Press photographer Maryam Majd has been detained in Iran’s Evin Prison, says a group of 32 Iranian photographers who have written and signed a petition demanding her release.

The petition says that, “Although the arrest of Maryam Majd has not been confirmed by the Iranian government’s official sources, the repeated illegal actions of the state-run media have caused serious concern about this young photographer’s current condition.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Majd was preparing to leave Tehran to shoot the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament when she disappeared without notice on June 16. Majd is one of the few Iranian photographers to document female sports and has long campaigned for the government to allow Iranian women to attend soccer matches.

The petition demands “that Maryam Majd is released unconditionally from prison,” and “that [she] is able to resume work in her profession.”

The photographers also urged the Iranian Photojournalist’s Association to “act according to its responsibilities to its members” and investigate the situation, as well as “to inform photojournalists about the consequences of their work.”

According to a post on a “Free Maryam Majd” Facebook page with close to 2,000 followers, Majd’s family has been to see her at Evin Prison and reports that “her physical condition is OK,” and that “She expressed her glumness for home and her friends and family.”

The International Press Institute reports that two other Iranian female journalists, Zahra Yazdani and documentarian Mahnaz Mohammadi, were arrested shortly after Majd.

—Kayla Epstein

The following video by photographers/filmmakers Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton of Four Corners Media profiles four young women who participated in the 2011 Egyptian revolution: a student, a cancer researcher, an art curator and a journalist advocate. Garen and Carleton are currently working on a longer documentary titled If, a coming-of-age story about young women and their experiences during the revolution. (If, which Garen and Carleton hope to debut this Fall, will include some scenes and characters from this video. (Garen and Carleton have also launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.com to continue filming in Egypt as their characters stories unfold.)

A press photographer was shot in the leg during a second straight night of sectarian riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland, according to reports in the British press.

Three shots were fired during the riots on Tuesday night, one of them striking the photographer in the leg. The photographer is said to be in stable condition at a hospital. His name has not been released pending notification of his family.

The loyalist group UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force), which is supposed to be observing a cease fire, is believed to be stoking the violence in the Short Strand neighborhood—a small Catholic enclave in a largely Protestant section of Belfast. On Monday rioters attacked houses and shots were fired before police dispersed the crowds. The violence resumed Tuesday night and rioters attacked police forces with “petrol bombs, bricks, golf balls, laser pens and lumps of concrete amid the worst rioting in the area for 10 years,” according to the Daily Telegraph.

Catholic and Protestant leaders have blamed the other side for provoking the violence.

At this year’s LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, VA, artist LaToya Ruby Frazier made her intentions as an artist and activist clear in a powerful presentation of her work that combined diaristic snippets about her relationships with her grandmother and mother with stories about the community of Braddock, PA, where she was raised. Frazier’s reading, reminiscent of a prose poem, was intensely personal, heartfelt and, at times, forceful and defiant, drawing on the history of Braddock as a once-prosperous steel town, and on its current state where poverty, joblessness and pollution-related health issues plague the largely African-American population.

Frazier’s work has previously been included in high-profile group exhibitions such as the 2009 Triennial at The New Museum and a 2010 group exhibition at PS1 MoMA, and she has had solo and two-person shows at her gallery, Higher Pictures in New York, and elsewhere. The work she has presented thus far has been comprised primarily of self-portraits and portraits of her grandmother and mother, whom Frazier taught to photograph and considers a collaborator. Yet the full breadth of her work and her ambition for it has not been widely known, she says.

“Until I spoke today, I don’t think people were aware of what the work was about, because it’s complicated,” Frazier told PDN after her Master’s Talk. “Today was a huge breakthrough to be able to come here and talk to people.” (more…)

Freelance photographer Anton Hammerl remains unaccounted for in Libya, more than 40 days after Libyan authorities say they took him into custody. The lack of information has escalated concern among his family and friends about his health and safety.

“All we do is concern ourselves with what we can do in order to get him back. Our lives are no longer normal but instead totally consumed with anguish over Anton’s safety,” his wife, Penny Sukhraj, told The Guardian in London. “I don’t understand why he is being treated differently from the others…Why won’t they give us or consular officials access to him?”

Three other journalists–freelance photographer Manu Brabo, and freelance writers Clare Gillis and James Foley–also remain in detention, but all three contacted their families by telephone from Tripoli in late April. They reported that they were in good health.

The journalists went missing April 5, and Libyan officials announced soon afterwards that they had detained all four of them. The Libyan government accused them of entering the country illegally, but has not indicated when they might be released.

Families and friends of the four journalists have set up several Facebook pages to raise awareness about their plight, share information, and bring international pressure to bear on Libyan officials to release them. An online petition was also started, drawing nearly 35,000 signatures to date.

“As freelance correspondents, Jim, Clare, Manu, and Anton do not have the benefit of a large and powerful news corporation to galvanize diplomatic pressure to secure their timely and safe release,” the petition says. “They were doing their job to help inform others, and now deserve to return home to their families.”

Other journalists–including several working for The New York Times–were detained by Libyan government troops and released within days partly because of the influence of the media organizations behind them.

Helene Cooper at the New York Times has a post today on The Caucus Blog that reports the White House is “leaning towards” releasing photographic evidence of Bin Laden’s killing.

“It looks like him, covered in blood, with a hole in his head,” an unnamed official told Cooper. There are reasons the White House wouldn’t release the photo, including their desire to honor Muslim law, which led to Bin Laden’s burial at sea, and concern that releasing the photograph might provoke Bin Laden’s followers, or perhaps even violate international law.

In her article Cooper notes that in addition to voices on the political right and conspiracy theorists, many ordinary Americans are interested in seeing the photo to provide “closure” to the September 11 attacks and their aftermath.

It’s interesting to consider, however, whether seeing will be believing. The ordinary citizens who believe Bin Laden is dead seem likely to accept a photograph as the final bit of proof.

But a photo, if released, may do little for conspiracy theorists and others who disbelieve the claim Ben Laden is dead, except of course touch off another round of debate and analysis centered on the image itself and its validity.

In an age where a fake photos of a dead Bin Laden were already picked up and circulated by news organizations, much to their embarrassment, it is certainly conceivable that a photo could be created and/or staged. It begs the question: can a photograph alone bear the burden of proof any longer, or will the public require testimony from imaging experts in order to accept the validity of the image? Will a photograph do anything to convince those who already question the US government’s claims?

UPDATE, 5/4/11, 3:15pm EST:

President Obama has decided not to release photographic evidence of Bin Laden’s death, saying in an interview with 60 Minutes, a transcript of which was read today at a White House press briefing, “we don’t trot this stuff out as trophies — that’s not who we are.” Though Obama appears to be positioning the decision as a moral and ethical choice by the government, the fact that a photograph would do little to prove Bin Laden’s killing to those who don’t believe it happened must have played a role, making the release of the photo a decision with more potential downside than upside.

When issued by a government, the decision suggests, photographic evidence isn’t worth much, except to those who would use it as—positive or negative—propaganda.

© AP Photo/APTN

Did a family emergency, act of God or snooze button prevent you from tuning in to watch the Royal Wedding this morning? Don’t worry, the Associated Press has you covered. The wire service sent 21 photographers to document every last detail of Wills’ and Kate’s big day.

AP picture editors are already picking through the thousands of images AP photographers made, the best of which will be gathered into a commemorative book that will be available next week (technology!) from online on-demand publisher My Publisher. The handshake between Mr. Middleton and the Prince, the exchange of rings, the kiss (!), that rascal Harry’s proud smile—all of these moments can be yours to cherish.

The limited-edition book—limited to what, you ask? As many copies as people are willing to order, we’d wager—will be available in two sizes. Prices for your very own Royal Wedding album have yet to be announced, but we’re pretty sure they’re just going to call it priceless. Well played, AP.

Watch this space: http://www.mypublisher.com/royalwedding

© PAULA BRONSTEIN

A new iPhone/iPad slide show app, featuring images of tsunami devastation and rebuilding in Japan taken by 14 international photographers, has been launched to benefit the Japanese Red Cross Society. The “3/11 Tsunami Photo Project” app sells for 99 cents on the iTunes store, and has been released with help from Kodansha Ltd., Japan’s largest publisher.

The current version of the app has images, comments and audio recordings by Dominic Nahr, Adam Dean, Shiho Fukada, James Whitlow Delano, Paula Bronstein, Jean Chung and Keith Bedford. An update to the app, due out later this month, will add contributions from Pieter Ten Hoopen, David Guttenfelder, Giulio di Sturco, Ko Sasaki, Jake Price, Guillem Valle, Ryo Kameyama. In all, the app will show 120 images by 14 photographers.

To purchases the app, visit the Apple iTunes store:
itunes.apple.com/app/id431226495#

Trailer: Koothu, paper and kerosene from Kannan Arunasalam on Vimeo.

Above is a trailer for “Koothu, Paper and Kerosene,” a series of short videos created by Sri Lankan journalist Kannan Arunasalam, which document how people in Jaffna, Sri Lanka survive when the resources they need are depleted. Made with the support of Sri Lankan citizen journalism organization Groundviews.org, the videos depict the survival of an isolated leper community, a newspaper that presses on despite newsprint shortages, and a taxi driver coping without normal fuel.

To see the Paper and Kerosene videos visit Arunasalam’s Vimeo page here.

Four journalists, including two photographers, who were detained on Tuesday by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi will soon be released, according to a report just published by GlobalPost.com.

Qaddafi’s chief spokesperson has said the journalists will be taken to Tripoli and released soon, according to GlobalPost, which employs one of the captured journalists as a freelance contributor.

“We are encouraged that a positive end to this situation may be closer at hand,” said GlobalPost President and CEO Philip S. Balboni.

Those detained included freelance photographers Manu Brabo of Spain and Anton Hammerl of South Africa; and reporters James Foley of the online news site GlobalPost and Clare Morgana Gillis, an American freelancer.

Witnesses said the four journalists were taken into custody Tuesday evening in eastern Libya when Qaddafi’s troops stopped their car. Their driver was reportedly released.

According to The New York Times, the witnesses recounted the capture of the journalists to an official from Human Rights Watch and to a New York Times reporter, both of whom are in Libya.

It took time for anyone to figure out who the captured journalists were, the Times noted. Their capture wasn’t reported by news organizations until yesterday, when Human Rights Watch was able to inform GlobalPost that one of its reporters was among those detained.

Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists joined GlobalPost in appealing for the journalists’ release. Former US Congressman Curt Weldon, who is in Tripoli, has also appealed for their release, according to GlobalPost.

Three weeks ago, four journalists for The New York Times--including photographers Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks–were captured and detained by Qaddafi’s forces. Although they had a major news organization working for their release, they were held for six days.