Vision Slightly Blurred

Is Alberto di Lenardo the next Vivian Maier? Prior to his death, di Lenardo showed his granddaughter a "secret room" filled with the negatives of over 8,000 photos which she edited into a new book entitled "An Attic Full of Trains."

Also, Aaron Siskind's "Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation," Hannah Beachler requests that we use color photos from the Civil Rights era, and Bill Shapiro on the strange lure of other people's photos.

In this jam-packed episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen discuss how citizen journalism and professional photojournalism gave us an incredible point of view of the tragic explosion in Beirut, Andy Day and Benjamin Chesterton uncover Magnum Photo images of child sexual exploitation, Instagram censors (then allows) images of plus-size Black model Nyome Nicholas-Williams, CJR interviews Art Greenspon, Robert Hodierne, David Burnett and David Hume Kennerly on covering COVID, the #ReeseChallenge, and a wild boar steals a man's laptop!

With a $765 million loan under the U.S. Defense Production Act, Kodak has pivoted from film chemistry to pharmaceutical ingredients. The loan sent Kodak's stock price soaring from $2.61 to as high as $60 before settling in the low $20s. Eyebrows were also raised when it was revealed that Kodak Executive Chairman Jim Continenza scored a stock option grant the day before the announcement that could net him close to $100 million. 

Also, Judge Nelson Lee stays his own ruling for three weeks to allow Seattle media companies to prepare their appeal to the Seattle Police Department's subpoena of unpublished photos and video, we remember Civil Rights icon John Lewis through photos at Comic Con, Rite Aid uses facial recognition in their stores, AP announced they're switching to Sony, the Potato Photographer of the Year, and mesmerizing drone footage of a dog herding sheep! 

After 18 months, a campaign started by then 18-year old Mercedes Baptiste Halliday, a Black photo student in London, to stop the sales of a republication of Gian Butturini's "London" by Martin Parr has come to and end. An official apology plus Parr's request to destroy the remaining inventory (although publisher Damiani has apparently put the books on sale rather than destroyed them) has given Halliday a well-earned victory against racism and an entrenched "generation of white, middle-aged men who do what they want without any consequences."

Plus, three male doctors create fake social media accounts to spy on female medical professionals for the purposes of moral judgement, some great photos of NEOWISE, and an octogenarian couple in Taiwan become the latest hit on Instagram.

After the controversy surrounding Annie Leibovitz's Vogue cover of Simone Biles, Vanity Fair published a beautiful photo spread of Viola Davis taken by Dario Calmese. The images were spectacular, but Calmese used an old photo as a reference image for the cover, which caused controversy and discussion on Twitter.

Co-host Allen Murabayashi recounts his participation on an ICP panel about protestors and ethics with panelists Tara Pixley, Brent Lewis, and Joshua Lott, David Burnett writes a letter to NPPA, Amy Scott responds, Women Photograph announce their grant winners, and Twitter does not like Annie Leibovitz's photos of GOAT Simone Biles. 

In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen breakdown the week's photo news right now!

President Trump gave a Fourth of July Speech at Mount Rushmore, which provided a perfect spectacle for Presidential propaganda. Did the media get played by circulating these "patriotic" images, or was the publication more nuanced? 

In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah Jacobs and Allen Murabayashi also discuss controversy surrounding diversity at Magnum Photos and of members Martin Parr and Lua Ribeira, and finally some images of hot dogs to round out the holiday weekend.

As Pride month comes to a close, we highlight just a small number of photographers doing thought-provoking work from Robert Mapplethorpe's controversial sex images to tender images of middle-aged love by Matthew Papa.

Also in the show, the Photo Bill of Rights is unveiled (controversy follows), the Robert Giard Foundation's grant for emerging LGBTQ photographers, Tom Bianchi, Collier Schorr, Ryan McGinley, Muholi, Queer Appalachia, and a comparison of three kiss photos by Elinor Carucci, David Uzochukwu, and Ryan James Caruthers.

Juneteenth, the Summer Solstice, and Father's Day – all in one weekend – with some fantastic photography to boot.

In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen discuss the wonderful work of Jake May in Flint, MI, Linda Tirado sues the police for shooting her in the eye, Jesse Dittmar takes an assignment with the Washington Post to photograph TikTok star Charli D'Amelio, and the NYT's "Self-Portraits From Black Photographers Reflecting on America."

As photographers responded to the controversial Poynter article entitled "Photographers are being called on to stop showing protesters' face. Should they?" PhotoShelter co-founder Allen Murabayashi published a series of pieces that intensified the conversation around the First Amendment and the well-being of protesters and vulnerable populations. 

Allen and co-host Sarah Jacobs also discuss Michael Christopher Brown's response to criticism of his NY Mag cover, Michael Santiago takes a buyout, Apple gets a patent for "socially distanced selfies" and BIPOC photographers create the viral #VogueChallenge.