Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368" caption="Cybill Shepherd at the "Castle" during the filming of "Chances Are," where she plays an SI curator, 1988, by Jeff Tinsley, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 5, Negative Number: 88-10752-31. "][/caption] The frequency with which the words “curator” and “curating” pop up continues to
Description: Recently, I read some interesting news about the National Public Radio blog, “The Picture Show,” that explores photographic images and issues.
Description: [caption id="attachment_3132" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Surveillance camera found in hallway, 2009, courtesy of Marvin Heiferman."][/caption]Note to readers: the "News in the Visual" blog posts referenced below have now been moved to the "What Gets Saved" category on THE BIGGER PICTURE (2/20/2011).Talk about ironic. The whole time I’ve been writing “News in the
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="220" caption="Cover of Reader's Digest magazine featuring article on sexting, by Matt M, Creative Commons: Attribution 2.0."][/caption] Over the past few weeks, the web’s been abuzz with articles, blog posts, and comments about sexting, the practice of sending explicit photos (and sometimes texts and videos as well) over the Internet.
Description: Late in July, LENS, a New York Times blog that focuses on images and issues photographic, posted an interesting story by James Estrin. Magnum Photos, the legendary co-operative photo agency founded after World War II by photographers including Robert Capa and Henri Cartier Bresson, announced that to boost the visibility (and paid use) of the hundreds of thousands of images it
Description: In a storm of reporting, hundreds of articles published online and in print over the past couple of days, have focused attention on a story that touched on issues both photographic and archival.
Description: Some years back, and for what seemed like quite a while, people were talking about scrapbooking. As more aspects of everyday life were going digital, it felt like more and more people were paying homage to the paper-based mementoes of their experiences that appeared to be heading for oblivion. Quickly, and to support all the saving, trimming, and gluing that people were
Description: [caption id="attachment_1085" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="President Barack Obama and health care executives leave the State Dining Room of the White House following a press statement May 11, 2009. Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson."][/caption] A few days ago, watching TV and seeing Barack Obama face yet another gaggle of photographers and
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Sorry, We're Open, by mofo, Creative Commons: Attribution 2.0."][/caption] Back in May, I wrote about a controversy that surfaced in Europe after privacy advocates revealed that in the act of collecting photographic images for its Street View application, Google was also scooping up private data from the unsecured WiFi
Description: [caption id="attachment_3071" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Spiral Galaxy Messier 81 (M81), 2003, Spitzer Space Telescope / IRAC, NASA / JPL-Caltech / S. Willner, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA"][/caption] You may in fact be, or just feel like, a big shot down here on earth. But, ever since airborne cameras started to photograph our little planet from above, and once they
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="331" caption="14th Street and Broadway, NYC (man with goggles), 1947, by Louis Faurer, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of anonymous donors, 2007.40.61 "][/caption] Earlier this month, Google introduced the Beta and Android-based version of the new and, for some, startling photo-based search feature they’ve calling Google Goggles.
Description: Since The Bigger Picture began in early 2009, I’ve written a number of posts about what might be called camera traps, situations where cameras are installed to collect evidence of one kind of unusual or unwanted behavior or another. Red light cameras are a controversial example; across the country and on an almost daily basis, local municipalities and motorists argue about