National Magazine Awards 2012 Finalists Announced

PHOTOGRAPHY
GQ; Interview; National Geographic; Virginia Quarterly Review; Vogue

NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Harper’s Magazine for “Juvenile Injustice,” October Photographs by Richard Ross
Harper’s Magazine for “Uncertain Exodus,” July Photographs by Ed Ou
National Geographic for “Too Young to Wed,” June Photographs by Stephanie Sinclair
The New York Times Magazine for “From Zero to 104,” September 4 Photographs by Damon Winter
TIME for “Birds of Hope,” January 17 Photographs by James Nachtwey

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
National Geographic for “Taming the Wild,” March Photographs by Vincent J. Musi
The New York Times Magazine for “Touch of Evil,” December 11 Photographs by Alex Prager
TIME for “Portraits of Resilience,” September 19 Photographs by Marco Grob
Vogue for “Lady Be Good,” March Photographs by Steven Klein
W for “Planet Tilda,” August Photographs by Tim Walker

Congratulations to the photo departments and photographers involved. The rest of the finalists are (here).

Often a scene of negotiations and compromises

The great underlying work of a director of photography is almost always (often quietly and below the surface) educating. Educating editors to appreciate pictures and talking about their best use. Sometimes a simple photograph makes the best statement, while at other times, a complex picture in a carefully orchestrated setting compliments the story telling. In some magazines, that extends to “educating” an art director who holds much power along with the editor.

Rich Clarkson – What should photographers know? via The Photo Society.

The Daily Edit – Monday
4.9.12

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Food & Wine

Creative Director: Stephen Scoble
Director of Photography: Fredrika Stjarne
Art Director: Courtney Waddell Eckersley
Deputy Photo Editor: Anthony LaSala 

Photographer: Paul Costello

Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted

This Week In Photography Books – Rineke Dijkstra

by Jonathan Blaustein

Who can remember the days of December? Not me. 2012 has been a blur, and I dispute the fact that it’s 1/4 over. (Can’t possibly be true.) It’s all been covered with film, for me, like the skin on a bowl of old chocolate pudding.

Why? That’s easy. As soon as you read this sentence, I’ll be the first lunatic to ever announce his wife’s pregnancy in a book review. It’s a girl, in case you were wondering. Due late Summer, we found out on Christmas Day. How’s that for symbolism?

So now, if you like, you can go back and read all the 2012 columns, looking for hints of latent madness. (The kind that comes from having a vomitorious wife, on top of an energetic 4 year old.) Me, me, me. It’s always about me in these reviews. How about her? Well, Jessie is my best friend, and it was horrible to watch her suffer for our daughter. But now she’s got the glow, and I have a few more months before I succumb to sleep-deprived misery. (Of the temporary variety, thankfully.)

Where were we? Right. December. Not so long ago, I wrote a column about a suite of images I saw at MOPA: the best photos I saw in 2011 that I hadn’t already written about yet. By Rineke Dijkstra. (Not to be confused with Lenny Dijkstra, who’s rotting in prison at the moment.) The column created quite a stir, though I still don’t know why. Apparently, Ms. Dijkstra’s dry style rubs some photographers the wrong way, as her subtle use of color and emotion lacks potency for those accustomed to dead children in redundant photographic pablum.

Now it’s April, and wouldn’t you know it, but Ms. Dijkstra has a nice new monograph out, published by SFMOMA and the Guggenheim Museum. A beautiful byproduct of her career retrospective, bouncing between the two venues. Does the imprimatur of two such esteemed institutions mean that you must now like her work and buy her book? Of course not. But if you know anything about me by now, (beyond my preference for cotton boxers, my father’s health, and the sex of my unborn child,) you know that I had to review this book. Even though we already talked about the artist back when the sun descended before 5pm, and everyone was cold and dour.

Come Spring, we focus on cleaning, renewal. New year, new possibilities. New births. My daughter will be a water dragon, according to the Chinese calendar. My son was a golden pig, which is meant to be auspicious, and that’s worked out pretty well. But a water dragon? I suppose I’ll have to hold on tight.

And for those of you who love Ms. Dijkstra’s work, or have yet to unpack its austere mystery, that’s what it’s all about. Possibility. Change. Growth. Adaptation. And the ineffable. (Which, if it was meant to be obvious, would go by another name.) That’s what becomes clear, at least, when you go through this book page by page.

Children by the sea, each standing in the same position. Minimize the variables, and the differences are all we have left to ponder. A young girl on the street in Odessa in 1993. Where is she going with that sunhat and leather valise. A boy, the next day, in the same place, holding two dolls. What gives? We’ll never know.

Women, naked, holding their newborns, right after birth. The scars reveal who had a Caesarian. Then, Tia, in Amsterdam, three weeks after giving birth, and then 5 months later. Look at the hint of change. Better hair, no circles under her eyes, she looks human in the second image, and slightly sad in the first. (Yes, I know that train is coming, and it has my name on it.)

On to the bullfighters, sure, then Almerisa, a young girl seeking Asylum in the Netherlands in 1994. (The project to which I alluded in the December article, as I saw several images at the Met in 2010.) Ms. Dijkstra carries this one through, and we watch the girl grow, in photographic stages, up through 2008, when she has her own child in the picture. We begin with a scared Bosnian girl, tiny, and end with an acculturated mother. Along the way, we get to see her legs grow, first hanging off the chair, then touching the ground. We see girlhood go by, and exhaustion set in. All the while, she’s sitting on a chair. Minimizing variables.

The book goes on to show some video stills, which of course don’t translate well in book format. I wonder, why do people keep trying? Then, soldiers being militarized, including our friend Olivier Silva. I’ll spare you the photos this time, so as not to arouse the vile anger of some of our less-than-polite readers.

Is it a great book? A work of art, as those London publishers would have us crave? Probably not. A bit too straightforward, and the cardboard cover could certainly be better. But it does give a fair accounting of a great artist. The plates are super-well-printed, and her ideas come through. So if you’re a fan, this would be a good book to have. If not, buy something else.

Bottom Line: Solid monograph from an important artist

To purchase A Retrospective 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.

 

Why Newspapers Should Never Do a Metered Paywall

Virtually every letter to readers justifying a paywall and industry quote from publishers talk about The New York Times metered model.  When you have 33 million unique monthly visitors and high value content that model almost works.  The Times has been very vocal about saying that it is a holistic digital strategy that focuses on all their digital platforms.  Even at 390,000 digital subscribers they understand that they have a way to go to close the revenue gap and create a sustainable business model.  I’ve been in meetings where NYT executives caution that what works for The Times rarely works anywhere else.

via Paid Content StrategiesPaid Content Strategies.

The Daily Edit – Friday
4.6.12

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ESPN

Creative Director, Print and Digital Media: John Korpics
Senior Director, Photography: Karen Frank
Art Directors: ­ Mike Leister, Marne Mayer, John Yun
Senior Deputy Photo Editor: ­ Nancy Weisman
Deputy Photo Editor: ­ Jim Surber
Senior Photo Editor: ­ Kristine LaManna

Photographer: John Huet

Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted

 

Still Images In Great Advertising- Cade Martin

Still Images In Great Advertising, is a column where Suzanne Sease discovers great advertising images and then speaks with the photographers about it.

Cade Martin has been a long time client of mine (full disclosure) and I have seen incredible growth in his work.  When we first worked together, I asked him to include an amazing series on Mexican farm workers as his personal work.  This body of work got the attention of Pum Lefebure of Design Army.  She is the inspiration behind the Washington Ballet campaign, which resulted in this work for Neenah Paper. Cade’s work was recently on the call for entries to The One Show which was sent to every creative person in the industry. How is that for free advertising?

Suzanne:  These images have a great style to them, how did you create them?  What was the concept behind these images and how were you a part of the creative process?

Cade: The project was for Neenah Paper and it was basically a redesign and relaunch of their Classic Papers Brands.  We were asked to create imagery for a series of paper swatch books that would each showcase a different product. As far as approach, we pretty much had creative freedom. The only thing we knew we wanted was to find locations that had textures that would marry well with the surfaces of each of books. As all of our projects, it was a collaborative process where we had meetings, conference calls & mood boards.  I scouted locations and sketches were created off places we liked.  We had a great team of stylists & crew but I  was pretty much left alone as far as the overall look & feel of the images.

Suzanne:  The beauty of a campaign like this for a paper company is they are sending your images out as a direct mailer.  What kind of increase in attention to work have you seen?

Cade: One of the great things about this campaign is that it’s targeting creatives – art directors and creative directors – who are the people who use Neenah Paper for the most part.  The swatch books don’t ever seem to be thrown out and are held onto as reference material so the visibility seems to be large as well as long term.

 

Note: Content for Still Images In Great Advertising is found. Submissions are not accepted.

Cade Martin is an award-winning photographer for advertising, corporate, and fashion clients worldwide who specializes in people and location photography. He is represented by Greenhouse Reps in the US.

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s, after founding the art buying department at The Martin Agency then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies.

 

The Daily Edit – Thursday
4.5.12

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GQ

Design Director: Fred Woodward
Creative Director: Jim Moore
Photography Director: Dora Somosi
Art Director: Thomas Alberty
Senior Photo Editor: Krista Prestek

Photographer: Christian Anwander

Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted

Skechers Sketchy Defense For Ignoring License Terms

A case in which photographer Richard Reinsdorf files a federal lawsuit against Skechers to the tune of 250 millon dollars seems to be flying under radar as it crawls through the courts. A reader alerted me to it months ago and I recently went back to see whats developed.

The suit started when Reinsdorf discovered that images he took for Skechers from 2006-2009 and licensed to them for very specific terms–six months use in North America for point of sale, magazines and certain outdoor advertisements–were being used for several years and included in ads overseas and on packaging and other unauthorized media. The suit states that Skechers “completely and utterly ignored the terms of the license.” (source)

First reported by TMZ back in September of 2009 it took an unusual turn in 2010 when Skechers filed a motion to dismiss claiming ownership of copyright because of “alterations they performed on the images from slight modifications in models’ skin tone to the substitution of models’ body parts and the addition of substantial graphic effects.” They asked the judge to dismiss because they couldn’t possibly have infringed on their own copyright.

If you want to read the motion to dismiss you can download it (here). It certainly would set a disturbing precedent in the photography world if something like this were to be allowed. In the discussion the judge states that “Skechers is correct that a co-author in a joint work cannot be liable to another co-owner for infringement of the copyright” but that’s not what’s at issue here because “Contrary to Skechers’ assertions, the evidence in the record does not indisputably establish that Reinsdorf intended that his photographsbe incorporated into a joint work.” He simply gave them a limited license to their use. The motion to dismiss was denied.

The latest I could find was an order granting Reinsdorf an extended discovery cutoff of May 15, 2012 (here). This will certainly be a case worth watching. I’ll be interested to see what the judge thinks of the $250,000,000 price tag, the limited license terms and Skechers sketchy defense that advertisements are a joint work and can be used where ever and how ever they want.

Small Paper Prioritizes Photography, Wins Awards

The paper, a tabloid instead of a broadsheet, has created a following mostly because of its now-famous Saturday photo stories, which combine thoughtful reporting and powerful photography. They’re run ad-free and take up the entire front page plus five additional pages inside, sometimes more.

The paper has felt the financial crunch effecting the rest of the journalism industry and revenues are down. But a strong local readership and the family structure of the paper have prevented a precipitous decline. Rumbach says the paper has had no layoffs and has given the staff a raise each year.

via Raw File | Wired.com.

The Daily Edit – Wednesday
4.4.12

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W

Creative Director: Alex Gonzales
Design Director: Anton Ioukhnovets
Photography Director: Caroline Wolfe
Art Director: Anna E. Davidson-Evans
Photo Editor: Jaqueline Bates

Photographer: Craig McDean

Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted

Pricing & Negotiating: Custom Publication

by Jess Dudley Wonderful Machine Producer

One of our Midwestern photographers recently asked me to prepare a cost estimate for one of his custom publication clients. Custom pubs look very similar to regular magazines, but they’re commissioned by a single sponsor and they’re designed to reach a targeted audience of customers, users, members or employees. Custom publications can be produced in-house, by custom content firms or by traditional ad agencies and design firms. It’s big business. They even have their own association, the Custom Content Council.

Custom publication estimates can be structured in the same way as a regular magazine contract but the rates tend to vary more widely. If the publication is focused on a commercial brand or product, you can expect to charge more than your typical magazine rate. If the custom publication is for an association or charity, you might get less. And if it’s a magazine for an airline or hotel, which tend to have content that’s comparable to regular editorial (and often contain third-party advertising), the fees will be about the same as regular editorial.

The publication in this quote was produced by a small ad agency. Though they aren’t a custom pub specialist, they are definitely experienced with custom pubs and their client is a Fortune 500 company. The assignment was to shoot an environmental portrait of a worker at a manufacturing facility in New York City that uses the client’s services, plus to provide documentary coverage of other aspects of the factory.

To get started, I called the art director at the agency to learn more about the project:

  • Who is the audience? Company employees.
  • How often does the publication come out? Quarterly.
  • How many copies do you distribute? 500,000.
  • How many images do you plan to use? 2-4.
  • How many pages have you allocated for the images? 2-3.
  • Would you like to see pricing on any other licensing options? 6 Months Intranet.
  • We’d like to scout the location the day before the shoot. Will we be able to get access to the facility? Yes. The art director will attend the scout as well.
  • Do you have an opinion about the style of the pictures – available light? Strobe? Existing light for the manufacturing shots. Strobe for the environmental portrait.
  • Will we need to handle any wardrobe, propping or styling of any kind? Subject will arrive camera ready. No additional styling, props or wardrobe needed.
  • Will anyone from the Agency or Client be present at the shoot? Just one art director from the agency.
  • Will your AD want to review images on a monitor the day of the shoot? No. No need for a digital tech or display.
  • Should we include catering on the shoot day? No. You can just order in lunch on the day of the shoot. The AD will pay for his own meal.
  • How many other photographers are you considering? 2.
  • Are any of them local to the shoot or would all of them have to travel? All three would have to travel.
  • Do you have a budget in mind? Nothing set in stone, but generally we don’t spend more than about 10-12k per assignment.

With all that in mind, I assembled the estimate and terms & conditions:

-For the fee I looked at a comparable editorial space rate as a starting point. If the space at a publication with a comparable circulation (like Details, Latina or Town and Country) was in the 500-750.00/page range including concurrent web use (check out our day v. space rate post for more on how to structure that type of contract). Three pages would be worth 1500.00-2250.00. I looked at previous projects I had quoted for this agency and other similar custom pubs. I considered the prominence of the client and the fact that the assignment was coming through an agency that liked the photographer enough to pay for travel to a market saturated with photographers. I decided that the fee was worth 3500.00.

-We budgeted 350.00 for a local assistant (assistants in New York City tend to be a bit more expensive than in other parts of the country).

-The Digital Capture Fee covers the time, equipment, software, internet access and expertise necessary to create the web gallery for the agency to edit from. For most editorial clients, we charge 150.00-300.00 for a simple shoot (for bigger productions, we’ll charge for a digital tech instead). But 500.00 is more reflective of the actual value of this part of the job.

-We budgeted for 2 tech/travel days. The day before the shoot, the photographer would travel and scout the location. And the actual shoot day looked pretty long, so I planned on a third day to travel home.

-The photographer used his own photographic equipment (in this case, two camera bodies, four lenses and a lighting kit), but we tend to charge a separate line item for that instead of bundling it into the fee. We looked at what it would cost to rent the gear locally, then backed out the baggage charges.

-I got a quote of 468.00 for the airfare, but I rounded up. Airfares can change a lot between when you send out the estimate and when it gets approved. So it’s important to say that you’re going to charge for the actual cost.

-The photographer told me he’d need to check three bags, so after referring to the airline’s baggage policy (25.00 for the first, 35.00 for the second and 125.00 for the third – each way) it came to 370.00.

-Lodging in NYC is expensive (and it’s one of the reasons that we chose to hire a local assistant). I found a hotel near the factory for 378.00/night. Again, I rounded up. I’d rather have the invoice come in a little bit under the estimate than a little bit over.

-The file prep charge covers color correction, blemish/spot removal, minor retouching and delivery of three high resolution images.

-Miles, Parking, Meals, Taxis, Tolls, Certificate of Insurance & Misc. covered all of the estimated miles to/from the departure airport, parking at the departure airport, meals for the entire trip, local transportation in NYC, a certificate of insurance likely required to shoot at the manufacturing facility and any unforeseen miscellaneous expenses that may arise.

-Lastly, just to avoid any confusion, I listed the items that would be provided by the client, the agency and the subject.

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing one of your projects, contact Wonderful Machine.

The Daily Edit – Tuesday
4.3.12

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Respect

Photo Editor: Greg Garry
Fashion Editors: Big Smiley, Coffey

Photographer: Jeaneen Lund

Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted

The Decimation Of The News Outlet Photography Department

“Picture editors and photographers are some of the biggest newsroom casualties” of budget cuts, he said. “So when you have a story laced with subtleties, it becomes key to really work to have the latest visual content and representation of that story.”

Five years ago, the Sentinel had five photo editors and the Herald had six. Today, each paper has two.

via The iconic photos of Trayvon Martin & George Zimmerman & why you may not see the others | Poynter. thx, Tom Q.

The Daily Edit – Monday
4.2.12

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The Red Bulletin

Chief Photo Editor: Fritz Schuster
Creative Photo Director: Susie Forman
Deputy Photo Editors: Valerie Rosenburg, Catherine Shaw,  Rudolf Ubelhor,
Creative Director: Erik Turek
Art Director: Kasimir Reimann

Photographer: Palani Mohan

Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted