photo-blog

William Eugene Smith (1918-1978) was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs.

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Smith graduated from Wichita High School North in 1936. He began his career by taking pictures for two local newspapers, the Eagle and the Beacon. He went to New York City and began work for Newsweek and became known for his incessant perfectionism and thorny personality. Smith was fired from Newsweek for refusing to use medium format cameras and joined Life Magazine in 1939. He soon resigned from Life and was wounded in 1942 while simulating battle conditions for Parade magazine.

Notable photographs


* (1944) photograph in which a wounded infant is found by an American soldier on Saipan

* (1945) photograph in which Marines blow up a Japanese blockhouse on Iwo Jima

* "The Walk to Paradise Garden" (1946) single photo of his two children walking hand in hand towards a clearing in woods.

* "Country Doctor" (1948) photo essay on Dr. Ernest Ceriani in the small Colorado town of Kremmling. Credited as the first "photo story" of the modern photojournalism age.

* Spanish Village (1950) photo essay on the small Spanish town of Deleitosa.

* "Nurse Midwife" (1951) photo essay on midwife Maude Callen in South Carolina.

* A Man of Mercy (1954) photo essay on Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his humanitarian work in French Equatorial Africa.

* "Pittsburgh" (1955) year-long project on the city, hired initially by photo editor Stefan Lorant for a three-week assignment.

* Haiti 1958-1959 photo essay on a psychiatric institute in Haiti.

* "Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath" (1971) the centrepiece photograph in Minamata, a long-term photo essay by Smith on the effects of mercury poisoning in the fishing village of Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan (see Minamata disease). The photograph depicts a mother cradling her severely deformed, naked daughter in a traditional Japanese bathing chamber. This has been withdrawn from circulation in accordance with the parents' wishes.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org

Wedding photography is a major commercial endeavor that supports the bulk of the efforts for many photography studios or independent photographers.

With the advent of the digital revolution in photography, today’s contemporary wedding photographer needs to stay abreast of all the latest developments in the industry.

Depending upon the demands of the client, a contemporary wedding photographer will usually need to provide some or all of the following:

* Formal portraiture in the studio (for either the wedding and/or the engagement photos).
* Outdoor photography (often at a park, beach or scenic location on the day of the wedding and/or for engagement photos).
* Indoor photography at a church, temple or other private venue during the ceremony and reception.
* Both posed and candid (photojournalistic) shots of the wedding couple and their guests at the religious or civil ceremony and the reception that follows.
* Digital services such as digital prints or slides shows.
* Albums (either traditional or the more contemporary flush mount type of album).

During the film era, practitioners favored color negative film and medium-format cameras, especially by Hasselblad.

Today, many more weddings are photographed with digital SLR cameras as the digital convenience provides quick detection of lighting mistakes and allows creative approaches to be reviewed immediately.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org

Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) was a 1982 New Wave song by A Flock of Seagulls, appearing as the opening performance on their second album Listen. Its wistful, bleak lyrics on separation are built on a driving rhythm backed by a heavy Wall of Sound-styled layer of synthesizer padding. In contrast to the band's 1982 hit "I Ran", which was largely a United States hit, "Wishing" song peaked strongly in Great Britain where it reached the Top 10, but only reached 26 on the U.S. Billboard charts in summer 1983.

The lyrics have something of poetry with the 80's theme: indecision and love. They deal with a man contemplating the reason for his infatuation for a certain girl (the relationship between the two is unclear). In the song he casts aside superficial features and decides that his love is based on the way she balances an air of levity with a deep and profound mind.

"It's not the make-up
And it's not the way that you dance
It's not the evening sky
It's more the way your eyes
Are laughing as they glance
Across the great divide"

The deeply melencholy lyrics are complimented by the searing synth notes, making this track an emersive and emotional experience.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org