Daily we hear of customers seeking imagery that is anything but ‘stock’. Picfair took the challenge to heart. Here is their unfolding story. Tell us about the genesis of Picfair and a bit about the background of the founders. Picfair was founded by former Guardian & New York Times journalist Benji Lanyado. He was continually …
Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness – all these places have such an air of romance and beauty. Hard to imagine a lovelier premise for a photo library. Adam Elder saw both a need in the market and an opportunity; thus Scottish Viewpoint. How did Scottish Viewpoint come about? I worked as a photographer at a national newspaper …
In its section “Street Scenes”, stock photo agency Vintage Stock Photos features an intriguing image of titled “Native American Group on Float”; and it’s a classic representation of old-town Americana; with what appears to be a group of “Native American Indians” on a carnival float, complete with the legend “Heap Big Medicine Man.” Whether the …
We are all familiar with Marshall McLuhan’s observation that “The medium is the message”; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center offers the chance for us to reassess this, with a curated show of museum artworks dating back to the early days of when we began to notice the media “strings showing” for the first …
Fear of automation is not new; ever since Czech author Karel Čapek first coined the word “robot” in 1920, nearly a century ago, in his play ”R.U.R.,” we have both marveled and feared about the advent of mechanical inventions that could take over our basic motor and cognitive functions, and replace us in the workplace. After …
Cultural protests at a lack of cultural representation in the pop mainstream might be more visible and glamorous at #oscarssowhite, but that only comes around once a year. For a sustained and more cogent (and far more diverse) portrait of current representation (and omission) in the photographic medium, the blog Dodge and Burn is a …
When first scrolling Graphic Atlas’s list of pre-photographic, photomechanical, photographic and digital lists of photographic processes, even the lay photographer might think that they have stumbled upon an exotic and previously unseen science-fiction world out of “Star Wars.” However, “Dye Imbibition,” “Bromoil Transfer” or “Wet Plate Collodion” are not science-fiction characters; they are a wholly …
Given the prevalence of photography, it might actually seem a little weird to put together a “best of” list of 2016 photographs; given that that’s almost like asking a whale to select which “best of billions of krill” it is going to sift through its baleens:- in short, there is an awful lot of stuff …
Robert Frank is a little like a kaleidoscope: when you look at his body of work, you see different things from different angles. To some, the 90-year old master who revolutionized photography with his famous series The Americans: the iconic and seminal series of images in which Frank was an ‘equal opportunity’ portrayer of every sub-section of society (Americans …
President John F. Kennedy was always the most telegenic of US presidents; so perhaps it’s no coincidence that he was the first to appoint an ‘official’ photographer. In previous administrations, a random line of either military or park services photographers trailed the most powerful man in the world; but Cecil Staughton was the first to …