By Webmaster, August 31, 2010 6:32 pm

A Lifeboat

In regards to my recent post entitled “Beware!,” I’ve had this agreement written to protect my work from being claimed by any future interns or employees as their own. I would like to share this document with all of you so you can avoid any similar problems that I’ve come across.

WORK MADE FOR HIRE AGREEMENT

The undersigned agrees that in consideration for my retention as an [independent contractor] [intern] by __________________ (“_______”) tand for good and valuable consideration, the receipt of which is expressly acknowledged, that all the products and results of the services to be rendered by me hereunder (the “Work”) to be a work made for hire as that term is defined in the United States Copyright Act and other applicable laws.  I acknowledge and agree that the Work (and all rights therein, including, without limitation, copyright) belongs to and shall be the sole and exclusive property of __________________.


If for any reason the Work would not be considered a work made for hire under applicable law, I do hereby sell, assign, and transfer to ________________, her successors and assigns, the entire right, title and interest in and to the copyright in the Work and any registrations and copyright applications relating thereto and any renewals and extensions thereof, and in and to all works based upon, derived from, or incorporating the Work, and in and to all income, royalties, damages, claims and payments now or hereafter due or payable with respect thereto, and in and to all causes of action, either in law or in equity for past, present, or future infringement based on the copyrights, and in and to all rights corresponding to the foregoing throughout the world.


I expressly declare that I will make no claims to ownership or ownership of derivative works concerning the Work.


If the Work is one to which the provisions of 17 U.S.C. 106A apply, I hereby waive and appoint ___________ to assert on my behalf any moral rights or any equivalent rights regarding the form or extent of any alteration to the Work (including, without limitation, removal or destruction) or the making of any derivative works based on the Work, including, without limitation, photographs, drawings or other visual reproductions or the Work, in any medium. To the extent any of the foregoing is ineffective under applicable law, I hereby provide any and all ratifications and consents necessary to accomplish the purposes of the foregoing to the extent possible.  I will confirm any such ratifications and consents from time to time as requested by ________.


IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned has duly executed this agreement as of the date below.

Name: ____________________________             Date:___________________

Address:___________________________

By Webmaster, August 24, 2010 8:38 pm

Weekend Update

This past weekend, along with editing some recent photos, I went to see An Unfinished Film. I have seen many films dealing with the holocaust and Nazi concentration camps, but this film was so brutal and raw that it gave new meaning to the word SURVIVOR.  It’s an important film for anyone who denies the existence of the holocaust and for the rest of us to remember and truly see the evil which only man can do.



On a lighter note, I also went to see Mike and Doug Starn’s Bamboo Garden on the Metropolitan museums roof.  It was like an adult jungle gym; an elaborate, intricate, and wondrous structure that was truly amazing and great fun. Originally, The World of Interiors magazine approached the Starn brothers London gallerist to see if they would be interested in making this bamboo garden to be photographed by the magazine. The gallerist, thinking it wasn’t prestigious enough, told the brothers to turn it down. Against his advice, they went ahead with the project and upon seeing it, The Met commissioned the Starn’s to create it again for the rooftop of the Museum.  A lesson to all you artists out there; FOLLOW YOUR GUT.

Another new find – my dear friend Georgette Farka’s does PR for Daniel’s Restaurant Group and suggested we try the Food Hall at the Plaza Hotel. It was casual, counter eating with wine service and a variety of different foods (fish, meats, pasta etc.) all at different counters.  Convenient, tasty and fun – try it!

By Webmaster, August 12, 2010 3:11 pm

BEWARE!

It has been a very stressful couple of weeks.

One evening after work, I went to my computer and a website popped up with one of my interns portrait on it. I scrolled down to look at his work only to find five photos of mine which he renamed and claimed as his own. The next morning, I opened up the site again to show a friend and not only had he added five more photos of mine but put his copyright on all ten of those he had stolen. When I asked him why this happened, he calmly started double-talking. When I pointed out the discrepancies in his story, he only continued. When I asked him to take them down, he said in one week.”Not in one week,” I said, but “NOW.” He took them down quickly and I kindly gave him a second chance.

The following week, after finishing a shoot, he was working feverishly to finish retouching a photo I had taken that day. The following day, after he had left, I opened up his website and to my amazement and disbelief, he posted my photo under his authorship once more. I wrote him an e-mail, telling him not to come back and explained if he ever used any of my photos without my permission again, I would hire legal counsel. I was disappointed, felt betrayed and angry all at once. All I could think of was his arrogance, brazenness and psychopathic behavior. There was a THIEF among us and he had to go. Was his whole life a lie? Were any of the photos he claimed to have taken actually his? He is just starting out in this business, as an agent said to me, and it will be very difficult for him to work for anybody decent if they know he steals.

It’s been a stressful two weeks and my question to for you is: Do any of you know about a legal document that can protect photographers from employees from stealing files?

By Webmaster, July 29, 2010 12:26 am

Media Technologies

What happens when your photographic ideas remain just that- ideas? What happens if your photographic ideas are not realized as photographs, but rather as installations, conceptual projects, public-sited works, websites, videos, slideshows, or artist books? To find out, I took a workshop at ICP this past weekend, and for me, it opened new worlds of opportunities and possibilities for my works. In contemporary art, photographic processes are starting points that expand the notion of the standard on the wall. The technologies and ideas of photography were mined as a starting point for projects in expanded media. The course described various strategies and showed applicable work related to these concepts.

In the first class, we discussed the practices of participation and collaboration. Good examples of these concepts can be seen at:

  • ·Zach Feuer Gallery, Michael Auder- Keeping Busy: An Inaccurate Survey

530 West 24th Street

  • ·Eyebeam, Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus

540 W. 21st Street, (between 10th and 11th Avenue)

  • ·The Kitchen, The Absolutely Other

512 West 19th Street (Between 10th and 11th Avenue, south side of the street)

I worked on a project that was in my files dormant, the results of which you’ll see very soon.

For me the class was fantastic, ready, progressive, stimulation, inspiring, and exhilarating.

By Webmaster, July 21, 2010 5:55 pm

To Test or Not to Test

Money or honor, they don’t have to be mutually exclusive, or do they? I’ve been testing a lot lately updating my beauty portfolio. It’s a difficult thing getting 3-5 people together on the same day and time when all are working for no pay. This morning, after the shoot was confirmed we got a message from the make-up artist saying that she got a paying job and because we didn’t confirm she took it. First let me say that I would never expect someone to turn down a money job.  We do tests to do picture that will help us get work. However, there is a protocol, which in my opinion should be followed: such as letting people know ASAP that you are canceling, not waiting an hour after the decision has been made so that the rest of the crew comes to the shoot only to find that it’s not happening.

Saying that you did not receive a confirmation when the e-mail trail shows you did demonstrates a lack of integrity and sense of honor. Although no one wants to be the bearer of bad news, sometimes texting and e-mails aren’t received in time and a good old fashion phone call is the best way for immediate results, or at least all three ways of communication to ensure your massage gets through.

By Webmaster, July 14, 2010 9:05 pm

A Photographer’s Dilemma

What do you do when you share the same idea with another artist but they get to showcase it first?

I recently took a photo of Merilin, a model from the Marilyn Agency and sent it to Dean, her booker. We asked Dean what he thought of the finished photo (below) where we placed butterflies around Merilin’s hair. He responded, “Love it, did you see the new Jill Stuart ad, Satoshi Saikusa shot Lindsey Wixson and used butterflies.”  Damn, they got it out there first with broader exposure. The question was, should I use the photo or not? My decision was yes. I like the photo very much. I stand by my ideas, and as the saying goes, “great minds think a like.” What would you do?

By Webmaster, July 6, 2010 10:17 pm

Above all nations, humanity.

Hope that everyone had a memorable 4th of July. These people have said it better than I could.

“Freedom is never at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?”

Gandhi

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.
Woodrow T. Wilson

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
George Bernard Shaw

“Better to starve free than to be a fat slave.”

Aesop

Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.
Mark Twain



By Webmaster, June 29, 2010 8:02 pm

My Soul’s Urge

It was a gallery-hopping weekend. Only the closing of the Monet would prompt me to leave my A.C. and see what was a wonderful exhibition.

Is someone considered a fine art photographer because they take their camera and point it at clouds, birds, ice, et cetera, and then click? Unless there is artistry brought to the photo by it’s composition, digital manipulation, concept or the presentation itself, in my opinion it’s documentary photograph.

With the latter thought in mind, the Yossi Milo Gallery is presenting “Retratos Pintados,” hand-painted photographic portraits collected from Brazil by Titus Reidl, a European historian. The painted vernaculars were popular from the late 19th to early 20th century in family homes in northeastern Brazil; this was before the introduction of color photography.

At first it struck me as odd that a collector was showing work not created by him at a gallery. I realized that the organization of the pieces was a main component in the artistry and aesthetics of the exhibition; the photos were framed and hung in clusters, reflecting the style in which they would have been traditionally presented in suburban Brazilian family homes.

As a fan of Anna Gaskell, I made sure to visit her exhibition this weekend at Yvon Lambert. The exhibition, “Turns Gravity,” featured various new photographs by Gaskell. I enjoyed the sense of mystery that Gaskell embeds in her photographs; they are intriguing and always keep the viewer wanting more.

Being a painter myself, Ragnar Kjartansson’s exhibition at Luhring Augustine was one I found truly compelling. Through the years, his technique and subject never change, which interests me.

Trine Sendergaard’s “Strude,” at the Bruce Silverstein gallery offered some captivating images. The Danish artist displayed a collection of photographs that displayed woman wearing traditional Danish mask-like garments, called strude (which is the inspiration for exhibition’s title), that were worn to cover their faces from the wind, sun and sand.

At the Casey Kaplan Gallery, Trisha Donnelly exhibited about 20 different sculptures. Donnelly is known for her usage of various mediums, which was evident in the abstract sculptures she displayed that ranged from wood, limestone, and photography. I was fascinated by the piece below, not only by its abstractive aesthetic, but its unique presentation as Donnelly displayed it with sound.

German native photographer, Julian Faulhaber, displayed various photographs at the Hasted Hunt Gallery titled LOWDESITYPOLYETHYLENE II. His photographs depicted various newly constructed sites with bright artificial lighting. The long exposure time resulted in images that appeared abstract and unreal. Additionally, I think that the composition of his photograph had a very architectural resonance.

The Andrea Rosen Gallery exhibited works of two very talented contemporary young artists, Nate Lowman, and Karla Black. Lowan’s and Black’s disparate forms of expression presented a contrasting yet harmonic dialogue between their works, essentially accentuating their common use of repetition to generate meanings of culture and language through art.

Nate Lowman

Karla Black

The Roy Lichtenstein exhibition, one of Pop Art’s most influential artists included some ofLichtenstein most prominent themes; fruits, vases, and flowers. On display also were some of his wonderful sculptures, an excellent reflection of his painting in a 3D form.

I find it fascinating that, even decades after his death, Lichtenstein’s work still looks fresh. Which brings to mind David Salle’s exhibition at the Marry Boone Gallery. It is evident that even the works that Salle did in the 80’s still looks recent and one can see his influence on the work of emerging artists.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

By Webmaster, June 7, 2010 5:45 pm

Wake-Up Call

© Andrea Blanch Photography

I, like so many of us, am sickened and disgusted by the oil spill in the gulf. Caring passionately about wild life and nature, I cannot stop thinking about the catastrophic effects this disaster is having on our ecosystem. Disheartened by the images of the helpless fish, birds, turtles, and marshes, I felt the need to express my sorrow. Alternative sustainable energy; let us as a collective have the wisdom to move forward and stop being slaves to oil. Amen.

By Webmaster, June 2, 2010 8:29 pm

Photo Wisdom

Wanted to pass along some advice gathered from industry pros. This is from Jamie Pallot, the Editorial Director of Condé Nast Digital. The question I asked him was how does one become a successful photographer today:

  • Find your niche – How am I different?
  • Don’t drown in technical options – stick to your vision: What do I want to say?
  • Think beyond the picture – How do I present/communicate my work, brand myself, etc .
  • Read! Keep up with current developments, read the key blogs and magazines.
  • Collectivize – form, or join, a group or collective to pool resources, provide mutual support.

Ever been fearful of taking your shot, starting your own business, making that important phone call? Well, Jim Miotke, the creator of BetterPhoto.com, has come up wth a method to help all fellow photographers get over their fear and fully realize their goal. Let me share with you what Jim shared with me:

  • Resistance is the enemy within
  • Commit with Certainty
  • Clarity causes confidence
  • “When your vision is clear, discipline is a non-issue.” – Jim Collins, Author “Good to Great”
  • Photo Technique
    • Create “WOW!” images
    • Learn the ingredients of a GREAT photo
    • Get tips for trying “off-the-wall” stuff
  • “Be bold and great forces will come to your aid.” - Goethe

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