Happy View Year from The Bag!

From the BagNewsSalon – Photoville 2014: Reading the Key News Pictures of the Year. (l to r) Moderator: Michael Shaw, BagNews publisher; Mario Tama, staff photographer, Getty Images; Todd Heisler, staff photographer for The New York Times; Robert Mackey, New York-based foreign correspondent for The New York Times; David Campbell, writer, researcher, professor and multimedia producer; Jamie Wellford, Photo Editor/Curator and Meg Handler, BagNews Editor-at-Large. Photo: Mark Peterson.

With appreciation to our amazing and talented team, Meg Handler, Jonathan Gibby, Teresa Mahoney, Cara Finnegan and Sandra Roa … with gratitude to our  large and incredible group of contributors — wordsmiths and photographers … with deep thanks to our canny and intelligent commenters, loyal readers and friends … a bow to all of our Salon panelists … a hearty thank you to our benefactors, our long-time consultants and to Photosynthesis, our ad network … and a special salute to the design team at Drexler, the hosting experts at Cartesian Labs and the incisive Sara Terry, you made this an invaluable year as Bag deepened and expanded its mission in this, our tenth year.

We have so many exciting developments on the horizon — from our pending incorporation and formal application for non-profit status; more Salons and Salon partnerships, including one with the The Open Society Documentary Photography Project; more contributors coming on board; an expansion of the Originals section — we can hardly wait to get the year started.

In the meantime, we at The Bag wish you all a year of thoughtfulness, peace and visual insight.

All the best,

Michael Shaw