The New York Times has launched a new photojournalism blog called Lens, to showcase "the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting." It is a home for photojournalism projects which might not appear in print, reported Editor & Publisher. The paper just won a Pulitzer Prize for photography.

Lens does not have a dedicated budget or staff, but will feature work done for the print edition including the Times' vast archives, personal projects by Times photographers, wire service photographs and work given free to the publication. It will also show multimedia projects by the paper's video department and still photographers. Staff photographer Josh Haner, one of the three employees assigned to produce the blog, told E & P that "we're pretty darn proud of it."

Lens displays photos against an uncluttered black background and uses an innovative interface built with Adobe Flash, which allows viewers to display photos full-screen and flip through images using arrow keys. It draws some inspiration from NYT Co-owned Boston.com's The Big Picture, which pioneered a wide-screen layout.

The New York Times has been keenly innovating and adding new elements to its website, such as interactive photo projects or the new Times Wire. Lens, as well as offering readers the chance to see photography appropriately displayed, provides photojournalists with an outlet for some of their work which is possibly being published less frequently than in the past as newspapers' and magazines' budgets decrease.

Source: New York Times, Editor & Publisher