Seattle & London, April 26, 2010. Getty Images, the world’s leading creator and distributor of visual content and other media, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Rex Features, which includes Los Angeles-based Berliner Photography. The acquisition will benefit existing and potential customers by making even more celebrity content easily accessible.

“Celebrity and entertainment content is a growing and vital part of the editorial imagery industry and this acquisition positions us to meet and exceed the demand for nearly instantaneous material,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images.

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Worker Viktor Kalmykov arrives at the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Combine construction site, 1930. Magnitogorsk (Magnet mountain city) is a mining and industrial city by the Ural River in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, with one of the largest iron and steel works in the country. credit: Max Alpert ©RIA Novosti / TopFoto

The exhibition, curated by RIA Novosti, Russia’s leading press service, has already shown to great acclaim at London’s Guildhall and the Imperial War Museum North.

The show includes World Press Award winners, such as Vladimir Vyatkin, whose image of soldiers in Chechnya won the Gold Medal in 2002.

Grozny, Chechnya. August 1996 Photo by Igor Mikhalev

From the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, the exhibition then charts the tremendous changes Russia has undergone within the last 100 years, from the industrialisation of the 1930s, through WWII and the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and developments since.

A federal reconnaissance unit in the Bass River gorge, Chechnya, 1999. Gold medal, World Press Photo, 2002. credit: Vladimir Vyatkin ©RIA Novosti / TopFoto

Russia’s finest photographers are represented.

Max Alpert, for example, is one of the greatest photographers of the 20^th Century. His image of Commander Alexei Yeremenko, urging on his men in 1942 shortly before his death, is justly famous.  To capture this silent, devastating, shot Alpert was right up front. You can hear the bullets.

A Russian soldier raising the Victory banner on the roof. Berlin, Germany - 5 May 1945

These are simply great photographers working at the height of their skill.

Exhibition 04/02/10–31/03/10. Gifts/Print shop. Free entry 09.30-5pm Mon-Friday; 09.30-1pm Sat. T: 01732 863 939.

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

NEW YORK, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ — Magnum Photos, Inc., MSD Capital, L.P. and the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin today jointly announced a landmark partnership under which the Magnum Archive Collection, which contains nearly 200,000 original press prints of images taken by world-renowned Magnum photographers, will be preserved, catalogued and made accessible by the Ransom Center.  The Collection will reside at the Ransom Center pursuant to an agreement with its new owner, an affiliate of MSD Capital, which recently acquired the prints from Magnum Photos

Magnum Photos, the venerable agency founded, owned, and managed cooperatively by its member photographers, has been a standard of photographic excellence and innovation over the past 60-plus years.  The vintage prints in the Collection have been amassed since the 1930s and include images of major world events, celebrities, family life, poverty, religion and social affairs by Magnum photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Leonard Freed, Bruce Davidson, Rene Burri, Eve Arnold, Dennis Stock and more than 80 others.

Images of icons from Picasso to Marilyn Monroe, from Sinatra to Gandhi, and from Castro to a young Queen Elizabeth coexist in the Collection with depictions of international conflicts, political unrest and cultural strife.  Included are famous photos from the Spanish Civil War, the D-Day landings and the Six-Day War, as well as unforgettable scenes of historic events: the rise of democracy in India, Afghanistan and Iraq; the U.S. Civil Rights movement; the Rwandan genocide; and much more.

The Collection will be preserved and cataloged by the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, whose photography collection holds the world’s first photograph, and has substantial holdings in fine arts and photojournalism.  The Ransom Center will encourage interest in the Collection through scholarly research, fellowships, lectures and exhibitions.  The Center will also host visits and programs with Magnum photographers.

Managing Director Mark Lubell of Magnum Photos said: “MSD Capital is an ideal partner, with a deep appreciation of and commitment to this unparalleled collection of photographic prints.  Housing the collection at the Ransom Center not only allows this archive to be studied by photographers but also helps satisfy the huge interest in it among historians, anthropologists, curators, journalists and the public at large.  Through this arrangement, we are able to acknowledge, celebrate and preserve Magnum’s historic past, and continue to be industry innovators by developing new platforms to distribute our future work.”

MSD Capital, the private investment firm of Michael S. Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Inc., purchased from Magnum Photos the physical press prints, which include many of these photographers’ most iconic images.  Magnum’s member photographers will retain the copyright and licensing rights to all of the images in the Collection.

“This is a singularly valuable collection in the history of photography,” said Thomas F. Staley, Director of the Ransom Center.  ”It brings together some of the finest photojournalists of the profession and spans more than a half century of contributions to the medium.  We are delighted to make these remarkable materials accessible to researchers and students.”

John C. Phelan, Co-Managing Partner of MSD Capital, said: “We immediately recognized the unique opportunity to own this extraordinary collection of prints by the world’s finest photojournalists.  The images contained within the Collection capture the events and spirit of the 20th century in a way that only Magnum photojournalists can.”

Glenn R. Fuhrman, Co-Managing Partner of MSD Capital, added: “The Magnum Collection is an irreplaceable trove of American and world history.  Given the technical changes that have taken place in the world of photography, including the digitization of images, a collection of prints like these will never exist again.”

Michael Dell commented, “I am so pleased to be able to entrust this significant body of work to the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas for research, study and exhibition.  The Ransom Center has a well-known record of excellence and is ideally suited to manage the archiving and study of such a substantial and important collection. Having this incredible collection in Austin is especially exciting to me.”

Selected images from the Magnum Archive Collection may be viewed at: http://bit.ly/magnumlightboxlink

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

January, 20, 2010. With Image Source vario images represents a new promising partner agency with its headquarter in London. The renowned photo agency belongs to the leading independent producers of creative and commercial Royalty Free-photography. The remarkable image pool contains more than 145.000 images, so that almost every topic in the field of high-quality people and lifestyle photography can be visualized.

“A perfect and highly imaginative picture language with a strong feeling for contemporary trends makes the images of this agency that impressive”, says Susanne Baumgarten, president of vario images.

“With vario images we have chosen a strong distributor in Germany who gives especially editorial clients – besides advertising and book publishers – an understanding of our collection”, says Miriam Mandel, International Account Manager at Image Source.

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Built on the LicenseStream platform, LicenseStream Business Edition gives owners of premier collections and libraries of images, video and audio a quick-start, all-inclusive, Web-based service that allows content owners to showcase, license, track and monetize the full value of their content through their own branded online stores.

“With LicenseStream Business Edition, content owners can publish their content directly to their own online store or anywhere else on the Web and to global search engines, enabling anyone in the world to find their search-optimized content and pay for it with a mouse click,” said Iain Scholnick, chief executive officer, ImageSpan. “This essentially makes the content itself the storefront. It dramatically speeds the pace of transactions and drives incremental revenues. Until now, media companies, libraries and owners of premier collections had a tough time justifying the cost of putting the head as well as the long tail of their content on the Web because the revenues they realized could not cover the costs associated out-dated manual licensing transactions. Now content owners of all sizes can make their entire catalog of media – not just the hits – available online to maximize their assets’ value.”

Missouri History Museum already has made available online via LicenseStream Business Edition more than 3,000 images, including a wide range of Civil War-era images, a wide range of early daguerreotypes and other photos and images related to American Indian people and culture, and images of oil paintings and artifacts related to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who headed up the first overland expedition by the United States to the Pacific Coast and back.

“We often receive requests from visitors asking us about the art and artifacts we display and how they can get copies,” said Dr. Robert R. Archibald, president, the Missouri History Museum. “With LicenseStream Business Edition, we can now publish images of our collections directly to the Web so that anyone in the world can find our search-optimized images and pay for them with a mouse click. LicenseStream also has dramatically cut the time spent by our staff on searching for and processing such image requests so we can respond to requests in a day versus months, accelerating both of transactions and revenues while cutting costs.” (Please see related release: Missouri History Museum Selects ImageSpan’s LicenseStream to Maximize the Value of Its Photos, Prints)

American history teacher turned Producer-Photographer-Writer Joseph Sohm is now using LicenseStream Business Edition to license the more than 1,300 photographs included in his “Visions of America: Photographing Democracy,” ($60; November 2009; Visions of America LLC/Midpoint Trade Books Dist.) a book that offers a sweeping portrait of life in the American democracy via an epic photographic journey across the United States. For more than 25 years, Sohm traveled and photographed all 50-states. Images from his “Visions of America” collection have been published 50,000 times in his lifetime.

“LicenseStream Business Edition enables me to publish my work directly to my own branded storefront as well as to the Web and major search engines in a way that also lets potential buyers license it on the spot,” said Sohm, whose “Visions of America” recently won the Gold medal for “Best Coffee Table Book” at the 13th annual Independent Publishing awards in New York City. While requiring minimal investment, LicenseStream also allows content owners to retain a larger share of royalties for each transaction – multiple times the 20 percent royalty fee offered by most major agencies. “That key difference makes it affordable for me to shoot, metatag, process and offer my customers a much greater selection of photographs online.”

LicenseStream Business Edition pricing starts at $5,500 annually with a 25% transaction fee. The annual fee can be billed one-time, monthly or quarterly to suit a client’s needs.

ImageSpan’s Vice President, Enterprise Business Development Candice Murray will speak on “Tools for Selling Stock Direct” at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, October 22, at the PDN PhotoPlus Conference in New York.

ImageSpan also will be demonstrating LicenseStream Business Edition and its other LicenseStream services in Booths #1155 at the concurrent PhotoPlus Expo in New York, October 22-24. Come see Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice talk about LicenseStream’s benefits in the ImageSpan booth at 11 a.m. Friday, October 23rd.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Lebrecht is delighted to announce that we are now representing the work of distinguished classic rock photographer Philip Grey. We have a selection of his rock group photos from the late seventies and the eighties, including Debbie Harry, Adam Ant, Bono, and The Clash plus his photos of world music at the renowned Womad festivals.

Ex-Runaway Joan Jett at London’s Music Machine, 1980.
#129564

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Gothic horror, a Faustian pact, an attempt to be forever young with no consequences….

Click here for Oscar Wilde and Dorian Gray

1219007 – Dorian Gray is played by Ben Barnes in the film ©Momentum Pictures / TopFoto
rv1093-24 – Oscar Wilde. Ink and watercolour on vellum. ©Roger-Viollet / TopFoto

Glass Negative of the Week
Click here for the TopFoto TimeSearch by Bamber Gascoigne
Next month in history

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Sir Arnold Wesker, the renowned British playwright, has placed a number of
his personal photos with Author Pictures at Lebrecht.  This complements the
drafts of his famous plays such as ‘Roots’ and ‘I’m Talking about Jerusalem’
that he previously gave permission to Lebrecht Authors to include on their
website at www.lebrecht.co.uk

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)