I’m Down With Chinatown
A messenger delivers food to a restaurant in the Chinatown district of New York City.
I am pleased that my copyright-free images are used not only by students and researchers and folks who simply love contemporary images taken all across America, but also by foundations, other organizations, media, and companies. (It’s appreciated, too, when they recognize the creator of the image!) The latest example to come to my attention is a cover of the Gastronomica food-studies journal. It shows – not a hunk of meat or a vegan stew but a smiling bicycle delivery man on Pell Street in New York’s Chinatown. Not sure what’s in the box on his bike, but it’s sure to taste good in whatever dish it’s destined for.
Pix Picks Me!
In ads and brochures and the like, you’ve seen “stock” photos such as happy couples clinking champagne glasses at a bar. I’m thrilled that the innovative, British-based stock-photo agency Raw Pixels, which offers high-quality fee-based and free images, is now showcasing my ample reservoir of images taken across America in the latter (free) category.
What’s mine is yours
Those of you who have followed my career know that I am bound and determined to share my thousands of images with you without copyright or royalty restriction. This conviction was inspired by my mentor-in-spirit, pioneer female photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston, who, who also left her life’s work to the world. This site about public domain gave me a kind mention, right alongside that of the whole Smithsonian Institution!.
C (as in Carol)-Spanning
Some time ago I had the distinct pleasure to spend an hour with C-Span legend Brian Lamb, who kindly shared the interview with his many followers. I just realized that I had never shared it with my peeps. It makes interesting viewing in times such as, oh, pandemic self-quarantining!
Crazy Headline Writers!
I just relocated this neat article about me and my work by an outstanding writer, Neely Tucker, in the Washington Post a full 10 years ago! (Time flies when you’re having fun.) The headline got my number of years on the road creating my Library of Congress collection wrong — it was 30 years then, now 40 — but even the best make mistakes!
Clunker Cred
In the online Journal of Roots Music, a fellow named “Easy Ed” liked and published, with credit, my photo of a rusted-out relic that I took near the Shack-Up Inn — a colorfully named cotton plantation turned kooky motel complex in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Ol’ Ed also touted my “home” on the Library of Congress Web site as “a good place to ramble and wander.”
Meet the chick in the hard hat!
Going through some stuff I had set aside — years ago in some cases — and lost sight of, I came across a nice story about me, pegged to Women’s History Month — on the Accessible Archives blog. Check it out . . . and note the photos that show the considerable evolution, if not of me, at least of my cameras!
I’m Sort of Bicoastal!
You may recall that 40 of my images were featured in a 2018 exhibit about the historic Library of Congress collection at the fabled Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. Well, somebody out there likes me – or at least my work. Right now my photographs and those of Camilo José Vergara are highlighted in a year-long “L.A. Murals” exhibition at The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. It’s a fact, Jack: I love, and love to photograph, murals!
My Resolution Revolution
As those who know a focal length from an f-stop may know, I carry and almost exclusively use a 151-megapixel Phase One camera, which produces unparalleled resolution. My Phase One dealer, Digital Transitions in NYC, profiles photographers from time to time, and this time was my time. And Dorothy’s!
American Libraries
One of the things I look for on the road are beautiful or unique libraries, partly because I love them and partly because the Library of Congress—the greatest library of in the world—likes them, too, for obvious reasons. The LoC and Norton Publishers have just put out a book about historic American libraries, and I am pleased that it chose my images not only for the front and back cover but for each and every color image (21 in all) in the book . This is the spectacular George Peabody Library in Baltimore, Maryland. Not your corner birdhouse library, eh?