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• RESOLVE contributor Michael Shaw is hosting his next BAGnewsSalon over at BAGnewsNotes this Sunday, May 3. Michael hosts these online, real-time image analysis sessions frequently and the discussion is always lively. The topic this time is Obama: The First 100 Days; guest participants include Alan Chin (another RESOLVE contributor), Nina Berman, David Burnett, Brian Ulrich, Mario Tama, and PDN news editor Daryl Lang, plus a bunch of historians and professors.

• In keeping with the Obama theme, the “I Do Solemnly Swear: Photographs of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration” exhibition is currently on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. David Hume Kennerly, the Ford White House photographer, and Robert McNeely, President Clinton’s official photographer, were commissioned to lead a team of more than 24 photographers in capturing the inauguration. It opened April 29, the 100th day of the Obama administration, and will run through July 12.

• The New York Times has a fantastic slideshow of pictures buried in the recently found “Mexican Suitcase,” three filmsy cardboard boxes of negatives of photographs taken during the Spanish Civil War by photographers Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour. Capa left the boxes of negatives in his Paris darkroom before he fled to America in 1939. It was believed that the negatives traveled from Paris to Marseille and eventually to Mexico City, where they resided for more than half a century before they were turned over to the International Center of Photography in NYC last year.

• Since the high-def video camera RedONE was launched last year, photographers everywhere have been curious to see how it would eventually make the still cameras obsolete. Then Greg Williams, uses one to shoot his June Esquire cover of Megan Fox and needless to say, people like APhotoEditor have things to say about it. You can also watch a sneak peek of Greg’s behind-the-scenes video.

"Eden" by Women In Photography exhibitor Kelli Connell ©Kelli Connell

Miki Johnson: Tell me briefly about the goals of WIPNYC and why it was important to be able to offer this grant.

WIP: Women in Photography is an online exhibition project designed to highlight the work of emerging, mid-career, and established artists. Our goal is to be a resource for curators, editors, and publishers, and also to create a visual dialog between women artists working in the photographic medium.

We have both been overwhelmed by the positive response to the site. Both of us have spent a great deal of time thinking about what we want the site to contribute to the photographic community. The next logical step in our programming was a grant. Because like the site, it allows us to both support and call attention to the work of women artists.

MJ: What is the main goal of this grant?

WIP: The main goal of the grant is to provide funding to one female photographer in support of a project. I think funding is a problem for artists working in all mediums, unless you have independent means or are extremely successful in the commercial art world. Photographers must pay for film, processing, equipment, travel, in addition to the high cost of creating work for exhibition or self-publishing. We both have struggled to fund our own work and find great importance in these types of opportunities. With so few grants available, it just seemed great to be able to give back.

MJ: How will you determine the recipient? Do you have any tips for photographers planning to submit?

WIP: We will select the recipient based on the quality of work, and the need of the applicant along with the strength of their project proposal. The most important thing is to submit five of your strongest images from a cohesive body of work as well as make sure to write clear, concise, and persuasive project goals. The grant is open to women at any stage in their career, except students. It is open to the artists previously shown on WIPNYC.org as well.

MJ: And the grant recipient will also be exhibited at WIPNYC.org?

WIP: The grant recipient will have a solo show on the site in June. In addition, we will have an award reception, including a slideshow presentation of the grant recipients’ work at the National Arts Club in New York City.

Because the solo shows we feature are online, we can reach a broader audience. Our visitors do not need to be in a specific city because they are accessing the work worldwide. The site traffic has grown dramatically with each show, which is one of the benefits of exhibiting work online. Several of our artists have seen a noticeable increase of traffic on their own sites. Being featured on the site has led to many things, including magazine assignments and inquiries from publishers and galley representation.

• According to an Associated Press report, Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton called for the release of detained American-Iranian photojournalist Roxana Saberi at a press conference yesterday, two days after the NPPA released an announcement that the Iranian government admitted Saberi was held in prison. Since the US currently has no diplomatic relations with Iran, the State Department is now working with Swiss officials to find out details of her detention. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) started a Facebook petition which had already collected over 5,500 signatures as of yesterday afternoon. NPPA has more on Saberi and the arrest here and here. For a complete story and update, go to Free Roxana website.

• Moodboard, the London-based stock photo agency that has gained popularity in this struggling economy, debuted its digital magazine ONE this week. While some think that the stock industry is in freefall, Moodboard CEO Mike Watson thinks it is the perfect solution for photographers and creatives to counter the slashed marketing and photography budgets companies everywhere are experiencing. Regardless, we think the 34-page magazine is visually pleasing and a great attempt to connect with the photography community at large.

• The 50 States Project published its first “assignment” on March 1. The innovative online gallery pulls together 50 emerging photographers, one from each state, and asks them to make a photo according a bimonthly theme. The first theme was “People,” and the photographers were asked to create images that convey their own style as well as the feel of their home state. A Photo Editor has already given it his blessing and undoubtedly other editors have bookmarked the page as well.