DOUBLEtruck Magazine Issue 14 September 15 - December 14, 2008

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ZREPORTAGE

P R E S E N T S BREAKING THE DEVADASI

‘TEMPLE PROSTITUTE’ CYCLE

PICTURES THAT NEED TO BE SEEN

BACKSTORY: P H O T O G R A P H E R D I R C K

H A L S T E A D

the MONICA LESSON

world’s best news pictures

ROOM WITH A VIEW

Picture by Chang Liang/ChinaFotoPress/ZUMA

Mar. 27, 2007 - Zhengzhou, Henan, China - Students stand among sand sculptures during a demonstration in Zhongyuan University of Technology. More than 3,000 students participate in the event, which is aimed at arousing interest in farmers.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

THE CRISIS

Picture by Scott Mc Kiernan/ZUMA Press Dec. 13, 2008 - Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. - One of the busiest airports in the world, Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta International Airport is a ghost town compared to before the global financial crisis.

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Welcome to DOUBLEtruck Magazine –

SPRING 2009-Issue FOURTEEN This issue contains images taken between Sept. 15 and Dec. 14, 2008 doubletruck: n. An ad or editorial project that covers two facing pages. The term originates from the days when heavy forms for newspaper pages, largely filled with lead type, were rolled around the composing room floor on heavy carts called trucks. Two pages for one project meant a doubletruck.

— The Detroit Free Press

The last three months have been long...very long. The world has had to hold its breath.

Daily business news has been more frightening and unreal than Stephen King’s scariest tale.

On Sept. 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed and went bankrupt, causing the world economy to go into total free fall. Iceland, among others, already was in financial ruins.

Most of the rest of the planet joined them over the following 90 days.

Way too many have lost their savings, jobs and way of life during the period of history

covered in this magazine: Sept. 15, 2008, through Dec. 14, 2008.

As we wait to see what the future holds, we hope for everyone that something positive comes out of this fine mess. We hope that the powers that be learn something from their rampant greed and abuse of the system. We hope that we can come out of this with some dignity left, as these are truly humbling times.

Whatever the course, DOUBLEtruck will look to cover it and bring it you in issue 15 this summer, with tons of the big two-page spreads you would expect from us.

Meanwhile, we hope you take time to dig into this issue. On page 12, Julia Cumes probes into the world of the Devadasi.

Amazingly, time has not moved forward for these women. For generations, their culture has made them into “temple prostitutes,” or sex slaves. Read the moving text and see how some are trying to make a big change that will allow these women to break the cycle.

We wish all the best to you and yours, and we hope that the world breaks the cycle it is in.

Thank you for your support.

Scott Mc Kiernan

DOUBLEtruck

PIC TURES THAT NEED TO BE SEEN

World’s best news pictures from Sept. 15 to Dec. 14, 2008

Volume V, Issue FOURTEEN SPRING 2009

Scott Mc Kiernan, Publisher, Editor in Chief & Art Director Kelly Mc Kiernan, Managing Editor Scott Mc Kiernan, Picture Editor Ruaridh Stewart, Associate Picture Editor Mark Avery, Associate Picture Editor Gretchen Murray, Associate Art Director CONTRIBUTING PHOTOJOURNALISTS Allen Eyestone • Amanda Voisard • Amiran White • Autumn Cruz Bernd Kammerer • Billy Calzada • Bruce Chambers • Carl Recine Daimon Xanthopoulos • Darren Fletcher • David Bebber • David Calvert David Slater • Dirk Shadd • Eric Draper • Fady Adwan • Felix Adamo Jane Hahn • JB Autissier • Jefri Aries • Jeremy Selwyn • John Gibbins Jonathan Alcorn • John Ferguson • Julia Cumes • Katie Falkenberg Kike Calvo • Lisa Krantz • Marco Merlini • Michael Francis McElroy Nikos Pilos • Patrick T. Fallon • Paul Avallone • Peer Grimm • Peggy Peattie Romain Blanquart • Salem Krieger • Scott Mc Kiernan • Sean Dufrene Steven K. Doi • Tami Silicio • Tiffany Brown • Tim Merry • Tudor Vintiloiu Wang Ye

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DOUBLEtruck Magazine (ISBN# 1932-0906) is a quarterly publication published in January, April, August and October.

The contents of DOUBLEtruck Magazine are copyrighted.

They may not be reproduced or transmitted, either in whole or in part, in any matter, including photocopy, recording or any information-storage or retrieval system known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.

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Obama! Obama! Obama!

Picture by Michael Francis McElroy/ZUMA Press Oct. 21, 2008 - Miami, Florida, U.S. - Barack Obama jokes with a crowd of supporters who are screaming his name as he readies to take the stage at an early Vote for Change rally in Bicentennial Park.

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MAGAZINE SPRING 2009

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ZREPORTAGE

P R E S E N T S

BREAKING THE

DEVADAS

‘TEMPLE PROSTITUTE’ CYCLE Text and Photos by ©Julia Cumes/ZUMA

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ZREPORTAGE

P R E S E N T S

Pictures and text by Julia Cumes/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

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ZREPORTAGE

P R E S E N T S

The Cycle Continues

Young girls arrive with their family members in a bullock cart at the Yellamma Jatre (festival) in Saundatti, India.

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P R E S E N T S

K

avita Kurbati, 18, sits inside her family home in the small rural town of Gokak, India, waiting for a customer on a Thursday afternoon. She wears a red and white flowered salwar kameez, and her two daughters, Rakshita (3) and Chaitra (1), sleep peacefully at her feet. When Kurbati reached puberty, her mother, drawing on an ancient religious tradition, dedicated her to the Hindu deity Yellamma, thus turning her daughter into a “devadasi” or “female servant of god.” This meant that Kurbati was “married” to Yellamma, which made her ineligible to marry a mortal. Instead, as a means of pleasing Yellamma and bringing better fortunes to her family, she would serve as a “temple prostitute” and satisfy the sexual needs of men in her community.

While the genesis of the devadasi system is not known, there are numerous theories that attempt to shed light on its origins. One theory proposes that it was believed that devadasis were needed to sexually awaken Yellamma, so she would become fertile and bring prosperity to her worshippers. The practice of offering young girls to deities in the hopes of bringing about fertility and prosperity is not unique to India and has been observed in folk

Yellamma Jatre Festival Yellamma worshippers travel by bullock cart to the Yellamma Temple on the first day of the Yellamma Jatre (festival). The Yellamma Jatre is an annual gathering of half a million Yellamma pilgrims who converge on the temple to worship the deity, Yellamma. Amongst the rituals traditionally performed to appease Yellamma, young girls are dedicated as Devadasi or ‘temple servants.’ These young girls are married to the deity and must spend their lives serving the deity which includes catering to the sexual needs of men in the community. They may not marry a mortal and often end up working in brothels in India’s urban centers. While the dedication ceremonies used to be performed in public at the Jatre and included parading the young girls naked through the crowds or covered in ‘’neem’’ leaves, due to the Devadasi Prohibition Act 1982, they are now performed in secret.

religions around the world. In Italy, it was customary to offer a “vestal virgin” during the grape-harvesting season, and ancient civilizations like those in Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Egypt, Syria and Greece all employed young girls to appease the gods.

In the early days of the devadasi system, only the most beautiful young girls were chosen as devadasis, and they served in the temple, assisting the priest in the deity’s worship. Like Japan’s geisha girls, they sang and danced and were

supported by the wealthiest men in the community for whom they served as sexual partners.

They were often given grants of land by kings or other high-caste men, and the elite invited them to weddings and other important functions. The devadasi was revered and occupied a position of respect within the community. When the British arrived in India, they looked at the devadasi system within their Christian framework and were morally outraged. Thus, with British colonialism,

the position of the devadasi was further depreciated. While the devadasi’s religious symbolism and sexual function within the society remained, she no longer had the economic support of the earlier days, and over time, her position degraded into that of a sanctified prostitute whose earnings benefited the temple, the priests within it and to some extent her own family.

There are numerous reasons a young girl is chosen to become a devadasi.

Matted hair (a fungal infection primarily

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a product of bad hygiene stemming from little access to clean water), skin disease and physical disabilities such as blindness are considered Yellamma’s calling card. Families that do not have money for their daughter’s dowry are also more likely to dedicate their daughters as devadasi to be freed of the financial burden of caring for their daughters. Families with no male children often dedicated a daughter as a devadasi, essentially turning her into a “son” capable of supporting the family financially. Though Lalita Kamble is

only 50, with her deeply lined face and marbled eyes, she appears 20 years older.

She went blind at a young age, and so when she was 8 years old, her parents dedicated her as a devadasi. “They said you can be buried as a married person now because you’re married to Yellamma,” she says, referring to the ritual of burying unmarried women in a lying-down position while married women are buried sitting up. “I wished I could get married, but I knew no man would marry because of my blindness,” she adds. Through a dairy program set

up by a nongovernmental organization called Vimochana Sangha, Kamble now takes care of a water buffalo and makes some income from the sale of its milk.

Despite her acceptance of her lot in life, she does not support the continuation of the devadasi system. “A girl should get married and have children,” she adds emphatically.

Currently, the number of devadasis is estimated to be around 250,000 in Karnataka and Maharashtra. Like Kavita Kurbati, many support extensive

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families that include parents, children and siblings. Sheela Kallimani, 18, was dedicated as a 4-year-old and then started sex work out of her family home in Gokak when she reached puberty.

“My mother dedicated me so the family would have money,” says Kallimani.

Because she is young and exceptionally attractive, customers pay higher fees and she can earn more than $20 for an overnight stay--an obscenely high amount compared to the few dollars most sex workers charge for the same overnight stay. Despite the fact that Kallimani has a seventh-grade education and, unlike most devadasis, is literate, she looks at her situation with a great degree of acceptance. “I don’t want to do this work, but my family needs me to,” she says. “I use condoms always,” she insists, “100% of the time.”

Devotees closely link the continued practice of the devadasi system to the religious rituals of Yellamma-and the passionate practice of those rituals. These rituals are most visibly practiced during the Yellamma Jatre-a well-known annual religious festival in Saundatti central to the devadasi system during which young girls were ritually offered to Yellamma. While the dedication ceremonies today are performed under the secrecy of night or in hurried ceremonies away from the watchful eyes of authorities, the passion of devotees who worship of Yellamma is palpable. The Jatre begins on the full moon in the Indian month of Magh (January/February) on a rugged hillside in Saundatti, Northern Karnataka. Days in advance, half a million pilgrims begin the long journey to Saundatti, some in buses, many in creaking bullock carts, some even on foot. When they reach the area near Yellamma’s temple, they set up camp.

Soon the vicinity around the temple is a vibrant mass of makeshift dwellings, colorful saris, cooking pots, fires and human bodies packed so close together they appear as one moving organism.

Vendors sell sacred flowers and leaves, bananas, coconuts, dates, crystal sugar and uncooked rice for ritual offering.

Devotees cover themselves in yellow turmeric powder and sing a repetitive

Jatre

Yellamma worshippers hold neem leaves in their mouths as a gesture of devotion to the goddess,Yellamma, during the Yellamma Jatre (festival) in Saundatti, India. This gesture harks back to the tradition of young girls being paraded naked except for neem leaves which were tied around their waists during their ‘’marriage ceremony’’ to the deity,Yellamma.

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ROOM WITH A VIEW

Picture by Chang Liang/ChinaFotoPress/ZUMA

Mar. 27, 2007 - Zhengzhou, Henan, China - Students stand among sand sculptures during a demonstration in Zhongyuan University of Technology. More than 3,000 students participate in the event, which is aimed at arousing interest in farmers.

DTzine.com 21

“Who would want to marry me, I’m a Devadasi”

Kasvva Haragan, 28, waits for a customer at her brothel door. Her parents dedicated her as a Devadasi at the age 12 and to avoid the legal ramifications of the Devadasi Protection Act of 1982, had a ceremony at home. She now lives and works in a brothel with 2 other women and support her parents, two sisters and a brother. She also gives 50% of her earnings to the brothel owner. ‘’Who would want to marry me? I’m a Devadasi,’’ she says when asked if she’d like to marry a man. Haragan is illiterate as she worked in the sugar cane fields as a child rather than going to school and therefore has few other options to make an income.

chorus as they approach the temple.

Some older devadasi women shriek or scream and the crowds pushing to get into the temple are so large in number that worshippers have been known to get trampled.

The jatre marks the married woman’s day of the full moon, and myth has it that after three months of sexual inaction, Yellamma has to be reawakened sexually.

The mythology continues that her husband, Jamadagni, is killed. There is a radical change in her marital and sexual status, and if there is no male deity to awaken her sexually, she will become infertile. Devotees break bangles to symbolize Yellamma’s widowhood.

The myth continues that Jamadagni is resurrected and Yellamma’s sexual awakening is reaffirmed. With her sexual powers restored, her ability to bless her followers has great potential and must be enhanced. Devadasis, who are her sexually functioning human counterparts, are dedicated in great numbers and their sexual deflowering becomes symbolic of Yellamma’s reunification with Jamadagni. During the jatre, Yellamma’s followers make vows to the deity so that their specific needs and wishes be fulfilled. Vows made include a wide variety of pledges such as donating income and agricultural produce, giving cattle, parading in the nude (as a gesture of complete surrender to the deity), prostrating oneself or rolling over oneself and most notably, giving the gift of a devadasi. These are just a few of the many vows made and fulfilled at the jatre. It is common to observe devotees first bathing ritually and then, repeatedly throwing themselves prostrate on the ground in a physically exhausting manner or rolling painfully around the periphery of the temple in a gesture of self-punishment and complete surrender.

The belief is that such acts of devotion will convince Yellamma to relieve devotees of their guilt and forgive their misconduct. Likewise, the gift of a devadasi includes a complex series of actions such as ritual bathing, rubbing turmeric and saffron on the young girl’s forehead, placing green bangles on her wrists, tying muttu (red and white beaded

Picture by Chang Liang/ChinaFotoPress/ZUMA

Vimala Madar

Vimala Madar, 40, holds her ‘’muttu’’, the red and white beaded necklace tied around her neck during the dedication ceremony performed on her when she was ten years old to convert her into a Devadasi. During this ceremony, Madar was ‘’married’’ to the Hindu deity,Yellamma, and was then considered one of Yellamma’s servants.

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How Much?

A young man discusses a price with Devadasi, Yellawwa Harjn (far left) in a brothel. Center is Kasshwah Kalburgi, the brothel owner, and three of her grandchildren. Behind Kalburgi, a man enters the corridor that leads to the brothel rooms. Kalburgi’s brothel employs 11 women and has approximately 30-40 male patrons per day. Each sexual transaction costs about 50 rupees (just over $1). Women over the age of 35 earn slightly less and all of the women give 50% of their earnings to Kalburgi. The majority of men are agricultural workers who come to the Gokak to sell their produce and then visit the brothel

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necklace) around her neck and, in the past, parading the girl naked or covered only in neem leaves through the jatre crowds. Due to the introduction of the Devadasi (Prohibition of Dedication) Act in 1982, this last practice has stopped or gone underground.

While the first movement to question the devadasi system began in 1882, the colonial context in which it emerged meant it was framed within a Christian morality and served to only further denigrate the devadasi’s social standing.

There were, however, some definitive attempts in the last century to break the cycle of the devadasi system. A Brahmin named Kaka Karkhanis took up this work in Bijapur in the 1940s. He was the first man in Northern Karnataka to work in this field and because of this, he was widely criticized. There were two other men who took on the devadasi system by creating schools for devadasi children and marrying them off so they could integrate into mainstream society.

For their great efforts, all three men lost their standing in Indian society and their attempts were, in essence, unsuccessful.

Within the last 25 years, however, and perhaps catalyzed by the arrival of HIV/AIDS, more awareness about the ill effects of the devadasi system have come to light and concrete changes have taken place.

In 1982, the Karnataka state government instituted the Devadasi (Prohibition of Dedication) Act, which made the dedication of any woman as a devadasi illegal and punishable with a fine of up to 5,000 rupees (approximately $112) and a maximum sentence of five years. The law was difficult to institute, however, because prosecution required photographic evidence of the dedication itself. Ceremonies continued at the annual Yellamma jatres under cover of night or in the privacy of the devadasi’s home with no legal consequences.

In 1985, a lawyer named Mr. B.L. Patil founded an organization called Vimochana Sangha whose mission was to eradicate the devadasi system.

Patil had been greatly influenced by a professor who was doing his doctoral thesis on the devadasi system. “We visited the red-light district in Mumbai

Working

Surekha Kamble (far left) and a friend try to attract some passing men’s attention in Miraj’s redlight district where they live and work as Devadasi sexworkers. Kamble has been a Devadasi sexworker since she was sixteen. Her mother was a Devadasi sexworker and as is tradition, she and her sister too became Devadasis.

Lalita Kamble

Lalita Kamble, 50, in the doorway of her home with her niece. Kamble went blind at a young age and so, when she was eight years old, her parents dedicated her as a Devadasi. ‘’They said you can be buried as a married person now because you’re married to Yellamma,’’ she says, referring to the ritual of burying unmarried women in a lying down position while married women are buried sitting up. ‘’I wished I could get married but I knew no man would marry because of my blindness,’’ she adds. Through a dairy program set up by an organization called Vimochana Sangha which was founded to dismantle the Devadasi system, Kamble now takes care of a water buffalo and makes some income from the sale of its milk. Despite her acceptance of her lot in life, she does not support the continuation of the Devadasi system.

Sex Workers Education

Surekha Kamble demonstrates how to use a condom to other sexworkers in Miraj’s redlight district where lives and works as a Devadasi sexworker. While Kamble has been a Devadasi sexworker since she was sixteen, she is also a peer educator involved in raising awareness in her community about HIV/AIDS as well as other sexually transmitted diseases. Her two daughters, Chandrike and Ropani, are both being educated at a residential school for the children of Devadasis and she has hopes that they will not follow her into the Devadasi lifestyle.

DTzine.com 31 where there was a high percentage of devadasi girls from our area (of Northern Karnataka), and this made a great impression on me,” says Patil of his early motivations. “People really feared to tread here because it was tradition, and no respectable man wanted to align himself with this,” he adds. Vimochana Sangha initiated an awakening program in the devadasi community. Social workers visited each village in which it existed and attempted to make women aware of how others were flourishing at their expense. The communities were not receptive, however, and banned the devadasis from attending the meetings.

“People would throw stones at us and create havoc at the meetings,” says Ravi Pawar, a field worker who has been with the organization since its inception.

After five years of persistent attempts to build awareness, Vimochana Sangha founded the first residential school for the children of devadasi women in 1990.

“It was believed that every girl child born to a devadasi should become a devadasi,” says Patil. “Only by education could we transform the minds of these children.”

For the first year, 50 students lived and had lessons at Patil’s home in Malabad Village, India. During the second year, the number of children doubled, and by the third year, Vimochana Sangha was forced to rent two additional houses to accommodate yet more children.

Initially, local residents opposed the presence of these children who were not only from the untouchable community (Scheduled class) but also the children of prostitutes. Fortunately, however, some religious leaders who were influenced by the philosophical doctrines of Basaveshwar, a 12th-century social reformer, supported Patil’s attempts.

Basaveshwar was one of the first men from Karnataka to support the idea of equality among castes and gender and had even addressed the exploitative nature of the devadasi system. Patil arranged community workshops and meetings for these religious leaders to slowly encourage the idea of change.

As the school’s population increased, it was clear that a real school building was needed, and with the donation of 8 acres of land from Patil’s wife as well as individual donations, Vimochana

SOLUTIONS

Girish Chandra teaches English to students at the Vimochana Sangha’s school for the children of Devadasis.

Founded in 1990 by B.L. Patil, is the first residential school established to break the cycle of the Devadasi system. Because the belief is that all female children of Devadasis should themselves become Devadasis, the school was created to remove the children from the culture in which this practice took place and instead offer them an education.

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In Play

Students play a game during a physical education class at the Vimochana School.

Checkmate

Malashri Kamble, 16 (left) and Saraswati Patil, 11, play chess at their hostel at Vimochana Sangha’s school for the children of Devadasis in Malabad. Kamble’s mother was a Devadasi who died at a young age and Kamble was recruited for the school by a social worker when she was 10 years old.

Sangha was able to construct a proper school with residential facilities. The school’s enrollment increased to 450 and expanded to include children from lower castes who were not necessarily the children of devadasi. “One of the impediments for devadasi children was that they only receive their mother’s last name,” says English teacher and counselor Girish Chandra. “Other children have their father’s name, so this difference would not just mean the children were teased but they would be discriminated against when applying for jobs,” he adds.

Vimochana Sangha, along with a host of other organizations such as BIRDS (Belgaum Integrated Rural Development Society), Myrada, MASS (a collective of ex-devadasi women) and the Karnataka Women’s Development Corporation, to name a few, have created programs to educate and rehabilitate devadasi women as well as other sex workers in the state of Karnataka. Various training programs offer alternative forms of income generation and some offer low-interest loans for self-employment enterprises such as cattle rearing.

Among the training programs are a desktop-publishing course, incense-stick making, a program designed to prepare women to open their own beauty parlors, television and mobile-phone repair training, driver training, weaving and craft making. These programs have met with some success, particularly for the children of the devadasis, but one of the obstacles they face is that the devadasis themselves earn higher wages in a shorter period of time as sex workers than they can doing most other types of work accessible to them.

While the computer-training programs or other more technically oriented programs would prepare the devadasis for higher-income jobs, these may not be viable options for women who have little if any education and have spent the greater part of their lives working in the sex industry. “One of the more successful programs has been the beauty-parlor training program,” says Bharati Bijapur, project coordinator for Vimochana Sangha’s Self-Employment Training Group.

While women trapped in the devadasi system rarely manage to reintegrate

Change & Hope

Shobha Somappa Tarvgol, 18, sits in her one-roomed home. Shobha became a Devadasi sex worker because there are no men in her family and she had little other means of supporting her sister, sick mother and grandmother. She was recently rescued from a brothel in Mumbai by the Rescue Foundation, a non-governmental organization founded to rescue young girls from brothels in and around Mumbai. After spending one year at the Rescue Foundation, she was returned to her village where she now works as a laborer for one dollar a day.While she did not like working as a prostitute, she is desperately unhappy with how little she earns as a laborer and given the choice, says she’s return to her old life if she could.

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into Indian society, Radhabai Madar Mudalagi has managed to not only defy the odds but also use her success to inspire others. Mudalagi was dedicated as a devadasi by her parents as a 5-yearold. Now in her early forties, she lives in the small village of Yellamanawadi and uses the devadasi musical tradition called “Chowdike Pada” to educate her audiences about social issues, particularly the devadasi system. Accompanied by her husband, Mrutunjaya Mudalagi, who plays an instrument called the shruti that resembles a guitar, Radhabai was even recorded for a television program that was broadcasted to small villages all over Karnataka and other states as part of a social education program.

She has since been in great demand and performed at International Women’s Day Campaign on Aids Awareness in Karnataka, as well as numerous other events.

Because of her activism coupled with the fact that she defied the devadasi system and married a man, her community, particularly by the other devadasi women who refuse to speak to her, has rejected her. Ironically, she shares the earnings from her music with these same women. One of her songs directly addresses her mother, questioning her about why she dedicated her to the devadasi system. “What mistake did I make, mother? This punishment you forced on me. You bind me with stones (referring to the red and white beaded necklace tied around the devadasi’s neck during dedication) and made me a beggar jogathi. What did I do to earn this punishment? The dreams I had as a child will never be,” she sings plaintively in Kannada, her native language. From the corner of their one-room home, her teenage daughter Seeta looks up from her homework. Despite being ostracized by her community, Radhabai is determined to continue singing out against the practice. “I was dedicated when I was 5 years old to bring my family luck,” says Radhabai. “I hope that I can prevent even a few other girls from becoming devadasi.” DT

Text and Photos by ©Julia Cumes/ZUMA Press

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New Beginning

An older ex-Devadasi woman smiles during a self-help group meeting, sponsored by Vimochana Sangha, a non-governmental organization founded to dismantle the Devadasi system. Self-help groups are one of the numerous empowerment tools available to Devadasi women to try to break away from the destructive cycle of the Devadasi tradition.

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P R E S E N T S

Boys Will Be Boys

Picture by Marco Merlini/LaPresse

Sept. 15, 2008 - Rome, Italy - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ogles Miss Italy, Miriam Leone, during a guest appearance on the Italian TV program Porta a Porta. During his appearance, Berlusconi touched on subjects concerning Italy avoiding financial crisis with ease, the necessity for Alitalia airline to reach a deal to avoid failure, and his disinterest in the Milan soccer-club crisis.

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Say It Ain’t So

Picture by Peggy Peattie/The San Diego Union-Tribune

Sept. 15, 2008 - Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico - Anxious family members gather outside the La Mesa Prison after a riot leaves three dead and at least 31 injured.

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Obama Nation

Picture by David Calvert/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Sept. 15, 2008 - Reno, Nevada, U.S. - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Nevada.

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Red Army

Picture by Carl Recine/Action Images

Sept. 16, 2008 - Marseille, France - Olympique Marseille soccer fans prepare to root for their team before the UEFA Championship match between Marseille and Liverpool at Stade Velodrome.

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Financial Dominos

Picture by Bernd Kammerer/Action Press

Sept. 16, 2008 - Frankfurt, Germany - A trader reacts with shock as the world financial crisis expands to Germany, causing the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to drop under 6,000 points. The Frankfurt stock exchange was down 4.6 percent on Monday afternoon in the wake of U.S. investment banking giant Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy.

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The Long and Short of It

Picture by John Ferguson/Mirrorpix

Sept. 16, 2008 - London, England, U.K. - The world’s shortest man sits between the world’s longest legs. He Pingping is from China’s Mongolia region and stands 28.74 inches tall. Svetlana Pankratova is from Volgograd, Russia, and her legs are 51.97 inches long.

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Bad Day on the Front

Picture by Paul Avallone/ZUMA Press

Sept. 17, 2008 - Forward Op Base Wilderness, Patkya, Afghanistan - U.S. soldiers cover a fallen comrade’s body with a poncho. The soldier was one of five killed in an IED blast that morning. Captain Bruce E. Hays (Wyoming Army National Guard), Lieutenant Mohsen Naqvi (Active Duty), Sergeant Jason Vazquez (Illinois Army National Guard), Specialist Joshua Harris (Illinois Army National Guard) and Ehsan Shapor (Afghan national, interpreter) were killed in action.

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Barney’s Bank

Picture by Katie Falkenberg/The Washington Times

Sept. 22, 2008 - Washington, D.istrict of Columbia, U.S. - House Financial Services Committee Chairman Senator Barney Frank says lawmakers and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have narrowed their differences on a $700 billion plan to buy bad investments and agreed the U.S. should get equity in the participating companies.

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The People Have Spoken

Picture by Salem Krieger/ZUMA Press

Sept. 25, 2008 - New York, New York, U.S. - People gather in front of the New York Stock Exchange to protest the bailout for Wall Street financial firms.

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Spacewalking

Picture by New China News Agency

Sept. 28, 2008 - Inner Mongolia, China - A crew works at the landing site of China’s Shenzhou-7 re-entry module in Siziwang Banner. The module, which transported three Chinese taikonauts, landed here Sunday and marked China’s first-ever space-walk mission a great success.

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body armor

Picture by Tudor Vintiloiu/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Oct. 5, 2008 - Mago National Park, Ethiopia - A woman from the Arbore tribe in the Lower Omo River Valley wears traditional tribal body decoration.

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Stuck on Art

Picture by David Bebber/Times of London

Oct. 6, 2008 - London, England, U.K. - Cang Xin’s solo performance Communication and Feng Zhengjie’s painting Chinese Portrait P Series 2006 No. 01 are on display at the newly opened Saatchi Gallery.

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Face-Off

Picture by Billly Kingsley/The Tennessean

Oct. 7, 2008 - Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. - Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain face off in a debate at Belmont University.

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Battle of the Sexes

Picture by Kike Calvo/ZUMA Press

Oct. 11, 2008 - New York, New York, U.S. - Oregon-born Louisa Holmlund, aka the Naked Cowgirl, sings on the street at Times Square. The lion-haired blonde, who wears nothing but a hat, boots, American flag micro miniskirt and Gina’s Gems to cover her nipples, performs and poses for photographs with tourists not far from the Naked Cowboy.

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What’s My Line?

Picture by Tiffany Brown/ZUMA Press

Oct. 23, 2008 - Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. - Contestants pose backstage before a Republican vice presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin look-alike stripper contest at the Club Paradise strip club. They’re competing for prize money and a trip to Washington, D.C., for the presidential inauguration.

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Cowabunga!

Picture by Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News

Oct. 25, 2008 - San Antonio,Texas, U.S. - Cows are stuck in an 18-wheeler leaning on the guardrail where it tipped over on the North East Loop 410 ramp from I-35 south.

The truck was hauling 87 head of cattle from Capitol Land and Livestock in Schwertner to Corpus Christi.

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Hands Up!

Picture by Autumn Cruz/The Sacramento Bee

Oct. 28, 2008 - Sacramento, California, U.S. - Detective Chris Maher (left) and Deputy Anthony Paonessa place Robert Craft under arrest after Craft allegedly sold marijuana to an undercover officer in the Department of Narcotics Suppression Unit. Stephanie Gonzales, the driver of the vehicle, was attempting to flee when she crashed into a parked vehicle. No one was hurt in the collision or during the subsequent arrest. Craft is being charged with possession for sale of marijuana/hashish and unlawful transportation and/or sale of marijuana. He is also being held without bail for violating his parole for auto theft. Gonzales, Craft’s girlfriend, is being charged with possession for sale of marijuana/hashish.

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Eye on the Ball

Picture by JB Autissier/Panoramic

Oct. 28, 2008 - Paris, France - Andy Murray (GBR) balances a ball on his forehead during the 2008 ATP BNP Paribas Masters at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy.

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bromance

Picture by Dirk Shadd/St. Petersburg Times

Oct. 29, 2008 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. - Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz hugs pitcher Brad Lidge as the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays to win the 2008 World Series at Citizens Bank Park.

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Red State

Picture by Michael Francis McElroy/ZUMA Press

Oct. 30, 2008 - Mentor, Ohio, U.S. - Joshua (left) and James Winton, 14-year-old twin Young Republicans from Painsville, Ohio, are excited to hear Republican presidential candidate Arizona Senator John McCain speak at a rally at Mentor High School.

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Wanna Play?

Picture by Daimon Xanthopoulos/ZUMA Press

Nov. 1, 2008 - Gulu, Karamoja, Uganda - In the refugee camps of Northern Uganda, there is not much more than plastic bags and robes. But that is enough for the children who dream of an international football career. The children tie the plastic bags together to form a ball. With a ball and a dream for the future, the children play football every day.

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PERFECT POLL POSITION

Picture by Jonathan Alcorn/ZUMA Press

Nov. 4, 2008 - Venice Beach, California, U.S. - Voters cast their ballots in the 2008 presidential election at a polling place located inside the main lifeguard tower.

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Air Hockey

Picture by Felix Adamo/The Bakersfield Californian

Nov. 4, 2008 - Bakersfield, California, U.S. - Condor right winger Jason Bailey tackles Victoria’s Chris St. Jacques near mid-ice during a game at Rabobank Arena.

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Land of the Free

Picture by Romain Blanquart/Detroit Free Press

Nov. 4, 2008 - Bloomfield Township, Michigan, U.S. - People celebrate the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

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True Believer

Picture by Patrick T. Fallon/ZUMA Press

Nov. 4, 2008 - Chicago, Illinois, U.S. - Voter Tony Taylor, wears a “Vote Now” T-shirt, a Michelle Obama campaign button and an American-flag bandana as supporters, police and street vendors gear up for Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s election-night speech.

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Mad Hatter

Picture by Tim Merry/Daily Express

Nov. 6, 2008 - London, England, U.K. - Controversial singer Amy Winehouse eyeballs paparazzi as she leaves her Camden home, right before attacking one of them.

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El Hummer

Picture by El Universal

Nov. 10, 2008 - Mexico City, D.F. - Jaime “the Hummer” Gonzalez Duran—a hit man, drug dealer and alleged founder of the Zetas gang—is presumed to be the killer of Mexican singer Valentin Elizalde. Gonzalez is one of the most wanted drug traffickers in Mexico and the United States.

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Oh, Say Can You See...

Picture by Amanda Voisard/The Palm Beach Post

Nov. 11, 2008 - Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. - Junior ROTC Jaguar Daniel Bedwell, 17, holds a loose flag during the Veterans Day service at Veterans Memorial Park.

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Tea Fire

Picture by Jonathan Alcorn/ZUMA Press

Nov. 13, 2008 - Santa Barbara, California, U.S. - A firefighting helicopter makes a nighttime water drop on the Tea Fire, which broke out in the early evening in Montecito and moved into Santa Barbara. The fast-moving blaze, driven by strong winds, has burned 80 homes, 800 acres and forced evacuations in the wealthy Santa Barbara County community.

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Day for Night

Picture by Sean Dufrene/ZUMA Press

Nov. 15, 2008 - Huntington Beach, California, U.S. - Dominc Johnson, 18, left, races his neighbor and friend Jared Drucker, 12, under a smoke-filled sky.

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School’s Out

Picture by Bruce Chambers/The Orange County Register

Nov. 16, 2008 - Brea, California, U.S. - The grounds surrounding Brea Canyon High School and Brea Olinda High School show the devastation created by a brush fire. The fire blew out the windows of Brea Canyon High School.

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House Party

Picture by Steven K. Doi/ZUMA Press

Nov. 16, 2008 - Yorba Linda, California, U.S. - A home is engulfed in fire when a wind-whipped wildfire sweeps through the city, destroying over 50 homes.

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Dirty Waters

Picture by Jefri Aries/ZUMA Press

Nov. 17, 2008 - Jakarta, Indonesia - A scavenger salvages recyclables from a river in a slum area.

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Potty Training

Picture by Peer Grimm/DPA

Nov. 19, 2008 - Berlin, Germany - Participants from sanitation and hygiene groups sit on toilets during a press conference in the German capital’s central railway station on World Toilet Day. The United Nations has proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Sanitation.

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Stuck on You

Picture by Jeremy Selwyn/Evening Standard

Nov. 19, 2008 - London, England, U.K. - Engineering undergraduate Dave Lions is glued to a giant billboard all day to promote a book launch. Lions was promoting the cult bestseller This Diary Will Change Your Life to help pay his way through university.

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Run for Cover

Picture by Wang Ye/New China News Agency

Nov. 28, 2008 - Mumbai, Maharashtra, India - An Indian commando runs outside the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower as terrorists hold at least 100 people hostage inside.The death toll stands at 143, including 14 policemen and over 330 injured.

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Roots

Picture by Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

Nov. 28, 2008 - San Antonio, Texas, U.S. - The American Indians in Texas set up a tepee on the grounds of Mission San Juan Capistrano. A ceremony was to be held to mark the date in 1999 when the remains of more than 100 people were reburied in the mission cemetery after being unearthed in 1967 for archaeological study.

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Gas Guzzler

Picture by Allen Eyestone/The Palm Beach Post

Nov. 30, 2008 - Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. - Joe “Pepi� Urban fires up his Xtreme Machine Freightliner Jet Truck at the Citrus Nationals at Palm Beach International Raceway.

The truck uses 60 gallons of fuel for the quarter-mile run.

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poor baby!

Picture by Amiran White/ZUMA Press

Dec. 1, 2008 - Mumbai, India - Moshe Holtzberg (2) cries out, “Ima! Ima!” (“Mommy! Mommy!”) during the memorial at the Knesset Eliyahu synagogue for the six Jews killed last week at Nariman House in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Nearly 200 people were murdered in the attacks, including Holtzberg’s parents, Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, who ran the headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch.

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Party Boy

Picture by Jane Hahn/EPA

Dec. 5, 2008 - Tema, Ghana - A supporter of Professor John Atta Mills, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate for president, attends the last campaign rally of election season. Ghanaians go to the polls on Sunday to elect the successor to their current leader, President John Kufuor. The top candidates, Nana Afufo-Addo for the NPP (New Patriotic Party) and John Atta Mills for the NDC (National Democratic Congress), are facing off in the fifth election since Ghana returned to a multiparty democracy.

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gettin’ squirrelly

Picture by David Slater/UPPA

Dec. 5, 2008 - Etosha National Park, Namibia - Two Cape grey squirrels battle for dominance as five squirrels watch the fight from a distance.

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Merry Christmas

Picture by Nikos Pilos/ZUMA Press

Dec. 8, 2008 - Athens, Greece - Gangs of youths torch stores and buildings in central Athens and Thessalomiki after the fatal police shooting of a teenager in the worst Greek rioting in years. Athen’s main Christmas tree was set on fire in central Syntagma Square. Some protesters posed for photos in front of the blaze while others sang the Greek version of “Oh Christmas Tree.”

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Playing House

Picture by New China News Agency

Dec. 11, 2008 - Gaza City, Gaza Strip - Palestinian children play on the leftovers from Israel a destroyed House in Gaza.

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Plane Death

Picture by John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune

Dec. 13, 2008 - El Cajon, California, U.S. - The community gathers at Glen Abbey Memorial Park for the funeral of the four people killed when a USMC F-18 crashed into a home earlier in the week. Don Yoon cries on the mahogany casket containing the remains of his wife,Young Mi Yoon, and their two children, Grace and Rachel. The crash also killed Yoon’s mother, Seokim Kim.

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It’s Your Birthday

Picture by Fady Adwan/ZUMA Press

Dec. 14, 2008 - Gaza City, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters gather to hear Hamas leader Ismail Haniya speak during the 21st anniversary of the Islamist movement’s creation. The rally was intended as a show of strength in the Islamists’ standoff with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’ administration.

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RED SHOES Diaries

Picture by Scott Mc Kiernan/ZUMA Press

Dec 14, 2008 - Moscow, Russia - From dawn to dusk young Muscovites live hard and play harder. Oblivious, as the Russian economy plunges worst than most.

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Day for Night

Picture by Scott Mc Kiernan/ZUMA Press

Dec 14, 2008 - Moscow, Russia - From dawn to dusk young Muscovites live hard and play harder. Oblivious, as the Russian economy plunges worst than most.

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Photos by ©Scott Mc Kiernan/ZUMA Press

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BACKSTORY

THE MONICA LESSON PICTURES BY DIRCK HALSTEAD

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BACKSTORY THE MONICA LESSON DOUBLEtruck: When a two year old picture, you most likely do not even remember taking two years earlier, becomes the ‘IT’ picture for the big story of the DAY in the Clinton-Monica Scandal, how do you deal with it and how did this all happen exactly?

RH: I have a theory that every time the shutter captures a frame, that image is recorded, at a very low threshold in the brain of the photographer. I have heard this over and over from photographers around the world. It doesn’t matter if the photographer saw the processed image or not. These split seconds, as the mirror returns, are recorded as “photographic lint” on the mind of the photographer.

Pictures and Text by © Dirck Halstead

go through the piles of slides in the light room. After four days, and more than 5,000 slides, she found ONE image, from a fund-raising event in 1996.

By that time, the original “news break” was over. I told TIME we had found an image, and sent it to New York. We all agreed that this was an important image, but the story had moved away from us.

So, we all sat on the picture for six months.

When you think about it, that is incredible.

Not only TIME, but also Gamma-Liaison kept a secret for six months.

When the photographs of Monica Lewinsky, in her beret, on the lawn of the White House, emerged in February, I knew I had seen that face with the President. I had no idea when, or where.

When Monica went to the prosecutors, and offered her testimony, the story went back to page one. At this point, TIME and the agency went into action. The photo was run as a cover on TIME, and is now in magazines and newspapers around the world.

DT: How did you go about finding the ‘photographic lint’?

DT: So, what is the lessons from this episode?

When I take photographs on assignment for TIME covering the White House, which I did every third month (nobody could do it more than that), the pictures first go to the magazine.They had first-time rights on the photos. Once they have gone through the take, and pulled a few selects for the TIME-LIFE picture collection, the take went to my agent then: Gamma-Liaison.

They then comb the take a second time, and pull their selects. Eventually, the take comes back to me, and resides in my light-room until I sort through it again, then send everything to the University of Texas, which is where my archives reside.

Because I am busy, I only get around to sending the pictures to Texas about every 18 months.

I wrote several months ago about David Rubinger talking about how important our archives are. I would rest the case on this example.

When the Lewinsky story broke, all these organizations started to go through their files, and found nothing.

I hired a researcher, and she started to

One of the things that become clear is that first, the wires, could not find this photo, even after it was released in their files.That may be due to several problems.

First, they have cut back on their support staff - who is going to go through their photos ? The reality is that after several months, out takes go into ware houses. If the photographers to the left and right of me on that stage, that night, were shooting digital, they probably erased the files ( Monica, who ?) The networks, once TIME released the photo, were able to go back into pool footage and find the picture .

However, we have not seen anything from the other photographers who were there, other than an amateur photographer who was in the crowd, and whose photo was the cover of NEWSWEEK.

DT: How did you do on this picture?

I will make some money from this picture (not nearly as much as most people think), but if I did not own my photographs, if I did not go through them, the picture would never had emerged.

That is why ownership of your photographs is SO important. The simple fact is that no organization has the “memory of the image” that the photographer who took it has. The people who want “work for hire” from photographers, also disassociate their greatest asset from the thing that they have to sell.

A last note...I am not talking about Monica versus the President...who is lying and who is not...I am talking about the photographers who record history, and have an obligation to make those photographs available to future generations. DT

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August 10 1998 TIME Magazine Cover

Dirck Halstead is the Editor/Publisher of The Digital Journalist.

Began his photojournalism career during high school. At the age of 17, he became LIFE magazine’s youngest combat photographer, covering the Guatemalan Civil War (the editors at LIFE had no idea how old he was).

After attending Haverford College, Halstead did a two-year stint as a roving photographer in the U.S. Army.

At United Press International (UPI), covered stories around the world for more than 15 years and was their picture bureau chief in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Halstead as contract photographer with TIME magazine for 29 years: 1972-2001, covered the White House. Getting on TIME’s cover 47 times. During this period he was also a “Special Photographer” on many films, producing ad material used by major Hollywood studios.

In 1992, played an instrumental part in the formation of Video News International (VNI), which started what is now the Platypus movement, teaching still photojournalists to cross the barrier between print and television.

Halstead a winner of numerous major awards, among them: NPPA’s Picture of the Year, Robert Capa, Eisie and Joseph A. Sprague Award .

As well as a senior fellow in photojournalism at The Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.

DT

Photograph from Wayne F. Miller: Photographs1942–1958

WAYNE F. MILLER PhotogRAPhs 1942–1958

Edited by stephen Daiter Essay by Kerry tremain Introduction by Fred Ritchin Afterword by Paul Berlanga Additional commentary by gordon Parks and Amy Dru stanley

IsBN 978-1-57687-462-2 $55.00

www.powerhousebooks.com

AmaZing images from around the world. 24/7/365

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Display until March 28, 2009 US $15/UK £7/Euro €12

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