There's nothing too special about a tube of toothpaste, a pocket comb, a light bulb or a man's wingtip shoe. But those prosaic objects are made extraordinary in the images on display in the exhibition "The Real Thing: Unpackaging Product Photography," which if you hurry you can view at New York's Met Fifth Avenue through Aug. 4. The exhibition, which we spotlighted previously, has … Read the full Story >>
John Echave, who over a long career worked as a photographer and photo editor at National Geographic, US News & World Report and other publications, died on June 12, notes an obituary that appeared at The Washington Post. He was 78. Born in Havana, Cuba, Echave came alone to the United States at age 15 to avoid being sent to the Soviet Union for socialist reeducation. In 1979, he took a position as a photo editor for the Associated Press. In 1982, he became the foreign picture editor for US News & World Report. In 1988, he became an illustrations editor for National Geographic magazine and was later promoted to senior editor. Read the full Story >>
One day in 1978, British photographer Janette Beckman got a call from the art director of the A&M record label. The company had just signed a new band called The Police and he wanted her to shoot the cover for their debut album, “Outlandos d’Amour.” She shot the image in a tunnel in central London using a new Hasselblad she’d saved up for. When The Police’s song “Roxanne” shot up the charts, she saw her photo on billboards everywhere, notes Huck. Beckman’s photos of punk and hip-hop musical rebels and legends are now on view at Foam Amsterdam. Read the full Story >>
Furniture brands usually spend a small fortune on photo shoots, but the French startup Presti promises to bring their costs down, notes TechCrunch. Founded in November 2022, Presti is using generative AI to turn a single product image into a realistic lifestyle photo. Presti uses Stable Diffusion XL as its foundation model. The AI image platform has been retrained and tweaked so that it works particularly well for product imagery in the furniture industry. The company recently raised a $3.5 million seed round led by the global tech investment firm Partech. Read the full Story >>
