Platon Goes To Burma

Video of portrait master Platon (so brilliant he only needs one name) describing his recent trip to photograph dissident Aung San Suu Kyi for Time. 

Thanks to photographer/photo blogger Andrew Hetherington at What's The Jackanory? for the find.

Artist? Annoyance? Star-Maker? Stalker?

He's been called all of those names and much worse. Ron Galella, legendary American paparazzo, has suffered two highly-publicized legal battles with the late Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, a broken jaw at the hands of the late Marlon Brando, Mexican jails and a serious ass-whopping by bodyguards of the late Richard Burton.


Love him or hate him, Galella always gets his shot. He's driven, unflinching and still working after nearly fifty years of a career filled with controversy and amazing image making. His celebrity "photojournalism" has appeared over the years in the pages of Time, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vanity Fair, People, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, New York Times & Life. 


Galella is also a master in the darkroom, producing his own prints in a home lab that have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, London's Tate Modern and the Helmut Newton Foundation to name just a few. With six books to his credit, Ron shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon


Tonight, HBO will air the documentary Smash His Camera at 9pm EST/8Pm Central (check your local listings for exact air times in your area). 


You can find a couple of clips from the film included below.


It was only last month that Galella was the victim of his own pioneering "example" when New York based Photographer/Blogger Andrew Hetherington of What's the Jackanory blog fame was assigned by AARP to turn-the-tables on Ron for a feature profile in their membership magazine. Andrew was sent out to capture paparazzi style photos of the legendary Galella to illustrate the story. You can read about the adventure at WTJ? found here.


Tune in tonight to catch Ron in action and decide for yourself... artist or pariah?. In the meantime, here's a trailer & a clip from the film:

Dinner For Five: Photographers

NY-based editorial photographer Andrew Hetherington is the brains and energy behind the Whats the Jackanory? blog site. Unrelenting in his efforts to inform, entertain & enlighten, Andrew's latest video project, Dinner for Five Photographers is now beginning to appear in segments posted at the WTJ? site. So far, episodes I & II have been posted over the last couple of days. Each clip features an intimate, candid glimpse into the minds of the five participating photographers as they order, chew, laugh and wax poetic on a myriad of topics .

Episode I, posted yesterday, covers such illuminating topics as:

1) Don't Touch The Table

2) Time Management On The Shoot

3) Dress For Success

4) Eat Or Die

5) Hard Work Breeds Success

6) Now Is The Time

7) Mentoring, Interns, Kindness To Colleagues & Assistants

Episode II, posted this morning, covers:

1) The Book

2) Braised Beef

3) Balls

4) Dan Winters

5) Delivering The Edit

6) Obama Light

7) Middle Aged White Women

8) A Fanny Pack Can Save Your Life

Humorous, informative, even quirky... these short clips are well worth a few moments of your time. Find them Here.

More On the Financial Predicament of Annie Leibovitz

We've been hearing a lot this past year about Annie Leibovitz and her financial fiasco. 

Arguably one of the greatest portrait artists of our time, Miz Leibovitz has had a super-sized career spanning four decades, creating many of the most iconic portraits of celebrities and pop-culture personalities ever snapped. Until very recently, most of us assumed that Annie must be wallowing in fat wads of cash given the rumours about her reported fees, editorial deals & contracts with the likes of Vogue, Conde Nast, Rolling Stone, American Express and others. Last year it was disclosed that exactly the opposite was true when a stylist, lighting and rental houses and other vendors began suing Annie for non-payment of tabs racking up to $700,000 plus. Then, the reports began surfacing that Mizz Leibovitz was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and had pawned her complete works both past & future to survive economically. 

For the past year, we've been provided tantalizing glimpses into some of the causes of her financial problems but never much of a complete picture as to how this could possibly happen to, ostensibly, the most recognized photographer of the day.

This weekend, New York Magazine, published a rather detailed accounting of Annie's woes, painting the most complete picture of the her impending financial ruin to date. I also note that the article quotes the sister of Leibovitz's long time love, writer/intellectual Susan Sontag's sister, Maui resident Judith Cohen. You can find the complete article here.

Thanks go out to photographer/blogger Andrew Hetherington of the famed What's the Jackanory blog for posting the link, along with an interesting portrait of Mizz Leibovitz by John Keatley, in this morning's entry.

End Of The Week Wrap-Up

Yesterday's efforts involved making architectural photographs of an historic old 1920's mansion & estate originally built as the home of one of Maui's founding missionary families. To paraphrase author James Michener, those missionary families came to the islands to do good and ended up doing very well.

Since the mid-1990's, the estate has been owned by the family of the late William E. Simon, former U.S. Secretary of State during three years of Nixon's tenure in the White House. The property has seen several renovations over the years, a major interior renovation completed just a few years ago.

Situated on 42 lush acres in Haiku, the property includes guest & staff quarters, a lovely pool, orchard, gazebo and magnificent rolling lawns and gardens filled with trees of banyan, eucalyptus and exotic palm.I have driven past the place almost daily for over ten years and always wondered what was up there. Unfortunately, I am unable to share pics from the shoot until the commissioning entity, Maui No Ka Oi Magazine publishes the work.

Chef extraordinaire David Paul Johnson has returned to Maui and has just opened a brand new restaurant on Front Street in Lahaina. David Paul's Island Grill features and ever-evolving and daily changing menu of exquisite island cuisine, complete with signature DP southwest flourishes. All reports from the first week of operations is that the place is doing it right. I head up there this evening for a meeting & scout with DP himself, prior to an all day shoot scheduled for Monday. I'll report my own finding as soon as time permits.

Andrew Hetherington of What's the Jackanory? blog fame has posted video of a new portfolio by one of my favorite photographers, Dan Winters. Thanks to Andrew's enabling the video to be embedded, I have added it below. Great work by a great photographer.

OK... that's all the news for now. Have a great weekend one & all. Over & out.

Dan Winters new book from andrew hetherington on Vimeo.

Friday Links

The past week or so has seen a real uptick in business around these parts, hence the relative inactivity here on the blog. There has been a multitude of requests for estimates, proposals and potential assignment work... some of it signed off on and ready for pre-production, some still in the initial bidding phase with the ripe potential for coming to fruition. All good news!

However, rather than spend these few moments at the keyboard shamelessly reveling in my new found potential for continued prosperity, I thought I would use this time to provide you, dear reader, with some links to some of the wonderful imagery, information and fun that has popped up recently on the photo blogosphere.

Andrew Hetherington is a New York editorial photographer, all around witty guy and tireless proponent of all things photographic. In addition to his work, Mr. H also publishes one of the most informative & entertaining photoblogs you'll find. His What's the Jackanory blog makes for most entertaining reading, often includes stunning eye-candy produced by the mad irishman and lists a blogroll of the best and most popular photoblogs ever to be found.

Andrew's entry for today details his attendance to the invite-only gathering of New York photographer's Nutopia Forum, hosted infrequently by acclaimed celebrity portraitist Platon. Last evening's gathering featured a lecture & slideshow by the great Jim Marshall, a man who's career has spanned over 50 years and has created some of the most iconic photographs from the world of rock & roll ever to see publication. Andrew has even posted video from the event and it well worth a watch (caution... a bit long but worthwhile nevertheless. You can find it here.

Over at Conscientious, the weblog published by fine-art photography connoisseur Jorg Colberg, stunning images from the 2008 war in the Russian Republic of Georgia by Rena Effendi is on display. Find it here. 

An interesting discussion of the topic of "fair use" is currently taking place over at the blog published by the editors at Photo District News. The now iconic Obama "Hope" campaign poster created by street/grafitti artist Shepard Fairey apparently began it's life based on a photograph by former AP photographer Mannie Garcia. AP is now claiming copyright infringement. You can find it here.

OK... that should keep you busy over the coming weekend.