I just watched a short video of National Geographic Editor in Chief Chris Johns talking about his favorite photographs from 2008. And it really pumped me up. His excitement over the still image is contagious and I can always use a little of that, especially in 2009.

For the past couple of years I’ve seen so many people attempting to relegate photography into a substandard role throughout our society. Precious resources and time are diverted to inferior mediums like multimedia and video. Thankfully there are still people out there who are promoting great photography. While great audio can strengthen the impact of a photograph, nothing can replace power of photography in telling the story of humanity.

Saturday night I met with a group of friends who put on a Photo Night event. Several photographers and friends gathered together to eat chili and cupcakes. We turned off the lights and took turns projecting our photographs onto a sheet taped to the wall. It was fantastic. The quality of work was amazing, but more important was the sense of camaraderie among the photographers. Photographs and their importance to society are something we all believe in. Maybe it’s time to put on events like this for a wider audience.

Here are blogs by some of the photographers whose work I saw: Last Mission Last Hour, What It All Looks Like, My Life at f22, Depth of Field, and check out photographer Brian Nicholson’s self-produced, soon to be released, book I Am Ogden.

Make sure to check out the Chris Johns video at this link. Johns was a great photographer before taking the reins at the yellow magazine. He knows his stuff.