Leaked Military Footage Shows Death of Reuters Photojournalist
Military footage showing U.S. soldiers shooting Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, has been released on an "anti-secret" website, Wikileaks.org. The previously unseen and restricted video has now been viewed by more than 2 million people.
Recorded on July 12, 2007, and published on Wikileaks this April, the video was taken from inside an American helicopter during what the military described as an attack between U.S. and Iraqi rebels. The footage shows the two men among a crowd of Iraqis as they are shot by the helicopter's guns, and then again as several wounded people from...
Auction House Sales Increasing; Weston Photo Sells for $1 Million
Representatives from Christie's, Philips de Pury and Sotheby's say they have seen a sizable increase in auction sales of photographs, compared to this time last year.
The most notable item was Edward Weston's nautilus shell print, which sold in April for $1.082 million, the second-highest-grossing Weston print to date. The print was originally purchased from Weston by amateur photographer Bernice Lovett for $10 in 1927 and has never before appeared on the market.
Other photographs included a collection of 70 Irving Penn prints valued at $3.8 million, collected by Penn's close friend Patricia McCabe, and an Edward Steichen image, "Wheelbarrow with Flower Pots," which sold for $194,000.Overall, the three auction houses totaled more than $18 million in sales.
Leibovitz Signs Deal with Colony Capital to Retain Rights
Photographer Annie Leibovitz has been liberated once again from an impending loss of her collection of images and real estate assets after securing a new deal with Colony Capital LLC, a private real estate investment and advisory firm.
Under the new agreement, which was signed in April, Colony is now the sole creditor of Leibovitz's assets. Additionally, Colony has repaid Leibovitz's outstanding loan of $24 million from the New York-based Art Capital Group, which the photographer failed to pay in September 2009.
Although Leibovitz will retain control of the rights to her collection of more than 100,000 images, Colony will now help her balance her debts through traveling exhibitions of her prints and books, as well as other methods of revenue generation. This is Colony's second celebrity client. In May 2008, Colony purchased a loan with a face value of about $23.5 million on Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.
2010 Pulitzer Winners in Photography Announced
This year's Pulitzer Prize-winning photographic works included a series documenting the coming-of-age of a Denver teenager who enlisted in the Iraq War during the height of the insurgency.
Craig F. Walker, a photographer for The Denver Post, won the Feature Photography prize for a series telling the story of a young soldier's life from enlistment to homecoming. Walker began the project in 2007.Other finalists for this year's prizes can be seen at pulitzer.org.
ASMP: Copyright Law in Need of a Makeover
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) held a forum in April to discuss the future of copyright law.The forum, called "Copyright and the New Economy," discussed how the rights-managed business model functions in today's world of easily copied media and how to search for creative ways of fairly selling media services.
The original copyright laws were written in the 1960s, when there were only a few parties that were at risk of violating copyright terms. Today, digital storage makes it possible for virtually anyone to violate copyright.
Canon Expands Explorers of Light Program with a New Focus on Videography
Canon USA Inc has added five cinematographers and one photographer to the Explorers of Light visual media ambassadorship program.
The roster of visual media experts include directors of photography such as Alex Buono of "Saturday Night Live"; Rodney Charters of "24"; Crescenzo Notarile of "The Ghost Whisperer"; Russell Carpenter of "Titanic," "True Lies" and "Charlie's Angels"; and Shane Hurlbut of "Terminator: Salvation."
Sports Illustrated photographer Damian Strohmeyer has also been added to the roster of 62 photographers.The Explorers of Light Program was created in 1992 to establish a place where visual media experts could share their images and expertise.
Record Photo Donations for Getty Museum's 25th Anniversary
More than 1,000 photographs were donated this past year to the J. Paul Getty Museum, making the museum's 25th year a record-breaking one for donations.
The quantity of donations was due in part to a special initiative led in 2009 by Getty Photographs Council member Dan Solomon, who began collecting photographs for the anniversary.
With these new contributions, the museum now possesses works from new artists such as Gilles Peress, Robert Polidori, Liza Ryan, Brian Ulrich, Peter Wagner and Pinar Yolacan, as well as artists already featured in the museum, such as Eileen Cowan, John Divola and Chris Jordan.
These photographs will be featured in one of the Getty's newest wings, the Center for Photographs, which opened in 2006.
GigaPan Doubles World Record for Largest Digital Panorama
Using GigaPan's mega-panoramic EPIC Pro tripod technology, photographer Gerald Donovan has set the world record for the largest digital panoramic photograph.The 45-gigapixel image of Dubai was taken with a Canon 7D and is compiled of nearly 4,250 images that were taken over 3.5 hours. Before this mosaic was created, the previous title-holding panorama was 26 gigapixels, depicting the Paris skyline..If printed in actual size, this photo — which includes the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai — would be the size of nearly 1,200 billboards.Donovan's image, as well as other notable images taken with GigaPan's EPIC systems can be viewed at gigapan.org.
Actor Penn Pleads No Contest in Civil Suit
In a civil lawsuit, actor Sean Penn has pleaded no contest to one count of vandalism and has been sentenced to three years of probation, 300 hours of community service and 36 hours of anger management counseling.
This sentence was delivered after Penn allegedly kicked and punched photographer Jordan Dawes on Oct. 4, 2009. The attack took place when Dawes, as well as several other paparazzi photographers, had a run-in with Penn in Brentwood, Calif.
Another photographer on the scene filmed about 30 seconds of the incident; however, this footage only shows Penn shouting and not any of the preceding physical assault. Dawes has said that he has since had surgery as a result of his injuries.Although Penn was sentenced for vandalism charges, a civil suit filed by Dawes is still pending.
Glazer's Camera Celebrates 75 Years with Photo Fest
On June 10-12, Seattle-based Glazer's Camera will celebrate its 75th anniversary by closing the streets surrounding its headquarters for a photo-themed trade show, called Northwest Photo Fest.
At the free community event, Glazer's will feature more than 35 big-name vendors, including Nikon, Canon, Leica, Adobe, LowePro, Sony, Wescott and ProFoto. The trade show also promises to host a variety of free seminars, speakers and demonstrations on digital imaging, videography and film-processing equipment. Glazer's will also be offering special anniversary discounts throughout the weekend.