Interactive Portraits of China

great portrait series on china - click the map to see pics from each
province ...more

MP's motion backing public photography in UK

"An Early Day Motion has been tabled by an MP fighting to protect the rights of photographers.

Former journalist Austin Mitchell, Labour member for Great Grimsby, put forward the motion entitled 'Photography in Public Areas', calling for support for snapping away in public. He has so far been backed with 107 signatures.

In it, he calls on the House to "deplore the apparent rise in the number of reported incidents in which the police, police community support officers or wardens attempt to stop street photography""...more

Photographer Project around China

With media coverage for China now focused on the Beijing Olympics, to provide an alternative view of the Chinese and what's on their mind, Digital Railroad member Adrian Fisk makes his "iSpeak China" story set available exclusively in the US through Marketplace.

"For the last few centuries the west has dominated economics, politics and culture. But now there is a shift towards the east, in particular China, a country of 1.4 billion people of which we know little about. It is the young Chinese who will inherit this new found global influence, but who they and what do they think about life. I have just returned from a 12500 km journey through China to find an answer to this question. I looked for young Chinese aged from 16 – 30 years, gave them a piece of paper and simply told them they could write what ever they wanted to on the piece of paper. The results were fascinating."

Each image includes a brief bio about each person depicted in the series and a translation from the Chinese (where needed) for each quote or reflection provided by the subject.

.....more

Olympic Reporting

"Journalists are having trouble going about their work in advance of the Beijing Olympics. Several reporters, photographers and TV camera operators have suffered harassment, from both police and citizens."...more

Behind the Lens – the ex-street kids of Saigon: book and exhibition

The problem of street children has become one of the most pressing social issues in Vietnam. Whilst some of the children are on the streets due to more traditional causes such as the loss or divorce of parents and poverty, there are also causes which are unique to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. These causes, related to the recent rapid economic growth in Vietnam, include families migrating to the bigger cities from rural areas to supply services such as shoe shining and the sale of small goods that urban people are unwilling to do.

To help street children break out of their lives on the street a number of shelters have opened. One of them, the Green Bamboo Warm Shelter, provides care, education and assistance to street boys in Ho Chi Minh City. The Green Bamboo Shelter helps children who have been living on the streets to learn the skills they need to be independent. Younger children receive food in exchange for attending school, and older children can stay for up to two years while they undergo vocational training. There are currently 30 children from a variety of backgrounds living in the shelter.

Working with the boys in the shelter, we wanted to show their lives from their own viewpoint rather than relying on outsiders, as well as helping the boys to develop a new skill. The photos in this exhibition are taken from the perspective of young boys and teenagers.

Kerrilee Barrett graduated with an MA in Photography from the University of Bolton, UK, in 2006, after studying on a joint programme with Dalian Medical University in China. During her Master's degree, she became interested in using participatory photography, to enable people to tell their own stories using photography rather than just showing the photographer's view.

This exhibition has been made possible by the staff and kids at the Green Bamboo Shelter in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in conjunction with ILA Community Network.

4,000 U.S. Deaths, and a Handful of Images

"If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers." ...more

Flickring Out

What will become of photojournalism in an age of bytes and amateurs? ...more

The Global Lives Project seeks volunteers

"The Global Lives Project is planning a shoot in China in September 2008. We will be recording the life story and 24 hours in the life of a as-yet-to-be-selected Chinese person.

We are a nonprofit educational arts organization with more than 100 collaborators in 8 countries and we are looking for volunteers in China to participate in the project. While participation will not be remunerated, the project offers broad, worldwide exposure for collaborators' work and the opportunity to be a part of a growing and dynamic collective of creative and socially-minded filmmakers." ...more

Lecturer in Interactive Media and Photo-imaging Ulster

The postholder will contribute to the teaching and development of media courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This will include particular responsibility for production modules on photo-imaging and interactive media (Dreamweaver and Flash). Applicants must have relevant teaching experience in higher education and must be able to provide evidence of ability to contribute to and develop teaching and research in interactive media arts (with special reference to digital media and photo-imaging)....more

Photography Lecturer Post in Swindon

"We are seeking an enthusiastic, experienced photography practitioner/lecturer/tutor to deliver both theory and practice on our Foundation Degree and level 3 programme. You will have experience of teaching at HE level and curriculum development, including contextual and critical studies, digital photography and have current knowledge of the photographic industry. You will hold a teaching qualification or be prepared to work towards one. Interview date will be 3rd September 2008....more

Sichuan Earthquake Charity Photo Projection

Multimedia Seminar

Brian Storm (Media Storm), Dan Chung (The Guardian), Dirck Halstead (Digital Journalist) and David Campbell (Durham Advanced Centre for Photography) all met in Dalian, China for a four day workshop/seminar with Photo MA students to discuss multimedia visual journalism as a future model for photojournalists. The workshop finished with a seminar debate (pictured right) which was recorded and will be available from this site soon.

Nick and Rui Publish in Bangladesh

Using contacts made on the the course, current Photo MA students Rui Pestana and Nick Kozak together published a photo essay of there images from the Sichuan earthquake in the New Nation.

Grace Goes to Corsica

2007 Photo MA graduate Grace Gelder has been selected for a 2 month
residency in the Mediterranean Institute of Photography in Corsica
as part of the art4eu scheme. She gets paid £1000 a month to do a project based in disadvantaged communities.

Grace won the residency out of 1800 people who applied, judged by an international
panel judged. Tough place to spend next winter Grace!

Photo MA Graduates get Two out of Three

Two Photo MA graduates have won grants from The London School of Economics photography initiative on poverty and its representation, past and present. Bolton graduate Miskka Henner and Dalian graduate Sharron Lovell were two of the three professional photographers who won grants of £2,000 to produce new work. The third award went to Jessica Dimmock, from the VII network based in New York. The pictures will be exhibited publicly at LSE and published in Global Civil Society 2009....more

Becoming Chinese

Panos photographer Carolyn Drake and writer Ilan Greenberg have been awarded the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize for their project on China's Uighurs. The $20,000 award is given annually by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University....more

National Press Photographers Association Prasies Photo MA

In the NPPA Digest - 3 Jul 2008 to 4 Jul 2008, Photographer, editor and critic Dirck Halstead writes an article entitled 'Photojournalism and China, the good and the bad '. He begins with "the Bad" a critism of the Shenyang Photo festival (earlier highlighted in this blog) and then goes on,

picture: Dirck works with Photo MA students on a multi media workshop in Dalian



"However, during the week in Shen Yang, I met Yang Xiaoguang, who is
considered the most important force for photojournalism education in
China. He, along with Dave Clark, run a wonderful MA program at Dalian
University on the coast. Dalian was as good as Shen Yang was bad. This
week they held an international workshop in multimedia. They had
invited Brian Storm of MediaStorm, Dan Chung of the Guardian, and
several other leaders in international multimedia to teach a three day
course in multimedia for newspapers. I did a seminar on the Platypus
workshop, and Brian taught the techniques of audio and its integration
in web multimedia. This was a first class
course, and the students were both international and Chinese. Many of
China's top newspapers were represented by photographers and editors.
Dean Xianoguang will be working with some of these newspapers to bring
the first Platypus Workshop to China in the months ahead."

VJ is Ian Parry Winner

Congratulations to Philippine photographer Vicente Jaime Villafranca for winning this year's Ian Parry Scholarship. VJ was a student of Dalian Photo MA course leader D J Clark in the second batch of the World Press Photo seminar programme in Manila. VJ wins £2,500 towards an on going project and a final place in the World Press Photo Masterclass nominees....more

Manipulated Videos Become More Common

"A bumper week for photographic manipulation: Iran throws in an extra
missile for good measure; Poynter reports on some old-fashioned
manipulation in a photograph from Zimbabwe, and the Chigago Tribune
suggests we'll need to be watching video more critically as well." ...more

CHINA GOES The Rise of a New World Power

"Opening Friday, 26 July, at 5:00 p.m., by Cees Hendrikse, connoisseur, collector and curator of contemporary Chinese art, with the photographers Koen Wessing and Niels Stomps present. Seven photographers reflect on the unprecedented changes now taking place in China's economy" ...more

Intimate China

As world eyes fall on China ahead of the upcoming Olympic games in 2008, how do you see China portrayed in the media? What types of stories do you hear? What do you know and what would you like to know?

A documentary film by Photo MA graduate Boris Austin about the making of a 30 Page "China Special" for Dutch Magazine Onze Wereld. The project, curated by Photo MA visiting lecturer Pieter vander Houwen and Boris, uses photo essays created by MA students and graduates to give a new perspective of China to a western audience.

See the film on the Onze Wereld website (this has bugs so maybe try the Vimeo link)...here
See the film on Vimeo ...here
See the slide show ...here
Download the magazine PDF ...here

Photojournalism and Why it Matters

"Jon Levy, founder of Foto8 speaks about what Foto8 stands for, how it came to be, and why photojournalism matters" video podcast. ...more

What's Next for Photojournalism?

"There should be little doubt now that the changing media landscape has deeply affected traditional news photography. Increasingly, photographers at many newspapers are being let go or given reduced work hours. For those lucky enough to have a job, the workload has become more demanding. The bottom line is a focus on productivity, with a slight nod toward creativity as long as it doesn't interfere with getting the work out." ...more

Students Discuss the Earthquake Experience

Ten Photo MA graduates and current students who all photographed the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake came together at the Lvshun campus in Dalian to discuss their various experiences in context to their studies. In particular the issue of imaging suffering. Professor David Campbell from the University of Durham, UK, and Professor Yang Xiaoguang from Dalian College of Image Art, China, also conducted a series of interviews which will be turned into a film for future students and the wider photographic community.

Photojournalists Are Getting Artsier -- But Is That What Audiences Want?

"Walter Benjamin once suggested that there is no single, absolute, or correct interpretation of a picture, since every viewer brings something unique to the process. At the same time, photojournalistic conventions often constrain how a viewer responds emotionally and intellectually to pictures." ...more

Flickr Collection On Getty Images

"Getty Images And Flickr Announce Exclusive Partnership - Getty Images to invite Flickr members to participate in a Flickr Collection on Getty Images." ...more

Anne Darling Publishes Final Project

Photo MA graduate Anne Darling has had her final book project on Female Imams in North West China turned into a multimedia project and published in Saudi Aramco World Magazine. China’s Hui Muslim women inhabit religious communities, homes and social spheres shaped not only by Islam but also by China’s Confucian culture and its Communist secular state. The photographs indicate how they have come up with unique strategies to help themselves flourish in these circumstances. ...more

Shenyang Festival Disaster

Photo MA students exhibited and visited the first Shenyang international photojournalism festival held in North East China. It is not clear what happened during the festival but unofficially it seemed to have been canceled on the day of its opening. There were few visitors, lights were left off in the exhibition halls and images appeared mixed up in the wrong exhibitions. Above left is a picture of the student exhibition, above right are three images rescued by students Rui Pestana and Nick Kozak of the earthquake which appeared in the wrong exhibition with the wrong captions.

John Moore Special

This month the Digital Journalist, edited by MA Photo visiting lecturer Dirck Halstead, is running a speacial feature on the work of John Moore. The galleries and videos demonstrate a successful contemporary mobile journalist at work...more

The Cloud is Falling

" Vincent Laforet says there's plenty of blue sky above - and the possibilities are endless." Laforet discusses the future of photojournalism and how to survive the current changes....more

New History of Bert Hardy

"Bert Hardy was the star troubleshooting photojournalist on Picture Post, Britain’s most influential picture magazine. But a story he shot in 1950 during the Korean war seemingly precipitated its decline and fall. On the seventieth anniversary of the launch of the mass-market weekly Graham Harrison turns back the pages of photographic history and looks forward to a reassessment of Hardy’s career." ...more

Amateur Photographers are Shaking up the Professional Industry

"Amateur photographers are shaking up the global market for licensed images far quicker than video is for broadcasters, and even Bill Gates's privately held image bank, Corbis, is having to reinvent itself." ...more

Who Murdered Trent Keegan?

"Whoever beat Trent Keegan to death probably wanted his computer. But why would robbers leave money in his pockets?" ...more

3 Days Left for IPA Photo Competition

"Three Days Left to Enter the IPA Competition. July 15 is the Final Deadline! ...more

A growing number of journalism schools lead students on reporting trips abroad

"At a time when foreign correspondent jobs are disappearing. Still, professors argue that teaching their students the skills for international reporting is more important than ever. "We're kind of bound and determined to prepare a generation of students who are going to be good journalists out there in a global age," says Alan Weisman, an associate professor at the University of Arizona." ...more

Media Freedom at Olympics Pledged

"China will abide by regulations to allow foreign reporters freedom to report at next month's Olympic Games, one of the country's top leaders was quoted as saying Friday." ...more

Newspapers Plan Corrections Over Iran Missile Photo

"It was an arresting image: Four missiles arcing skyward in near perfect symmetry, perhaps a prelude to war. It was ominous. It was also a fake"....more

© Sepah News via AP (top) and AFP (bottom)

What is crime? - National Photography Competition

"Photo competition on harm, injustice and crime launching soon!!

Violent events caused by businesses and the state; hidden violence against women, children and the elderly; the way in which poverty hurts injures, hurts and kills; the impact of environmental pollution - all of these rarely attract the same level of political and public concern as `conventional' crime." ...more

China sacks officials over faked big cat snaps

China has given more than a dozen government officials their marching orders over faked photographs of the highly-endangered South China tiger, Xinhua reports.

Last October, forestry officials in Zhenping county, northern Shaanxi province, published the photos citing them as evidence of the tiger's survival. The animal had not been seen in the wild since 1964, but suddenly posed for local farmer Zhou Zhenglong's digital camera (see pic), earning the photographer a reward of 20,000 yuan (£1,450).

Veteran Fashion Photographer Gives Advice

Chris Moore has been photographing the international fashion shows for more than 50 years. On the first day of haute couture week in Paris, the 'King of the Catwalk' reveals his trade secrets. This is essential advice for anyone yasked with covering a catwalk. ...more

Nick Shows on the Big Screen

Photo MA student Nick Kozak has work entitled "A Trans-Continental Time", photographs from the Trans-Siberian Crossing shown on the BBC Big Screen in Manchester as part of the Bigger Picture Project during June 2008.

The Resurrection of Interactive Narratives

"It’s back! The best multimedia storytelling showcase on the Web, founded by Andrew DeVigal 5 years ago this month, has re-launched under the sponsorship of the Online News Association.

For those of you unfamiliar with IN, Andrew launched the site as a personal bookmarking system to track multimedia packages as he lectured and conducted workshops at The Poynter Institute and other venues around the country. (He later became a journalism professor at San Francisco State University.) " ...more

Boris' Show Keeps Rolling

Photo MA graduate Boris Austin opened a version of his solidified Memories Exhibition with local photographer Zhan Ping at the Echo Books cafe. ...more

Protecting Photographs on the Web from being Stolen

"Digital thieves swipe your photos - and profit from them

In an age when digital photography rules and people post their images online, how can we stop our photos being stolen?" ...more

Shooting The Messenger

"Shooting the Messenger, Al Jazeera's documentary on the deliberate killing and intimidation of journalists in conflict zones, investigates how international reporters became targets." Watch it HERE

Wang Xi to Speak at China Africa Conference

A tutor
Photo MA Tutor Wang Xi is to speak at the China in Africa conference discussing a Chinese photographic representation of Africa.

Grace Exhibits in Wolverhampton

Photo MA graduate Grace Gelder will exhibit her MA graduate work as part of the West Midland Open Exhibition. Work was chosen by the independent panel, Richard Billingham, Dr Rachel Garfield and Alistair Robinson. ...more

Documenting the Beijing Olympics Conference

Date: 12 September 2008 Time: All Day

Finishes: 13 September 2008 Time: All Day

Venue: SOAS Russell Square: College Buildings Room: Khalili Lecture Theatre

This conference, scheduled to take place within weeks of the Olympics, aims to bring together academics, film-makers and writers from the all over the world to have the one of the most immediate discussions of the 2008 Olympics. Alongside the immediate, the conference will also attempt to locate the Beijing Games within Olympic history and to explore the challenges that lie ahead for the movement before the Games move to London in 2012...more

Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed

This show marks the launch of this annual exhibition, presenting the most dynamic new work by visual arts graduates from BA and MA courses across the UK including Photo MA student Boris Austin.

The show runs at the Photographer's Gallery, London, June 21 to July 6...more and link to Boris' project

Becky Mathews in the Ukraine

Becky Mathews, one of this years Bolton based Photo MA students is currently working in the Ukraine for the International Aid trust

IAT was initially set up in 1991 by Reverend Bernard Cocker as a response to the Chernobyl disaster. IAT is unlike other charities in as much as its aid is not given solely in money but by providing goods donated and shipped directly from the UK. As such they have the largest charity warehouse in Europe, and unlike other charities they accept any donation believing that everything can be recycled.
website www.beckymatthews.co.uk

Image of the Government Care Home in Didovshchuna.