“…we are very clear: We’re not the muse. We don’t want to be. They have to come with a muse or their own inspiration. They have to do personal work. Personal projects, editorial outside of the advertising arena so that we can take that work and package it and bring it to our communities.”
via Resolve
I found this press tour video over on Michael Lavine’s blog and nothing sums up the demise of media better then seeing the 300 interviews (photos, video, radio and 1 ring flash too) Jason Reitman endured promoting his film, Up In The Air.
Here’s a pie chart with the top 10 interview questions:
…it’s crucial that young talents understand that photography is about more than sexy women, sexy vampires and sexy lighting. A photographer needs time to develop their voice and vision- listening, learning and shooting is the best way to get there.
Nadav Kander talks about his Prix Pictet award winning work from China:
They are just pictures, but pictures that cant be taken again. The Yangtze River, which forms the premise to this body of work, is the main artery that flows 4100 miles (6500km) across China, travelling from its furthest westerly point in Qinghai Providence to Shanghai in the East. In this installation, Nadav invites the visitors to reflect with him on his journey.
via, The FStop.
My primary objectives right now are to breath and survive. I’m at that point, 3 years in, when most sane people get out. It’s the true test, are you crazy enough to go forward when a brontosaurus-sized neon sign is flashing “ABORT NOW – BECOME A TRUCK DRIVER!” As photographer, Keith Carter, says, “You have to learn to embrace a life of uncertainty.”So I gotta breathe in. Stay the course. Surviving the photo industry is one part vision, one part business and all heart.
via Photo Coleslaw.
New York garment company Weatherproof rips a page out of Dov Charney’s advertising playbook by using an unlicensed image of Obama on a billboard in Times Square (NYTimes story). In this case the image was licensed from the AP but they never acquired a release from Obama to use his likeness for advertising. I’m not sure what’s more distressing, the amount of free publicity it generated, thereby guaranteeing more of these stunts in the future or the number of stories I read where the writers where unsure if it was actually illegal to do this.
No, I am not f-ing with you.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Mel went on to explain that back when he was the CEO of CBS, advertising had no accountability – no return on investment.
“You buy a commercial in the Super Bowl… and you had no idea if it worked! You had no idea if you sold product… if it did any good,” Karmazin said. “I loved that model.”
“And then here comes Google. They screwed it up!” added Karmazin, semi-jokingly.
I am both humbled and hopeful when I think of the number of times all over the world that I have seen people define themselves not by their possessions or wealth, but by the grace, courage, and profound decency in their gestures and behavior.
— Peter Turnley via The Online Photographer
Ok, this survey by CareerCast.com that I found on the Wall Street Journal (here) I’m sure is not very sound in its methodology but still it’s kind of fun to browse the different jobs. Since the photographer jobs listed are staff positions I wonder where freelance falls on the list?
The 200 best and worst jobs in the U.S. in 2009 based on five criteria — environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress — according to a newly released study from job site CareerCast.com
#65 Publication Editor (just above forklift operator)
Starting salary: $28,000
Midlevel salary: $50,000
Top salary: $95,000
#126 Photographer (just below Waiter but still above undertaker)
Starting salary: $17,000
Midlevel salary: $29,000
Top salary: $62,000
#189 Photojournalist (sadly falls below Nuclear Plant Decontamination Technician but still above metermaid)
Starting salary: $16,000
Midlevel salary: $28,000
Top salary: $60,000
Just over 2 years ago a story ran in the New York Times that asked the question: “If the Copy Is an Artwork, Then What’s the Original? (here)” The original they were referring to belonged to Jim Krantz and the story went on to explain that Jim had recently paid a visit to the Guggenheim Museum where he discovered one of his photographs included in a retrospective of artist Richard Prince’s work. Most photographers by now are aware of Prince and his practice of using other peoples photographs to make his art and we’ve debated various aspects of the practice including the pending lawsuit by photographer Patrick Cariou (here). What caught my eye recently was that Krantz, a long time artist (here) as well as a big time commercial photographer is starting to get some recognition from the fickle fashion and art communities for his work. His statement in the New York Times article that, “I just want some recognition, and I want some understanding” may be coming true. He’s now represented by Danziger Projects in New York, he recently shot an advertising campaign based on the cowboy work for designer Adam Kimmel (here) and has a show hanging at the Colette in Paris that opened Monday (here). I gave him a call to discuss:
APE: In the time since that article came out about Richard Price using your photography how have things changed for you?
There’s been an awful lot of recognition of my work. So much of the time I work in a vacuum. The work that I produce for my commercial accounts is unconnected from my name. In fact the ad in itself is a very different interpretation from the work I create.
APE: Hasn’t that always been the case with advertising photography?
With tobacco in particular there’s even more of a disconnect because you can’t enter the work in CA or any photo contests. So, you’re really, really in a vacuum.
APE: Do you feel like what happened with Richard Prince changed peoples opinion about your work or brought it more recognition?
The general consensus from over 200 emails that I’ve gotten since that article ran is very negative and people were actually pissed off as far as what he’s done and how he goes about his business. There’s a fine line between appropriation and plagiarism. A lot of the people who write me are photographers and artists and they feel vulnerable to this because they project themselves into the situation I find myself in.
In general I’m not happy about it and artists are not happy about it. Now, if you go talk to a gallerist about it they will look at it as American iconography and describe him as a collector of images. I kind of understand if you take the whole Ad with the Marlboro words with the copy, the header and the cigarette pack stripped out. As opposed to what he’s doing which is stripping all the copy away so you have the photograph in its purest form. That’s a very different thing because at that point it’s not an Ad, which is a departure from what I’ve done, it’s literally exactly what I’ve done. The context is everything. And in the context with all the copy and everything else my work creates a new entity in itself. When he eliminates all of that, it goes back to the core image, which is mine, so yeah I don’t see this as really being a photograph of an advertisement. It’s really just the purest form of the art out of context. That’s exactly how I shoot it, I’m not thinking about cigarettes, I’m not thinking about anything more than fantastic art.
APE: Don’t you think that you have to be Richard Prince to pull it off. He’s dedicated his life to this practice. A lot of people react by saying anyone can do this, but it’s all wrapped up in him.
Yeah, I think you’re right but I think a lot of people take a lot of things all the time because everything is so accessible. I’ll bet there’s a lot of crazy things that take place that we don’t know about. I can’t imagine it, but it’s so accessible you know, why not. People do bad things all the time.
APE: How has it evolved for you from seeing it in the Guggenheim to now where you’re represented by James Danziger in NYC, you shot an advertising campaign for Adam Kimmel based on the cowboy work and you have an opening at the Colette in Paris this week?
What its done is its really illuminated my work and given me the opportunity to take it outside of the advertising world and into the fashion and art world right now. In the last month I’ve been in the New York Times twice, Wallpaper magazine coming up, Bon magazine in Europe, a feature in CA, Arena Hommes Plus, Hercules Magazine in Europe, French Vogue and German GQ.
So the recognition you were seeking for the work happened?
The recognition has been fantastic and the source for all of this is the article in the New York Times and it’s funny because I’ve been doing this since I was 19 when I took a photography workshop from Ansel Adams at his house and all these guys were hanging out there like Brett Weston and Jerry Uselman. I’ve been shooting fine art my entire career.
APE: But, that’s the irony isn’t it. Someone steals a photograph and suddenly your work is important to the art community. That’s what it took.
It’s amazing to me that the curators at the Guggenheim would bring this work in without acknowledging the source or giving the viewers the opportunity to see what motivates and inspires a person. You need a footnote in a paper but there’s no source recognized here.
APE: I think that is something that’s changing with the web. There’s suddenly more transparency whether you want it or not. People want to dig down and figure out what inspired something or reveal things that aren’t attributed properly.
This is a very fascinating phenomenon and where did anything originate is a big question.
APE: So, what are you feelings towards Richard Prince now that there’s been some form of attribution?
The recognition has been great because it’s fairly impossible with all the millions and millions of images out there to get recognized for anything now days.
But I still to this day don’t understand what he did. Put yourself in my shoes walking down the street and you see the photograph that I shot in Albany, TX in 1990 of a cowboy with his arms stretched out on those on banners wondering why are my pictures there. It’s bizarre man. So, do I understand it? No. And when I went in and saw the posters for the Richard Prince show with my photograph, I don’t understand that either.
APE: Yeah, I can’t imagine that. I won’t pretend to.
It’s not original and it’s not art. I still don’t understand it and I don’t see the significance of it no matter what.
It’s ballsy as hell, I’ll give him that.
Advertising Age has a look at how advertising is shaping up for the various categories in 2010 (here):
Automotive
“Ford Motor Co.’s Jim Farley, group VP-global marketing, told a conference that the automaker plans to spend half its 2010 ad budget on ‘experiential’ and online marketing, because 75% of new-vehicle buyers now shop online.”
Beer
“…some beer marketers acknowledge that the brands have, for years, been marketed in a commoditized fashion. ‘People have seen the brands as very much the same,’ said one veteran beer-marketing executive, ‘and that makes the cheaper stuff look like a reasonable replacement.'”
Consumer Package Goods
“…great marketing could substitute for new technology. Innovation can also come by making the experience better.”
Digital Marketing
“…while consumer attention has moved to the web, consumer marketing has not. Instead, the web has, in the words of IAB chief Randall Rothenberg, been colonized ‘by the evil aliens of the direct-response planet.'”
Print
“…this will be the year when publishers find out whether readers will pay for digital content. ”
TV Adertising
“‘I care more about the program than the network that it’s on,’ said Peggy Green, media-buying executive at Publicis Groupe’s Zenith.”
Wireless
“think of the 2.8 million households that hung onto their analog TV sets on the eve of the nation’s switch to digital TV. ‘Migrations take time,’ noted Bob Rosenberg, president of Insight Research.”
“determine if you are actually called to be a musician. if you aren’t called, all the gyrations in the world, won’t make it work. if you are called, no matter what you do, it’s going to work. this determination will solve most of the problems you are going to encounter.”
via Ol’ Danny Barnes.
Seth Godin is calling the 2010’s the frustration decade (here). We’ve all experienced the frustration with the old way of doing things not working anymore and now the growing frustration with all the cool technology and new ways of doing business not being robust enough. Combine that with slow economic turnaround and I’ll agree it’s the perfect recipe for frustration. He’s giving you the option to embrace the changes and not fight them but I like his next entry on the “Evolution of every medium” (here):
1. Technicians who invented it, run it
2. Technicians with taste, leverage it
3. Artists take over from the technicians
4. MBAs take over from the artists
5. Bureaucrats drive the medium to banality
This means the next decade will belong to the artists. The people who can make you say wow and stop your busy life for a second to check something out. Taking what’s been created and turning it into something beautiful with impact and meaning is the job of artists. An artists with an MBA sounds like a powerful combination. Anyway, here’s to the decade where the artists take over. That will probably be frustrating for some people, hopefully not you.
Brodovitch, impressed with Penn’s eye for graphics, hired Penn as an unpaid assistant.
via NYTimes.com.