The default Home Page of a b2evolution v6 install.

Hello b2evolution Folks!

We have a ton of exciting news for you this month! (We hope you’ll understand why we skipped the February news ;)

b2evolution version 6 is here!

We have just released b2evolution version 6.0.0-alpha and it is PACKED with good stuff! Following the previous link will take you to a list but just to mention a few:

• Several new skins based on the bootstrap framework.
• It supports a global Home Page for the site.
• Collections/Blog can be made private, even invisible to non-members if needed.
• Email capture / quick registration widget.
• 100% UTF-8. No more weird character hassles when dealing with multiple languages.

We also have a Guided Tour if you’d like ;)

The old adage, “one thing leads to another” applies to artist Doug Keyes‘ latest project, “Portraits.” The complex, multi-layering of a single image was a process he used in his “Collective Memory” series, a catalogue for a Chuck Close exhibition Keyes photographed in 1998. With “Portraits,” Keyes creates entirely new faces from otherwise recognizable and iconic images.

“Sourcing images from books and the internet, and often inspired by portraits experienced in person, Keyes selects images that collectively create an overall representation of each artist’s portraiture work,” Klompching Gallery said in a statement about the work. “The resulting photographs reshape the work of such iconic names as Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Martin Schoeller and Frida Kahlo.”

Join Keyes, an American artist who currently resides in Seattle, at a reception for his new show, “Portraits,” this evening at Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibition runs through April 11, 2015.

Bozeman, Montana-based photographer Eric Schmidt grew up in California, but he, his wife and their three children planted roots in Montana’s Gallatin Valley a few years ago. Schmidt’s decision to move to a smaller market changed his career and his portfolio in interesting ways. He had more time for personal work [Slides 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8], and he also began getting editorial assignments for the first time. Schmidt’s main focus, even when he was just starting out, was always on landing advertising assignments. He was too “hard-headed” to see the value in magazine work, he says. “Believe it or not, most of my editorial work has happened since relocating to Montana,” Schmidt told PDN via email. “Various publications have reached out to me because they liked my work. In a nutshell, they were looking for a qualified shooter in the region.”

The decision to move away from a large market can be difficult. Since relocating to Bozeman, Schmidt’s made the transition seem easy, continuing to find work with advertising and corporate clients across the country. He’s also expanded his portfolio to include stock photography, CGI and motion.

His first commercial (video) assignment took place shortly after his move to Bozeman. Pulling a crew together was easy, he says, thanks to the film department at Montana State University. “It was a wonderful experience—especially with being able to shoot with the RED for the first time and then working alongside an editor in post. I’ve always felt extremely comfortable directing people, so that part of the shoot was business as usual.

We asked the 20-year photo industry veteran what advice he would give to photographers living in, or contemplating a move to, a smaller market:

1. It’s important to get involved with the community. I sense that smaller markets will have more approachable clients. I’m not sure why… maybe it’s because they don’t receive the overwhelming amount of solicitations that clients in larger markets receive.

2. If becoming the big fish in the small pond is your goal, then you would most definitely need to be a well rounded photographer—perhaps having several portfolios (i.e.  food, lifestyle, architecture, product).

3. Get as much experience as you can in that market and realize that your early assignments are all formidable experiences.Small ones are just as important as the big ones.

4. Include images in your portfolio from other places. Sure, it can be advantageous to have a selection from your particular region, but I would suggest branching your horizons out a bit.

5. Finally, you’ll need more than solid work. There is an abundance of talented photographers in this world and I believe that clients are looking at personalities as well as the work.

To see more of Schmidt’s work, please visit his website or follow him on Instagram.

Danny Clinch may be the planet’s biggest music fan. He’s not only an award-winning music photographer/director, he’s also a musician (Danny plays the harmonica with The Tangiers Blues Band). Clinch’s lengthy resume includes three Grammy Award nominations (as a director), hundreds of album covers, three published books of his own photography, and loads of editorial assignments for Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, GQ, The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine.

A celebration of Clinch’s varied portfolio, “Danny Clinch: Walls of Sound,” opens tomorrow and runs through April 5, 2015 at Milk Gallery. To see more of Clinch’s work, or if you want to see just how cool it is to be Clinch, follow him on Instagram.

Related: Danny Clinch: Still Moving—PDN’s Notable Books of 2014

It’s hard to imagine in today’s world of camera phones, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and the like, that there was a time when photos of yourself, friends and family were few and far between. Cameras existed but not everyone had one. Fewer photos were taken because film and processing cost money and patience—prints could take up to a week to be developed.

An appreciation for analog photography is what motivated photographer Nina Manandhar to create her blog, What We Wore. The blog, filled with crowd-sourced images of individuals, families and groups, is a big collage of British fashion from the 1950s through the present day.

Images from the blog were recently compiled into a book, What We Wore: A People’s History of British Style (Prestel, November 2014), which “encompasses the worlds of Mods, punks, ravers, grime kids, and everything in between, with photos submitted by everyday British people as well as celebrities, including Tracey Emin, Jeremy Deller, Jazzie B., DJ Harvey, and Don Letts.”

In her Editor’s Letter from issue 2 of Tidal magazine, editor-in-chief (and photographer) Anna Wolf writes: “Tidal is truly becoming a place where creative talents come together.” Tidal, a bi-annual print publication that combines fashion, culture and lifestyle stories from both coasts, was an idea Wolf had in the summer of 2013. “I was trying to find a home for a fashion story I had recently shot,” she told PDN via email. “My husband [now Tidal‘s creative director Mike Perry] suggested that I start my own magazine so I had a place to run the images from the shoot.” Wolf took his advice. After a successful Issue 2 launch party in January 2015, Wolf told PDN how she and her team made it happen.

PDN: What is Tidal magazine about?

Anna Wolf: It’s a place where you can turn every page and see something beautiful: fashion that’s approachable, entertaining stories that are fun and not too precious, and celebrity profiles that make you feel like you’re reading an interview with a friend.

PDN: Where did the idea come from and who were/are the original Tidal peeps?

AW: It started with this small desire just to see my shoot in print, and then became a much bigger idea; a place to collaborate with photographers whose work I’ve always loved, to discover new photographers’ work, and to bring them together with writers, illustrators other creatives. [Perry] helped design the first issue along with his assistant at the time, Kayla Kern. We also have executive editor Lisa Butterworth, producer Tara Trullinger, East coast editor Jen Steele, and photo/fashion editors Ash Barhamand and Ian Bradley.

PDN: Are decisions about the magazine’s content, features, cover stories, models, etc. made collectively?

AW: Yes! Deciding on content and how to tell each story is a highly collaborative process. I’m lucky to have such an incredibly talented and thoughtful team.

PDN: So it’s a giant, collaborative endeavor… how do you keep things organized?

AW: We’re continually improving on our process, but we try and keep everything organized in a spreadsheet and on our calendar. We schedule all content, stories, writings, etc. and put deadlines in place to keep us on track. It’s a work in progress but each issue gets that much more organized.

PDN: So Issue 2 just came out—when was the first issue released? Assuming you want to keep things going, what’s next and when? 

AW: Our first issue was Spring/Summer 2014. We do have plans to keep things going; we are having so much fun! Currently we’re working on Issue 3, Spring/Summer 15, which will be out in May. We’re taking our time, making the upcoming issue as strong as it can be.

PDN: Here’s a less fun question—how is this funded? How many issues are produced? 

AW: Tidal is self-funded by me, but I truly feel that it’s worth every penny. It’s such an inspiring project and has allowed me to meet so many new people. We are currently printing 1,000 copies, with hopes to print more as our reach expands and sales go up.

PDN: What else can you tell our readers about the process of producing an independent magazine? 

AW: Oftentimes I think the hardest thing about doing something like this is just making the decision to do it. As difficult as it is pulling the trigger on seemingly big ideas, once you do, all of the details get sorted out.

For more on Tidal or Wolf, please visit their websites.

Liza Surova, a full-time graphic designer and art director, is passionate about photography and uploads her “best” photos on Tumblr (and Instagram). Surova uses her on-going series, “Forest. Ocean. Repeat.,” as a way to stay connected to her family overseas in Russia. “Skype is a great way to keep in touch over the 8,200 kilometres between Port Coquitlam, British Columbia and Moscow,” she writes. “Yet the words fail to describe the beauty (it’s tough to find good connections for video calls in the woods) of the land and ocean, minutes from where I presently live and work.”

Canada’s most western province is referred to as “Beautiful British Columbia” on license plates. And for good reason, Surova says. “Mysterious pine forests abound, brilliant cloud formations touch high mountain ranges, and low mists dig themselves into rich green valleys with deep crystal-clear lakes—everywhere I trek. Taking photographs is an obvious way to capture the beauty of B.C., on my daily hikes.”

Surova was born in Moscow, and graduated from Moscow State University where she studied Media and Graphic Design. Later she moved to Toronto where she completed an advertising and graphic design program at Humber College. Upon graduation she apprenticed at a small ad agency and then moved to British Columbia, where she co-founded the design studio Let’s Panda.

This month sees the launch of Double Exposure, a significant new series of books from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), produced in partnership with London publisher GILES. The three books in the series draw from the growing photography collection of the museum’s seven-year-old Center For African American Media Arts, and include images that span the history of photography, from pre-Civil War daguerreotypes to digital images. The first volume, Through the African Lens, presents an overview of the collection and “illuminates photography’s significance in interpreting and documenting African American art, culture, and history,” writes scholar Deborah Willis in her essay for the book. Through the African Lens includes the work of early black photographers—like renowned daguerreotypist Augustus Washington—and several historically significant images.

One example is McPherson & Oliver’s “Gordon under Medical Inspection, 1863,” which showed the terrible scars on the back of an escaped slave. It was published in newspapers and sold to raise money and awareness for the antislavery cause. Portraits of black soldiers, writers, artists, political leaders and other notable figures by photographers such as Leonard Freed, Lewis Hine and Ernest C. Withers are interspersed with depictions of families and daily life. In her introduction to the series, curator Rhea L. Combs notes how figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, all of whom are depicted in the book, “realized their photographic image could create a counter-narrative to mainstream understandings of African Americans.” Two other books, Civil Rights and the Promise of Equality and African American Women, are due out this July. —Conor Risch

Double Exposure: Through the African American Lens (GILES in association with the National Museum of African American History and Culture) is an 80-page book featuring 60 images.

Barney Taxel moved to Cleveland from New York City in 1967. Since then, he’s worked as a studio and location photographer for a variety of clients in both the editorial and commercial worlds. He’s also developed a photographic relationship with the city of Cleveland, documenting Cleveland’s West Side Market, one of the country’s oldest operating public markets, and most recently, Lake View Cemetery.

Founded in 1869, Lake View Cemetery was modeled the cemeteries of Victorian England and France, which provided tranquil escapes from bustling cities. Lake View, located on a 285-acre plot of land, was designed to “combine all the attractive features that ‘nature and true art can produce’ to harmonize nature’s alphabet—’stone, earth, wood and water,'” according to an 1870 Cleveland Plain Dealer report Taxel cites. The cemetery is also the permanent resting place for Cleveland’s most prominent citizens, including President James A. Garfield, John D. Rockefeller, and J.H. Wade.

Taxel spent moare than a decade photographing every architectural detail and curious tombstone for his new book, The Lake View Cemetery. The book also includes famous monuments, the Wade Chapel, memorials and historic information.

During the mentoring session, the photographers were grouped into teams of five. Veteran photographers Steve Giralt and Andrew Hetherington donated their time and expertise to mentor one of the New York City teams, which included photographers Missy Davis, Alyssa Meadows, Andrew Tomasino, Hsin Wang and Logan Wu, whose images are shown above. “We all met regularly as a group at Steve’s studio over a period of four months or so and worked closely with the mentees, from developing their ideas and interpreting the theme with a unique vision, to its execution, to the edit and all steps in between,” Hetherington told PDN via email. Hetherington and Giralt also invited industry professionals to share their experiences of life in the “real” photo world. A group critique was held at the end of the program to help with the final image selection for the exhibition.

“It is very much a two way street. I found myself being as inspired just as much from the mentees as I hope they were from Steve and I,” Hetherington says. “It is rewarding to see that members of the team forged lasting friendships during the program, and are continuing to help, nurture and motivate one another. That is really invaluable. Worth more than the pictures themselves.”

In addition to the mentoring program, the YPA offers scholarships, an educational lecture series, portfolio reviews, and panel discussions with industry professionals like photo editors, art buyers and photo agents. To learn more, please visit the organization’s website.

Towards the end of 2014, photographer Ryan Young was assigned by the French women’s magazine Causette to work with writer Iris Deroeux on a difficult, and heartbreaking topic: exploited children and human trafficking. This was Young’s second-ever commissioned photo story (the first was a photo essay for Esquire earlier in 2014), and his first assignment for Causette.

Young isn’t sure how Causette found him. “I assume it’s because I’m based in LA, which which is where the shoots took place, and I’ve
made a lot of both personal and commissioned work that focuses on youth culture,” Young told PDN via email. The assignment resulted in a five-page feature with eight published images.

Young only only had a week to shoot, so he researched the subject in advance and communicated with Deroeux via email and over the phone. This assignment proved to be challenging—not only because of the time constraints, but also the delicate subject matter. For their own protection, it was essential to hide the girls’ identity. Most of the girls understood the seriousness of the situation, Young says, but one girl asked why he didn’t want to see her face. “She had her hair and makeup prepared, and seemed excited for the camera,” Young says. “I ended up shooting a few of her with her face revealed just so she didn’t feel like she wasted her time getting ready. I never submitted those photos, and they’ll never be posted.”

Young developed an interest in documentary photography while attending school at Art Center College of Design. “In between terms, I began making trips back home to Benicia [California], photographing family, friends and places I’ve lived. Investigating my childhood and rediscovering my roots allowed me to understand myself in conjunction with what draws me to photography—storytelling.”

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Today, February 19, 2015, many Asian cultures ring in their new year – The Year of the Sheep (also known as Year of the Ram or Goat), one of 12 animals assigned to the Chinese zodiac calendar. One of the many ways to celebrate is by watching traditional lion dance,  performed by two dancers dressed up in a costume.

San Francisco-based photographer Jason Lam, a Chinese-American, says he started lion dancing when he was 12 years old. For him, lion dancing “is one of those activities I embraced with great passion because it gave me a place to belong.” To maintain that sense of belonging while he was living in New York City to study at the International Center of Photography last year, he decided to document a local Lion Dance Team, The Wan Chi Ming Hung Gar Institute.

Lam has worked on a few other New York City-based stories centered on Chinese culture, including Childhood: Colorful Chinese Snacks” and “11pm: Late Night Restaurants of Chinatown.” He plans to celebrate the New Year, and says that “seeing family, and enjoying the festivities with one another” is his favorite part of the holiday.

Though Jeff Stephens enjoys shooting fashion and beauty campaigns, his background is still life photography, which requires a mastery of light, color and reflection. For a 2014 campaign, Stephens used a special set of skills to create carefully composited images of accessories like eyewear, bags, and designer shoes, within different landscapes, for the Neiman Marcus Resort Book.

Nieman Marcus hired Stephens to shoot nine products on white seamless, as well as nine composited shots. Nieman Marcus art director Devin Hall came up with the concept. “[Hall] and I discussed ahead of time on how to execute the idea,” Stephens told PDN via email. “She had a range of stock scenery [and] we picked our favorites in reference to the specific merchandise.” Stephens was left with the task of figuring out the appropriate camera angles and lighting to best match the selected landscapes. “I felt my role on this project was to direct the model and still life, and to deliver imagery that exceeded the art director’s expectations.”

The team, which included Hall, retoucher Joshua Martin and stylists Jocelyn Meinster and Kristen Butler, spent a few days brainstorming the concepts, and Stephens spent three days shooting product. Thanks to careful planning, the composited scenic shots only required four-to-six hours of retouching per image. About four months later, after post-production was complete, the final printed piece was distributed to select Neiman Marcus “Incircle” members (the retailer’s rewards program).

Stephens’ images for the Neiman Marcus Resort Book were recognized in the Advertising category of the 2014 PDN Photo Annual. The 2015 PDN Photo Annual is currently open for entries, with an extended deadline of February 24, 2015. To see more of Stephens’ portfolio, please visit his website or portfolio via his agency, The Photo Division.

Related: Miska Draskoczy‘s “Gowanus Wild”; Mads Nissen’s Ode to the Amazon; Adam DeTour’s Unlikely Cover Models; Antony Sojka‘s photo essay “Tide.”

Twice a year, the who’s who of  the fashion industry gather in New York City for a series of runway shows and after parties. If you live in New York, it’s impossible to escape it. The press covers everything, from a run down of “must see” shows to the best street styles. It’s a busy time for photographers who cover the events, running from show to show, capturing the parties and everything in-between.

In 2006, Lee Friedlander was hired by New York Times Magazine Director of Photography Kathy Ryan to photograph backstage at the Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Zac Posen, Oscar de la Renta and Proenza Schouler shows. Many unpublished images from the assignment are now available in a new book, Dressing Up: Fashion Week NYC (Yale University Press, 2015). The 80-page book includes 59 full-page duotone photographs, as well as a conversation between Friedlander and Ryan about the work.

Evelina Reinhart has chronic acid reflux (also known as GERD—gastroesophageal reflux disease), a painful, brutal illness that basically makes everyday eating an unpleasant experience. This led her to create her own cookbook, The Joy of Eating, which showcases her culinary and photographic skills.

“The project is intended to show that even if you suffer from this disorder, you don’t have to eat bland meals,” Reinhart told PDN via email. “By making these recipes look appetizing, I want to encourage other people with acid reflux to eat a variety of healthy meals.” Reinhart worked on The Joy of Eating for four months while attending the Masters in Digital Photography program at the School of Visual Arts.

Reinhart kept her process simple with minimal styling, to emphasize “both the purity of the food and its safeness for those of us who suffer from chronic acid reflux.” After the meals were prepared with the help of a professional chef, she placed the finished plate in front of a window, shooting each setup against a white background with natural light. Working quickly was essential in capturing the food at its freshest. “Often dishes had to be prepared again because they no longer looked appealing,” she says.

The Joy of Eating, a 62-page full-color cookbook is available on MagCloud. To see more of Reinhart’s work, including her newest project, “Rustic Allure,” please visit her website or Instagram.

In 1999, when Mads Nissen was 19, he was living and working in Puerto Ayacucho (a “sleepy” Venezuelan town on the edge of the rainforest, he says). Nissen recalls this moment as the catalyst for his infatuation with the Amazon Rainforest:

“I had been walking through the rainforest for several days when I reached a glade and a dense, green wall closed around me. I stood, bare-chested in the center of silence, at the center of the organism. In a state of disintegration, I sat down on a tree stump, remained there and let go. I was no longer anything, and if I died right there in the glade it would be fine—even beautiful.”

It wasn’t until 2006 that he began his long-term series on the region, spending several years studying photojournalism and traveling for other projects before returning.

AMAZONAS, Nissen’s ode to the rainforest, was published in 2013 (Gyldendal Publishing). The photo book captures the wild cornucopia of life in rich black-and-white tones and examines the Amazon as a representation of both “our origin and our future.” Nissen’s core concept was simple: to explore who we are. To execute his vision, he abided by his own strict rules about simplifying his compositions. “If I needed a lot of foreground and layers in my compositions, it’s because the expression of the image wasn’t strong enough,” he says. His image selection stretches from his first trip with a camera in 2006 to the final trip after completing his book dummy.

Nissen has not returned to the Amazon since completing his book, but he knows that he will return, explaining that spending so much time in the rainforest has shaped who he is today. “In no other place can such an abundance of life be found,” he says. “Just as overwhelming is the human culture that encounters, confronts and attempts to control this primeval wilderness. Civilization pushes the boundaries of this virgin territory, tests it, conquers it, only to finally succumb to it, time and time again.” And, despite the growing exploitation of nature, Nissen echoes this sentiment in his book: “I try not to worry that humans are destroying nature; I know that it will win out in the end. I have seen plants shoot up through oil slicks and I know that cockroaches can survive more plutonium than humans. That eases my mind.” —Jacqui Palumbo

 Charlie Rubin‘s series, “Strange Paradise,” oscillates between real and surreal. It is “a kaleidoscopic body of work that explores the convergence of the actual and the artificial,” Rubin writes. These photographs were taken between 2011 and 2014 in Texas, Vermont and New York City, and were mostly shot on film, except for scans of a few found objects. The series is “an escape, a feeling of fantasy, influenced by this mix of virtual and real world I feel like I’m in the middle of sometimes,” Rubin told PDN via email. “I’m interested in the subjects of popular culture, repeating signs of this popular culture, and transforming ordinary objects into artifacts. Sometimes it feel like everything is just floating along, content.”

Strange Paradise was published with a print run of 750 by Conveyor Editions in 2014. Rubin’s relationship with Conveyor was established years ago, as co-founder Christina Labey was a classmate of Rubin’s at Parsons where he received an MFA. The editing process, Rubin says, took two years from start to finish. “I’m glad we took our time,” Rubin says. “It really paid off.”

For more on Rubin’s work, including his commissions, video and photographic textile work, please visit his website or his Instagram.

In 2013, Ryan Partnership hired conceptual photographer Dean West to come up with an imaginative image for the United States Bartender’s Guild’s annual “Most Imaginative Bartender” competition, presented by Bombay Sapphire and GQ magazine. This annual event invites bartenders from all across America to make their best and inspired cocktails using Bombay Sapphire gin. West photographed forty-five finalists in the 2013 campaign in a set created to look like an old-fashioned bar. He was hired in 2014 to shoot his second campaign for the brand. Thirty-eight subjects and a whole lot of props ended up in the 8-page advertorial. PDN asked West, who worked with more than 16 people on the shoot, to explain the process.

PDN: Tell me about the concept of the shoot…was it a collaboration?

West: After the success of the 2013 Bombay Sapphire Most Imaginative Bartender campaign, the Ryan Partnership invited me to become a part of the creative process very early on. The idea was to showcase a botanical marketplace in a flourishing desert oasis [Slide 2]. A place where any true cocktail artist could explore the limitless possibilities of their art—The Sapphire Garden. I worked with the agency early on, however from there, the agency fine-tuned the idea to line up with the brand, consulting with me for photographic solutions for their grand ideas. Once the creative was confirmed, I then worked with my illustrator to refine the original sketch to an image that we would work off for the rest of the production.

PDN: When did pre-production begin, when was it shot, how long did the post-production take?

West: Brainstorming sessions began in March 2014. Producing the estimate for this job took about a month, from trying to locate unique botanicals from around the world to costing out shooting the best sand dunes we could find in Morocco [Slide 9]. Pre-pro began in August after a budget was finalized and I flew straight to Morocco to start building a stock library of sand dunes and desert architecture. All the bartenders were shot in Las Vegas during the event in early September. From there we had exactly four weeks to shoot the rest of the elements and complete the post-production [Slides 3-8].

PDN: This image is a composite. What were the various pieces?

West: The base architecture (sand dunes and ground) were shot in Morocco. This needed to be completed before the shoot in Las Vegas so we could ensure the correct materials were used for matching colorcasts and reflections. The set (produce stand and sapphire bar) were built and shot in Las Vegas along with the bartenders and the remainder of the botanicals.

PDN: What were the biggest technical challenges you had to overcome in putting this together?

West: There were, of course, many challenges to overcome with this project. The biggest, however, was matching the perspective and lighting across the elements. With 38 people and over 50 different elements to be shot and composited, this is where an image can succeed or fail.

Another huge challenge was the cocktails and glassware. As these props are transparent, shooting the drinks against a clean background would not work. For this, we waited until the image was approx 95% complete. The backgrounds were then printed out as large format prints and placed behind the regular-sized cocktails. This ensures the image being seen through the drinks matches up with the background.

To see more of West’s work, please visit his website or follow him on Instagram.

Classic film noir movies gave us more than memorable hardboiled detectives and sexy femme fatales. The visual style of film noir—gritty shadows, low-key lighting, tilted horizon lines—has influenced many visual arts, from television and video games to advertising. To celebrate this influence, The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles has teamed up with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present “The Noir Effect,” an exhibition examining the influence of film noir on contemporary photography and other media.

The show includes work by Cindy Sherman, who mimics stills from film noir in some of her selfportraits, and Bill Armstrong, whose “Film Noir” series is characterized by deeply saturated colors and abstract shapes, yet manages to capture the ominous mood of film noir. Ronald Corbin captures black-and-white scenes of rain-soaked sidewalks and neon lights that look like they came right out of the movies of the 1940s, but were shot in the 1990s. Other artists in the show include Ed Ruscha, Jane O’Neal and Helen Gardner. —Holly Stuart Hughes

“The Noir Effect” runs through March 1, 2015 at The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

In the 1800s, the Gowanus Canal, a 1.8 mile long waterway in Brooklyn, was once a busy transportation hub. The canal did not stand the test of time, as waste run-off from nearby buildings and industrial facilities, spilled into it’s once clean water. Today, most residents of Gowanus and it’s surrounding neighborhoods consider it a smelly eyesore. But for one resident, photographer Miska Draskoczy, the canal is his muse.

PDN: What piqued your interest in shooting the canal?

Draskoczy: When I first moved to the neighborhood I became fascinated by how eerie and empty the streets were at night when walking home. At the time I was also hitting a real peak of outdoors activity…so I think the two began to overlap. Once I noticed a thematic thread in what I was shooting, I thought it was an interesting paradox.

PDN: What kind of techniques/equipment were used to get the super-saturated, poppy, bright colors?

Draskoczy: I shot this series on medium-format film, which reacts in strange ways with long exposure and street light. The light just soaks into the negative in a way that doesn’t happen with digital and creates a unique color palette. Then there’s the idea that there’s no real ‘normal’ white balance with weird lighting like sodium vapor street lights, so in some cases I’m arbitrarily defining what normal is as I work the scans to a baseline correction.

PDN: How many images are in the series? Is it ongoing?

Draskoczy: There are about 25 core images in the series. There is a larger edit of around 60 images for a proposed Gowanus Wild book project. Also, Gowanus has changed tremendously in the last year and frankly it doesn’t feel as ‘wild’ as it did before. Lots of people are on the streets late at night, bars and restaurants are open in once-dead areas, squeaky clean developments are springing up. I’d like to do a sequel series, “Gowanus Tamed,” an investigation of nature in the neighborhood once everything is all cleaned up and domesticated.

PDN: Is the combination of opposing themes—organic versus industrial, stillness within urban chaos—a repeated pattern in your work?

Draskoczy: I’ve always been fascinated by city texture. New York City, in particular, is so complex in its layering of construction and consumption over decay and disposal. Nature has always been a big part of my life, too. I grew up in rural areas and spend a lot of time outside the city. So while I’ve done work before that digs into both those themes, this is perhaps the first time the two have come together.

PDN: To make these images you had to navigate around the grossness of the canal. Anything crazy happen?

Draskoczy: I never fell or dropped anything into the canal (thank god). But I noticed cabbies would park on a particular bridge, disappear down a ladder to the water and reappear many minutes later…I had visions of secret drug deals, undercover CIA hand-offs or mutant shape-shifting drivers. The explanation turned out to be far more pedestrian when I saw one of them pulling up their pants after re-emerging. I guess they figure the canal is filled with sewage, so what’s a little bit more.

PDN: What are you working on now?

Draskoczy: I have a dummy for the “Gowanus Wild” book I’m pretty happy with so I’m hoping the project will come together later this year. In the meantime I’ve been shooting a fun project for a while now on the side called “Adverse Reaction,” a series documenting subway graffiti in NYC. These images are much more lo-fi. I want to do a simple book for that soon.

I began taking a plastic camera on climbing trips a couple years ago so I could shoot medium-format film without carrying tons of weight. That’s slowly developing into a long-term series, “Raw are the Bones of My Earth,” which is not just about climbing but adventure and the elemental. Otherwise I’m in the research and experimentation phase for a few long-term projects, trying to figure out which one will stick.

For a recent shoot for Travel + Leisure, Denver-based editorial photographer Morgan Rachel Levy hit the slopes of Aspen, Colorado to photograph the locals. This was Levy’s first assignment for the magazine, and the editors asked for a variety of portraits of people with smiling faces for the “On Our Radar” section of the magazine. “I guess based on the work in my portfolio, they were a bit nervous,” Levy told PDN via email. “But fortunately they were able to see past some of my dour-faced portraits and hired me for the shoot anyway.”

Levy spent two days in Aspen shooting skiers, restaurant and hotel staff, customers and scenery. She worked with an assistant and a local PR rep, who helped with location-scouting and people-wrangling. “For the most part, I stalked interesting people on the street and on the mountain that caught my eye, ranging from octogenarians to stylish five-year olds.”

Despite a budget that didn’t necessarily allow for it, Levy shot mostly film, a format she enjoys more than digital. “I was so thrilled to be shooting for Travel +Leisure and wanted to make the best images possible. For me, those pictures still live on a piece of film and not a digital sensor…. I think it’s sometimes worth taking a minor financial hit to create work you feel proud of.”

To see more of Levy’s work, please visit her website or check out her Instagram.

Security Release

You have probably seen the invitation to upgrade on your dashboard last week. If you haven’t, please be advised we issued a security release (version 5.2.1) and for optimal security, we encourage everyone to upgrade.

If you’re using b2evolution 5.1+, you can upgrade very quickly with the auto-upgrade feature. Otherwise you can download the release here.

Translations & language packs

Now that version 5.x is very stable and not evolving much any more, we are updating all the language packs.

If you’d like to help translating b2evolution to your own language, now is a good time to head over to our Transifex Project Page where you can sign up for free and translate one, a hundred, or a thousand strings. You can also use Transifex to efficiently report any inconsistency or any problem you noticed while using the app in your own language: search for the problematic string and leave a comment on it (mark it as an issue). Of course, if you know a better translation, type it in!

b2evolution v. 6

We regularly update the development version of b2evolution version 6 on GitHub. If you’re interested in the latest cutting edge version of b2evolution and don’t mind a few bugs, you can get it from there.

You can also check out the growing list of features here.

This month we’ve got some heavy releases! One stable and one alpha!

Version 5.2 (stable)

Beginning of December we released b2evolution 5.2.0-stable. Many bug fixes. Rock solid. It’s a recommended upgrade for everyone. Get it here.

Version 6.0 (alpha)

This is codenamed “i7″ and it’s actually not really released yet BUT you can get it on GitHub since today! ;)

This one is really a massive leap forward with tons of new features. We haven’t even documented all the features yet but you’ll find some of them listed here.

This branch actually makes 5.2 seem obsolete already, but as we haven’t fully tested everything yet, we call it “alpha” still. Nevertheless, we wanted to make this available to our true fans without further delay.

If you have some time to play during the Holidays, we believe this should keep you busy for a little while ;)

Please feel free to report bugs for this version already. We’ll make fixes available on GitHub as we progress.

What happened to October & November?

I (francois) haven’t posted any news in the last couple of months. Sorry about that. I was all absorbed in the birth of my first son ;) Despite the silence, we have a great dev team who has worked relentlessly in between. I think that if you look at i7 you will notice! :)

Happy Holidays to all of you!

Congrats Nevada for FINALLY becoming a #SmartState! #BetterLateThanNever

8 Shots Photography is your #1 #GLBT Photography place to Be.  Make sure to go like us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/8Shots and follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/8_shots for a chance to win a #FREE #Photoshoot.  We will make memories last for you as long as you had to wait to make them! 

Make sure you share all of your stories here with us! 

We hope you had a great summer!

Next release

We took a little time off but we’re back at fixing bugs in order to release version 5.1.2 and hopefully stick a “stable” label on it… We’re a bit picky about that ;)

Update: 5.1.2 has been released!

GitHub

In the meantime, please remember you can always get an up-to-date version, including the latest fixes, on Github here: https://github.com/b2evolution/b2evolution . This would be a good habit to take as we’re going to update GitHub even more frequently in the future. We’re also working on importing the previous project history onto GitHub (thanks to blueyed).

twitter

Are you following us on twitter already? https://twitter.com/b2evolution

Before the summer we posted quite a few interesting links about web design, front-end development and more generally: techniques to improve your website that complement the use of b2evolution. Did you find those helpful? Would you like some more?

UTF-8

While version 5.1.2 will remain unchanged, upcoming versions (internally “i7″ which will probably translate to “6.0″) will rely entirely on UTF-8. This is made possible because most web hosts now correctly support UTF-8 in PHP and MySQL which certainly wasn’t the case when we started b2evolution.

But we’re doing it not just because it’s possible. We’re doing it mostly because many users seem to have encoding problems as soon as they run blogs in multiple languages. By standardizing them all on a common character set — and UTF-8 is the de-facto standard for that — all those charset headaches might as well magically go away.

We also have a fallback for old web hosts that don’t have native UTF-8 support, at the expense of a small performance impact.

Globally we feel that moving towards UTF-8 will help us better fulfill our mission of providing a blog/CMS platform that just works from the moment you install it and with any content you add to it.

Stay tuned for more!

GitHub

GitHub has become the go-to place for open source projects of all kinds. It was about time for b2evolution to be on GitHub too. We're happy to announce the new b2evolution git repository on GitHub:

https://github.com/b2evolution/b2evolution

This repository is already ahead of the latest 5.1.1-beta.

We are updating it weekly for now and we plan to use it as the primary development repository in the (near) future. Which means you will have extremely easy access to bug-fixes and new features in real-time as we work on them.

If you're unfamiliar with git and github, it is still very easy to download and keep up to date with this repository if you use the Git Client tool that can be downloaded from the GitHub home page.

Site Redesign

We changed our intro last month and changed it again today! There's so many possible angles to look at b2evolution that it's a bit tricky to choose one that really catches the gist of it...

We also streamlined the design some more. It's starting to look much more modern.

Anyways, as always, feedback on the homepage design is very welcome.

As a side note, let us give a plug to Font Awesome which we're now starting to use across the whole site.

Update: We also updated the design of the news blog ;)

Development Focus

The last month of development was very focused on performance. More specifically on reducing the number of files being loaded with each page b2evolution serves and also the size of the files.

This was achieve with several techniques:

• Concatenating multiples CSS and JS files into one;
• Minifying the CSS and JS files;
• Doing the above two automatically using Grunt (Note: You'll find our Gruntfile.js in the GitHub repository mentioned above));
• Loading non essential JS files asynchronously;
• Using an icon font instead of image sprites;
• Loading some resources from public CDNs...

You may already have noticed page load time improvements on this site. You will benefit from the same in b2evolution 5.1.2.

5.1.2

We expect to release version 5.1.2 before the end of July. We may call it "stable" instead of "beta" if it passes the tests.

Stay tuned!

Check out the Changelog + Download page »

This release is only available for download on b2evolution.net. We are no longer uploading download packages to Sourceforge. (We actually found their download process annoying because it frequently presented ads with a confusing download button which made you download an unwanted product instead of b2evolution!)

We are also planing to migrate the source code to GitHub in the near future. In the meantime we will keep updating the CVS repository on SourceForge (but only the CVS repository, not the downloads section).

Note: this release is probably completely fit for production. We just call it "beta" because we want to clean up and test some more before calling it "finished". We're just a little perfectionists like that... ;)

You might have noticed a slight redesign of the b2evolution.net site header.

This was long overdue but was only made possible recently after we finally converted 100% of the pages of this site to be served dynamically by b2evolution.

So, now, of course, such a change is trivial as we only have the site_header file to modify in order to achieve this. But imagine that before that, the site had grown progressively since 2003 with many pages beeing static Dreamweaver files, others being handled by other software like phpBB (now integrated into b2evolution) and many sub-domains (likes skins, plugins, etc.) being handled by spearate installs of b2evolution, spearately installed and customized by contributors on separate servers. They all had the best intentions at the time but it had turned into a maintenance nightmare.

Now everything is back on one single b2evolution v 5.1.1 install. Maintenance will be easier and evolving the global site design/architecture will be easier too.

5.1.1

Speaking of 5.1.1, it is already available to test in the demo section. (Note: for security reasons, the demo runs on a separate server — sorry if it’s a bit slower soemtimes — but the demo homepage is on the main server).

A new downloadable release of 5.1.1 will be made available before June 15th.

A little bit of CSS

Regarding the recent design changes, you may have noticed the little triangle under the currently active main “tab” (which don’t look, like tabs anymore ;):

Active tab highlighted with a triangle

In case you’re wondering this is achieved with a little white square that is rotated by 45 degrees in CSS. The square itself is added dynamically by CSS using a :after selector.

• Anyone who is in an ongoing sexual relationship with an HIV-infected partner.



• A gay or bisexual man who has had sex without a condom or has been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection within the past six months and is not in a mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who recently tested HIV-negative.



• A heterosexual man or woman who does not always use condoms when having sex with partners known to be at risk for HIV (for example, injecting drug users or bisexual male partners of unknown HIV status) and is not in a mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who recently tested HIV-negative.



• Anyone who has, within the past six months, injected illicit drugs and shared equipment or been in a treatment program for injection drug use.

The CDC estimates that approximately 500,000 Americans would be eligible for PrEP use, according to the above criteria. If some of those at risk for HIV infection use PrEP, the 50,000 new HIV infections that have been occurring in the U.S. each year could be reduced. Modeling studies suggest the most effective deployment of PrEP will be in combination with scaled-up HIV treatment of people who are known to be HIV-infected, as this was also shown to reduce infections. Recent modeling of PrEP implementation coupled with scaled-up HIV treatment predicts that PrEP could significantly reduce HIV incidence and prevalence, saving health-care costs and lost economic productivity.

In response to clinical research trials that showed that taking a daily regimen of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) lowered the risk of HIV infection among men who have sex with men and heterosexual men and women, in July 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of TDF/FTC for PrEP. A subsequent study showed that PrEP could lower the risk for injection drug users.

Some have raised concerns about PrEP related to potential side effects, risk compensation (the idea that people will stop using condoms if PrEP becomes available), and non-adherence leading to antiretroviral drug resistance. However, a review of five major clinical trials involving about 6,000 participants by the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, a nonprofit think tank, found no concerning increases in side effects, risk compensation, or development of drug resistance in participants. Ongoing monitoring of PrEP safety in the real world is being done in several demonstration projects in the U.S. and around the world, and so far there are no red flags. This is not to say that if a person does not consistently take the medication and/or does not follow up in care, there can't be problems, but the CDC's guidelines make it clear that in weighing the evidence, the good outweighed the bad.

There were two studies of PrEP in young African women that did not demonstrate benefit because many of the participants did not adhere to taking the pill once a day. In other words, PrEP will not work if people don't take it. PrEP is a medical intervention, and people who want to use it should find providers who are knowledgeable and supportive. The new CDC guidelines stress that potential candidates for PrEP should be tested for HIV and have other safety lab tests done before it is prescribed, and they should be monitored at least every three months while using PrEP. If people suspect that they have become infected with HIV around the time they used PrEP, they should discontinue PrEP use immediately and see a provider in order to minimize the risk of developing drug-resistant HIV.

Fenway Health and The Fenway Institute commend the CDC for acting relatively quickly on recent scientific developments and urging providers to consider PrEP as an option for their patients. As Jonathan Mermin, Director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, told The New York Times, "On average, it takes a decade for a scientific breakthrough to be adopted. We hope we can shorten that time frame and increase people's survival." While condoms and lubricant are a proven method for preventing sexual transmission of HIV, many individuals are not using condoms and could benefit from PrEP.

More than 30 years after the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed, some 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV, and 600,000 people with AIDS have died in our country. Every year in the U.S., among the roughly 50,000 individuals who are newly infected, two thirds are gay and bisexual men and transgender women, and African Americans are disproportionately affected among all ethnic and racial groups in the U.S. It's time for an all-hands-on-deck approach. We must use every tool in our toolkit to prevent new infections. This includes condoms and lubricants, syringe exchange, and safer sex education. And it also includes PrEP.

Sean Cahill, Ph.D., is Director of Health Policy Research at The Fenway Institute. Kenneth Mayer, M.D., is Medical Research Director and Co-Chair of The Fenway Institute, Infectious Disease Attending and Director of HIV Prevention Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Here are the enumerated Principles, without the preamble and listing of the goals and call to action:
 

The following eight guiding principles underlie our call to action. In order to achieve full civil rights now, we avow:

1. Full civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals must be enacted now. Delay and excuses are no longer acceptable.

2. We will not leave any part of our community behind.

3. Separate is never equal.

4. Religious beliefs are not a basis upon which to affirm or deny civil rights.

5. The establishment and guardianship of full civil rights is a non-partisan issue.

6. Individual involvement and grassroots action are paramount to success and must be encouraged.

7. Success is measured by the civil rights we all achieve, not by words, access or money raised.

8. Those who seek our support are expected to commit to these principles.

We met six months after the end of the Bush administration and the election of Barack Obama. It was also six months after the passage of Prop 8, which I've touched on here in recent weeks in reference to Jo Becker's book Forcing the Spring. It was a time of great hope as well as fear, and we as yet had no idea whether the Obama administration would come through on its pledges to the LGBT community. A long list of requests had been submitted, but by May there had been no concrete action, and the presidential honeymoon period, severely limited by the previous fall's financial crash, was over.

The Dallas Principles were an effort to codify, in a manifesto of sorts, the values with which the LGBT community could most effectively move forward. I think we did a good job at expressing our beliefs and putting them into language that could be embraced by the community at large.

Let's take them one by one:

1. Clearly, we as yet do not have full civil rights. None of us expected that we would have them five years out, but none of us expected that we would have the marriage-equality victories sweeping the country either. We did expect that ENDA would be enacted early in Obama's presidency, but for various political reasons it was not (and still has not been), and we're still waiting for an executive order banning discrimination against all members of the LGBT community in the federal-contractor workspace. We do have an inclusive federal hate crimes law, and we have repealed "don't ask, don't tell."

2. There have been increasingly few efforts to move forward on gay rights without including the trans community. Even though little is being done to make New York, New Hampshire and Wisconsin fully inclusive in their state protections, the efforts now underway in the South and West are fully inclusive. Transgender persons are now covered under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act with respect to employment, supported by the EEOC, and efforts are now underway to expand Title VII to include gay persons as well. Unfortunately, the military still has its head in the sand regarding transgender service, but the community is working hard and speaking out forcefully on the issue.

3. Efforts towards marriage equality long ago left civil unions and domestic partnerships behind. Trans-rights legislation is written to fully mainstream gender-nonconforming individuals.

4. Laws based on freedom of religion have been proposed in many states, and famously one was recently vetoed in Arizona. Protecting religious expression is one of America's founding ideals, but the promotion of people's religious beliefs cannot be allowed to impact the free expression of others.

5. The growing movement for marriage equality is increasingly bipartisan, with support from Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Rauch in the early days, and now with support from the Cato Institute and Republicans in several states that have passed laws. The upcoming same-sex marriage of the daughter of Prop 8 lead attorney Charles Cooper is only one example of the change in the culture.

6. While the group at AFER introduced federal marriage cases, along with teams at Lambda, GLAD and the ACLU, the groundwork was laid by the spontaneous outburst of revulsion across the country in the immediate aftermath of the Prop 8 defeat. Grassroots action has played a role in the passage of ENDA in the Senate, and individual involvement through various relationships and networking has, as always, proven indispensable in all the victories of the past five years. As it will continue to be as we move forward.

7. While some choose to celebrate total equality prematurely, the vast majority know that, even when their rights are protected in their localities or states, the rights of many others are still significantly curtailed. The States of Equality scorecard is available and frequently updated. And we're coming to the realization that for many members of the LGBT community, formal rights are very important and necessary, but hardly sufficient.

8. This is always a challenge, as exemplified by the recent endorsement by the Victory Fund of Richard Tisei, a gay Republican who supports his tea party colleagues, rather than John Tierney, the Democrat incumbent who happens to be straight but is a great ally. To put it mildly, this has raised some eyebrows in the political community, but it's not the only time the Victory Fund has alienated long-term allies this year.

That's a rough, back-of-the-envelope recapitulation of the past five years. Did the Dallas Principles play a role? I've heard that they have, though, of course, it's always hard to know the extent of the impact. I can state that many of those who wrote the Principles have continued to play outsized roles in moving our community forward, politically, socially and philanthropically, and in the media as well. Most importantly, they continue helping us keep our eyes on the prize and the community in constant movement toward that prize.

There are two camps basically: There are those that say you're going to Hell; God hates homosexuals. And then there are people who say over on this extreme, 'Oh, you can just live an active gay life, God loves everybody. It's okay.'

But there's another camp. The Catholic church puts forth a third way to treat every person, but in this case, particularly persons with same-sex attraction, to be able to say we do not in any way hate or condemn or fear or want to isolate you. At the same time, we can't embrace everything that you choose. So we're gonna choose this third way, and that way is love. We are gonna love you.

Finally. Thank you.

But wait, something seems amiss. Last summer, during the height of the Supreme Court hearings regarding same-sex marriage I had a blog-to-blog encounter with Father John Hollowell. A few months earlier, he wrote a post suggesting the red Human Rights Campaign symbol supporting marriage equality was "the mark of the beast." I responded; it was impassioned. Father John wrote a rebuttal. In reading several of his blog entries, I must say I did not sense anything akin to paragraph 2358 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that states:

"[persons experiencing same-sex attraction] must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."

In Father John's blog posts related to the LGBT community there is a sense of disrespect and insensitivity. A violation according to the Catholic church's own doctrine.

In terms of The Third Way, what a wonderful story arc and hero's journey! The melodrama and music! How it builds and builds and builds to a triumphant climax! It gives me goose pimples. The narrative, comprised of homosexuals once lost and now found, pivots between an abandoned, winter-cold crumbling church with graffiti, and a warm, embracing and unblemished sanctuary in the "new" enlightened Catholic church. Talk about tugging at one's heartstrings. I don't know about others, but I sure don't care to attend a decaying church with no windows or doors, one that is not protected from the elements and in which I'm the only congregant. I want the nice cozy church, the accepting one, the one where I can be me! And guess what? I can have it. You can too, gay people! Well, as long as you and I vow to live a chaste life.

Oh. Wait. There's the rub. As a gay man, I can be gay, I can act gay, I can even be friends with other gays, the church loves me just as I am. But I must not act on my orientation, my biology.

Is there an app for that?

In the short film one of the narrators says, "Those with same-sex attraction aren't being asked to do anything different than a heterosexual. We're all called to chastity, every single one of us."

Wait. Everyone is called to chastity? The definition of chastity is: the state of not having sex with anyone or the quality or state of being chaste. Um, I don't think that's a reality.

Now, I could point to the total and utter hypocrisy of being chaste in the Catholic church, but that example has been used time and time again. I find a particular statement by Sister Helena Burns, F.S.P., and "Theology of the Body" speaker, quite interesting. In the film she says there can be "lots of sex with no intimacy and lots of intimacy with no sex." In other words, in terms of same-sex attraction -- the film's phrase de jour replacing sexual orientation -- we as a society, especially the homosexual community, confuse intimacy with sex. According to Sister Helena, we gays can be intimate with one another without having sex. Isn't her statement the equivalent of taking weight loss advice from Fat Albert? I mean no disrespect to Sister Helena, or Fat Albert, but I don't think a nun is exactly the go-to person on embracing one's biology.

Sister Helena and Father John deny basic biological impulses, they choose to be chaste as their example, their way of living with God. It is part and parcel to their faith. Good for them. They are willfully giving up sex, not their assumed heterosexuality. They infer in The Third Way, because priests and nuns do it, homosexuals can too. In other words, gays need to marry God, not one another.

So why isn't the same being asked of all heterosexuals? Shouldn't homosexuals and heterosexuals be held to the same standards in the eyes of the church? In the eyes of God? We should all be chaste like Father John and Sister Helena.

Um, I don't think that's a reality either.

Here's the deal, pay close attention, I want to be clear: Homosexuality is not about sex! Sex is the opportunity to be intimate with the person one loves, gay or straight. Is sex abused by some? Yes, by both heteros and homos. But again, isn't taking advice from the Catholic church about sex and abuse the whole weight loss-Fat Albert thing all over again?

The manicured message of The Third Way is a misnomer. It appears to be about love. Isn't love supposed to be the guiding principle of the Catholic church? The guiding principle of all religions? As Christians we are followers of Christ. Christ says we must love one another. Yet in The Third Way, it seems, homosexuals are once again being told by the Catholic church that its love -- Christ's love -- comes with conditions. One must deny their biology in order to receive the love.

Extraordinary.

Even in high definition, with gripping backdrops, the film's narrative peopled with innocents offering witness or just recounting their personal journey coupled with the climb and crescendo of the music, and with cut-a-ways to the cross upon which Christ was crucified high atop a steeple, it's still the same old tired message repackaged. As my grandmother used to say, "They put lipstick on a pig."

Besides, Jesus Christ said nothing about homosexuality.

For additional information and research read 'The Third Way': A Depressing Study in Catholic, Ex-Gay Therapy

Check out more from J. Patrick Redmond at jpatrickredmond.com, Kaylie Jones Books, and follow him at facebook.com/jpatrickredmond

I've told GLAD this as well -- asking me for money to assist them in "their" struggle; expropriating (and therefore exploiting blacks in particular) the civil rights movement rhetoric; strategies in their interests while still excluding us from leadership positions other than token appointments. Please! It certainly is this way in Beantown, for sure. GLAD asked me to evaluate their web pages. I did. Do you think there have been any changes of the kind I suggested? Hell, no!

A board member of a statewide gay organization who did not want to be identified wrote to me:
 

The board is interested in looking at its own white privilege as it seeks to work with the African-American religious community. We have realized that most of our communities of faith ... are predominantly white communities. This concerns us. ... We [have] voted to begin a process of understanding white privilege and the ways in which we can seem to be anti-racist.

While many of us LGBTQ African Americans embraced those offers to be inclusive, others felt that the white queer community was coming a day late and a dollar short. And any effort at inclusion appeared disingenuous.

I have been asked by several white activists if it was indeed too late an attempt at trying to get black LGBTQ people more ensconced in the marriage movement. And I have been told by many African-American LGBTQ people that because of our exclusion in the struggle, they were tired of the fight and were now suffering from "marriage fatigue."

But the tables turned in April 2005, when Lee Swislow, soon to be named Executive Director of GLAD, came to the annual Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast. When GLAD reached out to communities of color, inviting a dialogue on an inclusive reframing of the marriage debate, the collective anger and frustration that LGBTQ communities of color collective felt toward the organization began to dissipate.

Because of GLAD's outreach to communities of color, more and more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people are marrying. Their efforts generated discussions among us and in our communities in the context of our families and lives. That mattered.

And an idea that was once thought of as anathema to black queer identity, marriage, is being celebrated in our LGBTQ communities and is on the rise. And many of us are now proudly walking down the aisle to tie the knot.

If we had lost this battle, we would have missed a historic opportunity to effect change, not only here in the Bay State but across the country. Let us also remember that the whole world was watching us.

Finally, united we stood as a prophetic movement, because divided we had fallen as a petty people.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas' highest court has suspended a judge's ruling striking down the state's same-sex marriage ban, halting the distribution of licenses that have been issued to hundreds of gay couples.

The state Supreme Court on Friday granted a request to suspend Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza's decision voiding a 2004 constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Piazza last week struck down the ban, but expanded that ruling on Thursday to include all state laws preventing gay couples from marrying.

McDaniel and four counties named in the lawsuit asked justices to stay Piazza's ruling while it's on appeal.

More than 450 same-sex couples received marriage licenses since Piazza's ruling last week. Conway, Pulaski and Washington were the only counties issuing licenses to same-sex couples on Friday.

Seventeen other states allow gay marriage. Judges have struck down bans in Idaho, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Virginia. But in Idaho, plans for same-sex marriages to begin Friday were put on hold as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether the governor and attorney general should have more time to file an appeal a judge's ruling overturning its state ban.

The Arkansas Supreme Court had denied a request Wednesday to stay Piazza's initial ruling, but still effectively halted same-sex weddings by also noting that a separate law prohibiting clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples was still on the books.

Piazza revised his order Thursday, saying no one in the state was harmed by the marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples. He rejected the state's request to put his decision on hold, saying gay couples would be harmed by that action.

Pulaski County resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses immediately after Piazza's ruling Thursday, while Washington County began issuing them again Friday morning. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and four counties named in the lawsuit asked the high court to stay Piazza's decision, saying it would lead to confusion among Arkansas' 75 counties.

Friday's ruling came as Democrats in the state Legislature blocked an effort by Republicans to wade into the debate. A resolution calling on the court to uphold the gay marriage ban and invalidate the licenses issued to same-sex couples failed before a legislative panel.

Please support my sister! Here's a clearer image for everyone to use! http://t.co/Vl6QPypbpj #equity #JessicasTux pic.twitter.com/oNNVAkD2XZ

— Michael Urbina (@michael_urbina) May 16, 2014

Among those to support Urbina was Katie Emanuel, who claimed to be Urbina's girlfriend.

"I support my girlfriend," she told reporters. "I support my school and want it to be the best it can for people like us."

According to NBC, Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School Principal Gary Cannon said a photograph of Urbina does appear in the 2014 yearbook, though he provided no other details on how she appears.

Of course, it isn't the first time that a student's yearbook garb has sparked controversy in recent months. Last year, Jeydon Loredo, a transgender student at La Feria Independent High School near the Texas Gulf Coast, was told his portrait would not be included in the school yearbook because it violated "community standards."

Loredo, who was 18 at the time, had worn a tuxedo in the photograph.



 

This post was co-authored with Drusilla Menaker, Senior Media Adviser for IREX.

Around the world, we've seen how media coverage can build tolerance toward or incite violence against various minority groups. This is keenly felt by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as being openly identified as LGBT in many countries can lead to arrest and imprisonment, loss of employment, and familial and community rejection.

In Uganda this spring, a tabloid published the names and photos of people it claimed were the countries "top homos." The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and others condemned the action as a violation of the rights to dignity and privacy. But the damage was done, causing some of those named to relocate or go into hiding.

And lest we think this dynamic is only confined to the global South, in the United States a digital magazine released a story outing a woman as transgender against her wishes earlier this year. In retrospective, the editor acknowledged numerous problems with the reporting and the utter lack of respect or understanding of issues in the trans community.

These negative examples are not the only ways that media portray LGBT individuals and causes, of course. At its best, the media shares perspectives in a manner that enlightens communities and gives a voice to members of different groups. LGBT activists are media-savvy in many places and effectively share their stories across traditional and new media to raise awareness. And we see publications like The Guardian now proposing new guidelines on how to report on transgender people.

The Need for Monitoring Media Coverage

But what is the global picture for how the media is covering LGBT issues?

It's difficult to discuss this issue to any depth without clear data. At IREX, we've had success working with local groups using our Media Content Analysis Tool, which we propose adapting for LGBT communities around the globe. A media monitoring system can measure the overall frequency -- or lack -- of coverage and the language used regarding sexual orientation and gender issues.

Is the language employed homophobic, transphobic or outright hate speech? Is it neutral or progressive? Do voices in the media condone or even call for violence? Are LGBT issues sensationalized or pathologized? Are people being outed? And how fully is the community being represented (e.g., Are transgender issues ignored? Are issues of importance to the LBT women being covered?)

Doing Better

With deeper understanding of the picture in a given country, opportunities emerge for more meaningful engagement between media and LGBT communities:

• Awareness raising and formal LGBT sensitivity training of journalists, editors, and bloggers;


• Sharing and developing tools and standards for appropriate coverage;


• Engaging journalism schools about how (or even if) sexual orientation and gender issues are taught;


• Recognition for accurate, LGBT-positive media coverage; and


• Constructive criticism of sensational and inaccurate reporting.

In many countries where media sectors are struggling due to repressive laws and lack of resources, journalists and editors have few opportunities to expand their own understanding. Also, media standards are not under systematic scrutiny by advocacy groups. Not coincidently, these are often also places where the media discourse is not fostering greater acceptance and respect for the human rights of LGBT people -- or worse.

The critical role of the media in shaping perceptions -- both positively and negatively -- about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people must be addressed in international development programming and directly by media outlets themselves. Support, including from international LGBT and rights groups and the donor community, is needed so that media can find ways to contribute positively to promoting tolerance.

Whether it's new funding for monitoring coverage of LGBT issues or incorporating LGBT awareness in current media development initiatives around the world, we can make it so that the stories of LGBT individuals and communities are told with the accuracy and dignity that all people deserve.

Download & Upgrade instructions here »

This is a maintenance release containing fixes for all bugs discovered since version 5.0.8.

We are committed to fully address issues with v 5.0 until v 5.1 is considered completely stable.

As photographers, we're often tasked with making people look as young as possible in photos, but a new technology is meant to do exactly the opposite. Illumination-Aware Age Progression is a project by three scientists, Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman, Supasorn Suwajanakorn, and Steven M. Seitz and it's meant to take a photo of a child and guess what he or she will look as they age up to 80 years old.

Cameras have helped computers learn all kinds of things about the human face in recent years, and some have even learned how to judge a person's age simply by looking at a photo of their face. The results of this project look pretty impressive.

The next logical step seems to be to run the algorithm backwards to see how accurate it can really be. Of course, there are all kinds of other factors that can change the way a person looks over the years. I'm almost afraid to see what it would do with my face.

Photo by: Popular Photography Magazine Editor

Illumination-Aware Age Progression

read more

262_SL2_8182

Artist: Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy

Venue: Portikus, Frankfurt

Exhibition Title: Powered A-Hole Spanish Donkey Sport Dick Drink Donkey Dong Dongs Sunscreen Model

Date: February 15 – April 20, 2014

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Portikus, Frankfurt. Photos by Helena Schlichting. 

Press Release:

Portikus is proud to realize a unique exhibition project by Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy. Over the course of several years, the two artists have established an intensive dialogue that is now taking form in Frankfurt. A few years ago, independently from one another, McCarthy and Bouchet both had made a work that transformed the Guggenheim New York into a toilet. This coincidence sparked an ongoing conversation about shared interests in the politics of art institutions and their architecture. It has lead them to develop a site-specific project for Portikus that takes up these concerns in a multi-layered exhibition structure involving not only the main exhibition space, but the office, the monumental attic space, the exterior of the building, the island that the institution is housed on as well as external locations within the city. The project will culminate in an extensive publication, documenting the process and the final outcome of Powered A-Hole Spanish Donkey Sport Dick Drink Donkey Dong Dongs Sunscreen Model.

Denying visitors the usual right of passage into the exhibition space, Bouchet and McCarthy have diverted access via a spiral staircase down to the island and through the back entrance of the building. Not only does this raise questions about the accessibility of art institutions in general, but—and this is specifically addressed through the architecture of Portikus—an aspect of fortification within today’s cultural industry. The gesture of rerouting the flow of people turns the simple act of visiting an exhibition into a performative storming of a medieval fortress. Analogies of war, military defense structures, and armed forces continue to appear throughout the exhibition, hinting at the U.S. domination of the visual arts industry since World War II: oil paintings of the Guggenheim Bilbao as a military battleship are sprawled around numerous public sites in the city; superhero Captain America and his arch-enemy, the Red Skull (portrayed as an Italian fascist following the iconography of the 1940s comic), act as live protagonists in the show; hot tar in the form of energy drink “gummi” is being poured out of Portikus’s arrow slit windows, and its drawbridge-like entrance is blocked off by sandbags and barb wire. During their research for the exhibition, Bouchet and McCarthy came across a medieval torture device of the cruelest kind, the “Spanish Donkey,” used in medieval times to split people in half—alive. This, too, in an adapted form, takes a significant place in the show as well as on the exhibition poster designed by the artists.

The main gallery presents the center piece of the exhibition, a sculpture of the Guggenheim Bilbao, originally designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. An over-scaled architectural model, this version of Bilbao is reminiscent of a battered, ragged warship that has washed up to the shores of the island after defeat. A long pipe extends upwards from the sculpture, through to the ceiling of the upper gallery. Here, hundreds of liters of liquid gummi are disposed of into the very core of the museum. This is also where the production of the A-Hole Sport Drink happens, a Beef & Banana flavored sports drink acting as a pseudo-exhibition sponsor through aggressive product placement. The drink is needed to create the adrenalin-boosting concoction The Bigga Picka Uppa—one liter of A-Hole with a Snickers bar dropped into it. Playing further on the “Bilbao Effect,” the artists also include over 60 paintings and a gigantic inflatable displaying Bilboa sunscreen lotion from Italy, Hollywood actors, star architects, as well as portraits of themselves.

For the first time since the completion of the new Portikus building in 2006, visitors have access to the colossal attic space, designed by the architect Christoph Mäckler as a citation of an artist’s studio. The space has been transformed by Bouchet and McCarthy into what is commonly referred to as a “live/work artist loft,” and will serve as the set for a performance, developed, produced and filmed by the two artists in collaboration with Damon McCarthy. The loft will host a dinner party typical of the art world, presenting a collection of personal and fictional anecdotes, some of which recall the brutality of the torture devices and warfare stratagems referenced in other parts of the exhibition.

The project for Portikus exemplifies both artists’ use of excess, exaggeration, parody, mis-appropriation, dysfunctionality, and immoderation. There is a synthesis of shared beliefs and interests as well as a common aesthetics that facilitates a playful and highly proliferous gathering, drafting, and framing of ideas. Powered A-Hole Spanish Donkey Sport Dick Drink Donkey Dong Dongs Sunscreen Model also extends an homage to the late Jason Rhoades, a close friend of both McCarthy and Bouchet, whose Costner Complex (Perfect Process) counts amongst the most legendary exhibitions in Portikus’s history.

This collaborative “tour de force” turns Portikus into a rampant Gesamtkunstwerk. By employing a language of exorbitance, and extending this beyond the exhibition space into various locations in the city, Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy create a sprawling exhibition that points at the multifaceted excesses of contemporary art production and commodification.

Link: Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy  at Portikus

Contemporary Art Daily is produced by Contemporary Art Group, a not-for-profit organization. We rely on our audience to help fund the publication of exhibitions that show up in this RSS feed. Please consider supporting us by making a donation today.

The all-in-one zoom lens is the bread-and-butter lens for many introductory-level and midrange DSLRs. For many shooters that don't need super-fast apertures, they really can be a kind of "do it all" lens. Nikon's newest entry into the space is an 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3 VR.

The lens that came before it was the 18-300mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR, which obviously had an advantage in terms of aperture at the long end. But, in return, the new F/3.5-6.3G is 30-percent lighter than the older lens. It has a 16.7x zoom range that gives you a full-frame equivalent focal range from 27-450mm.

Inside, there are 16 elements in 12 groups. Three of the elements are aspherical, while three are made from Extra-low Dispersion glass to increase contrast and cut down on things like chromatic aberration. It uses a Silent Wave Motor for focusing, and promises up to four stops of stabilization thanks to the built-in VR.

The lens will cost $899.95 when it's released in May. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see lens makers start to focus on lenses like this even more. As high ISO performance gets better, the loss of aperture at the long end becomes less of a deal breaker. The glass and coatings are getting better, too, which cuts down on the lack of sharpness and distortion that can sometimes be born from mega focal ranges.

We'll bring you a full review once a retail unit makes its way into the lab.

Photo by: Popular Photography Magazine Editor

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3G ED VR Zoom Lens

read more

This centuries old technique will actually show sound moving through the air

We've all seen diagrams of how sound works, of how waves radiate from something that makes noise. But wouldn't you like to be able to actually see how that sound spreads? How it ripples through the atmosphere? It turns out that you can, and it takes a centuries old technique known as Schlieren flow visualization.

As explained by NPR, this technique uses a light source, two parabolic mirrors, and then a light blocking edge to create a very specific image on a camera's sensor. This setup shows disturbances in the air from airflow and heat—but also from sound waves. The video below explains it very well, and it's an incredible real life look at everything from a clap to a gun being fired.

The videos themselves come from Michael Hargather, a professor of mechanical engineering at New Mexico Tech, who specializes in "the development and application of optical techniques to the study of high-speed compressible flows and explosions."

read more

Nikon flirted with the world of Android with 2012's S800c, and now the company has just announced the Coolpix S810c with a larger touchscreen, longer zoom, and smaller body.

The S810c uses Android 4.2.2 (Jellybean), an already slightly outdated version of the OS. It also features a 12x 25–300mm equivalent f/3.3-6.3 lens, and a 3-inch, 1,229,000 dot touchscreen, and will take MicroSD cards in addition to using 1.1GB of onboard storage.

Since it's a fully functional Android device, you can, of course, use it for all the things you'd usually use Android for, such as browsing the web and sending emails. You'll also be able to tap into the world of Android image editing apps to alter the photos taken with the S810c. However, the original S800c wasn't exactly well reviewed, and it remains to be seen if Nikon has addressed some of the concerns of sluggishness from the older version.

The Coolpix S810c will be available in early May for $349.95, in either black or white.

Photo by: Popular Photography Magazine Editor

nikon s810c

read more

Artist: Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy

Venue: Parisa Kind, Frankfurt

Exhibition Title: Spanish Donkey A-Hole Sport Drink Bilboa Sunscreen Model Drawings

Date: February 15 – April 5, 2014

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of video, images, press release and link available after the jump.

Video:

Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy, excerpt from Special Effects, 2014.

Images:

Video and images courtesy of Parisa Kind, Frankfurt

Press Release:

We are very pleased to present the exhibition, “Spanish Donkey A-Hole Sport Drink Bilboa Model Drawings”, by Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy. The drawings, collages and floor reliefs presented in this show are related to the exhibition “Powered A-Hole Spanish Donkey Sport Dick Drink Donkey Dong Dongs Sunscreen Model” at Portikus in Frankfurt, which opens on February, 14th – Valentine’s day.

In 2007, the artists collaborated on a set of drawings based around Frank Gehry’s Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. The artists had both long felt that the general form of the museum obviously looked like a warship. In these drawings, the Museum is depicted as a battleship, or has battleship details added; large artillery cannons, helicopter and fighter jet staging areas, as well as visitors and museum staff in naval uniforms.

A selection of floor reliefs that were finished during the installation period of the Portikus exhibition, will also be on display in the exhibition. These works had started as optical abstractions of Captain America’s shield. Then paintings were created by dropping rocks, bricks, boards, sawhorses, the shields themselves, followed by two forms of liquid brown pigment (paint and energy drink gelatin), combined mid-air while falling onto these sculptural reliefs. The works originally resembled bulls-eyes and hypnosis images, which became targets for gravity based action paintings, with a clear reference to the works of Billy “Dirty” Al Bengston.

Other drawings and collages in the show created in 2013 and 2014, relate more specifically to the Portikus exhibition in Frankfurt, as well as further larger themes. The Portikus building’s similar appearance to a “Spanish Donkey” medieval torture device, and many of the themes addressed in the show; the humiliating aspects of architectures relation to art, Captain America and his arch rival, an italian fascist named the red skull (as portrayed by a Valentino look-a-like) as a metaphor for some imperialistic aspects of US cultural hegemony since WW2, the artists themselves as equally fallible characters, and many more complex arenas. The drawings are in fact complex objects themselves, and represent part of the creative process behind the large scale installation which will be on view at the Portikus. Themes regarding art architecture, art, social criticism, art world machinations, US cultural hegemony, self-deprecation, coincidental spelling mistakes, dinner party dictatorships, and more are represented in this body of works.

Link: Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy at Parisa Kind 

Contemporary Art Daily is produced by Contemporary Art Group, a not-for-profit organization. We rely on our audience to help fund the publication of exhibitions that show up in this RSS feed. Please consider supporting us by making a donation today.

Last month's Your Best Shot finalist gallery set the bar high. We had a ton of entries in a short month, so I was surprised when this month's entries lived up to that level. There's the usual excellent mix of portraits, landscapes, black-and-white images with a few wild cards thrown in for good measure.

Check out the full gallery, then head over to our contests page and see all the chances you have to show off your great work and win great prizes. The overall winners will be featured in an upcoming issue of Popular Photography magazine

CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH THE FULL GALLERY

Photo by: Popular Photography Magazine Editor

Your Best Shot March 2014 Article

read more