Kodak Streamlines Operations

As part of ongoing efforts to adjust to the decline in demand for consumer film and photographic paper, Eastman Kodak is taking action to streamline its worldwide manufacturing operations. In all, Kodak plans to eliminate 12,000 to 15,000 jobs by 2007, trimming its work force to around 50,000.

Consolidation at the company’s plants in Windsor, Colo., and Harrow, England, have resulted in the closure of a paper manufacturing operation in the company’s home town of Rochester, N.Y. Other Rochester operations that recycle polyester waste and process polyester raw material also will be combined, with some of those services being contracted to outside firms. In addition, Kodak will reduce capacity for consumer film products at its Xiamen, China, plant.

As it continues to move into the digital photography market, Kodak also has announced that it will stop making black-and-white photographic paper. The paper, manufactured at a plant in Brazil, is considered a niche product for fine-art photographers and hobbyists that is being supplanted by digital-imaging systems. The company will continue to make black-and-white film and chemicals for processing, however.

NPPA Condemns Altered Newsweek Cover Photograph

The National Press Photographers Association has condemned Newsweek magazine’s use of an altered photograph of Martha Stewart on its March 7 cover, calling it a major ethical breach. Stewart’s head had been superimposed upon the body of a model who was photographed separately in a Los Angeles studio.

Despite the fact that Newsweek ran a page 3 disclaimer calling the cover image an illustration, the association is concerned that the average reader will not realize that Stewart’s body does not appear in the photograph.

“The public often distrusts the media, and this just gives them one more reason,” said NPPA president Bob Gould. “This type of practice erodes the credibility of all journalism, not just one publication.”

Getty Launches Licensing Service, Chinese Website

Getty Images recently established two new services for its customers: a subscription-based licensing service, called Creative Express, and a Chinese-language web site with content developed for the Chinese market.

Subscribers to Creative Express pay a fee for access to more than 50,000 images selected from the Photodisc and Digital Vision collections, available at www.gettyimages.com.

All imagery included in Creative Express is provided with model and property releases, plus full indemnification. The service offers monthly and annual subscription options, multi-user discounts and high-resolution image upgrades, which are available at a 10 percent discount from the single, royalty-free image price.

The new Getty Images China web site, www.gettyimages.cn, allows Chinese creative professionals to search, download and license imagery from all of Getty’s collections. To meet the demand for culturally relevant content on the site, a team of local and international photographers will shoot a broad range of subjects, supported by local creative research and art direction.

Yu Li, formerly with Reuters and now director of Getty’s Greater China division, oversees Getty Images China at its Beijing headquarters. Sales offices also have been established in Shanghai and Guangzhou

OpenRAW to Press for Open Camera Formats

The OpenRAW Working Group has launched a new website, www.openraw.com, to advocate for open, documented digital- camera data formats. The goal of OpenRAW, as stated on the website, is “to encourage image preservation and give creative choice of how images are processed to the creators of the images.”

Virtually all digital cameras store the raw image data in proprietary file formats. In the brief history of digital photography, digital camera manufacturers have dropped support for asset management applications, abandoned settings from older RAW processor versions and changed the methods of storing basic camera settings without documentation.

Undocumented RAW file formats present a number of problems, including limiting the choices available for image processing; increasing the risk that with time a RAW file will become unreadable or unable to be processed properly; and wasting third-party software development resources.

Many of the points that OpenRAW makes are quite similar to Adobe’s rationale for creating the digital negative (DNG) format. The difference is that Adobe is proposing that camera makers adopt DNG as their export format (perhaps as an alternative to disclosing their proprietary formats), while OpenRAW wants camera makers to disclose their proprietary formats whether they adopt DNG or not.

Ilford Completes Restructuring

After emerging from receivership earlier this year, Ilford Imaging, based in Mobberley, England, has succeeded in restructuring its operations to maintain its presence in the marketplace. The black-and-white photographic manufacturing company, established in 1879, was able to remain in business by selling land at its Mobberley headquarters to an investment company on the basis that the plant would remain.

Ilford Photo is the trading name of Harman Technology, the company under which the new enterprise trades, and is the brand that will be used for all monochrome products: film, paper and photochemistry.

The distributors in the United States, France, the Benelux countries, Switzerland and Australia are no longer subsidiaries. They have reorganized themselves, mostly as independent companies, and will continue handling Ilford’s products. Nearly 400 people are now employed at Mobberley, with production capability up to full capacity.

In addition, Ilford has reintroduced two of its products, ID-11 and Microphen powder monochrome film developers. ID-11 will be supplied in one-liter and five-liter packs, with Microphen in one-liter packs. Powder chemical manufacturing at Ilford’s United Kingdom plant ceased when the company went into receivership last year.

TV Station Apologizes For Reprinting Photo Without Permission

KOAT, the ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, N.M., issued a written apology to the Rio Grande Sun for using a photograph from the weekly newspaper’s web site without permission. The station, owned by Hearst-Argyle Television, also paid the paper $2,300 in legal fees incurred in pursuing the copyright infringement.

The Sun printed the apology, while its managing editor commented that the problem was all too common and that frustration had led the paper to “draw the line.” The picture in question was aired in conjunction with an item about the arrest of a Pojoaque, N.M., substitute schoolteacher on drug charges.The station credited the image to the newspaper with type on the screen.

OnRequest Images Expands Offerings

Seattle-based OnRequest Images has launched a new service to provide customers with broader choices about their involvement in the image production process. Custom Assignment Services allows customers to select photographers and direct photo shoots, just as they would with regular assignment photography.

Trade associations, such as the Professional Photographers of America, American Society of Media Photographers and Stock Artists Alliance, are cautious about the new service. Representatives of the groups have expressed concern about spec assignments, fees, royalties and copyright issues.

Photography Tour Nets 95 Applicants

The Images for Conservation Fund’s Pro-Tour of Nature Photography has received applications from 95 landowners who would like to participate in the event, scheduled for next April in the Texas Hill Country.

The Pro-Tour, which will match nature photographers with private landowners, seeks to foster greater wildlife conservation through the promotion of photo tourism income for private landowners (see PhotoMedia, Summer 2004, p. 34). The landowner applicant pool will be narrowed from 95 applicants to 20 finalists, who will be matched with the 20 professional wildlife photographers already selected for the event.

The teams will compete for a share of up to $200,000, and landowners will receive copies of their teams’ portfolios.

For more information on the event, visit www.imagesforconservation.org.

Eastman House, ICP Put Photos Online

The George Eastman House and the International Center of Photography have allied to create PhotoMuse.org, a collaborative web site designed to provide a free resource for the study of photography at work in the world. A prototype version of the site, containing more than 1,600 images, currently is available. When completed in 2006, the site is expected to include almost 200,000 photographs from both collections.

Stock Site Offerss Visual Searches

Danita Delimont Stock Photography, based in Bellevue, Wash., has launched a visual search feature on its web site, www.danitadelimont.com.

After conducting a standard keyword search, the user can use the visual search tool to browse through the results to find an image that is close to what he or she has in mind. Selecting an icon beneath the image causes the search feature to re-sort the images pulled up by the original keyword search, placing the closest visual matches at the top of the page.

Both traditional keyword search and visual search options are available. The company offers more than 70,000 images online.

Ivey Buys SoCal Screen Printing

Ivey Imaging, based in Seattle, has acquired the assets of Southern California Screen Printing, including a specially designed 37,000-square-foot production facility and a broad range of technology and equipment. Ivey also recently established a sales office in Los Angeles.

Southern California Screen Printing, founded in Fontana, Calif., in 1987, includes among its clients such companies as 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Kroger and Imax.

Rich Ayres, owner of SoCal, will continue with the company as vice president of business development.