Press Review
US press review
by Paul Melcher

Los Angeles Times : New Delhi — Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest rally against the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims." Photograph by: Saurabh Das/Associated Press

The atlantic : A girl sits next to a portrait of the late Chairman Mao Zedong at a souvenir shop beside Dong Fang Hong Square in Nanjie, on September 24, 2012. (Reuters/Jason Lee)

NBCsports. Maria Sharapova returns a ball against Heather Watson during the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Tuesday, Sept. 25 in Tokyo. Kiyoshi Ota / Getty Images

The Seattle times : Heavyweight champion Kubrat Pulev of Bulgaria, left, and Alexander Ustinov of Belarus, right, fight for Pulev's heavyweight title and IBF eliminator for the top spot in the rankings in Hamburg, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012. Pulev knocked out Ustinov in the eleventh round. Gero Breloer

Time Int'l October 9, 2012 Photo © Oscar B. Castillo Caption in the magazine: A gang member poses with a gun in Caracas. Some 50 homicides occur in the city each week.

Time.com. Sept. 24, 2012. A decomposing body lays on the street in an abandoned neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. The city has seen heavy fighting between Assad forces and Free Syrian Army fighters in recent months.Sipa

Huffington Post : Mick Jagger "Shades One" Fort Harrison Hotel, Clearwater Fl, Spring 1965 Photographer unknown.

Denver Post : Indian children dressed as Mahatma Gandhi wait for the start of a rally against violence to mark the birth anniversary of Gandhi in Ahmadabad, India, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Seattle times : Holly Christy grits her way through the mud below barbed wire at the obstacle called "Kiss of Mud #2" during the Tough Mudder 12-mile race Saturday in Black Diamond while also urging citizens to get out and vote. Billed as "probably the toughest event on the planet" it continues Sunday. Alan Berner / The Seattle Times

Vogue : Keira Nightley. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli of Valentino Haute Couture sent out a series of midnight-blue dresses impeccable in their simplicity. Mario Testino for Vogue

National Geographic : Photograph by Brent Stirton, Reportage by Getty Images Bodies are what remain in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjidah National Park after one of the largest mass elephant slaughters in decades. Armed with grenades and AK-47s, poachers killed more than 300.
Los Angeles Times : New Delhi — Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest rally against the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims." Photograph by: Saurabh Das/Associated Press
7 days. That is exactly the amount of time that separates the events you see today from those you saw last weeks. Not enough to have remorse and too young to be real memories. Events follow and push each other even faster now that everyone has a camera. Or, more to the point, now that everyone is a publisher. It is not so much that everyone can take pictures that is really a new aspect of our civilization, but rather that everyone can publish images anywhere, anytime. There is no longer the supremacy of the editorial gatekeepers, those that decided what images could, or could not, be seen. Today, regardless of wether we like it or not, all images taken can be seen. Thankfully, most remain within the gated circle of social media groups, inaccessible for those who are not friends, or acquaintances. Some escape and like a disease, grab you wether you like it or not. But for better or for good, unless if we are Flickr, Instagram, or Facebook fanatics, we still can enjoy the delicious taste of great photography at the same places there have historically been. In this column, as well as others, you will notice that it is always the same publications that offer us some of the best images of the week. We live in a 300 million new images a day uploaded a day society but somehow we manage to escape the huge majority and get to honor, with our time, those that will probably remain iconic. It is not an easy task to document our world and it takes much more than just holding a camera in ones hand. This week, like any other week, we experience it and can thankfully say that even in a world were everyone is a photographer, not everyone can be photographer. There is an elite out there of talented photographers that can bring us far away emotions like no one else can. They are the photographers.
Paul Melcher
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