Meaghan Gay, Author at Exposed DC

2014 Best In Show: Aziz Yazdani

March 10, 2014 By Meaghan Gay

As we were excited to announce earlier this year, we’re introducing Best In Show prizes for the 8th annual Exposed DC Photography Show. We invited a panel of distinguished Washington-area photojournalists to, in their esteemed opinion, pick their favorite photograph from our group of 49 images. Each Best In Show winner receives a $100 prize sponsored by the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

We’ll be announcing the winners each day through next Monday.

Today’s Best in Show image is the fantastic “Orange Line” by Aziz Yazdani. Congrats Aziz! His photo was chosen by judge Jamie Rose, an international photojournalist and senior partner at the Momenta Group, LLC. (We interviewed Jamie about Momenta last month.)

Exposed: The contrast between the people in the photo is so striking, and a perfect slice of life on the Metro where everyone is in their own world. I know everyone is wondering what caused the girls in the background to have the reaction they did. Do you remember what it was?

Yazdani: This photo was taken on Halloween night and this group of adolescent girls definitely wanted the entire train to know they were ready to make some noise. They wanted attention, so I gave it to them.

Exposed: What were you thinking when you took the photo?

Yazdani: As soon as I saw the man with the headphones blocking out the ruckus from behind him, I knew that I had to frame him in the photo. The juxtaposition was immediately obvious so I framed, focused, and hit the shutter.

Exposed: Did taking the photo cause any reaction from any of the subjects? Did they even notice that you took it?

Yazdani: They definitely noticed me. Although I had my small unassuming Leica M7 with me, I had my big old Vivitar 283 flash firing while photographing them. I took about four or five photos of them (see strip from Contact Sheet). I generally try to engage people in situations like this. I may have complemented them on they’re hair accessories or something, who knows? Long story short, they didn’t mind at all.

Exposed: Jaime Rose from Momenta awarded this prize to you, are you familiar with her work?

Yazdani: I am familiar with her work. She may have come through the Leica Store DC, where I work, for a Momenta Workshop that was hosted here. I really respect and enjoy her photographs. I see too many mundane political grip and grin shots from photographers in this city and she is able to break away from that boring type of photograph and make interesting, well-thought images. I am flattered and appreciate that she chose my photograph.

You can see more of his work at STRATA Collective and his website.

Friday Links

March 7, 2014 By Meaghan Gay

We have a long list of links this week including shocking news from Getty Images, a collaboration between Magnum Photos and the Smithsonian, where to get your aura photographed and much, much more.

In news that has shocked many this week, Getty Images announced that they will be making their images free to use. The British Journal of Photography is all over the story, including responses from ASMP and NPPA.
Remember what you looked like in 1987? Karl Baden does. He took a photo of himself every day for the last 27 years.
Dog photo booths are much cooler than people photo booths. Photos by Lynn Terry.
The Northern Lights have been putting on a show in the UK. Some of the images look like scenes from Harry Potter.
The LA Times interviewed veteran National Geographic photographer William Albert Allard.
The going rate for getting your aura photographed seems rather reasonable.
Lenscape and Shifra are two new app online photography magazines.
“My photographs are a more useful first draft than my attempted prose was, a richer archive than the pages of my binders.” Casey Cep explores the relationship between photography and writing.
Do you have $50,000 burning a hole in your pocket? If so, you can buy Andy Warhol’s Polaroid camera.
Learn how Time made the panoramic image atop One World Trade Center.
A compilation list of image libraries owned by the federal government.
“Khalid Mohammed, a photographer for the Associated Press, took a picture 10 years ago of two charred American bodies hanging from a bridge and surrounded by a crowd of cheering Iraqis.” Here’s the impact a single image had on the Iraq War.
At the Paris Exposition in 1900, W.E.B. DuBois presented an exhibit about the history and “present condition” of African Americans. The exhibit had many photographs, and 114 years later we can see them online at the Library of Congress website.
Magnum Photos and the Smithsonian have teamed up for an exhibit called Unintended Journeys. The exhibit “provides a glimpse into the lives of humans displaced by global climate change and some of the most devastating natural disasters in the past decade.”
Are your cell phone camera, DSLR, and point and shoot not enough for you? NPR did a story on a tiny camera that clips on your clothes to record everything you see.
And finally, the Land of the Tiger exhibit opens this weekend at the Jacksonville Zoo.

In Frame: March 3, 2014

March 3, 2014 By Meaghan Gay

Photographer John Ulaszek made this funny street photo of a troop of little girls, and one of our founding fathers. It is funny to imagine good old George at the time of this portrait sitting hiding pink, polka dot gloves in his lap.

Friday Links

February 28, 2014 By Meaghan Gay

As February comes to a close we wrap up the week with animals taking over an abandoned home, more photojournalists being laid off, scientists going sci-fi, and someone using a tiger as their drinking buddy. Enjoy!

Finnish photographer Kai Fagerström photographed animals taking over an abandoned house, and the results are beautiful.
Interview with David Burnett about photographing his 10th Olympics.
The apocalypsticle? Some interesting commentary on Politico about the obsession with disaster photos that don’t come with more of the story.
More bad news for photojournalists, the Orlando Sentinel is eliminating their photography staff.
Andrew Whtye documented the extensive travels of a very small person with a specialty, adapted tiny camera.
Robert Shults, an Austin based photographer, portrayed scientists in the lab in the format of a sci-fi B-movie.
The Wall Street Journal asks if the change happening at the Corcoran is a symbol of bad non-profit governance happening at many institutions.
Fighting fair use violations can be difficult, which is why several photography associations are banding together to fight for photographer’s rights in court.
Speaking of photographer’s rights, PDN posted a video for photographers on the first amendment and how to deal with police intimidation.
New website The Image delves deeper into the story behind photos.
The long-awaited Garry Winogrand exhibit opens this weekend at the National Gallery.
A New Jersey moving company changed out the stock photos on their website with “real” photos and has seen a dramatic increase in revenue. Remember this study next time a client wants to buy a $2 photo off Shutterstock.
It’s pothole season, but photographers Davide Luciano and Claudia Ficca have re-imagined the possibilities of the bumps in the road.
So, a baby tiger walks into a bar…No, really.

How are Local Retail Photography Businesses Doing? A Survey Says: Not So Great

February 25, 2014 By Meaghan Gay

Part of being a good photography business owner is understanding the market for the work you are doing. There are large photography organizations that can provide info on trends in the industry across the country, but finding information on a local level has been more difficult. Photographer Kat Forder is trying to change that, and created a survey last year to understand how retail photographers have been fairing in the D.C. area.

Many of the results from last year’s survey are not good news for retail photographers: “52% of the respondents reported that their business gross for the previous year was below $30,000.” Forder has brought the survey back for 2014 and made some updates. We caught up with her to get more information about this endeavor.

1. Can you give us some background on the survey?

The 2013 survey asked retail photographers to look back at the past year (2012). That survey was launched March 2013, timed to coincide with when photographers were attending to their year end bookkeeping, and the results were tabulated and summarized and published a few months after that. This year’s survey has also been released during the end of the fiscal year, and asks for information from the past year.

The survey and the results are free, and the responses are completely anonymous. The questions have been developed very carefully to ensure the integrity of the responses and anonymity of the participants.

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