anthony jones | interviews

YouKodak: Photography is Dead. Long Live Photography!

Published 6th September 2006

While there are numerous MadAve-based community message boards and online communities, one that truly stands out is Soflow. That's because it is unlike anything out there related to the media and communication business.

It is both global and local, though from one member's view, it is really London. Of all the emails we receive, by and large the ones that capture our attention most are those that are sent from and nearby the Emerald Isles. Recently, we received one from Anthony "Photographer" Jones who informed us about the London Photograph Fair:

A new forum topic has been posted to the Creative World forum:
Posted by: Anthony " Photographer" Jones
Title: London Photograph Fair

Bonnington Hotel
Southampton Row
London WC1B 4BH

Sunday 10th September 2006
Open : 10am to 4pm
Admission : £2

On Sunday 10th September (for one day only) I will be showing a selection of my work at the London Photograph Fairs. I am also there is discuss any aspect of photography, so please come along and say hi!

The fair, now in its eighteen year, is best known for the quality of its 19th and 20th century photographic images. The organisers also encourage contemporary photographers to take part.

Anthony was also kind enough to include a link to his work, which knocked us out. We've pulled a few of his Portraits since we thought they would have the same effect on you.

Point is, video is great and YouBlaBlaBla and other video file-sharing sites have transformed many advertisers' plow horse online marketing interest, from:

...into steamroller distraction:

Yet, you have to ask yourself, what are you going to hang on your walls next to the Picasso; a Philips widescreen that loops your latest or original YouTube Object d'art? Maybe if you're Lou Reed's wife, Laurie Andersen, the creator of "performance art." That said, the number of people who fit that description (other than those who have a few too many drinks on a Friday night, which while "performance art-related" is more likened to being a spectacle,) could be counted on one hand.

So, the question is, are you ever going to sit down and read a good screen?

Words and pictures. Pictures and words.
The "theatre of the mind" is and always will be the basis of all understanding and interpretation. Regardless how imaginative or graphic the video is in reel time, once it is over, your mind begins to distill it for meaning on the basis of what you just experienced. That's the difference between content and context.

Soflow brings this all together. Since we are incapable to describing something without comparing it to something else, in our mind, Soflow is like Facebook for marketing and communication veterans.

Beyond Soflow's free service it also offers a premium version that provides better access to the memberships, including potential clients, useful contacts and suppliers.

Soflow Ads allow you to promote yourself and your business to other Soflow members. You can do so by creating an ad and then choosing your target audience using profile information. How many communities do that?

It's segmented into various groups:
1. Idea Machine
2. Creative World
3. AdRants
4. Marketing Future

The Soflow marketplace enables premium members to target Soflow users and provides them with specific tools to:
1. Target an Ad at Soflow members based on their profile information
post a Listing to your extended network and to relevant interest groups post your own Press release to any group that you are a member of;
2. Promote your product or service or find a job or the most reputable candidate for a vacancy;
3. Use Soflow ads, Soflow listings or Soflow press releases to identify the right Soflow personality.

Soflow profiles offer users:
1. A personal online space;
2. A unique URL, with the option to open your profile to the world wide web.
And coming soon, Soflow will be adding:
1. Quick access to content developed by you anywhere in the Soflow environment;
2. A depository for your digital assets, including photos and documents;
3. Tools to share and trade your digital assets with friends and colleagues.

We've covered some of the photos. Now here are some of the words that can never be translated into video. It's an email thread of a truly humorous posting. Most postings are quite diligent and serious in nature. However, we've picked this one since it tickled us to no end and is a great example of what YouTube will never be able to replicate. All the names and references have been taken out for privacy purposes.

MEMBER POSTING LOOKING FOR FEEDBACK:
Calling all clever creatives!
Create a new phrase by tweaking an old saying....
My contribution: "Squeeze the Day"

FIRST MEMBER POST:
Jung at heart.

SECOND MEMBER POST:
Not anything I can take credit for, but I thought the headline in one of our newspapers after the 'ball tampering' episode at the recent Pakistan-England cricket match was brilliant: 'tamper tantrum'

THIRD MEMBER POST:
Okay.... Here's one of mine:
I never metaphor I didn't like.

FOURTH MEMBER POST:
That is so sixy, Jackson.
FIFTH MEMBER POST:

An acquaintance of mine, the horrible cad, on hurrying outside of this lady's house just say to me while jumping in our shared black cab: 'To leave and let cry'

SIXTH MEMBER POST:
Knew a woman once who always screwed up sayings. I'll call her "Miss Malcliche." She spoke several times about a man who "rubs my elbows the wrong way." For a long time, I thought she was talking about her masseur.

SEVENTH MEMBER POST:
Less is less.

EIGHTH MEMBER POST:
Just found this one:
He's a wolf in cheap clothing.

NINTH MEMBER POST:
Old expression: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness
New expression: It is better to pay your electric bill than to curse the darkness

TENTH MEMBER POST:
Veni, Vedi, Peachy

ELEVENTH MEMBER POST:
tempus f**kit

editor@madisonavenuejournal.com