James Calder, Author at Exposed DC

Friday Links: March 6, 2015

March 6, 2015 By James Calder

Adaptation by Noe Todorovich of her winning "Morning Paper" image — Adaptation by Noe Todorovich of her winning photograph “Morning Paper“

The snow has had its last hurrah (right?), the sun is out, and the forecast for Thursday’s Exposed DC Photography Show opening is sunny and mild! So get your tickets now and get ready to enjoy your free Bluejacket beer in the courtyard at 1358 NE! After you’ve done that, treat yourself to this week’s pile of links:

Suspect Device opens tonight at Leica Store DC. We’re pretty excited about it after getting a sneak peak at the show’s video earlier this week.
Hamiltonian is extending its call for artists for its fellowship program to March 14.
Four Chicago Sun-Times photographers were among 15 staffers who took buyouts last Friday. They had been rehired in March this year after being laid off in 2013 along with the rest of the Sun-Times photography department.
World Press Photo announced that, based on new evidence, they’ve revoked a controversial First Place award.
We’ve been forced to endure our share of slush around here lately, but these photos of “Slurpee waves” off Nantucket are beautiful.
“Mediocre forces good out of the market place and great all but disappears” – Kenneth Jarecke opines on the demise of photojournalism as art.
Ukrainian photojournalist Serhiy Nikolayev was killed in shelling in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. His newspaper says he wasn’t there on assignment.
Peter Lik’s artistic merits may be debatable, but the supercilious photographer – who claims to have sold the world’s most expensive photograph last year – has built a terrifyingly successful market for his work.
A weasel catches a ride on the back of woodpecker and a photographer catches it. No, really.
An octopus has figured out how to work a camera. We advise sheltering in place during the great cephalopod uprising.
The final episode of Invisible Photograph video series explains how particle physicists are using photography at the Large Hadron Collider.
Smithsonian Magazine just announced the finalists of its 12th annual photo contest. Readers can vote for their favorite
Meanwhile Smithsonian tells visitors they’re still welcome to take selfies but “leave the sticks in your bags“.
Chilean volcano Villarrica erupted beautifully on Tuesday.
Serious Eats has put together an excellent beginners guide to food photography.
The Financial Times writes at length on “Why photobooks are booming in digital age“.
Along the tiger’s trail: where are the cats found and why? Field surveys are performed on foot for months across vast areas of India. New word alert: pugmark!

Sneak Preview of Suspect Device Exhibition Video

March 4, 2015 By James Calder

“Suspect Device” opens this Friday, March 6, at Leica Store DC’s gallery with 20 photographs by Exposed alum Chris Suspect. The images in the exhibit are part of Suspect’s eponymous photobook which documents the last four years of D.C.’s longstanding hardcore music scene.

Chris kindly shared this video with us, telling us it will appear in-store at the gallery, except without the accompanying music. We asked him to tell us how the video came about:

I wanted it to represent the photography but also to put the work into context for people wondering what the images are about by using parts of Alec MacKaye’s foreword from the book. Alec really nailed the feelings and thoughts I wanted to impart with the photographs with his words. He did a great job and I think he deserves a lot of recognition for the effort he put forth as well. The song in the video is “Graveyard” by The Suspects, a band I played in during the early to late 90’s. Grave Mistake records will be re-releasing our first record we put out over 20 years ago this year.

In Frame: March 4, 2015

March 4, 2015 By James Calder

Don’t drop the ball on getting your tickets for the big opening night of the Exposed 2015 exhibit March 12! That’s clearly the message in this amusing shot by Tom Mullins, who also has two great photographs in the upcoming show.

In Frame: February 25, 2015

February 25, 2015 By James Calder

What great timing for this shot by Andy Feliciotti. Apart from being struck by the framing and symmetry of the shot, I was most curious about the circumstances of its creation. There wasn’t anything on Flickr about that so I contacted Andy to find out.

Andy told me that the photo was taken at the Techworld Plaza building in D.C. (around 8th and I Streets NW), as I had suspected.

What I wasn’t expecting, however, was this revelation: “After editing the shot and aligning everything, I realized it was missing something so I sifted through my 10k+ photo library and found a plane flying overhead that I’d shot at the Pentagon. Sorry to tell you it’s fake.”

I felt let down, but at the same time glad to receive an honest answer. This image isn’t part of our annual contest (where such manipulation would render the photo ineligible) so I decided to share it here because it’s still a fantastic photo, even without the plane.

What are your thoughts on photo manipulation? It’s been a hot topic lately in the world of photojournalism (as we’ve noted in Friday Links recently).

In Frame: February 23, 2015

February 23, 2015 By James Calder

Sunday’s above-normal temperatures were a welcome relief to most of us, and hwicker made the most of the opportunity to capture this serene scene of a still-frozen Potomac river.