EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm still collecting Year in Pictures galleries. I've got some smaller and mid-sized papers coming in next week's newsletter, so email me links: m [at] melissalyttle [dot] com—Melissa
1. The Year in Pictures galleries are starting to appear. I'm going to post some links below and continue it next week as more trickle in. And as CNN editors said in the intro to theirs, "It may not be a year you want to remember, but 2020 is one you'll never forget."
2. I also really love that the Guardian's photo editors create their own Agency Photographer of the Year shortlist. The winners will be announced next week, but for now, check out some amazing work being done by wire and agency photographers. And they have a 2020 Historic Photographer of the Year Awards which celebrates the places and cultural sites around the world that offer a window to the history that exists all around us.
5. (** I'm running this again, with my apologies for accidentally spelling Ron Bennett's name wrong in one instance. I know several photographers named Rob Bennett and the typo was all mine. And though I never met him, Ron's career and life were incredible and worthy of being mentioned a second time.)
R.I.P. Ron Bennett (an NPPA member since 1969!). And what a career he had! Bennett began as a newspaper photographer in Oregon before joining the staff of UPI, the San Diego Tribune, and the federal government. Bennett was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his photographs of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He went onto work with Presidents from Kennedy to Bush. He photographed some of his generation's biggest stories including: Watts riots, Charles Manson murders of Sharon Tate; Anti-war demonstrations; bombing of the U.S. Capitol; Watergate; the return of POW's from Vietnam; Vietnam My Lai courts-martial; Three Mile Island meltdown; Eruption of Mount St. Helen's; Fall of the Shah of Iran; Commercial airline crashes; Space shuttles; Pope John Paul visit to the USA; Hollywood; Academy Awards; Olympics; Championship NFL, NBA, NHL; World Series baseball; Rose Bowl; World Champion Heavyweight Boxing; National Democratic and Republican Conventions; Campaign of Presidents; Inauguration of Presidents; Travel with Presidents of the United States, both abroad and within the USA; President Nixon's resignation; President Ford's pardon of Nixon; Camp David Peace Accord; United Nations; First American invited by President Castro to Cuba; Assassination attempts on Gov. George Wallace, and Presidents' Ford; Reagan and Gorbachev summits, Attack on Twin Towers in Manhattan, NY and Pentagon.
For those who wish to virtually attend Ron's memorial service, it will be livestreamed on December 18, 2020 at 11am.
6. The personal accounts are frightening and the sheer numbers in this report are staggering. Freedom of the Press Foundation just released a new report detailing an unprecedented number of journalist arrests in the United States in 2020.
7. PhotoShelter recently asked more than a thousand photographers how they overcame 2020’s unique difficulties and what new strategies they’re bringing into 2021. Download their Photographers Outlook on 2021 guide for some inspiration in how some reimagined and adjusted in spite of an arduous year.
8.Bob Gruen was on NPR's Fresh Air. He's photographed countless rock stars — backstage, on stage & on the road. It was fun to hear him talk about his friendship with John Lennon, why Bob Dylan doesn't like him and surviving the party lifestyle of the '70s. Also, I had to look up that Tina Turner photo he described, where she was caught by multiple strobes in a 1-second exposure. And yeah, it’s as great as I thought it was…
9.Matt Black’s stunning “American Geography” is his six-year, 100,000-mile mission to create a project that will convey a nation’s grim realities, and help Americans to stop ‘unseeing themselves’ (Also appeared in the March/April 2019 issue of News Photographer with a conversation between Maggie Steber and Matt.)
