photo by W. Eugene Smith

Perusing the New York Times during lunch, I came across an interesting link. Guitar Heroes -- Who is the greatest guitarist of all time. A very interesting question, especially when the subjectiveness is considered. Throw in all the different genres (can flamenco be compared to rock?) and it becomes a haymaker of a discussion.

So, let's find out who are your favorites, and why, in the land of image. Let us know in the comments section.

Assaf's List:

• Classic Photojournalism -- W. Eugene Smith
• Conflict -- James Nachtwey
  
• Documentary Essay -- Eugene Richards
• Newspaper photojournalism -- Scott Strazzante
• Magazine -- Sam Abell
  
• Landscape -- Ansel Adams
  
• Portrait -- Richard Avedon
• Art -- Edward Weston
• Modern -- Harry Callahan
• At large -- Irving Penn & Robert Frank
  

Okay then, discuss.

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
                    

Contest times is pretty much over. Now I focus on the new year, a time of introspection for the mind and examination of the work. Yesterday I spoke to a wonderful group of high school students from the readership area in a program Sun reporters John-John Williams and Laura McCandlish have put together with some of our fellow staffers. It was a complete hoot, and I loved it.

And now I slip into a quick photographic funk for no reason other than pure envy. This is after a week of feeling good about myself and the work I am doing. It seems, apparently, I am going in the right direction. But after the presentation I reviewed my contest entries. I also looked at some of the other blogs and pages by people I know or have worked with: Rob Finch's Pictures, Chris Detrick's My Life at f/22, Scott Strazzante's The Season. Also Alison V. Smith's Superficial Snapshots and Todd Heisler's amazing page.

There's no comparison. These brothers and sister of the lens love photography as I do, but they seem to be in a place, an enlightened space, that I cannot seem to find, no matter how hard I try. Their pictures are them and they are their pictures. They seem to have the balance I am looking for and make it work with family and the photography.

In Chicago we had such a strong group of people who "talked photo" and shared their thoughts and ideas freely, making each other better, intellectualizing the discussions on the work and how it fit in the world at large. Here at The Sun we get it at times, but not in the same way. I really miss it.

Somehow, after riding so high all week about photography, it seems my wheels are stuck and the wings have heavy ice. Are my photographs any better? Have I grown? Can I still attain the next level?

In any case, I am having my role change at The Sun. For the next six months I will be part of the team working on the new pagination system that will encompass words, design, editing and photography. It is the foundation that brings them all together so the printed page can be made and shipped from Sun Park to the masses. Throughout this time I will continue to blog but in a more general sense and not so much about my work but that of others.

Also, I created a flickr Photo Edge group where Photo Edge readers can share their photographs and comments. Soon it will be linked with the blog itself. Look for some new and exciting features in the next week or two. Keep reading, send in your questions and let me know what you think.

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Scott Strazzante is one of the nicest guys I know. He is also one of the best photojournalists I have had the pleasure to work with during my career. Somehow, someway, he always finds the picture, or is ready for it when it comes together.

For many, many years -- through three different newspapers -- he worked on a project about a family near Lockport in the far suburbs of Chicago. He photographed the family in several stages of their life -- including the sale of the land which eventually became another sprawling subdivision.

But Strazzante did not stop there. He continued, after a chance meeting with one of the people now living on the reborn earth of the old farm. Echoes of the past permeate his new photographs, which are shown diptych style with those of the land's previous life in Another Country at chicagotribune.com.

Photojournalism, through a different style of storytelling, at its best. This is what it is all about. 

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Covering the General Assembly's special session can be lightly tedious at times, standing in badly lit rooms as people sit in chairs and drone (some but not all) on about some amendment or proposal, or meaningfully listen, or earnestly ask questions. It is hard work looking for little subtleties and persistently keeping an eye open for anything remotely interesting.

Many years ago, while in college, if my memory serves me correctly, I happened upon a coffee-table photo (an early strike in what has now become a lip-chomping obsession) in a used-books store. David Douglas Duncan's Self-Portrait USA. caught my attention for the two party symbols on the front which resembled the heads of two ceramic whiskey decanters, dressed as clowns with styrofoam hats, that sat on a bookshelf in my childhood bedroom for many years. The store name and location escape me, but somehow I came upon a second copy a few years later and gave it to one of my best friends from high school. We worked together on the school paper and yearbook, and he also is a photojournalist.

Duncan covered the 1968 party conventions (ironically the same year as the decanters) and made the book. The reproduction is a little dated but of high quality. The words are all Duncan, a little over the top with such phrase turns as "Secret Service agent: laser-beam eyes boring holes through everybody with a single glance..." but still entertaining. For some reason, the political poetry of many boring situations, often relying upon extreme closeups capturing slight facial gesticulation to convey his message. (Tight is right!)

The book is a foundation for much of my coverage, even though I have not turned its pages in a decade or more — the book resides somewhere in the Mississippi house of my mother and her husband. But its latent strength still holds me, and I can remember many of the pages and the images in my mind.

(Nikon D2Xs, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm, 1/80th sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 1600) 

(Nikon D2Xs, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm, 1/60th sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 1600)

(Nikon D2Xs, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 @ 125mm, 1/80th sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 1600)<>

(Nikon D2Xs, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm, 1/60th sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 1600)

It is not the most exciting work, and it is a mental hammer, constantly striking as my laser-beam eyes constantly survey the scene. It is fulfilling in some way. More will come as I have time.

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Sun photojournalist Jed Kirschbaum strikes again with a beautiful landscape photo of fog, people and dogs in Herring Run Park.

There have been many times I have tried to make mist and fog photos, but the luck to this point has not been with me. All of the elements are eloquently combined — the stature of each dog perfectly balanced with the posture of the two women — none of them stepping on each other and making a jumbled mass for a center of interest. Simply put, this is a beautiful photograph. 

It could have been published on the front page of any paper in the country, and would have jumped out and vigorously grabbed the attention of any viewer, whether seen on doorstep or news rack.

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)