Hiroshi Sugimoto’s No Cash Deal With U2
Bono confessed that he loved Sugimoto’s seascape photographs and began quizzing the artist about the work.
“He started taking notes as I talked,” Sugimoto recalled. Those notes became the foundation for the new album’s title track. Last year, during a visit to Dublin, Sugimoto heard the first demo tape, and a few months later was told by Bono that U2 wanted to use the Boden Sea image on the album jacket.
“I said, ‘Are you sure? If you use it you won’t be able to put anything on top of it, not even the U2 name,” the artist remembered.
He was surprised when Bono strongly agreed. Rolling Stone is now calling the text-free jacket “an early front runner for album cover of the year.” (The cover also features an equal sign, but it is attached to the plastic wrapper, so it disappears once opened it.) Then came talk of money.
“I gave myself just a second to think about it,” Sugimoto recalled, “and I said ‘How about a Stone Age deal — no cash?’ ”
Bono agreed on an “artist-to-artist” barter whereby Sugimoto could use the “No Line on the Horizon” song in any project he wanted in the future. Sugimoto says he still hasn’t made up his mind about how to use the song — which he says he likes, but liked even better in its “more hard rock” demo stage.
— From a story over on The Japan Times Online sent to me by Ellis Vener.
1000 Votes Can Get You A Shot At $50,000 To Shoot A Story
This Name Your Dream Assignment contest is pretty interesting and has been written about quite a bit. The biggest problem with the concept is that you can’t see the portfolio of the photographer to decide if you want to vote on their idea. As we all know a good idea is one thing pulling it off with pictures is a whole different ballgame. I was thinking we could fix that and if some of you have ideas posted over there you could drop a link in the comments and then a link to your portfolio as well. I will move them up here to make a list, so we can all go vote to try to get some of our fellow photographers into the final consideration (top 20 vote earners will be judged).
I will start off with my friend Ace Kvale who has this project submitted:
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/acekvale/shattered-dreams-the-world-of-child-labor/
His portfolio can be seen here:
http://acekvale.com/
I know he can pull off something great. I sent him once to shoot the cataract eye clinic in the Himalaya and he did an amazing job. I also like the part about him touring with the work to teach kids about child labor. This is a really good assignment for Ace.
The contest ends at midnight tonight EST so lets get voting if we want to send people to the finals.
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/imaclellan/simple-innovation-as-the-power-to-change-the-developing-world/
And portfolios: http://maclellanimages.com/blog1/galleries/
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/chadmcclarnon/
And a link to my web portfolio – http://www.cwmphoto.com
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/stevenlaxton/effects-of-war-in-cambodia/
And my website: http://www.stevenlaxton.com
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/stevesimon1/the-grandmother-spirit/
You can see some preliminary work on my website under Projects @
http://www.stevesimonphoto.com
sergegiachetti.com
look under ‘young blackfoot’ in the projects section to see the work I’ve done thus far.
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/andrewsullivan/the-forgotten-plague/
And here’s my book: http://www.andrew-sullivan.com
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/jamjon/bouldering-taking-climbing-to-a-new-place/
And if you scroll down in the blog you can see some recent shots in the same line:
http://www.photographyri.com/index.php
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/careykirkella/americas-visionary-changemakers/
One Goat at a Time: Showing the Heifer Project Change Lives & Better the World
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/dpm888/the-labor-of-children/
http://www.davidpaulmorris.com –> Stories –> Payatas Dumpsite – child labor
Mine is a dream about empowering real people, facing the realities of climate change to document their own stories and share with the world.
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/Nickhallphoto/i-see-climate-change/
My website:
VII Mentor Program
The VIIMENTOR PROGRAM (here), a new initiative conceived by VII Members, seeks to provide professional development for emerging photographers whom the Members consider to be the brightest new talents in the industry. After being nominated by a VII Member, each selected photographer will work with a senior member of VII for two years to build and polish necessary skills and to expand his or her own professional practice.
©Agnes Dherbeys VII Mentor Program
Discover and Cultivate Talent
The winners of the Hearst 8×10 Photography Biennial were recently announced (here). I was struck by how novel it seemed for a company like Hearst who publishes magazines like; Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Harper’s BAZAAR, Marie Claire, O, Popular Mechanics and Town & Country to hold a contest that “is an international competition to identify and promote new and emerging photographers” where they think the winners are “rising stars who will play an important role in the future of magazines, media, the Web and the worlds of design and photography.”
It used to be an open secret that one of the most profitable names in the television industry, HBO, went to great lengths to discover, develop and take chances on unknown talent. Many of their biggest hits came from unknown writers they took chances on (here) or discovered through one of their contests.
So, why don’t magazines do the same? Besides the obvious lack of vision at the top of most publication it’s likely because they don’t realize their future depends on finding talented people and attracting them to magazines over other mediums. The history of magazines is littered with ultra talented writers, photographers, designers and editors and somehow I think in the last 10 or more years many of these people may have gone into advertising instead and now with all the potential on the web who knows if they will find their way into the magazine industry.
I once worked at a magazine that built their reputation with a handful of extremely talented writers who all eventually moved on. I often wondered how they planned to find the next group of talented writers who would define the next phase of the magazine. Now that I think about it, talent scouting might have done the job. This Hearst Biennial seems like a good step in that direction for photography.
The winning photographers are:
Andy Freeberg
Louie Palu
Benedikt Partenheimer
Brad Carlile
Edith Maybin
Nicholas Prior
Mark Kessell
The American Craftsmen Project
This personal project shot by Tadd Myers seems pitch perfect for the economy right now. Photographs of people who make things one at a time by hand (visit here).
Can Design Save Newspapers?
Jacek Utko is an extraordinary Polish newspaper designer whose redesigns for papers in Eastern Europe not only win awards, but increase circulation by up to 100%. Can good design save the newspaper? It just might.
Thanks, Luke.
Life.com Launches
The new Life.com just launched and it’s worth a visit to go peruse some great old photography. I think they’re planning on simply using it as a portal to sell Getty images, but it’s nice that they put a decent user interface on it and created edited material to check out.
This is from the press release:
“More than 7 million photos from the Life and Getty Images photo collections are now available to consumers in the largest online photography site. The curated site features both rarely seen and iconic photos from the 1850s through today. More than 3,000 new photos from Getty Images award-winning photographers will be added to the site daily.”
To Be Truly Great
To be truly great, we have to understand the motivation of our clients, maintain constant two-way communication with shockingly uncreative people, get a firm handle on copywriting and how that craft exists symbiotically with the visual element, and foresee how the finished whole will be greater than the sum of the bits and pieces we spent hours obsessing over. All of these factors cascade into the final product. — Kevin Potts
via Quotes on Design.
Something To Prove Again
At some point we will arrive at the place where magazines have something to prove again. Maybe they will be owned again by brash men and women who want to electrify their readers or maybe the owners will need to pad their ego before their pocketbook or maybe they will need to prove the power of type, pictures and design on the printed page.
When I saw these old Rolling Stone pages (here) I thought how exciting it must have felt to ship that issue to the printer; a cover with one coverline, pages with no text and a photographer in his prime.
UPDATE: I just heard from Elizabeth Avedon who was working for Richard at the time as the resident Designer, Art Director, Photo Editor and she designed that issue of Rolling Stone including the cover. She says, “It was designed in-house at Richard Avedon Studio, as was everything of Richard Avedon’s as he always retained control of what went out. ”
Magazine pages via, Things To Look At
AIG and US Airways Seek to Cover Up Flight 1549 Recovery Photos
Story over on The Online Photographer about those fantastic Stephen Mallon photos of the plane recovery out of the river where he’s been delivered a cease and desist from a law firm working for AIG to prevent him from publishing the images on his website.
thanks Tricia
The Value of Personal Work
“Personal work is really, really important… because we want to see how the photographer sees”
Kat Dalager, Head of Print Production, Campbell Mithun.
Found it on, Humble Monkey Productions.
Is C-Registry.us A Copyright Registry Scam?
John Harrington has done the leg work to check out c-registry.us and discovers some nefarious marketing and language that would potentially make them an agent for your work.
“According to c-registry, photographers who fail to “claim” their copyright at c-registry do so at their own peril. While you should register your copyright, this is alarmist marketing, but it gets worse.”
Selling Meteors To Dinosaurs
What Advertising Agencies Spend for Awards
In all, there were 9,795 entries for the ad awards, at a total cost to the agencies of $3,507,860. The average cost of an entry was $358. The database does not account for the interactive or design entries to the One Show, just the advertising entries. Last year the One Show had 26,000 entries from 60 countries. Based on the average price for an entry, the One Show received about $10 million in entry fees, though the organization said the figure was far lower.
“The erroneous e-mail was an unfortunate mistake made by a junior member of our staff,” Mary Warlick, CEO of the One Club, told Ad Age. “The e-mail is not a current database and does not include accurate information.” Ms. Warlick further noted that the One Club is a nonprofit organization. “Any of the agencies that enter the One Club [awards show] realize that their entry fees support the industry.”
Hungriest for medals
BBDO seems to be by far the hungriest for medals. The network’s Brazilian office, Almap BBDO, had the most submissions according to the document, with 156. The second-most entries? That’d be another BBDO office, BBDO, New York, with 146 submissions.
Thanks, Russell.
The future is bright. But the present is apocalyptic
Chicken Little, don your hardhat. Nudged by recession, doom has arrived.
APA’s Stephen Best on Omnicom’s “Pass The Buck” Fiasco
I received the following from Stephen Best, APA National CEO on March 21, 2009.
APA on Omnicom statement…“our policy has not changed”
The last week has seen ever-increasing concern and anger in the advertising community concerning a change in the way the Omnicom Group and it’s subsidiaries conduct business between Omnicom subsidiaries and suppliers. Advertising Photographers of America (APA) reached out for comment from the Omnicom Group about the crises. With the Omnicom Group being the world’s largest advertising holding company, a change in terms and conditions affects the advertising community on so many levels. The policy of concern is called Sequential Liability. Sequential Liability simply means that the agency only pays the suppliers after it has been paid.
Quoted from The Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) published guidelines dealing with this trend:
“Certain agencies have inserted a Sequential Liability clause in their contracts. Others have added a side letter to be signed by the production company. Still other agency contracts do not overtly refer to Sequential Liability as being in effect, but do refer to the agency “acting as agent for” (the advertiser), which suggests the same thing.
If the agency is requesting the recognitions of a “principal-agent” relationship, then the client (principal) should not be released from the obligation of payment until total payment is made to the production company. It should be clarified that even if the client pays the agency, the client remains liable if the agent defaults in fulfilling the payment obligation.
Sequential Liability means that the agency as agent for its principal, the advertiser, is liable for payment to the production company only if the advertiser has paid the agency; otherwise the advertiser is directly responsible for the payment.”
On Friday, March 20, 2009, at 11:47 AM, APA spoke with Pat Sloan, Omnicom Director of Public Relations, to express the concerns of APA and others to the opposition of this policy. APA members are not able to finance major advertising projects and these terms and conditions are not acceptable. Director Sloan’s statement is that there has been no change to their policy on this matter.
Sequential Liability has been policy in the industry for many years. The reality is that advertising agencies, many are Omnicom’s subsidiaries, have provided advances and credit to production companies and photographers to begin awarded projects with substantial expense. “Business as usual” must continue was stated to Director Sloan. APA members, independent photographers and small business owners, are not in a position to finance commercial projects of possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars.
APA business practices have long promoted the inclusion of “statements of intent” to receive 50% to 100% of expenses before the start of a job. It is imperative that this practice continues without removal of advances by clients. Photographers should also include that the photographer owns the copyright and any license agreement must be paid before the release of images.
As creators of intellectual property, photographers hold the copyright on their images. It is imperative that registration of images be immediately submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright law and licensing agreements with your clients provide you strong legal protection. APA recommends legal action only as a last resort but registration is needed to recover statutory damages and legal fees.
We must stand together and confront these terms and conditions because they are not in the best interest of photographers and their community of support. If only one accepts them, it will cascade and the role of advertising photographer will change to one of being a financial institution or bank for clients. We must not go down that heavily liable road.
The Omnicom Director of PR did promise to recommend a meeting to discuss these matters. It is APA’s hope that a meeting will be arranged and discussions will continue to a successful resolution.
As previously stated, BE CAUTIOUS and don’t be afraid to walk away. We must stand together.
Stephen Best
APA National CEO
Friday Roundup- Quotes From The Last Couple Weeks
In their book, How not to Write a novel, Newman and Mittelmark say that there are lots of books on how to write a novel, but none on how not to write a novel. With their blessed sarcasm, they say “…if reading Stephen King on writing really did the trick, we would all by now be writing engrossing vernacular novels that got on the bestseller lists.” Which isn’t the case, so Newman and Mittelmark decided to provide the service of offering observations on how not to write a novel.
It’s the same with photography. There are loads of books on how to photograph. They will tell you how to use long exposures, how to be creative using fancy things like multiple exposures (double the exposure and double the meaning), how large format will really bring out the detail, and so on and so on. In other words, the simple functional How to… books of photography pretty much cover the heady world of art photography from top to bottomus.
It’s simple stuff, but simple is good, especially in photography, which is basically a monkey art.
[from a new series on Colin’s blog called How Not To Photograph, each post is great]
via Colin Pantall’s blog.
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“If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?” To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the internet just broke.
That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place.
via Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky.
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the most a portrait photographer can hope for is to make a portrait that reflects where the sitter is with the photographer.
Steve Pyke on Conscientious
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one of the goals behind developing Google’s Chrome browser is to “make the web as fast as turning the page in a magazine.” That is still one advantage paper has over the Web: zero load times.
Marissa Mayer is the vice president of search products and user experience at Google
Marissa Mayer: …you’ll be able to say give Google an image and say find other images like this or find me images of a monkey, those types of things.
Charlie Rose: When will it happen?
Marissa Mayer: … I think the vision will probably happen in more than a 10-year timeframe, maybe 15. Those are of course guesses just off the top of my head…
via TechCrunch.
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Once the economy revives, however, a panel of Wall Streeters predicted it will be up, up and away for M&A. [Media and Advertising]
“All companies are tightening their belts … they are sitting on a lot of cash. So at one point M&A will come back,” said Jonathan Miller, co-founder of investment fund Velocity Interactive Group and a former chairman of AOL.
via Media biz in coin catch – Entertainment News, Business News, Media – Variety.