Erected in 1930 during an ego-driven New York skyscraper war, the 1,046-foot Chrysler Building was the tallest building in the world for exactly four months. Although dethroned by the 1,250-foot Empire State Building, many still consider the Chrysler to be the world's most beautiful skyscraper. Kevin Kiernan changes one of its 10,000 bulbs, making sure the art deco masterpiece glows through the night. [Copyright © 2004 Philip Greenberg from 'New York 24/7']

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Prize-winning photographer
Eddie Adams dies at age 71

Eddie Adams, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer whose 1968 image of the sidewalk execution of a Viet Cong guerrilla in Saigon, died Sunday, 19 Sept. 2004, at his Manhattan home. He was 71.

The cause was Lou Gherig's disease, according to news reports quoting his assistant and a spokeswoman.

A U.S. Marine combat photographer who went on to cover 13 wars over his 45-year career, Adams became famous for his image of the Vietnam War. His photograph, along with Nick Ut's picture of a terrified naked girl fleeing a napalm attack, became emblamatic of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and helped shape public opinion.

Adams, who worked for The Associated Press, Time and Parade, was credited with bringing the plight of Vietnamese boat people to the attention of Congress, which helped it decide to admit refugees to the U.S., according to a New York Times story.

"I always tell photographers that you never know who is looking at your pictures or how your pictures are going to affect other people's lives," Adams once said, according to the Times. "I wasn't out to save the world. I was out to get a story."

Dirck Halstead of The Digital Journalist, which plans to devote its October issue to Adams, alerted press photographers on Friday that he had taken a turn for the worst and was placed on a respirator.

"For Eddie, news photography has been his life," Halstead said. "There was never a fiercer competitor. I know — I was on the other end."

The AP writes that Adams "found himself so defined — and haunted — by the picture that he would not display it at his studio."

"Sometimes a picture can be misleading because it does not tell the whole story," Adams said in an interview for a 1972 AP photo book, according to the story. "I don't say what he did was right, but he was fighting a war and he was up against some pretty bad people."

Fellow Vietnam-era photographer David Hume Kennedy, quoted in the Times story, called Adams's image "one of about five great photographs of the 20th century that really changed history."

In addition to the acclaim he gained for that image, Adams created a prolific career, earning more than 500 photojournalism awards, taking portrait assignments of presidents and world leaders and establishing the Eddie Adams Workshop for aspiring photojournalists.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks contributions be made to the photojournalism student seminar that bears his name, Barnstorm: The Eddie Adams Workshop. Donations may be made payable to "North Jersey Media Group Foundation" and sent to Jennifer A. Borg, Esq., NJMG Foundation, 150 River St., Hackensack, NJ 07601. [2004.09] | | TOP

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Hackers exploit JPEG flaw
in Microsoft programs

Hackers have figured out a way to hide code inside JPEG files that allow them to access computers that use Microsoft Windows and Office applications, such as Internet Explorer or Outlook.

The troublesome code requires that users open files in the popular JPEG image format with the widely used Internet Explorer Web browser. It then contacts a remote server to allow unauthorized access to an unprotected PC.

The code began appearing last month in adult-oriented photography sites on the Internet, The Associated Press said in a news story.

The code was published days after Microsoft announced the "critical" security flaw on 14 Sept. 2004 and offered a patch to help avoid the problem.

"The vulnerability could only be exploited by an attacker who persuaded a user to open a specially crafted file or to view a directory that contains the specially crafted image," Microsoft said in a statement. "There is no way for an attacker to force a user to open a malicious file."

Microsoft said users with the Service Pack 2 security update for Windows XP would not be affected. [2004.09] | | TOP

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Adobe announces universal
format for digital images

Adobe Systems, maker of the ubiquitous Photoshop photo-editing software, today, 27 Sept. 2004, announced introduction of its new Digital Negative Specification, meant to create a common, high-quality format for raw digital image files.

"Raw files, which contain the original information captured by a camera sensor prior to any in-camera processing, have become popular due to their promise of greater flexibility and image quality. Until today there has been no standard format for these files, which vary between manufacturers and individual cameras," Adobe said in a statement.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company also announced a free software tool to convert files from more than 65 cameras into to the new .DNG format, including recent models such as Canon PowerShot S60, Epson RD-1, Fujifilm FinePix S20 Pro, and Nikon Coolpix 5400.

The new standard is based on the TIFF EP format, which is already the basis of many proprietary raw formats, and is flexible enough to allow camera manufacturers to add to existing metadata fields in addition to the included information about the camera and settings.

"Professional photographers and other creative professionals are moving to raw camera workflows because of the outstanding creative control they get over digital images," Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president of Digital Imaging and Digital Video products at Adobe, said in a statement. "However, clients and publishers have difficulty working with disparate raw file formats and nobody can be sure that today's raw formats will be supported ten years from now. Adobe customers asked us to work on a unified, public format for raw files and that's what we've delivered with the new Digital Negative Specification." Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer whose 1968 image of the sidewalk [2004.09] | | TOP

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VII photo group signs deal
with The Associated Press

VII, the elite Paris-based photo agency, and The Associated Press have signed a distribution deal to provide members access to its images, as well as a weekly story package, according to a statement by the AP.

"This agreement with AP extends the work of VII to a new editorial market," Gary Knight of the VII photo agency said in a statement.

The announcement was made at photojournalism festival, Visa pour l'image, in Perpignan, France.

VII, founded in 2001 by seven of the world's leading photojournalists, includes several former members of Magnum Photos. The statement said founding members Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey and John Stanmeyer were joined in 2002 by Lauren Greenfield and in 2004 by Joachim Ladefoged.

AP distributes news, photos, graphics, audio and video to more than a billion people each day and has earned 28 Pulitzer Prizes for photography. [2004.09] | | TOP

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