Back in 2009, Popular Photography announced the winning photos of its latest Reader’s Photos Contest. Two of the winners (shown above) had some photographers scratching their heads, due to the fact that they're "Photoshop jobs" rather than non-manipulated stills.
The New York Post sparked a firestorm of controversy last week after publishing a photo of a man about to be struck by a subway train. People around the world were outraged that a photographer decided to photograph what had occurred, that he had sold (or, in the photographer's words, licensed) the photo to a newspaper, and that the paper decided to publish it with a sensationalist front page story.
Last month photographer Chris Crisman entered the photograph above, titled Butterfly Girl, into the World Photography Organization’s 2012 World Photography Awards. It was selected from the thousands of entries as part of a promotional campaign for the contest and in that process was spread out all over the Internet. From the Daily Mail to the Huffington Post, the story about the World Photo Awards and Chris’s photo made the rounds across the web.
In particular, on the UK news site The Daily Mail, the photo generated a ton of comments and sparked some controversy as to whether or not it was appropriate for a photography competition. This caused me to ask myself the question: "What defines a photograph?"
The National Gallery in London, the world’s 4th most visited art museum, is currently holding its first major exhibition …
What is street photography? The question is controversial, that's for sure. The first problem arises when trying to define it. According to Wikipedia:
Street photography is a type of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings.
This seems to be something everyone can agree on... but it's incomplete; it's ambiguous. What, then, makes street photography different from simple candid photography or voyeurism?
The debate rages on: should appropriated Google Street View photographs be considered art? There are quite a few artists and photographers out there who think it should be. Photographer Michael Wolf was awarded Honorable Mention for his curated screenshots at the World Press Photo 2011. Photographer Aaron Hobson takes screenshots and turns them into gorgeous panoramic photos. Jon Rafman's screenshots were picked for an exhibition at London's Saatchi Gallery.
Now here's another case that might cause a lot more head-scratching: photographer Doug Rickard's Street View screenshots have been selected for the permanent collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Now there’s a headline that’s sure to cause some heated debate (click here …
Afghan photographer Massoud Hossaini won the Putlizer Prize yesterday for his …
PDN has published an interview with art collector Jonathan Sobel, who’s …
Every photographer probably has at least one story of a photo opportunity they missed simply because they decided not …
CNN published an opinion piece yesterday by photojournalist …
Photography author Ben Long has a thought-provoking article over at CreativePro in which …
The Washington Post raised some eyebrows last Friday after running an uber-saturated front …
Last year, Apple purchased Swedish facial recognition firm Polar Rose for $22 million, and yesterday's iPhone 4S announcement revealed that the technology is now baked into iOS and is touted as one of big new camera features. The iPhone is now a compact camera and mobile computer that can detect -- and possibly recognize -- faces.
Here’s a fascinating video in which Italian photographer Ruben Salvadori demonstrates how dishonest …
You've probably heard the expression "It's the photographer, not the camera", but apparently Nikon -- or at least one of its PR people -- hasn't. A few hours ago the company updated its Facebook page with,
A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses, and a good lens is essential to taking good pictures! Do any of our facebook fans use any of the NIKKOR lenses? Which is your favorite and what types of situations do you use it for?
Needless to say, the post was met with quite a bit of disagreement in the comments.
Update: Erin from Reuters contacted us informing us that this is in fact a genuine, non-manipulated photograph. Here's a good explanation of why it's real.
Reuters published the above image as an Editor's Choice photo yesterday, and almost immediately readers began leaving comments questioning whether the photograph was Photoshopped. The debate soon spread to other websites, including Reddit, and it appears that the photographs has since been taken down (though it can still be seen in its original slideshow from last week).
Suppose Apple hadn't abandoned its digital camera business. What effect would Steve Jobs and his team have had on the cameras we use today? Photo enthusiast Karim Ghantous thought about this recently, and came up with the following list of things he thinks Jobs might have pushed for.
Have you ever wondered whether hall of fame athletes from decades ago would still find success if the played …
Here are the recordings of all the "Is Photography Over?" panel sessions hosted by SFMOMA that we referred to earlier today:
Photography has almost always been in crisis. In the beginning, the terms of this crisis were cast as dichotomies: is photography science or art? Nature or technology? Representation or truth? This questioning has intensified and become more complicated over the intervening years. At times, the issues have required a profound rethinking of what photography is, does, and means. This is one of those times. Given the nature of contemporary art practice, the condition of visual culture, the advent of new technologies, and many other factors, what is at stake today in seeing something as a photograph? What is the value of continuing to speak of photography as a specific practice or discipline? Is photography over? [#]
The videos run a total of 5 hours altogether, so you'll need to set aside a good amount of time to chew through the talks. You can also find transcripts of the sessions and more information about the experts here.
In April of last year, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art held a two day summit on the …
The rise of microstock and the fact that anyone with a camera can sell cheap photos has done a …
If a stranger suddenly grabs your camera and takes a photograph, who owns the copyright to that photograph? Photographer …
The debate over David LaChapelle copyright infringement lawsuit against Rhianna rages on -- lawyer John William Nelson has written an article on why copyright should extend only to the literal copying of a photograph and not the elements within the photo.
The debate regarding what makes a photograph "truthful" or not is probably as old as the art of photography itself. By sheer coincidence, there were a couple interesting articles published today on this issue, and written from two different points-of-view.
As technology improves, features that were once limited to expensive professional models often become available to the masses, but …
Here’s an update to the whole monkey copyright story that’s been swirling around the blogosphere as of …
A little update to the recent brouhaha over Google+’s Terms of Service: …
Just as the monkey photography story was dying down, a new twist emerges: on Monday tech blog TechDirt received an email from Caters News, the agency representing wildlife photographer David Slater, whose camera was hijacked by a monkey and used to shoot a number of self-portraits.
Government officials have been caught in a number of Photoshop flubs recently, from the Egyptian president being …