I won! I won!

Recently, Joerg Colberg posted about Carl Wilson's Let's Talk About Love, a book about Celine Dion's music. He then challenged his readers to email him a story or a good reason why they should be the lucky recipient of the book. Just hearing Madame Dion's name evoked some long-forgotten childhood trauma of having her music inflicted upon my young ears.

Today Mr. Colberg deemed my tale of woe sufficiently sympathetic/pathetic enough to win the book. There's nothing like flogging your childhood trauma for free stuff.

Pause, to Begin call for entry

Pause, to Begin is a unique, new photography competition currently accepting applications now until April 1, 2008, and the selected finalists will be announced online April 15, 2008. Ethan and David, the founders of Pause, to Begin, will hit the road in May 2008 with a documentary filmmaker to visit the selected finalists and record the time they experience together.

By traveling to meet the selected finalists in-person, Pause, to Begin becomes a publication that reflects not only the visited photographers and their process for creating, but also the journey of making Pause, to Begin.

The first year of Pause, to Begin culminates in November, 2008 with the release of a limited edition, hard-bound fine art book that is distributed to important creatives in the photographic industry and available online for purchase. The selected photographers will also be exhibited at a to-be-announced gallery that will coincide with the book release celebration.

Outside/Inside exhibit

Tonight is the opening reception for the Outside/Inside photography exhibit at Gensler New York featuring International Center of Photography alumni, including Noemi Nin Pfluger and Ryan Thatcher.

Date: Monday, March 31st, 6-8pm
Location: 1230 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1500

Photography business blog

Found a link tonight to Dan Heller's Photography Business blog. Some gems in there, including information on model releases.

Retail renting

From Jezebel there's a post on retail renting, "A former camera store manager came forward to defend retail renting as a common tactic that helps drive sales. Retail renting is when a customer buys a pricey item like a prom dress with the intention of returning it later.

'In fact, last week I "rented" a $1900 lens from [the store.] Now, normally I actually "rent" lenses from a company that's equipped to do so. However, I needed the lens the next day and [the store] was my only option. As far as I'm concerned, its a victimless crime.

I guess what I'm trying to argue is that if its done correctly, its a victimless crime. The insiders do it in much worse fashion anyways. I would argue that if your willing to rent something, you might be willing to buy it (eventually). Allowing you to rent with me increases my chances of a sale. And that's what I really want.'"

Working on new website

I needed to find a way to distinguish between my commercial photography and art photography so I finally decided, for convenience sake, to place the work on different websites. The look of each website is a work in progress but this is the preliminary home page of my personal work/projects website.

You need insurance

Photoshelter has posted a cautionary tale of why photographers need insurance. Watch the YouTube video. I wonder if that model sued everyone involed.

Andrew comments

Andrew Hetherington has an interesting comment on Rob's recent promo opportunity.

I'm curious as to what Rob's choices will be.

Art Fairs galore this weekend

New York is host to a plethora of art fairs this weekend, including The Armory, Pulse and Scope.

Free Promotion APE-style

Rob Haggart has posted an interesting offer for all of us:

"I’ve wanted to do this for awhile and my thinking on the future of photography and photo contests and other things I’m cooking up has gotten me inspired to offer everyone the chance to promote your best work for free by submitting a couple images for a slide show. There’s plenty of photo editors and art buyers who are readers and I know they will find it extremely beneficial to view a quick slide show with hundreds of different photographers featuring their best work and I can’t think of any other examples where this exists, so here we go.

There will be a bar for entry and I will edit out any photographs that are a waste of time for potential buyers to look at. I know there are a lot of top shooters who may be wary of submitting their photographs so I’m going to make sure all the work displayed is top notch. You can also remove your images at any time if you don’t think I’ve done a good enough job.

The purpose of this is to connect photographers with buyers for FREE. That’s it. No bullshit. If that doesn’t happen to anyone then the project has failed."

The (edited) images will be posted on flickr. The deadline is March 31st.

Inspiration

Inspiration can come from anywhere and for me, it usually comes from movies; often foreign, often dark and often long-winded. I recently watched Elevator to the Gallows with the luminous Jeanne Moreau. The dark and moody cinematography reminds me why I fell in love with black and white photography. And it features the best jazz soundtrack of all time by the legendary Miles Davis.

Doing art and commercial work

As an artist and photographer I often wonder how to balance the desire to pursue my own projects and make a living doing commercial work. Heather Morton Art Buyer posts a timely interview with Daniel Ehrenworth who talked about his relationship with his art work and commercial goals.

"My artwork and commercial work seem to come from two distinct but fairly symbiotic parts of my brain. I honestly couldn’t imagine doing one without the other. In many ways they both inform the other. Plus making artwork lets me experiment in a much looser way and, almost always, those experiments find their way into my commercial and portraiture work.

I learned very early on that, especially at the beginning of your career, its kinda irresponsible to make your living entirely off your artwork because it will inevitably become corrupted. It’s very important to make artwork, or at least have the option to make artwork, that has almost no financial viability. Otherwise you’re just pandering to your collectors. And to be honest, I love doing commercial work so much that I wouldn’t want to just make art. For me, making art is a fairly lonely process but, at the same time, I’m in control of it all and it’s the most meaningful work I produce. Making commercial work allows me to collaborate with really wonderful and talented people, however it’s not as expressive and personal as my artwork. Plus the art market also has an incredibly small audience in comparison to commercial work which makes openings and receptions for a series you’ve been working on for years almost always kinda disappointing (even if the place is packed!).

The division I’ve made between my art and commercial sites is really just for convenience sake. I usually send ADs and Photo Editors here while I send galleries and curators here. However each site also has a link to the other."

The Can

The Smalls, a curator of independent short film, presents The Can at White Rabbit this Tuesday.

Date: Tuesday, March 25, 7pm
Location: White Rabbit
145 E. Houston Street, NY

Identity and isolation

This weekend I was organizing my negatives and came across these portraits. I had taken them while I was an exchange student last year at the National School of Photography in Arles, France. At the time I was working on Her Interior, a project about women's bodies and domestic interiors. During my semester, I had met a group of students, many of whom were exchange students, who felt isolated in this small, southern town. They felt unwelcome and had been unable to integrate with the French student body due to language and cultural barriers, and a thin patina of racism. They expressed feelings of loneliness that led them to bond with each other. I was interested in exploring those ideas of identity and isolation.

I'm continuing this project in New York and will post other portraits soon.

The recipe for success

APE posts a link to Slow Leadership about the unconventional rules for success.

Take whatever time you need to discover what matters to you most:

"We’ve seen that success isn’t simply a matter of money, power, or prestige. You could gain all of those and still feel that you have fallen short of what you wanted; or you could gain none of them and be blissfully happy and fulfilled.

What constitutes personal success is mostly in your mind. It has much less to do with finding the best career in other peoples’ eyes, creating a killer business, or holding down a fancy job with a big salary, than with achieving what really matters to you. Many people find this out too late. They struggle for years to get where other people said they should go, only to find it does little or nothing for them. By then, they’ve lost the chance to do anything else.

Start from the right place: what means most to you, whatever that is. Find a way to build a career around that. If the answer really is money, power, and status, go for it. If it’s something else, follow that instead. Whatever it is, doing what you believe in and most enjoy is going to make the daily process of living a source of satisfaction, instead of having to wait for the occasional tidbit tossed to you by fate."

Women in art photography

Humble Arts and 3rd Ward present Women in Art Photography.

In his 2006 article entitled “Where the Girls Aren’t,” Jerry Saltz writes: “Of all the artists in [MOMA’s] P&S collection with work completed before 1970, fewer than 1 percent are women.”

Please join Humble Arts Foundation and 3rd Ward in welcoming Amy Stein to moderate our first panel discussion on Saturday, March 22 at 6 pm. The discussion will encompass what it means to be an emerging photographer in New York City right now and how gender may or may not influence the artist’s work in terms of process, subject matter, impact and career path. The panelists, Rachael Dunville, Tema Stauffer, Cara Phillips, Mary Mattingly and Sarah Small, will field questions, give advice and speak about their personal experiences as women photographers.

Date: Saturday, March 22, 6 – 8 pm
Location: 3rd Ward
195 Morgan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Branding

There's a helpful article called 7 Tips for Successful Branding from PDNonline.

Some advice from a photo consultant:
"Ideally, your brand should reflect your unique personal identity—something that arises from your DNA that nobody else can appropriate, explains photo consultant Allegra Wilde. Figuring out what that is, exactly, may call for intensive self-reflection. "

"So many photographers lack distinction—and compete with each other—because they try to appeal to particular markets. That sounds logical, but it’s backward, Allegra Wilde argues. Instead of thinking, “I’ll shoot some beauty images and go after cosmetic clients,” she suggests, figure out instead what interests you, and what you know intimately (your hobbies are a good place to start) and shoot those subjects. You’ll have intimate knowledge of the subjects closest to you that other photographers won’t have, and that will be conveyed in your pictures like some secret insider’s language to others who share your knowledge. "

"Market aggressively and position your portfolio in such a way that speaks to the smartest people out there who are just like you. Most photographers do it the other way around—they go after the most literal thing, and what they’re forgetting is, so is everyone else!"

"From the minute your first promotion is in their hand, until you send the final invoice for the job, everything should be consistent, and clean, and readable,” Wilde says. The reason is because your graphical look builds what she calls “visual equity.” She explains, “With enough broadcasting, enough promotion, [your graphic identity] becomes attached to your images—so that eventually people are going to be able to look at your typography and conjure your imagery. They’ll be able to [imagine] your images before their eyes even if they only see a tag on a portfolio.""

In slowly building a commercial portfolio this is something I've been struggling with. Should I do a quick visual survey of what images are commercially viable and try to emulate that? Or do I pursue a personal vision and hope that it will speak to a small but dedicated audience? So far I've opted for the latter and continue to shoot a personal project that may, or may not, be "suitable" for a commercial portfolio.

Art directing your website

Recently I was speaking with a friend who is a former art director-turned-photographer and the topic of websites came up. Her own website had just been completed and she was working on the few remaining details. One comment she made that struck me was that, in her experience, many novice photographers make the mistake of not art directing their website. This just refers to designing your website so it best communicates what you want to communicate to your audience. As a photographer, you have so little time to make a positive impression that if you're website is difficult to navigate or confusing, potential clients are likely to get frustrated and move on.

Her advice is to "organize your thoughts with the same care you use when you organize your physical portfolio, but remember the viewer has about a tenth of the time/patience to look when online. Know your audience. Know who you want to look at your site or get jobs from. How do they like to view work? Generally, edit your content and organize with simple titles and brief descriptions (if at all). Make sure your contact information is easy to read."

This post has some great points about how not to display your artwork on the web.

Carla van de Puttelaar

A while ago I discovered Carla van de Puttelaar. Her work reminds me of the female nudes I photograph combined with portraits, where the nudes are the portraits. There's an interview with her here where she talks about finding the beauty in real women as an antithesis to the plastic imagery found in magazines.

Her photos inspire me to re-discover the beauty in the women in my life.

Interview with Christi Paige

Christi Paige was recently chosen as one of PDN's 30 and I had a chance to speak with her.

1. In the PDN's 30 article, it was mentioned you were a psychotherapist for ten years. Can you tell me about your work experience and educational background and how that influenced your work?

I studied Spanish and Psychology in undergrad and then pursued a master’s degree in clinical social work a few years after undergrad. Being a social worker has maybe been the most influential force in my work, more than any other influence, maybe. Dealing with people in crisis is really about being vulnerable, in the moment, and as honest as you can be—otherwise, how can you best help someone? So, I feel pretty comfortable—actually very comfortable approaching strangers; I’m so curious about people and care about them. I’ve always been really curious about others and just love meeting strangers especially—I get a thrill out of those first few minutes with someone—when I’m trying to take their photo or doing an initial assessment as a clinician.

I was afraid of change, and the decision to leave my career as a social worker was difficult—I was good at it, and I had worked so hard. But I saw little hope for many of my clients despite their strength as individuals. In the end, I think my disillusionment with the systemic problems in social services and in our society not only helped me find this new career but continues to direct the themes and content of my photographs.

2. After working as a mental health advocate, what made you decide to study photography? What influenced your decision to move to New York?

I started photographing when I was about 8 years old. I intermittently photographed most of my life—mainly of people, but didn’t explore it as a career choice until 2005. I signed up for my first B+W darkroom class the day I returned to work after a trip to Honduras where I spent a lot of time taking pictures, but I think in actuality it was dealing with a challenging client that drove me to the darkroom that day. In a way I am half-kidding, but this incident helped propel a long-awaited desire for an expressive outlet. It was always a secret wish of mine—to be a photographer—but I was afraid to do it because it was so unknown to me. I moved to New York because my husband got a job here. Once he got the job, I applied to ICP and I dove in from there.

3. It's been almost a year since you graduated from the Documentary and Photojournalism program at ICP, what kind of work have you been doing since then? What are some of the challenges you've faced?

I’ve had a few editorial assignments for magazines, sold some prints and did a few portraits of random people for money. I’ve had some meetings with photo editors at magazines and worked hard at fostering those relationships and seeking out advice on how to keep going. I’ve done some personal work and learned how to light better and create a series of more set-up portraits.

I was a teacher's assistant at ICP too and that helped motivate me to shoot because I was encouraged to share work. I learned a ton from pushing myself on these projects—there were some basic technical skills I needed to feel confident around for assignments, and now I do. The challenges have been many—I haven’t made much money, and sometimes I feel isolated and not totally happy with my personal projects. I have a difficult time writing about my work and what I want to do—I really want to work on this.

4. So many of us, as emerging photographers, want to know; how did you get chosen as one of PDN's 30? What's the process?

It was a total surprise to me—I didn’t even know when it came out. I got an email in November stating that I was nominated, so then I submitted photos and a summary. I still don’t know who nominated me. I had established contact with one of the PDN editors before the nomination, so maybe this got my name around.

5. Have you gotten any job offers since the article came out?

Yes. A portrait assignment for W magazine. But again, I have had contact with them for a while. It was my first assignment after 4 contributor’s portraits over the last 6 months.

6. What project(s) are you working on at the moment?

Going to Beijing to do street photography. Trying to finish a series on the American Girl Store in NYC. I’m going to go to some small towns in the US and photograph the communities (I went to Utah after graduation). And, I started photographing the Russian community in Brooklyn in the fall, and hope to some day return to that.

How to present your work

NYFA outreach has an upcoming workshop on how to present your work.

This workshop focuses on how to present samples of artwork to an application panel for review and will provide practical advice from NYFA staff with experience in assembling and reviewing artists applications. Topics covered include: do's and don'ts of documentation, how to select a coherent set of images or excerpts, and how to adapt work selection for different applications.

Date: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 6-8pm
Location: New York Foundation for the Arts
155 6th Ave., 6th floor, NY

Thoughts on portfolio editing

While the previous post was about entering a call for entry, the importance of portfolio editing can't be overemphasized. There's an older post on Exposure Compensation that provides some very good tips on editing.

Tips on entering a call for entry

Last month I posted this on photographylot. I thought I would also include it here for those who didn't have a chance to read it.

I was recently a juror on a photography portfolio panel for a national scholarship organization. It was an eye-opening experience being "on the otherside" and seeing how our own work might be evaluated when we apply to galleries or for grants or even just apply for a job. I learned quite a bit and thought I'd share some tips with you. Some of these are painfully obvious but it never hurts to repeat them, right?

Essentially I spent all day in a dark room with a group of photographers and photo-related professionals and we were given the task of viewing over 3000+ images. Of those images, only 5% were chosen for further consideration.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

All the images were judged on originality, technical skill and the emergence of an artistic voice.

1. Edit. Then edit. Then when you're done editing, edit some more. Some of the projects I saw had great individual photos but the editing was poor and those were rejected.

2. The image itself is the most important. Judges were more forgiving of technical "mistakes" or even sloppiness or lack of skill if the image itself was strong.

3. Body of work
Only show one body of work. Don't try to show versatility in style or technique. Be consistent. The judges wanted to see a singular vision. Even if we didn't agree on the message of the work or if we didn't like individual images, the portfolios were still placed in the next round if the overall body of work was strong.

Show your singular vision by exploring an idea fully. Some portfolios showed the genesis on an idea but didn't explore it and those were rejected.

4. Unlike what conventional wisdom would dictate, try to place most, if not all, your stronger images in the front or beginning of your portfolio. While this sounds counterintuitive, the reality of judging so many portfolios meant that many were not viewed fin their entirety. For example, the portfolios each contained 8 images each. If the judges did not like the series by the fourth image, the entire series was dismissed and we moved on to the next.

5. Engage the audience emotionally.
Some portfolios were technically competent and consistent and overall
they were "fine" but left us emotionally flat. Those were the first to get dismissed.

Hope this was helpful. If you have any thoughts to add please let me know.

Ne Plus Ultra at Jen Bekman

The Ne Plus Ultra show, the third Hey, Hot Shot! Annual exhibition, featuring the work of Nina Berman, Birthe Piontek, Brad Moore and Karolina Karlic ends tomorrow. Selected from forty talented artists who have participated in the previous calendar year's quarterly exhibitions, the photographers are now represented by the Jen Bekman gallery.

WWIII Exhibit

Tonight is the opening reception for WWIII: A Wonder Women Project presented by _gaia and hosted by Mana Fine Arts. The residency invited artists to participate in a program to engage in discussion about their work, the cultural climate, the history of art, war, feminism, and social change. WWIII was interested in creating a dialogue and artwork that explores the issues of war and protest in the modern age. Weekly discussions addressed issues related to feminism, gender, war, and protest as they relate to art practice.

Date: Opening reception on Friday, March 14, 2008 6-9pm
Location: Mana Fine Arts Exhibit Space
27 Coles Street, Jersey City

TED presentation

A few years ago I learned about TED, an annual conference that brings together speakers from technology, entertainment and design, and now other fields. Since that time I continue to browse the site since they post the best talks and performances. It's my inner geek's favourite website.

Today, via Conscientious, I found an amazing presentation from Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist who describes her stroke. It was fascinating to hear a scientist speak about the human brain in such eloquent, poetic terms.

PDN's 30

Congratulations to Christi Paige for being included in this year's PDN's 30. We're so proud of her representing us as an ICP alumni. Images from her Not In Vain project were highlighted. In her interview, she mentions how her background as a psychotherapist influenced her work. I can imagine how her ability to empathize would help her connect to her subjects and bridge the photographer-subject gap.

I'll be interviewing her shortly and I look forward to hearing about her life/work post-PDN.

New York Photo Festival

The New York Photo Festival has been announced and will take place from May 14-18, 2008. According to their PR, New York has lacked, until now, a large-scale event dedicated to photography. The focus will be on contemporary photography and the festival will take place in DUMBO. The curators are the satirical Martin Parr, Kathy Ryan from The New York times, Lesley Martin from Aperture and Tim Barber so it will be interesting to see their choices.

More importantly, for photographers, the debut of the New York Photo Awards was also announced. There will be 16 category winners and 32 honourable mentions. Jury members include Lauren Greenfield and Frank Evers. For information about the awards click here. The deadline is April 14, 2008.

There's a snappy ad promoting the festival (and the DUMBO arts resurgence) here.