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Nikon, Canon fire latest salvos
in battle for DSLR dominance

Nikon announced the November release of two new DSLR models — including the 12.1 MP, full-frame D3 — and five new ED lenses. Days later, Canon responded with its own announcement: The new 21.1-megapixel, full-frame EOS-1Ds Mark III.

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Sotheby's sets new records,
spurs medium's next phase

To the delight of auction houses and many in the photo world, it has become accepted that each season sees auction records broken for the highest amount paid for a photograph. The sale of photographs from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Sotheby's on 14 February 2006 broke this record three times.

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Feds curb news photos
of Katrina's death toll

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, coming under an unprecedented barrage of criticism for its widespread failures in response to Hurricane Katrina's deadly strike and aftermath, on 7 September 2005 barred news photographers from its rescue efforts and requested that no photos be made of the dead throughout the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," a FEMA spokeswoman told Reuters via e-mail, according to the news service.

The federal agency further explained that space was needed on the rescue boats and that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."

The request, not unlike the Pentagon's earlier policy of banning the press from photographing coffins of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, immediately drew protest from media experts.

"This is about managing images and not public taste or human dignity," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, according to Reuters.

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Canon unveils full-frame
digital 12.8-megapixel SLR

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. (Fotophile.com) — Touting its latest offering as the world's smallest, lightest full-frame digital SLR, Canon on 22 August 2005 unveiled its 12.8-megapixel EOS D5 with a suggested $3,299 retail price.

The camera features a new 9-point AF system with six "supplemental AF points" and an updated 2.5" LCD/TFT screen with 230,000 pixels that Canon claims can be viewed even at extreme angles. A wireless transmission system is also included.

For more information, see Canon's press release.

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Lumas Editions Gallery, whose booth at San Francisco Photo 2005 appears above, is a German company trying to fill the void between reproductions from a museum store and the single, or very limited, edition prints carried by established galleries. [Copyright © 2005 Martin Taylor]

Exhibitors aim to level
field in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Fotophile.com) — The experience of seeing framed prints hanging on the wall of a museum is altogether different compared to that of seeing the said same prints hanging on the wall of a dealer's booth at Photo San Francisco 2005. The thing that makes all the difference is that little sticker on the wall next to the print; the one that tells you how out-of-your-league that master print really is. Yet among the highlights, three galleries stood out for their missions.

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Leibovitz's perspective
infuses 'American Music'

REVIEW: The Austin Museum of Art exhibit, "American Music" — based on Annie Leibovitz's book of the same name — takes the photographer full circle back to her early work with musicians while combining her eye for revealing the personality of celebrities with her skills as an artist.

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Leibovitz, Edgerton
set auction records

LONDON (Fotophile.com) — Photographs by Annie Leibovitz and Harold Edgerton set auction records for the individual artists at a Christie's King Street sale on 18 May 2005.

Liebovitz's 1986 photograph of New York pop artist Keith Haring sold for ?31,200 ($57,190) to a private American buyer for roughly four times its pre-sale estimate, and Harold Edgerton's 1938 stroboscopic image, "Bobby Jones's Golf Swing," fetched ?16,800 ($30,794). Both images were from the collection of James Danziger, former picture editor for The London Sunday Times Magazine and Vanity Fair features editor.

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Arko Datta won the 2005 World Press Photo competition with his image of a woman mourning the death of a relative killed in the 2004 Asian tsunami tragedy that claimed 300,000 lives. [Arko Datta/Reuters]

World Press Photo exhibit
heads to United Nations

UNITED NATIONS (Fotophile.com) — Highlights from the 2005 World Press Photo international competition will go on display at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 3 May 2005.

This year's winner, an image by Indian photographer Arko Datta of Reuters, shows a woman mourning the death of a relative who was killed in the Asian tsunami catastrophe triggered by a massiver underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.

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Diane Arbus print sells
for more than $400,000

NEW YORK (Fotophile.com) — A 1962 B&W Diane Arbus print sold for $408,000, narrowly surpassing its pre-sale estimate, to top the $5 million fall photography auction at Christie's on 26 April 2005.

A complete set of Alfred Stieglitz's "Camera Work: An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine devoted to Photography and to the Activities of the Photo-Secession" and "Erotique Voile" (1933) by Man Ray each sold for $284,800, roughly double their estimates.

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San Francisco Chronicle staff photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in feature photography for 'Operation Lion Heart.' Above: Saleh Khalaf lost an eye, his right hand, and most of the fingers on his left hand. His intestines were blown out; in the first weeks after the accident, his abdomen was held together by a surgical dressing. Below: From Baghdad to Oakland, Calif., Saleh's father, Raheem, stayed at the boy's bedside, ready with a comforting touch. [Reprinted with permission]

AP, San Franciscan
win Pulitzer Prizes

The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography Monday, 4 April 2005, for staff coverage of the Iraq insurgency over the past year, while a San Francisco Chronicle photographer won the feature photography prize for her heart-wrenching essay on an Iraqi boy who survived a blast in the war-torn nation.

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Photo L.A. 2005, which ran 20-23 January, featured such work by contemporary photographers as 'Aunt Myrtle's Cat' (2002) by Misty Keasler. [Copyright © Misty Keasler, Courtesy of Photographs Do Not Bend]

Photos, sculpture
merge at L.A. expo

LOS ANGELES (Fotophile.com) — Touted as "the largest photographic art exposition in the United States," Photo L.A. 2005 was a jumbled amalgam typical of such fairs. Organizers maximized bodies per square inch and dealers maximized art per square inch, piling works on top of one another on the walls and on the tables. Discounts were proffered loudly and price tags were prominent. Business appeared to be brisk.

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Tom Ford, former creative director of Gucci Group for a decade, releases a new book in November, with more than 300 photos highlighting his career and influence on fashion. [Copyright © Terry Richardson]

Tom Ford book spotlights
stratospheric fashion career

NEW YORK (Fotophile.com) — It's not often a fashion designer at the top of his game walks away from it all. But then, it's not often the industry finds a Tom Ford, either.

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