Martin Luther King Jr. being arrested in 1958. Photo © Charles Moore

Charles Moore, a photographer whose work during the civil rights movement of the 1960s helped force the public to see the inequality and brutality of segregation, has died of natural causes. He was 79.

Born in Alabama in 1931, Moore served three years in the Marines and then attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. When he returned home he found himself right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement.

Moore’s most notable photographs — the fire-hosing of protesters in the streets, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. being arrested and shoved into a courthouse desk, white police and civilians beating black demonstrators bloody — are some of the most iconic images from the Civil Rights Era. Distributed by the Associated Press and Life Magazine, his work was extremely important in changing the country’s outlook on racial discrimination: U.S. Senator Jacob Javits said Moore’s photography “helped to spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

Moore’s simple use of a short lens showed he was willing to go to the very center of danger to get the necessary shot. And whether it was on the streets for a civil rights protest or later when he would cover conflicts in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Haiti and the Vietnam War, Moore knew photography had the power to enact change.

“In Birmingham when I saw the dogs I don’t think anything appalled me more, and I’ve been to Vietnam,” Moore told the New York times decades later.

“I photographed it, and the world rushed in. I realized the power of even one image.”

Irina Krupnik is not happy with the way her photograph was used.

Irina Krupnik never thought she would see herself in a movie… that is until she started getting phone calls from friends who said they saw a picture of her in the comedy Couples Retreat. Unfortunately for the former model, it wasn’t the star-making performance most hope for.

Krupnik filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit on Thursday against NBC Universal, alleging the studio used a ten year-old photograph of her in a bathing suit in a scene where one of the characters (played by Jon Favreau) uses it to help please himself in a solo sex scene.

Krupnik, 30, said the studio allowed her image to be transformed from “a commonplace swimwear ad to softcore pornography,” and that the “ongoing, unauthorized and defamatory use of her likeness in a derogatory and humiliating context” has damaged her reputation, both personal and professional.

However, NBC Universal says the image was theirs to use freely. “The photo at the center of this claim,” read a statement, “was licensed to Universal and the studio was entirely within its rights to use it in Couples Retreat.”

Krupnik, now a make-up artist, says she never would have given away the rights to a stock photo agency (which in turn sold it to the filmmakers) if she had known they would use it in a “quasi-pornographic context.”

The flyer produced by the Saskatchewan Party

A Canadian lawmaker has apologized for using an image of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center buildings to promote a pig roast fundraiser.

The Saskatchewan Party used the photograph above as the background to a flier that promoted a talk from New York City Fire Chief Richard Picciotto, one of the many to go into the burning buildings, and one of the few to make it out.

But the image, from the 2001 terrorist attack where almost 3,000 people died, has drawn heavy criticism.

Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the FDNY, said “the use of images of the attacks for political or monetary gain, like the image on this poster, is in bad taste.”

Canadian lawmaker Sandra Morin agrees. “To use a graphic image of the burning twin towers - in which thousands of people tragically died - to raise political dollars, is both shocking for its lack of respect and disturbing for its lack of judgment,” she said.

The backlash has prompted Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall to issue an official apology. Nancy Heppner, the Party member who approved the idea, said the image “was not chosen with any malicious intent or it was never our intention to appear insensitive or offend anybody.”

So what do you think? Should pictures of 9/11 be allowed to promote $50-a-plate fundraisers, or is it insensitive and in poor taste to use them at all?

Photo by Miloslav Druckmüller

Could the image above really be the most dramatic image ever taken of a solar eclipse?

Taken by astrophotographer Miloslav Druckmüller, the photograph is deemed by many to be the finest example of solar eclipse photography ever produced. The image was captured in August 2008 as an eclipse loomed over Bor Udzuur in Mongolia, and Druckmuller had mere seconds to snap the image before losing the opportunity.

“Solar eclipse photography if one of the most difficult tasks of astronomical photography,” says the scientist/photographer. This is due to a number of reasons, including the fact that an eclipse’s extreme contrast makes it almost impossible to capture in a single image, but also because there is very little time to work with. If anything goes wrong, says Druckmüller, “it may take years to get an opportunity for a new experiment.”

Scientists have been working on developing new and more effective ways of capturing images of the sun’s corona (the plasma “atmosphere” visible to the naked eye during an eclipse), and Miloslav Druckmüller has the incredible job of hunting down solar eclipses and photographing them using some of the coolest photographic technology around.

To see more high-quality, high-resolution images of eclipses from around the world, visit Druckmüller’s website.

David Ziser’s new book, Captured by the Light

Photographing a wedding is one of the most challenging jobs a photographer can have. Not only are you trying to frame the beauty of the ceremony, but you are also in charge of capturing and memorializing the most important day in a person’s life. In his new book, Captured by the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography, David A. Ziser offers an in-depth look at what it takes to master this art form.

Ziser, a world-renowned wedding photographer, is noted as a leading lecturer and teacher of photography. He is a staple at photo conferences and expos around the world, is a regular contributor to Professional Photographer magazine, and is one of less than 100 people worldwide who have been distinguished as a Fellow by the American Society of Photographers.

His new book shows that wedding photography is more than just a job, it’s an art. This is showcased in the book’s 288 pages, which match detail, example and instruction alongside shots from actual weddings. In it he offers unique, usable advice on everything from lighting, posing and composition, to thoughts on how to photograph large groups and what sort of equipment works best.

This make Captured by the Light a must-have for both seasoned professionals and those looking to start a career in wedding photography.

Make sure to check out Ziser’s photography blog, Digital ProTalk, which is a favorite of digital photographers everywhere. There you can purchase his new book, or hang around to see some of his popular web-cast presentations.

Never too big for mom’s lap.

We all have strange childhood photos. Whether it’s of us dancing in a Halloween costume, gurgling on an aunt’s lap or posing awkwardly with siblings, these are the sorts of images that let us reminisce about what it was like to be a kid. Well, what if you compared yourself then and now? Would you really be that much different?

That’s the idea behind Young Me, Now Me, where users upload images of themselves as children… right beside a present-day reenactment.

Like in the photograph above, many of the images are hilarious. People have recreated childhood photos by posing and dressing in adult-sized baby clothes, or just by recapturing a lost spirit of goofiness. Other examples are more sincere, like one of a family laughing and linking arms just as they did years before.

And you can add your own photos. Just grab a favorite pic of yourself as a kid and repose accordingly. Upload your “before and after” pictures to Young Me, Now Me, and join in the public ode to childhood memories. Because as the old saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

An image from the new Spider-Man comic. By Marvel Comics.

The comic book world’s most famous photographer is about to taste a bit of reality. In a new issue from Marvel Comics, Peter Parker, the fictional photojournalist who must balance his day job with a secret life as the costumed superhero Spider-Man, is getting fired.

According to editors at Marvel, the newest issue of “The Amazing Spider-Man” will find Peter Parker surfing the unemployment line. “He’s going to struggle with unemployment and trying to save the city while he can barely afford to keep a roof over his head,” says Steve Wacker, Marvel Comics senior editor. Parker apparently gets caught manipulating images, then promptly gets the boot.

And finding another job won’t be easy. Parker’s skills as a photographer brought him from lowly errand boy at the Daily Bugle to personal photog to the Mayor, and his genuine aptitude for the art is one of his only abilities that doesn’t rely on super powers. “He’s tried other jobs in the past,” says Wacker, “but he’s always had the security of falling back on his talents as a photojournalist.”

The move is part of a storyline that sees the web-slinger in a downward spiral… in both jobs. While Peter Parker struggles to make enough money to produce his essential “web fluid,” the hero Spider-Man has to deal with a bevvy of old foes returning from his past.

In an economy where artists and photographers have a tough time making ends meet, it’s comforting to know that even superheroes are struggling to keep up. Hopefully Spidey finds a job soon.

The unemployment issue — “Amazing Spider-Man #623″ — hits shelves today.

North and Central America. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Whether it came from photographs taken by orbiting satellites or astronauts on the moon, we’ve all seen pictures of our home planet. But never before has it been seen like this.

For its new “Blue Marble” series, NASA reveals what it calls the ‘most detailed true-color images of the entire Earth to date.’ According to the space organization’s website, the images are actually composites of countless other photographs, combined into single frame “mosaics.”

“Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet.”

Taken between June and September of 2001, the images were captured by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, while orbiting over 400 miles above the Earth’s surface.

To see full resolutions of the images, and to read more about the teamwork and technology used to capture them, visit NASA’s Visible Earth website. After that, make sure to compare them to the original 1972 “Blue Marble” picture taken by the Apollo 17 space crew.

This image represents a famous book. Any ideas?

Fans of literature, with a keen eye for photography and geography, will love the contest set up over at Literary Kicks. The website has started a guessing game, and is betting you can’t guess the famous literary work represented in the photograph above.

Taken in 1924, the photo shows the site of a famous literary death. All you have to do is guess what novel this photograph is a snapshot of, and you’ll win Literary Kicks’ first Mystery Spot game.

Of course, what would a guessing game be without a few hints? As LitKicks tells us, “you have definitely read this novel. It’s one of the most widely loved novels of all time. A person is killed, during one of the novel’s climactic scenes, by the forked road near the top right of the photo. The vast expanse in the photo’s center, which appears to be a work of geometric modern art, provides one of the novel’s central metaphors.”

So what do you think? We have a few ideas, but we don’t want to give anything away. Leave your guesses in the comments section below, or at the LitKicks page, and be sure to stick with us when the answer is revealed.

*UPDATE*

And the answer is…

The Great Gatsby. The photo seen above is of The Valley of Ashes, where towards the end of the classic book Daisy Buchanan strikes and kills another character with her car.

So did you get it right? What was your guess? To read more about the photograph’s story, check out the LitKicks page.

Photo by Harvard University

While photography can often show us sides of our world we may not be familiar with, it can also reveal ones we never even knew existed. In an award-winning microscopic photo (seen above), science and art collide to show us a sliver of these worlds.

Taken by scientists Sung Hoon Kang, Boaz Pokroy and Joanna Aizenberg, from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the photograph offers an astonishing view of something we take for granted every day: plastic.

The image, captured with a high-powered electron microscope camera, shows microscopic plastic fibers that measure just 250 nanometers in diameter (1/500th of a human hair) as they wrap around a plastic green sphere. The image won first prize at the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, and beat out other stunning entries like a salt molecule surrounded by microbes and a close-up of a self-fertilizing flower.

But the winning photo, titled “Save Our Earth, Let’s Go Green,” is more than just an image to the scientists who captured it — they see it as a statement about environmental sustainability.  “Each hair represents a person or an organization,” says Aizenberg. “It shows our collaborative effort to hold up the planet and keep it running.”

To read more about the winning image, and to see a slide show of all the spectacular photographs, check out ScienceMagazine.com.

Tiger Woods, in his happier days.

It was supposed to be one lucky photog’s ticket to retirement — the first person to snap a picture of Tiger Woods after the golfer reemerged in public was going to make enough money to spend his days in luxury. But now the shots have been released by photo behemoth Getty Images, effectively dashing the dreams of paparazzi everywhere.

The world has been more than eager to catch a glimpse of Tiger ever since he crashed his car and bubbled up in the middle of a shocking sex scandal. But the disgraced golfer disappeared soon after, leaving celebrity photographers scheming and drooling over how much the first pictures of him might fetch (according to celebrity website TMZ, that would be around $1 million).

But now the first images have emerged, and it doesn’t look like anyone will be getting rich. Getty Images, a subscription-based photography agency and distributor of generic photos, has obtained the shots as part of a recent deal with the Professional Golf Association. That means anyone with a subscription to Getty can get the photos for hardly anything, ensuring paparazzi photographers won’t be walking away with a million dollar check.

So as Tiger skulks out of the woods and offers apologies to fans, friends and family, celebrity hounds will have to find themselves another golden goose. But don’t feel too sorry for them — a new scandal is always around the corner.

Hoisting the Soviet flag atop the Reichstag in Berlin. Photo by TASS/Yevgeny Khaldei

Abdulkhakim Ismailov, one of three soldiers to appear in a famed photograph of the Red Army invading Berlin at the end of World War 2, has died. He was 93.

May, 1945. As the Russian army rolls through a destroyed Berlin and over the Nazi’s defeated Third Reich, soldier Abdulkhakim Ismailov finds himself atop the Reichstag, Berlin’s House of Parliament, hoisting the Hammer and Sickle flag. He had fought through the deadly Battle of Stalingrad three years earlier, all the way to the center of Nazi Germany, and now found himself in front of a camera. The result, of course, would be one of the war’s most memorable images.

50 years later, Ismailov was finally identified and honored by his country. In 1996 he was decorated as a Hero of Russia, and on Tuesday he passed away in his home town of Chagar-Otar in Russia’s southern region of Dagestan.

Soviet photojournalist Yevgeny Khaldei said later he had set the shot up, even admitting to sewing the flag together from tablecloths and doctoring the images afterward. Still, many believe the picture to be the Soviet equivalent of the iconic photograph of American Marines placing the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima.

 Ansel Adams. “Aspens, Northern New Mexico.” Sotheby’s New York, “Photographs from the Polaroid Collection”

As Polaroid tries to pull itself out of bankruptcy, the classic camera-maker has resorted to a last-ditch effort to free up funds — the company has announced it will be selling many of its signature prints at auction June 21 and 22 at Sotheby’s in New York.

Of course, these are not just any photographs up for sale. Pieces from masters like Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, William Wegman, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, Robert Frank, Robert Mapplethorpe and Lucas Samaras will be on display, amounting to a collection of 1,200 individual photographs. The auction is expected to fetch a record $10 million.

Founded in the late 1930s by inventor and scientist Edwin H. Land, Polaroid is most-widely known for its revolutionary in-camera instant photography. The company acquired its impressive print collection — which is said to number around 10,000 — by trading equipment and darkroom time with eminent photographers of the time.

“It’s an amazing body of work,” acclaimed photographer and painter Chuck Close recently told the New York Observer. “There’s really nothing like it in the history of photography.” Still, he added, “to sell it is criminal.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as if Polaroid has a choice. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2007, and has already discontinued its camera and film production. Now creditors are forcing it to auction off a portion of its esteemed photography collection.

Let’s hope these images somehow end up in a collection that benefits the whole photographic community.

Thoughts?

Photo by Bryant Austin

Photography can show us new angles of the worlds we live in, but it can also show us ones we never knew existed. That’s the effort behind photographer Bryant Austin’s life work: to document the beautiful world of whales and to show us what we may soon be missing.

In the new short film In the Eye of the Whale, which debuted at the Ocean Film Fest 2010 in San Francisco, Austin’s work on the endangered species is documented in all its moving detail. The film follows Austin’s incredible effort to create life-size, high-definition images of the creatures by combining thousands of individual close-up photographs.

Austin, who at “great personal expense” has spent the majority of his career documenting whales, hopes to show the giant pictures in countries where whaling is prevalent. Perhaps this will help convince people of the species’ sublime beauty, and curtail their ongoing destruction.

The pivotal impact I seek is to upset the abstractness of whales; my aim is to make them real. In popular media we experience whales through small photographs and brief video clips which fail to convey their existence in anything more than an infrequent, pale, and abstract way. My goal is to present their true size with all of the intricate detail and texture revealed, providing an immediacy and sensorial reality for powerful psychological impact. The audience will have the ability to witness the amazing size of the whale, yet see the intricate detail of the body, in particular the whale’s eye with its evident consciousness and emotion.

To watch the short documentary In the Eye of the Whale, click here. Also, to see a collection of Austin’s gorgeous photographs of whales, head over to his website at StudioCosmos.com.

 Is Sports Illustrated’s latest cover sexist?

Sports Illustrated has long been known as one of the premiere magazines for sports photography, but its latest cover has landed the weekly in hot water. The cover photo for the February 8th issue, showing Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn in her racing suit, bent over with ski poles in her hand, has drawn outrage for what many people believe is a sexist portrayal of women.

Critics are claiming the stylized photo (seen above) actually objectifies Vonn sexually rather than focusing on her athletic talents. They claim she has been put into a sexually suggestive pose, and that this is one of the only ways women ever get onto covers.

Many believe the photo just shows Vonn in her regular skiing position, but others think the image is laced with sexual suggestion. “For those of you who follow SI Covers,” say the folks at womentalksports.com, “know that female athletes are rarely featured on the cover. Over the last 60 years researchers have shown that about four-percent of all SI covers have portrayed women.

“When females are featured on the cover of SI, they are more likely than not to be in sexualized poses and not in action, and the most recent Vonn cover is no exception.”

Regardless of your opinion on the SI cover photo of Vonn, it may be easier to agree that photography of women in sports walks a fine line. As athletes and figures in the public spotlight, their bodies are on display just as much as men. However, when sexuality and beauty are portrayed as their defining characteristics (as is arguably the case with Vonn), what was at first just photography threatens to slip into exploitation.

Elvis Costello on tour in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1977. Photo by Anton Corbijn.

The only way to know what images are the most indicative of life in the world of rock ‘n’ roll is to be a part of that world yourself. In his new book, “Taking Aim,” photographer and singer-songwriter Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) has hand-picked the best photographs to take us into that world.

Collecting images from such luminaries in the photography world as Daniel Kramer, Charles Peterson, Annie Leibovitz and others, the book manages to give fans a glimpse behind the curtain of some of the most iconic singers and musicians. Included in the book are photos of everyone from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, to Kurt Cobain, Sting and REM’s Michael Stipe.

A veteran photographer himself, Graham Nash has been collecting photographs for almost four decades now. He has shown his own work in numerous exhibitions over the years, and is currently touring his “Taking Aim” exhibit around the country and talking about style, technique and what it takes to create a great rock ‘n’ roll photograph.

“I wanted energy,” he said in a recent interview about choosing which works to include in the exhibit. “I wanted to be able to show the energy of rock and roll in all its forms, be it very still or incredibly chaotic.”

To see Nash’s collection of images from music history, check out his book, “Taking Aim,” or try to catch him at one of his exhibits. Stay up to date on where his shows will be over at GrahamNash.com.

Robert Redford. Photo by Ron Galella

Ron Galella is a controversial man. As one of the most famous celebrity photographers of the last half-century, he’s been called everything from a parasite and a vulture, to the “Godfather of the U.S. paparazzi culture.” And in the new documentary Smash His Camera, we’re given a whirlwind tour through the career of Hollywood’s most-hated man.

In his review of the film, Roger Ebert quotes Andy Warhol: “A great photograph,” the artist said, “shows the famous doing something unfamous. Ron Galella is my favorite photographer.” Galella spent nearly fifty years hiding out in search of famous faces, and he collected over three million of images of celebrities like Elvis Presley, Robert Redford, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando (who punched him, causing him to lose four teeth and break his jaw), and his favorite, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Still, Galella sees his work as more than just fodder for gossip magazines. “I look for the glamor,” he says. “I’m interested in portraiture. I’m not like these other guys who take celebrity pictures now. There’s an art to what I do and it’s all about the expression. It’s not just about taking a picture of someone famous; anyone can do that.”

The documentary, which premiered last week at the Sundance Film Festival, showcases this tension between the two Galellas - the monster who hid in bushes and stalked movie stars, and the artist who captured some genuinely beautiful photographs. For Roger Ebert, this contradiction is why he is so fascinating. “He is a viper, a parasite, a stalker, a vermin. He is also, I have decided, a national treasure.”

To see a collection of Galella’s work, visit his website at RonGalella.com. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for Smash His Camera when it hits wide release.

The postcard is losing its luster. As a medium of communication, and as a picture-letter showcasing one’s home or travels abroad, it has fallen victim to the advancements in technology that allow us to send photos instantly. But at the turn of the 20th century, postcards were one of the most popular (and cheapest) ways to document and share the life of your community.

In the new book “Folk Photography: The American Real-Photo Postcard, 1905–1930,” photography historian Luc Sante has collected some of the most haunting, moving images from this period. These 122 postcards, also known as “real-photos” because they were created in actual darkrooms and not printing presses, show a side of small-town American communities rarely seen by outsiders. That’s because they were created by and for small-town America.

Millions were made in the brief 25 year period. Their subject matter ranges from candid shots of community picnics by the river, to somber portraits of a family posing stiff and awkwardly in front of their barn. The postcards, at one moment chilling and the next sentimental, are exactly the sort of images that will leave you pondering our nation’s endless history of  anonymous artists.

And as the erudite Sante writes in his introduction to the book, they end up giving us a “self-portrait of the American nation.”

The photo postcard is a vast, teeming, borderless body of work that might as well have a single, hydra-headed author, a sort of Homer of the small towns and the prairies. Self-taught and happily ignorant of the history of the medium, this author was free of the sort of second-guessing that cripples artists. He or she was out to do a job, to please a public, to turn a dollar, but also to record things faithfully, to include as many details of a scene as the frame could contain, to hold up a mirror to that bit of the world shared with the clientele, maybe to make the familiar strange, simply by noticing things.

To see more real-photos from the “Folk Photography” collection, and to purchase Sante’s captivating new book, head over to the publisher’s website, YetiPublishing.com.

Submitted for the definition of ‘Ascent.’ Photo by Josh Murfitt

If you could use images to define words, how would you communicate their meanings? That’s the question behind a fascinating new experiment called The Photographic Dictionary, a community-sourced website that asks you to create visual definitions.

Each accepted photograph attempts, either literally or figuratively, to offer a meaning to its accompanying word. For example, “tentacle” is represented by a picture of a tree’s sprawling roots, while “doze” shows us a candid image of a man asleep in an empty park. Under each image is also a standard definition of the word and its many uses. From “bamboo” and “buffalo” to “xenophilia” and “zapatista,” the dictionary currently has hundreds of words, and it’s only getting bigger.

Most of the images are somber and melancholy in tone, but browsing the site’s alphabet is at times moving, even enlightening. Words that we take for granted, like “red,” “away” or “home,” are given unique portraits that force a viewer to reexamine definitions and connotations, and to think about the meanings others place in words that we might not consider otherwise. So make sure to check out one of the coolest online community art project arounds by visiting thephotographicdictionary.org. Just make sure you have plenty of time — the site is highly addictive.

To submit your own words and photographic definitions, send an email with the chosen word and your photo (resized to 600px wide), plus a link to your work, to thephotographicdictionary@gmail.com.

Erin Fong’s Nova DSLR

Left-handed folks have long been passed-over when it comes to converting everyday devices to suit their needs, especially when it comes to cameras. But with photographer Erin Fong’s new concept camera, the Nova DSLR, lefties and righties alike can snap great photos with ease.

Along with its creative design (it looks like some sort of TIE Fighter from Star Wars), the Nova may actually give photographers a unique angle when shooting. Fong, an Industrial Design student in California, came up with the design while contemplating the lack of versatility and flexibility in the current DSLR market.

Indeed, the camera itself has ergonomics in mind. With a Canon digital SLR as base, the camera’s arms are able to swing around to provide adjustable handles for users and giving the device what looks to be a periscope-feel. Also, the operation buttons are located on one of these arms, at the fingertips, allowing a photographer to easily locate the desired features.

Again, this is just a concept camera, so you probably won’t be seeing these manufactured anytime soon. Still, these are the sort of innovations that keep the world of photography and cameras constantly evolving and allowing you, the photographer, to capture those unique images. To see more pictures of Fong’s creation, check out his portfolio page.