Tonight at the PhotoPlus Expo bash on the Intrepid, PDN publisher Lauren Wendle announced that The Nielsen Company, which owns and operates successful trade shows, magazines and online properties, including PhotoPlus Expo and PDN, has signed an agreement with Rangefinder, Inc. to acquire Rangefinder and AfterCapture Magazines, and the Wedding and Portrait Photographer International trade show (WPPI). The acquisition is effective immediately.

Under the agreement, the Nielsen Photo Group will house all of Nielsen’s photo-related properties, which currently include Photo District News (PDN), PhotoPlus Expo (PPE), PDNedu, Independent Photography Network (IPN), PhotoServe.com, and PhotoSource.
 

Rangefinder magazine is a 60-year-old monthly publication dedicated to the advancement of wedding and portrait photographers. AfterCapture Magazine is the premier publication focused on post-production photography work.

For over 30 years, WPPI, The Wedding and Portrait Photographer International Trade Show, has focused on the wedding and portrait segment of the photography industry. Exhibitors include manufacturers and sellers of photography equipment, photo albums, lab services and software for photographers.
 
Rangefinder magazine and WPPI tradeshow staff, including founder Steve Sheanin, will continue to operate the properties in Los Angeles, under the direction of Joe Randall, Sr. Vice President, Nielsen Expositions.
  
Please visit PDNonline.com’s home page for more updated information.

The Keynotes at PhotoPlus are always highy anticipated events and today’s presentation by Albert Watson, in conversation with Laurie Kratochvil, was right up there as being one of the best. 

Kratochvil, an icon in her own right who has worked with Watson in the past, first as director of photography at Rolling Stone, then as collaborator on his book Cyclops and more recently on his book Strip Search (due out next week), sat next to Watson. They discussed how he got started in photography some 40 plus years ago and his work in Vegas for his latest book.

 ”I was trained as a graphic designer, which has held me in very good stead, even today,” Watson began. He then told the audience that his wife had bought him a Fujimatic decades earlier, and he was hooked on photography from that point on. “Whenever we went out I remember putting the strap over my shoulder and even though there was no film in the camera and I didn’t know how to use it, it had an effect on me. That night I even got up to check and make sure it was still there.”

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Wedding photographers Elizabeth Messina and Jasmine Star, both based on the West Coast, flew East to PhotoPlus Expo to share the photographic techniques and branding tactics that keep them at the top  of what has, in the past several years, become a very competitive and lucrative genre of  photography.

In Messina’s seminar, “Getting to the Heart of Wedding Photography,” attendees were presented with several slide shows of her work (accompanied by upbeat Lauryn Hill musical tracks), free memo pads  (with an image by Messina on the cover), and giveaways from Big Folio and Graphis Studio.

At the heart of Messina’s seminar was the message that “wedding photography is a team sport and everything you as a photographer are there to capture, someone else had a hand in creating.” She advised photographers to urge subjects to always open up and give more. “Find a way into their space and create lasting memories.”

Messina also stressed to the packed seminar room that it is important to continuously nurture your creativity, and keep advancing your brand, both through personal projects and assignments as well as through blogging. A year ago she created the blog kissthegroom.com, which went on to win design awards as well as nab the attention of paying advertisers (see the article on her successful blogging endeavor in PDN’s November issue.).

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In order to win a grant, you need to do your homework and find the a grant whose mission and goals match the subject of your photography project. Panelists at the PhotoPlus Expo seminar, Grant Writing 101, moderated by PDN executive editor David Walker, noted that researching the many art, photography and documentary grants out there can be overwhelming.

Ellen Liberatori, professor at New York University and author of Guide to Getting Arts Grants, recommended photographers use the database at the Foundation Center, which lists many types of grants.

Photographer Justine Reyes recommended using NYFA’s Deadlines & Headlines list and enrolling in free grant writing workshops that are offered in your town or city. Reyes recently awarded a workspace residency from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and  is a visiting scholar at New York University.

Liebratori suggested attending forums and information sessions provided by the grant foundations, in order to learn more details about applying for the grants from the grant officers themselves. This gives you the opportunity to meet decision makers who evaluate proposals. When researching grants,  Liberatori advised the audience to look at statements of past award winners to know if your project is applicable for that specific grant. Figure out where your story fits, the essence of your work and how you frame it.

Many photographers need to apply for grants year after year because there are many factors that change, like the judges, timeliness of your topic and your competition. Brenda Ann Kenneally, photographer and past winner of the W. Eugene Smith Grant, said she applied for the Getty Editorial Grant six times before winning.  Yamagata noted, “If you reapply please show that you’re committed to developing your work into something new each time that you submit your application.” Grant officers want to see that your project is progressing.

Yamagata also offered a clear and concise time line for applying for an OSI grant:

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Darius Himes, publisher of Radius Books, told the audience at the “Publishing Your Photobook” seminar at PhotoPlus Expo that having an honest assessment of the potential audience for your photo book “is almost as important as doing the work.” Knowing who would want to buy a book of your photos helps you determine whether to approach a large or small book publisher, what price you should put on the book, what its format and design should be, and how you can market it.

Himes presented the seminar along with fine art consultant Mary Virginia Swanson. They have co-authored Publish Your Photo Book, to be published this fall by Princeton Architectural Press.  Like their book, their PhotoPlus seminar covered the process of publishing a book from conception to sales, explained how to approach an acquisitions editor at a traditional publishing house, and covered some of the ways that photographers are using print-on-demand publishing and other self-publishing options either to deliver books to readers or to create book proposals.

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One of the central questions of the seminar “10 Things You Should Know About Magazine Publishing Today,” which took place yesterday afternoon at the PDN Photo Plus Expo in New York, was what exactly defines the term “magazine” in the current media marketplace?

Moderator Michelle Dunn Marsh, co-publisher of Aperture magazine, put the question to the seminar panelists, which included Rolling Stone senior photo editor Sacha Lecca, photographer Lisa Kereszi, New Yorker photo editor Whitney Johnson, and Bonnier Corp.’s Gregg Hano, publisher of Popular Photography, American Photo, Popular Science and other magazines.

Dunn Marsh offered two definitions for the term magazine from a pair of sources. One progressive definition acknowledged that magazine companies are branching into tablet editions; online articles, videos, multimedia slideshows and other features; standalone special issues and other forms in order to reach readers. The other defined the magazine as a strictly print product. All of the panelists appeared to agree on the former definition, and a great deal of the seminar was spent contemplating evolving online and tablet media.

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Panos Pictures, the UK-based photo agency, has posted images that miner Edison Pena took while he was trapped underground in the San Jose mine in Chile for  69 days. His photos show the refuge area where he and the other miners slept on cots and bed rolls, and the pile of fallen stone that cut off their escape. Pena also took several self portraits as he  exercised in the mine’s tunnels by jogging, lifting heavy bars and trying to pull machinery as he ran.  The story can be seen on the Panos.co.uk web site.

In text accompanying the photos, Panos states that the agency is acting as Pena’s agent.  No explanation is given of whether the sale of the photos breaks the agreement the miners made to share all proceeds from deals with the media. The text says that photographer Adam Patterson who, with a writer, had been working on a story about Pena’s girlfriend, lowered a camera to Pena in the mine.  The text doesn’t explain how he lit his shots in the dark tunnels.

Panos has packaged Pena’s images with photos that Patterson took  of Pena’s girlfriend and her home during the weeks she was awaiting his rescue.

( * Update: Oct. 28:  David Arnott of Panos Pictures got in touch with PDN with  information about the photos.)

Arnott tells PDN that Panos has made “a number of exclusive deals with news magazines across Europe, including Paris Match and Stern.”  The first publication rights in the US are still being negotiated, and a number of potential clients are involved, he says.

This year, LaCie will be exhibiting its range of professional solutions at the PDN PhotoPlus International Conference and Expo at booth #479.

LaCie’s external storage products have always been popular with photographers, and our new products are no exception.

The LaCie 2big USB 3.0 is a great way to get capacity, speed, and security; it features up to 4TB of storage and three RAID modes for flexibility. It’s recyclable, eco-friendly, and compatible with USB 2.0, making it the most complete USB 3.0 storage device on the market.

For photographers or small offices that need even more storage, the LaCie 5big Backup Server and 5big Storage Server are both ideal solutions. Delivering seamless, full-featured backup for up to 10 PCs and 25 Macs, the 5big Backup Server offers robust performance and Microsoft storage software. With up to 10TB of capacity scalable through USB and eSATA connections, the 5big Backup Server offers total storage to back up all your office’s workstations. It’s even compatible with Time Machine.

If your office is a bit larger, consider the LaCie 5big Storage Server. It’s a professional desktop file-sharing server designed to manage file-sharing activities for 25 to 100 PC, Mac, or Linux workstations, and can even manage more.   For a full range of accessibility, the 5big Storage Server supports major network protocols such as SMB, AFP, NFS, and iSCSI. Additionally, HTTP and FTP accessibility means that your data can be accessed from anywhere.

But we’re more than just storage here at LaCie—we also focus on professional color solutions like the LaCie 324i LCD Monitor, which features a P–IPS panel for a uniform presentation. Its color is rated at an impressive 102% NTSC and 98% AdobeRGB. With such wide gamuts, graphic artists can be confident that the 324i gives them true colors that maintain the integrity of their work. The 324i stand has an easy 90º pivot, allowing for the flexibility to work in portrait or landscape modes. The 324i’s IPS panel also has a 178° viewing angle, which means that the display is visible from multiple axes without a change in the picture or losing any of its millions of colors.

Read more:

LaCie 2big USB 3.0

LaCie 5big Backup Server

LaCie 5big Storage Server

LaCie 324i LCD Monitor

Annie Leibovitz has been trying to extract herself from a financial hole by offering master sets of 157 prints for more than $3 million each, but collectors are apparently balking, according to a recent story by John Gapper in the Financial Times. And at recent auctions, he reports, Leibovitz’s prints have been fetching less than $10,000, and sometimes even less than $1,000. “Despite all her celebrity and talent,” Gapper writes, “Leibovitz lacks earning powers as an artist.”

The reason for that, he essentially says, is that she hasn’t sucked up to the art world. Although she’s had relationships with various art galleries, she has devoted her energy almost entirely to commercial and editorial work, and failed to take the sage marketing advice of dealers to print very limited editions and sign them.

Gapper’s sources raise questions about the intrinsic artistic value of Leibovitz’s commercial work–most of it celebrity portraits. But he points out that Irving Penn and Richard Avedon managed to succeed as both artists and commercial photographers. Leibovitz could do the same, Gapper suggests, if only she could cultivate a perception of scarcity.

But Gapper overlooks the fact that Avedon and Penn made it in the fine art world on the strength of their personal work, not their editorial or advertising work. That isn’t to say that Leibovitz’s images of Demi Moore and Queen Elizabeth and other celebrities don’t have value. To her commercial clients, her work is worth quite a lot. But it’s hard to imagine how she can clamber into the pantheon of notable art photographers on the strength of those images alone, even if she does make amends with dealers and gallerists.

Since  the news went out that photographer Joao Silva had been severely wounded when he stepped on a mine in Afghanistan on Saturday, colleagues have sent messages of support to Silva’s Facebook page and The New York Times, where Silva is on contract.  Photographer Greg Marinovich says he and other friends of Silva’s have been “inundated with requests by people who would like to support Joao.”  They have now set up a fund to handle tax-deductible donations, and created a photo-licensing plan to generate money for Silva’s family while he is not working.

Though The New York Times is covering Silva’s medical expenses, Marinovich notes on the Story Taxi web site: “The financial stability of a freelance journalist is always a precarious one.” He adds, “Should Joao later feel that your generosity would be welcomed elsewhere, we will donate the funds to a charity of his choice.”

Related story:
Photographer Joao Silva Wounded in Afghanistan