Howard University Archives

We hope you’ve been paying attention to the events in Ferguson, Missouri, after Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by police last Saturday. There are tons of photos on Twitter, including the police using tear gas on largely-peaceful protestors and an Al Jazeera tv crew (before taking down their equipment) on Wednesday. That same night, police closed a McDonald’s and ushered out all these “dangerous criminals” (they also arrested two reporters, including Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post). The New York Times put together the photos on all our minds, those from Ferguson in 2014 and the Civil Rights Movement half a century ago. Here at home, Howard University students posed for a powerful photo to protest Brown’s killing. Lastly, it’s always worth a reminder, because the authorities often forget: “Citizens have the right to take pictures of anything in plain view in a public space, including police officers and federal buildings.”
“It’s as though we’ve become unsure of our ability to feel, and need to outsource moments to a team, in the hope that collective approval will stand in for meaning.” A Boston Globe op-ed asks if we’re too busy sharing moments to truly experience them.
Photographer Christina De Middel takes spam email she’s received and creates beautifully composed, fictitious portraits of the imaginary senders.
David Waldorf works in both the commercial and fine art worlds, but his cinematic photographs of trailer park residents in Sonoma, California are striking and unsettling in their detail.
“If we’re big enough to fight a war, we should be big enough to look at it.” The fascinating story of The War Photo No One Would Publish.
A survey of photographers who’ve recently had photo books published, listing details of the deals they struck with their respective publishers.
First person account by fashion photographer Rachel Scroggins of a photo she made that ended up being broadly published with neither credit nor permission. Alternative description: Groundhog Day.
Guys on Instagram are now doing their own #MakeupTransformation photos, and it’s priceless.
Crazy images of waves caused by a tidal bore that have created a popular spectator sport in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. These photos make us want to bathe in some…different water, pronto.
The Capital Weather Gang blogged: “Is HDR photography enhancing or defiling how we see weather and nature?“
In 1974, Daniel Sorine photographed a couple of mimes performing in Central Park, only to discover 35 years later that he had captured a then little-known Robin Williams on film.
“The people Stanton photographs are reduced to whatever decontextualized sentence or three he chooses to use along with their photo.” A critique of the popular Humans of New York series.
Lida Moser passed away this week just before her 94th birthday. The highly acclaimed photographer lived in Rockville, Maryland and really hated being pigeonholed.
Two of the women in Garry Winogrand’s iconic 1964 photograph “World’s Fair, New York City” recollect that summer afternoon.
Think you’ve seen some cool cat photos on the interwebs? You ain’t seen nothing ’til you’ve seen Vincent J. Musi’s shots for National Geographic.

Our links this week include a kitten photo shoot, Robert Capa’s color photographs, magical Edward Hopper inspired images, an opportunity to meet Bao Bao, and the Leica Store DC’s monthly photo winner. Dive right in, the water’s lovely!

Want to get up close and personal with giant panda cub Bao Bao? The National Zoo is hosting an Instameet, and you need to sign up by January 21.
The butterfly arm tattoo was his initial nomination, but when this guy took his kitten in for a formal portrait at J.C. Penney he won the hipster for life award.
D.C.’s own Pat Padua reviewed Brandon Stanton’s photo book Humans of New York.
The International Center of Photography in New York will be hosting an exhibit of Robert Capa’s color photographs.
Interesting interview with NASA’s chief photographer Bill Ingalls.
Giant grocery store wanted to welcome back Howard University students, but upset many with the photograph they chose. Perhaps if they went with a local photographer instead of stock this wouldn’t have happened.
The New York Portfolio Review is coming back for a second year.
If you are an Android fan, Lifehacker breaks down the best photo apps.
Ghosts of D.C. shared an old photo of a slave auction house in Alexandria this week. Additionally, the Library of Congress hosts a large collection of photographs of African Americans during the Civil War.
Speaking of old photos, the website WhatWasThere.com overlays photographs with the location where they were taken. You can even see the current street view with the old photo sliding in front of it.
Dreamy photographs inspired by Edward Hopper paintings, by Richard Tuschman.
Flak Photo, the online photo publication, is looking for submissions.
Photoshopping an image of Martin Luther King always seems like a bad idea, but using it to promote your twerking event is particularly bad. The event was cancelled.
The New York Times included large, lovely images with their list of “52 Places to Go in 2014”. The best news is that you can scroll down instead of clicking through.
The Leica Store DC announced the January winner for their Oskar Barnack Wall.
Slate shared Eugene Ellenberg’s series “In My Father’s House.” The work “deals with the concept of Ellenberg’s memory of his family and his method for trying to better understand their relationships, as well as attempting to understand exactly who they all are.”
The League of Reston Artists has a call for photographs, for a show at the Reston Chamber of Commerce.
Wired shared the story of Tama Dezso’s photography project in Romania. He has been documenting the crumbling infrastructure left behind after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Steve Winter’s book of tiger images, Tigers Forever, is being used to promote tiger conservation. There are shockingly only approximately 3,000 tigers left in the wild.

Friday Links

Friday Links