The Goal Of Tech Companies In Photography Is To Generate More

they see photography as a communication tool. Like words. A language to interpret. While professionals certainly do not ignore photography as a communication tool, they also see it as a product . The finality of a photograph, for a pro, is to sell it. The finality of a photograph, for a tech company, it to generate more. What they sell is a continuous, uninterrupted stream. They do not care about individual images, they care about scale. A photograph is only as good as it effect on other users.

via Instagram knows more about photography than you | Photo/Tech.

Nothing Can Substitute Hard Work And Caring About Your Subject

Nothing can substitute for hard work or, even more importantly, caring about one’s subject. Also, and this becomes probably more difficult as one ages and perhaps experiences less energy to be called upon when needed, one wants to try to be just a little bit better today than yesterday or last week, or last year.  It’s not one’s peers one needs to think about in terms of improving, it’s simply trying to be a little better than one was or has been. It’s not easy and it’s not in anyway guaranteed to happen. But it’s a goal one needs to pursue. It’s really competing with one’s self and being honest, to know if the work is up to par or maybe not.

via reFramed: In conversation with photographer William Albert Allard – Framework – Los Angeles Times.

Failure Must Become An Essential Part Of All Our Work

there are very few photographers who are so securely established that they can afford not to experiment in order to adapt to the new rules

failure must become an essential part of all our work; if you’re not failing it means you’re working in a comfort zone and as the visual world changes at breakneck speed, to live in a comfort zone is itself a failure! However, don’t bet the ranch on any single experiment: try many things and be prepared to fail often but in little ways

via Photo Expert Stephen Mayes on the Changing Future of Photography.

The Selfie heard all around the world

If any one needed a confirmation of where photography is heading, last night was a prime example. Relegated to taking full length fashion shots behind barricades, or shooting the stage from a balcony, pro photographers were by far outclassed by attendees taking and publishing their own images using their cell phones. They could only watch as publications worldwide went to twitter to find and publish the best images. If it wasn’t for the glamour aspect of having rows of Tuxedo dressed photographers continuously flashing the red carpet as celebrities bathe in the sweet flow of mass admiration, it is probable that the Academy would dismissed them all and let the participants photograph the event. After all, they make no money from the pictures taken and it does cost a lot to organize their presence.

via The Selfie heard all around the world | Thoughts of a Bohemian.

I Like The Composition Of A Picture More Than I Like The Subject

“I would take a street photograph if I happened to have the right camera at the right moment but I almost never do. I have nothing against reportage. People have accused me of being afraid of doing it. And, I figure, that’s probably true.“But it’s also to do with composition. I like the composition of a picture, the dance of colours and shapes across it, more than I like the subject. I love whatever subject I’m working on at the time because it’s taking me into the picture. When I’m done with the picture, I’m probably done with the subject. Some might say that’s a bit hostile and bit detached. But I go with my impulses and it seems that the art of composition is a great art.”

via New artistic directions for photographer Jeff Wall in Amsterdam – FT.com.

Empowering Photographers to Embrace an Uncertain Future

This digital environment has created whole new ways in which we can interact. And we need to be stimulated to do that, inspired to do that. We need to look at new models that do it in ways we haven’t even imagined before.

We know the community has felt stuck in some ways, threatened in others, because of limited economic resources. This field is not being supported in the way that we desperately need for photography to continue to connect us in a world that is fractured and that we need to understand better.

It is incredibly important to not feel disempowered but to feel re-empowered.

via NYTimes Lens Blog.

Sometimes You Get The Feeling That A Lot Of People Involved In Photography Don’t Really Like Photography

The emphasis is on looking, on touching and taking pleasure in photography and I wonder if this is not part of a shift in photography into something a little more pleasurable than some of the hairshirt attitudes alive and kicking in photography.

Sometimes you get the feeling that a lot of people involved in photography don’t really like photography or even looking at pictures (Susie Linfield wrote a book on this). To make a cooking analogy, it would be as if a food critic was only interested in the nutritional values or the source of the ingredients and was not at all interested in the taste, the smell or the texture of the food.

via Colin Pantall’s blog: Escape from the Taliban and the World Press Photo.

John Stanmeyer Found His World Press Winning Image By Getting Lost In A Place He’d Never Been Before

after a month traveling overland from a small village in Ethiopia, I arrived in Djibouti City. On my second day in the capital, I did what I often do when in a place I’ve never been before — walk about in the natural process of getting lost. While meandering along the beach, I came upon a group of people at dusk, all standing at different spots along the shoreline holding up their phones, some talking on them, others waving them in the air or just standing motionless.

via PROOF.

If You Push Your Artifice Further And Further There’s No Escaping The Dead End

Crewdson, just like Andreas Gursky, eventually pushed his artifice to the ultimate extreme, where in the end there was only artifice left. There isn’t much left to admire in his last massive Hollywood-style productions other than the very production itself, and the artist might have realized as much, going off to Italy to photograph cinema sets. In much the same way, Gursky pushed his God-like views of contemporary life further and further out, until he presented us with images of oceans, photographed from outer space, a pointless artifice that had me cringe when I saw it in person…

via Conscientious Photography Magazine.

By analog standards, today’s Olympic photo agencies are plowing through nearly 28,000 rolls apiece

The second a photographer fires the shutter on a camera, the resulting image—a high quality JPEG, not RAW—is transported by ethernet to Getty’s central editing office in about 1.5 seconds. There, a team of three editors processes the photo. The first selects the best image and crops it for composition; the second editor color corrects; and the third adds metadata. The whole editing process is done in 30-40 seconds. Once the last editor is done, the image is blasted to the world. It takes about 90 seconds for the images to travel over redundant 100 Mbit/s dedicated lines to Getty’s data servers in the the United States.

via Gizmodo.

John Stanmeyer, 2013 World Press Photo of the Year

SIGNAL
26 February 2013

African migrants on the shore of Djibouti city at night, raising their phones in an attempt to capture an inexpensive signal from neighboring Somalia—a tenuous link to relatives abroad. Djibouti is a common stop-off point for migrants in transit from such countries as Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, seeking a better life in Europe and the Middle East.

via, World Press Photo