The international jury of the prestigious World Press Photo Contest has announced its winners for 2006.

The top award went to an image by Spencer Platt, showing a group of stylish, young Lebanese driving through one of the devastated areas of Beirut in a red convertible after the ceasefire with Israel had been announced.

Interestingly, a fair number of the winners seems to be using medium format equipment, and one photographer seems to be using a Holga/Diana type of camera from the vignetting exhibited.

Check out the winners' gallery here.

Throughout modern history, new organizations have relied on citizen journalists to supplement images of news events regularly provided by the photojournalists they employ. Many of the most poignant images of major news events in recent years have been made by amateur photographers and regular citizens, often armed with little more than a camera phone. The larger news organizations are taking notice of this trend.

On December 5, 2006, Reuters.com and Yahoo! News began collecting news images submitted by the general public. Now anyone can upload images of news-as-it-happens onto the You Witness News website where they will be considered for use in features and articles on Yahoo! News. All submissions will appear on Flickr or a similar video-sharing site.

Editors for Reuters and Yahoo News will then organize the images to be used for various, relevant news stories. People will not be paid for use of their submissions. However, Reuters does plan to implement a system where they would pay for exclusive rights to images relating to larger news stories.

This brings up two conflicting arguments. On the one hand, it can be argued that the frequent use of citizen journalists will mark the demise of traditional professional photojournalism. Why should news organizations pay for a staff of photojournalists when they can get the images for free from anyone with a camera phone?

On the other hand, as Mike Johnston points out on The Online Photographer, the use of images and video from amateurs has been going on for decades and will continue, not to the detriment of professional photojournalism. Mike says:

Because everybody is literate and occasionally an amateur writes a good book, does that mean we no longer need book authors?...The fact is, good news reporting has always used primary source material. But having more primary source material hardly means we have less need for professional reporting.

What do you think?

You can read more about this project in the NYTimes, and check out Mike Johnston's article on his website.

(Posted with thanks to Chrys.)

What do all of these have in common? It’s history in the making…

Yahoo! is conducting the world’s largest anthropological experiment. Since October 10, Yahoo! has been accepting submissions for its online Time Capsule, the first ever of its kind.

Brainchild of artist Jonathan Harris, the Yahoo! Time Capsule is an attempt to create a mosaic of our culture, a “portrait of the world” in 2006, defining who we are, what we are doing, what moves us, and where we wish to go, right here and right now.

People worldwide can contribute photos, video, drawings, and writing to the Time Capsule within the categories of Love, Anger, Faith, Fun, Sorrow, Beauty, Past, Now, Hope, and You. Participation in the Yahoo! Time Capsule Blog is also welcome, and can enhance the experience of this monumental project.

While researching for a piece covering the Yahoo! Time Capsule, ABC News producers came across the photograph submitted by Photoblogs.org Hall of Famer Jonathan Greenwald. Jonathan was interviewed about his submission…

…and discussed the impact of his photo, and if he thinks societal problems such as homelessness will have improved by time the capsule is reopened in 2020. His interview can be seen on the ABC World News Webcast with Charlie Gibson.

The Yahoo! Time Capsule is still open, and contributions are being accepted until November 8. Do not miss your opportunity to be part of history, and submit your photos today!

Sunday, April 30th, 2006 is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. The rules are simple. On that day shoot pinhole images. Then upload them to the official Worldwide Pinhole Day website to be included in a huge online gallery. Of course, just getting out and shooting pinholes is fun and you don't have to share them anywhere, if you don't want to.

In addition to classic pinhole cylinders did you realize you can make pinhole cams out of tea containers, holgas, paper, and even legos?? Yes, even you digital folks can join the fun. Marcus has some fabulous ideas as well on how to make your own which we will be seeing in action that day for the WPD Bay Area Photologgers/SFlickr meetup and photostroll. If you are in the San Francisco area, feel free to join us. If not, then why not get out there on Sunday and shoot pinholes with the kids, yourself or other photobloggers in your area.

The nominations for the 2006 Bloggies have been announced and here are the candidates for 'Best Photography of a Weblog':

• Flickr Blog
• The Snowsuit Effort
• A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania
• Photojunkie
• Chromasia

Photojunkie and Daily Dose of Imagery* were also nominated in the 'Best Canadian Blog' catagory.

Congrats to all of them, you can vote for you favourite now!

*Also of note Sam (from DDOI) will be on TechTV tomorrow at about 3pm EST talking about photoblogs. Good luck Sam!

Nominate your favourite blogs for the Bloggies Awards 2006.

I'm not a big fan of these popularity contests in general, not because I don't win any but because many of them, such as the recent Weblog Awards, seem to be more about driving traffic by allowing people to vote as many times as they like than they are about selecting the best sites (sometimes sites nominated obviously don't fit the category). Usually this results in those sites who can best organise their friends and family in voting campaigns winning.

However, the Bloggies do seem to be a genuine attempt to select the best sites of the year and encourage others, so if you're into this kind of thing go nominate!

Can't make it to Chicago for the 7x7 exhibit? Have no fear. Point your browsers to Flak Magazine, the online journal of art and media, where they've just published a review of the exhibition and a virtual gallery of the work of its participants: Mitch Arsenie, Nick Campbell, Archie Florcruz, Nick Feder, Pablo Korona and Brian Milo, and Bill Vaccaro.

There's also audio commentary -- in the form of an MP3 podcast feed -- of each of the participants work as well.

Introducing the New York City Photobloggers' group show, "New Work, New York." The exhibit will be held from November 3rd through November 19th, 2005 at the Chrystie Street Gallery, 167 Chrystie Street, 2nd Floorin NYC. An opening reception will be held Thursday, November 3rd from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

For a list of photographers and gallery information, I am including a larger flyer size here.

For all Polaroid lovers out there ~ anyone who has ever marveled at the "before-your-eyes" development of integral film, anyone who remembers peeling apart instant pack film after the appropriate time to see your photographic results, anyone who admires the artistic results of SX-70 image manipulation and Image Transfers - Polanoid.net is online.

The gallery of Polaroid images from all over the world is continually expanding and features some truly creative photography. It looks to become one of the largest online active collections of Polaroids of all types and it's membership is growing, so if you are at all interested in Polaroid photography or have Polaroids of your own to share, check it out. If you have never explored the creative possibilities that the multitude of Polaroid Land cameras are capable of, then now might be the perfect time to find out.

Given the tragedy unfolding in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan today, if you know of photoblogs (or for that matter, any sites at all) that are starting to post, please use the comments area here to provide a link. Some images are starting to show up on flickr as well. Here are three simple searches to start:

http://flickr.com/photos/tags/earthquake/

http://photoblogs.org/search/?q=india

http://photoblogs.org/search/?q=pakistan