The weekend saw a huge number of photographers and artists publicly protesting the ludicrous fees imposed on them just so they can shoot Australia's iconic landmarks. We brought news of the coming protest recently here

Here's what went down:

About 1,000 commercial photographers in Australia gathered in Sydney Harbour on Sunday, using their cameras to protest against laws requiring them to have costly permits to take pictures of landmarks.
The group, with members from across the country, carried banners proclaiming "Artists have rights to sell their work" and "Capture the moment, not the photographer."
The demonstrators then took photos of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge as part of their Sunday morning protest.
Different levels of government have imposed rules concerning some iconic landmarks, including Sydney Harbour, the city's Bondi Beach and Uluru in the north, once known as Ayer's Rock.
Photographers say the rules are inconsistent and many fees are exorbitant.
"It's not just the cost of photographic permits, it's the logistics of getting a permit," landscape photographer Ken Duncan told the Australian Associated Press.
Duncan says the red tape is causing many to give up on their creative pursuit. The costs of a permit can vary, depending on location, time of day and number of crew involved.
The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority requires commercial photographers to pay a minimum $150 AUD ($141 Cdn) per session if more than 10 crew are involved. That's in addition to $65 an hour for a site co-ordinator, $65 an hour for security and an additional $65 an hour for cleaning. Each of those services must be paid a minimum four hours.
"There are so many expenses, including travel expenses, accommodation and the cost of permits," said wedding and portrait photographer Graham Monro, who added that many of his colleagues can barely make a profit.

Let's hope something postive comes out of this. Did you get down there with your fellow artists?

Commerical photographers are not allowed to take shots of the Sydney Opera House or Harbour Bridge unless they shell out hundreds of dollars in fees. (Rob Griffith/Associated Press)

We have often talked on this blog about the recent difficulties facing photographers shooting in public places, well Sunday, August 29th at Campbells Cove in Sydney photographers will be letting everyone know exactly how they feel in the form of a rally.

Join Ken Duncan and other top photographers to protest the restricted access to public sites and the unfair treatment and attitudes towards photographers. The organisers want professional and amateurs alike to turn up with their cameras and tripods and fight for their rights. 

For all enquires phone (02) 4307 8409

www.artsfreedomaustralia.com

When British photographer Odette England was invited to Australia to do an Artitsts Research Residency, she was thrown into the heart of the outback. Odette was sent to live and work at the Arid Zone Research Station of the Imaging the Land Research Institute (ILIRI), the only institute concerned with artistic interpretation of the science of land.

It was here that the project 'As above, So below' was born, a series of shots in which Odette shoots an image directly below her of the ground and directly above of the sky and then brings them together as a double exposure.
The concpet was inspired by the aborginal cultural belief that the heavens and the earth are the foundation of all creatures, including themselves. Land and sky are more than just geographical icons; but mirrors in which they see themselves reflected.

www.odetteengland.com

2010 marks the 40th anniversary of one of the worlds biggest photography festivals, Arles.

Nan Goldin - 'Ballad'

The French festival is in full swing with more than 60 photography exhibitions and workshops taking place all across the country. Professional photographers from across the globe come to the festival each year to exhibit and give lectures, such headliners this year include Nan Goldin and Martin Parr. Infact the opening week saw Parr choose the Discovery Award for new talent in photographer winner, Rimaldas Viksraitis who will walk away with around €25,000 worth of prizes. The festival continues til September.

Nine days ago the European Court of Rights banned the use of the Terrorism Act of 2000 Section 44, declaring it illegal. This move had a massive impact on the rights of street photography, because, it has now prevented the use of the Act to stop photographers and detaining them without resonable suspicion of 'terrorist like' behaviour.

However, a London photographer was yesterday detained near Buckingham Place under just such circumstances. Jules Mattsson, who was photographing cadets for their website and with the permission of their supervisors, had his details taken and was searched by the Metropolitan Police.

Jules mattsson © 2010

This occured just two weeks after Mattsson had been detained by Police in Romford, claiming he represented a terrorism risk. He managed to record the interaction and you can view it on his blog or follow him on twitter for all the latest developments on his case.

2nd SIPF Open Call Submission Result

Hello everyone!

The Singapore International Photography Festival is proud to announce the release of the shortlisted works for SIPF 2010. We would first like to sincerely thank everyone for your tremendous effort and diligent thought that went into your submissions. All the works impressed and piqued our judges' interest greatly but it is with regret that we had to shortlist the works to 550 images from a total of over 6500 submitted. These shortlisted works will be exhibited at various locations as part of the Singapore Art scene throughout the Singapore International Photography Festival in October - November 2010.

It is now our honour to present the names of the selected 49 photographers in alphabetical order

 Abednego Trianto Kurniawan
Agata Marzecova
Alecia Neo
Alejandro Cartagena
Ang Song Nian
Angelica Nazareth
Benya Hegenbarth
Daniel Kukla
Daniel Stier
Dave Wyatt


Eric White
Erica Lai
Frankie Callaghan
Gabriel Jones
Grace Kim
Guilad Kahn
Hyunmin Ryu
Ian van Coller
Jan Lemitz
Jason Reblando

Jenny Nordquist
Jo Ann Walters
Johannes P. Christo
Kris vervaeke
Kurt Tong
Laura Spector
Le Hong Phuc
Lek Kiatsirikajorn
Li Wei
Lydia Panas


Manas Bhattacharya
Markel
Mike whelan
Mintio
Niall o'Brien
Palani Mohan
Peikwen Cheng
Phyu Mun
Prateep Suthathongthai
Reinis Hofmanis


Sameer Tawde
Sanjeev Thakur
Simon Carruthers
Simon Cuthbert
Tristan Cai
Tzu Cheng Liu
Vincent Lim
Yi, Hyuk Jun
Zhao Renhui
 

Congratulations to our selected participants of the 2nd SIPF. You will be notified by the festival office with regards to the necessary requirements and procedures leading up to the exhibition in October 2010.

Once again, we would like to thank everyone for your enthusiasm and interest in SIPF.

We hope to see you at the festival come October!

With best regards,
SIPF Office

Today’s Photo Art Gallery Photographer of the Day is the wonderful SHPhotography…

Check out their gallery. http://www.photoartgallery.com/artist/SHPhotography

Here are couple of gems to whet your appetite…

Today’s Photo Art Gallery Photographer of the Day is the wonderful BJ31OS_Photography…

Check out their gallery. http://www.photoartgallery.com/artist/BJ31OS_Photography

Here are couple of gems to whet your appetite…

For a month and a half photographers have struggled to get images that have really captured the devestation that the massive BP oil spill has caused. Mostly due to the fact that the spill occured 50 miles from the shore and any coastal areas it has reached have mostly been inaccessabile to vehicles.
The first image to really hit home on how damaging the effects of the spill have really been was taken by Associated Press photographer Charlie Riedel. Riedel, because of offical efforts to block media access, has like other journalists had to rely mostly on Government Press tours to gain access to affected areas. It was during one of these tours that Riedel broke off from the crowd and spotted a group of pelicans dreched in oil and began to shoot.

“It was on a barrier island off the Louisiana coast that was in the process of being rejuvenated,” Riedel says. “The governor put together the trip to look at several sites. It was me and a handful of TV reporters and cameramen. There were no other still photographers. On the surface, it looked like a mundane thing—basically bulldozers pushing sand around. When we landed, there was a significant amount of oil on the beach. The TV folks, as they do, clustered around the governor for a press conference. I looked up the the beach a few hundred feet, and there was an oiled pelican.”

Aircraft have been made to stay 3,000 feet above the site, making aerial photography difficult, beaches and marshes have been closed off and clean up teams have been told not to communicate with the media. Finally, however, it looks like the effects of the disaster that BP and the authorites have tried to keep out of the public's attention is quite literally hitting home.  

As we mentioned on our June 4th Blog 'MyPhotos - Social networking images media revolution' photographer Daniel Morel posted 13 images of the Haitian earthquake's devastating aftermath on Twitter on January 12th 2010, the images attracted a lot of media attention and were soon distributed worldwide by outlets after seeking permission from Morel. The images were also used by the AFP (Agence France Presse), unfortunately the AFP found the images not on Morels Twitter account as the rest had, but rather on another account owned by a Lisandro Suero who had taken the images from Morels profile. As a consequence the AFP credited Suero, not Morel for the 13 images which they then distributed to media outlets around the world eager to report the devastation.

The AFP realised their mistake and by the evening of the following day had changed the credit on the image. However, they neglected to tell all their affiliates until nearly 6 weeks later that the credit information was incorrect, by which time it had been published by multiple media outlets including Vanity Fair, The Guardian and the New York Times, all of whom credited the AFP for the images.

Morel is now suing the AFP for the loss of income and copyright infringement to the amount of $150,000 per images plus damages.

The AFP in turn has filed a legal complaint against Morel for engaging in 'commercial defamation' claiming that they were within their rights since Morel granted a non-exclusive license to use the images by posting them on Twitter. Morels defence, however, is that the images were in fact posted on a separate site called TwitPic which automatically links to Twitter and according to the terms and conditions at the time on TwitPic all images posted are copyright to their owner.

Clearly the outcome of this case will be critical to all photographers and their use of the internet and social networking sites as a vehicle to display work, so we will all have to hope for a fair outcome. For more information on the case, including copies of the complaints visit www.dankennedy.net/2010/04/27/more-on-the-haitian-copyright-case/.

Today’s Photo Art Gallery Photographer of the Day is the wonderful transmutephotographic…

Check out their gallery. http://www.photoartgallery.com/artist/transmutephotographic

Here are couple of gems to whet your appetite…

Good news for all who still want to enter the Icon Photo Competition 2010 the closing date has been extended by a whole two weeks, the new closing date for entries is now 14th June 2010. The decision was taken after a rush of entries from APS members in the last 36 hours and technical difficulties that lead to some aborted or incomplete submissions, all of whom will be contacted in order to rectify the errors. 

However the good news is that these difficulties have lead to the organisers agreeing to an extention of the closing date, giving you all a chance for some last minute entries. Remember judges are looking for images that have power and impact and can be taken at any time. If your a member of Photo Art Gallery you even have an extra chance to win, just read HERE for more details.

Otherwise click on the image of the swans above to get started!

Todays Photo Art Gallery Photographer of the Day is the wonderful ahmet...

Check out their gallery at http://www.photoartgallery.com/artist/ahmet

Here's a couple of gems to whet your appetite...

After the revelation that the UK is now the most 'watched' nation on the globe the Tate Moderns first ever curator of photography has choosen to critique this growing invasion of privacy in Sandra Phillips exhibition 'Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera'.

The collection covers 150 years of photography from a variety of sources, the purpose of the exhibition being that instead of just showing you the images of CCTV cameras pointed at you, it also attempts to show the images taken. Phillips does this by collecting paparazzi shots, police records, reconnaissance images and contrasts them with photographers images such as Nan Goldin, Sophie Calle and Sophie Ristelhueber.

There are over 250 images from the late 19th century to the present day and not all have been taken with the subjects knowledge. One of the more interesting concepts of the exhibition being by the photographer Shizuka Yokomizo who sent letters to strangers asking them to stand alone in their living rooms for a specified ten minute period of time when she would photograph them from outside.

The exhibition runs at the Tate Modern until the 3rd of October, when it will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Todays Photo Art Gallery Photographer of the Day is the wonderful swkwong...

Check out their Gallery. http://www.photoartgallery.com/artist/swkwong

Here's a couple of gems to whet your appetite...

The Australian Center for Photography is putting a creative twist on National Pride in its latest exhibition 'My Favourite Australian'. Running until the 5th of June 2010 the exhibition is a collabroration between The National Portrait Gallery and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. They have asked the public to vote for their most 'popular' favourite Australian as well as the unsung heroes of the country. To create the exhibition they took these results and commissioned some of Australias leading artists and filmmakers to create short duration, moving image portraits for each of the winners of the public vote.

The result is a unique departure from normal portraiture due to the artists being given the freedom to explore and develop their concepts around their subjects, some of which include names such as Fred Hollows and Olivia Newton-John.

You can find more information on this exhibition as well as the galleries other current exhibitions at their website http://www.acp.org.au/.   

Todays Photo Art Gallery Photographer of the day is the wonderful John_Finnan.....

Check out their Gallery at http://www.photoartgallery.com/artist/John_Finnan

John says, "ts great to get out of the kitchen into the great outdoors with my camera It plays havoc with getting sleep at times ,up late with work and up before dawn and out capturing the beauty around us in beautiful light I have only had my camera since Aug 2008 and have only really started to learn to use it effectively since june 2009 I have taken a lot of photos this winter and love the colours I have been able to capture I have learnt a lot about light as well as my camera I love doing waterscapes best as it reflects low light well and if its calm there are great reflections I have learnt a lot from the net seeing others work and how they capture great mood as well as composition I am learning more about photoshop also"

Here are a couple of gems to whet your appetite...

We all dream of becoming professional photographers, being paid to do what we love. Getting to travel and shoot for a living. Its the dream. We all want it, and are jealous of those who have it.

What about those who have it already, what do they want? Would you believe me if I said  they want to be more like you?  You probably wouldn’t but I’m not talking about your financial situation or the endless amount of technical questions floating around in your head still, I’m referring to your time. Photographers who work professionally all want a bit more time. For what you may ask? To work more? Put more jobs out? Spend more time with the models they shoot? (That last one may be closer to the mark for some) I would argue they want more time to shoot the things they want.

Anyone who is a good enough photographer to go pro has probably spent years, like you are, coming up with ideas for themselves, experimenting and shooting, and now that they are pros that thought process doesn’t go away, in fact it probably intensifies with their improved knowledge of what they are capable of. Meaning they have bigger and better ideas they want to try out. Unfortunately a professional photographers life is shooting to briefs, answering to art directors, often creating someone else’s vision for something that is probably not related to, nor interests them, and they do this alot!

Professional photographers want to be more like you so they can shoot more of the stuff they want, whenever the idea pops into their head.

What does this mean for you? Yes we know you want to blow up and make it massive, but while your still among us mere mortals, y’know those ideas floating about in your head you think you might try someday, someday after you have made it big and don’t have to concentrate so much on getting a job? You may not have the time to do all those ideas when you do make it big. So right now, while you have the time, start writing them down, you may not be able to do them all but I would think a few of them would be within reach. Now start making them happen, before its too late!

Today's Photographer of the day is the wonderful RichImages ...

Check out their gallery at www.photoartgallery.com/artist/RichImages

Here's a couple of gems to whet your appetite....

Today's Photo Art Gallery Photographer of the Day is the wonderful Kapil

Check out their gallery. http://www.photoartgallery.com/artist/Kapil

Here are couple of gems to whet your appetite.