David Bowen, a freelance photographer currently based in Norway, was featured in BJP in March 2002. Last week, he published a blog post about how he ended up being in our magazine.

He writes: 'The features editor was out of the office, in a pub having lunch.. so i wandered off to the pub, sweating and out of breath from the quick rush across from covent garden tube.
bursting into the pub i walked up to the bar and gently interrupted the landlord, who was chatting with a customer..
i asked for the editor by name - did he know him?
he told me he did not and so i walked around the pub searching.. asking at each table.. courteously interrupting all without any joy.'

Read more of Bowen's post here.

And, no, we won't let you know what pubs and restaurants the BJP editors are visiting these days.

BJP editor Simon Bainbridge writes this week:

Leica's souped-up 37.5 million pixel digital SLR, the second coming of the EOS 5D, a grown-up, 18th anniversary edition of Photoshop, the arrival of an ultra-compact, mirrorless DSLR system, Hasselblad's massive 40% price reductions, Sony's bid to compete with Canon and Nikon at the high end... There was even a new medium format film camera on show for Christsakes. With bellows. This year's Photokina delivered more of note than any trade show I've attended in the past dozen years. Finally, we have the promise that photo manufacturers are taking the pro photographer market seriously again, plus evidence of real competition with the emergence of true market differentation, from diminutive Micro Four Thirds cameras up to the whopping resolutions of the latest digital medium format systems.

But that shouldn't distract from one story that might just overshadow all these exciting new innovations - the news that the US Senate has approved an amended version of the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act, which would allow publishers to reproduce an unknown author's work without permission. Despite some last minute amendments, the legislation still represents the biggest threat to copyright protection in two decades. Under current law, a copyright holder has the undeniable right to profit from their work, in the knowledge that unauthorised usage is punishable (in theory at least) by severe fines.

If orphan works legislation now passes through the House of Representatives, responsibility passes to the author, who must actively protect their work by process of registration. This system would prove unworkable for most authors due the time and cost involved in registering multiple works, and because it is open to widespread abuse. Amendments requiring further due diligence in search of the author of an orphaned work remain woolly, effectively creating a thieves' charter for anyone unscrupulous enough to strip an image of copyright information, knowing that if caught they would merely have to pay what they would have been charged in the first place.

Given the current amount of copyright abuse, we can assume things would get considerably worse. If there's one thing we've learnt from the current economic meltdown, it's that the market will test legislative boundaries to the limit, profiting from any grey areas resulting from unclearly defined regulation.

Click here to read BJP's coverage of the Senate Orphan Works Bill.

Also this week, BJP has a report about Robert Capa's famous Falling Soldier photograph. Was the picture faked? The International Center of Photography now has the answer!

BJP's deputy editor Diane Smyth writes this week:

'It is a fashionable fallacy that the video era has rendered the still news photograph obsolete,' wrote Harold Evans in 1997, in a new introduction to his 1978 classic Pictures on a Page. More than a decade later, with the advent of the Red camera and a new generation of HD video-enabled DSLRs, that fallacy endures.

Certainly, it's easier than ever before to capture and edit moving images, and the internet allows it to be distributed more widely, and cheaply, than ever before. For some photographers - The Guardian's Sean Smith, for example - this has created new means and opportunities to get their stories across, and they are to be commended for their open-mindedness. Afterall, there's no point in sticking blindly to one format if another approach could be more effective.

But I believe stills will endure, just as they did with the arrival of video because, as Evans also pointed out, they have a singular and lasting effect on viewers. 'Anyone who can replay moving images in his mind has a very rare faculty,' he wrote. 'The moving image may make an emotional impact, but its impact and shape cannot easily be recalled.'

An effective photograph distils a moment, decisive or not, allowing viewers to step back from the melee and process a scene. And that will become more important as our news culture speeds up into the audiovisual equivalent of fast food. We need to hold onto anything that can help us think and contemplate more deeply - instead of just more quickly.

Read Julian Jackson's report on how photo agencies are tackling the convergence of still and motion images.

Also this week, BJP gives you all the latest news on lighting. Elinchrom has launched a new lighting pack, so did Broncolor with its Scoro range. Michael Roscoe also puts Profoto's latest generator through its paces to find out whether it's a true studio workhorse, and Julian Lass looks at Canon's latest addition to its Speedlight flashgun range, the 430EX II.

“If I see another photo of a starving baby in Africa, I will die, ” says Simon Norfolk. “I want to know why there is still a starving baby in Africa.”

Best known for his stunning large format images exploring the socio-economic effects of militarism, Norfolk has been acclaimed as the leading British photographer of his generation. From supercomputers and hi-tech missile launchers, to refugee camps and the battle-scarred landscapes of Iraq and Afghanistan, his longterm series, Et in Arcadia ego, takes an oblique look at conflict, far removed from classic war photography.

He’s also one of the most intelligent and provocative speakers in photography. Vision ’08, BJP's annual event for aspiring pro photographers, provides a unique opportunity to meet him, where he will be talking about the ethos behind his work, the ideas behind his latest series, Full Spectrum Dominance, and how he’s built a career shooting challenging subjects that are sold in some of the world’s leading fine art photo galleries.

For more details about Vision '08, visit the event's dedicated website.

Picture © Simon Norfolk.

This week's issue of the British Journal of Photography is edited by photographer Simon Norfolk. For the issue, he looks at the work of 98-year old Milton Rogovin, Hilary Malindine and David Maisel.

Norfolk was also one of this year's judge to our International Photography Award. And the picture below was taken a few minutes after Walter Estrada was selected in the single category.

Now it's time for another contest. Whoever comes up with the best caption for the photo will receive an amazing photography book and will see its caption published in BJP's next issue.

E-mail your caption to bjp.news@bjphoto.co.uk.

And to read Norfolk's special issue, visit bjp-online.com tomorrow.

In the space of a few hours, several big news items have broken in the world of photography.

First and foremost, BJP was able to reveal this year's shortlist for the prestigious Deutsche Börse Prize. The shortlist for the 2009 edition of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is split equally between young and established artists, with two men and two women making up the four names whose work will go on show at The Photographers’ Gallery next year before the £30,000 winner is announced on 05 March.

Paul Graham and Tod Papageorge are the most recognisable names to make the list, though Taryn Simon and Emily Jacir – both still in their thirties – have become two of the most talked about young photo-based artists this past 12 months. Read BJP's full coverage here.

Late last night, Digital Railroad went offline for good. While, the demise of the hosting site was expected, no one thought it would happen without proper notice. Now photographers find themselves with no way to salvage their tagged images. They will also have to find a new hosting site for their photos. Photoshelter might be an option. For more on this, read our article here. And check out next week's issue of BJP for a full report on the consequences of DRR's demise.

And finally, in the UK, the Home Office has admitted that restrictions on photography in public places have been, in some cases, inappropriate. The news (full report here) comes as the National Policing Improvement Agency has confirmed to BJP that it will issue new guidelines to police officers on stop-and-search powers and photography in public places. Read the story here.

BJP will continue to cover these events with exclusive interviews. Check back soon. Also, in a very unimaginative move (Photo District News has been doing it for months now), you can also get our latest news through Twitter. Click here to subscribe.

Our Twitter feed can also be found right here on 1854.eu (right column).

Come and meet with BJP's team and this year's winner of our International Photography Award: Beso Uznadze.

When: Tuesday 25 November at 6.30pm.
Where: The Association of Photographers' Gallery, 81 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QS.

Beso Uznadze's stunning images of Georgians both at home and in London, which won the portfolio category award, will take up most of the Association of Photographers' gorgeous split-level space. But his work will also be joined by World Press Photo award-winner Walter Astrada's shot of a Guatemalan femicide victim - a shot so powerful it took the single image prize. The prints are currently being made up by Spectrum Photos, one of Europe's leading fine art printers, and both photographers have also won a Canon EOS 5D MkII - an upgrade from the 5D - courtesy of Canon.

The exhibition will run until 29 November.

Last night, Georgian photographer Beso Uznadze received his BJP International Photography Award at the Association of Photographers' Gallery. More than 200 people came out for the exhibition's private view, with Canon offering the photographer a EOS 5D Mark II camera.

Beso Uznadze receiving his Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR from Anna Ghosh, Canon's public relations manager.

The exhibition runs until Saturday 29 November at the Association of Photographers' Gallery, 81 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QS.

The Nikon Solutions Expo is back in London today and tomorrow, with an exclusive award ceremony this evening to unveil the winners of the Nikon Discovery Awards, a student photography competition run in collaboration with the British Journal of Photography.

We report live from the Expo, via our Twitter feed here:

Robbie Cooper's video of people watching porn can be viewed here (sorry for the wrong link before).

Catching moments of joy, exhiliration and despair, photographer Robbie Cooper used the revolutionary new Red One Digital Cinema camera to capture child gamers lost in intense concentration. Cooper's work is the subject of this week's BJP, and to complement his interview, here is the video of the work.

In out latest issue, award-winning photojournalist Edmond Terakopian tries out the Canon EOS 5D Mk II's video capabilities by shooting his very first film, Muse. He also shot footage during a news assignment covering Gaza protests in London earlier this month.

Read Edmond's review here (Part 1) and here (Part 2) (no registration needed).

Here are the videos:

MUSE by Edmond Terakopian

Muse from Edmond Terakopian on Vimeo.

News footage by Edmond Terakopian

To view either of these films at full 1080HD, please visit: http://terakopian.smugmug.com/

NB - With the latest Mac 10.5.6 OS update, occasionally Safari will not load the video page on the first attempt. Please either refresh the page twice, or temporarily use Firefox.

Fiona Bruce, the BBC news-reader and former Crimewatch presenter, has found that one of her ancestors was a convicted fraudster who abandoned a failing business to escape his debtors, writes The Times newspaper.

Bruce is the subject of a forthcoming episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, the genealogy series on the BBC. Using archives from the British Journal of Photography, the BBC found that her 'great-great-grandfather, William Crouch, was sent to prison at the turn of the 20th century after attempts to establish himself as a society photographer backfired'.

In 1904, Crouch was convicted at a Westminster court of obtaining £317 (nearly £30,000 today) 'by false pretences' from would-be trainees.

More than 100 years ago, the British Journal of Photography wrote: 'The prosecution allege that no real business was done at Crouch’s ‘studio’. The pupils . . . occupied themselves by photographing one another, while Crouch spent his time at the ‘studio’ in reading the newspapers and smoking. Often there was not even a camera available for use.'

Watch the episode on 09 February on BBC1.

Photographer Jon Furniss gets up close with Jack Nicholson, image © Richard Young

How close the stars do you need to be to get celebrity shots? This close. Jon Furniss is one of just five or six photographers welcomed into the celebrities' lives, shooting behind the scenes at parties and premiers rather than papping them on the street.

Why are they given this access? Because although the celebrities hate harassment, they also need publicity; and while the magazines and newspapers don't want to be sued, they also need to feed the public's seemingly insatiable desire for celebrity shots. The solution is carefully orchestrated reportage, in which strictly-vetted photographers enter into a modern-day gentlemen's agreement to show the stars at their best in return for premium access.

'I always make them look good and I only take photographs when they know I am there and they are happy to be photographed,' says Furniss. 'You build up a relationship with them, and I wouldn't want to be known as the photographer they couldn't trust.'

It's a fascinating cross between freedom and control, and you can read all about it in this week's special report, The Insiders.

Over the past few weeks, we have had a lot of emails from our readers about problems with the RSS feeds for both our main website and this blog. While, the RSS feed for 1854 has been fixed (thanks guys for letting us know about it), the one for bjp-online.com is still a mess - all articles have the same synopsis and random content that shouldn't be on a RSS feed shows up.

I'd like to say that we'll be able to fix these issues shortly, but that would be lying. Our website was designed back in 2000 (yes, nine years ago) and it starts to show (to be frank it started to show in 2004 I am sure!). At that time, RSS did not exist in its current form. The feed was only added a couple of years ago as an add-on fix.

But we're currently working to have it fixed, but that will probably take a couple of months, as we will have to deal with the site's entire architecture. In the meantime, if you do want to be updated as soon as a new story is published on BJP Online, you have one other option: Twitter.

You can follow our latest update here: http://twitter.com/1854.

Harman Technology, in conjunction with the British Journal of Photography, invite you to register for a Free Prize Draw. Running for two months, the winning entry will be drawn at random, at the end of June and July. The winner will receive £200 of HARMAN CRYSTALJET RC Inkjet paper.

Additionally the first 500 entrants will receive a free A4 pack of HARMAN CRYSTALJET RC Inkjet paper comprising 5 sheets Gloss and 5 sheets Luster.

HARMAN CRYSTALJET RC is the latest photo-quality inkjet paper from HARMAN technology. Designed to produce superior levels of imaging performance and priced to provide excellent value for money, it has a paper weight of 260 gsm and is a quick drying paper that enables the printing of high quality images.

Click here to enter the competition.

The BJP has launched a visual petition in response to the growing number of photographers being stopped under anti-terror legislation. The campaign is designed to raise awareness and help change public perception at a potential turning point.

Amateur and professional photographers alike are urged to submit pictures of themselves holding white plaques with the phrases ‘I am not a terrorist’ or ‘Not a crime’ written on them. These self-portraits should then be submitted to the specially created flickr group. BJP aims to gather thousands of these e-‘signatures’ over the coming year as a protest against the increasing restrictions photographers face.

The BJP is pleased to announce two new prizes and an extended deadline for its International Photography Award.

Photographers now have until 01 October to enter the prize, which is already attracting entries from all over the world. Photographers can enter two categories – the best body of work, and the best single image – both of which are judged by a panel of photographic experts.

First prize for the best body of work is now a £5000 voucher for professional photographic retailer Robert White. Robert White’s extensive range of kit includes everything from Nikon and Canon DSLRs to Rodenstock large format cameras, and photographers are free to spend the money however they choose. This voucher replaces the previous first prize for the body of work, a Leaf camera. Blurb.com has also come on board with an extra prize for photographers in the single image prize – a photobook with a selection of the best single-image entries. First prize for the single image category is the professional-standard compact, the Sigma DP2.

Photographers in both categories will also see their winning images printed by Spectrum Photographic, one of Europe’s leading labs. These prints will be exhibited at The AOP’s leading London gallery, then handed over to the winners.

BJP has been running the International Photography Award for five years, and previous winners include World Press Photo winner Walter Astrada, Mexican Joop Swart Masterclass attendee Carla Verea and advertising and editorial photographer Frank Herfort. Previous judges include Magnum photographer Chris Steele-Perkins and publisher Dewi Lewis.

If you want to stay informed of the latest news in the photography world, you can also follow the British Journal of Photography on Facebook and on Twitter. Get up-to-date information on the latest trends, products and events affecting photographers in the UK, Europe and across the world. To follow BJP on Twitter go to twitter.com/1854.

The British Journal of Photography | Promote Your Page Too

On 03 March, British Journal of Photography will be out with a new design and new format. The magazine, which is the world's longest running photography magazine, will also go back to its roots by becoming monthly after 146 years as a weekly. Read our news report here.

British Journal of Photography's editor Simon Bainbridge explains the changes:

From next week you will see a big change to BJP. We have completely redesigned the magazine and printed it on premium quality paper, delivering
improved photographic repro and giving more space to images and longer articles.
The biggest difference you’ll see, however, is that we are moving to a new monthly format.

The magazine has gone through many changes since it became a weekly in 1864 (having started out as a monthly in 1854, then going fortnightly), but this is likely the biggest you’ve seen since you’ve been reading us. And while it’s a decision that we didn’t take lightly, we believe it’s for the better.

These days more than 100,000 visitors come to our website (www.bjp-online.com) to find the latest breaking news stories. And given that the web delivers real-time coverage of world events, the imperative for print magazines has shifted.

You will be aware that photography is not the only industry going through major changes at the moment. For newspapers and magazines, the
calamity of the worst recession in 80 years amounts to the perfect storm, arriving on top of doubts about their very survival as their readers turn to free content online.

How to respond? Some are burying their heads, while others are cutting costs, moving to cheaper paper and serving up increasingly smaller chunks of content to readers that supposedly have less and less attention span. That’s a mistake, in my opinion. Why do something in print that you can do equally well online?

The most forward-thinking publishers are using the new environment to implement some long overdue adjustments to how they align their web and printed editions and play to their respective strengths. Simply put, the magazines that don’t adapt, or don’t get it right, will fail.

While we weren’t faced with any immediate crisis of our own, when we looked ahead to the future we felt the weekly format would one day become unsustainable. And once we recognised that possibility and opened ourselves up to change, we began to get excited about what we could deliver if we had a complete rethink.

One thing would remain the same – we will continue to serve professional photographers. But we also recognise that professional photography has undergone massive change, and now more than ever, the creative impetus is key. Whether you are visualising someone else’s brief, shooting a personal assignment for your portfolio, or competing against dozens of other local photographers in the same field, you need to create signature images.

With that in mind, we been thinking about why all the photography magazines on the newsstand seem to look the same. Where was the magazine that reflected the vital part photography plays within the creative economy? Where was the photographic equivalent of Blueprint, Grafik or Creative Review? So what we’ve come up with aspires to similar standards and ambitions, playing to the strengths print and the experience of holding a beautiful magazine in your hands.

While we will continue to report on the business of photography, it’s a creative business, and our new format is designed to reflect that and better satisfy our highly visually literate readership. We’ve invested in high quality paper and repro so we can showcase the best our industry has to offer. And we want readers. As in people who like to read, giving you more breadth of content, and more in-depth interviews, reviews and analysis. All this works better in printed magazines than on the web, and we believe we’ve created a new blueprint for what a magazine for professional photographers should be.

To complement the magazine, we are now working on redesigning our website, making it easier to navigate and adding new features. Unlike our direct competitors, we have a dedicated team of editors, who work solely on BJP. And that means that our website and blog (www.1854.eu) are constantly updated with timely, relevant content, so you will still be able to get the most up-to-date authoritative news and opinion as a daily fix.