Photographer's Forum / Ken Lassiter

Christine in Half Shadow, 1974 © RALPH GIBSON Ralph Gibson is certainly unique. He does his own thing, making photographs his way. Most of his photographs are composed in vertical format in highcontrast black-and-white. He rarely accepts a commercial assignment. His income is mainly from sales of prints and his 25 books. As [...]

Havana, Cuba, 1998 © DAVID ALAN HARVEY David Alan Harvey is a bundle of energy at age 72. His creativity and versatility are astounding while straddling the line between journalism and art. He seems to go in many directions at once, always focusing on new ideas and new ways to communicate. He joined [...]

Dali Lama blessing man. USA, 2015 © TINA MANLEY A successful professional photographer for more than 30 years, Tina Manley began her documentary photography business after raising four children and teaching school, as recounted in her 2002 interview with Photographer's Forum (“Tina Manley: It's Never Too Late to Make a Difference,” May/Summer 2002, [...]

Casey Key, Florida, 2014 © Clyde Butcher Known as “the Ansel Adams of the Everglades,” Clyde Butcher is widely admired for the majestic beauty of his wall-sized black-and-white photographs of the Florida Everglades, national parks and the American landscape. When Photographer's Forum interviewed him in 2000 (Spring/February 2000, Vol. 22, No. 2), he would [...]

La Crêperie. Edinburgh, Scotland, 2005 © Craig Semetko He began his professional career as a comedy writer and actor for corporate events and wandered into photography later in life. At first he enjoyed street photography purely for pleasure and had no expectations. But serendipity stepped in, and since then Craig Semetko’s life has [...]

1962, Lunch Café sit-in on Route 40 between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. © Bob Adelman Bob Adelman is one of the iconic photographers of the 1960s civil rights movement. He was the official photographer for CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality (one of the “Big Four” civil rights organizations) led by James Farmer. [...]

At age 78 and still going strong, Rich Clarkson has been a force in photography since the 1950s. Always a stickler for excellence, he was known as a tough boss to work for but one who would make you a better photojournalist. A book produced for a July 2010 reunion of 34 of his photographers at the Topeka Capital- Journal says it best: Rich Clarkson touched our minds, hearts and souls in ways that nobody else ever did. Fear became respect. Respect became admiration. Admiration became friendship. Friendship became love. We all owe Rich more than we can tell or show ”” except by what we've done after we left the Topeka Capital-Journal. The long list of legendary photographers who worked for Clarkson includes Susan Biddle, Brian Lanker, David Alan Harvey, Rod Hanna, Chris Johns, Sarah Leen, Jim Richardson, Gary Settle, Bill Snead and many more.

Ken Light is a social documentary photographer in the classic sense, shooting exclusively black-andwhite film. He photographs people who otherwise would never be seen or heard. You might think Ken is a dinosaur in a digital world, but in fact, he is a professor in the University of California at Berkeley’s cutting-edge graduate photojournalism program. Light’s latest book, Valley of Shadows and Dreams, [...]

Making an appointment with a photojournalist is a challenge. David Burnett never knows where his next job will take him or when he will depart. This has been the life of one of America's most accomplished photojournalists for over 40 years. His portfolio reads like a history book ”” the Vietnam War, the revolutions in Chile and Iran, the fall of the Berlin Wall. He has photographed presidential campaigns since the 1970s and all of the presidents from Kennedy to Obama.