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Andrea Bruce

In Baghdad, a Trip to NowhereIn Baghdad, a Pause for BeautyAndrea Bruce

Andrea Bruce is an Indiana native and an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After shooting as a staff photographer for The Concord Monitor and The St. Petersburg Times, she joined the staff of The Washington Post where she began to chronicle the world’s most troubled areas. She has won many awards for her work, including top honors from the National Pictures of the Year competition, the White House News Photographers Association (where she has been named Photographer of the Year three times), and the prestigious John Faber award from the Overseas Press Club in New York. (Bio taken from Bruce’s website: www.andreabruce.com)

Currently based in Baghdad, Bruce writes a weekly column for The Washington Post called Unseen Iraq. Her column, which is displayed in blog format on the Washington Post website, shows some very different aspects of life in Iraq which are truly “unseen”. After viewing the images alone I got a more complete picture of life in Iraq–you won’t find the usual gloom and doom. The writing is very creative and easy to read, as one commenter notes:

Many of these posts are like poems. I have, for a few years now, read the blogs of Iraqis and researched the country for a film about Iraqi refugees, and Andrea Bruce’s articles and photographs are the most insightful and touching I have found anywhere about everyday life in Iraq.

We don’t know how long she’ll be based in the Middle East, but while she is we can all enjoy a fresh and inspiring perspective on life in Iraq. Check our her latest contributions (updated automatically):

This entry was written by A Photographer Who Blogs, posted on February 25, 2009 at 11:41 am, filed under Documentary Photographers, Photographers and tagged , , , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Vincent Laforet

laforet-setuplaforet-reverieVincent Laforet

Vincent Laforet is perhaps best known for his aerial photography, which got a lot of attention after he published striking aerial images of hurricane Katrina’s devastation in New Orleans in the New York Times. I was privileged enough to hear him speak at The University of Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication about his time in New Orleans, and I even scored a portfolio review with him (later that night I got into a wreck on my bike, so I think I forgot most of his advice). I remember being blown away by the beautiful graphic nature of his images and wanting very badly to be in a helicopter photographing myself.

On his blog, http://blog.vincentlaforet.com, he shares highlights and previews from current projects he’s working on as well as stuff that inspires him. He is obviously a lover of gadgets and shares a lot about his equipment, software and general work flow. In fact, he’s a member of Apple’s “Aperture Advisory Committee” and a Canon “Explorer of Light” and “Printmaster”. I’m not really sure what all of that means, but I think it means he gets access to lots of free goodies, and gear that hasn’t yet been released. Before the Canon 5D Mark II was released, he got to test it out and give feedback, and posted HD video samples shot with it. His posts on that actually helped me decided to upgrade to the 5D Mark II because my original 5D had been stolen, along with my HD camcorder, so naturally the Mk II was a viable option.  He’s got some great tutorials and tips on using the 5D Mk II, like this one and this one.  He often shares behind the scenes video from his projects that are extremely helpful for photojournalists and generally interesting for anyone else.

Check out the latest posts from Vincent Laforet’s Blog (updated automatically):

This entry was written by A Photographer Who Blogs, posted on February 21, 2009 at 11:36 am, filed under Commercial Photographers, Photographers and tagged , , , , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.