I think that you can agree with me that photography (as we’ve traditionally known it) and cameras have become more of a luxury product over the years. We’ve found ways to commodify workshops on a larger scale, phones have decimated your compact camera sales, and you really have to convince someone to actually purchase your camera let alone actually bring it with them. There are of course those big, ugly straps that you’ve been using for years that more or less appropriately label your fan boys and girls. But I genuinely think that it’s time for a change.
Nothing screams analog quite like the Sprocket Rocket. When it was first launched in 2011 by Lomography, it carried a couple of firsts in its plastic body: it was “the world’s first panoramic wide-angle 35mm camera dedicated to sprockets” and was the first film camera to be fitted with a reverse gear to “rewind and remix” photos with.
The Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) has recently announced the winners of the EISA Awards 2018 – 2019, with Sony, Canon, and Nikon garnering several major awards, and Fujifilm and Panasonic winning in some key camera categories.
While many of us have seen how and why mirrorless cameras will take over the bigger and bulkier DSLRs, the pros have remained a tough nut to crack for the mirrorless market. Many of the pros still prefer holding on to the big investments they made in their DSLR gear, but some have started to jump into the mirrorless side. Bloomberg recently reported that Sony has been especially enticing them with their new super-fast offerings.
Though Canon may be #1 in Japan for mirrorless cameras, Sony has taken the #1 spot when it comes to full frame cameras overall in the US. The news comes to us via a press release delivered by Sony today. They’re also announcing that they are in the overall #1 position when it comes to dollars and units; which they’ve been for 6 years now. According to Sony, 4/10 full frame cameras sold during this period are Sony.
How many of you photographers out there have sat there, looked at the work of some of the greats and were in awe of the medium format look? If you’re reading this article, I’m positive that a number of you have. When it comes to documentary photography though, smaller formats have always dominated the scene. Why? Well, it’s easier to capture more critical moments with smaller formats due to how the laws of physics and depth of field world. But when that doesn’t mean that medium format doesn’t work. Lots of fantastic projects were done on medium format; and I’m positive that in the hands of the right photographers, digital medium format can do the same.
The lenses that photojournalists use need to be equally adept to ever changing conditions, and they need to able to withstand the hardest of jolts, and the hottest, coldest, and rainiest of days. To be successful in this field, a wide range of focal lengths needs to be covered. The challenge comes in finding lenses that are up to the task of being used and abused over and over again without the photographer having to ever worry about their glass. Here is a list of the five lenses every documentary photographer should have in their bag.
One of the things that many photographers speak of is empathy for your subjects; while I hate the romanticizing of the idea that should honestly just be common sense, I agree that you should always do unto others as you’d have others do unto you. Blame Catholic schooling for that. If you want to turn the camera onto other people, you shouldn’t be that person that says “Oh I don’t like having the camera turned on me.” If that’s the case, then why do it to others? Why not instead work to make yourself feel better in front of the camera or find a way to work with a photographer to do that? This has been my belief for years and in my eyes, there’s no exception to this rule. In order to have true empathy for your subjects, you need to step into their shoes and live a day in their lives. When you combine this with a few recent life changes that I’ve made, it adds up and becomes something that it worth putting forward in photos that are representative of who you are.
It’s been a while since the 2018 FIFA World Cup has concluded, but that doesn’t stop us from showcasing this beautiful and heartfelt photo essay by Skander Khlif. In his set titled Hooligans of Love, the Munich-based street and documentary photographer captured the revelry of the Tunisian team’s supporters. Interestingly, it the was the only group that he ended up making a series about throughout his attendance of the World Cup, and here, he tells us why.
If you haven’t updated your Instagram password or haven’t reviewed your security settings in a while, now would be a good time to do so. A puzzling hack has locked some Instagram users out of their accounts and got all contact details replaced, with the email address linked to a new one under a Russian domain.