controversy

The winners of the 2016 Australian Professional Photography Awards were announced last week, and one of Australia's top photographers isn't happy with the selections. He says the prestigious awards have been "hijacked by manipulators" whose work should be considered illustrations rather than photographs.

Update on 12/28/17: This default opt-in was changed a while ago and is no longer the case.

If you use Zenfolio to host your photography portfolio, make sure you're aware of the company's Easy Photo Album Design Service, which launched in May 2016 to make it easier for photographers to sell albums. If you make and sell your own albums to customers, you'll want to turn the feature off. And it seems that many photographers aren't happy that the service is on by default.

Newspapers across the country are under fire today because of the photos they ran on their front pages yesterday. The papers were illustrating the historic news that Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination for president; but instead of leading with a photo of the candidate, many used photos of her husband.

Can an algorithm-based service such as Google Images be racist? That's what people are suggesting this week after one man's video went viral.

Photo moderation at Facebook found itself at the center of a controversy (yet again) this past weekend after the social network banned an ad photo of a plus-sized model, saying it depicts the human body, "in an undesirable manner."

I started reading about how to become a professional wedding photographer some time in late 2010. Whether it was on DWF, POTN or Whirlpool, the same advice was being recycled.

Never give away your RAW files

But why?

Gap is apologizing this week after a photo in its new Gap Kids ad campaign sparked controversy for a "racially insensitive" pose. The photo shows a white child model resting her arm on a black child's head.

Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, widely considered the best player ever, has filed a $30 million lawsuit against Samsung. He claims that the company used a photo of someone who looks like him for an advertisement.

Since launching the MagBeam via a Kickstarter campaign two weeks ago, MagMod has raised nearly $200,000 for the flash extender and gobo. But at least one notable photographer has an issue with how the product is being marketed: David Hobby calls one of MagMod's claims "100% bulls**t."

An annual photo contest in Japan is apologizing and canceling this year's event after selecting a photo of a man on a dead whale as the grand prize winner. That photo sparked an strong outcry from the public.

TIME's latest international issue features a portrait of a rape victim of the civil war in South Sudan. The magazine's choice of photo is sparking an outcry online, with people calling the cover "exploitative."

The backlash has begun. A day after Instagram announced that its feed will soon be ordered by a Facebook-style curation algorithm, over 100,000+ people have signed an online petition to "Keep Instagram Chronological."

One of the big stories in the photo industry this month was news that the US government is suing the camera superstore B&H Photo Video for discrimination and harassment of its workers.

After initially refusing the comment to the media, B&H yesterday published a statement about the lawsuit and offered its defense. The store calls the governments claims "not only inaccurate, but bizarre."

Beachgoers in Argentina sparked outrage around the world last week after purportedly killing an at-risk baby dolphin by passing it around for photos. Now a similar video has emerged from Palm Beach, Florida, and this one is sparking new debate.

The 1.5-minute video above shows a man pulling a shark from the water and posing for photos with it before setting it free.

There's a good chance you've never heard of photographer Jake Olson before, but many people are learning of that name this week. He's a self-proclaimed "famous" American photographer who's now at the center of major controversy in the photography world.

If you've been following the ongoing presidential race in the US, you may have seen the Bernie Sanders video above that has been going viral over the past 2 weeks. Titled "TOGETHER," it has the tagline: "America should work for all of us. #votetogether."

But one photographer isn't happy about the way his concept and style were used as inspiration for the ad.

Brussels-based photographer Ezequiel Scagnetti stirred up a hornets nest this past weekend after calling out a world famous boy boy singer for posting a photo on Instagram without any permission or credit. Fans of the star began harassing Scagnetti, defending the singer with abusive messages.

Brides magazine recently published an article titled "Which Vendors Do You Have to Feed at Your Wedding?" In the piece, wedding planner Sandy Malone gives brides advice on which vendors they're responsible for feeding at a wedding, and which you can leave out of your plans.

Her "general rule" is that wedding photographers don't need to be fed, and photographers aren't happy about it.