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The Daily Edit – Monday
This Week In Photography Books
Three raccoons turned up dead here on the farm in the last few months. Most likely the dogs got them, though I suppose it could have been the coyotes. Coons are surprisingly big, and unfortunately the first was in the early stage of decomposition near where some friends set up a campsite earlier this summer. It made for a pungent evening, and for that I’ve already apologized. Co-incidentally, I got to take a look at a new book, recently released, called “More Cooning with Cooners,” published by the Archive of Modern Conflict in London, edition 500. They gray hardback, (with a black stripe across it like a raccoon’s face) is a collection of images from the mid-60’s, taken by an anonymous American hunter/photographer. It’s a little race of a narrative through a subculture of corn-cob-pipe-smoking, tough looking dudes who hunt raccoons with dogs, and collect the pelts for pleasure, (and presumably the marketplace.) If I had to guess, I’d say this book was published as the equivalent of an ironic mustache, but I don’t care. It’s funny, fascinating, and manages to capture the spirit of a little world that would be otherwise opaque, and lost to time. Of course, if the dogs keep bringing down the coons out here, I might be tempted to start grabbing some pelts myself.
Bottom line: Ironically awesome
Visit Photo-Eye to purchase “More Cooning with Cooners”.
Last year, I reviewed a show of Michael Wolf photographs at Bruce Silverstein in New York. The exhibition was broad, and included many a large-scale mega-print, but I was most interested in some small images of Tokyo metro-riders, their faces squished up against the window-glass like an inverted version of pressed ham. The photos are both voyeuristic and intimate, which is no small feat. As a man who left New York partly because my soul was slowly erased by too many hours spent underground, (watching the rats copulate), I relate to something primal in these photographs. But they’re also fantastic as a method of resuscitating portraiture, because you really haven’t seen a group of pictures just like this before. Needless to say, the photos have re-surfaced, in the proper small scale, as a book called “Tokyo Compression Revisited,” published by Asia One and Peperoni Books. The plates are meditative and absurd at the same time, which is a terrific mix. And the back cover features a dude giving the finger to the photographer, which must have happened more than once, right? Think about it. You’re squeezed from all sides by strangers, some salary-man has his armpit smushed up inside your nostrils, and then you look out the window at some gaijin photographer documenting your misery? You’d give him the finger too.
Bottom line: Spot on
Visit Photo-Eye to purchase “Tokyo Compression Revisited”.
Capitalism is built upon the premise of forward progress and growth. And yet, one of the great clichés we have is “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” That’s quite the conundrum. Fortunately, the artist Simon Norfolk had the brilliant idea of visiting one of planet Earth’s most recalcitrant places, and at the same time, revisiting a previous photographic vision of a mythic backwater: Afghanistan. “Burke + Norfolk” is a large, navy and gold colored hardcover that was recently released in conjunction with an exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, published by Dewi Lewis. First off, I’ve rarely seen an artist work with both color and black and white with equal facility. The contemporary color photos of Afghanistan are striking. But the gem, for me, is the repeated juxtaposition of John Burke’s historical group portraits and cultural landscapes with contemporary images presented in the same faded, weathered style. Rare is the artist that plays with our temporal expectations this well, and in so doing, passes along a strong message: We don’t have things figured out any more than we did a hundred years ago. Societies, and Empires in particular, keep making the same mistakes over and over again. I hope we’ll keep that in mind the next time some asshole like Dick Cheney suggests we invade Iran, or North Korea, or Venezuela, or Mars. Most likely, somewhere with oil.
Bottom line: Innovative
Visit Photo-Eye to purchase “Burke + Norfolk”.
Full Disclosure: Books and scans were provided by Photo-Eye in exchange for links back for purchase. Please support Photo-Eye if you find this new feature useful.
why we should be hopeful in this media moment
I’m optimistic because the shift to digital is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink media business models. Once rich content can be distributed globally at virtually no cost on platforms that have billing relationships already established (iOS, Android, Kindle, etc.), we can experiment wildly with who pays and how much.
Chris Anderson, EIC at Wired via Advertising Age.
The Daily Edit – Friday
10.7.11
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The Red Bulletin
Design: Erik Turek
Photo Editors: Susie Forman, (Chief) Fritz Schuster
Photographer: Dorothy Hong
Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted.The 2011 Magazine A-List
Here’s the annual Advertising Age list of hot magazines for 2011:
No. 10: The Economist
“increased its paid subscriptions another 5% in the first half and grew total paid circulation 3%”
No. 9: This Old House
“custom video series for Walmart, Home Depot and Jim Beam helped increased digital revenue 25% year over year”.
No. 8: The New Yorker
“single-copy sales rose 1.2%, despite a $1 price hike”
No. 7: National Geographic
“Newsstand is up 5%; ad pages are up 14%”
No. 6: Monocle
“Revenue is rising; profitability arrived last year”
No. 5: Vanity Fair
“99% of Vanity Fair’s subscriptions are paid for directly by the subscriber”
No. 4: Garden & Gun
“ad-page growth on a tear, circulation still climbing and a National Magazine Award for General Excellence”
No. 3: Food Network Magazine
“ad pages through October surged 13.8%”
No. 2: Time
“16.1% newsstand gain”
The Magazine of the Year: Vogue
“increased its January-to-October ad pages more than 9% — to 2,125”
The Editor of the Year: Tyler Brule, editor in chief and chairman, Monocle magazine
“Monocle charts the media trend that’s e-free, profitable and going global.”
The Publisher of the Year: Kim Kelleher, worldwide publisher, Time
If you could go back 10 years, what advice would you give yourself?
The Daily Edit – Thursday 10.6.11
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Entrepreneur
Design Director: Richard R. Olson
Creative Director: Megan Roy
Assistant Art Director: Corey Hollister
Photographer: David Johnson
Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted.
Law Firm Going After Photographers Shooting In CA
A California law firm is using an often ignored part of CA labor law to go after photographers, producers and advertising agencies. On the website for the Muse Law Group under the heading Model Rights they state that:
Under California Law, actors, as well as print and commercial models are considered employees, which means they are protected under the same labor laws as any other employees. Yet the entertainment industry frequently treats the talent differently from other employees, or does not treat the talent as employees at all, routinely violating California’s wage laws. For example, in California, actors must be paid on the first pay period following the completion of the actor’s work; and print models must be paid on the last day of the shoot, even if the work lasts only one day.
They go on to say that failing to pay on the last day of employment results in a penalty equal to the average daily wage times the number of days it took to be paid with a maximum penalty of 30 days. In other words, a model you paid $1000 for 1 day of work, but waited 31 or more days to pay could be owed $30,000.
From what I understand the labor code they cite, California state labor code section 200-243, was created to protect migrant workers who are often hired and then released/fired. Seems reasonable except most businesses working with vendors and talent usually pay in 30 days (absurdly longer if you’re a magazine). I’ve been told by several sources that the law firm has sent out demand letters and there’s a rumor they are posting on forums like model mayhem to attract clients.
The California APA sent an email out to its members last night explaining what is happening and advising them that according to a lawyer they spoke with, to the best of their knowledge, there has been no legal decision made on the argument the demand letters are making. The firm is hoping to settle, which is also indicated on their website where they say “We settle 95% of our cases without the need for court intervention.”
The CA APA goes on to say that you should contact a lawyer if you have been threatened with a claim. They also note that with talent that is represented by an agency the payment must go to the agency where there is a 30 day re-disbursement of funds. Apparently the real danger is non agency represented talent who must be paid at the end of their shoot under CA labor law. Obviously, talent agencies that want to continue their relationship with photographers, producers and agencies are not going to do much about this, so I believe the real danger is with un-represented talent.
The Most Important Part Of My Business
This is why I became a photographer in the first place, to create a beautiful artifact, the print.
Rodney Smith, The End Starts Here.
The Daily Edit – Wednesday
10.5.11
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Bike
Photo Editor: David Reddick
Art Director: Shaun N. Bernadou
Photographer: Jordan Manley
Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted.Heidi: Did you propose this photo essay to the magazine or did they come to you as you are a regular contributor with them?
The images in the essay were actually part of a 3 day photo competition called ” Saint Deep Summer Photo Challenge” that is put on by Saint (Shimano) and the Whistler Bike Park. It is a competition modeled off of Whistler Blackcomb’s “Deep Winter” photo challenge that has been running for the last 5 years – I’ve participated in that winter event 3 times. The idea (for both events) is that 6 invited photographers go out and capture imagery over the period of the same 3 days, with one or more athletes. Then, the teams have to put together a slide show of the images for a crowd of about 700-1000 people in Whistler. A winner is judged by a panel of 5 judges.
Anyways, I’ve participated in a bunch of these kinds of events over the last several years, and always feel that the way to create a strong slideshow is to tell a story, and build a theme with the images – not simply stack together 3-5 minutes of action imagery. Prior to the competition I was thinking about themes that celebrated both the Whistler Bike Park (one of the necessary pieces of criteria) but told a story about people who work there. It occurred to me that the Bike Park trail crew seemed are a group of unsung heroes. Thousands of people rattle down the trails every day from May to October, and the creativity and hard work that the trail crew do to keep smiles on people’s faces largely goes uncelebrated.
Did you spend a full day with the crew?
I spent really only an early morning with the crew, starting at 7am at 711 where they grab their coffee and then drove up through the Bike Park with them and hung around while they did different work on different parts of the mountain. I was there until I think 10am when the park opens for the day.
How much did you shoot and was the edit hard?
I shot quite a bit, but the most time consuming images didn’t end up running in the Bike story. Those were point-of-view ones, where I mounted my camera to the hand tools, and did some digging myself to capture some blurred tools moving through the dirt – those were some of my favourites. Also I strapped a camera on some of the heavy equipment while it articulated. The edit was not too difficult.
I like the hand shot, did that direction come from the magazine? Did they ask you for details and scale shift in the images?
The hand shot if I remember correctly might have been spurred by what one of the guys said to me about his co-worker’s hands. I always try to donate a good chunk of time on any given shoot to the details. I think details can really aid in illuminating something about the larger story that I’m attempting to tell.
So, in short, there was no direction from the magazine. I have done 5-7 assignments for David Reddick who is the photo editor at both Bike Magazine and Powder, and I am a Senior Photographer at both. Most of the time I am assigned stories that I haven’t had part in pitching, though I pitched this essay after the fact to him. I thought the images were relavent since the Whistler Mountain Bike Park is the most famous of it’s kind in the world – it has quickly become a mecca of mechanized mountain biking, and the trail system there is a big part of that success.
What is your riding to shooting ratio?
I think I do a lot more mountain biking than I do shooting mountain biking. Ski photography occupies much more of my time through the year, and my ratio of shooting to skiing is tipped more towards shooting – but saying that, shooting both biking and skiing almost always involve being on the bike or skis to shoot.
Saul Bass: On Making Money vs Quality Work
via, AdAged.
The Daily Edit – Tuesday
10.4.11
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Cosmopolitan
Design Director: Ann P. Kwong
Art Director: John Lanuza
Photography Director: Liane Radel
Photographer:Matt Jones
Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted.I’m done spending time creating content for free
I should have been on the phone continuing to make calls to prospective clients. I should have been working on the two book projects I have in front of me. I should have been swimming or running. But instead I was writing a piece about a $499 camera that will be obsolete in a few months and lost to nearly everyone’s memory in a year.
I’m Making Pictures That Surprise Me
For a little while I was exhausted. Tumblr, Facebook, Flickr and so on. … I felt like I was drowning in images. As a consequence, even work outside of that digital stream – the work I was seeing in books and exhibitions – started looking all of the same. More important, my own pictures started feeling the same. I was burned out. So I started experimenting. I made little videos and used disposable cameras. I played. I stopped making big, formal, large-format pictures.
–Alec Soth
via NYTimes.com.
The Daily Edit – Monday
10.3.11
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Out
Creative Director: Nick Vogelson
Photography Director: Annie Chia
Photographer: David Needleman
Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted.Heidi: Shooting groups of people is always hard because there has to be a common energy. Was that hard to create with these three?
David: Well, actually – that part was very exciting for me. I photographed Alexander in
New York, and Ryan and Dustin in Los Angeles, so maintaining that sense of
continuity of dynamic throughout both photo shoots, and knowing they’d
ultimately have to come together effortlessly and seamlessly, made the process a
very inspiring challenge with regards to recreating that common sense of energy
from one session to the next within each picture.
What were you asking Alexander or what has happening at that moment you took
his portrait. I love that image, you captured a beautiful person.
Firstly, thank you. I’m not sure if it was something I said. It’s hard to articulate,
but it was almost like a perfect moment between Alexander and myself. Perhaps, a
result of him letting his guard down and trusting me during that experience.
Did they accept you right away? Or was there a warming up period.
I feel there’s always a warming up period when photographing someone you don’t
really know and have never met before, but I think they did accept me right away.
Must say, on a rather fundamental and relatable level, I definitely felt very
comfortable with them from the start.
Did you know them already? How did you get this job?
I initially met the great team at OUT about 4 years ago, but it wasn’t until recently
once I connected with my new amazing agent, did all the pieces come together for
this assignment.
This is very non-conceptual shoot, did you have any concepts that didn’t fly? What
exactly was the assignment?
The concept was to photograph portraits of three powerfully influential
tastemakers of our time. It was important to maintain their integrity,
individualism, and presence within the imagery. I think I did it.
Your set is minimal. Describe the energy, was there music?
Yes, there was music, always. Before anything else, I want to make my subjects
feel really comfortable. I know it’s not easy for everyone to have their portrait
taken, but I believe it’s a matter of gaining their trust, and creating a mutual sense
of understanding and respect for each other. Once I accomplish that, the rest
inevitably comes together well.
Were they hard to direct?
No, not at all. All three guys were such a pleasure, I loved working with them!
Did you shoot all of this and color and then convert to B/W?
Yes, I did. But, with the full prior intent of doing so.
Did you specifically choose that color palette for the clothes so the cover lines would read?
We wanted to keep the wardrobe pretty closely connected to their actual personal
style, but like everything else involved, it was a collaboration in all aspects of the
project. So yes, the color palette was certainly taken into consideration.
Who was the stylist? Was there any?
Yes, we worked with Brent Coover in New York, and Neil Rodgers in LA. Both
were fantastic to work with.
What was your perspective and/or feelings on being presented with this particular
assignment in the first place?
I’ve always had the utmost respect for Out, and have wanted to work with them
ever since I can remember. Though, this particular assignment was probably one
of the most identifiable and meaningful projects I’ve ever been commissioned.
Being 33 years old, a New Yorker, and gay, I think it’s a really exciting time to be
alive with the propulsion of gay equality in our society. That being said, from
every element involved, and on every possible level, this project felt incredibly
relevant. For that reason, I couldn’t be happier.
This Week In Photography Books
If you’ve read any of my travelogue/art criticism articles on APE, you’re aware of my willingness to speak frankly and critically about photography on the wall. This feature, though, is a little different. Our goal is to highlight some cool and interesting books that have been recently released out into the wild. So consider anything you see below to be recommended for purchase.
Ed Panar’s “Same Difference” was recently released by Gottlund Verlag, in an edition of 100. It’s an orange and brown colored hardcover monograph, and the color scheme evokes a fall day in the Pocono mountains. (I believe the publisher and artist both have ties to PA.) I probably have a soft spot for this work, given that I shot many a similar image when I lived in San Francisco, back in the day. (Cracked sidewalks, geometric patterns on a Mission St Victorian.) It’s a long collection of seemingly random moments, shot in the seemingly random travels of the 21st Century hipster artist. Individually, they give the sense that anyone could have grabbed a shot here or there after a long night of boozing, or a long day of wandering around the neighborhood. (When you don’t have a real job.) Collectively, they draw one’s attention to the infinite varieties of abstraction and emotion embedded in the every day, and resonate that endorphin-rich feeling we all get, occasionally, when we feel like we’re living in a Wim Wenders movie. Each double-paged spread becomes a diptych, and the juxtapositions are thoughtful. “Same Difference” is a great example of why the book can become the work of art, as opposed to the individual image.
Bottom line: Well-seen
Visit Photo-Eye To Purchase “Same Difference”.
Rinko Kawauchi’s “Illuminance” is a hardcover monograph, by Aperture, that manages to glow in a manner suggested by the title. The spine is separated from the book, which is a little quirky, but the inside of the cover is more easily seen this way, and it introduces the trippy, day-glow, space-age palette that one finds within the plates. Nice touch. Not unlike Mr. Panar’s aforementioned book, “Illuminance” is a collection of seemingly disconnected images. But it differs distinctly, as these images are anything but random and dry. Page after page, the photographs scream “art,” with light, and color, dynamic compositions, and the impact of surprise. The kaleidoscopic pinks and purples, black cats and costume jewelry, desert wanderers and dead bugs, and of course the requisite light cascading through cherry blossoms. Ultimately, she builds a cohesive vision through the narrative. Symbols begin to repeat, and colors emphasize their meaning. The folks at photo-eye told me that Ms. Kawauchi has a huge following and her books always sell well. I can understand why.
Bottom line: Gorgeous.
Visit Photo-Eye To Purchase “Illuminance”.
Like the fall bible of a fashion magazine, “Der Rote Bulli”, published by NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, takes its time getting to the good stuff. Plates begin on page 93, and many of you will probably not bother reading the voluminous text that precedes it. I believe the gist is that the wave of German photography that took over the photo world found it’s inspiration in the work of Stephen Shore and his fellow “New Topo” colleagues. I’m guessing we already knew that. But what the sturdy hardcover offering lacks in innovation, it more than makes up with a terrific collection of high-level reproductions of so much important work. All the usual suspects are well-represented (Shore, the Bechers, Ruff, Struth, Gursky, Höfer, Esser), but there are some nice discoveries as well. Andi Brenner’s portraits of package-hugging, speedo-wearing swimmers set against the tackiest 70’s wallpaper you’ve ever seen…awesome. I’d say this is a must-have for anyone who loves the German aesthetic, (replete with ironic representations of the American West.)
Bottom line: Classic photographs, well-constructed
Visit Photo-Eye To Purchase “Der Rote Bulli”.
Full Disclosure: Books and scans were provided by Photo-Eye in exchange for links back for purchase. Please support Photo-Eye if you find this new feature useful.
The Daily Edit – Friday
9.30.11
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Allure
Creative Director: Paul Cavaco
Design Director: Deanna Filippo
Photo Director: Nadine McCarthy
Photographer: Carter Smith
Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted.The Art Producers Photographer List, Now Online
For the past year Art Producer Jenny Barnes has been cataloging her favorite photographers on her posterous site (blog) http://jenren.com. A reader sent it to me recently and I immediately wanted to post it, because I knew other AB’s, PE’s, AD’s etc. would not only find it useful, but possibly they would be inspired to start their own. I’m surprised more of these don’t exist, blogs make it easy to categorize and find things. I decided to ask Jenny a couple questions about it.
APE: Tell me a little bit about yourself?
Jennifer: I hold a BFA in media arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and have also studied graphic design. I worked for many years in the commercial photography industry and later moved agency side. I currently work full-time at an advertising agency as an art producer. I live outside Minneapolis with my husband, three kids and two dogs.
Tell me why you started the project?
Research is my favorite part of working as an art producer. There are so many talented artists and when the right job comes up, I want to be able to find them. Over the years I focused on bookmarks, printed promos, picture archives and then a database that held pictures. The database was too big and kept crashing, so I had to delete the images. This is the best system I can pull together at this time to keep track of the artists. The categories and the quick view into the artist portfolio work pretty well. Now, I just need to keep adding artist’s work to the site.
Talk to me about categorizing photographers, how important is it that
you can find a category for someone so you can recall them later?
Categories are extremely important. They are a quick way to organize a large body of work and a large number of artists. It’s subjective and not an exact science. Having the artist defined in a category helps to find them when a looking to hire an artist for assignment. Without categories, I’d never be able to sort through the thousands of artists in my database.
I’m also curious about the format. A lot of effort goes into logos,
color palette and design for photographers websites, but you’ve
completely stripped them down to just pictures. Is there a reason for
this?
That’s a fantastic question. I’ve never thought about it from that perspective. You’re right, the choices made regarding a company logo; the look and function of the artist’s site are major considerations. The decisions made ultimately reflect upon the work which can have a positive, neutral or a negative impact on the imagery.
When looking for talent, a buyer can review hundreds of websites. All the differences can be exhausting. Not only are you processing the images, you are also trying to extract them from the context in order to evaluate the work. In the end the images need to be the focus.
What I have learned while working on the site is how nice it is to see the subtleties when the images stand alone. Having a similar format for each post is comfortable. I hope visitors to the site feel the same.
What’s the ultimate goal with the site?
To create a space dedicated to inspiring work. Over time, I hope to build a useful research tool where buyers and artists can find inspiration.
