NOTICEBOARD

ARTIST ROOMS

On Tour is an inspired partnership with the Art Fund. Artist Rooms is jointly owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. It features the work of International Artists, working in a variety of art mediums, including: photography, video, painting and drawing. It features exhibitions at various venues throughout the UK commencing January 2011, and ending in the Spring of 2012.

Artists featured include: Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Diane Arbus,
Bill Viola, August Sander, Agnes Martin, Ed Ruscha, Richard Long,
Jeff Koons, Robert Therrien, Anselm Kiefer, Joseph Beuys, Alex Katz,
Cy Twombly, Vija Clemins,  Jenny Holzer and Francesca Woodman.

Out of all these Artist's, two jump out at me. Because they are/were Photographers. August Sander and Diane Arbus. Add to this list Francesca Woodman.

I visited one such exhibition, by the late American Photographer Francesca Woodman. Who sadly committed suicide at the young age of just 22 years old. Before visiting this exhibition at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, I was unaware of her work. It reminded me of Nan Goldin's and Cindy Sherman's work.

This exhibition is from 11 June - 23 October 2011. Ferens Art Gallery, Queen Victoria Square, Hull, HU1 3RA. Admission is free. For Opening Times please call 01482 300 300.

Out of all these exhibitions I would personally recommend you visiting and seeing the one by the late, German Documentary Photographer - August Sander. He is one of my favourite Photographers. I like his simple, but dynamic monochrome environmental portraits.

For more information on all of these exhibitions please log onto: www.artfund.org/artistrooms

Trevor David Betts

22 June 2011.

NOTICEBOARD

TWITTER PHOTOGRAPHY RIGHTS ROW SURFACES

Fears have escalated that photos posted on Twitter will be sold to third parties without the photographer's consent - a danger exposed by Amateur Photographer five months ago.  Twitpic - a firm that enables Twitter users to upload their photos - has been forced to issue a statement after controversially amending its terms of use.

Its revised terms state that Twitpic can 'distribute that content on twitpic.com and to our affiliated partners.' Although Twitpic has since made clear that users 'retain all copyrights' to their photos and videos, a spokesman for the intellectual Property Office told AP that, by agreeing to these terms and conditions, the photographer automatically grants Twitpic the right to distribute their images.

This means that, in practical terms, Twitpic users lose control of their photos. Concern intensified when it was announced that Twitpic had struck a deal with entertainment picture agency WENN, allowing it to sell on Twitter images.  WENN's chief executive Lloyd Beiny stressed that the agreement with Twitpic only applies to pictures 'taken by' celebrities, and not images uploaded by the general public.

However WENN already has a similar agreement with Pixi - another firm enabling Twitter users to share their images. Speaking to AP in January, Beiny did not rule out selling on other types of Twitter images to wider media, such as pictures of breaking news story - whether taken by a celebrity or not.

Commenting on the Twitpic deal, he insisted 'We are not after
99.9% of pictures.'Referring to a report in the Metro newspaper, which claimed that Twitpic users lose their photographic rights, he told us: 'A lot of fuss is being made about nothing... they (Twitpic users) don't lose their rights, they own the copyright.'

Beiny declined to comment on WENN's current agreement with Pixi (since renamed Lockerz), which - as we revealed earlier this year - appears to give WENN the right to choose whether to use photos uploaded by members of the public, not just celebrities. In January, he told us: 'It (the agreement with Pixi) applies to all pictures, but unless it is something really exceptional it is unlikely we would be interested in anything other than a celebrity.'

Twitpic's revised terms state: 'You retain all ownership rights to Content uploaded to Twitpic. 'However, by submitting Content to Twitpic, you hereby grant Twitpic a worldwide non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transfereable license to use, reproduce...'

From an article in the News section of Amateur Photographer magazine 11 June 2001 issue.

The full unedited version appears here.

NOTICEBOARD

ARE YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS BRINGING ABOUT A FILM REVIVAL?

SEEING my latest copy of Amateur Photographer discreetly hidden under a pile of papers on my desk, my colleague quizzed me on my photographic interests. Explaining that I'd got a digital compact as well as what was left of my film gear, but that I'd regretted recently selling some of my film cameras, she told me that her daughter was at university studying photography.

'She won't use a digital camera, though,' she said, which I must admit I found quite astounding. I naturally assumed that most young people would regard film equipment as something from the Stone Age. Not a bit.

'Why's that? I asked. 'She doesn't like the complexities of modern cameras, and all the stuff you have to do on the computer. She'd rather wait and see what comes out and she loves the work in the darkroom'. She then went onto tell me how how her daughter visited a camera shop that specialised in old film cameras at bargain prices, and was always adding a new one to her growing collection.

In an age when I - somewhat naively, as it turned out - thought that most people under 30 would regard using film as something primitive, akin perhaps to using a typewriter instead of a laptop, my colleague's revelation came as a pleasant surprise. But why was I surprised I wondered? The answer was staring me in the face, because despite owning a very nice digital compact myself - which does take, it has to be said, some tremendous photographs - I just cannot use it in the same intutive way that I can with my all-manual Nikon SLR.

Despite the large LCD screen, in all but the dullest light I cannot always clearly see the image  I've just taken, and it's only when I get home that I realise I've misjudged the exposure. If that's the case, then what's the point of digital? If I can't clearly see the image on the back of the camera then I might as well re-engage my brain and use a film camera.

Perhaps my colleague's young daughter has realised, we've lost the anticipation of photography - those most wonderful moments when we get back the pack of prints, the box of slides or the sheer satisfaction of seeing a selection of images taken on basic equipment, knowing we made the decision on the exposures, and maybe, just maybe, got them right.

Despite the never-ending proliferation of mobile phones with cameras, constant equipment upgrades, ever more complicated software and the somewhat soulless nature of digital photography, it is good to see that some young people are keeping the spirit of film photography alive. Good luck to them.

From the Back Chat section of Amateur Photographer magazine 11 June 2011 issue. An article by AP reader Martin Johnson.

An edited version appears here.