CNN recently laid off at least 50 staff, including several photojournalists, in favor of affiliate contributions and iReport — CNN’s user-generated content department which does not pay users for their submissions. To many inside the industry and out, the
CNN attempts to mitigate the predictably chaotic and non sequitur submissions from its almost 1 million registered users by offering online journalism tutorials (shown above), but only 7 percent of iReport content is vetted for wider use by the organization. Critics are skeptical these educational efforts are enough to turn iReport into a dependably quality product.
When the war started, photojournalism did show its power to sway public opinion. But it was in those early years as well — in some of the same images — that we saw photojournalism’s failures.
Part of the absurd fallout from last week’s ridiculous moment when VII’s Anastasia Taylor Lind jumped to her feet and repeatedly punched duckrabbit in the face at the LCC Masters end of year show after-party, have been the attempts behind the scenes to influence what we do or don’t say about it on our blog.
So for any of you concerned or interested, here are ten things worth knowing about duckrabbit, followed by a proposal and a challenge, neither of which involves a face full of knuckles.
The 66th annual College Photographer of the Year awards were announced last month, selected from among more than fourteen thousand submissions. What kinds …
The 66th annual College Photographer of the Year awards were announced last month, selected from among more than fourteen thousand submissions. What kinds of careers can the talented young winners expect?
As a photographer based in Kabul for Agence France-Presse, Massoud Hossaini has seen violence in the past. But never, he said, like the scene he saw Tuesday in Kabul.
Massoud Hossaini was photographing young Afghan Shiites during a procession for Ashura, which marks the death of Shiite Islam’s holiest martyr. Some of those he had photographed recognized him. The 30-year-old photographer, who is Shiite himself, remembered seeing some of them smile.
One year ago, FotoEvidence launched its first call for documentary projects. The second begins today. But despite its early success, the Web site’s financial sustainability could prove be a challenge.
In the summer of 2010, those memories moved Svetlana Bachevanova to start FotoEvidence, a documentary photography Web site and photo book contest that launched its first call for submissions last year. FotoEvidence begins its second push Thursday, seeking photographers who may have faced obstacles — if not outright censorship — with publishing stories with difficult themes.
I notice CNN offloaded about a dozen photo staff this week. The powers that be put it down to the increasing quality of reader submitted pictures through iReport and the like. Well, I can’t say I believe them. It’s just far more likely to be a decision made on the basis of the cost of reader submitted content than the quality of it. But hey, it’s a press release and they’re saying what the market wants to hear I suppose.
After explaining to the students how all that had taken place, I emphasized how difficult it would be today for that same procedure to happen. One just doesn’t walk in off the street to get a job at National Geographic anymore. That was almost half a century ago when there were many more magazines being published that used good photojournalism. And the number of really fine photographers was not nearly as high as I believe it is today. So it’s much tougher to do what I did so long ago. But not impossible.
Getty announced pay cuts for editorial contributors and when PDN asked them if that was because they needed to lower their prices (here): Asked whether Getty has found itself unable to compete for low-priced business without asking for concessions from su
There’s no doubt that Getty has found a sweet spot in sales with their subscription model, unfortunately that means contributors are seeing lots of images sold for $5. I often get asked why someone doesn’t step in and create an agency with a better cut for photographers.
Here’s the thing, though: Unless we change at least some of our behaviour after seeing these photographs, we’ve done little more than being engaged in a contemporary version of temporarily buying ourselves out of a sin
Magnum, who now distribute Tim Hetherington’s work (not without controversy), have just made available in their archive The Libya Negs: Tim Hetherington’s Last Images. Included in the selection is an image captioned “LIBYA. Misurata. April 20, 2011. Tim’s last photograph.”
Luster leaves daily newspapering with an impressive list of achievements, including two Pulitzer prizes, 46 Kentucky Derbies, exclusive behind-the-scenes White House photography, and most recently, NPPA’s 2010 Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, the organization’s highest honor.
CNN is cutting dozens of editorial jobs following a three-year review of its “workflow” operations, TV Newser reported. According to a memo obtained by paidContent and attributed to CNN SVP Jack Womack, technology and user-gen has made the network a little less reliant on editorial staffers, particularly photojournalists.
Though there are no hard numbers, the Libyan war appeared to draw a large number of unprepared and inexperienced photographers to the war zone. Anecdotal evidence suggests hundreds of photographers from around the world flocked to the cities of Ajdabiya, Benghazi and Misurata in the spring of 2011. Many of them were under 30 and under fire for the first time. Many paid their own way.
