PDN felt the need to write about Britney, so I don’t feel like such a schmuck bringing it up. Things have gotten way out of hand. At left is a “likeness” of Britney Spears. If you’ve seen any photographs of Ms. Spears lately, you know that this “likeness” is in no way shape or form even remotely close to what the woman looks like these days. Fact is that there are no good pictures of Britney Spears anymore, because the girl looks like ten miles of bad road all the time.

Quite frankly, I’m not sure why anyone is surprised that she finally went off the deep end. Southern girl, sings a few songs, puts on a Catholic school girl’s outfit, makes a boat load of money, marries a loser, divorces said loser, makes out with Madonna, marries another loser, has a few kids, divorces second loser, all the while developing a nose candy problem, don’t we know how this story ends?

Tragic lives of mediocre stars aside, given the current state of Britney, how can we refer to the cover of Allure as a picture of her? When does a photograph stop being a photograph?

How far will the retouching really go? I’m no advocate for truth in advertising, but at some point, even the most mentally inept teenagers will catch on. After all, the pictures of this woman showing her true trailer trash colors far out number the computer generated artistry the we see here.

This is not a photograph, this is not a picture. This is a computer illustration. An illustration by a talented young artist. Kudos to you, Photoshop guru, wherever you are.

The question is, is this really what popular photography has been reduced to?

Apparently it’s official, the rumours were true. Adobe will launch the next version of Photoshop with two versions – Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended, which contains features geared toward animators and 3D artists.

Adobe is hosting an official lunch webcast, live from New York, details can be found on the Adobe website. Use the same address to view the live webcast. The launch is scheduled for March 27th.

At this very moment, I’m sitting in a coffee shop in down town San Francisco on a Friday afternoon, it’s about 75 degrees out, sunny, clear, the best weather we’ve had in some time. Yet, I can’t seem to pull my head out of this book long enough to enjoy it. I just picked up a copy of “The Puerto Rican Diaspora” by Frank Espada, and I have to say that it is a remarkable body of work. I had the great privilege to study under Frank for a brief time while in college. He is truly an amazing and under appreciated photographer, as well as a master printer.

(more…)

A friend and colleague of mine has really been on a roll lately. Ryan Spencer Reed’s exhibition, Sudan: The Cost of Silence, has been generating quite a buzz on the web and in the universities. This project was started several years ago and is finally getting some of the recognition it deserves. The exhibition has been touring colleges and universities around the United States for some months now, and just finished a showing at the Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida.

(more…)