Do you like what Instagram has become? Neither does Kevin Systrom, the man who founded the app in 2010. In a recent interview with podcaster Kara Swisher, Systrom opened up about his thoughts on Instagram, and he didn't hold back. "I think we've lost the soul of what made Instagram Instagram," he said. Systrom said he used to go on Instagram to see what … Read the full Story >>
“We were two girls with no one to please,” Patti Smith recalled in a 2011 interview with the New York Times’s Lens blog. It was the early 1970s and Smith’s friend Judy Linn, an art student, had just begun making photographs. Smith, an emerging artist and poet, became her muse, and together, as the Times noted, they created a series of seminal photographs that have come to define a period of music and art history. Now on the faculty of Vassar college, Linn collected the work in her recent book Patti Smith 1969-1976. Read the full Story >>
In 1989 there were 15 border walls worldwide; today there are almost 70, notes Time LightBox, which features Italian photographer Alessandro Grassani’s new project “A Wall In Between” — a look, notes Grassani, at “how our modern society tends to build walls, whether visible or not, between people, populations, and nations.” Grassani started his project at the heavily politicized U.S.-Mexican border in 2016. “I want my photographs to reveal a sense of fear,” says Grassani in an interview. Read the full Story >>
In 1989 there were 15 border walls worldwide; today there are almost 70, notes Time LightBox, which features Italian photographer Alessandro Grassani’s new project “A Wall In Between” — a look, notes Grassani, at “how our modern society tends to build walls, whether visible or not, between people, populations, and nations.” Grassani started his project at the heavily politicized U.S.-Mexican border in 2016. “I want my photographs to reveal a sense of fear,” says Grassani in an interview. Read the full Story >>
Midjourney founder David Holz has admitted that his company did not receive consent for the hundreds of millions of images used to train its AI image generator, outraging photographers and artists, notes PetaPixel. Twitter users have been sharing an interview that Holz did with Forbes in September. When asked if he’d sought consent from living artists whose work was used, Holtz said, “No. There isn’t really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they’re coming from.” Read the full Story >>
Arizona photographer Kathleen Velo covered some 14,000 miles over two years — traveling to 15 locations along the Colorado River — to create her radiant series “Water Flow,” on view through July 3 at the Tucson Museum of Art. Working at night, Velo submerged photographic paper in the river water and then exposed it with a flash. Bottled water samples displayed with each photo document the river's degradation downstream. Tucson Weekly has an interview with the photographer. Read the full Story >>
In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, a Ukrainian soldier named Volodymyr Demchenko recently explained how he and others from Ukraine are using drones to target Russian soldiers. But Demchenko said that in recent weeks it has become harder and more dangerous for Ukrainian drone pilots as DJI has given the Russians the tools it needs to fight back, notes PetaPixel. “We are using Chinese drones, and the Chinese give Russians a program that can search us,” he tells CNN. “Russians see from where we are starting and where we are landing and once it happened to us, we were attacked like right away.” Read the full Story >>
Born in Mexico City, Carlos Reygadas was a lawyer specializing in armed-conflict resolution in Brussels when he decided to make films at the age of 30. He quickly became a unique voice in cinema with his first feature, Japón (2001). Now he talks with Filmmaker about his latest film, Post Tenebras Lux (Latin for “after darkness light”), which tells a story of an artistic Mexican couple living in the country and the people who work for them. “I’ve never understood a traditional screenplay,” says Reygades, who also offers some storyboards and script extracts from the film. Read the full Story >>
If Paul Nicklen hadn’t become a famous National Geographic photographer, he might have been flying jets. He tells Nat Geo’s Proof blog that he always wanted to be a fighter pilot — not to go to war, but to “lose myself in the beauty of flight at Mach 2.” Instead he has lost himself in the beauty and power of nature at ground level. In an interview, he describes his idea of the perfect photograph and offers advice to emerging photographers: “Learn to seek out a good, honest critique of your work. Be willing to grow.” Read the full Story >>
HBO’s upcoming original film The Girl, about the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock (Toby Jones) and actress Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) during the filming of The Birds, paints the director as abusive toward his leading ladies. And it’s true, says the real Tippi Hedren in a New York Times interview: “He was a misogynist.” The Week recently took a more in-depth look at the charges and notes that another new film, Hitchcock, with Anthony Hopkins as Hitch and Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, presents a more flattering view of the auteur. Read the full Story >>
What’s the best way to contact Bloomberg Pursuits senior photo editor Leonor Mamanna? “I am incredibly easy to find on the internet. You can find my email on the about page, you can see where I currently work, which is where you should be pitching to if you’re emailing me,” she says in an interview with PDN. Mamanna describes the type of photography she wants — “I’m looking for a very clear sense of self when I’m looking at portfolios,” she says — and identifies the mistakes photographers most often make. Hint: Do your research before reaching out to her. Read the full Story >>
Not on Time’s list, but nonetheless a popular presence on social media is pro photographer Branden Harvey, who is interviewed by PetaPixel. Harvey has more than 140,000 Instagram followers and 50,000-plus views per image shared on Snapchat. “I began experimenting with using Instagram as a platform to tell stories of people I found inspiring. I called this series #storyportrait,” Harvey says. His advice for building your own audience: “Go against the grain and find your niche.” Read the full Story >>
A Tumblr site recently launched by an anonymous photographer aims to share vital information with fellow pros—not about gear or shooting techniques, notes Fstoppers, but about the pay rates of publications. The blog, called Who Pays Photographers, is based on a similar Tumblr called Who Pays Writers, reports PDN Pulse, which features an interview with the new site’s creator. Thus far it has information about The New York Times, Getty Images, AP, AFP, The Wall Street Journal, ESPN and several other clients in the US and abroad Read the full Story >>
Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow’s movie about the decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden, opens nationally today, after a month of limited release and critical controversy, which we’ve duly noted here. HDVideo Pro takes note of another aspect of the film—its distinctive and effective cinematography—in an interview with director of photography Greig Fraser, who chose to shoot the film with the Arri Alexa camera. It was the first time he had shot a feature film with digital. Read the full Story >>
Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf’s highly polished, intriguing fine-art work, on view through February 28 in the exhibition “Waiting: Selections from Erwin Olaf: Volume I & II,” at the Hasted Kraeutler Gallery in New York, always seem to hint at deeper emotions or unanswered questions. Recently, photographer and blogger Ken Weigart asked Olaf some questions of his own ... about his career in fine-art and commercial photography and how he comes up with his visual ideas. “Usually just by sitting on my couch a lot,” says Olaf. Read the full Story >>
In a recent interview with PetaPixel, photo blogger Thomas Hawk predicted that one of the major trends in the photo industry over the next five years will be “monetization for non-professional photographers.” Others agree, notes PP: Paul Melcher of the Thoughts of a Bohemian blog says “the next major disruption in the photo world” will be individual licensing—the ability for any individual to license images directly. Getty Images has been fighting this looming sea change, he says, by cutting deals with photo sharing platforms like Flickr. Your thoughts? Read the full Story >>
“Personally I think that we’re all artists in different ways. I don’t get into the divisions between where a true artist begins and ends and the rest of photographers take over,” says Chris Boot, the executive director of the nonprofit Aperture Foundation, in a wide-ranging recent interview with James Estrin of The New Uork Times’s Lens blog. This year marks the 65th anniversary of Aperture, which, notes Estrin, has shaped the conversation around photography through its magazine and books. “In a sense,” says Boot, “photography is now everywhere and everything.” Read the full Story >>
The American Society of Magazine Editors has released its list of finalists for the 2013 National Magazine Awards: National Geographic leads the pack with nine nominations, including one in the overall Photography category and one in the Feature Photography category for the story “In The Shadow of Wounded Knee,” from photog Aaron Huey. Other titles nominated for best use of photography: Bon Appétit; Interview; Time; W. This year’s categories also feature video work and multimedia work. Read the full Story >>
Annie Griffiths came to National Geographic in 1978. She was 25 at the time. She was one of the first women to be hired as a photographer by the magazine, and also the youngest. She'd never been outside of the United States, but she soon found herself traveling around the world, eventually with two children in tow. She went on to found her own … Read the full Story >>
And more doc news: Filmmaker Errol Morris has examined Texas justice and interviewed the men who led America into Vietnam and Iraq. Now, in an unlikely move, Morris is making six shorts for ESPN Films. The first installment is The Subterranean Stadium, which delves into the world of electric football. “Morris uses his typically on-point interview skills …. to guide us through a game whose players claim, plausibly, is as complex as chess,” notes Filmmaker. Grantland has more in the series. Read the full Story >>
