Think twice before you sell yourself short.

Prof. Roberta Mayer brought this article to my attention. It is a recent story from the New York Times about the shrinking market for editorial and magazine photographers. Each day, millions of digital images are created and posted on sites like Flickr. Many magazines, ad agencies and stock photo services are now culling these sites for photographs rather than commissioning professional photographers to make them. This practice has been a boon for amateurs wanting to make a few extra dollars - but it is really hurting the professional photographers of the world. Essentially, the amateurs are undercutting the professionals. One wonders what this means for the ever changing future of photography? To read the full article click here.

Doug Dubois at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center

Photographer Doug Dubois will be speaking about his work this Thursday, April 1 from 7:30-8:30pm at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. The talk is FREE.

Info on Doug Dubois (from the PPAC website):

DuBois’s book All the Days and Nights, is a deeply personal body of work. DuBois first started photographing his family in 1984, before his father’s near fatal injury from a commuter train. Coping with the graveness of this hardship, he documents his family members through a tender lens, revealing the subtle complexities of their personalities and the dynamics of their relationships with one another. This poignant memoir engages the viewer in its emotional immediacy and showcases the tribulations of those closest to him.

More information is available on the PPAC website here. There will be a reception & book signing after the talk. Don't miss this great opportunity.

SPRING BREAK OPEN LAB UPDATE

I have just been informed that the college will be without power from 4pm Friday, March 19-Saturday, March 20. For this reason, the photo labs will close at 4pm on Friday instead of 7:30pm.

Opportunity for Photography Students

BucksCountyNightOut.com is a new website which lists all of the restaurants, bars and other night life venues in Bucks County. They are looking for a few student photographers to work assignments shooting in the businesses highlighted on the site. While the shoots are unpaid, your images would be credited on the website with a link to your personal site and /or a gallery of your photos included on Bucks County Night Out. This is a great opportunity to get some experience shooting in a "real world" situation while making some connections. If you are interested, send an email with resume and 3-5 jpgs attached to info@buckscountynightout.com. Students who are 21 or over are preferred since some shoots are in bars & clubs. If you have any questions, please see Kimberly.

Open Lab Hours for Spring Break

As you know, Spring Break is next week from March 15-19. The photo labs will be open during the following hours. During these hours students will have access to the Hicks 120 digital lab, the darkroom and the lighting studios. There will be one technician covering all three areas, so if you need help you may need to look around for a moment - please be patient!

Monday: 5-10pm

Tuesday: noon-5pm

Wednesday: 5-10pm

Thursday: 1-6pm

Friday: HOURS SHOULD BE 10:30-4PM. PLEASE CALL THE DEPT TO CONFIRM BEFORE COMING TO SCHOOL.

Enjoy!

Photoshop or Photography?

A recent post by NY Times technology writer David Pogue asks the question: where do we draw the line between Photography and Photo-shoppery? Pogue's questions center around a recent contest in Popular Photography Magazine in which two of the winning photos were "Photoshop Jobs." Questions of this nature have been posted many times on the Bucks Photo Blog. Pogue makes a compelling argument that Photography is subjective by nature. Film photographers have always "burned and dodged" in the darkroom. The photographic frame always leaves out more than it includes. Where do we draw the line? To read the article, click here. Two of the winning photos are posted above.

-Kimberly

Some announcements. .

So many announcements. .

•First, if you see Robin Odland be sure to congratulate him. Robin was given a merit scholarship to attend the Society for Photographic Education Conference in Philadelphia this weekend.

•Remember - the Bucks Arts trip to NYC is on Friday, March 26. Tickets are available in the Art Office in Hicks. Kimberly Witham will be leading students on a tour of Chelsea photo galleries. All are welcomed to come along.

•Did you know there is a scholarship for Bucks Photo Certificate students? If you are a student in the Photo Certificate program and will be taking at least one photo class in the Fall or Summer of 2010, apply for the scholarship. Details are available in the Art Office.

Photo Fight

There has been a bit of a controversy brewing between two art photographers over issues of copying or plagiarizing of work. David Burdeny is being accused of plagiarizing the work Sze Tsung Leong. Both photographers work looks very similar in style and composition and both have photographed the same locations. The question becomes whether Sze Tsung Leong owns intellectual property over these compositions and subject matter. This matter is particularly important to the art dealers and gallerists. "

Sze Tsung Leong

David Burdeny

"The financial ramifications can be considerable. Leong's prints sell for as much as $25,000, and Burdeny's for up to $10,500. Confusion between the work of the two artists in the marketplace could adversely affect those values." from the Los Angeles Times.

I would argue that all of photography is intrinsically about replicating. How many photographs have been taken of the pyramids? Are some going to be similar? Odds are that some will.

Also, style comes and goes. Leong and Burdeny are both working in a contemporary landscape aesthetic defined both by the art market and the artists working today. Overlap happens constantly. It comes with the territory of art. Someone somewhere is working on a similar idea with a similar aesthetic. Is it the person that reaches the highest worth in the art market that gets to claim ownership of this idea and aesthetic?

Chad