In Focus: The Art of Lu Guang
At The New York Times, Contact Press Images co-founder Robert Pledge looks for an explanation of Lu Guang’s disappearance in his work — which, he notes, has shown the world a view of China’s darker side. “Lu Guang is a deeply concerned citizen,” writes Pledge, whose agency distributes the photographer’s images. “He works almost solely in China, for both linguistic and cultural reasons. His photographs have depicted some of the harsher sides of life in China — AIDS, environmental destruction, pollution and poverty.” Read the full Story >>
On View: This Film Follows Jay Maisel's Move from His $55M Studio
In 1966, photographer Jay Maisel paid $102,000 for a 6-floor, 72-room building in New York City in which he lived and worked for some 50 years. In 2015, he sold the building for $55 million. Now a new film by Stephen Wilkes — a one-time Maisel protege who went on to a brilliant photographic career of his own — follows Maisel’s move out of his former home. Laughing Squid calls it a “beautiful documentary” about and artist with an “incredible gift for seeing the beauty in random objects.” See a trailer at YouTube. Read the full Story >>
Books: An Ode to Japanese Parenting
The Japanese word oyako is a combination of the characters for parent and child, notes photographer Bruce Osborn. “It is unique in that it combines the parent and child into one unit, stressing the group rather than the individual, and reflecting the vertical link between generations. The parent is the link to the past; the child, a bridge to the future,” he writes. Osborn, who has spent more than three decades covering Japanese society, has now brought out a book calls “Oyako: An Ode to Parents and Children.” Read the full Story >>
Trending: Photographer's Trump Response Goes Viral
For many years, photographer Joshua McKerrow covered the unveiling of holiday decorations at the Maryland governor’s mansion, along with reporter reporter Wendi Winters of Annapolis’s Capital Gazette. This year, though, Winters was absent — she was one of five victims of a mass shooting at the newspaper in June. When McKerrow read a recent all-cap tweet from President Donald Trump calling journalists “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,” he decided to respond in a thread that is equal parts memorial to Winters and rebuttal of the president’s attacks on journalists at a time when global violence against reporters is spiking, notes The Washington Post. Read the full Story >>