'An Unlikely Weapon' is a documentary film about famed photographer Eddie Adams.

The film was shown a couple weeks ago in New York and is now in its final days of screening in L.A. (through the 28th at Arclight Sherman Oaks, 6360 West Sunset Blvd.). It is directed by Susan Morgan Cooper, cinematography and editing by Isaac Hagy, and is narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Morley Safer, Gordon Parks, Peter Arnett, Bill Eppridge and many others make appearances in the film. The theme of the movie was built around the power of a photograph. In Eddie Adams' words, "Pictures are a lot more important than a lot of people think. They say it's the written word -- bullshit. It's the picture that does it."

As Sutherland intones, "Eddie Adams photographed 13 wars, six American Presidents and every major film star over the last 50 years." History would be changed through his lens. But the photo that made Eddie famous would haunt him his entire life. In 1968, he photographed a police chief, General Nygoc Loan, shooting a Vietcong guerrilla point blank. The photo brought Eddie fame and a Pulitzer Prize. Eddie felt in taking that photograph (below), he had vilified a decent man.



Hal Buell, former Photo Director of The Associated Press, conducted an extensive interview with Eddie several years ago. This narrative threads throughout the movie. At times, Eddie comes off as gruff and irascible, but to those who knew him, this exterior is just a front for a sensitive and compassionate man. Sam Garcia, of Nikon, explains that Eddie had the ability to speak to both coal miners and kings with an ease that disarms and allows access to their own personalities. One of the most enlightening passages of the film is Eddie describing his photo session with Cuban Leader Fidel Castro.

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to become friends with Eddie. He had an innate ability to get to the truth of the matter, no matter the surroundings. He was most proud of his photography on the Vietnamese boat refugees who drifted aimlessly in Southeast Asian waters. These photos were instrumental in the American government opening its shores to hundreds of thousands of war refugees.

Two decades ago, in 1988, Eddie started Barnstorm: The Eddie Adams Workshop. This tuition-free workshop accepts one hundred of the best new photographers worldwide, based solely on the strength of their photo portfolios. Photo industry leaders donate their time each fall as they descend upon Sullivan County in New York's Catskill Mountains for an intense and informative workshop. Even though Eddie died in 2004, the workshop lives on. In my opinion, this is his greatest legacy.

The documentary 'An Unlikely Weapon' provides an insightful glimpse of a complex man.

The Southern Short Course in News Photography is America's longest running photojournalism seminar, and the 59th seminar was held in Charlotte, N.C., earlier this year. I was invited to judge the annual photo contest. I wanted to share with you a package created by Scott Strazzante of the Chicago Tribune. It was titled 'Echoes of the Past.' It recently was announced that it very deservedly was voted as Best of Show.

Scott documented the lives of Harlow and Jean Cagwin in 2002 on their 118 acre cattle farm in Lockport, Illinois. This was the same year that the Cagwins left their farm to make room for the Willow Walk subdivision. Five years later, Scott returned to Willow Walk to document the Grabenhofer family, who now live in the new development just yards from the spot of his original photo shoot.

The moments in each photograph are tender and beautifully captured. However by pairing the photos from 2007 with the first set of photos shot in 2002, Scott creates a most stunning tale of our changing landscape. It is a remarkable juxtaposition of time and life. This is one of the strongest works of photojournalism I have seen recently, showing very clearly the demise of one way of life, and the creation of a new way of life. This is not your usual dramatic set of photos of a catastrophic event; it is a slice of life photographed at the same spot that captures two very distinct eras.



Great job, Scott.

An amazing set of pictures from Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic, who was shooting pictures right next to a U.S. Marine engaged in a firefight, shows the Marine narrowly escaping death -- or at least what would have been an extremely serious wound. The Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit was engaging Taliban fighters after they opened fire near Garmser in Afghanistan's Helmand Province May 18. The Marine was not injured.



We ran one photo from this series in our Pictures of the Week photo gallery, but I thought that showing these photos as a group would give a sense of just how close this Marine came to being hit, and how instantaneously and irrevocably things can change in combat. Luckily this Marine escaped with his life.

Yves Rossy, known as the 'Fusion Man,' flies with a jet-powered single wing over the Alps in Bex, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 14, 2008. Some people go fishing on their day off. Yves Rossy likes to jump out of a small plane with a pair of jet-powered wings and perform figure eights above the Swiss Alps. The revolutionary human flying machine comes after five years of training and many more years of dreaming. (Anja Niedringhaus, AP)

The images, like this one, cause you to catch your breath:

Slightly blurry, but easy to read what's happening. The caption says, "A woman survivor tries to escape from the debris of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province May 12, 2008." You realize it's been hours and hours since this photo was taken, and you think of the fate of this woman, trapped amid tons of rubble from a collapsed building. How badly was she hurt? Did she make it? It's clear she's been trapped a while. It looks as if someone tried to give her comfort by placing a red pillow under her head.