Tag Archives: Photography

Former BJP editor Geoffrey Crawley remembered in Telegraph obituary

Geoffrey Crawley, former editor of the British Journal of Photography and exposer of the Cottingley Fairies hoax who died on 29 October, was remembered in a Telegraph obituary at the weekend.

When he concluded his investigations into the Cottingley photographs, Crawley wrote to Elsie Wright with his findings… “Of course there are fairies – just as there is Father Christmas,” he wrote. “The trouble comes when you try to make them corporeal. They are fine poetic concepts, taking us out of this at times too ugly real world. Conan Doyle, after the horrors of the First World War in which his son died, wanted to suggest a realm where spirit forms just might exist.”

Full obituary on Telegraph.co.uk…

YouTube and National Geographic launch video competition

YouTube and National Geographic have partnered to launch the ‘Planet Inspired’ competition. The project calls for short film entries highlighting environmental issues which can be made using original content, or with footage filmed by National Geographic reporters.

The most original entries will be voted on by the YouTube community, and the winner will receive a National Geographic weekend photography workshop and $1,000 gift card from The North Face.

Photographers discuss how to change society’s suspicions

Press photographers came together today to explore society’s suspicions of cameras and debate how to change these attitudes in support of a free press for the future, at the House of Commons for the ‘Who’s afraid of photographers’ seminar’.

Opening the seminar, MP Don Foster said photographers need to take “collective action” in ensuring police officers are correctly trained.

There are two key areas that we have to look at, existing legislation and the way legislation is interpreted and used by various forces of law and order. One great piece of news is that the coalition government, through Nick Clegg, has suspended Section 44 of the Terrorism Act. But please don’t say we’ve won because I used the word suspended. What we need to make absolutely certain is that it is actually repealed and removed, not just suspended. I think that’s really important.

You need to talk about the ways in which you can engage with those law enforcement agencies, in particular the police, to help work through with them what is legitimate, and what is not legitimate. That means you have to engage with police in their training procedures with new recruits. So far there has not been a great deal of success, but today I think this is something you should take collective action towards to ensure there is proper training that goes on.

Professor Chris Frost, head of journalism at Liverpool John Moores University, who outlined the ethical guidelines impacting on journalists added that he felt there was increasing concern on the part of the public over their privacy in public places.

People seem to be much more concerned about where their image is going to be placed, they are much more aware, possibly because there are more cameras around now.

He added that this is also fuelled by increased fears of terrorism, peadophilia, identity theft and state interference.

David Hoffman, a social issues photographer, talked the seminar audience through the relationship between photographers and police at demonstrations over the past decades, from the poll tax riots to the G20 clashes, during which he claimed to have lost four teeth. But in recent months there has been “a patchy and fragile improvement”, he said.

I am now finding the police more cooperative. I hope my experience is being reflected elsewhere. I am confident…we have an opportunity to build on the progress of the last 18 months.

We’re at a crossroads, this government has made promises and it’s that baton, not the one hanging from the PC’s belt, that we need to take up now.

So why has there been such a difficult relationship between police and journalists/photographers? John Toner, NUJ Freelance Organiser proposed the following theories, summarised below:

Some police think the press are out there just to take photographs of them behaving badly

Some are afraid of having their photo in the newspaper as could become target

Some believe they’re moral guardians

Some believe there is a law in this country which protects privacy. Even if that were the case, that’s a civil matter.

Looking to the future, and echoing the earlier comments of Don Foster, the seminar participants called for greater training of police, such as through web videos/units and training alongside photographers, as well as penalties for the misuse of legislation rather than the re-distribution of guidelines.

In support of practical training for police, Jules Mattsson, who claimed to have had his camera confiscated by police and been restricted from photographing two cadet parades, said time should not be an excuse.

If there’s not enough training time to train the police who uphold the law, then I think that’s a much wider problem than this.

I think publicity and education is important, also for new photographers, student photographers. We need to also expand our reach to educate people in our rights.

#WEFHamburg: Al Ahram chair defends photoshopped image of Egyptian president

The chairman of the Al Ahram Group, whose newspaper was internationally critcised for publishing an altered image of world leaders at recent Middle East peace talks, defended the photoshopping as an artistic illustration of the story.

Speaking at the World Editors Forum in Hamburg, Abdel Moniem Said said the photo, which showed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak walking ahead of other world leaders, including Barack Obama, at the talks, was viewed out of context.

“We published all the photos after the Washington meetings, and then we had another meeting 14 days later in Sharm el Sheik led by Mubarak [the Egyptian president],” Said told delegates.

The subsequent feature in the paper was labelled “special report” and used five photos from the meeting, of which the altered image was one. According to Said, there was a caption accompanying the changed picture describing how Egypt was leading the piece talks

The story of the “tampered” image was picked up by international news outlets, including the Guardian and Telegraph, after first being spotted by a blogger.

But Said condemned the way in which the photo was republished, saying it was stripped of its titling, caption, artist’s signature and context.

“I can give at least 100 cases that did the same thing to illustrate a case even using Obama himself,” he said, referring to criticism of a recent Economist front cover.

Said said he had written to many of the news organisations who had reported the picture, but none had published his response. The Guardian did include a report on Al Ahram’s editor’s defence of the image.

BJP: Photographer drops copyright claim over iconic Obama image

The Associated Press and freelance photographer Mannie Garcia have settled a dispute over copyright of an iconic image of President Barack Obama, with both parties dropping their claims, reports the British Journal of Photography.

But the case involving artist Shepard Fairey, who claims he used the image to create his HOPE poster of the US leader, is yet to be settled or judged.

Full story on the British Journal of Photography at this link…

Image: Albany_Tim on Flickr

Paparazzi agencies delay People iPad app launch

Celebrity magazine publishers could have problems getting their products onto the iPad device, according to the Hollywood Reporter, as photo agencies are reportedly “banding together” to try and reach an agreement with one title – People magazine – to seek extra compensation for use of their images.

This has been linked to the postponed launch date of the publication’s new app, although this is denied by a spokesperson for the magazine in the report.

While the standoff centers on one publication for now, just about any other brand that makes photos of the rich and famous their stock in trade is watching nervously from the sidelines. Whatever deal they strike could set the terms of trade for the industry going forward.

See their full report here…

‘We will not be held to ransom’, Bournemouth Echo warns Southampton FC

Bournemouth Echo sports editor Neil Meldrum says the paper “will not be held to ransom” by Southampton Football Club, which recently announced plans to ban press photographers and syndicate the club’s own photographs of the team’s home matches.

Mr Cortese [executive chairman] clearly thinks his club will make a buck or two by syndicating pictures taken by their own man. I’ve got news for you, Nicola: You won’t.

If newspapers hate one thing, it is the greed of people like you and we press people tend to stick together in defiance of arrogance.

Yes, the Echo has let its readers down today by not printing pictures of last night’s match.

But we will not be held to ransom by the likes of Nicola Cortese.

Full post on the Bournemouth Echo blog at this link…

Texas newspaper posts video of photographer’s run-in with BP and police

A short update to a post from earlier in the week about the case of Lance Rosenfield, a freelance photographer detained in Texas by police, a BP security officer and the city’s police department liaison to the Joint Terrorism Task force.

Rosenfield had been taking photographs of a sign outside BP refinery in Texas City for non-profit news organisation ProPublica and had remained on a public right of way.

Texas newspaper the Daily News has posted three dashboard-camera videos of the exchange between the police and Rosenfield. The News also details the laws under which Rosenfield was asked to reveal his images to police and give his name, phone number and social security number.

The audio in these videos is poor due to wind, but they show a relatively relaxed situation in which police try to determine that Rosenfield has no suspicious motive for photographing an oil refinery.

Full post at this link…

ProPublica photographer followed by BP employee, detained by police

Police in England have come in for a fair amount of criticism recently for their treatment of photographers (see here and here), but their US counterparts have received some attention too after detaining freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield, who was working for ProPublica at the time.

Rosenfield was driving away after taking photos of a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas when he was followed by a BP employee, blocked off by two police cars and detained. Rosenfield had remained in a public space outside the refinery while working. The police reviewed his pictures and recorded his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information. According to Rosenfield these details were then shared with BP.

Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief of ProPublica, said:

“We certainly appreciate the need to secure the nation’s refineries. But we’re deeply troubled by BP’s conduct here, especially when they knew we were working on deadline on critical stories about this very facility. And we see no reason why, if law enforcement needed to review the unpublished photographs, that should have included sharing them with a representative of a private company.”

Full story at this link…

via Fishbowl NY blog

Police remove teenage photographer from parade, citing terrorism act

Jules Mattsson, a 15-year-old photographer, challenged police officers attempting to restrict his photographing of an Armed Forced Parade in Romford on Saturday. As the recording posted to YouTube demonstrates, Mattsson was unrelenting in asserting his rights to the policeman, who eventually resorted to telling him he was a “threat under the terrorism act” and confiscating his camera. Mattsson can then be heard accusing the officer of pushing him down a flight of stairs.

Mattsson writes about the incident on his blog:

Especially poignant this incident took place the day after photojournalist Marc Vallee and videographer Jason Parkinson won their case against the met for an incident outside the Greek Embassy where Marc had his camera grabbed and Jason had his lens covered by an armed police officer. Many have hailed this ruling as ‘a victory for press freedom’, and I would be inclined to agree. However, until the met’s guidance on photography and a clearer understanding of the law filters down to the streets, we will continue to see incidents like this.

Read more on the Marc Vallee/Jason Parkinson case on Journalism.co.uk.


Source: Boing Boing