“Full Circle: Wesley Wright Sculpture” Exhibition to Debut with Reception

“Full Circle: Wesley Wright Sculpture” Exhibition to Debut with Reception
The Mendocino College Art Gallery is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated exhibition opening of “Full Circle: Wesley Wright Sculpture.” The opening reception is scheduled for Thursday, September 28th, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Mendocino College Art Gallery. This event is open to all art enthusiasts and members of the community, and we invite you to join us.

Two photo shows capture the shapes of water

Two photo shows capture the shapes of water

As a molecule, water is breathtakingly simple. Combine two atoms of hydrogen with one of oxygen. That’s it, and good to the last drop.

As a substance, water is breathtakingly various. It can take the form of snow, mist, clouds, glaciers, icebergs, desert springs and groundwater, rivers, rivulets, ponds, oceans, seas. All of these appear in the several shows currently up at Bridge Gallery, in Cambridge, and the Griffin Museum of Photography, in Winchester. One of the Griffin shows even incorporates Judkins Pond, behind the museum.

Evgenia Arbugaeva, “Untitled.”Evgenia Arbugaeva

Evgenia Arbugaeva grew up in Siberia, and what the whiteness of the whale was for Herman Melville the whiteness of snow is for her. It provides an arresting visual ostinato throughout her dozen color photographs in “Disappearing Worlds: The Photographs of Evgenia Arbugaeva and Natela Grigalashvili,” which runs at Bridge through Oct. 14.

The photographs are from her series “Tiksi.” Tiksi is Arbugaeva’s hometown, a small port on the Arctic Ocean. Snow figures in nearly all the images. The blanketing white contrasts with the subdued colors seen elsewhere in the photographs.

Arbugaeva asked gallery owner Greig Cranna to show the photographs in white frames, adding to the prevailing whiteness. The handsome deep gray that Cranna has painted the walls further accentuates the prevalence. Without the whiteness, the colors would look washed out. Instead, the contrast gives them the delicacy and appeal of pastels — except for the photograph that shows the northern lights. Now those colors are anything but subdued.

Natela Grigalashvili, “Untitled.”Natela Grigalashvili

Natela Grigalashvili is from Georgia, the one in the Caucasus. Her nine photographs face Arbugaeva’s, as if having a post-Soviet conversation. They’re from Grigalashvili’s series “The Final Days of Georgian Nomads.” Where Arbugaeva’s present a snowbound contemporaneity, Grigalashvili’s have a timeless quality. Enhancing that effect is the mist found in five of the images. What we see is at once magical and matter of fact.

Camille Seaman, “Gentoo Penguin at Port Lockroy, Antarctic Peninsula, December 2005.”© Camille Seaman

The six shows and one video that make up the Griffin’s “Ceding Ground” look at climate change, doing so primarily through the lens of the water cycle. Sometimes that lens can be very large. Three of Camille Seaman’s eight photographs of the Arctic and Antarctic are more than 8 feet by 6 feet. To call them stunning would be a stunning understatement. Yet powerful as they are, they can’t match the emotional impact of Seaman’s much smaller image of a penguin skeleton. It’s a “mere” 16 inches by 24 inches.

Jason Lindsey, “CRACKS no. 1,” 2022.© Jason Lindsey

Water, in various forms, defines “Ceding Ground,” but death and destruction, or the threat of them, are a near constant. With his “Cracks in the Ice” project, Jason Lindsey conveys destruction in a highly distinctive manner that’s literal as well as figurative. Lindsey has taken slides of glaciers, broken them up, and photographed the results. Earth art meets Cubism, courtesy of Lindsey’s camera.

Bremner Benedict, “Fenced in pool . . . MC Springs, Sonoran Desert, CA,” 2018.© Bremner Benedict

Startling as Lindsey’s shards are, they may be less so than the easily overlooked presence of chicken-wire fencing in Bremner Benedict’s photograph of a pool in the Sonoran Desert. It’s there for a good reason, to protect the grasses behind it. But it seems like such an intrusion on the landscape. Unframed and unmatted, these nine photographs of springs in the desert Southwest have a fineness of color and texture that underscores their subjects’ fragility.

Their desert settings make the rippling waters seen in Amber Crabbe’s video “I Dreamed We Could Stand Still” all the more appealing. These up-close views of water passing over sand, soil, and stone, or bubbling and steaming from hot springs testify to the eloquence of ripples, and have a real depth of feeling.

Steve Goldband & Ellen Konar, “Daisy,” 2022.© Goldband Konar

The depth of feeling in Ellen Konar & Steve Goldband’s “Cut Short” is beyond doubt. But the nature of the 13 black-and-white photographs, which show cross-sections of felled redwoods seen against a black background, works against expressivity. The presentation of the cross-sections is almost clinical, which brings out the variation among them all the more, while also emphasizing the clinical in a way that one suspects the photographers didn’t intend.

Ville Kansanen, “Airut (Harbinger), Nro. 3.”© Ville Kansenen

Ville Kansanen is the artist who makes use of Judkins Pond, with an installation of tiles that extend from the museum to the pond. Made of earth from the Mojave Desert, they’re meant to represent soil salination, Kansanen says, though this isn’t readily apparent. Also on display are a series of large and attractive color photographs, from his “Airut Harbinger” series. Each shows “a makeshift tripod,” as Kansanen describes it, with a stone hanging from it. It functions, he says, “as a mystical instrument for measuring water levels.” This does seem to put an undue burden of meaning on the item.

Simon Norfolk is represented by two series, “Shroud” and “When I Am Laid in Earth.” Both are striking in appearance and unsettling in meaning, though only one is unsettling in quite the way Norfolk presumably wants.

For four generations, a Swiss family has earned a living by selling tickets to enter an ice grotto in the side of a glacier. To protect the attraction against rising temperatures, the family has fashioned a covering for it: a shroud. Shroud, of course, has a mortuary association. Norfolk’s photographs of it don’t belabor the point, though the angle from which he took one of them, “Shroud 8,” gives the covering an outline that looks like nothing so much as sharky jaws.

Simon Norfolk, “The Lewis Glacier, Mt. Kenya, 1934, 2014.”© Simon Norfolk

“When I Am Laid” shows the recession of the Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya. Each photographic title includes two dates. The later was when Norfolk took the picture. That shows the current extent of the glacier. The earlier date denotes how far the glacier then extended to. How Norfolk indicates that extent is a visual tour de force: with a line of flames. Yes, ice and fire. It’s a bravura effect. To achieve it, Norfolk ignites petroleum. In the larger context of climate change, the contribution those fires make to warming is trivial. But the act remains troubling. As the anonymous US officer is supposed to have said during the Vietnam War, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”

Norfolk’s photographs, Seaman’s, Lindsey’s, and Benedict’s are all hung in Griffin’s main gallery, often interspersed. At first this is confusing, until you realize that a larger, holistic point is being made. Glaciers and desert springs, the polar regions and Africa: It’s all one planet, our planet and it’s all one crisis, which is our crisis, too.

DISAPPEARING WORLDS: The Photographs of Evgenia Arbugaeva and Natela Grigalashvili

At Bridge Gallery, 5 Pemberton St., Cambridge, through Oct. 14. 617-930-3418, bridge.photos

CEDING GROUND

Camille Seaman: Melting Away: A Penguins Life

Jason Lindsey: Cracks in the Ice

Bremner Benedict: Hidden Waters

Amber Crabbe: I Dreamed We Could Stand Still

Steve Goldband & Ellen Konar: Cut Short

Ville Kansanen: Arid Harbingers

Simon Norfolk: When I Am Laid in Earth & Shroud

At Griffin Museum of Photography, 67 Shore Road, Winchester, through Oct. 15. 781-729-1158, griffinmuseum.org


Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.

2023 SCOTIABANK NEW GENERATION PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD EXHIBITION

2023 SCOTIABANK NEW GENERATION PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD EXHIBITION

Supporting the careers of talented Canadian artists, aged 35 and under, working behind the camera

Meet this year’s winners and discover their works

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 20, 2023 /CNW/ – Until January 7, 2024, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) presents works by the three winners of the 2023 Scotiabank New Generation Photography (NGPA): Hannah Doucet, Wynne Neilly, and Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez in an exhibition organized by the NGC in partnership with Scotiabank and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Through videographic and photographic works, the three artists explore the many challenges in contemporary representations of the body, identity, culture, and history. The works on display were produced between 2019 and 2023.

The public is invited to discover the exhibition in the company of the three artists during a special edition of the Gallery’s free Thursday evenings, this Thursday 21 September from 6 to 7 p.m. EDT in the exhibition space C218. To take part and visit the Gallery for free between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. EDT, simply book your ticket online. The presentation of the exhibition and Meet the artists are supported by the Scotiabank Photography Program at the NGC.

“The National Gallery of Canada is delighted to celebrate the vision of talented artists at the beginning of their careers. We are grateful to our colleagues across Canada who have nominated artists whose work deserves to be known. Our partnership with Scotiabank and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival plays an important role in giving impetus to younger generations of artists from communities from coast to coast,” said Jean-François Bélisle, NGC Director and CEO.

“With great visual sophistication, care and curiosity, the 2023 Scotiabank NGPA winners demonstrate the continued power and significance of lens-based images to both probe shared concerns and anxieties and offer new insights into negotiating an image-saturated culture,” said Andrea Kunard, Senior Curator, NGC Photographs Collection, NGPA Jury Chair, and curator of the exhibition.

Winnipeg-born Toronto artist Hannah Doucet explores how society deals with childhood illness by invoking fantasy and wish fulfilment. Through images, videos and an installation, she revisits her wish trip to Disney World at the age of 10 after two years of treatment for lymphoblastic lymphoma. In her brightly coloured, saturated work, featuring friendly mascots and motifs borrowed from children’s animation, Doucet draws critical attention to the corporate messaging conveyed to children about illness and its focus on living life “happily ever after”.

The intimate portraits presented by Toronto-based queer artist Wynne Neilly pay homage to his queer and trans subjects and highlight the strength of the ‘chosen family’. Each of the large-format portraits is presented alongside a photograph of a natural or urban landscape that, like his portraits, underscores Neilly’s meditative approach to image-making. 

Vancouver artist Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez is interested in the shifting meaning of the photographic image as it passes through different times and contexts. The works exhibited here originate from a box of photographs by an unknown photographer taken between 1987 and 1993, which he bought in a Mexican bookstore. Rodriguez combines these photographs with images from his personal archive. The installation includes a video work featuring two of the artist’s colleagues who examine the photographs looking for clues that would allow them to define the unknown person depicted.

Launched in 2017, the Scotiabank PNGP was created in partnership with Scotiabank and rewards outstanding work by Canadian artists aged 35 and under working in the photographic arts.

About the National Gallery of Canada
Ankosé: Everything is Connected / Tout est relié

The NGC is dedicated to amplifying voices through art and extending the reach and breadth of its collection, exhibitions program, and public activities to represent all Canadians, while centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Ankosé—an Anishinaabemowin word that means “everything is connected”—reflects the Gallery’s mission to create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, one another, and our diverse histories, through the visual arts. The NGC is home to a rich contemporary Indigenous international art collection, as well as important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian and European art from the 14th to the 21st century. Founded in 1880, the NGC has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years.

To find out more about the Gallery’s programming and activities, visit gallery.ca and follow us on TwitterFacebookYouTube and Instagram. #Ankose #EverythingIsConnected #ToutEstRelié.

About the Scotiabank Photography Program at the NGC

The Scotiabank Photography Program at the National Gallery of Canada embraces digital content creation, education, exhibitions, the NGC initiatives Leading with Women, and Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award. The National Gallery of Canada’s photography collection is one of the world’s most comprehensive holdings of photographs and related materials. It represents the entire history of the medium, revealing and reinterpreting the most important stories of our past, present and future.

About the National Gallery of Canada Foundation

The National Gallery of Canada Foundation is dedicated to supporting the National Gallery of Canada in fulfilling its mandate. By fostering strong philanthropic partnerships, the Foundation provides the Gallery with the additional financial support required to lead Canada’s visual arts community locally, nationally and internationally. The blend of public support and private philanthropy empowers the Gallery to preserve and interpret Canada’s visual arts heritage. The Foundation welcomes present and deferred gifts for special projects and endowments. To learn more about the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, visit ngcfoundation.ca.

SOURCE National Gallery of Canada

For further information: For media use only– For more information, to book an interview, or obtain images, please contact: Josée-Britanie Mallet, Senior Officer, Media and Public Relations, National Gallery of Canada, [email protected]

“DEEP DIVE” SCULPTURE EXHIBIT TO DEBUT AT ART CENTER

“DEEP DIVE” SCULPTURE EXHIBIT TO DEBUT AT ART CENTER
A NEW SCULPTURE EXHIBITION DEBUTS THURSDAY AT THE SIOUX CITY ART CENTER. CURATOR CHRISTOPHER ATKINS SAYS THE EXHIBITION, TITLED “JUDY ONOFRIO: DEEP DIVE”, INCLUDES SURPRISING AND CAREFULLY CRAFTED SCULPTURES BY JUDY: DEEPDIVE1 OC….PERSONAL CONNECTION. :25 RING OF FIRE IS A LARGE, INTRICATE SCULPTURE FEATURING CIRCUS THEMES.   ATKINS SAYS THERE ARE A VARIETY OF SCULPTURES […]

John Bradbury obituary

John Bradbury obituary
Other Lives: Sculptor who carved a life-sized figure of William Caxton in Westminster Abbey and won awards for his work on Cambridge colleges

Artist Tom Killion, A Chip Off the Old Woodblock

Artist Tom Killion, A Chip Off the Old Woodblock
Tom Killion produces landscape prints using Japanese woodblock printmaking tools and materials combined with fine book printing techniques. He grew up in Mill Valley, where he began his artistic career as a teenager, selling his work at the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival. And this year, he will show his work at the Festival – […]

Teens learn to make money from art through program moving to theater

Teens learn to make money from art through program moving to theater

CINCINNATI — Your kid’s art could be worth something. A new program is teaching teens and young adults how to make a profit through their own works of art and the program will be on the move. 


What You Need To Know

  • Teens are learning to create art and how to reprint, market and sell their art through the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Arts Center (ROMAC)
  • Programs through ROMAC are currently being housed at the Lincoln Recreational Center on Cincinnati’s West End
  • Once the old Regal Theater is restored, those programs are set to move in by 2025

Armenta Ashshakir already knows what she wants her career to be, and she’s still in high school.

“I’m a photographer so I can say that’s my goal, but fashion and design is definitely a part of me,” said Ashshakir.

What she doesn’t know yet is how to make money through her work.

“I wanna tie my photography in with my marketing ’cause I feel like it can go hand in hand,” said Ashshakir.

That’s why Michael Taylor is here too. 

“I’ve been doing art as long as I can remember,” said Taylor.

He’s been helping to teach teens how to add more to their portfolio with art classes. He’s also taking classes himself on how to make a profit from creative artwork.

“We practice a lot of different styles in a lot of different mediums, but with that, we also try to aim to make our own pieces that will be able to be marketable, we’ll be able to make reprints and sell them at other events,” said Taylor. 

It’s all happening as a part of a program through ROMAC, the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Arts Center, in Cincinnati. It’s housed at the Lincoln Recreational Center on the West end at least for now.

The future of the program is right across the street at the old Regal Theater.

Toilynn O’Neal-Turner, the CEO and founding director of the ROMAC, says that’s where they’re moving. It’s the reason she says programming started when fundraising began to restore the old theater.

“We could’ve waited and tried to raise money just for the building, but there’s a need here, there’s young people that wanna be engaged, there’s a thirst of being part of something that is hopeful and inspirational and we couldn’t wait to do it,” said O’Neal-Turner.

She says by 2025, this program will be in the remodeled space with even more kids planning for a future through the arts.

“It’s been an amazing journey so far, being with the ROMAC, and I look forward to every second of it,” said Taylor.

Organizers are still raising money for the remodel of the old Regal Theater. For more information, click here.

Steamboat Art Museum’s annual Plein Air week kicks off Friday

Steamboat Art Museum’s annual Plein Air week kicks off Friday

Plein Air 2023 will bring 50 artists from around the country to Steamboat Springs to paint the splendor of the Yampa Valley “en plein air” or “outside on the spot.”

Steamboat Art Museum’s annual weeklong Plein Air event kicks off Friday and runs through Sept. 29, bringing artists to the area to paint on location.

This year marks the 12th annual Plein Air event and, as always, promises to showcase Steamboat, the surrounding community and the landscape through the unique light of the artists’ eyes, including the historic towns, ranches and mountain vistas of Routt County.



This event is popular among plein air artists because of Steamboat’s hospitality and breathtaking scenery, and once again this year, there will be many unique events providing opportunities to get to know the artists and purchase artwork.

Three sales events will provide an opportunity to add to or start an art collection with paintings of the Yampa Valley created by the artists. The week starts with the Quick Draw at the Main Street Steamboat Farmers Market downtown along the Yampa River.



SAM and the farmers market are partnering to add an event to the last market of the year in which people can watch the artists create a painting in only two hours. Paintings will go on sale in the afternoon on Yampa Street between Seventh and Eighth streets. 

Wednesday’s Sunset Reception presents a chance to meet the artists with their work of the day at the Alpine Mountain Ranch and Club. With easels set up around the lake with their favorite painting of the day, patrons will have time to meet and talk to the artists, learn more about their work and enjoy a buffet.

Friday’s opening reception and awards event is the exhibition opening with more than 250 paintings created during the week. More than $8,000 in awards will be presented to artists in Professional and Open Categories, as well as special Awards of Excellence presented to artists by select nonprofit organizations for works that exemplify their mission. 

This year’s event will be judged by Kathleen Hudson, an award-winning and nationally represented Colorado artist who is a Signature member of Plein Air Painters of America and the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, and a member of Oil Painters of America and the California Art Club. Hudson will present an entertaining evening of career and technique insights at 5 p.m. Sept. 28.

SAM has partnered with nonprofits such as Main Street Steamboat and the Main Street Steamboat Farmers Market, Historic Routt County, Friends of the Yampa, Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust and the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp to allow artists to access a selection of their locations and properties. Each organization is sponsoring an Award of Excellence, which will be given to the artist whose painting best reflects the nonprofit’s mission and the image will be available for use by the organization for marketing purposes.

According to organizer, these collaborations help direct artists to safe and interesting painting locations, while also creating cross-promotional opportunities with SAM and showing that art can reach across many unrelated sectors.

In turn, the Plein Air artists and patrons can become more aware of the region’s rich historical legacy, the impacts of the ranching and agricultural sector, and the importance of the Yampa River and its tributaries, all while supporting the valley and community.

Rumors are Bad for Photography and I’m Tired of Pretending They’re Not

Rumors are Bad for Photography and I’m Tired of Pretending They’re Not

Clipped Highlights -- Nikon Zf rumors

Rumors about upcoming cameras and lenses are a staple of the online photography community. Manufacturers nearly always hate them and photographers often love them. I land somewhere in the middle but tend more toward the idea that rumors, even when intriguing, can be damaging.

Take, for example, the brand-new Nikon Zf, a camera that had been rumored for a long time. Heck, Nikon itself accidentally posted a reference to the Zf on its Japanese website in early August. However, the rumors of the retro-inspired Zf began long before that.

Some of these early rumors are the impetus of this edition of Clipped Highlights because initial speculation pointed to a 45.7-megapixel full-frame camera — a rumor ultimately proved false.

Rumors Can Establish False Expectations

In an post in late July, Nikon Rumors said that a 24-megapixel camera announcement in 2023 would be “strange” and that the most likely choice for a retro-styled full-frame Z camera is the 45.7-megapixel sensor from the Nikon Z7 II. Nikon Rumors also stated that the price of the new camera would be in the $2,000 to $2,500 range.

At this point, people could reasonably start to think, “Oh, wow, a 45.7-megapixel Zf camera for just $2,500? Incredible!” Of course, the Nikon Z7 II is $3,000, so a $2,500 price for a nearly 46-megapixel Zf seems doubtful in context. The idea of it coming in at $2,000 is downright absurd.

This point was addressed in the comments on that rumor post by Jurgen Lobert, who wrote, “At $2,000-2,500, this will NOT be a 45 mpix camera. Too much competition to Z7/Z7ii/Z8/Z9. Makes no sense.” Some people pushed back on this reasonable comment, and many more took the article itself at face value.

Nikon Zf
The Nikon Zf is here and it features a 24.5-megapixel image sensor.

About a week after the referenced post above, Nikon Rumors returned to the Zf rumor well and course corrected, stating that a 45-megapixel full-frame retro mirrorless camera for $2,000 “sounds too good to be true,” introducing new uncertainty and skepticism to the online discourse.

Roughly two weeks later, Nikon Rumors posted a long list of rumored specifications for the Zf, now listing the camera’s correct 24.5-megapixel full-frame image sensor, like the one featured in the Nikon Z6 II.

However, you cannot unring the bell.

Laying the Groundwork for Disappointment

Even though much of the reporting on Nikon Zf rumors has since focused on mostly accurate specs and features, floating the initial idea of a 45.7-megapixel camera for $2,000 or $2,500 established unrealistic expectations, setting some people up for disappointment.

And disappointment is just about the last thing that a camera company, especially one as passionate about its products as Nikon, wants people to feel when it does finally officially announce a new product. A product, in this case, that the company is especially proud of. Nikon’s pride is not unfounded, either, as the Nikon Zf is a very interesting and powerful camera.

Nikon Zf

Most people seem to be responding positively to the news of the Zf, too. But still, I can’t help but lament that there will be people who expected one thing and received another, to no fault of Nikon’s. This situation is by no means unique to the Nikon Zf, either, it happens with cameras from every manufacturer. There are always rumors, and some of them are inevitably wrong — frequently wrong insofar as the rumors are better than the eventual reality when it becomes official.

Several years ago, a similar situation took place around the Sony a7R IV, where the hype and buzz was so strong that rumor sites were posting just about any nonsensical rumor that floated across their desks — including a last minute report that the camera would feature 8K recording. That was, of course, never going to be true and Sony wouldn’t add 8K to the line until the a7R V.

People who read these rumors presumably put some stock in them. Otherwise, what would be the point? Rumors are always framed in the context that there is reason to believe that they are true, even if there is always the chance they are not. They are not just the wishful ramblings of someone with no real information — they are published from a position of some, albeit incomplete, authority.

I’ve been that typical rumors reader many times before. When a new product is announced that does not quite live up to the rumors and hype, I feel a tinge of disappointment. Of course, I have nobody but myself to blame.

It is certainly not the fault of a camera company. Cameras take years to develop, and by the time the rumors start floating around online, engineers are well on the way to making a different product altogether. There is no opportunity for camera makers to react to features, specifications, or prices that people start clamoring about online.

It is important that Nikon Rumors is not at fault here either. The website does not publish rumors as facts and frames rumors as unconfirmed speculation. Besides, the site only exists because people like me click on it.

Nikon Zf

I’m Part of the Problem

PetaPixel is not opposed to rumors. We occasionally write about them, albeit only from extremely trusted, reliable sources. We ignore many more rumors than we cover, including not covering any Nikon Zf rumors.

When I first got into photography more than 15 years ago, I was checking Nikon Rumors daily. I still visit the site often and read the other major photography rumors sites too. Speculating is fun and reading rumors is entertaining. But there is a cost to these rumors.

I wonder about the impact of rumors on photographers at large. The appetite for rumors is driven, at least in part, by the desire to have the latest and greatest equipment. Poring over nitty-gritty technical details is so far-removed from taking photos.

Perhaps it is not the rumors themselves that I am talking about here, but rather what sort of people have this incessant need to constantly think about what comes next. What is the next camera, the next lens, the big new feature, the revolutionary advancement?

For me, I used to read rumors because I wanted to think about what I could buy — or desperately want to buy — next. I wanted to know all about the next shiny new toy on the horizon.

The effect this had on me is twofold. One, I was so busy thinking ahead that I missed out on opportunities to enjoy the gear that not only actually exists, but I personally owned and could be using at any given moment. Two, everything I owned seemed a little more tarnished in the face of constant reports of some new model. Again, this is my own doing. I was a dumb kid with more money than sense, and my passion for photography left me with no money to spare, so you can easily deduce what that says about my reservoir of reason.

These days, I read rumors for entertainment and out of genuine curiosity. I have sold considerably more gear than I’ve purchased in the past five years. “The next great thing” doesn’t matter to me like it used to, but it still matters a lot to some people.

I am not trying to dunk on any website for publishing inaccurate rumors about the Nikon Zf. That is very much part of reporting rumors — they are sometimes wrong. I would know, having reported on rumors about the iPhone 15 last month that proved only partially accurate — a sugarcoated way to say that I reported on something that was wrong.

For what it is worth, Nikon Rumors publishes great content in addition to rumors. The site covers official announcements about all things Nikon and photography, shares some brilliant photography from its readers, and offers an excellent community for Nikon fans to gather and chat. Nikon Rumors was also heavily involved in the early reporting of the Nikon Z8 strap lug issue, something that Nikon ultimately addressed.

This was not the first nor will it be the last time that the popular website covers important news that benefits Nikon owners. In fact, at their core, I think Nikon Rumors and other rumor sites are, or at least started out as, basically love letters to specific camera companies.

Nikon Zf

How Rumors Affect Camera Companies and Photographers

All that said, having worked closely with camera companies, I’ve seen firsthand the negative effect that rumors, whether true or false, have on the people working for manufacturers.

A lot goes into designing, engineering, making, and announcing new cameras and lenses. When a new product is revealed, it is the culmination of years of hard work by hundreds of people, all with unique roles to play.

When a rumor is false, especially when it suggests something better than what ultimately comes to market, it hurts the people behind the product. Even when a rumor is true, it steals some of their thunder.

It is thunder that they deserve to experience in full; something I am grappling with on a personal and professional level as I write this, having covered rumors many times.

Rumors also harm photographers who get riled up in excitement for something that proves to be nothing more than wishful thinking. As I know all too well, it is challenging not to get caught up in the hype. Of course, controlling hype is primarily the responsibility of those who consume content, not the ones who create it.

Assuming that rumor sites are not stealing content or gathering it illegally or immorally, they are arguably not doing anything wrong. Some of their sources almost certainly do something illicit, but that is a different story altogether. Besides, I have covered rumors and will likely do so again, so I should not start hurling stones from my glass house.

Nikon Zf

Nonetheless, when a camera like the Nikon Zf is finally announced after months of rumors — some of which missed the mark — there is a shadow, perhaps only a faint one, cast over what should be a day of celebration on behalf of photographers and a huge sigh of relief for the many people who worked hard on the product.

Having spoken with many product designers, engineers, and managers over the years, one thing they all have in common is that they genuinely care about what they make, and they put a lot of stock in how photographers react to their products. Something else they all share is that for a variety of reasons, rumors bother them.

While it may sometimes feel like companies are not listening to us, I assure you they are. They see the same rumors we do, they read some of the same comments, and their laser focus on the photography community is never stronger than when they unveil something new.

For better or worse, most enthusiastic photographers are like me and read the rumors about new cameras and lenses long before they are announced. These rumors shape our expectations and affect our perception of products before they are unveiled, sometimes to the detriment of the people behind the gear we love.

If there is interest in rumors, there will be rumors to read. When these rumors are false, an inevitable part of any rapidly-spinning rumor mill, there will be harmful consequences. The same love for photography and camera gear that makes rumors irresistible is the same passion that ultimately sets all of us up for disappointment, even when real products are anything but a letdown.


This story is part of PetaPixel’s weekly newsletter Clipped Highlights.


What is Clipped Highlights?

Clipped Highlights is a free, curated, weekly newsletter that will be sent out every Wednesday morning and will focus on a few of the most important stories of the previous week and explain why they deserve your attention. This newsletter is different from our daily news brief in that it provides unique insights that can only be found in Clipped Highlights.

In addition to unique takes on the biggest stories in photography, art, and technology, Clipped Highlights will also serve to feature at least one photo series or art project that we think is worth your time to check out. So often in the technology and imaging space we focus on the how and not the what. We think that it’s just as important, if not more so, to look at the art created by photographers around the world as it is to celebrate the new technologies that makes that artwork possible.

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Image credits: Nikon