Re: Images Needed to be published: Keep the peace,and propernetiquette, etc.

[Steve Shapiro <sgshiya@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I enjoy repeating myself --- below
Steve Shapiro ... at the end ...
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Aparycki <tawow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: panorama-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <panorama-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: Images Needed to be published: Keep the peace,and proper
netiquette, etc.


>I wholeheartedly second this sentiment,  very eloquently put.       Bob
>Atherton
>
>YDegroot@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
>> Please, let's not repay evil with evil.
>>
>> The rhetoric is getting really ugly.
>>
>> let's remember that this is a free society, and if any professional
and/or
>> amateur wants to lend their images to a book, free of charge, in
>>exchange of a
>> free copy and publicity, I would say: let him who wants to do this, do
this.
>> Why do we have to lecture people about this? What kind of pushy force is
>>that?
>>
>> yes, some will say: but this destroys the position of professional
>> photographers, who need to make a living from photography.
>>
>> The notion that professional photographers do better work than amateurs:
>> sometimes this is very true. But often it is not true at all. I was a
>> professional photo editor for a long time, and the stuff I received from
so-
>> called professionals, would you believe, that truly ticked me off!
>> Unbelievably bad at times. Some writers took their own pictures, and
often
>> they were very good.
>>
>> You really cannot generalize like that. A true professional is also
someone
>> whose behavior and language and acceptance of others, including amateurs,
is
>> as good as his photos.
>>
>> A true professional is someone who never looks down at amateurs, but who
>> encourages amateurs to be greater than himself.
>>
>> No greater love has a man than he who can lay down his arrogance and
hunble
>> himself towards his fellow man.
>>
>> The amount of arrogance touted as professionalism is truly amazing,
>> err.......,
>> I meant nauseating.
>>
>> You may judge the panoramic book after it is published. I am sure that
Bob
>> will not publish if the images he gets are not up to par!
>>
>> Enough said.
>>
>> THANK YOU!


I don't resent people giving work out for free . . . I personally work pro
bono for two organizations in the Montreal area, and I do other work
completely at MY expense for a few other charitable orginizations. I DO
RESENT, in a big way, the way some people in the industry who are really
savvy . . . certain book publishers, some ad agencies, some pr firms, who
prey off of the STUPIDITY and INSECURITY of amatuers who are willing to
sell their souls for spit. I know the industry . . . I have been here a
long time and seen it all. They (the stupid amatuers) are not going to harm
me in any way whatsoever . . . they are harming themselves, setting a
precedent, and in effect putting a big flashing neon sign over their head
saying "GULLIBLE JERK". Yes they will get their desperately needed
exposure, AND, they will get word of mouth from their client, . . . to whit
. . . "this guy is so stupid, he gave me this pic for nothing". You rarely
get the reputation you want, when you act like a whore. The lesson  . . .
hopefully you can derive it yourself.

As to amatuers sometimes producing a better image than a pro . . . I think
it is the other way around . . . pros sometimes produce a better image than
an amatuer. I live and breathe photography each and every day of my life,
but I frequently wish that I could live and breathe photography for me . .
. I don't have enough time, I'm busy doing it for my clients.

all the best

Paul Aparycki


My favorite story is or course an Ansel Adams story:  he sold his prints
tomuseums for $75 until he died, the fact remained solid that he sold 125 at
a time and that made each negative worth $10,000.

He was just over 60 when his first print brought more than $125, it was a
print of Half Dome, the one with the moon in the day time sky.  It sold for
$25,000.

He was especially happy, as he told us; because just hours earlier he got an
estimate on the septic tank that had burst on his property.  Everything, in
his own words, smelled like shit.  The estimate to drill in the granite
rock, with an overflow fifty feet above the ocean, into it was $25,000.

This proves, as a photographer, you have to emerse yourself in the shit to
make $25,000 on a print.

Steve Shapiro, Carmel, CA