My name is Robert Benson, I'm a freelance photographer in San Diego and shoot mainly editorial and commercial stuff. You can write me at robert atmark robertbenson.com. Read more.My portfolio.
A lot of you have heard of the 19 year-old photographer, considered by some to be a sensation, named Joey Lawrence. You might know him by the behind the scenes videos and Photoshop tutorials he sells, or you might recognize his name by the bylines in Forbes, XXL, advertisements and other publications. His images – portraits with a certain “edge” – have a feel you can’t quite put your finger on: are they lit? are they photoshoped? Are they composites? What’s going on here?
I decided to find out, and asked him a few questions about his recent trip to Africa, where he made some beautiful portraits. The most surprising thing I learned from him? That he’s never happy with his work, and “thinks it’s all a bunch of shit most of the time.”
First of all, let’s get this question out of the way: you’re 19 years old. You’ve done more so far in your photo career than many long time working professionals ever have. How did you get to the level you’re at so quickly? Did the stars just align right, or was it your raw talent, or did you do some massive publicity campaign??
You are correct- I am 19 years old, but at work I am not any age in particular. When I do shoots, everything is kept professional and the only way they’ll find out my age is on set or in a meeting prior. I got to the level I am at the same way any body else does. In fact a “level” is a complete illusion, you can fall off as fast as you got on. There is no comfort zone when freelancing, only the ‘get out of jail free cards’ in your portfolio.
Can you tell me about how many emails you receive a week/day from admirers/fans/people with questions, etc?
I receive way too many per day to reply properly, but I am happy about it. I try to write back to as many as possible. I hear from a lot of young people. I really appreciate the people who follow my work and find the time to write to me.
This is pretty cool, stumbled across it on whatsthejackanory.com. Your chance to win a $50,000 dream photo assignment! You can learn about it here. So what is this contest? Here’s what they say:
“What is Name Your Dream Assignment? Name Your Dream Assignment is a contest for photographers of all backgrounds. We’re looking for the most creative, inspiring photo shoot idea out there. The photographer with the winning idea will win $50,000 to bring his or her dream assignment to life.”
It seems like the public votes on assignments they think are interesting, and whoever gets the most votes wins. I can see the “vote for me” emails going out already…
The assingments which currently have the most votes are:
“Insulin is not a cure”
“Faith as a common human experience”
“To conquer the reign of ice and fire”
“children of the world”
…and other Jim Nachtwey-like heavy duty topics that we’ve seen before (yawn) like homelessness, poverty, immigrants, war coverage….These are some of the interesting stories that caught my eye:
-Earth’s most dangerous natural wonders; the magic of a themed party; the expatriat experience.
I’m officially represented by New York City’s Aurora Select, who represent a dozen photographers across the nation. They are a good group of people, and I’ve been affiliated with Aurora in one way or the other for about three years. I looked at the date of my last post and realize it’s been a week and a half since I have posted anything. That’s a week and a half where I’ve been so busy I can’t even see straight! I’m coming up for air on the 29th of this month and will be able to go back to my nonsensical postings that everyone waits on the edge of their seat for. Mark your calendars!
Here’s some videos showing a Canon 500mm telephoto lens being thrown together at the factory, from kiln to the final testing (presented below in reverse order). Kind of a big deal, making a telephoto, and in part explains why we pay four figures for one of them:
The guys at featureshoot.com have my work on their homepage, along with a short story about my tintype work. You can see the story here. Feature Shoot is a resource for photo editors, art directors, and other industry professionals to discover new photographic talent. According to their website: “We interview and showcase the work of up-and-coming American photographers alongside that of established photographers who have completed a project or whose work has taken on a new direction.”
In a not so surprising news release, the National Endowment for the Arts reports that unemployment among working artists is up, according to a study they recently released in this news release:
March 4, 2009
Washington, D.C. — Unemployment rates are up among working artists and the artist workforce has contracted, according to new research from the National Endowment for the Arts. Artists in a Year of Recession: Impact on Jobs in 2008 examines how the economic slowdown has affected the nation’s working artists. The study looks at artist employment patterns during two spikes in the current recession – the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008. This downturn reflects larger economic declines: a Commerce Department report last week noted a 6.2 percent decrease in the gross domestic product in the last quarter of 2008.
Among the findings:
Artists are unemployed at twice the rate of professional workers, a category in which artists are grouped because of their high levels of education. The artist unemployment rate grew to 6.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with 3.0 percent for all professionals. A total of 129,000 artists were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2008, an increase of 50,000 (63 percent) from one year earlier. The unemployment rate for artists is comparable to that for the overall workforce (6.1 percent).
Unemployment rates for artists have risen more rapidly than for U.S. workers as a whole. The unemployment rate for artists climbed 2.4 percentage points between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008, compared to a one-point increase for professional workers as a whole, and a 1.9 point increase for the overall workforce.
Artist unemployment rates would be even higher if not for the large number of artists leaving the workforce. The U.S. labor force grew by 800,000 people from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. In contrast, the artist workforce shrank by 74,000 workers. Some of this decline may be attributed to artists’ discouragement over job prospects.
Unemployment rose for most types of artist occupations. Artist jobs with higher unemployment rates are performing artists (8.4 percent), fine artists, art directors, and animators (7.1 percent), writers and authors (6.6 percent), and photographers (6.0 percent).
The job market for artists is unlikely to improve until long after the U.S. economy starts to recover. Unemployment is generally a lagging economic indicator, or a measure of how an economy has performed in the past few months. During the prior recession (2001), artist unemployment did not reach its peak of 6.1 percent until 2003 – two years after economic recovery began nationwide.
666x is the write speed of a new compact card by a company called Pretec. Coincidence? It’s the devils work!
Seriously though, are you kidding me? 64gig? 666x? The cards will go on sale in April, according to what Rob Galbraith writes over at DPreview.com. A card as big as 64gig is too much in my opinion. Could you imagine the thing corrupting when you’ve just shot your 3700th picture from a two week trip to Tahiti?
If the 64gig size isn’t enough, they have 100gig options.
I thought I was a baller back in the day (1998) with my 128meg flash card!
Saw this advertisement in a magazine yesterday. It’s a promo piece for the Sci-Fi show Sanctuary. Apparently it’s one of the first TV shows to use live action and green-screen technology almost exclusively…. It’s film, but hey! This same effect can (and is and has) be used in still photography too. Can’t shoot an elaborate portrait inside that cool looking train station near you without the hassel of permits, red tape and money? No worries – go there guerilla style, shoot a few frames, then drop in your well lit subjects that were shot back at the studio.
Although the famous Matrix green screen technique is now a little old, it’s still cool to watch how they strung together 120 DSLRs with a green screen to make cool stuff:
Here’s a green screen composite from Sin City:
Here’s a good online tutorial on how to extract people when shot using green screen (or any other colored background). It’s the best video you will ever find on how to properly do an extraction in Photoshop:
