The New York Times is reporting on a new piece of software developed by Israeli computer scientists that take a photo and make it more attractive based on focus group research they conducted with 68 men and women. The "beautification engine"makes minor adjustments of symmetry, skin tone, and other factors that have been associated with "beauty."

PDN's Daryl Lang covered a very bizarre FOX News broadcast regarding a Newsweek cover during which Republican media commentator, Andrea Tantaros, is incensed that the image of Sarah Palin was not retouched.



For comparison, they include a cover of Barack Obama. FOX anchor Megyn Kelly calls out in disdain, "I mean, come on! They literally put a halo on the guy..." The mock indignation is so played out.

First of all, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this portrait of Palin. She's very attractive, and does not need to be retouched like "a supermodel." I don't think any reasonable person is thinking "Oh my God! I'm changing my vote because she looks like a hot 44 year old woman!" Maybe there's a little snaggle tooth action, but Obama has huge ears. Let's call it a wash.

Second, "put a halo?" Are ya kidding me? It's a shot where his head is partially obscuring the sun. If the implication is that they photoshopped in a halo, then they are flat out wrong. Yes, the editors selected the image, but they are a news organization with an editorial policy regarding manipulation of photos, and neither one of the photos was retouched.

Let's not forget that Newsweek wasn't the publication that made OJ appear darker...

Photography can be social. It can help us remember events in our life that we shared with others. But photography can also be informative, and in the case of photojournalism, often the goal is to be transformative -- i.e. to bring awareness to a social issue that might be flying under the radar.

Kosuke Okahara is a 2006 Eddie Adams Workshop alumnus based in Tokyo who recently covered the trend of "cutting" amongst teenage girls and young women in the society for Time magazine. Japan has a pretty spotty record dealing with their burgeoning social issues that is plaguing a hyper-polite, once dominant economic power that has floundered for many years. Okahara's work is eye-opening and distrubing, and points to the need for better social structures and mental health capabilities within society.

Have you ever attended a party where there are a handful of photographers mixed in with "normal" (as in non-photo) people, only to see the photographers group into a cluster, talking endlessly about topics only they could understand, and ignoring all the other non-photographers in the process? I see this a lot, and what's interesting to me is how they'll keep on chatting about the same things, over and over, until the beer runs out.

They're usually talking about "the business." Workflow, marketing, philosophy, the state of the industry - all popular topics. The problem with these meetings is that nobody ever writes all that good stuff down. (Which is probably a good thing. It would look weird.)

I thought I would poke my head into the PhotoShelter blog every once in a while, just to see if I could replicate that "party cluster," online and without the beer. This post is the first in a series of interviews and feature stories where I ask other photographers to talk about their workflow, sales and marketing strategies, philosophy and outlook about the industry, and what works and doesn't work from a business perspective.

Jason O. Watson is a Charlottesville, Virginia-based photographer who specializes in sports, action, assignment and travel photography.  His images have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, The Perth (Australia) Sunday Times, The (Portland) Oregonian, Boston Herald, Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Charlottesville Daily Progress, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Jason is successful with his business, so I thought he might be willing to share some of his secrets with the rest of us.  Lucky for us, he did.

First, a disclosure. Bill lives next door to me, as he has for the past 6 years. We are both photographers (although one of us is more accomplished, and I'm not talking about me). We've borrowed equipment from one another before. And we both fulfilled our civic duty by serving on our condo board.

Ok, now the relevant stuff.

I suppose at some point, every photographer goes through a nude phase. Most of the time, the nudes look pretty average. You know, get the girl naked against a black background and some moody lighting and pretend you actually have a vision. But in the end, it's just another average nude photo that no one really wants to look at because it's neither provocative nor interesting.

But when I received a postcard from Bill about his show, Figurations, I thought, "Boy, these are both provocative and interesting."

You know how sometimes you'll shoot a portrait and the person's arm will be hidden behind their back, and someone says, "It looks like they only have one arm!" And you think, "Geez, I'm an idiot. I'm not paying attention and this stuff just happens unintentionally."

Bill does it intentionally.


Photo by Bill Durgin

Photojournalist-extraordinaire, James Nachtwey, was awarded the TED prize last year, and has been working on a project ever since in secret.




""I'm working on a story that the world needs to know about.
I wish for you to help me break it, in a way that provides spectacular proof
of the power of news photography in the digital age."

All shall be revealed on 10/3....but what could it be?

Guesses:

• The plight of they professional photography industry
• The Nikon D3x
• Sarah Palin's IQ is actually 180

I kid. I'm a kidder. But really, what is it?

Over on the EditorialPhoto forums, there is a huge discussion about the Jill Greenberg controversy that everyone is talking about.

Jono Rotman's image of a black female smoking a crack pipe was referenced, so I dug in a little deeper, and found an interesting interview on Hasselblad's Victor magazine. Jono explains:

"ROTMAN: I use cliches an a recognizably seductive imagistic language to render divergent forms within the body of my work. In certain instances, I seek to reflect a trviality deeply ingrained in the culture I find myself housed within, but in raising that mirror I don't seek to further trivialize issues.

VICTOR: Do we need to be provoked into awareness?

ROTMAN: I think so, but it's not as particularly true of the current period as we may think. It's an ongoing dialectic equation - at this point perhaps we need more balance than provocation..."

In playing up certain stereotypes through photography, are we illuminating relevant issues? Should Jill Greenberg be commended or skewered? Maybe I should just have a beer since it's Friday.