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Once again the Interweb brings back colourful people from my past. It's great to hear from Chris Weeks, one of the more realistic and practical photographers with whom I almost worked back in my Retna days. You'll see that he's a multi-talented stills photographer, and he reports he's busy shooting all sorts, but his yen right now is to shoot his movie. Fun X-rated (for swearing, not boobs, sorry) blog here. Video of Chris talking about what's in his camera bag, and why.

Bored, with crop © Chris Weeks

prop-stern.jpgFor PDN's The Curator Award (dull logo, non-consonant with their brand) you pay to enter, you hand over your rights in your images - or maybe not! and get a Moab Chinle portfolio if you win. We don't know what kind, how many pages, whether it's custom made. They kindly let you enter after their deadline if you pay more - but a deadline is the latest time at which something should be completed.

"You retain copyright to your photograph and the Sponsors may not sell your photo entry for a fee." and yet "Entries become the property of Sponsors and will not be returned or acknowledged."

I am not a fan of PDN, a lack of transparency around their competitions has bugged me for years - read comments on PDN Pulse and Rob Haggart's blog about last year's Photo Annual and be wary - their fees for that went up this year ('cos you all did 10% better last year, right?)

Prop Howard, hand in pants © Chris Weeks
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I believe whole-heartedly in reason and have a naturalistic worldview, so I'm only posting this because I got such a good laugh out of it. The story is about how Lawrence Fried and Uri Geller had a photo session and Geller was supposedly able to project his image onto unexposed film. Geller has been soundly debunked over the years but there's still good value in the stories.

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Fortunately for me, and now for you, I landed at Jennifer Spelman's Photo Coleslaw blog yesterday and subsequently fell in love with Marvin and, clicking through to her website, the rest of The South series. As well as the images being lovely, I like the tone of her writing; it seems as if Jennifer's just starting her blog and I'm encouraging her to keep posting - we need fabulous content on the web so we've all got decent things to link to.

Marvin from Clarksdale, Mississippi © Jennifer Spelman



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The ICP Triennial is ending this week. I found the opening night really annoying, getting shoved and elbowed more times than I care to mention, and having inhaled enough hair spray and perfume to kill a small animal. So, I'm personally not rushing to the 'Closing Party' and now I've seen the invitation I'm not likely to change my mind - but is Justin Timberlake going?

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Gina LeVay's 'Sandhogs' book is in the shops, and Gina's on the radio. Listen to her and one of the 'hogs discuss the massive New York water project going on 800+ feet beneath Manhattan that few of us are even aware of. Gina worked seriously hard to gain the confidence of the 'hogs with her persistence and professionalism, and the resulting images are vibrant and eye-opening, not how one might expect them to be so deep under ground.

Sandhogs © Gina LeVay

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My web designer* is the best. As well as this gorgeous blog, he's built me a magazine, he fixes my problems, gets me traffic, and refuses to change the size of my logo.
Face it, your images, and probably your logo, are too small - your website is old and sad and needs updating. Call bigflannel.

© Ted Morrison Photography, © bigflannel web design


*According to some stickler in CA, I should disclose the fact that I'm sleeping with bigflannel.

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Thatcher Keats is teaching an 8 week photography class at his gallery on Elizabeth Street in Soho, NY, starting on January 27th. According to the blurb "Issues of technical competence, aesthetic concerns, differing lives in photography, artistic deficiencies, as well as the issue of exploitation and empathy will be addressed through discourse, presentation, and critique sessions." Usually taught at ICP, you can take advantage of a more intimate class if you sign up now (and it'll cost less too). Guest artists will present their work, and Thatcher is a really interesting and talented character. Find out more.

Smoking Monk © Thatcher Keats

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I am bringing up the rear here as Stephen Mallon's Flight 1549 series has been blogged and blogged again, but it's almost a year since the event unfolded and there's an exhibition at Calumet in New York for the anniversary (reception January 15th). Steve was commissioned by the crane company to photograph the plane being salvaged, and posted a selection on his website. Fun and games ensued with Steve being hassled by the plane's insurance company and all the photo community yelling "free speech!". Ultimately, he was able to keep and publish much of this incredible and exclusive record. It's a chilling memory; Steve's work makes it haunting and beautiful.

Flight 1549 © Stephen Mallon



kennedy_ted_karsh.jpgThe Esquire cover was a pretty great way to end 2009 but we also had Ted Kennedy published in the year-end issue of the New York Times magazine. Now that all the boys are dead I wonder what secrets might come out. I understand The History Channel is making a documentary about them and their father for release next year.

Edward Kennedy, 1968 © Yousuf Karsh

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