Since being impressive to a non-knowledgeable audience is a natural consequence of her choice of style, tone, stance, and pace, one can presume that to be Sontag’s intent. Similarly, since to anyone with a background in photography Sontag’s grasp of the medium’s morphology is (to be charitable) shaky, and her ideas almost entirely received, one can equally presume that — except as an aggressive act — the book is not meant to be taken seriously by an audience versed in photography, visual art, or visual communication. […]
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Over the years, Paul collaborated with me to help make numerous photographs — some of my favorites … He enjoyed modeling. We had a 50-year-long conversation about photography’s evolution, craft, and odd politics. Neither of us had formally studied photography. We taught each other. […] Chinese poet, dissident, and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo died of acute liver cancer on Thursday, July 13, 2017 while in police custody. Liu Xiaobo’s wife, the noted poet and photographer Liu Xia, has been under extralegal house arrest since Liu Xiaobo received the Nobel prize. Liu Xia’s whereabouts are currently unknown. With her husband now dead, she has become de facto the most internationally recognized symbol of opposition to the oligarchy that rules mainland China. […] Given that the Museum of Modern Art has studiously ignored me and my critique of its policies and practices for most of the past half-century, I’ve found it both surprising and charming to have my name and work crop up in two separate MoMA projects over the past year. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014 |
Alternate History: Robert Capa on D-Day (36)
(UPDATE) Picture editor John G. Morris, for decades the most energetic public promulgator of the myth surrounding Robert Capa’s D-Day photography, died on July 28, 2017 while hospitalized in Paris. Born in 1916, he was 100 years old. […]