Journale

This is a very slick, high-tech, much-hyped, big-time photography site.  We put it first because we thought we might as well address up front some issues it raises.   There are a lot of good pictures here.   Sometimes the high-tech presentations don't work.  Sometimes they crash our computer.  We can never decide if the successes are worth the failures.   But if you can get past the noise, the photography work is definitely meritorious.

Jennifer Loomis' "When Flowers Fall," a quiet essay on aging in Japan, won best use of photography on a web site at the 2000 Pictures of the Year.  Nice pictures.
Decide for yourself about the "use" part.

The FSA photographs

The documentary project by which all subsequent documentary projects have been measured.  This is the Library of Congress online interface to the work.  It has to be easier than going through the prints in Washington, D.C.

NOAA Photo Library

That's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And their pictures are not awesome as NASA's, but still very good. Not as many pictures, either, but I'd guess their budget is a small fraction of the shuttle guys'.

untitledmagazine.com

A one-man operation that won an award of excellence at POY for best use.  Deserved.  Patrick Witty has done a good job on the design and regularly adds new collections of journalistic work.  Much less flashy than journale.  "Straightpixnotrix" as Frank Kimmel says.

Black & White Art Zone

"Dedicated to black & white photography."  Indeed.  An ambitious site in Greece, no less, that leans quite a bit more toward art photography than to documentary photography.   Nonetheless, their devotion to black & white as a medium is laudable, and it's interesting to see photography from a Greek perspective.   There are no Shockwave or QuickTime presentations here.   That's also laudable, perhaps.

The Photojournalist's Coffee House

Exhibits of work by photographer John Decker and others.   Some new stuff would be nice, but we're not the ones to criticize that particular fault, and besides, it's nice that some Web things endure.   "Teenage Sexuality" by Dan Habib is exceptional.   Don't miss it.  

The Washington Post

OK, OK, we yield.   The Washington Post was the newspaper photojournalism leader of the 90's.   In the '98 POY competition they won first, second, third and honorable mention in the Photographer of the Year competition.   Tom Kennedy, formerly of National Geographic, is the on-line photography guru helping the Post's electronic edition do some nice stuff.   Cameraworks' home page is a little cluttered, but there's a lot of wonderful stuff here.

MSNBC

Speaking of yielding, here's the Bill Gates news site -- what's left of it.   When it was just MSN, it was classy.   Now it's been telefornicated by NBC, but lead multimedia producer Brian Storm still manages to keep publishing some good photojournalism.   If he ever leaves, though, it won't be pretty.   He does a good "Week in Pictures" feature and there are some good picture stories. Otherwise, you're on your own.  Decide for yourself if the long wait for all the ads and furniture to load is worth it.

Schwarz Illustrated

A quality site by Atlanta freelancer Michael Schwarz.  He has some very nice documentary photo essays mixed in with his promotions.   Also a good list of photography books, with ratings by Michael.

Center for Creative Photography

From Tucson, Arizona, the site of the W.  Eugene Smith archives.   This link will take you directly to the page that has selected photographs from the collections.   Only one Smith picture, but the pictures from the other photographers are very nice.

Emilie's pictures of San Francisco

On the other hand, there's a young woman in San Francisco who takes pictures, apparently, just for fun.   She puts up a new page every month.   Her execution could be better, but the freshness is nice and her work ethic is amazing.   The site is a little hard to get around, but it's worth the trouble.

Focal Point f/8

Comes with a pretty big hype, especially about the Russian Chronicles, which is touted as a shining example of a new media production.   Maybe.   The content itself is just OK.

The Mining Company -- Photography

Part of a HUGE site with multiple topics.   Many, many photography subjects treated, but the photojournalism section is worth a look.  A lot of links to documentary work and discussions about that work.

Photo District News Online

An eclectic collection of famous and not-so-famous photographers.   Probably the only place where you can find portfolios of Jerry Uelsman and Gordon Parks. One of our favorites is there, too, Duane Michaels.  Michaels' work bears little relationship to documentary photography.   Except that he is says he is more concerned with "what reality feels like than what it looks like." And that applies to great photojournalism, too.

The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar

Yearly photographic competitions and awards, workshops, trade show, portfolio critiques and speakers.   The volunteer staff is truly committed to documentary photography.   This is the best of all the seminars, and they've vowed to make this site the best photojournalism site on the Web.  Not sure they've succeeded with that grand ambition, though.

The Loch Ness home page

Your reward for scrolling this far...

Complete with pictures of Nessie, the monster.   How much more spiritual can pictures get?

And before there were even Leicas:

A display of Paleolithic cave paintings discovered in December of '95.  Paleolithic photojournalism.   They're wonderful.