Getting Us Closer To The Truth In Photography

Harry Fisch organizes Travel Photography trips with Nomad Photo Expeditions and recently won the places category in the 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest. 72 hours later he had lost it. The winning image was disqualified because he had removed a plastic bag in post. A blog post about what happened (read it here) has an email from the editor telling him that cropping the bag out or simply leaving it in would have had no impact, but digitally removing it violates the rules. Ouch. Harry is a good sport about it and concludes that had he been on the jury, he would have done the same saying, “rules are rules.”

Many people will argue that photography can never tell the truth. That the lens, image processing, where you stand, and what you chose to include in an image all alter the facts. This misses the point entirely. The point of truth telling in photography is for the photographer to make an image that gets us as close to the truth as they can. That is the goal. Now that the mechanical limitations of photography (film and printing) are gone we are less reliant on the camera to tell the truth, so that obligation falls on the photographer. You must build trust with your viewers and editors so they believe what you are saying.

This is an unusual position to be in, because photographers often relied on the camera and film to do this. Inherent imitations of the medium prevented them from doing too much to alter what happened (although many pushed it as far as it would go). Limitations may be returning to cameras. A new software development by the the human rights organization Witness aims to make it easiter to verify the authenticity of video, photos, or audio created and shared from mobile devices (story on Nieman Journalism Lab). “The app collects metadata that it will bundle and encrypt with your photo or video — including generating an encryption key based on the camera’s pattern of sensor noise, which is unique to each camera.”

The current practice of submitting RAW files for verification (to magazines and contests) may soon be assumed by software that does the verification for us. I expect this will be taken to the next logical step and any work that’s done in post will be recorded and encrypted by the software as well. Eventually news organizations and contests could set a “score” that’s some percentage of allowed manipulation to the pixels of an image that they consider ok. Maybe the software will disable certain tools used in post processing (this is Hal, I’ve disabled the clone tool). Regardless, the goal will be the same. Getting us closer to the truth. And the burden will return to the limitations of the software and not the photographer. That will be a good thing.

Update: the contest was incorrect [corrected], it was not Traveler’s but National Geographic magazine’s, which is officially called the National Geographic Photo Contest. And Harry Fisch was the Places Category Winner not the Grand Prize Winner of the overall contest [corrected].

Art Superdealer Larry Gagosian

Fascinating article on Art Superdealer Larry Gagosian that appears in the January 28, 2013 issue of New York Magazine: http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/art-superdealer-larry-gagosian.html

Gagosian has been, for the past two decades, the most powerful gallerist in the world, by a wide margin. In 2011, a survey of dealers in The Wall Street Journal estimated that his annual sales approached $1 billion. That May, roughly half the works for sale by the major auction houses in New York (evening sales only) were by artists on Gagosian’s roster. In addition to his three gallery spaces in New York, he owns two in London, two in Paris, and one each in Beverly Hills, Rome, Geneva, Athens, and Hong Kong. “In many ways, having a show with him is synonymous with having a show at MoMA or the Tate Modern,” says Eric Shiner, the director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

One Has To Learn To Suffer With Grace

One thing that distinguishes me from the pack is that I like unstaged, one-take, expedition shooting. Long and difficult trips are full of little victories and disappointments and they make for great photographic moments. There are a couple big hurdles to being an expedition shooter. One is keeping one’s gear alive in the cold, wet, sandy, camera-killing places. That takes diligence but isn’t rocket surgery. Another is that one has to learn to suffer with grace. That takes practice and some balanced brain chemistry.

via Through The Lens Of Jim Harris | Blog | Teton Gravity Research.

Anonymous Art Buyers Blog: Art Buyers Are People Too

When I started blogging anonymously over 5 years ago the point was to blow off a little steam, check out this blogging thing everyone was talking about and communicate with other Photo Editors about very mundane things that made up our jobs. This turned out to be much more interesting for readers than I ever imagined. That part of my blog life was short lived unfortunately, but I always expected others to pick up the reins, so I was delighted to recently find a group of Art Buyers blogging anonymously under the title Art Buyers Are People Too. I fired off a few questions and here’s what they have to say about themselves:

APE: Why did you start “Art Buyers Are People Too“, do you think people don’t know it or are you just having fun?

ABAPT: It started off as just a little fun. In the beginning we were just posting silly things that people within the industry said to us. But it quickly changed. Honestly, it sometimes feels as though people don’t know what we do exactly; even those we work with on a daily basis within the agency walls and outside as well. Agents, photographers, photo assistants, stylists, and producers have all said to us, “You do that?”. It’s such a multi-faceted position that we wanted to put it all out there in the open. What started off as a fun spoof, turned in to much more. We began to post about our likes, loves and occasional dislikes and lately we’ve been posting more about what we handle. We see the blog as evolving and we’ve made tons of goals for 2013. You’ll see a lot more from us very soon!

APE: Are there more than one of you? Do you all work in the same agency?

ABAPT: We are a group of Art Buyers at the same agency, but very connected within the Art Buying community. We reach out to other Art Buyers on a daily basis.

APE: Do you plan to remain anonymous?

ABAPT: For now, yes.

APE: I’ve seen your hands, promo wall, mail stack, inbox and feet. Do you realize someone will put the pieces together?

ABAPT: Of course! Some people already know who we are, but are respectful of our privacy.

APE: It seems that you are talking to your fellow Art Buyers, what is your message to them?

ABAPT: We are really speaking to the photo/illustration community as a whole. We have so many friends, business partners and acquaintances who we are communicating with as well. We don’t have a “message” per say. We just want to share our experiences and thoughts and hope that it helps demystify what our role is and to show the different responsibilities of being an Art Buyer.

APE: You have very rich tastes in photography. Do you work for very important clients?

ABAPT: Aren’t all clients important? ;) We love all levels of photography and have taken a real interest in emerging photographers in the past two years. We believe that anything can be produced and we look for the right people and teams to accomplish whatever comes across our desks.

APE: Is there a difference between photography you love and photographers you love to work with?

ABAPT: Yes and no. We certainly have photographers whom we admire and would love to work with someday. Of course there are the greats and the living legends and then there are those with the amazing energy and vision. We love rewarding those who have great attitudes. It bums us out to push for and hire someone who gets on set with their own agenda or just looks at ad work with dollar signs in their eyes. We have been incredibly fortunate to work with some of the best out there. We believe in asking anyone if they are interested and love being surprised by a willingness to collaborate and those who simply bring it and kill it. There is nothing like the perfect fit.

APE: What does the future look like for Art Buyers?

ABAPT: We hope it’s full of big, bold projects! We are lucky to work at an agency that involves us heavily in the creative process. They insist on an Art Buyer attending each shoot, which can be grueling during busy season, yet so rewarding to see the final product. Many believe that with print usage dwindling, the Art Buying world will follow. We’re much more positive than that, and It’s our hope to evolve with new media. We’ve been working on video, cgi, animation and so much more and we welcome every project that hits our desks. It’s all about a willingness to change with the industry.

 

Promoting one’s fine art is so different than marketing a service

Learning to promote one’s fine art is both daunting and only occasionally rewarding; it’s required me to get over my shyness, my tendency towards self-effacement, my fear of self-promotion (how unladylike to promote oneself!), and it has forced me to accept rejection…it’s not for the faint of heart! But I discovered that little successes lead to bigger ones – as long as the work is interesting and challenging and the craftsmanship, solid.

via Two Way Lens.

Which Way is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Times of Tim Hetherington

“There are lots of brave war reporters who aren’t thinking in particularly complex ways about art. There are lots of brilliant artists who wouldn’t be caught dead getting shot at. There are plenty of brilliant and brave people who are not particularly compassionate,” he says. “Tim was truly all three and it made for an absolutely extraordinary person.”

via BBC News.

Photo LA – Sustainable Business Models

I’m speaking on a panel today for Photo LA from 3:30 – 5:00 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. If you are attending come say hi. Here’s the info:

Sustainable Business Models: Continuing the Conversation

Monday, January 21, 3:30 – 5:00pm

Panel discussion moderated by Richard Dale Kelly, featuring Allen Murabayashi (Chairman and co-founder, PhotoShelter), Rob Haggart (Editor, Photo Editor and former Director of photography for Men’s Journal and Outside Magazine), Stephen Mayes (Managing Director, VII photo agency) and Robert Henson (Founder, Evolve Images).

More info here: http://www.photola.com

This Week In Photography Books – Erik Kessels

by Jonathan Blaustein

I’m in a bad mood right now. Grumpy, surly, sour. Take your pick. Why? Because I’m cold, deep in my bones. Nobody likes a whiner, but it’s been well-below-zero here in Taos for more than a month now. Each day, I wake up hoping this arctic wave will break. No such luck.

I know some of you are reading this in the Southern Hemisphere, or straddling the equator. Hell, even my parents were smart enough to high tail it down to Mexico. To all of you, I hope you’re happy. Enjoy it. Because the serotonin doesn’t pump as freely when everything is bleak, gray and dim.

Even now, as I try to put this foul temper behind me, I’m having trouble. The words don’t flow as well when your mind is trapped in a negative feedback loop. Too. Cold. To. Be. Witty. Today.

So what is a hard-working columnist to do? Keep bashing you over the head with complaints? Move to Mumbai? Take a bath in chicken soup? All respectable options, but none seem right.

I have a better idea. I can re-open and flip through “in almost every picture.”, a new book published by Erik Kessels of kesselkramer in Amsterdam. (What would I do if I were in Amsterdam right now? Do you have to ask?) Let’s pause a moment while I actually do look at the book again.

OK, I’m back. And I feel better already. This is one of the funniest, strangest, and most oddly heart-warming books I’ve seen in a long time. If ever. (No, it’s not genius. But that is a big threshold to cross.)

So what is it about? Apparently, one of the publisher’s acquaintances spotted this project on the web, and then the book was born. In almost every photograph, we see a middle-aged woman standing fully clothed in water. Her name is Valerie, and she and her husband Fred are the team behind the project.

I suppose we’d call them amateurs, but then again, they’ve got a book, and most of us don’t. Valerie is a willing subject, and Terry has photographed her, over the years, in fountains, pools, oceans, lakes, showers, you name it. The only catch is that she’s wearing clothes, and standing in water. Or wet, having poured a jug over herself.

It sounds like a concept cooked up out of irony, but it’s not. The end statement mentions the thrill of eroticism, and I guess it’s there. Maybe. Thankfully, though, the book is not made out to mock Valerie either. While she doesn’t look like anybody’s mental vision of a model, she does know how to vary her expression, and to play along. It must take a lot of guts to show yourself this way, especially as she ages over time.

I know many of you look to this column to see what books you ought to buy. But that’s never my motivation. I’m looking to find things that are interesting, innovative, thought-provoking, important, powerful, inspirational, bizarre, or absurd. It’s a high standard, and maybe I don’t always get there. But today, at least, I’m less grumpy than I was five minutes ago. So that’s something.

Bottom line: Weird, fun-loving book by amateur photographers

To Purchase “in almost every picture” visit Photo-Eye

Full Disclosure: Books are provided by Photo-Eye in exchange for links back for purchase.

Books are found in the bookstore and submissions are not accepted.

 

Judge rules AFP and WaPo Infringed Photographers Copyright By Pulling Images From Twitter

Late on Monday a Manhattan judge ruled in the Daniel Morel case against AFP and the Washington Post that both news organizations infringed his copyright by republishing images that he posted to Twitter during the Haiti earthquake 2 years ago (download the 58 page ruling from NPPA here).

The case was originally brought against Morel by APF, because he was complaining loudly that they stole his images off Twitter, so he then brought a counterclaim against AFP, Getty Images and the Washington Post. It’s certainly the case to watch when it comes to photography and social media. According to the NPPA blog (read the whole post here):

“Based on the evidence presented to the Court the Twitter TOS do not provide AFP with an excuse for its conduct in this case,” the Court noted in finding that “The Twitter [terms of service] provide that users retain their rights to the content they post — with the exception of the license granted to Twitter and its partners — rebutting AFP’s claim that Twitter intended to confer a license on it to sell Morel’s photographs.”

and

In her well-reasoned 58 page decision Judge Nathan granted Morel partial summary judgment ruling that “AFP and the Post are liable for copyright infringement as to the Photos-at-Issue.” But the court rejected his “arguments regarding the scope of statutory damages available under the Copyright Act and DMCA.” The judge also denied motions for summary judgment with regard to whether the infringements were willful; as well as the “claims for contributory and vicarious copyright liability.”

So, there’s more to come in this case, but everything is looking good for photographers who post images to social media sites, which brings up my next point. Remember when everyone was outraged that he posted breaking news images to twitter in the first place. The attitude was more “that’s what you get for not using proper channels” instead of support for photographers trying to carve out professional use of these services. Jeremy Nicholl didn’t forget and his post on this latest ruling (read it here) recalls this gem from Visa Pour L’Image Director Jean Francois Leroy:

a photographer should never put his images on a social networking site. If you put your image on Twitter or Flickr and find that it’s been stolen by someone else, well… tough.

That’s not unsurprising given JF’s role in packaging and selling stories in the traditional manner and Twitter’s role in simply blasting it out to the internet. The key takeaway for me from all of this is that even Twitter is unsure what it’s business model will look like in the future, but professional photographers who use the service can help shape how these services will work. Help them understand the great value of professionally produced content. It’s still the wild west out there and it’s not going to be pretty, but photographers who experiment and defend their copyright should be applauded.

Getty Hands Google Users Free Commercial Images, Photographers Get $12

On December 6th the Google Drive Blog announced that “5,000 new photos of nature, weather, animals, sports, food, education, technology, music and 8 other categories are now available for your use in Docs, Sheets, and Slides” with no mention to how they were acquired or what type of license they come with. If you have a google drive account (comes with gmail and google apps for business) you can create a document and when you go to insert an image you can search google, life or stock. There’s a notice that the “results shown are labeled for commercial reuse with modification” but other than that you can insert the image results in your document and away you go.

It all seems quite mysterious, but luckily some istockers uncovered what’s really going on. In a forum post on January 10th an istock contributor is alarmed to find one of their images in the search results and once they place “it into my document at 1,066 x 1,600. No attribution. No meta-data. No license. No link.” This post is followed by 537 comments then the thread is locked.

On January 11th a forum post titled “Google Drive + Update” is made by mr_erin who appears to work for istockphoto with the following information:

“This is a license deal arranged with Google through Getty Images”

“There may eventually be additional content added to this pool/agreement”

“Google licensed these images for use by Google users through the Google Drive platform; Users of this platform are granted rights to place this imagery in content created using Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Presentations, which end uses can be for commercial purposes.”

I haven’t really dug into the forum posts to see what else is being said or located other sources for the story. The photographer who emailed me about it (Don) says that Getty/Flickr photographers are being paid a one time fee of $12 for the deal.

I’m positive that Getty and Google will figure out a way to lower the bar even further at some point, but this is the lowest I’ve seen it. Gmail has 425 million active users worldwide according to Wikipedia. That’s some serious fractions of a penny for a license.

What makes for great art direction?

I have to say over the last few years, I’ve seen a real trend towards over art direction. I suspect that’s maybe because people have so little confidence in print advertising these days, and certainly very little confidence in people actually reading print ads. So they just throw everything at it. Everything is over-done; overwrought typography, over-styled photography, over done illustration, over-elaborate layout or – even worse – starbursts, everything big, CAPITAL letters. The works.

via The Sell! Sell! Blog.

Pricing & Negotiating: Hotel Lifestyle Shoot

by Jess Dudley Wonderful Machine

Shoot Concept: Lifestyle, chef portraits and plated food images to promote a resort

Licensing: Three years of regional Advertising, Collateral and Publicity use of 20 images, in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee only

Location: Resort in Georgia

Shoot Days: Two

Photographer: Southeastern hospitality and lifestyle specialist

Agency: Client Direct

Client: Independent Resort Property

Here’s the estimate:

I thought it would be interesting to share this particular hotel lifestyle estimate on the heels of our previous Pricing & Negotiating post so I could highlight the difference in value between two nearly identical projects. Both were two-day lifestyle hospitality shoots at a single hotel property. The major differences are the size and reach of the clients and the breadth of the licensing. In the previous post, we were working through an ad agency for an international hotel chain to shoot 17 images for national use, with much higher expectations and production requirements. In this case, we were dealing directly with a single high-end hotel client interested in licensing 20 images for regional use.

Concept: The client wanted to highlight the property through a variety of available-light lifestyle images featuring talent enjoying the grounds, restaurants, services and amenities. The client compiled a shot list of 10 scenarios from which they hoped to license 20 images (2 per scenario). The scenarios would feature resort staff and anywhere from 1-4 non-professional talent (friends/family of the marketing team) and range from plated dining room scenes, to guests checking in, to talent strolling around the property’s more photogenic landscape and architectural elements. From our perspective, the production would be pretty minimal. The photographer would simply need to book his assistants, pick up gear, show up and start shooting. The client would source the talent, handle wardrobe, props, food, catering, all styling, and of course, the location. This told us a lot about the client’s production expectations and hinted at budget.

Licensing: The 3 year licensing duration, 10 scenarios and the fact that we were working with a high-end client all applied upward pressure on the value. Exerting downward pressure was the the lack of an ad agency (which could indicate smaller ad buy/less extensive use), the fact that the client was single, somewhat remote property and finally the geographical limitation of the licensing. As it turns out, the client planned to primarily advertise on the web, only running 2-3 print ad insertions/year in a few local magazines, solidifying our assumption of a smaller ad buy. Weighing all of these factors, I priced this out  at 1500.00 for the first two scenarios, 750.00/scenario for 3-6 and 500.00/scenario for 7-10, bringing the fee to a total of 8000.00. I checked my rates against a couple pricing sources. Corbis doesn’t display regional or state by state rates. BlinkBid’s bid consultant recommended 621.25-887.50 per image per year for a regional Local Small Business to purchase comparable licensing, which was in the ballpark. Photoshelter’s stock pricing interface suggests a rate of 15,000/image for one year or 22,000.00/image for three years for regional collateral and advertising use, but its pricing criteria didn’t allow me to hone the use as much as I needed to in this case.

As a side note, we use a few general rules of thumb when it comes to increasing or decreasing fees based on volume or duration. In general, doubling the duration does not necessarily double the value to the client—campaigns/images get tired, people/property/styles/trends change. Also, doubling the number of images licensed does not necessarily double the value to the client. Accordingly, I’ll add 50% to increase duration from one to two years and 100% to increase duration from one year to three years. With respect to increasing the number of images, the second is typically valued at 50% of the first, unless the image represents an additional unique concept, in which case we would value the image/licensing closer to 100% of the first image. At a certain point, I may introduce additional price breaks if we get into larger quantities.

Photographer Production Day:  The resort property was about 2 hours from the photographer’s home so I included one full “photographer production day” to cover the half day of round trip travel and half day of walk-through at the resort the day before the shoot.

First Assistant/Digital Tech, Local Assistant: I estimated for three full days for first assistant/digital tech, which covered two full shoot days, four hours of round trip travel time and four hours of walk-through time. 500.00/day is a normal rate for a tech but wouldn’t typically include necessary equipment, and certainly not a full-blown workstation cart which normally rents for 750-1000.00 depending on the setup. In this case, the photographer would shoot with a DSLR tethered to his own laptop running Capture One. We opted in this case not to charge for the laptop rental. As for the local assistant, we included one for both shoot days.

Equipment Rental: The photographer planned to rent two DSLR bodies (300.00/day), 2 fast lenses (65.00/day), two strobe kits for supplemental light if needed (300.00/day), and a variety of silks, scrims, frames and stands (~235.00/day). All of the gear would have to be rented for three days since the photographer and tech would have to pick it up before the walk-through.

Lodging Nights: The resort was fully booked during the shoot window so the client could not offer to provide lodging. We estimated for rooms for the photographer and digital tech for 2 nights at a nearby commuter hotel.

Images processed for editing & Selects Processed for Reproduction: This covered the time, equipment and costs to handle the initial import, edit and upload for client review and basic processing (color correction and blemish removal) for the 20 selects. Anything over and above the basic processing would be considered retouching and be billed at 150.00/hr, which is covered in the terms and conditions.

Miles, FTP, COI, Parking, Meals, Tolls, FTP, Misc: I estimated 200.00 for mileage, 50.00 per person per day for meal costs to cover breakfasts and dinners, 50.00 for the COI, 100.00 for the FTP and 150.00 for parking, tolls and miscellaneous expenses.

Results: The photographer shot the job and has already begun discussing the next project with the client.

Marketing note: This project came about because the photographer had managed to set up a meeting with a marketing manager at the resort. Within a few weeks the photographer received a request for an estimate. It just goes to show marketing is all about putting yourself out there and occasionally being in the right place at the right time.

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please give us a call at (610) 260-0200. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs—from small stock sales to big ad campaigns.

 

Advertising, in and of itself, isn’t anything

“Advertising has evolved into a business driven by megalomaniacs who know a lot about making money but little or nothing about making advertising. In some respects it’s also being driven by “creatives,” who have it wrong to the opposite extreme. They believe the ad or commercial is everything and that winning awards is something. They’ve lost sight of the fact that advertising, in and of itself, isn’t anything. Advertising’s sole purpose is to be the cause of something else. To cause a sales increase. To cause a shift in perception. To cause the creation of an edifice of imagery that allows a product or service to be something. But advertising itself is nothing. Nothing but a means to an end. Only fools believe the means is as important or significant as the end.”

via Ad Aged: From Ed McCabe..

National Geographic Photo Seminar 2013

I attended National Geographic’s annual Photo Seminar last week. What started in 1967 as a way for photographers to informally gather and talk about their work (one attendee described it as an after the holidays palate cleanser), has become an annual rite for the exclusive group of photographers in the “Nat Geo” club and various hangers-on. From what I could gather the more recent seminars have taken the shape of canonizing the old guard, highlighting young new talent and pushing the boundaries of what might be acceptable for photography among the members and staff. A perfect mix in my opinion.

For me it was an awesome treat to watch photographers talk about their work. I look at work on my computer, in books and magazines and even sometimes on the wall, but it’s rare that I get to hear a photographer talking about their work. And wow, what a difference that makes. I need to do it more often as it renewed my spirit for the craft.

If there’s one word that describes what I witnessed at the event it would be emotion. From photographers who want to change the world, to those whose deep emotions manifest in the work to a deep love of subject, my nerves were raw after each speaker finished their outpouring of emotion. As I watched I discovered an excellent way to keep notes was to simply tweet out the great quotes I heard. Now, going back and remembering it all here are my highlights.

Master of ceremonies Vincent J. Musi in response to the unprecedented flood of photographers and imagery we’re experiencing quipped in his opening remarks “Have photographers become the endangered species?”. The answer came minutes later as he introduced street artist JR to the group. I say that because I believe what has changed is simply the definition of “professional photographer.” Go see JR’s Ted Prize talk from 2011 to understand what a special person he is. The mind bending part of his work is when he crowd sources and does not directly participate in the creation of  it. This is an important concept for photographers who don’t want to become endangered to consider.

The next photographer continued that thought as Michael Ravine who works with NASA and others discussed putting cameras on space ships and sending them to orbit the moon and rove around mars taking pictures. Many of us have fallen in love with the photography NASA and JPL are doing today, but nothing raises the hackles on traditional photographers like not standing in the field with your camera to make the picture. But, making pictures remotely is another concept that needs to be explored further.

Other highlights for me were an on stage interview of David Alan Harvey by Vincent that had so many memorable moments including David’s first rejection letter from National Geographic where he was told “You are young and strong and this is good because what I’m about to tell you will make you old and sick.” His own emotional journey into each subject he covers: “When I read about method action, I do the same thing with my photography” and “I go native every time. There’s a little piece of me in every assignment.” Then Aaron Huey gave a showstopper with his Pine Ridge Reservation talk that I’ve highlighted here before (Ted version) where he said, “Pine Ridge broke something inside me, but also opened something in my heart.”

Finally, Sebastião Salgado whose passion and devotion to photography and planet surely cannot be matched delivered the perfect summation of what I just witnessed: “Photography is the most powerful language ever created in the modern world”

I believe and have preached this thought over and over throughout my career. Photography is still powerful, but photographers must evolve and incorporate new ways to make and deliver the emotional impact available to them.