2016: That Was The Year That Was

This marks the end of the seventh full calendar year for Photocritic International, which made its debut in June 2009. During the past 12-month period I’ve published 64 posts here (counting this one), averaging 5 per month. According to Google Analytics, as of midnight on December 31, 2016 this blog had served up almost 93,500 pageviews for the year, to almost 37,000 unique visitors — 26,383 new readers and 10,311 recidivist gluttons for punishment. Plus almost 42,500 posts delivered via email to PI’s 664 subscribers.

That represents a significant increase over 2015 — 30.6 percent more visits, 28 percent more visitors, and 19.8 percent more pageviews. Apparently I’m doing something right. Perseverance furthers, as the I Ching says; I’ve published 461 posts since this blog’s inception, and Photocritic International remains the most widely read blog by any critic/historian of photography.

Two noteworthy facts about this readership: It’s roughly evenly divided by gender (46 percent female, 54 percent male), slightly over half of whom fall between the ages of 18 and 34. The latter demographic surprises and gratifies me, indicating as it does that the issues I address here, and my approaches to them, prove of interest to many people not of the geezer persuasion.

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 one of the year’s main projects. 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 prize-winning series of 74 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.

I have several concluding post 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, I concentrated on the horror show of the presidential election in the series “Election 2016: Image World,” in which I approached the visual imagery of the 2016 election cycle from my perspective as a critic of photography and digital media. This consideration will terminate with a discussion of the pictures of Donald Trump’s inauguration in a few weeks.

The other subjects addressed here this year included my experience posing nude for Russian photographer Irene Caesar in 2010; a poetic response to AIPAD’s “Photography Show” 2016; farewells to Bob Adelman and Charles Gatewood; the deterioration of post-secondary photo education; the “visual storyteller” mantra; updates on the protagonists in the “Pepper-Spray Cop” story; revisionist history regarding Joe Rosenthal’s famous photo of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima; the origins of Boston’s Photographic Resource Center, and the importance of the medium’s imperiled “little” magazines; the wondrous new “internet of things” technology that engulfs us; and the backstage doings at Magnum Photos in the mid- to late ’80s (as seen through the eyes of Robert Dannin).

I also added several posts to the series “Film the Police,” addressing the mounting visual evidence of systemic police misbehavior nationwide. Look for further installments, starting early next year. You’ll find an index page to that series here.

Coming in 2017

My goals for this blog for 2017:

• Complete the long-running series “Alternate History: Robert Capa on D-Day,” as just discussed.
• Continue the already commenced series “Film the Police,” as just discussed.
• Add substantially to the selection of “legacy” texts from my own archive, to give the content historical depth. (Eleven of 2016’s posts came from the archives.)
• Continue and expand the invitational Guest Posts (nine 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;
• and to the 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 2017 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 (and, in a few cases, checks sent by snail-mail) rose substantially in 2016: $1320, or $21.62 per post, an almost five-fold increase over the previous year. My thanks to the more than two dozen readers who made those contributions to the cause. I’d like to see that donation total rise to $2K in 2017 (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.)

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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!

But wait! There’s more! Donate now and I’ll include a copy of The Silent Strength of Liu Xia, the catalog of the 2012-13 touring exhibition of photos by the dissident Chinese photographer, artist, and poet, currently in her sixth year of extralegal house arrest in Beijing. The only publication of her photographic work, it includes all 26 images in the exhibition, plus another 14 from the same series, along with essays by Guy Sorman, Andrew Nathan, and Cui Weiping, professor at the Beijing Film Academy.

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 2017. May someone watch over you as my familiar, Billie the Bengal, watches over me.

Billie awake on Allan’s desk, December 2014