Keith Morris 1958-2019

Photographer Keith Morris during the 2019 Hay Festival on June 1, 2019 in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. Photo © David Levenson/Getty Images.

Tragic news. The day after Keith was reported missing, a body was found in the sea, near Aberystwyth.

Many would know his byline, but fewer would have met the man. I saw him a couple of times a year, and my memory is of not just a very talented photographer, but a mate who was always laughing. He really did have that joie de vivre that some people are gifted with. Rarely travelling outside of Aberystwyth, he nevertheless had pictures published in the national papers nearly every week via Alamy and LNP. His ‘murmurations of starlings over the pier in the sunset’ were a staple of most papers. 

Based for nearly his whole career on the west coast of Wales in Aberystwyth, Keith made a living photographing the local community and all of it’s activities. What made him special though, was his ability to see a picture that was of local interest, and transcend it into an image that the national press would want to use. He was an incredibly hard working freelance, but was happy to share his knowledge with others, who wanted to learn the secrets of successful stock photography.

Almost uniquely he made a great success of his career without ever feeling the need to travel far from his home town. His enthusiasm knew no bounds, night after night he would return to the same locations, to capture variants on his famous sunset over the pier pictures. A prolific operator, he has over 25,000 pictures on Alamy.

After his death, dozens of tributes have appeared on social media from those he had photographed in the town. It seems everybody in Aber’ knew him.

I first got to know his work well during the great storms of 2013, when his weather pictures made the front pages day after day. Ironically, it seems that the great waves that he captured in all their glory, were what claimed him in the end.

Keith leaves a wife Gilly, two daughters, and a grandson.

DAVID LEVENSON, 9th October 2019

Women in Photojournalism

Protesters clash with police at the Barton Moss fracking site, Manchester. Photo: Lynne Cameron/PA.

When the association was mentioned in an open letter talking about Gender in Photojournalism The BPPA’s Vice Chair Lynne Cameron said in her response that “The Board of The BPPA welcomes constructive input from anyone who wants to help to promote and inspire great photography. If you have ideas on what more can be done on the issues raised then please get in contact with me or any of the other members of our Board.”

We are very happy to report that we have received notification of two things that are happening that will make a positive contribution to women in particular and diversity in general in photojournalism.

• FotoDocument.org have announced the launch of their 2019 Women’s FotoReportage Award in honour of Marilyn Stafford. This year’s award will be supported for the first time by Nikon. You can read the press release below or you can visit their website here.

• Photo Forum are hosting a panel discussion on the subject of diversity in photography chaired by Helen Healy, Head of Pictures at the Financial Times with photographers Anna Gordon, Suzanne Plunkett and Chin We. The venue is theprintspace, 74 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8DL on Tuesday 8th October 2019 and the start time is 7:00pm. You can read more here on the Photo Forum website

The FotoReportage Award press release says:

£2000 will be granted to a professional woman photographer towards the completion of a compelling and cohesive documentary photo essay which addresses an important social, environmental, economic or cultural issue, whether local or global.

The work should, in part, showcase positive solutions to any issues it raises in order to contribute to constructive photojournalism, in line with the wishes of Marilyn Stafford and the aims of FotoDocument. The Award is reserved solely for documentary photographers working on projects which are intended to make the world a better place and which may be unreported/under-reported.

Women from any stage of their careers are welcome to apply, whether emerging, mid-career or established. They must already have started the photo essay for which they are seeking funding and be able to show work in progress. In addition, they must have already completed at least one other documentary photo essay to demonstrate track record prior to applying for funding. Entrants must be over 18, they may be any nationality and based anywhere in the world. It is free to submit.

Submissions will be reviewed by panel including: Rebecca Conway – 2017 FotoAward winner, Nina Emett – Director of FotoDocument, Rebecca Newton – PR & Social Media Manager Nikon and Marilyn Stafford herself among others.

One overall winner will receive The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award of £2000 towards the completion of their project.

The final work will feature on the FotoDocument and Nikon websites and will be publicised via social media.

Partners will collectively endeavour to gain coverage for the final work in the international media, without any guarantee of this outcome.

Short-listed applicants will have at least one of their images profiled on the FotoDocument and Nikon websites and publicised via social media.

There will be a screening of the 2019 FotoAward winner’s work at the launch of the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2020 to celebrate International Women’s Day on 10 March 2020 at the Nikon School in central London.

Submissions close at 5pm on 15 November 2019.


BPPA Response to Pride in London

This year, Press Photographers that applied for accreditation to photograph the Pride In London parade and celebrations received the following email:

Changes to accreditation in 2019:

Pride in London have been working with our agency partners to review the security arrangements for Pride in London 2019. We’ve made a number of changes to the parade route which will enable us to make the parade more secure. This includes significantly reducing the numbers of people with access to the route itself.

Your media wristband gives you priority fast track access to the public areas at the stages. It does not give backstage access
There is no access inside the parade barriers along the parade route or to the form up area.”

This is a change over previous years. We have sent the following letter in response:

‘Dear Pride London,

The BPPA would like to raise our grave concerns regarding Pride London’s proposed plans to severely impede media access to this year’s parade.

Photographers are accredited to the parade but not allowed to photograph the parade itself from start to finish.

We cannot see the sense in this. With an estimated one million attendees, this would be considered a major news event and very worthy of extensive coverage by all national and international media organisations and barring access will inhibit global coverage and ultimately, interest in the annual Pride event.

Moreover a parade which promotes freedom of the individual and freedom of expression should not be restricting the freedom of the press.

Finally we cannot see there is any necessity to alter previous year’s arrangements in this way.

We, The BPPA therefore urge you to reconsider before the event and look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Thank you.’

​UPDATE FROM PRIDE LONDON
​Press that have requested accreditation should have recived an updated email that includes the following information:

Following a letter from the BPPA and listening to the concerns we have reviewed our decisions and have confirmed an approach that ensures Pride is open for all, while ensuring the event stays safe and secure.

As such, we are pleased to confirm that you have been approved for:

1 pass(es)

This wristband gives you access to parade form up and along the parade route if you are carrying a professional camera.

As you may have noted in the media pack, there is no front of parade photocall this year. We will also have an area for photos near Piccadilly Circus and our team can advise on its location tomorrow should you want a fixed spot to photograph from.

We followed this up, writing to Pride London to confirm the position and received the following:

“Dear BPPA,

Thank you for your e-mail. I can confirm this is correct.

This year we revised our media accreditation process because of its impact on the speed and security of the parade. Not an easy decision but it is an operational choice based on ensuring 30,000 people can pass through London safely and securely.

Following your letter we urgently reviewed our decision with our production partner to see what possibilities there are. We have been contacting people directly who are impacted.

As the third largest event in London we try our best to accommodate the complexities of organising 30,000 people through the streets and it was never our intention to inhibit coverage and deny freedom of expression. I wanted to thank you and the BPPA for bringing this to our attention, and I hope this resolves the matter.

Pride in London

We would like to thank Pride in London for listening to all the organisations that voiced concerns and for changing your policy.

We wish everyone a Happy Pride 🌈

An open response to a recent social media post about gender in press photography

The BPPA has come in for some criticism from a group called Women Photographers of the UK about what they refer to as the uneven representation of women in the current Assignments 2019 exhibition. You can read their open letter here on Medium. This is a response from Lynne Cameron, Vice Chair of The BPPA.
 
Dear Suzanne, Anna and Susannah
 
We would like to reassure those expressing concerns about the representation of women in our industry that we are very aware of the issues and are currently working on projects to support and help current and future female members of the organisation. We were disappointed that these concerns were not directed to The BPPA in the first instance as we welcome all constructive criticism. It is one of our core values to work transparently with all parties in any matter related to photography.
 
The issue of gender imbalance is a complex one, not just related to photography but to wider society.
 
The association is proactively working to improve such imbalances. As an example The BPPA elected me as Vice Chair and Julie Edwards as our Social Media and Website Editor at last year’s AGM. We are both long-standing professional photographers who have first hand experience of gender related issues within our industry. Julie and I are bringing our experiences, energy and ideas to The Board and welcome further positive constructive comments which could help address this wider topic.
 
In relation to the exhibition (it is not a competition) we would like to reassure those concerned that images were curated by highly regarded members of the profession who were deliberately not given any information about the name or gender of the photographers in order to make the selection process ‘about the images’ as far as is humanly possible.
 
We are extremely proud of Assignments – an exhibition designed to promote and highlight the amazing work that is being produced by our members.
 
The Board of The BPPA welcomes constructive input from anyone who wants to help to promote and inspire great photography. If you have ideas on what more can be done on the issues raised then please get in contact with me or any of the other members of our Board.
 
Lynne Cameron
 
Vice Chair, The BPPA
 
 
 
Statistics:
 
1. The BPPA has 321 paid-up members of whom 40 are women – which is approximately 12.46%.
2. 16 photographers joined or rejoined in order to take part in Assignments 2019 of whom 25% were women.
3. 161 photographers entered photographs for Assignments 2019 of whom 18 were women – 11.2%
4. 1,351 photographs were entered of which 148 were entered by women – 10.95%
5. 110 photographs were selected for exhibition of which 10 were by women – 9.3%

Assignments is back – and not just in London!


The exhibition of the best of British press photography returns – and as well as the London show we are taking over the The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke on Trent for a whole month.
The opening night is Tuesday 23 July- and will run until Sunday 25th of August to coincide with summer holiday season.
We are doing things slightly differently this year – full details on the website – but here are the key facts:

  • Entries open on April 1
  • Entries close April 12th
  • Pictures taken between 31st August 2017 and 14th April 2019 are eligible
  • We have increased the maximum number of pictures you can enter to 10 this year
  • There is a £10 registration fee to help us pay for everything
  • There is NO framing fee this year – our friends at Canon and Fixation are very kindly picking up the bill for us!
  • We will be doing the “catalogue” and the “contact sheet” again
  • (every image entered makes the contact sheet – so you can choose your own favourites)
  • Everyone who enters gets a pair of invites to the opening night party!
  • The exhibition is open to BPPA members – but if you have lapsed or haven’t got round to joining you can do so now

Check out the Assignments website for the full rules and details of how to enter: https://assignments.thebppa.com
You haven’t got long – so get hunting through those hard drives now!!

Assignments is back!


The exhibition of the best of British press photography returns – this time on Londons South Bank – taking over the Barge House at the OXO Tower.
The opening night is Thursday 16th May – and will run until the 19th to coincide with London Photo Week.
We are doing things slightly differently this year – full details on the website – but here are the key facts:

  • Entries open on April 1
  • Entries close April 12th
  • Pictures taken between 31st August 2017 and 14th April 2019 are eligible
  • We have increased the maximum number of pictures you can enter to 10 this year
  • There is a £10 registration fee to help us pay for everything
  • There is NO framing fee this year – our friends at Canon and Fixation are very kindly picking up the bill for us!
  • We will be doing the “catalogue” and the “contact sheet” again
  • (every image entered makes the contact sheet – so you can choose your own favourites)
  • Everyone who enters gets a pair of invites to the opening night party!
  • The exhibition is open to BPPA members – but if you have lapsed or haven’t got round to joining you can do so now

Check out the Assignments website for the full rules and details of how to enter: https://assignments.thebppa.com
You haven’t got long – so get hunting through those hard drives now!!

Assignments Live with Tom Stoddart

We are proud to announce that the first of our long running Assignments Live events for 2019 features none other than Tom Stoddart on 31st January.
Tom Stoddart began his photographic career on a local newspaper in his native North-East of England. In 1978 he moved to London and began working freelance for publications such as the Sunday Times and Time Magazine. During a long and varied career he has witnessed such international events as the war in Lebanon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the election of President Nelson Mandela, the bloody siege of Sarajevo and the wars against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Read more about Tom here..
If you fancy joining us at Wex Photo Video London for this relaxed event listening to Tom’s talk entitled “Every Picture Tells A Story”, detailing his 50 years as one of the worlds leading photojournalists, which is followed by a raffle and plenty of time to socialise (or network if you prefer) with other photographers, you will need to be quick. Assignments Live are free to all but with tickets being available to theBPPA members a week before non-members, many of our members have already snapped up their tickets leaving a fraction remaining.
Tickets are available here…

We are starting the new year by helping you brush up on your Photo Mechanic based workflow

We offering members and non-members the chance to take part in a series of keenly priced half day workshops which will be focused on making the most of Camera Bits software to select , caption and send your images out to the picture desks in a fast and efficient way using Photo Mechanic.
BPPA Secretary Neil Turner has a long history and experience writing about and teaching photography as well as working as a photo editor on very large sports events with world class teams of photographers.
Take the chance to learn from his years of experience as a photo editor how to make the most of the complex and powerful Photo Mechanic. Take control of variables, code replacements and autocomplete texts.
Attendees are welcome to bring laptop’s to follow the tuition in real time if they wish. If not, just listen, take notes and ask questions.
Even the experienced are bound to learn something new.
You can register on this keenly priced workshop here…

Alamy – a follow-up

The UK Press Gazette quoted The BPPA’s open letter to Alamy’s CEO in their piece about his video signalling his intention to reduce the photographers percentage of royalties to 40%. This morning the UKPG asked us to provide a response to James West’s latest video where he offers to keep the 50% split for exclusive content. We provided the following text:
 
“Alamy’s move to alter their commission structure has brought a large number of other issues to the surface such as the low prices they sell pictures for, their broken promise that when they reduced the photographers cut to 50% they wouldn’t go further and their somewhat grudging acceptance that it is the commitment and buy-in from thousands of photographers that has got them to the positive position in which they now find themselves.
 
The BPPA welcomes Alamy’s decision to reconsider their reduction in the percentage paid to photographers but in making this only for exclusive content they are still going to anger many of our members. One of them has said “exclusivity is appropriate to a delicatessen, not a Walmart” and this sums up how most feel.
 
Should they push ahead with this plan the details of how they manage this will be complex. Will photographers have to make some sort of declaration for every single picture retrospectively? Will the burden for proving exclusivity rest with the photographers? Our opinion is that Alamy are still not listening and are still cutting the income of all those photographers who for very good reasons do not wish to, or cannot, surrender exclusivity.”

An open letter to Alamy CEO James West

Dear Mr West
When our members first pointed out that Alamy was reducing the commission that it pays to contributing photographers the first reaction was “oh no not again”. Sitting and watching the video that you posted on YouTube didn’t help. 
Alamy is a company whose success is built on its relationship with the people who have trusted you to handle their stock and live photography sales. Relationships built on trust are destroyed very quickly when one party moves the goalposts and that’s exactly what you are planning to do.
Many of our members are contributors to Alamy and a significant number of them have invested incredible amounts of time and money supplying images through your service. They have done this based on an expectation of an equitable split of sales. The graphs showing increasing revenue and turnover do not show the whole picture when it comes to the incomes of individual contributors. Very few of them have had the degree of income or turnover growth that Alamy can proudly boast about. We know many photographers whose income from Alamy has plateaued at best and, in a number of cases, reduced significantly.
We are not stupid. We are amongst that group of photographers that you mentioned who understand the market. We know that many individual images fetch lower prices than they once did, that it is a complex and competitive market and that sales models have changed since 1999. We understand that the financial uncertanties of Brexit mean that you have to be cautious over the next twelve months or more. We understand that Alamy wants to improve and grow. We understand that you want to fund those goals from within your own revenues but we don’t understand why you would do so at the expense of the contributors whose effort has been one of the key drivers of your rise to a turnover in excess of $30,000,000.
In essence you are asking hard working and dedicated photographers to take a 20% pay cut. It doesn’t matter that Alamy is selling more and has the potential to sell even more in the future if your investments in technology and research pay off. By reducing the photographers percentage you are asking them to pay for those developments and we would be interested to know if anyone at Alamy is taking a 20% pay cut to help fund their futures.
You will, no doubt, have read the comments underneath your video on YouTube. The anger is there for all to see and there are many photographers on there who are going to reconsider their relationship with Alamy. They don’t agree with your assertions that 40% of more sales is better than 50% of a slower increase in sales and, as individual photographers, they are probably correct.
We would ask that you reconsider this move and that you continue to pay existing contributors 50% of the sales. If new contributors want to join then maybe you could agree the 60/40 cut with them. There has to be a way to keep the trust of our members and still be able to fund development because, as things stand, Alamy keeping 60% of fewer pictures of lower quality is a distinct possibility which benefits nobody.
Kind Regards
The BPPA Board