Group items tagged

Welcome to Photo Business Forum This business of photography is changing. Constantly. Yet, fundamental business principles remain the same. Here in the Photo Business Forum, we aim to make sense of all this left-brain stuff. We'll leave the right-brain growth to other talented educators. But don't get it twisted, we're photographers first, and earn our living every day making images. We're not proselytizing from on high, these are street-tested and time-worn practices. Are there other resources out there to pose your questions, get answers, and engage in a dialog? Absoultely, and We'll discuss them, promote and refer people to them. We are constantly participating in ongoing dialogs elsewhere. Usually it's responding to questions posted there, some of which we will post here as well. So, is this a typical forum like that? No. It's where musings, commentary, news, and insights about the business of photography are posted, and then, by all means, feel free to post comments about the entry. We have a Flckr photo/forms/graphics pool - Photo Business Forum Flickr Group where you can start your own threads as well as post images/graphics/forms. Please make sure you look at the guidelines there too!

Your Camera Is an Agent for Change By Qiana MestrichqianamestrichcloseAuthor: Qiana Mestrich See Author's Posts (6) Recent Posts * Braving the Sight Unseen: Interview with Blind Photographer Timothy O'Brien * Photographers on Twitter, Part 2: My Favorite Tweets * Photographers on Twitter: How They Use It * Photography Empathy: How You Feel Is What You Get * Your Camera Is an Agent for Change Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, of Panamanian and Croatian heritage, Qiana Mestrich has studied photography and its history for more than 15 years. Trained as a fine art photographer, Qiana's personal work ranges from portraiture to still life and landscapes. As a world citizen, she's also documented her travels to countries like Panama, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, the U.K. and more to come. View Qiana Mestrich's fine art photography on her Web site or read her blog, Dodge & Burn: Diversity in Photography. in Photojournalism on September 16th, 2008 As photographers, we often use our cameras to make money - shooting weddings, editorial, advertising, stock photography, etc. Yet the camera can do more than help us earn an income. As Dorothea Lange put it, this powerful tool can teach people "how to see without a camera."

The Beauty of the Slideshow - Now Available to Everyone By Stanley LearystanleylearycloseAuthor: Stanley Leary See Author's Posts (38) Recent Posts * Still Images Plus Audio Can Be More Effective Than Online Video * Teaching Is a Great Way to Learn * Telling Stories with a Telephoto Lens * If Your Pictures Aren't Good Enough, You're Not Close Enough * What Kind of Photographer Are You? Stanley Leary is a Black Star photographer who has been telling stories for more than 20 years as a photojournalist. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Business Week, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Chicago Tribune, NY Times, World Book Encyclopedia, Information Week, Popular Mechanics, Technology Review, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, and many other publications. in Video and Multimedia on January 20th, 2008 Even before the Internet, I appreciated the slideshow. I created presentations with multiple projectors and audio, and I was always impressed with what the combined media could communicate. Even compared to video - where you move right through a moment so quickly you can miss the subtlety of it - the slideshow has its unique charms. The problem, in the old days, was that you had to have the audience present to deliver the program; it was a lot of work for a small number of people. The printed page reached a much larger audience. Today, with the Web becoming the leader in delivering the news, we are no longer limited to printed words and still images on the page. Rather than publishing a quote, we can deliver audio of the interviews and the experience, giving a story authenticity in a way that we couldn't achieve before. We can create slideshows for everyone - to watch whenever they choose.

A little while ago, I received an email that told me about a project photojournalist James Nachtwey had been working on, which was going to get unveiled at a later date. The email contained the request to write a post that included some piece of code, which would automatically reveal the new project on the day in question. Since I prefer to have full editorial control over this blog, I decided not to post about it. But I was also uncomfortable with how this then secret project - something supposedly very important and completely underreported - was being handled. I thought that generating a lot of suspense could easily be somewhat damaging to whatever it was Nachtwey wanted to talk about: What if on the day in question people would think "Well, this is it?"

Death as Contributing Background By Dennis DunleavydennisdunleavycloseAuthor: Dennis Dunleavy See Author's Posts (20) Recent Posts * The Intelligent Machine: The Camera in the 21st Century * What Should Power Look Like? * Photojournalism in an Age of Contrivance * Rush of Innovation in Photographic Technology Shows No Sign of Slowing Down * Do Embedded Photojournalists Actually Work for the Pentagon? Dennis Dunleavy teaches and writes about visual culture, digital photography and ethics, new technologies, and society. For more than 20 years, he worked as a correspondent and photojournalist across the U.S., Central America, and Mexico. Today, he is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Southern Oregon University. He is the author of The Big Picture blog. in Photojournalism on May 27th, 2008 The body is lifeless - embedded into the concrete and dust that once was a school. Framing the faceless gray form, a handful of Chinese soldiers in green camouflage gently sweep the ground around her. There are five soldiers, two with shovels, one pointing at an object inches away from a limp hand. The viewer is forced to look down upon shadows and rubble. We do not know this person. She is one of thousands of victims from the earthquake that shook China to its core two weeks ago.

'The dedicated cit-j agency model isn't the way forward' Posted: 09/02/09 By: Kyle MacRae email this story | post a comment Profile picture of Kyle Macrae Scoopt, the 'citizen journalism' photo agency I co-founded in 2005 and sold to Getty Images in 2007, is no more. On a personal level, that's a little sad: like losing a child, albeit an errant one that left home long ago. But, as a business decision, I understand Getty's move completely: fundamentally, the Scoopt model doesn't work. That's not to say that people don't want to sell their newsworthy images; many of them do. Nor is to say that the mainstream media has little appetite for such pictures; it most certainly does (note, that's newsworthy pictures we're talking about, not 24,000 snapshots of snow). But it is to say - in my personal but rather battle-weary opinion - that the dedicated cit-j agency model isn't the way forward.

Is Video a Trojan Horse for Photojournalistic Ethics? By Anh StackanhstackcloseAuthor: Anh Stack See Author's Posts (12) Recent Posts * Is Video a Trojan Horse for Photojournalistic Ethics? * Why You Should Be Worried About Proposed Orphan Works Legislation * Up Your Price with Limited-Edition Photography * Tips for Creating a Winning Portfolio * How Professional Photographers Can Generate New Business with Flickr Anh D. Stack is editorial director of Black Star. in Photojournalism on November 13th, 2008 Tension has always existed between television and print journalists. While casual observers tend to write this off to ink-stained newspaper staffers being jealous of the higher profile -- and paychecks -- of their TV brethren, the reality is that significant differences exist in how TV and print news organizations gather the news.

Restoring Trust in Photojournalism: Black Star Rising Talks with Dr. Hany Farid By Scott BaradellscottbaradellcloseAuthor: Scott Baradell See Author's Posts (125) Recent Posts * Sometimes, Improvisation Is Not All It's Cracked Up to Be * Dealing with Fragile Artist Syndrome * Fake Chuck Westfall Gets Under Canon's Skin * Newspapers Are Running Out of Time to Solve the Problem of Content Theft * Stock Photography's Hidden Costs -- and How to Avoid Them Scott Baradell edits and contributes to Black Star Rising. A former newspaper journalist and executive for Belo Corp., Scott is an accomplished brand strategist who leads the Idea Grove agency. He has nearly two decades of experience working closely with professional photographers, both as a journalist and as a corporate photography buyer. in Photojournalism on August 6th, 2007 Photographers have been manipulating images ever since Abraham Lincoln's head was attached to John C. Calhoun's body in one of Lincoln's most famous portraits. But today, digital technology has made tampering easier and more pervasive than ever. Some believe the trend threatens the public's fundamental faith in the practice of photojournalism. In this context, Dr. Hany Farid should be a hero to photojournalists and lovers of photojournalism. Farid, who runs the Image Science Group at Dartmouth College, has emerged as a leading authority on digital forensics. His team has developed some of the most advanced software currently available to detect photo manipulation. While media organizations - increasingly rocked by photo-doctoring scandals - have not yet invested in Farid's technology, it seems only a matter of time before this occurs. Here's our Q&A with Farid:

Photographic retouching exposed April 29th, 2009 The issues surrounding photographic meaning, manipulation and Photoshop have been prominent recently (see my previous posts here and here, with some updates amongst the comments for each). Via Fred Ritchin's After Photography (see his 24 April post) comes news of a Swedish government project Girlpower dealing with sexism in advertising. One element is a magazine cover where, step-by-step, you can un-do the manipulation of the model to see how the glamorous cover was produced. You can go through each of the twelve changes that have been made, and at the end click on a red button to see the complete before and after images. We know it happens, but in this case, seeing is really believing.

very useful site for original magazine layouts of classic stories Slightly out of focus is an on-line shop specialising in vintage, original illustrated magazines featuring the best in 20th century photography and photojournalism. As collecting original pieces of photography is becoming out of reach for many, collecting the work in context, in it's original form, is a great alternative. All our magazines are in at least very good condition (most are excellent) and are complete with all articles and advertisements. We stock LIFE, Vu, Picture Post, Illustrated, Colliers, Saturday Evening Post and others. We currently hold a comprehensive selection of Robert Capa magazines, but are adding other photographers regularly. Please e-mail us if you are looking for the work of a particular photographer- we may not have added their work to our website yet.

World is Witness, a new "geoblog" from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiatives, in partnership with Google Earth, documents and maps genocide and related crimes against humanity. The initial entries are from a Museum visit to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to learn about the legacies of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, and the most recent entries are from a Museum visit to South Sudan and a return visit to the Congo. Visit us again soon for more posts from the field.

Ten Ways To Improve Your Multimedia Production Right Now Posted by Eric Maierson, April 17th, 2009 Often, as multimedia producers, we are given work to edit that others have created. Some things simply cannot be changed, like an out-of-focus photograph. But there are some things we can do right now to improve the work no matter how challenging the original assets may be. (Note: This list is not meant to be dogmatic. I've broken all these rules. They're offered as a suggested starting point.)

Thursday, October 30, 2008 Nick Turpin Ditches his SB-800s for a Cell Phone (RSS and email subscribers may have to click on the post title to see the video.) Remember Nick Turpin, who did those beautiful SB-800-lit street portraits of thriller writers for Arena Magazine? Now, he has ditched even those and is shooting his current month-long campaign for Samsung using only a cell phone. No DSLRs, no flashes, no female assistants holding long poles. And he is not even in control of what he is shooting -- you are. Your clicks on each new photo in the the evolving site decide where he is going next. It is live now, at The Photographic Adventures of Nick Turpin. You can follow his cell-phone video diary from his trek via his YouTube Channel, too.

Terrorist Bombings: From Stopped Time to Still Life Posted by Hariman in visualizing war Representation in any public art today has to include using old forms to capture what is distinctive about our time. Eventually new forms emerge, and we should ask what might become the artistic conventions of a "catastophile" society in which disaster and violence are fatal attractions and spectacular sources of energy. One image that might be on the cusp of old and new is this screen shot of a bombing in Sri Lanka:

On the eve of the election, a number of Magnum photographers have been venturing into American to capture what they can of this historic moment in time. The project is called InSight America. But rather than publish this work as a book a year after the fact, Magnum is posting the work online and on the fly. I caught up with Alex Webb after his recent journey to Ohio:

Part 1/6 - "From Refugee Photographer to War Photographer." Ashley Gilbertson photographs the war in Iraq for the New York Times. He talks about the invasion of Iraq, the battle for Falluja, the Marines he worked with, post-traumatic stress disorder, Iraqi civilians, and the future of photojournalism. His work is available in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War published by the University of Chicago Press. part 1 of 6

The End of Newspapers 31 Mar 2009 The eventual demise of the U.S. print newspaper has seemed inevitable since the emergence of the web in the mid 90s, but the events of recent months have confirmed just how dire the situation is, and suggest that the end may be very near. What hasn't been discussed very much is the impact this will have on photojournalism. The Albuquerque Tribune closed a year ago, The Rocky Mountain News a month ago, and last week the Seattle Post-Intelligencer moved to an all-web version . In these cases and many others, jobs have been lost, and communities have lost a mirror on themselves and an advocate. Gannett and Newhouse papers are requiring employees to take an unpaid furlough, and The New York Times has announced salary cuts and lay offs. Sadly, none of these measures are solutions- they are all just stop gaps to slow things down until a "new business model" can be found that will make online news profitable.

A New Website for a Changing World SocialDocumentary.net is a new website that features documentary photography from around the world-images and words that explore the human condition. Easily Create Documentary Websites About Critical Issues Facing Our World Today Professional and amateur photographers, journalists, NGOs, students-anyone with a story to tell and a collection of good photographs-can easily and affordably begin creating websites on SocialDocumentary.net. Global warming, international justice, post-conflict reconstruction, HIV/AIDS, or life in Afghanistan or suburban America are just a few of the themes that you can find on SocialDocumentary.net. The goal of this website is to make our lives richer and more informed about issues affecting us and our world today. Powerful photographs can also lead to meaningful change in the lives of ordinary people. SocialDocumentary. net provides tools for photographer to inform viewers how to take action-either by supporting NGOs doing work on the issues, or by engaging in direct political action. Not all documentary photographers are concerned with action. Many photographers featured on SocialDocumentary.net are concerned with subtleties of the human experience and exploring personal themes. Photographs on SocialDocumentary.net-whether of struggling farmers in Africa or of suburban teenagers in Philadelphia-offer a fresh way to look at the world and a greater understanding of humanity. The secondary goal is to create an online image bank of quality photographs documenting all aspects of the world created by an international collection of photographers. This will enable students, college professors, journalists, and anyone else to easily see any part of the world in quality digital imagery and gain valuable information about the subjects they are viewing. We encourage all photographers, everywhere, to use this site as a tool in their own image-making and documentary exploration. We also encourage n

The woman who became the face of the Great Depression 03.12.2008 | Author: Miguel Garcia-Guzman | Posted in Photography Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange This is quite interesting, one of the the girls in the picture of Dorothea Lange, who was 4 years old when the image was taken, remembers her mother and the great depression … full article with videos here. I always wonder how people that are portrayed in epic pictures like Migrant Mother felt about it. If you like this image as much as I do, you can get a full file with a high resolution scan here, and print it at home -as I did.

Playing "god" in a digital age: The thin line between art and the subjectivity of photojournalism Jarle recently commented on the post "Crazy light", in which I wrote: "We are constantly challenged to make scenes that are less than interesting, more interesting." The question that this raises, however, is when and how are the conventions of honest visual reportage bent for the sake of making images more compelling? Jarle continues: Correct. We all strive to make our photos more interesting. But, ethically and philosophically speaking, isn't this in direct conflict with the "our pictures must always tell the truth" mantra? There's often a thin line between photojournalism, "art" and subjective, commentary photography. And, playing the devil's advocate, what's the difference between adding motion blur in Photoshop and using a slow shutter speed? I'll start out by agreeing with much what Jarle has said here. From a purist perspective, "Straight" photography should be a style of photography that records what the eye witnesses without elaboration or embellishment. For the most part, this form of photography, what is photojournalism today, has remained pretty much true to form. At the same time, it is possible to find quite a few examples of photojournalism from the 1980s to the present day, that deviate from the normal conventions.