Photographers Archives - Page 3 of 28

Take Your Photography to the Next Level by Hacking the Digital Print

February 27, 2015

Digital photo printing has reached the point at which anyone who knows how to push the right buttons can create a decent print. Getting a high-quality image out of a desktop printer is no longer the challenge it once was.

In her new book, “Hacking the Digital Print,” artist Bonny Lhotka illustrates how photographic artists can take their work to the next level through alternative methods of capturing and printing photographs. She proves that the hands-on art of printmaking is alive and well in the digital age. And she explains why you don’t always need Photoshop to alter the reality that you capture through your lens.

By using analog distortion filters and lens modifiers you can create images that look like you—not an app—made them. As Lhotka explains, “Capturing altered reality is different from altering captured reality.”

In the book’s introduction, Lhotka points out that, “A photograph is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional world. We can restore the third dimension by using materials such as slate, granite, wood, or metal that have heft, mass and texture.”

In “Hacking the Digital Print,” Lhotka shows how to make original art objects and hand-crafted photo gifts by transferring your photographs to materials such as wood, glass, plastics, and metal. Lhotka also shows how to create skins that can be layered to make mixed-media photographs.

Some projects explained in the book use non-toxic digital alternatives to re-create classic printmaking techniques. For example, Wonder Sauce is a water-based transfer solution that is safe enough to use anywhere, whether it’s the studio, classroom, or kitchen counter.For the truly adventurous, Lhotka shares her custom techniques for taking photographs and applying them to 3D-printed objects created with popular consumer-model 3D printers.

Part artist/part mad scientist, Lhotka has spent many hours experimenting, hacking, and tearing things apart to discover new ways to take, make, and print images.

In the early days of wide-format color inkjet printing, Bonny Lhotka organized “Digital Atelier: A printmaking studio for the 21st Century” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and was an artist-in-residence there for 21 days. The artists of the Digital Atelier demonstrated some of the creative possibilities of scanning and inkjet printing.

Lhotka is also a recipient of the Smithsonian/Computerworld Technology in the Arts Award.

Bonny says she designed “Hacking the Print” for “artists and photographers who enjoy serendipitous discoveries—those intuitive accidents that lead to new discoveries and possibilities.”

She encourages you to take the techniques in this book, hack them, and make them your own. She cautions that the process will be messy, and failures may require you to keep trying: “But in the process, you will make your exciting discoveries, find solutions, to your problems, and create a body of work that is uniquely yours.”

You can purchase “Hacking the Digital Print,” through Amazon or buy a signed copy through the DASS ART website. “Hacking the Digital Print” was published by Peachpit, the Pearson imprint the publishes technology books, e-books, and videos for creative people.

On the DASS ART website, you can also register for related workshops or order the specialized transfer media Lhotka has developed for transferring images printed with pigment inks on inkjet photo printers.

DASS has also started a Facebook group for artists and photographers who are creasting work with the techniques featured in Bonny Lhotka’s two previous books on contemporary printmaking techniques: Digital Alchemy and The Last Layer.

According to Lhotka, “The Facebook group is a place to post your work, share processes, and ask questions. I will pop in an out to answer questions and post tips.”

LINKS:

Hacking the Digital Print: Alternative image capture and printmaking processes with a special section on 3D printing (Voices That Matter)

The Last Layer: New methods in digital printing for photography, fine art, and mixed media (Voices That Matter)

DASS ART

Can You Believe Photoshop Debuted Just 25 Years Ago?

February 23, 2015

To gauge how rapidly innovations can revolutionize entire industries and create new opportunities for millions, note that the first version of Photoshop was launched just 25 years ago this month. Who could have imagined how much creative power that program would unleash in designers, photographers, artists, and publishers?

Today, we see imaginative imagery and visual communications everywhere — in smartphone apps, on building-size wall murals, in interactive digital signage, and immersive multimedia displays.

According to a fascinating timeline and an interview published on the Adobe website and Photoshop blog, Adobe shipped its first version of Photoshop on February 19, 1990. The program originated in 1987, when Thomas Knoll developed a pixel-imaging program called Display. It was a simple program to showcase grayscale images on a black-and-white monitor. However, after collaborating with his brother, John Knoll, the two began adding features that made it possible to process digital image files. The program eventually caught the attention of industry influencers, and in 1989, Adobe decided to license it.

“Adobe thought we’d sell about 500 copies of Photoshop a month,” recalls Thomas Knoll, Adobe Fellow and Photoshop co-creator. “Not in my wildest dreams did we think creatives would embrace the product in the numbers and ways they have. It’s inspiring to see the beautiful images our customers create, the careers Photoshop has launched, and the new uses people all over the world find for Photoshop every day.” On YouTube, you can watch a video of Thomas Knoll giving one of his first demonstrations of Photoshop.

“For 25 years, Photoshop has inspired artists and designers to craft images of stunning beauty and reality-bending creativity,” said Shantanu Narayen, Adobe president and chief executive officer. “From desktop publishing, to fashion photography, movie production, website design, mobile app creation, and now 3D printing, Photoshop continues to redefine industries and creative possibilities. And today that Photoshop magic is available to millions of new users, thanks to Adobe Creative Cloud.”

Photoshop’s massive popularity can be attributed to its constantly evolving capabilities and pipeline of deep image science. This steady stream of innovations is now reaching customers faster than ever before. The Photoshop and Lightroom desktop and mobile apps are constantly updated as part of Adobe Creative Cloud.

Photoshop 1 was aimed at graphic arts and publishing

In an interview with Russell Brady posted on the Photoshop blog, Thomas Knoll points out that the first version of Photoshop was really ahead of its time: “Photoshop 1.0 and the first several versions weren’t really tools for photography – not only because there wasn’t appropriate hardware available in digital cameras, but more importantly, because there were no digital printers. The only real way to get photographic-quality output from Photoshop back then was to create four-color separations on film and take them to a printing press, where the first copy of your photograph might cost you $2,000…If you wanted to print a roll of 35 millimeter film, you’re talking $35,000 to $40,000. So, Photoshop 1 was primarily aimed at the publishing and graphic arts markets.”

After full-color inkjet printers were introduced, Photoshop users could scan the film, manipulate the images, and print them out. The explosive growth of digital photography in the 1990s further accelerated the widespread adoption of Photoshop.

Photoshop’s success has helped Adobe develop and deliver a wide range of products and services used by tens of millions of creative people worldwide. In addition to Photoshop, applications such as Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Dreamweaver and others have pushed creativity forward, no matter what the media. And today Adobe Creative Cloud services such as Behance and Creative Talent Search are helping a new generation of creatives find a global audience and market for their work .

Adobe is celebrating Photoshop’s milestone in a big way. For example, Adobe is showcasing 25 of the most creative visual artists under 25 who use Photoshop. To be considered, artists upload their projects and use the tag “Ps25Under25.” In the coming months, those selected will take over the Photoshop Instagram handle (@Photoshop) for two weeks and present their work for the world to see. Fredy Santiago, a 24-year old Mexican-American artist and illustrator based in Ventura, California is the first one chosen to display his incredible images.

Adobe has also launched its “Dream On” advertising campaign as a tribute to 25 years of amazing art created In Photoshop. The TV commercial includes incredible work from Photoshop artists and iconic images from major motion pictures that used Photoshop In the making, including Avatar, Gone Girl, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Shrek.

LINKS

Adobe

Adobe Blog Post: Celebrating 25 Years of Photoshop

Thomas Knoll Q&A

Adobe Photoshop Anniversary Timeline

Augmented Reality Conference To Be Held in San Francisco

February 17, 2015

InsideAR, the epicenter of the rapidly growing world of Augmented Reality, is coming to San Francisco for the first time May 20-21, 2015.

The event is hosted by Metaio, the worldwide leader in Augmented Reality software, research and technology. With over 10 years of experience in Augmented Reality and Computer Vision, Metaio serves over 130,000 developers with over 1,000 published apps. Metaio’s AR software reaches over 30 million consumers around the world.

Metaio products have been used to develop AR apps for everything from publishing, retailing, and marketing to industrial engineering,maintenance,and manufacturing.

InsideAR-020 — Metaio defines Augmented Reality (AR) as a technology that blends digital content into our real world. AR seeks to integrate our increasingly digitalized lifestyle with our physical lives in a seamless, natural way.

InsideAR offers a comprehensive introduction to Augmented Reality by bringing together innovators and stakeholders to share technical insights and the latest and greatest AR applications.

Network with futurists, global leaders in AR, and other creatives who are paving the way for an Augmented Reality future Additional AR events will be held in Munich, Beijing, and Tokyo.

In San Francisco, InsideAR will be presented at The Village at 969 Market Street in the heart of San Francisco.

If you can’t attend the conference, the Metaio website features case studies and white papers about how augmented reality is being used in print, marketing, education, television, sales, and manufacturing.

LINKS

InsideAR

About Metaio

Metaio Case Studies

Metaio Offers AR Creator Plug-In to InDesign

Light Impressions Exhibit Shows State of the Art in Mobile Phone Photography

February 14, 2015

When photographer Colleen Duffley launched a 24-hour New Year’s Eve iPhone photo competition for her Studio b creative venue in 2011, she sensed that the 8-megapixel camera in the new iPhone 4S might empower people worldwide to become photographic artists.

Since then, Colleen has created a remarkable “Light Impressions” traveling exhibit that has been documenting the emergence of mobile phone photography as an art movement.

Colleen considers mobile phone photography a “a pure art form” because “It’s more about the creativity than expensive gear or intricate technique.” The fourth edition of the Light Impressions exhibit is on display until February 22, 2015 at the Wynwood Building in the heart of Miami’s Wynwood Art District.

As in previous years, Colleen will be taking the exhibit to sites throughout the U.S. this spring and summer. The Light Impressions installation features 40 iPads mounted on a metal structure made from materials salvaged from some wreckage that Hurricane Opal left on the beach in 1995. Each iPad presents 13 of the best images submitted by a single mobile phone photographer.

As 13 images from each featured artist scrolls across the iPads at different rates, the Light Impressions exhibit makes a powerful statement about how people around the globe are using their mobile phone cameras a means of creative expression. Colleen Duffley is a professional photographer who shoots, directs, produces creative concepts for magazines, commercials, and campaigns. She has been shooting people, places, and things around the globe for 25 years.

Colleen devised the concept for Light Impressions four years ago as a way to display the best images submitted to the New Year’s Eve iPhoneography photo challenge. One of her goals with that first iPhoneography challenge was to level the photo-competition playing field and demonstrate that all people could be creative photographers, even if they didn’t have expensive equipment or extensive training.

“The camera phone was the perfect tool to encourage people to be creative because everyone had one,” explains Duffley. “The camera phone gives us the ability and freedom to be creative 24/7.” She says viewing Light Impressions is like watching a fish tank. It’s mesmerizing: “It’s hard to walk away from it.”

“Mobile phone photography is still an emerging art form,” says Duffley. “People are going to be astounded when they see what is being done in this movement. All of the work displayed on the Light Impressions exhibit was done on a mobile phone camera — from the capture of the image to its processing and publishing. It’s really mind-blowing and wonderful.”

Duffley mounted the iPads in aged, weather-beaten metal that she discovered on the beach. As an art installation in itself, Light Impressions illustrates the timeless nature of photography as an art. While photography technology has changed over time, the magic of photography as an art form remains solid. Plus, she says “Mobile phone photography has a ‘found-art’ sensibility to it, and what better way to frame it than on repurposed materials?”

The first three editions of Light Impressions traveled to art fairs, museums, and events nationwide. It has been exhibited twice in Miami during the Art Basel week. In March, the new exhibit will be featured at Duffley’s new Studio b site in Florida and at a photography event in Washington, DC at the end of March.

When curating the 2015 Light Impressions exhibit, Duffley chose portfolios that represented a mix of styles, subject matter, and processing techniques. Some images illustrate the creative use of processing apps. Other images are shown almost exactly as the photographer shot them, with only minor tweaks. You can learn more about the artists, the images, and the apps they used in a special book Duffley produced for this year’s exhibit.

Teaching Mobile Phone Photography

Duffley, who has taught university-level courses in traditional photography, enjoys teaching classes in mobile phone photography. Within a few hours, students go from knowing very little about photography to being eager to experiment with all of shooting and processing tools that are literally at their fingertips.

One participant in a recent class was the editor of a magazine that publishes some of Duffley’s editorial photography. The editor has since invited Duffley to teach other members of the magazine’s editorial staff how to shoot better pictures with their mobile phones.

For her own iPhone photography work, Duffley prefers composing and shooting great images right in the camera. After spending hours editing the images she captures for editorial and advertising clients, she likens using an iPhone to using a Polaroid camera. When she frames a shot, she thinks about composition, lighting, form, texture, and line — all the things that have always gone into making a great photo, painting, or illustration.

She encourages students to “Take responsibility for what you’re shooting. When you have a good image to start with, you do what you want with it–the app is your oyster.”

Even though Colleen uses a high-end Canon DSLR for her commercial projects, she doesn’t treat her mobile phone camera with any less respect. In fact, some of the images she has shot with her iPhone have been published alongside the images she shoots with her DSLR.

The Resurgence of Studio b

As an editorial photographer, Colleen has traveled around the world, befriended fascinating people, and enjoyed some remarkable adventures. To enable others to experience the same kinds of unique experiences, Duffley founded Studio b in Alys Beach, Florida in 2009. She established it as a creative venue that would bring together the best of the best and the up-and-coming in photography, art, literature, fashion, design, music, and the culinary arts to educate and inspire artists and students. Studio b also hosts and co-sponsors events throughout the U.S. and in Italy, Ireland, and exotic locations around the globe.

Unfortunately, the timing for Studio b’s launch was less than ideal. Just as the economy was slowly starting to recover from the Great Recession of 2008, The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 temporarily decimated the tourism industry on the Gulf Coast.

So Duffley closed Studio b for a while and re-focused her energies on her photography business, Colleen Duffley Productions. Now that the economy and tourism industry are rebounding, she is preparing to re-launch Studio b in a different location on Florida’s Emerald Coast this spring.

On the Run Website

Colleen Duffley is also launching a new website, through which people can order metal prints of some of Colleen’s best iPhone images. When she travels on assignments for commercial projects, she carries her iPhone when she goes for long runs to relax and unwind. “When you run or bike, you get a different perspective on your surroundings,” said Duffley.She is calling her the website “On the Run” because “It’s just me capturing the world on the run.”

The Rising Quality of Mobile Phone Photography

As she curates each Light Impressions exhibit, Colleen Duffley said she is amazed to discover the many different ways people have come to the medium of mobile phone photography and embraced it as a tool of creative expression.

Over the years, the number and quality of entries she receives for the Light Impressions display has steadily risen. While some of that is due to technological advances in smartphone cameras and apps, Colleen says the community of mobile phone photographers is exceptionally collaborative and supportive of one another.

She said the artists featured in the Light Impressions exhibit are doing amazing things with their mobile phone photography: “It’s an amazing art form, and some people are making a good living selling prints of their mobile-phone photographs.”

Ring in a Creative New Year with Studio b’s Camera Phone Event

LINKS

Studio b: Light Impressions-Profiles of the Featured Artists

Studio b Boutique: The Light Impressions On Tour Book

Colleen Duffley Productions

Facebook: Studio b.the Beach Studio b

Sandra Canning Exhibits 3D Printed Photographic Lithopanes

November 12, 2014

Can fine-art photographers find ways to incorporate 3D printing in their work? Yes, according to Sandra Canning, an award-winning South Florida-based fine art photographer. On September 5, she exhibited four 3-D printed photographic lithopanes alongside three of her traditional 2D prints. The event was part of an artist’s night gathering at the LMNT fine-art collaboration and event space in Miami.

Onlooker admires 3D printed photographs (lithophanes) at art exhibit at the LMNT creative space in Miami, Florida. Photo by Sandra Canning, www.sandracanning.com

Lithopanes look like a bas relief to the naked eye, but when the lithopane is backlit, the picture is revealed. Lithopanes were made from translucent porcelain when the art form was popular in the 1800s. Canning’s exhibit at LMNT demonstrated how 3D printing can be used to convert fine-art photos in the 21^st-century lithopanes.

Original 2D photography of "Tree in Key Biscanyne" by photographer Sandra Canning, www.sandracanning.com — Original 2D photography of “Tree in Key Biscanyne” by photographer Sandra Canning, www.sandracanning.com

Close-up of the backlit lithopane of "Tree in Key Biscayne" by photography Sandra Canning. Photo by Sandra Canning, www.sandracanning.com — Close-up of the backlit lithopane of “Tree in Key Biscayne” by photography Sandra Canning. Photo by Sandra Canning, www.sandracanning.com

Canning created the lithopanes in collaboration with Prototyping Solutions Inc., one of the largest resellers of Stratasys 3D Printers in North America. Serving businesses in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, the staff at Prototyping Solutions helps people choose the right printer, material part, and solution for any 3D printing need.

Close-up of unlit 3D lithopane of photo "Tree in Key Biscayne" by Sandra Canning. — Close-up of unlit 3D lithopane of photo “Tree in Key Biscayne” by Sandra Canning.

The exhibit was entitled “Photography’s Past, Present, and Future as Expressed Through 3D Printing” and represented the inaugural get together of “The Art of 3D Printing” Meetup Group that Canning founded for Miami-area artists. Along with Canning’s 3D printed photography, the September 5th event featured a TED-style talk by engineer/3D-printing pioneer Werner Blumenthal, and “3D-printed selfies” produced by FORGE, a 3D-printing studio based in Jacksonville, Florida.

Canning started The Art of 3D Printing Meetup Group in her quest to learn more about 3D printing and encourage its use in the arts. She recognized that while 3D printing is revolutionizing every aspect of the creative arts, “Photographers have not had much involvement in this movement.” She came across 3D printed lithopanes in her quest to find applications for 3D printing for photographers.

“3D printing was one of those things that had been in my peripheral vision but I never felt any personal connection,” explains Canning. “In May or June of 2014, I was looking for something unique to do with my pictures.” When she started researching 3D printing, she was blown away by the impossible structures being printed in fashion, sculpture, jewelry, architecture, and even bioprinting: “I knew that I was looking at something that was going to change everyday life — not just the creative arts.”

She felt left out when she first tried to find applications of 3D printing for fine-art photographers. Then, she ran across some 3D-printed lithopanes of Yoda and cats, and says, “At that moment I got the bug to create fine-art quality lithopanes inspired by the ones from the 1800s.”

Canning didn’t believe the first 3D printed lithopanes she saw were gallery worthy, so she sought out different services, materials, and methods that would produce a fine-art result.

Prototyping Solutions, Inc in Birmingham, Alabama proved to be the perfect partner for this marriage of art and technology. The team of experts, including Vince Denino and Rixey Kelly, consulted with Canning to produce the parts well within the assigned budget and ahead of schedule.

The lithophanes of Canning’s photos were printed at 16 micron layer height in Vero White on a Stratasys Objet260 Connex 3D printer. Each part took around 30 to 45 minutes to build.

“This 3D printing project has been a great joy to be a part of because it was targeted to a different audience than we are used to,” said Rixey Kelly, Service Engineer at Prototyping Solutions. He said the widgets and gizmos they typically print are artistic enough in their design and function but don’t do much for the soul: “The lithophanes, much like widgets, are ideas that can be printed and then held in your hand. But these uniquely depict a place and moment in time.”

Canning collaborated with a local maker John McNulty (makerssquare.com) and his partner to create the backlit frames.

Art of 3D Printing Meetup Group

During the 3D Photo Art exhibit at LMNT, Canning said many visitors said they had never seen anything like it before. She says, “I think most people were surprised that you could 3D print a photo in this way.” They asked plenty of questions about the process, the smoothness of the surface, the cost, and the learning curve.

Canning founded the Meetup group as a way to learn and grow with other who are interested in The Art of 3D Printing. A second event she hosted demonstrated 3D scanning for creating 3D selfies and featured equipment supplied by 3D Systems.

So what’s next for this accomplished photographer who wants to explore the potential of 3D printing?

“Since my journey to learn 3D printing began, I have had a clear picture of the ultimate 3D printed photographic lithopane,” says Sandra. “I am still perfecting those for a future exhibit.” She also has some ideas for 3D printed scultpures and jewelry.

LINKS

Sandra Canning Photography

Meetup Group: Art of 3D Printing

Adobe Announces 14 New Versions of Creative Cloud Apps

June 18, 2014

One of the most compelling reasons to subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud is that it provides continuing access to new features and apps. This is more important than ever, now that so many creatives are expected to be proficient in more than one discipline.

Today, Adobe announced 14 new versions of CC desktop applications, including Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Dreamweaver CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. The biggest Adobe software release since CS6, it also includes four new mobile apps, the immediate availability of creative hardware, updates to Creative Cloud services and new offerings for enterprise, education and photography customers.

Yesterday, Adobe announced that there are now over 2.3million Creative Cloud subscriptions. This far exceeds original projections when Adobe unveiled Creative Cloud two years ago.

“Our shift to Creative Cloud has given us a broad canvas on which to innovate like never before,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media, Adobe. “We’ve taken bold steps with this milestone release, fast-tracking new features to industry-defining tools like Photoshop and InDesign, while introducing mobile apps that turn tablets into indispensable creative tools.”

The release serves a creative industry that is changing at a staggering pace. According to a new report “The New Creatives,” three in four creative professionals believe the industry has changed more in the past five years than the previous 50. About two thirds believe their role will significantly change in the next three years. Creatives cited new technologies as the top driving force behind the rapid change.

Mobile Apps Extend CC Desktop Workflows

Adobe launched three new mobile apps for iPad – Adobe Sketch, Adobe Line, and Adobe Photoshop Mix. They also began shipping new creative hardware called Adobe Ink, a new digital pen, and Adobe Slide, a new digital ruler. The mobile apps were developed using a new Adobe Creative SDK that unlocks over 30 years of Adobe innovation and makes it available on mobile devices for the first time.

These new apps are professional- grade quality but easy enough for anyone to use, similar to the recently launched Lightroom mobile for photographers and Adobe’s new animated video app for storytelling, Adobe Voice, which were also updated with this release. These powerful, yet easy-to-use apps add significant mobile capabilities to Creative Cloud, integrate workflows with the CC desktop apps and bring tablets into serious creative workflows for the first time.
New Versions of CC Desktop Apps

Beyond mobile innovation, the 2014 release of Creative Cloud includes dozens of new features in CC’s 14 desktop apps. (See the press release for specific details.)

The new CC desktop apps, mobile apps, and hardware are tightly integrated through Creative Cloud services. This integration helps liberate the creative process by enabling users to access and manage everything that makes up their creative profile – their files, photos, fonts, colors, community and more – from wherever they work.

Also introduced today is the new Creative Cloud app for iPhone and iPad that allows users to access and manage their files, assets, and more from their mobile device.

New CC Offerings For Enterprises, Educational Institutions, and Photographers

Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise is an offering designed specifically for large-scale software deployments that works with other Adobe enterprise offerings such as Adobe Marketing Cloud, Acrobat, Adobe Anywhere, and Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Updates include more services with collaboration and file storage, expanded options for deployment, and a new dashboard for managing users and entitlements.

For education, Adobe now has a device-based licensing offer for classrooms and labs, which allows multiple users to access software on a single device rather than tying it to an individual with an Adobe ID. This is critical in an environment where students come and go.

And for photography customers, Adobe has introduced a new Creative Cloud Photography Plan for $9.99 per month. Designed for anyone interested in photography, the new plan brings together Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5, as well as Lightroom’s mobile apps on the iPad and iPhone.

Pricing and Availability

Today’s updates to CC desktop tools are immediately available for download by Creative Cloud members as part of their membership at no additional cost. The new mobile apps are free to everyone.

To join Creative Cloud, special promotional pricing is available to existing customers who own Adobe Creative Suite 3 or later. Membership plans are available for individuals, students, teams,educational institutions, government agencies and enterprises.

LINKS

Press Release: Adobe Announces All New 2014 Release of Creative Cloud

Free trials of CC desktop apps

Pricing

Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan

Adobe Releases Report on “The New Creatives”

New Book Suggests Best Practices for Fine Art Photographers

March 26, 2014

PHOTOGRAPHERS. In her new book, Crusade For Your Art: Best Practices For Fine Art Photographers, Jennifer Schwartz encourages photographers to thoughtfully and purposefully develop plans that can help them get where they want to go in the world of fine-art photography.

“The art world has been turned on its head, and no one knows what to do about it,” observes Schwartz. Instead of pining for the good old days or bemoaning the fact that everyone with a DSLR (or iPhone) can call themselves photographers, Schwartz encourages photographers to take steps to build their own careers: “Photographers with talent, creativity, and ambition can start their own fires.”

Jennifer Schwartz is the creator/director of Crusade for Art, a non-profit organization focused on cultivating demand for art, specifically fine art photography. For five years, she owned the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery in Atlanta where she worked to educate a new crop of collectors while promoting the careers of talented, emerging contemporary photographers.

She has served as a portfolio reviewer at photography events such as PhotoLucida in Portland, Filter Photo Festival in Chicago, Medium in San Diego, and Atlanta Celebrates Photography. In the spring of 2013, she traveled to 10 cities throughout the U.S. in a 1977 Volkswagen bus on a “Crusade for Collecting Tour.” During this “revivalist” tour, she sought to build “grassroots” art appreciation by engaging people who live outside the urban centers of traditional art world.

In the book, Jennifer explains how to tighten your body of work, develop a brand, identify goals and a plan, and strategically launch a project. The book features insights from more than 25 top industry curators, gallerists, editors, and photographers, including:

Karen Irvine, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago
Kat Kiernan, owner of The Kiernan Gallery and Editor of “Don’t Take Pictures” magazine
Melanie McWhorter, book division manager at photo-eye in Santa Fe
Amy Miller, executive director of Atlanta Celebrates Photography
Conor Risch, senior editor at PDN (Photo District News)
Ariel Shanberg, executive director of The Center for Photography at Woodstock
Lauren Steel, managing editor for reportage, Getty Images

The book is available in printed form (140 pages, softcover) or as an e-book. It can purchased from the Crusade for Art website, Amazon, or Apple’s iBooks Store. All profits from book sales will go to the Crusade for Art organization.

Apply for a $10,000 Crusade Engagement Grant by April 1, 2014

To motivate photographers to think about their work, their target audiences, and how to best engage them, the Crusade for Art organization is offering a $10,000 Crusade Engagement Grant to the photographer who proposes the most creative and original ideas to create and foster demand for fine-art photography.

The organization seeks well-developed projects that will

create an aesthetic experience (one that actively involves the viewer’s senses, emotion, and intellect)
provide opportunities for interacting with the photographer and/or the images
lower the perceived barriers to participation with art
clearly identify the target audiences (e.g. not “the general public”)

Crusade for Art isn’t looking for proposals that seek funds to create a body of work, mount an exhibition, produce a book, or participate in a workshop.

According to the entry guidelines, Crusade for Art is looking for “projects that focus on creating demand for photography and provide a concrete plan to create one-to-one connections between the photographer, viewer, and the audience.”

The grant program organizers believe that there is an elaborate and well-funded support system available on the ‘supply’ side the art industry, but not enough effort or support on the ‘demand’ side: “We are looking to break new ground here” and believe that artists themselves are best positioned to develop innovative ways to connect audiences to their work.”

Members of the selection committee include: Whitney Johnson, director of photography at The New Yorker; Karen Irvine, curator and associate director at the Museum of Contemporary Photography; and Rupert Jenkins, executive director of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center.

Initial applications are due April 1. Finalists will be announced May 15.

LINKS

Crusade for Your Art: Best Practices for Fine Art Photographers

Organization: Crusade for Art

Crusade Engagement Grant