POV: To Publish or Not?

After 3 weeks of deliberation, the Associated Press released a graphic photograph by Julie Jacobson of Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard shortly after he was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan. Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard was mortally wounded and died shortly thereafter.

The New York Times has the whole story here.

Naturally, both the knee-jerk and the well reasoned outrage at AP's decision to publish such a photograph have been the subject of many op-eds, newspaper articles, commentary and blog posts. It is not the first time (nor the last) that the issue is whether the public is better served by seeing what really happens in war, or whether it's better to shield us from the ugliness of war, and to protect the privacy of the American families who lose loved ones in these conflicts.

In this case, the father of Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard specifically requested AP not to show the photograph, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates intervened personally to ask not have the photos published.

It's a tough call, isn't it? But I reluctantly side with those who believe that showing such images conveys to the viewing public the atrocity, the complexity, the brutality, and the sacrifices of war. We should not allow ourselves to be anesthetized by deliberate governmental or military censorship, often disguised by proclamations of "respect for the families". These are the same people who send our children to war, knowing full well how horrific it is. Mr. Gates pleaded with AP not to show the image of this (in his words) "maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers...." Yet, children like Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard have been sent to war by Mr. Gates and his predecessor by a mere stroke of their pens...and precious lives have been lost, and will continue to be lost.

Every day we see photographs of Iraqi corpses, Palestinians horribly maimed, Afghan women with horrific burns, Congolese civilians beheaded, and many others. They are also loved ones and have families too, yet we show them in our publications without even thinking twice. Yes, sometimes, a gentle soul at one of the newspapers inserts a caution before the graphic images...but they still end up on our front pages, don't they?

Yes, sometimes war is necessary and sometimes it's forced on us...and having taken the momentous decision to send our own to war, we should accept, and see, its atrocious consequences.

Finally, why hasn't the AP shown similar photographs during the previous Administration? If it did, perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess.

Shiho Fukada: Tawang

Photo © Shiho Fukada/NYTimes-All Rights Reserved
One of my favorite photographers is Shiho Fukada, and a fresh slideshow of her photographs is featured in the New York Times.

A Contested Frontier In The Clouds is the rather awkward title chosen for the slideshow, but Shiho's photographs, despite the dry reportage they illustrate, has flashes of her usual creativity.

Tawang is a town in India's Arunachal Pradesh, and rises above 10,000 feet in this region of eastern Himalayas. It is home to one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred monasteries, which is of the Gelugpa sect. The area is thickly forested with white stupas and steep, terraced hillsides that is home to the Monpa people, who practice Tibetan Buddhism, speak a language similar to Tibetan and once paid tribute to rulers in Lhasa.

The article accompanying the photo slideshow deals with the conflict over the Tawang area between India and China, which go back to the latter's territorial claims to Tibet. According to China, this section of northeast India has historically been part of Tibet, and should be part of China.

Paula Marina: Iemanjá

Photo © Paula Marina-All Rights Reserved
Born in Recife, Brazil, Paula Marina is a journalist and photographer who currently lives and works in in Sao Paulo. She started photography at the tender age of 18 years old, attending various courses at SENAC, and working with prints and enlargements in a makeshift darkroom in her bathroom.

Her website showcases a broad panoply of photographic interests, ranging from fine art to more travel oriented photography, however what caught my attention was her photo essay on Iemanjá.

Iemanjá is the Goddess of the Water in the Brazilian Candomblé and Umbanda religions, and December 31 is when, in addition to celebrating New Year’s Eve, large crowds of its adherents are celebrating the Festa de Iemanjá near Rio's beaches. The goddess is offered flowers, gifts, perfume and rice which are cast into the water.

Like Santeria, it is basically a possession religion in which adherents assume the form of deities, both for worship and magic.

Carolyn Cole: Afghan Women

Photo © Carolyn Cole/LATimes-All Rights Reserved
The Los Angeles Times has featured an audio slideshow on Afghan Women, photographed and narrated by Carolyn Cole, and produced by Bryan Chan.

The premise of the audio slideshow is that while Afghan women live in a freer environment than what it was under the Taleban, when they were forbidden to leave their homes without a male relative, beaten for trivial infractions, and deprived of schooling and employment, they are still disillusioned by the meager gains achieved despite billions of dollars in international aid, and a sustained military campaign.

The abhorrent constraints of age-old traditions over the treatment of women still remain, and these are reinforced by poverty, illiteracy and ignorance. It is heart-breaking to realize that treatment of women in Afghanistan will not improve as quickly as we all hope, as these traditions are deeply woven in the country's very psyche and fabric, and that it will take decades upon decades of consistent educational efforts coupled with financial assistance to inculcate new attitudes. Forcible change will not work and cannot be practically sustained, but sensible persuasion supported by health and educational programs might.

Carolyn Cole's images in the audio slideshow are well chosen; some are even powerful...however she ought to have worked on her narration a little more. As it stands, she's intoning from a script rather than narrating. I know, photographers are now expected and required to be storytellers, narrators, videographers and lots of other things in between...but that's the new order of things, and we'd better get on with it.

Sandra Chandler: Moroccan Impressions

Following her return from our Gnawa Photo Expedition in late June, whose principal objective was to photograph the legendary Gnawa musicians during the 12th Essaouira Music Festival, Sandra immersed herself in working on her Moroccan Impressions, a collection of photographs that are to be shown at Tufenkian on September 3, 2009.

The venue's address is:

Tufenkian Artisan Carpets
515 NW 10th Avenue (in the Pearl District)
Portland, Oregon
503.222.3428 Ext: 105

Sandra is a photographer and interior designer based in San Francisco. She tells us that color, smells and sounds drew her to world travel. Her city's Asian culture first enticed her to China in 1978 when the People’s Republic first opened. She then continued her exploration of Asia by traveling to Bhutan, India, Japan, Singapore, Nepal, Thailand, Tibet, and on to South America and Europe. Her website is here (LINK).

The Travel Photographer blog had a previous post on Sandra here. (LINK)

WSJ Photo Journal: Pind Daan

Photo © Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press-All Rights Reserved
The Photo Journal of the Wall Street Journal continues to bring us interesting photographs from all corners of the globe, including this one by AP photographer Rajesh Kumar Singh of Hindus performing Pind Daan rituals in blessing their ancestors’ souls in the River Ganges in Allahabad.

As per Hindu tradition, families and relatives perform this mandatory rite which is believed to bring salvation (moksha) to the departed souls

Pind-Daan is considered to be a mandatory rite believed to bring salvation to the departed souls, and is performed at the Ganges in Gaya, Varanasi and Allahbad.

LENS blog: Dominic Nahr's Uneasy Congo

The New York Times' LENS blog brings us the work of photojournalist Dominic Nahr in a series of photographs titled Uneasy Congo. Though he is only 26 years old, Dominic’s photographs of Congo’s brutal conflict are being exhibited in Perpignan at Visa pour l’Image, one of the most important international photojournalism festival.

The article explains the reasons as to why Dominic's photographs were chosen for the venue, but what is the most poignant of his statments is this one as he recalls viewing the results of a massacre:

"At first, you feel like a scavenger because you’re hanging over these bodies, but you have to document it. This had to be remembered. Laws were broken. There had to be evidence and this had to be remembered."

While this is another example of "bearing witness" to the atrocities committed in Africa, there are others who bemoan the fact that not enough photography and coverage are dedicated to show Africa's success stories...perhaps these are also right.

For more photographs, Dominic Nahr's website is here.

My Work: The Street Barbers of Manali

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The gestation period for The Street Barbers of Manali was remarkably short...certainly the shortest for any of my projects. Walking through the streets of Manali with Yasin Dar (a conflict photographer and photojournalist based in Kashmir), we came about the barbers who had set up a sort of shack near the Peace Cafe...a Tibetan coffeehouse and restaurant that offers an extraordinary muesli with fruits and yogurt.

As Yasin chose one of the barbers for his multimedia piece which would be eventually presented at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, we photographed alongside each other for about an hour. It was quite an experience to see the various angles we each chose...distinct from each other, but eventually telling the same story.

The street barbers in this area of Manali make about 20 rupees per client, and while they seemed to have a thriving business, their net take-home cannot be more than $5 taking into account whatever they have to pay (rent, protection money, etc) for the choice spot on a well trafficked street.

Ami Vitale: Interview

Photo © Ami Vitale-All Rights Reserved
I regret two things. While Ami and I traveled side by side to Manali for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop on the latter section of a 20 hours road trip marred by unforeseen twists and turns (including fender benders and police shake-ups), we were both so knackered that conversation was limited, and I regret that both she and I were so immersed in tutoring our respective classes at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, that it was difficult to get to know each other beyond some passing pleasantries.

So it's with pleasure that I found this interview with her on The Adventure Life, the personal blog of Steve Casimiro, West Coast Editor of National Geographic Adventure. It fills in the gaps very well, and features updated information on Ami and her work.

Ami has worked on contract for National Geographic for many years, and her work was published in all or most of the top-name magazine and newspapers. One of the questions raised in the interview relates as to what Ami was doing in India. Well, that 'mystery' is is now solved.

Via (and with thanks) duckrabbit multimedia blog

Dede Pickering: World Photographer

Photo © Dede Pickering-All Rights Reserved
Dede Pickering retired from the corporate world and became a world traveler and photographer...it's just that simple and that complex. She has traveled to Antarctica, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, China, Cambodia, Peru, Patagonia, Kosovo, Albania, Rwanda, New Zealand, Guatemala, South East Asia and has made multiple trips to Africa and India, but her passion is the Himalayan Region.

Dede is involved with CARE, a global private humanitarian organization, and started the Women’s Initiative, aimed at connecting American women professionals with women in the developing world. She is also a member of the Explorers Club in New York.

Exploring her website with its remarkable photographs of different cultures, I stopped by her statement, of which this is excerpted:

"The lens of my camera allowed me to look inside the lives of others and blur the differences."

Dede's galleries are a delight for those of us who love travel photography at its best. You'll know what I mean when you do.

Canon Announces the EOS 7D

So the rumors were right, and the flaky images leaked by Chinese and Japanese website were accurate after all!

Canon USA Inc. has today announced its new EOS 7D single-lens reflex digital camera, as well as three new lenses, a new battery grip, and a new wireless file transmitter.

The Canon 7D has a new 18-megapixel APS-C sensor with a 1.6x crop factor, and is equipped with dual DIGIC 4 chips to speed processing of large 14-bit files, as well as to handle the shutter's 8-frame-per-second top speed.

The Canon 7D is expected to ship toward the end of September 2009, and retail body-only for $1,699. A kit with the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens will sell for $1,899.

For further details, go to The Imaging Resource or DPReview for a hands on review.

Another hand-on review by PDN's Dan Havlik.