I recently discovered Vincent Laforet’s blog via the Jackanory, I know I am a few weeks behind the curve, I have found myself unable to motivate myself to do much more than read, go for walks and eat in the midst of such beautiful surroundings and weather. But I did take a peek over the weekend, to see if I had missed anything. I have been thinking quite a bit about blogging up here, strange how as you remove yourself from something your feelings and perceptions change. When Shoot the Blog launched, I understood that the photo blog would inevitably be co-opted by mainstream media outlets. However Rachel Hulin has managed to maintain a relatively corporate free attitude and I never read it and think “this is an ad for Photoshelter.” A very smart decision by them and to Rachel’s credit.
However, when I clicked on the first Olympic photo on Laforet’s blog and was taken to the Newsweek site, I knew that something had shifted. Laforet’s blog is absolutely a commercial endeavor, and it is backed a major media corporation, even if they are not paying for it (as most blog hosting companies are free). When you click on the images and texts on his blog, they are hyper-linked directly to the Newsweek blog. The sites exist both as the Newsweek blog about their assigned photographer at the Olympics and as the blog by a Newsweek assigned photographer at the Olympics. Confused yet? There is definitely something really interesting about Newsweek site, it is rare that a major news magazine lets a photographer write about his experiences. It is a very successful addition to their website, and similar to the NY Times blogs, it functions as a place online to feature mini stories.
Laforet’s blog in contrast, is a miss. Part of why the blog disappointment to me, is that I have always found his work to be the most visually interesting and whimsical of the NY Times photographers. So, I want to see the pictures Newsweek doesn’t pick. The ones that are too racy, too weird for publication. Or his favorites, or the ones he thinks failed and why. I already know that Vincent Laforet is an amazing, successful and talented photographer and I know he has to protect his status, but why start a blog to just show images that are already so accessible in other venues. On the Newsweek blog, he is giving us an edited and professionally produced “inside view” of a super successful magazine photographer, which in that context works very well. But in the context of the personal artist blog, it functions like an infomercial for him. I think this raises some very interesting issues about the nature of the photo blog. So far, the most successful blogs, have either been very personal in nature or curatorial.
My fear is that big companies will see blogs succeeding and will jump on the bandwagon to create what they deem as safe replicas of the blog genre. I think there should is a definite line between a blog sponsored by a major media conglomerate and the blog of an individual artist. When the two are blurred, something is lost. Even though I know the change cannot be stopped, to me the blog should remain the wild west. A place where artists can meet, share information, show their work, and connect with the world around them. If that helps their career, great, but please leave the unremitting self-promotion for your website, or for dinner parties.
Ground Glass 
Cara – I just got off of the plane and I’m totally exhausted – so here is what I can say for now:
I launched my own blog a week before the Olympics – and Newsweek also asked me to blog for them while I was there for them. I had decided to launch my own blog months ago – and Newsweek only asked us to do the blog weeks ago … I though it wise to help start traffic on Newsweek’s blog by forwarding some of the 30,000 visitors that had hit my blog in the first week to them – to help their blog get going as it was new territory for them – and me. I figured – who could it hurt? It’s all about sharing information and getting people linked to what would hopefully be good content. Newsweek would not allow me to post my content on my blog – which is reasonable given that they were paying me to produce it for them. Does that clear things up?
There’s no commercial interest here – I will continue my own blog as of tomorrow. So no worries – I’m just so tired right now and wanted to clear the air on that. You don’t see me selling overpriced flash adapters on my blog do you or any advertising do you? Am I missing something?
Regardless – I appreciate the kind words in your blog. And would be happy to discuss this further either here – on via e-mail. My brain is so fried right now – I’m just going to go lie down and catch up on sleep – cheers – Vince
One more thing – I CAN see where you are coming from – i.e. keeping personal blog personal and not “corporate” – but I must say that I wrote the exact same thing for them as I would have on my personal blog… nothing watered down – read the “time for a little introspection ” post on there – it’s pretty open I think.
Anyway – as I said – I do see where you are coming from. Regardless of whether it’s corporate sponsored or not – I think it’s good to have people blog out there – the only thing that is dangerous is for them to come in and edit stuff out and keep it “corporate” I sure hope that doesn’t happen – and it inevitably will at some place of course… the only standards I did and will continue to abide by are basic journalism standards: i.e. not making statements that I cannot back up w/o facts and fly off the handle with my opinions – I think that’s something that I will continue to adhere to given my journalism background. – v