NYTrip @ 11th St Bar

Last night marked my third time visiting 11th Street Bar in New York.

The first was when I was still a student at RIT and took a class that brought us to NYC for a week. Throughout the week we met photo industry professionals spanning the range of the field. We went to advertising agencies, photographers studios, production companies, studio & rental houses, the New York Times, and heard from photographers, photo reps, editors, business owners and the various people who are involved in the photo world. That trip marked the reality of the industry to me and had me excited to graduate. Thursday night of the NYTrip is always, as far as I know, a gathering at 11th Street Bar of the students & teachers on the trip and the RIT photography alumni in the city. I feel like it was invaluable to me to meet people who graduated from RIT and were making it in the city, especially in such a laid back setting. The class/trip is an amazing addition to the RIT curriculum and is one of the experiences I remember most now.



It was nice to meet up with people I know in the city, alumni I hadn't previously met, teachers I had in college and the RITers about to graduate. I was impressed by the students that I met, not only for the work I saw and the enthusiasm to move here, but for the awesome April Fools prank they pulled on Doug, who was my teacher and adviser at RIT. They conspired with the bartender to give him a [fake] tab totaling around $723 and the reaction was priceless. My cell phone flash blew out the writing on the tab, which was numerous tally marks and a bill total, but here's a picture of Doug with his bill.

I can't believe I've already lived in the city now for almost two years. I wonder what my fourth visit to 11th Street Bar will be like!

Copyright Alliance

I just came upon the Copyright Alliance's blog post on Pilfered Magazine. No surprise, they don't seem to be fans of the magazine either.

Do you want your work Pilfered?

Here's an idea to think about, that is also stirring up a bit of trouble.

A magazine made that is based on the idea of "a place where artists, photographers, designers, and the inspired can submit their favorite visuals pilfered from the web to share with one another." It's called Pilfered.

The trouble I mentioned is from the lack of permission for use of images by their creator and a lack of credit given. Maybe people don't understand that these images are people's livelihood? There is a "Credits" page but it's more than a little unsatisfying. On the flip side there are a lot of interesting images on this site and it seems like a good way to gather inspiration. I just don't think I'd be happy if I came upon an image of mine there that was uncredited, and I don't think many people I know would either. There's a lot of dialog about the site and its concept on the "About " page, some of the wording is a bit strong, but the debate is interesting. I didn't read through all of it but here's two responses I liked:

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David Says:
June 25th, 2009 at 7:26 am

Dear Patrick, Nate and Mia,
A credit byline is not a license fee. Everybody in the publishing business (online and offline) knows this. That’s why If I see that you use/publish one of my images here I will instruct my agent to invoice you accordingly. If I see that you use images taken by any photographers that I know I will ask them and their agents to invoice you accordingly. In the same way If I see that you use any images that are stock available from photographers or agencies that you should be licensing from them, I will report the usage and suggest they invoice you accordingly.
I strongly encourage everybody who reads this to do the same. The only thing that I have a problem with, is that to check the published images I’ll have to browse and click through this website, and therefore I will increase it’s traffic, which I believe it doesn’t deserve.
Also, if any photographer, after being consulted, is fine with no fee and accepts the credit byline, I suggest that this credit byline is published as a hyperlink to the photographer’s website adjacent to every image. I also suggest that if any photographer kindly let’s you publish the images with the credit byline, you stop branding them with the word PILFERED printed across.
Think Human Rights, think Intellectual and moral rights. Especially you.
David

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Aaron Says:
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I love the idea of random collecting stunning images, and the design aesthetic is excellent, but why would you not credit the photographers? It’s hard enough to make a living as an artist these days without people taking your work and not acknowledging you. It’s not about democracy, it’s about supporting the creative community so we can continue to do what we love — create more art.
I work damn hard as a photographer and I struggle to support my family. If you used one of my images without any credit or recognition, how could I not be upset? Would it hurt to give me credit and boost my work? Creatives should be supporting, not undermining, each other.
The internet is great in many ways, but the use of unattributed images is hurting photographers and artists everywhere — if you truly value art and photography you won’t do it.

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What are your thoughts? I find that I'm siding with the opinions in the quotes above. I guess we had to see this coming with the internet, an amazing tool but there's less accountability, everything is viewed as open game.

Inspiration/Friends in the Business

Here are a handful of the people I know or have worked with in photography. I went to college, took classes and worked with these photographers and it has undoubtedly shaped how I see and what I do. This definitely isn't everyone that I've encountered but it's a few who are also in the NYC area now.

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• Bri Johnson - Fashion and Beauty Photographer


• Christine Walsh - Still Life Photographer


• Corey Lugg - Food Photographer


• Justin Solitrin - Photographer & Writer


• Kenny Yu - Photographer & Production


• Kevin Norris - Still Life Photographer


• Kyle Dorosz - Photographer


• Lindsay Adler - Fashion Photographer


• Maelynn Kruckow - Photographer


• Margot Cavin - Still Life Photographer


• Marvin Orellana - Creative List


• Michael Fiske - Character Portrait Photographer


• Molly Clifford - Photographer & Stylist


• Nate Mumford - Photographer


• Nicholas Duers - Still Life Photographer


• Nicole LaCoursiere - Photographer


• Sarah Anne Ward - Still Life Photographer

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Coach Holiday

Tonight was Coach's holiday party. What a beautiful set up, with a DJ behind a glowing booth, lights casting snowflakes of all colors on the ground, a variety of food and a number of bars serving drinks from soda to wine. It was a wonderful setting and the people filling the room, talking and later dancing, made it lively. It was a nice experience.

Photo Expo

The PDN Photo Expo, hosted in NYC, brings people from various parts of the photography industry in to learn about new and upcoming technology and techniques as well as to mingle and meet other professionals. RIT hosts an alumni event to accompany this every year. Last night the alumni of the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences met at Connolly's Pub. It was wonderful seeing so many alumni there! And they even had a mini raffle, I won a set of orange RIT luggage tags, another reason to travel more!

At the actual Expo, RIT has a booth where some photography from the honors show is displayed, including my image from the Metallic Beauty series I did of Melinda.

NYC

I now live in Brooklyn NY and on Monday I start work!

BFA

I am a RIT Graduate with a BFA in Photographic Illustration: Advertising Photography, with a minor in Business Marketing and Concentration in Communications.

College is over! (Unless of course I decide to go back and learn more, but that isn't a current plan of mine) Every year of my life that I can remember has been made up of school, with breaks in the summer and winter, it's an incredibly strange thought that that's over. I'm so excited about what's up next. I plan to move to NYC and start on my path to shooting professionally. It'll be an adventure. And as cheesy and cliche as it sounds, just because I'm done with school and formal education, doesn't mean I'm done learning. Especially with the field of photography, school is just my starting point.

At least now I have a paper saying I know what I'm doing!

Home Again

London was such a wonderful experience, but it really is hard to beat your home. It is nice to be back.

I have so many files still in need of organizing and editing. They'll slowly be appearing on my website.