Archive for March, 2009

No, I still don’t have the book in my hands. The reason for that is that Hungary is a bit too far for Amazon. I’ve already ordered the book and hopefully will receive it in a matter of few weeks.
By that time I can read only David Hobby’s writeup on the book (he had the privilege to read it in PDF format) and the surprisingly lenghty excerpt here from Peachpit.

Are you planning to buy it?

I would like to draw your attention to a book. It is the Portrait Photographer’s Handbook written by Bill Hurter.
This book about, you could have guessed, portrait photography was not designed for the absolute beginner photographer and I really doubt that it would be regularly flipped through by the experienced professionals. The target audience is somewhere in between:  it might be useful for those who have already made a few portraits, started doing the Photoshop magic and would want to develop their skills with the desire of being able to make powerful portraits.

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See below a video of a speech given by David Griffin, Director of Photography at National Geographic, about the power of photojournalism. Griffin illustrates his presentation with well known photographs published by NG made by great photographers.  He talks about under what circumstances some of the photos were made and what are the stories behind them.

A few quotes from the speech:

• “photographs emulate the way how our mind freezes a significant moment“
• “every on of us has one or two great photographs. But to be a great photojournalist you have to have more than just one or two great photographs.“
• “…photography can address some of our most important topics…“
• “I believe that photography can make a real connection to people and can be employed as a positive agent for understanding the challenges and opportunities facing our world today.“

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