Stan Stearns dies; captured immortal image at JFK’s funeral
“One exposure on a roll of 36 exposures,” Stan Stearns marveled decades later. The young news photographer, in one instinctive click, captured one of the most poignant and reproduced images of the past half-century: little John F. Kennedy Jr., grief-stricken, saluting his father’s coffin as it rolled by on a caisson. (WaPo)
Breathtaking But Fake
Leading today’s Washington Post print edition (you remember those, don’t you?) is this beautiful photo by Bill O’Leary of the 14th Street bridge, accompanying coverage of the 30th anniversary of the Air Florida disaster. But competing for interest with the image itself is the lengthy explanation in the caption that what you see isn’t entirely real:
A jetliner flies high over a tranquil scene at the 14th Street bridge, where 30 years ago winter weather and human error conspired to bring down Air Florida Flight 90 in a disaster that claimed 78 lives. This image is a composite created by taking several photos and combining them with computer software to transcend the visual limitations of standard photography.
It’s not exactly moving the pyramids, and the disclosure is front and center, but does it bother you that this is going on in the mainstream press?
Mean, indeed
Photos by Rodolfo Gonzalez, Jay Janner, Ricardo B. Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN and Terry Hagerty BASTROP ADVERTISER
Fire crews continue to battle several fires across Central Texas Tuesday. Winds are expected to be lighter today, but low humidity could help flames spread quickly, forecasters say. There is no chance of rain.
GALLERY: Japanese photojournalist Ryuichi Hirokawa has chronicled the aftermath of the disasters that rocked Japan in March. (via NPR)
Residents of tornado-stricken Joplin, Missouri leave a note for rescue workers. Photo Credit: Adam Wisneski / Tulsa World via AP via MSNBC
Soon the dog days
Elliott Erwitt’s very own personal best at TIME Lightbox
(The most interesting one is the one that is the next one, I hope. -Elliott)
National Geographic’s May issue shows the impact of flooding in a densely populated, low-lying country barraged by seasonal monsoons and cyclones, and situated in the Ganges Delta — the world’s largest delta.
Bangladesh: A Present-Day Water World : The Picture Show : NPR
(Photo: Jonas Bendiksen/National Geographic)
1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles
(Garry Winogrand)
We’re numb here as the clock nears 4:30 a.m., and we’re not quite sure what to do. The deaths of Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington on Tripoli Street still seem unreal. Bryan [Denton] just walked off from the little space we’ve been huddled in, working. He’ll sleep soon, I hope. The work kept us busy…
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH
Tripoli Street, Misurata, an area of some of the most severe and sustained fighting in Libya. A few hours ago.
On Wednesday, Chris Hondros, a photojournalist for Getty Images, was killed along with Tim Hetherington, co-director of the Academy Award nominated documentary Restrepo, in the city of Misrata while covering battles between rebels and Libyan government forces.
On a January evening in 2005, while on patrol with U.S. troops in the northwestern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, Hondros captured this memorable image of a little girl, covered in the blood of her dead parents.
“We share a huge visual memory bank, mostly through painting and other images in history,” he said. “I think when a modern photograph taps into those, sometimes very subliminally, it makes people respond.” (Watch a slideshow narrated by Hondros in 2007, via NPR)
Japan And Haiti: Picturing The Unimaginable
Though their respective tragedies are half a world apart, the stories these pictures tell of destruction and loss are eerily similar.
Danfung Dennis, a “cinematic journalist” who just won a documentary award at Sundance for his work from the frontlines of Afganistan, has announced a new system for shooting news video.
Based on a Canon DSLR and a lens that captures an entire human field of vision, the system—Condition One—is intended to immerse the viewer in what they are seeing.
“How do you make a picture of something that’s basically nonexistent?”
A Room Without A View: NPR Photographer Frames Japan’s Wreckage
An official in a radiation protection suit scans an evacuated woman and her dog with a geiger counter in Koriyama city in Fukushima prefecture March 16, 2011. (Ken Shimizu/AFP/Getty Images from The Big Picture - Boston.com)
