BAGnewsNotes

BAGnewsSALON "Visual Week In Review" -- Late April/Early May Edition

Thanks to everyone for being part of this evening's 90-minute edition of the BAGnewsSALON.

The "Visual Week In Review" is a discussion of selected images that have been featured on BAGnewsNotes over the past week or two.  Besides many readers and special friends of BNN, the panel included:

John Lucaites, BAGnewsNotes contributer, as well as blogger and co-author of "No Caption Needed"; David Schonauer, Editor-In-Chief of (and blogger for) American Photo magazine; Loret Steinberg, professor of Photojournalism at RIT; Nathan Stormer, professor of Communications and Journalism at the U. of Maine (who is also well dialed-in to the progressive blogosphere); and Getty's fine staff photojournalist Mario Tama.

If you happened to have missed it, check out the transcript after the jump.  We welcome your comments regarding the content of the discussion, the choice/selection of subject matter, the format, the SALON concept overall, as well as future discussions you'd like to see.

The BAGnewsNotes Visual Newsfeed

If you haven't yet focused on it, there is a new feature of the site that I'm particularly proud of.  It's the BNN Visual Newsfeed and it's sitting right over there in the left column.

Supplementing The BAG's daily offering, I have created a feed which culls from the best of photojournalism news, a grouping of contemporary photography blogs, and an emerging blogosphere dealing with social and documentary photography, as well as visual politics.

Besides taking in these headlines each time you visit The BAG, I'm hope you'll click through when you see something interesting, and get acquainted with some thoughtful and interesting visual sites.

BAGnewsSALON 3.30.08

Thanks to all who came by Sunday for the BAGnewsSALON.
If you missed it, no worries, there will be many more.

Also, thanks to all who sent feedback.
If you have further thoughts, we'd love to hear them.
As we go forward, we will continue to work on the format,
as well as the most satisfying mix of
invited guests and community involvement.

Help Grow The BAG

If you get some comfort, pleasure, food-for-thought or just a non-caffeinated boost out the post above, the one below, or any other at BNN, click on "Email This" at the bottom of the entry and share it with some like-minded friends.  Besides striking a blow for visual literacy, God knows everyone (at least, left-of-center) could use the more vivid perspective (and/or quirky sarcasm) right now.  Or, click "Add This" to bookmark, stumble, digg, or facebook (if that now passes for a verb), etc.

More Old Time Pun From The BAG

7/01 is when the middle and lower incomes got slammed. 

Now, it's all going to hell in a handbag.

BAGnewsSALON: "Reading the Pictures: The View From Korengal Valley"

American soldier resting at bunker, Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, 16 September

 
(all images open in separate windows)

Today at 4pm PST/7pm EST, BAGnewsNotes presents "Reading the Pictures: The View From Korengal Valley."  This 90 minute discussion is the first meeting of the BAGnewsSALON, a real-time discussion forum dedicated to the singular analysis and discussion of social and political images.

We will be analyzing Tim Hetherington's 2008 World Press Award winning photo (top, above) along with several additional images from his series.  The Korengal Valley, located in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar, is a key six-mile long pass where American troops have been fighting the Taliban, almost inch-by-inch, since 2005.  The area has also seen heavy allied bombing, with high civilian casualties.  American troops maintain a regular working relationship with local villagers who are well practiced at playing the Taliban and the American forces off one another.

Our discussion panel will include professors Robert Hariman and John Lucaites, co-authors of No Caption Needed; photojournalists Alan Chin, Nina Berman and Stephen Ferry; LA Times Senior Photo-Editor Alan Hagman; and BNN publisher Michael Shaw.  (Chin, Berman and Lucaites are contributers to this site.)

The conversation -- using Meebo.com live chat software -- will be moderated by BAGnewsSALON producer, Denise Ofelia Mangen.  Denise -- who is pursuing her doctorate of education at Columbia University's Teachers College in visual and media literacy, and human rights education -- has coordinated a number of significant documentary photo projects, and has worked closely with photographers such as Brenda Ann Kenneally and David Alan Harvey.

As a first outing, we are experimenting with how well the blog environment will support a discussion of this type, so it's an adventure for all involved.  We hope you can join us.

Tim Hetherington's War Image Wins World Press Photo (NPPA)
Hetherington World Press Korengal series (World Press Photo)
The Fight For The Korengal (Hetherington/Vanity Fair Photo Essay)
Korengal Platoon Portraits (Hetherington/Vanity Fair)
Into The Valley of Death (accompanying story by Sebastian Unger/Vanity Fair)

(images: Tim Hetherington.  September-October 2007. Korengal Valley, Afghanistan)

>> UPDATE 5:47 PM PST -- The following is the transcript from this evening's chat.  We look forward to your comments, either regarding the images or the discussion.  And special thanks to BAGreaders who either participated or "tuned in."

17:05Denise/ BAGnewsSALON
Hello all!

17:05Denise/ BAGnewsSALON
Welcome to the first BAGnewsSALON!

17:06Michael Shaw

I want to welcome all of you to "The BAG."  As you know, the role of BAGnewsNotes is to consider social and political imagery -- and, specifically, the unique details, composition and context of particular images  -- for its political and media implications.  (I should also add that the site, although open minded, is a political blog, so we tend to operate with a rather unapologetic progressive bias.)  Beyond that introduction, I'm thrilled to have this distinguished group together, and am happy to let the discussion -- especially, first time out -- go where it goes.

17:07John Lucaites1
I remember seeing this image when it was first published and thinking that it bordered on the surreal.

17:08John Lucaites1
It has some of the qualities of the thousand mile stare, but there is something "extra" here ... maybe the way his hand seems to be both in motion and stationary at the same time.

17:09Alan Chin
also the color palette -- that late afternoon shadow green

Your BAG

As I mentioned in the threads the other day, I'm going to be away through Wednesday.  I'll be completely unplugged, taking a break from the pics, the keyboard and even the U.S. of A.

This stretch, however, offers the chance to do something I really look forward to, and which we've done successfully several times before.  For five days, I'm turning The BAG completely over to you.  (Because I'm told people come here as much to hear your take as mine, I say, all the better.)

While I'm gone, I plan to auto-post five 2008 World Press Photo winning images, one each day.  (The awards, acknowledged as a mainstay of photojournalism, were announced just last week.)

I hope you'll consider each image, first and foremost, for its own elements, then for its political and media commentary, and its relevance to now.  Although you might have more to say about one than another, I've tried to choose photos that are as visually interesting (if not odd or provocative) as they are politically and culturally relevant.

By the way, I know I'll be missing Wisconsin and Hawaii on Tuesday, but that means more energy when Ohio and Texas rolls around.

The line-up:

Saturday: Christoph Bangert, Germany, Laif for Stern.
German Army sniper practice target, Kunduz, Afghanistan, 27 April

Sunday: Emilio Morenatti, Spain, The Associated Press.
Rockets launched from Gaza City towards Israel, 22 May

Monday: Platon, UK, for Time magazine:
President Putin of Russia

Tuesday: Michael Kamber, USA, The New York Times.
Searching for missing soldiers, Latafiya, Iraq, 18 May

Wednesday: Philippe Dudouit, Switzerland, for Time magazine.
PKK fighters, Northern Iraq

Note that this post will stay in place at the top of the blog.  Each new offering will appear below.

To old friends and new, I know I'm leaving the place in good hands.

Campaign Visuals In the Age of Facebook

I wanted to mention my new piece at American Photo, an interview with photographer Stephen Ferry.

Specifically, it's an analysis of an image Stephen shot just before the New Hampshire primary, and a look at how recent campaign coverage can be seen to reflect a "Facebook aesthetic."

If Ferry is more well known for his civil war coverage in Columbia, the part of his bio that stands out for me is the time he spent as White House photographer for Ronald Reagan.  More than anything though, Stephen has a deft ability to culturally and politically read a photograph.  I hope to bring more of his analysis to The BAG in the near future.

Campaign Visuals In the Age of Facebook (American Photo/State of the Art)
Stephen Ferry website

(image: © Stephen Ferry/Redux.  January 7, 2008.  Rochester, New Hampshire.  Used by permission)

State Of The BAG

Because it's been four years since this site trained its focus to analyze political imagery (during the '04 presidential election) and also because I've been doing an awful lot of experimenting over the past month or two in both approach and format, it seemed like a good time to check in, especially to clarify the picture for those of you who have been into (and maybe wondering about) The BAG.

Essentially, there are three points to make about where the site is now.

...Stay Tuned

( image  © Alan Chin.  Concord, New Hampshire.  January 5, 2007  Used by permission.(