Professional Photographers Research Articles

Le Brexit dans le viseur : le point de vue des photographes sur la sortie du Royaume Uni de l'Union Européenne

Based on a selection of photographic projects produced between 2016 and 2020, this article examines the way British and non-British professional photographers have responded to the question of Britain’s exit from the European Union. Each of the six projects sheds light on and problematises different social, economic and ideological stakes raised by Brexit, at different moments of a political process started in 2016. Questions that concern artists’ political commitment, the role of the media and the uses of political communication during this troubled period, the fate of European residents, or the invisibilisation of regions most affected by poverty and austerity policies are some of the issues explored in the photographic projects that compose the corpus of this article. Echoes and correspondences between them help paint the portrait of a divided United Kingdom while reasserting strongly the values of inclusion, tolerance and diversity that have been damaged in this difficult period.

Painting with words: describing women in photography

This study aims to identify and explore the linguistic devices used to describe women in photography, and the similarities and differences between women and men’s descriptions. Nowadays, digital photographs are often accompanied by text such as titles, descriptions, comments, or tags. Though the language used in social media has largely been explored in relation to different fields of knowledge and from different perspectives, to the best of our knowledge, there is no work dealing with the language used by professional photographers to describe women and men. In order to carry out the study, we have compiled two samples of the keywords used to describe images representing female and male figures; the source of such sample being an image stock used by professional photographers (Alamy). To fulfil our objective, descriptive adjectives were identified, analyzed, and compared and/or contrasted. The results show many similarities in the use of the descriptive adjectives for women and men’s images, and they also seem to suggest that women and women’s beauty in particular are described from the male perspective and their stereotypes in our society.

Is beauty skin deep?

We investigate if the perceived attractiveness of mutual fund managers influences mutual fund flows. We hand-collect professional photographs of managers and use machine learning algorithms to develop two objective proxies of attractiveness. We find that, after controlling for fund characteristics, performance measures and manager characteristics, mutual funds managed by ‘attractive’ managers receive higher fund flows. Our results are robust to matched sample analysis, Heckman two-stage selection, alternate model specifications. Attractiveness bias is predominantly witnessed within retail investors and does not entail superior fund performance. Our results suggest that mutual fund investors exhibit a bias for seemingly attractive mutual fund managers.

An image-based eyelid lesion management service-evaluation of a pilot.

Background/aimsOculoplastics is a predominantly visual specialty and many of the pathologies can be diagnosed based on external appearance. An image-based eyelid lesion management service was piloted to reduce the number of patients who would require outpatient clinic review. The aim of this study was to determine its accuracy and feasibility, both as a hospital-based and community optometrist-based service. If successful, the service was envisaged to significantly reduce the number of patients that require face-to-face (F2F) review, in accordance with current post-COVID-19 principles of social distancing.MethodsPatients with lid lesions attending an oculoplastics clinic were assessed by consultant oculoplastic surgeons in an F2F consultation (Arm A). The lesions were photographed by a professional clinical photographer (Arm B) and by an optometrist with a handheld digital camera (Arm C). These images were reviewed by independent consultants masked to the outcome of the F2F clinical encounter. Data were collected prospectively including patient demographics, diagnosis, suspicion of malignancy and management. The image-based clinic results were compared to the F2F clinic results.ResultsNinety-five patients were included. Clinical diagnoses were compared for intra-observer variability and substantial agreement was demonstrated between gold-standard F2F clinic visit (Arm A) and Arm B (Ƙ = 0.708) and C (Ƙ = 0.776). There was no statistically significant difference in the rate of discharge and all cases of malignancy were either identified or flagged for F2F review in the image-based arms.ConclusionThis pilot demonstrated substantial diagnostic agreement of image-based diagnoses with F2F consultation and image review alone did not miss any cases of malignancy.

E-Nature Positive Emotions Photography Database (e-NatPOEM): affectively rated nature images promoting positive emotions

Affectively rated image databases have their main application in studies that require inducing distinct stimuli on subjects. Widespread databases are designed to cover a broad range of stimuli, from negative to positive (valence), and relaxed to excited (arousal). The availability of narrow domain databases, designed to cover and thoroughly analyze a few categories of images that induce a particular stimulus, is limited. We present a narrow domain affective database with positive images, named e-Nature Positive Emotions Photography Database (e-NatPOEM), consisting of 433 high-quality images produced by professional and amateur photographers. A total of 739 participants evaluated them using a web-based tool to input valence-arousal values and a single word describing the evoked feeling. Ratings per image ranged from 36 to 108, median: 57; first/third quartiles: 56/59. 84% of the images presented valence > middle of the scale and arousal < middle of the scale. Words describing the images were classified into semantical groups, being predominant: Peace/tranquility (39% of all words), Beauty (23%), and Positive states (15%). e-NatPOEM is free and publicly available, it is a valid resource for affective research, and presents the potential for clinical use to assist positive emotions promotion.

The Usambara Knowledge Project: Place as Archive in a Tanzanian Mountain Range

AbstractThe essay chronicles the early phases of a digital history project on landscape change in the mountains of eastern Tanzania. In collecting sources for a land and culture narrative, the project aims ultimately to create an archive that is locally produced in Tanzania and maintained by Utah State University Library’s Special Collections and Archives division. The project draws on more than thirty early twentieth-century landscape photographs from the Usambara Mountains in northeastern Tanzania by Walther Dobbertin, a professional photographer living in German East Africa. In the fall of 2015, team members scouted the sites for repeat photographs. The following summer, the project team began repeat photography and expanded the range of local collaborators to develop an oral history collection tied to the region’s landscape history. The essay lays out the problems, pitfalls, and successes of the preliminary collaborative work among academics, university students, archival specialists, and elders’ groups intent on collecting and preserving knowledge.

Role of Professional Associations in Benin Dual Apprenticeship

This paper analyses the involvement and the role played by a professional association in Benin dual apprenticeship. This research utilised a qualitative method using literature analysis with desk research and a semi-structured interview. In total, 56 respondents from staff members of professional associations at local, district and national levels, staff of the public sector, donor agencies and craftsmen were selected through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. To analyse data, I used the theory of institutional change, games models or strategic interactions theory and the conceptual framework of the curriculum value chain of the education programme. Results of the research show that the institutionalisation process of professional associations in the crafts sector started with professional photographers, hairdressers and sewing/cutting in 1950. Professional associations have a strong involvement in the implementation phase of the CQP programme. In the curriculum design phase, they are involved at a moderate level. And in the evaluation phase, they have low involvement. Such involvements in the last two phases can be understood by the low literacy level of most craftsmen who work in the informal sector.

“The pain is real”: A [modified] photovoice exploration of disability, chronic pain, and chronic illness (in)visibility

This study uses an innovative modification to Photovoice methodology to explore the lived experiences of people who have non-apparent disabilities, chronic pain and/or chronic illness. Responding to limitations to mobility, movement, transportation, capacity, and access, the project provided a series of studio sessions with a professional photographer, in which participants directed the content and quality of photographs documenting their experiences with disability, chronic pain and/or chronic illness. Four themes emerged from the images and writing: unfettered anger, challenging expectations, duality of reality, and resistance/resilience. Social workers can use these findings and arts-based methodology to help build community among marginalized groups.

ANALISA TEKNIK FOTOGRAFI DALAM TREN FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

This research aims to solve the problems faced by most of the business actors who have just pioneered especially in the food and beverage sector, because at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic they were currently required to save production costs to save on product marketing costs due to their limited capital. have so that the sales of a product are not optimal. In this problem, in particular, their food and beverage businesses are required to have photos of the food and drinks they sell as attractive as possible to attract buyers, but most of them cannot afford to pay for the services of professional photographers to create such photos. So this research will describe starting from camera operation, some of the techniques used by professional photographers, things that need to be considered in photographing, to tips and tricks for creating good and attractive-looking photos like a professional photographer so that business people can do it themselves. this new pioneering food and beverage. In this study the authors used qualitative methods, made observations of microbusinesses that had just been formed this year, according to the target of the theory writer used are the basic theories of photography itself, but the authors summarize them so that they are shorter, concise and clear, only use the theory used to photograph the food itself to make it easier to understand, for example, camera operating techniques, lighting techniques, composition, to the introduction of various food photography moods, and others.

Multiplatform storytelling: Are photojournalists taking advantage?

With the expansion of connected devices (tablets, smartphones, etc.), a leap in multiplatform technologies is occurring, bringing about changes in many areas of the communications professions. In this context, values based on flexible, multiplatform, cooperative work that takes the audience into consideration are increasingly important. Professional photography coexists with — and is even rivaled by — images taken by citizens, which are often used by the mass media. For that reason the need is greater than ever for photographers and graphic professionals who, in one way or another, adapt to the new media Using a multiple case study method, this article examines the digital resources used by photographers who have won a World Press Photo Award. It studies the ways in which they exploit the medium, extending the photographic narrative beyond the website, to promote themselves and their personal brand. The results show photographers’ preference for unidirectional communication models and superimposed strategies that have limited engagement and viralisation. The acquisition of digital expertise by photojournalists is at an intermediary stage, since the cases analyzed reveal that these professionals’ web 2.0 activity is limited or underexploited.

Disability Entrepreneurs Responses to Public Communication During the Pandemic (Case Study about Disability Entrepreneur Strategy through Online Culinary Business during the Covid-19 Pandemic)

There was a government appeal that was communicated to the public during the co-19 pandemic. Including an appeal to business people to develop business strategies that are adaptive to conditions. There are people with disabilities who have culinary businesses which can maintain their business during the Covid-19 pandemic. This was expressed in a seminar which was held by the Community of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Houses. In the seminar, Sri Arya Ramadani, a person with visual impairment disability and the owner of Ayam Geprek Petukangan business, shared her experiences and strategies for running a culinary business in the pandemic era. The challenge faced by entrepreneurs is the socioeconomic stability against competitors who have similar businesses with other entrepreneurs. However, a strong enthusiasm for learning, a strong mentality, not easy to despair and support from family and community make entrepreneurs able to compete with other similar businesses. Another challenge faced by disability entrepreneurs is the existence of the Covid-19 pandemic, entrepreneurs trying to adapt to crisis situations and developing an Efficiency, Creative and Healthy strategy. The strategy is supported by promotional tactics, including using social media in the form of Instagram, using professional photography services to get quality product photos, establishing relationships with consumers through the WhatsApp media platform, and also not easy to complain about social media. The digital marketing strategy is balanced with the alms strategy, which is believed to bring blessings on its business journey. Therefore, until now, entrepreneurs still survive and can meet their business needs.

Femmes photographes professionnelles et itinérance en France au xixe siècle

Maria Chambefort représente un rarissime exemple de femme daguerréotypiste itinérante active sur le sol français. La présente étude reconstitue fidèlement son parcours jusqu’à la sédentarisation et adopte le mode de l’enquête pour démontrer une erreur sur sa véritable identité. Pensé comme une contribution à l’histoire sociale tant des mobilités photographiques que des femmes photographes, l’article souligne également en quoi ces éléments nouveaux permettent de cerner plus précisément les incidences de l’identité sexuelle sur le rapport singulier des photographes à l’espace public et au territoire qui est induit par leur mobilité. Le cas de marginalité a priori extrême que constitue l’itinérance au féminin contribue en réalité à expliciter ce qui se joue dans le devenir photographe et ses modes d’exercice professionnel : le fait par exemple que les origines sociales et géographiques sont des facteurs non moins déterminants que le sexe ; que l’itinérance a pu, dans le cas des femmes, être vécue aussi bien comme une modalité imposée que comme un outil stratégique de mobilité sociale, d’affranchissement d’une situation familiale ou d’émancipation en tant que photographe.

Dental trauma splint color preference of adults.

The prevalence of dental trauma among children and adults is high. Most luxated teeth need splinting. The Titanium Trauma Splint (TTS) is a widely used appliance with good performance properties. Esthetics is increasingly important for most patients. Splints placed on the front teeth have a clearly visible impact on patients' appearance and, thus, on their quality of life during splint therapy. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the esthetic preferences of adult patients with regard to different splint color and surface finish characteristics. TTS appliances were fabricated in four different colors (silver, gold, green and violet) and two different surface finishes (matt or polished) to yield a total of eight variants. The finished splints were applied to the teeth of a human model, photographed by a professional photographer, and printed as posters. Adults aged between 18 and 79 years were asked to complete a written survey containing items regarding their TTS color and surface preferences based on the posters with photographs as well as questions about previous tooth bleaching treatments, the importance of having esthetic teeth in general, and the prioritization of esthetic versus function-driven dentistry. Over 80% of participants preferred the silver matt splint over the other variants. Neither gender nor age nor other parameters had a significant influence on the choice of splint color or surface. Women placed greater importance on esthetic rather than function-driven treatment.

Exploring human-nature interactions in national parks with social media photographs and computer vision.

Understanding the activities and preferences of visitors is crucial for managing protected areas and planning conservation strategies. Conservation culturomics promotes the use of user-generated online content in conservation science. Geotagged social media content is a unique source of in situ information on human presence and activities in nature. Photographs posted on social media platforms are a promising source of information, but analyzing large volumes of photographs manually remains laborious. We examined the application of state-of-the-art computer-vision methods to studying human-nature interactions. We used semantic clustering, scene classification, and object detection to automatically analyze photographs taken in Finnish national parks by domestic and international visitors. Our results showed that human-nature interactions can be extracted from user-generated photographs with computer vision. The different methods complemented each other by revealing broad visual themes related to level of the data set, landscape photogeneity, and human activities. Geotagged photographs revealed distinct regional profiles for national parks (e.g., preferences in landscapes and activities), which are potentially useful in park management. Photographic content differed between domestic and international visitors, which indicates differences in activities and preferences. Information extracted automatically from photographs can help identify preferences among diverse visitor groups, which can be used to create profiles of national parks for conservation marketing and to support conservation strategies that rely on public acceptance. The application of computer-vision methods to automatic content analysis of photographs should be explored further in conservation culturomics, particularly in combination with rich metadata available on social media platforms.

Reframing the homescape: documenting domesticity during photography’s COVID turn

As a global pandemic shifted the international gaze from emptied streets to bustling home spaces, photojournalists were constrained by closed borders and closed doors, their gazes forced to take in what was now most accessible– their own households. COVID-19 provided professional photographers an opportunity to focus on the homescape, elevating imagery of the domestic sphere to a central and necessary element of news coverage. The photographs in this visual essay, primarily drawn from The Journal project that feature female photographers’ experiences of COVID, exemplify the turn towards documenting domesticity in the shadow of coronavirus.

Looking out to see within: A photography project developed by adolescents with cancer during the COVID pandemic.

This photo essay is the story of an artistic project developed for young people with cancer in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The program, the Youth Project at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan,1 is dedicated to young patients with cancer 15–25 years old and has the dual aim of optimizing medical care such as ensuring their inclusion in clinical trials, and promoting a holistic approach to their needs, giving these young patients novel ways to express themselves through music, photography, creative writing, and fashion design.2-7 The photography project was conducted entirely through video sessions to comply with the need for physical distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the patients themselves who asked the Youth Project staff to launch this particular project. A professional photographer (Alice Patriccioli) conducted weekly 90-min meetings. After illustrating examples of work done by contemporary artists, she invited the young participants to embark on their own personal pathway, combining the languages of photography, art, and writing as they thought fit. Since the start of the project coincided with the experience of lockdown—of being unable to leave your own room, as was often the case for our patients on treatment, even without the pandemic—the photographer proposed focusing on the window through which we look out on the world (Figure 1). As Camilla wrote: “During a stay in hospital, when you can't enjoy the wind and sun, the best friends for daydreaming are the clouds in the sky. I look outside my window while I'm stuck in bed, and I fly with the clouds.” From the topic of the window, the photographic journey moved on to seeing windows as openings onto the outside world of people and places (Figures 2 and 3), and windows as openings that let in light, revealing what someone has inside (Figures 4–6-4–6). The different topics of the photographic project were selected by staff together with the young patients. During each meeting, a specific topic was proposed and discussed. Then patients were given their “homework”: to conceptualize and take photos on their own. For each topic, participants were asked to take a single picture. At the subsequent meeting, each photo was discussed with the group. The photography project involved 25 patients (median age 18 years, range 14–26 years), 14 of them receiving treatment at the time and 11 in follow-up. All patients (or their parents/legal guardians) gave written informed consent for their involvement in the project and for publication of the images and words. The photographs they produced were used to make a calendar for 2021, and the proceeds of its sales will go toward supporting the activities of the Youth Project. The pictures chosen for the calendar were selected by the patients themselves. For young participants, the project was an opportunity to get together and enjoy some light-hearted moments during the rigors of their therapy, even if it was virtual. The virtual meetings provided an opportunity to overcome the restrictions of physical distancing. In addition, as with the other artistic projects, the young patients enjoyed the opportunity of working with professionals, making them feel unique and special, so important for their self-esteem at this critical and challenging time in their lives. Working on a project expected to take several months also enabled these young people to regain a sense of future at a time when they risk having difficulty perceiving a future beyond their discharge from hospital or next round of treatments. In conclusion, we believe that this experience emphasizes the importance of giving young patients with cancer a chance to freely “voice” their emotions, and helping them process what is happening to them. Using art as a filter can make it a little easier to give vent to strong emotions, while also enabling them to be more genuine and less restrained in expressing their feelings. This ultimately helps our young patients find the resources and the venues they need to cope with the life-changing experience of being diagnosed and treated for cancer in as positive a manner as possible. The authors thank the Associazione Bianca Garavaglia for supporting the Youth Project.

Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Images With Sparse Annotations

Training Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for very high resolution images requires a large quantity of high-quality pixel-level annotations, which is extremely labor- and time-consuming to produce. Moreover, professional photo interpreters might have to be involved for guaranteeing the correctness of annotations. To alleviate such a burden, we propose a framework for semantic segmentation of aerial images based on incomplete annotations, where annotators are asked to label a few pixels with easy-to-draw scribbles. To exploit these sparse scribbled annotations, we propose the FEature and Spatial relaTional regulArization (FESTA) method to complement the supervised task with an unsupervised learning signal that accounts for neighbourhood structures both in spatial and feature terms.

Non-destructive analysis in the study of historical photographs by pXRF and ATR-FTIR spectroscopies.

Material characterization is essential to the provenance of graphic arts. Non-destructive analytical techniques are increasingly required in the authentication process of cultural heritage. This work presents a suite of portable, non-destructive, and complementary analytical techniques, energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies, and brightfield microscopy, applied to the analysis of historical photographs depicting São Paulo city architecture, whose registration date and process of fabrication are unknown. The EDXRF analysis emphasizes the use of typical POP (printing-out paper) photograph with baryta (BaSO4 ) coated paper substrate while the FTIR and microscopy analyses confirm the presence of collodion and a gelatin-based baryta layer. This photographic process was widely employed by professional photographers from 1889 to 1930, when it was gradually abandoned in commercial use. This time interval (1889-1930) is consistent with the information surveyed on the photographic collection. In conclusion, employing complementary techniques (elemental and molecular spectroscopies and image magnification) is essential in identifying the manufacturing materials of cultural heritage material, which is the basis of contemporary authentication procedures. These data provide to curators and historians fundamental information for cataloging, adding subsidies for the correct storage and preservation ("heritage appreciation"). Still, for professional photographers, they present information on the manufacturing processes of historical photographs. The data from the present study also emphasize its perspective of use in graphic arts to aid connoisseurship in identifying forgeries during provenance and authentication studies.

Muslim Cultures beyond the Aperture: An East African Photo-Story Illuminated by First-Hand Accounts

Abstract This paper is an exploration of Indian Muslim culture in East Africa through pre- and post-independence eras via the medium of photography. It examines the art and craft of photographic practice, the training of photographers, their social networks and those of their patrons, as well as the personal context of photographs. It also discusses the dispersal of archives and personal collections. It is based upon first-hand accounts from professional photographers, their family members as well as patrons, whose ancestors travelled from India via Indian Ocean trade routes. Fareh te chareh is a Gujarati proverb meaning ‘A person who roams advances.’

Dental trauma splint color preference of adults.

The prevalence of dental trauma among children and adults is high. Most luxated teeth need splinting. The Titanium Trauma Splint (TTS) is a widely used appliance with good performance properties. Esthetics is increasingly important for most patients. Splints placed on the front teeth have a clearly visible impact on patients' appearance and, thus, on their quality of life during splint therapy. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the esthetic preferences of adult patients with regard to different splint color and surface finish characteristics. TTS appliances were fabricated in four different colors (silver, gold, green and violet) and two different surface finishes (matt or polished) to yield a total of eight variants. The finished splints were applied to the teeth of a human model, photographed by a professional photographer, and printed as posters. Adults aged between 18 and 79 years were asked to complete a written survey containing items regarding their TTS color and surface preferences based on the posters with photographs as well as questions about previous tooth bleaching treatments, the importance of having esthetic teeth in general, and the prioritization of esthetic versus function-driven dentistry. Over 80% of participants preferred the silver matt splint over the other variants. Neither gender nor age nor other parameters had a significant influence on the choice of splint color or surface. Women placed greater importance on esthetic rather than function-driven treatment.