Category: Blog News

One month ago, the third installment in a series of sternly worded letters was sent to the NYPD pleading for the department to stop obstructing members of the media from doing their jobs. Yet this weekend, five journalists were arrested covering Occupy Wall Street protesters, while others reported an atmosphere of harassment and intimidation from police officers, including a photographer on assignment for the Associated Press who was shoved and blocked from taking a photo by a Lieutenant in the NYPD’s Legal Bureau.

via Gothamist.

you can’t just compare college to doing nothing at all. You have to compare it to what you COULD have done.

more TYNAN via Swiss-miss

“You want it to be ready so you can pick it up and shoot within half a beat,” he said. “It’s a basic thing, but a lot of people don’t do it because they haven’t missed enough pictures for them to think about it.”

How Getty photographer captured controversial NFL call at end of Packers, Seahawks game via Poynter..

I criticized Mr. Burtynsky years ago for not being “critical enough” of the criminals responsible for the desecration depicted in his photographs- in a word, I was wrong. There’s no way he could continue to have the access he needs and maintains if he was, in fact, so openly critical. It’s up to us to have the sense to notice, and the willingness to act… if only to save ourselves.

via Reciprocity Failure.

For me, the most obvious artist who has consistently demonstrated an openness to use new ideas in photography, who has taken chances with photography and has shown an unwillingness to play it safe is Thomas Ruff. Having worked with all kinds of photographs/images – his own, licensed one, appropriated ones, artificially created one – Ruff’s thinking is far ahead of that of most of contemporary photography. I might not always like each new series, but Ruff’s fearless exploration of the medium photography – of how images can be made – is very, very impressive.

via Conscientious | Towards the 21st Century.

A fine art photographer should have a lot of patience, should never give up, should never subordinate his beliefs to commerce or money and last but not least, the trend should not be his friend.

–Robert Schlaug

via MULL IT OVER.

I think there is a largely silent body of viewers who react to Adams’ work with much less enthusiasm, finding it often ugly, underwhelming, and a bit boring. …I found his images to be like parsnips or kale – things I was supposed to like, that were obviously good for me, but which in all honesty, I found somewhat less than entirely tasty. Over the years, and with a growing shelf full of Adams’ eloquent books in our library, I have gradually moved closer to the supporters point of view, slowly being won over by the consistent craftsmanship, elegance, thoughtfulness, and quiet beauty in even the most distressing and damaged of his photographs.

via DLK COLLECTION: Robert Adams, The Place We Live @Yale.

Curators of festivals are all working for the cultural industry, and as an industry they’re obsessed with being the first to show someone’s work. It’s the competitive spirit applied to culture. For me, the essence of photography is to share. This is why it’s so popular and so democratic.

I can understand the cultural industry point of view. You care about how many people will come see your show. I used to have this conversation with gallerist friends: How do you legitimize photography? They would say: You have a limited edition of three prints, and one artist’s proof. But to me this is not the real essence of photography.

via Reaching Beyond the Photo Ghetto.

PDN: You’ve suggested elsewhere that multimedia producers should figure out what fee they want for 
a project, and then double it. What’s the logic of doing that?

BH: You’re always going to be asked to take less [than your asking price]. I also think that it shows that you’re serious. The time I was most successful with that tactic, not only did the client end up paying me more, but they seemed to respect me more because I was charging a lot of money.

via Brad Horn on Pricing Multimedia Work for NGOs.

The iPhone 4s, which is nearly always located in my shirt pocket, produces (albeit for now as jpeg only) images in bright sunlight and shade nearly just as well as my first ever digital camera, purchased nearly 11 years ago in 2001 to cover the war in Afghanistan — a Nikon 1Dx. At the time it cost well over $6000 USD.

via Instagram — It’s About Communication — John Stanmeyer.

One year our elderly sports writer was driving home from a basketball game when he stumbled upon a peculiar automobile accident. Using his Kodak Instamatic, he snapped a picture of a car suspended in a tree. Though he didn’t know the first thing about F-stops and art history, the old guy managed to win the newspaper associations’s coveted award for spot news. The “real” photographers were sick with envy.  That was when I leaned that most great pictures are not about artistry. If I’d been the one to photograph the car in the tree, I’d have won the award. The genius is not in technique; it is in being present.

via Nine stories about my man in Rapidan « Little Brown Mushroom.

Artist Shepard Fairey was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and fined $25,000 today in a federal courtroom in Manhattan today for destroying documents, falsifying evidence “and other misconduct” in his civil litigation two years ago against the Associated Press (AP). He had faced a maximum of six months in jail. Fairey pled guilty to the criminal charge last February.

via PDN Pulse.

“When I went to Bosnia [in the 1990s], I didn’t have any support. I went with no money, then went back with £300, then again with £400, and built it up each time. It takes a while. But the initial step was just to go.

via British Journal of Photography.

Apple was granted a patent that could prevent photos and videos from being taken in particular locations. Other restrictions include forcing the camera to go to sleep so it cann’t be used at all.

via Boing Boing.

To find your calling is a gift.  A purpose provides the drive to pursue excellence along with an unwavering belief that your work is of value. When you can take this resolve and turn it into a vocation you achieve a rare and extraordinary feat.”

~ Susan Carr, “The Art and Business of Photography”

Susan Carr, photographer, educator, writer and artist, passed away on September 3, 2012 at age 49. She had fought hard in her battle with cancer and carried on as ASMP’s Education Director until the very end.

via ASMP- Strictly Business Blog.

Editing one’s work is challenging. I think it helps to let the work sit for a while until after the first fervent rush.  Edit out anything you doubt, but revisit the rejects once in a while. Maybe you missed something. Let “accidents” inform you. Maybe they’ll lead you in a new direction. On the other hand, you may find your first loves don’t hold up with time.

via Two Way Lens: Karen Halverson.

Often young photographers who have barely shot any commercial jobs at all tell me that they are just trying to get a good rep because they are lazy and dont like handling the whole promotion, portfolio showing, client dinner, marketing thing.

via Steve Giralt | Photography Jobs Grow on Trees.

Aspen is a small town, and the photo community here is small and fairly tight-knit. I was first in line for the job, and after I turned down the “job” the other local photographers gave the same response as me, except one, who accepted.

Which brings me to my main point, which is that it only takes one person to drive down rates and lower the bar. So instead of the chamber of commerce budgeting properly for this event next year, they will once again assume they can get free images.

via Chris Council Photography Blog.