Photographer Ronis dies aged 99

Ronis gave up a musical career to start photography Photographer Willy Ronis, best known for capturing the essence of Paris in black and white scenes of everyday life, has died aged 99. He passed away at a hospital in the French capital, where he had been admitted days earlier. President of the Eyedea photo agency. Stephane Ledoux said: "We have lost the last of the great men." Ronis' award-winning career began in the 1930s and he took his last picture in 2001. French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Ronis as the "chronicler of postwar social aspirations and the poet of a simple and joyous life." Ronis, along with friend Robert Doisneau and photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson, were among France's great photographers who emerged after World War II.

Online Photo Infringement Costs $10 Billion? Really?

The professional photography industry has no reliable numbers about the potential fees lost every year because of online infringement.

But one image licensing company has taken a guess: $10 billion a year. That estimate deserves a skeptical eye.

Vivozoom, a microstock site run by two former Getty Images executives, is trumpeting the $10 billion figure in the headline of a press release today.

Continue reading "Online Photo Infringement Costs $10 Billion? Really?" »

Report: 35,885 Journalism Jobs Lost in Last 12 Months

A new report confirms what everyone working in media could probably guess already: Journalism job losses are accelerating at a faster rate than job losses in the overall U.S. economy.

Since the financial crisis started (September 15, 2008 to September 15, 2009), 35,885 jobs in the journalism industry have been cut in the U.S.

The data comes from UNITY: Journalists of Color, which tracks SEC filings and self-reported data from 1,101 print and broadcast media outlets. UNITY counts jobs lost through layoffs, buyouts and attrition.

We already know many of the jobs lost were photographers, based on reports of photo staffs being slashed at newspapers like the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times. According to the UNITY report, the Los Angeles Times leads U.S. newspapers in the total number of jobs cut since January 1, 2008: 1,200!

There is some glimmer of good news, though. After a painful December—in which 7,398 journalism jobs were lost—the bleeding has slowed, as you can see on the chart above.

For more, here's a UNITY press release, or you can read the full report in PDF format. Editor & Publisher has more coverage.

Want to work on a film?!!

Props Assistants Needed for Local Robert Redford Feature Film Shoot

Interested students, contact Sue Hinkin, Dean of Career Services, for more information.
shinkin@scad.edu

Creative Photo Manipulations

Zhang Peng was born in 1981. He lives and works in Beijing. Zhang Peng’s photography takes young, vulnerable women and girls as its central theme. There is a profound sense of sorrow and empathy that is evoked in his haunting images of doll-like girls sitting timidly on richly-colored settees and in bloody bathtubs. Their indescribable expressions of hurt and vulnerability leave the viewer unsettled, disconcerted and heavy hearted.

Zhang Peng's work looks gorgeous! This is going to be a super exhibition. It will feature new photography, paintings and watercolors. At 27, Zhang Peng is considered to be one of China's most talented, interesting and promising young artists. It is still early in his career, yet he has already received attention from important collectors and media throughout the world. Images of his work have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times online and have graced the covers of numerous art magazines.

http://2fotoz.blogspot.com/2009/09/creative-and-horror-photo-manipulations.html

How to Back Up all your stuff for FREE

People don't neglect backing up their computers because it's hard—it isn't, at all. No, people file into the inevitable death march of data loss for one reason: Backing up usually costs money. But it doesn't have to.

When your concerned friends and family insist that you have to back your data up (as anyone who's seen my atrociously beaten-down laptop in the last few months has done to me) they're effectively telling you two things: That backing up your data will save you a massive headache in the future, because more likely the not, your hard drive will fail; and, less bluntly, that you need to buy a hard drive. And who wants to do that? It's hard to lay out the cash for a backup hard drive, since the payoff is uncertain, and (hopefully) far away. It's a good investment—not an easy one.

http://gizmodo.com/5357993/how-to-back-up-all-your-stuff-for-free