Australian Open, Day 2
Day 2 brought lots of sunshine, and some pretty huge crowds. That’s more like it. I was assigned to the backcourts, which I actually kinda like. It’s a looser, more intimate atmosphere, and there’s more room for photographers to move around and work angles. The flipside is that there’s no vertical mobility -you’re stuck on [...]
Agent Orange images in Stern
German magazine Stern has an online slideshow of my images from a visit earlier this year to an Agent Orange orphanage. Not a story per se, but a glimpse into life for children who are often abandoned at a young age because of physical and mental disabilites, and end up living at this orphanage outside [...]
Return of the military honor guard
Anyone who shoots for a wire agency in a capital city knows the Groundhog Day routine that happens when a visiting dignitary (PM, Prez, King or Queen) drops in for a cup of tea on their watch. It means an official state reception and rolling out the red carpet with a military honor guard. It’s [...]
TIME Magazine: Typhoon highlights illegal logging in Vietnam
TIME picked up an image from my coverage of Typhoon Ketsana a few weeks back. The story is about illegal logging, and how the Typhoon washed thousands of logs down from the mountains to the coast, pretty much exposing the illegal logging industry for all to see. Literally. Heard about this story a few weeks [...]
The Prime Minister and the General
This morning the 6th session of the National Assembly XII opened at the Ministry of Defence in Hanoi. Nothing particular titillating to photograph, mostly just a few hundred delegates sitting down listening to a few opening remarks by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. However, before the start of the session, I caught up with the [...]
Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival 2009
A little slow getting this set up here. Had to drive down to central Vietnam earlier this week to cover Typhoon Ketsana. There are a few images of the buffalo being butchered, so be warned. Check out some of Aaron’s images from the same festival here. Enjoy! Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival 2009 – Images [...]
NEWWORK MAGAZINE & Communication Arts
Those Olympic Diving images are still making the rounds late in the year. Very happy to see them picked for ISSUE #4 of NEWWORK MAGAZINE, a fantastic fine art photography magazine in NYC, and Communication Arts 2009 Photography Annual. Its nice to see the images in a different forum (fine art) than they were originally [...]
Montreal World Press Photo
The traveling World Press Photo exhibit landed in Montreal last week, and some of my friends dropped by to check out the snaps. Thanks to Dom, Mike, Steve, Laure and of course Mama Cookson!
Reflections of a new father visiting an Agent Orange orphanage
Yesterday I went to an orphanage outside Hanoi, to work on a story about Agent Orange. There’s a new report out from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, saying the chemical defoliant could be causing heart disease and Parkinson’s in US Vietnam veterans. Of course this means it would be having the same effect on [...]
Reportage by Getty
Once in a while I like to point viewers towards great photography sites they might not otherwise find on their own. Although Getty certainly doesn’t need any extra web traffic from here (“Six hits from that Wainwright guy’s blog! Sweet!”), I’m not sure you’d know about their Reportage site unless you were in the industry. [...]
50th anniversary of the Ho Chi Minh Trail
50th Anniversary of the Ho Chi Minh Trail – Images by Julian Wainwright 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a supply line of roads, paths and jungle tracks largely responsible for defeating American forces during the Vietnam War. With much of the trail now disappearing into overgrown jungle, and large [...]
And just when you thought you’ve shot something original….
The image on the left of Major Shove Gilby was taken by Charles McQuillan, and recently awarded with a selection in the British Press Photographers Year 2009. The image on the right of Rafael Nadal is by Paolo Pellegrin, Magnum photographer extraordinaire. Although I’m certain neither photographer knew of the other’s image, its amazing to [...]
NYTimes: All the (digitally altered and posed) News That’s Fit to Print
I’m a huge fan of the New York Times. Growing up, heading out to the corner store to pick up the gargantuan Sunday edition was a real weekend treat. And I think that, for the most part, they’ve done a great job of adapting to the Internet. Their digital edition – in both content and [...]
Robert McNamara, US Secretary of Defense during Vietnam War, dies aged 93
McNamara was famously remourseful about his role in the Vietnam War in his later years, as recorded by Errol Morris in “The Fog of War“. His critics said that was much too little, too late. Though unlike Donald Rumsfeld, he did seem to genuinely carry the burden of his role in the deaths of thousands [...]
Balazs Gardi and Teru Kuwayama talk at the Frontline club
Two great photographers discuss their work in and around Afghanistan. Both shoot primarily black and white film, Teru often with a plastic Holga, and Balazs often with a Hasselblad X-Pan. They both create haunting, affecting images, very different from much of the conflict work coming from the area.
Story of the year! Now if only we could find a good cover photo….
Interesting discussion going on over at Photo District News about Time Magazine’s recent Iran cover. Yes, the editors did put a disclaimer stating the image was digitally altered, and the PDN people are trying to figure out how (best guess is they turned a horizontal into a vertical by adding sky etc). But I think [...]
The lawyers and the law
Last week, Hanoi lawyer Cu Huy Ha Vu launched a lawsuit against the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung. It’s not every day a citizen sues the leader of his country. In fact, according to Vu, it’s never been done before in Vietnam. Go figure. The lawsuit is over controversial bauxite mining projects in [...]
Yin / Yang
Last week I flew down to Phu Quoc, a lovely island off the southwest coast of Vietnam, for a luxury resort shoot. The manager, being a warm, generous soul, said it would be fine for my family to come along and stay in one of their swank villas for the week while I toiled (er, [...]
Sony World Photography Festival, gala awards dinner
So, the SWPAs have come and gone. What a whirlwind. I flew from Hanoi to Cannes, spent 2 nights at the very cool little 3.14 hotel, and flew right back to Hanoi. That’s about 48hrs worth of flying for roughly 48hrs on the ground. Worth it? Most definitely, even just for the baguettes. Although a [...]
En route to Cannes for the Sony World Photography Awards Festival
I’ve got a few hours to kill at Changi International Airport in Singapore, en route from Hanoi to Cannes for the Sony World Photography Awards Festival. If you have to kill a few hours in an airport, this has to be one of the very best. Free Playstations and XBoxes, massage, movie theatre, gardens, designated [...]
Olympic Divers: behind the images
I’ve been really overwhelmed by the positive response to the diving images that won prizes at both World Press Photo and the Sony World Photography Awards. I want to thank everyone for the kindness, I’m really humbled by this experience. When I entered these competitions, I honestly didn’t envision winning. I really only entered to [...]
First Place, Sport: Sony World Photography Awards
Today the Sony World Photography Awards were officially announced, and I won first place in the Sports category. My winning entry was a tighter edit of a series that placed 3rd at the World Press Photo competition a month ago. This is really exciting news, especially as the organizers are going to fly me out [...]
World Press Photo award
Yesterday I awoke to some very good news – I placed 3rd in the Sports Action Stories category of the World Press Photo contest, the world’s largest and most prestigious annual photojournalism contest. The work I submitted was shot during the Beijing Olympics Games in August, 2008. You can view the series on the World [...]