LightVision

This month Wildlight Photo Agency shakes up an unusual cocktail of odd cordials for you to digest at your leisure…

Turning back the hands of time - old bromides make cool reading

As Summer rolls into frame we’ve reprinted for your reading pleasure the second edition of the original lightVISION magazine published at the end of 1977. Download it here. It proves that photography is not bounded by time, as the material was just as fresh and interesting then as it is now. Thirty-odd years ago, Beatrice Faust was ruminating about the state of visual awareness in Australia (a country of 13 million people); William Clift contributed an engaging collection of photos in his US Court House series and film maker Paul Cox is interviewed by Paul Turner in conjunction with his exhibition at the Australian Centre for Photography. It’s great to turn back the hands of time; we know you’ll enjoy this snapshot of the business as it was over three decades ago.

The greening of Ernie

Our resident Pug and highly paid photographer’s assistant Ernst Graf von Schmeckle, is always looking for alternative avenues to fame. This month he’s become particularly attracted to our new studio green screen, especially when it rains down juicy bones. The good news is there’s no carbon emissions and no waste (well almost none). The virtuosity of virtuality. How green can you get Ernie!

Kill Bill collection

Kill Bill! is  the momentarily unkind sentiment we photo-editor types tend to whip up when Bill Bachman, our stalwart contributing photographer from leafy Camberwell, Victoria, sends us a folio of over 800 new images that need to be prepped and published for your use. But we know you appreciate great new material representing a smorgasbord of pan-Australian subjects; you have them in spades here, in his latest montage of everying from portraits of smiling young women and miners to grapes and vineyards, some quirky aerials and abstracts and dazzling close ups of native plants. Thanks Bill, we got over it and of course we love you!

Is Uluru receding from view?

It depends where you stand. The new Talinguru Nyakunytjaku sunrise viewing area for tourists erected at a cost of some $20 million, which opened recently at Uluru, reminds us that we at Wildlight have had a close eye on the famed rock for what seems to us like eons, even though we count in years rather than millennia.  Grenville Turner took this shot of the south face in 2008 from the exact site of the new vantage point, which marshals visitors to a place well back from the monolith. We thought you’d like to see it with and without the coaches. David Moore, more famously took the images below in the 1960s, long before the trampling down gathered pace and when Uluru was called Ayers Rock. Appropriately, Wildlight was once again up close and personal we can report, as Parks Australia contracted Grenville to shoot the October 8 opening ceremony with The Hon. Peter Garrett AM, Federal MP and Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, many Australian Aboriginal traditional owners, other dignitaries and local Anangu people.

With over 40 photographers located all around Australia, Wildlight is fortunate to have a network of bureaus acting as photographic listening posts in the four corners of the country. Here are some reports from our photographers on what’s happening photo-wise across Australia.

Rodney Hyett, who maintains a shutter eye from wave height for us down on the Mornington Peninsular of Victoria, brings us news that he’s returned to his original theme with a just released “The Great Ocean Road” Calendar 2010, after focusing on “The Surfer’s Coastline” for 2009. Plus, he has produced another new calendar called “Above Melbourne“. Buy them here.

Colin Beard, a perennial ray of sunshine for Wildlight up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, tells us that following the success of his exhibition ‘Rock’n'Roll Odyssey’ at the Orange Regional Gallery in July, he is now puttng on a new one called ’Icons of Rock’n'Roll’ at the Main Street Gallery in Montville, South East Queensland. The photographs were taken between 1966 and 1968 for Go-Set Magazine and include pictures of The Rolling Stones taken on their 1966 tour of Australia, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 as well as The Who, Cat Stevens and The Hollies, taken in London in 1967.
Colin has also started a school of photography on the Sunshine Coast. It offers a series of courses, one session per week, over a number of weeks, similar to the courses run by the Australian College of Photography. These courses are intended to provide an alternative to courses at TAFE and other educational institutions for busy people with the intention of maintaining highly professional standards of photography, surpassing the aspirations of TAFE. There’s more info on the following website, including informative newsletters on photography that Colin puts together every month: www.photolearning.com.au

Taking Stock

Just like the stock market we are shedding stock as quickly as the Aussie dollar is going through the floor. Difference is we are doing a careful cull…of images and not a panicked sell off of ridiculous assets that no-one understands.

I was always proud and thought it impressive that the Wildlight analogue library contained a whopping 300,000 images. With some of the best names in the business, it’s an archive with great depth and top quality imagery. Despite this abundance of cellulose resources, we are hurtling towards a business model which embraces virtualisation. In these bleak economic times, automating labour-intensive business processes is a big saving for a small business like ours. So picture an office with loads of filing cabinets labeled ‘empty’. Feels good - my eyes are wrecked and at the end of the day, seeing or talking about image-making has me reaching for the Stoli. We are keeping the cream of the crop and sending the rest back to photographers. What do we do with the edit?…edit it again…and again - hopefully, we’ll have a few thousand survivors to scan - sigh.

We haven’t been the only ones hunched over a light table waiting for the chiropractor. The Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive has spent the last five years editing 500,000 images of the late Melbourne identity, Rennie Ellis. Wildlight is proud to represent his images in our collection, and now you can see them at a well deserved major retrospective of his work at the National Gallery of Victoria - it’s going to be very retro - I just finished starching my safari suit for the opening night!

New alliance -Today we can announce that Wildlight will be distributing the Photo New Zealand collection in Australia! The Photo New Zealand (PNZ) collection features real Kiwi people, amazing scenery and enviable model-released lifestyle images, shot by leading Kiwi photographers. PNZ is a niche, premium library, that shares many core attributes with the Wildlight library. So for the best of Australia and New Zealand you can head to Wildlight. We’ll be launching the new partnership at the PictureHouse Sydney event next Wednesday 17, so pay us a visit. I’ll let you know once the Kiwi collection is available through the Wildlight website, in the meantime go here.

Pictures just in - I’m very happy to say that unlike our competitors we have not uploaded 2 million images this month. Instead we’ve uploaded premium Australian imagery by all rounder, Bill Bachman, tourism, lifestyle and housing pictures by Phil Quirk and iconic beach snapshots by Sheridan Nilsson. See the latest uploads here. Next month we’ll have a fantastic retro collection from the Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive to coincide with a four month long retrospective of Rennie’s work at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne - so dust off your flares or whip into ‘Vinnies’ for some tight fluro slacks and prepare for a flashback!

PictureHouse - Visit us there….

Wildlight will be an exhibitor at the Picturehouse Australia exhibition in Sydney next week on Wednesday, 17 September. Come see us at b2 photographic studio. Unit B2, 46 - 62 Maddox Street, Alexandria, NSW

Picture buyers can register now for a free admission ticket here.

Picturehouse events offer a unique opportunity to discover new sources of imagery, meet the people you only normally contact by phone and email, and network with peers in the industry — all in one location, all in one day! Hope to see you there. We’ll try to sneak in Ernst, the pug!

Hey, don’t take photos! I’ve only been bailed up like this a couple of times, and admittedly I knew I was in the wrong - I was standing on private property taking pictures. I’ve had a few enquiries from photographers, friends and parents at my son’s school, as to what you can and can’t take pictures of without being arrested or called a ‘rock spider‘ and driven out of town. Over the past 10 years there has been such manic social anxiety and political correctness, mostly misguided, regarding the rights of a photographer and the subject. It’s absurd that there should be such uproar about privacy, just look around at all the cameras hanging from street lights and buildings, heck, even at the cafe at lunch, Jean-Marc and I were being watched. Who looks at all this footage, where is it kept? is it safe? Is it already online?

The good news is, you can photograph anything (except military installations) and anybody you like from a public space - man, woman or child. Of course there are some reasonable exceptions, you can’t photograph in an inappropriate way, or with the intention to be subversive or obscene or use a photo in a defamatory manner. In addition you can’t photograph a person for commercial use without a signed model release. Commercial use means using a person’s image to promote a product or service. No surprise; you can’t photograph on private land without permission. There is especially fierce paranoia over images of children. Two excellent articles have been written, NSW Photo Rights: Australian Street Photography Legal Rights by Andrew Nemeth BSc (Hons) LLB, the second, Photography is not a Crime by Fairfax Media contributing photographer, Jon Reid. I suggest you read them right through. They make fascinating and informative reading and go a long way to correct the misconceptions about taking pictures in public. On Andrew’s site there is also a helpful fact sheet, which summarises the rights of the subject and the photographer. I recommend everyone print it out and keep it in their camera bag, download it here. Remember this info applies to New South Wales in particular. I’ll check if there are similar handy fact sheets for the other Australian states and territories.

So from a picture library point of view, we can publish pictures of anyone on our website. If we don’t have a model release, the pictures must be marked ‘editorial only’ - our customers can then only use them in magazines, newspapers and book publishing, including online versions of these.

So what about photographing in NSW public schools? As a parent with my son in public school, this is particularly interesting. Today, I called the principal of his school and had a long conversation about photographing the students. I could gauge from the conversation that there was a lot of grey areas, and plenty of individual interpretation. The principal is kindly finding out some info from the Department of Education, and I’m going to be talking to a couple of lawyers for their views. This topic needs much more examination, I’ll post my opinion next month. Hopefully next time you go to your child’s school, you can take a camera without being stoned by the town mob! But just remember it’s a sensitive issue.

What turns you on?

We need feedback about incentives, although we’re not going to offer an incentive for your feedback! What incentives would you like to be offered? Do they really motivate you? How many iPods does anyone need? What loyalty does it gain and at who’s expense?
Some of our competitors use mp3 players, department store gift cards, tropical holidays to gain customer loyalty, however for us at Wildlight, these kind of consumer items have nothing to do with the business of licensing pictures. Other competitors also use big discounts, like buy three get the forth free — we have too, in the past, however, I feel it’s a bit crude and only a last resort. So what tickles your fancy? Basic marketing principles suggest that the incentive must have some relevance to our business and the services we provide. Some of our photographers have published high-quality books, like Richard Woldendorp and David Bettini, do you really want these? They are beautiful and will last countless more years than an iPod. Some of our photographers, like David Moore, Rennie Ellis and Phil Quirk have fine art prints collected by public galleries around the world, worth thousands, are these objects of desire? Would you like to see a valuable framed image on your wall? Is it that photography is not seen as being an art form, and particularly so now that stock pictures are worth as little as $1. Is it just a trade, if it was I’d make more money being a plumber!

In the second edition of LightVision, I ran a promo, for a signed book by Richard Woldendorp worth $50, a great book, by one of the Australia’s greatest photographers, all that was required was to write a humourous testimonial about Aussies and Wildlight. I didn’t think it was too difficult, however, I didn’t receive a single entry -not one! I’m still unsure as to why it was a resounding failure, perhaps the prize wasn’t sexy enough, perhaps it targeted the wrong demographic, or perhaps it was too much work for a low value product. My reasoning was for my customers to be creative by using some witty copy, not just to whack down the plastic and purchase. So it’s encouraged me to call for your valuable feedback on this nettlesome topic. Leave a comment below and tell me what incentive would or would not instantly make you purchase a picture licence.

I first found out about Vivid National Photography Festival through Manuela at the Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive. She was attending an event where photojournalist, Stephen Dupont, was speaking. I’ve since found it’s the largest photography festival in Australia. From 11 July to 12 October, there will be over 100 exhibitions in 50 venues around the national capital and a huge number of floor talks, tours, workshops and events. Check out the extensive program here.

The exhibitions cover both contemporary and historical themes, the collections are sourced from a variety of public and private organisations. I’ve made a quick pick of some that I will visit: ACMP Signature Exhibition at Floriade 21 until 12 October. Selling an American Dream:Australia’s Greek Cafés at National Museum of Australia until 16 November. Beyond Reasonable Drought at Old Parliment House, also Roadkills and roadside memorials at the Old Bus Depot caught my attention. The Canberra Institue of Technology would be worth a visit to gauge the talent of a new breed of image makers. In early October there are three events for dramatic outdoor projection of images onto the walls of the National Library and Australian War Memorial, should be warmer by then. Please support this event, Canberra is a lovely place…really! It’s on the way to the snow too.