Holy Taco does it again with a very funny illustrated blog post, receiving more than 250 responses. I love the photo choice for #4, the complicated order guy. Okay, it’s a huge WOT to read the comments but they are a snap shot of what goes through people’s minds when given a prompt. Wow, some are very touchy. It’s okay to laugh and be silly once in awhile. I am not writing posts to be all that and a bag of Lays.
I’m sure there is a list of terrible business titles. Rainmaker, probably offensive to Native Americans, is one that sounds so…dotcom bomb to me. Stock agencies originally gave their sales people the title of Photo Editor or Photo Researcher. Apparently that is too elite for today’s lowly licensing clerk. We used to actually edit images coming into the library, write captions and add keywords on the B.O.S.S. system, research and pull images based on the client’s spec or request, photocopy the submission using a desk copier without the lid and an adjustable overhead lamp, write out a delivery memo, ship-label-airbill-track crap, follow up seventeen times, negotiate the usage license based on the ASMP grid, haggle, confirm, invoice, log back in the non selects, call fourteen times to get a tear sheet and the used originals back, check for printer damage on the emulsion side, “star” the published originals, and write a thank you note. No wonder we didn’t have time to think up a creative title for ourselves.
Steffanie O’Hanlon is working on a new book, “The Secret Life of Hotels” which is a compelling title. Some of her images for the project are posted here on her gallery. The publisher is Chicago’s Columbia College imprint, the Center for American Places.
Steffanie is a psychotherapist and a photographer, a winning mix for our times. Hearing about her book reminded me of a layover in Milan where I passed the time photographing my room, images only of interest to me. Most rooms I don’t recall but often I have wondered things such as who slept in the room’s bed or looked in it’s mirror before me.
The server that is hosting Jamie Livingston’s Polaroid legacy crashed. It’s back up now. Seeing thousands of images, one taken every day of his life for twenty years, on a plain, unmarked website leaves me speechless. Plenty of others are writing about their reactions. Here is a way in through Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn.
Derek Powazek, Founder of JPG magazine will be on a panel at Book Expo this weekend. JPG is getting more recognition these days. Anyway, the session, “In Search of Book Publishing’s 2.0 Business Model” promises to answer these wallet burning questions:
As consumers grow increasingly used to consuming an enormous amount of information from countless websites and blogs, for free, what’s the business model for traditional publishers? And how do we compete in a world where people are willing spend their time writing for Wikipedia, a website or blog, for nothing? With these new economies becoming known as “sharing” and “gift” economies, what’s the role of the working writer? And in a world where “free” is fast becoming the new buzz word, how do publishers make a buck? How do authors? And is there a difference between information and content? Does everything have to be free?
I wonder if the answers will satisfy the working artist.
The session list for this year’s HOW conference was impressive. Maybe next year I can find a way to attend. The comments on their forum provide a good insight if you couldn’t attend either. The exchange on one thread, Portfolio Review Advice Needed has some great pointers.
Here is a list of agencies on HOW’s Photo Resource Guide. I’ll hear more from some of these folks who attended and report back with any inside news.
My friend in the travel business is talking about getting out of the travel business. I think paying to check a bag was the final rivet in the fuselage. Travel is an easy portfolio category to develop but the images need to translate into money during tough times for the industry.
Over at Lightstalkers I found Colombia-based shooter Scott Dalton’s profile. One of his slide shows, A Weekend in Cartagena, is posted on The New York Times site. Very nice. This type of destination piece is a great way to show travel clients how your images can promote their publications and business.
A colossal book project by David Elliot Cohen is coming soon. “What Matters” is a collection of photo essays and commentaries on world issues by the heavyweights of our industry. It lays a thick film of guilt on us for griping about our daily aches and pains. Around our dinner table, friends and neighbors talk about the heartaches of caring for their parents, a once-great-boss turning bi-polar, the incredible challenge of getting their child accepted at a decent college and the frigging cost of laundry soap.
On his blog, you can download a free PDF advance copy. I applaud David and his band of do-gooders. I want to work on something important with the dream team. Meanwhile, what matters to me is helping people cope, one crisis at a time. Real world change usually begins in our own backyard anyway.
To lighten the mood: When I went to find a link to the book, this site had an interesting version of David’s bio:
About the Author: David Cohen is a British journalist who has written for The Independent, The Guardian, and British GQ, as well as The New York Times. In 1997, he was the recipient of a harkness fellowship hosted by Columbia University, which enabled him to write this book. He lives in london with his wife and two daughters.
This so doesn’t matter that it’s the bio of another David Cohen. And by now, the real David probably is living in the UK!
Update 5/28/08: David’s correct bio is posted now. It mattered!
Laura Moya, Executive Director of Photolucida invited me to jury for their next Critical Mass competition. I’m delighted! The non-profit organization provides many opportunities for exchanging ideas and promoting the creative process. Their annual portfolio review and photo festival is always sold out in advance. Their mission to cultivate photographic talent at all levels is one I wholeheartedly support.
Photo Illustrator Corinne Geertsen has asked me to review her work. This piece, “Play with Fire” is part of a new series she is developing. Images from this project can be seen in her online gallery.
CG: Do you see any market for this type of image?
JL: The first application that comes to mind are book jackets as you show in one illustration (I am thinking of Stephen King or Catherynne M. Valente novels). Next, would be promotion and packaging for Wii-type games and other virtual reality/alternate world applications. They might be used in galleries, as posters, for clothing lines, in greeting cards, on album covers and in CD liners.
CG: Is the workmanship good enough? (I only began doing this last fall.)
JL: Your technique is well developed. Each piece looks fine and they are certainly adequate for presentation purposes. I imagine you might struggle with determining when you feel the piece is “done.” At this point, I would not question yourself on that too much. Trust your first thought and move to the next idea until you have a solid set of about 25 images.
CG: Do they hold your interest? How could they be better?
JL: They do hold my interest, however, I feel some are not original enough. It’s as though I have seen these before, and that happens when using elements from other artists. I suggest continuing with this style but finding ways to convey more contemporary social messages.
The whitewashed textures of Tavira, Portugal, in the Algarve Region, with ruin walls in the distance. Photo by Jain Lemos
Some of my images are available as poster prints on Art.com. Below is a screen grab after playing around in their Frame Studio.
Customizing capabilities via Art.com poster prints website.
They make it simple to choose frame styles and mats while deciding how the combo looks hanging on walls of different colors (this technology is big with cars, clothes, home remodeling and so on). The ability to search for a photo or illustration and then instantly place it into a layout before licensing is very handy. Designers and photo buyers can use cropping tools, page backgrounds and type treatments all within the web page, then email samples to their production department or editors for approval.
Not all agencies and photographers will like this feature. But if there is some built-in tracking to determine if the image was used, it could be a good thing. Because when agencies provide (usually pre-approved) clients with free downloads for “comp usage,” there has to be follow up on exact usage. Sometimes those comping images are big enough to use without coming back for the full high res file.
I just finished a new marketing piece for a boutique stock agency. The lead photo was a departure from the look of their past ad campaigns. They wrote to me:
OK, Jain, we’re going to trust you on this one and go with your recommendation. As you mention, we’re trying to reach out to a different market and show them that we have a range of images.
The promo was sent to a list I developed of roughly 2,000 ad agency art buyers and corporate designers. I am glad my client trusted me.
Promoting and licensing stock images is something I have been doing for a long time. A very large percentage of photographers I talk with want to make more money in stock, but they complain about one thing or another when it comes to their agency or the buyer’s terms.
About six years ago, a small, successful photo agency was acquired by a media company. When the owner called to tell me the news he said, “I sold my soul to the Devil.” Some of his photographers were happy with the new deal; some bailed. I mention this because there are many in this business with a snobby attitude toward stock agencies and stock shooters. Yet they are the same ones who, behind the scenes, want the big ad agency stock sales.
Experience Designer Jason Nunes has just told us about a new distraction. It’s “Games with a Purpose” from Carnegie Mellon. I like the ESP Game and Matchin best. They need more photographs for the sessions, so donate some of your Orphans if you can (jk).
Jason, Wearer of Hats, is the person you want on your team now. There are at least two hundred questions I’d like to ask Jason on a daily basis. I keep it to about one every few months. I owe him big time!
My last Q: Should comments be turned off or on, because if you show zero comments after every post does that make you look like a zero? Jason answered, “I go back and forth about turning comments on or off. I like to leave them on just on the off chance that someone will someday write something. 
.” Damn, what a waste of a question!
Try out GWAP. Then please go back to Jason’s blog and leave him a comment.
Hooray for Sports Illustrated photographer Johnny Iacono. He is being honored by the Lucie Awards committee for “Achievement in Sports.” Anyone who is smacked in the jaw with a 90-mile-per-hour wild throw during a Mets game and still gets the cover has my vote. What a guy!
While I’m on a Strange kick, a few years later during a Red Sox world series game, John’s long lens accidentally whacks a guy from Laguna (that’s my hood) in the neck. The “victim” sues, claiming John and his equipment were perched in a dangerous position and the telephoto blow resulted in serious vision problems. Double Ouch.
Note for those of you interested in becoming news photographers: Here is a good ethics question thread on the SportsShooter boards. We sure don’t want to see anymore retouched goal posts, now do we?
Holy Taco does it again with a very funny illustrated blog post, receiving more than 250 responses. I love the photo choice for #4, the complicated order guy. Okay, it’s a huge WOT to read the comments but they are a snap shot of what goes through people’s minds when given a prompt. Wow, some are very touchy. It’s okay to laugh and be silly once in awhile. I am not writing posts to be all that and a bag of Lays.
