Instagram Scam

A new Instagram scam is going around. Scammers send a message notifying you that one of your photos was reported for copyright infringement with a message reading: “We recently received a report of a photo posted on your Instagram. An image of your album is reported to contain copyright content. If no objection is made about the copyrighted work, we will need to remove your account. Please fill in the appeal form.”

There’s a “Go to Appeal Form” button below the message, inviting you to click on it. It contains a link that will take you to what seems an Instagram login page. If you enter your credentials – it’s done. The scammers have your username and password, which they will immediately change and ask you to pay them so they give your account back to you. Read the rest of this article over on DIY Photography.

APAG recommends setting up “Two factor authentication” so that only you can log into your Instagram account.

NFTs

“NFTs for Fine Art Photographers: What They Are and How to Make Your Own. Concepts, Real World Experiences and 7 Tips” by APAG member Steve Giovinco. Read it here.

Santi Visalli at 90: Una Storia

“Santi Visalli at 90: Una Storia” is on now through March 13th, 2022, at Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California. Click here to view the exhibition online.

Born in 1932 and raised in Messina, Sicily, Santa Barbara resident Santi Visalli traveled with a camera for three years across the globe before settling in New York during the late 1950s, aiming to become a successful photographer on the international stage. With an astute eye, tenacious energy, and patient skill, Visalli forged an extraordinary career that saw him photographing countless major world figures and important sites and cities for over five decades.

This exhibition of 29 photographs focuses on a specific area of Visalli’s art: perceptive portraits of well-known figures in the 1960s and 70s worlds of film, literature, art, music, and popular culture. Ranging from the spontaneous and joyous to the posed and quiet, Visalli’s portraits all relate a storia, an Italian word meaning tale, story, and history. Tactful yet honest, Visalli captures his subjects with a respectful distance that nonetheless allows the unique sense of these renowned personalities to emerge on their own terms.

Monolog Collective

A new show is on display at APAG member Gallery 270 in Westwood, now through January 4, 2022, with an in person opening on November 11, at 7 pm ET.

“This group of like-minded stalwart artists, by choice, work in the “slow” historical processes of monochrome film photography to express their vision. They’ll be with us to share both the stories behind their images and the amazing variety of vintage processes they employ to create them, such as platinum/palladium, silver gelatin, carbon transfer, tintype, wet plate collodion tintype and ambrotype.” Learn more.

The World of Yousuf Karsh

Le Monde de Yousuf Karsh

The exhibition “Le monde de Yousuf Karsh / The World of Yousuf Karsh” is open now through January, 2022, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Karsh fans who are not local to Montreal can purchase a beautiful catalog instead.

Ruth Orkin Centenary

Ruth Orkin was born on September 3, 1921, which makes this her centenary year. A major retrospective exhibition titled “Expressions of Life” is on view now through December 5, 2021, at New York City’s Fotografiska. Plus a new 240 page Ruth Orkin monograph, “A Photo Spirit,” (Hatje Cantz, 2021) is on sale now.

Congratulations to APAG’s founder, Ruth’s daughter Mary Engel, for her tireless work on preserving her mother’s archives. See more on the Ruth Orkin website.

Arthur Rothstein Illustrated Lecture

On February 20, 2021, at 2 PM EST, join Ann Rothstein Segan, PhD, for an online illustrated lecture about her father Arthur Rothstein. Visit the Whitesbog website.

William Helburn obituary

We are sad to let you know that APAG member William “Bill” Helburn recently passed away. Thanks to Bob and Lois Lilly for sharing this information and for all their work preserving his archive. Sending condolences to them, the Helburn family and especially his son William Helburn who was an early member of APAG.

Fashion and advertising photographer William ”Bill” Helburn has died at age 96. A contemporary of Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman and Irving Penn, Helburn created playful, sexy images that jumped off the page, often juxtaposing the sublime with the absurd. “Shock value was a term that was used,” said Helburn “And I meant to shock people as much as I could.” A “first-call” photographer at the heart of advertising’s creative revolution, Helburn brought a fashion sensibility to everything he caught in his lens. From 1949 to the early 70s, his work was seen in Harper’s Bazaar, LIFE, McCall’s, Esquire, The New Yorker and many other magazines. His work and life story are featured in the book “Seventh and Madison William Helburn” (2014) and his images in galleries including Staley-Wise in New York, Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica, Robert Klein Gallery in Boston and Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta.

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a34783749/william-helburn/?fbclid=IwAR2fC5UHMZPhLVUY-zZbYW_jIVlARQmb38rEBDRfDZjiW5LEiZ0oBwtgx6Y”>

APAG quoted in INSIDE PHILANTHROPHY

Excerpt from article

“Visual Arts Organizations Scramble to Survive Fundraising. Many Won’t survive.

INSIDE PHILANTHROPHY

By HOLLY HALL – September 2020

Questions of Survival

But other visual arts organizations are struggling, and many will not survive. In a June survey of more than 750 museum directors, the American Alliance of Museums found that one out of every three museums is in danger of permanent closure as revenues and financial reserves dry up. These closures “will be devastating for communities, economies, education systems and our cultural history,” the alliance’s president, Laura Lott, said in a statement.

More than 85 percent of museums had 12 months or fewer of financial operating reserves, the survey found, with more than half reporting less than six months’ worth of reserves. Even if their institutions survive, more than 60 percent of directors predict they will be forced to reduce education, programming or other services.

When museums shut down, it’s not just the loss of galleries that draw museum-goers, says Edwards at the Frist in Nashville. “A lot of these organizations provide after-school programs,” she says. “We provide after-school arts programs, and we’ve sent out people to give presentations for kids who would otherwise be without. We do other programs for seniors and others with special needs. If you lose one-third of these kinds of resources, it is a major blow to the entire country.

Among those struggling the most to raise money now are small visual arts organizations. Mary Engel runs a New York photography archive showcasing the work of her deceased parents, Ruth Orkin and Morris Engel. Their daughter founded the American Photography Archives Group in 2000. APAG is a charitable organization seeking donations on behalf of more than 200 photo archives, photographers and collectors, a few from overseas. Engel says APAG has such a small budget, just $30,000, that it was unable to get a coveted archive grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Mellon supports the arts, but for this specific grant, required visual archives to have a budget of $50,000 or more.

“I find it cumbersome to do grant applications,” Engel says. “A lot of funders don’t give general operating support. I find this very frustrating.” At one grantmaking organization founded by photographers, she recalls, “a major benefactor wanted me to use money in a way that made no sense, given COVID.” Though that benefactor relented when Engel explained her objections, the back and forth can be stressful and time-consuming.