Acclaimed photographer Harry Benson was recently flipping through the New York Times when he came across an article about the Whitney Biennial exhibition in NYC, one of the leading shows for up-and-coming artists. He was shocked to find that the installation featured in the main photograph was using one of his photographs without permission.

It was a portrait of Michael Jackson that Benson had taken at Neverland Ranch:

He soon discovered that it was part of Lorraine O’Grady’s art piece titled “The First and Last of the Modernists”. O’Grady had taken Benson’s photograph, desaturated it, and placed it in a diptych with a photo of poet Charles Baudelaire.

Here’s the photograph that Benson had shot for design magazine Architectural Digest in 1993:

PDNPulse reports that,

Benson contacted O’Grady, who lives in New York, to question her unauthorized use of his image. According to Benson, she told him she is “a conceptual artist.” [...] O’Grady also told Benson she was planning to reproduce the diptychs in an edition of 10.

A lawyer for the museum offered to place a credit to Benson next to the installation, but Benson refused, asking for the image to be taken down. Benson’s wife Gigi informs us that Benson has spoken to a lawyer and is currently waiting to see whether the museum takes action on his behalf.

What are your thoughts on this case? Is it image theft, or acceptable conceptual art?

(via PDNPulse)

Image credit: Photograph by Harry Benson and used with permission.

Easy Release is a new iPhone app designed to make it easy for you to secure model and property releases.

It was designed by Robert Giroux, a photographer of over 24 years who spent eight years on the staff of Getty Images, and uses the same format and legal language as the release forms used by major photo agencies.

The application replaces traditional paper based releases you would otherwise have to carry around with you by packing all of the forms and required fields inside an iPhone application. All the necessary fields are presented in a step-by-step wizard-style interface, and the signatures are entered directly into the application via the touch screen.

Once the release forms are completed, you can email a PDF or JPEG version of the form to yourself.

The app is available from the iTunes Store for $9.99.

(via PhotographyBLOG)

Last year the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition dealt with controversy when the winning photographer was stripped of his award for staging his photograph.

Now, there’s a new controversial decision by the organizers of the competition: a new rule bans entries from cameras with less than 10 megapixels:

Digital images must have been taken on a sufficiently high resolution camera – at least ten (10) million pixels, on the highest setting.

PhotoRadar notes that a finalist from a few years ago would have been barred from the competition under the new rules:

In 2007, American photographer Kari Post made it to the finals of the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition at the Natural History Museum with a selection of prints entered in the Eric Hoskins portfolio category.

If she entered this year, she would be disqualified before some of her pictures, taken with a 6.1 megapixel Nikon D70, were even considered. A change to the rules in the competition (now the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition) disallows photographers from entering photos taken with a camera with a sensor with fewer than 10MP.

“The worst part of it is that it’s discriminating against photographers who don’t have the most recent cameras,” she says.

The new rule bars even the professional Canon EOS 1D Mark II, since it only boasts a “meager” 8 megapixels.

The reason for the new rule was a redesign of the contest’s gallery at the National History museum. The gallery requires larger prints, and therefore the competition now demands higher resolution. What’s interesting is how this print requirement affected past competitions even when there wasn’t a rule. PhotoRadar reports,

[...] Colin Finlay, a spokesperson for the competition office, said, “In previous competition years, several images have had to be dismissed during the late stages of the competition due to their technical quality not being sufficient for the demands of large scale reproduction.”

That means images that could have won the competition based on artistic merit were actually dismissed for not having enough megapixels.

What are your thoughts on this new rule? Keep in mind that every current DSLR model offered has at least 10 megapixels.

(via Photoxels)

Kai at DigitalRev was recently given the challenge of painting a Nikon D90 pink magenta. He chooses to dismantle the camera in order to paint individual components, but works on it as carefully as one would work on a steak. At one point he even gets an electric shock from the components, though we’re wondering why he didn’t simply remove the battery. The camera miraculously looks somewhat normal in the end, but several parts are broken in the process (LCD won’t turn on, and popup flash wont’ go down).

What’s interesting is that he takes the pink camera to the Nikon headquarters along with a hidden camera. His interaction with the customer service there is quite hilarious.

Here’s the video of the whole “adventure”. It’s a bit long, and might anger you, but you get to see the internals of a Nikon D90 if you find that sort of thing interesting!

So anyhow, painting your camera like this is definitely something to be avoided. If you’ve successfully painted your camera without breaking it, leave a comment letting us know!

(via PopPhoto)

More good news for photographers in the UK. A week after UK’s terror tsar called for the abolition of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, UK’s Crime Minister David Hanson has new statements assuring photographers that anti-terrorism legislation should not be used to hinder photography. He is quoted as saying,

I recently met with Austin Mitchell MP, members of the Parliamentary All Party Photography Group and representatives of the photographic press and the Royal Photographic Society to discuss the issue of counter terrorism powers and offences in relation to photography.

I welcomed the opportunity to reassure all those concerned with this issue that we have no intention of Section 44 or Section 58A being used to stop ordinary people taking photos or to curtail legitimate journalistic activity.

Guidance has been provided to all police forces advising that these powers and offences should not be used to stop innocent member of the public, tourists or responsible journalists from taking photographs.

These powers and offences are intended to help protect the public and those on the front line of our counter terrorism operations from terrorist attack. For the 58A offence to be committed, the information is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

I have committed to writing to Austin Mitchell MP to reinforce this message and to follow-up on the representations made.

Indeed, news of photographers being stopped unreasonably has died down in recent weeks, so it seems as though things are becoming more photographer-friendly in the UK. If you’re in the UK, have you noticed any improvement?

(via Digital Photography Now)

Image credit: Shooting the Man by neate photos

Here are the results from last week’s poll regarding projectors built into cameras:

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Looks like the camera corps are making the right move in building projectors into certain point-and-shoot models.

This week, our poll is simple and straightforward. What operating system are you using?

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Personally, I’m using Mac OS X Snow Leopard. About half a year ago my Windows XP laptop stopped working, and I decided to give Apple a shot. I’m not particularly loyal to any OS, so my next OS could be anything.

Feel free to leave a comment sharing why you’re using why you’re using!

Image credit: Amstrad PPC-640 by astio

Pentax has unveiled the 645D, a medium format DSLR with impressive specs and a (relatively) low price of ~$9,400. The 40 megapixel camera has a 33mm x 44mm sensor, 3 inch LCD screen, and is designed to be compatible with the existing 645 lens system. Features include 11 autofocus points, a dust removal mechanism, 77-segment multi-pattern metering, 1.1 fps, ISO 200-1000 (expandable to 100-1600), a built in HDR mode, and dynamic-range expansion.

Last month, many of you balked at the $19,995 price tag of Hasselblad’s newly announced H4D-40 camera, which also contains a 40MP sensor. However, a vast majority would also consider switching to medium format digital photography if it became more affordable. Looks like things are heading in that direction.

The 645D will be available in May 2010.

Update: Photo Rumors is reporting that there are currently no plans for the 645D to be sold in the US. Here’s what Adorama tweeted:

Pentax’s US rep just told me there are no plans to sell the 645D or 55mm lens in the US. Bummer.