MacArthur Fellows

Very interesting to look over the entire list of MacArthur Fellows. What list of grant winners could include Cindy Sherman, Sam Mockbee, David Foster Wallace, and Nora England (Ms. England is my all-time favorite anthropological linguist) And congratulations to ornithologist Rick Prum for receiving a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship this year. I met Rick and his documentary cinematographer wife Anne Johnson Prum in a very long dugout canoe on the Rio Aquarico in eastern Ecuador in 1991. They had even more gear than me.

Another interesting tidbit about the list is to see that photographer Lynsey Adario isn't listed with the photographers, but instead with the journalists. I wonder if that's her choice or that of the selection committee.

Rufus, Tintype, 2009 ©Russell Kaye & Sandra-Lee Phipps

Fire Roundup

Seal River, Manitoba, 1994 ©Russell Kaye

A couple of thoughts today about fire and it's power and beauty and also the heroes that attempt to extinguish them. I'm not sure why this all came up today except that I was thinking about these images when fellow photographer Eric Ellis of SimplePhoto sent out a link to photos of the wildfires that are burning out in California. I also ran into friends Suellen and Allison and Allison's band Super Hooligan is playing a benefit remembrance/tribute to the firepeople for the upcoming 9/11 anniversary. And finally, I've been fascinated by David Grann's New Yorker story last week about Todd Willingham and Fire. Willingham was on death row in Texas for the arosn/murder of his three infant children - the fire forensics science that Grann recounts are fascinating and have proven that Texas put an innocent man to death. Here's the links:

David Grann on Todd Willingham
Super Holligan at Masquerade for Fuel the Fire 9/11 Show
Eric's Link to California Fire Images

And finally another couple of fire images from my library...

Seal River, Manitoba, 1994 ©Russell Kaye

Congratulation to This Old House

Congratulations are in order to the folks over at This Old House. They have won their 17th emmy. It was a long dry spell for the celebrity carpenters (First in Eleven years) but you have to take your hat off to the show that started the DIY pimp your crib genre of tv. I worked on the set covering the show for This Old House Magazine for four years (2004-2007) and you never will meet a more friendly and down to earth bunch of guys and girl (Deb Hood, Producer is pretty nice too) working in tv.

note: the emmy was for their series that worked on a house in New Orleans after Katrina. I may have to go digitize some of the images I made in New Orleans on an assignment for TOH the first Summer after Katrina. Stay tuned.

A Gentle Reminder From the NYTimes

I wonder what caused the New York Times to send out this email yesterday:

TO: ALL FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHERS

This is a reminder of The Times's policies on digital manipulation or other alteration of photos.

As you know, under the contract you signed for The Times, you warrant that any photo submitted for publication "will be original and unaltered (unless it is a photo illustration, pre-approved by your editor and fully disclosed in caption information materials)."

The Times takes this obligation very seriously; the integrity of photographs and other material we publish goes to the heart of our credibility as a news organization. The prohibition on unauthorized alteration of photos applies to all sections of the paper, the Magazine and the Web site.

This passage from the newsroom's "Guidelines on Our Integrity" explains our rules in more detail:

Photography and Images. Images in our pages, in the paper or on the Web, that purport to depict reality must be genuine in every way. No people or objects may be added, rearranged, reversed, distorted or removed from a scene (except for the recognized practice of cropping to omit extraneous outer portions). Adjustments of color or gray scale should be limited to those minimally necessary for clear and accurate reproduction, analogous to the "burning" and "dodging" that formerly took place in darkroom processing of images. Pictures of news situations must not be posed.

In some sections, and in magazines, where a photograph is used to serve the same purposes as a commissioned drawing or painting - as an illustration of an idea or situation or as a demonstration of how a device works, etc. - it must always be clearly labeled as a photo illustration. This does not apply to portraits or still-lifes (photos of food, shoes, etc.), but it does apply to other kinds of shots in which we have artificially arranged people or things, as well as to collages, montages, and photographs that have been digitally altered.

If you have any questions about what is permissible under the rules, please consult the assigning editor.

Sincerely,

William E. Schmidt
Deputy Managing Editor
The New York Times Newspaper
Division of The New York Times Company

If anyone has any ideas please leave comments here or here.

The 7D

at $1699 and with 24P - I'm waiting for the 11D - That's the one where Canon pays you to use it.

The Link