CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

American dancer, choreographer and teacher, Merce Cunningham, died  last week at the age of 90.  Always rooted firmly in the avant-garde, Cunningham was incredibly influential on modern dance.  He is known for his spare sense,  having stripped the storytelling aspect from dance, revealing raw movement.   Recently we talked about chance operations in the context of music, specifically as composed by John Cage, but Cunningham adapted the concept to dance. As the longtime professional and personal partner to John Cage, Cunningham and Cage collaborated on a number of projects and their perspective disciplines informed each others work throughout. Cunningham worked with other giants of  the avant-garde such as Jasper Johns, David Tudor and Robert Rauchenberg.

Stephanie Berger//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company was formed in 1953 and has performed over 200 dances and 800 “events” in since its inception. Though his dancing career ended in the 1990s, he choreographed until the end.  His last dance , Nearly Ninety, was performed for his birthday in April 2009. See more on Merce here.

Ted Thai/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Digg This!   Tweet This!   Share on Facebook   Stumble It!

Max B. Miller/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

At a 20th Century Fox studio party in 1966, Mia Farrow chats as actor Gardner McKay bends forward to look at her exposed back, oblivious to McKay’s gaze.

Jason Kempin/WireImage/Getty Images

Bringing sexy to the back, Liv Tyler wore a Stella McCartney dress with carefully placed black lace inserts to the Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Gala at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 5, 2009 in New York City.

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images Entertainment

Blake Lively was business in the front, party in the back in a Roberto Cavalli dress at the Swarovski Crystallized Concept store grand opening at Swarovski Crystallized Concept Store on June 25, 2009 in New York City.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images Entertainment

Wearing her own brand, Twenty8Twelve, Sienna Miller showed off not only her legs at the 18th Annual MTV Movie Awards held at the Gibson Amphitheatre on May 31, 2009 in Universal City, California.

To search for like dresses on the Getty Images website, keyword “backless”.

Digg This!   Tweet This!   Share on Facebook   Stumble It!

James Devancy/WireImage/Getty Images

As written about in Rapunzel’s Cousin, braids are all the rage. Jennifer Lopez took a stark variation from the whimsical French braid we have been seeing and wore a sculptural braided bun to her 40th birthday at the Edison Ballroom on July 25, 2009 in New York City with husband Marc Anthony.

The elaborated braided bun was made iconic by Princess Grace of Monaco. Heidi Klum revisited the look at the 2006 CFDA Awards

Jack Rosen/Time & Life Pictues/Getty Images – Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage/Getty Images

Digg This!   Tweet This!   Share on Facebook   Stumble It!

Winner of a Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography, Simon Roberts recently completed his project entitled The Russian Army.

Photo courtesy of Simon Roberts

Roberts writes, “My study begins with an exploration of the military in Russian society, looking at how closely the two are tied. It then follows the lives of conscript soldiers, those young men who are forced to spend 2 years in military service and who still make up the backbone of the army.   It documents them saying goodbye to their loved ones and follows them through their basic training at barracks around Russia.  The Russian army is one of the most problematic and intriguing cornerstones of Russian society.  Every year some 40,000 troops desert, approximately 200 soldiers commit suicide and new conscripts are paid as little as £1 a month. Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy chairman for Russia, Alexandra Petrov, recently said that, “there are two places in Russia that people die practically on a daily basis: Chechnya and the Army.”

See Simon’s finished essay at Getty Images Grants website.

Digg This!   Tweet This!   Share on Facebook   Stumble It!

Arnold Newman/Getty Images

The recent passing of architectural photographer, Julius Schulman shines a light on modernist architecture yet again and reminds us that The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum celebrates the 50th anniversary of its landmark building with the exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, through August 23rd.  Wright died shortly before the completion of this American landmark in 1959.

Volkmar K. Wentzel/National Geographic/Getty Images

An influential designer and prolific modernist architect Wright built over 400 projects, of which around 300 survive today.   Whatever region of the United States you visit there is most likely an example of Wright’s work close at hand.  His aesthetic is often described as “organic”.  He said “The good building makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built” and this was achieved by his incorporation of natural elements present in the surrounding landscape.  Every detail was accounted for within the scope of his architectural projects down to the furniture and lighting fixtures, a practice that was uncommon in the early mid-20th century.  His son, Lloyd Wright and grandson followed in his footsteps as architects, designing buildings in the Southern California region.

Al Fenn//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

In addition to being a visionary architect he had a scandalous personal life filled with tragedy and tons of women.  A book has even been written about his romantic exploits called “The Women” and a theatrical production, Work Song, was staged around his tumultuous life in 2000.

Archive Photos/Getty Images

Several Frank Lloyd Wright buildings are open to the public, and a few areas of the country host a concentration of his work such as Illinois and California.  There are several ways to see Wright architecture up close and personally. The Marin County Civic Center in Northern California,The Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Southern Florida College in Florida, and Hollyhock House in Los Angeles are just a few locations.  See more examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work through Getty Images here.

Digg This!   Tweet This!   Share on Facebook   Stumble It!

Johnny Hernandez/Getty Images

We know that the legalities associated with licensing images can be scary. It’s not an easy subject for anyone to completely comprehend. To help make it just a little easier for everyone to understand, we’ve turned to the guidance of our internal copyright and intellectual property experts (aka lawyers).

Below you’ll find some copyright and licensing tips they so kindly put together in regular, non-legal language. With these key tips in mind, it should make using professional images for your business a little less intimidating.

Whenever you use an image, it’s important to be smart about it. A copyright exists the moment an image is created by the photographer, and images are subject to copyright laws. If you want to use an image that you did not create, securing permission or a license is necessary. Don’t equate the Internet as “Public Domain” – just because it’s out there, it does not mean that it’s free for anyone to use.

By law, as the end-user of the image, you are ultimately legally responsible for insuring that you have obtained the appropriate rights to use the imagery. Because of this, you need to do your homework if anyone is designing communications for you or for your company. Be sure they are licensing imagery appropriately. Ask for copies of license paperwork.

Also, be sure you are using content from a trusted source. It’s good to remember that there are a number of providers that offer a broad range of imagery at affordable prices – licensing an image is easy and it’s worth the peace of mind.

If you DO receive a letter from us, here are six tips, please feel free to share these with your friends and designers:

We do have a dedicated Twitter account that helps with these specific kinds of issues. If you have a question, please find us @gettycopyright and we will try to help.

Digg This!   Tweet This!   Share on Facebook   Stumble It!

I’ve just returned from Turnberry, Scotland which is hosting this year’s Open Golf Championship. Sadly despite the glorious photo above the weather was mostly atrocious and the accommodation was, how can I put this diplomatically, interesting. Turnberry is a very exclusive golf resort which in turn means hotels are somewhat pricey. This year Team Getty are located in the nearby Haven Caravan and Holiday Park and I will confess this was the first time I’d stayed the night in a house that has wheels.

We all joked about the slightly bizarre nature of our sleeping arrangements and I shall put my hands up to say I was more critical than most.

Then an email came in from Jonathan Klein; one of our photographers had been arrested in Iran.

Before getting that email I had no idea who Majid Saeedi was. I’d probably seen his byline on countless photos, much in the same way I always notice a Getty Images byline, but his name was not familiar. It most certainly is now.

When I wake up (in a house on wheels) and go to work, there are numerous challenges and problems that could come my way. Broken equipment, suppliers letting us down, technical issues and so on. Getting arrested just for doing my job? Never.

Complaining about sleeping in a caravan seems so trivial now.

I, along with everyone at Getty Images, wishes a safe and speedy release of Majid.

Digg This!   Tweet This!   Share on Facebook   Stumble It!