Can photojournalism survive in the Instagram era?

Nice interview with Fred Ritchin, discussing his new book, Bending the Frame (which I recommend, btw).

OUCH!: "In recent years the tendency has been to elevate the messenger over the message, a strategy which effectively keeps their more painful imagery at a distance. The courage of the photographer is celebrated while the circumstances of his or her subjects becomes somewhat secondary. As a result the photograph becomes less of a window onto the world and more of a mirror reflecting the distorted priorities of the culture consuming the imagery."

The positive effect of the iPhone . . .

. . . the desire for better cameras . . .

The dying art of darkroom printing

Read this blog post about Magnum darkroom printer, Pablo Inirio, and you'll long for the smell of stop bath and fixer . . .

Gregory Halpern on Documentary Ethics

ASX Interview with Gregory Halpern - "On Documentary Ethics" (2013)

"Photography is a highly edited, subjective vision of the world, but the medium presents itself—and is often misused by photographers—as a form of objectivity. There is, of course, no way to make objective documentary work, and any attempt to do so is flawed, misleading and disingenuous."

Summary from the Flash Forward Festival, 2013

The "Instagram" panel discussion at the Flash Forward Festival was very illuminating.

A summary thought:

Photographers are no longer the sole content providers for visual narratives but are now collaborators. Social media (Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, Facebook) is filling in gaps in the narratives of many peoples in the world, giving us a more complete understanding than existing narratives.

And links to the panel participants:

Stephen Mayes  from the VII Photo Agency - @viiphoto on Instagram 

Peter DiCampo  and the Everyday Africa project - @everydayafrica on Instagram

Photographer and designer Steph Goralnick - @sgoralnick on Instagram

Flash Forward Photo Festival

Flash Forward Festival, Boston, May 16-19, 2013.

Toward a New (Photo) Curriculum

"A crucial aspect of teaching photography now is to inform
students producing images with intention that the urgent task
of the photographic producer is to acknowledge and counter the
unending torrents of images, and to forcefully and meaningfully
respond to their own individual impulse to record, to depict,
or to render. Then, like the prehistoric cave-painters, they can
share their perceptual experiences against the limits of what’s
possible."

An interesting article by Arthur Ou in the current issue of Aperture.