Category: Face Of The Day

A Pochard swims in Regents Park in London, England on March 4, 2013. The Met office has predicted the warmest day of the year tomorrow with a top temperature of 15 degrees in some parts of the country. By Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.

A reader updates us on a project we have highlighted before:

Glad the new business is up and running and seemingly successful so far. I wanted to share with you a story that is worth sharing with your readers.  I don’t know if you’re familiar with Humans of New York.  It is a Tumblr and Facebook page with over half a million followers.  The page is full of photos taken by photographer Brandon Stanton.  He takes portraits of New Yorkers and tells a snippet about them.  The photos are often interesting and sometimes beautiful, and the stories range from sweet to sad to uninformative.

Brandon used his following to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hurricane Sandy relief.  (His photos of the ruins were heartbreaking.) This week, Brandon discovered that DKNY (Donna Karan clothing stores) used his photos in their Hong Kong window displays without his permission.  In fact, he had turned them down when they asked.  Instead of suing, he asked them publicly to donate $100,000 to the YMCA of Bed-Stuy, which would send 300 inner city kids to summer camp for 2 weeks each.  DKNY donated $25,000 in Brandon’s name, and Brandon was pleased (but his fans were still irate at DKNY and let them know it).  Brandon has channeled his fans’ energy into a fundraiser and he is now trying to raise the $75,000 Donna Karan wouldn’t donate from his followers.

He is nearly broke, but he has an incredible generosity which should be recognized, commended and supported. His Facebook page has the full story and a link to his fundraiser, which has now brought in over $45,000 for the YMCA. Please share his story of his followers vs Goliath – and look at his photos, which could make great “Face of the Day” candidates.  He reminds me of you in spirit and in the way he is firmly supported by a devoted Internet family. I wish both of you great success.

(Photo by Brandon Stanton: “If this guy doesn’t make you smile, I can’t help you.”)

An Egyptian man shouts religious and political slogans as hundreds of Salafists demonstrate over a lack of enforcement of a recent court order permitting bearded police officers to serve in Cairo on March 1, 2013. By Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images.

An aide holds a portrait of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that was given to him as a gift during ceremonies at the newly re-opened Fairway Market on the waterfront in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood on March 1, 2013. Fairway, which quickly became a popular shopping destination and an anchor in the struggling community of Red Hook, was closed following severe flooding during Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012. Like the rest of Red Hook, Fairway has struggled to quickly re-open in a neighborhood that lost dozens of businesses during the storm. The re-opening, which included a ceremony and ribbon cutting featuring Bloomberg and Miss America, is being viewed as Red Hook’s official comeback. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Pilgrims wait for Pope Benedict XVI to wave, for the last time as head of the Catholic Church, from the window of Castel Gandolfo where he will start his retirement today on February 28, 2013 in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Pope Benedict XVI has been the leader of the Catholic Church for eight years and is the first Pope to retire since 1415. He will stay at the Papal Summer residence of Castel Gandolfo until renovations are complete at a monastery in the grounds of the Vatican and will be known as Emeritus Pope. By Oli Scarff/Getty Images.

Former Cardinal Keith O’Brien sits in his office at his official residence on February 27, 2013 in Edinburgh, Scotland. O’Brien, who was Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic and head of the Scottish Catholic Church, has resigned following allegations from three priests and one former priest of inappropriate behavior. By Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.

Female and male Marine recruits listen to instructions as they prepare for a swimming test during boot camp at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina. Male and female recruits are expected to meet the same standards during their swim qualification test. All enlisted Marines who were living east of the Mississippi River when they were recruited attend boot camp at Parris Island. About six percent of enlisted Marines are female. By Scott Olson/Getty Images.

The mother of Mohammed Legouad, one of the victims of Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah in March 2012, speaks to the media upon her arrival at Paris courthouse on February 25, 2013 before meeting the investigating anti-terror judges. By Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images.

Andy Cush spotlights an older project that’s taken on a whole new relevance:

Photographer John Schnabel took these eerie stills using means that might have landed him in jail or an interrogation room today: by standing at the end of a runway with a telephoto lens, snapping pictures without anyone’s permission. The work was done in the mid-90s, but is now being released in a book entitled Passengers. “It was a different time and there was not the same kind of suspicion of cameras,” he told Wired. “There wasn’t such a sensitively about the airport.” Something about the graininess of the images necessitated by the zoom lens lends them an uncanny sadness that highlights the anonymity of the people inside.

Jakob Schiller respects the universality of the shots:

Schabel won’t reveal the names of the airports where he shot because he likes the idea of placeless-ness and the way it relates to air travel. Just because you change planes at the O’Hare in Chicago doesn’t really mean you’re in Chicago. When you’re flying you’re not really anywhere. Without any geographic identifiers and without any captions, Schabel’s photos blend together the same way the fields blend together at 30,000 feet or the airport buildings blend together as passengers switch aircraft.

(Photo courtesy of Twin Palms Publishers)

Amanda Gorence is impressed by Daniel Naudé’s recent project, Animal Farm::

The book began on a road trip from Cape Town to Mozambique when Naudé experienced a profound encounter with a feral Africanis dog … He began tracking these feral creatures throughout South Africa, capturing regal portraits reminiscent of formal animal paintings of centuries past. Naudé’s Africanis trek soon morphed into a five year exploration of the country’s land, animal and people.

Throughout the book Naudé balances the wild, feral dog with a myriad of domesticated animals and their owners, a combination that alludes to the spectrum of relationships between man and beast.