pixnoir : : girlwiz

A rare fisheye Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 lens, worth £100,000, has gone on sale at Gray's of Westminster in London.

Excerpt from the article on the Amateur Photographer website:

A rare £100,000 Nikon fisheye lens, said to be able to ‘see behind itself’ – and dwarfing any camera it is attached to – has gone on sale in London.

The Fisheye-Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 was credited as the world’s most extreme wideangle lens to cover the 24x36mm image area when it was unveiled at the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany in 1970.

It weighs a whopping 5.2kg, is 171mm long and has a diameter of 236mm.

‘We came across it around seven weeks ago,’ said Gray Levett, co-founder of Nikon dealer Grays of Westminster who told AP that he found the gem on a trip overseas.

Believed to be one of only a few hundred produced, it was principally designed for scientific and industrial applications and special effects when shooting portraits and architectural shots, for example.

The 12-elements-in-9-goups optic delivers a picture angle of 220º.

Posted by at 6:51 AM | Permalink

Closes Sunday, March 25

Kahlo’s personal photographs are on display for the first time in the U.S at Artisphere in Arlington, Virginia. The exhibit gives viewers intimate snapshots into her private life.

The private photos provide a glimpse into Kahlo's life with her husband, the severe pain she suffered as the result of a serious bus accident, as well as her talent in taking photographs herself. Though only a few of the photos in the exhibit are credited to Kahlo herself, it's clear that she sustained an interest in the medium. Many of the visual artists in Kahlo's circle were prominent photographers like Edward Weston, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Tina Modotti; some of their photos are found in her collection.

The art gallery, Artisphere in Arlington, Virginia, is the twin town to Kahlo's home town in Mexico.

Artisphere
1101 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22209

Posted by at 5:19 AM | Permalink

Murder is My Business

Through September 2, 2012

"This exhibition affirms that Weegee brought to street photography a new, often shocking vitality. The combination of grit, humanity, intensity, merciless opportunism and spatial precariousness...regularly resulted in pictures that you can’t stop looking at...and don't soon forget."
— The New York Times

International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street
New York, NY

Posted by at 6:53 AM | Permalink

Jeu de Paume
February 12 - April 29, 2012

The Jeu de Paume, will open a retrospective showcasing the photographs of Berenice Abbott. She came from Ohio but visited Paris in 1921 and apprenticed with Man Ray. In 1926 she opened her own studio where she made portraits of James Joyce, André Gide, Djuna Barnes, Jean Cocteau, etc. Abbott acquired 1,400 of Parisian documentary photographer, Eugène Atget's glass negatives, and 7,800 prints and sold them to the Museum of Modern Art in 1968.

In 1929 she visited New York intending to return to Paris, but instead, she began a project called Changing New York, which was subsidized by the Federal Art Project. She photographed buildings and this is what will be the centerpiece of the Jeu de Paume Paris show.

Posted by at 8:19 AM | Permalink

ImagePrint 9 is now shipping! It is a totally new product.

Some of what's new:

* The GUI with many new functions
* B&W wide AND narrow gamut
* The printer driver has been completely re-written and is more accurate

Visit Colorbytesoftware for a thorough explanation and examination of ImagePrint 9.

Posted by at 12:41 AM | Permalink

Age of Silver

Through January 7, 2012

John Loengard's newest book - and the basis for this eponymous exhibition - Age of Silver, is the ode to the art form to which he has dedicated his life. Contained within its pages, and on exhibition, are Loengard's portraits and expressive candids of many of the most important photographers of the last half-century - Leibovitz, Avedon, Eisenstaedt, Cartier-Bresson, Salgado, Benson and many, many others.

Leica Gallery
In the Oskar Barnack Room
670 Broadway
New York City 10012

Posted by at 8:04 AM | Permalink