The Reading Shortlist is an occasional post with a listing of recommended readings and links. A recommendation does not necessarily suggest an agreement with the contents of the post. For previous shortlists, please visit the site links page.
Andrea Frazzetta, The New York Times Magazine, "Nollywood's Walk of Fame" Frazzetta's images accompany an article written by Andrew Rice for the magazine about the $500 million-a-year "Nollywood" film industry of Nigeria.
James Dodd, Flickr, "A parting note" Dodd explains his reasons for leaving Flickr and in doing so gives an insight into the current state of what was once a central hub for photography community and sharing. He also touches on the question of sharing your work online for free.
Robert Frank, LIFE (May 21, 1951), "Speaking of Pictures" After checking out this early photo essay by a 26-year-old Frank in Paris of....chairs, I'm prepared to say The Americans is better.
Sam Grobart, The New York Times, A Review of the Lytro Camera Grobart examines the first Lytro which allows you to focus the image on your computer in post-production. Includes a link to an example image that you can experiment with.
Impossible Colors, Wikipedia A fascinating thought: that under special artificial laboratory conditions it is possible to see colors ordinarily impossible. Hat tip to T. F. Tolhurst.
Liverly Morgue In case you missed it, The New York Times launched a new blog on Tumblr featuring images from their photo "morgue" of millions of pictures. The reverse sides of the images are provided and are frequently as interesting as the images themselves.
Sebastiao Salgado, Looking Back At You This link is to part one of a six-part documentary on YouTube about the Brazilian photographer Salgado. Includes lengthy interviews, video of his working process from his cameras to his prints, and footage of him working in the field.
Alec Soth, Minneapolis StarTribune, A photographer's-eye view of Martin Parr Soth calls Parr the "Jay-Z of documentary photography." Includes a link to a second article with a video about Parr's visit to Minnesota to photograph ice this past January.
Larry Towell, CNN, Faces of the Taliban Magnum photographer Larry Towell hired an Afghan journalist in order to enter Taliban camps to make these photographs that give a face the insurgency group.
Pieter Wisse, 500 Photographers Blog, Shut down your computer and go live! Wisse eloquently gives us the reminder we all periodically need to hear. Thanks Pieter.