It started quite innocently. A family picture for Mother’s Day to share with close ones and the world. Just before sending, a quick alteration here and there to make everyone look better, remove distractions, and voila. Posted on social media as well.Except this mother is not your everyday mom. She’s a queen in waiting, and Read More →

A hand holding a color transparency

This article was first written and published on September 8, 2023, by Michel Puech in French and is reproduced here with authorization.  The fate of a significant portion of the photographic collection of one of the biggest photo news agencies in the world is uncertain. Who owns it today? The judicial administrator? Getty Images France? Read More →

At a time when everyone is encouraged to tell their stories,  those whose job has been to tell other people stories have been battered.  Doubly assaulted by shrinking budgets and rising incredulity, its community has found no better response than repeatedly going after each other throats in the corridors of Twitter. From accusations of sexual Read More →

There is a reason for professional photographers. They document events with the most proximity to the truth. Denying them access to facts is denying a whole nation of citizens access to these facts and information. Read More →

Every year, like clockwork, the World Press organization reveals its selection of winning images and photo essays for what it considers the best photos of the year.This year, as the world is in lockdown, nothing has changed. Out of 73,996 photographs entered by 4,282 photographers from 125 countries, a few were selected as the top Read More →

The numbers are well known -billions of photos shared every day- and the habits well-entrenched- checking social media 40 times a day-. Every concert, every street performance, every incident, accident, spill, fall, weird dance, every anything that is out of the ordinary is filmed and photographed and immediately shared via a myriad of networked channels linked Read More →

Deepfake

The real strength of deepfakes or alternate images is not that they falsify the truth – we have been able to that since the birth of photography- but rather, thanks to social media, that they are completely dissociated from their original creators and thus their intent.  When the Soviet government released a documentary, we knew Read More →

Guest Post by Thierry Secretan, photographer, author, journalist. Although Instagram declares it does not monetize your pictures, it still allows commercial Instagram clones to proliferate. Those generate revenue using your images without sharing any of the profits. Which one of us does not share our photographs on Instagram? What good is it to take pictures, Read More →

After over twenty plus years working in and observing the photo industry, one conclusion is clear: One of the worst enemies of the photo industry is its own members. While the forces of business, technology, and social trends have had some profound adverse effects on photography, nothing has been as eroding as the constant self-deprecating, Read More →