Photo Documentary

"My Heart vs. The Real World", a newly-released book by Max Gerber which includes his photographs and interviews with children living with heart disease.
It's a beautiful look into the personal lives and an intimate view into the real emotions of his subjects. The photos are bewitching and vulnerable and the stories that accompany them are equally raw.

Check it out:
Max Gerber's msgphoto.com/heartkidsproject
his rep's blog, Wonderful Machine blog
or at Amazon.com

Photography Galleries

I was wandering around online and wanted to find some cool galleries in the US that are showcasing photography. Here are some that I found interesting to check out:


Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco is currently featuring Amy Stein, New American Fables, as is the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.

Florida Museum of Photographic Art is exhibiting Len Prince's Masks & Identity

Composition Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia has a new exhibit on July 12, Sorrowful Tunes from a Sunny Land, Photographs from the Republic of Georgia which is being co-presented by the Contemporary Art Club in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

Paul Kopeikin Gallery is exhibiting J Bennett Fitts' Industrial Landscape[ing].

Silverstein Photography in New York is currently featuring W. Eugene Smith: The Art of History.

Independence Day photos

I'd like to do the same thing I did for Memorial Day weekend. Photographers and illustrators send in some work you do the week of July 4th and I'll post it here on the blog (the week after) with a bit of info and linkage. Depending on the number of submissions I'll probably post one photo per person.

The objective of this (in my mind) is to showcase your talent and what you do best and have some fun. I'm a big fan of 4th of July festivities so any incorporation of these will be a bonus but not necessary.

Send 'em on over to me: caitlin_tierney[AT]yahoo[DOT]com
looking forward to seeing and sharing the work

Artist Friday - Hany Farid

I was watching Nova ScienceNOW and saw a profile on digital forensics (also featured in American Scientific). I found the Nova piece so interesting I wanted to wade through more information about Dr. Farid and his craft. Hany Farid is a professor of computer science in the image science group at Dartmouth College. He has become an expert at the forefront of digital manipulation.

According to his bio, Dr. Farid has worked with federal law enforcement agencies on digital forensics to digital reconstruction of Ancient Egyptian Tombs. He has written numerous papers on digital imaging. Read through some of the papers and see what you think... I believe you'll find some interesting information and possibly helpful information for your photography and retouching.

While Dr. Farid is certainly an analyzer of photography and art he is also an artist. Check out some of his photography at www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/myphotos/.

Email promo subject lines

A little while back I posted some info about email promos and I made the offer for photographers and illustrators to send me their epromos for some feedback. I had a few people take me up on the offer (which still stands for anyone interested). Armando Bellmas had a great question: "What kind of subject lines make you open an epromo?"

It's always a little tough to say because everyone has a different reaction to the subject line. I've run across subject lines that were witty, some that were cheesy, and some that reflect the work. I try to open all the email promos I get.

I always like the "New Work by..." or "Hi Caitlin" - using someone's name and making it personal is always a good way to go... although I'm sure it would be hours of work for for the sender.

There's no sure-fire way but the subject line is usually what makes or breaks an email promo to be opened. You have approximately 2 seconds to grab your viewer's attention with the subject line and take the action you want (which is ultimately to go to your website). The other tricky part is to keep it away from junk file or spam detector software.

A helpful hint is to check out newspapers and magazines. Writers have to sum up the article in about 5 words to get the audience to read the entire piece. Making an announcement or sharing news is a great way to get the email opened. For example: Photographer won creativity award or Photographer just shot X campaign.

I would suggest testing out a few different ways and see if you get any feedback and what works best with your target audience (which subject line delivered the highest click through rate).

My "edit, copy and proof" college professor always use to say "when in doubt KISS"... Keep it simple short (or "keep it simple stupid" he preferred).

Monocle Magazine

Reading through the most recent issue of PDN there was an article written by Julian Rodriguez that caught my eye. The article talks about Monocle magazine launched in 2007 (which I have to say I hadn't heard of) by the same founders of Wallpaper*. The exciting information is that the magazine has nearly 300 photographs in every issue... more proof that print is still kicking and not going anywhere. The beauty is the images range from photo journalistic to fashion and every genre in between.

The magazine is arranged in an A to E format, organizing stories under Affairs, Business, Culture, Design, and Edits. It's geared to "international jet-setting readers" and keeps the photography and design on par with the writing.

Photo Director, Rose Percy, says in the PDN article, "whoever gets sent on photo assignment to interpret the story must understand the Monocle brand and deliver the right artwork." She also states that she is very open to emerging artists and new talent to consider.

An annual subscription (ten issues) costs approximately $148 US or £75 UK and has worldwide distribution.

What's in a portfolio?

Well a lot really.
Obviously your portfolio speaks volumes about your work and your best work. A website is great but you should also have a portfolio. I've said many times, art buyers and photo editors appreciate the tactile nature of a portfolio in their hands rather than a computer screen.

In my opinion, a portfolio should open and close with strong images and recent work. It also shouldn't have too many prints in it. Sometimes the more there is, the more daunting it becomes and I forget what I was just looking at 20 pages ago. The main benefit of a portfolio is to leave an impact with your work, or that one photo that says to the client you can shoot their project beautifully. The general consensus among art buyers is to keep the images at a manageable number. If you are a artist representative, more art buyers prefer to look at separate artist portfolios instead of one larger agency portfolio.

You can never accommodate everyone at once but it helps that when your portfolio is called in for a project to know a bit more about it, that way you can cater some of your images to that client.

My favorite and ideal portfolio?
I'm partial to black or white leather soft covers with the name embossed on the front (covers are covers and don't matter too much, but it's so very important to have your name somewhere on the front or the first page and not just on the carry case).
A super strong first image that flows beautifully from page to page almost like telling your photographic story or journey. I like when a body of work has newer, recent or personal images that I might not find on your website either.
A strong ending image that will stick in my mind and is a great closing to everything I have just viewed.
I personally also like a page at the end that has some sort of client list and contact information.