Category: Blog News

Among the first “old” media executives to awaken to the threat [posed by Google search]  was Mel Karmazin, then the CEO of Viacom. He visited Google in 2003 and remembers how Page and Brin extolled the value of being able to measure everything, including the effectiveness of advertising.

This alarmed Karmazin, for it threatened how he sold advertising, which was based on salesmanship, emotion. Karmazin and the networks continued to charge steep rates because, Karmazin says, “advertisers don’t know what works and what doesn’t. That’s a great model.”

via madisonian.

My only interest in photography right now centers on books, collector prints, and mentoring. If I can possibly afford it, I will take no assignments. I have done enough assignments. I will work harder than ever, yet only on my own projects. Even my assignments in years past always had my stamp on them. Personalized them as much as possible. Yet now is the time to go back to my roots and be 100% pure on everything I do.

– david alan harvey

via on the edge…. | burn magazine.

They wanted somebody else for the job, the subject changed the date, the chosen photographer couldn’t do the new date, a better story has fallen through and they need something to fill the gap. It’s the urgent that’s brought about by a series of failures. Your role in it, if not handled carefully, could forever associate you with those failures, despite the fact that you were not even involved at the point that they took place. No matter how good a job you may do you will always be thought of as the person to call when the person they want is not available. Best to try and avoid those if you can.

via Chris Floyd: Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances..

I close my eyes and I think of the canon. The canon are the photographers I draw on in times of doubt. They give me comfort, solace and inspiration. They include Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber, Lee Friedlander, Sally Mann, Corrine Day, Glen Luchford, Erwin Blumenfeld, Harry Callahan and, in this case, Irving Penn. I close my eyes and I go through the rolodex in my head thinking of them all until I find the one that instinctively feels like the inspirational match for the task at hand. That’s not to say I set about slavishly ripping them off. I use them as my starting point, my jumping off point. They are my photographic moral compass.

via Chris Floyd: Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances..

…the problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win.

You might make a few more bucks for now, but not for long and not with pride. Someone will always find a way to be cheaper or more brutal than you.

via Seth’s Blog: The race to the bottom.

…[Instagram] has played a major role in developing photography as an art form accessible to everyone, on many different levels. It has created a platform of self-expression in which one can choose who to follow, comment on images, and easily seek and find inspiration. It is a place to see and be seen.

via Beyond Novelty, the Changing Face of Photography | We Are JUXT.

The Carlyle Group announced on Wednesday that it had reached a deal to acquire Getty Images, the well-known distributor of photography, video and multimedia products, from Hellman & Friedman for $3.3 billion.

via Carlyle in $3.3 Billion Deal for Getty Images – NYTimes.com.

a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic. We must be patient, and believe that inspiration will come to those who can master their disinclination.

— Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

via Tchaikovsky on Work Ethic vs. Inspiration | Brain Pickings.

NYTimes Obit here

And so for all the challenges which young photographers face, and they do face serious challenges, I am not making them smaller than they are, there are also tremendous opportunities that didn’t exist then that do now.

First thing is the opportunity to have your work seen

It’s essentially a golden era.

via david alan harvey in conversation with jim estrin | burn magazine.

Don’t be fooled by the seemingly endless stream of classic-looking portraits – there are as many pyrotechnics to be seen here as in any photographic show in recent memory. For me, this retrospective helped me to see the entire spread of Dijkstra’s genius (not just her greatest hits) and to more fully appreciate just how much she has successfully challenged and expanded the traditions of photographic portraiture.

via DLK COLLECTION

At the advent of photography, most people didn’t believe it was possible for a photograph to be manipulated. Thus, when they saw visual “proof” in a photograph, it would bypass their normal filters for determining what is or is not believable.

As people have become more familiar with how much photographs can be manipulated, and as the tools for doing that manipulation have become more powerful and accessible, that special status that photography once enjoyed has faded away. It isn’t that photographs are inherently distrusted, but just that they’re no longer inherently trusted. Today, I would guess that a photograph carries only slightly more inherent trust than the written word—and then only because people know it is still much harder to convincingly fabricate a photo than it is to fabricate a story.

via Photo Forensics Software Blog.

My first professional job as a photographer was to make Bruce Springsteen’s first pictures at Columbia Records, in February of 1973,” Peter Cunningham writes. “It was just before ‘Greetings from Asbury Park’ was released—I got paid twenty-five dollars.

via The New Yorker Photobooth.

‘Marketing. Photography – Marketing = Fail.

’How do you define ‘success’ in your own career?
‘It is complicated. Each achievement is a stepping stone to the next level of possibilities. There isn’t really a final goal to reach. So true success is never reached. We just keep working.’

via Adam Voorhes | I Love Texas Photo.

The evolution right now is interesting. It’s almost limitless what you can do with technology changing as it is. You can create and distribute anything and have your images seen in so many different environments and so many different ways. But conversely, having the infinite possibilities detracts from the tradition and the craft sometimes. I like to think that there’s room in this world for user-generated content and iPhone snapshots to beautiful platinum prints.

via Suzee Barrabee of Goodby Silverstein & Partners « Heather Elder Represents Blog.

First we have an obligation simply to be the citizens we want everyone to be – informed, engaged, reasonable, and compassionate. Then as artists we are called historically to a double mission, to instruct and delight, to tell the truth but also to find in it a basis for affirmation.

via LITTLE BROWN MUSHROOM BLOG.

It’s exponentially more complicated. I’ve been studying hard, soaking it all up like a sponge and enjoying myself immensely, and in the process I fell like I’ve grown as a photographer.

via Michael Lavine » My Aim is True.