Thanks to Sree Sreenivasan for introducing me to Joshua Newton, a Cochin-based blogger, writer and a photographer.

While Mr. Newton wears three hats (or more), what's special about him is that he excels in all three. Truly gravity defying!

His blog is a sheer pleasure to read. It's not just his wit or his command of the English language, but also his sense of style that is very impressive. Take this recent post for example. I loved the way he ended it.

I recommend you subscribe to his webfeed as I have. You may just learn something new, in a new and interesting way.

Blueeyes Magazine has launched issue number nine. It's all about the Presdidential election. 51 images, in 3 essays, says Editor John Loomis.

Ram Rahman's note the day before about Pepita Seth‘s lecture and slide show on Kerala's Guruvayur Temple brought me up towards 116th and Broadway. I found Barnard Hall, but the presentation had already begun. I was running late and I struggled to find a seat, creating a minor ruckus. With two bags full of tchochkes from the PhotoPlus Expo, you can imagine how I was a bull in a china-shop.

Ms. Seth read from her notes. Her diction was superfluous. The content, simply amazing. I learned a great deal about this very special South Indian temple. She is most definitely an insider now, having lived in India for over 20 years. I am willing to bet that she knows a great deal more about the temple's history and current working conditions than any local.

The photographs, however, were a mixed bag. I don't really know, perhaps the person manning the slide projector may have been at fault. I found a lot of her images to be out of focus. The exposures on the images, too, were all over the map. The text she was reading synched with the images she was showing. But this in the end just made those images a tool of illustration.

I felt she had missed an opportunity to visually explore such an electric setting. Take for example her lovely description of the temple drummers. She read out aloud that they sometimes spend hours drumming into the night. But given that she has full access to the temple, I can't at this time recall even one image of a drummer shot tight and up close. Who are these people? Allow me to gaze into their eyes. Pull me into their lives. Most of the images appeared to have been shot from about the same distance, with about the same focal length camera. In short, there wasn't any visual variety.

It may perhaps be wrong on my part to compare and contrast her work to another ethnographer I have run across. If you see Stephen Huyler's work you may see some similarities in the content and quality of the work that is presented to us. He too conducts some amazing studies about village rituals, but his images are far from what I would call “professional standard.” They aim to instruct; nothing more.

To her credit, the images don't appear to have been taken by a voyeur. They do say, “I was here. This is what I saw. And this is likely what you will see as well.” There is no attempt in her work to sensationalize the temple. I suppose as a matter of record, her research is very convincing and on the whole successful. I was moved by her sense of sheer awe and respect for the Guruvayur deity.

A profile of Ms. Seth by Priya Malhotra indicates, Ms. Seth has been involved with several forms of performance ritual in Kerala. I don't know what Ms. Seth's background in photography is, but her strengths, in my opinion, reside in her deft ethnographic research, her approach to people and her story-telling abilities.

Via Shawn G. Henry, VP Editorial Photographers

Digital Issues in the Editorial Market, a panel discussion sponsored by The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and Editorial Photographers (EP) will be held on Friday, October 22, 2004 at Javits Center/PhotoPlus Expo, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at Seminar Rms. 1E04 & 05. This is free!

Join an extraordinary panel of photojournalists in a discussion of the impact of digital technology on the editorial market: Barbara Alper, Alan Chin, Shawn G. Henry, and Brad Trent moderated by Peter Howe. The focus of the discussion will center on how to successfully integrate digital capture into a creative and profitable editorial photography business. Topics to be discussed include:

The Transition from Film to Digital
Pricing Digital Production VS Film
Managing the Workflow
Delivering the Job
Satisfying Clients While Maintaining Your Bottom Line

Biographies:

Barbara Alper is a New York City based photographer and  regular contributor to The New York Times, Barron's, Wall Street Journal; she works with a number of corporate clients and has acted as a consultant to Olympus.  Her works are included in the collections of Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris,The Brooklyn Museum, New York, FNAC Galeries, Paris, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, International Center of Photography, New York, L'imagerie, Lannion, France, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, The New York Public Library, The Polaroid International Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London and The Wagstaff Collection.  She has exhibited widely throughout the United States and Europe. Barbara Alper is represented by Mega Press Agency (Japan) and Stock-Boston (USA).

Alan Chin has spent recent years covering conflicts in Iraq, Afganistan, the Middle-East, the former Yugoslavia & Balkans for outlets such as The New York Times, Newsweek, and Gamma. His current images appear regularly in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Boston Globe, The International Herald Tribune, New York Newsday, The Guardian (UK) as well as Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Brill's Content, Marie-Claire, MacLean's, Maxim, Seventeen, VERY Style Guides.  His photography is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and Alan has been nominated twice of the Pulitzer Prize for photography by the New York Times, 1999 & 2000, for coverage of the Kosovo conflict.

Shawn G. Henry has over 16 years experience as an editorial and corporate photographer; for almost three years, he's shot digitally exclusively. He's photographed for clients ranging from FleetBoston & Fidelity Investments to National Geographic & Newsweek, and his work appears regularly in Business Week and Forbes. He is the vice president of EP.

Brand Trent over the last 22 years has worked for such editorial clients as Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, GQ, Premiere, Business Week, Newsweek, Men's Health and Texas Monthly. For some reason General Motors, IBM, The NFL, Dow Plastics, Pepsi, Pacific Bell, NBC and AT&T have all seen fit to let him shoot their advertising! And until about a year ago he could be heard declaring that digital had ZERO chance of getting a toe-hold in the mainstream professional market! In that year's time he has gone from shooting 100% film to about 95% digital; and aside from the completely sick cost of his digital backs, doesn't really miss the old way of doing business!

Peter Howe with over thirty years experience in the photography industry has worked as a photographer, editor, agent, writer and curator. Presently he is occupied as an author and commentator on the subject, and is a regular contributor to many of the publications that deal with photojournalism, including the Digital Journalist, American Photo, Columbia Journalism Review, and also to USA Today. He recently curated the critically acclaimed exhibition “War in Iraq: The
Coordinates of Conflict” at the International Center of Photography in New York. He also consults with and advises independent photo agencies and individual photographers on strategies for the digital organization, storage and licensing of their work.

Howe was the Picture Editor of the New York Times Magazine and Director of Photography for LIFE magazine. On three occasions he was awarded first place for magazine picture editing in the National Press Photographers Association, University of Missouri's Picture of the Year contest, and won four National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors. From 1997 to 2000, he was Vice President of Photography and Creative Services for Corbis, where he was responsible for the company's acquisitions worldwide, photographer relations and copyright and contract concerns as they relate to the digital environment.

Via Shawn G. Henry, VP Editorial Photographers

WAR ON PHOTOGRAPHY II, a panel dicussion sponsored by Advertising Photographers of America (APA) and Editorial Photographers (EP) will be held on Friday, October 22, 2004 from 6:00-8:00 PM at the Javits Center/PhotoPlus Expo. It should be listed under session number: Special 2-F in Seminar Room: 1E08 and it is FREE!!!

Last year's War on Photography was lively and standing room only. The distinguished panel of three IP lawyers and three shooters return to the Javits Center with fresh reports from the front. This year's theme is “The long term consequences of short term decisions and whether you will survive”. Topics will include: newspaper and publication contracts, stock agencies, negotiating techniques, business forms and copyrights.

Panelists: Litigators Ed Greenberg and Erica Galinski, former APA President Jeff Sedlik, Miami Shooter and EP President Brian Smith, Los Angeles based editorial and advertising shooter Michael Grecco, and photography rep and former Apix president Adrienne DeArmas.