2015: That Was The Year That Was

This marks the end of the sixth full calendar year for Photocritic International, which made its debut in June 2009. During the past 12-month period I’ve published 72 posts here (counting this one), well over one per week, averaging 6 per month. According to Google Analytics, as of midnight on December 31, 2015 this blog had served up just over 78,000 pageviews for the year, to over 29,000 unique visitors — 21170 new readers and more than 7830 recidivist gluttons for punishment. Plus over 46,080 posts delivered via email to PI’s 640 subscribers.

That represents a significant increase over 2014 — 50 percent more pageviews,  and a 10 percent increase in return visitors (counterbalanced by a 10 percent drop in one-time visitors). Apparently I’m doing something right. Perseverance furthers, as the I Ching says; I’ve published 394 posts since this blog’s inception, and Photocritic International remains the most widely read blog by any critic/historian of photography.

This Blog’s Year in Review

A. .D. Coleman with unexposed, developed Tri-X filmstrip, January 23, 2015

The dismantling of the myth of Robert Capa’s adventures on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the revision of the legend of the subsequent fate of his negatives, served again as the year’s main project. Beginning modestly enough in June 2014 with a pair of skeptical Guest Posts by renowned photojournalist and author J. Ross Baughman, it has grown into a series of 58 posts (to date), including further contributions from Baughman and photographer/photo historian Rob McElroy, joined by military historian Charles Herrick, with invaluable behind-the-scenes input from several others.

Two awards this year resulted from our efforts: the 2014 Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi (SDX) Award for Research About Journalism, given to myself, J. Ross Baughman, and Rob McElroy (Chuck Herrick had not yet joined our team when the nomination took place in fall 2014), and The Photo Review Award 2015 to me “for outstanding contributions to photography, including the investigation of Robert Capa’s D-Day photographs.”

To our astonishment, a thoughtful response to this project in a relatively obscure French blog devoted to the history of Normandy took the project viral in France, resulting in feature articles — mostly pro, some con; mostly thoughtful, some not — in France’s major newspapers, several influential magazines, a number of widely read blogs, and assorted other outlets. The explosion of interest died down over the fall, and the virality did not spread to other countries, alas. But it was certainly fun while it lasted.

I have a cluster of concluding posts planned for this series, which — barring unexpected discoveries and revelations — will wrap up over the winter. In production: A touring installation, with website and catalogue, and a book version of this research project.

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Donald Trump, 2015, screenshot

Before and in between the Capa posts, the subjects addressed here this year included the graphic videos and still images of its horrific executions distributed by ISIS/ISIL; painters imitating photographs and photographers imitating paintings; the zombie apocalypse of the early months of the Republic Party’s battle royal for its presidential candidate 2016; the Athens Photo Festival 2015; the degradation of the post-secondary art-education system; the preservation of photographers’ archives; new technological developments in the world of the Internet of Things (IoT); the FHRITP meme; and divers other subjects. In other words, I followed my nose and cast my usual broad net.

Beginning in January, I also took up the issue of nationwide police misconduct, provoked by the homicidal NYPD attack on Eric Garner, which took place just a few blocks from our house here on Staten Island.

Cellphone video screenshot (YouTube), Eric Garner chokehold by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, 7-15-14

I had addressed matters relating to citizen journalism and police brutality in an earlier series of posts, “Pepper-Spray Cop: Birth of a Meme.” But the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the lethal takedown of Garner (for the “crime” of selling loose cigarettes) and the almost daily reports of new incidents of excessive and often illegal police behavior made recognition of a widespread pattern of abuse of power by law enforcement officers across the country unavoidable.

The undeniability of this behavior as both over the top and systemic depends primarily on the availability of photographic evidence, in the forms of police dashcam and bodycam videos and citizen-journalist cellphone videos and stills. Which brings it into my purview. So I plan to continue this inquiry in the new year. I titled the Garner posts “Film the Police,” which I’ll use as the rubric for this series. Look for further installments, starting early next year. You’ll find an index page to the series here.

Coming in 2016

My goals for this blog for 2016:

• Continue the already commenced series “Film the Police,” as just discussed.
• Continue the already commenced series “Election 2016: Image World,” approaching the visual imagery of the 2016 election cycle from my perspective as a critic of photography and digital media, as I did during the 2012 election cycle.
• Add substantially to the selection of “legacy” texts from my own archive, to give the content historical depth. (Fourteen of 2015’s posts came from the archives.)
• Continue and expand the invitational Guest Posts (13 this past year), to diversify further the mix of voices presented here.
• Add to the existing audio and video files with QuickTime movies, podcasts, slideshows, etc., created specifically for this site.
• Enhance the blog with such new features as online ebooks, PDF downloads, and more.

Meanwhile, some special thanks:

• to the Guest Posters who have accepted my invitation to create new texts for publication here;
• to those who have appended thoughtful public Comments, pro and con, that have enhanced my own probings and developed a genuine dialogue in this space;
• to those who, privately and behind the scenes, have fed me leads and tips, pointed me toward valuable documentation, and otherwise facilitated my work and enriched these accounts (you know who you are, and your secrets are safe with me);
• to my fellow bloggers, my journalist colleagues, and others who have quoted my posts and/or linked to them, thereby bringing new readers to this blog;
• to Patrick Peccatte, whose cogent response to the Capa D-Day Project took it viral in France this past summer, to the astonishment of us all;
• to Marlaine Noel of Sprint Systems of Photography, who made her company this blog’s first sponsor;
• and to the small but important handful of people who have put their money where my mouth is, so to speak, by making cash contributions in support of this project.

I send my best wishes for 2016 to these people in particular, and to all the readers of Photocritic International. May the new year bring us something better than a smack in the face with a wet fish.

Support Encouraged

Total revenue from subscriber/reader donations via Paypal in 2015: $280.00, or $3.88 per post. My thanks to the half-dozen readers who made those contributions to the cause. I’d like to see that donation total rise to $1K in 2016 (the more the merrier, of course). You can make donations in any amount you choose.

There would be more variety of content here (and more extras) if this blog had substantial financial support from its readers, or from more sponsors or advertisers, but that’s still not the case. So I allocate my limited resources as I see fit. I welcome donations of any size. (If this blog’s visitors contributed only $1 each, and its subscribers a mere $10 per year, that would make a major difference in my life.)

Special offer: If you want me to either continue pursuing a particular subject or give you a break and (for one post) write on a topic — my choice — other than the current main story, make a donation of $50 via the PayPal widget below, indicating your preference in a note accompanying your donation. I’ll credit you as that new post’s sponsor, and link to a website of your choosing. Include  a note with your snail-mail address (or email it to me separately) for a free signed copy of my 1995 book Critical Focus!

I also accept appropriate advertisements; email me for rates.

Help Wanted

I also welcome support in the form of in-kind services from volunteers and interns. Specifically, I could use assistance from someone with experience with any of the following applications:

• DreamWeaver (for general website management, html, CSS);
• WordPress blogware (troubleshooting this and other WP blogs);
• InDesign (assistance with several POD/ebook projects);
• FileMaker Pro (database projects, including organization of my archive and expansion of my bibliography)
• OCR/scanning software (book projects)
• iMovie/Final Cut Pro, Audacity (multimedia projects)

If you have none of these skills, I can still put your time to good use doing picture research, bibliographic queries, and other tasks. Email me if working with me on this blog or other projects interests you.

Most of these projects can be furthered and completed over the internet. Some require physical presence here on Staten Island. In either case I can’t afford to pay such collaborators, but I can provide room and board for an assistant or intern who wants to work intensively with me for a period of time — anywhere from two weeks to a semester or more — on one or more specific projects. Happy to write any documents necessary for you to receive independent-study credit for your participation, and/or add them to your resumé. Of course I’ll credit such assistance in any public presentation of the outcome. Pass the word.

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I wish you all a happy, healthy, and productive 2016. May someone watch over you as my familiar, Billie the Bengal, watches over me.