The Hasselblad Foundation has announced that the 2008 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography will be awarded to Mexico City’s Graciela Iturbide.

Photography.Book.Now celebrates the most creative, most innovative, and finest photography books – and the people behind them. Enter this international juried photography book competition and compete for worldwide recognition and great prizes.

Submit your book here by July 14. The Photography.Book.Now international book competition is juried by a panel of world-renowned editors, publishers, curators, and photographers, led by head judge Darius Himes. This is an opportunity to win the $25,000 Grand Prize or one of many other prizes to be awarded.

Photography books can be entered in two categories, General and Themed. The winners will be showcased at an awards ceremony in San Francisco, and winning books will travel via a salon to New York, London, and Cologne. The books will also have visibility online and at the half-day symposium featuring panels and presentations exploring photography books.

Get more information on the jurors, entry rules, event dates, locations, and prize levels at photographybooknow.com.

“If the album consisted only of photographs of people who hadn’t been seen at Auschwitz, and of areas of Auschwitz that hadn’t been portrayed, or if it merely expanded the photographic record of Auschwitz, it would be valuable historically…but it has an enhanced value….In the fifty-four days between May 15 and July 8, 1944, a period partly covered in the Hoecker album, and called the Hungarian Deportation, four hundred and thirty-four thousand people were put aboard trains to Auschwitz—so many people that the crematoriums, which could dispose of a hundred and thirty-two thousand bodies a month, were overrun.”

Click here to see the online slide show at The New Yorker

The contest, entitled Focus on a global food, invites photographers to capture the spirit of the International Year in images that illustrate potato biodiversity, cultivation, processing, trade, marketing, consumption and utilization, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization

Visit the International Year of the Potato for more information.

The cereal aisle has become a cornucopia of colors with marshmallows that resemble people and objects and characters from movies. It’s apparent that cereal is not just for breakfast anymore; it’s playtime.

Ernie’s work has exhibited in galleries mostly in California and Arizona, and was the Hey, Hot Shot Summer Edition Winner in 2006 at the Jen Bekman Gallery. His work can also be seen at Photo-Eye.

A simple little article about Kodak teaming up with Vivitar to rebrand some cameras aimed for educational institutes, has certainly created a buzz in the photography world… especially for those photographers that still use and love film.

Initial predictions of the death of film have been somewhat premature, according to Joel Proegler, general manager of Film Capture at Eastman Kodak who told us: ‘Kodak has focused on the digital message for the past four years. As we come out of that transition, one thing is very clear: film is a very profitable part of the business’.

This simple little quote has film lovers rejoicing in the streets, shouting “Film is not Dead!” Well… ok, maybe not… but they are happy that Kodak for now, has taken the stance that film is still profitable to their business. We’ve seen a lot of film lines trimmed back, or go completely obsolete in the last couple of years, Canon and Nikon dropping all but a few 35mm cameras. It’s been a little disheartening for some. But with this little statement, Fuji continuing supporting and expanding their film lines, and more and more reports of top photographers going back to film… I think film is still alive and kicking, and will be for some time.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Newspaper reporters who exposed a patronage system that plagued a Tennessee county and a photographer who chronicled a family’s economic struggles in Texas captured top spots Friday in the 74th annual National Headliner Awards.

Broadcasters in Maryland and North Carolina were also honored with grand awards — the highest prizes given as part of the national journalism contest run by The Press Club of Atlantic City.

The four grand awards, which come with $1,500 prizes, will be presented along with dozens of other Headliner Awards at a May 17 banquet in Atlantic City.

Along with the grand award, the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel also won first place in the public service category for its series called “Term Limit Turmoil.”

The stories reported on the appointments of family members and political insiders to replace prominent officeholders who had been ousted after the Tennessee Supreme Court decided term limits applied to the Knox County officials. They also looked at the dealings of the county clerk, trustee and register of deeds.

The 12 appointees, who were named during a meeting that frequently went into recess, were removed following the newspaper’s successful public records lawsuit.

“Scrappy, thoughtful, brave and inventive, this collection of stories about a group of local politicians, their family members and flunkies trying to hold onto power embodies the best traditions of accountability reporting,” the judges said.

The grand award in photography went to Melanie Burford of The Dallas Morning News for her images in “The Fight for Sugar Hill,” which followed a struggling family in Texas’ richest county for three years. The entry also won first place for photo essay/story.

The judges said the images “of rare intimacy, power and sensitivity were far and away the most successful example of storytelling in the photography categories.”

To see all the award winners please go to http://www.nationalheadlinerawards.com/