...and she's legally blind.

I've known her for years and just found out yesterday that she used to work at a stock photo agency and was an editor for them. Of course she wasn't blind then, I just find that ironic considering the how editors are generally regarded by contributors.

She did however admit that she was 22 and was transferred from being a secretary to judging photographer's work with absolutely know idea what she was doing other than what her boss told her to look for. She said it made her uncomfortable to be accepting or rejecting the work of people who knew more about what they were doing than she ever would. It was back in the days when editors would look at trannies with a loupe on a light table and it was rights managed not RF. She was surprised to find out stock photography was still a thing.

Anyway, I had two particular images recently, similar subject: one was accepted and one was rejected at Fotolia and over at 123RF the same two images, one was accepted and one was rejected--but the opposite ones. The lack of consistency is still irritating but I find it also hilarious especially now knowing the editors at those agencies might just be secretaries.

Not the same, but in a similar vein:
My husband bumped into a former pupil who said she was in her final year of a web design at college. Trying to bluff that he wasn't clueless (he's a computer phobic) he muttered something about HTML, and she said, "Nobody uses HTML any more, it's all Flash".

I bumped into a different former pupil and she told me she was responsible for writing her firm's website. Oh, great I thought, I'll quiz her about some positional CSS problems I was having. Oh no, she was a junior clerk and somehow had got pushed on to doing the site in Front Page. It wasn't even a very small company!

On the slide selection, I often heard about editors in slide days accepting or rejecting images purely on holding them up to the window behind a loupe.

I'm not sure that it's ridiculous her not knowing that stock was still a 'thing'. You fall out of touch with your old career remarkably quickly (you don't notice how fast it's changing when you're dealing with it every day), ad if she's now blind, it's not as though she'll be seeing images or image credits very often.

Doesn't surprise me one bit and confirms my thoughts about most reviewers out there.
But hey, what can we do right, agencies support their staff like it's their own blood so no use complaining about it, case closed

Not the same, but in a similar vein:
My husband bumped into a former pupil who said she was in her final year of a web design at college. Trying to bluff that he wasn't clueless (he's a computer phobic) he muttered something about HTML, and she said, "Nobody uses HTML any more, it's all Flash".

I bumped into a different former pupil and she told me she was responsible for writing her firm's website. Oh, great I thought, I'll quiz her about some positional CSS problems I was having. Oh no, she was a junior clerk and somehow had got pushed on to doing the site in Front Page. It wasn't even a very small company!

On the slide selection, I often heard about editors in slide days accepting or rejecting images purely on holding them up to the window behind a loupe.

I'm not sure that it's ridiculous her not knowing that stock was still a 'thing'. You fall out of touch with your old career remarkably quickly (you don't notice how fast it's changing when you're dealing with it every day), ad if she's now blind, it's not as though she'll be seeing images or image credits very often.

Those stories are all too familiar to me. Front Page *shiver*.

I'm reluctant to believe that you are serious or that she told you the truth.

Being an editor whilst being legally blind is one hell of a story (well before she wasn't so that's the pun of the story).

There's plenty of blind photogs in the world..........just sayin'.  My daughter, who is blind, has a handful of RM photos on Alamy.

http://blindphotographers.org/

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/dark-light-the-art-of-blind-photographers/video/trailer.html

Do I enjoy some resentiments in here or what's happening?

Quote from: digitalexpression on July 18, 2012, 08:14

...and she's legally blind.
I've known her for years and just found out yesterday that she used to work at a stock photo agency and was an editor for them. Of course she wasn't blind then, I just find that ironic considering the how editors are generally regarded by contributors.

Some people, click _click, seem to be blind when reading posts !

The OP posted:
"I met an editor... " followed by "...and she's legally blind."

I was referring to that statement which leads to believe that the editor edited whilst being blind.

Further into my post I state:

Being an editor whilst being legally blind is one hell of a story (well before she wasn't so that's the pun of the story).

So I was aware of the non-blindness while editing. I did read it correctly. Maybe I went the wrong way in expressing myself.

If you're suggesting either I or my friend are trying to put one over ask yourself what the point would be?

I cannot possibly answer that as I'm still puzzled. I just felt it's mind boggling that people like her get awarded with a job not being capable of comprehending her tasks while there are lines outside the companies with people who are perfectly qualified for the job.

I agree that it's ridiculous that someone would be in charge of judging a photographer's work without any real expertise but do you really find it hard to believe with some of the rejections? Perhaps you've never had a rejection.

I've rejections and do agree with most of them as long as I get an explanation. That there are some oddball reviewers is no secret either but I truly hope they are not blind. They're also human, make mistakes, press the wrong button or just have their own personal agenda - many things can go wrong.

I used to work for a graphic design agency in which the receptionist, considering herself creative, talked the owners into letting her be a designer. She had no training or knowledge. Is that hard to believe? Am I lying? It happened. In fact she had seniority over me as I started after she did.

That's perfectly fine if someone is willing to learn and who is talented at what they do. No problem at all.



This one's especially important to me:

There's plenty of blind photogs in the world..........just sayin'.  My daughter, who is blind, has a handful of RM photos on Alamy.

http://blindphotographers.org/

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/dark-light-the-art-of-blind-photographers/video/trailer.html

I got licensed as a youth care worker also working together with blind people and ones who were visually impaired.

I experienced first hand that blind people can outperform regular seeing people in everyday tasks, often by miles. I wish half of my family would handle a knife as skillful and efficient as the 15 year-olds that I was cooking with.

Please don't consider me as a discriminating a$$hole just because I criticized someone who apparently didn't know how to do their job and eventually lost eyesight or are now visually impaired.

I'm reluctant to believe that you are serious or that she told you the truth.

Yeah, grain of salt and all that.

First thing I thought of was, she can get a job as a baseball umpire now. (zing!)

Blind photo editor, who was never trained is starting to reach mythical status. I'm skeptical about how much this person made up for the benefit of the OP.

Yes I understand "legally blind" and that she wasn't when she claims to have been an editor.

Whats the matter with you people? Seriously, there is not one thread in this forum that doesnt end up in flaming, accusing and bickering, over what? Wikepedia, a legally blind ex editor and packet of biscuits.

Quote from: cclapper on July 18, 2012, 15:22

Quote from: ShadySue on July 18, 2012, 10:45

Not the same, but in a similar vein:
My husband bumped into a former pupil who said she was in her final year of a web design at college. Trying to bluff that he wasn't clueless (he's a computer phobic) he muttered something about HTML, and she said, "Nobody uses HTML any more, it's all Flash".

Which is odd, because at my school they are thinking of changing the curriculum for the Computer Animation class (Flash) and changing to HTML5, because Flash seems to be on its way out.

Nonono, that was at least three years ago, maybe more. A hundred years in computer terms.

Oh OK that makes sense then. Sorry I misunderstood!

This one's especially important to me:

Quote from: Karimala on July 18, 2012, 12:42

There's plenty of blind photogs in the world..........just sayin'.  My daughter, who is blind, has a handful of RM photos on Alamy.

http://blindphotographers.org/

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/dark-light-the-art-of-blind-photographers/video/trailer.html

I got licensed as a youth care worker also working together with blind people and ones who were visually impaired.

I experienced first hand that blind people can outperform regular seeing people in everyday tasks, often by miles. I wish half of my family would handle a knife as skillful and efficient as the 15 year-olds that I was cooking with.

Please don't consider me as a discriminating a$$hole just because I criticized someone who apparently didn't know how to do their job and eventually lost eyesight or are now visually impaired.

Not at all.  You're one of my fave posters.      

One last thing...this thread went totally off the rails. 

The woman isn't lying or making up stories.  The OP said she went blind AFTER she left her job as a photo editor.

Quote from: antistock on July 18, 2012, 13:50

interesting.

how can they make photos if they're blind ? how about editing, photoshopping ?

you mean they're 100% blind or just 80-90% blind ?
technically i'm 60% blind by the way and yet here i am.

Photography is all about light...and the vast majority of legally blind folks have enough vision to see light and shadows.

My daughter also uses sound in order to follow the subject with her camera.  As long as she can hear her subject and/or can see some sort of shadow and light in the viewfinder, she can make a photo.  I choose the best compositions and do the editing for her, but she makes all the decisions about how I edit the image.  I describe everything in Photoshop to her and she knows what most of the features do now.  She's also an awesome assistant!

Check out Pete Eckert's work.

Quote from: dreamstock on July 18, 2012, 13:10

I really feel very sorry for you when I read this, it must be hard to raise a blind child. how does she take a picture?

No need to feel sorry.  She's 30 now and was born with her visual impairment, so it's normal for us.  It's more like a pain in the you-know-where.   

wow thanks for your insightful comment, i really had no idea it would be possible to still make photos when blind or almost blind, i mean at least not to make photos good enough to be shown around or even sold somewhere or to be shown in exhibitions.

it's really true that humans give their best when they're limited in their ability or time or money or...