Digital Camera World » photojournalism

Photojournalist Don McCullin finds a new audience

samanthacliffe — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:00:38 +0000

A documentary film about legendary photojournalist Don McCullin has been garnering rave reviews in the UK, and is expected to be released in the US later this year. McCullin, a film by acclaimed documentary-makers David and Jacqui Morris, features the tagline, ‘Looking at what others cannot bear to see is what my life has been about’, and has been described by critics and photographers alike as a must-see film.

McCullin is rightly seen as one of the foremost photojournalists of the 20th century, but he’s also famously reclusive, so a feature-length documentary on his life and work provides the perfect primer for those unfamiliar with his work, and indeed those who are lifelong fans – if ‘fan’ is the correct word; McCullin was known for his uncompromising approach, and as a result his images are often as harrowing as they are compelling. As McCullin himself notes in the trailer to the film (above): “I’ve got to make sure that when they [newspaper readers] look at my pictures on a Sunday after breakfast that it’s going to hit them hard.”

It feels very timely: 50 years on from the hard-hitting journalism of the 1960s and ’70s, the world is once again facing war and insurgency on multiple fronts, and McCullin’s images resonate as much now as they did on the day they were first published.

For up-to-the-minute info on where the film’s showing visit www.artificial-eye.com. For more on McCullin himself, his autobiography Unreasonable Behaviour comes highly recommended. Interestingly, McCullin has also just published In England, a look at his images – old and new – shot closer to home.

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The 55 best photographers of all time. In the history of the world. Ever. Definitely.

jmeyer — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:12:10 +0000

The best photographers of all time? Surely there can be no definitive list! We’re not afraid of courting controversy here at Digital Camera World. OK, maybe we are a little bit, which is why we thought it was time to be bold for once! Over the years we’ve interviewed a number of famous photographers and been inspired by each of them, but one thing we often hear from readers, social media followers and others is… “who are the best photographers of all time?”

It’s a good question! We put on our thinking caps and took a stab it.

Following lots of coffee and some heated tuts, we agreed on a list of the 55 best photographers of all time.

In the history of the world. Ever. Definitely.

Is this list definitive? Of course it is! But we’d also like to hear from you too. If we’ve missed someone or you question our choices, let us know in the comments. Or on our Facebook wall. Or anywhere else we hang about.

So without further ado…

The 55 Best Photographers of All Time: 55 through 51

55 Art Wolfe (born 1951)
Popular nature photographer and television presenter whose vividly-coloured images of wildlife, landscapes and indigenous cultures celebrate the beauty and diversity of the natural world.

54 Garry Winogrand (1928-1984)
One of the great street photographers of the 1960s and 70s, Winogrand’s pictures of everyday urban life are complex, sometimes humorous and often profound.

53 Edward Weston (1886-1958)
One of the most influential American photographers of the 20th century, Weston shot meticulously detailed large-format pictures of landscape, nude and still-life subjects.

Image copyright Jorge Barrios

52 Mario Testino (born 1954)
One of the world’s most famous photographers in the world, Testino is particularly celebrated for his glamorous and flattering fashion photography of women and his advertising campaigns for Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana.

Image copyright United States Library of Congress

51 Alfred Stieglitz (1864 -1946)
Groundbreaking photographer, tireless promoter of others’ work and a hugely important figure in the development and acceptance of photography as a serious art form.

Photo of the day: 14 July

samanthacliffe — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Walking in the Rice Fields by Stuart Burns

This excellent shot gives a nice insight into the daily life of this woman from the Gambia. The out-of-focus grasses at the top and bottom of the image create a blur effect almost in the shape of a vignette, which frames the image nicely.

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World Press Photo 2011 winner unveiled

jmeyer — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:33:32 +0000

Samuel Aranda/Corbis Images/World Press Photo

The votes are in, and the World Press Photo of the Year 2011 award goes to Samuel Aranda from Spain.

Aranda, who was on assignment for The New York Times in Yemen, shot his image of a woman holding a wounded relative in her arms during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen, on 15 October 2011. The woman was inside a mosque being used as a field hospital by demonstrators who were clashing against the rule of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Some 5,247 photographers from 124 countries entered the World Press Photo 2011 competition, now in its 55th year, submitting a staggering 101,254 pictures by the mid-January deadline.

The World Press Photo 2011 jury gave prizes in nine themed categories to 57 photographers of 24 nationalities, hailing from Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the USA.

Jury member Koyo Kouoh said of Aranda’s picture: “It is a photo that speaks for the entire region. It stands for Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, for all that happened in the Arab Spring. But it shows a private, intimate side of what went on. And it shows the role that women played, not only as care-givers, but as active people in the movement.”

Fellow World Press Photo 2011 jury member Aidan Sullivan added: “The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on. We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East.”

The judging is conducted at the World Press Photo office, where all entries are presented anonymously to the jury, who discuss and debates their merits over a period of two weeks. The jury operates independently of the World Press Photo organisation.

The World Press Photo contest is open to professional press photographers, photojournalists and documentary photographers.