’s work. See more of The Image, Deconstructed.

Alfred Palmer, TVA Douglas Dam, Tennessee, June 1942

You know I’m a sucker for for the Office of War Information and Farm Security Administration images from the ’40s. There are so many amazing pictures in the public domain, and many are available in high quality scans from the Library of Congress. I like the color kodachrome 4×5s, because what’s not to like?

I found a good site to peruse a bunch last night, and went to town. I’m looking for one of these to print and hang. I like these two.

HELP ME CHOOSE!!

Jack Delano, Proviso yard, Chicago, 1942

There are some really interesting pictures that have just been released from the Chilean miner saga: the underground documentation by the runner and Elvis nut of the group, Edison Pena. Not only do they show his workout regime, but they give us a clearer idea of the living conditions the miners faced and their (ahem) sexy pastimes. Can’t wait for the made-for-tv movie.

From PDN:

Panos Pictures, the UK-based photo agency, has posted images that miner Edison Pena took while he was trapped underground in the San Jose mine in Chile for  69 days. His photos show the refuge area where he and the other miners slept on cots and bed rolls, and the pile of fallen stone that cut off their escape. Pena also took several self portraits as he  exercised in the mine’s tunnels by jogging, lifting heavy bars and trying to pull machinery as he ran.  The story can be seen on the Panos.co.uk web site.

A selection:

It’s good to keep your priorities straight.

See more on the Panos.co.uk web site.

Tucked away in the feeds this week is an astounding piece by VII’s Tomas van Houtryve on North Korea.

Here’s the gist:

North and South Korea held their first military talks in two years this week and North Korea released a photograph of the heir apparent to Kim Jong-il, his son, Kim Jong-un. VII The magazine decided to take a look at the North Korea which has systematically isolated itself from the world and applied communist thinking to the utmost extreme. The Kim regime has vanquished any traces of capitalism, foreign imperialism, and the enemies–real and imagined–of the radical left. Even as communism collapsed elsewhere and over a million people died of starvation in the 1990s, the government did not waver from its course. The result is a paranoid militarized society, an astounding cult of personality, and the formal absence of any individualism.

Today, as ever, much of what is said about North Korea is based more on speculation than first hand reporting. Posing as an investor looking to open a chocolate factory, Tomas van Houtryve managed to slip into North Korea twice. He faced hours of interrogation, was threatened by appartchiks, and at one point was almost exposed as a journalist. The bold tactics gave him access to factories, hospitals and government offices, some of which had never before been seen by a Western photographer.

Click below to see the full slideshow, complete with music.

Here are some stills:

See more from Tomas van Houtryve.

See more from VII.

See the slideshow.

I’ve been a big fan of Christopher Lamarca’s work for years. He’s always had a knack for making beautiful, natural light environmental portraits.

And now he’s starting to work with motion. See his (literally) first few days of working in a new medium, above. Lamarca is embedded on a Portland goat farm, capturing the daily struggle of the farmers.

I love how his use of soft natural light stays intact; I can’t wait to see what he has after a year of filming!

More of Chris’s stills:

Like large large format camera’s and to cool off by the water ? Well then you might want to put your togs on and get yourself over to the Asser Levy Public Pool here in Manhattan tomorrow afternoon (Friday July 30) bet 1.00pm & 3.00pm where the maestro of the 8×10 himself Greg Miller will be in attendance with a surprise guest…

In April of 2010 VII Photo launched the online publication, VII The Magazine , to present stories shot by the agency’s photographers. TPP contributor, Lisa Naftolin, checked in with the project’s editor, Scott Thode.

LN: You’ve been a photo editor on print magazines in the past, but this is something new. How are you finding the online experience?

ST: I’m absolutely loving it. Finding different ways of telling stories visually with this amazing group of photographers is a dream. We aren’t dealing in words with this magazine for the most part — though that’s coming — so the focus is always going to be on the visual, finding interesting ways of telling visual stories. It’s called a magazine but that’s a strange way to refer to this. It’s not a print magazine, it’s not like taking a magazine you’d find on the newsstand and putting it online. We are creating a new form of story telling and journalism and that’s what makes it fascinating for me.

Albanians by Joachim Ladefoged

Is there anything that exists online now that you might compare it to or that was an inspiration?

I’m not sure there is anything right now to compare it to. This is an experiment and we are creating it from scratch, making it up as we go.  I have to commend the VII photographers for having the guts and foresight to do this. As far as what inspires me, I think that comes directly from the material I am working with and the personalities of the individual photographers, including their and my own quirks.

One of the challenging aspects of putting out a magazine is determining it’s voice, knowing who it’s addressing. Can you comment on that aspect of creating VII?

I’m like a kid in a candy store! I really am. There are all of these wonderful stories and I ask myself, ‘what do I feel like doing today? I guess I edit to my personal taste to a certain degree, but I also do think a lot about keeping the content varied. If I do two heavy duty stories two weeks in a row, like Christopher Morris’s Black Tide or Ashley Gilbertson’s The Consequences of War, I may want to follow up the next week with something that’s a bit of fun, like Jessica Dimmock’s Paparazzi or Ziyah Gafic’s Tito’s Bunker. It is my hope that if you wander around the magazine there will be something that piques your interest.

Black Tide by Christopher Morris

I’m a person with a range of interests, a lot of different ways of seeing the world, as are the photographers at VII.  “Entertain me,” “Educate me,” “Do something,” that’s the kind of magazine I’m trying to make. I hope that as people come to this it will draw them in. One of the most exciting things for me is that despite the fact that we haven’t put this out there in a big way yet, the numbers tell us that people are spending 7-10 minutes on the site at a time which, in the internet world, is a long time. That means people are staying with the stories.

Paparazzi by Jessica Dimmock

One thing that makes this unique and truly different from a traditional magazine is that a magazine determines its course and then assigns stories, whereas this material is generated by the VII photographers who will create it with or without the magazine, and then it passes through your editorial funnel, which is a compelling difference.

It is unique in terms of what’s happening in the business because with VII The Magazine the power lies with the photographers. It used to lie in the hands of people who were buying, the print magazines and newspapers. We have the material and that’s where our strength is. We’re not sitting back waiting for people to buy it, we’re putting it out there ourselves.

What state are stories in when they come to you?

Every state! With a lot of the stuff I’ll start from scratch. I’ll see something on the VII site and start a conversation, or they’ll send me something… I was working on a Car story by Christopher Morris the other day I was a bit hesitant because the shots were a little old so I emailed him and said “Do you have any more cars?” He said he’d been shooting them for years and had just shot more the previous day. Then he said, “I also have this video I made when I was down in the Gulf.” It was just about done. He sent me the piece and with a few edits we were able to get it up right away. It’s a 9 1/2 minute video, not something that a lot people would put up on their site, but I said “let’s just do it.” It’s gotten a lot of response from people. The great thing about what we’re doing is that we can do what we want.

Some of the longer pieces are really evocative – the viewer is transported somewhere, seeing what’s taking place, feeling something, hopefully wanting to know more…

I want people to have an emotional response to these stories. I’ve deliberately kept the pieces very straightforward, very sophisticated. I try to never lose sight of the fact that the imagery, whether it’s still photos or videos, must always come first. I guess the ultimate goal from my point of view is to let the individual voices and vision of the VII photographers ring out in a new and exciting way.

Haiti by VII; James Nachtwey

Moscow Nights by Antonin Kratochvil

How is word of this site getting out?

Right now you get to it through word of mouth, via Lens Culture or VII or the Herald Scotland. We want to be very careful not to grow it too fast. We’re just entering the second phase: it will become its own thing, with its own identity.

Lisa Naftolin was most recently Creative Director of Art + Commerce and will be Executive Director, Creative Branding for Nars beginning in September. She has been a visiting artist at Cooper Union, a visiting critic in Design at Yale, and a mentor in the Photography program at SVA.

Published Tuesdays and Fridays, The Photography Post Market column highlights items for sale in our market. We also invite guest contributors to add items to our shops.

In April 1977, Robyn Davidson set out with four camels and a dog to cross the deserts of Western Australia–1700 miles from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean. Her sponsor, National Geographic , arranged for photographer Rick Smolan to meet her at various locations along the way. Davidson’s riveting account of her journey, Tracks, won awards and became a bestseller. Here, Smolan presents his color photographs alongside excerpts from Tracks. It is a rewarding combination that dramatizes the hardships Davidson encountered and the stark beauty of a hostile landscape. Smolen, creator of the Day in the Life series, photographed tourists, aborigines, scenery and Davidson with her animals–riding, resting, playing. His images make a great adventure even more memorable. – Publishers Weekly

From Alice to Ocean: Alone Across the Outback
Hardcover
Condition: Good

$50 + S&H

Purchase here.

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