:: LNR Journalism ::

Photo app startup EyeEm: The way we discover content through our friends is broken

TechCrunch :: It’s been a year since upstart photo app EyeEm launched. A year in which Instagram rocketed in usage and was bought for a billion bucks by Facebook. A year in which other startups like Color, Lightbox and Picplz dropped from view, though it also has local Berlin competition in the form of Tadaa. So in that context, what’s it like still plugging away at the photo app game? What can EyeEm still offer in the face of such competition that’s so different? We caught up with co-founder EyeEm Florian Meissner at his Berlin base to pose a few questions.

An interview by Mike Butcher, techcrunch.com

Hope for Flickr? Marissa Mayer creates account, reportedly doubles team

Alexia Tsotsis, TechCrunch wrote an update, stating "That Flickr Account Wasn’t Marissa Mayer, But She *Is* Currently Looking For A New Head Of Flickr" - so yes staff changes/hire continue but we can't rely on her "new" Flickr account as a signal for hope.

That Flickr Account Wasn't Marissa Mayer, But She *Is* Currently Looking For A New Head Of Flickr tcrn.ch/N1nJwy

— Alexia Tsotsis (@alexia) August 16, 2012

TechCrunch :: It looks like Flickr may be getting some much-needed love from its corporate parent Yahoo — Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer just created an account on the photo-sharing site. That may not seem like a big deal, but neither Carol Bartz nor Scott Thompson, Yahoo’s past two CEOs, had a publicly visible Flickr account

A report by Anthony Ha, techcrunch.com

'I was gutted that I'd been such a coward': Photographers who didn't step in to help

Guardian :: What's it like to witness a mob attack, a starving child or the aftermath of a bomb, and take a photograph instead of stopping to help? As two journalists are under fire for recording rather than intervening in a sex attack in India, we ask people who know.

(Note: contains graphic images) - Experience reports www.guardian.co.uk

At 'New York's Picture Newspaper,' photographers trade dark looks

Capital New York :: When Alexander Hitchen assumes his new post as photo editor of the Daily News, he will inherit a small fleet of freelance photojournalists who feel as if they've just had the wind knocked out of them. The paper's pool of regular freelance photographers, including more than a dozen who work full-time hours for the tabloid on set day-rates but are not salaried employees with benefits, were recently asked to sign a new contract by July 31 in order to continue receiving assignments after that date.

Contract details - A report by Joe Pompeo, www.capitalnewyork.com

Photojournalist Benjamin Hiller in Syria: Facebook removed photos due to 'concerns'

Note: unverified claim so far. I have reached out for more details.

HT: kurdish blogger, here:

Benjamin Hiller a photojournalist in the Kurdish areas in Syria says that Facebook has removed some of his photos twitter.com/kurdishblogger…

— kurdish blogger (@kurdishblogger) July 27, 2012

Benjamin Hiller on Facebook

Benjamin Hiller's blog

Stipple it: Your image can now travel the web, and you still know where it will be published

AdAge :: Every time someone pins, clips, grabs or post your images, disseminating them around the internet, it should be a good thing for the brands whose products are finding more eyeballs. One problem: Once the image is shared, the data associated with the image such as price and availability are gone.

Stipple-it offers a solution to this problem:

A review by David Teicher, adage.com

Washington D.C. officers are directed to leave citizen photographers alone

Washington Post :: District police cannot interfere with citizens as they photograph or videotape officers performing their jobs in public, according to a new directive issued by Chief Cathy L. Lanier as part of settlement in a civil lawsuit.

A report by Peter Hermann, www.washingtonpost.com

'Rural Harvest': A visual story about the vulnerability of the family farm

I got to know Lottie Hedley via Twitter, today. I read her bio, visited her website and ... yes was simply impressed by the power of the photos on her site. Indeed Twitter connects. She introduces herself in her Twitter bio: "Ex-lawyer from a dairy farm in NZ. Currently searching for the meaning of community through photography"

LottieHedleyPhotography.com :: Jim and Megan Gerritsen and their four children, Peter, Caleb, Sarah and Amy, organically farm potatoes and other vegetables for seed on Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine.

© Lottie Hedley. I asked Lottie to allow me to publish the one above as a sample for a series of photos she took for visually cover the story.

Through farming organically, the Gerritsens strive towards a sustainable food system. When asked to envisage the goals of such a system for Maine, Jim and Megan set out the ultimate goal as being:

[Jim and Megan:] ... a future of hope, expectation and permanence so that the next generation of farmers and fishers are encouraged and confident in carrying forward their family’s heritage of food production.

A visual story by Lottie hedley, www.lottiehedleyphotography.com

Photographer: Witnesses to war

Lens | New York Times :: During the eight years that Michael Kamber covered the Iraq war, he often had lengthy late-night conversations with his fellow conflict photographers. Whether it was in Baghdad or on shared embeds, the discussion usually turned to a mutual frustration that Americans were not getting a full view of the war.

[Michael Kember:] A lot of what we saw wasn’t making it into the press. Some images were blocked by the military or the embed process itself, others by the photographer’s conscience or by a lack of interest by some media organizations.

A gallery - Continue to read James Estrin, lens.blogs.nytimes.com

Maybe it's time to carry a real camera again

BuzzFeed :: As computer screens go super-high res, users are finding that their “good enough” cellphone pictures actually look kind of terrible. Long live the actual camera! Well, at least for a little while.

Continue to read John Herrman, www.buzzfeed.com