Three Glimpses of Photography's Future

By now I'm guessing that most people who read blogs (or email) have read Vincent Laforet's insightful, tough-love opus at Sports Shooter about the state of photography today (and tomorrow), The Cloud is Falling. It's a long piece, so there's a chance you might not have gotten to this late paragraph:

I'll leave you with this. If I were 22-years old right out of college looking for a job or a career path, I wouldn't be focusing on working on x newspaper to get to y newspaper and then eventually z magazine with my 20 image portfolio that contains 2 spot news photos, 4 sports pix, 4 feature photos, and a 10 picture story. That model is dead - to put it bluntly. I'd be thinking big - realizing that I have a chance to be a pioneer in this new world of opportunity. Trying to think up of the next big thing.

Woohoo Vincent. You tell 'em. I've been saying this for years, especially because many of the photographers I'm frequently in contact with are, to varying degrees, just out of college, and I know they have the talent to get this revolution off on the right foot. Anyway, it's nice to have that idea reiterated by one of today's biggest photojournalists, especially when he supports it with so much first-hand evidence.

This whole thing has gotten me thinking about what this "new world" might look like, and I've found a couple of promising things (see below). To my mind, the faster we recognize and assimilate the good ideas, the faster we can move on to the even better ones.

1. The Big Picture. Yes, I know, I'm behind the curve on this one. Since launching on Boston.com June 1 this wire-photography blog with oversided pictures and a simple premise has recieved millions of hits and nearly as many positive blog entries. What I would specifically like to draw you attention to is this interview at Waxy.org, which is a great inside look at how the blog actually came about. Namely, this guy Alan Taylor, who is a programmer NOT a photographer or editor (although he obviously has a good eye) came up with the idea, created it, shopped it, and runs it all by himself. The Boston Globe, as seems to be the norm, didn't really get why it was a good idea but is in the habit of saying yes to any new media things because, hey, everyone says that's what the kids are into these days (this is my take, not so much Taylor's). In other words, like any good revolution, this one was not televised...until it was.

2. MagCloud. By way of Avisualsociety.com I just found out about MagCloud, a true on-demand magazine publishing tool still in beta. Laforet makes a good point that the web can helped photographers and publishers bypass the most expensive thing about publications...actually publishing them. But I love to see that the web is also helping them go back to publishing hard-copy magazines too...with a whole new model that I predict will become the norm even for large magazines.

3. Stock that doesn't suck. Now I use the term "stock" loosely here, since the two agencies (again, term used loosely) I see blazing this path represent photography that includes assignment, editorial, travel, features, etc. First, the new-ish PhotoShelter Collection. I've been to a few of their info sessions and I have to say I think they absolutely have the right idea. Pay your photographers well, make technology work for you and them, and truly foster creativity and community. Shoot! The Day is just the latest of their bright ideas. In the same vein is Aurora Photos, which represents several of my favorite photographers and also understands the importance of creativity...and specifically the fact that it not only creates better pictures but can also be harnessed to sell those pictures. See this promo video as proof.

~Miki Johnson

Comments

[Diego Goldberg]

Reading your extremely interesting entry on the use and future of photography in the web, I would like to add to the discussion an editorial I wrote for Zonezero at http://zonezero.com/editorial/editorial.html, Editorial 86.
I later found this site which is to me a great example of photography used in a different way in the web, more in tune with the ideas I present in the editorial, at http://www.zoozoom.com .
Tks.

[Allen Clark]

Great story!

Very insightful stuff you are sharing, exactly why I read Popular Photography.