Editorial Dec 2007

Over the last ten years the world of photography has changed beyond recognition. To a casual observer this may seem like an overstatement but to anyone with a more than passing interest in the field, the facts speak for themselves.

The landscape has really shifted under our very feet and, for many reasons, this is the perfect time to be starting a regular podcast, covering the world of image making. The digital revolution has completely remodelled the way we shoot, sell, publish and archive photography. Photographers have become multi-skilled image producers in order to survive and the most adaptable have thrived in this new landscape. Multinational corporations have entered the agency business which had traditionally been fragmented and driven it to enhance shareholder value like it has never been driven before. The personalities who run the largest agencies are still no less strong and colourful than in the past but now they wear designer suits.
An entire new vocabulary has entered the way photographers shoot, manage, exhibit and get paid for their work. Colour spaces, image workflow and ftp client, these are not terms that the average photographer would have been familiar with ten years ago. Now they are commonly used and, remarkably, usually understood. 

At the same time as the number of media outlets has exploded, the average photographer has found it ever more challenging to make a living in a market that is at once growing rapidly and putting down new rules as to who gets paid for what and when due to ongoing consolidation among the world’s media and publishing conglomerates.

All this considered, what remains is the photograph, and the quality, depth and variety of work being produced out there by those multi-skilled image producers appears to be growing constantly. And so, Talbot’s Fox, with a deep bow to the great man who started it all, (apologies, Daguerre), sets off in pursuit of the art and commerce of photography in this age when photography is at once cheap and highly valued, individual and ubiquitous, easier than ever to be competent in and extremely difficult to master. 

This is the beginning of a long-planned journey for me, I hope you’re going to find it interesting. Drop me a line when you do!Look out for the first podcasts getting published in the New Year and make sure you subscribe if you’re in the mood for some enlightening and entertaining conversations with great photographers.

Wishing you perfect light, and a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and Joyous Kwanza, or just compliments of the Season and a Happy New Year,
RT