Sadly no, we're not kidding. The life of photographer Dorothea Lange has been set to music. "Things As They Are" makes its world premiere at the 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival at the Theater at St. Clement's on West 46th Street on September 27th. It's a "musical examination of an artist's journey as complex as the history captured in her work," producers say. Audio clips are on their Web site, decide for yourself.

Former Associated Press and St. Petersburg Times photographer George Sweers has died in St. Petersburg, his family told AP. He was 82.

Photojournalist Adam Ferguson, documenting Marines in Afghanistan's Wardak Province, was faced with covering the accidental mortar death of a teenage girl killed in a Marine attack. As someone who has decided to cover war, the conflicts posed by the circumstances were tremendous. "You have a sense of loyalty to them [the Marines], and you have to reconcile that in relation to your integrity as a journalist." Ferguson tells LENS that as much as it is his job to engage emotionally, it's also his job to record history.

Photojournalist J. Kyle Keener was seeing double. Literally. NPPA member Keener was commissioned to photograph Twin Days at the International Twin Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, for National Geographic Magazine Online. His gallery of twins is now on the Web.

In Salt Lake City, 43 percent of the workforce at The Deseret News got pink slips: 57 full-time and 28 part-time employees were let go, including at least half the photo staff. Yet some will stay on to help with the transition as the print newsroom combines with KSL-TV5 and KSL Newsradio staff "to create the largest newsroom in the Intermountain West."

Los Angeles Times staff photojournalist Rick Loomis is embedded with troops in Afghanistan. Again. It's his ninth tour of the war there with his cameras. He estimates it adds up to about two years of his life so far. And that's not including his time in Iraq. In the Times' new blog Framework, Loomis paints a picture of American troops and the war, from tribal elders to roadside bombs to the soldiers' daily grind, with the experienced eye of a battle veteran and the photographic soul of an artist.

Canadian Television's "Rockburn Presents" has aired a one-hour documentary on the career of photojournalist Peter Turnley, which is now available for viewing online.

NPPA Life Member Frederick Keesing, who joined the organization in 1958 and was the retired photo editor for the Plainfield Courier-News in New Jersey, died August 20 at the Country Arch Care Center in Pittstown. He was 97.

NPPA board member Tom Kennedy, formerly the managing editor for multimedia with The Washington Post and Newsweek Interactive and photography director for National Geographic, has joined the Newhouse faculty at Syracuse University as the Alexia Chair. He'll also be teaching visual and interactive communications.

USA Today, the nation's second largest newspaper, is making the most dramatic overhaul of its staff in its 28-year history as it de-emphasizes its print edition and ramps up its effort to reach more readers and advertisers on mobile devices.