Category Archives: education

Discrimination In Journalism

Posted on August 23, 2017 | 1 comment

Seeking Diversity In The Media Industry

Press Card Mosaic

It’s a very sad truth that sexism and racism is rife in the media. As a British photojournalist born in Iran and off Armenian descendants, I have lived in the UK since the age of eight. It’s very much my home and I’m extremely proud to be British and to contribute to society through my work, both professionally and in various volunteer basis, as well as numerous charitable contributions.

Through various publications, competitions and awards over the years, I have proven my ability as a photojournalist, yet sadly have never managed to make it past being a casual freelance photographer (meaning being commissioned daily) for the newspapers and agencies. I have several talented colleagues who are of various ethnic backgrounds who have the same struggles. The same discrimination is shown towards white, English female colleagues when contracts and big projects are filled. It is indeed rare to see someone of ethnicity or female photographers in good contract positions, the recipient of the top commissions or in possession of staff jobs (even when these were more abundant).

It truly is a shame that one’s ability and skill is often overseen, in place of one’s ethnicity or sex. After all, the reader or viewer sees the work, not the author. Its quite bizarre that over the last year, I decided to grow a long beard. Instead of this being seen as a trendy or hipster type thing, because of my slight tanned complexion, I could see a lot of people were judging me as some sort of religious extremist. Since shaving it off a couple of months ago, the reaction of the same people when seeing me is the polar opposite. Its quite sad really. Ignorance is most often not bliss.

Picture editors, editors, publishers and media owners need to look at the quality of work and ability of the photojournalist, not their ethnicity, sex, cultural background or religion. I’m definitely not one to condone positive discrimination either; quotas shouldn’t be filled based purely on one’s ethnicity or sex. I just think that the best person for the job should always get the job regardless of the colour of their skin or their sex.

The NY Times has this excellent article, which is well worth a read: Seeking Action — Not Just Talk — About Diversity in Photojournalism. Even more importantly, at the end of the article is a link to a survey for working photojournalists. Please put aside five minutes and fill in this Reclaim survey. Hopefully it’ll benefit the industry and our readers too.

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Posted in education, News, newspaper, Photography, viewpoint

Tagged discrimination, diversity, intollerance, journalism, media, newspaper, photojournalism, racism, sexism

Staging and Manipulation

Posted on April 29, 2016 | Leave a comment

How Far Can Photojournalists Go?

Professional Photographer Magazine May 2016

During the Photography Show earlier this year, I was part of a discussion panel for Professional Photography magazine along with my talented friend and colleague Paul Sanders and the talented Elisabeth Blanchet and Martin Middlebrook. It was a fascinating hour long discussion on staging, manipulation, ethics, the press and photojournalism. I’m happy to share that the text from the discussion is featured in the May issue of Professional Photography magazine, over six pages, which is now on sale.

You can get a copy of the May issue, or a subscription to the magazine HERE. Hope you enjoy the read and feel free to carry the discussion on here in the comments section if you wish.

The Photography Show 2016

Posted on March 14, 2016 | 1 comment

Hope To See You In Birmingham!

Very happy to say I’ll be at the Photography Show again this year. For the duration of the show I’ll be with my friends and colleagues on the Snapper Stuff stand (B101 and B102) talking about Think Tank Photo bags (for whom I’ve been on the design board) and FLM‘s range of supports and helping out with any questions you may have.

From last year’s show: “Essentials In Documentary Film Making” talk by Edmond Terakopian at the Filmmaker Theatre on behalf of Snapper Stuff. The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 23, 2015. Photo: Freia Turland

On Sunday, March 20th, 2pm-2.40pm, I’ll be giving an Olympus Visionary talk on my Opera By The River project at the Behind The Lens Theatre. I’ll share with you my thoughts and experiences on shooting this 11 month project at the prestigious Royal College of Music and naturally showing my favourite images from the reportage. I’ll also share which Olympus cameras and lenses I used along with some other equipment which were invaluable. Hope to see you there!

Albert Herring; an Opera by Benjamin Britten

(L-R) Lady Billows, played by Janis Kelly and Miss Wordsworth, played by Sofia Larsson, make their way across backstage to the rear of the set. The final performance of Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten. Royal College of Music, Bitten Theatre, Prince Consort Road, London. July 08, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

There will also be a unique opportunity to purchase a copy of the book that goes with this project. Please see THIS post for details. I’ll be happy to sign your copy for you!

On Monday, March 21st, 2pm-3pm, I’ll be a panelist on a discussion in the Piazza Suite 3; “Are staged or manipulated pictures ever acceptable? The panel discusses just how far you can go…”. This discussion brought to you by Professional Photography magazine is sure to be interesting, so hope to see you there too.

Lastly, do make sure you pop by and see my friends at the Eizo stand. They’ll be showing my photographs and video work to showcase just how great my favourite monitors are. Colour and density accuracy and built in automated hardware calibration! Definitely worth asking a demo.

A self portrait by photographer and film maker Edmond Terakopian. Picture shows his Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera. London. February 23, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

My Olympus cameras which were used to photograph Britten’s Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, London. May 18, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Opera_Book-Albert_Herring-Journey-TERAKOPIAN_Page_01

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Posted in education, News, olympus, Photography, Pictures, viewpoint, workshop

Tagged 2016, nec, olympus, opera by the river, photography, photography show, Snapper Stuff, snapperstuff, think tank photo

Who Owns A Photo?

Posted on November 3, 2015 | 6 comments

The Copyright Of A Photograph

The folks at Clifton Cameras have put together a very neat graphic explaining much about ownership of the image.

The only thing I would add is that adding a watermark (use Marksta on an iPhone or software such as Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop on your Mac or PC) is essential when you post images online on services like FaceBook and Instagram which as their T&Cs state, have full rights to use the posted images as they see fit. You need to protect not only your copyright but also the subjects in your images from having their likeness used to promote services they wouldn’t be happy with. Watermarking also protects you against companies which may steal your image for commercial gain, try and Photoshop out your watermark and then plead ignorance. Image forensics can easily show tampering and with this you prove intent, followed by a nice payout.

When hosting your own website of photography, it’s wise not to post images full size; these are easily stolen and can be used in a variety of ways as the size allows printing and so on. Using the services of Pixelrights as your host means that you benefit from all the various anti-theft features they have as well as future plans for their new partnership with ImageRights. Highly recommended.

Shaun Curry, Co-founder & CEO of Pixelrights adds; “ImageRights International is honored to announce a new and exciting partnership with Pixelrights. This groundbreaking partnership will provide post infringement, image tracking & USCO registration included in the price of your Pixelrights subscription.
Pixelrights are the only portfolio service focused on championing copyright awareness by use of their patent pending ‘Smart Frame’ image technology
This new image format provides their members with substantial customisable technical protection, blocking illicit web-bots, stopping unwanted hot linking, disabling right click , blocking some screen grab attempts, save-as, and eliminating the image from the source file and web page.
With ImageRights technology included if anyone removes any technical protection measures from your Pixelrights site and publishes it on the web, ImageRights will track your image down, and provide a global network of IP
lawyers to take action on your behalf. Never before has a portfolio website been so safe yet so easy to use!”.

Remember, copyright is your right. You are the author and the image is yours. When getting commissioned to take pictures, you aren’t being paid for the copyright, but are being commissioned to make the photograph and granting the client a right to use the image; you’re licensing them image usage. Without your copyright you can’t even legally post your picture on your website, enter it in a competition or have a print in your portfolio. You will lose all sales and recognition as the image becomes of historical value in the future. Don’t be bullied; don’t let multi-million pound companies take advantage of your work and force you into signing away your rights.

Click to enlarge the graphic:

6 Comments

Posted in education, Photography

Tagged authorship, copyright, image rights, intellectual property, marksta, photography, pixelrights, rights

The Photography Show 2015

Posted on February 25, 2015 | 1 comment

With Olympus & SnapperStuff

21-24 March 2015, NEC Birmingham

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A former water purification plant with several miles of underground tunnels. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Very happy to share that I shall be at The Photography Show this year.

My Olympus Talks

I’ll be giving some talks, sharing my thoughts, experiences and successes shooting with Olympus OM-D cameras and naturally answering any questions you may have.

A self portrait by photographer and film maker Edmond Terakopian. Picture shows his Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera. London. February 23, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

My talks will be at the seminar room at the Olympus stand C51 and B49.

All seminars are free but will be ticketed to control numbers; 35 persons seated in private seminar room on the stand, so arrive early and get a ticket! All talks are 35 minutes in duration, plus a 10 minute Q&A.

Olympus Stand, seminar room
Saturday 21st
Seminar Start: 11.30 “Awards success in photography and video using the Olympus OM-D E-M1”. I will showcase and talk about the images that brought me awards success during 2014 and share my thoughts and work on the new OM-D E-M5 Mark II.

Olympus Stand, seminar room
Sunday 22nd
Seminar Start: 11.00 – “Awards success in photography and video using the Olympus OM-D E-M1”. I will showcase and talk about the images that brought me awards success during 2014 and share my thoughts and work on the new OM-D E-M5 Mark II.

Olympus Stand, seminar room
Monday 23rd
Seminar Start: 16.00 – “Awards success in photography and video using the Olympus OM-D E-M1”. I will showcase and talk about the images that brought me awards success during 2014 and share my thoughts and work on the new OM-D E-M5 Mark II.

Olympus Stand, seminar room
Tuesday 24th
Seminar No 1 Start: 11.00 – “Awards success in photography and video using the Olympus OM-D E-M1”. I will showcase and talk about the images that brought me awards success during 2014 and share my thoughts and work on the new OM-D E-M5 Mark II.

Seminar No 2 Start: 15.00 – “London Taxi – a short film shot on the new OM-D E-M5 Mark II”. I will show and talk about his short film, sharing what makes this new camera indispensable. As an added bonus, I’ll actually be showing a brand new edit and grade of the London Taxi film, which I have called Taxi Driver. The show will be the first place this is shown and will be online after the event.

There are lots of talks by my friends and colleagues at the Olympus stand, so make sure to check out the full Olympus schedule.

Members of the SnapperStuff team at Tower Bridge Studios in London. The team with some of the products from Think Tank Photo, KLM, Lightech and LumiQuest. December 08, 2012. Photo: Ant Upton

I’ll be with the SnapperStuff team on Stand B102, so pop by and have a chat about all things Think Tank Photo (by far my favourite and most used bags), FLM tripods & heads, Lumiquest hotshoe strobist flash modifiers, Lightech light modifiers, MindShift Gear (outdoors bags) and of course, all things photography and video! You can also meet the SnapperStuff team; uniquely, we are all full time professional photographers, so relevant advice and good conversation is pretty much a given!

My SnapperStuff Talks

I shall also be giving two talks on behalf of SnapperStuff at the Film Making Theatre at the show:

Film Making Theatre
Saturday 21st
14.30 – 15.10 “Multimedia Shooting”. Discover essential filming techniques and how to mix photography, timelapse, video and audio.

Film Making Theatre
Monday 23rd
11.30 – 12.10 “Essentials of documentary film making”. Advice on the steps needed to achieve your filmmaking vision.

You can see a full list of all my talks on the Photography Show website.

Hope to see you at the show!

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Posted in Camera Equipment, education, Exhibition, News, Photography, Pictures, Video, viewpoint

Tagged 2015, Birmingham, edmond terakopian, exhibitor, nec, olympus, Olympus Stand, photography, seminar, show, Snapper Stuff, snapperstuff, talk, the photography show

40th International Features Conference

Posted on June 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

IFC 2014; Leipzig

Official opening of the IFC (International Features Conference) by Peter Leonard Braun, also called Leo (German feature-maker), Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. May 11, 2014. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

I was honoured to have been invited to speak at the 40th International Features Conference (IFC) in May, which took place in the delightful town of Leipzig in Germany. I need to point out though that the IFC is about radio; it’s a conference which gets together the best in radio features journalists. My talk? Well, my talk was naturally going to be about photography.

Official opening of the IFC (International Features Conference). Lorelei Harris (RTE) listens to the opening speech from the stage. Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. May 11, 2014. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Initially, it seems to most that the concept of having photography spoken about to folks whose medium is radio, simply is a tad bizarre; one is a visual discipline whilst the other is purely about audio. However, photography, audio (and other forms of story telling) are only the end tool. The initial steps in finding a story; dissecting it, checking it out journalistically, planning out how to convey it, are in fact all the same. It’s only the end tool, the tool of delivery which differs.

At the opening of the IFC (International Features Conference) by Peter Leonard Braun, also called Leo (German feature-maker) and Edmond Terakopian, Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. May 11, 2014. Photo: Li Hong

The main hall at the IFC (International Features Conference), Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. The delegates listen to features programmes which will then be discussed in smaller groups. May 14, 2014. Photo: Photo: Edmond Terakopian

I was fortunate to be able to attend the conference in full and was rewarded by hearing some absolutely astonishing work, from across the world. After listening to a couple of productions, we would break into our smaller groups and discuss these at length. I must admit to being extremely shy in opening my novice mouth and giving an opinion in this world of radio at first, but soon the shyness went and I found myself deep in conversation and discussion with the best people on the planet in this genre of features work. Absolutely fascinating.

IFC (International Features Conference), Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. Tina Kunath and the delegates discuss the features programmes listened too earlier in the main hall. May 14, 2014. Photo: Photo: Edmond Terakopian

IFC (International Features Conference), Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. Thomas Martin Gasser (ORF) and the delegates discuss the features programmes listened too earlier in the main hall. May 14, 2014. Photo: Photo: Edmond Terakopian

What really astonished me as the week went on was just how vivid a picture radio can paint; how gripping, deep, gentle, forceful, subtle and layered a good piece of radio work can be. Absolutely brilliant. I also had the absolute joy of meeting some fascinating people and making a few friends along the way. You all know who you are and I’d like to thank you for making the conference even more special than it already was.

IFC Leipzig 2014 Group Shot. IFC (International Features Conference), Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. May 14, 2014. Photo: Photo: Bernd Cramer/MDR

To those, like me, who haven’t really listened to radio features work, I absolutely recommend listening to this short and extremely powerful piece by Kathy Tu from the USA.

Edmond Terakopian giving a talk on Photography & Film to the IFC (International Features Conference), Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. May 14, 2014. Photo: Thomas Martin Gasser / @ThomasMGasser

Drinks after the IFC, Leipzig, Germany. Radio documentary makers Andre Cunha (Portugal), Charlotte Rouault (France) and Ljubo Pauzin (Croatia) in conversation about the day’s presentations. May 14, 2014. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

1 Sixpence 1 Play

Posted on June 2, 2014 | 3 comments

Rode Reel Entry For 2014

Two days of shooting, many days of editing; a collaboration with the assistance of Magda Rakita, who also shot the “Behind The Scenes” film and the talented Neil Patience, from TAP TV, who gave direction on the editing, and our new short documentary film is done.

It’s a story on James Millham who is a pinball enthusiast. A collector and renovator of machines from a pre-Space Invaders era, James says the best thing about his hobby is playing the games.

We shot this film for the Rode Reel 2014 competition. Part of the competition is the People’s Choice prize. If you liked our films, we’d really appreciate your support. Kindly take a few seconds and vote for us; we’d be tremendously grateful!