5 min read

Pixel #2: Technicians and Craftspeople

Featuring news, links and opinion from across the Pixelverse
Pixel #2: Technicians and Craftspeople

Hello!

This week we're mostly wearing Dolce y Gabbana and thinking about the future of photography. Same as every week, really. Join us as we take shelter from the howling gale of crap AI and look instead at some really optimised content, including some great GIFs of trains. That and more, after the fold.


Feature

Wow, how salad, much enjoy

Between Object and Information

What new joys await photographers as the medium enters its garret flat era?

The watershed moment for microstock imagery was the sudden appearance of a seemingly endless procession of images depicting women alone, laughing and eating salad. It sparked a viral blog, but in hindsight it's a marker of the moment at which a fundamental shift occurred in photography; the virtual end of licensing as a viable business model for a vast swathe of the photographic landscape. As the internet of images grew (and particularly once image search was useable) microstock sites quietly mushroomed, offering very cheap images of literally anything you might need. And the image you seek likely already exists; are you going to hire a professional to photograph a woman laughing alone while eating salad if you can just steal license one?

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Amazing Video Alert

Keiichi Matsuda imagines what shopping (and getting mugged) might look like through augmented reality glasses. For even more enjoyment, read the comments on YouTube where viewers point out some of the remarkable details hidden in the film

How to Promo Your Photographers

Hello "Soul Mate" - André Viking / Connected Archives (Here)

Connected Archives is a great little agency representing photographers spanning many genres. They've got an interesting client list, and their website and approach to the medium seems to radiate caring and fun. They recently published this amazing collection to mark Mother's Day, and we think it's still worth sharing with you despite the fact that Mother's Day has now passed.


Are You Bad At Discord?

We are, so we started digging around to try and figure out how to use it, which is what led us to this pretty good entry-level guide to how to use the platform better. It's written for teachers but the language, explanations and highlighted tools are broadly applicable. Definitely recommended.

Teachers’ Essential Guide to Discord | Common Sense Education
Everything you need to know about using Discord in the classroom.

Modernist Architecture Gets Some Love

Will is currently in Kampala, and he was lucky enough to catch the re-run of a small popup exhibition of the Shared Heritage Africa project, which was being hosted at Yamasen Boutique Mall and where Timothy Latim and Christine Matua were both in attendance and giving guided tours. Some of the original pictures were stolen between the first show and this one (which Tim described as "the ultimate compliment") but nevertheless it was interesting, engaging and worth a visit. And if, by chance, you're not in Kampala, don't worry- they have a website!

Shared Heritage Africa – Modernism from an African viewpoint.

And if that's your bag, then you will be absolutely thrilled to hear that African Modernism, Iwan Baan and Alexia Webster's monster survey of modernist African architecture, is now back in print!


The Link Garden

OnlyTrains is a small but neat idea in which somebody with a view of a train track set up a camera to document passing trains in a variety of ways. Way more pleasing than it sounds.
A lovely interview with Hassan Kamil about LGW Embassy: Khartoum, Sudan, his recent film. Worth a read, worth a watch.
Coronation: I wasn’t Meghan in disguise, says Sir Karl
Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins takes to TikTok to address those viral photos of him.
WYSIWYG here- cracking headline, brilliant story.
This discussion of how insiders spot outsiders reminded us of press pack swagger, and it got us thinking; what are the mall-grabs of the photography world? (And yes, if you make Arles bingo cards we will buy them and back up our scores with pics)
The 2023 Jakarta International Photo Festival's open call is now online. They're inviting photographers and artists from around the world to submit photographs, photo-based works (including video), multimedia installations as well as projects based on archival research that show different perspectives on the challenges and achievements of different generations. The open call proposal should reflect the festival theme, Generation. Learn more and enter by clicking on the image above!
The US Supreme Court has ruled that an Andy Warhol image violated copyright, which feels a lot like those warnings you get on bags of peanuts that say "Warning: May Contain Nuts". This inevitably reminds us of Emily Ratajkowski's remarkable essay about begging Richard Prince to act like a human

One Last Thought:

Here's where to spend your afternoon