The use of photography in graphic design had its birth way long ago, back in late 1920 decade, when Herbert Bayer, after leaving Bauhaus school, where he was the teacher of  “Print and advertising Workshop”, started to study the interconnections between “advertising science” and psychology.
He started then to integrate photos in his work, with montages and screens, in order to give more dynamics and expressiveness to his creations and make of them what he called “an architectural framework“.
Those really were first photo montages of graphic design history.

In our days, with the use of computer graphics the use of pictures in any kind of job is a must.

Recently I’ve read an article in a blog that stated: “it is useless to spend a lot of time in Stock Photography websites to search for the right shot while you possibly have a nice camera and you can do the shot yourself”.
I personally STRONGLY disagree with this point of view.
Unless you are an experienced photographer yourself, I firmly believe that a paid job is not the moment to make experiments and play with the brand reputation of your customer!

An image in a website, in advertising or any other printed composition is never just a “shot”.
It has, in a first instance, the task to grab attention.
It has then to engage, beautify, tell a story, create desire, and all of this it must be done being consistent with the image of the brand.
To make it short “it has to sell”.

Your photography necessarily must be “professional”: if photography misses the mark, your brand message will be diluted, if not damaged!
After you’ve spent so much time brainstorming about a message that compels, it must be supported by compelling imagery.
Notice also that if you need your image for printing, professional quality is necessary to guarantee quality reproduction.
Never think customers won’t notice it: they will, whether consciously or not.

Furthermore, if you use photos with people you NEED to have the Model Release, a legal document signed by subjects portrayed, that grants you the permission to use and publish the photo.
I have read a lot of times on various design groups on Usenet, both about people that got into trouble because they used a picture without legal permission and others that were bragging about suing others because they used one of their shots, so, I always use professional stock photography.
A thing you have to know, however, are the differences between various kind of licenses:

• Royalty Free is the most common and affordable license type, often called just RF. As the name says, you can use the image purchased as many times as you want without paying an additional royalty. They have usually good prices, that may vary according to the company of your choice. The only downside is that these images are not exclusive.
• Rights Managed license (or RM) gives you exclusive (but time-limited) use of a stock image. This means that if you buy this kind of license you are the only one to use the image in the period specified in the contract. Photos can be used only for one project and for a period of time, sometimes even only on specified geographical areas. This is an expensive licence, but it protect you brand from competition using the same image.
• Extended/ Enhanced licenses. Not every company offers this kind of licenses, which extends the use of a previously licensed work. You have thus the permission to increase the printed copies featuring the image, to use it for resale purposes or for other method of distribution. It is advised to carefully read the contract, as uses allowed vary from company to company.
• Subscription. This is pretty new, it is not available everywhere also, but this kind of offer is quickly expanding. You pay a monthly fee, often choosing among different price plans, and you can download a set number of photos of your choice. This is probably the best deal if you have to download images often. As a plus, you usually have no limitation about the use.

Here are the stock photo companies that, to my opinion, offer the best value for money:

Getty Images

Probably one of the most famous and one of the first to offer licensed images, since 1995. According to what they say, every months about 4 million people utilizes their website. You find there award winning images, illustrations and even videos and music. Their new offers are The Flickr and the Vector collections.

Thinkstock

A great offer for a great value. They have subscription plans that allows you to download up to 25 images a day in a database that has millions of images.

Jupiterimages

Another huge collection of photos of famous photographers and a lot of niche collections. They often propose discount. Actually you can have 10% discount with the promo code in the home page.

To finish, some sample images from these websites:

Stumbleupon really is a huge treasure vault of  incredible and talented artists.

A while ago I found this guy that makes amazing images from cut-out pulp book covers.

As I’ve already stated here and there in this blog I like vintage stuff and imagery, and seeing those creations really made me stunned.

Inspired by children pop-up books he loves, Thomas has had one of those ideas each creative always starves for, but his work goes beyond that.

His job is not limited to cut the paper and putting in position the slices.

He is an inspired director of stage, light, and composition, really bringing  photos to life, projecting you in the  world he’s seeing.

By making tri-dimensional sets of what once was a bi-dimensional picture, all carved pieces becomes part of a whole new story to tell, adding to it mistery, tension, irony, just like in a typical ’50 movie, a western, a noir, a spy story.
Decay of the paper itself is part of the tale.
Then, a spotlight and a new shot, make the  image bi-dimensional back again to freeze the moment to eternity.

Am I a bit visionary?

It may be, but considering the success the man is having I’m not the only one.

He takes part in several exhibitions and has even printed a book Thomas Allen: Uncovered, a 48 page “jewel” featured in Amazon Top 100  Best book of Year 2007, and whose reviewers speak of very highly (not to mention that his blog really worth reading).

Recently Thomas has teamed up with the webdesigner and blogger Kitsune Noir (another blog I follow) for his “Desktop Wallpaper Project”, so now all of us can have a piece of his creativity to download for our desktop at various resolutions even for Iphone and PSP.

This is called “INFECTIOUS” and features a man with a wrapped slightly bloodied hand, looking worried toward the woman standing at his shoulder.

Still there? What are you waiting to download?

Here it is again the list of my 10 favorite readings of the week.
Let’s start.

• Most brilliant is new Zippo advertising campaign. Even if message clearly exaggerate the amount of space taken by discarded lighters, it shows an interesting point of view that probably few of us had considered before. Read a full article on StillAd ;
• Most Useful is The 13 most essential plugin for WordPress by Net-tuts. Even if I don’t agree to all of them because I think some plugin in list are not strictly necessary (don’t forget that each plugin you activate eats resources and slows a bit your wordpress!), there are some I didn’t know. I would add to list Login Lockdown: detect and record IP addresses of every failed login attempt and if more than a certain number of attempts are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range, then the login function is disabled for all requests from that range;
  
• Most stunning is Step into my Cardboard Office from CR Blog. Their article tells about Nothing, a new Amsterdam creative agency that built its internal working spaces with cardboard. Article has plenty of amazing pictures of the studio;
• Most funny is Comments you won’t have seen by DavidAirey.com. I read this clever and wit blog very often and surely there are a lot of graphic design post to point out (I especially like the “Logo of the month” series), but this one was, really, exhilarating;
• Most Interesting is Achieve your goals with Incremental Persistence. I’ve found this article on DevLounge. Very powerful explanation about how persistence conquers all. You can’t miss the linked John Reese article on Income.com too;
• Most Beautiful is a showcase of SmashingMagazine of 40 typography-related websites and blogs. Astounding creativity and a lot of knowledge here;
• Most Inspiring is a DesignM.ag Showcase about landscape photography. Incredibly, the shot of the cypresses has been taken not far away from where I live. Those trees are really famous among photographers here;
• Most Valuable is The Ups and Downs of Business by Chris Tomlison. I’ve found by chance this 5th and last article of an interesting series, so, my advice is to read them all;
• My favorite artist is Jay Horinouchi creates dreamy and intriguing worlds filled with Japanese-inspired creatures. Amazing painting technique. He is having a solo exhibition at Möbius Gallery in Los Angeles until April 7, 2009.

I’ve found, by chance, in a website that collects the strangest things, pictures and facts you can find on web, a wide selection of the famous upside down faces of Rex Whistler (you can see them at WackyArchives ).

Rex Whistler was an eclectic British artist and illustrator that lived in the inter-war era, from 1905 to 1944.

Too much underrated nowadays where he is mainly known for those curious and funny upside down faces (they were commissioned by the Shell Petroleum company), he was a lot more than that and, in his period, he was very famous.

At that time, while Modernism tide ruled in all Europe (Bauhaus reminds you nothing?) his art was something completely on his own, nostalgic, country, sometimes rather kitsch.

He was only a 22 years old student at the Slade School of Art when he painted the HUGE mural called “The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats” of the Tate Gallery Restaurant, which was immediately defined ‘The Most Amusing Room in Europe.’ Within a year the Tate mural was under two feet of water after the notorious Thames flood of 1928, however Whistler had used a special combination of colors, with wax and turpentine, that ensured the survival of the mural.

He also painted portraits (he depicted many members of London society), landscapes, humorous sketches for advertising, theater designs, but, probably, he has always been best known for his fine books illustrations .

At the outbreak of WWII he took a commission in the Welsh Guard Armoured Division as Lieutenant, but continued to work as a professional illustrator in his spare time.

Shortly after embarking for Normandy in July 1944, he was killed by a mortar shell on his first day in action. He was 39.

Following, you can see a selection of his works, you can see those clickable at larger resolution. Enjoy!

1. A view of the Tate Gallery restaurant

2. HRH, the Prince of Wales, Awakening the Spirit of Brighton

3. Plas Newydd mural

4. Upside down faces in a book illustration

5. A book illustration

6. Another beautiful book illustration