Word: backgrounder
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...mostly shunned these advances, using a bulky, large-format view camera on a tripod - and never any artificial light, even for interiors. He figured exposure times in his head - a relatively glacial 1/11th of a second was typical - and learned how to narrow the aperture to ensure that both background and foreground remained in focus. His genius lay in making a picture look artfully composed yet breathlessly immediate: what Evans called his "lyrical understanding of the street...
...sons (his daughter died 10 days after her birth in 2002) and a sparky wife who seems adept at summoning his lighter side. Still, it's difficult to imagine him indulging in frivolous pursuits. It comes as no surprise that he's the son of a Scottish preacher, a background that imparted what he calls "a sense of a moral compass," as well as a frugal lifestyle and an urge to evangelize that has long since been sublimated into a focus on such causes as tackling poverty and preventable disease in Africa...
...these differences of background and political affiliation, however, there are some striking similarities. On economic policy, questions of national identity and foreign policy, they can sound more or less alike. Both extol the importance of a strong work ethic and advocate free markets, but with caveats. Both have a controversial nationalist bent: while Brown talks about the importance of "Britishness," Sarkozy is seeking to establish clear criteria for those who aspire to become French. Both feel warm about America but cool toward President George W. Bush. Neither gets emotional over the idea of European unity, preferring to see what works...
...beauties of matriculating at Harvard College is that every student is afforded the same opportunities regardless of his or her family’s financial background. Students at both extremes of the socioeconomic spectrum participate in the same extracurricular activities, live in the same whitewashed rooms, buy the same books, and take the same classes. In the summer, however, that parallel breaks down: students on financial aid are expected to work to pay their student contribution. If a student is planning on interning on Wall Street or taking a paying job elsewhere, coming up with the contribution, while a minor...
...control Congress didn't seem to have much stomach for a gun-control debate that many think can hurt them in moderate swing states. "Without that initiative," says Castle, who would like to pass legislation closing a loophole that allows weapons to be purchased at gun shows without a background check, "it is almost impossible to get anything done...