Photo Book Publishers

A good source for standalone photo essays to publish in a magazine is the upcoming books lists from photo book publishers. A few of the big publishers like Chronicle or W.W. Norton will do photography books but generally the good stuff is with the specialty publishers. It’s interesting to note that the literary publishers are extremely proactive about shopping the first serial rights around to magazines for publicity but it’s rare for a photography book publisher to do that so you’ve got to go look at the upcoming lists yourself and see if there’s something worth pitching to the editor. I’m working on a project now that needs a couple photo essays so I thought I’d share my list:

21ST Editions
Aperture
Arena Editions
Chris Boot
D.A.P.
Dewi Lewis
Farewell
Foil Web
Hassla
J and L
Kehrer Verlag
Lodima
Loosestrife Editions
Monacelli
Nazraeli
Phaidon
Pond Press
Power House pH
Prestel
Quantuck Lane
Radius
Sasquatch
Scalo
Steidl
Taschen
teNeues
Trolley
TV Books
Twin Palms
Umbrage Editions
Watson-Guptill

Photo Eye publishes a newsletter with upcoming releases. Always a good resource.

More in Europe:
Apeiron
Edition Braus
Hatje Catz
Lunwerg
Mets & Schlit
Peliti Associati

Australia
T&G Publishing

1 Second Plus 34 Years

Check out this video of Paula Scher from Pentagram (here). I love when she talks about how ideas come to her very quickly and clients like to buy process so if the problem is solved in 1 second then they feel like they’re not getting their moneys worth. She explains “it’s done in a second, plus 34 years [of experience].”

World Press Photo Winners Talk About Their Images

Incredible feature on the World Press Photo site where you can watch a video of the photographer describing the story behind their award winning shot (here).

The beauty of it all, in my mind, is the design. The video of the photographer occupies a small space in the lower left corner allowing the image to dominate the screen. There’s even a little magnifying glass feature on the right that allows you to closely inspect the image like you were holding a loupe, not that comparing the sharpness of Platon’s portrait of Putin to Tim Hetheringtons beautifully blurry photo of the year, will give you any added insight. It’s just cool

I haven’t explored all the photographer interviews but listening to Platon describe the chain of events that led to his award winning portrait of Vladimir Putin (possibly the only formal portrait he’s ever agreed to) reinforces my belief that great photographers will always deliver under any circumstance. I’ve not seen a picture of Putin where you can actually sit and contemplate his expression and facial features and while that may seem very trite sitting in your home or office in front of the computer under the circumstances presented I think it’s quite remarkable.

Regardless, hearing the stories behind the photos is an incredible addition to the World Press Photo event and certainly a huge step toward increasing the popularity in the future.

Via, Paul Melcher.

Photographer speared by javelin still nails the shot

Sad but true quote from the photographer:

PROVO, Utah — A newspaper photographer got a little too close to the action at the state high school track championships _ and was speared through the leg by a javelin.

Ryan McGeeney of the Standard-Examiner was spared serious injury in Saturday’s mishap, and even managed to snap a photo of his speared leg while others worked to help him.

“If I didn’t, it would probably be my editor’s first question when I got back,” McGeeney said later.

More at the Huffington Post, including the photo (here).

Dispatches- A Magazine For The Future

Dispatches is a new quarterly magazine co-edited by Mort Rosenblum, former editor of the International Herald Tribune and Gary Knight, founding member of VII photo agency. Each issue will focus on a single topic and the premiere issue topic is America. I’m told Antonin Kratochvil has an 80 page photo essay *repeat, 80 goddam pages of photography* from a month long trip across the US. Holy shit that’s awesome. The topic for the second issue is Beyond Iraq and will feature photographer Yuri Kozyrev. Awesome again.

Until I get my hands on the first issue I’ve only got the website (here) to go off, but I really like what I see and of course the 80 page photo essay sounds epic. This jibes perfectly with the role I foresee for magazines in the future. Covering topics in depth and displaying them in ways the internet can never compete with. Long form journalism and BIG photo essays. I honestly don’t need to see another thumbnail photo in a magazine for the rest of my life. I’ve got my fill right here on the internets.

Funny how none of the big publishers are going to step up to the plate on something like this so leave it to a photographer who’s sick of covering a story for a month and getting 2 pictures published in a magazine that will end up in the garbage can by Wednesday to make the big move.

Mort explains it further in the editors letter:

“We conceived dispatches to fit somewhere between Gutenberg and Google, a lively source of fresh knowledge about a world changing at warp speed in a format for people who savor the heft of words and images on paper.”

“Too often, these days, we forget a simple truth: the Internet is a means of delivery, not a source.”

“Gary Knight and I, co–editors, are journalists who were frustrated at trying to seek “truth” on the fly.”

Also, be sure to check out World Press Photo’s overall winner, Tim Hetherington’s acceptance speech (here). Love the honesty.

Good luck Mort and Gary. I hope you find your audience.

Orphan Works- ASMP Update

ASMP is now calling for photographers to write their Senators after realizing the Senate version of Orphan Works has none of the changes they like in the House version and could still be passed into law the Senate version was changed for the worse. Here’s their statement:

“Call to Action on Orphan Works: ASMP urges you to contact your Senator in opposition to S.2913, the Senate version of the Orphan Works bill. Now is the time. We continue to support the House version, H.R. 5889.”

I think they both suck and have already written the Senate and the House.

Via, Photo Attorney.

NY Photo Fest

Do you like honesty? Robert Wright has your dose from the Photo Fest (here). Always a good read.

PDN Videos From NYC Photo Fest

Daryl Lang is posting videos *and doing stand-ups* from the Photo Fest on YouTube and PDN Pulse. Here’s the first one with Kathy Ryan and Simon Norfolk. See more (here) throughout the festival.

Photo Reps Who Blog

There’s a few agent blogs out there worth checking out. AVS (anonymous agent blogger A Visual Society) is posting more infrequently but promises good stuff on the horizon. Redux has been blogging for awhile and they use it the way I think most agents will, as a tear gallery and honestly that’s just fine with me because I don’t always get the chance to check out all the magazines on the newsstand and I love a good tear or two. Wonderful Machine has a been doing a similar thing for awhile now too.

The two newest additions to the Agent blog scene are Leah Levine at L2 Agency (I helped out on this one) and Kristina Snyder at Snyder and Co. Here’s my list add any more in the comments and I’ll update. More the merrier as far as I’m concerned.

Kristina Snyder
L2Agency Blog
Redux Pictures
Wonderful Machine

Photo Lucida- Photo Editors Resource

I just rediscovered Photo Lucida and their Critical Mass project (here) which is a good resource for Photo Editors looking for new talent. I highly recommend working as a juror because then you are exposed to all 150 photographers that make the first cut and there’s truly some amazing work from people you’ve never heard of.

Via, Exposure Compensation.

SPD Photography Winners 2008

Here are the GOLD winners from last weekends SPD awards (more here) in Photography.

Magazine of the year

The New York Times Magazine (over 1M circ)
Director of Photography: Kathy Ryan
Photo Editors: Kira Pollack, Luise Stauss, Joanna Milter, Clinton Cargill, Leonor Mamanna, Stacey Baker

Wired (500k to 1M circ)
Photo Editors: Zana Woods, Carolyn Rauch, Anna Goldwater Alexander

Blueprint (under 500,000 circ)
Photo Editors: Mary Cahill, Darlene Schrack

Cover

GQ
Photographer: Nathaniel Goldberg
Director of Photography: Dora Somosi

New York
Photographer: Vincent Laforet
Director of Photography: Jody Quon
Photo Editor: Caroline Smith, Leana Alagia

The New York Times Magazine
Photographer: Sasha Bezzubov
Director of Photography: Kathy Ryan

Entire Issue

The New York Times Magazine
Photographer: Dan Winters, Gareth McConnel, Richard Burbridge, David Sims, Andres Serrano, Paolo Pellegrin, Rineke Dijkstra, Katy Grannan, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Robert Maxwell
Director of Photography: Kathy Ryan
Photo Editor: Kira Pollack

Feature, Spread/Single Page

GQ
Photographer: Jill Greenberg
Director of Photography: Dora Somosi
Photo Editor: Justin O’Neill
Senior Photo Editor: Krista Prestek

The New York Times Magazine
Photographer: Inez van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin
Director of Photography: Kathy Ryan

Best Life Magazine
Photographer: Mary Ellen Mark
Director of Photography: Ryan Cadiz
Photo Editor: Jeanne Graves

Feature, Story

New York
Photographer: Paolo Pellegrin
Director of Photography: Jody Quon
Photo Editor: Lea Golis, Nadia Lachance

Vanity Fair
Photographer: Annie Leibovitz
Director of Photography: Susan White
Photo Editor: Kathryn MacLeod

Wired
Photographer: Daniel Stier
Photo Editor: Carolyn Rauch

Non-Newsstand Photography

UD & SE
Photographer: Casper Balslev

Photo-Illustration


Wired
Photographer: Dan Winters
Photo Editor: Carolyn Rauch

Same Cover Different Mag

Time and Esquire Covers

Daryl Lang over at PDNPulse catches Esquire running the same Platon shot of Obama that Time did 6 months ago (here) and asks:

We wonder how the Esquire editors failed to get an exclusive Obama portrait for their cover. Awesome type treatment notwithstanding, are they honestly satisfied making the same visual statement Time made six months ago?

Daryl let me count the ways:

1. Platon didn’t tell them it was the same cover that Time used. Probably didn’t go down this way but it’s not unusual to be told after the fact by photographer (or stock agency) that they assumed I knew. Usually someone on staff (copy editors are good at catching this stuff) will recall the previous cover as it’s going around the office in a round and we’ll have to make a last minute swap.

2. Obama’s camp didn’t give the photo department enough time or agree to their conditions for the shoot. Again, probably not the case since Esquire has pulled off it’s share of 5 minute cover shoots so it could be that there were other scheduling conflicts. Also, when you’ve done your stock research beforehand you know you’ve got to beat the best stock cover you can find so if the photographer you’ve agreed on, the time limit and location don’t lead you to think you can do it, save the $20,000 for something your audience really cares about, like getting a photographer over to cover the Burma cyclone and don’t just shoot a variation of the 5 min. cover with a different suit on.

3. The writer or fact checker asked questions that caused the PR Director to use the Cover shoot as ransom to make changes to the story. You always save the hard questions and fact checking the difficult quotes till after all the reporting is done and the cover is in the can. If you don’t they can hold the shoot as ransom to make changes. If that happened here, Granger likely told them to go to hell and so went the cover shoot.

4. Esquire had a different cover they didn’t like that much and Obama clinched the nomination as the magazine was in the final week of shipping, so they found the best stock available and grabbed a story they’d been preparing for months hoping the timeliness would make up for the obvious duplication.

5. Only PDN will notice so who gives a flying rats ass.