Hello everyone, sorry for the lack of posting, sort of had a brief hiatus.  But with Jackanory, APE, Conscientious, Shoot the Blog and Heather Morton amongst many others I know you’re well covered on the photography news and opinions department.

Went to the ICP Icon Auction last Thursday…as always some amazing pieces for ICP’s fundraiser…even got a piece for myself!

Some snaps…

(also, I hope you made it to Irving Penn’s exhibition at the Morgan Library before it shut today….amazing show.)

New blog…the anonymous photography book dealer…Further More Books.

Tipped off by a reader…thanks!

(Roe Etheridge)

Sorry for the lack of posting…busy with work!  Recession be damned!

Got this invite for Ari Marcopoulos’ new book exhibition at Dashwood Books, “The Chance is Higher”, consisting of 40 black-and-white images printed entirely on a Xerox machine.

I guess that’s what one did before iPhoto!

Heather Morton’s blog has a great post from the other side, on triple bids, cost consultants (always a good time) and something I had blogged about from the agent’s side, namely, the lack of communication from art buyers in certain scenarios.

While my example never actually reached the bidding stage and Heather’s post deals with the follow up after the job is awarded to another photographer..it’s nice to hear an art buyer’s explanation for what might be going on in their heads.

We’re all human, after all.

Fell behind on my book collecting, and a recent visit to the Aperture gallery in Chelsea (with a 10% member’s discount) helped fuel some purchases…

Forthwith, the latest additions to the ‘library’…

A classic that should be in every decent photography book collection…Stephen Shore’s Uncommon Places.

Face of Fashion…featuring the works of Mert & Marcus, Corinne Day, Paolo Reversi, Steven Klein and Mario Sorrenti from their exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last year…by Susan Bright.

(Corinne Day, 2003)

and Matthew Sleeth (website coming soon, but right now there’s a very cool doodling application up), whose Ten Series was featured at the Aperture Gallery.

Ok, so I am still not re-ordering the list for 2008, and I understand that lists are lists, but looking at the list again from 2005 (3 posts below) I really wanted to point out a few striking things.

- Steven Meisel at #89. The man IS fashion photography. He is our generation’s Avedon, Penn, Newton and Bourdin rolled into one. He should probably be ranked higher than number 89.

- The sheer number of actual photographers on the list. This list is the list of people “we should definitely know”. I am not sure from whose perspective one should know these people but a fashion photographer starting out won’t really get much help from knowing, say, Patrick Demarchelier at number 7.

- The general lack of Creative/Art Directors or their lower rankings. And indeed even Photo Editors. No Fabien Baron or Arem Duplessis. No Jody Quon. No Anna Wintour? Again, too many photographers?

- Jimmy Moffatt and Anne Kennedy at #79. Too low, and yes on behalf of my profession perhaps not enough agents.

- The fact that I am harping on about this 3 years after the fact. Really sad. But there was no AVS blog then!

I guess Jacko and I got sent the same email.  Not sure if we’re virally marketing someone else’s pet project for them, but it is well done.

The New Enthusiasm.

So, following up my post on APE’s “Pay To Play” post…here are two striking examples of fashion editorial work that has lead directly to advertising work.  (Never mind the caliber of the photographers for a moment…)

Inez & Vinoodh “Before & After” series for V Magazine.

Inez & Vinoodh, Lane Crawford SS/08 Campaign.

Inez & Vinoodh for W Magazine.

Inez & Vinoodh, Roberto Cavalli SS/08 Campaign.

So APE wrote a brilliant post on “Pay to Play”, that all those cutting edge, high profile fashion magazines out there surely can’t be that broke, and can surely dole out bigger budgets for their shoots.  And he also gave his take on photography contests and sourcebooks. 

(By the way, I love when APE writes posts like these, so I can piggyback off of it.)

Anyways it generated over 100 comments and not much more really needs to be said but here’s my humble take on it.

Others might disagree, but more than any other editorial category, great fashion editorials really help those photographers get noticed…and hopefully the exposure eventually leads to more elite editorial work and the lucrative advertising work.

Obviously the elite names have sizable budgets and rates for their stories…and even more so if they happen to be on contract.  This subsequently means that there is less left over for other shooters.

As APE said, it has always been done this way and unless something changes (and one can’t really be sure what that change would be) it will continue to be done this way.

When Alexey Brodovitch was at Harper’s Bazaar, he was the one who discovered the likes of Penn, Hiro and Avedon, and helped push their careers to their legendary heights…nowadays names such as Fabien Baron and Dennis Freedman hold that power, but fashion editors have a tremendous amount of power now as well in helping make a photographer’s career.

No decent fashion photographer worth their salt would use sourcebooks…the only one they would use is Le Book (which of course mostly aimed at the fashion world).  For them, fashion editorials are their effective advertising tools for themselves and their work.

At any rate the photographers who work for free aren’t ruining it for the others…because everyone is doing it. Editorial doesn’t pay, advertising does.  That’s one of the first things I learned as an agent…you do the editorial for the creativity and hopefully one day that leads to the advertising work. Editorial work is where you learn what sort of photographer you can be, where you learn to really manage a budget, where you learn how to direct a crew, and learn how to work with the photo editor and art director on creating a great story. 

Besides, ask any editorial staffer if they’re happy with their salaries and I don’t think you’ll get many positive answers.  It’s just the way it is!

At any rate, the smart photographer will make no money in fees but can easily recoup costs and earn money on the side by owning their own digital equipment, doing their own retouching…common tips of the trade.

Was googling a few names and this article from American Photo popped up…which I remember reading back in 2005.  It’s interesting to see now, 3 years later. 

By no means am I going to try and update the list (because I don’t have, oh, 8 spare hours) but I am a little perplexed (as I was before) by the number of stock agencies on the list and the presence of Getty Images at number 1.  Now that they have been purchased by a private equity firm, how far do they drop?

Where would the bloggers fit on this list…the Conscientious, APE’s, Sartorialist’s of the world?  The Tim Barber’s?

1 Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein, Getty Images
2 Annie Leibovitz, photographer
3 VII Photo Agency: John Stanmeyer, Lauren Greenfield, Alexandra Boulat, James Nachtwey, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Ron Haviv, Christopher Morris, and Joachim Ladefoged
4 Kevin Mazur, wireimage.com
5 Michelle McNally, The New York Times
6 Hans P. Kraus Jr., dealer
7 Patrick Demarchelier, photographer
8 Michele Stephenson and MaryAnne Golon, Time
9 Graydon Carter, Susan White, and David Friend, Vanity Fair
10 Kathy Ryan, The New York Times Magazine
11 Dirck Halstead, digitaljournalist.org
12 Terry Richardson, photographer
13 Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, photographers
14 Chris Johns, National Geographic
15 Peter MacGill, Pace/MacGill Gallery
16 Seamus Conlan*, Marcel Saba, and JP Pappis, independent photo agents
17 Bonnie Fuller, American Media
18 Howard Greenberg, >Howard Greenberg Gallery
19 Elodie Mailliet and Bill Hannigan*19, Corbis Outline
20 Holly Hughes and Jeffrey Roberts*, Photo District News
21 Craig McDean, photographer
22 Denise Bethel, Sotheby’s
23 Joshua Holdeman and Philippe Garner, Christie’s
24 Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, photographers
25 Philip-Lorca diCorcia, photographer
26 Malcolm Daniel, Metropolitan Museum of Art
27 David LaChapelle, photographer
28 Michael Thompson, photographer
29 Sandra S. Phillips, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
30 Anne Wilkes Tucker, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
31 Benedikt Taschen, Taschen Books
32 Cindy Sherman, photographer
33 Gregory Crewdson, photographer
34 Peter Galassi, Museum of Modern Art
35 Willis Hartshorn, International Center of Photography
36 Barbara Kruger, artist
37 Robert Polidori, photographer
38 Mark Seliger, photographer
39 Ingrid Sischy, writer
40 Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, photographer
41 Michael Wilson, collector
42 Gerhard Steidl, Steidl Books
43 Randy Bauer and Frank Griffin, Gary Morgan, and Frank Regis Rohmer, paparazzi overlords
44 Art Streiber, photographer
45 Ellen von Unwerth, photographer
46 Pascal Dangin, Box Studios
47 Hugh Milstein and Jon Moeller, Digital Fusion
48 Andres Serrano, photographer
49 Taryn Simon, photographer
50 Fred Ritchin, PixelPress

51 James White, photographer
52 Daniel Power, powerHouse Books
53 David Fahey, Fahey/Klein Gallery
54 Martin Schoeller, photographer
55 Thomas Walther, collector
56 Sam Shahid, creative director
57 Vicki Goldberg, writer
58 Jeffrey Fraenkel, Fraenkel Gallery
59 Joel-Peter Witkin, photographer
60 Eugene Richards, photographer
61 Ruven Afanador, photographer
62 Eric Himmel, Harry N. Abrams
63 Tom Mangelsen, photographer
64 Stephen Crowley, Tyler Hicks, and Vincent Laforet, New York Times
65 Stephen Cohen, Stephen Cohen Gallery
66 Mary Ellen Mark, photographer
67 Bonni Benrubi, Bonni Benrubi Gallery
68 Gilles Peress, photographer
69 Larry Fink, photographer
70 Mario Sorrenti, photographer
71 Harry Benson, photographer
72 Larry Sultan, photographer
73 Manfred Heiting, collector
74 Michael Sand, Bulfinch Press
75 Kimberly Ayl, Icon International
76 Norman Jean Roy, photographer
77 David Burnett, photographer
78 Nina Berman, photographer
79 Anne Kennedy and Jim Moffat, Art + Commerce
80 John Loengard, writer
81 David Hume Kennerly, photographer
82 Michael Mattis, collector
83 Brigitte Lacombe, photographer
84 Bruce Weber, photographer
85 Geoffrey Katz, Creative Photographers Inc.
86 Stephen Shore, photographer
87 Dennis Freedman, W
88 Henry Buhl, collector
89 Steven Meisel, photographer
90 Charles Ommanney, photographer
91 Deborah Willis, professor
92 Tim Wride, No Strings Foundation
93 Tom Rankin, Center for Documentary Studies
94 Doug Lloyd, Lloyd & Company
95 Stephen Frailey, School of Visual Arts
96 Paul Jasmin, photographer
97 Joel Sternfeld, photographer
98 Yossi Milo, Yossi Milo Gallery
99 William Hunt, Ricco/Maresca Gallery
100 Mike Gallagher, Gallagher Gallery & Archive

Richard Renaldi just completed a 5 months worth of travelling helming the new global Microsoft campaign…8×10 portraits from all over the world. 

And we can be grateful he documented the entire journey on his blog.  Congratulations Richard!

or not found?

No Found, from across the pond.