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Supporting the Photo Community

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Digital Silver Imaging believes we are all part of one big photo community. We depend on each other for commerce, support and inspiration. We strive to be a good citizen of this photo community and give back whenever we can. This is a brief list of our major partners and how we work together.

Photoville / United Photo Industries

Photoville is an annual free outdoor photo festival where photographic prints are exhibited in re-purposed shipping containers. By creating a physical platform for photographers of all backgrounds to come together and interact, Photoville provides a unique opportunity to engage with a diverse audience — a veritable cross-section of the world’s photographic community. This year, 2019, Photoville made its first appearance in Los Angeles in May and will again have its premier event under the Brooklyn Bridge in September. Digital Silver Imaging has been providing Photoville with pro bono printing services and support since 2015.

© Dylan Everett – Digital Silver Imaging Portfolio Award Winner

Social Documentary Network /ZEKE Magazine

Social Documentary Network supports a website that today has had nearly 3,300 compelling online exhibits submitted by photographers from all corners of the globe. SDN photographers tackle tough and important issues often given little or no coverage by today’s commercial media. As stated on the site, “All photographers on SDN share a common curiosity about the human condition and a strong desire to communicate their insights through words and photographs.” Digital Silver Imaging’s Eric Luden is on the SDN Advisory Board and as a company we sponsor SDN events such as Documentary Matters, and support SDN’s ZEKE Magazine with paid ads, as well as printing services.

Griffin Museum of Photography

The Griffin Museum of Photography is a nonprofit museum dedicated solely to the art of photography. Through exhibitions, lectures and workshops the Griffin is an important resource for the photographic community of the Boston Area and the United States. DSI founder Eric Luden has been involved with the Griffin for over a decade, he currently serves as the Vice President of The Griffin Museum of Photography’s Board of Directors.

WPOW – Women Photo Journalist of Washington

WPOW consists of over 350 experienced and emerging photojournalists, photo editors, videographers, producers, and students working in the Washington D.C. area. Digital Silver Imaging has supported WPOW with the printing of their annual exhibition.

Lesley University College of Art and Design

Digital Silver’s Eric Luden is on the Dean’s Advisory Council at Lesley. Digital Silver Imaging has happily assisted many Lesley students with internships and employment.

 

Other Nonprofit Organization we support through direct donations, services, or discounts

Catchlight Foundation

SPE – Society of Photographic Education

MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora

Veteran’s Portrait Project

Boston Society of Architects

Leica Historical Society America

WGBH Boston Public Television

Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller on Staying Relevant as Professional Photographers

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Doug Menuez & Sandro Miller ©Doug Menuez's Leica
Doug Menuez & Sandro Miller ©Doug Menuez’s Leica

Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller continue to be creative, successful, and relevant after almost 40 years in the business of photography. On June  22, 2019, Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller generously shared volumes of valuable and entertaining information in an event hosted by Digital Silver Imaging and PhotoPolitic™. About 30 photographers and industry professionals gathered in Sandro’s beautiful Chicago studio. Also present was special guest Jim Stallman Senior VP and Creative Director of Leo Burnett and four industry movers and shakers, Patrick Rynell, EVP/ECD, Ainara Del Valle, ACD/AD, Jennifer Meinders, ACD/AD, Jon Lueken, Sr. Producer.

So how do these successful photographers define “The Art and Science of Staying Relevant?” The take away is condensed into these few brief paragraphs.

Stay Creative

Personal Projects | Pro Bono Work | Fine Art | Get out of your comfort zone

Both Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller pursue personal work as part of their work/life balance. Doug believes that working with nonprofit organizations can give an editorial photographer like himself the ability to photograph new and interesting subjects with fewer limitations. Doug has also published 4 books, most notably Fearless Genius, his unprecedented documentation of the digital revolution. Fearless Genius was #1 on the Amazon Bestseller list and it continues to provide exposure as a multimedia project, film, and a traveling exhibition of prints all produced by Digital Silver Imaging. 

Sandro Miller’s expansive personal work often starts with a project that becomes an entire large format fine art book. Projects like the one he did with John Malkovich or his trips to Cuba became books and many of the images end up as fine art prints for gallery sales and exhibitions. Although Sandro has a distinct style, and can be considered a portraitist, he is constantly finding new paths and subjects for his work.

Sandro’s spacious studio ©Andrea Zocchi

Stay Organized

Make a business plan | Strategically target your customers

According to Doug Menuez what put him on the path to success was a solid business plan and the discipline to stick to it. Both photographers emphasized that having the business acumen and the right people in that field was invaluable. Sandro Miller stressed focusing your promotional efforts on a manageable group of targeted clients/agencies and galleries. Casting too broad a net often doesn’t work and can result in work the photographer is not excited about executing. Miller stated that he focuses on about 20 potential customers at a time.

Refreshments ©Doug Menuez
Refreshments ©Doug Menuez

Stay Above the Crowd

Use prints and printed media to stand out

The consensus was that regular posts on social media were necessary but didn’t necessarily get you work. Doug said that one of his most successful and expensive promotions was his “F…You Book.” It was a portfolio of work he loved (not work that everyone advised him to show, that’s where the “F…You” comes in). He said that this piece got him more and better jobs than any other promotions.

The advice from Sandro was to send a signed print, as he said, “People just can’t throw away a signed print.” He also uses his books as a way to rekindle art director and ad agency interest in what he’s doing. Both photographers have an active fine art presence, with gallery representation and the print sales supplementing their income and increasing their exposure.

Jim Stallman Senior VP and Creative Director of Leo Burnett echoed what both photographers said. He underlined the point that as a creative director he is overwhelmed with emails and electronic communications. His advice was to do something tangible that shows your own creative genius, something that represents you, not what you think someone wants to see.

Stay Informed

Research your customers | Know the brand | Be prepared for the shoot

Before you start a job, or start to promote your work to a client, know what they do. In editorial, documentary, or product work the research is the first step. Sandro stated that he might shoot for an entire week before the actual photo session is scheduled. In the preceding week he will test lighting, concepts and other aspects before the client arrives in studio. Dig deep, acquire knowledge and be prepared.

Portfolio reviews were an optional component ©Doug Menuez
Portfolio reviews were an optional component ©Doug Menuez

Stay Personal and Connected

Pick up the phone | Meet people | Attend Events

Doug Menuez, Sandro Miller, and Jim Stallman all agreed that photography is all about making personal connections and keeping them fresh. Don’t send an email if you can call the person by phone. Expanding your community in person makes you memorable. Knowing that you can work with a person and they can work with you makes all the difference. 

This also extends to the photo shoot itself. Don’t just start blasting away. Talk to your subject. Again both photographers emphasized the pre-shoot preparation. If you know your subject you can make conversation and the shoot will be more successful.

We hope that PhotoPolitic™, Doug Menuez and Sandro Miller will choose to repeat this event in the future. It might be the best $189 dollars that you can spend on your career. We’d like to thank Doug Menuez, Sandro Miller and Jim Stallman as well as Chris Armstrong from PhotoPolitic™ for asking us to play a small part. The entire day was videoed and is available to PhotoPolitic™ members. To stay informed about future events follow us, Digital Silver Imaging and PhotoPolitic™ on social media.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Metallic

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Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Metallic is a FineArt inkjet paper with a shimmering surface and a specially formulated inkjet coating for FineArt use. Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Metallic’s high-gloss premium inkjet coating with a unique metallic surface guarantees deep dark blacks, bold colors, and a metallic silver look. A great choice for images with metallic elements, reflections, ice and glass, architecture and landscape shots. Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Metallic meets the most exacting standards of age resistance and is acid and lignin-free, making it an ideal choice for museums and collectors. Consider Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Metallic as a distinctive choice in papers or as an alternative to prints on metal or prints on acrylic.

  • 340 gsm, 100% cotton
  • Natural white, without optical brighteners
  • Sophisticated surface texture
  • High-gloss premium inkjet coating for outstanding printing results with a unique, silvery-shimmering metallic effect
  • Acid and lignin-free
  • ISO9706 compliant / museum quality for a high age resistance
  • Compatible with pigment and dye inkjet systems
  • Contains no optical brighteners

Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Metallic is available through our Custom Pigment Printing services and our Value Printing service.

Photoville 2018 “Illuminated” by J. Sybylla Smith

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Photoville specializes in throwing light where there is darkness. These five examples are beacons of creative curiosity paired with intelligent investigation. While diverse in subject matter, each exhibit shares a common intent – to reveal truth and clarify its relationship to power.

(l-r) Tomas Van Houtryve, Brian L. Frank, Sarah Blesener
Work by Catchlight fellow Thomas Houtryve, Nathan Alexander Steiner and Green River, 2017

The San Francisco-based non-profit, Catchlight, works to amplify visual story-telling to drive positive social change. Their exhibitions honored three inaugural Catchlight Fellows. Sarah Blesener in New Americanism highlights the intersection of youth, religion, nationalism and military-style training.  In Out of Bounds Brian L. Frank gives an intimate portrayal of targeted policing and criminalization of youth in marginalized communities. Tomas Van Houtryve looks at the weaponization of photography through the use of drones and other technology in Blue Sky Days. Each artist documents current U.S. activities which ask viewers to consider the complexity and validity of our national narrative. (This exhibition printed and sponsored in part by Digital Silver Imaging.)

The McFarthest Place - Mark Kauzlarich Emergicube curated by James Estrin and David Gonzalez Co-Editors of the NYTImes Lens Blog
The McFarthest Place EmergiCube by Mark Kauzlarich

The McFarthest Place is an EmergiCube based on the inspired idea of photographer Mark Kauzlarich, namely; how far away could one live from a McDonald’s restaurant? He discovers it to be a county in South Dakota and documents the social, economic and political landscape of this slice of rural Western life. EmergiCubes, scattered throughout Photoville, feature emerging photographers culled from the New York Times Portfolio Review. Co-Founders and Editors of the Lens Blog, James Estrin and David Gonzales, select participants and co-curate these exhibitions. Read about each of these talented artists here.

 

Maggie Steber, Men Born From Blossoms
Sara Terry, (Re) Thinking Dejeuner sur l' herbe

The Photo Agency VII is a powerhouse of international photographers known for their global social documentary coverage. Seven women photographers, photojournalists and filmmakers from this collective are featured in Her Take:(Re) Thinking Masculinity. Expanding on a conversation begun at their last annual meeting this exhibition provides a format to move forward an inclusive dialogue on gender, power and representation. Anush Babajanyan, Jessica Dimmock, Linda Bourname Engelberth, Ilvy Njiokiktjien, Nichole Sobecki, Maggie Steber and Sara Terry each reflect a unique and nuanced perspective to (re)consider.

64,000 Luceo

Luceo is a creative visual agency which builds transmedia platforms to inform public perception and move us towards a positive future. This year their exhibit sought to humanize drug use, to shift our public policy focus from a criminal lens to a public health one, and to decrease the stigma associated with injection drug use. Stemming from their collaboration with the Colorado-based, Harm Reduction Action Center, Luceo created the immersive experience, 72,306. It actualized in concrete forms the reality of our current overdose epidemic. A bell was sounded every seven minutes and 41 seconds (how often a death via overdose occurs) and a metal ball was released down a chute to add to last year’s total of 72,306 overdoses. Simultaneously, a wall of portraits simulating the individual drug users went from a black and white image to a red one. Visitors could not escape being emotionally moved by the reenactment of the facts.

Léon Hendrickx, Juno, Amsterdam, 2016
Léon Hendrickx, Sapphira Cristal, Philadelphia

Amsterdam-based photographer Léon Hendrickx explores drag queens’ identity beyond exhibitionism in Kings and Queens. The subject, as collaborator, staged the location, wardrobe and pose of these compilation portraits featuring themselves in and out of drag. Hendrickx’ exploration looks at identity, love, and gender. He unearthed more questions than answers within the entity he coined sexual transcendence. The exhibition was supported by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York. A book of the work is expected to be released in October 2020 and is available for pre-order here.

J. Sybylla Smith

This post re-published with the permission of J. Sybylla Smith. Sybylla is available for consultation, teaching, curating and lectures @ https://jsybyllasmith.wordpress.com.

Aspect Ratio Versus Print Size

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Aspect ration versus print size is an important issue to understand when printing your photographs. When digital cameras appeared on the scene they were designed to mimic the look and operation of analog cameras. Even today’s DSLR cameras have sensor sizes based on traditional analog film formats.

Why does aspect ratio matter when printing?

It matters because aspect ratio, the proportion of your camera’s sensor length vs. width, determines how your image fits on a piece of printing paper. If you choose a print size that does not match the aspect ratio of your camera image, then you will need to crop your image to fit on the print. Use the chart below to give you an Idea of the print size that matches your camera’s sensor or film size.

 

 

Barry Schneier – Bruce Springsteen Kickstarter

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We have had the good fortune to print Barry Schneier’s 1974 Bruce Springsteen concert images for many years. Barry’s images are moving and historic. They provide a record of the discovery of Springsteen and the declaration by rock critic, Jon Landau, “I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” 

The images have been exhibited at venues like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Monmouth University as well as sold through the Morrison Hotel Gallery. However Barry wanted to tell the entire story of that special night at the Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge Massachusetts, and what better way than in a book. This is where the Kickstarter campaign, Bruce Springsteen. Rock and Roll Future. The Book. starts.

To create the book Schneier partnered with Backstreets Magazine’s Chris Phillips. Following the lead of many other photo books they decided to skip traditional publishers and go directly to the Springsteen fans via Kickstarter. To make his Kickstarter special, Barry wanted to offer more than just the book so he came into the lab and developed a plan to our DSI Digital Silver Prints® as a premium for higher pledge levels. Of course we said yes and we worked on a price that would allow Barry to meet his Kickstarter goals.

Barry finally decided to offer a variety of images at different sizes depending on the pledge level. The highest pledge level would receive a 16×20 DSI Digital Fiber Print® of his Sound Check Take Two image and a signed copy of the book 

 

“Sound Check. Take Two” ©Barry Schneier

Barry’s Kickstarter Project is a Hit

At the writing of this post, Bruce Springsteen. Rock and Roll Future. The Book., Kickstarter campaign has 7 days to go and will exceed its campaign goal by over 150%. 14 backers have pledge at the highest level $575 (book + 16×20 print), and other levels offering prints have over 148 backers. That makes almost as many backers choosing a book + print pledge as book alone. After all the book is all about the photographs, and it makes sense that an actual print adds a tremendous amount of value to a highly collectable book.

Work with us to make your project a success

Digital Silver Imaging is happy to work with photographers and artists to provide printing for Kickstarter, and other crowd sourced projects. We know that crowd sourcing is about promotion and bringing art directly to the public. We want to support you in your crowd sourced idea whether that’s a book or some other project. Contact us anytime to start the conversation.

Did you know that Digital Silver Imaging perfected the DSI Digital Silver Print® with a Kickstarter campaign? Follow this link to read all about it.