Pro Photo Daily

05/29/2020

Have you been spending lockdown time with kids? "It's been six weeks since we were locked into a small house with our boys. So much of our career in the last few years has been focused on traveling with the kids and documenting adventures with them. Now, the adventure was at home." So note visual storytelling team Ben Lowy and Marvi Lacar, whose new Kindle book "ABC(orona): A Family's Anecdotal and Thoroughly Unresearched Guide to Surviving the Corona Virus Lockdown," provides parents with a vocabulary "to speak to our kids about hard truths." We featured it this week. Plus more...
https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26783/what-we-learned-this-week-a-realistic-view-of-par.html

05/28/2020

Who are those masked people out there in the street? They're everyone. In today's spotlight on pandemic projects by PPD readers we feature Washington, D.C.-based photographer Sam Kittner's series "Faceless Faces in Public Places." During the Covid-19 lockdown, Kittner has been safely documenting, in his words, "how communities interact with their environments and highlighting the vital nature of the places in which we traverse and gather." Says Kittner, "I think we are all kind of exhausted from the weight of this crisis and looking for strength wherever we can find it."
https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26725/ppd-readers-pandemic-projects-sam-kittners-fac.html

05/28/2020

Congo in Conversation shows the value of local perspectives

In late-January, Finbarr O’Reilly traveled to eastern Congo to document the end of the second-worst Ebola epidemic in history. As the 11th laureate of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award, the trip was to be the beginning of a six-month assignment, notes the British Journal of Photography. As we noted recently, when O’Reilly’s work was made impossible by the coronavirus lockdown, he instead created the digital platform “Congo In Conversation,” a collaborative effort featuring work from local Congo photographers.

A new digital platform by Finbarr O'Reilly and Fondation Carmignac seeks to amplify local voices reporting during the pandemic

05/28/2020

Thoughts of a Bohemian

Thoughts of a Bohemian

When you need to raise profits in the stock photo industry, there are three paths you can take: 1. Raise prices 2.Reduce operating costs or 3.Reduce photographer's commission. Since 1. is capped by competition pressure, 2 is hard, there is only room for 3.

05/27/2020

He was "one of the last myths of the golden age of photography." So notes L'Oeil de la Photographie in a tribute to Life magazine photographer and director of photography John Loengard, who passed away on May 24 at age 86. Loengard edited a number of books tracing the history of Life magazine and its greatest photographers. "Loengard was known in the business for his scowling oracular presence, a cross between a rabbinical sage and a tough-love football coach," notes writer and editor David Friend in an accompanying text.
https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26772/passings-john-loengard-life-magazine-legend-and.html

05/27/2020

The Photo Society — a non-profit formed by National Geographic photographers — is launching a sale of photographic prints to help heath care workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The sale, which is being supported by Epson America, will offer limited quantities of 35 prints donated by TPS members, with 50 percent of the profits donated to Direct Relief, an organization that is working overtime to supply protective gear and critical care medications to Covid-19 health care workers worldwide. The other portion will go to photographers who depend on travel for income and have been sheltered in place.
http://thephotosociety.org/the-photo-society-flash-print-sale-benefits-direct-relief/

05/27/2020

Beautiful Photo of Adorable Hare in a Field Wins Nature Photography Contest

German photographer Peter Lindel’s images of a hare bathed in sunlight is the winner of the 2020 GDT Nature Photographer of the Year contest. “The European hare, once a common inhabitant of open countryside all over Germany, has become a rare sight,” the Dortmund-based Lindel tells My Modern Met. “This photo…was taken in July of 2019 when months of searching a suitable location led me to a dirt road, which offered the most beautiful morning light, lovely vegetation, and three hares.”

“Dreamy, curious, careful, anxious. These are the adjectives that I find to describe the expression of ‘my hare’ best.”

05/27/2020

Instagram Testing New Tools That Will Make Comments Less Sh*tty

Now you can wipe out trolls faster: Instagram is rolling out new features designed to make it easier for users to control who interacts with them on the platform. A major change to Instagram’s comment controls allows users to delete up to 25 comments at once, as well as block or restrict users in bulk directly from their unwanted comments. Currently, users can only delete one comment at a time and block or restrict one user at a time, which makes it incredibly time-consuming for those with high follower accounts, notes Gizmodo.

As part of its fight against online bullying, Instagram is rolling out new features designed to make it easier for users to control who interacts with them on the platform.

05/26/2020

Part two of our look at PPD pandemic projects switches coasts. We recently featured photographer Kevin Steele's portraits of people in Los Angeles living in isolation. Today we spotlight photographer Andrea Fremiotti's interactive VR 360 images shot in iconic New York City sites that have been changed by the pandemic. "I began shooting this ongoing project on April 16," says Fremiotti. "My raw materials are purely photographic, not video or CGI. Using a pano head and tripod, I shoot a few dozen frames of each scene over several minutes, then manually stitch them into a sphere."
https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26712/ppd-readers-pandemic-projects-andrea-fremiottis.html

05/26/2020

Washington Reveals Guidelines for Photographers Who Want to Reopen

Washington State Governor Jay Inslee has published a set of guidelines for professional photographers who want to re-open their studios as the stay-at-home order in the state is rolled back. The guidelines could act as a template for photographers in other states who are eager to open back up safely, notes PetaPixel. Under the plant, professional photographers—which includes studio, event, freelance, and even ‘artistic’ photographers—should be able to re-open in most of Washington State by June 1. The guideline recommends outdoor sessions.

Washington State Governor Jay Inslee has published a set of guidelines for professional photographers who want to re-open their studios as the

05/26/2020

I'm Usually a Conflict Photographer. Now, I'm Documenting My Family.

“I was in Australia, working on a photographic project on the aftermath of the wildfires, and there was a moment when I realized that this pandemic was not being contained. It was spreading everywhere. My family was back in Switzerland, and I was playing these scenarios through my mind: Borders being closed. What if I get sick? What if I get stuck?” So writes photojournalist Paolo Pellegrin at The New York Times Magazine. Pellegrin notes that he rush home to his family and found a new subject to document.

For the first time in my career I decided not to cover a major event. I'm seeing something more timeless and universal.

05/25/2020

Andy Leclerc

https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26679/american-photography-open-2020-april-highlights-f.html

05/22/2020

The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated the economy. And freelancers have been hit especially hard. This week we noted that more than a dozen media and arts organizations, including the National Press Photographers Association, have signed a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to express deep concern for millions of freelancers and self-employed workers experiencing unprecedented loss. The letter has five proposals to help curb tremendous financial loss during this time. Among them: Extend a monthly stimulus payment of $2,000 for up to 12 months; establish rent and mortgage forgiveness, and extend Pandemic Unemployment Assistance indefinitely.
https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26750/what-we-learned-this-week-congress-should-do-5-th.html

05/22/2020

Hollywood Beacons in the Night

They survived the Great Depression, as well as earthquakes, VCRs and streaming services. But the coronavirus pandemic may doom the grand movie palaces of Hollywood. All have been closed for more than a month, along with every other movie theater in the United States, notes The New York Times, which explores the past and future of the Hollywood theaters in an article featuring superb nighttime images of the palace’s marquees by Los Angeles-based photographer Kate Warren.

The great movie palaces of Los Angeles have withstood much upheaval over the decades. Now closed because of the coronavirus, they await their fate in silence.

05/21/2020

Look around, and what do you see? Water, probably. "Around our planet, it appears in many forms, liquid, gas or solid," says filmmaker Florian Ledoux. Most of our planet's fresh water is the solid kind. "Almost 70 percent of the freshwater on our planet is held within glaciers and ice-sheets," Ledoux says. "We take water for granted, even though it is something we all depend on. Our future, amongst other challenges, depends on the capability of preserving the ice." Ledoux's newest film, "I Am Vital," is an exquisite look at this resource and sends a message about climate change. We feature it today.
https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26647/spotlight-florian-ledouxs-i-am-vital-sends-a-m.html

05/21/2020

ICP Infinity Awards

The International Center of Photographer recently held its virtual Infinity Awards gala, and now you can view special presentations about the 2020 award recipients prepared by multimedia production company MediaStorm. The projects include short films and slide shows about Lifetime Achievement winner Don McCullin; Online Platform and New Media winner The 1619 Project of the New York Times Magazine; Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism winner Hannah Reyes Morales; and Applied winner Nadine Ijewere.

Since 1985, the International Center of Photography has recognized outstanding achievements in photography with its prestigious Infinity Awards. The awards ceremony is also ICP’s primary fundraising benefit, with its revenues assisting the center’s various programs.

05/21/2020

'It's great if you're bored with Netflix': video art flourishes in lockdown

As the art world adapts to the reality of the Covid-19 lockdown with virtual tours, live-streamed artist Q&As and Instagram Live videos occupying the space once filled by physical exhibitions, video art is flourishing, notes The Guardian. Former MoMA video art curator Barbara London explains in her recent book, Video/Art: the First Fifty Years, how she struggled to get the medium taken seriously in the 1970s. Now, she says, the coronavirus pandemic has made it the most essential and accessible art form.

From dogs’ plums to death metal shrieks, video artworks are finding a new audience hungry for culture that is accessible, original and bizarre

05/20/2020

PPD readers have been self-quarantined, and busy. Over the past few weeks we've been hearing from readers of the Daily telling us about personal projects they've been working on during the Covid-19 pandemic. We'll be featuring those projects regularly, starting with Los Angeles-based photographer Kevin Steele's series "Life On Pause." With his business shut down, Steele set out to photograph people in different neighborhoods safely, through their front doors. "This is an unprecedented time. We are all apart from each other but sharing a common experience," says Steele.
https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26706/ppd-readers-pandemic-projects-kevin-steeles-lif.html

05/20/2020

Check Out These Dramatic Quarantine Self-Portraits Taken by Professional Photographers

Is it true that the most challenging situations can end up being the most creative? Exploring that question, The Washington Post asked a number of photographers to send in self-portraits from quarantine. “This spring,” notes famed photojournalist David Burnett, “for the first time in some 50 years, I didn’t grab my cameras and head to where the issue, the problem, the story was. When you can talk about 50 years, like I just did, it means you’re in the ‘susceptible’ group for Covid. So I’ve shot where I can. My surroundings, my dog, myself.”

Washington photographers step in front of the lens and invite us into their worlds. "Dessert is breakfast. My tub is my sofa."

05/19/2020

Yale MFA Photography

The graduate photography department at the Yale School of Art has launched the “Yale Photo Pop Up Lecture Series,” featuring an array of speakers across the creative industries, from musicians and photographers to authors and filmmakers. Conceived by Gregory Crewdson, the series has included Errol Morris, Jim Jarmusch, Catherine Opie, Sophie Calle, Tilda Swinton, Brit Marling, Stephen Shore, Willam Eggleston, Ben Stiller, Ari Aster, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Cate Blanchett. Guests are announced at Instagram, and talks are recorded and posted later to the Yale MFA Photography YouTube channel.

05/19/2020

'Her Gift To The Beatles Was Immeasurable': Photographer Astrid Kirchherr Dies At 81

Photographer Astrid Kirchherr, who is often credited as the first to capture the Beatles evolution from a leather-wearing rock-and-roll band into mop-top pop idols, died on April 13 in Hamburg, Germany, after a short illness, notes NPR. She was 81. Kirchherr met the group after a 1960 show in Hamburg. At the time, the Beatles consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, drummer Pete Best, and bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, with whom Kirchherr fell in love. Her images became an integral part of the collective photographic memory of the band, and the 1960s as a whole, adds NPR.

"I was just amazed how beautiful these boys looked. And being a photographer then, it was a photographer's dream," Kirchherr told NPR about the first time she saw the Beatles.

05/18/2020

Darin Back

https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26679/american-photography-open-2020-april-highlights-f.html

05/18/2020

Architecture photographer Swee Oh. Fine-art photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten. Fashion and beauty photographer Bara Prasilova. Fashion and portrait photographer Celia D. Luna. Fine-art photographer Clarissa Bonet. Portrait photographer Natalia Evelyn Bencicova. Fine-art photographer Chiara Zonca. These are the recipients of the second edition of the Hasselblad Heroines honors - a program that aims "to encourage the next generation of female photographers to go against the grain and bring their creative visions to life."
https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/26673/honor-roll-hasselblad-heroines-2020.html

05/18/2020

Eugene Smith Grant — W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund

Recognizing the widespread financial need caused by the worldwide pandemic, the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography has announced that it will break from tradition this year. Rather than award $40,000 to a single photographer, the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund will award $10,000 to five photographers whose work follows the tradition of the compassionate photojournalism exhibited by W. Eugene Smith. Editors, researchers, managers, educators and other non-photographers may apply for the Howard Chapnick Grant, a $10,000 award for those in fields ancillary to photojournalism. The deadline is May 30.

The W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography is presented annually to a photographer whose past work and proposed project, as judged by a panel of experts, follows the tradition of W. Eugene Smith’s concerned photography and dedicated compassion evidenced during his 45-year career as a phot...

05/18/2020

Mothers Understood Isolation Before the Pandemic

“There was time when the period right after a woman gave birth was known as her confinement. The phrase has fallen out of usage, but in the photographs of Lisa Sorgini, we see that vestiges of the condition remain.” So notes Time magazine, which spotlights work created by the Australian photographer during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sognini’s series “Behind Glass” comprises portraits of mothers shot through the windows of their homes on the Australian coast about 500 miles north of Sydney. The windows act as a framing device and barriers, adds Time.

"You feel trapped and overwhelmed"

05/18/2020

Have a Short that Needs Eyeballs? Let Omeleto Play Moneyball with Your Film

You’ve made a short film, and maybe screened it at some festivals. What to do you with it now? Kat Ascharya, the head of programming at Omeleto, says good short films should not languish in obscurity. Omeleto releases one short a day on YouTube. What started as an experiment during the early Wild West days of YouTube turned into a successful launching point for short films, some landing anywhere from 20,000 to 20 million views. Ascharya tells NFS what he’s learned about maximizing a film’s reach.

Here's how a data analytics team could be a filmmaker’s best friend.