Newslines
In between issues of the ASMP Bulletin, these news items from many sources will keep you up to date and informed.
Posted June 2006
Flashes of Hope featured on TV
Flashes of Hope, a national non-profit founded and based in Cleveland, will be featured on The CBS Early Show on Thursday June 29th at 7:30 am. The story, produced by anchor Tracey Smith, was filmed at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital earlier this month. The story will focus on the history of the Flashes of Hope organization and its successful national expansion.(For more info on Flashes of Hope, see our May story.)
Adobe seeks survey participants, offers prize
Adobe is conducting a survey about the Adobe Photographers Directory. Here's the pitch:
Please take this opportunity to tell Adobe what you think about your experience and awareness of the Directory. We will use this information to improve the directory and to better serve professional photographers.
We thank you in advance for sharing your opinions with us. We will enter your name for a random drawing to win a Software Cinema training DVD titled Adobe Photoshop CS2 Fundamental and Advanced Techniques with Julieanne Kost, valued at $299 USD. More information on the training DVD is available at www.software-cinema.com
Your responses will remain confidential. No information about you will be sold or furnished to any other company whatsoever, nor will you receive unsolicited emails because of your participation in this survey.
To participate in the survey go to the InsightExpress survey site.
Sincerely,
The Adobe Photographers Directory Marketing Team
www.photographersdirectory.adobe.com
There is fine print, of course:
No purchase necessary to enter or win. Sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), who are age 18 years or older. Limit one (1) entry per person. The Adobe Photographers Directory Sweepstakes opens June 19, 2006 and closes at 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time on September 30, 2006. The winners will be randomly drawn from all eligible entries received. Participation constitutes entrant’s full unconditional agreement and acceptance of the Official Rules. Void where prohibited by law. Winner will receive a Photoshop CS2 Training DVD provided by Software Cinema valued at $299 USD. No alternative prize, cash equivalent, or other substitution is permitted. Prize is nontransferable. Winner is responsible for all taxes. Sweepstakes participants agree to hold Adobe and its agents/representatives harmless from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims, and actions of any kind in connection with the Sweepstakes. Other limitations may apply. See http://www.insightexpress.com/ix/asmp.aspx for full version of these official rules and details. Sweepstakes is sponsored by ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED (“Adobe” or “Sponsor”) at 345 Park Ave., San Jose CA 95110.
Is it a scam, or is it legit?
Many of our members (and members of other photo associations) have received an email that looks like this:
From: "Esensee Content" <content@esensee.com>
Subject: We are interested in your artwork
Dear Artist,
I have recently seen your artwork on the ASMP website. Your work is quite
impressive.
At this moment my company is building a large content database for the mobile
telephone market. We operate and sell content to our partners in 32 countries.
We sell music, videos, films, photos, 3D, animations, games, cartoons and
infotainment.
At this moment we're searching for new content.
We're searching for:
* Photos (any kind)
We would like to use your content to sell on our platform. If we
sell your content you'll receive a percentage of the sale.
We offer you, € 0,03 ($ 0.04) cent per sale. That means each
time one of your items is sold you'll receive € 0,03.
* Item X Times sold X Price per sale = Your Profit
* 1 X 20.000 X € 0,03 = € 600,-
More than one million partners worldwide are going to sell your content.
You can sell thousands or even millions of items in a short period. Your
artwork is going to be seen by the big audience worldwide. At the same time
you can make some money.
If you like to work with us please reply to this mail with some of your
artwork attached.
The moment we incorporate your artwork in our database you'll receive a
contract. We will not sell your items without your written approval. You'll
always stay the copyright owner of your content.
Please don't send us more than 50 items. If you can't email a large amount of
data, you can send it by regular mail on a CD or DVD to address below. The
minimum quality we need is 600 X 400 pixels or 400 X 600 pixels.
If you have any questions please contact us, you can reach us at the following
email address:
content@esensee.com
Sincerely,
Anthony Donner
--
P.O. BOX 96
1000 AB Amsterdam
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0) 6 43 01 98 33
info@esensee.com
There are several indications that this might not be from a legitimate business — that it is just a scam:
The URL is not a real web site; it's just a placeholder page set up by the hosting service.
The message asks you to send the images before you have seen the contract.
The mailing talks of "millions of partners," which sounds like a pyramid scheme.
The address is a PO box in a foreign city.
Still, there is a phone number, so we called the company in Amsterdam to see what we might learn. Anthony Donner himself answered the phone (he speaks English, sounds like a young man) and said that his operation is very new. The reason he has no contract to show is that it is still being reviewed by his lawyers. Same with the web site; he just hasn't had time to do everything that he needs to do.
We asked who his distribution partners are, and he said that there are many of them. However, the only one he named is [sounds like] "Yombah." We've no idea who that is, or even whether we heard it correctly, but Donner said it was a huge European cell phone company.
Donner volunteered that photographers are not being asked to sign over any copyrights. He also said that anyone who wants to see a contract before proceeding can send him an email and, in a few weeks, he will send it.
Conclusion: We cannot say whether this is a fraud or simply a young, brash, ignorant and underfunded entrepreneur — perhaps even a future Bill Gates. But no one should do business with him until there is some firmer evidence.
ASMP hosts Chinese Photographers Association tour
The ASMP national office played host on June 13-15 for a group of six photographers from China. The six are touring the U.S. as representatives of the China Photographers Association, which, if you make allowance for some differences in culture and industry structure, plays a role in China that is roughly equivalent to the role ASMP plays in the U.S.
The photographers flew from Beijing to New York City on the weekend and spent some time on Monday seeing the New York sights. On Tuesday the 13th, ASMP Executive Director Eugene Mopsik greeted them on arrival in Philadelphia. That afternoon, he and General Counsel Victor Perlman spoke with the photographers for several hours about the changes that are sweeping through the Chinese photography industry. The photographers were keen to understand how American photographers earn their livings in a market economy — a system that China is moving steadily toward, after generations of centralized planning.
The next morning, the group visited the studios of three ASMP members in Philadelphia: Jim Graham, Michael Furman and Peter Lien. They displayed a keen interest in the equipment and the studio layouts, but they were equally interested in how each of the members have positioned themselves and their work in the marketplace. Graham specializes in portraits of famous sports figures and rising stars; Furman publishes books of his photographs of classic cars; and Lien is an advertising and corporate portrait photographer. The Chinese visitors were curious about workflows, marketing and promotion, copyright and licensing, and every other facet of the business.
Chinese photographers visit American photographer’s studio. Back row, from left: ASMP member Peter Lien, Dong Hada, Li Qianguang (Secretary-General of the Chinese Photographers Association), Wang Kunfeng, ASMP staffer Peter Dyson, and Xian Yungiang. Front row, from left: Li Shi (translator), ASMP Executive Director Eugene Mopsik, photo assistant (and student of Chinese language) Jay Lassiter, and Chai Xuan. Not pictured: Zhang Yu, who was visiting with family members in the area. Photo by Scott Nibauer.
The afternoon was an extended photo opportunity at the famous Longwood Gardens, a former Dupont estate and now a horticulture conservatory. Dinner was at a downtown Philadelphia restaurant called Jones, known for quintessentially American food: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, turkey with cranberries, meatloaf, french fries, etc. The Chinese photographers were delighted with the experience of “real American food” and pop music.
On Thursday, the group did a bit of traditional Philadelphia touristing, visiting the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and the Reading Terminal market. They then departed for Washington DC. Other stops on their tour of the U.S. include Dallas and Las Vegas, plus a stop in Honolulu on the way home.
ASMP-NY fetes winners of Image06 contest
This year’s Image06 photo competition has concluded and the winners have been chosen. The winning images will be on display at the Thomas Werner Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, #712, New York from Monday, June 19th, through Saturday June 24th, 2006. The exhibit will be kicked off with a reception at 6:30 pm the evening of June 19 at the gallery.
In the Professional category, top honors went to Charlotte Oestervang. Interestingly, Oestervang was last year’s winner in the student category. A native of Denmark, in 2000 she earned a bachelor’s degree in fine-art photography from the Academy of Performing Arts, Film and Television in Prague, Czech Republic. She has been a freelance photographer since 2001. Last year, she studied documentary photography at the International Center of Photography in New York City. This fall, she plans to move to Kabul, Afghanistan, to make in-depth stories.
This year’s top prize in the Student category went to Amy Stein. A New York City resident and newly minted MFA from the School of Visual Arts, Stein is currently working on a photo series called Stranded, portraits of people stranded on the side of the road. “To make these images, I basically drive various US highways looking for broken down vehicles,” she said.
| Professional division | Student division |
|---|---|
|
1st Prize: Charlotte Oestervang |
1st Prize: Amy Stein |
We have a gallery of all the Image06 winning images.
(Note: Photographers were allowed to submit multiple images, which were identified only by a number during the judging. Thus, it was possible for one photographer to win awards for several photographs. Independently, each Judges’ Choice reflected the top pick of a single judge.)
The judges for the Image06 competition spanned a wide range of professional perspectives and artistic interests. They were:
- Klitos Teklos, Art Director, Surface magazine
- James K. Colton, Photography Editor, Sports Illustrated
- Kiana Malekzadeh, Gallerist, Kiana Malekzadeh Gallery
- Jeff Kopay, Art Director, Ogilvy
- Cristina Spiridakis, Art Buyer, Euro RSCG
Contest sponsors included camera maker FujiFilm Professional Imaging, lens specialist Tamron, online photo archive Digital Railroad, and web site developer CBA Studios.
PBS to air a special on Monroe stills
If she had lived, Marilyn Monroe would celebrate her 80th birthday this month. And next month, PBS television stations will show a new American Masters film on Marilyn Monroe, one of the world’s first superstars, by turning to the still photographs that captured her beauty, her complexity and, ultimately, her own complicated relationship with the star side of herself.
The film, Marilyn Monroe: Still Life airs July 19th at 9 pm (eastern time; check your local listings) on PBS. Through stills and interviews with photographers such as Eve Arnold, Elliott Erwitt, George S. Zimbel, Douglass Kirkland, Arnold Newman and Phil Stern, among others, the film explores Marilyn Monroe’s relationship with the camera.
Sontag’s the subject at Metropolitan Museum
Through September 3, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is running a photo exhibit called “On Photography: A Tribute to Susan Sontag.” It celebrates Sontag’s contribution to the history of photography, featuring works from the Museum’s collection by Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Steichen, Eugne Atget, Walker Evans, Edward Weston, Robert Frank, Andy Warhol, Peter Hujar and others.
The wall texts are drawn from Sontag’s prose. Thus, some of the displayed images are the works of photographers that Sontag wrote about at length, such as Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe, E.J. Bellocq and Annie Leibovitz. Other images complement Sontag’s ideas about the medium, such as Atget’s shot of mannequins in a Paris store window.
Sontag’s ideas were widely published, first as essays in the New York Review of Books and later in her own books. Perhaps her best known book is On Photography (1977) — although Arnold Newman, in an interview for ASMP’s 60th anniversary said that he thought Sontag had gotten it all wrong.
The Museum is open daily 9:30 am to 5:30 pm (on Friday and Saturday, till 9:00 pm). Admission donation is $15 for adults and $10 for students; the price also grants admission to the Cloisters on the same day. Full schedule details are on the Museum’s web site.
Color management seminar coming to a city near you
Are you unhappy with prints that don’t match your monitor? Not getting the best results from your models and lighting? The Graphic Intelligence Agency, GretagMacbeth and photoworkshop.com, with support from Hahnemühle, Canon, Apple and Adobe, are offering a one-day training seminar, Picture Perfect Color, to help you solve these issues with a better understanding of color management.
Professional landscape photographer and GretagMacbeth Color Expert Phil Nelson will make color management easy to understand and apply to your camera, scanner, applications, monitor, proofing and final output. Attendees also receive lunch and a Photo Color Toolkit. The kit includes the original GretagMacbeth ColorChecker camera target, the official 2006 DIMA Shootout print target and digital file, a full-color presentation workbook, our “Need to Know: Color” manual, workflow tip sheets, an eLearning CD, 4 Nik Software filters, media samples and discounts from the sponsors.
The price of the one-day seminar is $400. For registration info and the list of upcoming cities and dates, check the GIA web site.
Fields Project Arts Festival slated for June 25
You are invited to attend the Fields Project Arts Festival on June 25th in Oregon, Illinois. The Fields Project itself is an artist colony that lasts for nine days in the rolling, farm fields of Ogle County (Illinois). There, artists interact with local farmers and the land to create agriculture-inspired work in all visual arts media.
The festivities will include juried local artists, sculptors’ displays, children’s activities, live music, and food. In addition to the festival, airplane rides will be offered for a $25 dollar fee in order to view the field sculptures. Plane rides will be available on Saturday, June 24th and Sunday, June 25th; reservations can be made by calling 815-734-4171. For more information about the festival or plane rides, please visit www.artontherock.com or www.fieldsproject.com or call 815-732-2100.
SinarBron launches digital back at NY fashion shoot
On June 22, SinarBron Imaging will launch two new products — the Sinar eMotion 75 digital camera back and the Broncolor Verso A2 power pack — with a glamour/fashion shoot in a New York studio. The event will be held at Lotus Space, 122 West 26th St., New York from 6:30 to 8:30. It’s a product pitch, so there’s no admission, but the organizer requests that you RSVP Jessica Conrad (jconrad@linkme.com) if you plan to attend.
Nature photographers get a day of their own
Mark your calendar: June 15 has been designated National Nature Photography Day. To celebrate the first annual observance of the Day, the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) urges everyone to
- take your camera and visit a park on your lunch hour
- photograph a species of plant or animal that is native to your region
- teach a child how to take a picture of backyard flowers and trees
- read a biography of a famous nature photographer, such as Ansel Adams, Philip Hyde or Roger Tory Peterson
- and, of course, join NANPA, or attend one of its regional events this year.
In memoriam: Arnold Newman
Portrait of Arnold Newman by James Cook. Cook's site also has an article, A Retrospective with Arnold Newman, that was published in 1988, fifty years after Newman began his photography career.
On June 6, Arnold Newman died of an apparent heart attack; he was 88 years old. He is survived by his wife Augusta; two sons, Eric and David; and four grandchildren.
Newman was born in 1918. In 1936, he started the University of Miami at Coral Gables with the help of scholarships, but after two years he was forced to leave for lack of money. A friend suggested he take a job in the portrait studio at Lit Bros. department store in Philadelphia, and there he learned photographic techniques by turning out 49-cent portraits by the hundreds. After work, he hung out with photography students at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts and often went with them on their assignments. A year later, lured by higher wages, he returned to Florida to manage a portrait studio, and in 1941 he opened his own studio in Miami Beach.
During the war years, he traveled to New York on occasion and met many of the leading figures in photography, among them Beaumont Newhall and Alfred Stieglitz, who included some of his images in a Museum of Modern Art exhibition. Also during those years, he became known for his portraits of artists, including Marc Chagall and Piet Mondrian. In 1945, he moved to New York and set up a studio, doing freelance photojournalism for Life, Look, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Esquire, Fortune and others.
He joined ASMP in 1946, at the urging of Eliot Elisofon and Gene Smith. In 1955, he participated in a photographers’ strike against Life, which had quietly resold a photo-essay series to the Dutton book publishing company. Some of the essays had been shot by Time-Life staffers, which meant that the company owned the rights. But the rest were the work of freelancers who had retained their copyrights. Although Time-Life agreed to pay them for the book rights, the company also demanded that all its freelancers had to sign a new contract under which the company would own all rights. They refused, and for almost a year, ten of Life’s independent photographers refused to take assignments for the magazine. Eventually, Life agreed to a contract under which photographers kept their copyrights, and the strike ended.
Newman became famous for an “environmental” style of portraiture: He took camera and lights to the subject’s home or workplace, capturing an iconic essence of the person in his or her usual surroundings. But Newman himself rejected the environmental label, pointing out that he also used impressionistic and surrealistic techniques. “The trouble with labels is they come after the fact and not before,” he said. Although Newman’s prints were often purchased by fine-art collectors, he refused to call himself an art photographer.
ASMP National Board member Jim Cavanaugh wrote, “Beyond the important principles he stood by in his professional career, his work is the quality and caliber every photographer should strive for. His work, along with a few others, led me to this profession. There is no doubt about the positive influence he had on many of us. His passing is a great loss to our community. We can take solace in the fact that the legacy of his work lives on. It is up to us as ASMP members to strive to maintain and foster the professional ethics he taught us so well.”
In 1993, ASMP historians Mimi Leipzig and Kay Reese interviewed Arnold Newman in New York; the interview transcript was published as part of ASMP’s 60th anniversary celebration. The June 7 edition of the New York Times carried an extensive recap of Newman’s life and works. The Digital Journalist site has a nice gallery of Newman’s famous portraits.
June 15 is deadline for Getty Grants
Photographers, you have until June 15 to postmark your application for a $20,000 Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography. Grant application and submission guidelines, plus additional information on previous winners, their projects and the judges can be found at www.gettyimages.com/editorial-grants. Applications must include a written proposal of 550 words or less to explain the scope, significance and journalistic merit of their chosen project, along with a supporting portfolio of between 30 and 60 images of previous work.
Getty makes five grants per year to fund, inspire and support the best global talent in photojournalism. Two recipients were named in February, and three more will be announced this September. In addition to the cash, winners have the option to sign a one-year exclusive marketing deal with Getty Images.
June 30 is deadline for IPA competition
The 2006 International Photography Awards competition is open to photographers anywhere in the world. Professionals and amateurs take part in separate contests, each with its own categories: advertising, architecture, editorial, fine art, nature, people and “special.” (Professionals also have one extra category: photography books.) The category winners are feted at the annual Lucie Awards banquet, where one amateur and one professional will be announced as the grand prize winner. Winners get cash, publication in the IPA Book, exhibition in the Farmani Gallery, and other goodies.
For complete contest information, please visit the IPA web site.
George Long garners 2006 IPC Leadership Award
The International Photographic Council (IPC), a non-governmental organization of the United Nations, celebrated “International Professional Photographers Month” by hosting the 8th annual IPC Awards Luncheon at the United Nations on May 24th. The featured speaker at the affair was Mary Jane Hellyar, senior vice president at Eastman Kodak and the president of Kodak’s Film & Photofinishing Systems Group.
George Long, president of the New Orleans/Gulf South chapter of ASMP, received a Leadership Award at the fete. Long (a scion of the famous Louisiana political family) started his career in 1973 doing broadcast television, first as a studio camera operator and then, for 13 years, as the floor manager for WWL-TV in New Orleans, doing daily news shows, commercial productions and live remote telecasts. During that time, he started a part-time photo business called Longshots, and in 1990 he decided to make photography his full-time profession. He specializes in celebrities and in fine art. He is currently developing a photo documentary called “Tending the Soul, Healing the Spirit: Life in New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina.”
Also honored at the IPC event were Barbara Bordnick (APA), Jo Alice and Tom McDonald (PPA), Anthony J. Cilento, Jr. (PSPA), Mannie Garcia (WHNPA), Rick and Deborah Ferro (WPPI). Bordnick, a sought-after lecturer and a professor at Parsons School of Photography, in 1979 became the first woman to serve as president of ASMP.
IPC honorees. Two ASMP members received IPC Leadership Awards this year. From left: George Long, president of ASMP’s New Orleans/Gulf South chapter; Eugene Mopsik, ASMP executive director; Barbara Bordnick, a past president of ASMP and this year’s APA honoree; Constance Evans, APA executive director.
Photographer accuses publisher of fraud
A freelance photographer has alleged that American Media Inc., America’s largest publisher of supermarket tabloids, fraudulently filed an insurance claim for millions of dollars worth of celebrity photographs that it did not own. The story begins in 2001, when the AMI archive in Boca Raton, Florida, was contaminated by anthrax. AMI then claimed on its insurance policy and received a $17 million settlement.
Last year, photographer Greg Mathieson, who says he owns about 1,400 of the images in the AMI collection, filed a lawsuit against AMI for the value of his images. (The matter became public in May when the judge unsealed the filings.) The suit alleges that AMI failed to protect the image archive, that it falsely included the value of his photos in its insurance claim, and that it did not pay him his share of the proceeds. The judge dismissed the claim of negligence, saying that the anthrax attack was “an unforeseeable criminal event,” but said that the other claims should be tried in court. The New York Sun has more details.