You Can’t Tell A Book By Its Cover… Or A Website By Its URL:
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http://home.comcast.net/~tangsphoto/about_us.html
If you’ve been reading this department for a while you know I have a weakness for photographs of lighthouses and Gerald “call me Sam” Tang’s website has some of the best. Tang’s site is proof that fancy site design alone won’t net you a spot in Web Profiles. All you need, as The Beatles sang, is good photography. Good enough, as Tang’s are, to be featured in National Geographic magazine.

© 2006, Gerald T. Tang, All Rights Reserved

http://tangsphoto.com/about_us.html
Tang’s Photo Memories contain 16 different categories, including people, bugs, plants, and travel subject matter. His Lighthouse images are beautiful in the classic mold, impeccably composed and skillfully exposed and shot at different times of the year and different times of the day. They hold lots of variety and zero predictability. If you think those shots are great, take a look at Weeds. After seeing these scientifically accurate but nonetheless aesthetically pleasing images of invasive species, you won’t look at the crabgrass in your lawn in the same way. Equally deft with photographing animals as small as a ground squirrel or as large as an African elephant, Tang’s generalist approach isn’t always up to his level of achievement when he attempts sports or people. No matter, whatever subject Tang trains on his camera seems approached the same way: With the intention of capturing the best possible image in that particular moment. Now that’s something we should all strive for.

http://dbacon.igc.org
The photographs found on David Bacon’s website prove that we are, like it or not, “living in interesting times.” His camera never flinches from capturing images of the world, and not in a coffee-table book way. His unflinchingly powerful images show a world that many of us think we know, but clearly don’t. When you think of Iraq you are not prepared to encounter his images of “Workers of Baghdad,” made in power plants and refineries.

© 2006, David Bacon, All Rights Reserved

The site is big and sprawling. The Photographs section is filled with mostly monochrome images that demonstrate the power of the medium to cut through the clutter and Bacon’s ability to show the soul of the person, place, or situation. In the Culture collection you’ll find photographs of extreme grace and poetry showing native dancers in Tagulaylay. The Portraits have compelling black and white images of people in the news, including author James Ellroy. Bacon is the author of The Children of NAFTA and the site contains essays that may offend some readers’ political sensitivities. While you can always put your personal spin on the subject matter, there’s no denying that the events are real and that the images are undeniable.