Laurie McGinley Photography

Two nights ago all the gingko trees in my neighborhood lost all of their leaves. It was a still night, so the fallout was in a perfect yellow or green circle under each tree. I woke up this morning to frost on the ground, and on these delicious green and yellow gingko leaves.

One of my favorite photographers, Wing Young Huie, is having a party at the Minnesota Center for Photography on November 16, 2007.

Join Wing Young Huie, author and photographer of ³Looking for Asian America:
An Ethnocentric Tour by Wing Young Huie² for a slide show and book signing.

7:00 pm Friday, November 16 at
Minnesota Center for Photography

165 13th Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
612-824-5500

I had the honor of attending Photo Bravo tonight as a guest of one of the featured photographers. Photo Bravo is an annual fund raising event held by the Minnesota Center of Photography (MCP). The event was financially successful for MCP because they raised thousands of dollars for the organization that they will use to sponsor classes, give grants, put on exhibitions and be a bastion of photography for myself and all the other aspiring photographers in Minnesota.

Although the event was successful - people bid, art was sold, drinks were had - I’m disturbed by something I saw tonight. While I have almost exclusively focused on documentary photography in my short career (and have a big soft spot for it in my heart,) I truely value fine art photographs and do not deny their value. However, it is unsettling to me that a Mickey Smith print of two books bound with the word “Power” created a bidding contest that ended at $2500 while an iconic photograph from the stunning series, After War, by Lori Grinker was barely noticed and sold for a mere $200. What has happened to photography?

Mickey Smith

Lori Grinker

On the other hand, kudos to Tom Arndt, who had the foresight to auction his time and five family portraits. Then he did his research by attending the VIP dinner and pre-sale party and stood up at the auction to sell his lot. Well done Tom.

Michael Wesch has made another video that addresses some elements of the so-called Photography 2.0. The content of Michael’s video is relevant to anyone who puts photography online and wants it to be found

The topics Michael addresses in this video are the reasons why I am reluctant to put my photography in a flash site. I haven’t found a way to force flash let Google in the way semantic html coding lets it in. I want to be found, I want my work to be found, I want it to be attached to me. Anyone, please show me a flash site that can do that.

There is a post today on Magnum’s blog that explains their reasoning behind using sound with some photo stories. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and never made it happen. Reading this post today made me realize why I love Magnum so much. They’ve been thoughtful about presenting quality work. That work isn’t restricted to traditional photography but it uses powerful photography from talented photographers to create an experience. This, I admire.