Conscientious Portfolio Competition

Joerg is running a free portfolio competition over on Conscientious aimed at discovering some emerging talent:

The winner of the competition will have her or his work featured here on this blog, in the form of an extended conversation/interview (which, of course, also showcases the photography). Details below.

First of all, the Conscientious Portfolio Competition (CPC) is free. It’s no pay-to-play scheme. There are no costs involved for you, other than whatever time it takes to send me your stuff.

Second, CPC is aimed at emerging photographers. Of course, the term “emerging” is not extremely well defined; what it means that photographers not represented by a gallery will get preferential treatment over those that already are (but of course, the quality of the work also plays an important role).

Read about it (Here)
It will be interesting to see what he turns up. Whenever I’ve done something similar in the past I’ve discovered excellent photographers I knew nothing about.

Photographer Louie Psihoyos and The Cove

Stella Kramer interviews (here) photographer Louie Psihoyos (spent 17 years traveling the world shooting for National Geographic) about his career and his new movie The Cove.

Any advice for new photographers?
The only advice I would have for a young still photographer would be to forget all advice and follow your passion with a passion. The Universe has a strange way of supporting lunatics like us that refuse to live inside the box.

There is no box.

The film looks amazing:

Nat Geo Gets a Social Director

Robert Michael Murray, the developer of emerging technology platforms for Georgetown University, the 2000 Democratic National Convention and a former tech liaison for multiple TV series, will be in charge of leveraging NG content throughout the new and emerging social media platforms.

via MinOnline.

After Staff Week On The Resolve Blog

Miki Johnson who runs the Resolve blog had a nice theme running all week called “after staff” (here). She interviewed and gathered advise from people who’ve either moved on or been laid off from a staff job. As a former staffer myself I can tell you… well, I’m not a good example because I worked with freelance photographers before getting a staff job and couldn’t wait to become a freelancer again some day. One thing that I remember clearly tho is that after many years of having a deadline each and every month, as a freelancer or independent business person you have an unending list of things to get done and no deadlines. That can be somewhat crushing and paralyzing to deal with.

Also, worth mentioning is a Q and A with Maren Levinson founder of Redeye Reps who offers more insight into the perpetual question, “how do photographers land agents?” I just received an email from an 18 year old photographer who said he’s ready to start finding one so here you go buddy: (One of the questions I hear most from photographers, whether they used to be staffers or not, is, “How do I get commercial jobs?” A close second is, “How do I find a commercial rep?”)

“All of my photographers would be successful without me, but hopefully I make things better– I’m a good collaborator, and I represent where they want to be going and the clients they hope to be in contact with.”

STOP hoarding all your “secret” information

Photographers of all types listen up ! It is time to STOP hoarding all your “secret” information and START to share it ! I am very upset and disappointed in many photographers today because they think they are Gods gift to photography and that the technique and information they have is exclusive to them only. They think that they are the ones who invented the god dam light bulb and I am TIRED AND FED UP with that kind of thinking.

Check it on  Jason Christopher’s Blog. Thx Wesley

Economist Brings The Newsstand To Your House

“The Economist has launched a single copy subscription service in the U.K. that allows readers to order just one copy of the magazine for home delivery the next day. Readers can place an order online or via text message for a copy of the latest issue of the weekly publication. The cost of the delivered magazine is the same as the newsstand price.”

via MediaPost.

Seriously, American magazines (Anne Moore!?), wake the-f up. If that’s not enough, subscribers can listen to the latest issue on their ipod (the Economist read out aloud word for word by four or five posh sounding British newscasters). What the hell? I just subscribed to a magazine and was told it would take 4 – 6 weeks for the first issue to arrive.

The Gilded Age of Conde Nast Is Over

Ah bummer the perks at Condé are over. I used to love a good client lunch or wrap dinner. I suppose the thousand dollar sushi wrap dinner is out the window now.

…It used to be that on Monday mornings, the flower deliverymen would clog the elevators while they brought fresh bouquets for editors’ and publishers’ desks.

…“When a client wanted to go to get Japanese, you used to say, ‘Ooooh! We’ll go to Nobu!’ But it’s so outrageously expensive, now you have to think twice.”

…they would order takeout from Balthazar several times a week. Sandwiches, cheese plates, the works

…“I just found out today that we are on our last batch of Poland Spring,” said the source. “We won’t have any more after this. We have to start drinking tap water.”

via  The New York Observer.

MacWorld Cover Shoot – Peter Belanger

This is a cool video of a product shoot from start to finish that Peter Belanger posted on his blog (here). You even get to go into the Art Directors office and see him slap the cover lines on the thing. If you visit the macworld website (here) you can discover this appalling fact about magazine production “[We] design twelve initial cover variations, meet about those covers, design twelve more variations, and then pick our favorite.”
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it.

Found it on Art Produce.

Vibe Magazine To Relaunch

A group led by the private-equity firm InterMedia Partners and InterMedia’s luxury magazine publisher, Uptown Media, has reached an agreement to acquire Vibe and its Web site. The new owners say they plan to relaunch Vibe.com in the next few weeks.

They intend to bring out the print edition only at the end of the year and then publish it quarterly rather than monthly, possibly increasing the frequency after 2010.

via– WSJ.com.

A Place To Rate, Comment On and Share Magazine Stories

I think that magazines need to spend more time and effort on the distribution problem. The less time people spend around newsstands and the less there are of them means that they need to seek alternate ways to allow consumers to browse and buy a single copy of a magazine. Also, the inefficiency of shipping magazines all around the country in hopes that someone will pick one up seems like a place where you can save some cash as opposed to say, cutting your contributors fees. Maggwire is a new site where you can view magazine stories (from their websites) by topic and vote, comment on and share them. I like the idea of an aggregator that only deals in magazine content. Looks like a winner to me.

magwire

via, Mr. Magazine.

There’s a lesson here about the tyranny of click-counting.

“Yes, the home-page story about the Hudson crash might get more clicks than some uniquely incisive analysis of the economy. But it also makes the home page more of a commodity and less of a brand. Paradoxical but true: It’s possible to post stories that make people who come to a web site more likely to click, yet may make them less likely to come back to the site, and certainly less likely to pay for it.”

via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.

Lament for a Dying Field – Photojournalism

“I’m 92 years old, and I’ve survived a lot of crises in photojournalism,” he said. “I find the present situation depressing, but I’m crazy enough to be hopeful. There have never been more images out there, and we need more help in sorting out all the information.”

John G. Morris, a former photo editor via  NYTimes.com.

Getting Started


Good stuff regardless of what you think about John Grisham’s writing talent. Two of my favorite pieces of advice: You need to have a life first so you have something to draw from and you need to consistently produce work.

Project Le Tour – Brent Humphreys – Mont Ventoux

If you’re not following the action over on WTJ ? (here) it’s pretty exciting for those who love cycling and photography (beer, cured meats, naps and lots of logistical hurdles). Tomorrow is the big day. Can’t wait to see what happens.