It’s 1944. D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. The American League Browns beat the National League Cardinals, 4-2, to take the all-St. Louis World Series. Franklin Roosevelt is re-elected President of the United States for a fourth term. “Going My Way” wins the Best Picture Oscar. And in New York, a handful of the world’s leading photojournalists come together to create a group that will demand the establishment of professional rights and working conditions, as well as fair compensation for the use of their images. Today, that group — the American Society of Media Photographers — continues to fight for and promote those hard-won rights through information, education and advocacy on behalf of the world’s finest and most professional working publication photographers. ASMP has grown to over 5,000 members in 40 chapters nationwide and in many foreign countries.
To celebrate ASMP’s 60th anniversary we have created this site: to honor the past, to celebrate the present, and to look ahead to the opportunities and continuing struggles in the future. We invite you, ASMP members and non-members alike, to look at our rich heritage, to see where we’ve been, what we’ve accomplished, and where we’re going — and how much ASMP has meant to the profession of photography and to the lives of the men and women who capture the images that define our world, whether in 1944, or 2004, or beyond.
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What’s New
3/7/05 — Posted interview with Charlie Rotkin.
1/18/05 — Posted interview with Arthur Leipzig.
1/12/05 — Posted interview with Jerry Cooke.
12/13/04 — Posted interview with Lou Jacobs.
12/7/04 — Posted interview with Barrett Gallagher.
12/6/04 — Posted Digital Issues in the Editorial Market Panel Discussion.
12/2/04 — Posted 60th Anniversary and Board Meeting Photos.
Interviews
Giles: They were also doing business films and TV commercials. They'd rent the camera, rent the lights, hire the people if they needed help. I showed some of my photographs to him, and he liked them. So they came up with a commercial for me. Cigarettes were still being advertised on TV, so I did one for Camel cigarettes.
ASMP: So you just started out cold.
Giles: But I knew how to light. You can't see the light when you're using multiple flash; you've got to know where you're placing it.
More with Herbert Giles…
ASMP Bulletin
Without exaggeration, the Code is the basis for just about everything ASMP has done and believed in ever since. It is the backbone of the organization's efforts. Yet, oddly, it is little known by current members, and almost never reprinted.
More from The Foundation of Everything…
Milestones
1978 — After years of tireless effort on the part of ASMP staff and officers, the Copyright Act goes into effect, placing ownership of a photographer’s creative work back in the photographer’s hands. Every creative freelancer working today owes ASMP an enormous debt for this brave and costly effort.
More from Milestones…
Memories
“I managed to get a job as an assistant for a small design and photography studio. My boss suggested that ASMP might be able to help us and I quickly saw the value that the Society’s information provided to photographers. We signed up immediately.”
More from John Giammatteo…
