NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE PULLS PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

Edward Martins, a Portuguese photographer living in London has had his photo essay about the U.S. mortgage and real estate bubble removed from The New York Times online slide show due to digital cloning and manipulation in photographs that were promoted as manipulation-free. A blogger initially noticed that three of Martin's photos were indeed digitally enhanced and manipulated in Adobe Photoshop. Photo District News an industry tabloid paper picked up on the story.

Although the manipulations might appear as a minor indiscretion, when understanding the nature of cloning, unfortunately for the New York Times' special presentation of an historical event in this country, an artist making aesthetic corrections to enhance journalistic photographs poses a major breach of ethics. It's bad enough when ordinary readers often don't recognize a construction for what it is, especially when dealing with issues like women's representation and body image, where a great deal of human flaws are removed or repaired. That's advertising. But Martin was commissioned to take photographs that were meant to serve as a historical document of our economic times. Good thing someone was paying attention and deconstructing the images.

See the manipulated photos.

Read Simon Owen's interview with the blogger who exposed the manipulations.

LENS: NEW FEATURE OF NEW YORK TIMES WEBSITE

Lens is the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, presenting the most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slide shows. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and from around the Web. And it will draw on The Times's own pictorial archive, numbering in the millions of images and going back to the early 20th century.

Go to Lens

Voices of Hope Featured in Special Events Publication

Voices of Hope Productions is featured in the October issue of Special Events Galore, a monthly Stevenson publication to give nonprofit event planners tips on how to create a comprehensive media kit. Cited are 7 tips that should keep the media kit simple: Don't overwhelm the audience, photographs are essential, create a template and brand, include a dvd or streaming video of past events, include testimonials, promote your website and use e-marketing. Media kits can be used for distribution to a wide and diverse audience. Download publication article

REAL OR NOT~ FIXATION WITH CELEBRITY IMAGES

British Photographer and Filmmaker Alison Jackson asks, "How do we know when we are looking at something, that it's real or not?...We read all our information through imagery. It's an extremely fast way of getting information and it's extremely difficult to tell if it's real, if it's constructed correctly." Her art and new book illustrate this point beautifully. Using look-a-likes, Jackson plays tricks on her audience to make them think critically about the images they see every day as voyeur paparazzi wanna-be's.



Her perspective is enlightening and worth the 17 minute exploration on her art and business to get an inkling on what drives the mass interest in celebrities.

WHAT REMAINS: THE LIFE AND WORK OF SALLY MANN

I find it so interesting to observe the things that inspire me to write and those that don't. I really love technology and the Internet and all the opportunities it offers to become inspired. Sometimes I collect on a memory in an instant, and it can be so circuitous. That’s what happened today.

I was trying to find a particular series on HBO and came upon an upcoming documentary about the photographer Sally Mann. That triggered my memory. I met Sally Mann briefly about 15 years ago when I worked at the Black Book. At the time she may have been interested in getting more work as a commercial photographer. She showed me black and white photos of kids; I believe some made with a box camera. I remember thinking her work was very original. I had met literally hundreds of photographers over the years and her work stood out. She has a unique point of view and I can’t wait to see the documentary about her work.

I Googled her and found a provocative essay that was written about a book of hers, Intimate Family and went on to read her response to the essay. This is truly a scintillating dialogue between artists and opinions. I highly recommend reading Noelle Oxenhandler’s essay, Mann’s response and watching the documentary. 15 years ago Sally Mann struck me as a pioneer for the life of an artist who pushes her way through what at one glance may be a taboo subject and on another glance a simple artistic.

I consider myself lucky in many ways. One--15 years ago, for only an hour or two, I was in the presence of what I perceived to be a pioneer, someone who I wanted to emulate as an artist. An artist who helps people make the leap to think deeply, analyze, learn and make great art. That memory and mission is still with me and going strong.

Synopsis of WHAT REMAINS: THE LIFE AND WORK OF SALLY MANN

VOICES SELECT | WEB SITE|

Check out some of the best news photography of the year. View the Winners Gallery at World Press Photo -- awards for best photography in twenty categories -- from portrait to nature to spot news and TIME MAGAZINE offers their year in photos.