This N' That: 12/14/2020
The real garden gnomes, © Karine Aigner, Wildlife
Cast your vote for the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Through February 2nd, 2021, online voting for this year’s People’s Choice Award for Wildlife Photographer of the Year will be open on the Natural History Museum’s website.
With over 49,000 annual submissions, the appointed judges are only able to select 100 winners for the category. The People’s Choice Award gives another opportunity to 25 of the best shortlisted contestants, asking the public to choose one winner who will be named along with four honorable mentions. To vote for your pick, visit the Natural History Museum’s website.
Stondon Park 1st March 201018, ©andeecollard on flicker
Slit-scan imaging is gaining popularity in new ways
Although slit-scan photography is nothing new, it appears to be gaining traction in more ways than one. The imaging technique, which consists in taking repeated still shots or a single video of an object in motion, has historically been used for a variety of purposes. From helping declare which horse actually won a given race to scanning through fast-moving items on conveyor belts, slit-scan has practical, everyday applications. Most recently, a TikTok filter featuring this type of imaging has been widely used, mostly for its capability to produce humorous renderings of people’s faces.
The technique is not only being used for purely practical or comedic reasons, though. Ted Kinsman, a photographer who has been experimenting with slit-scan for some time—over twenty years, in fact—has used it to capture rotating flowers. The results of this are striking images that look to be a spiraled blur of color with futuristic qualities. They are almost unrecognizable as flowers, but through the technology they gain a more vibrant, animated quality.
View more of Kinsman’s slit-scan photographs here.
Danny Lyon’s Destruction of Lower Manhattan in the COVID era
Partnering with Fundación ICO, Aperture is republishing Danny Lyon’s Destruction of Lower Manhattan in a facsimile edition. Lyon, a renowned documentary photographer, filmmaker, and writer, known for the immersion in his subject matter that shines through in his work, first engaged with this project in order to document the destruction that faced lower Manhattan in the ‘60s. His ultimate goal was to grant visibility to New Yorkers who, because of their race, gender, or social status, found themselves living in the margins of society. In his photographs, he immortalized an era during which an entire sector of the city spanning sixty acres seemed to be representing some falsehood rather than existing, genuinely, within itself. The visual essay covers the demolition of 19th century architecture in an effort to make room for new developments, as well as the emotions of the people who lived to experience said demolition. Now, in an era when it can easily feel as though the city is being decimated in a similar way, although not quite as physical, by the COVID-19 pandemic, the republication of this body of work by Lyon is especially poignant. However, we might take solace in the belief that after demolition, there can be important reconstruction.
W. Eugene Smith Fund holds a sale for documentary photography
The W. Eugene Smith Fund has collaborated with the Smith Grant’s past recipients, finalists, and fellows to offer 58 documentary photographers worldwide in hosting a virtual print sale—its first ever online sale since its beginnings 41 years ago. The prints for sale were all donated and are priced at $150 each. Once the sale concludes, the photographs will be shipped, along with authenticity certificates, from New York in late December. Each of them is unsigned and printed 11x4 on Hahnemühle paper.
The Smith Fund certainly recognizes the importance of documentary photography and advocates for the sharing of incredible stories by dedicated photographers. It has awarded over $1 million to such artists, constantly highlighting the perseverance and drive it requires to engage with the field. Additionally, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the fund awarded five photographers grants of $10,000 each.
This print sale is a phenomenal opportunity to support an organization that is dedicated to helping make documentary photographers’ work financially possible. Visit the Smith Fund’s website to learn more.
