Dave Labelle On Storytelling

This is part of a profile of photographer and teacher Dave LaBelle that Fran Gardler made as a final project for his masters at Ohio University. You can see the final piece (here) but this is a part that was cut:

All the videos are (here).

thx, Jonathan.

Spray & Pray

spraytshirt

Funny gift for someone who does a little too much sprayin’ (here).

Introducing Hello Artists

Hello Artists is a newly founded photography/illustration agency created by former Wieden + Kennedy art buyers Rachel Shapiro and Leah Jacobson. By way of introduction I asked them a couple questions.

APE: Give me a little background. Tell me how you got started as art buyers at W+K and how long that lasted then about forming Hello Artists?

Rachel: After a few years of working at Blind Spot Magazine I met an Art DIrector from Wieden + Kennedy. His favorite magazine happened to be Blind Spot and he mentioned that WK was looking for a new art buyer. This connection eventually led to a move to Portland, where I started my career in Art Buying at W+K. After a few years at the W+K Portland office, I moved back to New York to freelance and figure out my next move. I’ve spent the past few years freelancing in the city, as well as some time working for the W+K office in Shanghai.

Leah: I was working on my BFA at Pacific Northwest College of Art In Portland when I started as an assistant in in the Art Buying department at Wieden + Kennedy. That was in 2001. It turned into an Art Buyer position a few years later. I left WK in 2007 to do freelance art buying and production, and also to explore the next chapter of my life.

As co-workers we always got along well. There was definitely the sense that we wanted some of the same things for our careers. We talked about starting a gallery someday, both excited by the idea of using our art backgrounds and visual skills in a more entrepreneurial way, but not entirely convinced that a gallery was exactly the thing for us.

We were each doing a freelancing gig at the W+K Shanghai office when we got our first taste of working very closely with each other on the same projects. Based on that experience we knew we’d work well together, so after Shanghai we began to think about how that would take shape. The idea of Hello Artists came about a year later.

We created Hello Artists because we wanted to use our skills and experience to help guide the careers of artists. Equally important is that it also allows us to do work that enhances our own creative lives. As art buyers we had followed the careers of all of the artists on our roster, and we worked with many of them on projects. So it’s very significant to us that we have an ongoing connection with each of them.

APE: Tell me something that might surprise me about Art Buying?

One thing that was initially surprising about art buying was how much mobility it could offer; it’s a field that allows you to explore the option of living in many different places. One might equate the industry to professional sports, the way people change teams all the time. Having the opportunity to live and work in China was an awesome surprise.

APE: Tell me something that might surprise me about W+K?

You’d be surprised how many W+K employees end up marrying one another.

APE: Do you have any advice for people wanting to start their own agency?

We’re a bit new for too much advice. However, we can say that a rep should genuinely like the artists that they’re working with, because they’ll become a big part of your life.

helloartists

Online Media Legal Network

The Online Media Legal Network (OMLN) is a network of law firms, law school clinics, in-house counsel, and individual lawyers throughout the United States willing to provide pro bono legal assistance to qualifying online journalism ventures and other digital media creators.

Brilliant! Find it (here). Via, Nieman.

National Geographic Adventure Calls It Quits

Story here: http://www.theadventurelife.org/

It’s not huge news that a magazine just folded but a big deal in my universe since I worked for Outside and Men’s Journal.

All magazine categories are simply too crowded for the number of readers and advertisers available. Men’s Journal was started when Jann couldn’t buy Outside back from Larry Burke. Jann sold it to him when he moved Rolling Stone to New York because he couldn’t afford to keep both magazines afloat in the change of venues. After selling it, the outdoor category started to heat up. Mostly with companies that wanted to be associated with the rugged lifestyle. The advertising they bought was mostly as positioning. When National Geographic launched Adventure in 1999 the outdoor lifestyle category has peaked and was on its way down. I suspect Adventure was more of a reaction to National Geographic shedding millions of readers during the rise of the MTV generation than anything else. That and the average age of their readers made them think they needed to develop another product to attract new, young readers. So, this is all just the natural progression of it all as the category has 1 and a half magazines in it now because Men’s Journal has gone on to position itself as more of a mainstream men’s magazine with outdoor influences.

Do you feel like having your photographs staged makes them less personal or real?

I learned that it doesn’t matter if images are staged or not. It doesn’t make them more or less truthful. We make unconscious decisions about how we want to be photographed. Sometimes I’ll look at my self-portraits and see that I presented something that is very true. And usually the ones that don’t work, it’s because they’re not honest; the light is beautiful, the colours are beautiful, but they’re not honest.

via Interview with Elinor Carucci | Greg Ceo Blog.

Time Inc’s “Manhattan Project” Is A Tablet Magazine

TechCrunch has the goods on Time Inc’s solution to the demise of print media:

Since last summer, Time Inc has been working on a “Manhattan Project” to create a digital magazine for the new breed of color tablet computers soon to come to market. (Condé Nast is also working on a similar concept). Today, I got a sneak peak at a demo of the tablet magazine designed for Sports Illustrated.

Read the story (here).

Here’s a demo of Sport Illustrated on the tablet:


Note the importance of exclusive photography. I also think when navigating by thumbnails photography will be so important to the design.

Gizmodo thinks Time Inc. is high (here):

…But please, satisfy my curiosity before I get on my knees and bow down before your genius: How is this different from a web page? Other than costing ten times as much to produce, that is.

Never mind, I will tell you how: It’s a lot worse. It’s just pasting an old medium into a new one, painting the resulting clusterfuck with two layers of thick varnish.

I feel like anything that mimics a magazine experience on a computer or tablet is simply a stop gap for people who need that familiar look and feel (and annoying page turning sounds). I see no point in passing the limitations of a magazine into a limitless medium like a tablet computer. But, there’s no reason it can’t evolve. You have to start somewhere.

thx for the tip Dylan.

Photographer Branding

I’ve always been a bit branding agnostic when it comes to photographers and marketing. While I enjoy a nice typeface and smart color palette I’ve also witnessed photographers dumping tons of cash on die cut business cards/letterheads and intricately designed logos when they really need to be spending time, money and effort on shoots that will give their photography an identity. I’ve always felt that as long as it’s not offensive, it really has no effect, but if it gives you confidence then it’s well worth the money. I’ve seen Art Directors fawning over marketing material a handful of times, but you really need some serious design chops to get to that level.

Heather Morton Art buyer has a nice piece on branding (here) where Art Buyer Leila Courey of Leo Burnett, Toronto has the same sentiment:

I don’t mind if photographers want to bling out their promos for extra attention as long as the quality of the work goes along with it. What I don’t dig, is photographers spending what looks like a ton of money on business cards, expensive promos or portfolios meanwhile they really need to spend more time crafting their work.

Heather goes on with an in-depth look at emerging photographer Michael Clinard’s branding journey.

Also, the Black Star Rising blog has a piece today on branding entitled “you are a brand start acting like one.”

I feel like photographers can really get caught up in tinkering with all the marketing material and periphery that goes along with being a professional photographer because, let’s be honest, it’s quite difficult to “improve your craft” and a lot easier to improve your letterhead.

AOL to Automate Some Content Selection, Editing

CEO Tim Armstrong tells The Wall Street Journal about plans he has previously hinted about–“a new digital-newsroom system that uses a series of algorithms to predict the types of stories, videos and photos that will be most popular with consumers and marketers.”

The idea is that even a brain-dead editor knows that people want to read about Tiger Woods–and AOL’s coverage includes a 500-slide (!) slide show. But there are plenty of other stories that will go unassigned without a computer’s help. For example:

via Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD.

I have to laugh at AOL and how far off the back they’ve fallen with this notion that what we need now is more unoriginal content to consume.

I believe the more clogged the web becomes the higher the value of arresting pictures and original/exclusive content. I get a tinge of joy when I hear about someone creating an algorithm that will churn out content. The more the better.

Murdoch Buying PDN?

Financial times is reporting that Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son Lachlan is closing in on a joint offer for a group of trade magazines owned by Nielsen Business Media (here). There’s no telling if PDN will be a part of the sale but the story goes on to say that Nielson would like to shed the print publications because “investor focus on its exposure to declining print advertising revenues could impede a successful IPO.”

I don’t know how far from the tree this apple fell, but if Lachlan is anything like his father he will be happy to find out PDN still has pay walls in place and still charges a premium for subscriptions. If anyone is poised to weather the storm it’s niche publications like this. Everyone seems to be talking now about jacking up subscription prices and installing pay walls as a way to remain insolvent and magazines like PDN suddenly seem ahead of the curve since they never bothered to chase numbers by dropping those revenue streams and relying purely on advertising. Much to the chagrin of photographers who dislike all the contests aimed at them I do think the business model for magazines includes a healthy revenue stream off your readers. In the last 10 years most magazines have taken a loss in that department in favor of inflated numbers to present to advertisers. Those days are over. My only advice for publications looking to embrace/monetize their readers is to drop the smugness.

Photography Agent Blogs Evolve

Agents have been using blogs as tear books for some time now. I think Redux was one of the first with their blog reduxpictures.com/blog and now many agents have some form of the tear/news/announcements blog: bigleo.com/den, llreps.wordpress.com.

A few have taken it a step further like the Glasshouse Images stone-thrower.com blog where Jacqueline interviews their photographers along with photo editors and art buyers and the Art and Commerce Production artandcommerceproduction.com/blog where they combine photographer news with go-see’s. There’s a similar approach over on Stockland Martel’s blog stocklandmartelblog.com where Kristina combines industry news with the goings on of their photographers.

Finally Bernstein and Andrulli have turned their entire website into a blog ba-reps.com and I have to say the results are quite nice. An emphasis on social marketing may be in the future for everyone working in media. Check out the Crispin Porter + Bogusky website: cpbgroup.com where they pull content about the agency from youtube, twitter and blogs.

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