Photography

With smartphones finding their way into nearly every pocket in the developed world, it’s easy to forget that film was once a precious commodity in many households.

Mine was no exception, as evidenced by the sheer number of botched photos that remain framed and prominently displayed in my parents’ home.

Today, just about every dad walks around with an enormous DSLR surgically grafted to his right forearm, casually snapping Tumblr-worthy masterpieces at junior footy matches. Even the icy scowl of a hormone-ravaged adolescent can shine with indie majesty given the right light and a lucky shot.

Continue reading "Family happy snaps were better in the old days" »

Last week The Punch posted a piece on a fantastic news picture of a couple kissing amid a riot. Then the proverbial hit the fan, with all sorts of rumours - including a suggestion it was the scene of a sexual assault - so we closed the piece until we could work out what was going on. Well now we know (sort of) and the piece is open again, here. And here’s a great look at the situation from a new contributor, Jen Vuk.

Against the tarnished backdrop of the escalating violence in Vancouver last week a startling image of a couple lying on a littered and damaged street and seemingly lost in their own tantric moment caused a meltdown of the most spurious kind.

Within hours of going online the image not only went viral, but had its own Twitter account and its first photo-shopped meme showing the couple on a freeway. While the riot, caused by the city’s hockey team’s championship loss, which left 150 people injured, property and shops destroyed and led to almost 100 arrests had but all been forgotten, our curiosity in the then mystery duo seemed to grow by the nanosecond.

Continue reading "Love, PR, and other catastrophes" »

For most Australian Prime Ministers, there is a photo or two that captures the essence of their character and the spirit of the times. Some readily come to mind, such as Ben Chifley at the launch of the first Holden car in 1948.

The well-known photos of Bob Menzies at the microphone during a campaign rally in the 1950s portray both control and confidence.

A picture of Harold Holt relaxing in swimming trunks on the beach at Portsea with friends encapsulates the popular record of the man, and his demise.

Continue reading "History’s photo album will not be kind to Gillard" »

The Egyptian protests that have led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak have produced some incredible media images, by photographers who often put their own lives in danger to bring us scenes from the streets of Egypt.

Here are some photos from the last two weeks, which culminated in celebrations on Friday night as Mubarak announced he would end his 30 year term.

Continue reading "Images of the Egyptian revolution" »

I became an Uncle again in early August of this year. Within minutes of having arrived at the hospital to meet the newest member of our beautiful clan, I had taken a photograph of him, and posted it on my facebook profile.

Within minutes of doing that, I had a message of congratulations from a first cousin I have never met, and who lived far away in the remotest parts of Northern Italy.

At first I thought this interaction and the technology that allowed it was simply marvelous. In discussing it with my mother, Madame Perin still found it impossible to believe. Not unlike the reaction she had when J.R got shot.

Continue reading "A picture tells a thousand lies" »

She’s shot the Queen, Obama, Nelson Mandela, George W. Bush’s cabinet and countless celebrities, not to mention a famously intimate portrait of John Lennon, curled up naked against Yoko Ono, just hours before the singer was shot.

But even though her best known work features the kind of faces likely to grace the covers of Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, Annie Leibovitz has long resisted the label of celebrity photographer.

Still, there are some things she can’t ignore.

Continue reading "Annie Leibovitz: Still life" »

Instead of a conventional piece of writing about today’s triumphant ALP Caucus meeting, we thought we’d cover it through the lenses of News Limited photographers Ray Strange, Kym Smith and Gary Ramage, who were there today chronicling an event which often looked like it would never happen.

This first photograph, by Ray Strange, tells much of the story of this bizarre two months in federal politics. In the foreground is Stephen Smith, who served as Foreign Minister in Kevin Rudd’s first and last term as PM. In the middle of the election campaign, when Rudd was accused of leaking damaging Cabinet information and leadership details to Laurie Oakes, Smith magnaminously told Julia Gillard that he was prepared to vacate that portfolio to make way for Kevin Rudd. It’s expected that this will happen when Julia Gillard announces her new ministry on the weekend. Rudd has gone from being the reviled accused leaker to valued senior member of the team.

The next photograph, by Kym Smith, is the moment Julia Gillard arrived at the meeting. By the shape of her smile, she seems to be thinking: “Yikes. We did it.” You can’t quite make out the documents she’s carrying - maybe it’s another list of demands from the independents.

Continue reading "Julia’s triumphant return: The story in photographs" »

Advisory: The following post contains graphic content which some people may find distressing.

Everyone suffers in war. No exceptions. I have been travelling to Afghanistan now for over three years. Covering the conflict from an outsider’s perspective, not getting involved or emotionally attached to the people I photograph. This is hard. Maintaining perspective and impartialility each day is challenging.

Watching soldiers die on the battlefield for a belief in something so far remote from them, is at times very difficult. They fight because they are told to and because if they do not, they will probably be killed by an ill-equipped and under trained Afghan insurgent - or a farmer with a grudge and no money to feed his family.

Continue reading "Into an Afghan hot zone with a ‘Dustoff’ crew" »

The full set of these pictures probably got passed over a little over the weekend because of (a) it being the weekend and (b) Mark Latham.

You may have seen a few of them but there were a total of 10 photos from the meeting between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her predecessor Kevin Rudd. It makes for an excruciatingly awkward compilation of shots with neither Gillard nor Rudd looking at all like they want to be there in a single frame.

The rest of the photos follow over the jump. They don’t need captions - they’ve just been given numbers for easy reference in the comments. Enjoy - and let us know if you have a particular favourite.

Continue reading "When Julia met Kevin: the full set of photos" »

Wondering how to take great holiday snaps? Ben Groundwater has tips from Richard I’Anson, professional photographer and author of Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Photography, on how to take the perfect pic.

Except he’s forgotten the best tip on taking travel photos. Don’t. Put the camera down and go do something.

As Ben says, many travellers fancy themselves as photographers and “like to take the odd snap to show off to their friends back home”.

Continue reading "Those who can, do. Those who can’t, take photos" »

The turmoil of the opposition leadership spill made Parliament House an eventful place to be for a press photographer. But it has become harder than ever to satisfy the appetite of the news-hungry populace, as the increased bureaucracy is madder than ever.

The feuding within the Liberal Party highlighted the antiquated and ridiculous rules that dictate where photographers and TV cameramen can go and what they can shoot at any given time.

In an attempt to deliver a professional product to our millions of readers and viewers, we were forced to break all the rules, and it has got us into all sorts of trouble.

Continue reading "Shooting Turnbull’s end: how you almost missed it" »

On July 18 in the quiet leafy suburb of Epping, residents woke to find that their daily paper had not been delivered. The community would soon learn of the brutal murders of newsagency owner, Min Lin and his family who were found bludgeoned to death in their beds.

In the weeks to follow, a strong sense of community support and condolence for the Lin family was shown with cards and flowers laid on the newsagency shop front for the only surviving member of the family, 15-year-old Brenda.

On August 8, over a thousand mourners from the local community paid their respects to the five slain Lin family members at the Badgery Pavilion in Homebush.

Continue reading "Grief beyond words: farewelling a slain family" »

This is a digitally enhanced photo of Sydney woman Deborah Luckie. She’s 50 years old.

A picture of her as she appears in real life is down the page.

If you were to see a photo of Deborah in a magazine, the photo above is how she could, potentially, appear after digital retouching. After a week of hype over model Sarah Murdoch appearing “untouched” on a magazine cover and the launch of a national body image initiative, the treated photo was commissioned to illustrate how removed from reality faces and bodies in the media can be.

Continue reading "How old is this woman?" »

An evocative photograph taken last week underscored that old utterance about a picture being worth a thousand words, and prompted at the same time some perennial questions about war in general, and about the particular war being waged at present in Afghanistan.

The AP photograph showed a small boy in the Afghan province of Helmand, standing on top of a small mound, his left hand reached out to clasp the right hand of a uniformed and heavily-equipped US marine.

Just what the two of them might have said to one another was not recorded in the caption, nor in the report below, which detailed a call from the UK Minister for International Defence and Security, Baroness Ann Taylor, for Australia to commit more troops to the NATO effort against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Continue reading "Afghanistan needs us to decide if we’re fighting on" »

Well he did secure press coverage saying things like “centre of world gravity just moved closer to Australia” and headlines such as Triumphant Rudd leaves as Obama battles on, so it’s no surprise the Prime Minister is looking like he’s just been told Christmas is coming twice this year.

This set of photos were taken by News Ltd’s Kym Smith at the “family photo” gathering after the Pittsburgh G20 summit, which you can read more about here, here and here.

But have a look at the rest of the pics after the jump - in every one, Kevin Rudd has a grin that looks like it was painted on with a roller brush. Enter your captions and explanations in the comments.

Continue reading "The G20 leaders walk into a bar. Who smiles the most?" »

On 28th July 2009, I flew out of Sydney bound for Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. It was to be the start of a fascinating trip into the Afghan war zone.

I embedded with the American 10th Mountain Division in Logar province, in the East part of the country. I was then shipped out to “The Tip of The Spear” as they called it, to the district of Kherwar.

The unit I joined was part of the Coalition’s blocking force against Taliban forces who are trying to use the area as an alternative entry point to the Wardack province and into Kabul.

Continue reading "Heart of darkness: inside the Afghan war zone" »

These two young people and their dogs were camped out on the pavement of the busiest street of central Paris opposite the Town Hall.

They were lying on the footpath around dusk time completely oblivious of the throng of people going past them.

They were surrounded by all their paraphernalia – backpacks, sleeping bags and so forth - and two of their three dogs were frolicking around.

Continue reading "It was like they were the only two people in Paris" »

Over to you.

Photography in space had a slow start. The first American to orbit the earth was John Glenn, the addition of a 35mm camera to his equipment on board Friendship 7 in February 1962 was according to NASA’s official history website “an afterthought”

“An Ansco Autoset 35mm Minolta was bought at a drugstore and hastily modified so the astronaut could use it more easily in a pressure suit.” The website goes on to tell us.

Little it seems was expected of these early attempts at photographs in space.

Continue reading "Getting the light right with space photography" »

My mates would say to me “Are you serious? You’re being sent to watch every ball of The Ashes, and you call that work?” It sounds like a dream job ... and believe me it is. But a lot goes in to photographing cricket, particularly an Ashes.

I was lucky enough to be given the assignment of covering the last two Ashes series for News Limited. The 2005 tour of England and then the return battle in the Australian summer of 06/07. In 2005 we set off at the beginning of June and wouldn’t return until mid September. It was a monster of a tour, including the one-dayers it was almost a 15 week trip. And sadly, England won.

The first thing you need to be a cricket photographer is stamina. There is no other sport like it. 540 balls a day, the best part of eight hours of action, five days in a row, countless training sessions, and the series last for months on end.

Continue reading "Shooting the Ashes: 540 balls a day, and you can’t miss one" »

One of the most exciting periods in politics for a long time began on Friday the 19th of June when little-known Treasury official Godwin Grech turned up for a Senate inquiry into the Ozcar affair. His sensational testimony led to him being chased through Parliament House. He was followed into a lift and to his car by a horde of media.

It was the start of a frenzied week in politics, when the news from Parliament House was interesting again, and Question Time became the best show in town. It swung wildly from Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull calling for Kevin Rudd to resign to the Liberal leader being under all the pressure.

The first photo is of Treasury official Godwin Grech under pressure and showing it in the Senate inquiry. When he was giving his evidence there was a crackling in the air – you knew it would be an all-in when he left the room.

I was one of the first into the lift and a bunch of others piled in. Others were much closer to his face, but by reaching up and shoot downwards I was able to capture the swarm of media around him.

Continue reading "Utegate photos: capturing a political crisis on camera" »

Are we becoming so jaded by Photographic forgeries that we now question every image?

“Amazing picture is the real deal-no porkies”  this was the headline on the page 5 picture story in last Tuesday’s Sydney Daily Telegraph.

The news content in this story about a giant feral pig shot some years back in Western Australia was that it was indeed a genuine picture and not forged. It had been written off as an internet hoax and even the WA ‘s own Department of Environment and Conservation had dismissed it as a forgery.

How have we reached this point where it is now news when a picture is in fact genuine and does it matter?

Continue reading "Stop the presses: this photograph is real" »

October last year was the beginning of a bikie war and my introduction to the characters of Sydney’s underworld. My assignment: the funeral of Notorious crime gang member and former Nomad bikie Todd O’Connor at St Mary’s Cathedral.

Along with a small media pack, I took up a close-in position for the arrivals, soon finding out that we were not welcome with a family member performing a one-finger salute. As the service began I managed to get some shots from the back of the cathedral of the coffin in place with O’Connor’s mother to the side, sitting wheelchair-bound.

After capturing a few frames, we waited outside till the coffin was carried out, usually the time of highest emotion. For this funeral, emotions lead to threats of violence. The Notorious foot soldiers formed a protective ring around the mourning family, facing up to the photographers, and hitting one snapper in the back. I repositioned to the other side of the road enabling a few frames of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim surrounded by his men…

Continue reading "How to photograph a bikie funeral, and live" »