The Queen visits Ireland

"A man was detained by riot police during demonstrations in north Dublin. Queen Elizabeth II began a four day state visit to Ireland, the first state visit by a reigning British monarch since Ireland's independence." (c) NyTimes

The media is awash with coverage of the Queen of England’s visit to Ireland. This photograph by Cathal McNaughton / Rueters made the excellent NYTimes lensblog

– Rory

Tim Hetherington & Chris Hondros

Tim Hetherington & Chris Hondros deaths in Libya have been reported widely during the past few days. Both were talented journalists, photographers, film makers and writers. There is nothing I can add really to what has already been said by those who knew the men and their work. May they rest in peace.

Chris Hondros on the NY Times

Tim Hetherington on the NY Times

– Rory

The Forgotten Ones … RIP Milton Rogovin

 

Milton Rogovin (c) Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Via my favourite photo blog, The Online Photographer, I learnt today that the great socialist photographer, Milton Rogovin, has died. He was 101.

Rogovin took up photography after being persecuted during the McCarthy era. Says the New York Times,

Mr. Rogovin was an optometrist whose business was decimated and his children shunned after he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1958. An article published that year in The New York Times reported that friendly witnesses described him as “the chief Communist in the area.” He turned to photography because his “voice was essentially silenced,” as he once said. What followed was more than 40 years of powerfully straightforward pictures of others without voices: the poor and working class of Buffalo’s East Side and Lower West Side, Appalachia, Mexico, Chile and other countries.

A wonderful photographer, his last book was The Forgotten Ones, published in 2003.

A short film worth watching is available on youtube.

– Rory

Goodbye’s and Hello’s

Kodachrome

I’ve never been a huge user of slide film, but you can’t dispute the joy of looking at a perfectly exposed slide. The colours can have a magic that we don’t often see in prints. The demise of Kodachrome has been well documented this year. Produced since 1935, it was an icon of photography in its own right and beloved of millions of photographers. Paul Simon put it in his own words –

Kodachrome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, Oh yeah

I got a Nikon camera

I love to take a photograph

So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
If you took all the girls I knewWhen I was single

And brought them all together for one night

I know they’d never matchmy sweet imagination

everything looks WORSE in black and white

 

Some of the photographers we said goodbye to in 2010 were

Henry Miller (c) Peter Gowland

Peter Gowland, March 17th 2010

 

Demonstrators huddled in a doorway, seeking shelter from high-pressure fire hoses, in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. (c) Charles Moore

Charles Moore, March 13th 2010

 

(c) Jim Marshall

Jim Marshall, March 24th 2010

 

Paul Newman, 1964 © Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper, May 29th 2010

 

John Lennon (c) Brian Duffy

Duffy, May 31st, 2010

 

Kate Moss (c) Corinne Day

Corinne Day, August 27th 2010

 

So, with goodbye’s to some of the greats, lets look forward to 2011. Cork Analogue Photographers are welcoming new members (interested? leave a comment below). We are planning on printing and exhibiting the Faces Project, a portraiture project we shot during the Cork Live at the Marquee concerts. We will also hold a version of the Disposable Camera Day – probably along the lines of a Crappy Camera Day (crap camera? check. roll of film? check. day out? check!). So we’ll be out and about

All the best to everyone for 2011, have a happy and healthy New Year. I’m off for a drink now 🙂

– Rory

Bruce Davidson interview in the New York Times

“East 100th Street.” New York City. 1966. (c) Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos

I’ve heard it said that the greatest photography magazine is the New York Times. Living on this side of the pond it’s hard to get a physical copy of it, but they do have a good online blog. Today they have an interview with legendary Magnum photographer Bruce Davidson.

“… What happened is she ran off with an English professor. He was an older man. I was left with Cartier-Bresson, which was good enough. …” – Bruce Davidson

Read the interview and see some of his great photographs at the NY Times by clicking here.

Seidl have released a new 3-box retrospective of Davidson’s work from 1954 to 2009. Details here

– Rory