Sights and Sounds #1

Since we think clicking little buttons on little boxes is a good thing, whether to take a picture or to jump to a webpage, here are some new photography links.

Mike Johnston's blog is updated daily and keeps up a running commentary on photographs, photographers and (sigh!) gear. He's currently listing his choices for the Top Ten Photos of all time -- count down one every Tuesday, with #9 expected tomorrow (#10 was Edward Weston's classic "Pepper No. 30"). Mike doesn't pixel-peep -- thank God for that. Plus, he likes small, simple, reliable, unobtrusive (and cheap? we wish, but he likes Leicas too) cameras, and the candid snapshots that are usually associated with such boxes. More power to him.

The Candid Frame has podcasts of interviews with photographers. There are only two so far, but it's an interesting project and we hope the list will grow. Meanwhile, a well-established institution is The Digital Journalist, a wonderful online newsletter of photojournalism across the world. Humanist, quirky, disturbing, bold, these are the pictures which tell the everyday story of the world we live in. The current issue features, among other things, a tribute to Olivier Rebbot, killed on assignment in El Salvador in 1981, and a review of a documentary on Henri Cartier-Bresson.

David Burnett, a veteran photojournalist who worked with Time and Life magazines before co-founding Contact Press Images, has an enviable been-there-done-that portfolio, with the true master's nack of being at the right place at the right time. However, what really stands out is his distinctly individual and striking sports photography from numerous Olympics, both summer and winter. Oh and he's apparently doing quite well shooting with Holgas nowadays :).

And while on the subject of Holgas and other such extreme machines, here's what might, if you will, be called the Digital Holga. Or how about Holga 1Dz Mark III?