The idea for the PCCA came out of a decade’s observation of and engagement with content aggregation and delivery via the web. Many of the instances and examples had proved negative, primary among them the massive Lexis-Nexis infringement (including work of mine) that led to the landmark Tasini vs. Times Supreme Court decision and the much smaller-scale looting of dozens of essays from dozens of writers by the Paul Kopeikin Gallery (also including work of mine). Many content aggregators did it wrong, from my standpoint, starting with their basic assumption that they could and should get their content free of charge. How, then, could one do it right? . . . […]
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So when Ward stepped up to my table in the Exhibits Fair at the SPE National Conference, he walked into my shop — my place of business — during business hours. He didn’t have the courtesy to ask me if I could spare the time to meet with him after business hours so he could discuss my Archive project with me. He simply began haranguing me, in front of my actual and prospective customers, about how I should give my wares away free of charge. . . . […] I wouldn’t take this personally, except that Ward delivers it in the context of a personal attack on me. This blog post of his begins with a substantial quote from an essay of mine. No problem there, but the irony, lost on Ward, is that he took this quote from a pirated online publication of my text from serial infringer Doug Rickard at his blog AmericanSuburbX. Ward then has some complimentary things to say about my writings before lowering the boom: “I met Coleman at an SPE conference a few years ago . . . and I wondered how he could be so consistently luddite and backward about the future of photographic education. Mainly, judging from his web presence, I really don’t feel like he ‘gets’ the internets.” [Plural his.] . . . […] I hasten to point out a fundamental conceptual error that Bennett and his colleagues have made, as exemplified by this last statement. Their subject, said dead salmon, was not “perceiving humans.” It was perceiving photographs of humans. The relationship between a photograph of a thing and the thing itself is indexical at best, and fraught with complexities and qualifications. Clearly Bennett et al need to read more theory of photography. On a positive note, Bennett and his group also scanned a pumpkin and a Cornish hen (both certifiably deceased) with no resulting critical commentary. What a relief. . . . […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014 |
Polaroid Collection: Update 6
Polaroid Model 20 Swinger Manual, 1965. Ali McGraw as cover model.
It ain’t over till it’s over, as Yogi Berra famously remarked.
Presently a distinguished law firm is in dialogue with a distinguished photographer concerning the possibility of filing a Motion for Rehearing of the August 27, 2009 decision by the Minnesota Bankruptcy […]