Do Not Describe Your Photographs, Do Not Explain Your Photographs

What to do, though? How to approach writing? As I noted, you don’t want to start at the very end, trying to add some words to a finished project. Start writing while you’re in the middle. Every photographer should write (and read – a lot). The act of committing thoughts to paper – or hacking them into a computer – is more liberating than you’d imagine. You are probably only going to use a small fraction of all the writing, but you will be surprised what your subconsciousness can come up with – the same subconsciousness that’s responsible for so much in your photographs.

via How to write about your photographs | Conscientious Photography Magazine.

Start Your Own Thing And Follow Your Interests

It’s a great job working with magazines as a photographer and it’s really exciting, but then at a certain point you realize that you are just waiting for the phone to ring, you are waiting for that perfect assignment. At that point, I think it is really important to start your own thing – follow your own interests.

via Todd Selby Interview | The Talks.

I Let The Life Come To The Picture: The Accidents, The Things That Happen By Chance

When I’m having a shoot, in the morning the model is arriving from the hotel, the hairdresser is coming from London, a lot of different moods – one is happy, one is crying, one is angry, one is – I don’t know what – sleeping. And even if you have a precise idea of what you want to do, you can’t. Everyone is coming in with all this different energy and you have to deal with them. So you never know what you’ll do in the end. And this I like. I like the accidents, the things that happen by chance. I let the life come to the picture and the creativity flow.

via Paolo Roversi Interview | The Talks.

Cindy Sherman on James Franco: ‘I Don’t Know That I Can Say It’s Art’

James Franco’s recent appropriation of her acclaimed “Untitled Film Stills” series, which raised more than a few eyebrows when it debuted at Pace Gallery a few days earlier. “I was flattered, I can only be flattered,” she said with a slight sigh. “I don’t know that I can say it’s art, but I think it’s weirder that Pace would show them than that he would make them.”

via Cindy Sherman on James Franco: ‘I Don’t Know That I Can Say It’s Art’ | Gallerist.

New York Times Wins Two Photography Pulitzers

The New York Times has swept the 2014 Pulitzer Prizes for photography. The staff photographer Tyler Hicks won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for his coverage of a terrorist attack at an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya, that left more than 60 people dead. Josh Haner was awarded the Pulitzer in feature photography for his images of the slow and painful recovery process for a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing.

via New York Times Wins Two Photography Pulitzers.

I Can’t Do One Damn Thing Without The Love And Support Of My Wife

I’m just a dude taking pictures. I appreciate the amazing opportunities that come my way but I don’t really enjoy being in the spotlight. I’m not trying to be anyone’s idol. That’s for sure. The fact of the matter is I can’t do one damn thing without the love and support of my wife. She is my better 7/8ths. When I’m sitting at a table listening to Joe McNally tell stories and share his experiences, she’s at home folding laundry. When I’m hoping and praying that I get an upgrade to business class, she’s getting four kids to four different schools in the morning. When I’m out with a camera in my hand, her piano sits dormant.

via GPP Shootout :: A Story For My Wife · DEDPXL.

Emotionally I want to try and stop the theft, but logically I think it is probably better for one’s career to go for the visibility.

…when your images are stolen, I suspect there really isn’t that much damage done financially to individual photographers (hey…don’t flame me for saying that), though collectively there sure is a lot of money being left on the table! Ultimately, if someone steals the image I get nothing, if they don’t steal I get nothing, but if they share it there may be profit for me in increased links, web traffic and visibility.

via The Stock Photo Guy – John Lund Stock Photographer: Watermarks, Theft And Visibility.

Reuters maintains dogged silence on allegations of ‘staged images’

When contacted by BJP, Reuters refused, numerous times, to share the specific details of the internal investigation it says it conducted after The New York Times first contacted the news agency three months ago. It also declined to clarify when that investigation took place and who took part in it.

When asked whether Khatib still worked for Reuters, the news agency refused to comment.

When asked whether the recent allegations had resulted in a change in Reuters’ news-gathering practices in Syria, the news agency refused to comment.

When asked whether Reuters would consider opening another investigation following the recent and specific allegations against its news operations in Syria, the news agency refused to comment.

And, more importantly, when asked why Reuters had been using Syrian activists as freelance photographers without informing its clients, the news agency again refused to comment.

via British Journal of Photography.

Let’s Dispel The Notion That Commercial Photographers Have A Camera In Their Hands Every Day

First, let’s dispel the notion that commercial photographers have a camera in their hands every day. This will vary for individuals, and by season, but I would guess that I spend a good 75-80% of my working hours in front of a computer – not out shooting. I consider that to be a pretty successful ratio. No one starting out really thinks about it, but digital workflow, retouching, billing, marketing, pre-production, post-production, accounting, taxes, etc… and the plethora of general business paperwork takes up a ton of time.

via The Definitive Guide to Starting a Successful Photography Business – Houston Tx Advertising Photographer Robert Seale.

How Should Clients React to Sexual Coercion Allegations Against Terry Richardson?

…clients aren’t talking at all.

GQ and Harper’s Bazaar, which are two of Richardson’s regular (and most frequent) editorial clients, according to the Jezebel list, didn’t respond to numerous phone calls and e-mails for comment. The Wall Street Journal magazine, which has hired Richardson for several celebrity shoots in recent months, said through spokesperson Arianna Imperato, “We’re going to decline to comment.”

Modeling agencies are also silent. Requests for comment from Wilhelmina, Next, and Muse went unanswered.

via PDNPulse » How Should Clients React to Sexual Coercion Allegations Against Terry Richardson?.

In The Past A Formulaic Marketing Plan Would Work 9 Times Out Of 10

“In the past, if someone was talented you could put together a plan for them and if followed in a formulaic way, 9 times out of 10 it would work. Now it’s a little more unpredictable.” Patrick admits as we discuss how marketing is more important than ever. Luck and timing is much more of a factor now due to market saturation. “A great agent has to find smart and interesting ways of showing a photographer’s work and forge the right connections in the industry” says Patrick. Early on, however, a photographer is going to have to do this himself (or herself) before even trying to find an agent. Generally, a photographers’ agent will only sign a new artist who has an established client base. “The launching time to get photographers off the ground is so long now that photographers need to be able to sustain themselves, as well as the agency, during this period.  Being an agent is still one of the only jobs that works on spec and it may take years for the artist to start making real money.”

via ImageBrief Blog.

taking photographs changes the way we experience the world, but reviewing them can change the way we remember the experience

Henkel found “a photo-taking-impairment effect”—photographing the object led students to remember fewer objects and fewer details than those who simply observed the art. In a second study, she asked students to observe the objects and then to photograph them using the camera’s zoom. Instructing students to zoom in reversed the impairment effect, improving the memories of the photographers over those of the observers.

via A Thousand Words: Writing From Photographs : The New Yorker.

Historical research—indeed, humanistic inquiry as a whole—is being undermined by the constant plugging of economic value as a measure of worth

And so @HistoryInPics makes me angry not for what it fails to do, but that it gets so many people to participate in it, including people who care about the same issues that I do. Attribution, citation, and accuracy are the basis of understanding history. @HistoryInPics might not care about those things, but I would like to think that you do. The next time you come across one of these pictures, ask yourself what it shows and what it doesn’t, and what message you’re conveying by spreading it.

via it’s history, not a viral feed | Wynken de Worde.

Do we want a tech world defined by compassionless jerks?

I’ve written before about the toxicity of the Silicon Valley/San Francisco cult of “disruption,” which has no empathy for the disrupted, and little place for any empathy at all. But my hackles were raised again by a BusinessWeek review of venture capitalist Ben Horowitz’s new book, which confirmed that Silicon Valley’s power brokers are passionately devoted to creating a society at war with itself.

via Why I Don’t Want My Daughter to Work in Silicon Valley | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.