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VISUAL CREATORS
For your artistic side.

📸 2025 Deutsche Börse Prize: Meet the Nominees!

The Story: The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation has shortlisted four exceptional artists for its 2025 prize: Cristina de Middel, Rahim Fortune, Tarrah Krajnak, and Lindokuhle Sobekwa. Their collective work, showcasing poignant themes of migration, tradition, and memory, will be exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery in London from March 7 to June 15, 2025, with a £30,000 award for the winner announced later.

The Details:

• Spanish artist Cristina de Middel is celebrated for her exhibition “Journey to the Center,” depicting the Central American migration route across Mexico as a courageous endeavor rather than mere desperation.

• Rahim Fortune's book “Hardtack” reflects on Black culture and heritage through striking portraits of youth engaged in traditional rituals tied to the post-emancipation American South.

• Peruvian-American artist Tarrah Krajnak uses her exhibition “Shadowings” to explore the interplay of self-portraiture, performance, and the evolving narrative of representation in photography over her two-decade career.

• Lindokuhle Sobekwa brings a deeply personal touch with “I Carry Her Photo With Me,” intertwining family memories and the historical context of apartheid in South Africa through a scrapbook of photographs and notes.

Why It Matters: This year’s shortlist not only showcases diverse storytelling through contemporary photography but also highlights critical cultural themes that resonate across borders. For creative professionals, engaging with these narratives is essential — as they reveal the power of imagery in addressing societal issues and preserving human experiences. This prize and exhibition advocate for storytelling through visual art, emphasizing its role in cultural discourse and the evolution of our collective memory.

PRODUCTION MASTERY
The commercial aspects of creativity.

🛠️ Epic’s Fab: A New Asset Marketplace!

The Story: Epic Games has just launched Fab, a unified content marketplace that brings together offerings from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab Store, Quixel, and ArtStation into one seamless platform for digital asset discovery, purchase, sale, and sharing. Fab aims to cater to creators of all stripes, providing content for use across Unreal Engine, Unity 3D, and Fortnite, enhancing accessibility to vital 3D assets.

The Details:

• Fab centralizes diverse digital asset offerings, integrating tools for UEFN, Unreal Engine 5, and Unity.

• The new marketplace features an extensive library filled with 3D models, environments, VFX, and sound packs from esteemed creators.

• Users can leverage a next-gen real-time 3D viewer to inspect assets before purchasing, ensuring informed decisions.

• Epic provides a generous 88% revenue share to asset creators, fostering a thriving ecosystem for artists.

• For a limited time, the Quixel Megascans library—over 17,000 assets—can be accessed for free until the end of 2024.

Why It Matters: The launch of Fab signifies a crucial step towards simplifying asset acquisition for developers and creators. The expansive library and cross-platform compatibility promise to fuel creativity and reduce overhead time, especially for indie developers searching for high-quality assets. As Fab continues to evolve with promised updates and new features, it could revolutionize how creatives source and utilize digital content, paving the way for enhanced productivity and innovation in game and VFX development.

CREATOR ECONOMY
Navigating the digital creative world.

⚖️ News Giants Sue Perplexity Over AI Copying

The Story: News publishers Dow Jones & Co. and the New York Post, both subsidiaries of News Corp., have filed a lawsuit against generative AI startup Perplexity, alleging rampant copyright infringement. The lawsuit claims Perplexity engages in large-scale illegal copying of original journalistic content, undermining the financial viability of the publishers while offering users a platform that allows them to "skip the links."

The Details:

• The lawsuit alleges that Perplexity uses a significant amount of copyrighted content from news articles and fails to properly credit or compensate the original sources.

• Perplexity's platform claims to deliver concise answers to user queries without redirecting them to the publishers’ websites, significantly reducing traffic and revenue for the original content creators.

• News Corp. is seeking damages of up to $150,000 per instance of copyright infringement, along with other legal remedies to prevent further unauthorized use of their content.

• The suit emphasizes that generative AI output mimics and sometimes reproduces original content verbatim, which could pose severe implications for journalism and content creation.

Why It Matters: This lawsuit is a significant escalation in the ongoing battle over copyright and generative AI, putting major tech companies on notice. For creatives like photographers, filmmakers, and writers, the results of this legal tussle may shape the future of content creation in relation to AI, defining rights and protections around original work. As the media landscape becomes increasingly intertwined with AI technologies, creators need to stay vigilant about how their intellectual property might be used or misused, impacting earnings, visibility, and the overall integrity of their creative outputs.

🔥 Press Worthy

📽️ VISUAL CREATORS

Blackmagic has launched Camera 2.1 for iOS, enhancing control for iPhone 16 users with the new Camera Control button. Now you can manage zoom, focus, and ISO settings seamlessly. Audio recording during off-speed captures is also a game-changer! Get it for free in the App Store!

The Architecture MasterPrize celebrates the art of architectural photography, honoring talent that captures our evolving built environment. This year’s winners, like Albrecht Voss and Franco Casaccia, showcase stunning visuals that push creative boundaries. Their works exemplify the blend of composition and light, elevating architectural storytelling.

📈 PRODUCTION MASTERY

Glass Imaging's new GlassAI tech unveiled at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit promises significant enhancements in smartphone image quality. By leveraging advanced neural networks, it transforms detailed RAW images into stunning visuals without hallucinatory issues, proving a game changer for mobile photography!

Canon is teaming up with Adobe to bring native Frame.io integration to select Cinema EOS models, specifically the C80 and C400. This update supports proxy file transmission, enhancing workflows for remote teams. While this feature drops in Winter 2024, mirrorless support may follow!

🎭 CREATOR ECONOMY

Midjourney is gearing up to launch an upgraded web tool that allows users to edit any uploaded images using its generative AI. This feature, as highlighted by CEO David Holz, will let users repaint and retexture images with captions, though initial access will be limited.

Canva is going all-in on AI with its latest update, introducing Canva Dream Lab—a game-changer for high-fidelity image creation. Users can expect improved workflows and superior quality graphics, plus creative tools and templates that'll elevate their design experience.

📚 Learn & Grow

📽️ VISUAL CREATORS

• Luxury Product Photography Requires Precision, Creativity, and Patience

• 10 Ways a Filmmaker Can Break Into Hollywood

📈 PRODUCTION MASTERY

• iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Smaller Mac Mini Set for M4 Refresh

• How Colorist Mitch Paulson Nailed the Eeriest Looks in Modern Horror

🎭 CREATOR ECONOMY

• TikTok Expands STEM Feed to All Users in the US and UK

• What Are Megapixels and Do They Matter?