Vision Slightly Blurred

As the Taliban quickly overran major cities in Afghanistan – culminating in the capture of Kabul – civilian and professional photographers captured the unfolding chaos and the heartbreaking reality of on-the-ground despair. In this episode of the PhotoShelter podcast, Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen discuss satellite imagery to Falling Man comparisons to photojournalists risking their lives to capture the historical record.

Apple recently announced a new set of features aimed at combatting Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM), which include the ability to scan a user's phone and iMessages. Since the announcement, the company has repeatedly clarified the safeguards that are in place, but privacy advocates have bemoaned the potential for abuse and "mission creep."The exchange of CSAM imagery through Electronic Service Providers (ESPs) like Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc has reached epidemic-like proportions, and a New York Times report on the issue illustrated how confounding and disturbing the problem has become.In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen discuss the implication for photographers, and react to the various arguments made by privacy advocates as well as abuse experts.

A photo conspiracy theory is afloat after uncredited, potentially lucrative images of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck on a yacht were released by TMZ. The images affirmed the rumors that the pair had gotten back together after 20 years apart. Others suggested that they were in the midsts of a shot-for-shot recreation of 2002's "Jenny from the Block" music video! Conspiracy or happy couple????Also on the show: The New York Times goes from the gold with a square crop of the Olympics,  Twitter hosts a hack-a-thon to find bias in their AI, and the New York Public Library announces plans to shutdown public access to a trove of 1 million images that you could check out with your library card.

Ryan Shorosky, photographer and long-haul trucker, built a significant Instagram following while driving a semi around the country. We he made some of his scenic images featuring his signature technicolor skies available for sale, many of his fans jumped at the opportunity. But as the months went by, and the excuses piled on, people started to get suspicious. VICE tracked down some of the victims and Shorosky himself. Is it a case of fraud, or unexpected success coupled with an itinerant life that made fulfillment difficult?Also on the show: Ken Light published a new book documenting an "empire in decline," Twitter bans a PhD researcher for posting an image of Bree Newsome taking down a confederate flag, a stunning photo of Simone Biles and other Olympic photos, and who says NYC is a cold, heartless place???

Todd Bigelow’s career hasn’t gone exactly as planned. That is to say that no plan from the past few decades could have anticipated the sea of change in the photo industry – from the rapid shift to digital photography to the decimation of staff positions and the rise of the freelance economy. All this has led him to do what any savvy business owner does – pivot with the shifting winds, make informed business decisions, and diversify his income stream. In the process of doing so, he’s become a well-respected business educator, who recently published a book: The Freelance Photographer’s Guide to Success: Business Essentials.So much of what Todd has been preaching about in the past decade has resonated with me. And after reading his book, I reached out to him to get the lowdown.

Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer Danish Saddiqui was killed in Afghanistan while covering a conflict between Afghan Security Forces and the Taliban. Saddiqui was the Chief Photographer for Reuters in India and had spent a decade masterfully capturing his home country, as well as much of the Middle East. Also in the show: photographers capture the terrible flooding in Western Europe, Instagram "experiences" gain private equity funding, the incredible photos of Wyoming pioneer Lora Webb Nichols, and fashion photographer Mert Alas creates a gin(?)

Caroline Fraser takes the Grand Prize in the 2021 Audubon Photo Awards for a stunning image a Greater Roadrunner backlit through a blanket of dust. It was one of many incredible photos in this year's contest.Also in the show: PhotoShelter's newest guide to mentorship, Norway enacts legislation requiring advertisers to attach a label indicating manipulated photos, Chinese conglomerate Tencent uses facial recognition to police a cyber curfew, and David Hobby spots content creation studios at the mall. Say what?

Five days after the tragic building collapse in Surfside, Miami, over 150 people are still unaccounted for. Photographers have been on the scene capturing images of the debris along with heartbreaking images of grief. Sarah and Allen discuss coverage from the Miami Herald, Washington Post, and the New York Times.Also in the show: A Brooklyn apartment is transformed into a content creation studio, the Old Houses of Instagram, Jason Fulford's "Photo No-Nos," and Elinor Carucci captures the beauty of grey hair during COVID.

In a Mother Jones piece, Ramenda Cyrus analyzes A1 coverage of last year's George Floyd protests and contends that the media is still relying on old tropes to represent Black Americans. In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Allen and Sarah take a look at her arguments and the supporting voices of author Martin Berger and "Reading the Pictures" publisher Michael Shaw.Also in the show: The 400 Years Project collects stories of Native Americans, facial recognition errors are preventing people from collecting unemployment, Darnella Frazier receives a special citation from the Pulitzer Prizes for her video of George Floyd being murdered, Emily Ratajkowski sells her NFT for $175,000, and books from Ben Brody, Sebastiao Salgado, and Todd Bigelow.

Unfold, a layout templating app owned by Squarespace, contacted queer photographer Ryan James Caruthers to use 12 of his photos for a Pride Month Instagram feature. When he asked for compensation and to not exploit him especially for Pride, one of the co-founders responded that "I strongly disagree with the sentiment that any effort that doesn't include a dollar sign is 'exploitative.'"After a flurry of reshares and negative press, Unfold reconsidered their position, apologized, and announced that they would be compensating photographers in the future.Also: Photojournalist Alicia Vera pens an op/ed in the Washington Post about being sexually harassed by David Alan Harvey, the NYT hires 15 photographers under 25 to capture NYC in the month of May, Instagram sheds some light on their algorithm, and iOS 15 will finally allow you to block exes from appearing in your photo memories.

Police body cams were introduced to create a layer of accountability and to dissuade misconduct.  And while the jury is still out over the effectiveness of the technology, Professor Bryce C. Newell believes they have the potential to "force sensitive data and stressful episodes in private citizens’ lives into public view, easily accessible online."In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Allen and Sarah discuss the implications of body cam technology and how visual evidence can be both a blessing and a curse for all parties captured on camera.Also in this episode: TheBlkGaze interviews Black photographers in the UK, Victor Moriyama captures the dangerous "sport" of bus surfing in Brazil, Balenciaga uses deep fakes for its SS22 fashion show, Gary Hershorn is a damn treasure, and the Big Picture Natural World Photographer winners.

Bartram Trail High School in St. John, FL blew up in the news this past week when it was revealed that a yearbook teacher Photoshopped at least 80 female students' portraits because they showed too much cleavage in her estimation. The school has a history of policing female clothing, so this was par for the course and yet another example of the weaponization of photography. Sarah and Allen discuss the ramifications along with the history of yearbooks.Also: Alan Levenson's awesome photo of Japanese pop star Mariya Takeuchi goes viral, Twitter's algorithm *was* racist, and Laura Rowe captures an incredible storm cloud.

After years of relative calm, tensions between Palestinians and Israelis has escalated in recent days through a series of provocations that have been answered with escalating violence. On the ground, photojournalists have been capturing scenes of chaos, destruction, and heartbreak under the incredibly difficult conditions. On this episode of the PhotoShelter podcast, Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen discuss how on-the-ground reporting helps bring clarity to the conflict.Also on the show: Stephen Voss captures the first 100 days of the Biden presidency for Politico, photographer and former public school teacher Meryl Meisler publishes a new book about Bushwick Era Disco, and did you know you can make a full-time living as an astrophotographer?

White House Chief Photographer Adam Schultz inadvertently caused a ruckus when he used an ultrawide angle lens to photograph President Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, former President Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter at their home in GA. The distorted perspective made the Bidens look huge compared to the Carters, and Twitter had a field day. It was so newsworthy that both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported on it. So what the heck, we'll talk about it too!Also in this episode: Federico Winer uses Google Earth for source images for his Ultradistancia project, Craig McDean photographed a transformed Billie Eilish for British Vogue, and IAMS pet food launches an app that identifies your dog by its nose print.

Instagram is known for being a highly curated destination for photos and video, but a new trend has emerged at the end of the month when users dump all the content they didn't post into a single carousel with no cohesive theme. The end-of-month dump is the new photo album? Sarah and Allen discuss the sociological phenomenon.Also: It's deja vu with COVID-19 images emerging from the calamity in India, the "Disaster Girl" meme photo sells as a NFT for $500k, Stephanie Hueon Tung writes about Asian-American erasure from the California Gold Rush, and a gorgeous photo of a family making dumplings nets Li Huaifeng the Photographer of the Year 2021 .

Back in March, the artist Beeple sold a digital collage for $69 million. Photographers (and everyone else) suddenly took notice of this relatively new concept of blockchain-based ownership. In the past week, Phase One Ambassador Reuben Wu and longtime Sports Illustrated photographer Walter Iooss Jr sold pieces for nearly $60,000 each. Is it tulip mania or another mechanism for photographers to realize value from their work. In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen discuss the pros and cons of NFTs in the art world.Also, Sotheby's auctions off a set of William Henry Fox Talbot's photos for $1.9 million, publisher Wildsam releases a Texas BBQ edition travel guide, and Emiliano Granado denies being a millenial.

Emiliano Granado, Jared Soares, and Carmen Chan recently launched F*ckGateKeeping – a website and Instagram resource for younger photographers looking to establish themselves in the industry. Their irreverent approach combined with their impressive credentials make this a resource worth checking out.Also in this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred: Gwen Katz runs desaturated color photos through a colorization AI. The results aren't pretty. Photojournalists attacked by police in MN during Daunte Wright demonstrations. Hulu's got a new reality TV show for photographers called "Exposure. Dawoud Bey has a new book and a career retrospective at the Whitney, Polaroid reintroduced their "Round Frame Edition," and checkout @museumoflostmemories on TikTok.

In the mid- to late-70s, the Khmer Rouge committed a heinous genocide in Cambodia that killed 25% of its population. The government infamously photographed many of these victims at Tuol Sleng, a school which was converted into a torture facility. Inexplicably, retoucher Matt Loughrey decided to colorize and alter the expression of some of the depicted victims of the Cambodian genocide into smiles, and as you might imagine, people were outraged.In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen discuss the controvery. Plus, the NYT publishes images from 28 different Asian and Asian-American photographers to show what love looks like in a time of hate, American Photography takes a stand on Chinese censorship, and Annie Leibovitz captures poet laureate Amanda Gorman for Vogue.

Over 100 million people in the U.S. have already received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines, and we have the photos to prove it. In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred:- Lindsey Wasson captures the surprised expression of a 98-year old nursing home resident who received an in-person visit from her son for the first time in over a year- Getty Images acquires Unsplash to take advantage of their ginormous reach- Chris Buck publishes a new book "Gentlemen's Club: Partners of Exotic Dancers"- Stephanie Mei-Ling captures "Vaccine Daddy" and creator of @TurboVax, Huge Ma- and the NYT reports on the Age of the Vaccine Selfie

Photographer Lynn Goldsmith won a huge victory against the Andy Warhol Foundation last week when the 2nd Court of Appeals declared that the Foundation had infringed her copyright when it licensed artwork based on her photo of Prince in 2016. Sarah and Allen sort out some of the legal details surrounding the 65 page opinion.Also: amazing photos of the Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal, renown art buyer Daniel Wolf passes away, photojournalist John Moore is denied access at the border after a decade of covering it, time to delete the Dispo app from your iPhone, and hey! It's our 100th episode (not that we were counting).