Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
With the recent cancellations of both Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona and CP+ in Japan due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, there is growing concern about what may happen to other large trade shows within the photography and video industry over the next few months.
DIYP reached out to The Photography Show (TPS) in the UK, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in the USA, and Photokina in Germany to find out their current thoughts and plans for their upcoming shows.
The first major photography trade show of the year, and one of the largest in the world, CP+ 2020 has been cancelled over coronavirus fears. Japan has reported its first death as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the second such confirmed death outside of China. Amid fears that there is no effective treatment or containment measures, organisers have chosen to cancel CP+2020.
This is the second major tech event to be cancelled over coronavirus fears. The world’s largest smartphone show, Mobile World Congress (MWC) was cancelled on February 12th. A notification the CP+ website informs readers of the cancellation of the show, which was planned to take place between February 27th and March 1st, 2020.
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The world’s biggest phone show, MWC in Barcelona, just notified that world that it will not happen this year. GSMA CEO John Hoffman said that “With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event“.
The show has seen a few big companies canceling participation over the last month, starting with LG and ZTE. Then the flood gates opened with Ericsson, Nvidia, Intel, Vivo, Sony, Amazon, NTT Docomo, Cisco, Nokia, BT, and HMD. If the show was to be held, it would have been empty halls.
While this show does not relate to photography, NAB released a statement that it is closely monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation:
Coronavirus has had a huge effect on, not to mention been frightening, everyone, from “common folks” to huge companies like Sony. The fear of infection has left some of China’s cities looking like ghost towns. It’s hard to imagine a city of 24-million people like Shanghai empty as if it were a setup for a movie or a video game. But it is happening, and photographer Nicoco has managed to capture it. In her latest series titled 一个人城市 One Person City, she shows the sad and eerie atmosphere in Shanghai’s streets during the coronavirus outbreak.
28-year-old James Potok, self-professed #ViralBoy, made a very tasteless joke with a view to going viral. The Instagrammer falsely claimed to have coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on a plane. The WestJet flight he was on from Toronto to Jamaica was forced to turn around and land.
Unfortunately, this was the result of the ‘likes’ culture. James did this because he wanted to go viral. In an interview with Global News, he recalled having previously gone viral with a very different claim. He is quoted as saying, “I figured it would invoke some type of reaction. Not on the plane; more people seeing on social media, going, ‘Wow, this kid’s got some balls,’ or, ‘this kid is crazy.‘”
Sony has spoken up on the coronavirus outbreak in China and the effects it may have on its image sensor and other operations. The Nikkei reports that despite initially raising its operating profit and revenue forecasts for the current fiscal year, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said the coronavirus “may negate our revised earnings outlook”.
The issue largely seems to refer to Sony’s smartphone sensors, rather than camera sensors. Despite Sony being based in Japan, smartphones themselves are often assembled in China. That being said, some of Sony’s cameras, including the A7 III, A7R III (the A7R IV is made in Thailand) and RX100 VII, as well as most of their lenses, are also marked as “Made in China”.
The outbreak and spread of the Coronavirus had us all concerned, and the city of Wuhan is where it all began. Its citizens have been living in a government lockdown since 23 January, and the city streets look almost deserted. News agency AFP recently shared a drone video of Wuhan showing what it looks like when an 11-million people city turns into a ghost town.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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