Mayor of Chicago Announces Measures to Curb Use of Deadly Force by the Police by Mitch Smith December 30, 2015 CHICAGO — Under intense pressure to change the behavior of the police force, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday announced a series of steps intended to rein in the use of deadly force, promising to buy hundreds of Tasers and to train officers to be less confrontational. […]
In April 2009, I traveled from Chicago to Davenport, Iowa to cover the first day gay marriage licenses were issued in that state for The New York Times. In line at the Scott County Recorder’s office that day were these two, Curtis Harris and Daren Adkisson. The picture I took of them ran in the paper and subsequently in over 500 newspapers across America they told me yesterday. They also told me that as Daren was suffering from cancer at the time, the picture led to attention in their community which led to a cancer specialist who was not taking any more patients opening his doors to Daren. While they credit the picture with saving his life, I credit the doctors. These guys are pretty special. The rare Americans who turn down $10k to be on TV (a comedy show’s producers called three times wishing to do a spoof, the third time offering a cash incentive) and are just happy to be and live and love each other. Another benefit of the picture appearing was …
Pictured: A World at 7 Billion The New York Times Lens Blog December 7, 2011, 5:00 am By KERRI MACDONALD Here it is: A visual time capsule, capturing our world at seven billion people — and counting. Below, you’ll find a virtual quilt that weaves together about 400 of the more than 1,000 photographs we received. There is little rhyme or reason to the order you see. We sought a mega-snapshot of our world — different regions, subjects, viewpoints. There is a serendipitous beauty in the chaos. What will these photos tell the future generation — including some of the newborns who were photographed by Lynsey Addario on Oct. 31 — about our world? Explore the gallery using the search box just below this text. Browse by name, location, or — if you want to get creative — randomly, by word. One of our most successful searches was “hope,” which brings together the optimism we found in so many pictures. […] View my image, “A Dissident Remarries,” featured as #3 of 390 images submitted by …
Recently, a query from Dan Reimold of College Media Matters/University of Tampa landed in my inbox, requesting an interview for a forthcoming journalism text book he is working on now that will offer advice and experience from journalists. With his permission, I am publishing the contents of our online interview, which was conducted from July 1-5, 2011: DAN REIMOLD. What are the best pieces of advice you have received or given about capturing quality photos? AMANDA RIVKIN. Most of the best macro-level advice I have received has been from photographers-turned-editors like Santiago Lyon, the Director of Photography at The Associated Press, who has spoken to me and many, many other young photographers about the difference between taking pictures and making a picture and thinking about the frames you are taking as opposed to merely clicking away. Other photographers have undoubtedly helped along the way and too many to name, but the best advice I have found is only pertinent when it is later engrained in experience. AR. The one time I talked with photographer Chris …
Last week on June 15, 2011, I photographed David Protess in the new offices of the Chicago Innocence Project, the non-profit he recently started, in downtown Chicago. A small image crop appeared on the front page of The New York Times on Saturday June 18, 2011 in a story entitled, “A Watchdog Professor, Now Defending Himself” by David Carr and John Schwarz. The jump page, A11 and the nytimes.com website both contained a second portrait. Here are three from the very brief shoot in the middle of last week: (Clockwise from top left) David Protess at top left in the entry way, at top right at his new desk with a courtroom sketch of the “Ford Heights Four” above the desk, and below in the back hallway beside a fire escape at the new offices of the Chicago Innocence Project, the non-profit Protess recently started in his first post-Northwestern University venture, in downtown Chicago on June 15, 2011.
The New York Times pages A1 and A11, June 18, 2011 includes, “A Watchdog Professor Now Defending Himself,” by David Carr and John Scwartz with photograph of David Protess by Amanda Rivkin. “I have spent three decades exposing wrongful conviction only to find myself in the cross hairs of others who are wrongfully accusing me,” David Protess said. (Credit: Amanda Rivkin for The New York Times) A Watchdog Professor, Now Defending Himself By DAVID CARR and JOHN SCHWARTZ Published: June 17, 2011 For the last two years, David Protess, a renowned journalist and professor who spent three decades fighting to prove the innocence of others, has been locked in a battle to do the same for himself. It hasn’t gone as well. Mr. Protess, who taught at the Medill journalism school at Northwestern University, was the founder and driving force behind the Medill Innocence Project, which was instrumental in exonerating at least 12 wrongly convicted defendants and freeing them from prison, including five who were on death row in Illinois, and in prompting then-governor George …
I am still at a loss for the enormous quantity of injuries to photojournalism in recent months, beginning for this generation with Emilio Morenatti of The Associated Press on August 12, 2009. An Associated Press account of the bomb “planted in the open desert terrain,” according to the American military, left Morenatti without his foot as he traveled in southern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border with AP Television News videographer Andi Jatmiko and a unit of the 5th Stryker Brigade. Again in southern Afghanistan, Joao Silva one of the four founding members of the famous group of South African photographers covering the end of apartheid known as “the Bang Bang club,” was hit by a mine and lost both legs, as reported October 23, 2010 by his employer The New York Times. This spring came the awful and surreal detentions of well known and intrepid New York Times conflict photographers Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks alongside reporters Anthony Shadid and Stephen Farrell in Libya. Then obviously and most recently came the tragic deaths a whole …
Qaddafi is a topic of conversation in and of himself, and his family an entirely separate discussion as well. He is the center of gravity of his own regime, naturally. The U.S. has announced it is not engaging in regime change (although not quite in those words), but has struck the compound where he resides with a missile. On another war front, Der Spiegel has announced to an e-mail list of its subscribers that in its print edition to hit news stands tomorrow, it will publish three images of U.S. soldiers posing with dead Afghan civilians. The Washington Post writes, “The photos are among several hundred the Army has sought to keep under wraps as it prosecutes five members of the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, for the alleged murders of three unarmed Afghan civilians last year.” The consequences may prove more devastating than the Abu Ghraib scandal. The Guardian follows up with additional details about a dozen members of the unit, already on trial in Seattle and confronting life in prison or the …
Newsletter just went out: Greetings!, A round-up of recents publications and news from Amanda Rivkin, photographer to kick off the springtime – because what says rebirth like a look back in time: AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY 26 The American Photography 26 photo annual arrived recently, featuring photographic highlights from 2009 in photojournalism, fine art and commercial photography. Included is this image I took (at left) from January 29, 2009 of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in the Illinois State Capitol his final day in office for The New York Times: More on American Photography 26 both on the AI-AP website and the amanda rivkin, photographer blog. RAHM EMANUEL IS OUR NEW DALEY On February 22, 2011, Chicago got a new mayor – a rare, once-in-a-generation event if someone named Daley was in power at the time of your birth, growth or development. For the first time in more than 21 years and after nearly half a century of Daley family-rule at the helm of Chicago politics, a new mayor was anointed: Rahm Emanuel. Receiving 55% of the …
Finally received and had a chance to open the very beautiful American Photography 26: The credits are in the back of the book and look something like this: Amanda Rivkin http://www.amandarivkin.com amanda.rivkin@gmail.com Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich prepares his impeachment speech at the Illinois State Capitol, January 29, 2009., Springfield, Illinois, for the article “Blagojevich’s Final Day,” January 2009. Publication: The New York Times Photo Editor: Corn Schmid, David Scull, and Gina Privitere School: Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service Writer: Monica Davey Agency: Polaris Images Client: The New York Times Publishing Company: The New York Times Co. — And the outside front and back covers:
Amanda Rivkin 