Week in Photos: Wildfire...Budget Cutter...Reese and the Elephant

Go to Le Lettre de la Photographie for my full weekly review. The sample:

1. Circus Maximus

Reese Witherspoon, star of the new film Water for Elephants, may be one of the biggest names in Hollywood, but she was dwarfed by her co-star in a circus-themed fashion layout in Vogue's May issue. The images were shot by Peter Lindbergh.

2. Political Figure

Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, profiled in Time, can be seen either as a hero or as a villain, depending on whether you agree with ideas for cutting the federal budget, or President Obama’s. There’s not much middle ground these days in American politics. Photographer Marco Grob went for a neutral interpretation in this portrait, centering Ryan’s ambiguous expression within shades of gray. Nonetheless, one right-leaning magazine called Time’s story a “hit piece.”

3. Springtime in Texas

Sometimes spring brings wildflowers. This year a spring heat wave has brought wildfires to Texas. This photo, which shows a fire threatening a home in Strawn, Texas, presents the terror vividly. Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

4. Rock Star

Here, a young man named Dean Potter takes a preposterously dangerous route up a rock wall in Yosemite National Park. Potter is one of several climbers revolutionizing the sport with risky new maneuvers. Note that he is not tethered to a rope. Note also that the photographer who shot this picture, Mikey Schaefer, was not in a safe place, either.

5.Rule Britannia

Flags were hung over Regent Street in London in preparation for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.The alternate headline for this shot was "The Empire Strikes Back." Photo by Carl Court/Press Association/AP.

 
 

Tim and Chris

In the book Requiem, the late David Halberstam wrote these words about the photographers who died covering the Vietnam War:

War correspondents always know who is real and who is not. A war zone is not a good setting for the inauthentic of spirit and heart. We who were print people and who dealt only in words and not in images always knew that the photographers were the brave ones, and in that war...they held a special place in our esteem. We deferred to them, reporter to photographer, in that venue as we did in few others.

They were real because they had to be real; they could not, as we print people could, arrive a little late for the action, be briefed, and then, through the skilled use of interviews and journalism, re-create a scene with stunning accuracy, writing a marvelous you-are-there story that reeked of intimacy even though, in truth, we had missed it all. We could miss the fighting and still do our jobs. They could not. There was only one way for them to achieve intimacy: by being eyewitness.

There is so much to say about Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, and about the job of the war photographer. And much is being said in tribute, and much more will be said. I knew them both, but not especially well--in the case of Chris a couple of beers on a couple of occasions, telephone calls when he wrote once for the magazine I used to edit (he was a fine writer too, clear in his thoughts and his feelings). In the case of Tim it was an interview I did with him, last November, over coffee at a hotel lobby in New York. Not much, but in similar ways both Chris and Tim impressed me, immediately and lastingly, as...superior people. That's the term that comes to mind. Humble. Humorous. Giving. Dedicated. Real, as Halberstam put it.

Postcards From America: An Interview with Alec Soth

"The Arkansas Cajun's Backup Bunker," from Alec Soth's "Broken Manual" project

 When I spoke with photographer Alec Soth last week, I forgot to ask him if he’d ever read Robinson Crusoe. At the very least I wanted to suggest that he take a look at Jonathan Franzen’s recent New Yorker magazine essay about the novel, which Franzen calls “the great early document of radical individualism.” I thought Soth would be interested, since he is one of the foremost contemporary chroniclers of the American strain of radical individualism. 

Soth's 2004 book Sleeping by the Mississippi is a journey through a land of overlooked places and the people who inhabit them. Though he was certainly not the first artist to go looking for the American soul along the Mississippi, his work there produced a singular vision: Soth’s American heartland was a place where independence and loneliness cohabit, sometimes easily, sometimes not. Stylistically, the work was rich in narrative possibilities—Diane Arbus meets Walker Evans—and it marked a turning point in the documentary genre.

Glittering Prizes: 2011 Pulitzers

Congratulations to Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles Times, who has won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. And congratulations to Carol Guzy, Nikki Kahn, and Ricky Carioti of the Washington Post for winning this year's Pulitzer for Breaking News Photography.

Davidson's prize came for her story about innocent victims of gang violence

Teens attend the funeral of a friend killed at a high school football game. Photo by Barbara Davidson

Guzy, Kahn, and Carioti won for their coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010.

A Haitian man tries to free a teacher trapped beneath rubble. Photo by Carol Guzy

Stories We Wish We Knew More About: Valuable Drtikol Ptint Recovered

"The Wave" by Frantisek Drtikol

 I sort of told myself I wouldn't just reprint press releases in this blog, but the following missive from the Association of International Art Dealers (AIPAD) is intriguing and well told, and not too self-serving. It’s about how $250,000-plus Frantisek Drtikol print was stolen then recovered by a quick-thinking art dealer. I like tales with happy endings. But does this story make you feel any better about the murky world of art dealing? Here's the AIPAD release:

The Party I Would Most Like to Attend

 
It seems Taschen is bringing out a 3D version of "The Big Book of Breasts," which was already almost too colossal in 2D. All I can say is I'm glad they didn't do a 3D version of "The Big Penis Book." They're having a party to celebrate at the Taschen store in Beverly Hills, and here I am stuck on the wrong coast. Question: Is this just the beginning of a spate of 3D photo books?

Week in Photos: Gbagbo, Gaga, and other Unexpected Sights

How often do you get to write the names "Gbagbo" and "Gaga" in the same sentence? For my full weekly photo review, go here.

 1. Unmasked

The fighting in Ivory Coast came to an end this week with the capture of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to leave office after losing an election last year. In this picture from AFP/Getty Images, Gbagbo is seen with his wife after opposition forces reached him in his residence. His appearance confounds expectations. The picture reminded me of the moment in Star Wars when Darth Vader is unmasked, revealing the warlord to be nothing but old, vulnerable man.

2. Bosom Buddy

Lady Gaga's appearance in the May issue of Harper's Bazaar--in a fashion layout shot by Terry Richardson--also confounds expectations, but that's her game. She is what former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld would call a known unknown. In this picture she seems to be attending a tea party that would give the Mad Hatter second thoughts.

3. The Killing

In this photo by Robert Stolarik for the New York Times, we see police searching for human remains on Long Island, where the bodies of ten people, at least found believed to be prostitutes, have been found along a highway near a popular beach. The evocative image--misty and mysterious--is loaded with narrative power. This is not Stieg Larsson murder, though. It's the real thing.

4. Depth of Field

What appears at first to be a toy boat is the real thing, left amid a debris field by the tsunami that his northern Japan last month. Look closely at this photo by Damir Sagoli for Reuters and you can see a woman walking her bicycle through the debris in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture.

5. Parking A Lot

Luckily for the driver of this SUV, a parking place has opened up in a roadside lot in New Delhi, India. Kevin Frayer captured the maneuver for AP.