The Photographic Angle Newsfeed

Friday Link Love

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:00:00 -0500

Friday has come round again and at TPA we have had an extremely busy week. We are relocating offices so it has been complete chaos with all the removals. But despite all the turmoil we are still beavering away and we have even managed to start a new series of blog posts.

Friday Link Love is a series that we will endeavour to post every Friday and it will feature links to interesting photography related stories that we have come across on the web during the week. So here are this week's links. We hope you find something that will grab your attention.

1. Island Stories: Fifty Years of Photography in Britain

2. Inside the New York Times' Photo Morgue, A Possible New Life for Print

3. Jeff Wall photograph sets new world record

4. World's Longest Photograpic Art

5. Ikea cardboard digital camera: when Instagram isn't authentic enough

6. Best Night-Sky Pictures of 2012 Named

7. 30+ Moments of Joy and Reality Street Photography

8. Why Instagram is the Future of Street Photography

9. Apple's new iPad: Made for photographers?

10. The European Photography Festival kicks off in Reggio Emilia

One Day Millions Of Perspectives

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:00:00 -0500

Today, people all over the world will be reaching for their cameras to take part in a global documentation project of epic proportions. This unique photographic event has been initiated by the Swedish non-profit foundation Expressions of Humankind and is being supported by a highly respected global advisory council and a special scientific council. The idea behind the initiative is to use the power of photography to create, share and inspire perspectives on daily life.

Professional photographers and amateurs alike are being encouraged to take a snapshot of their daily life and map their images around three main categories: home, work and connections. The images will then be available to view and explore online, with some being selected to feature in a book to be published in October 2012 entitled A Day in the World. Every single image will be saved for future research and to inspire the generations that follow.

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group and member of the Global Advisory Council says: "This great project is about real people taking pictures of real life in real-time. Please get your camera and share your life on May 15th."

The idea of creating a crowd-sourced snapshot of the world, documented through photography, certainly is a fascinating one and it will be interesting to see the final results once they are made available. But the question that just begs to be asked is whether it really is possible to document our collective human history with such an initiative and in just one day.

Sure a photograph of your most loved item in your home and the one you dislike most says a lot about who you are as a person, but what can it really tell us about humanity? Or do these small details add up to paint a far bigger picture of humanity?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this initiative and whether you will be taking part today so please do leave us a comment or send us a tweet to @photographic1

Serenity Competition Winners Announced

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:00:00 -0500

In February we launched Serenity, one of our photographic competitions, and we are happy to report that by the time the competition closed we had received just over 370 entries from all over the world.

The theme of the competition, chosen by our curator Bryony, encouraged photographers to submit a range of images that depicted serenity in an environmental capacity. The images that we received ranged from pictures of landscapes, monuments, people, birds and everything in between and the standard of the work submitted was particularly high.

1st Place 'Egret Silhouette' Lana Gramlich

First place goes to Lana Gramlich from Abita Springs in the USA, who submitted a photograph entitled Egret Silhouette. Lana wins a year's subscription to Amateur Photographer magazine, the world's oldest consumer weekly photographic magazine, first hitting the newsstands in 1884. All of us here at TPA would like to offer Lana our sincerest congratulations for fighting off stiff competition to reach the top spot.

Our judge, Adrian Stone says: "This strong, graphic image powerfully conveys feelings of calm and serenity. The branches fill the frame with complementary curves. The sun is flooding the image with soothing, sensual light, progressively warming the whole image. The bird's stance and position generates stillness, a sense of watchful waiting. The location is not easily identified but its design and style draws on Chinese art influenced by Taoism. Careful control of the exposure and the avoidance of lens flare have made the sun's immediacy felt."

2nd Place 'The Waiting' - Roberto Baroni

Adrian, who works as a mentor and teacher of photographic amateurs and is a photographer for the Royal Society of the Arts, was equally impressed with our other top entries. Roberto Baroni from Italy came in second for his image entitled 'The Waiting', which our judge described as "a deceptively simple image with a strong emotional content". Emilie Robert from France was placed third with an untitled image that our judge said "has a quiet grandeur, which evokes a sense of elevation and calmness."

3rd Place 'Untitled' - Emilie Robert

And if you missed the deadline to enter the Serenity competition, then we have another opportunity for you! We recently launched the next competition which has the theme 'Contrast'. See competitions page for more details.

Aside from the prize of a year's subscription to Amateur Photographer magazine, our judges will be choosing a selection of images to be featured in one of our touring exhibitions at the end of the year. The competition closes on the 31^st of May so get your entries submitted to be in with a chance of winning. Good luck from all of us here at TPA!

Footprints Competition Serenity Theme

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Owing to the large amount of entrants to our Serenity themed competition we are going to take the liberty of a couple extra days to judge! As a result the final winner of the year's subscription to Amateur Photographer Magazine and those commended and highly commended entrants will be announced on the 10th of April not the 7th as previously planned. Apologies for the change and thanks for all the great photographs so far, it's going to be hard to judge. Keep an eye on the competition page for the next theme!

Kodak Down But Out

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:00:00 -0600

FotoNews

Kodak going down…? I has to be said that it was with no small amount of sadness that we received the news that Kodak, that iconic photographic brand which has been credited with bringing photography to the masses, today officially filed for bankruptcy, however all is not lost read the Press Release below for more…

January 19, 2012 12:22 AM Eastern Time Eastman Kodak Company and Its U.S. Subsidiaries Commence Voluntary Chapter 11 Business Reorganization

Flow of Goods and Services to Customers to Continue Globally in Ordinary Course

Non-U.S. Subsidiaries Are Not Included in U.S. Filing and Are Not Subject to Court Supervision

Company Secures $950 million in Debtor-in-Possession Financing in U.S.

Kodak's Reorganization to Facilitate Emergence as Profitable and Sustainable Enterprise

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Eastman Kodak Company ("Kodak" or the "Company") announced today that it and its U.S. subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for chapter 11 business reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

"Our goal is to maximize value for stakeholders, including our employees, retirees, creditors, and pension trustees. We are also committed to working with our valued customers."

The business reorganization is intended to bolster liquidity in the U.S. and abroad, monetize non-strategic intellectual property, fairly resolve legacy liabilities, and enable the Company to focus on its most valuable business lines. The Company has made pioneering investments in digital and materials deposition technologies in recent years, generating approximately 75% of its revenue from digital businesses in 2011.

Kodak has obtained a fully-committed, $950 million debtor-in-possession credit facility with an 18-month maturity from Citigroup to enhance liquidity and working capital. The credit facility is subject to Court approval and other conditions precedent. The Company believes that it has sufficient liquidity to operate its business during chapter 11, and to continue the flow of goods and services to its customers in the ordinary course.

Kodak expects to pay employee wages and benefits and continue customer programs. Subsidiaries outside of the U.S. are not subject to proceedings and will honor all obligations to suppliers, whenever incurred. Kodak and its U.S. subsidiaries will honor all post-petition obligations to suppliers in the ordinary course.

"Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation," said Antonio M. Perez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003. Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core IP assets. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company."

"After considering the advantages of chapter 11 at this time, the Board of Directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak," Mr. Perez continued. "Our goal is to maximize value for stakeholders, including our employees, retirees, creditors, and pension trustees. We are also committed to working with our valued customers.

"Chapter 11 gives us the best opportunities to maximize the value in two critical parts of our technology portfolio: our digital capture patents, which are essential for a wide range of mobile and other consumer electronic devices that capture digital images and have generated over $3 billion of licensing revenues since 2003; and our breakthrough printing and deposition technologies, which give Kodak a competitive advantage in our growing digital businesses."

Mr. Perez concluded, "The Board of Directors, the senior management team and I would like to underscore our appreciation for the hard work and loyalty of our employees. Kodak exemplifies a culture of collaboration and innovation. Our employees embody that culture and are essential to our future success."

Kodak has taken this step after preliminary discussions with key constituencies and intends to work toward a consensual reorganization in the best interests of its stakeholders. Kodak expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring during 2013.

The Company and its Board of Directors are being advised by Lazard, FTI Consulting Inc. and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. In addition, Dominic DiNapoli, Vice Chairman of FTI Consulting, will serve as Chief Restructuring Officer to support the management team as to restructuring matters during the chapter 11 case.

More information about Kodak's Chapter 11 filing is available on the Internet at www.kodaktransforms.com. Information for suppliers and vendors is available at (800) 544-7009 or (585) 724-6100.

Kodak will be filing monthly operating reports with the Bankruptcy Court and also plans to post these monthly operating reports on the Investor Relations section of Kodak.com. The Company will continue to file quarterly and annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which will also be available in the Investor Relations section of Kodak.com.

Although many of you will know that Kodak has been going through the death throes for some time I'm sure that you feel the same as I do when I say it would be truly sad not to see the company return to form. In this age of true deomcratisation of the arts, when more people are being able to enjoy photography than ever before, it would be a shame to see this company go down...

A/R