antarcticatakeaway1

Take these two portable exhibits home and share them with others at johnpaulcaponigro-antarctica.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images, Uncategorized
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antarcticacloud1

Experience a different way of viewing/interacting images in this image cloud on johnpaulcaponigro-antarctica.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images
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antarcticascroll1

Scroll through a dozen new images in this new online gallery at johnpaulcaponigro-antarctica.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images
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Antarctica_2009-CVIII

A new online gallery at johnpaulcaponigro-antarctica.com features my comments on a recent image.

“I was on the Ocean Nova with four other teachers and about 75 students. We were coming up through the Neumayer Channel, a little more than halfway through our trip south of the Antarctic Circle. A whale moved past us …”

See them both here.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images, Statements
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I know, “The map is not the territory.” Still, I love maps. I love them even more now. Google Maps and Google Earth has changed the nature of maps. You can explore my Antarctica Google Map and follow my course and destinations, enhanced with images and comments. To believe it, you have to experience it! It’s still in process. Watch it evolve!

Category: Antarctica, Antarctica 2009
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Three voyages to Antarctica yielded over 250,000 exposures. Would you like to see them all? I’m kidding! I wouldn’t do that to you! Selecting only the best images has been a real challenge. Does it have graphic impact? Does it tell an important aspect of the story? Is it repeatable with variation? Is it repetitive? All good questions. For my book Antarctica I settled on 100 images. More seemed to tire viewers. Even though I’ve released more images, in the book I published fewer to make it a more effective experience. More is less. Less is more.

Here are a few images that didn’t make it into the book.

Preview or purchase the book here.

Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com to reserve your space in my 2011 Antarctica workshop.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Books, Images
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Antarctica 2009

August 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment

“There is a profound sense of privilege that comes from being in the presence of such rare beauty. It touches you deeply. Witness to the extraordinary, you leave changed – for the better. It’s a blessing born of grace and giving birth to more grace. It’s as if you’ve been given a gift and you feel compelled to keep giving it.”

Read about the highlights from three voyages to Antarctica.
Each voyage was very different from the other, even though we returned to some of the same locations.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Statements, Travel
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I’m uneasy about this one. I underexposed the image by several stops. A bright sunlit scene became nocturnal in appearance. When discussing this image, many journalists have said the practice of underexposure is accepted. In this case, it distorts the sensation of time. It doesn’t represent the way I saw it, but instead the way I want to see it. I feel like I should censor myself and not include the image. But I included it to stimulate more discussion. Including it required disclosures like this. And more discussion. Do you think this kind of practice is acceptable in editorial contexts?

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Disclosure
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While I’ve limited my practices in my work from Antarctica to those adopted by editorial photographers, I’m interested in pushing the envelope to stimulate useful dialog on contemporary practices. Here’s one. These panoramas were stitched together from multiple shots. I think that practice is fine in the context of journalism, as long as it represents what was before the lens. Yet the second panorama here is different. The exposures for this particular panorama were made over the course of several minutes. There was a lot of parallax so the icebergs had different relative positions in the exposures that were merged. Because of this, you can actually see more icebergs that otherwise would have been hidden. This type of composite actually presents the viewer with more information than a single exposure could. Is this appropriate practice? I think it is, if the author and media outlet disclose their practices. I think the news media ought to disclose much more information than they do: who the author is; how the documents were produced; how they were edited and delivered; who delivered them; what context they were placed in and how that shifts our perception of them; what time and financial constraints influenced the production; who the media derives income from; who the media outlet is owned by. We know the media’s not perfect or unbiased. We need to know who the media is. Way too many assumptions are made. We’ve lost our faith. Reclaim our trust. Give us more disclosure. That’s what I’m doing here.

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Disclosure
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Several images changed for inclusion in my book Antarctica. Why? The original versions contained small, but significant,  elements that were composited from other sources. So I removed them for this project. Even though it’s often highly interpretive, editorial work is about representing the scene as it was witnessed. It wasn’t clear to me until after the initial voyage what kind of project I was developing. As it became clearer and clearer I realized I needed to put certain restrictions on my standard practices – otherwise it would become a different kind of project. There’s nothing wrong with those practices. They’re just not appropriate for this kind of project.

It’s usually only astronomers who realize that the moon in the first version is impossibly lit; it should have light on the same side as the iceberg and mountains. I like to leave clues like this for the viewer that alerts them to the fact that images have been altered. With my other type of work, I usually don’t tell them. Instead, I let them figure it out. This keeps viewers asking a lot of questions, which is really beneficial for everyone. In the case of my Antarctica work, I’m now doing the reverse. It’s appropriate and relevant to do so. In this case, full disclosure raises more questions. Questions and dialog are useful.

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Disclosure
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