Gallery: This Week in Photography: Flickr Photobooks, the Nick Cage Insta-bot, and Google Glass
01Cage
Selfie Is Named Word Of The Year, Gets Owned By Nicholas Cage ------------------------------------------------------------- Selfie is the [2013 Word of the Year](http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/press-releases/oxford-dictionaries-word-of-the-year-2013/)! The Oxford English Dictionary editors, the official bods that makes the decision, say that the frequency of the word selfie has increased by 17,000% since this time last year. The word ‘Selfie’ was coined over a decade ago, on an online forum, by an Australian describing his previous-night’s drunken antics: *“Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer \[sic\] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”* — (ABC Online 13 Sept. 2002) The problem with selfies these days, is that people think they’ve seen it all. Not true. Enter [Josh McMillan](http://mcmillan.xxx/) who reinvents the genre with [Feeling Cagey](http://feelingcagey.com/), a program that automatically replaces your face with Nicholas Cage’s mug when you upload your selfie to Instagram with the hashtag #selfie. Selfies are the delivering on photographic medium’s eternal promise of democracy. They’re not just for young guns with their glowing follicles, duck-faces, Belieberizing and side-boob. Even pensioners can [flash their man-bits](http://gawker.com/geraldos-selfie-continues-to-haunt-him-gets-him-fired-1254260174). Selfie was added to OxfordDictionaries.com in August 2013. Selfie is not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but is currently being considered for inclusion. *Photo: Screengrab from [FeelingCagey.com](http://feelingcagey.com/)*
02FLICKR
Flickr Joins the Book Business ------------------------------ Flickr, the reborn photo sharing site, announced that users can [now order books filled with photographs from their image sets](http://www.flickr.com/create). The books are 8.5” x 11” and cost $35 for 20 pages ($0.50 for each additional page). Flickr says their software helps users with the layout, but those who want more manual control can have it. The books use a heavy stock Lustre paper and come with an image-based cover and matching dust jacket. The service doesn’t seem to be aimed at professionals looking to show their portfolio, but that’s fine. We’re sure a bunch of these books will end up under Christmas trees this year and make a lot of people very happy.
03Russell Lee - Children at the FSA Camelback Farms inspect the photographer's camera, Phoenix, Arizona, 1942
Yale Boffins Map All the FSA Photographs ---------------------------------------- The photographs made by the [Farm Security Administration](http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/) loom large in the cultural and social identity of the United States. Between 1935 and 1944, the FSA photographers exposed 175,000 film negatives, which academics at Yale are currently [mapping every single photograph](http://photogrammar.yale.edu/map/). Everybody knows the FSA’s work (Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother is up there with *The Afghan Girl* and *The Mona Lisa* in terms of its ubiquity and commodity value) but do they know where it was shot? Under the direction of Roy Stryker, [a team of eleven photographers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm_Security_Administration#Photography_program) including Jack Delano, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks and Marion Post Wolcott spread across the country far-and-wide to document the Depression-era, and later the years of WWII on home soil. Yale Photogrammar blog [explains](http://photogrammar.yale.edu/blog/?p=25) that they didn’t work on rolls of 24 or 36 film. The FSA photographers “took with them extremely long runs of film that were cut according to their needs. After taking their pictures, the film was sent to Washington, D.C. to be processed. During this procedure the long film rolls were cut into strips, most often of five exposures.” And then there’s this [awesome dendrogram](http://photogrammar.yale.edu/browse/classifications/dendrogram.php) of FSA photographers’ subject matter. *Photo: Russell Lee, Library Of Congress. ‘[Children at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) Camelback Farms inspect the photographer's camera, Phoenix, Arizona](http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998003330/PP/).’ 1942 Feb/Mar.*
04Aftermath
Kickstart a Doc Photo Book To Kickstart Social Awareness -------------------------------------------------------- Photography-cheerleading NGO [The Aftermath Project](http://theaftermathproject.org/) has launched a [Kickstarter campaign](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/20505304/war-is-only-half-the-story-volume-6-photo-book) for it’s latest volume of fine-art documentary photography that the organization has supported in the past calendar year, *War Is Only Half The Story: Vol. 6*. The Aftermath Project values the work of photographers who stick around after the bombs have ceased falling and the troops have pulled out. War wreaks havoc on the psychological state of communities and our understanding of conflict must be based on events in the decades after war if we are to understand it fully. [#iframe: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/20505304/war-is-only-half-the-story-volume-6-photo-book/widget/video.html](660x495)|||||| The book which is sent out to educators, editors and U.S. senators, features the work of 2012 grant winner [Andrew Lichtenstein](http://www.lichtensteinphoto.com/) ("American Memory"/United States), and 2012 finalists [Christopher Capozziello](http://www.chriscappy.com/) ("For God, Race and Country"/United States); [Michelle Frankfurter](http://www.michellefrankfurter.com/) ("Destino"/Central America); [Simon Thorpe](http://www.simonthorpeimages.com/) ("Toy Soldiers"/Western Sahara) and [Michael Zumstein](http://www.michael-zumstein.com/fr/) ("Bon Amis"/The Ivory Coast). *Photo: Christine Fenzl, ‘Agon and Besnik, Macedonia, from Fenzl’s project "Looking Forward - Streetball.”*
Dedy Zulkifli05AP259830827213.jpg
Volcano Wreaks Havoc in Indonesia --------------------------------- *The Atlantic's In Focus* blog [posted a gallery](http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/11/the-eruptions-of-mount-sinabung/100630/) Monday with pictures of Mount Sinabung, a volcano in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province that has been erupting on and off since September. The images are beautiful in many ways because they capture the sheer environmental awe of the eruptions. But they're also heartbreaking because they show the absolute chaos created by the volcanic ash. Thousands of people have been evicted and are now temporarily homeless. Another volcano, Italy’s Mount Etna, has also been showing a lot of recent activity. Story and video [here](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/11/spectacular-video-of-etnas-latest-eruption/). *Photo: Mount Sinabung spews volcanic materials as it erupts as seen from Beras Tiga Pancur, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Dedy Zulkifli).*
06GOOGLE
Google Glass and the Future of Photography ------------------------------------------ Smartphones revolutionized the way we take pictures and some people suspect Google Glass might do the same. The *Financial Post* recently [ran a gallery of Google Glass photos](http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/16/google-glass-these-astonishing-images-show-how-it-will-change-photography-forever/?__lsa=4ab7-45cc) taken by New Zealand-based travel photographer Trey Ratcliff. Along side the photos were comments from Ratcliff about the advantages of using this new device. He points out that Google Glass is “very handy in the streets when my hands are full” and that the camera is head-mounted and therefore "a thousand times more steady than holding a mobile phone camera.” We've all missed photos because we're scrambling for our phone, and plenty of our iPhone photos are blurry, so we see why Google Glass might come in handy. But here at Raw File we're not completely sold. We have no doubt that plenty of people will make amazing photos with Google Glass, but technological advantages don't not necessarily equal better pictures. Cell phones haven't made most people better photographers, just more proficient photographers. The same will be true for Google Glass. A bad picture taken on Google Glass is still a bad picture. *Photo: Trey Ratcliff.*
07MAIKA-LIKE MY FATHER-08
Young, Hungry and Challenging the Medium ---------------------------------------- Each year, the [Joop Swart Masterclass](http://www.worldpressphoto.org/2013-joop-swart-masterclass) brings together a dozen of the most inventive young photographers on the planet. Competition for entry is fierce for this prestigious workshop in which the fledgling shooters get to bounce ideas and images off six longtime pros. This week, [World Press Photo](http://www.worldpressphoto.org/) published the [12 edited portfolios](http://www.worldpressphoto.org/gallery/2013-joop-swart-masterclass) resulting from the 2013 workshop, which ran 2-8 November. Much of the work has never been published before and many of the photographers (who hark from every continent) haven’t yet received the attention their powerful work warrants. We particularly like the multi-exposed, emotion-laden, color-frenzied photos by [Maika Elan](http://www.maikaelan.com/) (above). But remember these eleven names too — [Ali Ali](http://lightbox.time.com/2013/08/06/wire-photographer-spotlight-conflict-and-conscience-in-gaza-by-ali-ali/#1), [Evgenia Arbugaeva](http://www.evgeniaarbugaeva.com/), [Fatemeh Behboudi](http://www.worldpressphoto.org/people/fatemeh-behboudi), [Arnau Blanch Vilageliu](http://www.arnaublanch.com/), [Peter Dicampo](http://www.peterdicampo.com/), [An-Sofie Kesteleyn](http://www.ansofiekesteleyn.be/), [Diana Markosian](http://www.dianamarkosian.com/open), [Dina Oganova](http://dikarka.ge/), [Javad Parsa](http://www.javadparsa.com/), [Maria Turchenkova](http://mariaturchenkova.com/), and [Veejay Villafranca](http://www.veejayvillafranca.com/). *Photo: Maika Elan, from her series, ‘Like My Father.’ Elan says, “My father was being treated for cancer. He had lost more than 20 kilograms in a few months. One day, as I looked at him, it surprised me how very small he looked in his old clothes, like a child dressing up from his parents’ wardrobe.”*
08COLORIZATION
Colorized Photos Help Bring the Past to Life -------------------------------------------- Photo colorization, or the process of adding color into photos, is nothing new. But over the past month there have been a number of stories that have brought the technique back into the spotlight. The articles highlight the work but also draw attention to colorization aces, otherwise know as “colorizers,” like [Dana Keller](https://www.facebook.com/HistoryInColor) and [Sanna Dullaway](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088611/Swedish-artist-Sanna-Dullaway-injected-colour-host-historic-photographs.html), who have made names for themselves by pumping out tons of these manipulated images. In an [interview about colorization over at Mashable,](http://mashable.com/2013/11/09/colorized-photos-dana-keller/) Keller says, “there is an element of detachment that we have from historic black and white images, as if they are only shadows from a time too long ago for any of us to remember or relate to…By taking the time to add color to these images of history, the viewer is brought a little closer to the reality in which they were taken. Color establishes a renewed familiarity with the past.” Some colorization is tacky, but we agree that done well, it can help photos take on a whole new meaning. One of our favorite examples is Dullaway’s colorization of a nuclear bomb test in the South Pacific. Instead of just a black and white shot from some propaganda film, the color version draws attention to the raw beauty of the area and makes you think twice about the contamination created by the testing.
09RED-BULL
Red Bull Illume Exhibition Tours the U.S. ----------------------------------------- [Back in September we wrote about the Red Bull Illume photo contest](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/rawfile/2013/09/red-bull/#slideid-39311), which featured some of the world’s most beautiful and pucker-inducing action and adventure sports photos. Stuff like a [kayaker launching over 130-foot waterfall and a highline walker in the Austrian Dolomites.](http://www.redbullillume.com/) The top 50 photos from the contest are now touring the world and are currently on display in Scottsdale, Arizona until Sunday. Each photo has been made into a life-size lightbox that’s 6" x 6" and the exhibition opens at night from 6:30 - 10 p.m. After Arizona, the show is scheduled to make stops in Vancouver and Atlanta. If you don’t live in one of these cities but still want to see the photos as prints, Red Bull is selling a limited-edition hardcover book that features a broader 250-photo edit. The book costs €50 (about $70) and can be purchased [here](http://www.redbullshop.com/redbull/en/rb-media/red-bull-illume-photobook/v/M-112549?ctcCategory=rbm-books&pi=0). *Photo: Fredrik Berggren in Åre, Sweden. By Elias Kunosson.*
