The Year in Pictures by The New York Times

2009: The year in pictures by The New York Times.

Platon - Portrait of Power

British born American based portrait photography Platon was commission by the New Yorker magazine to do a series of portraits of heads of states during the last United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
Platon is a great artist and his pictures are world class for world leaders.
Click on the image to left to get a link to a multimedia of his pictures.

Video of John Limbert, American Hostage from 30 Years Ago

This video is from Ayatollah Khamenei's website showing former American hostage John Limbert speaking Farsi with Ayatollah Khamenei. Limbert at the time was working for the U.S. embassy as the Iranian students took over the complex. Ayatollah Khamenei was not yet Iran's Supreme Leader.

13 Aban in Tehran - 30 years later

A great photo by Abedin Taherkenareh on the cover of today's The New York Times Lens blog.

National Geographic - Amazing Chimps Photo

In this amazing photograph taken by Monica Szczupider, show the burial of a chimp named Dorothy.
After a hunter killed her mother, Dorothy was sold as a “mascot” to an amusement park in Cameroon. For the next 25 years she was tethered to the ground by a chain around her neck, taunted, teased, and taught to drink beer and smoke cigarettes for sport. In May 2000 Dorothy was rescued and relocated. As her health improved, her deep kindness surfaced. She mothered an orphaned chimp named Bouboule and became a close friend to many others, including Jacky, the group’s alpha male, and Nama, another amusement-park refugee. On September 23, 2008, Dorothy, who was in her late 40s, died of congestive heart failure. (The story in National Geographic magazine blog)

Documenting Pollution by Chris Jordan

Chris Jordan's photographs of albatross chicks were made in Fall of 2009 on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, Jordan did move not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs. Nor anything was manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent. To see Jordan's pictures please visit his site here.

In Whose Name? by Abbas

In Whose Name? is a collection of photographs taken by Magnum photographer Abbas from the Muslim world since the events of the 9/11. A selection of Abbas' work can be seen on Magnum in Motion website here.

World Press Photo and 2010 World Cup

The people at the World Press Photo have partnered with other folks as they get ready for the World Cup 2010. The upcoming World Cup will be the first ever in the continent of Africa. They have created a site called Road To 2010. Check it out here.

Georgia by Magnum Photographers

Follow ten of Magnum photographers in a photo journey through Georgia in this website which includes a book.

Lauren Greenfield leaves VII Photo

Photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, a member of the elite photo agency VII Photo since 2002, has left the agency.
“It was a really exciting group of people and I’m really proud of all we did there,” Greenfield said in an interview Monday. “But my work and world has changed in the last seven years.”
Greenfield said she will join a new multi-platform management and production company run by her husband, Frank Evers, who was VII’s managing director from 2005 to 2008. The new company will be launching in a few weeks, Greenfield said.
Greefield's Website: www.laurengreenfield.com.

With the departure of Greenfield and last year's exit of Eugene Richards, VII membership has shifted away from social documentary work and toward conflict photojournalism. VII members now include Marcus Bleasdale, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Joachim Ladefoged, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, Franco Pagetti, Stephanie Sinclair and John Stanmeyer, as well as the archive of Alexandra Boulat, who died in 2007. Twelve additional photographers are part of the VII Network program.

Book on Iran - 44 Days (More David Burnett)

Here is an article on NPR and more photos from David Burnett's book on the Islamic Revolution titled, 44 Days. Click on the image to get the link.

At the UN General Assembly

Today I ran into Hasan Sarbakhshian outside the United Nations in New York City. We spent the day waiting in line (over 1:30 hours) to get U.N. credentials. We then checked the empty General Assembly room where we played politicians!
The 64th General Assembly at U.N. will start on Wednesday. Iranian delegations are arriving on Tuesday afternoon.

Cobis Turns 20

Corbis turns 20 this year. In Corbis' 20 years, it has not made any profit for his founder Bill Gates. Yes THAT Bill Gates. Gates privately owns this corporation which is the second largest stock image agency in the world followed by Getty Images.
To commemorate this anniversary, Corbis has put together a special site (click here). I am one of Corbi's contributors in New York. The photo on the left happens to be one of mine!

Ahmadinejad First Foreign Press Interview After his Reelection

Click on the photo to view the full interview on the New York Times website.

Book on Iran - 44 Days

David Burnett, one of the founders of Contact Press Images, spent 44 days in Iran during the Iranian Islamic Revolution. David's latest book is a witness to his documentation of the bloody events that took place during his stay.
I spoke with David during this year's Visa pour l'Image. David is a master photographer who is also one of the nicests people you will ever meet. His memories of the streets of Tehran and phrases to get around after 30 years was impressive.
Here is a link about his book on the Digital Journalist site. Here is also a link on his own blog about the book.

A Brief History of Photo Fakery

Interesting article and slideshow in the New York Times on fake and staged photos. of course Iran is included!

Rolling Shutter........I didn't even know.

New York Times Article - Lament for a Dying Field: Photojournalism

Here is an article in today's New York Times about the current state of "photojournalism" in the world.
I do believe that Iranian photographers are not suffering from the same issues, since most news gathering agencies are supported by the government.

Moon Landing - 40 years

NASA, released newly digitized images of man's moon landing on the 40th anniversary of the voyage.
More images:
Check here for a link to The New York Times slideshow.
Check here for NASA's own images.

NY Times Lens Blog - Behrouz Mehri

Today's The New York Times Lens Blog starts with a photo of AFP's Behrouz Mehri. The Times also took the time to make a mention of Mehri's front cover image from a month ago.
Click here to see the Lens blog.
Here is a link to his website.

Our World Now by Reuters

If you have not seen this series of images by Reuters photographers from around the world you should. You can also buy the book.

Here is a photo by Morteza Nikoubazl. In fact Morteza has two photos back to back.

Click on the photo for the link.

Lens - A New Photo Blog

Introducing LENS, a new photo blog by The New York Times.
While The New York Times has been cutting back sections of its printed newspaper, they are now introducing online sections with photography, video and visual journalism.

Newsweek Magazine New Design

This week, the Newsweek magazine came out with a redesigned cover and website.

War in Underwear by David Guttenfelder

Tokyo based AP photographer, David Guttenfelder, photo of American soldiers fighting Taliban in Afghanistan made the front page of The New York Times today.

What is interesting about this photo is the soldier on the left is wearing "I loved NY" boxer shorts. The soldier was sleeping as the fighting started. He only had time to put on his armored vest and helmet as he rushed to help his fellow soldiers.

100 Eyes - On-Line Magazine

100 Eyes Magazine is an online source for documentary photography and workshops. In their latest issue, there is a nice picture story on children by Newsha Tavakolian.

World Press Photo Joop Masterclass 2009.

Congratulations to Iranian photographer, Ali Akbar Shirjian, for being selected for Joop Swart Masterclass 2009.
You can see some of Shirjian's work here and here.

Click here to see the other photographers selected for the Joop Swart Masterclass.

Magnum Project - The Places We Live

The Places We Live is a project done by Magnum on the growing population in urban areas living in slums.

Canon v. Nikon or Iran v. USA

The left photo taken by Pete Souza, White House official press photographer and the right photo was taken by Hossien Fatemi of Fars News.
The winner is Canon!

White House Photographer - Pete Souza

Magnum Multimedia by Thomas Dworzak

A very simple yet nicely done multimedia piece in Magnum by Thomas Dworzak.

The Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize for 'Feature Photography' goes to Damon Winter of The New York Times and the prize for 'Breaking News Photography' to Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald.

Related Links:
Damon Winter slide-show on The NY Times
Damon Winter website
Patrick Farrell story on Miami Herald
The Pulitzer Prize

Visura - On-line Magazine

Check out Visura, an on-line photography magazine.
In this issue make sure to check Ed Kashi's project "Three."

PhotoShop?

Looks like this Iranian fighter jet has three wings thanks to PhotoShop. Photo taken by Fars News agency. Click here for the image.

Today (two days later), they (?) fixed it. The jet is back to looking normal. The old (above) link is no longer working, so check it out here.

NPPA Image Disqualification

A photo taken by Danish photographer Klavs Bo Christensen (http://www.klavs.dk/) in Haiti and submitted to NPPA's Best of Photojournalism, was disqualified for use of PhotoShop. The judges made the call after reviewing the RAW version side by side with the PhotoShop version. Read the article here.

Introducing - Morteza Nikoubazl

I always admire how, Morteza Nikoubazl, Reuters freelancer photographer in Iran, can turn a routine news event into a great photo feature.
You can click here to see more of Morteza Nikoubazl's work on the internet.

Hubble Telescope - World's Camera

The kind of photographs that the Hubble telescope has been providing the world is simply amazing and priceless. Here is an interesting article in The New York Times and if you click on the image (on the left), you will see a multimedia piece about NASA's Hubble program.

Introducing - Tim Mantoani Photography

In December of 2006, photographer, Tim Mantoani, started a project called "Behind Photographs." Tim Mantoani's photo series is about some of the most impressive and historic pictures and the photographers who took captured them. For this portrait series Mantoani used a 20" by 24" Polaroid camera and documented over 100 photographers.
You can view Mantoani amazing portraits here and here.

Luna - On-line photography magazine

Check out Luna, an on-line photography magazine. Make sure the browse through Lunatic. Luna's creative contemporary photojournalism.

Multimedia - War in Gaza by David Gilkey of NPR

NPR's photographer, David Gilkey's journal from the war in Gaza. David was in Israel as the war started and went to Egypt to enter Gaza from the other side.

A Fresh Concept to Tell a Story

It has been months since the historic inauguration of Barack Obama, but I just found this. I think this is a fresh way of doing a well-covered story. I guess this is how one must think when thousands of photographers trying to get the same pictures. Good work work by photographer Romain Blanquart, whose pictures are distributed by Zuma Press zReportage, for the Detriot Free Press. You can see the slideshow by clicking here.

Obama and Khatami - Face to face in Turkey?

According to a Turkish report (click on the picture), Mohammad Khatami, Iran's former president may come face to face with Barack Obama, U.S. president during a meeting of United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in Turkey this coming week. This is Obama's first trip to a Muslim nation.

New York Times - Faces of G20 Summit Protesters

Interesting article and photographs in The New York Times of protesters over the G20 Summit in UK.

World Picture News (WpN) shuts down

After five years in New York city and hundreds of contributing photographers in 70 countries the World Picture News shuts down.
In an email to their photographers, Brian J Miller, WpN's CEO, wrote "WpN is another victim of the severe economic downturn, along with most of our clients and many of you. Our assignment revenue has dropped dramatically in the last five months and it simply does not make financial sense to continue supporting the losses we are sustaining with no improvement in sight. "
WpN management is keeping their website online and plans to continue selling their archive.

Life Magazine Comes to Life

Life magazine was the flagship of Time Inc. for documentary and photojournalism. However, as people's interests shifted more towards entertainment news, magazines such as People replaced this franchise.
Life magazine is now back in business in a different and not so glorious form in cyberspace. Check it out here.

Introducing - Burn Magazine

Burn is an on-line magazine created by Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey. Burn accepts submissions to showcase your work so feel free to apply. Burn emphases nice photography and great examples of multimedia. Burn is a great resource for young photographers.
Burn also offers a $10,000 emerging photographer fund (read here). Deadline is April 1, 2009.

Eyes of History 2009 - White House News Photographers Association

Click on the image to view the winners of White House News Photographers Association, Eyes of History 2009.

NPPA: Best of Photojournalism 2009

Check NPPA's Best of Photojournalism here as the winners are announced daily.

On-Line Magazine

Vewd is an on-line documentary magazine with some very interesting work. They also have contests for students. It is worth checking it from time to time.
www.vewd.org

Happy 1388

Best wishes and Happy New Year and Happy Nawruz.

Even U.S. President Barack Obama has a Nawruz message.

And Here is Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Nawruz message: