Photo Archive News

JupiterImages Sold To Getty Images - $96

BREAKING NEWS.......

Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM) ("Jupitermedia") announced today that it has entered into a definitive stock purchase agreement to sell its Online Images business to Getty Images, Inc. for an aggregate purchase price of $96 million in cash.
Under the terms of and subject to the conditions set forth in the stock purchase agreement, Jupitermedia has agreed to sell all of the outstanding capital stock of Jupiterimages Corporation ("Jupiterimages"), an Arizona corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary, to Getty Images, Inc.

The Board of Directors of Jupitermedia has approved the transaction and resolved to recommend that JupitermediaÕs stockholders approve the transaction. Completion of the transaction is subject to approval by Jupitermedia's stockholders, regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. In addition, Alan Meckler, Jupitermedia's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a significant stockholder, and certain other stockholders, who, with Mr. Meckler, collectively hold approximately 35.9% of Jupitermedia's outstanding stock, have entered into definitive support agreements with Getty Images, Inc. to vote in favor of the transaction. The transaction is not subject to a financing condition. In connection with the transaction, Jupitermedia will retain ownership of its Peoria, Illinois building and property and lease the facility to Getty Images, Inc. Jupitermedia expects to incur a non-cash loss of approximately $95 million upon the closing of the transaction.

Following the completion of the sale of Jupiterimages to Getty Images, Inc, Jupitermedia will continue to operate its Online media business, which consists of five distinct networks: internet.com and EarthWeb.com for IT and business professionals; DevX.com for developers; and Mediabistro.com and Graphics.com for media and creative professionals.

"We believe that this transaction will be beneficial to Jupitermedia and its stockholders, both in the near term and the long run, as it will allow Jupitermedia to pay off all of its bank debt. Upon closing of the transaction, we will continue focus on the further development and growth of our Online Media division," stated Alan Meckler.

Merrill Lynch & Co. is acting as financial advisor to Jupitermedia and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is serving as legal advisor to Jupitermedia.

John Frost 1920 - 2008

John Frost, the creator of the John Frost Newspaper Archive, has died at the age of 88.

John was born in Paddington, London in April 1920 and grew up in Notting Hill where, in 1930, he bought his first newspaper which started a life's work of collecting important newspaper editions. The paper he bought reported on the R101 Airship Disaster (the British built rigid airship crashed on October 5, 1930, in France, during its maiden overseas voyage, killing 48 people).

On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 he was called up on the first day and served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and 11th Armoured Division. He took his newspaper collecting obsession with him as he travelled the world. He traded a packet of cigarettes for the Archive's most valuable newspaper, a German edition announcing Hitler's death.

In a letter his Mother sent to him whilst serving abroad she wrote , "Hurry up and get home, we are saving newspapers and piling them up in your bedroom, it's getting out of control!"....

After the war John had various jobs but carried on collecting interesting and historical newspapers.

In 1980 he decided to concentrate on dealing with the amount of requests for newspapers he was getting full time and formed the John Frost Newspaper Archive. He handed the business over to his son Andrew in 1988.

John was active in the business, his son Andrew told PAN "he was still popping into the archive three months ago and helping with obscure requests two weeks ago!"

John was also the current news editor of the Finest Hour the magazine of the International Churchill Society.

John Frost died of kidney cancer on October 16 2008. His funeral is in London tomorrow.

www.johnfrostnewspapers.co.uk

Glasshouse Images: New Contributors

Glasshouse Images welcomes three new contributors this month: Alberto Guglielmi, Kiyoshi Togashi and Abra Klinger.

View the selection here.

Glasshouse Images is a boutique stock photo and representation agency that caters to a select group of creatives who are always on the look out for exceptional and distinctive imagery.

6th Annual Lucie Awards:Winners

New York City again hosted the 6th Annual Lucie Awards in a gala black-tie ceremony and awards programme.

Amongst those honoured were Brent Stirton claiming International Photographer of the Year Award and Visa Pour L'image, Perpignan receiving the Spotlight Award for specific achievements of an individual, organisation or corporation whose endeavours have significantly changed the landscape of photography.

See the full list of Awards

New Collections At the Image Works

The Image Works are now representing six new collections in North America:
AKG Images (Germany),
The British Museum of Natural History (Great Britain)
Photo12 (France)
Auscape Natural History Archive (Australia)
The Imperial Iranian Archive
Majority World

View them at The Image Works

Salon de la Photo 2008

Salon de la Photo 2008 will run from 13th to 17th November at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris.

Intending to be more than just an exhibition of photographic products, it is aiming to be a place for "communication and sharing" between people and companies involved in image capture, processing software, prints and printing. To find out more click here.

Advertising Archives Add Rare Collections

The Advertising Archives have added several new and rare collections of artwork to their existing range of UK and US Press adverts and Magazine art.

These include distinctive early 20th Century French imagery from Theatre Magazine, Le Sourire and Vie Parisienne; very rare Spanish Magazine art from the 1920s/30s including Mundo Grafico, Blanco y Negro and Nuevo Mundo and a vast range of stunning British artwork from the 1950's story illustrations of John Bull Magazine, for which they hold the sole rights.

View John Bull collection.

BBC Motion Gallery Available In China

BBC Motion Gallery, the archive clips sales arm of BBC Worldwide, have formed a strategic alliance with CITVC, the commercial arm of China Central Television (CCTV) the country's largest national broadcaster, to represent BBC Motion Gallery sales to Chinese markets.

Reuters Look To Bump Up Photo Content....

from the Reuters Blog - Our Take On Your Take

Where are you going to be on election day?

'Do you want to show the world what it looks like from your voting station?'
'We are inviting citizen photojournalists to send in their best photographs related to the presidential election.'

Here

Dennis Buy Bit-Tech.net

London: Dennis Publishing has acquired technology website bit-tech.net

'Currently owned by Bit Publishing, the acquisition of bit-tech.net will further bolster the Dennis Publishing technology portfolio of magazines and websites, which includes brands such as PC Pro, itpro.co.uk, knowyourmobile.co.uk and iGizmo. The acquisition of bit-tech.net will boost the total traffic levels of the online Dennis Publishing technology portfolio from 2.3m to 3.35m unique visitors.'

Launched in 2001, bit-tech.net publishes in-depth reviews, news, features and technology information, while also hosting a forum for its growing audience of computer and gaming enthusiasts. The site is the UK's leading source for hardware and gaming reviews.

bit-tech's content is authored by a team of international technology writers who specialise in electronics, design, hardware, telecommunications and many other aspects of the IT industry. The site currently attracts over 1.05 million unique users and generates 6.6 million page impressions per month.

The entire editorial, advertising and development team will be hired as Dennis Publishing employees and will continue to work in the Ascot premises. They will report into Barry Cronin, Publishing Director of the digital Technology portfolio at Dennis. Hugh Chappell, MD of Bit Publishing will also be employed by Dennis Publishing on a consultancy basis.

James Tye, CEO at Dennis Publishing said: "bit-tech.net is a respected and authoritative website with a vibrant and growing community. It is an excellent complement to our existing IT portfolio and the acquisition will boost our technology site traffic levels to over 3.35million unique users per month. At this traffic level we are able to offer our advertisers both massive reach and precise targeting as and when required. The move also underlines our commitment as a leading digital publisher in the UK and I very much look forward to working with Hugh and his talented team over the coming months."

Hugh Chappell, Managing Director of Bit Publishing, said: "Dennis Publishing enjoys considerable success in the technology sector and importantly they understand our market. This acquisition is a logical step for bit-tech.net and will ensure continued growth. I am delighted for my staff – they have built a brilliant on-line only publication with the full support of the industry and our loyal readers. This is a "win win" situation for everyone concerned."

www.Bit-Tech.net

CR Blog - Redesign

UK: Visual communications magazine 'Creative Review' have today presented the redesign of their busy blog, CR Blog.

'We know how sharply observant our readers are, so you’ve probably noticed that the blog looks different today. It’s been redesigned to bring it more in line with the look of the magazine and, we hope, generally make it cleaner and easier to read.'

Take a tour Here

Photoshelter Offer to DRR Members

'We want to be able to help you with your business continuity. So we've created a special offer for Digital Railroad users only, which provides you with three months of free service as well as a method to FTP your images from DRR to your PhotoShelter account.'

Here's the gist of the offer:
- Sign up for an annual PhotoShelter Personal Archive 2.0 account
- Provide us with proof that you're a DRR member
- We will then credit your PhotoShelter account with an additional 3-months free
- We will provide you with FTP instructions on how to move your archive to PhotoShelter

Full details on the Photoshelter blog: Here

Be-hold Live Auction 30th October

Lot 127

The new Be-hold auction, No. 52, internet/live auction will take place on October 30th.

www.be-hold.com

London Features International LFI - photo agency

London Features International has been a market leading music, celebrity and entertainment photo agency for nearly half a century.

All enquires should be directed to the LFI London office:
Phone +44 (0) 207 723 4204
Email info[at]lfi.co.uk

www.lfi.co.uk

New Board Member At Alamy

Stock photo site Alamy has appointed Tim Pearson as a non-executive director to to provide an 'additional perspective on strategy and corporate governance.'

He was CEO of RM, the leading provider of IT solutions to UK schools, colleges and universities, from 2002 until September 2008 and held a number of senior technical and service management positions at the company since 1981.

A past chairman of the Internet Service Providers Association, he attended the Harvard University Business School Advanced Management Program.

The Marsden Archive - 2009 Calendars

THE HAUNTED REALM - 2009 & DRACULA - 2009

New calendars of Simon Marsden's photography Here

Creative Contemporary Photojournalism

The second issue of online photojournalism magazine Lunatic is now online
Here

Lunatic was created in 2007 by Karl Blanchet, photographer and member of the collective Luna.

Metro - New Website

London photo printing lab Metro have launched a new website:
'New features include a Technical Help section where customers can read in detail about the Materials and Techniques used at Metro. We also offer Colour Management advice to customers wishing to send us Online prints, or just wanting to learn more, and there is plenty of information about all our printing services along with the usual prices. In fact, you may notice that we have reordered and simplified all our services to make it easier to find your way around.'
www.metroimaging.co.uk

Sodapix Celebrate Two Years

Swiss picture agency Sodapix is celebrating its second anniversary.

They have created a memory game online, showcasing some of their 'Sodastyle' images. How fast can you do it?
www.sodapix.com

Sodapix was created by four founding fathers: Philipp Ludwig, Marjan Anastasovski, Bence Szerdahelyi and Oliver Schwartz, as well as Robin Simon, who has been managing director since 2006.

Imense Launch Automated Keywording

imense , Cambridge based software developers, will launch an automated keywording product at the PACA (Picture Archive Council of America) conference in New York on 24th October.

From the Press Release:

“Traditional keywording applications provide users with useful interface to speed up the task of applying keywords, our system not only does this but also automatically applies keywords to images, which removes between 50-75% of the workload.” Says Chris Town, imense co-founder and president of technology “The application analyses the image for content, extracts features and makes a decision on which keywords to apply, this is a world first”

The company’s keywording application is directed towards professional photographers and will be available via subscription on the imense website http://www.imense.com the major benefits for photographers include:

• Reduction of production costs: automation of keywording significantly reduces the cost associated with making digital images market ready.

• Increased workflow: the application will allow photographers to dramatically increase the speed of the keywording process.

“Image keywording has been a headache for photographers since digitisation began.” Said David Sinclair, co-founder and president of products. “Currently, an increasing number of professional image libraries and agencies require photographers to submit images with keywords, with this unique application of our computer vision techniques, we hope to make life much easier”

Berliner & Rex Merge To Take On US Market

Alan Berliner and John Selby (photo) announce the merger of the Berliner group of companies and Rex Features' North America operations.

John Selby, Managing Director of Rex Features, said: “I very much look forward to working even more closely with Alan, Alex and all the staff at Berliner. Our shared business philosophy, combined skills, knowledge and experience will create a synergy which will allow us to deliver an unrivalled service to all our customers”.

The two companies will work in partnership in the USA bringing a greater range and depth of choice for both companies’ clients in the USA, the UK and worldwide. Rex will now be investing in the development of production and sales operations on the US East and West coasts.

Rex Features has a long history as the UK sales agency for Berliner Studio, and in recent years this collaboration has become increasingly close and successful. Regarded as one of the world’s leading image sources, Rex has been planning to expand its existing stateside operations while Berliner, a highly respected market leader in event and celebrity portrait photography in the US, was looking for a strong partner to boost its position in the international market.

John Selby will become CEO of the Berliner group. Alan Berliner remains as President, while Alex Berliner will continue to oversee and develop the prestigious assignment and studio side of the business.

Commenting on the merger Alan Berliner said:
“Rex is a long-time partner of Berliner and a company so similar in quality and service that a merger seemed very natural. I am very proud to be part of this new relationship which will benefit both clients and employees, and will continue to work towards furthering its success”

The Berliner group was founded in Los Angeles by Alan Berliner in 1973, the company has been a major player in event photography for over 35 years. The Berliner group of companies comprises BEImages, a full service syndication agency; Berliner Studio, LA’s leading event studio, and Vistalux, a syndication agency for high end celebrity images for the editorial market.

www.rexusa.com
www.beimages.net
www.berlinerstudio.com
www.vistalux.com

Shutterstock 'Red Carpet' Programme Growing

Subscription-based online stock photo agency Shutterstock now has over 100,000 royalty-free entertainment/celebrity editorial images due to the growth of it's Red Carpet photo programme, Shutterstock on the Red Carpet™.

Shutterstock/RedCarpet

press release:

Shutterstock®, the world's largest subscription-based online stock photo agency, achieved another industry milestone this week when its editorial library passed the 100,000th image mark, thanks to the success of its entertainment/celebrity photo program: Shutterstock on the Red Carpet™. Shutterstock is the only online stock photo agency to offer this unique programme, which assists its global network of photographers in getting past the velvet ropes to the hottest events worldwide.

Shutterstock on the Red Carpet is truly a win-win for buyers and photographers
Due to the increased demand among news outlets for affordable, royalty-free editorial images, Shutterstock has become a trusted resource within the news community for its commitment to accuracy and high quality. As a result, Shutterstock's editorial library of newsworthy images is now one of the fastest growing categories in the company's library of almost 5 Million royalty-free images.

Working directly with event organizers, Shutterstock on the Red Carpet obtains coveted press passes to concerts, sporting or public events, and festivals for its network of photographers. Since the programme's inception in 2007, Shutterstock's photographers have submitted stock photography from top events such as the 2008 White House Correspondents' Dinner and Sting in concert, as well as stock photos of leading celebrities from Jessica Alba to Brad Pitt, and many more.

"Shutterstock on the Red Carpet is truly a win-win for buyers and photographers," said Jon Oringer, founder and CEO of Shutterstock. "This unique programme enables us to provide even more high quality, celebrity and entertainment stock images at affordable prices. Plus, Shutterstock's talented worldwide photographers benefit from our commitment to helping them gain access to the most exciting events across the globe."

Image Source - The New Website

"Quicker. Easier. Brighter. Better."

Image Source, have launched a brand new website.

from the press release:

October heralds a new era for high-end royalty free brand Image Source, with the introduction of its new website and adoption of the latest technology to deliver an exceptional marketplace destination. Customer feedback, testing and comprehensive market research has strongly influenced the development of the new website, ensuring a simple and innovative user experience tailored towards the high-end creative art buying sector. Image Source now has a market leading premium web platform to mirror its premium creative content.
Discover the unique horizontal navigation

Save time. Find the right image with a more accurate search engine

Browse images more efficiently with a creative and product focused page design

Take full advantage of the screen size through resolution independence

Drag and drop, select and purchase effortlessly with an all-new, fully integrated lightbox

Share images with clients and teams working in different locations

Image Source’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Christina Vaughan comments “We have harnessed the energy that we channel into creating the best images in the market into creating a destination website. We want our customers to be able to view, access and purchase our imagery as quickly as possible with minimum hassle.”
The new www.imagesource.com

Digital Railroad IN Trouble?!

Digital Railroad is possibly in liquidation... a DRR employee told photoarchivenews.com this morning, "I received a call last night telling me I no longer had a job, the company has laid off all executive staff, only support staff remain and an independent company has been brought in to effectively take over."

Announcement on the DRR blog: Here
The company running DRR now: Here

more as we get it.......

People On The Move: Russ O'Connell

Bauer

After nearly 7 years at heat magazine Russ O'Connell (photo right) is leaving to join leading music magazine Q as their new Picture Director.

More about Q magazine here: Q current issue

Website Relaunch: Nuts.co.uk

IPC: Britain's best-selling men's weekly, has hard launched a great new look, introducing easier navigation and a host of new content channels for its rapidly growing audience.

http://www.nuts.co.uk/

The new look is the result of extensive research and development and is designed to provide a far richer user experience for consumers while delivering more innovative opportunities for advertisers to reach them.

The site – which enjoyed a 121% year-on-year increase to 1,398,243 unique users in its ABCe for June – will now be updated more frequently and is easier to navigate.

Alongside fantastically popular sections like the MyNuts community, exclusive video content and the very best of Nuts TV, new elements include:
· Ten-second Reviews – the destination to discover all the very best in movies, games, DVDs, gadgets and music for young men
· Spambank – home of the funniest and coolest content on the web, all hand-picked by Nuts
· Football – re-launched with exclusive match highlights courtesy of our new partnership with leading digital daily sports news provider omnisport.tv. A daily blog, user interaction and Nuts' famous comedy football franchises round out the channel
· Web Games – showcasing the very best in online games, console games and the latest games trailers

www.nuts.co.uk editor Keith Walker says: “Nuts.co.uk has a fantastically loyal audience and we've worked closely with them all the way through the redevelopment process. From back to front, the site has improved. We've trebled the number of entry points from the home page and developed even more engaging content throughout.”

The new-look site provides even more creative opportunities for advertisers, with more prominent ad positions and a raft of bespoke ad formats.

Digital sales director Andrew Sanders explained: “Not only have we ensured that standard ads are more prominent than ever before, but we have also created a host of new high impact formats that will engage the audience and deliver results for advertisers without disrupting the user experience.”

Nuts publishing director Jo Smalley adds: “Nuts.co.uk is already the fastest-growing men's lifestyle site in Britain, and we continue to evolve and innovate to drive that blistering pace. Boosting our site accessibility pays bigger dividends to advertisers seeking to engage young men – be it through run-of-site ads, high-impact bespoke formats or channel sponsorship. Our new look supercharges the brand's fantastic reach, by showcasing the breadth of its rich lifestyle content and celebrating everything men love – from girls to games, video to football.”

Talk: Four Photographers And The Olympics

Samy's Camera and Nikon will be hosting a lecture by SportsShooter.com members Mar, Beck, McDonough, and Hanashiro, four renowned sports photographers who recently returned from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

SportsShooter.com reports:

Robert Beck and John McDonough of Sports Illustrated, Rod Mar of the Seattle Times, and Robert Hanashiro of USA Today will show images from the Games and talk about what it's like to work in the Olympics environment, on Thursday, November 6th 2008.

Event Date: Thursday, November 6th 2008, 6:30pm-9:30pm
Registration deadline: October 23rd 2008
Location: Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, CA

Full details at www.sportshooter.com

'Credit Crunch' Illustrated

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL reports:

The Best and Worst of Financial Crisis Photography.

Charles Hawley writes: The world's photojournalists have been doing their best to find original ways to illustrate the global financial crisis. Some of their effors have been commendable - others, not. SPIEGEL ONLINE has collected the best of the best, and some of the worst.

Read the whole article at www.spiegel.de/international

Exhibition: Breaking News: 140 Years Of The Press Association

To celebrate 140 years of the Press Association, the UK's national news agency, the National Media Museum in Bradford presents its forthcoming display, Breaking News: 140 Years of the Press Association, which opens on the Museum's Level Five on 18 October 2008.

Responsible for covering every major news event since 1868, the Press Association marks its anniversary with a display that will give visitors a definitive insight into the workings of a news agency. It will detail how, through a network of reporters, photographers and video journalists, the Press Association gathers and delivers 'breaking news' to the UK media at the touch of a button.

Jonathan Grun, Editor of the Press Association, said: "Press Association journalism is all about fast, fair and accurate storytelling and for the past 140 years we have told the story of our nation in daily instalments. The story might be about Gordon Brown, or Kelly Brook, or Big Brother. It might be the story of the century, or it might be completely forgotten by tomorrow - but today it is news."

In the years ahead no doubt technology will change and make today's state-of-the-art systems seem as primitive as cave painting. What will not change is that people will still be hungry for great stories and brilliant images that capture their imagination.

The National Media Museum's curator of photographic technology, Colin Harding, comments: "Often without knowing it, the public see the work of the Press Association on a daily basis, simply by picking up a newspaper or logging on to a news website. Breaking News presents a unique opportunity for visitors to go behind the scenes and see exactly how we get our front page news."

"The Press Association goes hand in hand with the media channels covered by the National Media Museum and, as with the Museum, the Press Association is preserving the history of its work, continuing its work in the present and looking ahead to the future."

Through a variety of interactive exhibits, visitors will be given a unique, hands-on experience into the running of a news agency. From comparing coverage of a 1930s FA Cup Final with present day reporting, to trying their hand at being a picture editor, the exhibition aims to educate and entertain. Additionally there will be a gallery of award-winning Press Association photography and a chance to hear from the journalists themselves who make up the heart of the organisation.

Technology has changed the way news stories are gathered and this can be seen by the inclusion of Nikon's most recently unveiled camera: the groundbreaking Nikon D90, the world's first digital SLR that is also capable of taking high definition videos.

A series of books entitled 20th Century Britain in Pictures which chronicle 100 years of British life through the Press Association's seven-million strong picture archive, will be showcased for visitors. Many of the images haven't been seen since their first publication decades ago.

www.paphotos.com/

www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

Lucie Week In New York

6th Annual LUCIE AWARDS and Lucie Foundation along with APERTURE Foundation celebrate LEGENDARY PHOTOGRAPHERS during Lucie week in New York.

Various events are scheduled prior to Photographers being honored
on Monday, October 20, 2008, 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Center

Aperture Foundation along with the Lucie Foundation celebrate outstanding photography with a variety of events during Lucie week. On Saturday, October 18, Aperture Foundation will have a presence at the IPA Best of Show Exhbition at 7:00-10:00 p.m., Splashlight Studios, Soho, (One Hudson Square, 75 Varick St., 3rd Floor). Aperture will have for sale an assortment of its acclaimed books and also offer attendees the chance to subscribe to the award-winning Aperture magazine (winner of last year's Lucie Award) for a special one-night-only offer. Titles will include recently published books featuring work of this year's honorees: Invasion 68: Prague, photographs by Josef Koudelka, Nicaragua: June 1978-July 1979, photographs by Susan Meiselas, Golden Gate, photographs by Richard Misrach.

On Sunday, October 19, Aperture Foundation will conduct book signings with Hank Willis Thomas and Sara Terry following their talks sponsored by the Lucie Foundation and Nueva Luz Photographic Journal, at 5-6:30 p.m., also taking place at Splashlight Soho. Hank will sign his just released first monograph, Pitch Blackness, which deals with black on black violence in America and the commodification of the African American male in advertising. Sara Terry will sign her recently published book-a-zine, War Is Only Half the Story: The Aftermath Project, featuring the work of the winners of the Aftermath Project's first annual grant competition, which was founded by Terry, open to working photographers worldwide who cover the aftermath of conflict. Magnum Photos member Jim Goldberg is the first place winner, Wolf Bowig is the second place winner.

Additionally, Lucie Award Honoree Erwin Olaf will conduct a talk and book signing at Aperture Gallery (547 West 27th Street, 4th floor), the day after the Lucie Awards, and Lucie Honoree Josef Koudelka currently has an exhibition of his powerful body of work entitled, Invasion 68: Prague on view through October 30 at Aperture Gallery co-produced with Magnum Photos, at the same address.

This year, Aperture is nominated for Lucie Awards in two categories:
Book publisher of the Year for Richard Misrach's On The Beach
Curator/Exhibition of the Year: Melissa Harris for Josef Kouldelka Invasion 68: Prague at Aperture Gallery

The Lucie Awards celebrate their 6th year anniversary at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Monday, October 20, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Honorees and top winners from the 2008 IPA competition will be recognized. The Lucie Awards, produced by the Lucie Foundation, (a non-profit, charitable foundation), salute the achievements of the world's finest photographers, discover emerging talent through the International Photography Awards and promote the appreciation of photography worldwide.

The 2008 honorees are: Gianni Berengo Gardin (Lifetime Achievement), Sara Terry: The Aftermath Project (Humanitarian Award), Richard Misrach (Achievement in Fine Art), Josef Koudelka (Achievement in Documentary), Susan Meiselas (Achievement in Photojournalism), Herman Leonard (Achievement in Portraiture), Patrick Demarchelier (Achievement in Fashion), Erwin Olaf (Achievement in Advertising) and John Iacono (Achievement in Sports). In addition to celebrating the masters, Visa Pour L'Image Festival will be honored with the Spotlight Award for celebrating their 20 year Anniversary in 2008. Each year, Honorees are selected by the 55 member Advisory Board.

Past honorees include: Larry Clark, Elliott Erwitt, Kenro Izu, Albert Watson, Melvin Sokolsky, Steve McCurry, Mary Ellen Mark, Sebastiao Salgado, Bert Stern, James Nachtwey, Douglas Kirkland, Sarah Moon, Harry Benson, David Bailey, Neil Leifer, Peter Lindbergh and the late Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Philip Jones Griffith and Cornell Capa.

The Lucies will also recognize those in the creative community who are integral in crafting an image in the following categories: Print Advertising Campaign of the Year, Fashion Layout of the Year, Photography Magazine of the Year, Book Publisher of the Year, Exhibition/Curator of the Year and Picture Editor of the Year. The IPA competition will announce its top winners from the 2008 competition and distribute $20,000 in cash prizes across the top three awards.

The Lucie Awards official media partner is PDN and Photo Plus International. In addition to title sponsor Pilsner Urquell, support is provided by Blurb, Amvona, AtEDGE, Canon and Splashlight Studios. Tickets for the Lucie Awards are available at http://www.lincolncenter.org/

http://www.lucieawards.com/08/

A New Source Of RM Photography

International Collections Worldwide, Inc, announced the creation of the new RM source ic.worldwide.

In a break from current stock photography trends, IC represents a tightly edited collection of photography purposefully selected to celebrate visual impact, quality over quantity, and diversity for those who prefer images as original and creative as their concepts.

Background
Born from a union of Parisian and New York photographic thought, ic.worldwide was formed international in character and universal by nature. United in a belief that the power, beauty, and emotion of photography is a visual extension of the photographer. Bound by the certainty that the force of numbers cannot surpass the impact and virtuosity of a single image.

With this ideal in mind, during the winter of 2007, the PhotoAlto Agency, in collaboration with industry pioneer Jerry Tavin, decided to pool their collective talents, resources and experiences in order to turn their vision of the future of RM stock photography into a reality. In 2008 these goals were realized and a new “oasis for distinguished photographers” was formed with the launch of ic.worldwide….

To see more, visit www.icworldwide.com

Festival Of Photography At National Library Of Wales

© Robert Haines

Lens 4: A sense of Place takes place on the 1st November at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

This is the fourth instalment of Lens: Festival of Documentary Photography, celebrating Welsh documentary photography. The festival aims to highlight the vast photographic collection held at the library and celebrates the work of four contemporary photographers currently working in Wales. The line-up will include: Robert Haines, Jeremy Moore, Paul Cabuts and Haydn Denman

Lens 2008 will consist of lectures by four contemporary documentary photographers, each photographer will give an illustrated talk of his photography projects related to this year’s theme, A sense of Place.

Robert Haines will discuss his critically acclaimed work Once upon a time in Wales a collection of evocative photographs taken around 1971-2 in Heolgerrig, Merthyr.

Jeremy Moore - a freelance landscape photographer will discuss his latest project Between heaven and earth focusing on the industrial man-made and inherently wild landscape of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Paul Cabuts will look at the different perspectives of three photographers who photographed South Wales during the 1950’s; W. Eugene Smith, Robert Frank and Geoff Charles.

Haydn Denman, a freelance photographer and BAFTA winning cameraman who has travelled the world taking photographs of the exotic places and people he meets along the way.

Organisers of LENS explain that the festival is the perfect opportunity for professional and amateur photographers, archivists and collectors, historians and journalists to discuss photography in Wales and to learn more about the wealth of Welsh documentary photography held at The National Library of Wales through its extensive and unique collection of photographs.

This year’s festival will also include a tribute through film and photograph to one of Wales' most famous photographers, Philip Jones Griffiths.

According to Lens spokesperson Llinos Medi Jones, “Philip had been extremely supportive of the Lens festival and was one of our key note speakers and patrons. His passing is a great loss to the field of documentary photography but we hope to honour him in this year’s festival with a tribute consisting of footage of him at work from the moving image collection of The National Library of Wales”.

The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, the home of the nation’s largest documentary photographic collection which contains over 800,000 images from the earliest photograph taken in Wales in 1841 to the works of current photographers.

Lens will take place on the 1st of November and tickets cost £20.
More information about Lens and tickets for the event are available from www.llgc.org.uk/lens08

Simon Norfolk Confirmed At VISION 2008

© Simon Norfolk

“If I see another photo of a starving baby in Africa, I will die,” says Simon Norfolk. “I want to know why there is still a starving baby inAfrica.” The War on War

Simon Norfolk will be speaking at Vision 2008. Europe's only event dedicated to aspiring professionals and early career photographers.
Friday 7th November, Business Design Centre, London N1.

Best known for his stunning large format images exploring the socio-economic effects of militarism, Norfolk has been acclaimed as the leading British photographer of his generation. From supercomputers and hi-tech missile launchers, to refugee camps and the battle-scarred landscapes ofIraq and Afghanistan, his long-term series, Et in Arcadia ego, takes an oblique look at conflict, far removed from classic war photography.

He’s also one of the most intelligent and provocative speakers in photography. Vision ’08 provides a unique opportunity to meet him, where he will be talking about the ethos behind his work, the ideas behind his latest series, Full Spectrum Dominance, and how he’s built a career shooting challenging subjects that are sold in some of the world’s leading fine art photo galleries

Now in its 9th year, Vision will provide you with inspiration, information and essential ideas to get your career moving. Take advantage of:

Interactive workshops,
- Seminars
- roduct showcases
- Professional career advice
Plus you can even have your work reviewed by the experts at our portfolio clinic.

For more information visit: www.bjp-online.com/vision

'Take A Break' UK's No 1 Women's Weekly

The latest ABC figures see H. Bauer's title Take a Break remaining the top selling women's weekly magazine.
With sales of 981,504, Take a Break outstips its nearest rival at the newsstands by almost double the amount of copies sold each week.

www.bauer.co.uk

Exhibition: This Is War! Robert Capa At Work

The Barbican Art Gallery, London, presents an Exhibition of Robert Capa's work called "This Is War!" as part of a reflection on conflict.

17 October 2008 to 25 January 2009

www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery

BPPA: 'Photographs By Richard Mills'

click to view the slideshow

BPPA: The British Press Photographers' Association have uploaded a slideshow of the work of Richard Mills.

www.thebppa.com

Photolibrary Speaks Out After SAA Allegations

The Chairman of the Photolibrary Group, Tim Moore, issued a statement "setting the record straight" about its continuing programme of payments of legacy royalties to IndexStock contributors. This follows the SAA's (Stock Artists Alliance) comments about IndexStock. (see article below SAA Finds Ongoing Issues With Photolibrary 2 October 2008)

Mr Moore stated that Photolibrary inherited (and willingly accepted) its obligation to pay outstanding royalties to IndexStock contributors when the Company purchased IndexStock in late 2006.

The full Media Statement:
“However, until we assumed control of the business we had no real understanding of the complexity of this task. Years of poorly-kept or non-existent contributor records meant that it became extremely problematic and time-consuming for us to match royalty obligations against IndexStock contributors, who in many cases had changed addresses or become otherwise hard to locate,” he said.

“We established systematic and rigorous royalty payment procedures to discharge outstanding debts to IndexStock contributors. These procedures have now been in place for ten months with a dedicated team reviewing files and seeking to contact and pay past contributors.”

Photolibrary has become aware of circulation within the industry of a number of misleading and inaccurate statements casting doubt on the Company’s level of commitment to its ongoing program of discharging its inherited royalty payment obligations to former IndexStock contributors. This misinformation has led to a significant level of unwarranted contributor concern about the reliability of Photolibrary’s royalty payments system overall.

Progress to Date
Photolibrary noted that great progress had been made so far, with $1.96 million - more than four times the amount being incorrectly circulated - injected into the IndexStock business since December 2007 to pay IndexStock royalties. This cash injection is incremental to previous amount of $3.7 million detailed in our media statement of December 2007.

As noted in Photolibrary’s letter to contributors of February 2008, the Company is making royalty payments to IndexStock contributors in the following categories:
1. Top-earning artists in the past 12 months.
2. Artists who submitted images to IndexStock who are not in group 1.
3. Top-earning artists over the last two years that are not in group 1 or 2.
4. Artists owed $250 and below with EFT details (with no review of account).
5. The remaining dormant contributor base that does not fit into the above categories

Operational Challenges
Our royalty resolution team has encountered:
• Many instances where images have been allocated to the wrong photographer. Photolibrary has then to back-track more than six years and remove accrued royalties from one artist and credit the correct photographer.
• Contributor statements which in up to 30 per cent of cases include cancelled sales. These confuse photographers and slow our review process. As the cancelled sales are counted as royalties owed, they need to be double-subtracted from the amounts owed.

Misleading Information
Photolibrary has become aware of a perhaps well-intentioned but misguided campaign by an industry association to misrepresent Photolibrary’s program of IndexStock royalty payments. This campaign has used inaccurate and misleading statistical data to claim that:
• Photolibrary has made only half-hearted efforts to contact and pay IndexStock contributors
• IndexStock records are accurate and contact with past contributors is straightforward
• Photolibrary is not committed to a ‘good faith’ process to meet outstanding royalty payments for IndexStock contributors

“All of these assertions are simply wrong,” said Mr Moore. “To the extent that industry association involvement has prompted IndexStock artists to contact us we are grateful. Given that we are making payments to artists on a systematic basis, it can be mere coincidence (not causality) if payments are made at around the time of industry association contact.”

Current Status
In Photolibrary’s February 2008 letter, the Company advised contributors that its review and payment plan would take most of 2008 to complete.
“We continue to work on reviewing accounts and scheduling payments and we still anticipate this review process being resolved before the end of this year,” said Mr Moore. “However, the current payment schedule stretches well into 2009 and may extend even further. While many people may have preferred this process to be faster, we have chosen to proceed in an orderly manner that ensures that the payments we promise are sent according to the schedule we have communicated directly to the artists involved. We appreciate the patience photographers have shown while we work through this very difficult and labor-intensive process at Index stock.” he said.

As Photolibrary has consistently stated, accounting inaccuracies and record inadequacies are an inheritance from IndexStock and are thus ‘quarantined’ from Photolibrary’s continuing business.

“I cannot emphasise strongly enough that the IndexStock legacy royalty issue has and can have no impact on Photolibrary’s present contributor base. Since inception in 1990 and today with multiple brands and with offices in 10 countries Photolibrary has an excellent record of meeting its obligations.” said Mr Moore. “All post-acquisition IndexStock commission payments are up-to-date. No current contributors should be concerned and if confusion has been caused within the Photolibrary contributor base, Photolibrary finds it regrettable and deplores the dissemination of misleading information by third parties.

“Photolibrary has made and will continue to make progress in reviewing accounts, contacting photographers, and paying off IndexStock’s royalty debts, a legacy issue following our acquisition of that business two years ago,” Mr Moore concluded.

www.photolibrary.com

'The Future Of Contemporary Photography' Screening

The Future of Contemporary Photography: The New York Photo Festival 2008 is a new short documentary that premieres at the PDN PhotoPlus expo on Thursday, 23 October 2008 in New York.

The film explores the curatorial insights of four leading photo editors, the festival's founders, and the many cutting-edge artits who shared their work. The film asks curators, artists and viewers to make their own aesthetic judgements on the state of modern photographic image-making.

A Snorri Bros Production.
Associate Producers Daniel Power and Frank Evers.

Thursday, October 23 at 1:00pm
Friday, October 24 at 11:00am and 2:00pm
Saturday, October 25 at 10:20am and 2:40pm

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York

www.newyorkphotofestival.com

www.newyorkphotofestival.com

Mary Evans Represents Francis Frith

Eastbourne, the Pier 1910

Mary Evans Picture Library is delighted to announce that it has recently added to its web site over 12,000 images from the prestigious and well-loved Francis Frith Collection in a new agreement that sees the historical specialist agency bring this incomparable collection to a wider market.

Charting the social and topographical history of the British Isles from 1860 to 1970, the Francis Frith Collection is an unrivalled chronicle of life through one of the most dynamic periods of history, representing transport, fashion, leisure, trade, industry and royalty alongside the core of topographical images for which it is so well known.

"Francis Frith is without doubt a superb collection, showing Britain at work, rest and play over the past two centuries and will expand our own content by offering even more variety", says Paul Brown, Managing Director of Mary Evans Picture Library. " Our aim is to proactively bring it to the commercial market, offering all the facilities of our website including 24 hour direct downloads, while allowing Francis Frith to continue to develop their own publishing and print business".

Julia Skinner, Picture Library Manager of the Francis Frith Collection adds, "We are delighted that the Mary Evans Picture Library has been appointed to represent The Francis Frith Collection, as the vintage, historical content fits very well with the Mary Evans collection. The experience and marketing expertise which Mary Evans can offer will ensure that our lovely images can now be seen by a much wider commercial audience".

Whether clients are looking for serious social documentary, or simply heart-warming nostalgia, the Francis Frith Collection has something to please most image researchers. Among the gems in the Frith archive are photographs of charabanc outings, traditional seaside piers, obsolete trades and transformed town centres, offering, quite literally, a snapshot of Britain's past in all its forms.

View the collection through www.maryevans.com

New Photo Library - Springboard Images

Springboard Images is a contemporary, innovative collection of creative abstract imagery, founded by photographers Chris Windsor and Roz Woodward.
Drawing on both gritty urban reality and beautiful natural environments, from forests to the seashore, Springboard offers a wide range of vibrant images.

Springboard Images launches on 5th October 2008.

Springboard Images is a contemporary, innovative collection of creative abstract imagery, founded by photographers Chris Windsor and Roz Woodward. Drawing on both gritty urban reality and beautiful natural environments, from forests to the seashore, Springboard offers a wide range of vibrant images.

Movement is used to suggest excitement and energy while colours, shapes and textures convey concepts, emotions and moods. Long exposures and close-up, short depth-of-field create abstract images. These innovative photographs are both distinctive and highly versatile, providing a valuable image resource. Springboard’s ‘movement and spin’ images for example, have been used for construction industry brochures, adding a striking contemporary feel.

Chris Windsor has worked as a professional photographer for over 20 years, shooting for advertising agencies and design groups. Shoots have ranged from hanging out from helicopters taking pictures of London's skyline to coaxing Andrex puppies to perform on cue. For the past ten years, Chris has also been supplying library-photos to Getty Images. Using his experience gained in this field Chris has teamed up with Roz to set up Springboard Images. Designed for ease of use, all Springboard’s images are high-resolution, royalty free and instantly downloadable.

www.springboardimages.com

Springboard runs on the Lightbox Photo system - PAN article here

25 Years Of The Image Works

The Image Works celebrates 25 years in business by adding four new collections to their archive.
Founded in 1983 by two photographers, it has grown to become one of the oldest independent editorial stock photo agencies in the United States.

The four new collections are AKG Images (Germany), the British Museum of Natural History (Great Britain), Photo 12 (France) and the Auscape Natural History Archive (Australia).

www.theimageworks.com

Exhibition: My America, Christopher Morris

HOST gallery presents My America, an exhibition of photographs by Christopher Morris to coincide with the run up to the US presidential election, on 4 November 2008.
Bringing together work from his coverage of both the first and second presidential campaign trails of President George W Bush, as well as work from the recent campaigns of both Barack Obama and John McCain, Morris’s privileged viewpoint offers a penetrating doubletake, operating in the space between the sleek and the stark.

Until 15 November.

1 Honduras Street
London
EC1Y 0TH
T: 0207 253 2770
Full details here www.hostgallery.co.uk

Rare Collection Of Photographic Books Donated To US College

A remarkable group of photographic books and journals, assembled by the late Marjorie and Leonard Vernon, leading Los Angeles photography collectors, has been donated to Scripps College, California.

The collection is of particular interest for the many rare and out-of-print volumes it contains, as well as the number and variety of photographic journals.

"The large clusters of books on key 20th century figures such as Walker Evans, Andreas Feininger, Andre Kértész, and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy are very special....." said Associate Professor of Art History Mary MacNaughton.

Press Release:

"The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection of Photographic Books is truly a superb addition to our library," said Scripps Interim President Frederick Weis. "Students of photography at The Claremont Colleges, as well as faculty and regional scholars, will be delighted to have this marvelous new resource available for their research."

"There are so many useful sources for teaching in the collection that I can name only a few," remarked Associate Professor of Art History Mary MacNaughton, director of Scripps' Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. "The large clusters of books on key 20th century figures such as Walker Evans, Andreas Feininger, Andre Kértész, and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy are very special. Moreover, many of the works will serve as research sources for several artists in the Scripps collection, including Margaret Bourke-White, Roger Fenton, Helen Levitt, Edweard Muybridge and Alfred Stieglitz."

The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection of Photographic Books will be housed in the Ella Strong Denison Library along with other special collections, most of which have been gifts from donors dedicated to the educational philosophy of Scripps College. "We actively encourage students to use special collections for scholarship as diverse as first year writing projects to senior theses," explained Judy Harvey Sahak, the Sally Preston Swan Librarian for the Denison Library. "The Vernon Collection expands opportunities for students to undertake primary research with special collections."

When the Vernon Collection is processed and fully cataloged, it will be kept in an environmentally stable and secure area of the library. Though not in the "open stacks" area, anyone wishing to see an item may request it. Users will first be instructed on the proper handling of rare and special materials. Both MacNaughton and Sahak anticipate faculty and students, as well as other scholars, will be eager to utilize the collection. It will be of interest to researchers studying photographic processes, the history of photography, and material culture, among other subjects.

Susan Rankaitis, noted photographer and Fletcher Jones Professor of Studio Art at Scripps, agrees, and remarked that this gift is entirely in keeping with the emphasis the Vernons always placed on supporting those involved with photography: "For many of us who are artists, gallerists, curators, or simply lovers of photographic art, Marjorie and Leonard Vernon were the heart of the photographic community in Southern California," she said.

The collection is the generous gift of the Vernon's daughter, Carol Vernon, and her husband, Robert Turbin. A splendid addition to the special collections at Scripps, their gift will enrich teaching and learning about photography at the college for many years to come.

Founded in 1926 by newspaper publisher, educator, and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps College is the women's college of The Claremont Colleges. Its four-year liberal arts curriculum emphasizes interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, fine arts, social sciences, and sciences. Scripps' mission is to "develop in its students the ability to think clearly and independently and the ability to live confidently, courageously, and hopefully."

www.scrippscollege.edu/news/press-releases

LFI - New Location

Celebrity photo agency London Features International have completed a move to new offices (photo) in North London.

The new address is:
Image House
Station Road
London
N17 9LR

+44 207 723 4204 or sales@lfi.co.uk

Keep up to date with LFI via their blog: LondonFeaturesBlog

Fleet Street Photographer Ian Showell Dies

The guardian.co.uk reports:

Photographer Ian Showell dies, aged 59

Daily Star photographer Ian Showell has died from cancer.

The 59-year-old, who also worked for the Press Association and Today newspaper over a 40-year Fleet Street career, died in his sleep while being cared for at a hospice in the early hours of Monday.
Full article here: www.guardian.co.uk

Dennis Acquires Digital SLR Photography Mag

Dennis Publishing announced the acquisition of the monthly magazine Digital SLR Photography.
Currently owned by Halo Publishing, this will be the first photography title in the Dennis Publishing portfolio and marks a move into a new sector for the company.

The magazine title and its associated website, www.digitalslrphoto.com, is billed as 'the magazine by photographers for photographers' and provides readers with top end photography product news and reviews, tips and advice from professional photographers on technique. The brand also encourages readers to get involved by sending photos to the magazine and website. The title is one of only two brands aimed at the high-end, Digital SLR photography market and provides advertisers with a sizeable, high-spending audience.

The current editorial and advertising team of 8, led by Editor and co-founder Daniel Lezano, will all be taken on as Dennis Publishing employees but will remain in their premises in Peterborough. The team will report into John Garewal, Deputy MD of Dennis Publishing's Technology division. Dennis Publishing will grow the title using their expertise in subscriptions and digital publishing.

James Tye, CEO at Dennis Publishing said: "The fast-growing SLR photography market represents an excellent opportunity for Dennis Publishing. Digital SLR Photography is superbly put together and is a compelling and entertaining read: it was these high editorial standards that convinced me that the magazine should be part of our portfolio. I very much look forward to working with this talented team and making Digital SLR Photography a market leading magazine and website in its sector."

Daniel Lezano, Editor and co-founder of Digital SLR Photography said:"We're very excited at joining the diverse and innovative portfolio of titles at Dennis Publishing. Digital SLR Photography magazine has enjoyed a successful two years and the acquisition by Dennis offers countless opportunities to further develop the potential of the title and help us establish it as a leading innovator in the photography magazine sector. In particular, the expertise and resources that Dennis has in key areas such as marketing, distribution and subscriptions will ensure we can accelerate the growth in readership and take Digital SLR Photography to new levels of success."

Blue Plaque For Bert Hardy

Photographer Bert Hardy has been awarded a coveted Blue Plaque by Southwark Council, London.

The Blue Plaque will be unveiled at Priory Buildings at 2.30pm on Sunday 12th October 2008.

Bert Hardy 1913 - 1995
Bert, born and brought up in Southwark, became star photographer on Picture Post magazine. He won an Encyclopedia Britannica Award for his images of life around South East London's Elephant & Castle area. In latter years he set up a photographic studio just around the corner from where he was born in Priory Mews and sustained a successful career in advertising photography.

Terry Fincher - Fleet Street Photographer - Dies

Ex-Daily Herald, Daily Express and Keystone photographer Terry Fincher died this morning.
He had been ill for some time and his death follows only a few weeks after that of his wife, June.
Terry covered many conflicts including Egypt, Pakistan, Biafra and Aden. In Biafra his intervention secured the release of two British businessmen, already badly beaten by their captors, and undoubtedly saved their lives. Terry won several press awards including a World Press Award for his coverage of the Vietnam War, had his own column The Fincher File in the Daily Express and set up the agency Photographer’s International which he ran jointly with his daughter, photographer Jayne Fincher.

Terry was born at Oving, near Alysbury in 1931 and started out as a runner with Keystone Press in 1945.

Click to see images of Terry at the Getty Gallery this year and a further selection of his images here: GettyImages/TerryFincher

Free News Content For Education 'Usage'

Picture shows: Trevor McDonald meeting Nelson Mandela

Over 3,000 hours of historic news footage from ITN’s archive division, ITN Source, have been made available to further and higher education institutes in the UK, giving educators and students cost-free access to a century of video material.

www.nfo.ac.uk

A century of news now available free to educators and learners

The NewsFilm Online service, www.nfo.ac.uk, featuring ITN and Reuters content, forms part of a £22 million digitisation programme, funded by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) to promote the innovative use of ICT in education and research. All disciplines across further and higher education will have access to the archive for research, teaching and learning.

One of the key elements of the archive licence agreement is that users from subscribing educational institutions who access the material can download clips and edit them to create their own user content for projects - a first for this type of material.

Educators and scholars at subscribing institutions will have cost-free access to the archive, which starts with black-and-white film footage of the funeral of King Edward VII in 1910 and ends with a colour news clip of Jade Goody in a racial bullying scandal in the Big Brother house in 2007. Other significant events spanning the past century include the Suez crisis in 1956, the first interview with Nelson Mandela in 1961, landing on the moon in 1969 and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Users can view whole newsreels and download them for use in virtual learning environments.

The NewsFilm Online archive is the result of a collaboration between ITN Source, the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC), JISC and EDINA, a JISC national data centre. The process of digitising newsreels from the 20th and 21st Century has been undertaken by the BUFVC, which selected the NewsFilm Online material from over 1.5 million hours of archive content.

Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow, who makes many appearances on NewsFilm Online, said: "NewsFilm Online is an exciting and fascinating initiative: a resource which will provide educators and students with a myriad of windows into British and world history over the past century.

“This project exemplifies the benefits of partnership between education and industry. JISC, the BUFVC and ITN Source should be commended for their contribution to this breakthrough in UK education."

JISC Chair, Professor Sir Ron Cooke, said: “The JISC digitisation programme demonstrates e-resourcing at its best. It is unlocking a wealth of material - some of it previously hard-to-access – and making it available to users regardless of time and location. The NewsFilm Online project is just one of many that will enable the UK higher and further education community to dip into the history, culture and landscape of the UK and beyond. The BUFVC rationale with the Newsfilm Online project has been to digitise the broadest possible range of footage in order to appeal to a wide variety of academic disciplines.”

Mark Wood, Chief Executive of ITN, added: “We’re delighted to give students and educators access to this great video content, which brings the events of the past century to life. The NewsFilm initiative is yet another example of the rapidly expanding use of video content at all levels of education.”

New RM 'Home' Images From Look

LOOK Photography, a California based, photo agency specializing in Home and Architectural imagery, has launched a new RM image collection, SHELTERED Images.

SHELTERED Images delivers the exclusive inside access to the world’s most beautiful homes and private retreats. With an emphasis on contemporary architectural themes, SHELTERED Images takes you to the most stunning residences across the globe, presenting the real-life work of builders, architects and designers. The collection addresses a growing trend of requests for unrestricted home and architectural imagery that can be licensed either commercially for single image downloads or as editorial feature stories. All of the images in the LOOK collection are delivered fully released, retouched, and keyworded to the highest standard. Additionally, each image includes detailed project information, such as Builder, Architect, Designer, and any notable feature like, eco-friendly or prefab.

“Our photographers cover modern residential architecture and design from a fresh viewpoint that is engaging and forward-thinking. This purity of purpose,” says Eric Hernandez “is our distinctive brand of photography.”

“The collection was assembled with a global marketplace in mind, making it easy for distributors anywhere on earth to benefit from licensing our collections.” says Eric Hernandez, “These images invoke a new sensibility that stimulate you to envision life at home in a modern world.”

LOOK produces most of the imagery for its two collections. However, this year they began to accept images from contributing photographers to create a more global feel to their collections. With the additional imagery they project that the collection will grow to approximately 10,000 images by the end of 2009.

Photographers interested in contributing to the agency should contact Jonathan Thomas by phone at +1.949.481.5511

View the collection here: www.lookphotoagency.com/sheltered

Still Pictures Move Sales Office

Still Pictures have moved their sales office to Bristol.
UK client enquiries will now go to Tom Walmsley, Julie-Anne Wilce and Ruth Garner (tel. 01275 375520, all other details stay the same). They are planning new marketing initiatives that will actively promote both the new RF collection and the RM archive.

Graham Everitt continues marketing the archive and Theresa De Salis, who has worked for Still Pictures since 1992 and who lives near the new office will work closely with the team.

The London office will continue to manage the Still Pictures collection and will deal with all enquiries from our network of agents and photographers. The London office can now focus on uploading new collections to the website and expanding our network of agents around the world.

www.stillpictures.com

Getty Continue With PicScout

PicScout announcd their contract renewal for continued content monitoring with Getty Images.
According to the contract, PicScout will remain the exclusive visual tracking service provider for detecting Getty Images' copyright infringement cases.

SAA Find Ongoing Issues With Photolibrary

Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) investigations find ongoing issues with Photolibrary's Index Stock payments.

SAA Press Release:
September 30, 2008. Since last November, when Photolibrary's controller alleged the company had failed to acknowledge and pay debts the company knew were owed Index Stock contributors, Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) has sought to investigate the issues raised. SAA intervened and we continue our efforts in the fervent belief all licensing fees due photographers should be paid in full.

Press Release cont. ...

SAA has now contacted 116 of some 1,700 Index Stock contributors. We can now confirm that Photolibrary scheduled payment of $560,000 in long overdue royalties due these artists. What troubles us is the vast majority of these payments came only after outside pressure and intervention - not from the company's initiative.

These issues first came to light in November 2007, when many contributors to Photolibrary's Index Stock collection received "unauthorized" royalty statements from the company's controller. Photolibrary fired the controller for releasing these statements, which detailed unpaid royalties of $2.2 million from 2001-2006 sales - money the controller alleged the company had no plan to pay.

At the same time, SAA received through a confidential source internal Photolibrary documents. These included a spreadsheet created from the original Index Stock accounting system, detailing individual photographer royalties owed, by month, from 2001 through 2006, along with a contributor contact list. These have formed the basis for SAA's investigations, which raise more doubts about whether Photolibrary has acted in good faith to contact, report and pay in full their contributors.

Following pressure from SAA, fellow trade associations, photographers and the media, there were signs of progress. Earlier this year, SAA heard from the 23 contributors who were part of a formal grievance SAA submitted to the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) on the matter. All contributors confirmed Photolibrary subsequently contacted them and scheduled payments matching the amounts on the controller's statements.

Then, in February, a Photolibrary contributor memo outlined a payment plan that it stated would take "most of 2008 to complete." This past summer, SAA followed up with 93 more contributors to assess the company's progress, expecting the company would certainly have followed through with many or most photographers.

SAA investigations found poor record of efforts to contact and pay contributors.

Since July, SAA has randomly contacted 93 Index Stock photographers who, according to the accounting records we've reviewed, were among 400 contributors owed between $1,000 and $23,000. Together, these 93 contributors represent $435,000 in past royalties owed.

SAA found the following:

1. All 93 contributors were easy to reach, using the company's own contact records.
2. Only six had been paid without contacting the company.
3. 18 had received payments after complaining to the company upon receiving the "unauthorized" statements and/or after SAA's public pressure.
4. The remaining 69 had never received payments, schedules, nor any notice of past royalties due. Those who then contacted the company at SAA's urging were all immediately scheduled for payment on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Index Stock records appear accurate, offering no valid excuse for payment delays.

When Photolibrary purchased Index Stock back in 2006, they acquired the company's debt and the obligation to pay contributors all outstanding royalties. Photolibrary has blamed payment delays on poorly kept records they had "inherited" from Index Stock. Yet the payments received, in virtually every case SAA reviewed, exactly or closely matched those original Index Stock records - the same records Photolibrary acquired two years ago, and which their CEO has described as "useless." When contributors presented copies of their statements derived from these records, Photolibrary promptly confirmed amounts due and scheduled payment.

Also to justify payment delays, Photolibrary has long cited "incomplete" and "inconclusive" findings of an independent "KPMG audit." Yet in a written statement to SAA, KPMG's Office of the Ombudsman stated, "KPMG LLP (US) was not engaged to perform an audit or review of any financial statements of Photolibrary." It stated their company was only "engaged to perform certain due diligence procedures."

SAA has now contacted 116 Index Stock contributors. Their cases cast serious doubt on Photolibary's assertions, excuses and good faith. Initially, the company claimed most contributors had already been paid. Later, it blamed payment delays on Index Stock accounting and inaccurate contact information. It's unclear how many more Index photographers remain unpaid.

SAA continues to seek full payments and accountability from Photolibrary.

SAA intervened because we believe photographers must be paid what they are owed. SAA tried our best in an ombudsman role to work constructively and discreetly to help resolve these issues. When that proved ineffective, we investigated the claims ourselves. Now we feel obligated to share what we have learned.

We expect Photolibrary to issue vigorous denials about the issues raised and the facts that support them. We expect company representatives to criticize SAA's investigation. But be assured: We will continue to monitor these issues and press for Photolibrary to keep its contractual obligations and promises to the artists and archives they represent.

Index Stock photographers need to contact Photolibrary.

We urge all photographers with images represented through the Index Stock collection, from 2001 forward, to actively ensure they receive all monies due. Contact Photolibrary representative Dan Russelman at (212) 929-4644 or danr@indexstock.com to request an accounting, confirm your current contact information and provide bank details (payments are now by direct deposit only).

For additional background and information, see www.stockartistsalliance.org/photolibrary-info

Instyle Mag Gets A Makeover

UK - IPCMedia: Fashion and style bible In Style will be revealing a redesign from the November issue, including a new-look cover and new features.

Following several months of research, the new look emphasises In Style's unrivalled celebrity access and fashion expertise and gives even better service and value to fashion savvy readers.

Key developments in the new-look In Style include:

· Style Candy – all the latest fashion news in a brand new section at the front of the magazine. Features include 'Where style starts', which charts the key moments in the history of a fashion trend, and 'The shoe charts', which showcases the top 10 most gorgeous shoes in store each month.
· A brand new shopping section, The List, showcases premium items to cater to readers' label lust, while a second shopping section Your Look gives expert advice and ideas to help readers make the most of their personal style.
· 'Go to work in…' shows readers how to wear one of the latest trends to the office – a key need identified in the research
· 'What's in Your Handbag' reveals the contents of a celebrity's bag – first to feature is model-of-the-moment Agyness Deyn.
· A reorganised flatplan has created a fashion features and interviews well, providing a substantial read. In addition, In Style's behind-the-scenes reports from the hottest celebrity gatherings have moved to the front of the magazine and re-branded 'Inside Story'.

In Style's new-look cover has a bigger masthead for increased standout and there is greater focus on the celebrity cover star, which is Rachel Bilson in the November issue. Coverlines and copy throughout the magazine have new feminine but dramatic fonts.

Editor Trish Halpin says: “More fashion, more styling ideas and more celebrity exclusives is what our readers asked us for and we've delivered all this and more in a fresh, modern exciting package. I'm really thrilled with the results.”

Publishing director Kirsten Price adds: “In Style has been performing well in a difficult market. These latest exciting developments will ensure that the brand continues to deliver exactly what our readers want.”

In the latest round of ABCs, In Style delivered a circulation of 180,879, up 1.2% year-on-year. The number of subscribers to the magazine has increased 21% year-on-year.

In Style's November issue is on-sale from tomorrow, October 2.

Exhibition: Diego Ortiz Mugica

The Consulate General of Argentina in New York is hosting a retrospective of works by Argentine photographer Diego Ortiz Mugica from Tuesday 7 October to 30 October 2008.

Mugica, who is known for his black and white fine art prints celebrating the beauty of Patagonia, is also the photographer for the critically acclaimed newly-published "Fly Fishing Moments with Mel Krieger" that explores the art of the cast. Using fluorescent fishing line for maximum visual impact, Mugica has created stunning photographs focusing on the lines in space created by master fisherman Krieger. The book has just been named "Best Book Printed and Edited in Argentina" by the Argentine Publications Chamber.

The Consulate retrospective is curated by Candace Kaller of Kaller Fine Arts.
For more information visit www.kallerfinearts.com

AeroGRID - 'One-Stop Geoshop'

AeroGRID, a new partnership that delivers high-resolution aerial photography from across Europe and beyond.
AeroGRID founding partners are AeroData of Belgium, Getmapping from the UK, and GeoContent from Germany; each holds nationwide coverage for their respective countries and more with total coverage exceeding 1.5m sq km including the homes of more than 300m people.
The aerial imagery is available in a number of different custom formats as specified by customers and online through the AeroGRID website.
www.aerogrid.net

AeroGRID partners operate 10 different survey aircraft and high-resolution digital cameras making it one of the largest producers of aerial imagery in Europe. This enables more efficient use of resources to deliver pan-European coverage and a regular update programme. AeroGRID is seeking new partners to extend coverage both in and beyond Europe to build the world’s largest commercial aerial imagery dataset.

Partners will sell AeroGRID data within their own markets but all imagery will be made available for purchase online. AeroGRID partners contribute aerial imagery data, sales and flying resources.

Aerial photography has been revolutionised by the advent of digital technologies and workflows enabling the creation of seamless high-resolution geo-referenced photomaps that can be viewed by anyone. Aerial photography is now in daily use across governments, by emergency services, utilities and infrastructure organisations, planning and built environment professionals, the media as well as many businesses and consumers. Access to complete aerial coverage of the whole of the European Union is now closer to reality thanks to this innovative partnership.

“AeroGRID offers a one-stop-shop for European and indeed World imagery with extensive coverage, available on or off line,” said Miles Taylor, General Manager of AeroGRID. “By attracting new partners and leveraging our combined resources AeroGRID will extend coverage across Europe and beyond, working to build the world’s largest most up to date commercial aerial imagery dataset. This will be a vital resource in meeting the commercial and environmental challenges of the 21st Century,” continued Taylor.

About AeroGRID

AeroGRID was created to provide a one-stop-shop for European aerial imagery. By marshalling partner resources, including 10 survey aircraft and high-resolution digital cameras AeroGRID is able to extend coverage and engage in a regular update programme that can provide the most complete and up to date aerial imagery solutions on the market.

Camera Press: Exclusive Oz Mag Content Rights

Camera Press is now syndicating images and text from Australia's leading magazine publisher ACP.
Focusing on its celebrity, real life and interior content Camera Press is able to offer key features exclusively to the UK market from popular ACP titles including Woman's Day, Dolly, Ralph, Cleo, Real Living, Belle and Australian House and Garden.

View examples of the ACP content here: www.camerapress.com/ACP/ACP.htm

Rex Expands Features and Digital Teams

Kelly Wilby and Dean Murray have joined the busy feature sales team at Rex Features and Toni Saint has joined to develop sales with web clients in the rapidly growing digital arena.

Kelly Wilby has been taken on to develop sales of live news stories and exclusive features. Kelly previously worked for New Zealand photo agency Tranz.
Dean Murray has been appointed Special Features Editor, a role designed to capitalise on Rex’s prolific output of more unusual features.

Dean has been with Rex for five years and is a trained journalist with an eye for quirky features.
Rex also welcomes Toni Saint, who has joined Rex in order to develop sales with web clients in the rapidly growing digital arena.

Toni joins from Getty Images and more recently Mirrorpix and brings a wealth of experience in online markets.
Larry Lawson, Director of Sales and Marketing, said:

“We have identified a number of opportunities where we want to see growth and are investing in the infrastructure and talent to help us achieve our goals.

“We are delighted to have attracted such high quality people who bring with them the experience of working closely with customers to provide the first class level of service Rex clients have come to expect.

These appointments will help boost Rex’s standing in the rapidly growing digital area and strengthen our commitment to high-quality features.”

www.rexfeatures.com