National Mag Award Nominees Announced

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has announced the finalists for the 45th annual National Magazine Awards. As in years past, National Geographic received nominations in all three of the photography categories. 

Here are the finalists in the photography and design categories.

Photography, Print

Honors the effectiveness of photography, photojournalism and photo-illustration in support of the editorial mission of the magazine.

GQ; National Geographic; The New York Times Magazine; Vanity Fair; Vogue

Photojournalism

Recognizes the informative photographic documentation of an event or subject.

Foreign Policy; National Geographic (2 nominations); New York; Virginia Quarterly Review

Photo Portfolio

Honors creative photography and photo illustration, including portraiture.

National Geographic; New York; The New Yorker; Out; W

Design, Print

Honors the effectiveness of design, typography and artwork in support of the editorial mission of the magazine.

Esquire; GQ; Martha Stewart Living; New York; Wired

The full list of awards nominees, including finalists for the General Excellence awards, can be found on the ASME web site, www.magazine.org. 

Roger Ebert Says Seeing His Portrait Was “A Relief”

 

We don’t often get to hear what subjects think when they see their portraits published in a magazine. Film critic Roger Ebert, whose lower jaw and salivary glands were surgically removed four years ago as part of his cancer treatment, has written on his Chicago Sun-Times blog about the shock –followed by relief-- he felt when he saw his close-up photo by Ethan Hill in the latest issue of Esquire.

“I got a jolt from the full-page photograph of my jaw drooping. Not a lovely sight. But then I am not a lovely sight, and in a moment I thought, well, what the hell. It's just as well it's out there. That's how I look, after all.”

Ebert notes that in the years since his surgery, he’s “studiously avoided looking in the mirror.” He writes:

“I mentioned that it was sort of a relief to have that full-page photo of my face. Yes, I winced. What I hated most was that my hair was so neatly combed. Running it that big was good journalism. It made you want to read the article.”

 Hill says Esquire director of photography Michael Norseng had requested he shoot a close-up, which was “cropped ever so slightly,” Hill says, in the final layout. Hill says he didn’t try to make the photo either flattering or shocking, but simply to be “as honest and straightforward as possible, the way Roger writes.”

He lit Ebert with a single softbox overhead, “which is kind of my standard,” and used a piece of gray foamcore he bought when he arrived in Chicago as his backdrop. “I try not to ask people to do anything for the camera, because the more they do, the faker it gets.”

Over the five hours Hill was in the writer’s home, Ebert, who can no longer speak, communicated through notes that Hill would read aloud.  Hill photographed Ebert going about his day:  working in his study on a laptop while lying back in a reclining chair, because soreness from surgeries on his shoulders and hip (to extract pieces of bone used to try to rebuild part of his jaw) have left him too sore to sit upright for long stretches. Hill also photographed Ebert in his bedroom surrounded by books.

 Hill says there’s “nothing special” about the portrait. “All I did was show up on time. What’s special is that it’s Roger, and he’s been away [from the public eye] for a long time and he’s aged a lot in the last five or six years. It’s not a shocking picture, it’s just who he has become since we’ve seen him last.”

 Hill adds, “He’s as vivid and brilliant as ever.” 

The full Esquire profile of Ebert, with more of Hill's photos, can be found here. 

Photo above:  © Ethan Hill for Esquire

 

Pilfered Magazine Removes Infringements, “Re-Imagining Perspective”

The editors at Pilfered, the online magazine which invited readers to share “images pilfered from the web,” has announced they are “re-imagining our perspective” and will now accept only images submitted with the permission of the copyright holders.

 A week after the magazine’s abuse of copyright was reported by PDN Pulse, Photo Business News and Forum, Copyright Alliance and others, Pilfered has removed photos from their site. Past issues of the magazine had included dozens of images run without the permission of their creators and without credits.

Reports of Pilfered’s abuse of copyrighted material had sent a flurry of angry comments and threats of lawsuits to the site. Though the site had posted legal disclaimers and limitations on liability, the editors could be sued under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for hosting content that infringed copyright.

The sole page left on the Pilfered Web site now says, “With respect to our community, we would like to announce we are officially re-imagining our perspective.” The statement encourages readers “to help us build this platform by submitting only copyrighted and permission based content.”

It should be noted, however, that the magazine has not yet changed its name.

 

GQ Sells 12,000 Copies of January iPhone Edition

Magazine publishers are eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Apple iSlate reader next week. In the meantime,  Conde Nast has declared a success in its first experiment with selling a magazine to be read on an iPhone.

GQ, one of the first magazines to demonstrate an iPhone app for displaying its issues, has sold about 12,000 downloads of its January issue via the iTunes store. The December issue of GQ sold 6,614, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Each copy sold for $2.99 apiece.

The Journal notes that, after subtracting iTunes' cut of the fees, GQ's iPhone issues have only netted $39,000 in revenue, which is probably less than Anna Wintour's car allowance. Still, the volume of sales is a promising sign that customers will download--and pay for--editorial content they can read on a mobile device. And $2.99 is a lot more than nothing-- which is the price readers have paid to read the GQ.com Web site. 

The Journal notes that the success of the iPhone app has ":given the company confidence that it will be able to port the app to the iPad, or whatever Apple calls the tablet it plans to unveil next week."

(Note: In PDN's February issue, we have interviews with magazine photo editors about how they are assigning photography and video for new digital applications.)

Call for Entries: National Geographic Photography Grant

National Geographic is now accepting applications for its fourth annual Photography Grant, a $30,000 grant that will be awarded in early June to support the documentary work of one photographer. The deadline for applications is March 1.

There have been two notable changes in this year's competition, says Beth Foster, Director of Communications for National Geographic magazine. The first is the reduction in the size of the grant, which was $50,000 in previous years. "These are challenging economic times, but we're committed to the grant and want to continue to support the photographic community this way," she says.

The other significant change is that National Geographic intends to award the grant to a project that "reflects our mission to inspire people to care about the planet," Foster says. In past years, the grant was open to a broader ranger of documentary subjects.

Previous Photography Grant recipients include Alessandra Sanguinetti, Jonas Bendiksen and Eugene Richards.

Details about the grant and application process are available here.

When Fashion Models Looked Like Women

Photo: Richard Avedon. Suzy Parker and Robin Tattersall, dress by Dior, Place de la Concorde, Paris, August 1956, © 2009 The Richard Avedon Foundation

Viewing the retrospective of Richard  Avedon’s fashion work at the International Center of Photography this summer, I and other women-of-a-certain-age were struck by one thing: In the Forties and Fifties, fashion models were mature and cosmopolitan. In sharp contrast to the skinny teens and skin-bearing specimens in today’s fashion spreads, models like Suzy Parker, Dorian Leigh and Dovima strode through the streets of Paris or commanded attention at chic cafes. Dressed in New Look suits or evening gowns, they looked serenely confident in their worldly sophistication.

Actually, they weren’t so worldly. Dovima was only 20 when, wearing an evening dress, she took command of a herd of elephants in her most famous photo. Suzy Parker (born in San Antonio in 1932), wasn’t much older than today’s waifish models when she started playing the part of a Parisian sophisticate. Avedon’s fantasies weren’t achieved through Photoshop, just great styling, lighting and clothes that were elegant rather than overtly sexy.

These images in part reflected the urbanity of European-born art directors like Alexei Brodovitch and Alexander Lieberman. But then as now, fashion magazines were aspirational. To succeed, they had to channel their readers’ fantasies. And fantasies they were. Some white American women might have tasted independence during the war, but by the late Forties and Fifties, they were expected to be in the kitchen, not roller skating across the Place de la Concorde.

The swinging Sixties ushered in youth culture, and Avedon turned to models like skinny Penelope Tree. The change may have liberated Vogue readers from wearing girdles, but I blame Tree for every girl who burned herself trying to iron her hair into stick-straight perfection.  

Fashion photography has always sold unrealistic expectations. But the fantasies designers and magazines peddle are our fantasies. We can debate proposed legislation mandating minimum weights for runway models or labeling ads that have been Photoshopped. We can also ask ourselves if, at a time when women have achieved unprecedented power and financial independence, we are as much to blame as advertisers for fashion models who look like mall rats.

Demi Moore’s Lawyer Demands Apology for “Clumsy Photoshop” Charge

Lawyers for Demi Moore have demanded an apology from the photographer who called the W magazine cover shot of the actress a case of sloppy Photoshopping. Photographer Anthony Citrano has posted on his Web site a letter he received via email from lawyer Martin D. Singer of Lavely & Singer (the same Los Angeles law firm that represents Tiger Woods).

The letter states that the W cover wasn’t retouched at all:
“My client’s hips, waist or legs were not altered, retouched, or photoshopped for the cover image. Statements stating the contrary are false and defamatory.”

Along with the letter, Citrano has also posted the attached notes signed by Creative Director Dennis Freedman of W and the photographers who took the cover photo, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, saying, “There was ABSOLUTELY no retouching on her hips or waist or legs!!” 

Citrano says he's sticking by his statement. He says he doesn’t understand what’s “inflammatory” about saying a cover photo of a celebrity was retouched. On his Web site, he writes, “I doubt a single image has graced a major magazine cover in the past decade without being altered in some way. Ms. Moore’s implication that her image went straight from camera to cover is incredible, whether she believes it or not. Simply put, this never happens.”

Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott are known for their celebrity portraiture, and for their fantastical images created in post-production.

 Citrano first noted on the site Boing Boing back in November that on the W cover shot, it appeared that “a clumsy Photoshop artist” had “awkwardly chopped off part of [Moore's] left thigh.” When Moore said on her Twitter posts that the photo was unretouched,  Citrano took the next step to publicize his claim: He offered to pay a $5,000 reward to charity if anyone could produce proof the image was not retouched.   

Citrano tells PDN he received Singer’s letter on Tuesday December 15 from the IP address of Lavely and Singer, and has no reason to doubt its authenticity. “If it's a fake, it's the best fake ever, and the faker gained access to L&S's mail server in order to send the email.” Singer did not respond to PDN’s request for a comment.

Nielsen Business Media Sells Adweek, Clio Awards; Shutters E&P

Nielsen Business Media, owners of PDN, announced today that it had reached an agreement to sell eight of its properties, including Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and the Clio Awards to e5 Global Media LLC, a new company formed jointly by Pluribus Capital Management  and Guggenheim Partners. Photo District News, PhotoPlus Expo and IPN were not part of the sale.

At the same time, Nielsen announced it would cease publication of Editor & Publisher, a 109-year-old magazine covering the newspaper industry, and Kirkus Reviews, a source of pre-publication book reviews.

The properties moving to e5 Global are: Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, The Clio Awards, Backstage, Billboard, Film Journal International and The Hollywood Reporter as well as Nielsen's Film Expo business: ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia trade shows.

Pluribus Capital Management is a private equity partnership, and Guggenheim Partners is a global diversified financial services firm.

In a memo issued to employees remaining with the company, Nielsen Business Media president Greg Farrar stated, "This move will allow us to strengthen investment in our core businesses – those parts of our portfolio that have the greatest potential for growth – and ensure our long-term success. We remain committed to building our trade show group and affiliated brands."

5 Magazine Publishers To Develop Newsstand for e-Readers

After months of rumors and anticipation, five rival publishing companies have finally gone public today with their plan to develop a digital newsstand. The plan is for Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp and Time Inc to sell versions of their titles on e-reader devices --which are expected to come to market in 2010 but do not yet exist..

As  Mediaweek notes, the plan is still sketchy on details. For one thing, the as-yet-unnamed venture has not hired any staff. 

Report: National Geographic Trying to Sell Adventure Magazine

FOLIO: reports that National Geographic is trying to unload its lagging National Geographic Adventure magazine. Bonnier Corp., which recently acquired American Photo and several other titles from Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., is named as one possible buyer.

Adventure is one of five magazines published by the non-profit National Geographic Society, which also publishes National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, and two titles for children.

National Geographic Adventure pages are down 25 percent so far this year, according to Mediaweek Monitor, better than Traveler (down 38 percent) but worse than National Geographic Magazine (down 14 percent). In ad pages, however, Adventure has suffered the sharpest declines of all the Geographic titles, accoriding to Publishers Information Bureau figures cited by FOLIO:.

National Geographic and Bonnier declined to comment, FOLIO: says.

Related PDN story
Oct. 2, 2009: Restructuring Claims Two National Geographic Executives