“Roulette Girl,” an ad for the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Casino, is one of Stan Musilek’s many composite studio creations. Made of six different elements, the image includes greenery that was shot at Versailles, near Paris. For more on his work, click here.

To view all of our Fall 2008 issue, click here.

Cover photo: Copyright © Stan Musilek

By Hermon Joyner

A Stan Musilek image is composed of opposites: monumental and intimate, luscious and spare.

Even in such a mundane space as a kitchen, these forces play out. The imposing, panoramic expanse of red and gray, the brushed-steel appliances and fixtures standing out like islands in a sea of crimson. Your eye is drawn to the elegant woman as she leans against the counter and then to the man who pauses in mid-step in the background. The scene is both austere and inviting at the same time.

	“An American Icon — Red Kitchen,” shot earlier this year for Thermidor, took up Stan Musilek’s entire studio. “We had to set the camera 30 feet back from the cyclorama,” he says. Copyright © Stan Musilek

Or consider an elegant model presented in beautiful pearly grays unveiling a stainless steel range. She arcs a shimmering piece of fabric like a wing, which seems almost as if it were made of the same material as the appliance. This is a person as architecture, as sculpture. (more…)

The L.A. photographer’s fantastic set designs and multiple exposures elevate even the most mundane subjects to heroic proportions.

By Eric Rudolph

Young Kate Turning’s fantasy-fueled work was a bit too fashion-forward for the U.S. market in the late 1980s.

	“Jumping Jill,” an ad shot for Bacardi O Rum, is an example of Kate Turning’s colorful, ebullient style. Copyright © Kate Turning

In those days, Turning was working as a newly minted photographer in the fantasy-friendly pop music industry, and her work was selling well. But she didn’t want to be limited to record packages, promo shots and posters.

To move on to the big leagues, the studio specialist needed to take a daring step. “I had to leave America to truly find my voice,” Turning explains from her Los Angeles studio, where she is enjoying a brief pause before jetting off on another assignment.

“It is very important to develop a personal style” in order to succeed in the hyper-competitive world of photography, she says, and young photographers must make it a priority to nurture and enhance their own true inner voice. “My style is very fantasy oriented, and so I was having trouble getting out of the music world, where a fantasy approach was accepted and admired.”

So as soon as school was done, the Art Center College of Design graduate packed her bags and moved — first to Milan, where she did editorial work, and then Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, where she began doing advertising work. (She continued to work in the States too, mainly in Los Angeles, but also in New York.) (more…)

The founder of one of the nation’s most prestigious photo workshops is helping aspiring photographers carry on her passion for socially concerned imagery.

By P.J. Heller

Committed. Concerned. Caring. Those three C’s pretty much sum up photographer Julia Dean, who not only has incorporated those elements into her life and work but also has strived to encourage other photographers to do so through her teaching.

	While living for two months in the tiny village of Edneer, India, working on her second children’s book, Julia Dean came across these women walking on a raised footpath through a rice paddy. Copyright © Julia Dean

“The thing that impresses me most about Julia is her desire to make a difference in people’s lives,” says longtime friend Reid Callanan, founder and director of the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.

This year, Dean, who established the prestigious Julia Dean Photo Workshops nearly a decade ago, is moving into high gear with her love of photography about social issues. Soon she expects to complete a worldwide project, called “Child Labor and the Global Village: Photography for Social Change,” which began in the late 1990s and involves 11 photojournalists, including herself. Next year, she plans to launch “Documenting America’s Social Challenges: Five Pressing Issues,” a five-year undertaking that would also employ top photojournalists. Topics being considered for the project include health care, immigration, and education for the working class and poor. (more…)

2008 International Conservation Photography Awards Gallery

Known for his passionate advocacy for the environment, nature photographer Art Wolfe created a conservation-themed photo contest in 1997 as “an event for the advancement of photography as a unique medium, capable of bringing awareness and preservation to our environment through art.” This year marks the 11th anniversary of Wolfe’s annual photography exhibit, which has gone through some name changes and is currently known as the International Conservation Photography Awards (ICP Awards).

Sue Flood, Bristol, England Art Wolfe Award (Best in Show) Humpback Whale Calf and Remora Copyright © Sue Flood

The focus of the ICP Awards has been updated to reflect the new emphasis on conservation.

The mission statement is: “To harness the potential of amateur and professional photographers around the world who are not yet involved in environmental and cultural conservation; to recognize and reward excellence in conservation photography; and to educate, inspire and motivate the public through a photographic exhibition that will create a sense of urgency and move people to take action.”

Working with foundations, nonprofit organizations and industry-related businesses, the ICP Awards were able to award more than $10,000 in cash and merchandise this year. Entrants from all over the globe submitted more than 1,000 images for judging in nine categories: Landscape, Wildlife, Flora, Conservation Project, Environment at Risk, Underwater, Student, Indigenous Cultures and Puget Sound at Risk. (more…)

Two opposing views from photo experts on how Congress is attempting to address images with uncertain ownership

For all the upheaval that has shaken the photography industry in recent years, one of the more contentious issues is the management of so-called “orphan works” — those created compositions that have no discernable owner or definitive copyright information.

	Photo illustration made by John Harrington from a photograph, probably taken during a May 1, 1909, labor parade in New York City. From the George Grantham Bain Collection; downloaded from the Library of Congress

While everyone agrees that something must be decided to protect the copyright of archival images that are currently in legal limbo, consensus had yet to be reached at press time.

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have each introduced versions of an orphan works bill this spring. Both proposals would require the creation of an extensive public database of current works. This database would include names and locations of copyright holders, titles and descriptions of works, as well as security features enabled to protect the copyrighted works.

Photographers, however, are deeply divided over which bill would work best. The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) backed the House version, H.R. 5889, requiring users of orphan works to submit a “notice of use” to the U.S. Copyright Office, which would work with two private companies to run the database. The Senate bill, S. 2913, does not contain such a notification requirement. As a result, most photo groups, including ASMP, say that S. 2913 would allow too many copyrighted works to be considered orphaned and thus would encourage widespread infringement. (more…)

By Richard McEnery

At Microsoft’s third annual Pro Photo Summit, held earlier this summer in Redmond, Wash., some of my favorite parts were the “Five Minutes to Wow” segments. Basically, each presenter had five minutes to demonstrate a product or technology and elicit a “wow” from the audience.

The presenters were from Microsoft’s research group and from several other companies, and they showed some pretty amazing things. Multigigapixel images; 3-D models of landscapes and cities constructed from hundreds of images; a new image file format; new and better techniques for sharpening images — all these and much more were presented during the two-day summit. (more…)

by Richard McEnery

At the Pro Photo Summit, Kostas Mallios, general manager of the Rich Media Group at Microsoft, talked about the direction he believes photography is headed and what he sees coming in the near future. Having video and still-image capabilities in the same product is something he saw as inevitable and very exciting.

I have said for a long time that video cameras and still-image cameras were on a collision course. The resolution of video cameras is getting higher, as is the frame rate of still cameras. Not long ago, the Red One high-definition (HD) video camera came out, which was capable of delivering 12-bit RAW files at 1,080p (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) resolution with a 12-megapixel sensor at 30 frames per second. We were reaching a point where a single frame could be plucked from these video files and printed as a still image — perhaps not a 16×20 print, but definitely getting there. (more…)

House Bill Seeks Photographer Access to Military Funerals

A new bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this July that would allow media access to the funeral ceremonies for members of the armed services who have died on active duty.

The Fallen Hero Commemoration Act, H.R. 6662, was introduced by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and has gained the support of press organizations including the National Press Photographers Association and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

If the bill goes into effect, the Department of Defense would be required to give journalists access to ceremonies of soldiers killed in action, ending the ban that has been in place since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. During the Vietnam War, however, caskets draped in American flags were commonplace on television and newspaper reports, according to Jones. (more…)

Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) sharing a driftwood perch and eating fish in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. Copyright © Steven Kazlowski/Lefteyepro.com

Special Honors

The Sierra Club has bestowed wildlife photographer Steven Kazlowski with its Ansel Adams Award for his “superlative use of still photography to further a conservation cause.” He was presented with the award at the Sierra Club’s national dinner on Sept. 20.

Kazlowski’s images have appeared in magazines such as Vanity Fair, Newsweek and Canadian Geographic. His recent book, “The Last Polar Bear,” published by Braided River, is an eye-opening look at the changing landscape in the Arctic regions and what climate change means for its animal inhabitants.

Braided River, the conservation imprint from The Mountaineers Books, in conjunction with the University of Washington’s Burke Museum, has also developed an exhibit revolving around Kazlowski’s works on display through Dec. 31. (more…)