Seattle Times Shows Courage Under Fire

It began as a tribute to the loss of American soldiers. It ended as a bitter lesson about the precarious nature of the freedoms for which those soldiers gave their lives.

On April 18, the Seattle Times ran a photo on the cover of its Sunday edition showing soldiers inside a military transport plane preparing rows of flag-draped coffins for a flight to Germany. The photo was accompanied by a story by Times staff writer Hal Bernton describing the immense care and respect that the honor guard were displaying for each of the fallen soldiers who had been killed in Iraq.

The sparkling new Seattle Public Library, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, was introduced in May to rave reviews for its innovative use of interior space and asymmetrical forms.

Here, Seattle photographer Jason Hasenbank adds to the disorienting nature of the building with an abstract photomosaic of the library's meshlike metal and glass skin. The image was made while Hasenbank was assisting architectural photographer Fred Housel in setting up a photo shoot of the new structure.

Home: Los Angeles and Mendocino, Calif.

Fine-Art representation: Fahey/Klein Gallery, L.A.

Favorite subjects: Bette Midler, Djimon Hounsou, Bette Davis, Leonardo DiCaprio and actor/model Tony Ward. "I like working with those who are willing to experiment; those who will take chances and be creative, regardless of other people's expectations."

Advice to new photographers: "A lot of kids today are not clear on the importance of establishing an identity," he says. "They keep varying their imagery and style according to the flavor of the month. Develop and showcase your own style, and get an assignment that reflects where you want to go. Don't be afraid to be original."

Website: gormanphotography.com

An uncluttered style and a willingness to work closely with his famous subjects has made Greg Gorman one of the most in-demand celebrity portraitist in the business.

The actor leans against a cement wall. He tosses back his shoulder-length hair and lets out a yell. He crouches on the ground and glares. Next, he is doing a handstand. With every movement, a camera shutter clicks.

It's 1994, and a relative newcomer on the Hollywood scene named Antonio Banderas is cavorting shirtless around a Los Angeles rooftop for celebrity photographer Greg Gorman. A few hours earlier, they were downstairs in Gorman's studio, shooting some poster stills for one of Banderas' upcoming movies. But neither of them was satisfied....

Ever feel like you have one too many balls in the air? How about too many office supplies? That's the mood captured here in "Balancing," by photography student Sheila Menezes.

The image won first prize in the College & University — Computer-Assisted category of the Photo Imaging Education Association's (PIEA) 2004 International Student-Teacher Photo Exhibition and Competition in January.

Menezes, a graduate student at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif., says that the title of the photo also describes the balance of her two favorite genres of photography, portraiture and still life. "It's one of my favorite images, but I find it so ironic that I won the prize with it," she admits...

A selection of images from PIEA's 2004 International Student-Teacher Photo Competition.

The top student photographs from around the world were lauded recently in the Photo Imaging Education Association's (PIEA) 2004 International Student-Teacher Photo Exhibition and Competition.

In January, the judges for the PIEA competition chose 120 images from more than 4,200 entries sent in by 105 schools from the United States and six other countries. The chosen photos were exhibited at the...

With much of the country preoccupied with imminent war and a sagging economy, this topsy-turvy image from commercial photographer John Terence Turner seems appropriate for our entry into 2003.

Created for Turner's stock portfolio of motion shots, the photo is a result of trial and error, and more than a little ingenuity. He first tried to get a kinetic image of this Seattle roller coaster by riding in the seat in front of the two models and aiming his camera backward. He soon found that the safety bar was too restricting and the g-forces of the turns were too great to...

It's hard enough to be a nature photographer — slogging through jungles and enduring the burning desert sun to set up just the right shot of a rare creature. But just imagine doing it all on a half-hour air supply. That's what underwater wildlife photographers like Geoffrey Semorile must do to produce these crisp, brightly colored images of the other three-quarters of the world hidden beneath the sea.

"All underwater creatures know three things about underwater photographers - when you are out of film, when you are in focus and when you are out of air," Semorile says. "They then strike that pose you have been waiting your whole tank of air for, right after you have shot your last frame of film or refocused your lens ten times."

After an issue full of conflict and change, we thought we would end with an image that is as timeless as it is beautiful. On a trip to Varanasi, India, Canadian photographer Christopher Gora discovered this quiet scene of a woman sweeping out a walkway.

"During the festival season, I lived in an ancient apartment overlooking the Ganges River." Gora said. "Daily, I would get up before dawn to witness people's rituals and then pass through this archway on my way to the market. I was often struck by the play of light through the arches, but there was never anyone there to complete the space...

PhotoMedia salutes the entrants in this spring's World in Focus Photo Contest.

In June of this year, PhotoMedia presented World in Focus, a multifaceted three-day event with an exciting mission: "To promote the awareness of the critical need to preserve and protect the beauty and diversity of our natural world and its cultures through the visual messages of photographers."

The event, held in Seattle, included inspiring seminars with some of the foremost nature, environmental and endangered-cultures photographers in the industry.