Another case of wildlife fever in the confines of Yellowstone National Park with this recent video of a photographer who got way too close to a mother bear and her cubs despite being warning that he was in violation of park policies. No need to get that close for pictures dude…look at the size of you lens!

“As much as visitors enjoy seeing grizzly bears in Yellowstone, this is a prime of example on what not to do. This bear with her cubs has been feeding for the last 10 days on a drowned bison and the location is no secret, hence all the people. You need to keep at least 100 yards, otherwise stay in your car. The photographer in the street refused to leave the area even after letting him know multiple times in advance that she was going to cross the road. Ethical photography needs to be practiced at all times.” -Yellowstone Tour Guide Andrea Baratte

Fujifilm has announced the new Fujifilm GFX100S II (buy here). As the successor to the Fuji GFX100S (buy here), it brings upgrades to pretty much every aspect of the camera. It sports a new 102MP sensor, AI autofocus, and even adds ProRes and Blackmagic RAW video.

The new 102MP sensor is accompanied by the new X-Processor 5 image engine. The electronic viewfinder has been upgraded to 5.76 million pixels, with a 3.2″ three-way tilting touchscreen LCD on the back.

[embedded content]

Fujifilm GFX100S II – Medium format upgraded

The Fuji GFX100S was a big hit when it launched in 2021. It took a while to come to market after its initial 2018 development announcement, but they got there in the end. Now, we have the GFX100S II, which upgrades pretty much everything.

While it still features the same 102-megapixel resolution, it is an entirely new sensor. The new sensor and X-Processor 5 increase the ISO range to 80-12,800 (40-25,600 extended), with video’s lowest ISO dropping from 200 to 100 for working in brighter conditions.

It also brings up the maximum continuous shooting speed. The electronic shutter bumps up from 2.9fps to 4.1fps, and the mechanical shutter has increased from 5fps to 7fps. It’s also now capable of shooting ProRes and Blackmagic RAW video internally.

Fujifilm GFX100S II Specs

FUJINON GF 500mm f/5.6 R LM OIS WR Lens

Along with the new camera, Fujifilm has also announced a new lens, the FUJINON GF 500mm f/5.6 R LM OIS WR Lens (buy here). This is the longest lens in the Fujifilm X lineup, offering a field of view similar to 400mm on a full-frame camera.

Designed for sports and wildlife, it features six stops of built-in stabilisation, which gets bumped up to 8 when used with the GFX100S II. It has an f/5.6 aperture, which isn’t terribly bright, but given that you’ll mostly be using a lens like this in bright conditions, that’s not going to be too much of an issue. It also keeps the price relatively low.

FUJINON GF 500mm f/5.6 R LM OIS WR Lens Specs

Price and Availability

The Fujifilm GFX100S II is available to pre-order now for $4,999. The FUJINON GF 500mm f/5.6 R LM OIS WR Lens is available to pre-order now for $3,499. Shipping for both items is slated for June 17th.

“I want my photos to portray my own and people’s mental landscapes in general,” says photographer Svante Gullichsen to the Phoblographer in an interview. “The human mind operates in intriguing and unpredictable ways, which is why I want my photos to reflect that. Common emotional states in my work include anxiety, panic, tranquility, freedom, and ecstasy.” We can see and feel this in Svante’s images as he goes out into the wilds and puts himself in situations that one wouldn’t necessarily think of. However, they all feel a bit like a dream.

All images by Svante Gullichsen. Used with permission. These images will be at Photo London 2024 and exhibited by Albumen Gallery. For more, visit Svante’s website and Instagram @gullichsen

Svante’s previous works addressed OCD and negative opinions. And through his images, he wants people to understand how folks feel and the struggle happening in their minds. This struggle isn’t often visible on the surface. When we look at his images, we’re reminded of photographers like Jonathan Higbee and many others we’ve interviewed that try to do similar pieces. All of them feel a bit like both a dreamy space and a bit like a nightmare — which further solidifies the understanding that isn’t easy at all for people. Combining these scenes with nature helps add to the sense of foreboding since so much is out of our control. Perhaps most importantly, the fact that the humans are such a small but important part of the scene gives us the feeling that there is much work to do.

How Svante Gullichsen Got Into Photography

Way before Instagram and Facebook, there were other social platforms. Xanga was a huge one. There was also Myspace, LiveJournal, Deviant Art, etc. But there was also a Finnish social media service called IRC-Galleria. “People would post pictures there, comment on them, and write diary entries,” Svante tells us. “I saw how some people took great and, at that time, inventive photos and decided that I wanted to do the same. That was the first spark.” So after begging his parents for. DSLR, he got one at the age of 14 for confirmation. The camera became a part of him.

These days, he’s not very tech-oriented. He shoots with a classic Canon 5D Mk IV, a Sigma 24-70mm f2.8, a Canon 24-105mm f4 L, and a Profoto B1x flash. Truly, he doesn’t need much more than that.

The Creative Side

The photo above is called Minute / Lifetime and it’s from 2022. It’s all about finding the world open again after being such at home due to severe mental health issues. He used to travel a ton until 2019 when severe OCD turned his life into a miserable existance. “Severe anxiousness prevented me from leaving my home and seeing the world like I had loved to do before,” he tells us. Years of therapy and medication helped him get ready to go out into the world again in 2022 — which was also a bit after the pandemic. Svante went to Dresden, Germany where he learned to be confident in being alone and away from home.

Here’s more about that photograph:

During one day, I went hiking alone in Saxon Switzerland National Park, which I had researched online beforehand. I had brought along a few clothes in case I felt like taking some photos. I spent the whole day wandering through small villages and breathtaking landscapes without the familiar anxiety that had plagued me for years. At some point, I veered off the trail to this spot and decided to take a picture that would capture this feeling of freedom. The clouds were behaving unpredictably, and sometimes the sunbeams would shine dramatically through the clouds. I climbed onto a small rocky outcrop and let the camera do its magic. The problem arose when it was time to leave the outcrop. Between it and the bedrock was a deep ravine of about 50 meters, and I had to jump uphill onto the wet rock to get out. I was far from other people, and a small fear gripped my stomach, realizing that things could go really wrong here. Nonetheless, I jumped and made it. It cemented together the euphoric feeling of freedom

Svante Gullichsen

We’d be curious to know how Svante’s work would differ if he lived in a metropolitan city and how it would look if the images were shot there instead.

The Algorithms are Sadness

Svante Gullichsen was asked about AI imagery and tells us that the outputs are dull and repetitive. To that end, he doesn’t consider it art at all. To him, art stems from humanity and the processing of experiences — which a computer cannot do. “The quality of the work doesn’t matter because the lack of experience and lived life behind it completely undermines the foundation of these ‘pieces,’” he tells us. Instead, no one will remember it like so much of social media today. “It’s ultra fast-fashion in the art world – meaningless, empty, and trend-chasing. Beware, SHEIN and TEMU.”

AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT

The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.

Industry: Education

Photography Business Institute celebrates 10 students from the Certified Boutique Photographer program during its Spring Immersion event

Springfield, IL (PRUnderground) May 16th, 2024

On May 8, 2024, the Photography Business Institute awarded the Certified Boutique Photographer (CBP) distinction to 10 students from its esteemed CBP Program. The ceremony occurred in Springfield, IL, coinciding with the Spring Immersion event hosted by the photography business school for its Peak Performance Coaching students.

The CBP program is a rigorous certification process designed to recognize professional photographers who excel not only in the craft of photography but also in business practices, client experience, and marketing. Unlike other certifications, CBP sets photographers apart with instruction on a unique marketing strategy for students’ photography businesses. The program emphasizes the importance of providing a superior client experience and investing in professional growth.

This marks the second cohort of Certified Boutique Photographers, following the inaugural class in the Fall of 2023, which saw 12 photographers earn the distinction. The Spring 2024 ceremony celebrates the achievements of 10 photographers who have demonstrated exceptional dedication, skill, and expertise in the field of boutique portrait photography.

The graduation ceremony was attended by over 100 photographers in person, with an additional 75 participating virtually as part of the Spring Immersion event. Highlighting the school’s dedication to continual professional improvement, Spring Immersion is a professional development conference for boutique photographers, where industry leaders come together to enhance their business skills and elevate their client service to the highest level.

“We are thrilled to award our second photography business class of Certified Boutique Photographers,” said Sarah Petty, Founder of Photography Business Institute. “These talented individuals have demonstrated their commitment to excellence and dedication to providing an exceptional client experience. We are confident that they will continue to thrive and make a significant impact on their communities and in the lives of their clients.”

The graduates of the CBP program have undergone extensive training, testing, and evaluation to achieve certification, making them among the best boutique portrait photographers in the world. Their success reflects not only their passion for photography but also their professionalism and commitment to continuous improvement. For more information about Photography Business Institute and its Certified Boutique Photographer Program, please visit www.PhotographyBusinessInstitute.com.

About Photography Business Institute

Photography Business Institute aims to educate photographers about how to have a viable, self-sustaining career as a professional portrait photographer and to make lasting contributions to the legacies of the families they photograph and the communities in which they reside.

As art fairs go, this year’s Photo London is an entertaining romp. Featuring 120 exhibitors from nearly 50 cities, it promises delights at every turn, from huge names like Steven Meisel, Martin Parr, and Lee Miller to the next generation of creators. Take for example artists spotlighted by the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, which places its emphasis on particularly timely topics. These include Marvel Harris’s ongoing series Inner Journey, which documents his gender transition, Anastasia Samoylova’s subtle studies of impending climate doom in Miami, and Philip Montgomery’s visions of American life racked by inner turmoil.

Among several strong solo presentations of women photographers, the standouts are charming portraits of New York street life by Helen Levitt at Cologne’s Zander Galerie and the strikingly monochromatic landscapes, interiors, and still lifes of Yildiz Moran, a Turkish photographer who deserves greater recognition, presented by Galeri Nev from Ankara. This year’s Master of Photography, Valérie Belin, is honored by a small retrospective that also features entirely new, unseen work.

Yildiz Moran, Untitled Svetlana Beriosova and Svetlana Kessessinova (1952). Photo courtesy of Galeri Nev.

For those hoping to determine what new directions the medium might be taking, the fair is littered with pieces that show how photography keeps evolving as it feeds into and emerges out of all manner of artistic practices. On show are textiles, sculptural pieces, and paintings, alongside an increasingly prominent yet still controversial presence: A.I. Here are some of the most interesting examples on show.

Roope Rainisto

Installation view of Roope Rainisto’s Vacations at Photo London 2024. Photo courtesy of Verse Works.

Finnish artist Roope Rainisto has become a prominent name on the Web3 scene for his experimental projects using A.I. He will likely be unknown to many attendees of Photo London, who will encounter his latest series, Vacation, presented by the NFT platform Verse Works in an immersive holiday-inspired setting. Almost like ads, the works contain hyperreal images of classic vacation scenes that are imbued with heightened luxury and beauty. At a passing glance nothing is amiss but, on closer inspection, limbs suddenly appear out of nowhere, a diner stool has too many legs, or a plane is strangely distorted.

Is there always such a chasm between our want or expectation and the eventual reality? “Dream” holidays represent a utopian ideal into which we can escape, if only for a week or two. Their innate impossibility and the disappointments that follow lay bear the hollow superficiality of our aspirations.

“That’s really the perfect theme for A.I., to visualize these fantasies,” said Rainisto at the show’s installation. “The photographic style gives people the impression that it’s reality. I want to play with that [assumption].”

He noted also that, unlike on a small digital screen, the physical prints can be blown up to show off the works’ impressively high resolution. “You can actually see small skin details, so you really get the extra impact of the size.”

Sander Coers

Sander Coers, POST n. 28, left, and POST n. 48, right (2024). Photos courtesy of Open Doors Gallery.

At some point, our recollection of a trip will become almost entirely informed by faded old photographs. The eerily false impression this inevitably creates is at the heart of Dutch artist Sander Coers’s series POST, from which several new works are on view at Open Doors Gallery. Small-scale, fragmented, and grainy, his images evoke a nostalgic longing that is hard to place. A man wades through a field of flowers that reach up to his waist amid alpine scenery. A well groomed 1950s-style couple stare out to sea. If these images aren’t real then what are the tell-tale signs?

That A.I.-generated images are plainly fake yet still manage to evoke something close to truth underscores the futility of looking to any one image for an objective or faithful representation. Rather, our vision of the past always takes on a cinematic quality, regardless of the medium.

Jamie Gallagher  

Jamie Gallagher, Headsculpt (7) (2024). Photo courtesy of Notton Gallery.

At Notton Gallery in the fair’s Discovery section, artist Jamie Gallagher has taken a different approach, training A.I. on his previous paintings in order to create images that reinterpret his style in new and unexpected ways. The alien-like beings that result have taken on a life of their own, much as any creative act is inevitably born out of what came before.

Photo London 2024 is at Somerset House in London through May 19. 

Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.