Vote For The Photographer Consultation

Poll Closed, Thanks for voting.

I spent 3 hours ripping through and narrowing down the websites submitted for the photo consultation demo (read about it here) but instead of just picking a winner I decided to put it to a vote. As unscientific and ugly as a photographer popularity contest probably sounds to everyone it’s no better than me just choosing one from the 16 finalists (plus, I’m on a mission to test every blog add-on feature I can find).

This is a very strong group of photographers which in my mind will make the consultation even better for everyone. The advice given will be at a fairly high level so everyone from beginning to emerging photographers can get a little something out of it.
In an ideal world people would vote for photographers that have as much in common with their own style as possible so they can learn more, but this is the internet so let the popularity contest begin:

David Degner– Reportage, Photojournalism

Clay Stang– Commercial, Staged

Brady Fontenot– Environmental Portraits, Hip

Nick Onken– Lifestyle

Jose Mandojana– Environmental Portraits, Athletes

Robert Wright– Environmental Portraits, Modern Urban

Jeff Singer– Environmental and Studio Portraits

Noah Kalina– Hip and Cool, Surreal

Melissa Catanese– Modern Landscape, Fine Art

Kathy Quirk-Syvertsen– Lifestyle, Kids

Andrew Pinkham– Conceptual, Illustration

Jennifer Loeber– Environmental Portraits, Americana, Fine Art

Dustin Fenstermacher– Quirk, Modern Americana

Lisa Wyatt– Environmental Portrait, Lifestyle, Kids

William Brinson– Food, Travel, Still-Life

Whit Richardson– Adventure, Action

Poll Closed

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Picture Jobs Network

Any freelance photo editors or people looking to find freelancers here’s your resource. I’ve used them many times and you’d be astonished at the high level of talent they have on their mailing list. Over 400 freelancers.

Note: This service is for Photo Editors to find Freelance Photo Editors and researchers. Sorry if there’s any confusion Photographers.

Picture Jobs Network

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Steve McCurry Interview- PDN

He sometimes advises young photographers, “If you want to be a photographer, you have to photograph. If you look at the photographers whose work we admire, they’ve found a particular place or a subject, dug deep into it, and carved out something that’s become special. And that takes a lot of time and a lot of work – that’s not for everyone.”

Via, PDN (here)

Michael Lewis- On The List

Michael Lewis has been on my list of photographers for a long time (He must be on everyone’s list because I see his credit all over the place). Click on the list to see proof.

He’s hard working, low maintenance, subjects enjoy him and he has a distinct style I can rely on. I posed 5 question I thought you might like to hear the answer to:

1. I really enjoy the email promos you send out from recent photoshoots that show you in the scene you’ve just shot sometimes standing next to celebrities. How did you get started with that and what has the response been?

It started as a way of collecting an ‘autograph’ from the celebrity shoots I did. Instead of a signature, or a picture of me simply standing next to who I was photographing; I decided it would be fun if I incorporated myself into the shot which I had composed. Soon, I wanted a souvenir from all the places I found myself, and all the people I was meeting in my shoots; so every shoot became fair game.

The reaction has been terrific! People seem to dig it. It has provided me a way to give my friends (both in, and out of the business) a chuckle, while keeping everyone up-to-date on my photo-excursions.

2. I’m sure it wasn’t a “eureka” moment but can you describe the chain of events lead to you becoming a top editorial photographer?

Dad bought a Nikon camera while in Vietnam (while my mom was pregnant with me) >
I was always into ‘arts and crafts’ >
Started college >
Parents sat me down; asked me some big ‘life’ questions >
Transferred to art school :>
Dad gave me that old nikon >
Found photography came very naturally to me >
Assisted in Philadelphia >
Grad school (MFA) >
Was selected to be in a book ’25 and Under’ >
Doors opened >
I kept my foot lodged so that those doors didn’t close >
Always treated every shoot as if it was the most important photograph I was ever to take.

3. In my mind you have a very unique style of photography so, your name is on the top of my list of environmental portraitists who can make pictures with a lot of depth and a bit of humor in them. How did you arrive at this style?

Coming from a fine art background; my interests were in what a picture suggests and the tone that they convey. I studied photography as a means of personal expression; and less as a way of documenting. With an interest in narrative film and mise-en-scene,I didn’t see photography from the journalistic philosophy. Instead, I felt it was tool to construct and suggest reality; rather than a commitment to capture it. When I began being commissioned to photograph people whom I had never met; I always handled my subjects as equals. I photograph celebrities, ‘real’ people, and myself all with the same eye.

4. Are there any career choices you that you either regret or turned out to be the best decision you ever made?

I still wonder if leaving LA (where i got started commercially) and moving to New York City helped, or hindered, my career.

5. If you were an insect what kind would you be and why?

A king bee.

it’s good to be king.

Here’s a Recent Promo.

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These are from his Website.

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Fine Art in the Digital Age

This comes from James Danzinger’s blog The Year In Pictures (here).

Tonight marks the opening of The Sartorialist’s exhibition at Danziger Projects. (6 – 8 pm. 521 West 26th Street.) All are welcome.

The idea for the show began when I landed on The Sartorialist’s blog for the first time this past July and was wowed by the quality of his pictures. Here was a highly accomplished photographer with a uniquely personal point of view taking pictures digitally and then posting them on his blog. There was no connection to the art world evident – but I felt that here was the first real fine art photographer of the digital age.

“First real fine art photographer of the digital age” is a pretty big statement to make but I can certainly get behind someone who takes decent pictures but has excellent taste in subjects and has created a very narrow body of work.

VII Adds Photographers

VII adds a handful of of new photographers (here) who are not members but associated and distributed by the agency calling them “network photographers.” I’d say that’s a pretty awesome association to be in. Three of my favorite PJ’s were added: Ben Lowy, Stephanie Sinclair and Balazs Gardi.

Via, PDN Newswire (here).

Nadav Kander- Genius

I have always been in awe of Nadav Kander. Repped by Bill Stockland at Stockland-Martel, Kander was always a name that crept-up when you wanted to take a subject everyone was familiar with and make an unexpected picture: “If I see another picture of Tom Cruise with tousled hair, white shirt and a megawatt grin I will stab my eyes out with a pica pole, effing hell, someone call Kandar”—if you actually got Nadav past the publicist of an A-List celebrity I would give you gold in the Photo Editor Olympics.

It all started for me with the book entitled, Beauty’s Nothing (read about it here) where his photographic style was so distinct and arresting I figured I had to try and land him for an assignment. After the book he continued to surprise me with his creative directional use of gels (normally I can’t stand gels) and dark, moody, unsettled portraiture and landscapes for which he is now known.

After many attempts to try and land him I finally did to shoot an athlete portfolio in London that combined lots of creativity and plenty of room to run the results in the magazine. When the assignments unexpectedly turned into a cover and time with the subject plus space in the magazine suddenly shrunk I knew I had lost my opportunity and needed to change to a more conventional photographer. The last thing I wanted was a shoot with Nadav loaded with art direction intended to strip away his distinct style (“can you make it bright and tack sharp focus?”) and no pages to run any photos.

So, I walked away.

I don’t want to hire a great photographer and then hack the shit out of their work in the magazine… at least not on the first encounter.

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Getty Images For Sale

A little late (stock market imploded already) but I guess they see something on the horizon they don’t like.

Via, NY Times (here). Thanks James.

Golfweek Editor Fired

After attempting to spark newsstand sales with a noose on the cover (here) in reference to a Golf channel anchor comment about lynching Tiger Woods.

Editors do all kinds of shit to sell magazines on the newsstand but I can’t imagine what this guy was thinking.

CNN Serious about I-Report

Rick Schwartz just sold CNN the domain iReport.com for $750,000. Schwartz bought the domain in 1997 for “$70 to $100,” he told Silicon Alley Insider. CNN likely bought the domain for its I-Report program. You know, the one where You The Viewer get to do all the work.

Via, ValleyWag (here).

Copyright Debate

Oh boy, a debate over copyright and fair use in the NY Times bits blog (here) between Rick Cotton, the general counsel at NBC and Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School.

RC: Fair use in the digital age is the same as fair use in the non-digital age. The fact that digital tools make it easier to use other people’s work doesn’t affect the analysis of whether that use is fair. Generally speaking, if you are making fun of, criticizing or commenting on a work (and not just reproducing or copying it), courts have found that you can use the work only to the degree necessary to make your point about that work.

[…] fair use is not a “right,” a misconception and misstatement frequently made these days. Rather it is an exception to the copyright owners’ exclusive rights to determine how their expression is used in new works.

TW: …it is time to recognize a simpler principle for fair use: work that adds to the value of the original, as opposed to substituting for the original, is fair use.

[…] We must never forget that copyright is about authorship; and secondary authors, while never as famous as the original authors, deserve some respect.

Here’s what I think, all these people, who wish for copyright reform, so they can practice their “art” will be begging for forgiveness when all the corporations get tired of trying to protect the works they paid to create and instead decide to step into the online world and stomp the living shit out of everyone by employing thousands of salaried creative people to repurpose every uncopyrighted piece of material into some entirely forgettable eyeball splitting video.

It’s beyond my comprehension why people wouldn’t want original material they created protected under copyright law. Maybe readers can show me a reuse of someone’s work that adds value to this planet?

Photography Consultant Demo

So, I’m curious how photography consultation works. I’m always giving my opinion and advice to photographers and I’d like to hear how a professional consultant handles similar situations. I’ll bet some of you would like to hear that too.

I asked Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua who runs a business called “Burns Auto Part” which is actually photo consultation not car repair (whatever, is there a difference?) to join me in a live consultation with a photographer. It’s not actually going to be “live” because that would be like watching one of those photo shoot videos… only while covered in fire ants. I’m going to reprint an edited version of the IM chat we have with the photographer selected to receive the free consultation. This will take place on the 30th.

If you’re interested leave your website in the comments. If there’s a huge group of people I’ll pick a few candidates and we can all vote to see who gets it and then I can see if other consultants will work with me on the runners-up at a later date.

Comments closed. Thanks to all those who volunteered.

Getting Your Foot in the Door

A reader asks if it’s better to approach the Associate or Deputy Photo Editors for a book showing or for sending promos because the Director is usually too busy.

I’d say targeting the photo editors under the Director is an excellent plan of action.

I’ve always encouraged all the photo editors in the department to look at as many books as possible to develop their eye for photography so they can experience the process of discovering new talent and then hiring them for a shoot.

In many cases it was easier for me to drop in on a portfolio showing; to look at the book, grab a promo, shake the hand and get out. That’s how I saw a lot of books and photographers I normally wouldn’t have time for with all the stupid meetings I went to everyday.

Eventually, I would get lobbied by the other photo editors to hire photographers they discovered and liked and we always ended up pulling the trigger on a few to see how their discoveries worked out.

And, don’t forget the Creative Director in your promo mailings. Many times they came into my office with the promo of a photographer they were interested in—just don’t leave me out of the loop. I always like to already know who they’re talking about when they bring those in so I look like I know what the hell I’m doing “ah, yes Irving Penn and I go waaay back, I’ll IM him.”

Larry Lessig’s Free Book

‘The Future of Ideas’ now available for free (here). Somehow he convinced Random House to allow him to give it away on his website. Sheesh, next thing you know people will be paying me to read their book.

Via Boing Boing (here).