Via Steve Outing

Eastman Kodak announced it was going to stop selling film based cameras. While this hardly affects me and my work, I am a tad bit worried that the company's next move will mean cutting back on their film products for professionals. That would be disastrous. Call me old-school, but I still shoot film. Sigh!

“The move comes amid Kodak's controversial plan to focus on high-growth digital products, such as medical imaging systems, and reduce dependence on its declining film business.”

From the financial aspect of things, Kodak is trying its best to stave off the accountants who have seen red for far too long. Just as soon as the announcement was made, Kodak's shares were up by 1.33%. That should keep both the accountants and the shareholders somewhat happy.

“Kodak said that it plans to continue making reloadable cameras that use 35-millimeter film in emerging markets, such as China, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America and that it will introduce six new cameras in those markets this year.”

In America no matter how much is written or photographed of the Kennedy clan, they are still an enigma. Charming, famous, mysterious and political to the core, no other family (sans the Buckingham big wigs) receives as much attention while they are living or even after they are dead.

“If the cancer hadn't killed Jacques, the loss of the negatives would have.”

Fred A. Bernstein writes in the NY Times today that the negatives of the late photographer Jacques Lowe, which were destroyed in the horrific September 11, 2003 WTC terrorist attack, have been resurrected thanks to scanning technology and Adobe PhotoShop.

Six weeks of tweaking and cajoling old decrepit contact sheets resulted in a book, Remembering Jack: Intimate and Unseen Photographs of the Kennedys, which is now out in bookstores.

Via d2r

{The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” but “That's funny …”}

— Sir Isaac Asimov

I know what you are thinking – this has absolutely nothing to do with photography – but I beg to differ.

In photojournalism, for instance, it's when we allow ourselves to discover images as they unfold before us (versus manufacturing them) that we get a greater sense of our subjects and, indirectly, of who we are.

Several years ago, I was photographing in Maine's oldest African-American church – A.M.E. Green Memorial Church. The photo-shoot had felt labored and quite frankly pointless, because I just wasn't feeling the images. When I pointed my camera, I wasn't entirely sure if the folks who were dressed in their Sunday best were posing for me or mocking me. The pastor hadn't understood why I was documenting the church and its parishioners. But several weeks into the project for Salt magazine (unpublished, unfortunately), I photographed Floyd Zell holding a basket for offerings in front of the church.

It may have been his first time in front of the congregation. Zell's tiny legs were crossed, his expression one of wonder. The gospel music in the background was electric. He stood there patiently for the music to wrap up. I remember people clapping their hands and declaring halleleujahs, Amens and praises to Jesus. Some had moved out of the pews and into the aisles where they began speaking in tongue.

For me, it was an epiphany. That was the moment when things came together and I knew what I was doing there. Access is usually the first stumbling block to an assignment or a project. But it is the more insidious, lack of purpose, that can have one swerving like an uncontrollable kite. Once purpose was established, I could somehow let my creative juices flow.

And, yeah, I did say to myself – “That's funny …”

Via Melissa Lyttle

Photo District News, the industry's best trade zine has issued a call for entries for 2004. Last year's winners here. Deadline is February 15, 2004.

Tick, tock … hop to it!

On a whim, I went looking for the word TIFFIN in Alexa.

Michael Quinion has this to say:

Tiffin is a word that perhaps more than any other evokes British India. It entered the language at the very beginning of the nineteenth century, perhaps because the fashion for eating dinner mid-afternoon was giving way to a main meal taken later in the day, requiring a lighter midday meal and a name for it.

We are just taking the first bend into the new year and it's perhaps a little early to engage in navel gazing. But in the past four months or so that this blog has been in existence, I have had the pleasure of getting to know several of you. Thanks to Kaushik Banerjee, some of my posts now also appear in a wonderful community called Living In India. Do check out the other writers who contribute to that site. You will be impressed.

Tiffinbox is light fare for those interested in South Asian photography, writing, design and art. If you have links, ideas, suggestions or know people and events please let me know. Send me a note at: tiffinbox {at} pipalproductions {dot} com.

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