BAG is one of the few photography websites that provides a home for original work you wouldn't see elsewhere. Part I of the Best of BAGnews, Contributors & Friends and all recent recaps can be found at BAGnewsNotes.
ALAN CHIN
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BAG's talented everywhere man, Alan Chin, covered the 2008 presidential candidates for BAG, capturing them at various stops on the campaign trail. He was credentialed for BAGnews at the DNC Convention in Denver and shot GOP rallies, including the below image of a desperate Palin at a Pennsylvania appearance a few days before the election:
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Alan reported that Palin held her prayerful position at the podium for a full ten minutes.
Alan's coverage of the DNC Convention delivered incredible photos, including this one of Michelle, Malia, and Sasha Obama gathered onstage after Michelle Obama's speech, gesturing to a large video screen full of their husband and father:
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Alan caught Rudy Giuliani at a New Hampshire Segway plant (and noted the employees' lukewarm reception, something the rest of the media missed)
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and a haggard John Edwards on the day he dropped out of the race (with each line in his face taking on new meaning when considering his current context).
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Why Alan's Frustrated engendered an in-depth community discussion of the disconnect between campaign-managed photo ops and the effect of the resulting photograph on the public perception of a campaign:
[E]ven if we know these scenes are thoroughly staged, their supposed genuineness still coerces the mind into considering they still could be what they propose themselves to be. (Of course, this is much less true with hardened media and political skeptics, like us, but the cognitive-perceptual impact on what is generally a skeptical public, I'm assuming, remains substantive. ...Otherwise, I imagine we'd see somewhat less control.)
BAG's point prompted one reader to remark:
The threat of being genuine -- which is a boon to a reporters -- is that the positives don't come close to the negatives. In 2004 Bush spoke only to pre-chosen crowds of supporters. No chance for anything unscripted. Repetitious soundbites and carefully tested backdrops were used and reused daily. And what did America do? Re-elected him over the guy prone for talking too much, and too often off-script.
This exchange (and many others in the post and subsequent posts) illustrates the value of community access to the photographer's context. It's what makes BAG unique.
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Alan is probably best known at BAG for his work in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast. His coverage of the disaster earned BAG a 2006 Koufax award. (I've saved these photos for last and only print two as I'll be covering our Katrina coverage in an upcoming edition of Best of BAG Decade.)
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Alan Chin is a freelance photojournalist and a regular contributor to BAGnewsNotes. He has covered conflicts in Iraq, the ex-Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and the Middle East as a photojournalist since 1996. He is also a regular contributor to the New York Times, Newsweek, Esquire and Time magazines and work work is in the collection of the Museum Of Modern Art. The New York Times nominated his Kosovo coverage for the Pulitzer Prize twice, in 1999 and 2000.
His contributions at BAG can be found at this link.
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NINA BERMAN
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Nina Berman is another great friend and contributor to BAGnews throughout the years (and into the future).
Above is "Little Patriots," a 2003 photograph from Nina's book Homeland published in 2008. BAGnews publisher Michael Shaw wrote the introduction and the cover photo, Stealth Bomber, was posted on BAG the same year.
Nina has been working on the "Homeland" series since 9/11. Her work in this series addresses issues of militarism and security in contemporary America. Regular BAG readers will remember her troubling images from New York's Fleet Week, posted in 2007.
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BAG also posted some amazing Berman images during the 2008 financial crisis, the first emphasizing Wall Street's lack of human context, the second (from a 2003 photograph) re-interpreted in light of the grotesque and nightmarish quality of the financial instruments stalking the world economy.
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Nina Berman is a New York-based freelance photographer. She has been recently picked by Whitney Museum curators as one of the artists to to participate in their Whitney Museum Bienniel, a survey of the latest in American art. Her work has been recognized with awards in art and journalism from the New York Foundation of the Arts, the Open Society Institute Documentary Fund and the World Press Photo Foundation. She is a contributing photographer for Mother Jones and has worked for top editorial clients including TIME, Newsweek, The Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Colors, German Geo, National Geographic, Fortune, and Marie Claire.
Her contributions to BAGnews can be found at this link.
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ZORIAH MILLER
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BAG has been posting Zoriah Miller's striking photographs since 2008. He is probably best known for his Iraq War photography and the military's attempts to censor him. However, Zoriah has posted amazing photographs from Iraq (posted in On New Years, I Think of Fireworks),
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Paris (in his look at the plight of Afghan refugees living on Paris streets),
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and Kenya (Bigger Than Jesus).
Zoriah often blogs directly for BAG about many of his photography subjects and his active furtherance of concern photojournalism.
Zoriah Miller is an award-winning photojournalist whose work has been featured in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries, museums and publications. His clients include Newsweek, The New York Times, BBC News, The United Nations, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Democracy Now and many others. With a background in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Aid, he specializes in documenting human crises in developing countries. More of his work may be found at his blog, Zoriah.
His contributions to BAGnews can be found at this link.
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TIM FADEK
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Shortly after the deadly 2006 air strike on Qana, charges surfaced that the Lebanese had staged the attack to paint Israeli forces in a brutal light. Longtime BAGnews friend and contributor Tim Fadek was there and reported on events to our readers via an interview with BAG publisher Michael Shaw in Qana Was Not Staged. He also contributed the above photo. Fadek's account is a must read. It is this kind of contribution to the site that makes BAGnews vital in looking beyond the photographs we see every day.
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Tim's unforgettable Terri's Army was posted on BAGnews in June 2005. In it, BAG posted individual portraits of people who fought to prevent Michael Schiavo from removing his wife's feeding tube. It's a fascinating look at extremism and religion in our country.
Tim was one of the first photojournalists to become a regular contributor to BAGnews and has been a part of our ongoing quest to increase the blogosphere's visual literacy.
Photographer Timothy Fadek has covered conflicts Iraq, Lebanon, Kosovo, Macedonia, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, the civil uprising in Haiti and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Named a "Hero of Photography" by American Photo magazine in 2007, Fadek has received awards and recognition from Pictures of the Year (POYi), National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), Communication Arts, American Photography, among others. Fadek has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Tim's contributions to BAG can be found at this link.
When the new BAGnews rolls out in 2010, our community will have a chance to see more original photography and to experience it in new ways with new tools and ways to discuss news imagery.
(photo credits: Alan Chin: 1. Hershey PA, Oct. 28, 2008, 2. Shippensburg, PA, Oct. 28, 2008, 3.Denver. 2008, 4. New Hampshire. January 5, 2007, 5. 9th Ward, New Orleans. January 30, 2008, 6. New Hampshire, 2007; 7.-8. New Orleans, 2005. Nina Berman: 9. Ridge-field Park, NJ, July 4, 2003, 10. Nina Berman/Redux. NYC, New York, May 25, 2007, 11. New York, April 1, 2009, 12. New York, 2003, Zoriah Miller: 13. Baghdad, Iraq. 2007, 14. Paris, France, 2009, 15. Zoriah Miller/BAGnewsNotes - Nairobi. January 17, 2009, Tim Fadek: 16. copyright, Tim Fadek, 2006, 17. copyright Tim Fadek, 2005.)