World famous for his intrepid explorer's style of photographing the most exotic places, Reza (as he is known) has covered most of the globe for National Geographic and other major international publications. This evening he'll present and talk about a selection of work from his new book War + Peace. The event takes place at the Frontline Club in London, but you can view it live right here from 19h00 (London Time, 20h00 Paris time and 2pm in New York).

Live TV : Ustream

Channel M (for Manchester) has the story of a man who was arrested for allegedly taking part in terrorism reconnaissance by taking pictures of sewer-grates in Manchester. The problem? The man was not taking pictures. He didn't even have a camera, and there were no pictures of sewer-grates on his phone... Watch the report here.

Discussions about privacy continue outside the walls of Parliament, with the most recent case revolving around the death of David Cameron's son. Last week, The Times was criticised for publishing photograph of the parents returning home. Critics called it 'an intrusion into grief'.

The Times feedback editor Sally Baker has defended the use of the image. ‘The Times takes very seriously this sort of criticism, but although we are sorry that we have given some readers cause for concern, it remains the view of the Editor that we were justified in using a photograph that will have contributed to the enormous public sympathy directed towards the family,’ she wrote.

Read more about it on The Times' website.

A survey by the British Photographic Council revealed photographers’ concerns in regards to the country's copyright law.

More than 1000 photographers, press agencies and picture libraries participated in the survey, which found that 72% of respondents admitted they had become aware of copyright infringements. On average, each respondent has found 26 copyright breaches of their work.

'These results show existing UK copyright law is not protecting the interests of photographers in the way it was intended,’ John Toner, chair of the BPC said in a statement.

The survey also exposed the decreasing income of respondents and uncovered that only 74% of photographers who pursued payment for copyright infringements received fair compensation. 71% of participants admitted the difficulty of pursuing legal action.

'It is very difficult for a small business to take a large company to court financially when you have a good idea that they will drag out proceedings until you have run up very high costs and have to withdraw,' one of the respondents commented.

Read the full report here: www.epuk.org/News/919/bpc-survey

Last week, BJP's editor Simon Bainbridge published the following comment on photography education:

Personally, I've got no axe to grind about the thousands of young people studying photography each year, despite the fact they have virtually no prospect of making a living from it when they graduate. After all, for most students university is primarily an educational signpost; a piece of paper that says they've attained the same level of academic achievement as nearly 50% of other recent school leavers in the UK. So why not go study something you enjoy, and therefore might actually learn some transferable skills from in the process?

But most final year photography students I meet are hopelessly naive about their prospects, and the failure of colleges to spell out the facts is, at the very least, a moral failure. There are simply too many photographers - good ones, with real skills and experience, and with at least half-baked business models - to survive the current climate. So please, spare me another student telling me they plan to do a bit of art, a bit of editorial and - begrudgingly - a bit of advertising when they get out there and begin their God-given career.

Here's the verdict of a photographer who's the role model for students who think they can do a bit of everything in service of their own art. 'My advice? Get re-skilled,' says Simon Norfolk (writing for World Press Photo, not long after losing his savings to a collapsed Icelandic bank). 'Keep your photographic aspirations but try to get a trade like film editing, web-design or accounting. Soon we'll all be amateur photographers with real money-making jobs on the side that we don't tell our colleagues about. We need to get over the snobbery attached to that.'

As you can imagine, the letters started pouring in. Jon Lee of Edinburgh, for example, argued that the comment was 'offensive - a personal attack on educators and students alike'. He wrote:

I am sick and tired of so-called professionals moaning about too many students coming into the industry. Of course they are idealistic, full of energy and hope – rather that than bitter and cynical. I am a lecturer in professional photography [at Stevenson College Edinburgh] and proud to be so. I spent 11 years working in advertising in London and am aware of how hard the industry is to make a living, but this does not stop me inspiring others

Maybe you should look at the bigger picture and consider how many colleges and universities there are teaching photography, spending money on equipping their studios with digital imaging products, cameras, lighting and so on – propping up the photography industry during hard times. How many students buy digital cameras from Nikon and Canon, etc? I'm sure you would have printed the obituary for Ilford long ago if it were not for educational establishments still buying traditional materials.
Why are you trying to alienate your readership? What job do you suggest they go in to – banking? Can you stop criticising education as some entity far removed from reality. We are integral to the industry, financially and creatively.

Another reader, Adam Elder, also from Edinburgh, agreed:

Given that photographers – whether professional, amateur or students – provide your magazine with the life-blood of income, I feel that your article Time to Recalibrate is ill-judged and slightly offensive to many talented and ambitious potential professional photographers.

Does BJP really think there should be less working photographers? Does BJP really think that exclusion from education and discouragement from ambition is the way forward? Teaching photography provides me with a valuable income and a great deal of enjoyment. I welcome as many students as possible to enrol on photography courses. And I'll help as many as possible to pursue their dream of a professional career, or to simply increase their knowledge of the craft.

Others, such as David Nobel from Stafforshire University defended his university's programme by explaining that the institution never 'shy away from making clear the difficulties that face students ahead of them.' He wrote:

We have practitioners from all fields of the media in every week of every semester to talk and to give appropriate advice and guidance to students, such as Eamonn McCabe, Brian Griffith and David Hurn.

Which is why the current deputy picture editor of Wallpaper magazine, Matt Beaman, is one of our graduates from us four years ago. We make it clear that the visual awareness we teach is not just about becoming a photographer. For once could someone give higher education some credit?

We know how tough it is as all of us have been and still are involved in the industry, and I never sit in some academic complacent atmosphere that does not address things as they are.

The debate continues with this week's comment (which will be published tomorrow, but which you can exclusively read here today) by Simon Bainbridge:

Last week’s Comment on photo education and student’s woeful lack of awareness about their career opportunities provoked a predictable response. College lecturers accused me of launching a personal attack upon them, while I was congratulated by many in the industry for sticking it to colleges, who in their eyes are robbing students blind.

Both miss the point. But what particularly worried me were the responses from college lecturers that said BJP shouldn’t be talking about this issue at all, given that fact that students and universities buy and read the magazine. Perhaps our equipment tests should also ignore any defects if the company in question has advertised with us…

Likewise, as I stated last week, the purpose of colleges is not necessarily vocational. As Roger Blackwell writes on the BJP-Online.com professional forum, ‘Some people find it difficult to grasp the concept of education and think that it should simply be “training” for a job’.

Between these two polarised (and often knee-jerk) opinions, lies a real issue. What are photography students’ expectations, and how are they informed and managed? I know that many colleges make real efforts on this front, but if you meet graduates on a regular basis – as I do – you quickly realise that most don’t.

It’s difficult to get a proper picture how many photography graduates are coming into the market, and just how many full-time photographers are working in the UK, so I turned to Skillset, who have produced the most recent and extensive research (visit skillset.org/photo/industry/).

If you count retail, labs, post-production, picture libraries and agencies, manufacturers and support services, the photo industry employed approximately 44,000 people in 2007 – of which less than half are actual photographers.

It’s harder to get figures for students because photography isn’t calculated as its own subset (such as creative arts and design), but a rough estimate is that nearly 5000 graduates each year. That’s based on the Association for Photography in Higher Education’s assumption that each of the 164 BA courses in photography has around 30 students per year. At last count, there were a further 45 Foundation Degrees, and a total of 270 higher education courses directly related to photo imaging.

From that basis I’d like to have a reasoned discussion about the purpose and value of photo education.

Reactions?

Personally I was sold on the title alone, but for readers with a slightly more technical approach, check out Lesbian Vampire Killers, in cinemas from 20 March. It was shot entirely on RED cameras, the first theatre-wide release to be made in this way.
www.lesbianvampirekillersmovie.co.uk

And it continues... Amateur Photographer, one of BJP's competitors, has a very good report about armed police stopping and questionning two photographers who were taking pictures near the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall in South London. Amateur Photographer's news editor, Chris Cheesman, witnessed the incident: 'At first there were just two officers, one of whom appeared to be asking to see the images on the young woman's camera, an enthusiast-level DSLR. She was taking shots from the slipway that leads down to the river, next to MI6.Twenty-five or thirty yards away a man, also with a tripod but on the pathway, was being questioned. Minutes later, more police arrived.'

The Metropolitan Police has currently no record of the incident, according to Amateur Photographer, but says that it could take a few days for it to receive such records. In the meantime, you can check the magazine's coverage of the overreaction here.

Lily Allen has got an injunction against two picture agencies and other paparazzi photographers, says MTV, preventing them from pursuing her.

The star’s lawyers took action after an incident last week, in which a persistent paparazzo drove into the back of her car. Allen punched and kicked the photographer, before calling in the solicitors.

‘In a court hearing that took place this afternoon, my client, Lily Allen, has resolved issues surrounding her constant harassment with two picture agencies and has also obtained from the High Court an injunction restraining further harassment of her by other paparazzi photographers,’ Allen’s lawyer, Mark Thomson, stated on Friday.

The injunction applies to Big Pictures and Matrix photo agencies as well as ‘individuals responsible for taking photographs of the claimant outside her home and in other public places during February and March 2009’.

Back in 2007 Allen was arrested after attacking photographers outside a London nightclub. Her US working visa revoked as a direct consequence.

Barack Obama's inauguration was ground-breaking in so many ways, it's good to see that one of them was photographic.

David Bergman used a GigaPan robotic camera to record the day, stitching together 220 shots to create a final image 56,646 x 27,788 pixels in size, in which you can zoom in on every single face in the crowd. Truly amazing!

Getty Images Gallery used the Beatles as bait to reel in the first viewers to the opening of their permanent exhibition space at the film museum – The Movieum of London. Marina Scukina was there to report.

Robert Whitaker posing in front of a photo of a younger self taking a photo of George Harrison © Marina Scukina

The exhibition uncovered a lush collection of Robert Whitaker’s unseen photographs following the legendary rock band on its 1966 Far Eastern Tour. Celebrating the 40th anniversary since the Beatles played their last live performance the retrospective featured images from 1963 to 1970, including scenes from the filming of Help and A Hard Day’s Night.

Whitaker revealed that most of his displayed photographs were shot on 35mm black-and-white film catching the ups and downs of the Rock’n’Roll lifestyle. ‘Do you miss it?’ I asked Whitaker and he admitted he had not changed his way of life in slightest.

The photographer hadn’t seen most of the images for years and felt excited viewing the exhibition. ‘I get knocked out,’ Mr W. said.

‘The gallery is a result of successful partnerships,’ said Alison Crombie, Getty Images senior communication director, who emphasized the need of collaboration between different mediums. At the time of recession mutual professional aid has turned out being more profitable for all areas of business, including art and photography, and the increasing need for support is becoming a new form of media communication.

Rumours had it Paul McCartney would arrive to the exhibition but his yellow submarine never parked on the Thames outside The Movieum. When I asked Whitaker whether he still stays in touch with the Beatles members he replied through a cheeky grin, ‘Why should I?’

The Getty Images Gallery is already planning more exhibitions of images sourced from their Hulton Archive focusing on films, music and entertainment.

The documentary collection of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison photographs is available at the Movieum of London, Riverside rooms, until the end of June.

For more information, visit www.themovieum.com.

Outside Pentonville prison where their friend was being hanged, London, 1958 © Philip Jones Griffiths / Magnum Photots, courtesy Trolley Books.

One year ago tomorrow (19 March), Philip Jones Griffiths died, but as Michael Grieve writes in this week's issue of BJP, his legacy lives on in the book he edited in his final days - Recollections. Just out now, the book comes almost four decades after Griffiths released his first legendary book, Vietnam Inc. That book proved photography's potential to change perceptions as it is widely credited as having been instrumental in ending the Vietnam War.

Griffiths, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, spent the last years of his life editing Recollections. Unfortunately, he died before its publication. But, as Tony Benn told Griffiths in a letter (see it in full below) 'it must be some comfort to you to know that your work will outlast all the speeches and posturing of politicians with their spin doctors and will reveal more about the arguments of our times than you can get from leading articles or BBC programmes.'

The letter, which appears in the back pages of Recollections, can be read in full below.
Also, read Michael Grieve's tribute to Griffiths and Recollections in this week's issue of BJP here.

There's a huge fire in London right now, and once more the first reports and pictures have come from the micro-blogging site Twitter. Here are a few shots: http://twitpic.com/27v2e, http://twitpic.com/27wn2, http://twitpic.com/27wq2 and http://twitpic.com/27v8p.

Earlier this year, the first picture of a plane landing in the Hudson river in New York was also published by a Twitter member.

BJP is also on Twitter and can be followed @1854.

PDNPulse is reporting that UK newspapers are spending 30% to 70% less on stock photography this quarter year-over-year. The statement comes from James West, Alamy's CEO. Talking with people in the industry, West says that:

- Advertising revenues have fallen dramatically this quarter in most cases

- Print sales have been falling and will continue to do so

- Online versions of newspapers have yet to deliver a revenue stream comparable with that of print

- Most titles have been making redundancies in recent months

- Editorial budgets have been cut

- Further editorial cuts are anticipated

More worrying for photographers, according to West, is the fact that picture desks are now buying images only from stock agencies offering subscriptions. 'Alamy is the only large supplier of imagery not offering a subscription scheme to newspapers and we are being squeezed out of this market by offerings from our largest competitors,' West writes. 'These deals are in addition to, and separate from, newswire subscriptions. In the past we have managed to keep away from these deals because we represent a lot of material that isn't available anywhere else. Unfortunately the recession is forcing a change in behaviour at the picture desks that leaves little opportunity for image providers who don't offer unlimited downloads for a fixed fee. To put this in context, our largest UK newspaper customer has ordered their picture desk to only download images from agencies they have subscription deals with.'

And the worst news is for Alamy contributors, as West explains that his company needs to adapt to keep its UK newspaper clients: 'Broadly speaking any subscription offering needs to be priced at or below the total expenditure for the previous year for an unlimited number of downloads. Wherever possible we will allocate revenue to contributors based on usage, but in some cases we may have to divide up the revenue based on downloads. It is hard to judge in advance what impact this will have on the average price per image for this market. At one end of the scale prices will remain at or slightly below 2008 prices, whereas at the other end prices might fall by up to 50% or perhaps even more. My expectation is that we will see a mixture of both.'

He concludes: 'We face a stark choice – either we adapt to match the competition, or we accept that UK newspaper revenue will continue to decline sharply over 2009.'

In short, Alamy is now making it an opt-out for photographers to take part in 'subscriptions'... and judging from the comments on West's blog, contributors are not happy.

'The picture looks so tranquil and yet it was so rough and I love the way that Ben Ainslie looks like he’s trying to take cover from the harrowing winds and rough sea.' Picture © Paul Gilham / Getty Images.



Two Getty Images photographers received top prizes at this year's UK Sports Journalism Awards – Clive Mason for the best Sports Picture and Paul Gilham as Young Sports Photographer.

'Sports photography is a great documentary discipline, inherently full of spontaneity, capturing it in the best possible way is the challenge that I thrive on,' Gilham tells BJP's Marina Scukina.

Gilham joined Getty in 2003. He specialises in Formula One and has covered major sports events, including The 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Young Sports Photographer of the year admits choosing images for the portfolio was not an easy task. 'I was looking for a variety of sports, for a variation of angles and techniques, and images that captured the essence of sport,' he says.

Mason's Sports Picture Of The Year shows the Austrian Sailing teams 49er class sailors at the Beijing Olympic games. 'Some images are obvious competition material,' he says. 'Anything that has an instant visual impact and is well composed, dynamic and well photographed is a good starting point.'

He adds that the photographer needs more than excellent technical skills to win a competition – luck is an important factor. 'If you are also lucky enough to have been at the major sports story of the year and can complete your set of 10 with a relevant and good picture from that event, your set should stand a good chance of catching the judges eye,' he says.

Both professionals agreed competitions depend on the personal views and experiences of the judges. 'Competitions are always subjective,' Gilham says.

'Every one of us sees something different in a picture, some like it, some don't, some think it should be "newsy", some think it should be "arty",’ Mason comments. 'I know some of the best photographers in the industry that have not been in the least bit successful in their success at awards, so winning awards is far from being the benchmark that defines good from bad, it is just having the right images on the right year with the right judges.'

The SJA award is a sign of professional respect in the industry, the photographers say. 'To be recognised by my peers is fantastic, this is a career that takes a massive amount of dedication and belief, not just from myself but from my family too,' Gilham comments.

The SJA awards remain the premier event in the UK sports photographic industry, according to Mason.

The 'Big lens theory', getting whipped by a schoolgirl, pananoid Americans, secret frisbee games, death-trap shower cubicles, and songs about English truck drivers... Visit Afghan Hound's entertaining blog over at Foto8, the diary of a photographer stationed in Kabul:

"Africa is like a Swiss clock compared to here. This place is unique. The U.N. measures everything from The Shoddy Goods Index is used as measure of the quality of manufactured goods in the country you live. This complicated mathematical equation is based on taking a box of matches and counting out how many in a box actually light. From this simple statistic you can then work out how fucked up the country is."

I got an email from Millennium Images today, alerting me to Audrey Bardou's work. I thought I'd share it with you, together with her text about the work:

One day I happened upon two beautiful legs wearing stilettos. These legs and their owner stood out proudly on the pavement... Was this chance meeting predestined? It’s possible because that day, I was randomly strolling along the street without purpose. I asked to the owner of these splendid legs for permission to make a picture. Also I omitted to tell you that this woman is a prostitute. Some weeks later, I returned to give her a copy of the image. To my astonishment she proposed to pay me in order to continue to photograph her. Of course I declined this offer of payment. But because of the offer of money the relationship suddenly seemed inverted, I was attracted and fascinated by this unexpected demand. This strange encounter provoked questions such as how could a person work in this way then switch off and go normally to sleep? The curiosity was mutual, she was curious about my world and I hers. Gradually through the process of taking pictures and documenting her life we became accustomed to each other. Aside from her job she leads a normal life, reading books, going to the cinema and to visit art exhibitions. She is also a young grandmother who chooses toys for her grandson. These are aspects I’ve included in my project. This lady is a craftswoman of the oldest profession in the world. It’s a particular individual who is able to earn their living this way. She likes her profession, feels satisfied with her work and is independent. She is true to herself and knows how to turn down a customer if she feels him not convenient. She has regular customers and with them the empathy is mutual. At the age of 43, she is not ready to retire, because this profession brings her some money and the satisfaction of a job well done. Thanks to her special skills with the masochists she earns more money. She has also the capacity of listening and analysing her customers. She dresses with her "professional's outfit" and goes to work. Little by little I gained an insight into her everyday life. It is this place which allows me to show this woman, neither victim, nor culprit.

If that sounds intriguing, you can see the whole series here.

Picture (c) Audrey Bardou.

The US division of Hachette Filipacchi is looking to sell both Popular Photography and American Photo, according to Advertising Age.

The two consumer magazines are leading brands in the US, along with Photo District News (which targets professional photographers). According to AdAge, Hachette has been 'scrubbing its budget' since its current CEO took over last autumn. The report also says that ad pages from January through the April issues fell 15.3% at Popular Photography.

The news comes three months after US magazine JPG announced it would cease its activities unless it found a new investor. Last month, it was saved by Millennium Ventures and Adorama Camera, a New York-based camera shop.

The new Canon EOS 500D, which was unveiled this morning and will be released in early May, is now the cheapest digital SLR to offer a Full-HD video mode. Video was first introduced to DSLR by Nikon with the D90. However, it only offered 720p resolution. Canon also added video to one of its models in September last year with the Full-HD EOS 5D Mark II. Now, the 500D offers the same video features (albeit with a lower frame rate - 20fps for the 500D compared to 30fps for the 5D MkII) for £870. Now, let's see if and how Nikon will react... in the meantime, here are seven product shots of the 500D.

Six more after the jump.

Katie, our erstwhile news editor for four years up until December 2007, is now working at Wired, which just launched a dedicated UK website (that will be followed by a UK print edition).

Here she is standing in a giant translucent doughnut, conducting an interview to camera:

I mention this because Wired has some stories likely to be interesting to photographers, such as this one about how an ordinary SLR camera can be adapted to captured 3D images.

Karen Strunks, a photographer based in Birmingham, has called for everyone with camera or camera phone to capture the peace (or chaos) of their surroundings at 4am on 04 April.

The project started as collaboration between the photographer and her blog readers. ‘They thought it’s a good idea,’ Strunks tells BJP. She only realised the scale of the project when it was launched and admitted it to be her first wide-ranging brainchild. She used Twitter and Flickr to promote the idea internationally and looked through other photographers’ work offering them to submit photos as preparation for the set date.

‘I don’t want the project to end after the 4th of April,’ Karen says. She plans on proposing 4am scene ideas to her followers every month. ‘Maybe the view outside your window or countryside where you live in,’ Strunks comments.

The 4am Project also invites impatient snappers to send in their early morning images to 4amproject@googlemail.com or tag them as 4amproject on Flickr. The idea has already attracted sleepless photographers from around the world, including Russia, Canada, USA, Australia, Malaysia, Sweden, and Brazil.

To get involved visit www.4amproject.org.

London’s largest street exhibition, the Urban Gallery, was revealed last month as part of a collaboration between art and commercial institutions. Alex Knell’s winning piece We Are Our Only Future and the work of 12 other Royal Academy School students and graduates now decorates the One Grafton Street building currently under development.

Image © Marina Scukina.

The winning artist Knell emphasizes the idea of ‘connectiveness’ in his composition. ‘It’s about openness, infinity, potential and a little bit of hope as well,’ he says. ‘In the wider world you come across symbols, signs and messages on public boards and spaces, which are very restrictive and directive. They tell you what you want, what you need and the way you should think. They isolate you,’ she adds.

With the initiative of cultural consultants Futurecity, real estate company Hines offered a one-year scholarship to document the renovating process of the One Grafton Street building. ‘It is a documentation of the changing space with an artistic view and vision,’ Alana Lake tells BJP.

The artwork of RAS students and graduates will be displayed for the next six months.

A new media campaign launched by the Metropolitan Police aimed at encouraging people to report any suspicious activity has been ridiculed by users online. The campaign ads show a busy London street with the following message: "A bomb won't go off here because weeks before a shopper reported someone studying the CCTV cameras. Don't rely on others. If you suspect it, report it."

Now, under the impulsion of the site Boing Boing, dozens of people have submitted their own ads, ridiculing the Metropolitan Police's latest scare tactics. Last year, photographers were up in arms against another Police campaign that specifically targeted them. For more details, check our previous coverage here.