‘Faking It’ at the Met, a Photography Exhibition That photograph is one of more than 200 on display in “Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop,” an absorbing if not revelatory exhibition at the . Organized by Mia Fineman, an assistant curator in the museum’s department of photography, the show offers abundant evidence that photographers have been cheating since shortly after the medium’s invention almost two centuries ago. The types of images Ms. Fineman has in mind are not those that involve staging or altering scenes in front of the camera. She is not concerned with whether Roger Fenton moved the cannonballs in his photographs of Crimean War battlefields. In Ms. A technical problem in the 19th century, for example, was that photographic emulsions were disproportionately sensitive to blue and violet light, resulting almost always in overexposed skies. But, you might ask, is tweaking to achieve more realistic effects in the same category as flimflam? To make sense of it all, you need to understand that Ms. (Ms.
The New Nikon D600 HDSLR: Bridging the Gap Between Professional and Enthusiast | BH inDepth Nikon has just announced the D600, their most compact full-frame DSLR, featuring a 24.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, EXPEED 3 image processing system, low-light sensitivity to ISO 25600 and a continuous shooting rate up to 5.5 full-resolution frames per second. In addition to image quality, the D600 also features the ability to share your imagery wirelessly with the optional WU-1b Wireless Mobile Adapter. This camera bridges the gap between professional-level DSLRs and more affordable cropped-sensor DSLRs by integrating a large FX sensor into a much more compact body than other full-frame models, allowing you the convenience of carrying a lighter weight body without sacrificing on quality. FX-Format 24.3 Megapixel CMOS Sensor and EXPEED 3 Image Processor At the heart of this camera lies a large full frame imaging sensor that is powered by a powerful processing system. Intelligent Metering and Focus Systems High Definition Video Recording Design and Compatibility Wireless Compatibility
Nikon Small World Photography Competition: Using Photomicrography Behold is Slate's brand-new photo blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here. David Maitland Two inventions that revolutionized the world, the microscope and camera, offer us glimpses of worlds that were previously inaccessible to humans. This trove of images comes from the Nikon Small World Competition, an image contest Nikon hosts every year, open to both professionals and amateurs. It all sounds, well, technical, which is probably what is important when you judge a contest of entrants that include dryhead marine sedimentary agate, cholesteric liquid crystals, mosquito heads, and … butterfly tongues? According to the contest guidelines, “A photomicrograph is a technical document that can be of great significance to science or industry. Douglas Moore/University of Wisconsin. Ken Ishikawa/Tokyo Institute of Technology. W. Harold Taylor. Philippe Verrees. Tomasz Kozielec/Nicolaus Copernicus University.
Department of Records - Photo Gallery The New York City Department of Records and Information Services announced the addition of 30,000 photographs to its on-line gallery. Some of the more unusual images from this series depict political groups monitored by the New York City Police Department's "Alien Squad." These photos range from Communist Party rallies in Madison Square Garden to the Nazi summer retreat in Yaphank, Long Island run by the German American Bund. See all the Alien Squad photos. DOR staff and researchers from New York University's Tamiment Library are collaborating to identify people in the photos. If you recognize someone, please let us know by emailing commissioner@records.nyc.gov. These are among more than 2,000 photographs added from the NYPD departmental files and Emergency Services Unit (ESU), dating from 1928 to 1941. With this new group of photos, the online gallery now totals more than 900,000--the largest collection of historical images of New York City in the world. Enter the Online Gallery
Lori Nix diorama photography: Creating post-apocalyptic, tiny dioramas. Behold is Slate's brand-new photo blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and Tumblr. Learn what this space is all about here. Lori Nix. Lori Nix thinks she may be "a little obsessed" with the apocalypse. Citing her strong ability to "build and construct [her] world rather than seek out an existing world," Nix would rather not utilize digital manipulation to create her post-apocalyptic futures, choosing instead to build tiny, painstakingly detailed dioramas. Modeling her dioramas after common spaces such as libraries, bars, and beauty shops (among others), Nix hypothesizes what it might be like to live in a city freed of its inhabitants, where "flora, fauna, and insects mix with the detritus of high and low culture," giving us a glimpse into what could very well be our near future; that is, if all those movies Nix watched as a child were right.
Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Josephine Baker: Eve Arnold's Portraits of Hollywood Stars Behold is Slate's brand-new photo blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and on Tumblr. Learn what this space is all about here. Eve Arnold/Magnum Photos. The diverse and lengthy career of photographer Eve Arnold, who passed away earlier this year, not long before her 100th birthday, includes an extraordinary collection of intimate imagery of celebrities. Arnold was often hired as a stills photographer on film sets, focusing equally on moments between shots as on what unfolded in front of the movie cameras. Marlene Dietrich was the first celebrity Arnold was hired to shoot during Dietrich's recording session at Columbia Records in 1952. Arnold photographed Monroe many times.
Chernobyl Journal: Day One | Timm Suess – Photography This page collects the first day of my Chernobyl Journal, chronicling a two-day trip through the Chernobyl zone of exclusion in March 2009. Prologue: From Basel to Riga Our first stop on our way to Chernobyl was Riga in Latvia. It was an unusual stopover, as Riga is not on the way between Switzerland and Kyiv, but the flight connection was much cheaper. It also gave us the chance to meet with our fellow travelers, René and Laura, both living in Riga. First, an Russian underground karaoke bar. The second place was a small, cave-like club which on Tuesday features a popular lesbian night. Kyiv On the next day, we left Riga behind us and traveled to Kyiv (that’s Kiev in Ukrainian). [Listen to the Soviet Elevator of Doom] The Road to Chernobyl Our tour to Chernobyl was scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Entry into the zone of exclusion is only allowed with proper authorizations and a tour guide. We were finally picked up at 9:00; meanwhile we had eaten breakfast at a local eatery. Chernobyl Town
Leon Borensztein: Awkward family portraits (PHOTOS). Behold is Slate's brand-new photo blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and Tumblr. Learn what this space is all about here. Leon Borensztein. While Awkward Family Photos are a popular meme, photographer Leon Borensztein’s new book, American Portraits 1979-1989, is a thoughtful culmination of 13 years of taking portraits throughout America. The series is compelling and nuanced while maintaining a strong dose of humor. Originally from Poland, Borensztein moved from Israel to the United States in 1977 to attend graduate school at the San Francisco Art Institute. “When I came to the U.S., I had a certain vision of America and the American Dream. Because he didn’t want the subjects to present themselves differently, he would explain after taking his pictures what the second camera was for. Bornsztein chose not to remain in contact with his subjects, because “… my photographs were a momentary glimpse into their lives.
Dina Litovsky: Documenting bachelorette parties (PHOTOS). Behold is Slate's brand-new photo blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and Tumblr. Learn what this space is all about here. Dina Litovsky. Dina Litovsky’s background in social psychology isn’t a prerequisite for shooting bachelorette parties—but it doesn’t hurt. “The primary theme throughout my work is public performances and interactions,” Litovsky said. Litovsky went to her first bachelorette party in 2007, an event where “15 girls rented a hotel room, put on lingerie, and danced on a bed sprinkled with rose petals.” “[Bachelorette parties] do follow a certain prescribed ritual,” Litovsky said. Bachelorette, as well as Litovsky’s other work, including Untag This Photo, “explore self-representation of women in the digital age.” “I would think they are especially voyeuristic for the male population, as this is a glimpse of something that most men haven’t witnessed before,” Litovsky said.
Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe: Grand Canyon Images Then and Now (PHOTOS). Behold is Slate's brand-new photo blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @beholdphotos and Tumblr. Learn what this space is all about here. Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe/Lisa Sette Gallery/Etherton Gallery. Photographers Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe are fascinated by time’s imprint on natural wonders. In Reconstructing the View: The Grand Canyon Photographs of Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, published in October by University of California Press, the duo spent five years focusing on past and present images of the Grand Canyon to create a whimsical view of one of America’s most popular attractions. Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe/Lisa Sette Gallery/Etherton Gallery. In the book, Klett and Wolfe take a playful look at rephotography—a tool used in scientific research as a means of tracking elemental change in the environment by taking photographs from the same precise locations over time.
Anne Hardy creates intricate sets that blur the lines between fiction and reality (PHOTOS). Anne Hardy/Maureen Paley, London. Saying photographer Anne Hardy has an eye for detail doesn’t adequately describe the intricacy of her work. Each one of her photographs gives the viewer a sense of having just stumbled onto an event shortly after humanity has been zapped into oblivion. Hardy, whose next exhibition opens in April at Maureen Paley in London, begins her process with the kernel of an idea for each image. Via email, Hardy stated: “I am interested in discarded material and objects that have lost their original purpose. … Sometimes things become interesting with layers of use and damage and take on a new quality. …” In her East London studio, Hardy spends months constructing and arranging each set with items that take on a surreal quality. In Untitled VI, groups of beakers and bundles of test tubes combine with similarly shaped but thematically disparate items in a bunker-like room. About the work that goes into her photographs, Hardy explained:
Marian Drew: Photographing still lifes of dead animals in Australia (PHOTOS). Marian Drew. Marian Drew is often contacted by people interested in giving her dead animals. Blame it on Drew’s elaborate still-life studies of dead animals (mostly roadkill) called “Still Life /Australiana (2003-2009).” “As soon as I had the first exhibition, people said, ‘I have this beautiful bird, would you like to do something with it?’ Drew was inspired to create the series after visiting a museum in Germany that exhibited paintings of dead animals. “You sort of grow up with roadkill in Australia, and people—me included—try desperately to ignore it,” said Drew. Drew initially started photographing the animals in groups, similar to classic paintings that depict a bounty collected from a hunting trip. Photographing the animals in a kitchen setting was also meant to add meaning to each animal’s life. The kitchen also helped to bring the idea of death—both the animals’ and our own—into the work. Drew shoots film “for all my serious work” using a 6-by-7 medium format camera.
Jon Crispin: Suitcases from the Willard Asylum for the Insane (PHOTOS). Jon Crispin. Photographer Jon Crispin first laid eyes on the Willard Asylum for the Insane in the early 1980s. A friend who was a preservationist asked Crispin if he had ever seen the abandoned building during a drive back from a wedding by Seneca Lake in New York. Crispin remembers clearly the moment they drove up to the 1860s building. “It was the most evocative thing I had ever seen,” Crispin recalled. But Crispin’s fascination with the Willard Asylum was only beginning. “I was immediately compelled by the stories they told,” said Crispin. It was a fascinating, often emotional project for Crispin. “With this project, I felt a great reverence for these people and a respect for them,” began Crispin. “Part of my role as a photographer is to be able to go and see things other people can’t always see and my goal is to be able to represent these items in a way that has a positive and emotional impact on people.” “Some of the stuff is funny. “Willard was a unique place,” began Crispin.