For more than half a century, photographer Melvin Sokolsky has blazed a trail across the fashion, celebrity and advertising world with his uniquely personal point of view. By Barry Schwartz Melvin Sokolsky was 18 years old, on his way to look at a studio to share in New York. He was with his girlfriend...

With a passion for travel, Erik Almas expands the boundaries of the typical studio photographer, often including sweeping landscape elements in his commercial images. By Herman Joyner It’s December, and Erik Almas is a long way from home. For most of his life, Almas called Norway home; now San Francisco...

by Randy Woods For many photographers, their first experience with a camera is with a cheap point-and-shoot, such as an old Kodak Instamatic or a Polaroid. Once hooked, the photographer usually moves on to newer, more advanced models with greater capabilities. For others, however, first impressions...

Story by Randy Woods Bill Dobbins, known as one of the world’s foremost photographers of female bodybuilders, often compares the supremely sculpted models he shoots to landscapes. “Those who shoot traditional nudes tend to focus on soft, clean lines of the human body,” he says. “But with body...

by Gail Mooney Video seems like a hot topic these days, but there’s nothing really new about it. Video has been around since the first days of television. What is new is the increased demand for video due to broadband and mobile devices — and that means opportunity. YouTube gets 100 million hits...

PHOTOGRAPHING HAITI’S TURMOIL Photojournalists have been in Haiti since day one, documenting the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude Port-au-Prince earthquake that ravaged the country on Jan. 12.   REBUILDING BEGINS IN HAITI Concrete dwellings lay flattened in Petionville, a neighborhood perched...

To combat the impact of the economic downturn in the ever more competitive photography industry, five Portland-based photographers have joined together to create a collaborative assemblage known as PhotoForce (photo-force.com). The team — consisting of Steven Scardina, Lincoln Barbour, Brian Lee, Stuart...

DIGITAL CAMERAS Canon Introduces Premier EOS-1D MARK IV SLR Canon’s EOS-1D Mark IV features a completely redesigned 45-point autofocus system, fast 10-fps continuous shooting, 16-megapixel resolution, outstanding ISO sensitivity and full HD video recording. Out of the 45 autofocus points, 39 are high-precision...

On the cover: After more than 50 years, Melvin Sokolsky continues to push the envelope of the fashion world with his unique vision and dramatic set design, as seen in this image for Vogue Deutsch. For more of Sokolsky’s work, click here. To view all of our Spring 2010 issue, click here. Cover...

An Eye on Excellence     Gary Halpern © Davis Freeman   Since we publish PhotoMedia just three times a year, a lot can happen of interest to those in our industry between issues. For instance, soon after our Fall 2009 issue was distributed in October, several legendary photographers passed...