It’s 1944. D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. The American League Browns beat the National League Cardinals, 4-2, to take the all-St. Louis World Series. Franklin Roosevelt is re-elected President of the United States for a fourth term. “Going My Way” wins the Best Picture Oscar. And in New York, a handful of the world’s leading photojournalists come together to create a group that will demand the establishment of professional rights and working conditions, as well as fair compensation for the use of their images. Today, that group — the American Society of Media Photographers — continues to fight for and promote those hard-won rights through information, education and advocacy on behalf of the world’s finest and most professional working publication photographers. ASMP has grown to over 5,000 members in 40 chapters nationwide and in many foreign countries.
To celebrate ASMP’s 60th anniversary we have created this site: to honor the past, to celebrate the present, and to look ahead to the opportunities and continuing struggles in the future. We invite you, ASMP members and non-members alike, to look at our rich heritage, to see where we’ve been, what we’ve accomplished, and where we’re going — and how much ASMP has meant to the profession of photography and to the lives of the men and women who capture the images that define our world, whether in 1944, or 2004, or beyond.
Related Links
What’s New
3/7/05 — Posted interview with Charlie Rotkin.
1/18/05 — Posted interview with Arthur Leipzig.
1/12/05 — Posted interview with Jerry Cooke.
12/13/04 — Posted interview with Lou Jacobs.
12/7/04 — Posted interview with Barrett Gallagher.
12/6/04 — Posted Digital Issues in the Editorial Market Panel Discussion.
12/2/04 — Posted 60th Anniversary and Board Meeting Photos.
Interviews
“Contemporary photographers owe a great deal to people like Ben Ross not only for their incredible photography and for setting high standards in editorial and photojournalism, but also for fighting for photographers’ rights and encouraging better business practices. Thanks to that generation of photographers, we fully appreciate the value of copyrights and why it is so important for creators to retain their copyrights.”
More with Ben Ross…
ASMP Bulletin
Without exaggeration, the Code is the basis for just about everything ASMP has done and believed in ever since. It is the backbone of the organization's efforts. Yet, oddly, it is little known by current members, and almost never reprinted.
More from The Foundation of Everything…
Milestones
May, 1946 — When the Board learns that the School of Modern Photography holds claim to the letters SMP, members vote to rename their group the Magazine Photographers Guild — only to discover that name is spoken for, too. SMP then changes its name to American Society of Magazine Photographers, and the acronym ASMP officially enters the vernacular of New York's magazine and photography world.
More from Milestones…
Memories
“In the fall of 1994, I gave ASMP a weekend and in return ASMP gave me a career.”
More from Judy Herrmann…
