The High Line announces the 12 shortlisted artists in consideration for the High Line Plinth, a landmark destination for public art.
Shortlisted proposals for fifth and sixth High Line Plinth commissions – Announcements – e-flux
ME: 12-YEAR-OLD PHOTOGRAPHER SHARES STUNNING WORK
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Since 2019, signs have announced a ban on photography in the private alleys
vivo’s V30 brings studio-like portrait photography to your palms
Image Credit: Supplied
If you are constantly let down by your smartphone’s low-light photography or design, you need the vivo V30. It brings with it the sense of style you have come to expect from a V series smartphone and packs improvements in design, portrait imaging and performance.
Capture like never before
The most unique aspect about the vivo V30 is the camera system supported by lighting enhancements. Instead of it being a regular light, it is a square outline positioned under the module, making it both stronger and softer than a standard flash. This means you can take portraits with details but also preserve the delicate textures of skin which would be lost if using a standard flash.
Image Credit: Supplied
But the flash is only one part of the puzzle in photography. Surrounding light and distance from the subject are also crucial, and vivo’s Aura Light takes care of both. For example, under neon lighting in the dark, it will default to a much cooler tone helping the picture maintain consistency with the environment. Likewise, if you are closer to a subject, the Aura Light is softer and more balanced compared to it being brighter when the subject is further away.
Image Credit: Supplied
To make sure you take full advantage of the improved Aura Light experience, V30 has a strong camera setup. This includes two main cameras: a 50MP Auto Focus Ultra Wide-Angle unit and a 50MP VCS True Colour Main Camera, and a 50MP AF Group Selfie Camera. The VCS True Colour camera has a large sensor and optical image stabilisation, which in tandem help especially with low-light images. And if you are wondering, VCS stands for vivo-exclusive Camera-Bionic Spectrum technology, which is what enables the camera to reproduce colours as close to the human eye as possible.
Interestingly, the improvements to camera hardware are not just limited to the main sensor. The Ultra Wide-Angle unit is the first in the V series to boast auto focus and has a much higher pixel count compared to the last generation. Have you ever had a portrait picture where a few people are out of focus? That is where the AI Group Portrait feature comes into play, where you can take pictures of up to 30 people without worrying about them being out of focus. You can also use the same lens for more detailed ultra-wide shots of scenic landscapes. On the flipside, the 50MP selfie camera with auto focus helps make group selfies a breeze.
No red lights
vivo V30 has a lot of good hardware up its sleeve. If you are someone who enjoys multimedia, the 6.78-inch AMOLED 1.5K Ultra Clear Sunlight Display is excellent, even outdoors thanks to its 2,800nit brightness. Moreover, its curved design makes movies immersive while the 120Hz refresh rate makes performance smooth. This is backed by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor, ideal for heavy multitasking, social media browsing and gaming. For the latter, V30 also has an Ultra Large Smart Cooling System with 11 built-in temperature sensors ensuring lag-free performance.
vivo has also been able to double the battery lifespan on the V30, meaning even after four years of regular charging, its capacity remains above 80 per cent. And for daily use, there is a 5,000mAh cell with 23 hours of standby time and 80W charging speeds thanks to FlashCharge, allowing you to fully charge the V30 in just 48 minutes.
Aesthetics like none other
Debuting with the V30 are new colour and material innovations. These include a high-performance glass covering on the display for drop resistance, IP54 water and dust protection and 2.5D glass on the rear camera module. The V30 comes in a Aqua Blue edition, which features a green-blue colour on a sleek glass surface with a water ripple pattern, a Lush Green that transforms into a deep blue colour in UV light and a classic Noble Black made with Flourite AG Glass. Remarkably, despite the 5,000mAh battery inside, V30 is sleek at only 7.45mm thin.
Image Credit: Supplied
Pricing and availability
The vivo V30 will be available for pre-orders in the UAE from March 14-20 with a bunch of add-ons including free earbuds, 18 months joint warranty for GCC and South Asia (12+6 extended), three months’ screen replacement guarantee, and a leather wallet can be used as a passport holder too. All these at a starting price of Dh1,699.
Photographer blasts claims his picture of Kate Middleton in a vehicle was doctored: ‘Car shots are unpredictable’
Sumanti Sen
Mar 13, 2024 07:09 AM IST
The photographer who clicked a photo of Kate Middleton sitting beside Prince William in a car has blasted claims that the photo was doctored
The photographer who clicked a photo of Kate Middleton sitting beside Prince William in a car has blasted claims that the photo was doctored. “We don’t change our photos in Photoshop other than adjusting the light levels if necessary,” Jim Bennett told New York Post.
‘Car shots are unpredictable’
Bennett explained that a news outlet hired him and another person to snap William while he headed to Westminster Abbey for a royal event. “The cars left Windsor Castle and I photographed them a short distance away on Datchet High Street — outside No. 39, to be precise!” he said. “Car shots are unpredictable at the best of times and with some reflection on the glass, it can be difficult.”
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“As it happened, it wasn’t until I checked on the back of the camera to make sure I had a frame of Prince William that I realized there was someone sitting next to him. It turned out to be Catherine!” Bennett added.
After the photo surfaced, there were conspiracy theories that Kate’s silhouette was edited and placed in the photo. Bennett also revealed that the picture was not released by the royal family, as some people claimed. It was taken by a professional photographer and later syndicated in the US by GoffPhotos, a photo agency.
Some Internet sleuths claimed Kate’s photo was actually a shot of her at a 2016 ceremony which was edited into this photo. Some even noticed inconsistencies with the pattern of bricks in the photo. However, Bennett provided a Datchet High Street address, which appeared to debunk such theories.
This comes after Kate’s Mother’s Day photo controversy, where sleuths and metadata found that a photo released by Kensington Palace had been manipulated. Kate later apologised for the Photoshop error, writing on social media, “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”
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Entries now open for 2024 Castaways Sculpture Awards
Entries are now open for the City of Rockingham’s 2024 Castaways Sculpture Awards.
Lake Placid Institute announces winners of annual student photography contest
Adela Gonzalez Eastman, a student at North Country School, received first place honors.
(Provided photo)
Mya Marshall from Lake Placid High School won second place.
(Provided photo)
Henry Gibson from Boquet Valley Central School in Elizabethtown took third place.
(Provided photo)
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Adela Gonzalez Eastman, a student at North Country School, received first place honors.
(Provided photo)
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Mya Marshall from Lake Placid High School won second place.
(Provided photo)
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Henry Gibson from Boquet Valley Central School in Elizabethtown took third place.
(Provided photo)
LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid Institute recently announced the winners of its annual student photography contest, “24 Hours: A Photographic Interpretation of Life in the Adirondacks.”
The contest was open to all high school students residing in or attending school in the Adirondack Park. This year, the institute received 170 photos from 95 students. Eighteen schools participated.
Adela Gonzalez Eastman, a student at North Country School in Lake Placid, received first place honors. Mya Marshall from Lake Placid High School won second place, and Henry Gibson from Boquet Valley Central School in Elizabethtown took third place.
A selection of 28 photos will be exhibited at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts from March 1-16, in conjunction with the High School Juried Art Show sponsored annually by LPCA. A reception and award ceremony was held at LPCA on March 1. The photos will also be displayed on the institute’s website.
This year’s photography contest was judged by Manuel “Manny” Palacios, an evocative outdoor photographer from the Mohawk River Valley. Palacios often meanders through the Adirondacks, blending his roles of scientist and artist to capture the region’s natural aura. Photography, he believes, is a mindful communion with nature that elevates both subject and viewer. Instead of merely capturing moments, his work invites a deeper way of seeing. Palacios likes to push the envelope of technical possibility and enjoys guiding others to realize their full artistic potential.
The Importance of Climate Change Photography
Melting glaciers, rising seas, raging wildfires, displaced communities – the impacts of climate change are overwhelming. Thankfully, powerful images have the potential to spur action and incite positive change. With Earth Hour 2024 approaching, now is a great time to tackle the pressing challenges of climate change with some evocative imagery.
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How can we truly grasp the magnitude of the world struggling against climate change? While information abounds in newspapers, magazines, scientific journals and social media, it is often the images captured by individuals facing the realities of the climate crisis that best depict the extent of devastation endured by communities, wildlife, and the environment.
Images offer compelling proof that climate change is a tangible reality unfolding before us. By visually portraying the challenges through storytelling, photography emerges as a vital instrument in combating the perilous effects of global warming. But it also has the power to shine a light on solutions, whether it is by capturing energy conservation efforts for Earth Hour or by highlighting collective movements that inspire activism.
The Value of Climate Change Photography
Photography plays a vital role in representing the complex realities of climate change. Visuals have the unique power to engage viewers on an emotional level, something that abstract data and figures often cannot do. Visuals make climate change visible in more compelling and accessible ways and serve as an important form of truth-telling and documentation of shifting landscapes, displaced communities, and disappearing wildlife across the globe.
Photography provides historical documentation of how places are transforming under climate change and creates a visual record for posterity. For instance, photos are a great way to showcase the year-by-year retreat of a glacier or the slow encroachment of rising seas on a low-lying village. Professional wildlife images of endangered animals deliver a powerful message on the damage that changing landscapes can have on rare species in remote settings. Most importantly, this visual documentation also helps counter claims by climate change deniers by providing indisputable visual evidence of change occurring in real locations.
Climate change photography plays a key role in storytelling, too. Photographs put human narratives at the centre, capturing emotional moments of loss, fear, hope, and resistance. Storytelling through images builds public engagement, compassion, and concern for people and animals at the frontlines of climate disruption. Images that reveal the costs of climate change can motivate audiences to take action. For example, who can forget the stark reality of starving polar bears struggling to survive as a result of warming ice caps or not be moved by images of destruction brought about by extreme weather events?
Capturing Shifting Landscapes
Climate change is rapidly transforming ecosystems and geographies around the world, from mountain glaciers to arctic ice sheets to tropical rainforests.
In Iceland, photos of the receding Breiðamerkurjökull glacier starkly illustrate how much ice has been lost over the past decade. Where mighty blue ice walls once stood tall, now only the glacial lagoon remains, filled with broken icebergs. Similarly, in Antarctica, sweeping drone photography shows the edges of massive ice shelves splintering and shearing off as warming ocean waters erode them from below.
NASA satellite images reveal how Africa’s Lake Chad, once a mighty expanse, has dried to a sliver, shrinking by about 90% in only 50 years. Before-and-after photos of Lake Mead in the United States document so-called “bathtub rings” on canyon walls, showing decreased water levels. Other images of Lake Mead capture hordes of wildlife desperate for water as their habitats dry up.
From parched riverbeds to starved animals, these photos bring forth evidence of disrupted ecosystems that might otherwise go unnoticed by the general public, providing visual proof that a warming climate is transforming the face of the planet.
More on the topic: The Causes And Effects of Lake Mead and Colorado River Basin Water Shortage, Explained
Devastation Across Vulnerable Communities
The effects of a changing climate are not just reshaping natural landscapes but also shattering vulnerable communities. Photography bears witness to climate change displacing people, flooding homes, and upending livelihoods. Images of cities inundated after hurricanes and cyclones, from Houston to Mozambique, are a testament to the gravity of the crisis that is unfolding right before our eyes.
Some photos document people’s desperate attempts to rebuild a life after floods washed away all they had, while others capture families inspecting their fire-ravaged homes in the aftermath of mega-fires, with wide shots revealing block after block of burned-out neighbourhoods. Climate impacts are also slowly displacing populations, but photography chronicles the migration both within and across national borders, as millions are estimated to be fleeing drought, desertification, and shoreline loss.
You might also like: In Pictures: The Devastating Impacts of Wildfires in Turkey
These images connect us to the human story, the cultural loss, and the economic hardship inflicted by a rapidly changing climate. Shots of these communities alter the narrative of climate change from a distant, future problem to one we must address now.
Inspiring Activism
While photographing the impacts of climate change is crucial, it can also help highlight the solutions underway and inspire broader activism, from renewable energy development to regenerative agriculture practices that help sequester carbon in the soil through cover cropping, composting, and reduced tilling.
Likewise, photography can be a powerful tool to document protests demanding action from governments and corporations to address the climate crisis. Images of massive crowds marching on the streets convey the rising public pressure and document creative activist tactics, from rallies to artwork and installation protests. On an individual level, photography can inspire sustainable consumer choices by depicting the beauty of walking and cycling or growing produce in your garden.
While showcasing the devastating impact of climate change is important, it is equally crucial to give space to the innovative efforts, ways, and technologies societies around the world are developing to counteract the crisis.
In the same way that vivid filmmaking and social media are powerful tools for portraying the impact of climate change to a mass audience, photography has a massive part to play, too. Inspiring images make it clear that we can and must address the climate crisis together, however small an action may be.
You might also like: How Youth Climate Action Is Shaping a More Sustainable Future
Check out the 12 sculptures that could be coming to the High Line
Mini models will be on display starting next Tuesday, March 19.
British Press Photographers’ Association Urges Palace to Release Unedited Kate Middleton Photo
The Kate Middleton photo drama continues.
After the Mother’s Day portrait of the Princess and her children was released and later recalled by news agencies, Kensington Palace released a statement from Kate apologizing for editing the image. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day,” she wrote. This did not quiet the controversy. Conspiracy theories continue to proliferate, and the whole situation is turning into something of a PR disaster for the royal family.
When photo agencies recalled the photo, they said no replacement would be provided. Kensington Palace has yet to share the original photo. The British Press Photographers’ Association has taken issue with this, and called on the Palace to release the image.
“We would urge everyone involved to make the original images available for inspection so that we can assess what has been done, make sure that it doesn’t happen again and allow this story to be the last time that manipulated images are distributed to the media,” the BPPA wrote in a statement, posted to their website.
Read BPPA’s full statement on the Kate photo controversy here:
The British Press Photographers’ Association applauds the actions of the major agencies who have had the courage to withdraw the recently distributed image showing Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales and her children by issuing a ‘kill notice’. Their suspicions that the photograph had been digitally manipulated are well-founded and it is important for the reputation of press photography that they have acted as swiftly and decisively as they have.
We are lead to believe that HRH The Princess of Wales has said that she edited the image and has apologised. That should not be an end to the matter however. Whether the picture was manipulated to ‘look nice’ by someone who didn’t understand the importance of truth in images or whether there is something else behind their actions is not as important as getting the message out there that it is wrong.
The BPPA has always spoken up in favour of making sure that the public has trust in the photographs produced by our members as well as those who supply images to the news media. This has become more of an issue since pictures supplied by such a variety of sources have become more common and we would urge all of those sources to have a look at item 1, clause i) of the Editors’ Code of Practice which says:
The press must take care not to publish inaccurate or misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.
We would urge everyone involved to make the original images available for inspection so that we can assess what has been done, make sure that it doesn’t happen again and allow this story to be the last time that manipulated images are distributed to the media.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
