Flathead Valley Looking Glass: Kalispell, Montana News

Kenneth Jarecke wrote a great essay for the New York Times Lens blog last week, Aug. 25, paralleling photojournalists with cowboys. (Read it here.)

Jarecke is currently based out of Billings, and has an impressive resume of clients. Photographing the Montana Fair sparks his thoughts on the similarities between the photojournalist and the cowboy. Not images of the lone gunman, but the idea that neither is supposed to exist.

Recently, the National Press Photographers Association objected to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's remarks during a television interview on Fox News. In a nutshell, Napolitano said that the public should be suspicious of photographers and asked citizens to report, "when they see something unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking photographs of a piece of critical infrastructure that doesn't seem to make any sense." Read the news story on NPPA.org here.

That's why I'm going to start wearing these nifty stickers, pens and T-Shirts that will convey to everyone, "I'm a Photographer, Not a Terrorist."

I have yet to watch an episode of Mad Men, but there has already been much conversation about the season opener – which premiered last night, Sunday, August 16 – around the office and on a couple of my e-mail groups.

Here is a great behind-the-scenes video of photographer Frank Ockenfels photographing this year's promotional poster. (Thanks to Strobist for finding the video and sharing it with us. If you haven't visited the Strobist blog, make it daily stop while surfing the Web.)

The poster concept is brilliant and kudos to Jon Hamm for going the extra mile by getting very very wet for the image.

Per my request from a previous blog (here), I received an official press release from Andrea Cusick over at Urban Outfitters announcing their partnership with the Impossible Project.

We are excited to announce that Urban Outfitters has partnered with The Impossible Project to support their mission to restart and reinvent instant film photography. When Polaroid ended production of Instant Film in 2008, The Impossible Project bought all the machinery and equipment at Polaroid’s Dutch factory where the instant films were made. We will help them bring back instant film in 2010.

Although I never could find an official press release (so if you've seen one about this please forward it on to me), a number of blogs are announcing that Urban Outfitters has teamed up with The Impossible Project and will present a limited edition of 700 hand-numbered Polaroid camera kits. The kit will include one pack of Polaroid Instant Film and one Polaroid ONE600 Classic camera – the last Polaroid camera produced.

The Sacramento Bee photo blog The Frame and the Boston Globe's The Big Picture have a comprehensive collection of images from the solar eclipse on Wednesday, July 22. The eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse we'll see this century.

The Bee has joined a number of newspapers featuring "big picture blogs," including the Denver Post, the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe. I can't think of better subjects than the vastness of space, the sun slowly being carved by the moon as it casts the Earth into shadow and the thousands of people who watch the event as an excuse to run large images on the Web.

See The Frame cover the eclipse here.
See The Big Picture cover the eclipse here.

I jumped on the Richard Koci Hernandez fan-wagon a few years back out of appreciation for his wonderfully produced multimedia pieces and the innovative design of MerciuryNewsPhoto.com. Read more and see a video produced by Hernandez after the jump.

Photojournalist and multimedia producer Anne Medley documented stories of Montana residents quietly living with HIV and AIDS across the state as a part of her master's project in journalism at the University of Montana. See her project and read a full description after the jump.