Photography News

October 30, 2017 /Photography News/ These two lovely retro cameras were made using the wonderful For Mother and For Father papers, but any other type of retro paper will do. A hidden back box on the camera opens to hold photos. 

The SVG cutting file can be downloaded here: http://tarascraftstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/camera-bellows.svg

2.  Begin folding the side zigzag score lines.  You will fold in the mountains and keep the valleys out as shown below:

3.  Now repeat this with all 4 of the bellow pieces.  Notice below that one piece has zigzag fold lines going the same direction, and one piece has zigzag fold lines going the opposite direction.  This will allow the pieces to fit together correctly when assembled.

4.  Unfold and apply score tape right next to the long score line on the zigzags as shown below on both sides of one of the pieces.

5.  Refold the piece back into position and remove the paper backing from the Score-Tape.  Take one of the pieces with the opposite score lines and hold it 90 degrees apart and begin adhering the sides together as shown:

Full instructions can be found at Tara's Craft Studio

See also:
DIY Instagram-inspired photo booth
How to make a pinhole camera from concrete
The Craft Camera, a DIY digital cardboard camera
DIY: Free printable DSLR lens hoods

October 28, 2017 /Photography News/  131 years ago today, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York Harbor, when France dedicated the monument to celebrate "the Alliance of the two Nations in achieving the Independence of the United States of America and attests their abiding friendship."

Here is a wonderful collection of photos showing the Statue of Liberty under construction:

Album de la construction de la Statue de la Liberté. 1883. Photographs by Albert Fernique (1841-1898)

October 28, 2017 /Photography News/ Born 161 years ago today, on 28 October 1856, Mary Dorothea Frederica Steen was a Danish photographer and feminist. In 1884, at the age of 28, she opened a studio in Copenhagen where she specialized in indoor photography, a difficult art at a time when electricity was not widespread. The photographs she took at the Flerons' house on Copenhagen's Vesterbrogade are among the first showing people inside their own homes. She later became Denmark's first female court photographer, working not only with the Danish royals but with the British royal family too. Around 1895, Princess Alexandra invited her to London where she photographed members of the royal family, including Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. 

Mary Steen also played an important part in improving conditions for female workers and encouraging women to take up the profession of photography. In 1891, she was the first woman on the board of the Danish Photographers Association. She was also active in the Danish Women's Society (Dansk Kvindesamfund) where she sat on the board from 1889–1892. Together with Julie Laurberg, she photographed the leading figures in the Danish women's movement. In 1891, she received a grant from the Reiersenske Fond, a trade association, which allowed her to travel to Germany and Vienna.

She campaigned for better working conditions for women including eight days holiday and a half day off on Sundays. She treated her own staff well, paying good wages. Her example was widely followed.

As a result of growing deafness, she closed her studio in 1918. She died on 7 April 1939.

September 24, 2017 /Photography News/ In early years of American movies, Jacksonville, Florida, experienced a brief turn in the spotlight as one of the hubs for filmmaking on the east coast. 

The Vim Comedy Company, based in Jacksonville and New York, was one of several film studios operating in the Jacksonville area in the first three decades of the 20th century. 

Most of the images presented here were collected by one of the Vim actors, William "Billy" Bletcher (September 24, 1894 – January 5, 1979), while working at the studio between 1915 and 1917. 

Before going out of business in 1917, it employed such stars as Oliver “Babe” Hardy, Ethel Burton, Walter Stull, and Kate Price, as well as Swedish-born director Arvid Gillstrom.  

The Florida Photographic Collection contains more than 158,000 images, representing the most complete portrait of Florida available.

Courtesy of the Florida Memory / State Library & Archives of Florida

September 16, 2017 /Photography News/  General Motors, also known as GM, was founded on 16 September 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for Buick, then controlled by William C. Durant. At the turn of the 20th century there were fewer than 8,000 automobiles in America and Durant had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in Flint, MI, before making his foray into the automotive industry. Today GM employs more than 200,000 people around the world. 

General Motors Company. Oldsmobiles 1897 - 1938. Photographs courtesy of the New York Public Library.

September 13, 2017 /Photography News/ Born 57 years ago, on 13 September 1960 (d. 27 July 1994), Kevin Carter was an award-winning South African photojournalist and member of the Bang-Bang Club. He was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph depicting the 1993 famine in Sudan. Following the winning of the Pulitzer Prize he committed suicide at the age of 33. 

In March 1993, while on a trip to Sudan, Carter was preparing to photograph a starving toddler trying to reach a feeding center when a hooded vulture landed nearby. Carter reported taking the picture, because it was his "job title", and leaving.

Sold to the New York Times, the photograph first appeared on 26 March 1993 and was carried in many other newspapers around the world. Hundreds of people contacted the Times to ask the fate of the girl. The paper reported that it was unknown whether she had managed to reach the feeding center. On May 23, 14 months after capturing that memorable scene, Carter walked up to the platform in the classical rotunda of Columbia University's Low Memorial Library and received the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. 

With the success of the image came a lot of controversy, and questions were raised about the ethics of taking such a photograph. An article printed in 1994 in the St Petersberg Times commented on the morality of Carters actions, ‘the man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene,’ (Stamets cited in Ricchiardi, 1999). 

The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) have a ‘Code of Ethics’ which sets out certain ethical responsibilities when carrying out journalistic work, one reads as thus, ‘while photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events’ (NPPA, 2010). Considering this, one can say Carter was objective and documented what he saw, capturing the severity of the situation in Sudan. But does this alleviate him from the responsibilities of being a good human being?

On 27 July 1994 Carter drove his way to the Braamfonte near the Field and Study Centre, an area where he used to play as a child, and took his own life by taping one end of a hose to his pickup truck’s exhaust pipe and running the other end to the driver's side window. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning, aged 33. Portions of Carter's suicide note read: 

Carter's story is depicted in the 2010 feature film, The Bang-Bang-Club in which he was played by Taylor Kitsch.

Related: New York Post Runs Pic of Man About to be Hit by Subway Train, Sparks Photojournalism Ethics Debate 
Related: 50+ Photography Related Movies

September 1, 2017 /Photography News/ 

The Second World War (1939-1945) is generally accepted to have begun 78 years ago today, on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany, and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France, Britain and most of the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth.

These photographs show the men and women who served in World War II, 1939-1945. They are from the collections of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, and the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands.