Keeping Images

Last week the Times had an interesting article about 65 glass plate negatives purchased for $45 at a garage sale in Fresno. Suspecting that they might be far more valuable than $45, the purchaser then assembled a team of experts to prove that the negatives were recovered from the 1937 fire in Ansel Adams’ darkroom. Value, $200 million. Well it turns out the experts in this case may not have been that expert, the $200 million is a givaway of course. It is still being disputed so we will have to wait on that, but it may remind any of us from the film era of our own stories of lost negatives. We all have them, don’t we, lost negative stories. I have.

In the digital era the problem is slightly different but images can get lost and when that happens its feels like more of a loss than it is because the potential image is an incalculable thing. I don’t need to tell you to make backups and put the hard disk in a separate safe place but there are other ways to lose things in the digital world by simply misfiling them. I try to file everything when I download it but still manage to lose a few files along the way, although, so far I have not lost anything in the digital realm as thouroughly as I lost those lost negatives that I still think about to this day.

BAPC General Meeting

BAPC Members General Meeting at Harvey Milk Photo Center.

BAPC Members Peer Review

BAPC Members Peer Review at Rayko. Members Only.

Rebecca Chang @ Joyce Gordon Gallery

Rebecca Chang participates in Glimpses in Time: 2010 an International Juried Exhibition at the Joyce Gordon Gallery. 406 14th St. Oakland, CA 94612.

PhotoAlliance Summer Workshop

VISUAL STORYTELLING: A WORKSHOP WITH JASON HOUSTON

Featuring: Jason Houston

Spend an intensive three days/four nights focused on learning how to take control of your camera and make the photographs you set out to make. Using the structure of an editorial-styled assignment, we’ll work on conceiving and planning images, refining your approach and focusing your personal vision, and of course all the technical skills needed to pull it off. A project-based, hands-on format will include lots of photographing, editing, critique, and finally presenting your work. This workshop is designed to accommodate a wide range of styles and abilities.

via PhotoAlliance.

SFAC Open Call – Night/Light: Bay Area Photographers Take Aim After Dark

SFAC Gallery and PhotoAlliance: Open Call for Submissions

Night/Light: Bay Area Photographers Take Aim After Dark

Exhibition: Night/Light: Bay Area Photographers Take Aim After Dark

Exhibition Dates: September 16 – January 14, 2010

Location: SFAC Gallery, Art at City Hall, ground floor

Submissions Due: Saturday, August 14, 2010, 6pm

For more information: contact the SFAC Gallery at 415.554.6080 or aimee.leduc@sfgov.org

via Open Call to Photographers – Night/Light: Bay Area Photographers Take Aim After Dark Call for Entries | SFAC Gallery.

Linda Fitch @Santa Cruz Art League

Linda Fitch’s work can be seen in the National Photography Exhibition Transference of Light at the Santa Cruz Art League. 526 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA. Artist’s Reception and Awards Ceremony. Saturday July 10, 3-5 PM

Alan George @ Corden|Potts Gallery

Alan George participates in the Dog Days exhibition @Corden|Potts Gallery. The exhibition features canine related images from an international roster of photographers. Corden|Potts Gallery, 49 Geary Street, Suite 211, San Francisco, CA. Opening Reception: 2pm – 5pm Saturday July 17.

FotoVisura Grant

The FotoVisura Grant aims to support personal photography projects to encourage the production and development of photography outside the commercial realm.  The Grant is eligible for projects not initiated by an assignment or commission. To be eligible for the Student Grant you must be currently in an under graduate or graduate program, or a recent graduate, having graduated after January 1st 2009.

Additionally, the following requirements apply for both the Grant and the Student Grant:

• A minimum of 15 images must be submitted

• Image size: 1000px on the longest dimension (14 inches @ 72 dpi)

• A written reflection, in first person, of at least 150 words with synopsis & significance

• All images and text to be uploaded through the FotoVisura.com website

• To enter you must read and agree to the contest Terms & Conditions

• Only one Submission per photographer will be judged.

The deadline is Wednesday, September 15th at 12:00 noon EST
Price is $30 for annual membership – membership is required

via Entry Requirements & Instructions | FotoVisura Grant.

UPDATED:

  1. deadline is now: Monday, November 1st 12:00 noon EST
  2. Larry Fink has joined the  jury

The Price of Your Work

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Photographer Andrew Moore featured in ArtNews

Any number of things might go through an artist’s mind in deciding what to charge for work. Give it away or charge a lot? Will a substantial price assert the significance of the work or drive buyers away?

Last week in New York I was reading ArtNews. On page 4 there is an advertisement for Heritage Auction Gallery showing an Annie Leibovitz 14″ x 14″ Cibachrome photographs of Robert Redford. The estimated price is $4,000 to $6.000. It’s number 4 of an edition of 50. The price seems about right for a not great photograph by Annie Leibovitz – and it is Robert Redford after all.

More interesting though is the article in the same issue about the photographer Andrew Moore who takes photographs mostly of urban scenes and collapsed buildings. His prints sell for between $7,000 and $25,000 at the Yancy Richardson Gallery, a terrific gallery in New York. Thats a nice price. An artist could live and breathe with those prices and even have an occasional meal out. Moore is a fine photographer and BAPC member work is as good or better.

New York itself lends a certain weight to work shown. Its in the air. I know that and it allows galleries to charge more. But, that said, we don’t charge enough for our work.

Internet Rip Offs

The Internet world does not respect copy protection, to say the least. Images can be dragged off the page by anyone and posted elsewhere, typically uncredited. BAPC members are concerned about this issue as recent emails have shown, but most seem to think it’s still worthwhile to post their images to the net anyway.

Here is why:
1. The Internet is the greatest communication tool going and a great way to get an image out into the world.
2. A web image is typically a reduced version of the original. Printing from this image will result in an inferior print compared to the original and not even close to the artist’s intention.  Watermarking an image can further discourage printing.  Stock Photography houses like Getty Images do just fine posting vast numbers of images to the web, but they post small versions only.  If you want the larger version, you pay a fee.
3. Copying an image to another site or including it in another work of art, as annoying as that is, exposes the work to a greater audience. Worst case, the image is claimed by another artist as their own or is used without credit.

It’s still important to copyright and protect images particularly for print publication use.  Professional photographers depend on being paid for each use unless they have sold that right to someone else.  But the Internet seems to be a different kind of place.  At some point image software may contain an expiration code that disassembles an image after a certain date.  Until that happens anything you put on the web can wind up anywhere else.