2011 Archives
April Headlines
• NSC huge success, education and networking
• Photographers kept away from crime scene – but civilians walk through
• Photojournalist vehicle cards come to the City Council
• Notes on Photographes
Calendar Items
• Mana appearance at J&R
• 9-11 Program continues – another volunteer night April 28
• Please sign display agreement for “Witness” exhibit
• Highline exhibit at SB Design
• NYPPA voting – just do it
• Photographers kept away from crime scene – but civilians walk through
• Photojournalist vehicle cards come to the City Council
• Notes on Photographes
Calendar Items
• Mana appearance at J&R
• 9-11 Program continues – another volunteer night April 28
• Please sign display agreement for “Witness” exhibit
• Highline exhibit at SB Design
• NYPPA voting – just do it
April Articles
NSC huge success, education and networking
The Northern Short Course was a huge success and we are looking forward to next year in Virginia
– stay tuned for details.
R2 under the leadership of Chairman Todd Maisel and Associate Chairman Mark Dye, provided photography and videography for the three day event in Warwick, Rhode Island last month. Dye also did much of the graphics for the promotions of NSC this year and last.
Our NSC Chairwoman Michelle McLaughlin did a fantastic job putting together this event along with Bill Auth, Steve Falk, Tom Costello, David Handschuh and Will Yurman. There were so many other volunteers that were too numerous to count that made this so successful.
We were gratified to receive four hours of FinalCut with Eric Maierson, a Senior Producer at MediaStorm where he has produced work for National Geographic, Council on Foreign Relations, and the Open Society Institute. He is the recipient of two Emmy Awards in addition to numerous other accolades including two Webby awards and NPPA's Best of Photojournalism. We found great inspiration from Lucy Nicholason of Reuters, award-winning multi-media story teller Darren Durlach of The Boston Globe who is now a Senior Multimedia producer, and four hours of on the run lighting with the great commercial shooter Tom Sperduto.
We also were treated to presentations by Award-winning photographer Peter Pereira from Standard Times New Bedford, MA for the past 10 years; Michael DelGiudice an award winning photographer and editor at WNBC-TV in New York City; Karen Kasmauski has developed workshops for George Washington University and the Maine Media Workshop and sits on the boards of non-profits working with poverty relief and community building in Southeast Asia and in Africa. These were but a few who we shared professional tips and ideas.
And of course there was great networking opportunities with some of the greats of our business, both during the seminars and afterhours. We had many sponsors including Nikon and Canon (who did a great job cleaning our cameras), Olympus, Roberts Photo, Camerabits, Hunts Photo and Video, Lowepro, Lumiquest, Mementa, Photoshelter, Routeledge Taylor and Francis Group, Temple University, ThinkTank and Thompson Reuters. Please thanks these people for their support by working with them in your professional careers. See photos here
Photographers kept away from crime scene – but civilians walk through
Leaders of the photojournalism community are steaming over several incidents that have occurred in which the NYPD prevented the media from recording images, even after bodies were removed and investigations were complete. We believe a pattern of this behavior is developing of this behavior, but we are watching patiently as new DCPI personnel are properly trained to make sure the media has the access that is needed while respecting crime scene integrity and not endangering themselves or the public.
On Sunday, March 13 on St. Marks Place in Boerum Hill, a police officer was shoved off a stairway to his death. The incident occurred at 5:50 a.m. During the course of the day, Crime Scene conducted their investigation and completed by 1 p.m. according to several photographers and reporters at the scene.
At 5 p.m. that day we were notified that despite there being no activity by investigators at the scene, media was still not allowed to photograph the scene of the incident. Calls were made to Jerry Engel, police liasion for the NYPPA at 6:30 and he then spoke to a detective at DCPI who told him that she didn't know why the scene was still closed to media, but residents and other people were allowed to go down the block. We spoke with Robert Stolarik of the Times and he called Al Baker, the Times reporter at Police Plaza. Both spoke to DCPI. Theodore Parier of the NY Post called DCPI to ask to open the location and DCPI hung up on him. He called back and she claimed she didn't hang up. Ben Chapman from the NY Daily News also called. NBC was said to have called. By 8 p.m. the location was opened to the media to photograph in the dark. This was long after the investigation was completed. No detectives were on the scene during that afternoon from about 1 p.m. according to Debbie Egan Chin of the News.
On Saturday, March 19, at the memorial to the victims of the bus accident on I95, organized by the city and the Office of Emergency Management, the press was intentionally obstructed by the NYPD including members of Community Affairs and DCPI. Photographers present could not get a clear view of the event for most of the news event.
Members of the media, according to Egan-Chin, requested that the NYPD move their personnel out of
the way of the press. This request was refused. It was not until about 45 minutes into the one hour of the memorial that the media were able to cover the event, due to the assistance of Chris Gillbride, director of public information for OEM. Gillbride told members of the media that police recalcitrance and their actions were "astonishing." This particular email includes photos taken by Debbie Egan-Chin of the News showing the NYPD intentionally obstructing this organized memorial to those victims. The media was
kept at about 75 feet from the memorial, and were not in any way causing any discomfort or obstruction to the memorial.
From our perspective, this constitutes pattern of abuse of authority and numerous violations of police procedures and the First Amendment. Since these incidents occurred, DCPI has explained that the media was kept off of St. Marks because “the health department was conducting an investigation.” We challenge the NYPD to provide more information as to what the health department was doing – as photographers were unable to determine their presence.
The NYPD also explained that the press was kept by DCPI and Community Affairs from shooting pictures for only “10 minutes” of the one hour ceremony at the bus crash site because of requests from social workers. Whether or not this is true, we do not believe it is the job of the Police Department to prevent photography in a public place. Others have been told by DCPI that the incident never occurred.
The media was 75 feet from the ceremony and members of the media continue to claim this to be incorrect.
As of last week, members of DCPI were going for training to work with media. We do not know what media representatives were actually talking with DCPI to learn what we might think or what we can help in terms of educating officers to respect the First Amendment. We are hopeful that they can learn to better work with us in a spirit of cooperation and respect that is to the benefit of all.
We also will remind all of an incident that occurred several months earlier in which media were also restricted from seeing a crime scene in a horse stable attack in which a police officer shot a man smashing his car with a brick. The press was kept out of sight of the crime scene well into the night and long after the investigation was concluded.
We will remind the NYPD that our photographers take photos at various stages of these incidents and
they are time stamped in the meta data. We believe we have a strong case that can have repercussions. These continued actions, the NYPD should be reminded, constitute violations of their own rules and the law, especially the First Amendment.
Photojournalist vehicle cards come to the City Council
Thanks to the efforts of the NYPPA vehicle card committee, the City Council, led by two City Councilman James Vacca who is chairman of the Transportation Committee and Peter Vallone who is chairman of the public safety committee, have introduced legislation that will compel the City to issue permits for legitimate photographic press vehicles to park in places that they presently have no legal right to leave their vehicles during assignments. The bill is intended to restore the privileges taken away by the NYPD in 2009 when they refused to renew the Press Vehicle Cards.
The legislation would allow photographers with the permit to park in commercial zones, no parking
zones (white signs), in addition to being able to use high occupancy vehicle lanes on highways to get
to assignments.
Special thanks goes to Robert Roth, who has spearheaded our legal and negotiation efforts to get this legislation this far. Also deserving praise is Todd Maisel, Chip East, Chad Rachman, David Handschuh, Justin Lane and Ray Stubblebine.
There is a long way to go before this legislation can see the light of day as it continues to have many problems written into it, including giving DOT, an agency that is decidedly against parking permits for anyone, too much leeway in how they would issue the permits and under what conditions they might administer the program.
There might eventually be a City Council hearing on the legislation, so stay tuned for more on this important news.
Notes on Photographers
They are free: Our friends Tyler Hicks of the NY Times and Lyndsay Addario are thankfully safe and sound after being captured by Libyan soilders. While they were both physically abused – Tyler was beaten and Lyndsay touched inappropriately – we are gratified they are ok.
She goes home: Shiho Fukada went home to her native Japan to photograph the devastation. Our hearts go out to her.
Oh baby: Daily News staffer Susan Watts gave birth to Beatrice Gabrielle on March 3. Congrats to Susan and dad Darren Kornblut. And a great happy birthday to Susan on March 25.
Calendar Items
Mana appearance at J&R
J&R MUSIC WORLD proudly welcomes “Maná” in a special appearance on
Wednesday, April 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Park Row store. Maná will be signing copies of
their new album "Drama y Luz"
Perhaps the most popular and influential Latin music artist of all time is Maná. After two decades of breaking all types of records, especially those of record sales and world tours, the super group from Guadalajara, Mexico prepares itself to present their first studio album in almost five years,
DRAMA y LUZ (Drama and Light).
Their World tour kicks off in the United States this coming summer. http://www.jr.com/product/music/pm/_1766580/
9-11 Program continues – another volunteer night April 28
Volunteers and anyone interested in knowing more about the photojournalism symposium “Witness to Tragedy and Recovery” are invited to join us for a meeting in a special meeting room in the rear of the Grisly Pear comedy club on Thursday, April 28, at 6:30 p.m. All those attending will be treated to food and soft drinks (our bylaws prevents us from paying for alcohol).
This program is in the midst of fundraising and the event is contingent upon outside support. We have money pledged by NPPA and PACE, and we have interest from a number if outside financial parties.
The money at this point is not enough. Please come to learn more about what we are doing.
For more information, contact Todd Maisel, co-chair Witness to Tragedy and Recovery, at toddphoto@aol.com or call 646-872-5374
Please sign display agreement for “Witness” exhibit
The Bolivar Arellano Gallery is requesting that all photographers who donated image files to his gallery
in the past for his fundraising in his gallery, or has donated image files now, should sign the agreement that has been crafted for Witness to Tragedy and Recovery to be exhibited at Pace University
on September 9.
We are especially seeking photos of “Recovery” as we have more than enough of the 9-11 attack as we need. Contact toddphoto@aol.com for more information.
The images will only be used for the two week exhibit and none of the photos will be sold. Images that are needed for promotional materials will require an additional agreement and will be worked out with the photographer before they are used for anything else but the exhibit.
It is necessary to have signed agreements on the exhibit to avoid any misunderstandings that might arise from use of the photos in the exhibit. Arellano Gallery will do everything within its power to protect the copywrite of photographers and their copywrite holders.
Please contact curator Bolivar Arellano at JBolivarArellano@aol.com
Highline exhibit at SB Design
Our friends Seolbin Park and her husband Chang Lee of the NY Times hosted Anne Finkelsteins exhibit and opening night of the High Line Series, March 26th at SB D Gallery, 125 East 4th Street. The show continues through April 23rd, gallery hours are Wed. - Friday, 1-6, Saturday by appointment. Go visit the exhibit now while it lasts.
NYPPA voting – just do it
It doesn’t matter who you vote for the in the election of the New York Press Photographers Association as long as you vote.
Show the leadership of that organization you care about what they are doing and that your vote counts. Remember, only members of NYPPA are eligible to vote. Look at the bios and consider carefully who will do the job that will benefit photographers the most. Study their history and what they’ve done for the the NYPPA and to photographers in general.
Go to www.nyppa.org for information on all those candidates – all of whom deserve your consideration.
The Northern Short Course was a huge success and we are looking forward to next year in Virginia
– stay tuned for details.
R2 under the leadership of Chairman Todd Maisel and Associate Chairman Mark Dye, provided photography and videography for the three day event in Warwick, Rhode Island last month. Dye also did much of the graphics for the promotions of NSC this year and last.
Our NSC Chairwoman Michelle McLaughlin did a fantastic job putting together this event along with Bill Auth, Steve Falk, Tom Costello, David Handschuh and Will Yurman. There were so many other volunteers that were too numerous to count that made this so successful.
We were gratified to receive four hours of FinalCut with Eric Maierson, a Senior Producer at MediaStorm where he has produced work for National Geographic, Council on Foreign Relations, and the Open Society Institute. He is the recipient of two Emmy Awards in addition to numerous other accolades including two Webby awards and NPPA's Best of Photojournalism. We found great inspiration from Lucy Nicholason of Reuters, award-winning multi-media story teller Darren Durlach of The Boston Globe who is now a Senior Multimedia producer, and four hours of on the run lighting with the great commercial shooter Tom Sperduto.
We also were treated to presentations by Award-winning photographer Peter Pereira from Standard Times New Bedford, MA for the past 10 years; Michael DelGiudice an award winning photographer and editor at WNBC-TV in New York City; Karen Kasmauski has developed workshops for George Washington University and the Maine Media Workshop and sits on the boards of non-profits working with poverty relief and community building in Southeast Asia and in Africa. These were but a few who we shared professional tips and ideas.
And of course there was great networking opportunities with some of the greats of our business, both during the seminars and afterhours. We had many sponsors including Nikon and Canon (who did a great job cleaning our cameras), Olympus, Roberts Photo, Camerabits, Hunts Photo and Video, Lowepro, Lumiquest, Mementa, Photoshelter, Routeledge Taylor and Francis Group, Temple University, ThinkTank and Thompson Reuters. Please thanks these people for their support by working with them in your professional careers. See photos here
Photographers kept away from crime scene – but civilians walk through
Leaders of the photojournalism community are steaming over several incidents that have occurred in which the NYPD prevented the media from recording images, even after bodies were removed and investigations were complete. We believe a pattern of this behavior is developing of this behavior, but we are watching patiently as new DCPI personnel are properly trained to make sure the media has the access that is needed while respecting crime scene integrity and not endangering themselves or the public.
On Sunday, March 13 on St. Marks Place in Boerum Hill, a police officer was shoved off a stairway to his death. The incident occurred at 5:50 a.m. During the course of the day, Crime Scene conducted their investigation and completed by 1 p.m. according to several photographers and reporters at the scene.
At 5 p.m. that day we were notified that despite there being no activity by investigators at the scene, media was still not allowed to photograph the scene of the incident. Calls were made to Jerry Engel, police liasion for the NYPPA at 6:30 and he then spoke to a detective at DCPI who told him that she didn't know why the scene was still closed to media, but residents and other people were allowed to go down the block. We spoke with Robert Stolarik of the Times and he called Al Baker, the Times reporter at Police Plaza. Both spoke to DCPI. Theodore Parier of the NY Post called DCPI to ask to open the location and DCPI hung up on him. He called back and she claimed she didn't hang up. Ben Chapman from the NY Daily News also called. NBC was said to have called. By 8 p.m. the location was opened to the media to photograph in the dark. This was long after the investigation was completed. No detectives were on the scene during that afternoon from about 1 p.m. according to Debbie Egan Chin of the News.
On Saturday, March 19, at the memorial to the victims of the bus accident on I95, organized by the city and the Office of Emergency Management, the press was intentionally obstructed by the NYPD including members of Community Affairs and DCPI. Photographers present could not get a clear view of the event for most of the news event.
 |
 |
|
| Photo by: Debbie Egan Chin | Photo by: Robert Stolarik |
Members of the media, according to Egan-Chin, requested that the NYPD move their personnel out of
the way of the press. This request was refused. It was not until about 45 minutes into the one hour of the memorial that the media were able to cover the event, due to the assistance of Chris Gillbride, director of public information for OEM. Gillbride told members of the media that police recalcitrance and their actions were "astonishing." This particular email includes photos taken by Debbie Egan-Chin of the News showing the NYPD intentionally obstructing this organized memorial to those victims. The media was
kept at about 75 feet from the memorial, and were not in any way causing any discomfort or obstruction to the memorial.
From our perspective, this constitutes pattern of abuse of authority and numerous violations of police procedures and the First Amendment. Since these incidents occurred, DCPI has explained that the media was kept off of St. Marks because “the health department was conducting an investigation.” We challenge the NYPD to provide more information as to what the health department was doing – as photographers were unable to determine their presence.
The NYPD also explained that the press was kept by DCPI and Community Affairs from shooting pictures for only “10 minutes” of the one hour ceremony at the bus crash site because of requests from social workers. Whether or not this is true, we do not believe it is the job of the Police Department to prevent photography in a public place. Others have been told by DCPI that the incident never occurred.
The media was 75 feet from the ceremony and members of the media continue to claim this to be incorrect.
As of last week, members of DCPI were going for training to work with media. We do not know what media representatives were actually talking with DCPI to learn what we might think or what we can help in terms of educating officers to respect the First Amendment. We are hopeful that they can learn to better work with us in a spirit of cooperation and respect that is to the benefit of all.
We also will remind all of an incident that occurred several months earlier in which media were also restricted from seeing a crime scene in a horse stable attack in which a police officer shot a man smashing his car with a brick. The press was kept out of sight of the crime scene well into the night and long after the investigation was concluded.
We will remind the NYPD that our photographers take photos at various stages of these incidents and
they are time stamped in the meta data. We believe we have a strong case that can have repercussions. These continued actions, the NYPD should be reminded, constitute violations of their own rules and the law, especially the First Amendment.
Photojournalist vehicle cards come to the City Council
Thanks to the efforts of the NYPPA vehicle card committee, the City Council, led by two City Councilman James Vacca who is chairman of the Transportation Committee and Peter Vallone who is chairman of the public safety committee, have introduced legislation that will compel the City to issue permits for legitimate photographic press vehicles to park in places that they presently have no legal right to leave their vehicles during assignments. The bill is intended to restore the privileges taken away by the NYPD in 2009 when they refused to renew the Press Vehicle Cards.
The legislation would allow photographers with the permit to park in commercial zones, no parking
zones (white signs), in addition to being able to use high occupancy vehicle lanes on highways to get
to assignments.
Special thanks goes to Robert Roth, who has spearheaded our legal and negotiation efforts to get this legislation this far. Also deserving praise is Todd Maisel, Chip East, Chad Rachman, David Handschuh, Justin Lane and Ray Stubblebine.
There is a long way to go before this legislation can see the light of day as it continues to have many problems written into it, including giving DOT, an agency that is decidedly against parking permits for anyone, too much leeway in how they would issue the permits and under what conditions they might administer the program.
There might eventually be a City Council hearing on the legislation, so stay tuned for more on this important news.
Notes on Photographers
They are free: Our friends Tyler Hicks of the NY Times and Lyndsay Addario are thankfully safe and sound after being captured by Libyan soilders. While they were both physically abused – Tyler was beaten and Lyndsay touched inappropriately – we are gratified they are ok.
She goes home: Shiho Fukada went home to her native Japan to photograph the devastation. Our hearts go out to her.
Oh baby: Daily News staffer Susan Watts gave birth to Beatrice Gabrielle on March 3. Congrats to Susan and dad Darren Kornblut. And a great happy birthday to Susan on March 25.
Calendar Items
Mana appearance at J&R
J&R MUSIC WORLD proudly welcomes “Maná” in a special appearance on
Wednesday, April 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Park Row store. Maná will be signing copies of
their new album "Drama y Luz"
Perhaps the most popular and influential Latin music artist of all time is Maná. After two decades of breaking all types of records, especially those of record sales and world tours, the super group from Guadalajara, Mexico prepares itself to present their first studio album in almost five years,
DRAMA y LUZ (Drama and Light).
Their World tour kicks off in the United States this coming summer. http://www.jr.com/product/music/pm/_1766580/
9-11 Program continues – another volunteer night April 28
Volunteers and anyone interested in knowing more about the photojournalism symposium “Witness to Tragedy and Recovery” are invited to join us for a meeting in a special meeting room in the rear of the Grisly Pear comedy club on Thursday, April 28, at 6:30 p.m. All those attending will be treated to food and soft drinks (our bylaws prevents us from paying for alcohol).
This program is in the midst of fundraising and the event is contingent upon outside support. We have money pledged by NPPA and PACE, and we have interest from a number if outside financial parties.
The money at this point is not enough. Please come to learn more about what we are doing.
For more information, contact Todd Maisel, co-chair Witness to Tragedy and Recovery, at toddphoto@aol.com or call 646-872-5374
Please sign display agreement for “Witness” exhibit
The Bolivar Arellano Gallery is requesting that all photographers who donated image files to his gallery
in the past for his fundraising in his gallery, or has donated image files now, should sign the agreement that has been crafted for Witness to Tragedy and Recovery to be exhibited at Pace University
on September 9.
We are especially seeking photos of “Recovery” as we have more than enough of the 9-11 attack as we need. Contact toddphoto@aol.com for more information.
The images will only be used for the two week exhibit and none of the photos will be sold. Images that are needed for promotional materials will require an additional agreement and will be worked out with the photographer before they are used for anything else but the exhibit.
It is necessary to have signed agreements on the exhibit to avoid any misunderstandings that might arise from use of the photos in the exhibit. Arellano Gallery will do everything within its power to protect the copywrite of photographers and their copywrite holders.
Please contact curator Bolivar Arellano at JBolivarArellano@aol.com
Highline exhibit at SB Design
Our friends Seolbin Park and her husband Chang Lee of the NY Times hosted Anne Finkelsteins exhibit and opening night of the High Line Series, March 26th at SB D Gallery, 125 East 4th Street. The show continues through April 23rd, gallery hours are Wed. - Friday, 1-6, Saturday by appointment. Go visit the exhibit now while it lasts. NYPPA voting – just do it
It doesn’t matter who you vote for the in the election of the New York Press Photographers Association as long as you vote.
Show the leadership of that organization you care about what they are doing and that your vote counts. Remember, only members of NYPPA are eligible to vote. Look at the bios and consider carefully who will do the job that will benefit photographers the most. Study their history and what they’ve done for the the NYPPA and to photographers in general.
Go to www.nyppa.org for information on all those candidates – all of whom deserve your consideration.