The Killer Of Film
Posted by bruce in Art, History, The Human Condition on May 16, 2012
Bermaloid of the film shelf, May 2012
Commentary by Professor B KIller
Is it really over? Film? Well, actually that’s impossible. Film is any medium that can hold an image (my translation).
But is it that film that has silver on it on an “acetate” base is over with?
Pretty much.
I teach at a university. I’ve been there for four years. When I got there I was shocked to find out that they still had darkrooms. For one reason or another we kept them. I couldn’t arrive on the job, announce “The Darkrooms Are Dead” and be the killer!
And, as we went on, the students kept saying, “We love this.”
Well, some did. Soime hated it. Some loved and hated it. Many went on to be excellent photographers (in digital).
The point was that they were still learning some good lessons -as I and my generation did- in that dim room, swathed in yellow-red light, interacting with each other as they struggled with the old wet process of film and enlarged prints.
Cool but archaic.
So, here we are, at the end of another year, and as I look forward I struggle, once again, with the idea of being the Killer.
Anyone out there have any comments on this? Opinions? Experience with being the Killer Of The Darkroom or having fought off the axe of extinction?
Register on the blog and let me know.
The Morgue (The Good One!)
Posted by bruce in Art, Documentary Photography, History, News, social displacement, Technology, The Human Condition on May 15, 2012
You got to love paper. And aging. And photos. And writing.
Yes, it’s all in the “database” there, at the end of the keyboard, through Google. But is it?
Even if it is it has no texture, no odor, no reality.
Take this trip to The New York Times Morgue. A perfectly wonderful place to spend a lifetime.
A Documentary Survey Project From China
Posted by bruce in Documentary Photography, Photography That Matters, Photojournalism, Street Photography, The Human Condition on February 10, 2012
Altaf Qadri
Posted by bruce in Documentary Photography, Middle East, Photography That Matters, Photojournalism, Street Photography on December 28, 2011
Altaf Qadri, 35, is an award winning photographer.
Qadri, 35, won a World Press Photo award this year for his poignant photograph of relatives mourning over the body of a man killed in a shooting by Indian police in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
photography Altaf Qadri
Qadri, an Indian citizen, is a native of the Kashmiri city of Srinagar. He studied science at Kashmir University and worked as a computer engineer before taking a job as a staff photographer at a local Kashmiri newspaper in 2001.
CLICK ON THIS IMAGE FOR MORE Altaf Qadri: 
In 2003, he joined the European Press Photo Agency and covered the conflict in Kashmir. In 2008, he began working for The Associated Press in the Indian city of Amritsar. His work has appeared in magazines and newspapers around the world and has been exhibited in the United States, China, France and India.
André Cypriano Shoots The Other Venezuela
Posted by bruce in Conflict, Documentary Photography, Photography That Matters, Photojournalism, South America, Street Photography on December 9, 2011
From Shantytown by André Cypriano-©2011
André Cypriano takes us into the forbidden hills of Caracas Venezuela. He takes us into a strange land of oddly shaped houses, winding streets carved out of the hills, into a land so odd and so foreign that it must be myth but can only be reality. He notices, as all greart documnentarey phtography does, that ordinary reality, in some cases, is always more intense and mind-boggling than any fiction can be,
Cypriano takes us to Rochinha.
How he got there, who gave him access and what he encounters is worth serious viewing time. In the New York times Lens Blog post, below, wander with André.
He will take you on a journey you well not forget.
For more from André Cypriano, see:
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/in-brazil-finding-dignity-in-horror/
Bird And Man In New Mexico
Posted by bruce in Documentary Photography, Photojournalism on November 24, 2011
Terry and the Dinosaur
Posted by bruce in Photojournalism, Roadside Attractions, Street Photography on October 15, 2011
Bruce Berman Shoots Juárez
Posted by bruce in Conflict, Documentary Photography, Mexico, Photojournalism, The Human Condition, Uncategorized, War on October 8, 2011
[flagallery gid=1 name="Gallery"]
El Paso —-
Bruce shoots Juárez. Reluctantly and with remorse.
Since 2008 the photographer has been documenting the aftermath of violence in the troubled northern Mexico city. His interest is in the effect of the Cartel War on the population of the city, particularly the effect on the children of the city who have grown up knowing little else.
His current work is in a mental institution in the city, what he refers to as “The House Of The Abandoned.”.
The body of work -The Other Truth- will appear on this site on November 18th.
Ami Vitale; Beauty, Power, Life
Posted by bruce in Africa, Art, Children, Conflict, Documentary Photography, Middle East, News, Photography That Matters, Photojournalism, social displacement, South America, The Americas, The Human Condition on September 2, 2011
Hungary Baths by Amy Vitale©2011
From Ami Vitale’s website (http://www.amivitale.com):
Ami Vitale’s journey as a photojournalist has taken her to more than 75 countries. She has witnessed civil unrest, poverty, destruction of life, and unspeakable violence. But she has also experienced surreal beauty and the enduring power of the human spirit, and she is committed to highlighting the surprising and subtle similarities between cultures. Her photographs have been
exhibited around the world in museums and galleries and published in international magazines including National Geographic, Adventure, Geo, Newsweek, Time, Smithsonian. Her work has garnered multiple awards from prestigious organizations including World Press Photos, the Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism, Lucie awards, the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting, and the Magazine Photographer of the Year award, among many others.
Now based in Montana, Vitale is a contract photographer with National Geographic magazine and frequently gives workshops throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. She is also making a documentary film on migration in Bangladesh and writing a book about the stories behind the images.
Henri Rocks
Posted by bruce in Uncategorized on August 4, 2011
Is Photojournalism Dead Yet?
by Bruce Berman
A whole generation of street photographers have emerged in the digital era.
In fact there is a book dedicated to the subject that has over one hundred street photographers published.
I do not know one name.
What one can glean from this book and the plethora of postings on Facebook, Flickr, and other social media sites is that there are still photograp0hers who go into the streets with intention, commitment and courage and dance with the uncertainty of the randomness of street photography.
For a very good example of this work, visit http://www.street-photographers.com.
The work is good!
Another interesting site is on Vimeo and is produced by the prodigious street photographer Chris Weeks:
Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition – Part One of Three from Chris Weeks on Vimeo.
But, in the end -and most street photographers acknowledge this- there is still the master of the Decisive Moment, The Man (!), Henri Cartier-Brsson. His work is still fresh, still charming, still brilliantly composed and still a model for a generation, shooting now, who’s grandparents were barely born when Henri was snapping away with his new found Leica.
For a thrilling and significant look at Bresson’s work, view the video below.
Contacts Henri Cartier Bresson english subbed from Ricardo J. Martins on Vimeo.
The next post will be an in depth look at street photography in thjis era, the era of post 9/11 street paranoia, digital speed and, seemingly, the “we have already seen everything,” media.
For now, Henri still rocks.
Henri Still Kicks!
Posted by bruce in Documentary Photography, Photography That Matters, The Human Condition on July 2, 2011
Article posted courtesy of Huffington Post and Steve Ettlinger
Is Photojournalism Dead Yet?
by Steve Ettlinger
Born in the 1930?s, come of age in the 1950?s and 60?s, and pronounced near dead in the 1970?s and virtually buried by the closing of magazines/rise of the internet–you have to wonder how it is that some aspects of this wonderful world are still around. Read the rest of this entry »
JR Is Outside In
Outside In by JR
Editor’s Note: This is an amazing project. In the era when people worry about the demise and/or future of journalism, when academics question the effectiveness of journalism in a 24/7 news cycle world, there is JR, who is producing and promoting another form of photojournalism and not only bringing his subjects into the communication process, he is bringing the work done on the subjects back to their environments. Check it out:
INSIDE OUT is a large-?scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world.
SEE VIDEO
Photography Sites
Border-Blog- Back From Teacherland: Watch Out!Low Rider’s Crucufix, east El Paso-May 2012 ©Bruce Berman One sees the world through one’s own window. This is the Low Rider’s punta de vista. What’s your’s? Rato Vato.…I’m back! Copyright secured by Digiprove […]
- Lost And Looking For Redemption In The Mountains of JuarezMan#26, The Other Truth series, Juarez, May 2011 Christmas Eve/El Paso A Personal Narrative Lost and abandoned. Christmas Eve reminds me of that, right now, as I look out my south-facing window to Juarez (three blocks away) across the valley of Juarez, to the foothills of the Sierra Madre, where Creamac sits, CREAMAC, the “mental […]
- Crossing the Rio without ConfusionUndocumented Women CrossingThe R2, Juraez-El Paso, 1984 Text and photograph by Bruce Berman The river with two names: Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte. Depends where you begin and where you end and where you return to. These women are heading north. It was a long time ago. Everything has changed and nothing has changed and […]
- Man In The SegundoMan in the Segundo, El Paso — Sept. 2011 Photo and Text by Bruce Berman Man from Anthony, New Mexico, describing his younger days in the Segundo barrio. The Segundo barrio is El Paso’s most historic neighborhood, hugging the border with Juarez, Mexico and architecturally intact from the 1880’s “railroad boom,” that brought fired […]
- Robot Geeks Attack El PasoV.I.P. at Robo-Geek Fest, El Paso, Texas all photographs by Bruce Berman Robots at Robo-Geek Fest, El Paso, Texas Robot attacks little girl at Robo-Geek Fest, El Paso, Texas Story by Bruce Berman El Paso —- Four-wheeled robots wielding paintball guns took over the Western Technical College Northeast campus on October 15, when students […]
- Night Out With The Man Who Loves DogsThe man who loves dogs (who doesn’t?), Las Cruces, New Mexico, September 2011 FOR SLIDESHOW: Photos and Text by Bruce Berman Las Cruces NM — Gary Bailey. Mensch (in Yiddish it means “a person of integrity and honor”). He is the man who loves dogs. One of them. He rescued all five of these. The […]
- House of the AbandonedMaria Full Of Grace, from The Other Truth (T.O.T.) series, Juárez, May 2011 Photo and Text by Bruce Berman Juárez — Maria. Full of grace. And other emotions. A permanent resident of CREAMAC, in the hills of Juárez, way up there, near the Guadalupe, the last place on one of the last streets, near the […]
- An Iconic Survey of the Border Funklands:1975–2011Teepee on the Carlsbad Highway, from the Funklands Project ©Bruce Berman FOR SLIDESHOW: […]
- The Heart of El Paso/Alligators And Kids With HeartLuis Jimenez’ Largartos (Alligators) in San Jacinto Plaza, El Paso, Texas, July 2011 by Bruce Berman El Paso – by Bruce Berman This is what kids do on their Quincineras in El Paso. They go to the heart of El Paso. They go to the downtown plaza, the “San Jacinto Plaza.” This is […]
- Prom Night: The Boogie Man Is A Long Way AwayProm Girl, El Paso, Texas –May 2011 Murder schmurder! It’s Prom Night in El Paso. Those buildings in the background are downtown El Paso. The space behind, the mountain, that’s Juarez. That girl there, in the foreground, the one with the whimsy and the joy and the hopes and the fragility, she’s a […]
- Back From Teacherland: Watch Out!