Photographer Tony Wu constantly receives requests that ask whether he would be willing to work for free in exchange for “credit” and “exposure”. Instead of a lengthy response explaining why he doesn’t want to work for free, Wu often leaves the emails unanswered, or worse, ends up sending snippy responses that he later regrets. He recently came up with the idea of writing a generic and informational response that all professional photographers can respond with. Read the rest of this entry »
If you think about it, there are many parallels between Apple and Polaroid: both companies introduced innovative products that redefined markets in their time, both were founded by college dropouts, and both emphasized design and usability in their products. What you might not know is that it’s not a coincidence. Christopher Bonanos wrote a fascinating article for the New York Times on how Steve Jobs idolized Polaroid founder Edwin Land and modeled his career after Land’s:
The two men met at least twice. John Sculley, the Apple C.E.O. who eventually clashed with Jobs, was there for one meeting, when Jobs made a pilgrimage to Land’s labs in Cambridge, Mass., and wrote in his autobiography that both men described a singular experience: “Dr. Land was saying: ‘I could see what the Polaroid camera should be. It was just as real to me as if it was sitting in front of me, before I had ever built one.’ And Steve said: ‘Yeah, that’s exactly the way I saw the Macintosh.’ He said, If I asked someone who had only used a personal calculator what a Macintosh should be like, they couldn’t have told me. There was no way to do consumer research on it, so I had to go and create it and then show it to people and say, ‘Now what do you think?’”
The worldview he was describing perfectly echoed Land’s: “Market research is what you do when your product isn’t any good.”
Both men were also kicked out of the companies they built, but that’s where the stories differ. Jobs returned to Apple a decade later and his company went on to become the world’s largest tech firm, while Land died a decade later and his company has filed for bankruptcy twice since 2001.
Back in 1937, art director M.F. Agha wrote a piece in U.S. Camera magazine titled The Hippocratic Oath of a Photographer, which warns photographs not to pursue common photographic clichés that were saturating the industry. It’s an interesting glimpse into what popular photo subjects were back in the day. Read the rest of this entry »
Some Atlanta-based photographer posted a humorous Craigslist ad on Monday highlighting the fact that people often assume that photographers will be happy to do work for free. Read the rest of this entry »
tokyo camera style by John Sypal (see our interview with him) is a popular website documenting the analog camera culture in Tokyo, Japan by sharing photographs of cameras being used on the streets — it’s like The Sartorialist except for cameras instead of fashion. If you’re a fan of the site and love browsing photos of old school cameras people use, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a number of similar websites for other cities and places around the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Tokyo-based editorial photographer Irwin Wong created this funny Justin Bieber parody song titled “Pay Me” as a shout out to all his “photographer homies who have had their copyright infringed”.
It was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II, a Canon 24-70mm, and a Steadicam Pilot.
Apparently Nikon has decide to save some trees (and shipping weight) by no longer including user manuals in some of its digital cameras. Since most people likely never touch the manuals anyway, it’s not really a problem, but the company’s draconian stance towards downloadable instruction manuals has some customers grumbling. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever noticed how ridiculous many of the poses seen in fashion and glamor photographs are? Artist Yolanda Dominguez has a project called Poses highlighting how absurd and artificial the poses are by having a group of women do them in public locations and filming the reactions of passersby. It’s interesting how something so ridiculous when seen in real life can look so “normal” when done by a model in the context of a fashion photograph.
The Long Beach Police Department’s hunt for photos with “no apparent esthetic value” quickly became national news last week. Here’s a news segment in which Alyona Minkovski of RT speaks out against the erosion of photographers’ rights in the United States:
I understand that the Department of Homeland Security has a job to do, but we can’t just automatically assume that any photographer out there is a terrorist. At this rate I’m pretty sure that all the hipsters in LA will be locked up in no time.
Hopefully the publicity that these stories receive will make it easier for photo-enthusiasts to shoot in public without being harassed.
A Pennsylvania photographer named Jennifer McKendrick has caused quite a stir by canceling senior portrait sessions with a group of high school girls after discovering evidence of bullying by the teens on Facebook. While browsing Facebook, McKendrick came across a page containing nasty comments left by people whose names matched the ones on her client list, and subsequently cancelled the shoots. In a blog post titled “I Won’t Photograph Ugly People“, McKendrick writes,
This morning I sent out 4 emails to those clients while CC’ing in their parents explaining WHY I was canceling their shoots. I also included screen shots of the comments they made. They couldn’t deny it, I had the picture of what they said. I informed them that I’d be sending their deposits back and that they’d have to find another photographer. So far, I have received two emails back from their parents that claimed (I’m paraphrasing) they were shocked that this had happened. They apologized that their child acted in such a way and that they would deal with the matter. So far I haven’t received any backlash but I’m ready for it. I’m a small business owner and I have the luxury of making that decision. If you are ugly on the inside, I’m sorry but I won’t take your photos to make you look pretty on the outside!
The post has already garnered hundreds of comments and tens of thousands of Facebook “Likes” supporting her decision to stand up against bullying.
