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As habitués of the World Wide Web, we've been
inundated with images from New York on the 11th of September.
Scores of Web producers have put together compilations of photos
taken on that eventful day, often ignoring the copyright of the
photographer.
9/11 will go down in history as one of the most
photographed events ever.
Bill Biggart was a 53-year-old photographer who
prowled New York for a living. He lost his life that morning
when Tower Two of the WTC collapsed on him.
His story and his last (digital) photos are told
in a moving narrative by Dirck Halstead in The Digital
Journalist, an inspiring website devoted to journalism and
photojournalism. Of the three cameras Biggart was carrying that
day, all three were destroyed and only a few frames of film were
salvaged. However, the CompactFlash card from his Canon D30
survived and Chip East was able to recover its images, including
Biggart's last exposure. You can read and view the images at
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0111/biggart_intro.htm.
Photographers learn by viewing the work of other
photographers. And the Web is a terrific source. A new agency
called VII (Seven) was formed by seven noted photojournalists:
Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil,
Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey and John Stanmeyer. The
official announcement was made September 6.
A week later, Nachtwey was in the streets at
Ground Zero making photos (many of them digital) that would be
seen around the world. Other VII members were in the Mideast
ready to photograph the action in Afghanistan.
VII is in the mold of Magnum, Black Star, Sigma
and other photographer agency/confederations.
Unlike its predeccessors, VII will make heavy
use of the Web to communicate and sell the photos of their
members. An excellent site features each photographer with
extensive galleries of his (and her) work. Take a look at
http://www.viiphoto.com.
The beauty of many photographic websites is that
they continually update their content. If Doubletake Magazine
follows through on its initial Web offering, it'll be a
wonderful resource for photographers. Doubletake emphasizes
documentary work in photographs and some excellent writing.
http://www.doubletakemagazine.org
The granddaddy of them all, Magnum, is still
alive and kicking as an agency after 60 years rancorous
operation. Though its website is somewhat klutzy, if you spend a
little time navigating (feel & click), a good gallery of
members' photos is eventually found.
http://www.magnumphotos.com
I was born in 1936, just a month after the first
issue of Life Magazine was published. So I felt a little
depressed when "my magazine" ceased weekly publication in 1972.
At Life's website (http://www.lifemag.com),
nostalgia buffs can view biographies and portfolios by all of
the magazine's great photographers and use a terrific search
engine to find covers for a specific date or subject. The site
suffers from link breakdowns a little but overall, is quite
good.
Finally, one of my favorite sites as a
photographer is The Nocturnes (http://www.thenocturnes.com),
an eclectic place having to do with night photography and other
activities that take place after the sun sets.
This isn't a complete list of photographic
sites, just some of my favorites and a couple of new ones
stimulated by On Magazine (http://www.onmagazine.com). |