Issue 4, 2013: ASPP's The Picture Professional Magazine The American Society of Picture Professiona

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QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PICTURE PROFESSIONALS

ISSUE4/ 2013

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ISSUE 4 / 2013 THE PICTURE PROFESSIONAL COVER: © Ryan Cleveland CONTENTS: © Anna Psalmond

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PORTFOLIO Susan May Tell

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PORTFOLIO Anna Psalmond & Ryan Cleveland

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PORTFOLIO Paul Delmont

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Q/A Dr. Lisa Hostetler, Photography Curator

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A TALE OF TWO IMAGES Samaruddin Stewart

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WHAT’S UP WITH PLUS? PART 2 Jeff Sedlik & Roger Feldman

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PICTURE PROFESSIONALS OF THE YEAR

By Cathy Sachs

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CLICK Ben High

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WHAT’S HANGING

BOOK REVIEWS

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Michael Masterson

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THE LAW Joel L. Hecker, Esq.

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CHAPTER CAPTURE

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CONTRIBUTORS

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LIFE IN FOCUS Uliana Bazar

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American Society of Picture Professionals

Since first forming as a small, dedicated group of picture professionals in 1966, ASPP has grown into a large community of image experts committed to sharing our experience and knowledge throughout the industry. We provide professional networking and educational opportunities for our members and the visual arts industry. If you create, edit, research, license, distribute, manage or publish visual content, ASPP is the place for you. Join us at www.aspp.com.

LIST OF ADVERTISERS Adobe SendNow

Corbis

Fundamental Photographs

Sovfoto/Eastfoto

age fotostock

Curt Teich Postcard Archives

Global Image Works

The Granger Collection

akg-images

Custom Medical Stock Photo

Minden Pictures

The Image Works

Art Resource

Dan Suzio Photography

North Wind Picture Archives

Travel USA Stock Photo

Association Health Programs

Danita Delimont Stock Agency

Robert Harding World Imagery

VIREO/The Academy of Natural Sciences

Bridgeman Art Library

Everett Collection

Science Source/Photo Researchers

MASTHEAD

The Picture Professional quarterly magazine of the American Society of Picture Professionals, Inc.

ASPP Executive Offices 12126 Highway 14 North, Suite A-4 Cedar Crest NM 87008 Tel: 505-281-3177 director@aspp.com Editorial Staff Jain Lemos - Publisher April Wolfe - Editor-in-Chief Ophelia Chong - Art Director/Photo Editor Contributing Writers Ben High Joel L. Hecker, Esq. Katie Buntsma Paul H. Henning John W. W. Zeiser Angela Yonke Samaruddin Stewart Jeff Sedlik Roger Feldman Brian Seed Jenny Respress

2012-2013 National Board of Directors

2013 Chapter Presidents

Ohio Mandy Groszko

President Michael Masterson

West Christopher DiNenna Jennifer Kerns Walker

Wisconsin Paul H. Henning

Vice President Sam Merrell

MidWest Christopher K. Sandberg Christopher Beauchamp

Secretary Sid Hastings

New England Jennifer Riley Debra LaKind

Treasurer Mary Fran Loftus Membership Doug Brooks Holly Marshall

New York Kris Graves DC/South Jeff Mauritzen

Technology Daryl Geraci Cecilia de Querol

2013 Sub-Chapter Vice Presidents

Marketing & Communications Jennifer Davis Heffner

Atlanta Anna Fey Minnesota Julie Caruso Missouri Sid Hastings

Advertising & Executive Officers Jain Lemos Executive Director director@aspp.com Editorial April Wolfe editor@aspp.com National President Michael Masterson michaeldmasterson@gmail.com Membership Doug Brooks Holly Marshall membership@aspp.com Website Daryl Geraci webmanager@aspp.com Tel: 602-561-9535 eNews Blog Jenny Respress newsletter@aspp.com

• The American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP) is a non-profit, non-partisan association of image experts committed to sharing their experience and knowledge throughout the industry.

The Picture Professional (ISSN 1084-3701) is published spring, summer, fall and winter as a forum for distribution of information about use, purchase and sale of imagery.

• ASPP is dedicated to promoting and maintaining high professional standards and ethics and cooperates with organizations that have similar or allied interests.

We welcome the submission of articles and news from all sources, on all aspects of the imagery profession. Contact editor@aspp.com • Advertising is also desired and welcomed. We offer a specific readership of professionals in positions of responsibility for decision making and purchase. For our media kit and rate sheet, contact Jain Lemos, 505-281-317. Space reservation deadlines: February 10, May 10, August 10, November 10. Subscription rates: Free to members, $40.00 per year to non-members. Back issues: $10.00 when available.

Non-members are invited to consider membership in ASPP. • POSTMASTER: Send old and new address changes to ASPP, Inc., 12126 Highway 14 North, Suite A-4, Cedar Crest NM 87008. Members can update contact information in the Member Area of our website at www.aspp.com.

• ©2013 American Society of Picture Professionals, Inc. Single photocopies of materials protected by this copyright may be made for noncommercial pursuit of scholarship or research. For permission to republish any part of this publication, contact the Editor-in-Chief. ASPP assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by the contributors to the Society’s publications. Editorial views do not necessarily represent the official position of ASPP. Acceptance of an advertisement does not imply endorsement by ASPP of any product or service.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

© Charles Bush

MICHAEL D. MASTERSON ASPP NATIONAL PRESIDENT

DEAR PICTURE PROS, Four years can go by in a flash. At least it seems that way until I look back and realize how much has happened here at the ASPP during that time. Our editor has generously given me two pages for this, my last President’s Message. Will you indulge me too?

When Cathy Sachs asked me to run for national president, I told her I would only do it if she promised to stay on as executive director. She did, but only for a year as it turned out. Grrrr.

Serendipitously, Cathy’s exit timing was perfect for the person who succeeded her. Jain Lemos was just moving back to Los Angeles and we met for a delightful lunch. The rest, in the best clichéd sense, was history. Before long, we’d cleared out the old office in Alexandria, Virginia and relocated it to Redondo Beach, California, where a new era began for the ASPP.

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And that was just the beginning. Although the ASPP has been around since 1966, it was time for some updates and new perspectives to bring the organization in line with changes in the industry, technology, and the needs of its members. To that end, I looked first at other organizations and realized that we didn’t offer any member benefits. One of my initial goals was to create that program. We started with discounts from Apple and Adobe among many others and eventually added group health and business insurance, a first for us. We also beefed up our job links, another terrific member benefit.

Yet another big change was this magazine itself.

Our longtime editor, Niki Barrie, had done a stellar job in guiding The Picture Professional for over 15 years. However, she’d always had a dream of writing a children’s book and it was aspp.com

time to do that (and she did!). We found April Wolfe, a talented young writer and editor with a distinctive voice who’s reshaped this magazine while retaining the relevant content that makes it so enjoyable to our members. At the same time, we undertook a complete redesign of the publication with our new creative muse, Ophelia Chong. The editorial board, consisting of Jain, Ophelia, April, Ellen Herbert, and me, embarked on recreating the magazine from cover to cover, literally. You hold the results in your hands. It’s now four-color throughout with more and bigger imagery (we are picture professionals after all) and is available in a digital version thanks to our friends at Corbis. We’ve retained our loyal advertisers and added new ones. I think this magazine might be my proudest legacy.

But wait! There’s more. Much, much more.

Not all of it is as visible or eye-catching as The Picture Professional, but just as important to the lifeblood of an organization. As dry as it seems, our bylaws dictate what we do as an association.

When I came on board as national president I realized they had not been updated in a quarter century. There were no provisions for changes in technology and the industry in general. We retained the capable services of Nancy Wolff to guide us through the Byzantine legalities of non-profit organizations. Many months and drafts later, we had a final version to present to the board for approval. We can now confidently move forward into this century knowing we’ve crossed all the “t’s” and dotted the “i’s”.

One of the provisions in the bylaws that had never been implemented was a Board of Trustees. I turned to Cathy Sachs, the keeper of our institutional memory flame, and asked if she would helm the effort. Working with our board, we pooled names of possible trustees and eventually approached a selected group.

We are grateful and honored to have Andrew Fingerman of PhotoShelter, Christopher Reed from the U.S. Copyright Office, Amy Wrynn (past ASPP national president) of Jones & Barnett Learning, and Helena Zinkham from the Library of Congress, as well as Cathy Sachs

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on the board. The trustees have provided us with invaluable guidance and counsel this past year and I look forward to joining them starting in 2014.

Membership has been a challenge since I stepped into my national shoes. Maintaining and building it has, quite frankly, dominated my term as president. But, we’ve been proactive in seeking new members in multiple ways. We introduced a “rolling membership” (previously everyone expired in December) and now offer a monthly payment option. The board created additional membership categories including affiliate (or emerging talent), family and military options as well as a graduate gift program where graduating seniors could receive a free year of membership to help them launch their profession. We also expanded our “Find A Pro” profiles online so that members could connect with potential employers, another invaluable member benefit.

Are you still with me? Because I’m not done yet.

We have a new website. If you’ve ever worked on one, you know how much those few words mean. After rebranding ourselves in print, it was time to do the same online. Once again, we were grateful that our friends from Corbis stepped up and offered to underwrite the effort.

Our advisory group including Jain, Cecelia de Querol, Sam Merrell, Jennifer Davis-Heffner, and I worked with our vetted vendor to conjure up the new aspp.com. The goal was to create a more user-friendly, accessible site that truly showcased the ASPP. We also made the leap into website monetization through banner ad sales. I believe we’ve succeeded in crafting a beautiful, relevant site that will endure.

What else? We updated our chapter handbook, launched our blog, expanded our social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, added a press release service for members and sponsors and expanded into sub-chapters in the Bay Area, Atlanta, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. We also increased our visibility on the international stage by attending PACA

and CEPIC conferences and participating in their association meetings. The ASPP remains unique in the world as it turns out. We are the only organization that counts image creators, distributors, and buyers in the same group. We are truly special.

I am very grateful to have worked with so many talented people over the last four years, too many to single out here. Forgive me if I can’t mention everyone who’s helped. But I’d like to especially thank a few of you. First, my gratitude to both Cathy Sachs and Jain Lemos for their invaluable support, capabilities, and wise advice.

I could never have done this without them. I’m delighted to have worked with two great editors, Niki Barrie and April Wolfe, and an astounding designer, Ophelia Chong. I’ve been blessed to have had talented and engaged national boards and I’d like to particularly thank Mary Fran Loftus, Cecilia de Querol, Sid Hastings, Doug Brooks, Ellen Herbert, and all of the chapter copresidents I’ve been privileged to work with.

Finally, I’d like to look ahead. By the time you read this, Sam Merrell will be our national president with a new energized board to carry the ASPP forward. Sam has been my stalwart “go-to guy” as vice president and I’m exhilarated to pass the honor of heading the ASPP to him next. And very relieved that he’ll have to write the next President’s Message.

All the best and good luck to our new national board! ✹ MICHAEL michaeldmasterson@gmail.com

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WHAT’S HANGING

Photo exhibitions near you.

CALIFORNIA MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS 1649 El Prado San Diego Kevin Cooley: Elements October 19, 2013–February 2, 2014 A Los Angeles-based photographer and video artist, Cooley’s work thoughtfully investigates the ever-changing intersection between man and nature. Skyward is a ceiling projected video installation assuming the vantage point of a car passenger gazing at the sky above. This simple shift in perspective across familiar terrain offers the opportunity to take in a different landscape with details often overlooked in our everyday lives.

© Kevin Cooley

The second piece in the exhibition, Tow, was created during the artist’s participation in the Arctic Circle Expeditionary Residency Program in 2011. This two-channel video portrays a lassoed fallen ice cap in tow behind a boat, allowing the viewer to witness the Arctic seascape from a first person point-ofview. The slow speed at which the greater landscape is revealed as the boat slowly tows the crackling, bobbing glacial fragment allows us to better see this enveloping environment and creates a meditative experience.

ANNENBERG SPACE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY 2000 Avenue of the Stars #1000 Los Angeles The Power of Photography: National Geographic 125 Years October 26, 2013–April 27, 2014 The curation and installation of The Power of Photography departs from previous Photography Space exhibit designs.

Mosaics of more than 400 images documenting the history of National Geographic photography from 1888 to the present time will adorn the walls. In addition, an extensive digital installation will showcase 500-plus images. Thirty professionalgrade large format LED monitors will be arranged to create video walls throughout the Photography Space galleries. These six video walls, ranging from 12 to 14 feet in width, will present both individual images and photographic essays. Given the volume of photographs on the screens, and a format in which the images loop at different times throughout the galleries, the viewing experience will be unique to each visitor and each visit.

© Paul Nicklen, National Geographic, Svalbard, Norway, 2008. A female polar bear peers into the window of Nicklen’s cabin to inspect this human interloper—after munching on his snowmobile seat, his camera bag, and his hat.

screens, along with a selection of prints and print mosaics. The result not only reflects the general move in photography and the magazine toward digital imagery, but allows for a dynamic, immersive and richer experience of our archive of photographs.

The Annenberg Space for Photography has been a wonderfully collaborative and creative partner in breathing life into this idea, which has been a labor of love for all of us.”

“National Geographic’s photographic archive spans 125 years and includes more than 11.5 million images,” said Sarah Leen, Director of Photography for National Geographic Magazine.

“In order to truly capture the breadth and depth of the collection we decided to create a show with 501 images alternating on American Society of Picture Professionals

Open free to the public at the Annenberg Space for Photography Annenbergspaceforphotography.org 8

© Kevin Cooley

WHAT’S HANGING

An image from Lossless #1, Rebecca Baron and Douglass Goodwin’s re-imagined film and digital installation based on iconic films now screening in the Entrance Gallery at George Eastman House.

NEW YORK

Bastienne Schmidt, The Red Dress, Sagaponack, from the series Home Stills, 2008. © Bastienne Schmidt, 2008.

MASSACHUSETTS

GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE

International Museum of Photography & Film 900 East Avenue Rochester Lossless November 14, 2013–February 16, 2014 Lossless (2008) is an installation project by Rebecca Baron and Douglas Goodwin that explores the possibilities of the transformation and distortion of images—and ultimately the creation of new ones—within the digital realm.

Lossless explains in vivid and eloquent terms the impermanence and fragility of the digital image. Given the current transition from analog to digital in the creation and exhibition of moving images, Baron and Goodwin’s installation has achieved the status of a poetic manifesto on the issues surrounding the radical transformation of a mode of visual expression. The technological aspects of this transformation are obvious, but their consequences go far beyond the replacement of an apparatus by another one.

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Rebecca Baron’s work has screened around the world at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the New York Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, the Viennale, the Whitney Museum of Art, and many other venues. Now teaching at the California Institute of the Arts, Baron has also taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Harvard University. Douglas Goodwin’s films have been exhibited internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival, London Film Festival, Pacific Film Archive, Frankfurt Film Museum, and many other venues. He has taught at CalArts, MassArt, and Emerson College.

PHOTOGRAPHIC RESOURCE CENTER Boston University 832 Commonwealth Avenue Boston Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Color Awards January 21–March 22, 2014 The Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Color Photography Awards honor Leopold Godowsky, Jr., the co-inventor of Kodachrome film. Established by the Godowsky family in 1987 and held every four years, the awards recognize “achieved excellence in color photography.” For the 2014 awards, the PRC sought nominations from hundreds of photography experts around the world, including directors, gallery owners, curators, educators, and critics. Over one hundred and fifty artists submitted work for consideration by the jury.

Focusing on emerging and under-recognized artists and new approaches to color photography, the 2014 Godowsky Color Awards were granted on the basis of the strength and originality of the photographic work. The 2014 awards were international and open to artists working in any form of color photography, and the official winner was Louie Palu of Washington, DC, with runners-up including Aaron Blum, Alejandro Cartagena, and Bastienne Schmidt.

Lossless was acquired by the Motion Picture Department at George Eastman House as part of the museum’s collection in 2011.

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GEORGIA

INTERNATIONAL

SCAD MUSEUM OF ART

SORIGUÉ FOUNDATION IN LLEDIA

601 Turner Boulevard Savannah

Alcalde Pujol 2 Bis. Lleida, Spain

Pierre Gonnord: Portraying the South October 1, 2013–January 26, 2014

Wim Wenders XXL October 10, 2013–March 30, 2014

The SCAD Museum of Art, in partnership with the Consulate General of France in Atlanta, Georgia, presents a new series of photographs by French photographer Pierre Gonnord. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the death of Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner, the artist conducted a three-month residency in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Through the faces and landscapes encountered, Portraying the South captures a glimpse into the soul of the Deep South, offering a timeless, unclassifiable, explosive, and riveting portrayal of the American Southeast.

In his travels over the last 20 years, parallel to his filmmaking, Wim Wenders has always carried with him a panoramic camera with which to capture moments and landscapes that have impressed him. Now, this documentary work can be seen at the Sorigué Foundation in Lleida, which will show for the first time in Spain photographs by Wenders of Ground Zero soon after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Fukushima after the nuclear accident, in which Wenders directs his gaze towards the deepest parts of civilization or to the abyss that is terror.

The exhibition also contains lonely, panoramic, landscape photographs without a human presence. Some of these photographs are part of the series Pictures from the Surface of the Earth and Places, Strange and Quiet, shown in galleries and museums around the world: James Cohan Gallery, New York (USA); Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai (China); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (Australia); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (Germany), among many others. Wim Wenders has also published numerous books with texts and photographs like Journey to Onomichi, where some of these images appear.

© Pierre Gonnord, Hattie, digital C-print, 2012. Courtesy of the artist.

These are disturbing and visually powerful images through which the filmmaker shows us his view of the world as it, as he says, is in a constant state of change. For the filmmaker, what started out as a kind of personal visual diary has become a completely independent form of artistic expression quite separate from his films. Winner of the Palme d’Or for his film Paris, Texas and best director recipient in Cannes for Wings of Desire, Wenders stood out in the 70s as part of the New German Cinema and is one of the key cultural figures of the 21st century. The photographs of this exhibition offer the chance to get to know the other side of the filmmaker and his vision of the world through a photographic lens, a static visual language distinct to that of cinema.

New York, November 8, 2001 III © Wim Wenders 2013 (178 x 447 cm) Wim Wenders, © Donata Wenders

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NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY King Edward Terrace Canberra, Australia Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer December 7, 2013—March 10, 2014 The National Portrait Gallery’s summer exhibition Elvis at 21, Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer, chronicles Elvis’s dazzling emergence in 1956.

Accompanying Elvis on the road, in concert, recording, and at home, freelance photojournalist Alfred Wertheimer documented Presley’s meteoric rise in the year he catapulted from anonymity to superstardom.

Wertheimer was hired to shoot promotional images of a recently signed, 21-year-old recording artist, Elvis Presley. His instinct to “tag along” with the artist after the assignment was richly rewarded—the resulting photographs show Elvis before he became one of the most exciting performers of his time.

Reading fan letters. New York City, March 17, 1956. © Alfred Wertheimer. All rights reserved.

Wertheimer had unparalleled access to Elvis on the road, backstage, in concert, in the recording studio, and at home in Memphis. The portraits document a rare moment before Elvis became an icon—before security and money built walls between him and his fans. Wertheimer was in the New York City recording studio on the historic day Elvis recorded “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog.” He also joined Elvis after the recording session as he travelled home to Memphis by train. One image shows Elvis as just part of the crowd surrounding a lunch vendor on a train platform during a brief stop on the 27-hour trip. This anonymity was short-lived. The photographs of a concert on his return to Memphis show a young man who now had to have a police escort to get through the crowd of fans between his car and the stadium.

“Henri Cartier-Bresson was known for photographing the decisive moment, that moment when everything falls into place,” said Wertheimer. “But I was more interested in the moments just before or just after the decisive moment.”

Washroom, no towels. Southern Railroad, July 4, 1956. © Alfred Wertheimer. All rights reserved.

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THE WORK OF SUSAN MAY TELL SUSAN MAY TELL IS A WOMAN OF MANY AND DIVERSE TALENTS. Her artistic gifts developed early, taking her all the way to Carnegie Hall, where she played piano when she was just five. As a photojournalist, she worked in such varied locations as the Middle East and Paris. She has photographed everything from Kurdish rebels in Iraq to Auschwitz to the Katrina-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward.

out of place among the images of pavement and signs and power lines. Titled “Appalachian Mist,” it features a campground full of new-looking RVs. A man and a child stand separately near two 50-year-old automobiles. It feels strange—shouldn’t those modern RVs be silver Airstream trailers? Mist obscures all but what is near, and one gets the sense that time is jumbled in this place. What is present? What is past? Is there a future?

She photographed her latest project, SEEN AND FELT: Appalachia 2012, during a six-week drive through parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. The series was shot with a Leica and black and white film and portrays Appalachia differently than what one might expect, given common stereotypes of the region. These are not the usual images of coal miners and snake handlers, of endless green hills and Confederate flags. Instead, there are shuttered storefronts and empty main streets. Few of the photos contain people, and when they do, the people appear less as the photographs’ subjects than as lonely ghosts, singular and divorced from their own time.

All of the images in this collection evoke the same questions about past, present, and future. They represent time at a standstill: there’s little to suggest when they were taken. Some seem as though they could have been taken any time within the past 50 years. And though many of us have never visited the out-of-the-way towns May Tell has captured here, we all know someplace they remind us of, heartbreakingly lonely and as familiar as childhood memories.

One can’t help but notice the proliferation of windows and doors, dark and empty or boarded up. These images speak of decay, of abandonment, of good times lost. Even if the buildings weren’t shuttered and their signs faded, the cracked streets and sidewalks would reveal that prosperity deserted these towns long ago.

In the fall of 2013, Susan May Tell’s photo of her friend and mentor, André Kertész, which Kertész used on the cover of his autobiography, was featured in an exhibition of Kertész’s work. May Tell is the Fine Art Chair of the American Society of Media Photographers’ New York chapter, and was honored as one of ASMP’s Best of 2013 for SEEN AND FELT: Appalachia 2012. This series also appears in Roger May’s fine press book Testify: A Visual Love Letter to Appalachia, available from Horse and Buggy Press as of December 2013.

One photo looks inhabited instead of empty, and almost seems

— JENNY RESPRESS

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© Susan May Tell

APPALACHIA:

Odd-job Man, Mingo Junction, Ohio, 2012.

Bicycling around town, doing odd jobs for people, the young man filled me in on the history of each closed or condemned building on the deserted main street of this former mill town. He asked if I knew Children’s Hospital in New York. “It’s near the World Trade Center,” he said and implored me several times to please go there to thank the doctors for him when I got back to New York. He had spent two years in the hospital, from ages two to four. “I still have the cleft lip,” he said, “but they fixed my palate.”

Spirit of Brownton, Brownton, West Virginia, 2012.

© Susan May Tell

A woman whom I met at a quilt exhibition in Grafton, West Virginia, recommended I visit Brownton, a tiny, unincorporated coal town that she used to visit with her parents when she was a child. For her it evoked both the past and present. Since the town didn’t appear on maps or GPS, it wasn’t easy to find. When I finally got there I was greeted by this life-sized statue, a beacon of hope; it is outside the community center, which offers a variety of social services.

I learned that popcorn sales from the center’s family movie nights are used to help offset its utility bills.

Time Out, Wheeling, West Virginia, 2012.

Late one afternoon, I was having dinner at a Wheeling restaurant. The woman, in black fishnet stocking sitting in a both near mine, repeatedly counted the money in her purse.

Then she opened a Goodwill bag and took out two dresses, folded them and put them back in the bag. She never looked at me.

© Susan May Tell 13

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Reunion, Grafton, West Virginia, 2012.

Three generations on their way to a family reunion were camped out in the site adjacent to mine. The woman in plaid offered me iced coffee and apologized for not having pancakes left. She took a camera out of her shirt pocket and showed me family pictures taken on their trip: spontaneous moments, beautifully seen, of her grandchildren. On the same camera were images taken by other family members as well.

One of the granddaughters, a pre-teen about 12 years old, pointed out some of the images she had taken, and they were wonderful; the sun peeking through the forest canopy was particularly interesting. I suggested she pursue photography, believing she had the eye for it.

“That’s just what I plan to do once I’m in high school,” she said.

Appalachia Crossroads, Altoona, Pennsylvania, 2012.

The utility wires and clouds present in rural Appalachia and the Rust Belt visually link the states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. As I crisscrossed this area, I began to see them also as a metaphor for the hard times that tie this region together.

The Candy Store, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 2012.

Although this Johnstown shop owner stayed outside, he insisted I go inside to choose some candies from his store—and then wouldn’t let me pay for them. I selected the Tootsie Rolls I remembered from my childhood. He let me know that he had visited 57 countries, spent a long time in Singapore, and had lived on Charles Street in Greenwich Village, which made him my neighbor.

© Susan May Tell American Society of Picture Professionals

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Weirton Steel Mill, Weirton, West Virginia, 2012.

This iconic photograph embodies the relationship between a photograph’s formal composition and its emotions. My compositions consist of lines, angles, and dividing what is within the frame; the emotions they evoke are of isolation and melancholy. Taken together, these seemingly disparate elements create a photograph that is direct and poetic, while also being mysterious, quiet and understated.

In the 1970s, the Weirton Steel Mill, located in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, took in 12,000 workers a day; today 1,200.

The mill personifies the strength of American industrialism that is now a mere remnant of its former self.

Appalachian Mist, Altoona, Pennsylvania, 2012.

About to leave the campgrounds, after spending the night, I turned for one last look and saw the early-morning haze surrounding the vintage cars. Historically, the sole economic force driving the growth of Altoona into a City had been the Pennsylvania Railroad. While the various local railroad shops still employ over a thousand people, they are no longer the driving economic engines of the area.

The journey evoked the dictum of imagist poet William Carlos Williams: “No ideas! But in things.” —and it increasingly felt like a six-week eulogy to what no longer exists.

S&P Carpet, Mingo Junction, Ohio, 2012.

S&P Carpet is one of many condemned or closed buildings on Mingo Junction’s main street. On the left and in the background is what used to be Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel’s main hot metal steel mill. Now idled, it is currently owned by Frontier Industrial Corp. and will probably be sold for scrap.

© Susan May Tell

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ANGELINA A teenage female howler monkey. Howler monkeys are the loudest animal in the animal kingdom. Their howl can travel three miles through dense forest. It is one of the most majestic sounds I have ever heard.

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rescue Anna Psalmond and Ryan Cleveland are two photographers who’ve been able to combine two passions for one good cause.

Photographing shelter animals, Psalmond and Cleveland give a new and sophisticated presence to their subjects, raising awareness of the care and resources needed for these creatures. And while their photographs are “good deeds,” they’re also just beautifully framed with a creative use of their sometimes unusual models, and we’re very excited to feature their images on the pages that follow.

- APRIL WOLFE

© Anna Psalmond 17

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FERNANDO A baby three-toed sloth. Despite their same name, three-toed sloths are very different from two-toed sloths externally and internally. Their hair, nose, toes, ribs, sexual organs are different. Fernando is a resident of Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica. Large number of sloths die or are injured on a daily basis in Central America because of dog

Š Anna Psalmond

attacks and bare power lines.

ANNA PSALMOND I was on a boat from Panama to Costa Rica when I met an amazing lady named Poo. She’d been living in Costa Rica for eight months out of the year for a while. She passionately told me how she fell in love with the rescue animals at Jaguar Rescue Center, where she has been volunteering. I went there a week later and fell in love just like she did.

I met with the two biologists, Encar and Sandro, who founded the rescue, and I stayed and volunteered for a couple of months. I knew that the animals were going to be difficult to photograph, as they are wild and are not used to cameras and lighting equipment. To gain their trust, I volunteered to care for them every day for a month. I cleaned their enclosures, fed them, took them to the forest and back to their enclosures, and babysat them. I also learned a lot about them, their stories, their behaviors, and how to handle them. Of course, every day, I fell deeper and deeper in love with them. A few of the monkeys sometimes still decided I was their toilet, but thankfully this happened off camera. Two particular animals who were surprisingly comfortable in front of the camera were Guti-guti and Paca. They are two of the biggest rodents in Central America. Just like you would imagine, rodents usually like to run around hard to control, but they were surprisingly easier to photograph than most of the animals. Of course, I had to pay the price: Guti peed all over me when I carried him back to his enclosure.

I try to get to know them as much as I can before photographing them. Then, I look for the expression that shows their personality best. Eyes are definitely very important, but I mostly look for certain expressions.

To buy postcards whose proceeds will go directly to the shelter, please visit: annapsalmond.com/-/portfolio/shop American Society of Picture Professionals

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STEFANO A rescued two-toed sloth baby. Recently lost his cuddle buddy and has been in mourning ever since. The scar left from losing a mom and a best friend definitely will take a lot of time to heal. Resident of Jaguar Rescue Center in Š Anna Psalmond

Costa Rica.

STANLEY A partially blind kinkajou (aka night monkey). Resident of Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica. Š Anna Psalmond 19

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CHICKY CHICKY & SOLE Mother and son howler monkeys. Residents of Jaguar

Š Anna Psalmond

Rescue Center in Costa Rica.

CHEPPITO A teenage howler monkey. Cheppito is the biggest howler monkey at the Jaguar Rescue Center. He is also the sweetest. He likes to be held and cuddled by humans.

Recently lost his toes on a fight to protect his troop and caretaker from a wild howler monkey. Such a big hero.

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SHACKY A baby spider monkey. Lost his eye when a group of locals hunted his mom for food. He lost his mom, but he is now being loved by many loving people of Jaguar Rescue Center. He is normally shy around female humans but very

Š Anna Psalmond

Š Anna Psalmond

talkative around males.

PACA An injured paca (aka tepezcuintle) who was hunted for food by locals. They are the second biggest rodent in Central America. They are a delicacy for locals and therefore frequently hunted. Resident of Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica

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© Ryan Cleveland

RYAN CLEVELAND a treat before we do their shoots, so that they trust me a little more. Depending on the dog and his/her background, toys can be a big help, too. We’ve learned that the less people around the better, so we try and keep only those who need to be on set around while shooting (usually me, the trainer, the stylist, and maybe one other person to help keep the dog’s attention).

It all started with a rescue called Bullies and Buddies, which is a non-profit organization devoted to rescuing all breeds of dogs, with a focus on pit bulls and their crossbreeds. Bullies and Buddies does an adoption event outside of Kriser’s pet store in Hermosa Beach almost every Saturday, and I was volunteering my time there whenever I could, offering whatever kind of help was needed. My photo agent, Zizi Zarkadas, is a board member of Bullies and Buddies, and she eventually asked me if I would be interested in doing a professional photo shoot with the dogs in need of homes. The idea was that we would produce these kind of stylized “glamour shots” for the dogs, something a little over the top but eye catching none the less, which was the important part, because many of the dogs that we were focusing on were older and often looked over for the younger puppies at the adoption events.

I have learned that dogs—much like most people—don’t appreciate having a camera forced into their faces, and it’s generally better to use a longer lens and shoot from a little further back. I think it’s important to remember when photographing animals that, in front of the camera, they aren’t much different from people. They have just as much energy, emotion, and life behind their eyes as we do, and if you don’t focus on capturing that, then you won’t end up with a successful photograph of them. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them about these photo shoots, often asking me if it’s hard and/or dangerous to work with these dogs. The truth is, every pit bull and pit bull mix that I’ve worked with has been the sweetest dog I’ve ever been around. All they want to do is make you happy. My ultimate goal is to try and convey this through the portraits that I take and hopefully do my part in helping to get rid of the misinformed stigma we’ve attached to these dogs.

For more information please go to: www.bulliesandbuddies.com www.ddbcr.com ✹

The majority of the dogs are pretty skittish and a little scared when put on the spot surrounded by lights, a camera, and a half a dozen people or so. Our shoots were a learning experience; you have to be patient and allow the dogs to calm down and get used to their surroundings. Many of them have come from less than ideal circumstances, and you have to take that into account when trying to persuade them to do what you want for the photo. I’ll always pet the dogs a little and try to give them American Society of Picture Professionals

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Š Ryan Cleveland 23

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Š Ryan Cleveland American Society of Picture Professionals

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Š Ryan Cleveland

image. it’s everything.

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HOME GROWN:

THE WORLD OF PAUL DELMONT Paul Delmont shoots food. “In a sense, I have been photographing food ever since I started shooting, because I used to always photograph my chickens and vegetable garden growing up.” He makes his cakes, vegetables, and drinks tell a story with dark lighting and rustic propping, but it wasn’t always that way. “I was mostly focusing on portraiture at first, but about halfway through my education, I took Pornchai Mittongtare’s food class and fell in love.” Ever since, he hasn’t looked back. The unique challenges of shooting food, combined with his vegetarian sustainable lifestyle, keeps him coming back for more.

And yet, while he loves shooting savory vegetarian dishes in his signature rustic style, Paul says, “I like to cook and style for my own shoots. So, lately, I have been enjoying shooting desserts, because it’s been getting me back into baking. Also, its always fun to eat everything after the shoot, if it hasn’t been sitting on the set for too long.” Well, I think we can all agree that we want to eat the desserts after the shoot, even if they have been sitting around for too long. But what really makes Paul stand out is his commitment to craftsmanship—whether it’s crafting his perfect dessert or crafting the way his light hits the cocktail muddling in the glass he made himself. Paul makes nearly every item included in his photographs.

Instead of becoming a slave to buy-and-return, Paul started making the props he used in his studio.

He crafted everything from cutting boards made out of old fruit boxes to old fashioned glasses made out of discarded wine bottles. Now he creates everything from furniture to light fixtures. “My studio is sort of broken into three parts. I have a space for shooting, a woodshop below, and in the back an outdoor area for raising chickens and gardening.”

The area for chickens and gardening comes in handy, because, as mentioned before, Paul is an active vegetarian. When I asked him about what led him to this lifestyle, he told me, “I originally started eating vegetarian around age 16. My best friend was battling cancer and decided to switch up his diet. We started cooking together a lot. Both of us sort of shifted over night from being burger kings to full-blown vegetarian. I thought it would be a temporary thing at first, but then I started getting into the politics and looking at the process of food. Finally, I realized that for me it was a life decision I would probably never go back on.”

That 16-year-old’s decision ended up affecting much more than a diet. It shaped Paul’s entire lifestyle. “I try and live a sustainable lifestyle to the best of my ability. I enjoy the challenge, and I sort of believe in Karma, so it’s fun for me.” Karma or no, his philosophies and commitment to craftsmanship result in stunning photographs. Photographs that make me want to live well and eat well myself.

- KATIE BUNTSMA

American Society of Picture Professionals

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Š Paul Delmonte

Š Paul Delmonte American Society of Picture Professionals

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Š Paul Delmonte

Š Paul Delmonte

Š Paul Delmonte American Society of Picture Professionals

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Š Paul Delmonte

Š Paul Delmonte

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A TALE OF TWO IMAGES: HOW NEW TECHNOLOGIES ARE HELPING TO DISCERN

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times—for photojournalism, anyway.

MANIPULATED PHOTO-

Today, when breaking news happens, there’s likely going to be a photograph of it. From dedicated digital cameras to smartphones, tablets, and wearables, the majority of people today own some sort of camera-enabled device they use daily. That sheer fact has opened up new opportunities for news media. More people can—and are—taking newsworthy photographs and sharing them with social networks and media directly, helping provide valuable information and context. That’s the good news.

GRAPHS FROM UNALTERED ONES

BY SAMARUDDIN STEWART

However, seemingly correlated to the rise in available photographs has also been a rise in manipulated images intended to deceive or sway opinion in media. Just as technology has provided a camera in every pocket or backpack, it’s also allowed for cheaper, more powerful, and easier-to-use editing software. For example, Fourandsix Technologies, a company that unofficially tracks major instances of visual tampering, has noted over 75 instances since 2011. That’s the bad news.

American Society of Picture Professionals

In 2013, I was selected by Stanford University for a 2013 John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship to help research solutions to this problem. I spent time analyzing how and when manipulated photographs were published in news media and what tools might be best adapted for them to identify them prior to publishing, while taking into account their inherent need for speed and workflow. After months of research, here are two tools worth considering.

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Examples of altered images that have appeared in recent publications. (The illustration is a slide that appears in Samaruddin’s lecture on the website, knight.stanford.edu/knight-talks. All images © their respective owners.)

FourMatch is a Photoshop plug-in that aims to verify whether a JPEG photograph is an untouched original from a digital camera. It does so by analyzing the photograph in question against a database of known camera signatures. The signatures themselves are made up of many discreet parameters, including image dimensions, JPEG compression, thumbnail preview, and how each camera stores certain metadata. When a digital camera or software program creates a JPEG, each manufacturer decides on these parameters differently, meaning an almost endless variety of options exists. The FourMatch test, however, works in seconds, and when a photograph passes all checks, it’s a strong indication it is original. Adding a test such as FourMatch on top of industry-standard editorial scrutiny of news photographs (from known persons or user-generated submissions) can only help to reduce risk in the process. However, one limitation of FourMatch is that it is limited in scope to only verify camera original JPEG files.

InformaCam takes a different approach to verifying photographs by using an open-source mobile app that collects additional metadata when you take a photograph, including such information as GPS coordinates, altitude, compass bearing, nearby devices, cell towers or Wi-Fi, and light meter readings. It embeds this additional sensory information into the metadata of the digital photograph that is then encrypted on the device and on the server it is sent to. While aimed initially at human-rights organizations, it’s obvious that the verification process of InformaCam could have news media usage as well. One limitation of InformaCam

is that it relies on pre-installation and registration of the mobile application prior to usage.

While the above tools exist today, other tools are certainly on the horizon. And while it’s true there might never be a way to detect every manipulated photograph, the hope is to exponentially reduce the number by introducing technical means. As the news media grapples with shrinking staffs, a fragmentation of audience, increased competition, and a rise of user-generated content, the risk of unintentionally publishing manipulated images potentially is even more pronounced.

This fall, I was able to use such tests to help a major sports network identify that a photograph of an athlete in a situation off the field was unaltered and also helped brainstorm with a major news association how to implement best practices for using usergenerated photographs during crisis situations. In other words, the ideas and tools are taking hold with some forward-thinking outlets. But I feel more widespread adoption is needed to help secure audience trust and media integrity.

With the ever-increasing speed and abundance of information coupled with the news audience’s demand for immediacy, I feel that technical solutions should be a priority to ensure media ethics, accuracy, and truth. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, I argue it’s time to implement some visual spellcheck.✹

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WHAT’S UP WITH PLUS AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE PART 2 JEFF SEDLIK AND ROGER FELDMAN

In our previous issue (2013.3), Jeff Sedlik and Roger Feldman gave us an introduction to the PLUS registry and how to use it. Here, Jeff and Roger go into more depth, explaining exactly how it’s different and important to our industry. To see the full article online, visit our ASPP issuu.com page and click on our Fall digital issue. And if you want to see more of what Roger Feldman’s been up to, turn the pages to the Jane Kinne Picture Professional of the Year Award articles, where Roger shares this year’s award with Judy Feldman and George Sinclair.

What’s the difference between a PLUS Registration and a copyright registration?

How exactly do you record image rights information in the PLUS Registry?

Rightsholders register images with PLUS in order to ensure that current rights information is available to anyone encountering their image, and to help users of those images manage their licenses. Rightsholders register with the Copyright Office to create a public record of copyright ownership and assure remedies in the event of an infringement. In the future, PLUS will be incorporating copyright registration from within the Registry, so you’ll be able to simultaneously register an image with PLUS and the Copyright Office.

There are many ways to do it. You can embed rights information using the free PLUS License Embedder. You can use Photoshop, Lightroom, Photo Mechanic, and other applications that incorporate IPTC/Plus License Data Format fields. You do it through one of the many PLUS-compliant DAMS or automated image licensing platforms. Or you can do it directly in the Registry itself.

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What if I want to keep my image rights information confidential?

The PLUS Registry allows users to designate different aspects of rights information as private or public. You can also limit access to specified parties such as the licensee.

At the PLUS Registry, access to image metadata is controlled by the user, not PLUS. Besides rights information, will the Registry ever contain traditional image metadata?

Yes. In the same way that IPTC, a founding member of PLUS, supports PLUS rights metadata, the PLUS registry will soon incorporate IPTC image metadata.

Is the PLUS Registry primarily a resource for U.S. creators, buyers, and sellers?

On the contrary. The PLUS Coalition launched with participants from 34 countries, and was from the start an international initiative. Registry users now come from over 100 countries.

Is PLUS involved with the UK Copyright Hub? PLUS has been working with the UK Intellectual Property Office—the IPO—for a number of years.

IPO has publicly described the PLUS Registry as an important solution for identifying image rights holders and rights information, and invited PLUS to serve in a supporting role for a new “Copyright Hub” currently under development in the UK. The Copyright Hub is not a registry but it does refer searchers to external registries.

The PLUS Registry is the first of those.

There are other initiatives working on image rights standards and registries. How does PLUS relate to them?

PLUS collaborates with all of them and competes with none.

How is the PLUS Registry funded?

The Registry operates on a non-profit, cost-recovery basis, like a cooperative. Registry listings of creators, rightsholders and businesses are free, but there is a nominal contribution (measured in pennies or fractions thereof ) to register images and licenses. Businesses or individuals requesting PLUS IDs make a small annual supporting contribution. Beyond these income streams, the continuing financial and logistical support of leading industry corporations and associations like ASMP, APA, GAG, and others allows ongoing development of the PLUS Standards, the PLUS Registry, and the operation of the PLUS Coalition.

Where do I go to find out more about PLUS and the PLUS Registry?

Go to useplus.org to find out more about PLUS. Go to PLUSregistry.org to sign up with the PLUS Registry. If you’d like to participate in the Beta test of the new PLUS Registry image recognition and search functions, click the red “Join” button at PLUSregistry.org. ✹

Please visit www.useplus.org and www.plusregistry.org for more information.

Isn’t the PLUS Registry designed to function as a hub itself?

Yes, but not just to connect to other registries. The PLUS Registry is intended to interconnect with all kinds of image related systems and applications, so that a search of one will search all.

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Q/A

another activity that requires daily attention, so a typical day includes a significant amount of time answering emails at the computer. If I have a lecture or other public presentation coming up, I might be preparing for that. Basically, my job has three major aspects: Collections, Exhibitions, and Outreach, so a typical day includes some combination of activities in all three areas.

You’ve worked in both educational and museum sectors. Can you explain some of the differences in these two types of work?

DR. LISA HOSTETLER CURATOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

One major difference between teaching the history of photography in an academic setting and being a photography curator is that university professors generally use images to teach people about photography and curators show actual objects, i.e. the photographs themselves. In the case of some photographs—artworks in particular—their scale and presence are important to their meaning, and seeing the “real thing” rather than a reproduction in the form of a digital PowerPoint image is important. As a curator, I can demonstrate that to people; it’s one of my favorite aspects of the job. Professors don’t need permission from copyright holders to show images in their photo history courses because the purpose is purely educational. Similarly, museums don’t need permission to show photographs on their walls. However, if either a professor or a curator wants to publish a reproduction of a photograph in the context of an essay or book, then of course permission from the rightsholder will be sought.

Just named the George Eastman House’s new Curator of Photography, Dr. Lisa Hostetler has done that rare and coveted thing of building a career around loving and collecting images.

To look at her exhibitions and publications list is to find new and exciting ways to display images within the most interesting parameters. Take for instance, the exhibition Street Seen: The Psychological Gesture in Photography, which she developed for the Milwaukee Art Museum as an “in-depth study of the subjective edge that emerged in American art of the World-War-II and postwar era.” Both forward thinking and with an art historian’s passion for the past, Hostetler is a curator whose exhibitions appeal to the widest swath of American art lovers and academics, while breaking new ground in the art of perception.

We’re very excited that Dr. Hostetler was able to chat with us for a moment about what she does and where she’s headed.

When people think of a museum curator, they think research, collect, document, and display.

But this seems a vague description for such an allencompassing job. Might you be able to walk us through a typical day as a photography curator?

Your work in both curating and bookmaking spans several eras, everything fromThe American West 1871–1874 to the more contemporary work of Taryn Simon. Do you find yourself gravitating to any one period of photography more than another?

As is probably true of many professions, there is no “typical” day in the life of a photography curator. What I do every day depends on what aspect of my job is the most urgent at the moment. If I’ve curated an exhibition that’s opening soon, I may be meeting with the exhibition designer or preparator (i.e. the person who does matting and framing) or with a Communications Officer about promoting the show. Or if an exhibition is at an earlier stage of development, I may be trying to locate a particular photograph in a public or private collection, reading about an artist in the show or about a topic related to the exhibition’s theme, or writing exhibition labels and wall texts. If there is a related publication, I might be working on my essay for that. If the time is near to a Collections Committee meeting of the board, I might be preparing to propose a work for acquisition. Getting to know a museum’s collection and maintaining best practices for caring for the objects in it is an ongoing process that requires regular attention, so I may be consulting with the Collections Manager about the best way to catalog or store a particular photograph or answering a public inquiry about a work in the collection.

Corresponding with colleagues, collectors, and galleries is American Society of Picture Professionals

I’m fascinated by photographs from all eras in the medium’s history and have both historical and contemporary projects in the works. However, photography’s multi-faceted and many layered role in contemporary culture has spawned a tremendous amount of interesting contemporary photography, and I’m especially excited about bringing that kind of work to the attention of public through the auspices of George Eastman House.

As the curator, an important element of your work is the display of objects (photographs) and the creation of an environment in which they are viewed. I remember reading an article about a curator who spent several weeks working with scent artists to select a very specific scent to be dispersed into the gallery for an exhibition. Could you share with us any of the stories you might have of similar atmospheric considerations you had to take for an exhibition?

Well, I’ve never caused odors to waft through the galleries 40

of any of my exhibitions—at least not intentionally ;) But there have been display challenges associated with exhibitions I’ve done. For example, Color Rush, an exhibition about the history of color photography from 1907 to 1981, involved a number of different kinds of objects: Autochromes, slide slows, film clips, and magazines, as well as traditional framed photographic prints. My co-curator and I worked really closely with the exhibition designer to make sure that each kind of object was shown to its best advantage and did not upstage—or get upstaged by—other objects. The galleries with the Autochromes (or Autochrome facsimiles, I should say, since Autochromes are too fragile to display) were shown in special frames with windows in the back so that the plates could be backlit by lights installed inside the walls. In addition, the slide shows were arranged so that they didn’t interrupt the flow of the exhibition, yet still gave the sense of viewing a traditional slide show—we even bought old slide projectors on eBay to recreate the experience more fully.

You’ve done a fair number of traveling exhibitions.

For a curator, this must be both exhilarating and nerve-wracking with regard to the logistics of packing, shipping, and giving handling instructions to the receiving institutions. How do you deal with this? And how do museums connect with other museums for touring collections?

Actually, the museum’s registrars deal with the logistics of packing, shipping, insurance, and handling. The curator’s role when an exhibition travels to another venue is to work with the host institution’s curator to ensure that the exhibition is well understood and appropriately presented, and that the host curator has the freedom and flexibility to make the show work for his or her specific audience. Museums connect with each other about traveling exhibitions via their curators and directors, who work to develop a tour for projects they’re working on by reaching out to their counterparts at other institutions.

What safeguards do you have in place to make sure everything is used and displayed properly according to the rightsholder?

As for online access to the museum, could you share your thoughts on the Google Art Project, which seeks to disseminate art collections through virtual means? How do you see the next frontier of viewing art online, and how can it be done better?

I think that providing access to images of objects in a museum’s collection is essential. It gives the public a sense of what they will see when they come to the museum, and researchers can identify specific works that they want to see before making an appointment in the study room, which reduces handling on the objects and saves time. There are many ways that online collection access can be improved at Eastman House, where the director and I intend to work hard on the issue over the next year.

Of course, seeing reproductions of artworks online is no substitute for seeing them in person, but the Google Art Project is doing important work in exposing people to images of artworks that they may never have a chance to see.

When researching new collections, what is your process?

I learn about collections through many avenues—conversations with colleagues, inquiries from the public, articles in newspapers and magazines, discussions with artists. I also stay on top of what is happening in photography by going to galleries and museums. All of these activities can lead to the acquisition of a photograph or a collection of photographs.

Have you ever wished to acquire a collection and have been unable to, due to any number of circumstances? If so, what is your “white whale,” and are museum curators competitive with one another?

There have been collections of photographs, as well as individual photographs, that have “gotten away,” but I can’t give details for ethical and privacy reasons. Yes, museum curators are competitive with one another, but we are also quite collegial.

We collaborate regularly and share discoveries—until we’re both after the same collection! ✹

DR. LISA HOSTETLER

Most institutions have specific staff (often in the Registrar’s Office) who deal with Rights & Reproductions. These people evaluate requests for permission to reproduce works in a museum’s collection and grant permission as appropriate. If another entity is the copyright holder (which is the case with most works by living or recently deceased photographers), the requester is informed of that fact and advised to contact the rightsholder. It is also often Rights & Reproduction staff who request permission and negotiate fees with rightsholders on behalf of the museum when the institution is publishing a book or catalogue and wants to reproduce copyrighted works.

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American Society of Picture Professionals

Fine Art | History | Photography

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Best of the West!

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2013 JANE KINNE PICTURE PROFESSIONALS OF THE YEAR It is with the utmost pleasure that I am writing about three individuals who have contributed an enormous amount to ASPP and to the photography industry in general: Judy and Roger Feldman and George Sinclair. That they all share the award of Jane Kinne Picture Professional of the Year for 2013 by no means dilutes this honor. Indeed it brings into sharp focus the value of their service and the highest esteem with which they are all held.

– CATHY D-P SACHS / Former ASPP Executive Director

PICTURE PROFESSIONALS OF THE YEAR: JUDY AND ROGER FELDMAN Feldman and Associates began in 1984 and has long been recognized in the industry as America’s largest independent content research and permissions organization. But this name also connotes quality and professionalism—as Julie Orr says, “The Cadillac of Research Agencies.” Roger has brought to the agency his skills with design, production, and computer technologies, and was able to develop specialized databases to manage large photo programs for the educational publishing industry.

Larry Levin says, “Roger was way ahead of his time in terms of understanding and creating these database systems.”

second and third Education Conferences, Alexandria in 2002 and Chicago in 2004. Holly Marshall remembers her subsequent Educational Traveling Program on copyright as “…an extremely successful project that furthered the goals of the organization by educating and strengthening the ASPP membership community.”

As if Judy’s commitment to ASPP were not enough, Roger also brought his considerable design talents to bear when he oversaw the rebranding of ASPP in 2000, working with Jack Gersheimer to create our new logo, and helping to create a new color brochure. ASPP was indebted to him for these contributions and for his unfailing desire—like Judy—to bring best business practices to the industry.

It was all of these attributes that have made Roger and Judy such phenomenally informed members of the Board of PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) since its inception, first representing ASPP in the Multi-Industry seat from 2004 to 2011, and more recently with Roger taking over as Chairman in 2011. Photographer Jeff Sedlik, PLUS co-founder and CEO, observes, “Not only are Roger and Judy two of the most knowledgeable and sincere people in the picture industry, but they have been extraordinarily generous in contributing their time, effort, and expertise to advance the goals of the PLUS Coalition on behalf of the ASPP, for the benefit of the entire community.”

Their expertise is freely and graciously shared with their colleagues and clients, as many of them have attested.

Danita Delimont says, “Judy’s diligent research, coupled with integrity of the highest standards, had clients returning knowing that their projects would be done on a skilled and professional level.” Holly Marshall echoed this in an earlier nomination of Judy for this award: “Judy diligently strives to uphold the highest professional standards in the industry by ensuring fair practices and honest exchanges of information regarding picture usage.”

I first got to know Roger and Judy through the Board, when Judy was the President of the Midwest chapter (2000–2001). Judy took on the role of ASPP’s Education Chair for two terms (2002 – 2005) and planned our American Society of Picture Professionals

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Their other colleagues on the Board are quick to sing their praises. Bonnie Beacher feels “…they have made an enormous contribution to the industry. They are a valuable resource for both publishers and rights holders, who are the core of PLUS.” Gene Mopsik further thinks that Roger is the perfect person to lead the Board as Chairman. “He has the right temperament and can lead PLUS forward, focusing on key issues, and developing their activity in the US and the EU.” Nancy Wolff has known the Feldmans for years, too, and while enjoying (as so many have) their warmth and friendly nature, she appreciates that PLUS has also been the recipient of their talents and generosity. Jeffrey Burke, PLUS co-founder and former chairman of the Board has remarked “Judy and Roger are a great team to work with. They’re experienced in the trenches of image licensing, and understand the challenges that face small business owners in our industry. Their work with PLUS is helping to lead the way forward for all of us.”

Judy and Roger attend the ASPP National Board meeting in Seattle, 2001. Photo: ©2001 Danita Delimont.

Judy has many other skills and accomplishments, which likewise have brought her expertise into view. She has been a featured speaker, panelist, moderator, and educator at many industry events and conferences. In addition, she is the author of two books that were on the “Best Children’s Book” list of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Many people have commented on the unique partnership of Roger and Judy, who have demonstrated their multiple skills in all their endeavors. Both are warm, friendly, funny, and always a delight to meet up with, whether socially or in a business setting. Theirs is teamwork in the true sense: complimentary and supportive. However, there is something deeper which makes them shine.

Mary Albanese has observed: “Judy and Roger’s mutual respect stands out in my mind. I have known married couples who love each other deeply, but I have known few who both love and truly respect each other.” Cathy Aron echoes this: “They have always been the “perfect” couple in my eyes…working together all day and then keeping their personal relationship alive. They are the real deal!”

Judy and Roger celebrate on New Year’s Eve, 1967.

Roger has modestly remarked on their behalf: “This March will mark our 30th year in business and more than half of them have been as active members of ASPP. This organization has been very good to and for the Feldmans, and it has been our pleasure to give back as best we could. Receiving the Jane Kinne Picture Professional award is the icing on the cake.”

No, Roger and Judy, it has been our great pleasure to be able to recognize your many accomplishments and contributions to ASPP and the industry. Thank you!

National President Michael Masterson presents the award to Judy and Roger in Chicago on November 1, 2013. Photo: © Brooks & Van Kirk.

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PICTURE PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR: GEORGE SINCLAIR I first met George back in the early 2000s at a stock agency party in New York City. Who was that dapper looking gent in a double-breasted blue blazer with an English accent to rival my own? Oh, that’s George Sinclair. He knows everyone. A bit of a mover and shaker too.

(some of!) his energy going forward. Whether it was strategic development for Corbis, or asset and business management at Getty, George brought incredible value to whatever job he undertook. Matthew Butson, VP at Hulton Archives, remarked, “…his ability to bring us the right content in an ever-changing market has been essential for our continued growth. His expertise, experience, and knowledge of the industry are held in very high esteem here at Getty Images.”

Well those first comments most certainly captured some of the essence of this Jane Kinne Picture Professional of the Year. Call him on his cell phone, and you might find him anywhere, and typically just boarding a plane!

With homes in Chicago, London, and Italy, “George is definitely a globetrotter, full of energy and always focused on some new picture project” (Francesco Tempesta, DeAgostini Editore).

However, over the years of working with George on the ASPP board and various industry events, I have come to appreciate so many more qualities of this indefatigable professional. And the key element that brings it all together is his knowledge— knowledge of people, the industry, technology, future trends, and the whole world of publishing.

George started his own companies—the Virtual Picture Group in 2002 and Universal Images Group in 2008— which amalgamated his expertise and his special interests.

Along the way he has willingly shared his expertise with colleagues. Matthew Pope of UIG, who has worked with him since 2006, says, “The knowledge and wisdom about the stock photo industry and business management I have gained from him is priceless; seeing an opportunity where others haven’t and being prepared to do the heavy lifting to move a project on.” It is precisely this ability to recognize and seize new opportunities that has impressed, and ultimately served, so many.

UIG, for example, has set a new standard for producing, aggregating, and becoming an international distributor of educational images, with staff in cities around the globe.

George’s most recent venture, as co-author of Britannica’s Images Quest, their online picture subscription service, has shown once again how he is in the forefront of such enterprises. Dan Russelman from UIG highlights a particular skill, saying, “He instinctively seems to know where and how to find collections not previously available to our industry.”

This last has been a tremendous boon to educational publishers who can now access previously unattainable collections from around the world. Says Christie Silver of McGraw-Hill, “George has partnered with educational publishers and service providers to truly understand what is going on in the market, and where it is headed. The contributions that he has made to the educational publishing industry are significant and immeasurable.”

Having started in 1973 in the development and commercial exploitation of picture transmission systems, 2013 sees George celebrating 40 years in the picture industry. His deep knowledge was put to good use by many companies in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s as the picture industry burgeoned with new ways of doing business. George was Press Photo Advisor to Kodak for development of digital cameras, rapid film scanners, and thermal printers; he managed technology businesses in London and New York for the development of digital picture storage devices, portable photo transmission systems, and so much more. And George has always been at the forefront of technological advances in our industry, serving on key committees that paved the way for new protocols, like the IPTC Technical and Management Committee and the IFRA North America, where he was managing director.

His son, Alex, has followed in his father’s passion for picture collections and represents many through his own company, Learning Pictures. He describes his dad’s excitement and joy when describing a new collection, his

All of this expertise led him inexorably towards the stock agencies and publishing the industry, which would occupy American Society of Picture Professionals

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constant delving into new markets and technologies, and his ability to make things happen, calling George “the White Rabbit Man.” Alex says, “When the chips are down, at the last second he makes something work. He will pull the proverbial white rabbit out of the hat.”

George’s contribution to the advancement of the photo industry, and its licensing and business practices, has been enormous, as has been the role he played within ASPP for many years. I wonder what the Midwest Chapter would have done without his leadership from 2005 through 2012. Julie Caruso commented that, “He is very good at finding and using people’s strengths. George is a rare leader in our industry, able to stay resourceful and relevant.” Wendy Zieger goes further, saying, “George is energizing, ambitious, and creative when it comes to planning events, getting sponsors, and in general getting the job done.” In his early tenure as a Midwest co-president, George posed a number of questions that would eventually shape his chapter, like Just how many states are we meant to cover? We ended up creating sub-chapters in Minneapolis, Missouri, and Ohio, and fellow Midwest co-presidents admired and learned a lot from him.

Through this, however, Chicago remained the hub, and in 2006 he instituted an annual Education Day that has been enormously successful and popular. He went further and co-chaired the 2008 ASPP Education Conference in Phoenix with Mary Albanese and Julie Orr. Mary remembers: “He was a fountain of ideas and enthusiasm.” Indeed during all the years that we worked together on the ASPP Board, it was George who was continually pushing for forward-looking programming, using his extensive network of industry people to bring us great speakers, panels, and sponsors.

Michael Masterson rightly observes: “We owe George a debt of gratitude for the many hours he’s devoted to ensuring the ASPP will remain a strong organization.” Congratulations, George, on this well-deserved award, and most especially we wish you much happiness in your recent marriage to long-term partner, Ruth. Felicitations! ✹

George enjoys time with his three children (Alexander, Olivia and Cameron) in the summer of 2006. Photo: © 2006 Ruth Hytry-Sinclair.

George, as Midwest Chapter Co-President, presents an honorary membership to Dirk Fletcher in April 2011.

Photo: © 2011 Robert E Potter III (REP3.com)

George and his bride Ruth sign the Wedding Register on August 4, 2013. Photo: © 2013 Stuart Cox 47

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IMPOSSIBLE INSTANT LAB: FROM IPHONE TO POLAROID

BY BEN HIGH I love instant film. It’s truly a magical thing to be able to photograph something and via the magic of light and chemicals, to watch an image appear in the palm of your hand. I’ve been shooting with instant film pretty seriously for years now, so when the Impossible Project came along to make new film for SX-70 and Polaroid 600 cameras, I was ecstatic. I’ve been using their film since the very first test films were released, and I’ve loved every bump along the road as their film has developed into a true replacement for those Polaroid films that have since gone away.

When they told me they were going to cook up a contraption that allowed me to take a photo with my iPhone and then put it on instant film, my interest was piqued. Was it a terrible idea, making iPhone photos into instant ones?

Maybe! I wasn’t sure about this at all, but I signed up the day the Impossible Instant Lab popped up on Kickstarter, and I waited. I waited a really long time, but after the bugs were finally worked out, my Instant Lab showed up in the mail. It brings together the magic of instant film with the magic of digital images and the smartphone camera. The phone sits atop a little cradle and, after removing a dark slide, exposes an image on the phone screen through a lens and onto the instant film. It allows the creation of instant photos you may not have been able to catch with a camera around, but also allows you to bring subject matter and digital art to an analog medium that, until now, has never seen such a thing.

forever, but does pulling your instant photo from a digital source ruin what makes the original analog photograph so special? It touches on an argument I’m not even willing to get near that pits film vs. digital, but I was really concerned that some of what made an instant photo special might wear off a little when you no longer had to actually shoot an instant photo to get an instant print. On one level, yes, it totally does. Much like any technological innovation, it can also be used to make super cool stuff! In the hands of the right folks, it opens up the instant film medium to things that it hasn’t ever seen before.

One of the easiest examples, and one we’ve touched on in this column before, is when you start bringing really digital things to a typically very analog party. A picture of my yetto-be-born baby girl from an ultrasound printout is kind of boring, but a picture of her translated onto instant film and sitting on my desk at work is pretty awesome. Playing with apps that we’ve talked about before that are very digital, like decim8, are a whole new world on instant film.

But making your digital photos into instant ones is just one step along the path, the Instant Lab also allows for another fun trick. Now there is an easy, reliable instant film back for just about any project you’re willing to dream up. I might be one of only a few interested weirdos out there, but the thought of building new things with what is essentially a new-fangled instant film camera back, is pretty exciting.

The Impossible Project is already working on pinhole I have to admit, that despite being a big supporter of the camera attachments and even allowing the use of the unit as Impossible Project, I was a little wary of making instant a viewfinder camera back. These things only brush against photography as easy as just snapping a photo with your the range of possibilities for the future of instant film. ✹ iPhone. I mean, sure, people have been faking Polaroids 49

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© www.the-impossible-project.com

CLICK.............

THE LAW JOEL L. HECKER, ESQ.

© Sommer Browning www.asthmachronicles.com

SOLVING THE SMALL CLAIMS COPYRIGHT PROBLEM AS A RESULT OF THE COPYRIGHT OFFICE’S TWO -YEAR STUDY TO resolve the challenges associated with small copyright claims in the current legal system, the Copyright Office has now recommended the creation of a voluntary system of adjudication of such small claims, to be administered by the Copyright Office.

After several public hearings, consideration of formal comments, and a thorough analysis of the issues, the formal comments to the Copyright Office were made on behalf of a number of copyright mediums, including, of course, photography. For example, The American Photographic Artists submission stated that, “The current system deters authors from asserting their rights, renders these cases difficult for any attorney to take on, and encourages copyright infringement by all phases of society.”

Another formal comment stressed the combined impact of small claims on the livelihoods of individual creators, likening the challenges to “death by a thousand cuts.” Organizations that provide pro bono assistance to lower-income artists also emphasized that there is a pressing need for alternatives to the existing Federal Court litigation structure.

claim resolutions with a streamlined process not requiring any personal appearances, and without the need to have a lawyer.

There is obviously a definite benefit to a low-cost proceeding without the need to actually appear and without the need to have an attorney navigate through the intricacies of copyright infringement litigation.

To begin with, it must be understood that the proposal is simply a proposal of how to proceed in establishing a new structure as an alternative forum to the United States District Court system. It is a discussion document, which hopefully will lead to an alternate system to enable small copyright claims to be resolved expeditiously and with minimum cost. The term “small copyright claims” is derived from a state court tradition of referring to copyright claims of modest economic value.

The proposal makes clear that such claims are not small to the individual creators who are deprived of income or opportunity due to the misuse of their works, and the problem of addressing these lower-value infringements is not a small one for our copyright system.

The proposal, on the other hand, also underscores that the alleged infringers must be allowed to defend themselves vigorously, since there certainly are legitimate frustrations of those responding to unfounded or suspect claims, which defendants may in some circumstances themselves be smaller actors facing high litigation costs. But the Copyright Office is, in effect, attempting to build a system from the ground up to meet the very real problem of the cost of copyright infringement litigation and the burden placed upon the “small” copyright creators who either do not have the means or time to pursue copyright infringement litigation in the federal courts under the rules now in place. The proponents of the plan cite the benefits of having government funding of American Society of Picture Professionals

The structuring of an alternative process is not easy and must be viewed in the larger context of federal powers. Our Federal Constitution, in particular, protects both the role of the federal judiciary and the rights of those who participate in adjudicatory proceedings. These principles are enshrined 50

© Sommer Browning www.asthmachronicles.com

in Article III of the Constitution and the Fifth and Seventh Amendments, as well as in judicial interpretations of these and other constitutional provisions. This includes the right of trial by jury and the exclusive jurisdiction granted to the United States federal courts for resolution of copyright infringement issues.

The Copyright Office Report recommendations can be briefly summarized as follows: 1. Congress should create a centralized tribunal within the Copyright Office to administer small copyright claims proceedings. These proceedings would be conducted through online and teleconferencing facilities at the Copyright Office without any requirement of personal appearances. The tribunal would consist of three adjudicators, two of whom having significant experience in copyright law with the third having a background in alternative dispute resolution. It is anticipated that these judges would be staff attorneys within the Copyright Office who will be paid at a specified government pay grade level. When not engaged in these duties, they will perform such other duties as may be assigned to them by the Register of Copyrights.

2. It is important to note that this alternative system would be entirely voluntary. Its focus would be on small infringement cases valued at no more than $30,000 in damages. Copyright owners would be required to have registered their works or filed an application for registration prior to bringing an action.

They would be eligible to recover either actual or statutory damages up to a maximum of $30,000 but statutory damages would be limited to $15,000 per work (or $7,500 for a work not registered by the normally applicable deadline for statutory damages). This limitation is less than that provided in the Copyright Act, but on the other hand, provides for statutory damages when works are not timely registered and where such statutory damages would not be available at all in the federal court system.

3. Claimants initiating a proceeding would provide notice of the claim to the respondent parties, who would have to agree to the process, either through an opt-out or opt-in mechanism or by affirmative written consent (the Copyright Office does not take a position on whether an opt-in or opt-out process is preferable). All relevant defenses, including fair use, as well as limited counterclaims arising from the infringing conduct at issue, would be permitted. Certain DMCA matters, including those relating to take down notices, would be subject to a

declaration of non-infringement.

4. The proceedings would be streamlined with limited discovery and no formal motion practice. The parties would provide written submissions and the hearings would be conducted through telecommunications facilities. A responding party’s agreement to cease infringing activity could be considered and reflected in the tribunal’s determination.

5. Any determinations would be binding only with respect to the parties and claims actually at issue in the proceeding and would have no precedential effect, meaning that the result could not be used in any other copyright infringement matter as a precedent. The determination would be subject to limited administrative review for error and could be challenged in Federal District Court on the basis of fraud, misconduct, or other improprieties.

6. As part of the proposal, the Copyright Office has drafted proposed legislation to implement this small-claims system, which includes a section-by-section analysis of the actual proposal. The draft legislation also includes alternative provisions to implement the system on either an opt-out or opt-in basis. It should be emphasized that this is just a discussion draft submitted to Congress for Congress to take action as it deems appropriate. (As an aside, one has to wonder whether Congress is capable of doing anything “appropriate” in the immediate future!)

Those opposed to the proposal are certainly troubled by the voluntary aspect, which they believe would lead many, if not most, defendants to simply ignore the request or refuse to proceed within this voluntary adjudication process. Certainly an argument can be made that any well-financed infringer would not be particularly interested in a streamlined procedure when just ignoring it may very well foreclose the copyright claimant from proceeding in federal court.

A streamlined copyright small claims system is certainly necessary and long overdue. The Copyright Office should be commended for undertaking the difficult task of analyzing the issues and coming up with a proposed solution, including an actual draft of proposed legislation. For those of you who wish to consider the actual language of the proposal and review all of the formal comments, the full report is available at: copyright.gov/docs/smallclaims.✹

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CHAPTER CAPTURE D/C SOUTH NEW YORK NEW ENGLAND ASPP DC South President Jeff Mauritzen speaks to an audience about the benefits of using Adobe Lightroom to organize and categorize their image database.

D/C SOUTH DAM! WHERE IS THAT PHOTO? Jeff Mauritzen On Thursday, September 19, 2013, the DC/South Chapter covered all things DAM at the Arts Foundry Building, Boston University Center for Digital Imaging in Washington, DC. A terrific panel of Digital Asset Management experts came together to help us navigate the latest systems and to address everyday workflow concerns such as: Where is that photo I shot a few months ago? Is there an easier way to get metadata into my photos? How can I find my photos quickly in order to monetize my photo shoots well after the original project is over?

We set up the program to cover as many key elements as we could (in just a few hours) for understanding how DAM systems benefit organizations both small and large, providing concrete steps to sorting, categorizing, and retrieving valuable image files. Henrik de Gyor, Director of DAM Services at Marlabs, Inc. and author of Another DAM Blog, covered the many components and benefits that go into running and managing a successful DAM system. Jim Dietz then took us through Photo Mechanic. He is certainly a wiz at it, seeing as he has been working with the software from the earliest versions to Version 5! V5 now has full compatibility with the latest version of Mac OS X. He also demonstrated how to start ingesting photos as soon as you plug in a memory card and how to work with dozens of new IPTC/XMP fields that are now available.

Henrik de Gyor gives an explanation on best practices and benefits of using a DAM system.

Last but not least, I went through a demonstration of some of the many uses of Lightroom that I incorporate in my daily workflow that allow me to successfully categorize, edit—and most importantly—monetize images from my commercial and stock photography business.

All in all, given the time, it was a full overview of why DAM systems are so important and why they are valuable to picture pros.

American Society of Picture Professionals

Jim Dietz explains the benefits of using Photo Mechanic in their photography workflow.

Photo ©2013 Jeff Mauritzen (3) 52

Dan Westergren takes questions from moderator Larry Levin.

Photo ©2013 Jeff Mauritzen (2)

ASPP DC/South event with Dan Westergren.

INCREDIBLE JOURNEY: FROM THE ORDINARY TO THE EXTRAORDINARY! Jeff Mauritzen and Beth Partain As a sponsor of FotoWeek DC, ASPP’s DC/South Chapter presented Dan Westergren, Director of Photography for National Geographic Travel. On November 6, 2013, he spoke to a full house at the Navy Memorial Heritage Center and shared some of his favorite images that have been published in National Geographic Traveler magazine over the years. He discussed not only what made the images so special, but provided insight as to what the editors look for in regards to the subject matter and technical aspects of the image.

Most important: Does the image tell a story? And how does it tell a story? The audience asked some very crucial questions on how to get your images noticed and in the hands of the National Geographic editors. And, what type of assignments to focus on?

Dan was able to provide thought-provoking information and lessons for the crowd to take with them.

Dan also shared two assignments he personally shot for the magazine, including a trip up the Matterhorn and a trip to the North Pole. Dan discussed his work around the themes of showing the history and present connecting, illustrating through special techniques how are we different and how are we the same, and showing audiences not only what a place looks like but what it feels like to be there. The event was moderated

by Larry Levin, a local ASPP photographer and educator.

Many thanks go to our program’s sponsor, The Great Courses (thegreatcourses.com).

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NEW YORK HARRY BENSON: 60 YEARS IN PICTURES Sam Merrell / Photos ©2013 Sam Merrell On September 12, 2013, the New York Chapter put on a very special evening at the Apple Store in Soho to hear Harry Benson talk about his 60 Years in Pictures.

A little background on Harry: Born in Glasgow, Scotland, awarding-winning photojournalist, Harry Benson, traveled to America with The Beatles in 1964, taking some of the most iconic photographs of the young group, and he never looked back. He has had 40 one-man exhibitions and 16 books of his photographs published; Taschen published The Beatles on the Road 1964-1966, his most recent book, in May. Harry was under contract to LIFE Magazine from the ’60s until it closed, and continues to photograph for major magazines today. Twice named NPPA Magazine Photographer of the Year, Harry was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire

by Queen Elizabeth II. He received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Scottish Press Photographers Association, the London Photographic Society, and the Lucie Awards, and Honorary Doctorates from the University of St. Andrews and from Glasgow University.

Harry Benson’s presentation at the Apple Store in Soho, New York.

I was floored by how many of his images are a part of my sense of history. Image after image, I was watching my life flash before my eyes, peppered by all these past people, places, and events—the ascent and then death of JFK, LBJ and Vietnam, Nixon and Watergate, Bobby Fischer, Muhammad Ali, the LA Riots, The Beatles, Woodstock…

Harry Benson discussing his frame of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Indeed, Harry documented just about everything relevant to my generation—and his talk was both engaging and sentimental. His body of work covers world leaders to pop stars, all portrayed with a perception that speaks of a rapport between sitter and photographer. Harry photographed the last eleven US presidents from Eisenhower to Obama, marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights marches, was next to Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles when he was assassinated. He photographed everyone from Winston Churchill to Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson to Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger to Amy Winehouse. And as we go to press, limited-edition signed prints are hanging (and for sale) at Liss Gallery in Toronto.

Canon USA was our sponsor for the evening, with free attendance for all.

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ASPP members listening to Kristen Gresh at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston © Carlton SooHoo/Panospin Studios

ASPP members listening to Kristen Gresh at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston © Carlton SooHoo/Panospin Studios NEW ENGLAND WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM IRAN AND THE ARAB WORLD: MFA BOSTON PRIVATE TOUR Sharon Donahue Why renew your ASPP membership? For me, it’s the opportunities ASPP provides opening doors to new venues, getting an inside look at a television or photographer’s studio, and/or meeting a museum curator willing to share their expertise.

On October 30, 2013, the Co-Presidents for ASPP New England arranged for a private tour with Kristen Gresh, Assistant Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, to talk about her extraordinary exhibition, She Who Tells a Story, which introduces the pioneering work of twelve leading women photographers from Iran and the Arab world. You may recognize some of these images from our The Picture Professional 2013.3 issue, which featured a special section curated by Ellen C. Herbert.

Limiting the photo exhibition to just female photographers was seen by some as confirming a stereotype of women in the Arab world being oppressed and powerless. But She Who Tells a Story proves these women have a lot to say. While dealing with the limitations written in laws or demanded by culture, the powerful photography these women are creating provides an opportunity to see their world from a very different perspective.

Kristen Gresh first discovered the work of many contemporary photographers from the Middle East while working as a curator in both Paris and Cairo. She attended the University of New Hampshire and Sarah Lawrence College, earning her doctorate degrees in Paris, where she lived for almost fifteen years. In January of 2012, Gresh was appointed Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Assistant Curator of Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). From August 2012 to August 2013, Kristen Gresh was able to travel to New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Monaco, Egypt, and Jordan to meet the pioneering female photographers she wanted for this exhibition. Originally planning on representing just eight women, the project was expanded to include sets of photographs by twelve women. It could not have been easy for Gresh to act as promoter and liaison for these artists.

Some of the works Gresh chose are typical of documentary photography. Rania Matar’s series A Girl and Her Room includes portraits of young women in Lebanon and the West Bank posed in their bedrooms (one of which is a small corner of a Palestinian refugee camp) with their belongings. The series reveals themes of developmental identity that are universal.

Girls are girls no matter where they live. Others add a surprising twist. I liked the clean still-life photography by Shadi Ghadirian contrasting masculine and feminine roles—combat boots with red high heels, a fruit bowl with a hand grenade, a purse filled with cosmetics and bullets.

My friend and I spent a long time examining a triptych called “Bullets Revisited #3” by Lalla Essaydi. The decorative patterns that cover and surround the center body of a reclining woman are composed of silver and golden bullet casings. Not only is it interesting that Essaydi decided to divide the body into three sections, but that the photographs are printed on aluminum that makes the whole work shine.

Several ASPP visitors were curious about which photographs in the exhibition were being acquired by the museum. Gresh explained that the decisions about which prints to acquire was determined by either an individual donor or by several departments with joint funds at the MFA. I was glad they decided to keep Boushra Almutawakel’s Hijab series of staged portraits showing an Arab Muslim mother, daughter, and her doll gradually changing from colorful clothing to the extensive black niqab, a veil that covers everything except the eyes. It so clearly takes the viewer on a visual journey through the different nuances of what it means to be veiled and finally invisible in an ultraconservative country.

After January 2014, She Who Tells a Story will be traveling to a limited number of venues in North America, tour dates and places to be announced at a later date.

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1912 Pennsylvania Delegation, Chicago. Photo Courtesy of George Grantham 57 Bain Collection (Library of Congress)

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BOOK REVIEWS

P © Estate Brassaï - RMN-GP, The lamplighter, Place de la Concorde, c. 1933, PS 2. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, acquired by the state in lieu of taxes, AM2012 (166). Photo Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Georges Meguerditchian.

© Estate Brassaï - RMN-GP, Lovers under a street lamp, 1933, CP 70. Private collection, PI. 101.

Photo RMN-Grand Palais/Michèle Bellot.

© Estate Brassaï - RMN-GP, Prostitutes at a bar, Boulevard Rochechouart, Montmartre, c. 1932, PS 82. Private collection, PI. 344. Photo RMNGrand-Palais, Michèle Bellot.

BRASSAÏ: PARIS NOCTURNE Sylvie Aubenas & Quentin Bajac Thames and Hudson Hardcover, 308 pages, 296 illustrations, 214 in duotone $85.00 Hungarian photographer Brassaï (1899–1984) took the name by which he is known from the town where he was born, Brasov.

He started to practice photography in 1929, not long after being lent a small camera by fellow Hungarian, André Kertész, and was immediately fascinated by its possibilities. With his earlier art training in Budapest and Berlin, he seems to have been supremely confident in his ability to create strong images.

Brassaï was fascinated by Paris at night. His decade-long exploration in the 1930s of the sordid Parisian underbelly took on the nightclubs, gay bars, prostitutes, drug addicts, and the list goes on. Paris—at least in those parts he photographed— was broken down, with old and decrepit buildings and cobblestoned streets. With the episodic street lighting, it was also highly atmospheric. Photographers will know that even in 2013, with video, or fast lenses and film, capturing high-quality dark street scenes is not exactly easy. But in 1930, streets were even darker, and Brassaï was using a Voigtländer Bergheil camera with a Heliar 10.5cm f4.5 lens, and 9x6cm glass plates. His nighttime exposures could be for as long as ten minutes. He timed shorter exposures by smoking a faster-burning Gauloises cigarette. For longer exposures, he smoked a longer-lasting Boyard. With all of the smoking he must have done, it’s surprising he lived to the age of 85.

at both finding and gaining access to some places and people one would have thought valued their privacies. On one occasion, quite late at night, he knocked on the door of an apartment he thought would have a good view. An elderly couple opened the door. “What do you want,” the man asked. “I’d like to see Paris from your window, you’d be doing me a great favor,” Brassaï replied. “Go on, look, we don’t know what it is like. We are both blind,” the man said. “I am glad I can still do someone a favor.” At which point Brassaï was heartily ashamed. This story is just one of very many that illustrate Brassaï’s nighttime adventures, from another Thames and Hudson book on Brassaï that I just found on my bookshelf. This one published in 1976, and with a text by Brassaï, was titled, The Secret Paris of the ‘30s.

Now I am torn. The new book has an excellent, illuminative text.

It shows more images and paper quality and printing are of the very best, but its layout and sizing of images, and sometimes its image selection, fall quite a bit short of what the 1976 book, with its lower printing standard, achieved. It seems to me very highly likely that while also providing the text, Brassaï had a great input in the selection of the images used and their layout. This book most likely really bears his mark and so is quite treasurable. What is the lover of Brassaï’s images to do? I’d say buy both books. Used copies of the 1976 book can be purchased for very little. A new copy can be had for $76, though not from the publisher.

Brassaï’s most famous images showing the denizens of the bars and clubs of Paris were posed and illuminated by flash. They illustrate — BRIAN SEED both his excellent technical ability and also his considerable skill American Society of Picture Professionals

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42-42271354 NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM AWARD WINNER

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Corbis is proud to feature the outstanding arctic photography of Paul Souders, 2013’s Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year (Animals in their Environment Category). Experience his work, alongside many other examples of fine nature photography, in our galleries. Find out more at www.corbisimages.com 59

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BOOK REVIEWS

HEARTLAND: THE PLAINS AND THE PRAIRIE David Plowden W.W. Norton Hardcover, 120 pages $75.00

Plowden’s focus is on small farms, the original homesteaders, not the monoculture crops and feedlots despoiling this region.

Grain elevators, called “prairie cathedrals” by outsiders, play a significant role in the photographer’s work. They were once, and sometimes remain today, the hub or epicenter of a town and are the utilitarian “heart” of its landscape. The title Heartland also describes the beat of production, and that rhythm of blood flowing is the wind whipping over amber fields of grain. Plowden’s pilgrimages to this area have helped him to better understand this substantial tract of America, and with photographing the pulse of our nation, he urges us not to overlook its simple beauty.

— ANGELA J. YONKE

I have seen and lived in the vast expanses of repetitive and untrammeled land that as a young man Plowden traversed by working for the Great Northern Railroad. I’ve experienced the claustrophobic man-made canyons of urban communities, which he called his early home, though I don’t think of them quite as such. Plowden, having never seen such landscapes, found himself mesmerized by the uninterrupted horizon stretching out in all directions as if at sea and felt a freeness viewing the limitless terrain without boundaries to contain the spirit. This eye-opening experience seeing the real breadth and meat of our country has driven Plowden’s images ever since.

Plowden’s writing, which accompanies this photographic collection, expresses a passion for the deceptive emptiness and unsung landscapes seen on his first trip crisscrossing the country and helps one to appreciate its inspiring stamina against the harsh and unrelenting elements. It is a land of extremes, with weather that can turn on a dime and with no natural features to block the wrath of these forces. Fortunately for Plowden, severe weather can create dramatic skies constantly in flux. And skies feature dominantly in his images, like the cover photo of this book, which depicts an ominous and impending storm gathering. He beautifully describes the land as a “stage, upon which the players are light and shadow, wind and storm, and where the drama takes place within the elements rather than on the land itself.” A sense of adventure and exploration are conveyed through Plowden’s writings and photographs, much like the pioneers whose paths cut across this landscape before him, but this topography also presents to him a challenge.

Trying to create an illusion of depth projected on a virtually flat interface between heaven and earth can be tricky. It is done with expert use of f-stop, location choice, the patience to catch a fleeting movement in grass, and careful placement of visual elements, like an abandoned farm house or road, to break up the seemingly endless view. His attention to detail in plowed tracks, tractor treads, and the rough textures of gravel paths serve to interrupt the scene, add visual interest to the composition, and abstract the landscape into lines and patterns in an otherwise unassuming tableau.

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OUR BEAUTIFUL, FRAGILE WORLD Peter Essick Rocky Nook Hardcover, 113 pages $34.95 Susan Sontag wrote that “without a politics, photographs of the slaughter-bench of history will most likely be experienced as, simply, unreal or as a demoralizing emotional blow.” For 25 years, Peter Essick has been photographing nature in the balance, the diffuse frontline of what ultimately may be humanity’s worst catastrophe. Yet, despite the evidence, myopic, shortterm tendencies often prevent people from believing climate change even exists. Understanding the problem is made more difficult by the dynamic complexity of the natural world. The connections between illegally dumped garbage in Ghana, the tar sands in Alberta, or nonpoint source pollution in Maryland defies a simplistic narrative. Besides, trees can’t talk, and the effect of displacing animals is hardly apparent in this human-centric world.

But Essick wants that to change.

Our Beautiful, Fragile World is culled from National Geographic shoots 60

Essick has done since 1992, when he was sent to the Trobriand Islands to document the indigenous culture made famous by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. Essick discovered that the Trobriands’ modern plight was a more pressing topic, one with global relevance. The islands’ population had been growing rapidly, placing enormous strain on the land. Curiosity piqued, Essick’s career thus began as a leading photographer of the diversity of climate issues and human impacts on the environment.

In contrasting beauty and fragility in this new world, Essick’s images don’t shy from exposing our culpability. Americans are outsized contributors to the predicaments of climate change, and the most damning images are of our shortsightedness.

Hammering this home is a beautiful sequence depicting a party on the Chesapeake, a thunderstorm above a big-box store with the sky’s eerily sickening yellow pall, a child born without eyes due to Agent Orange exposure, and two stark images of discarded electronics. Together, these images provoke uncomfortable but necessary questions.

While a useful photographic document of Essick’s journey to report our modern excess, the words sometimes lack oomph when paired with such striking images. A representative example concludes his description of an ominous photograph of a fertilizer plant in Nigeria. He writes, “…as citizens of the world, we all will have to find a more just, natural, and sustainable way of life in order for everyone to fulfill their dreams.” While the photographs in the book are undeniably beautiful, sometimes stunning, they do flirt with the line between beauty and doom, and Essick admits as much, writing that some collectors want “fine art prints of images of nuclear waste sites and mine tailings.”

That feels troubling and begs an important question Essick raises: Can the activism of art be separated from the image, or must they co-exist to bolster each of their impacts?

— JOHN W. W. ZEISER

THE NEW ART OF PHOTOGRAPHING NATURE Art Wolfe, with Martha Hill and Tim Grey Amphoto Books Paperback, 224 pages $29.99 Suppose you could be the proverbial fly-on-the-wall. And then, suppose that wall was part of a room that holds two people at the very top of their game, who are just sitting around like

friends do, discussing their craft. That, more or less, is the format for this updated version (first edition published two decades ago!) of Art Wolfe’s definitive text on what he does and how he does it: Wolfe gives us the photographer’s take on his 250 included images while friend and colleague Martha Hill offers PROFESSIONAL her complementary (and sometimes counterpoint) perspective as the former long-time photo editor at Audubon magazine. It’s he-said-she-said by two consummate professionals, made even better in this updated edition by the inclusion of useful tips from überdigitaltechie Tom Grey.

For those of you unfamiliar with Art Wolfe, he is the renaissance man of photography: he teaches seminars; he writes books; he has starred in the PBS television series, Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge; he speaks before large corporate gatherings; and, oh yes, he also happens to be one of the world’s premier photographers specializing in imagery of the great outdoors and its inhabitants.

With all that going for him, you’d certainly be within your rights to conjecture that someone with all those achievements probably needs a space as large as Madison Square Garden to contain his ego. Fear not: though clearly at the top of his craft, Wolfe is humble enough to admit that, even for him, not every shot is a winner. Sure, he shows us a healthy selection of the sorts of stunning shots that have made Art Wolfe…well, Art Wolfe! But, in many cases, he also shows us the close-but-not-quite versions of those same images and explains to us the critical (though sometimes subtle) differences between them.

“People sometimes imagine that great photographs are composed in a flash of inspiration, arriving in the world fully formed,” Wolfe writes. “While that can happen, most of the time we fumble towards a great shot, refining the composition with each exposure.” While the natural world is both Wolfe’s passion and the focus of this book, the lessons to be learned here can be applied to virtually any branch of photography: composition, perspective, use of color, elements of design, types of lighting and creative decision making are all major topics that Wolfe has both mastered and illustrated here with some of the world’s finest nature photos.

That alone is worth the price of admission, but for photographers aspiring to get their work published, the concurrent commentary on Wolfe’s pictures from a highly experienced photo editor sheds light of a different variety on those images. As we read Martha Hill’s contributions, we are reminded that while taking impactful photographs is challenging enough, getting those pictures “seen” requires an additional and even rarer tool: the ability to view a three dimensional scene in the viewfinder and imagine how to translate it to the two-dimensional printed page or monitor screen with greatest impact.

When Wolfe and Hill wrote the original version of this tome back in 1993, of course, concepts like post-processing, compositing panoramas, shooting RAW and HDR imaging weren’t on anyone’s radar. Thus, the addition of brief but solid information on these and other subjects from digital educator and guru Tim Grey makes this a book that’s even more relevant to a 2013 audience. The New Art of Photographing Nature: come for the pictures, but stay for the invaluable information, insight and inspiration.

— PAUL H. HENNING 61

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CONTRIBUTORS ISSUE 4 / 2013 THE PICTURE PROFESSIONAL

JOEL L. HECKER, ESQ. Practices in every aspect of photography and visual arts law, including copyright, licensing, publishing contracts, privacy rights, and other intellectual property issues, and acts as general counsel to photography and content-related businesses. In addition to writing for The Picture Professional, Hecker lectures and writes on these issues in PhotoStockNotes, the New York Bar Association Journal, and the association’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal. He is a past trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA, and past chair of the Copyright and Literary Property Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

Tel.: 212.447.9600; website: RussoandBurke.com; email: HeckerEsq@aol.com.

PAUL H. HENNING was a professional location photographer for 15 years. He co-founded and directed Third Coast Stock Source, and was manager of European operations for Comstock Picture Agency in London. He’s served as acting managing director at the Robert Harding Picture Library and is the founder of Stock Answers, a consultancy that works with stock picture agencies and photographers worldwide. Paul also serves as the director of business development for Tetra Images, a New Jersey-based royalty-free image production company.

KATIE BUNTSMA is an LA-based food photographer, designer, and recipe developer from a tiny Dutch town in rural Iowa. She loves stroopwafels, singing loudly in her car, and reading books on rainy days. Sometimes she indulges in bubble baths and canned peas and forcing her roommates to eat her experimental baked goods.

ANGELA J. YONKE is an artist and art educator living in Bozeman, MT. Yonke hails from Michigan, where she received a BFA in Photography and Art Education from Western Michigan University. She’s taught art in Michigan and Chicago, and her personal work focuses on humor, gesture, and non-verbal communication through multi-media and sewn-photo pieces.

BRIAN SEED is an Illinois-based photojournalist and stock-photo consultant. He’s the founder and a board member at Picade LLC, and his photography regularly appeared in Time-Life and Sports Illustrated for 30 years.

© Anna Psalmond

BEN HIGH is an Iowan turned Angeleno turned Iowan. He used to be a music industry wonk and commercial photographer. Now he designs fancy (sometimes photography-related) jewelry and shoots Polaroid and instant film. You can see what he’s up to at benhigh.com.

The first poem JOHN W. W. ZEISER wrote was a crude imitation of William Blake’s “The Tyger.” Finding his elementary school teacher audience receptive, he decided to keep writing. He is now a freelance writer and editor living in Santa Monica, California, where spends a good deal of his time documenting the growth of his heirloom tomatoes on a camera phone.

SAMARUDDIN STEWARD is a 2013 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow researching image forensics at Stanford University. Prior to Stanford, Samaruddin had worked at AOL, AFP, the Arizona Republic, and the US State Department. He’s interested in all things tech + media. Contact him at mediasam@stanford.edu or follow him @samsends.

JENNY RESPRESS started speaking at fourteen months and hasn’t stopped since. When she isn’t busy finding hilarity in the absurd, she can be found playing with her shih tzu, Oliver. She lives in Boise, Idaho, and is currently the social media manager for The Picture Professional and the e-news blog editor for ASPP.

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LIFE IN FOCUS: ULIANA BAZAR

© Uliana Bazar. The oldest Russian sauna in Brighton Beach, New York. January 26, 2013.

This photo was taken while I was working on my master’s thesis at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. The image is part of a series on which I spent about one year, on and off, documenting the Little Odessa community in Brighton Beach, New York. The Little Odessa neighborhood has a population consisting primarily of Russian, Ukrainian, and Eastern European immigrants. Because I am originally from Ukraine, I was able to get very intimate access to this community. Eventually, I was accepted as family, and my subjects and I could relate to one another on a very personal level.

I knew that I would need to include an image of a traditional Russian or Eastern European sauna. This particular sauna is the oldest in Little Odessa, and I had my sights set on it from the very beginning. It was not easy to get access to shoot there, however, because it is such an intimate setting where people feel especially vulnerable. Fortunately, I met Sergey, the man in the foreground, who invited me to tag along with him and take pictures. What I really enjoy about the image is the expression on the face of the woman right behind him. It’s not uncommon for women like her to frequent the saunas in their search for potential wealthy husbands. Knowing that, it’s not hard to figure out what she’s thinking as she’s stealthily watching him from behind. It’s interesting how, after almost five years away from Ukraine, my very own culture starts to feel exotic and far away. ✹

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