Another year, another geek show. Few interesting tech things to see, Canon showed of the new 1D Mark IV cameras, great for movement, dance, jumps etc. With this, I don’t see shooting the RED camera ever again, 1o frames per second, 16MB RAW files. That’s great for a full page and beyond and much less footage (and tech/crew setup) to work with. NICE…

Now, if I actually get my new Canon S90 p&s camera and the printer that Epson promised last month and still has not delivered.

But the better part was a little history talk about The White House Photographers.

Led by Pete Souza, David Hume Kennerly and Robert McNeely it was a nice event that I wished would have been taped for the public with great personal insights and little quips about the daily life in 1600 Penn. Ave. and the obvious history witnessed by these great guys.

But I have to admit that James Nachtwey presentation on Saturday was beyond words.

The world’s misery that he witnessed and brought to the audience over the last 25+ years is just staggering. Probably the best photography done in this field and gorgeously printed by Jim Megargee, if it wouldn’t be for the just excruciating subject matter I could start hanging them in our house. Afterwards it was a standing ovation and had everybody reevaluate their life.

I do want to point to his tuberculosis initiative that he started with the help of TED in 2008.

Tuberculosis is shaping up to the most threatening disease making its comeback. Once though extinct it’s now multi/extremely drug resistant and taking a huge toll on populations across the planet and in conjunction with HIV is eradicating entire generations.

http://www.xdrtb.org/

The Hampton film festival, what a surprise. I have to go there more often. Besides the panel yesterday, I’m again very impressed with a movie.

“Learning from Light”, which photographer wouldn’t want to see this, is a documentary on the great architect I.M. Pei and the construction of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.

Besides the introduction to his creative process and research, the difficulties of the construction itself, it was a fantastic revelation of one of the greatest minds of our time. And I loved his devotion and observation of light, it’s quality; the appreciation of the singularity of sunlight and the usage of simplistic shapes, along with his humor and Great Spirit.

Mr. Pei himself being present for this world premiere topped all of this. What a treat on a Sunday morning…

Now if I could watch this in HD. Somebody has to pick this up for distribution.

And I would really like to photograph him…

Our great friend Alysse Bezahler was part of a panel of Movie and TV producers at the Hampton Film festival today, discussing the efforts of making movie productions more environmentally friendly.

And I really think there’s a lot that still photo productions can learn. From exclusive digital communication and file exchange in the production phase to renting Hybrid’s, renting equipment so it can be reused, using low power lighting solutions. To cutting down is disposable everything from foam core to foam cups, water bottles etc., and asking suppliers for “greener” and recycled products in general.

More ideas are here:

http://www.pgagreen.org

I’m happy that we implemented already a great deal of these ideas, from preproduction mostly done online; to the actual digital shoot, which requires less equipment, no chemicals and smaller crews; to digital file delivery versus the trusty world wide courier system.

And nice side effect was that productions also saved money implementing these changes, something that entirely makes sense.

Interesting development. I do love my iPhone for snaps but the quality is obviously less than great, so maybe a little adjustment can make them bearable. And it’s a free download from the app store so why not…

http://mobile.photoshop.com/iphone/

We lost a giant.

He, of all the photographers in history, influenced me the most.

His attention to detail, the contrast and the simplification of subjects will always be inspiring.

His work was one of the first that really stood out for me as a teenager when I first got into photography and discovered “Passage” and later “Flowers”.

(And I read all the book on photography in our library; twice)

And today I’m still amazed on the broad subject matter he shot so exquisitely and was always excited finding another Penn photograph in Vogue over the years.

There is a very short list of photographers that I’m a true fan and he is on top of even this group.

This is truly one of the saddest days in the Photography world and words will never be enough.

His series “Petit métiers” shot for Vogue in the 50′s is on display at the Getty Center in LA till January 10, 2010

What a great subject. Obviously any documentary on a photo legend will impress me. But I really liked the revisit of some sites he photographed during his career and seeing what some owners did to it over the years.

Besides the breathtaking, epoch making photography itself the most fun were the little quips about the shoots and the architects. What a great man he was.

And After the reception we had to investigate the new Cooper Union campus:

So here we go, the site is up. The portfolios and some pictures need some more work but the basics are there…

blog, bio to follow soon