On balance, not so much.

That was the consensus of the women photojournalists who participated in the panel discussion “Groundbreaking Women in Photography,” organized by the International Center of Photography in New York on January 10. The first in a series of annual “Spotlight” events ICP will hold to raise funds for its programs, the panel was made up of photographers Mary Ellen Mark, Gillian Laub, Samantha Appleton, Stephanie Sinclair and The New York Times Magazine director of photography, Kathy Ryan. NBC anchor Ann Curry moderated the discussion.

Photo © ICP. Left to right: Mary Ellen Mark, Stephanie Sinclair, moderator Ann Curry.

Gillian Laub, who has photographed intimate portraits of young people on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian divide, noted that being a woman has often helped her gain access to people’s homes. “I’m not an intimidating person,” she noted. When she enters strangers’ homes, “People feel comfortable with me” in a way that they may not if she were a man.  Being a woman can be an “asset, depending on the kind of work you want to do,” said Stephanie Sinclair, who has photographed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon and covered gender issues such as female circumcision and the problems faced by child brides. Luckily, Sinclair said, “I like to do intimate work.”

Samantha Appleton, who covered the war in Iraq, said that early in her career covering conflict, “I worked hard not to be classified as a woman photographer. I fought to be one of the boys.” Over time she’s let go of that battle. “There are a thousand things in your personality that affect how you tell a story. Being a woman is a part of it.” Ryan concurred. While noting that in certain countries or political situations, sending a woman photographer can be risky, Ryan said that when she has to choose the right photographer for an assignment, she first considers their vision and eye, then she considers their personality and what it might add to the assignment.  “Some women are forceful, some are quiet,” she noted.
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On Alec Soth’s blog, Little Brown Mushroom, the Magnum photographer has responded to a reader whose partner is a photographer, and wants advice about planning a future life together, “marriage and babies included.” His post has inspired loads of comments (51 so far) from photographers and people married to photographers.

Martin Parr, who has been married for 35 years to a woman “who is bored with being Mrs. Martin Parr,” cites the challenge of constant travel. Zoe Strauss says if it weren’t for the support of her wife, “I doubt I’d be a photographer.”  Rachel Cartee Soth, wife of Alec Soth, notes that when you live with an artist, things can be fantastic when “the creative juju is flowing,” and not so great when the juju is blocked.  She also warns, “It’s easy to lose yourself, especially when your partner is successful.” Photographers Rebecca Norris Webb and Alex Webb are thoughtful and candid about the problems and rewards of life in a two-photographer household.

Having met lots of photographers struggling with the demands of family and a freelance career, I was touched by photographer Paul Shambroom’s comment about what sacrifices have to be made when both partners are “accomplished and busy”: “Many of us (some posting here) could probably also be wealthier, but we made career adjustments in order to have functional marriages and try to be good parents.”

Take a look: littlebrownmushroom.wordpress.com.

Photographer Guy Martin, who survived an April rocket attack in Misrata, Libya that killed colleagues Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, will hold an exhibition of his images from the “Arab Spring” next week.

The exhibition, which is being presented at the Poly Arts Center in Falmouth, UK, by University College Falmouth, will be on view from January 10–January 14, 2012, and includes photographs Martin made in Egypt and Libya between January and April 2011. Titled “Shifting Sands,” the show will also feature a conversation between Martin and Julian Rodriguez, head of the department of media at University College Falmouth.

Martin was with Hetherington, Hondros and Michael Christopher Brown on April 20 in Misrata when the photographers were hit by rocket fire. Hetherington and Hondros died of their injuries. Martin, who was severely injured, and Brown, who suffered multiple shrapnel wounds, were operated on at a hospital in Misrata and then evacuated to Malta.

“They say if the rocket’s really close you never hear anything,” Martin told the BBC for an article about his exhibition. “I didn’t hear anything. I just remember falling to the ground and then waking up in hospital.”

A screening of “Restrepo,” the Afghanistan war documentary by Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, will also take place. Proceeds from the exhibition and events will benefit The Rory Peck Trust, an organization dedicated to the safety and welfare of freelance newsgatherers and their families. The proceeds will be donated to the Rory Peck Trust in Hetherington’s and Hondros’s names.

For more visit: http://bit.ly/x2QzpG

© Todd Hido from, "House Hunting," available through Aperture

Weary of shopping malls? Trying to have a less commercial holiday this year? Several photo organizations are offering sales this season to entice shoppers to give photography as a gift while supporting worthy causes. But time is running out if you want your gift to arrive by Christmas.

Aperture Holiday Sale
Until January 5, the non-profit Aperture Foundation is offering 30 percent discount on books, including Josef Koudelka’s Gypsies, Bruce Davidson’s re-issued and updated Subway, Brian Ulrich’s Is This Place Great or What and other books named on PDN’s Notable Photo Books of the Year roundup. Aperture is also offering 15 percent off prints by Paul Strand, Todd Hido, Sylvia Plachy, Richard Renaldi, Eikoh Hosoe and many other photographers.
Note: Place your order by December 15 if you want your gift by Christmas.

Nuru Project
Nuru Project sells photos to support a variety of non-profits, including Millenium Promise, Malaria No More and many more. The deal is that Nuru splits its online print sales between the photographers and its non-profit partners.  Starting this week, they’ve been offering express shipping on prints by Teru Kuwayama, Ben Lowy,  Ami Vitali, Espen Rasmussen, and many more. The site lets you browse photos or shop by issue or country.

collect.give
The photographers selling their prints through the collect.give Web site donate 100 percent of their profits to worthwhile causes of their choice.  You can browse through work by Amy Eckert, Matt Eich, Annie Marie Musselman, Shane Lavalette, Kevin J. Miyazaki and others, then click on a print to see where your money will be used. Collect.give is also offering a $22 book featuring work by dozens of photographers, and printed by HP MagCloud. Sales of the book benefit The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Light Work: Enter to Win
Light Work, the non-profit, artist-run educational organization, is drumming up their social media contacts with a sweepstakes that could take care of all your gift shopping at once. The big fat prize they’re offering, worth $250, is the Light Work Holiday Giveaway Package that includes three photo monographs (by Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie May Weems and Gary Schneider), an artist book by Jim Pomeroy, a set of postcards by Michael Bishop, and four issues of the publication Contact Sheet.  The winner will be announced December 15. To enter you can “like” and recommend their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter and tweet your favorite issue of Contact Sheet, or get a subscription to Contact Sheet.

A special screening of “Restrepo,” the acclaimed Afghan War documentary directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, will be held next week at the San Francisco Film Society/New People Cinema.

Sponsored by Open Show, the San Francisco Film Society and National Geographic, the December 7 screening is being held in memory of Hetherington, who was killed in Libya in April 2011. Proceeds from ticket sales and the auction of several limited edition posters from Hetherington’s exhibition of his “Infidel” body of work will benefit the Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization dedicated to the global defense of press freedom.

For more information on the screening visit Open Show.

The Photographer’s Advisory Board for National Geographic magazine has launched a new Web site to showcase the work of National Geographic photographers. Membership in the group, dubbed “The Photo Society,” is limited to photographers who’ve published at least one feature story in the magazine.

The purpose of the group and their Web site is to promote the work of the photographers, and to inform the public about their work. It also appears the site is meant to help would-be (or wannabe) National Geographic photographers understand what it takes to work for the magazine.

“Explaining the diversity and composition of this group is the easiest way to answer the question, ‘How do I become a National Geographic photographer?’” writes photographer Randy Olson on the site. “‘It is not easy or glamorous,” he explains, “And this is not where you begin your career. You are competing with world-class documentary photographers and within that genre there are men and women who are the absolute best at their specialty.’”

Check out The Photo Society site here: http://thephotosociety.org/

A print auction held at the annual PDN PhotoPlus Expo Bash on October 28 raised more than $8,000 for the Red Cross’s relief efforts in Japan, PDN PhotoPlus Expo has announced.

Harry Benson, Douglas Kirkland, Susan Meiselas, John Isaac and Art Streiber were among the 50 photographers who donated prints for the benefit silent auction.

Unique Photo, Fuji Film and Modernage sponsored the event, held at Highline Stages in New York City, which featured live music by Tyburn Saints and was attended by more than 1,200 people.

“It was important for us as an organization, and an industry, to organize an event that would give us an opportunity to participate in the worldwide efforts to help the victims in Japan,” Jeff McQuilkin, Group Show Director for The Nielsen Company, said. “Obviously, the photographic industry has strong ties to Japan and its culture and was deeply affected by the disaster. The fundraising event was one way we could show our support.”

“It was amazing how the industry came together to support this event,” added Lauren Wendle, Vice President, Nielsen Photo Group. “Everyone had a great time but never seemed to lose sight of fundraising aspect of the event. The print auction was very active and we want to extend our warmest thanks to the photographers who donated prints, and our guests who bid and bought them.”

During a seminar titled “The New World of Online Magazines and Curator Web Sites” this afternoon at PDN PhotoPlus Expo, photographer Sophia Wallace posed a question to photographers who’ve been hesitant to harness the full power of the internet for fear that their work might be stolen: Should you be more afraid of image theft, or of working in obscurity?

This rather direct question, which had resonated with Wallace after she heard it at another talk recently, gets to the heart of the decision that photographers must make in today’s market. You can embrace online publishing on blogs, online magazines, Tumblr pages and the myriad other platforms on which people are looking at imagery these days, or you can keep your work to yourself.

Suffice it to say that nobody in the audience was interested in the latter option. But in case they were, Wallace and fellow photographer Manjari Sharma shared stories about their own experiences that made a strong case for diving headlong into promoting one’s work online.

By getting their work featured by online platforms, such as those run by moderator Stella Kramer (StellaZine) and panelists Julie Grahame (aCurator) and Michael Itkoff (Daylight), each of the photographers had built momentum for bodies of work that eventually led to concrete achievements like exhibitions, advertising commissions and essential project funding.

After having her work circulate one image at a time across various online publications (and in a couple of print magazines), Wallace received what she termed “the email she’d been waiting for.” It was from a curator asking if she would show her work in a three-person show at Colgate University’s Clifford Gallery with photographers Catherine Opie and Jo Ann Santangelo. During her presentation Wallace also showed how, through Google analytics, she could track who was looking at her site and where they came from. It was amazing, she said, to realize that people all over the world were looking at her photographs.

Sharma showed two projects that she’d promoted online. A series of portraits of people taken in the shower in her Brooklyn apartment was discovered by art directors at the ad agency JWT in Delhi, which lead to a commission to replicate that work for ads for a German maker of shower heads that was expanding their business in India. Sharma’s photographs appeared on billboards in 23 cities, she said.

After she created a well-produced Kickstarter video to raise funds for her project Darshan, several photo blogs and other online publications wrote about the work. She ended up raising $26,000 of funding over the course of three months.

Each of the panelists encouraged the audience members to build networks online through Facebook and Twitter, and to help promote other photographers whose work they appreciate. Wallace made the point that opportunities for group exhibitions often come from other artists, and introductions to clients often come from fellow photographers.

Kramer also made another useful point for photographers who might still be hesitant to publish their work online: “The more you are associated with your work, the harder it is to steal it,” she said.

The Chris Hondros Fund, a non-profit established by the late photojournalist’s fiance, Christina Piaia, with support from the Hondros Family, announced the launch of the Fund Web site today. Hondros was killed earlier this year in a rocket attack by Qaddafi forces in Misrata, Libya. The Fund, which will “support and advance photojournalists” also announced the establishment of fellowships and grantmaking activities.

Getty Images director of photography Pancho Bernasconi, and New York Times photographer Todd Heisler have joined Piaia on the board of directors for the Fund.

The Fund recently awarded it’s first fellowship at this year’s Eddie Adams Workshop to Enrico Fabian.

Their programs and goals were outlined in a press release as follows:

Fellowships

Chris Hondros Fellowship in Photojournalism: Each year, the Fund will select an outstanding photojournalist who is committed to creating a visual history that brings shared human experiences into the public eye and whose work shows exceptional promise to receive a fellowship for the study of photojournalism. The Fund anticipates soliciting the first round of applications in 2012.

Hondros Fellow at Eddie Adams Workshop: The Fund will award an annual fellowship to one of the attendees of the Eddie Adams Workshop based on the photography created during the workshop and a portfolio review. Recipients should demonstrate a commitment to documenting a visual history of newsworthy events in the “spirit” of Chris Hondros; his imagery, and continuous drive to tell a story always made his work compelling and the successful recipient of the fellowship will share and demonstrate a similar vision and approach. Hondros attended the Workshop as a student in 1993, and returned as a team leader in 2007. On October 10, 2011, Enrico Fabian received the first Hondros Fellow award based on his powerful body of work created during the workshop, his telling portfolio and unyielding commitment to photojournalism.

Grantmaking

The Fund will provide grants to non-profit organizations and academic institutions to support projects that advance the work of aspiring photojournalists and working photojournalists and to protect and assist journalists whose work demonstrates the Fund’s mission: to create a visual history that brings shared human experiences into the public eye. These grants may also assist in raising public awareness of the effects of conflict on civilians, combatants, and society. The Fund plans to work with select organizations to develop appropriate projects and will not initially accept unsolicited proposals.

Awareness

The Fund seeks to raise awareness and educate the public about the work of photojournalists, which the Fund anticipates will include operating a lecture series, curating and promoting exhibitions, and providing direct support, in the form of fellowships and awards, to photojournalists.

Related: Hondros, Hetherington Prizes Awarded at Eddie Adams Workshop

© Jody Rogac. A recent entry on Jody Rogac's Tumblr.

Photographers have used micro-blogging site Tumblr as a tool to share their work with audiences online, many of them building followings that number in the thousands and even tens of thousands. (For more on how photographers are using Tumblr see our October feature, “Why Photographers Love Tumblr.”)

But photographers also use the site to follow other shooters, keeping up with what their peers are doing and passing along work they like or admire.

JUCO, the photography team of Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud, keep up with other photographers like Noah Kalina, with whom they share a rep, Chris McPherson, Elizabeth Weinberg, Ryan Schude, Dan Busta and the duo Day 19. (Kalina also published a list of photographers who have Tumblr pages, which is useful for people who are new to the site or want to find new people to follow.)

Ryan Pfluger follows Daniel Shea, Tony Katai, Christopher Schreck, Alexi Hobbs, and a Tumblr called “Mull it Over,” run by Jonathan Cherry, which features Q&A’s with new photographers once a week.

Alec Soth, who used Tumblr for a Magnum project earlier this year, says he recently “confessed” to an intern that he likes Terry Richardson’s Diary on Tumblr.

“In my Google reader, there’s a thousand unread things, and I find myself clicking on [Richardson’s Tumblr] repeatedly for guilty pleasure or whatever it is,” Soth says. “But there is a sense that I’ve followed him, I’m along on the ride, and I guess I’m hungry to experience that with other types of photographers as well.”

In addition to following professional photography peers like Emiliano Granado and Jessica Eaton, and an aspiring professional named Megan McIsaac, Jody Rogac follows current and potential clients like the New York Times T Magazine, Rolling Stone and Dazed & Confused to keep up with what they’re doing.

Sacha Lecca, a Rolling Stone photo editor who also posts his own images to Tumblr, says he generally follows photographers who he’s worked with, met or is familiar with. But through Tumblr’s “reblogging” function, where users share the work of others on their own Tumblr page, he can often “find out about someone I didn’t know.”

Related: Why Photographers Love Tumblr