The Death of Kodachrome

Kodak will no longer produce Kodachrome, once its flagship film offering. Many of us grew up with Kodachrome. Paul Simon famously sung about it. While I mostly shot black-and-white Tri-X in my film days, I can feel the sense of loss that is being expressed in many reports around the Web -- like this one -- and other media. I will try to update this entry by making a search to post the earliest Kodachrome image I can find in my personal slide archives.

Olivier Laban-Mattei

Friend and fellow photographer John just helped me discover a great photojournalist in AFP's prize-winning Olivier Laban-Mattei of France. See a sample of his work at http://portfolios.afp.com/photographer/olivier-laban-mattei.html. Also, his images from Iran following the recent election are appearing almost everywhere, including here.

D-Day, Another View

This week we commemorated the 65th anniversary of D-Day in Europe. Most of us are familiar with the Omaha Beach landing photographs of Robert Capa, regarded as perhaps the greatest war photographer of the era. One of my very favorite blogs, DesignObserver, has unearthed some rare documentation from that time by a soldier-artist named Manuel Bromberg. Go there and see more and read the fascinating back story.

Besting Hemingway

Friend John sends along a link -- passed to him, I gather, by a participant in the photo shoot -- of Felice Arenas' portraits, coupled with appropo Ernest Hemingway quotes, that try to go beyond Hemingway's challenge of avoiding big words to convey emotion.

Coming Your Way: Neil Young

Just happened to notice that PBS TV's American Masters is doing an hour of Neil Young tomorrow night, featuring performances from his personal archive. Neil Young is probably the musician Kim and I most share as emblematic of our 60s-70s-and-beyond experience, and we will NOT miss this one. Warm up your Tivos for this one. In the meantime, see some perhaps rare 70s live footage of this Canadian gift to the world at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/neil-young/video-live-at-massey-hall-1971/1156/.

UPDATE 10 JUNE 2009: Disappointment. While some of the live interviews were a value-add and I enjoyed seeing old footage and hearing some of the old music, there was only one hour to cover Neil Young's expansive career, and whole chunks of it were never even mentioned. You could get the feeling that the production ran short of budget somewhere along the line and just tried to patch together whatever they had up to that point. One of the less masterful American Masters productions, imho; an artist of Young's caliber deserved better. Yet, if you are interested in his music, you will want to watch.

Rumi and Barks

Last night I chanced to see a nice piece on Afghan poet Rumi and translator-poet Coleman Barks while watching the evening news on PBS' Newshour:

Wang Dang Doodle

Koko Taylor and her big, big voice passed on this week. Here she is in 1967, doing her signature piece, "Wang Dang Doodle".