EU-GENE! The 2009 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography was given out on Wednesday to Chinese photographer Lu Guang. The multi-media feature on the increasingly captivating “Lens” section on the website of The New York Times certainly merits a long browse.

IR-VING! The giants continue to fall. Longtime picture editor and aesthete Greg Pond, on the Society of Publication Design’s website, has written a charming homage to the recently departed Irving Penn. “Mister Penn,” he observers. “You never heard anyone ever say 'Irving.' Names such as: Dick, Annie, Herb, Mario, Steven, Mary-Ellen, Bruce, and Helmut bounce off the walls at Condé Nast. But everyone called him Mister Penn.”

…And in other news, just when you thought it couldn’t get any stranger, the artist/fair-use-advocate/pilferer Shepard Fairey admits that he lied about which photograph he plagiarized when creating his Obama HOPE poster.

Fairey tales can come true...
It could happen to you...

ENVISIONING THE MEMORIAL. The consummate architecture critic and scholar, Paul Goldberger, in this week’s New Yorker, explains how Michael Arad has been creating a real-world approximation of his Ground Zero memorial – by studying a full-scale mockup at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

YOUR FACE MAKES HISTORY. Here’s a very user-friendly and photo-centric picture-book project from Rick Smolan and the gang at The Obama Time Capsule.

O’S NOBEL, PART I. On VanityFair.com, I write about three key peaceniks working behind the scenes for Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Barack Obama.

O’S NOBEL, PART II. And, finally, this astute observation from my friend David Moore, the entrepreneur, comedian, and founder of ComedySmack.com, from his standup act at Caroline’s Comedy Club:

“Some people were surprised that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. To me, what is really surprising is that he’s emerged as one of the favorites for the Heisman trophy.”