Ever wonder why an American office worker might prefer to sit under his desk, while his Japanese counterpart would do anything to not have to leave his chair? Lars Tunbjörk’s “Office” series, an artful photographic documentary of corporate offices in Japan, North America, and Sweden, seems to hold some clues.

With their static subject matter and lackluster color palette, it has been too easy for these images to be pigeonholed as studies of boredom and banality. But given the chance to spend time with them during a recent visit to Cohen Amador Gallery in New York, I’ve come to see these photos as much more than half-whimsical indictments of lifeless automatons trapped in drab cubicles and off-the-rack suits.

On closer inspection, in fact, they provide fleeting insight into the ways disparate cultures relate to restrictive spaces.

Reflecting on Tunbjörk’s series, a blog named Feeling Listless observes  that people work “within the limits of the environment that they find themselves in” and will take the opportunity, to the extent it is there, “to … reconfigure [those spaces] to suit the task at hand.” 

The press release on the Cohen Amador site makes the point more specifically, noting how: “The marks and signifiers of the human presence … sometimes blatantly reveal themselves in individuals attempting to accommodate their environment to their needs: a person talking on the phone underneath his desk, a man stretching his shoeless feet, women spreading papers out across the floor.”

As a student of non-verbal behavior, I am gratified by this emphasis on the somatic. But I am not satisfied to simply take note of such behavior; I want to know what it says (or, at least suggests) about the people as situated.

One thing that jumps out at me in Tunbjörk’s survey is the apparent contrast between how American and Japanese workers relate physically to the officescape. Just take a look at the photo of the Japanese market trader, so “affiliated” with his terminal, his desk, his chair that he can actually sleep in place.  Or the Tokyo construction firm workers doing exercises at their desks, as if increasing personal pliability simply to more easily mold back  into their working space. 

In contrast, look at the shots of American’s under or on top of desks, or kneeling in the middle of a hallway in front of a file cabinet.

Based on these images, the Japanese worker seems to adhere to specified navigation, ergonomic formulas, and prescribed usages about as much as the Americans tend to resist and defy them. Admittedly, Tunbjörk’s images represent a random and miniscule sample. But if we accept that and peel back the layer of banality, “Office” raises legitimate questions about the cultural dynamics of space. 

Lars Tunbjörk’s complete “Office” series can be seen at CohenAmador.com.

— Michael Shaw is a practicing clinical psychologist, but American Photo knows him through his popular, politically charged image-analysis blog, BAGnewsNotes.com. With his adept dissection of newswire photos and his Reading the Pictures feature at the Huffington Post, Shaw has cultivated an outspoken voice and a loyal following within the blogosphere. We are excited to bring his insights to our readers in the form of an online feature as well as a guest post on our State of the Art blog.

Source: www.popphoto.com

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Capture NX software : Nikon UK is pleased to announce that for the first time its new professional Digital SLR cameras, the Nikon D3 and D300, will be accompanied by Capture NX, Nikon’s award winning software package. The latest version of the software, Capture NXv1.3 will give professional photographers the creative freedom to develop and enhance shots, particularly when shooting in RAW format. Initial shipments of the new cameras will come with a product key that will unlock a downloaded trial version of NX available from the web site. A CD ROM version will be bundled with D300 and D3 from December. The Nikon D300 and the D3 digital SLR cameras will be available at the end of November 2007.
The new Nikon D300 digital single lens reflex (D-SLR) sets new standards of compact professional performance. The easy-to-use DX-format D300 offers outstanding image quality, multi-functional technologies and fast response. With class-leading 12.3 Megapixel resolution, speedy 6 fps frame advance, self-cleaning sensor unit and high definition 3-inch VGA LCD display, combined with Nikon’s legendary durability, the Nikon D300 is a breakthrough solution for photographers searching for an advanced compact SLR.

Capture NX RAW software – Development and Feedback
The Nikon D3 D-SLR camera, the result of years of development and feedback from professional photographers, combines many innovative Nikon technologies. These include an exclusive 12.1 effective megapixel FX format (36.0×23.9mm) image sensor with 12-channel read out, a blazing-fast 9 fps frame rate, expandable ISO settings from 200-6400, a completely new 51-Point autofocus system, a 3-inch VGA LCD screen with Live View and a cutting-edge image processing system.

Nikon
Nikon Corporation, a world leader in cameras, imaging and optics, was founded on July 25th, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan. Beginning as an optical firm, Nikon manufactured microscopes, telescopes, surveying equipment and optical measuring devices. Nikkor was adopted as the brand name for the company’s line of photographic lenses in the 1930s. In 1946, the company began producing a 35mm rangefinder camera with an interchangeable lens, the first Nikon camera. The success of the Nikon Rangefinder was followed by the introduction of the classic Nikon F single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera in 1959, built with the technology leadership and precision that characterizes Nikon products. Nikon has continued its leadership into the 21st century with its popular and critically acclaimed film and digital cameras, from the Coolpix consumer line to advanced professional digital SLRs. As a milestone, production figures for the Nikkor interchangeable lenses surpassed the 40 million in August 2007. From its industry-leading cameras to lenses, optics, accessories and software, Nikon is the choice of professional and amateur photographers alike.

Source: www.letsgodigital.org

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This high-speed, normal prime ($199, street) has been around for a decade. Why test it now? No other lens in the current Pentax catalog can throw backgrounds into creamy defocus like this. Even better, on a Pentax K10D, K100D, or K100D Super DSLR, it scales up to a medium-tele 75mm, a fine choice for portraits. Better still? The low price.

HANDS ON
A half-inch shorter and several ounces lighter than comparable Canon and Nikon 50mm f/1.4s, this full-framer predates digital. The small, rubber-clad, manual-focus ring’s turning action is a bit rough. Distance scales are large and easily legible; ditto for the depth-of-field scale (remember those?). The AF action on our test camera, the Pentax *ist DL, was rapid and quiet.

Source: www.popphoto.com

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Capture NX software : Nikon UK is pleased to announce that for the first time its new professional Digital SLR cameras, the Nikon D3 and D300, will be accompanied by Capture NX, Nikon’s award winning software package. The latest version of the software, Capture NXv1.3 will give professional photographers the creative freedom to develop and enhance shots, particularly when shooting in RAW format. Initial shipments of the new cameras will come with a product key that will unlock a downloaded trial version of NX available from the web site. A CD ROM version will be bundled with D300 and D3 from December. The Nikon D300 and the D3 digital SLR cameras will be available at the end of November 2007.
The new Nikon D300 digital single lens reflex (D-SLR) sets new standards of compact professional performance. The easy-to-use DX-format D300 offers outstanding image quality, multi-functional technologies and fast response. With class-leading 12.3 Megapixel resolution, speedy 6 fps frame advance, self-cleaning sensor unit and high definition 3-inch VGA LCD display, combined with Nikon’s legendary durability, the Nikon D300 is a breakthrough solution for photographers searching for an advanced compact SLR.

Capture NX RAW software – Development and Feedback
The Nikon D3 D-SLR camera, the result of years of development and feedback from professional photographers, combines many innovative Nikon technologies. These include an exclusive 12.1 effective megapixel FX format (36.0×23.9mm) image sensor with 12-channel read out, a blazing-fast 9 fps frame rate, expandable ISO settings from 200-6400, a completely new 51-Point autofocus system, a 3-inch VGA LCD screen with Live View and a cutting-edge image processing system.

Nikon
Nikon Corporation, a world leader in cameras, imaging and optics, was founded on July 25th, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan. Beginning as an optical firm, Nikon manufactured microscopes, telescopes, surveying equipment and optical measuring devices. Nikkor was adopted as the brand name for the company’s line of photographic lenses in the 1930s. In 1946, the company began producing a 35mm rangefinder camera with an interchangeable lens, the first Nikon camera. The success of the Nikon Rangefinder was followed by the introduction of the classic Nikon F single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera in 1959, built with the technology leadership and precision that characterizes Nikon products. Nikon has continued its leadership into the 21st century with its popular and critically acclaimed film and digital cameras, from the Coolpix consumer line to advanced professional digital SLRs. As a milestone, production figures for the Nikkor interchangeable lenses surpassed the 40 million in August 2007. From its industry-leading cameras to lenses, optics, accessories and software, Nikon is the choice of professional and amateur photographers alike.

Source: www.letsgodigital.org

read more from " Capture NX included with Nikon D3 and D300 "

Just two years ago, the Detroit Free Press, a daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, began to introduce its photographers to a new medium. Video was unfamiliar to the staff; after all, until the dawn of the 21st century, motion pictures had no home with print media. A few hundred short video documentaries and about a year and a half later, the staff found themselves nominated for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ prestigious Emmy award.

Formal recognition was not new to the esteemed staff, having won eight Pulitzer Prizes in years past, but until this year, an Emmy was never in sight. Joined by fellow winners MediaStorm and the San Francisco Chronicle, the Free Press bested entries from Frontline, National Geographic, Newsweek, and the Washington Post to win one of three News and Documentary Emmy awards in the brand new broadband media category.

The newspaper submitted six entries for consideration, and while three were nominated, the “Michigan Marines: Band of Brothers” video series produced for www.freep.com received the Emmy award.

The team that worked to produce the winning series included executive producer Nancy Andrews; producers/principal videographers David P. Gilkey and Stephen McGee; principal reporters David P. Gilkey, Stephen McGee, Joe Swickard, and John Masson; director of photography and video Craig Porter; deputy director of photography and video Kathy Kieliszewski; videographer Brian Kaufman; and photographer/reporter Kathleen Galligan.

Though now employed as a freelancer, Stephen McGee, one of the videographers who worked on the project, began his career at the Free Press in 2005. Managing Editor for Digital Media Nancy Andrews, who was director of photography at the time, invited McGee to join the staff after learning of his skills as a video producer while at the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2005. A short time later, in October of 2005, McGee joined the Free Press as a photography intern, but quickly jumped in to help the staff with their early video efforts, teaching technique and video production to fellow photographers.

Andrews brought McGee on board to help the staff progress into the digital age. As readers began turning to the Internet as a primary news source, Andrews felt a need to adapt. “We are historically a newspaper, but we as a news organization have to adapt to how people are receiving and want to receive information now,” Andrews said. “Some people want to read the print product; some people want to watch a video.”

The Free Press staff put their video skills to use, and began working on the “Band of Brothers” project in August of 2006, after Andrews and David Gilkey, a Free Press staff photographer, read an Associated Press article printed in their paper. From the article, Andrews and Gilkey learned of a battalion of more than 900 Michigan Marines that were training in California before being deployed in Iraq.

One of the early videos McGee and Gilkey worked on as part of the “Band of Brothers” series, in November of 2006, was one documenting the funeral of 35-year-old Marine Sgt. Bryan K. Burgess, killed in combat in Iraq. McGee shot video of the funeral in Michigan while Gilkey shot the marine’s funeral in Iraq, which took place on the same day. The team produced the video in less than 24 hours.

McGee said that the Burgess video set the bar for those to come. “We have a readership that’s expecting great videos,” McGee said. “With the bar already set with that first video we produced with the Marine laid to rest, we have to meet that bar or exceed it every time.”

Because the “Band of Brothers” videos were produced over a long period of time, the project gave journalists an opportunity to spend more time working with their subjects.

“I do believe that there’s a place for that in journalism today,” Andrews said. “There are quick turn stories that we should do to tell people what’s happening on the street right now, and then there are the stories that to get the access or to tell the story properly, you need to spend a bit of time on it.”

Some of the stories, like that of Sandy Leshinsky, a woman fighting breast cancer while her husband fought in Iraq, required a lot more time and effort, according to Andrews. “Hearing her story and hearing her voice as you watch her go through treatments; you don’t tell that story with a quick investment of time,” she said.

Other vignettes, such as David Gilkey’s video of Michigan Marines manning an Iraqi checkpoint, can be captured in a much shorter amount of time. Videos such as these can have a turn around time of only a few days, and sometimes even less.

Andrews says that one of the responsibilities a news organization has to a community is to tell stories like these. The “Band of Brothers” project helped localize a national issue, and brought the stories of war closer to home.

“It’s our role to tell the story of our community and reflect the issues of today,” Andrews said. “This particular series is not about the entire war, it does not try and go into the ins and outs of Iraq foreign policy. It tells the story of one group of Marines and their families. It allows you to be aware as a member of this community, to understand what the reality of the war in Iraq means to your neighbor or your neighbor’s neighbor. You don’t need to go many degrees of separation when you have this many people in the confines of this one space.”

For some of the stories, photographers captured images with still cameras, but the majority of their time was spent behind the lens of a high-definition video camera. Even though photographers shot primarily with video cameras, they were still responsible for bringing back quality still images, and still frames were often pulled from video.

“If a still photographer is shooting with still photos in mind, I think you get better cinematography as a whole,” Andrews said. “You definitely get more complex cinematography. It’s a visual portrait as well as an interview.”

As photographers take on these new responsibilities, it’s important to find a balance. “You have to think of the image for the video, you have to think of the still image for the newspaper, and you have to think of the multimedia package,” McGee said.

Andrews said that it’s important to have methods in the journalism industry to recognize exemplary work and that she felt the “Band of Brothers” project deserved recognition.

“We felt that it was complete as a project,” she said. “That it had fairly and accurately told the story of these Marines and their families, and that it was important. It’s one piece of a giant story that’s effecting all of our lives because we are at war in Iraq.”

Source: www.popphoto.com

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