(re)New Kid on the Block

What a launch! It has been some time since I had the chance to see so many people that I enjoy being around so much. Nothing says Hello World like one kick ass party. And nothing gets those within the publishing industry tongues a waggin like the launch of a new magazine. Aside from some time well spent flippin through the pages of The Grid at the party last night, I tucked into it this morning to see what the heck was really going on inside it. Many of you know that I am a big believer in what Laas has been doing since he took over Eye Magazine last year. Building a great team of uber talented editors, writers, sales and creative folks (sorry what else are we?! besides I kinda like it!) who all seemed to be buying in to what he was selling. So what did ‘we the people’ get when the magazine hit the boxes this morning? 

Larger format. Great fonts. Respectful use of whitespace. Smart Icons. Sexy columns. Trending topics (nice one!) Fantastic infoporn infographics) Relevant content (are you listening NOW?) Bit of cheekyness/cockiness. Doing a better job of representing Toronto life then the magazine named such. and finally No sex ads (thank you!). 

But what hit me most - and of course it would - is what I like to call the Mother Fucking YES moment. Big bad ass pictures throughout. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

© Mark Zibert / The Grid© Jay Shuster, Yeounjung Kim / The Grid

In this day and age where everyone is a photographer, photographs actually matter more. The energy, excitement and passion Toronto contains as a city must be reflected in the photography of the magazines that represent the city - more so now than ever. Keep it up The Grid. You have fired a very well placed shot across the bow of this city’s magscape. 

Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington - Thank you

© EPA/Getty Images

© Matt Stuart

Yesterdays news that photojournalists Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington were killed while covering the conflict in Libya was devastating.  This story is receiving exceptional media coverage thanks in part to Hetherington’s Oscar nominated film Restrepo, which the public would recognize more so than his outstanding body of work prior to the film’s recent success. This news disturbs me on many levels. Two incredibly talented, caring and smart men died while doing a job that they loved and cared deeply about doing justice for. I can’t confirm this but my gut tells me that to the public, war photographers are all about being part of the action. Sure, they recognize the dangers that these photographers take and are often taken aback by the images they capture but rarely do they get to understand a deeper reasoning behind what the photographers are doing. The many photojournalists I have met are all deeply humanitarian. The care they have for their subjects is matched in greatness only by the care in which they do that subject justice through their photography. To hear Tim speak about why he made his book Infidel brings the insanity of war that much closer to those of us who are not as brave as the soldiers or journalists fighting and covering these wars. Both Tim and Chris were exceptionally talented people who captured not only powerful images but also created beautiful and haunting stories that reflected the true nature of us. This is humanity. 

© Chris Hondros

Diary (2010) from Tim Hetherington on Vimeo.

I can’t recall the last time I saw a story in a Canadian publication that was more than just daily fodder for the media’s desire to show the here and now of war. If they care so much about these journalists then why isn’t the public seeing more of their images? Where are these stories that people are dying trying to cover? And I guess this is where some of my frustration lies. The public should not just have known Tim Hetherington because of his movie. Yes, it was great (and I urge all who have not seen it to do so) but the public should have known Tim Hetherington AND Chris Hondros for the stories they should have been seeing. (as an aside CBC this morning didn’t even mention Chris’ name until their long winded bit about Restrepo)  Publishers and editors alike should be doing more to allow the public to see this work. Money should be being invested in these types of stories over the fluff that the public is currently being force fed. 

To date this year 16 journalists have been killed in the line of duty. Let’s start to do them justice by allowing the public to see more of what they are dying for. 

Names of Journalists killed in 2011 so far.

Chris Hondros, Freelance - April 20, 2011, in Misurata, Libya

Tim Hetherington, Freelance -  April 20, 2011, in Misurata, Libya

Karim Fakhrawi, Al-Wasat - April 12, 2011, in Manama, Bahrain

Zakariya Rashid Hassan al-Ashiri, Al-Dair - April 9, 2011, in Al-Dair, Bahrain

Sabah al-Bazi, Al-Arabiya - March 29, 2011, in Tikrit, Iraq

Muammar Khadir Abdelwahad, Al-Ayn - March 29, 2011, in Tikrit, Iraq

Luis Emanuel Ruiz Carrillo, La Prensa - March 25, 2011, in Monterrey, Mexico

Mohammed al-Nabbous, Libya Al-Hurra TV - March 19, 2011, in Benghazi, Libya

Jamal al-Sharaabi, Al-Masdar - March 18, 2011, in Sana’a, Yemen

Ali Hassan al-Jaber, Al-Jazeera - March 13, 2011, in an area near Benghazi, Libya

Mohamed al-Hamdani, Al-Itijah - February 24, 2011, in Ramadi, Iraq

Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud, Al-Ta'awun - February 4, 2011, in Cairo, Egypt

 Le Hoang Hung, Nguoi Lao Dong - January 30, 2011, in Tan An, Vietnam

Gerardo Ortega, DWAR - January 24, 2011, in Puerto Princesa City, Philippines

Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, European Pressphoto Agency - January 17, 2011, in Tunis, Tunisia

Wali Khan Babar, Geo TV - January 13, 2011, in Karachi, Pakistan

The Find

I was shopping with my family a few months back and came across this arrangement of images in a display case. I asked the shop owner about them and he mentioned that he found the images on the side of the road in a shoebox one day and that no other information about the photographer could be found. I was mesmerized by the images that I saw in that case. There was honesty in the naivety of the images - freedom to play without fear of the results. This struck me as rather odd being that they were probably taken by a photo enthusiast and not a professional and to my knowledge when an amateur messed up the mistake was glaringly so - which was not the case here. I immediately started editing the pictures in my mind and so wanted to buy them on the spot but time got the best of us and we had to leave. We revisited the shop a few months later and I asked about the pictures. To my surprise they were still available and had been moved to the back to make room for larger items to be displayed. I paid $30 for the lot - roughly 250 pictures and some negs - and went home to begin where I had left off ages ago. As I started to sort and edit what really started to stand out was that the photographers voice was coming through in the images. Whether they knew it or not they were creating a cohesive body of work that had a distinct look to it. Now when I was working as an editor I was often asked by young photographers to critique their work and 99% of the time the feedback they got was to own their images - to create work that could be seen as coming from within them. Essentially, their look. Now here I was going through stacks of photos taken by someone who probably had not knowledge of such a thing as 'their look' yet the results before me would say differently. There were stacks of travel shots and stacks of animals, piles of portraits and still lifes (that really did reek of amateur at play) and the odd small photobook. After all was said and done I probably could have created a few edits of the work that was found.  

There is something magical about creating an edit out of something that you have no ownership over. No guidelines to adhere to, no existing notions of what the final product should be. This edit is more an exhibition of my reaction to the images as I mulled over them carefully. How well they play together and how I picture them working within a larger body of work that never has nor ever will exist. With these pictures I got to create a photographer and in essence, recreate their life as I saw it. 

On the Wall this month - Mark Peckmezian

© Mark Peckmezian

There is something about an ongoing personal project – one with no time line for completion in fact – that makes me giddy inside. One of the most prolific photographers I know (and I know a lot of shooters) Mark’s work continues to amaze me. Seemingly unafraid to experiment, his results always seem to align with what is rapidly becoming his look. As a photo editor I was always looking at the personal work of photographers before their editorial or commercial pages as I felt it gave me a better insight into how and why they work. If someone is shooting something from their heart it clearly will be coming from a place that is meaningful to them and in that regard more truthful. The selection of images in this month’s gallery are from Mark’s continually growing body of dog photographs. While not a subject unfamiliar to photographers the images that Mark captures contain emotion and life unseen in many other dog series.

As mentioned in the intro I was first introduced to his work while on a portfolio review at Ryerson. It was mere weeks later when I was sitting in a lawyer’s office looking for a decent magazine to read (take note editorial newbs; Get ‘restructured’ then do yourself a favour and lawyer up immediately). It was in and amongst the pile of various mags that I saw a cover that felt so ‘ballsy’ to me. The March 2010 Report on Business had a photograph of BELL CEO George Cope that was just so raw with feeling. What struck me as ballsy (and awesome) was that it was not a flattering image in the any sense of the word. The subject was tight looking and seemingly unaware of his body language; oh that chin and nervous thumb tuck. But it worked. It worked on so many levels for me. It was cocky and brash and emotional and just plain old tough. It also played perfectly to the words beside it. ‘clobbered’ and ‘come out swinging’.

© Mark Peckmezian/Report on Business Magazine

What made me smile even more was the name in the credits: Photograph by Mark Peckmezian. What a fantastic score for both him and Claire Jordan, the photo editor at R.O.B.  This grainy, raw image was a risk on a cover – and a business mag at that – but one that I am glad they took. I wish more magazines took risks like this. Mark is repped by Stash Artists and you can see more of his personal work on his own site. Enjoy the dogs. 

Editorial Love

© Jorge Dirkk/Redux

You may have been noticing a trend lately in regards to which magazine I am really behind right now. This is not only because the content is fantastic and relevant but also because they are flaunting one of the best designed magazines out there right now. At a time when more and more magazines are playing it safe with their design and use of photography, Bloomberg Businessweek continues to take risks (and it pains me to say that about the Economist as they are such a good read). I would assume that the majority of readers are business minded individuals who are most likely hitting up this bi-weekly read between metro stops or skips across the Atlantic and could really care less about sexy columns, nutty infographics, contemporary illustration and double truck imagery – Which makes this magazine even more exciting to me.  The redesigned magazine was launched in April 2010 and was headed up by Creative Director Richard Turley and has only gained steam since. This spread in the most recent issue proves once again that great photography and great design can live happily together. It is also a great example of how conflict photography can be used to drive the headers. Oh and hats off to the photo department for the excellent research. Keep it up!