Getty Images is up for a panel spot at the next South by Southwest festival. However, we can only share our brightest ideas if we are invited by popular demand. So cast your vote today!

Our very own Denise Waggoner is consulted in this nice article in Slate about the Creative Research department she helms here at Getty Images that helps us and photographers peek into the future so we’ll have what clients want right when they want it.

And improve your French ! France, land of better wine in the world, beautiful women, Tour de France, bling-bling president, Art of living. France which as a country can give birth to the better or worse.
Let’s talk about the better today, let’s open the JAK LAB #3 . Every quarter JAKLAB magazine offers a 360° vision about a theme or an aspirationnal trend. JAKLAB invites contributors and gives them room and time to explore and talk. Strategic planners, researchers, writers, artists, photographers, architects are creating an effervescent on line webzine. Monitored friendly by Just A Kiss  founders, a design, creative and strategic agency in Paris, JAKLAB is an open publication and platform.
After Desirable Sunstainability, Absolute Necessity , give a breath to your eyes and brain and involve your senses in Urbanity. If you want to contribute to the next issue, please feel free to “superpoke” this unique quartet on their Facebook group.  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11026998211 !  Have fun !  Brigitte Mantel .

Frank Schwere/Getty Images

I recently saw The Fall, a stunning film by Tarsem Singh. Like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Princess Bride, Pan’s Labyrinth, and countless others before it, it is essentially an epic fairytale, but told for an adult audience. While the plot and dialogue were a bit pat for my taste, the visuals were jaw-dropping, having been shot in 18 different countries, then seamlessly woven together into a vivid Otherworld.

The film also got me thinking about art with a fantastical bent. While there has been a place for this type of work to some degree in virtually every era, it strikes me that we often feel collectively drawn to it in times of uncertainty. (For example, the surrealist movement sprung up between the two world wars, and drew heavily upon the overlapping realms of mythology, psychology, and stream-of-consciousness fantasy).

This work offers escapism and inspiration, and often affirms our hopes that goodness and beauty will ultimately win out. With an ailing environment, a limping economy, and political anxiety in the air, is it any wonder that the most popular films of the past few years have been based on comic book heroes and fabled, magical lands? And as technology gets exponentially better, we can tell these stories in an even more sophisticated manner, offering a glimpse into dreamscapes and happily ever afters.

Below are some of my favorite fantastical pictures that were art directed by the NYC branch of Getty Images creative team:

Ralf Nau/Getty Images

Erik Snyder/Getty Images

Chris Strong/Getty Images

Jeffrey Hamilton/Getty Images

Matthias Clamer/Getty Images

Beijing has raced to improve its air quality before August 8, crude oil just hit a new high at $117 a barrel, and a huge chunk of Antarctic ice just fell off right into the water (apparently it was seven times the size of Manhattan). Earth Day seems more important now than ever before.

There are demonstrations, celebrations, protests, new ad campaigns and all sorts of activities about how each of us can make a difference, make a change, save the world, save the animals, save the forests and save ourselves. In case you haven’t done your part yet, check out a few of the sights below that will give you some ideas on what to do next:

• http://www.earthday.net
• http://www.saveourplanet.org
• http://www.wecansolveit.org
• http://www.ecorazzi.com

Here’s the deal people - we love stuff. We love to buy stuff, hold stuff, look at stuff and dream of stuff. We are a culture of STUFF.

Those of us, in the business of communicating, are stuff experts. We entice people to buy more of it. That’s okay, I’m proud to be a stuff expert. However, the question for our time is this:  how do you sell more stuff while responsibly communicating about all things Earth Day?

To explore the answer to the question above, we did a study. It’s called Map 2: AspEn. Aspirational Environmentalism. Within the pages of Map 2 we look at green communication from around the globe to try to understand visually where we are today and where we might go tomorrow. It’s one of my favorite projects of all time, it’s about the human condition and how we all communicate about stuff we need vs. stuff we desire.

So go check it out. Don’t print it out. Drink from your recyclable coffee cup. Plant a tree. And go celebrate Mother Earth!

Escape.

What an engaging word…especially in relation to vacation - root word vacate, meaning to leave, to cease to occupy.

The lure to step out of one’s everyday life, even if only for a day, a week… is intoxicating. Along with relaxation, exploration and luxury, the word escape is one of the “Holy Grail of Concepts” in the travel industry. If a travel company can truly communicate that feeling, they’ve got you - before you know it, you’re booking your trip.

Images really do have the power to transport. They can take you to places you’ve never been, or back to places that hold vivid memories for you.

In my case, this image taken on the Kalalau Trail along the Na Pali Coast in Kauai, takes me back to where I was this very time, one week ago.

David Stubbs/Getty Images

The exhaustion felt after nearing the end of an eye-poppingly beautiful 11 mile backpack trip:

Caterina Bernardi/Getty Images

the reward of a stunning, empty beach…

Tom Hill/Getty Images

…where I would pitch my tent on the edge of the sand and listen to migrating whale calls through the night, the greens more vivid and varied than in any place I’d ever been.

Bob Stefko/Getty Images

These images all hold special meaning to me now. I know what the air smells and feels like…

joSon/Getty Images

…I know what the water feels like…

joSon/Getty Images

…and I know how quickly the rain comes on.

Bob Stefko/Getty Images

I know the true meaning of ESCAPE.

joSon/Getty Images

Lars Borges/Getty Images

When we talk about making commercial imagery that feels more “real,” what is it we’re actually saying? There’s no question that imagery you once would have only found in an editorial context is increasingly being seen in advertising…but what else do we mean by “real”?

My take on it, is that we’re saying there must be some kind of emotional route into the image for it to connect with the viewer and feel believable. We want to feel connected to the message.

Some of the best communication in advertising occurs when an idea that has perhaps been lurking on the edge of a common consciousness is brought to fore front. Combine that with great visuals and you have something original that has broad appeal.

In some ways, it’s like hearing a great song for the first time - it feels very new, but there’s also something familiar about it.

Using a straight-forward term like “real” or “authentic” to describe imagery makes the issue of creating it seem a lot more simple than it really is.

What kind of authenticity are you after? Is it that you want to see exactly what your mind’s eye demands, or are you after a true emotional connection with the image regardless of the content?

If it is the first of these two, then perhaps what’s required is a technical understanding, or particular style, demonstrated through model choice, location, lighting and styling. Authenticity in advertising doesn’t happen by chance.

If it is the second of these, an emotional truth that’s required, then there are certainly no limits to the fantasy that may appear in the image…it doesn’t have to be real at all, but the message created needs to feel real - it needs to connect.

Let us know what you think the boundaries of “real” are…I think I’ve kept it pretty simple so far…

In the meantime, here are two of my favorite ads from the past that demonstrate the two approaches mentioned above:

Setting up shop

I just returned from completing one of the most fun and rewarding shoots I can remember in Park City, UT.

This project is the latest in a series of Olympic shoots I’m working on as we try to get updated, relevant imagery in time for the Olympic advertising push later this year. Last fall I got to work with athletes in 26 different summer Olympic sports and now it’s time to revisit some of the important winter sports.

Operation Snowflake was the working title of the project that would encompass skeleton, bobsled, speed skating, figure skating, and hockey. Our creative research showed just how important it is to have commercially salable images of these sports - bobsled in particular - as it so clearly portrays concepts of speed, teamwork, and intensity. One good recent example of winter sports’ commercial relevance is this spot from T. Rowe Price.

A little background on me: This project was right up my alley as sports played a big role in my youth. In addition to playing every sport I could, I was brought up as a child of the Wide World of Sports watching Jim McKay “span the globe” to show some very powerful sports imagery. Images of the “Agony of Defeat” Skier, John McEnroe’s first Wimbledon victory, and Franco Harris’ Immaculate reception are indelibly etched in my memory. Sports images have a special gravity for me now – so I jumped at the chance to tackle this project.

Bobsledding is a sport I have always enjoyed watching (albeit only every 4 years) so it’s an honor to have the opportunity to work with elite athletes making imagery that represent the sport at a global level.

Production commenced after the usual approval process. Amy Uratsu, the producer, did an extraordinary job of pulling it all together. Where do you shoot bobsledding? Tough one. Well, turns out there are only 3 tracks in North America, Calgary, Lake Placid and Salt Lake City. It’s tough to stage and make look real and it necessitates renting the entire facility and staging a real competition. After a hitting a lot of dead ends, we decided to shoot at the track in Salt Lake City on the last possible day of the season – Easter Sunday.

My mandate was to come back with images of these sliding sports that would work in 2 distinct ways: as a literal representation of the professional sports as viewed in the Olympic competition and as conceptually driven imagery that foregrounds relevant commercial themes, allowing for a more stylized end image.

Watch the team take off by clicking here.

With the exception of the photographer, Ryan McVay, who I knew I could rely on to nail the project, nearly every single component of the production had an element of uncertainty. Where do you find a bobsled team on Easter Sunday? Where do you find actual sleds that meet the criteria of commercial photography without logos, etc? Can you find a crew on Easter?

With help from some truly generous people, namely Jeremy Holm and Steve Revelli, it all finally came together. Once we had confirmed access to the track, we locked in talent and crew, had 2 bobsleds custom wrapped blue and red, and booked the travel.

We got to the track a day early to do a tech scout to select locations, POV’s and timings. Then we got a real taste of the sport. After an orientation and signing the scariest liability waiver I’ve ever seen:

we all got to take a run in a bobsled with the 4 time world champion named Stefan. Words simply cannot express what you feel in a four man bobsled. On TV it always looked so smooth. Before this project I secretly thought that bobsledding would be one of the easiest Olympic sports to do – I mean, all you do is sit in a little sled for a minute or two, right? Well, it was the single most extraordinary physical experience I have ever had.

SLC is the fastest track in the world. The track record was 47 seconds and change. We did a 51 second run reaching 80 mph in the turns and pulling in excess of 5 G’s. That meant my head with a helmet ended up weighing about 75lbs! You are bounced around the inside of the sled like a ragdoll. Halfway down I realized that I could barely breath and I couldn’t stop my head from slamming back and forth uncontrollably. Within the first 20 seconds we were going 80mph. Again, words just fail to communicate the magnitude or intensity of that experience. I instantly had a new appreciation for the sport and respect for the athletes.

Here we are - anxious to take a run…

It can’t be hard when we look this good…

After - trying to get out of the sled…

We arrived to the location at 8:00am to meet our athletes and get the shoot rolling. I was happy to discover that we’d cast 8 truly remarkable people for the project. As intense as the athletes were about their chosen discipline, they were all really witty and light hearted. Release photos were taken. Jokes were made. Nicknames established. We had a great rapport from the get go.

Our models getting ready to work

We started shooting as soon as paperwork was sorted and talent got fed. Since each run was so demanding on the athletes, we were given a limited number of runs. Five to be exact. To make the #’s work we ended having 5 cameras up on the action shots. It’s tough to catch; you blink and they’re gone. Check out how it looks from the photographer’s angle by clicking here.

The first run went off around 9:15 we waited for them in turn 14 and listened for them as they came down the track. The facility’s crew consisted of about 12 people in total. They operated more like a team of air traffic control or NASA than a group of ski lift operators – it was all done by the book. The athletes’ safety was paramount. Every single component of the shoot was orchestrated, called over radios, and confirmed.

We broke for lunch, gave the athletes a much-needed break, got warm and reviewed some of the morning’s images. I was happy to know that we had lots of good stuff in the bag and that it opened the day up to a little more experimentation. Ryan shot some really gorgeous, reverent, carefully lit images of the athletes on a black background:

Ryan McVay/Getty Images

Click here to watch the team in action!

Ryan McVay/Getty Images

Then it was back to the action to make sure everyone could get all their runs in before we wrapped. In the end the whole shoot went off without a hitch; We made beautiful pictures, forged friendships with the athletes and crew, and came back with a really good feeling of accomplishment having not only nailed the photos, but returned to LA re-energized from a truly exceptional shoot.

Special Thanks to : Jeremy Holm, Steve Revelli, Donnie Osmond Jr (that’s right), Matt “Big Sexy” Storm, Brad Welch, Joe Sisson, Nick Venneau, Tracey Anderson, Matt “Professor” Griff, Preston and his team at the bobsled track, Rennie Solis, and Jake Campos.

Michael Duva/Getty Images

The environment…it’s still hot. Well, no big surprise there. In fact, it may seem like we’re a little late to the game. But alas, I don’t think we are.

We have yet to ask ourselves - how will all of this environmental overload of information, fear mongering, crazy weather, green washing, truth telling, government subsidizing, law making, affect the way consumers think about and respond to pictures?!

Hello Map Report #2: AspEn. The report is hot off the press, literally. We applied the same methodology we used in the first one, but also interviewed some really cool people like Davis Guggenheim (who directed An Inconvenient Truth) and Simran Sethi (who is the founder of treehugger.com and a frequent guest on Oprah).

The whole project was a great experience (more on that later on). Click here for an excerpt to wet your whistle. Let me know what you think, I’d love to get a discussion going. I would love to hear from you about how you think the environment is affecting your work, your workplace and your life.

Colin Hawkins/Getty Images

Well, what does make a picture? We talk about trends, boomers, the explosion of the Hispanic market in the US, what colors are hot for spring or fall and the list goes on and on…And that’s all great, but isn’t there more to it? What happens when you dig deeper? What happens when you really try to get into the consumer psyche around how they respond to imagery based on what’s happening in their lives? Can we make better pictures as a result?

In 2006, we, the Creative Research team, started a new journey and we called it the MAP Report: what Makes a Picture. We spent 4 months looking at 50,000 photo requests, spoke to 500 customers, and visually analyzed over 2,000 print and TV campaigns from around the globe. We further analyzed customer behavior on our website, search terms, buying patterns, concepts and subjects and visual analysis of our own pictures, etc. Last, but certainly not least, we studied consumer behavior in London, Paris, Munich, NYC, LA, Sydney, Tokyo, Beijing and Sao Paulo. The result was the first MAP report we called One Life (whew).

One Life is about the trends resulting from consumers on overload - a need for grounding, to trust someone who’s real, a need to simplify our lives. It’s a reflection on the influence of women in the work force and a whole lot more.

We hope the report gives insight into our visual language and the way we visually communicate with one another, today and tomorrow, about the things we have in common and the things we don’t. We’re still using it to influence the pictures we’re creating today. These trends don’t disappear like next year’s new black, they tend to evolve and take on new shape. Consequently Guru Joe, Monotasking, the Confessional Consumer and the rest of the gang continue to provide us fertile ground for debate and brainstorming.

Take a look at the excerpts, I would love to hear your thoughts. We’ve got a new MAP launching here in the next month, it’s called AspEn. And that’s all I’m sayin’ - today anyway…