The Photo Feed 09.24.07

Iraqi Journos Learn To Fight For Their Lives (Editor & Publisher)
Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, 200 journos have been killed, according to Reporters Without Borders. With this in mind, the Iraqi Journalists Union is organizing martial arts and survival classes for its members. Classes offered in Baghdad, Basra and Irbil will teach reporters, photogs and TV crews how to assume a low profile and hide their equipment while traveling. Union chief Shihab al-Timimi has also asked Iraq’s Interior Ministry to relax firearm regulations so that journos can carry weapons and defend themselves. Al-Timimi acknowledged that these strategies might not produce big results, but, as he told the Associated Press, “[D]oing something is better than doing nothing.”

AOP Joins Fight Against Getty’s $49 Plan (Stock Asylum)
It seems that the Association of Photographers has decided that “better late than never” is a good rule to live in protesting Getty’s $49 Web-use rate. After Getty responded to the other groups that protested the rate ten days ago, the AOP released a press release announcing it would join the SAA-headed coaltion. The press release quotes several AOP members, including George Logan, who is quoted as saying, “I have been becoming increasingly disenchanted with Getty for some time and this $49 ‘promotion’ is the final straw. I find it truly insulting that I might receive approximately £9.80 per image sold. I do not want to be associated with a company who would sell off my work in such a cheap and crass manner.” And Jo Sax is quoted as saying, “I am terminating my contract with Getty Images, and I would like to ask other GI photographers to examine this situation carefully and then respond appropriately.”

MORE BELOW: PhotoShelter Photography 2.0 releases video of NYC town hall meeting ... Is Forbes up for sale? ... The Getty Museum acquires hundreds of pix ... Photogs-turn-videographers receive scant training ... Castro poses for the camera ... Photo of plaque honoring murderer sparks ire ... Sports photog Adam Pretty talks about shooting the Olympics ... GQ archives 50 years of covers ... Gerda Taro finally goes on display ... Oscar De La Hoya seeks legal action over pix ... Ellen von Unwerth shoots Baccarat campaign ... Keira Knightley poses for Allure ... Terry O'Neill remembers shooting Frank Sinatra ... Three photogs get personal get personal in their new travel photography books ... Jane Bown gets a book and an exhibit ...

PhotoShelter Photography 2.0 Gets A Video (PhotoShelter / Crave)
Missed PhotoShelter’s New York Town Hall? Now you can watch the video of Kareem Black, Chase Jarvis, Jennifer Miller, Landon Nordeman, George Pitts and Catherine Talese talking about marketing, copyright, Getty and more. To watch the video, click here. Also: PhotoShelter’s new stock photography site, PhotoShelter Collection, is off to a good start. Before the end of its first week online, the site had almost 9,000 pix from more than 1,000 photogs.

The End Of Forbes As We Know It? (New York Post)
With the Forbes family selling its Greenwich Village headquarters and its helicopters, killing unprofitable titles and only launching one new mag in recent years, media types are speculating about the company’s future. The New York Post’s Keith J. Kelly suspects that the company will either be sold or go public.

Getty Museum Acquires Hundreds Of Pix (LA Times)
Among the acquisitions are 834 pix by Felice Beato and an octopus photo collage by Tim Hawkinson. The Beato pix are the world’s largest collection of the pioneer photojournalist’s work and include many of his pix of war and social unrest in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Hawkinson’s “Octopus” was commissioned by the Getty for a recent exhibit.

No Videographer Left Behind? Hardly (Black Star Rising)
An increasing number of newspapers are pushing their photogs to shoot video. Unfortunately, they’re not training them. And many photojournalism students say they’re not learning about shooting video in the classroom either.

Castro Poses For The Camera (AP)
Two days after Cuban President Fidel Castro participated in an unexpected interview on state television, Communist Party youth newspaper Juventud Rebeldethe ran a photo of Castro shaking hands with Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. The photo, which shows Castro wearing a tracksuit and tennis shoes, marks the first time in months that Castro has been shown standing. (He sat during the interview.) In fact, the dearth of pix or sound bites of Castro in recent months had fueled speculation among Americans that he might be dead. Now, not only does he appear to be alive and standing, but he’s looking downright AmericanCuban in his red, white and blue getup.

Photo Of Plaque Honoring Murderer Sparks Ire (Editor & Publisher)
Erskine Echo editor Rob Hole says he’s received no negative comments since running a photo of a plaque honoring David DeFrang last week. But the publication of the monument to the man who murdered Tina Gerving has upset Gerving’s family, including an aunt who asked, “Why don’t they make [a plaque] for Charles Manson, too?” The plaque was recently placed at the Erskine Athletic Park, where DeFrang—a youth basketball and baseball coach—had worked. Patty Morrison, who organized the effort to put up the plaque, dismissed concerns that DeFrang had murdered Gerving after she broke off their engagement before turning the gun on himself. “He was very well-liked by the community here,” she said, emphasizing that the murderer was not the DeFrang she knew.

Gerda Taro Finally Goes On Display (New York Times)
Taro was the first woman to shoot a battle from the front lines and die covering a war, but up until now, her work hasn’t been the focal point of a major exhibition. That’s about to change. Beginning on Wednesday, Manhattan’s International Center for Photography will showcase about 100 of her pix. The exhibit illuminates Taro’s place as an artist and reveals her importance in the changing role of women and the use of art as propaganda. The ICP is also displaying three other exhibits of work related to the Spanish Civil War, including a display of pix shot by Taro’s lover, Robert Capa. Taro’s work will be featured at the ICP through January 6, 2008. Also on display in New York: Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery is showcasing “The Park,” photog Kohei Yoshiyuk’s series of pix of voyeurs watching people have sex in Japan’s parks.

Preparing For China (Getty Images Sports Blog)
As the 2008 Olympics near, Getty CEO Jonathan Klein speaks with sports photog Adam Pretty about shooting sports, the thrill of snapping the Olympics and his passion for taking pix underwater. Listen to the podcast here.

GQ Toasts 50 Years Of Covers (Popsugar / Mediaweek)
Last week we told you of GQ’s plans to publish 10 different covers for the 50th anniversary October issue. Now GQ has gone a step further and archived every cover the mag has ever published on its Web site. See the covers here.

Golden Boy Seeks Legal Action For Pix (Contact Music)
Last week, X17 got its hands on pix of boxer Oscar De La Hoya clad in fishnet and high heels. De La Hoya insists that the pix are fake, and his attorney has called them “a really bad photoshop job.” The dancer-photog Milana Dravnel initially said that she’d shot the pix last May, but has now told the New York Daily News that she “cannot personally verify the authenticity of the images” and that she was pressured to make the pix public. Sounds like the possibility of a lawsuit is freaking her out.

Ellen von Unwerth Gives Baccarat Some Sparkle (Women’s Wear Daily)
The German photog shot the crystal company’s fall ad campaign in the Philippe Starck-designed Baccarat mansion in Paris. One black-and-white shot shows a model looking away from a crystal hand mirror as she wears some of the company’s Gothic, black crystal necklaces with crosses. The ads will make their debut in the October mags, including W, Elle Décor, Harper's Bazaar and Vanity Fair.

Keira Knightley Gains Some Allure (Popsugar)
Chanel’s newest face is Allure’s October cover girl. Once again, Knightley sort of bares her chest. No word on who shot the pix.

Photog Terry O’Neill Gets Frank (Scotsman)
Although he dated Julie Christy and shot the Beatles, O’Neill’s biggest claim to fame might be his work as Frank Sinatra’s photog. Now the photog has written a book about his time with Sinatra, a man known to be difficult to shoot. Entitled Sinatra: Frank and Friendly, the memoir will be published by Evans Mitchell Books next month.

Getting Personal (New York Times)
Love to get an up-close look at other photogs’ lives? New travel photography books by Mario Testino, Michael Clinton and Alec Soth let you do just that.

Jane Bown Finds Pix, Goes On Display (Guardian)
Some people “take” or “make” pix, but Jane Bown insists that she “finds” photos. A new exhibit at London’s Newsroom, as well as the recently released book The Unknown Bown, reveal the world as Bown saw it during her first two decades as a photog, from 1947 to 1967.