The debate over the validity of the "lost Ansel Adams images" amplified this past month as Rick Norsigian, the California man who reportedly found the box of lost glass plates, uncovered potentially incriminating e-mails and filed a lawsuit against the Ansel Adams Trust and its managing director, William Turnage...

As the last call for Kodachrome film processing drew near, Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan., experienced one final flurry of film development requests. Film users from six continents — who had been storing and saving their prized Kodachrome film — sent in their last rolls before Dwayne's sold the old machine for scrap metal at the end of December...

A recent study has found that printing of digital photos and merchandise will be a key revenue generator for those in the photography business for the next five years. The “U.S. Consumer Photo Merchandise Forecast for 2010-2015,” prepared by InfoTrends, predicted that the photo merchandise market will see considerable growth, reaching $2.2 billion in revenue by 2014...

The Young Photographers Alliance, a photographic educational foundation, has launched a new international mentoring initiative. Created with the help of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), the program pairs college students and recent graduates with leading photographers from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to collaborate on a photo essay on a compelling social issue. This year’s essay theme, “Answering Adversity,” is about facing global economic hardship. The photo essays were published this fall and will be exhibited in...

PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System), an image rights management group, received funding this summer to develop its PLUS Registry.

An online resource, the registry will include features such as unique identifiers for image rights; holders and protections; secure and diverse metadata tools; and a centralized hub for licensing and registration.

Released in 2010, Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 and Lightroom 3 include numerous PLUS metadata fields.

Kenneth Starr, a former financial advisor for photographer Annie Leibovitz and other celebrities, has been arrested for embezzling $30 million of his clients’ money.
Starr, who was placed in charge of Leibovitz’s financial assets and income, is accused of diverting money to pay for personal expenses, such as a $32,000 wedding band and a condominium worth $7.5 million...

The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) is rallying against a proposed IRS rule that would require businesses to report all vendor transactions greater than $600 on their income taxes.ASMP has drafted sample letters opposing the bill and is urging its members to send them to the feds to protest the new requirement. Currently, businesses report only independent contractor payments above $600...

The Ansel Adams Publishing Trust has officially refuted the claim that 65 glass plates found at a garage sale in Fresno, Calif., were made by photographer Ansel Adams. In a lawsuit filed in August, the trust said it believes the negatives were created by previously unknown photographer Earl Brooks.
As the owner of Adams’ images and trademark, the trust is filing suit to stop Rick Norsigian, who purchased the plates 10 years ago for $45, from selling prints online under Adams’ name at ricknorsigian.com...

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Johnny Depp and Cameron Diaz are just a few of the faces picked up by Getty Images in August through a deal to subsidize celebrity images by Los Angeles Times photographers.

This new collection of images will be available on Contour, a division of Getty Images that focuses on professional licensing of celebrity portraiture...

In an attempt to prevent Google from unfairly copying, scanning and displaying copyrighted images, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and other trade groups have filed a class action lawsuit against the search-engine company.

For the past five years, Google has been uploading millions of books and other publications containing copyrighted images and displaying them to the public as part of the Google Library Project — all allegedly without adhering to the rights of the authors.