http://www.david-campbell.org Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:01:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Israel’s three-week war against Gaza was a devastating assault. Retaliating to Hamas rocket attacks, Israel’s military campaign caused the death of some 1,300 Palestinians and the destruction of thousands of buildings. The story of this operation dominated the world’s media in January 2009, yet many felt that the reality of the ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/06/05/photographing-the-catastrophe-of-gaza/ For most of us 'Tiananmen' conjures up the image of the lone citizen standing in front of the tank. This iconic picture as been the sign around which memory of the massacre twenty years ago coalesces.  However, in today's Guardian novelist Ma Jian writes in honour of the thousands who were ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/06/02/tiananmen-other-images/ Embedding photojournalists with combat units was one of the military’s greatest victories in the Iraq war. Narrowing their focus in time and space to the unit they were with produced images putting brave soldiers front and center, with both context and victims out of range. Now, with the Obama administration’s ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/05/22/embedded-in-afghanistan/ Universities increasingly like to think of themselves as businesses, demanding flexible and entrepreneurial approaches from their staff. This is usually a fancy way of saying 'do more with less', and it’s said in numerous meetings, working groups and review panels that produce endless audits, reviews and strategy plans. Often it ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/05/21/google-vs-uni-strategies/ There’s a buzz about Twitter and I’ve decided to try it out (@davidc7) to see what’s behind this excitement. Twitter styles itself as a social networking tool that circulates to your followers answers to the question “What are you doing?” I’m not much interested in either sending or receiving that sort ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/05/13/the-twitter-test/ The issues surrounding photographic meaning, manipulation and Photoshop have been prominent recently (see my previous posts here and here, with some updates amongst the comments for each). Via Fred Ritchin's After Photography (see his 24 April post) comes news of a Swedish government project Girlpower dealing with sexism in advertising. One element ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/04/29/photographic-retouching-exposed/ The Israel Defense Forces have completed five investigations into claims of war crimes during the war on Gaza and concluded, unsurprisingly, that those claims are unfounded. As an IDF spokesperson said: “The bottom line is that the IDF conducted itself in an appropriate manner within the limits of international law." Given the ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/04/25/gaza-israels-mythical-withdrawal/ Some visual strategies are remarkably persistent, and few more persistent than those employed by humanitarian aid organizations when illustrating their appeals and campaign literature. We documented this in relation to food shortages in Africa as part of the Imaging Famine project. You know the pictures without even seeing them – the ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/04/23/aid-images-and-local-photographers/ Photography’s anxiety about truth, manipulation and reality has been on show recently. In different ways and from different contexts, people have been asking: “how much Photoshop is too much”? From the realm of fashion, French Elle is being celebrated for running a cover story in which the models photographs have not ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/04/17/photographic-truth-and-photoshop/ “The underlying meaning of the attack on the Gaza Strip, or at least its final consequence, appears to be one of creating terror without mercy to anyone.” That is the conclusion of an independent study jointly commissioned by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. It chimes with ... http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/04/08/gaza-terror-mercy-law/