Simon and Garfunkle. “Kodachrome.” Live in Central Park. 1981.

Kodak, the photography pioneer, filed for Chapter 11 today.

From Reuters (via MSNBC.com):

The 130-year-old photographic film pioneer, which had tried to restructure to become a seller of consumer products like cameras, said it had also obtained a $950 million, 18-month credit facility from Citigroup to keep it going.

The loan and bankruptcy protection from U.S. trade creditors may give Kodak the time it needs to find buyers for some of its 1,100 digital patents, the key to its remaining value, and to reshape its business while continuing to pay its 17,000 workers.

reuters:

This video by Reuters photographer Finbarr O’Reilly was featured on Reuters Photographers Blog about the same time last year, documenting the U.S. First Battalion Eighth Marines in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province, including squad leader Sgt. Thomas James Brennan.

In today’s New York Times Lens Blog, Sgt. Thomas James Brennan discusses how he was at first skeptical about Finbarr being embedded in his squad, but his attitude evolved over time.

Through his photos and articles, Finbarr O’Reilly told my story and the stories of my Marines. By doing so, he helped me find my door. For this, I will forever be grateful.

This is a wonderful story - and you should also take 15 minutes to read the NYT Lens Blog and follow the links. War is an emotional narrative.

“American Girl in Italy”   “Some people want to use it as a symbol of harassment of women, but that’s what we’ve been fighting all these years,” Craig said in a telephone interview from her home in Toronto. “It’s not a symbol of harassment. It’s a symbol of a woman having an absolutely wonderful time!” Back in 1951, Craig was a carefree 23-year-old who had chucked her job in New York and secured third-class accommodations on a ship bound for Europe. She spent more than six months making her way through France, Spain and Italy all by herself — something very few women did in the years following World War II. She traveled as inexpensively as she could, so she was thrilled when she found a hotel right on the Arno River in Florence where she could stay for $1 a day. There, she met another adventurous solo female traveler: Ruth Orkin, a 29-year-old photographer who came to Italy after completing an assignment in Israel.   You know how when you just visit a place, that place keeps popping up over and over again? Well, this is MUCH better than seeing the American idiots (those of the “Jersey Shore” kind) in Florence. (h/t @melanierenzulli)

“American Girl in Italy”

 

“Some people want to use it as a symbol of harassment of women, but that’s what we’ve been fighting all these years,” Craig said in a telephone interview from her home in Toronto. “It’s not a symbol of harassment. It’s a symbol of a woman having an absolutely wonderful time!”

Back in 1951, Craig was a carefree 23-year-old who had chucked her job in New York and secured third-class accommodations on a ship bound for Europe. She spent more than six months making her way through France, Spain and Italy all by herself — something very few women did in the years following World War II.

She traveled as inexpensively as she could, so she was thrilled when she found a hotel right on the Arno River in Florence where she could stay for $1 a day. There, she met another adventurous solo female traveler: Ruth Orkin, a 29-year-old photographer who came to Italy after completing an assignment in Israel.

 

You know how when you just visit a place, that place keeps popping up over and over again? Well, this is MUCH better than seeing the American idiots (those of the “Jersey Shore” kind) in Florence.

(h/t @melanierenzulli)

Stricken by Don Hamerman: ARTIST STATEMENT I began collecting these baseballs in the winter of 2004-2005. Discovered in the park near my house, they had gone unnoticed by others—sometimes for years, if not decades. Abject, rejected and forlorn, they all hinted at mysterious pasts. Although I knew that one day I would photograph my burgeoning collection, most sat along a shelf in my studio for more than a year before the work started. I finally decided to photograph them with a deep depth of field, revealing, as much as I could, their distinct identities. This is an ongoing project. Take a look at these magnificent (base) balls collected and photographed by Don Hamerman.

Stricken by Don Hamerman:

ARTIST STATEMENT

I began collecting these baseballs in the winter of 2004-2005. Discovered in the park near my house, they had gone unnoticed by others—sometimes for years, if not decades. Abject, rejected and forlorn, they all hinted at mysterious pasts.

Although I knew that one day I would photograph my burgeoning collection, most sat along a shelf in my studio for more than a year before the work started. I finally decided to photograph them with a deep depth of field, revealing, as much as I could, their distinct identities.

This is an ongoing project.

Take a look at these magnificent (base) balls collected and photographed by Don Hamerman.