A Photo Editor

The Biggest Scam In Photography

What’s the biggest scam in photography? Judging purely on angry comments I get and see (here’s some on PDN Pulse) when the topic is raised, it’s photo contests with portfolio reviews running a close second. Of course the first time I even mentioned contests on the blog I was caught a little off guard because I thought the system worked pretty well. Sure, I’ve been completely skunked before when I sent in what I thought was our best work (I’m talking photo editing here not pictures I’ve taken) but eventually we started winning and the awards paragraph on my resume began to fill up.

The two big contests in my opinion are American Photography (the book) and the PDN photography annual (World Press Photo is of course highly respected but there was never any reference to pull off the shelf when looking for photographers). Both have parties for the winners and the judges are always people you want to get your work in front of. I know that commercial photography has a couple that are highly respected as well (CA and Kelly Awards I think).

The reasons for entering a respected contest are clear. Getting your work in front judges, getting your work published if it wins, using the recognition as part of your marketing effort and attending a party to celebrate great photography. I can assure you that any photographers receiving recognition in the contests I mentioned got extra consideration for assignments. It’s simple reinforcement that the photographers work is good. They’re also used as a handy reference to pair the name of the photographer with the work you remember from the past year.

Recently a photographer brought the Billboard Photography Contest to my attention (here) because the deadline to announce winners had passed and he couldn’t find out who won. I made several inquiries myself and eventually got to John Gimenez of PDN Custom Media and Events who answered my emails but never got us closer to finding the results. Eventually they issued a new call for entries a put a link up to the past winners which only said coming soon. When I checked this morning it was finally working (here).

Upon, closer inspection of the new contest leads me to believe this one is purely for profit. I can’t figure out what the prizes are, who the judges are and paying extra for a deadline extension on digital entries is complete horseshit.

I think there’s room for improvement in photography contests or at least room for something completely different and innovative, but there are a couple hurdles to get over first.

1. There needs to be a barrier to entry. You can read what it’s like to plow through the 81,000 entries to World Press Photo (here). Usually the entry fee serves this purpose. If it’s high enough people limit the work they submit but this also limits the potential field.

2. You need to attract qualified judges. If you’ve ever sat in a room or at a computer screen and plowed through entries it doesn’t take long for the fatigue to creep in. This is work people. Getting busy photo editors to volunteer for this means the stuff they’re looking at needs to be of high quality.

3. The final product needs to be published in a way that’s useful to the community. From my own experience running a free promo contest on this blog, this is not easy. Getting busy creatives to look at hundreds of finalists from a contest they’ve never heard of is nearly impossible (a few people did land jobs because of it so it was ultimately successful).

Since 2009 will be the year when the media industry begins to remake itself you have to believe there are better ways to do everything. Photography contests seem like a good place to start.

It’s Time To Move On

Here’s what happens when things get tough at magazines. They pull out all the past successes: the stories, photo essays, packages and the covers (oh god do they ever pull out those big newsstand hits) and go about trying to recreate the magic of the past. It’s a waste of time. The climate has changed, the challenges are different and the readers are different. There’s always been a problem of diminishing returns when you knock off the past successes and then add to that the sapped enthusiasm of those left to execute the unoriginal ideas… it’s time to stop looking back. We need fresh ideas and enthusiasm. We’ve seen an entire year filled with homages to the past and it’s time to get out from under the shadows and forge a new path.

Daily Routines of Creative People

Working in a creative industry and being self employed takes discipline… or not. It all depends on which school of creative working you come from. Nose to the grindstone or head in the clouds. I prefer serendipitous encounters with inspiration. Gazing out the window (not the 6th ave. and 52nd one so much), browsing the newsstand, visiting the MoMA bookstore and trolling (in the fishing sense) websites but then of course shit gets done when you make lists and hammer away at them all day. It’s a balance I guess. As a side note, producers always seem to be going ten times faster than everyone else but maybe it just appears that way because I’m on a different pace.

Daily routines is a website that chronicles the habits of creative people (here).

Chris Ofili
First, he tears a large sheet of paper, always the same size, into eight pieces, all about 6 by 9 inches. Then he loosens up with some pencil marks, “nothing statements, which have no function.”

James Thurber
I never quite know when I’m not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, “Dammit, Thurber, stop writing.” She usually catches me in the middle of a paragraph. Or my daughter will look up from the dinner table and ask, “Is he sick?” “No,” my wife says, “he’s writing something.”

Anthony Trollope
He required of himself two hundred and fifty words every quarter of an hour. If he finished one novel before eight-thirty, he took out a fresh piece of paper and started the next.

Truman Capote
I am a completely horizontal author. I can’t think unless I’m lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy. I’ve got to be puffing and sipping. As the afternoon wears on, I shift from coffee to mint tea to sherry to martinis.

Photograph Obama Hope Poster Based On Discovered

UPDATE: Looks like this is not the photo Fairey used… this one is more of an exact match and a little too paint by numbers if you ask me (here).

“Jim Young, a Washington-based photographer who has taken, in his words, ‘thousands’ of pictures of Obama, was not even aware that the most ubiquitous image of the election was based on his photograph. He’d seen the HOPE poster countless times and never made the connection to his own photograph, which he snapped at a 2007 Senate confirmation hearing.”

From a piece James Danziger wrote for The Daily Beast (here) about searching for and eventually finding of the photographer who’s work Shepard Fairey based his Obama hope poster on. This is old news in the blog-o-sphere but the Daily Beast piece is well done (and the website is worth a second look because the niche they’re carving out seems to be working).

obamaposter

The NY Times Massive Debt

The New York Times has $46 million in cash and a total debt load of $1.1 billion. Gulp.

Billionaire Carlos Slim has given the cash-strapped New York Times $250 million.

Via, Media Memo.

Nadav Kander And The NY Times Magazine- The Real Behind The Scenes

The New York Times Magazine commissioned Nadav Kander to photograph “Obama’s People” — 52 full-page color portraits of the vice president-elect and the incoming president’s advisers, aides and cabinet secretaries-designate, along with those legislators who are likely to prove influential in helping to usher into law what the new administration sets out to do. You can see the pictures (here). They also marked this historic occasion–the gravitas of which can only be fully understood by reading the editors letter (here)–with behind the scenes pictures of the shoot (here). I thought you might like to see the real, real behind, behind the scenes so I added in the missing dialogue and thought bubbles.

AP Should Buy Twitter

The picture by Janis Krums of the airplane in the Hudson river (here) is remarkable because there’s nothing like being there first with a camera/phone. The AP should buy Twitter and Twit Pic because they’re proving to be the place where news breaks first.

Photojournalist Finbarr O’Reilly

Photojournalist and World Press Photo 2006 winner Finbarr O’Reilly answered questions sent to him live yesterday in a feed setup by Reuter’s. Really worth a listen as he’s well spoken, tells what it’s like to be a photojournalist in conflict areas with great anecdotes and answers the following questions:

Where do you draw the line between observation and action?
How do you get into the hot zones without putting your life on the line?
I wonder what you think the international community could do to improve the lives of the people of the DRC? What lies at the root of this conflict?
Is shooting sport a welcome break from your other work?
Have you had to apply different skills in Congo as opposed to other places you’ve worked?
How easy is it to work in Congo as a freelancer… costs for transportation, translators and fixers?
Are you intense?
Do you have any hope for the future of Congo based on your experience there?
When everyone has a camera on their mobile phone what is the future for professional photographers?
Isn’t it frustrating that the news gets less media attention?
How has my formal education prepared me to work as a photojournalist?

Visit the Reuters page (here).

Best Photobooks of 2008

Photo-eye has a cool interactive list where you can checkout top 10 lists from 17 different people (here) which I discovered on the blog MAO (Modern Art Obsession) and that’s where I discovered the best name I’ve ever seen for a book: “God Spoiled a Perfect Asshole When He Put Teeth in Yer Mouth.” by Dash Snow. Peres Projects.

Richard Prince Sued by Photographer Patrick Cariou

UPDATE:

Patrick Cariou appears to have a better case than I first thought. Take a look at these examples where Richard uses most of the image and then add to that the possibility that Patrick’s images have appeared in a gallery at some point in time. There certainly is a case for harm to the potential market for the original copyrighted work which along with the amount of the image used is the main test for infringement in this case (that’s how I see it anyhow).

patrick2

patrick1

Here’s my previous post:

Cityfile has the exclusive (here) on a lawsuit filed by photographer Patrick Cariou against Ricard Prince, Gagosian Gallery, Lawrence Gagosian and Rizzoli International Publications in federal district court (here).

Unlike the most well known instance (here) where Prince appropriated another photographers work for his art, the images he used this time are owned by an individual photographer (from Patrick’s book Yes Rasta) and not a corporation. This should be a very interesting test of fair use because from what I can tell he’s taken only parts of Patrick’s images combined them with other images on a canvas and painted upon them.

I think this is going to be a tough case for Patrick because of the following:

“The fourth fair use factor – effect upon the potential market or value of the copyrighted work – considers the extent of harm to the market or potential market for the copyrighted work caused by the new work. This test evaluates the potential as well as actual financial harm to the original copyrighted work, as well as to current and potential derivative works.

The United States Supreme Court has declared this fair use factor the most important element of fair use. Therefore, those who wish to use another’s copyrighted materials without permission must decide whether or not their utilization of the copyrighted material is going to harm either the present or potential market for the copyrighted work.” (from PubLaw.com)

I’ve tried to argue in the past that photographers enjoy the benefits of fair use all the time when taking pictures that have copyrighted material in them but Richard Prince certainly takes this idea to the extreme every time.

gagosian

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Flipping Digital Magazines

I agree with some of my readers who think this page flipping of digital magazines is a joke but if this is what it takes to get magazines to publish a digital version then by all means, go for it. I think there’s a very small portion of your audience that’s looking for a digital version but is not comfortable with it unless it looks like a magazine and the pages flip. Whatever.

These things seem to be sprouting up everywhere lately:

The originals: zinio.com and issuu.com

Trying to become legit: mygazines.com

More: ceros.com, openzine.com

What I find truly annoying with someone like zinio is that they save the publisher money on printing, paper and postage but still try and charge the same as a printed magazine. I don’t like reading digital flipping magazines in the first place but will do it to save time, money and trees. I would probably subscribe to 40 of these if they were a dollar apiece but if it’s the same price as print I prefer paper. What I really want to do is browse all the magazines and pay to read the articles that interest me. That’s how it works on the newsstand, why don’t they realize that.

Thanks for the tip Stephen.

I pulled out my camera and took a picture

“I always feel as though there’s supposed to be some deeper meaning behind my pictures, a meaning other than ‘Something inside me connected with what I saw in front of me, so I pulled out my camera and took a picture.’ That does not seem to fly as an artist statement. Why, I’m not sure.”
Emily Shur (here).

Reminds me of a favorite photography quote:
“I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.” – Garry Winogrand

The Greatest Pictures From 2008

I’ve had my fill of the news oriented best pictures of the year lists so I wanted to create my own but I’m a little too lazy to do all the research (the bohemian would agree). Maybe you could give me a hand.

I’ll start off with two amazing covers. Peter Yang’s photo of Obama for Rolling Stone (here) and Platon’s cover of Willie Nelson for Texas Monthly (here). It’s so rare that a great photograph is made into a cover that these really had an impact on me.

Brent Stirton’s Gorilla killing story was one of those pieces that kept popping up everywhere and seems to win an award in every contest it was entered: http://www.brentstirton.com/feature-gorillas.php

Pieter Hugo’s hyena men is another incredible subject executed perfectly by a great photographer: http://www.pieterhugo.com/nigeria/index.html

Damon Winter deserves an award for breaking out of the pack of heavy political coverage this year. His Obama pictures for the NYTimes are stunning: slideshow here

Roger Ballen is of course an incredibly talented and original photographer but it was his performance/talk at the NY photo festival that had everyone buzzing.

Who else deserves recognition?

JPG Magazine Can’t Stay Afloat with Inexpensive User Generated Content

I’m a little surprised by the number of emails I’ve received and the number of blog posts I’ve seen (here, here, here, here, here and here) regarding the demise of JPG magazine. Taking something that works well online and printing it seems kinda like taking a magazine and turning it into a website. Does anyone still think this is a good idea? Sure, I think printing it and charging $20 an issue, (not $2) so the published photographers can have something for the coffee table and also using the printed product to prove some form of legitimacy to advertisers is a good idea. But, anyone who feels like user generated content should be printed and distributed the old way is missing the value of magazines in the first place. Original content.

It all comes down to a fairly common discussion at magazine story and photography meetings. Do we inspire our readers with content where they can say “I could do that” or do we give them aspirational content so they say “I wish I could do that.” A mix is probably closer to the truth but I’ve always been in the aspirational camp and that means running photography that not even my editor understands.

Are Copyrighted Works In Your Photograph Infringing?

Depiction of a copyrighted work in the background of an image may not be infringement as this court case against Paramount Pictures shows (here).

Chin said that, under the case law, “The observability of the copyrighted work is critical, and courts will consider the length of time the copyrighted work is observable as well as factors such as focus, lighting, camera angles and prominence.”

Via, Photo Attorny Blog.

Finding A Decent Story, Killing Crap and Reaching Your Potential

If you’re not familiar with Ira Glass, he’s an award winning radio (yes radio) host who presents an hour long show on a particular theme. His podcasts on iTunes are always the most popular and if you haven’t listened to one before they are highly addictive. Each and every one is a lesson in story telling.

I found these interviews with Ira where he talks about what I consider one of the great underrated skills in the creative process. Finding a decent subject. Ira says, “No one ever tells you how hard it is to find a decent story… often the amount of time finding the decent story is more than the amount of time it takes to produce the story.”

Also, It’s not surprising that failure is closely tied to finding great subjects. He talks about getting a subject on tape and discovering that it’s not all that interesting after all and “by killing you will make something else even better live… not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.”
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The Evolution of Erik Almås and His Book

10,000 hours. We are entering the era of ten thousand hours. We’ve just left the era of tipping points, blinks and well, instant gratification/payoff and we’re headed for “ten years of hard work will get you somewhere.” If anything Malcom Gladwell–who wrote Blink, Tipping Point and now Outliers (which contains the 10,000 hours reference)–has the uncanny ability to read the zeitgeist and apply an idea to it that defines how we feel. I can feel it too. As a society we want hard work to equal success. We don’t want to reward people anymore who don’t put in the time and the effort.

Erik Almås is a successful commercial and editorial photographer. When I had a look at a presentation he gave about his career that had the evolution of his book I asked how is it possible to go from the first book he ever made to the book he has now. His answer. 11 years of hard work.

Hello, Is That The Bottom I See?

Magazines: We estimate magazine advertising revenue to decrease 15.0% in 2009 (vs. our prior down 12.5% estimate) and decline a further 5.0% in 2010.

Analysts at Barclays via Media Memo (here).