Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Los Angeles-based Margo Moritz began learning the craft of photography at the age of 13. Since then, she has worked as an editorial and more recently a commercial photographer and taught courses at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and elsewhere.
For the past few years, one of Margo’s ongoing projects has featured portraits and lifestyle images of teenage girls. For Margo, the natural evolution of this project was to offer them an intensive photography course.
Documenting war and conflicts takes a whole lot of courage. Photographer Faye Schulman sure had it, and I think I can say that she took courage to a new level. This brave woman survived the Nazi occupation, fled to a forest, and joined partisans. She was secretly taking and developing photos. And when she wasn’t shooting with her camera, she shot from a gun.
Fashion accessory brand HEX has released a mini-series that focuses on women photographers. Appropriately titled Women in Focus, the series highlights five female creatives who talk about the challenges and successes of being a woman in a predominantly male profession. And for all the ladies out there, these five great women also offer some advice on navigating the photography space as a woman.
It’s International Women’s Day, a perfect day to remind ourselves how many powerful women there are around us. Danish photographer Angelina Wiese Devine has published a photography project that celebrates these strong women. But they’re not politicians, celebrities, or anyone you’d see on TV and in the newspaper. They’re everyday heroes that live right there in your neighborhood.
I chatted a bit with Angelina, a powerful woman herself, and she told me a bit about her project and the idea behind it. And of course, she shared the photos with DIYP along with short stories about the amazing women in them.
This weekend, I took a photo walk with my cousin, who is also a professional photographer. We were joking about a bottle of nail polish in a mesh pocket of her camera bag. “Have you ever considered writing an article about the content of a girl’s camera bag?” she asked. “As a matter of fact, I have.” I’d totally forgot about it, and I’m glad that she reminded me. You know, it’s always fun for me to find out what other photographers use for the job. We took a peek inside a wedding photojournalist’s bag thanks to Ben Kelmer. Even the former White House photographer Pete Souza showed the gear he normally has in the bag. But I wanted to make this a little more personal and fun. So, I open my photography bag for you to give you an answer to the question you never asked: what’s inside a girl’s photo bag?
BlackRapid has launched a new shoulder sling camera strap especially for female photographers. The Nicole Elliott strap aims to reduce the pressure on your neck and shoulders and to do it with style. But the inspiration for the strap has raised some eyebrows (including mine). The company emphasizes that “the way women have been carrying their babies for centuries” is what inspired the design of the camera strap for ladies.
In Iran, women are banned from attending soccer games. But a 26-year-old photographer Parisa Pourtaherian didn’t let it stop her. During a match in Vatani stadium in Ghaemshahr, she climbed a nearby rooftop and photographed the game with a telephoto lens. And by doing this, she became the first woman Iran to cover a national league game.
A photographer from Belarus, Dasha Buben, has published a powerful and meaningful project titled I Survived. She has photographed the survivors of domestic abuse in Belarus for over a year, and her aim is to help them love themselves again.
Dasha’s portraits don’t tell the story of victims. She sees her subjects as heroes who have gone through a lot, yet have found a way to survive and get back on their feet. I have talked to Dasha about this amazing project, and I learned of the challenges and emotions she and her subjects have gone through during the photo shoots.
It’s Father’s Day today and accordingly, my email inbox has been deluged with gift ideas for fathers. Even if they are photographically inclined (you might not believe how many press releases I receive that aren’t even in my preferred ball-park) the chances are that they won’t present me with many opportunities to feature them. I was surprised then when something did catch my eye.
The press release in question concerned the results of a survey conducted by the photo-printing company Photobox that focused on the habits of picture-taking within families. Admittedly it was only a small survey, conducted on 2,000 people, but it threw up some interesting results—namely that almost two thirds of fathers (61%) believe that they take better photos than their other halves, and that 68% of mothers prefer that their families’ fathers take the photos. For me, this was especially noteworthy because it vindicated the conclusion of a discussion that I’ve been having since at least 2011.
The question that has been under discussion: ‘Where are all the women photographers?’ The conclusion? That girls being photographed by their fathers has a lot to do with it.
These are incredibly broad statements, with some far-reaching implications, so perhaps we should unpick them a little.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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