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The newslines from the ASMP Bulletin and other sources will keep you up to date and informed

Posted August 2005

ASMP joins as amicus curiae in printing-ink case

ASMP has joined with a number of other copyright owners’ groups in asking the Supreme Court to overturn an awkward decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The case — Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink, Inc. — primarily involves patents, not copyrights, but to the extent that it becomes a precedent, it could make life a bit harder for all owners of intellectual property.

The Supreme Court has agreed to review the Federal Circuit’s decision. The case will be argued in December, and a decision will likely come in early 2006. A summary of the case is available in our Legal News section.

ASMP’s fellow amici curiae are the Motion Picture Association of America, the Association of American Publishers, the Business Software Alliance, the Entertainment Software Association, the Independent Film & Television Alliance, the National Football League, and the Recording Industry Association Of America. Separately, the Intellectual Property Owners Association, the American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association have filed amicus briefs that suggest the appeals court got it wrong.

A more detailed description of the case, and of ASMP’s position on the matter, is in our Legal Articles area.

FotoFest, ASMP to host career development workshops in March

As it has done in the past, FotoFest is again sponsoring two one-day workshops, to be held March 14 and 19, 2006, as part of the FotoFest 2006 event. The workshops are being done in collaboration with the American Society of Media Photographers (regional and national) and marketing consultant Mary Virginia Swanson. We’re told that space will be limited and early registration is a good idea. The first workshop focuses on career development and digital processes; the second spotlights publishing.

FotoFest 2006 will take place at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Houston, TX, from March 10 to 23, 2006. For specific workshop information, call April Maduzia at 713.223.5522 ext 13 or e-mail meeting@fotofest.org.

2005 Lucies gala to be held on October 17

The 2005 Lucies (the photography world’s equivalent of the Oscars) ceremony will take place on Monday, October 17. Among the ASMP members to be honored are Harry Benson and Ozzie Sweet, along with one former member, Hiro.

The Lucie Awards recognize the outstanding achievements of the world's finest photographers; the categories include fashion, advertising, portraiture, fine art, photojournalism and documentary. There is also one humanitarian award and one lifetime achievement award.

The 2005 Honorees confirmed for this year's Lucie Awards gala ceremony are:

• Outstanding Achievement in Fine Art Photography: Lucien Clergue

• Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Photography: Peter Lindbergh

• Outstanding Achievement in Portrait Photography: Harry Benson

• Outstanding Achievement in Sports Photography: Ozzie Sweet

• Outstanding Achievement in Photojournalism: Antonin Kratochvil

• Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Photography: Larry Clark

• Outstanding Achievement in Advertising Photography: Hiro

• Humanitarian Award: Zana Briski (for Born Into Brothels)

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be announced at a later date.

Past recipients include Gordon Parks, Sebastiao Salgado, James Nacthwey, Bert Stern, Sylvia Plachy, Jay Maisel, Jim Marshall and Bruce Davidson, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Douglas Kirkland, Steve McCurry, Melvin Sokolsky, Ruth Bernhard, William Claxton, Mary Ellen Mark, Tim Street-Porter, Phil Stern, Annie Leibovitz, Gene Trindl, Cornel Capa, Bob Willoughby, Lillian Bassman and Arnold Newman.

The 2005 Lucies presentation will take place at the American Airlines Theatre on 42nd Street on Monday, October 17, from 6-9 pm. To purchase tickets, please call 310.659.0122.

Everton wins suit against Callaway

ASMP member Macduff Everton has won his New York lawsuit against Callaway Editions, Inc. At issue was Callaway’s liability for the loss of 213 color transparencies and 62 black-and-white negatives that Everton had shot at several Scottish golf courses for publication in a series of golf books that Callaway would publish. The images, which were model- and property-released and could have yielded future stock sales, went missing sometime after 1998, but Callaway insisted that Everton was not entitled to any compensation.

The trial court ruled firmly in Everton’s favor and dismissed all of Callaway Editions’ counterclaims. However, the court awarded only $500 for each color image and $250 for each b-w image. With interest and other costs, the total award was roughly 160,000.

In memoriam: Clarence Snyder

Longtime ASMP member Clarence Snyder died in Easton, PA, on July 20. He was 85 years old. He got his start as a photographer in the late 1930s working for Easton’s Morning Free Press as a staff photographer. When the paper folded in 1943, he joined the advertising department of Bethlehem Steel, where he stayed until retirement in 1985. After that, he worked as a freelance photographer. He married Sylvia Thomas in 1941, and they had three children: a son, Mel, and two daughters, Marjorie Ruder and Susan Stevenson, and later six grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

Among his memorable images were the completion of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, along with shots of the skyscrapers, ships and oil platforms built with his company’s steel. His photo of a silhouetted staircase rising into the sky from a construction site was selected by Led Zeppelin as an album cover for one edition of Stairway to Heaven.

An obituary that appeared in the Allentown (PA) Morning Call is posted at the legacy.com site.

ASMP members on view at Photoworks

An exhibition of the works of two ASMP members, Irene Owsley and Barbara Tyroler, will be at Photoworks in Glen Echo Park, MD, from September 30 through November 13. The title of the show is “Wide and Intimate Views.” Photoworks is a tax-exempt community photo center that operates in cooperation with the National Park Service, Montgomery County, and the Glen Echo Partnership for Arts and Culture.

The two have very different approaches to their craft. Owsley has eight panoramic landscapes, each 40 - 50 inches wide, that sweep the eye across great expanses of distant terrain. Tyroler’s photos are intimate portraits in which the subjects are revealed through diffraction and reflection of water’s surface.

Very little information about the exhibit is on the Photoworks web site now, but we’re told that more will be posted soon. Meanwhile, the online gallery page includes images by many of the artists associated with the center, including Tyroler. Admission to Photoworks shows is free.

Graphis issues call for entries

A new publication by Graphis, the Graphis Photography Journal — The Americas, is accepting submissions through August 30, 2005. As the title hints, it will feature photos from Canada, the U.S., Central and South America. At this time, all categories are open, including Architecture, Automotive, Beauty & Fashion, Flora, Food & Beverage, Interiors, Journalism, Landscape, Nudes, Portraits, Products, Sports, Still Life, Transportation and Wildlife/Pets.

The fee for submissions is $40 per image, or $120 for a series of 3 or more. More information about the submission process is on the Graphis web site (which, although currently difficult to figure out, is reportedly being revised for clarity).

Photoworkshop wants your entries in Digital Imaging Competition

Photoworkshop.com is now conducting its fourth annual Digital Imaging Competition; entries will be accepted until December 31, 2005. You may enter up to three images in each of the two categories: Lightly Manipulated (straight photography with basic cropping and color correction) and Photo Illustration (no holds barred: montages, composites, special effects and anything else you can think of).

There is no entry fee, but the entries must be submitted online, and you will have to give your email address to enter the web site. There will be six winners and 44 honorable mentions in each category. Prizes include Adobe CS2 software, a Canon 20D camera, a GretagMacbeth Eye-One spectro, Legion paper, a SanDisk flash card, a Wacom graphics tablet, and a full scholarship to a week-long workshop run by The Maine Photographic Workshops, the Santa Fe Workshops, or the Palm Beach Photographic Center.

Photo festivals unite

Nearly 30 photo-fest organizations from 19 European countries have banded together to form the Photo Festival Union. The Union will hold its first meeting September 29-30 in Lodz, Poland, where it will draft a charter. It will also lay plans for a united exhibition and catalog, to be called Creators of the European Photography. The idea is that, each year, the curators of each participating outfit will select works that represent its national tradition in photography and display them in the exhibition. Thus, the Union will promote each of its members individually and also raise their prestige collectively.

The Union is the brainchild of Poland’s Foundation of Visual Education, which obtained sponsorship grants to fund the first two years’ operation. The foundation’s other projects include the International Festival of Photography, the Photo Project - The First Day in European Union and the Photo Fair Gallery in Lodz.

End-of-summer party with Photo Review

The Photo Review will host a Gala Garden Party on Saturday, September 10 (rain or shine) from 3 to 7 p.m. Enjoy music, conversation, drinks, and delicious food at a fabulous house and garden in historic Rydal, just outside of Philadelphia, PA. Schmooze with photographer Henry Horenstein; gallerist and noted appraiser Sarah Morthland; photographers and publishers Paula Chamlee and Michael A. Smith with new Lodima Press books on Nicholas Nixon, Carl Chiarenza, George Tice, and Brett Weston, and American Photo editor David Schonauer, juror of the 2005 Photo Review Competition. Other surprise guests are sure to be there. You can hobnob with Photo Review/Photograph Collector editor Stephen Perloff, relax to music by the Midi Trio, and buy and have your books personally inscribed by our special guests. You’ll also get to look at pictures, as everyone is invited to participate in informal portfolio sharing.

Cost is $75 per person, $125 per couple. (A limited number of starving artist tickets is available at $30.) You can download an invitation and reply card here. Tickets are limited; RSVP by September 1 is requested.

Brooks Institute criticized for overstating graduates’ prospects

California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, which accredits private schools in the state, has criticized the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara for willfully misleading prospective students about the money that its graduates earn.

The story appeared in the July 24 issue of the New York Times, which said,

The California bureau, in addition to finding violations in Brooks’s records, sent an employee to the school, posing as a prospective student. The report said she was told that she could expect her starting salary to be “$50,000 to $150,000” in her first year after graduation from Brooks — enough to pay off the debt she would take on as a student. “The sky’s the limit,” the admissions official said of her prospects, according to the report.

Not so, said the Bureau.

Indeed, of the 45 graduates reported by Brooks as employed full time, the average income was about $26,000, the report said.

The report also said that Brooks exxagerated the number of graduates that even found work in their field.

As a result, the Bureau gave the school only a conditional, two-year approval to operate, and ordered the school to make restitution to students as far back as 1999. The Times story noted that 8,600 students could be eligible. However, Brooks said that it intends to file a request for an administrative hearing, which is the first step of the appeals process.

(The Times story is available on a pay-per-view basis, and has additional detail about the impact on the stock price of Brooks’ parent company, Career Education Corporation. PDNonline also ran a story about Brooks’ accreditation problems.)

Notes from Orphan Works roundtable in DC

In late July, the US Copyright Office hosted the first two roundtable discussions (in Washington DC; a third is to be held in San Francisco in early August) about proposed legislation on orphaned works. An orphaned work is one whose copyright owner is hard to find. Among the participants was ASMP’s counsel, Victor Perlman. Another participant was Lisa Shaftel, the National Advocacy Committee Chairperson for the Graphic Artists Guild. She has posted some preliminary observations (PDF) on the GAG web site. GAG also has material about the Supreme Court cases that led up to the current proposals.

Digital magazine market starts to take off

Digital Magazine News, a trade magazine covering the emerging field of digital magazines, reports in its July issue that several popular consumer magazines have achieved a significant level of electronic distribution. Drawing on Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) stats, DMN says that the following titles had more than one percent of readers taking the digital version. In order of total circulation, they are:

• Seventeen (2.5% of its subscribers take the digital version)
• CosmoGirl! (5.8%)
• PC Magazine (12.9%)
• Electronic Gaming Monthly (4%)
• Computer Shopper (6.3%)
• Computer Gaming World (8.9%)
• Stereophile (1.5%)
• The New Republic (12.5%)

It’s not all froth. In the list, albeit below the 1% mark, were Barrons, BusinessWeek and Harvard Business Review.

DMN (whose own circulation is just over 11,000, all of it electronic) succeeds in being easy to read on the screen, mainly by keeping articles very short. It is delivered as a PDF file. An electronic subscription costs $10, while a print subscription is $40; a sample issue is free, but you must register. (Note to Mac users: Safari will not work to register for the sample issue; there’s a JavaScript problem. Use Firefox instead. If you don’t have it, get it from the Mozilla.org site.)

Warhol birthday photo exhibition

On August 3 from 8:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m, New York City’s Shoreham Hotel (33 West 55th Street) will hold an exhibit of 25 photographs by Billy Name capturing the process of Andy Warhol’s creativity. Sponsored by American PHOTO, the event will be hosted by photographers Patrick McMullan and ASMP member Mick Rock, along with Warhol Foundation agent Vincent Fremont and fashion editor Ceslie Armstrong. The event marks the launch of the Shoreham’s new photo exhibit space, which will feature works of well-known photographers as well as up-and-coming artists.

Photographers to help conserve Texas habitat

Ninety-five landowners have applied to participate in the first Images for Conservation Fund Pro-Tour of Nature Photography. The Images for Conservation Fund is a non-profit organization based in Texas, so it’s logical that this first event will be held in the Texas Hill Country. It will take place during April 2006.

The guiding concept is that nature photographers have the potential to generate tremendous income for private landowners who lease professionally designed photo sites on prime habitat. And that, in turn, gives landowners the means and the incentive to preserve habitat. Or, as the Images for Conservation web site says, “Photography is the most powerful conservation tool on the planet.”

The Pro-Tour will match 20 top nature photographers (who have already been selected) with 20 private landowners, who will be chosen from the 95 applicants. To be eligible, landowners must have at least 500 contiguous acres of wildlife habitat located in 19 Texas counties. Sponsors have put up $200,000 in prize money. Their interest is to improve the economy of rural communities and create a domestic nature-tourism industry.

Pre-register your copyright?

Well, no; probably not you. But music and movie studios — industries that have a history of prerelease infringement — may soon be able to preregister unpublished works that are being prepared for commercial distribution. The Copyright Office has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking under the Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005, and will accept comments until August 22, 2005. Details are on the Copyright Office website.

Online photo journal features twister chasers

Double Exposure is a free online magazine published by Photoworkshop.com. The mid-July issue featured stories on photographers who chase tornados, but by the time you read this, a new issue will probably be posted; it’s twice-monthly.