Given that I link to so many photography web sites and photographers, today, I decided it was time to launch a photo gallery on this site. No, not my own work. That will come later. It's time to show off the work of some very enterprising friends.

The first photographer to be featured is Jasmeen Patheja, a graduate of Srishti, one of India's leading institutes for art and design education.

Look in the right column for Jasmeen's photo album (or click here). I expect to have an artist's statement or at least a description of her work real soon. Keep checking back. Want to see more of her work? Check out her fotolog.

Next up is John Isaac, the former Chief photographer for the United Nations. I am going to interview him – 20 questions. If you have anything to ask him, please email me.

Via J. D. Lasica

“Northeastern University's Public Safety Division has posted 24 photos apparently taken by students wielding cameras (and perhaps camera photos?) during some post-Super Bowl vandalism on campus.”

Hope these morons get caught! The questions I have are – who shot the images and what's his/her life like now that the pictures are up on the site? I hope the police is protecting her/him (can we assume it was a guy taking these images?)

Yes, it's 40 years since those bugs came into the world but this is about something else.

Kamlesh Lulla, reports Martin Desmarais for the Indus Business Journal, might as well be a space cadet.

“Lulla is the chief scientist for Earth observation at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. He directs remote sensing activities for space shuttle flights and the international space station.”

He may not in the technical sense be a photographer, but over the years given the depth and breadth of images he has analyzed, I am sure we can make an exception.

Earth From Space and The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth are some amazing resources if you are looking for some R&R from the muck and mayhem at sea-level.

I am not one to go trolling for compliments but when one comes my way, I do have to acknowledge it. This I found on Subhash Rai's January 21, 2004 blog:

Seshu Badrinath's blog is excellent! I guess I can claim we know each other. In fact, Seshu unsuccessfully tried to contribute to IOJ. I am still floating though.

So, yes, he has managed to successfully bait me into writing an article for his other web site – Indian Online Journalism, or IOJ. The basic premises of the article will be that photojournalists should be able to write and that there ought to be a better collaborative spirit between writers and photographers. Playing cat and mouse in the newsroom may make for a funny sitcom, but I feel much of the melodrama can be avoided and a lot more projects can be launched if we just learn to work together. More on this soon. I promise.

Subhash, floating? Do explain.

Imagine the conversation around the dinner table at the Vadukul home. Lights, lenses, f/stops, cameras, fashion trends, the next trip to Milan, perhaps? I love it when I stumble over a desi photographer who has done well. But a pair of them with the same last name? What are the odds?

Max and Nitin Vadukul have captured the American imagination when it comes to fashion and editorial work. Max has shot for Rolling Stone, Vogue, Armani Exchange and ID, while his younger brother Nitin's portraits of hip-hop's who's who is simply staggering.

At Hip Hop Immortals Volume 1:

“Max Vadukul was born Manoj Kumar in Kenya in 1961 to Indian parents. In 1969 his family immigrated to Britain, where they settled in a “hideous” London suburb. He ran away from home at sixteen.”

In fact, they were both born in Kenya. Nitin appears to have lived in Paris before training his sights on New York City where his brother also lives.