The brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg (24) who later enlisted his roommate at Harvard University Dustin Moskovitz (24), Facebook in its infancy was more of a dating “Who’s Who” for the Ivy League scene around the country, enjoyed by college students from Stanford to Columbia to Yale, and then to, well, you get the picture… It later expanded into what it is now the social-networking mammoth that the 60 million of us on the site, have all come to know and compulsively check behind our bosses backs (I’m 23—I’m not above it)…That’s why I was shocked when my boss, my publisher, sent me a link to none other than, dare I say, Facebook. Was this a setup? Was he trying to catch me in the act? Run for cover, the sky is falling!

After I got over my initial paranoia by walking past my publisher’s office several times with a “Yes, I’m doing my work smirk,” and receiving the “Yes you still only have a thirty-minute lunch break” return smile, I went back to my desk and opened the link. To my surprised relief, I uncovered that, well, Facebook isn’t just for shameless, self-indulgent stalking purposes anymore, and is in fact a pretty good way to connect with people within our own industry.

Profile after profile of photographers linking to their websites; retailers promoting their companies; and manufacturers plugging their products are just some of the findings I happened upon. When I asked my publisher, Ian Littauer why we—the imaging group—are on Facebook in the first place, he answered that it’s to expose Studio Photography, PTN, and imaginginfo.com to “photographers that might not be familiar with our brand,” which also includes younger photographers and retailers new to the industry scene, and who surely have a Facebook account. Indeed, the site has grown in the four years since it became a regular face on most of our computer screens, evolving from guilty pleasure to green light for new businesses and industries like our own, to expand our presence and influence in a community of likeminded people.

So in the end, I’’m happy to say that my music-file sharing, Che Guevara t-shirt wearing, Facebook surfing cohort got something right the only way we know how: without moving a muscle, just a couple of fingers…

Check out our Studio Photography, PTN and imaginginfo.com groups on Facebook!

He began photographing the couples, still in their fineries, speckled with dust from the rubble and wearing expressions of scared surprise. “When the dust had settled, everyone stood up and realized they were all safe,” Wang said. He captured images of residents escaping the avalanche of debris, relief workers driving people to safety, and the many buildings quickly crumbling into brown clouds of powder. The photographs can be viewed on the CNN website www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/quake.wedding.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview#cnnSTCText

And like his bleak surroundings, Wang too was instantly transformed from wedding photographer to photojournalist. “I shot these photos out of the instinct of a photographer,” he said.
An instinct that, in the face of danger, confusion, and personal tragedy, turns towards the disaster, and armed with little more than a camera and a pair of eyes, freezes that moment in the hope of enlightening the larger public with an empathetic awareness that can only be gotten through art and the human subject—a motivation that, inspiring all photographers, makes them an integral part of creating a collective memory, a personal history, and a cultural consciousness.

The need to capture and document a human experience as it is unfolding, lives within every photographer whether a portrait artist, a commercial shooter, or a photojournalist. I chose this item, because I think it defines what a photographer is: A storyteller who explains a process that took place in real time, and thus makes tangible the reality of our own time.
–Tara Propper

Yesterday, Adobe released a beta version of Photoshop Express, a free web-based version of its image editing application. Users can now enjoy 2GB of storage space and editing tools like black-and-white conversion, cropping, blemish and red eye removal, along with special effects like Sketch, Distort, and Pop Color without having to tap into their own wallet. Instead, users just have to tap their mouse a couple of times and they’re storing, sorting, and sharing their digital images with an online community.

And if you’re a Gen-Yer like myself, then you can add a third love to this Adobe experience: Facebook… Photoshop Express links to other social networking applications like Facebook, allowing users to share their edited images on digital Guestbooks and Albums in a variety of social venues.

Adobe is not the only one offering free web-based applications, Google’s Picasa is another online editing tool which allows users to locate and organize digital images, create albums and rate pictures. Microsoft too is offering a free online extension of Office on their website, enabling users to save over 1000 documents and access them from virtually anywhere. In light of all this freedom from the sometimes binding influence of the dollar, which in recent months has been flailing, the Web has become an industry stalwart, an unavoidable resource for photographers and retailers alike, but one question still stands on the tip of my tongue somewhat leery of the answer I will receive: Is all this freedom healthy?

This morning, while reading the New York Times and sipping on the first of my four-cup coffee ritual, I stumbled on a line discussing the economic downturn that I felt had some resonance within our own industry: “It is difficult to protect individuals without protecting the markets, and the markets will remain fragile if individuals suffer huge declines in their personal wealth.” Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times. I’m all about maintaining my personal wealth, and I’ve always celebrated a sale, but given the instability of the markets today, is it a fitting time for companies to jump on the “free” bandwagon? From iTunes offering free singles to free image editing applications offered online, when does the cost of freedom become taxing—and are we at all afraid of creating an industry standard that places the individual over the market, which in turn hurts the individual in the end???

It’s been an especially busy time for us in Cygnus’s photo group, which includes Studio Photography, PTN, imaginginfo.com as well as the Cygnus PMA Show Daily and Cygnus Photokina News. We rang in the New Year with a redesigned PTN, now slimmer and easier to read, you’ll notice January’s issue shoots straight from hip without mincing words or getting caught in the zipper of your bag—tabloids are generally harder to roll up; you can pick up a copy of the January issue from our booth K161 at PMA.

Like most of the candidates running for political office in 2008, we too are committed to change, and so you’ll also notice a newer face to our website in the upcoming month. With all the redesigns and makeovers taking place in 2008, we hope to bring to our readers a more solid product, while maintaining our 70 year tradition of being the most adept eye on the photo industry.

And speaking of PMA, remember to pick up our PMA Daily, a publication in circulation since the early 70’s, and my number one priority at the show, before you make your rounds—our columnists Jerry Lanksy, Don Sutherland, and Liz Cunningham always have advice and insight into the latest photo trends, not to mention our Roving Reporter Alysha Sideman, who may even approach you for a show observation.. And after you get your head straight from the supersonic week, check out our editor blogs to get a candid opinion about the show highlights and lowlights.

Until next time, cheers….