Gallery walk

The first Thursday of every month, galleries in DUMBO, Brooklyn open their doors (and bottles of wine) for people to stroll through. My friends Rebecca and Justin live nearby and have been trying to get me to join them for….like, a year. And I finally made it in December. About time, I know.

I started off the evening getting lost, which I always do in DUMBO, no matter where I’m going or how good of directions I have. The highlight of the evening was a panel at VII Photo Agency called Believable Imagery: When Should We (Dis)Believe Photos and Why. Panelists included a photography professor at NYU, the director of photography at Time magazine, and the president of the Advertising Photographers of America.

One of the great things about New York is all the opportunity to attend lectures, book talks and panels like these…for free. The discussions took me back to college journalism classes (and Ethics class debates. Egh.) This perspective of photojournalism, not photography, is quite different from what I was introduced to in magazines when I came to New York (omg you took one photo of a woman and placed her in another picture of a beach for the cover…THAT IS ALLOWED?!)

(from left: moderator Stephen Mayes, APA President Theresa Raffetoo, Time magazine Director of Photography Kira Pollack, and Professor of Photography and Imaging at NYU Fred Ritchin. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Simpson Steele)

Photographers, photo retouchers and photojournalists were all in the audience, which led to a pretty heated Q&A session. One of the controversial topics was war photography. A concept the panel and audience kept discussing was whether it was authentic or accurate for a photographer to recreate an event that happened (the moderator’s introductory slideshow included raising the flag at Iwo Jima as an example). True photojournalists (i.e. news images) will not pose people or recreate an event they couldn’t capture. Photography and photo illustrations allow more liberal interpretations…but the problem lies when a credit doesn’t acknowledge something is an illustration.

Having learned in the photojournalism environment and worked in the photography industry with magazines, it was really interesting to hear so many sides including advertising photography. If VII has more panels, I’ll definitely be making more of an effort to get down to Brooklyn for First Thursdays. The seating was limited, with some people sitting on the floor, so I’d recommend arriving early if you end up visiting. And there’s free wine in plastic cups.

Ice, Advil and elevation

My Saturday has consisted of staying in bed watching season 3 of “Weeds” (an unexpected gift from my parents) while propping my right ankle up on pillows. I’m not quite sure what I did (my three-tier theory also has a three-tier diagnosis: I rolled my ankle while wearing heels for the second time this year. Or I rolled my ankle running on a softer but unlevel surface. Or I just ran too much in a short time span. Therefore, my ankle is sprained, strained or fractured.)

Thankfully, a visit to my doctor on Friday (which turned into a trip to NYU’s Radiology Department for some x-rays) ruled out a stress fracture (the thought of this kept me from sleeping well Thursday night). In an unrelated observation, I passed the Medical Examiner’s Office on my way to the Med Center. The air around it smelled really funny. One of the SARS/swine flu-preventing face masks would’ve been helpful.

Complying with doctor’s orders, I’ve been icing and elevating my foot most of the day and relying on TV on DVD to keep me entertained. One of the characters in “Weeds” said this quote and it has had me giggling ever since: “Thug means never having to say you’re sorry.” (obviously I can’t be a thug if I giggle at the mere mention of being one).

I’m not sure how long I’ll have to keep the icing up, but one day in I’m already bored.