As per the annual tradition F STOP will continue to hibernate for a little longer this winter.

In the meantime, if you can’t get enough F STOP goodness, browse through the over fifty photographer features in our interview archive and the dozens of exclusive blog entries from past months.

Be sure to add us to your RSS feed, and sign up for our monthly email Newsletter (look up) to be the first to know when we’re back with new content…or just check back with us in the next few weeks.

Happy 2011!

© 2010 Zack Seckler

In the summer of 2007 I launched what I hoped would be a valuable resource for photographers like myself who had to learn about becoming a professional on their own. Since then The F STOP has grown into a resource for not only photographers but also those who hire and admire them.

As a photographer the focus is always on my work, on my career. Creating F STOP has allowed me the opportunity to give back to my industry. The experience has been a true labor of love.

I’m incredibly proud to look back at the now fifty interviews I’ve conducted with some of the most highly regarded advertising, editorial and fine art photographers in the world. It’s been an honor.

I want to thank all the photographers who have given me a snapshot into their lives and to the readers who have given their support and guidance over the years. Thank you!

Regards,
Zack Seckler
Editor & Publisher

Our RSS issue has been fixed!

If you weren’t already aware the RSS feed on this site has been broken for several weeks. If you’ve used an RSS feed to follow F STOP in the past you may want to look through recent content to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

As you may have noticed The F STOP has been a little quiet this summer…the Summer Slowdown has officially taken effect!

Blog posts will continue to trickle in but not as often as during the regular season. Our next photographer feature will be up on September 1st.

Thank you to all of those who wrote in about my interview in the July issue of PDN. I was interviewed based off of the post I did back in April about using the iPad as a portfolio. Here’s the original video for those who didn’t see it the first time:

Zack Seckler’s iPad Portfolio from Zack Seckler on Vimeo.

The NY Times is reporting that according to the 11th annual entertainment and media outlook report that was released today there is going to be a .5% drop in ad spending this year compared with 2009. This is actually an improvement from 2009 when ad spending dropped 15.2% compared with 2008. But according to the article there is more tough news to swallow:

“Although ad spending will increase in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, the report forecasts, the total in 2014 will still be 9 percent less than it was in 2007.

By 2014, ad spending in categories like the Internet, television and radio is expected to exceed the spending levels of 2009, according to the report, while ad spending in categories like consumer magazines, trade magazines, newspapers and directories is projected to be lower than it was in 2009.

Newspaper ad spending is under pressure to the point, the report says, that the total amount of ad spending online will surpass the amount spent in newspapers this year.”

Winners of the Prix de la Photographie Paris competition or Px3 were announced today.

Howard Shatz won the Photographer of the Year title for his Boxers series and Stefano Orazzini won the title of Best New Talent for his Night Terraces series.

The first place winners of each category are:

Advertising – Szymon Brodziak for Noti Girls

Photojournalism – Howard Shatz for Boxers

Book – Eric Lusito for After the Wall

Fine Art – Euro Rotelli for The Body and the Soul

Nature – Mitch Dobrowner for Storms

Portraiture – Phillip Toledano for A New Kind of Beauty

There are dozens and dozens of other winners in the sub-categories…check out all the work here.

The media coverage has moved on from the disastrous earthquake in Haiti but overwhelming pain and suffering still remain. There are more than 1 million displaced homeless people living in Haiti today.

The photo community has come together to raise money for relief efforts by creating HeArt for Haiti an online auction of prints with all proceeds going to Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières to benefit relief efforts in Haiti. The organization is spearheaded by Heart Art (co-founded by Celeste Holt-Walters, Senior Art Producer at McCann Erickson, and Audrie Lawrence, agent at Redux Pictures), Sascha and Stephen Mallon, Red Run Creative and Agmac.

Prints were donated by over 100 world renowned photographers including several F STOP photographers (Darran Rees, James Day, Stephen Wilkes, Erik Almas, Phillip Toledano) and yours truly.

The auction will take place online starting May 19th, and will be active for one month. There will also be a one night gallery opening where potential buyers will be taken through how to register for the site and will have the opportunity to view the work they want to bid on in person.

If you do anything related to the advertising or editorial industries (photographer, producer, art buyer, art director, photo editor, agent, etc.)  and you live in the NYC area then clear your schedule for tonight…you’re coming to ADHESIVE!

ADHESIVE is based on a wonderfully simple idea: bring industry people together at a local bar every month or so and let beers clink and business cards fly. It’s a super casual atmosphere for like-minded folk to talk shop and form new connections. The icing on the cake…it’s completely free!

The concept was born by Wini Alcorn, Senior Art Producer at McCann Erickson, Tim Willis, an owner of Lockbox Productions, Shabdam Azadeh, an agent at Kate Ryan Inc., and Brian Bergeron, Assistant Creative Director for MoMA Retail.



ADHESIVE will be held tonight at Brass Monkey (55 Little West 12th Street New York, NY 10014) starting at 6:30pm.  The crowd is photo industry heavy but anyone is welcome to attend. No cover charge but do bring money for drinks!

I’m very excited to introduce a new column here at F STOP called Ask Maven. Maven has over fifteen years of experience in the ad biz and she’s here to answer your questions. She started out as a producer, moved onto representing photographers and for the past six years has been an art buyer at a major international ad agency.

If you have questions for someone with Maven’s experience (art buyer, producer, rep) email them directly to maven (at) thefstopmag (dot) com

If your question is chosen for a column we’ll publish it alongside Maven’s response. You can include your name and a link to your website or remain anonymous. Your choice.

Below is an intro from Maven…start writing in questions, she’s excited to hear from you!

Need a production hook up in Siberia? Want to know who can build you a gorilla head in 3 days?  Or maybe you want to know how to better market yourself in this here digital age?  Write in and ask maven – she’s a bit of a production Ann Landers coupled with a creative concierge and engineer of ideas – think advice column for creative types. She’s here to answer any and all questions on how to do it, when to do it, and what to do. Maven will take what’s in your head and give you tips on how photographers or other creative professionals can take the next step to create it, dream it, or be it.

The NY Times recently published an article about how hard it is to make a living as a photographer. It’s essentially a tour guide through the largest blows to the photography industry over the past several years:

1. The surge in quality stock photography and microstock. According to the article: “In 2005, Getty Images licensed 1.4 million preshot commercial photos. Last year, it licensed 22 million.”

2. Cheap and readily available digital photography equipment resulted in a lower barrier to enter the industry. This created more competition and made it easier for clients to pay less for assignment photography.

3. The decline of the print media industry means less money for editorial assignments and less demand for print ads. According to the Times: “In 2000, the magazines measured by Publishers Information Bureau, a trade group, had 286,932 ad pages. In 2009, there were 169,218 — a decline of 41 percent. ”

There is no denying the facts, on paper things have gotten harder for photographers over the last few years. Editorial and commercial photographers are completely dependent on the media and advertising business; businesses that are struggling right now. To use a familiar analogy we’re like a school of fish in a pond and we need the water to survive. The turmoil in our industry has started to dry up the pond while at the same time more fish are added each day. That’s not a good scenario for the fish.

Some of the weaker fish might have to find new ponds to swim in (i.e. find a new career) and some of them may evolve (i.e. move to motion or other visual industries) BUT hope should not be lost, even if the pond doesn’t grow there will always be a large audience for still photography. It’s a unique medium and a fantastic way to tell stories, sell products and change people’s perception about the world. It’s not going to disappear.

PLUS there are some welcome rainclouds on the horizon.

First off, new ways of consuming media like the iPad and future incarnations of similar technologies have a good chance at pumping new life into media and advertising. Second, this is still the Wild West of online media. Newspapers and magazines have time to figure out a way to make up for revenues lost from the decline of print. Lastly, and most importantly, talent and business savvy will always prevail. Whatever pond you’re in, large or small, there will always be a pond and there will always be room for the best. Hopefully that’s you.