The Photo Feed 11.08.07

Wire Services Boycott Australian Cricket Coverage (NPPA)
Don’t expect any AP or Reuters coverage of today’s first match between Sri Lanka and Australia. Photogs and reporters for those two wire services won’t be covering Australian Cricket until more than 30 news organizations—including the AP, Reuters, AFP and Getty Images—and Cricket Australia (CA) can resolve their disagreement over media credentials and copyrights. According to AP attorney Dave Tomlin, “Cricket Australia is basically demanding that we pay them for the right to cover and distribute news about cricket. That’s what their demand to be paid a license fee for our syndication of AP photos at CA matches comes down to. We don’t pay news sources for the right to hear and tell their stories, and we don’t pay organizers of newsworthy events for the right to cover them. When we start doing that, both we and our sources can kiss our credibility goodbye. We still hope to make CA understand how fundamental this is for us, and should be for them.” Getty is the official photo agency for Cricket Australia, and though the agency plans to fulfill its commercial photographic obligations, it “will not cover any Cricket Australia events from an editorial perspective,” according to Getty’s Alison Crombie.

Photog Chris Usher Wins Lost Pix Lawsuit Against Corbis (NPPA)
Usher’s attorney, Edward C. Greenberg, says that the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, has handed down a favorable decision, two years after the trial ended. When Usher terminated his representation agreement with Corbis in 2001, the agency failed to return 12,640 of Usher’s analog images, claiming they were lost. Among those images were the photog’s coverage of Al Gore, George W. Bush, the 2000 presidential election saga and Elian Gonzalez’s return to Cuba. “All of those missing images were pretty much selects and I’m very sad not to have them,” Usher told News Photographer magazine. “Regardless of what they are worth—the money is nice but I’d rather have the pictures back—and a lot of the pictures were of Bush, and Gore, and the campaign of the century that was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, and it was all on film. I worked hard on that material; I know what was there because I see the outs, and I’m so sad that there’s so much of it that’s missing.” The amount of monetary damages that Usher will receive will be decided at a hearing set for December 18. Visit PDN Online later today for more coverage on Chris Usher v. Corbis, et al.

A Jewish Martha Stewart Living? (Folio)
Coming next week: Jewish Living, a bimonthly mag for the Jewish mother who puts a lot of thought into Channukah parties, Shabbat dinners and coddling her kids. Ex-advertising exec Daniel Zimerman calls his brainchild “a thoroughly modern magazine” that seeks to “celebrate Jewish home, family and cultural life.” Zimerman is hoping that readers of Heeb, a Jewish lifestyle mag for 18- to 25-year-olds, will graduate to Jewish Living once they settle down and have kids. The magazine targets Jewish professional women between 25 and 34 years old with a median household income of over $125,000. Jewish Living will launch with a rate base of 100,000. And just in case any Jewish mothers need reassurance that their families really aren’t eating enough, most of the launch issue's 25 pages of ads are for food.

MORE BELOW: Buyout offers reach Milwaukee ... Photog David Nielsen dies ... Hasselblad unveils Customer Care Program ... Olympus plans to open digital camera manufacturing plant in Vietnam ... Photobucket launches new tagging features ... Obama irked by "pledge" photo ... Annie Leibovitz's little sister makes a documentary about the photog ... Kevin Federline covers Details ... Photog Carmine Galasso puts a face on clergy abuse ... BlackBook tries something a little different for its latest fashion spread ... Helena Christensen to pose for Playboy ...

Another Week, Another Buyout Offer (AP via Editor & Publisher)
This one comes at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where between 55 and 60 employees have accepted the buyout. The company won’t say how many of those are newsroom staffers, but Elizabeth Brenner, president and COO of parent company Journal Communications, Inc., says every department will see job reductions. The Journal Sentinel has more than 1,000 employees, 260 of whom work in the newsroom.

Photog David Nielsen Dies (NPPA)
Nielsen began working for Marysville’s Appeal-Democrat as a photographer in 1981. He became chief photog in 1986, and photo editor in 1995. Nielsen covered a range of subjects, ranging from sports to floods, and won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Associated Press News Executives Council. He was also a member of the National Press Photographers Association. Nielsen died on Monday after a battle with colon cancer. He was 49 years old.

Hasselblad Unveils New Customer Care Program (Imaging Resource)
Life just got even better for Hasselblad lovers. Registered Hasselblad owners can now get special prices on product upgrades, refurbishment and extended warranties and support. The first stage of the Customer Care Program, which launches today, will allow H1 and H2 owners to trade in or upgrade to some of the most recent model configurations. A special area on Hasselblad’s customer care Web site will also feature articles, product information and other materials for registered H System owners. Hasselblad plans to expand the program to include owners of all Hasselblad digital products and V System cameras in the near future.

Olympus Goes To Vietnam (Reuters)
After posting a record profit, Olympus has announced plans to build a digital camera plant in Vietnam by the end of 2008. An Olympus spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the exact location or production capacity, but the new plant is considered necessary to keep up with global demand. The company plans to spend 5 billion yen ($44.35 million) to build the new plant.

Photobucket Gets Tag Happy (AP)
Starting today, searching for images in Photobucket should be a lot easier. Previously, if you want to find a shot of Golden Gate Bridge, a search for “bridges” wouldn’t yield pix with the headline “View of Golden Gate.” Now, though, Photobucket is enabling users to label—or “tag”—specific faces and objects in their pix. Users will also be able to link to external sites, such as references to a landmark or other object in their images. Likewise, when users embed Photobucket pix into external sites, the tags and attached links will join them.

Obama Irked By “Pledge” Photo (AP via L.A. Times / PDNPulse)
In Monday’s Photo Op ’08, we told you about an e-mail chain alleging that Barack Obama didn’t put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. The rumor, based on an image shot by Danny Wilcox Frazier for Time.com, has found its way back to Obama, who is less than thrilled. He says that the photo in question was shot during the national anthem, not the pledge. Calling the rumors a “classic dirty trick of the campaign,” Obama said, “My grandfather taught me how to say the Pledge of Allegiance when I was 2. During the Pledge of Allegiance you put your hand over your heart. During the national anthem you sing.”

Photog Carmine Galasso Puts A Face On Clergy Abuse (AlterNet)
Galasso, senior photog at New Jersey’s The Record, was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, but he never came face-to-face with clergy abuse until he began interviewing and photographing survivors all over the country. His B&W images are collected in the newly published book Crosses: Portraits of Clergy Abuse. You can get a sneak preview of the pix in this photo essay.

Annie Leibovitz, In Front Of The Camera (Herald Sun)
Apparently, Annie isn’t the only Leibovitz who has a flair with cameras. The youngest Leibovitz sister, Barbara, has made a documentary entitled Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens. While another Leibovitz sister, Paula, can be heard saying that you don’t want to be anywhere near Annie during a shoot, Barbara says her experience making films for the FBI toughened her up. The hardest part, she says, may have been interviewing Annie, who sometimes looked at her as if to say, “You sure you want to ask that question?”

K-Fed Covers The Details—Again (Women’s Wear Daily, 2nd item)
If you feel like you’ve been seeing too much Britney Spears and not enough of her ex Kevin Federline (as if!), never fear. K-Fed is the cover boy for Details’ December issue. Steven Klein shot the wannabe-rapper-turn-One-Tree-Hill-star. At a time when the media is oversaturated with sad images of Britney and K-Fed’s dramas, Details might need a lot of luck to make this one a big seller. When Federline appeared on a Details cover in 2005, it was the second worst-selling issue of the year. And that was back when K-Fed and Brit were madly in love …

BlackBook Gets Iconic (Women’s Wear Daily, last item)
Don’t be confused if you see someone who kind of looks like Karl Lagerfeld inBlackBook’s forthcoming "Isn't It Iconic?" fashion spread. The mag has decided to feature models dressed up like fashion icons for this issue. In addition to Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Carine Roitfeld, Viktor & Rolf, Vivienne Westwood and Anna Piaggi will have model doubles. The issue also features pix taken during New York Fashion Week, including an Alexis Dahan-shot image of Vogue editor Anna Wintour sitting alone in the front row, arms folded.

Helena Christensen To Pose For French Playboy (Styledash)
Paolo Reversi will shoot the 38-year-old former supermodel. Christensen says the shoot with be “done in 70’s-style, so it’s really all about the innocence and playfulness of it!” Innocence? Does she realize she’s posing for Playboy?