Saturday, February 23, 2013

World Press debate and other stories


Thanks to Twitter on which I can track many things at the same time, I was clued into the results of the World Press Photo, which each year brings together an amazing body of work on its platforms, and is judged by some of the world's greatest photojournalists. Photo-shopping has always been a deeply debated issue, and this year's WPP winning image of Paul Hansen brought alive the debate again. It is also a difficult issue to deal with. On my computer, the image from the WPP winner's gallery seemed quite darker, but on my photographer colleague's computer the image appeared much brighter. Photoshelter blog has posted both the images. What do you think? I also like the original brighter image and don't see the need to photoshop it further. It has enough and soft light, is superbly composed, and captures the entire tragedy perfectly. I would really like to know what Paul Hansen has to say about this?

                                             Copyright: Paul Hansen/ World Press Photo


Another debate is also on about Paolo Pellegrin's images of a former Marine sniper which won him the Freelance Photographer of the Year award at the equally prestigious POYi. NYT photography blog put the controversy in perspective.

                                           

I discovered Guernica magazine quite late, and everytime that I got to their website, it has some really thought provoking reading material. Sinnamon Love deals with the question if while doing pornography, she was being a feminist.

I also found an article by Prashant Reddy in Open magazine on the extent of foreign funding in Indian NGOs, and it is quite mind-boggling. Do read.

The British Film Institute is doing a retrospective of documentary film-maker Anand Patwardhan's brilliant body of work. An interview with ever eloquent Anand Patwardhan

                                                A poster of Anand Patwardhan's controversial Raam Ke Naam


Happy reading!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Photo essay on India's women soldiers


I came across Poulomi Basu's very interesting photo story on India's women soldiers in Tehelka magazine. In 2009, India's Border Security Force began training women soldiers to be deployed on its border with Pakistan. Poulomi captured their life at the training camp. The series of photographs were part of Tehelka's latest issue on One Billion Rising. The pictures are worth taking a look at Poulomi's website.

NYT's photo blog featured Poulomi's work last year.

Do read.