Photos: Iraq then and now

The crossed swords monument at the site of a photo of U.S. soldiers taken by Associated Press photographer Karim Kadim on Nov. 16, 2008. The crossed-sword archways Saddam Hussein commissioned during Iraq's nearly eight-year war with Iran stand defiantly on a little-used parade ground inside the Green Zone, the fortified district that houses the sprawling U.S. Embassy and several government offices. Iraqi officials began tearing down the archways in 2007 but quickly halted those plans and then started restoring the monument two years ago. Photo taken on March 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

The Denver post recently posted a gallery of photos from Iraq from now compared to 10 years ago to see what has changed. Although some photos show the growth and recovery of Iraq after the US has been there for a decade, some places look like they have not changed at all. Personally this is one my favorite things about photography. A journalist could write all about the changes and similarities between a country over a decade. But a photograph, however, shows clearly the exact same place, and there is no question about it.

Iraqi policeman Ahmed Naji stands on the grounds of the Iraqi National Museum at the site of a photograph showing a U.S. Army tank parked outside the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad taken by Associated Press photographer Murad Sezer on Tuesday, May 6, 2003. Tens of thousands of artifacts chronicling some 7,000 years of civilization in Mesopotamia are believed to have been looted from Iraq in the chaos which followed the the US-led invasion in 2003. Despite international efforts to track items down, fewer than half of the artifacts have so far been retrieved. Photo taken on March 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Peacefully photographing police

Photojournalist Mannie Garcia is currently involved in a federal civil rights lawsuit in which he was arrested in 2011 unlawfully for taking photos of a police encounter and his camera and images were seized.

 "The Justice Department told the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in its filing today that it upholds an individuals' 1st, 4th, and 14th Amendment rights to peacefully photograph police as they are performing their official duties in a public place, and that their rights have been violated when police seize such recordings without a warrant or due process. "

Read the article, via the National Press Photographers Association here:
https://nppa.org/node/42647

The original Justice Deparment's Statement of Interests can be found here:
https://nppa.org/sites/default/files/Garcia_DOJ_SOI_03-04-13.pdf

Robbed: Photojournalists cannot do their job without gear

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Laura Oda, the chief photographer for The Oakland Tribune, has been robbed of her photographer equipment while on assignment twice since last August in Oakland.

It's a scary thought. Robbed at gunpoint by someone hoping to make quick cash stealing the thousands of dollars of camera equipment you have while on the job. In Oakland, Calif. the number of journalists being robbed has increased and every major news station has had at least one camera story.

The article was reported two days ago from The New York Times. I originally found this on the front page of NPPA. I learned of this story while at work today and everyone seemed concerned about the issue. I can't even imagine having to call my boss and tell him the horrific news.

Blog sources

I will be blogging about photojournalism ethics, issues, and other topics on the craft in this blog. Below are popular blogs I read and will be referring to.

Sports Shooter
http://www.sportsshooter.com/
SportsShooter.com is an online community and resource for sports photographers and other working photojournalists. It started off as an informative site for photographers that are going into a new venue or location. However throughout the years SportsShooter has gained popularity because of it’s blog a message boards that deal with all problems and issues that occur with photographers.         
                          
National Press Photographers Association
https://nppa.org/
“Across an ever-changing media landscape, the NPPA has fought to promote and protect integrity and excellence in visual journalism for more than six decades.” NPPA is the most well-known professional association for news photographers and their blog address’ important situations that occur and how to deal with them. Their code of ethics have set a precedent on how news photographers should work and they help deal with situations.

Student Press Law Center
http://www.splc.org/   
This site focuses more on issues that arise with students on college campuses mostly being restricted to use their first amendment rights. Their insight would come in handy for my blog if a college newspaper ever pulled or censored a photo. Although this has not happened at Elon yet, I’m confident SPLC would immediately become involved. I had first hand experience with them two years ago with a photo restriction issue at NC State and saw how they operated.

Bradley Wilson’s Photojournalism Blog
http://bradleywilsononline.net/blog
On a related note to SPLC, Dr. Bradley Wilson’s blog offers advice to young photographers from an educational perspective. Wilson has been a professional photographer for years and now teaches at Midwestern State University in Texas. He teaches and blogs about how to be careful with the use of photos and distributing them. I know Dr. Wilson personally and credit my dedication to photojournalism thanks to him.

College Media Matters
http://collegemediamatters.com/
College Media Matters is a leading student journalism industry blog and works with the Associated Collegiate Press. The blog “contains occasional editorializing built atop my belief in the power of college media.”Elon is frequently featured in College Media Matters, including last week with a squirrel article featuring my photo. A blog post was made last year about a photo I published in The Pendulum and their take on it.

Jabin E Botsford’s Photojournalism Blog
http://jabinebotsford.com/category/blog/
Jabin Botsford is arguably the best student photojournalist in the country. He previously interned at the Washington Post and this summer will be at The New York Times. I met him last year at the annual Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar and he is well-known as an up-and-coming photographer. He has personally seen photo issues arise in his own career and blogs from a unique student perspective. I will try to post from Jabin frequently because personally I look up to him alot.

Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism
http://apple.copydesk.org/
Charles Apple is well-known in the online journalism community for calling it as he sees it visually. If a newspaper runs a photo the wrong way or copies someone else, he will call them out. I have read his blog on and off for a few years now and appreciate that he does his job to the best of his ability and doesn't take no for an answer. He has a level of expectations for newspapers and holds them to it. Locally, he talks about North Carolina frequently since he hails from Virginia.

New York Times Lens Blog
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/
The New York Times photographers (aka kings of the PJ world) blog about their experiences and weigh in on national photo issues. In typical Times fashion, their photographers think outside the box and have a unique view on most things in the photo world. The blog is well kept and features different sections including the "art of photojournalism" as well as the "craft of photojournalism.” I am certain I will refer to the Times blog frequently.

Sam Corum Blog
http://samuelcorum.wordpress.com/
Sam Corum is a freelance photographer based in Washington DC. He recently published a post last week called "Is it lying?" in which he addresses the issue of omitting caption information in order to convey a different message. His posts are well researched and offer insight from both sides of arguments. He tries to remain unbiased in order to be as fair as possible. This will be another site I will refer to when a major issue arises.

Luke Sharrett’s Photojournalism Blog
http://sharrett.blogspot.com/
Luke Sharrett is a freelance photographer for The New York Times in Washington DC. He is a friend of Jabin Botsford and I also look up to him and have a great deal of respect for him. Having worked for the NYT as well as the White House Photo Office, he remains heavily involved in political photography in DC. In his blog he offers his insight into political photo issues and new changes in the industry.