THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT an amateur photograph — unexpected or overexposed but nevertheless capturing a moment just so, fixing a figure or a setting in its moment forever — that suggests lethargy. Listlessness hovers over those photographs whose trends never update, whose hairstyles never rotate and whose dollars never inflate.

In capturing portraits from various corners of the world — in particular the developing world — each of the photographers in "Portraits," a show of seven photographers curated by Phyllis Rosenzweig at G Fine Art, turns instinctively to the vernacular, as if guided by an invisible hand. The work says as much about photographic tropes as it does about its subjects.

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"THE POLAR BEAR is the icon of the Arctic," said photographer Norbert Rosing. "If you are not triggered by them, you are dead in the heart."

Rosing knows a bit about polar bears. He's photographed them for 20 years, taking yearly trips to the Canadian and Scandinavian Arctic to capture the bears in their natural environment as they play, fight, tend to their cubs and even engage in some Donner Party behavior.

"This year, I've seen for the first time cannibalism between bears," said the German photographer, who will present his images and talk about them at the S. Dillon Ripley Center on Tuesday. "When I saw it first, I figured it is a mother eating its own cub because she looked like a female bear and the little one was pretty little."

But the game wardens, Rosing said, were unable to confirm if the larger bear was a male or female — they only knew that it was a cub of two and a half years in good health. "Why the cub died, nobody knows. I wish I could have told the story that it was mother and cub, but I have to stick with the facts."

Continue Reading "Northern Exposure: Norbert Rosing" »

REMEMBER THESE? The Newseum's Today's Front Pages showcase was always a top attraction at its old location in Rosslyn and out on its Pennsylvania Avenue sidewalk before construction began on its new D.C. facility, which is expected to open this spring.

But the next generation of Today's Front Pages is on the way. Penn Quarter Living recently spied new front-page display cases in front of the building at Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Street NW. According to the Newseum spokeswoman Tina Tate, the museum's staff will continue to collect a sampling of the more than 500 front pages sent in daily, print them out and display them in a new special gallery inside the building on its sixth level and in the cases outside.

The sidewalk display should be ready in about a month. In addition to current front pages, the cases may display historic front pages as well.

Can't wait that long? Today's Front Pages are available online.

File photo of headlines from the 2002 D.C.-area sniper saga by Michael Lutzky/The Washington Post

"LET YOUR MOTTO BE RESISTANCE: AFRICAN AMERICAN PORTRAITS" is the inaugural exhibition of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The brick-and-mortar museum doesn't exist yet, but if this show of photographs — on display at the National Portrait Gallery and drawn from the museum's collection — is any indication, the NMAAHC is going to be one impressive addition to the Smithsonian.

Anchored by the words of teacher, preacher, editor and abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet — who urged "the slaves of America" to "Let your motto be resistance!" — the show illustrates various forms of the push-back over the past 150 years.

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JUST AS THE INVENTION of the phonograph put front-parlor music-making within reach of folks who'd never dare to hold forth at the piano, the development of inexpensive cameras that used roll film democratized the making of pictures.

And though it took about a century for the turntable to be recognized as a musical instrument, the family camera won some respect reasonably quickly.

Just not in the hallowed halls of Art.

Even with fine-art photography, the National Gallery was fairly late to the table, inaugurating its photography department in 1990, the year after it observed the medium's sesquicentennial.

Hobbyist shutterbugging took a little bit longer to win approval.

The selling point of "The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978: From the Collection of Robert E. Jackson" is that while amateur work may not be polished, that isn't to say it's unschooled. Many homegrown picture-takers received solid instruction at the foot of popular culture.

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HIS KEEN EYE and speedy shutter have earned photographer Oded Balilty his share of accolades. The Jerusalem-born and -based Associated Press photographer snapped up a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year for a 2006 photograph of a settler resisting Israeli forces in the West Bank (seen here), as well as awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International and the National Press Photographers Association. His work has taken the 28-year-old into the war zone during last year's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as to Ukraine to cover the historic, hard-fought election of 2004.

Balilty spoke with Express about photographing the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Click here to view a PDF of "Afterimage," our monthly photo page, which features Balility's photo of a man wrapped in an American flag at Ground Zero.

» EXPRESS Can you describe how you made your early morning photograph of a man wrapped in the American flag at Ground Zero?
» BALILITY: To see someone that covered himself with his own national flag on the site where such a terrible thing happened — it was a contrast for me, very contrasting. ...

I shot four or five pictures; I stood there for a few minutes. I was going all around the area and around Ground Zero, and it seemed to me like thousands of people came to pay their respects that day. Not very many people carry the U.S. flag there today; I think that's because many people don't really agree with government decisions about many things. They came to pay their respects to those people that were killed there — not exactly for the country. This is why it was very interesting to see this guy cover himself with his flag.

Actually, I find it more difficult to shoot very emotional things like that — this is more difficult to shoot than when things get very crazy, or when there is shooting or fire. There was lots of emotion involved.

You see New York with different eyes that day. Usually it's very happy, and everybody walks so fast, but [around Ground Zero] — everyone walks so slow to pay their respects. It feels like this place always looks forward: they look to the future, and then, they look to the past [on the 9/11 anniversary]. It's kind of weird to see New York like that.

Continue Reading "Afterimage: Oded Balilty" »