What I am working on in my studio > November 2015
ABOVE THE FOLD: The front page section of the NY Times from the War in Kosovo in March 1999 to the present sorted according to the image above the fold. Read about the project.

Lorie Novak
What I am working on in my studio > November 2015
ABOVE THE FOLD: The front page section of the NY Times from the War in Kosovo in March 1999 to the present sorted according to the image above the fold. Read about the project.
Women Mobiizing Memory: Collaboration and Co-Resistance Exhibition/Conference at Columbia University
Thrilled to have one of my images advertise the conference:
ABOVE THE FOLD
16 years of NY Times Front Page Sections categorized by content of the photo above the fold. Arranged chronically and then photographed, images in stacks play as slideshows. Twelve categories playing here: Men with Guns, Dead Bodies, Memorials, 911, Grieving, Domestic Protest, International Protest, Celebrations, Weather, Rescue, Refugees and Immigrants, and Photos of Photos
Photos: The killings at Kent State – CNN.com.
Other LInks
came across this links about Walter Benjamin and want to come back to them
The work of Walter Benjamin in the age of digital reproducibility by Anca Pusca
The Fragmentary, Mystical Thought of Walter Benjamin Presented by Two Experimental Films
TIME and the TIMES
I was brought to Time’s Light Box by a post on Facebook about this piece: Witness to a Syrian Execution: “I Saw a Scene of Utter Cruelty”. An unnamed (for his safety) photojournalist documented public beheadings in Syria. The first photo is the ‘before’ moment. I have not hit the play button to see the rest. Reading the title and seeing the first image is enough and then reading the article and words by the photographer is more than enough. Why would someone want or need to look at more? Why is there a need to publish all of this?
“Because of the danger in reporting inside Syria, it was not possible to confirm the identity or political affiliation of the victim. Nor are we certain about the motivation of his killers. One eyewitness who lives in the area and was contacted by TIME a week after the beheadings said that the executioners were from ISIS, an Al-Qaeda franchise operating in Syria and Iraq.” Like the NY Times front page of the mass executions by rebels, here again horrific images are published without specific knowledge. The Times finds out its front page image is over a year old and the correction is buried, not front page news. I feel manipulated. I am troubled by this trend by the big NEWS organizations of getting the “shots”, being the first, etc. This has always been the case with photojournalism but the landscape is different now with social media and everything being filmed or photographed and then being circulated without the facts or without verifiable facts.
Looking at the NY Times image again, I see that we cannot identify those being shot (thankfully) but we can clearly see the shooters. Has this image been their death sentence? Because I haven’t looked at the rest of the Time images, I don’t know whether or not, we can see the faces of the executioners.
Barbie Zelizer writes about ‘About to Die’ Images. From an interview in Slate: “We’re squeamish because news pictures of the dead and dying are of real people and real events. If a news image works, it penetrates, lingers, forces our attention to the events involving death that it depicts. If a news image works, it doesn’t disappear when we cast aside the newspaper, dim the TV or turn off the Internet. That may be more intrusion than most people are willing to allow.”
These images from Syria haunt me. But are they really news images? What is the news? The rebels are bad too? Many Syrians are barbaric? That the war is horrific? Many questions, no easy answers.
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@ nytimes.com
I also have been following Watching Syria’s War at the Times but interestingly, I had trouble finding this section – no link from the Crisis in Syria section. If that front page photo of the mass execution had been in these sections, the politics would have been much different since it would be in the context of the difficulty of reporting in Syria and not being able to always know what is going on.
great piece by David Carr
Journalism, Even When It’s Tilted – NYTimes.com.
In a refracted media world where information comes from everywhere, the line between two “isms” — journalism and activism — is becoming difficult to discern. As American news media have pulled back from international coverage, nongovernmental organizations have filled in the gaps with on-the-scene reports and Web sites. State houses have lost reporters who used to provide accountability, so citizens have turned to digital enterprises, some of which have partisan agendas. more
A Guide to Watching Syria’s War.
MARCH 18, 2013 By Heather Murphy, NY Times
Amateur video has been pivotal to the way the conflict in Syria is understood.
NY Times video that raises good questions about what do without media.
from Washington Post- fascinating
Unique photography project gets strong reception in Iran.