Thinner Time magazine still manages to stand out

Sidney Harman, the audio equipment magnate who is buying Newsweek from The Washington Post Co., told the Wall Street Journal last week that he’d be happy to break even in three years. Time, company sources say, is on track to earn a profit of more than $50 million this year.

Time adopted what Stengel calls “reported analysis,” stories with a clear point of view — often left of center — that were rooted in shoe-leather work. Newsweek, which moved more sharply left, bet the ranch last year on more opinionated essays and columns — and lost.

via WaPo.

Onerous New Tax Law Will Effect Photographers

Correction: The new reporting requirements under these amendments apply to payments made after December 31, 2011. ASMP has it wrong below:

One of the provisions of the new healthcare reform legislation will significantly impact the administrative burdens of your business unless the IRS changes it. As of now, starting next year, if you pay any person or corporation more than $600 in a year for goods or services, you must report that to both the IRS and the entity or person whom you paid.

Read how you can publicly comment (here).

VII Magazine – On The Line

According to a recent estimate by the C.D.C. an average of eighteen American veterans kill themselves every day. That number accounts for 1/5th of all of suicides in the United States.

Photographer Ashley Gilbertson goes inside the Department of Veteran Affairs in Canandaigua, NY where the Veteran Crisis Hotline is located (here).

ontheline

I am floored by the dedication Ashley has shown to this subject. Bravo man, bravo.

May I suggest this…. The “film look” is bullshit

Shallow focus and Rack-Focus is lazy. A ham-fisted and overtly slothful technique with little impetus other than to lead your viewer around by the nose, to force them to look exactly where you want them to look, when you want them to look there. As a tool, like all other cinematic tools at the filmmakers disposal, it can and may be very useful. But as a staple and default way to depict moving images it is as articulate as a house brick.

Shallow focus and Rack Focus is the cinema equivalent of spoon-feeding the audience one small digestible and banal visual morsel at a time. Handing to them a deliberately unsophisticated and unchallenging image platter. It is the camera equivalent of writing only in capital letters and short sentences for fear your reader/viewer may not understand precisely and exactly what you want them to understand.

via Mike Jones Digital Basin : Weblog. Thx, Grayson.

Mannie Drops AP Lawsuit

The photographer, Mannie Garcia, had sued arguing that he owned the copyright to the picture and should be entitled to any profits made from it. Mr. Garcia’s lawyer told the Associated Press that his client dropped the suit because it had “taken a toll on him personally and professionally.”

via  ArtsBeat Blog.

Domino’s – We Don’t Need All Those Silly Tricks They Use In Fancy Photoshoots

Domino’s pizza recently launched Show Us Your Pizza, a website where consumers can upload photos of Domino’s pizza for a chance to win $500 and “the possibility of getting your photo in an ad.” The pizza chain is in the midst of a heavy image remake and this new campaign is a along the lines of the previous one where they issued a mea culpa for years of selling cardboard tasting pizzas. Now they claim to uncover the secret tricks used to make food look good in fancy photoshoots.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is the agency behind the makeover that is surprisingly unoriginal and similar to the Dove Campaign For Real Beauty created by Ogilvy & Mather that claimed to reveal the hidden side of beauty shoots.

And, while I believe the rules for the contest and offer of $500 for an advertising photo are particularly heinous, nothing here strikes me as dangerous to the profession of advertising food photography. This is a gimmick plain and simple. Careful editing of the submissions allow only the most delicious looking shots to get in and the whole thing is slickly produced by CP+B to make it look like the consumer is now in control.

Because I tend to look on the bright side of things I chalk this up to the ebb and flow of styles in advertising photography and I see an opportunity for photographers who can shoot highly produced images that look off-the-cuff.

Unconventional Photo Books – Meier und Mueller

Meier und Mueller is a new photo book publisher founded by Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann and Jörg M. Colberg. They aim to publish high quality books that are a bit different than the norm. This book trailer gives you a good idea where their head is on this. I’m guessing the German electro music is not included like one of those new Hallmark cards.

Seems to be a new trend of people wanting more control over the book publishing process or wanting to publish books that the big publishers have not interest in (see: LBM). Either way it sounds like progress to me.

“Conditions”, Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann from Meier und Müller on Vimeo.

According to Jörg “Pre-sales start the week after Labor Day, the official sales start in early October.” The book is priced at $49 with special editions that include a print for $90 and a box edition with a large print and nice box to store it for $350. The book will be sold online only except for specialty shops like Dashwood.

The Secret Law of Page Harmony

This method existed long before the computer, the printing press and even a defined measuring unit. No picas or points, no inches or millimeters. It can be used with nothing more than a straight edge, a piece of paper and a pencil.

graaf

via Retinart.

Michael Bierut – I Don’t Consider Myself Creative

Michael Bierut is a graphic designer and partner at Pentagram. He worked on the redesign of The Atlantic.

Here’s a great video where he talks about his creative process that I found on The Design Observer. I thought this quote was particularly poignant:

“I don’t consider myself creative. I don’t have ideas that I want to express that I make up myself. I can’t think of any personal projects that I’ve done. I just don’t work that way. The reason I became a designer is I wanted people to come to me with problems I can solve. I know how to do that, I can be creative then. I feel like I’m a doctor and I can’t just practice medicine on myself, so I need patients who are sick, the sicker the better in fact.”

Have I Told You How HUGE This Opportunity Is?

This kind of thing is usually relegated to the lower realms of photography but it’s nice to see Advertising Agency Latcha and Associates would like to include car photographers by seeing if they will shoot samples on spec. From their “Shoot A Sample” brief:

selected photography samples will be presented to the client. upon approval, you will become a preferred shooter for our collateral work. Bottom line: there is a lot of photography that needs to be captured. and shooting needs to begin soon. since the look is very unique, it is imperative that we have the right talent in place to move forward. We will create a talent pool of those who hit-the-mark to then move forward in bidding projects, and in some cases, direct award. also, and most importantly. this is a HUGE opportunity to shoot a look that’s new and fresh. you get to be part of our team – and assist in collaborating and evolving the style of a major automotive brand!

and

We sincerely hope you join us in this sample project. this is a very exciting time to be creative and redefine an agency/photographer relationship. By participating in this exploratory project, you are agreeing to do so without reimbursement from latcha or lincoln.

Nice try Latcha, you didn’t think we’d notice, did you?

Picture 3

UPDATE:

—– Forwarded Message —-
From: David Latcha <dave@latcha.com>
Sent: Thu, August 19, 2010 1:30:52 PM
Subject: Re: FYI Shoot A Car Sample Brief

Thank you for your insights.

1. This information was shared, under confidentiality, to a select group of photographers. When we find out who shared this information with you, that photograper/rep will be banned from ever working with this agency and I’ll make sure that all of the other art buyers in Detroit are aware of their indiscretion.
2. We have no idea who you are or if you even are what you claim. No website? That doesn’t seem professional.
3. You have no idea what is being asked. That is obvious. Professional car photographers are asked by all reputable agencies to produce samples to help define strategic goals. If the photographer has produced a style and a look that works for the strategic creative, and the agency and client agree, then that photographer is then chosen to shoot and produce all, if not a majority, of all of the photographic needs for the campaign.
4. We are not “stealing” shots, these are samples that we are asking for. The brief describes that we are not paying for the exploration, but at the same time, we ARE NOT USING ANY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHY being shot AS SAMPLES for any purpose other than to determine the creativity and artistry that a photographer may bring.
5. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

David Latcha
Owner
Latcha+Associates
248-482-4505



Interesting because spamming photographers with your proposal does not infer any kind of confidentiality what-so-ever. Also, I doubt this claim that “Professional car photographers are asked by all reputable agencies to produce samples” because I’ve spoken with professional car photographers who thought this was a horrible proposal.

Scion/VIce Magazine Photo Annual opening for 2010

Photographer John Eder files this report from the field:

Scion, the car company, sponsors a gallery space here in L.A. They are slavishly trendy in their curating, and there is nothing trendier than Vice Magazine. The magazine is actually very well written and very funny, and I look forward to each issue, for real – for the writing. Their photography aesthetic, though, is squarely in the Terry Richardson/Ryan McGinley camp.

The show was curated by Jonnie Craig, a 20 something UK skateboard guy who has become majorly successful by more or less aping Ryan McGinley. In fact, Ryan McGinley is a champion of his work. So, this whole show was very homogeneous in the look, even tho it was 20 or so photographers, it ALL looked like it could have been shot by Ryan McGinley. It’s kind of like a math equation, where Johnnie Craig=Ryan McGlinley=Wolfgang Tillmans+Terry Richardson minus sex plus skateboards, kittens, cats, horses, tourist attractions, cigars and scabs (from skateboarding – there were two or three gnarly closeups of abscessed wounds, from different photographers), all of whose root number is Wm. Eggleston. More math in this equation is if you take 1000 pictures with your point and shoot of your friends or your cat, eventually you will get a few compelling frames.livingproofmag

It was good for people watching – loads of 19 year old girls tottering around in stripper shoes and the androgynous L.A. man-children who love them. The guys were actually far more the fashion show here, with a weird, femmy hipster vibe in full, uh, flower – lots of eyeliner, formal shoes with knee-socks and culottes or capri pants, old man glasses and silly mustaches, ironic t-shirts, wallet chains and plaid jackets that are two sizes too small.

Despite all this fashion rebellion on the part of the youth, virtually every conversation I blundered into was about branding and marketing. What was really funny was having this conversation in a group where one kid was so lit on acid and his pupils so dilated that I thought they were going to blow right out of his head. He said he was “tripping balls.” And yet, still, we were talking about branding and how genius Scion is at trend monitoring and appealing to the youth.

Anyway, that’s the report from the front lines of culture and photography here in Los Angeles.

Ask Anything – Live

Going to the PDN Photoplus Expo? You may want to come see Amanda, Suzanne and I put the toughest questions you can muster to an all-star panel that includes an AB, PE, Rep, Photog and AD. The Seminar is Thursday, Oct 28, 2010 – 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM.

If you’ve got a tough question, e-promo example, mailer example, website example or portfolio conundrum it would be awesome if you submitted it to Amanda (amanda(at)sosastone.com) or Suzanne (suzanne.sease(at)verizon.net) before that date, so we can bring it up with the panel. I would be extra stoked if someone made a video question we could present. Actually that might be a good way to show us your promo materials or portfolio.

Not going to the expo? No problem. I’m going to setup some type of live streaming/transcript/audio that will allow you to see/read/hear the questions and answers. Also, you will be able to participate in the discussion on twitter.