The Photo Feed 11.07.07

Village Voice Photog Fred McDarrah Dies (Village Voice)
McDarrah documented New York bohemianism and counterculture for more than 50 years, shooting Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Willem De Koonig, Janice Joplin, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline, Charlotte Moorman, Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan, among others. McDarrah also penned PDN’s monthly books column from 1985 to 1987. McDarrah was the Village Voice’s sole photog for many years before going on to run the paper’s photo department and train young photogs such as James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland and Marc Asnin. McDarrah was still listed as a consulting editor on the Voice’s masthead when he died yesterday. He was 81 years old.

Jonathan Torgovnik Wins National Portrait Gallery’s Photographic Portrait Prize (BBC / PDN)
Torgovnik received the UK award for his portrait of a Rwandan woman and the child she bore after being raped during the country’s 1994 genocide. He took the photo after interviewing the woman, Joseline Ingabire. The photog notes that the image, at first glance, reveals Ingabire’s beauty. But then, he says, “[Y]ou look at the mother’s eyes. On the surface, this is a portrait of a beautiful mother and her children. Her beauty is there, yes, but there is something quiet and terrible behind that.” The image is one of 20 portraits of Rwandan mothers and children that Torgovnik shot for his series Intended Consequences: Mothers of Genocide, Children of Rape. He will receive an award of £12,000 (about $24,000). Argentine-born Julieta Sans took second prize for her portrait of a friend, and Cape Town-born Michelle Sank won third place for her image of a teenager from a children’s home. David Stewart of London won fourth prize for a portrait of his teenage daughter. And the inaugural Godfrey Argent award for photographers aged 25 and under was given to Ireland’s Ivor Prickett, who won the Ian Parry Scholarship this past summer. Prickett received the Godfrey Argent award for an image from his series showing Serbian families returning to Croatia following the Bosnian conflict. About 2,700 photogs from around the world entered this year’s National Portrait Gallery’s Photographic Portrait contest.

MORE BELOW: Photog Diana Walker talks about The Bigger Picture ... Sam Jones talks about shooting celebs ... Adobe aspires to offer a better Photoshop ... Geocoding tips for Lightroom users ... Eve Arnold's China pix go on display in London ... Jim Meriwether speaks with Michelle Vignes about working at Magnum ...

Photog Diana Walker Gets The Bigger Picture (NPR / Showbuzz)
Walker knows she’s a lucky woman. She was Time’s White House photog for five administrations, and she hit the campaign trail with John Kerry and Walter Mondale. Walker even got to shoot Katharine Hepburn receiving a Kennedy Center honor. As a result, the photog has gotten to go places and witness things that no one else has. While shooting, she has often thought, “I’ve got to do absolutely the best I possibly can to show you what was going on.” Two hundred of Walker’s absolute best portraits—and the stories behind them—are collected in her just-published book, The Bigger Picture. She also shares some of her stories—and secrets to her art in this interview with NPR’s Susan Stamberg. Also: Celebrity photog Sam Jones talks about his work, how he selected the pix for his new book, The Here and Now, and shooting George Clooney, Steve Carell and Steve Martin.

Adobe Aspires To Offer A Better Photoshop (Adobe Blogs / Underexposed)
Photoshop product manager John Nack knows his software isn’t perfect. But he wants it to be. So he’s offered some thoughts on how Photoshop can be improved. For starters, he wants to “make Photoshop ‘everything you need, nothing you don’t.’” After all, he knows that your Photoshop needs aren’t the same as those of, say, a radiologist. Nack also wants to make Photoshop “dramatically more configurable” and to enable task-oriented workspaces to provide solutions for users that aren’t sure what to do or how to do it. And, of course, he wants to improve upon what’s working well and eliminate outdated features. Why is he telling us all of this before he has something to show for it? “We’ve been toiling away beneath the surface, setting the groundwork for change,” Nack says. “There are no magic bullets, but I feel that for the first time in my 5+ years working on this team, we’re within striking distance of some big things—and everyone reading this will play a role in making things better.” So there you go. If you made it this far, you’re already doing your part to make the world a better place for Photoshop. Also: CNET's Stephen Shankland asked around and got some expert advice on just how wise it would be to tailor Photoshop like Nack suggests. The answers he received weren't all as optimistic as Nack himself was. Also: Want to geocode your pix? If you’re a Lightroom user, Adobe’s Eric Scouten will show you how to do so with the help of HoudahGeo.

Eve Arnold: From China To London (The Economist via APAD / SportsShooter)
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to visit London, here’s one: Eve Arnold, the first female Magnum photog, has an exhibit at the Asia House. The show, which runs through January 12, features 40 color pix that Arnold shot during two three-month trips to China in 1979. Those visits didn’t come without their trubles, of course. Not only did Arnold wrestle with Chinese officials for 15 years before they granted her a visa; tourist bureau officials supervised her shoots. The result is images that The Economist calls “respectful rather than penetrating,” images that reflect “a rapport with her subjects and a humanity.”

Michelle Vignes Dishes To Jim Merithew (SportsShooter)
If Vignes didn't know it before, she's got a big fan in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jim Merithew, who now owns three copies of Vignes' book Oakland Blues. Merithew recently spoke with Vignes, who worked in the Magnum office during the agency's early years, about having a “Magnum salad” accent and her work. As Vignes tells him, "I am unable to take pictures without a center and a subject. It’s funny. I needed a subject to keep going otherwise it is one picture here one picture there and there is not much meaning and I lose the interest. The story is my guide.”