Essence of Atmosphere

by Adam McAnaney

This is just to alert you to an excellent New York Times offering: "Essence of Atmosphere" by Nicole Bengiveno.

I don't read other newspapers (or news sites) regularly, so I can't say whether the Times is better or worse at this than other papers, but I do know this much: the quality (or at least the prominence) of the photography at the Times has increased tremendously since they went color. I remember being adamantly opposed to the change, fearing it was a populist move that would make the paper look like USA Today (no offense to USA Today; it does an excellent job of bringing important headline stories to readers in areas of the U.S. without a local paper, and around the world). I quickly ate crow as the move exceeded anything I could have hoped for. But as much as going color provided a dramatic change, the Internet has done far more for the Times photographers. The Times has done an excellent job of integrating multimedia into its website. Without the cost of printing additional color pages, the website provides us with access to more and better pictures. In addition, the Times has freed photographers from the constraints of articles, allowing them to occassionally present their own projects or visual stories.

Interestingly enough, these "time and motion exposures" constitute compelling evidence that sometimes a little shake is a good thing....

Posted by: ADAM McANANEY