DL: Photographers out number editors a million to one but given the fact that you may well be the one and only photo editor who did it, what does that "intuit" about your esteemed colleagues? RB(AKAPE): I think there's a huge misconception about the number of "professional" photographers in this industry. I'd say 20 maybe 23 tops. Everyone else is just vying for one of those slots by shooting jobs for free as marketing material. So, as you can see there's absolutely no reason for photo editors to do anything with the internets.
DL: Something tells me that you are trying to sell us something, are we all unsuspecting pawns in an elaborate marketing scheme of your own making?
RB(AKAPE): There is absolutely no obligation to buy but I think once you hear the stories of people making 1000, 2000 and even 10,000 dollars a week you will want to buy my 10 disc set turning your vacation photos into cash. Money back guarantee except in the 50 states not available outside the US.
DL: OH. MY . GOD...! Is that expression learned, or innate?
RB(AKAPE): I normally say "holy fucking shit can you fucking believe how fucking great that fucking photo is a just want to shit myself and donkey punch my mother." Oh. My. God seemed more user friendly.
DL: There was a lot of brown nosing the APE over the past four months. What does that say about photographers or the biz?
RB(AKAPE): If NY Times Magazine Director of Photography, Kathy Ryan were to suddenly come to a screeching halt the entire photo industry would find itself lodged up her ass.
DL: Winston Churchill once said, "You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give", care to elaborate?
RB(AKAPE): No. That makes my brain hurt.
DL: You once had a dream, what was it?
RB(AKAPE): A reoccurring dream where the CFO and I enter a caged octagon.
DL: Why do you think you were so successful, so quickly?
RB(AKAPE): See above, they all thought I was Kathy Ryan.
DL: Anyone else that you know following your careless lead?
RB(AKAPE): I've poisoned everyone who tried. Anyone seen George Pitts lately?
DL: Photography is now a commodity like wheat, pork bellies or soy beans, care to disagree?
RB(AKAPE): Is this where you tell me I have to pay a digital processing fee and a digital transfer fee and a fee to ftp and a fee to burn a disk and a digital package fee and a digi-tech fee and a removable storage fee and a post processing fee?
DL: You share your life with a special someone, an ego, a wife, a pet monkey. What did they think of all this? Did you ever have to defend your compulsion and if so how could you and how did you justify it?
RB(AKAPE): Look Olivier I'm tired of calling your wife and telling her that blogging is anything other than online masturbation.
DL: Some may say that your taste in photography are rather safe, care to elaborate?
RB(AKAPE): Are you referring to my habit of saying in meetings "I'd like see what Annie Lebovitz would do with that" even though I've asked her agent 144,000 times to shoot something for me and the answer has always been no?
DL: Have you found your voice and is this it?
RB(AKAPE): No, I'm thinking more Backstreet Boys with choreographed dance but I just can't seem to get Contientious, Jackaonary and A Visual Society to show up for practice.
DL: How do you like your feminine side shaped?
RB(AKAPE): Conical.
DL: Off the record and just between you and me, what made you do it?......guilt, shame...? and if so, are you easily intimidated?
RB(AKAPE): Interesting, I've never thought of it that way but now that I'm lying on this comfortable couch and you're talking to me in that soothing voice I'd have to say there's a fair amount of guilt involved in figuring out how many ways you can screw photographers out of a couple bucks on a daily, wait no, hourly basis as a chosen profession. This is my atonement.
DL: ....ever been gang banged by the Keebler elves...?
RB(AKAPE): Oh. My. God… is that where all these cookies came from… Olivier… Olivier… why can't I move my arms… I can barely see you… it's like I'm looking through a lens baby attached to a kaleidoscope.
DL: Anything to loose and if so, when will you loose it?
RB(AKAPE): Close to loosing my lunch every time I hit publish.
DL: Successful blogs tend to slowly become overwhelmed by their own successes. The audience becomes more and more self absorbed and see the "Top Blog" as a tool to generate traffic to their own site or start posting to turn the conversation unto themselves, as opposed to furthering the discussion. How will you negotiate success, has this already happened?
RB(AKAPE): Ultimately my goal is to turn the photo blogging community into a giant donut where all links and conversations lead back to the original post. The conversation will repeat itself in perpetuity throughout the universe in every medium known and unknown without additional payment.
DL: Please, be brutally honest!
RB(AKAPE): When I pee in the snow I write my name.
DL: (This Space left unintentionally blank).
DL: Unlike a painter, a photographer starts with something finished and works backwards....what about a "A Photo Editor"?
RB(AKAPE): Did you know aphotoeditor spelt backwards is rotideotohpa?
DL: I have to ask you this, how many Horse ladies in your apocalypse?
RB(AKAPE): She's pullin' six white horses.
DL: Favorite three layered cake?
RB(AKAPE): Ho hos.
DL: An old chinese proverb states: " It does not matter if it's black or white, as long as it catches light", care to dignify this pronouncement with a reply?
RB(AKAPE): It matters if I shine a flashlight up your ass.
DL: Many of your fans had assumed, wrongly, that you were a lady, any thoughts, rebukes or responses?
RB(AKAPE): Not the first time someone told me "you write and photo edit like a woman."
DL: "If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention", what exactly does that mean?
RB(AKAPE): In the FAQ section of my blog it states that by loading aphotoeditor.com in your web browser you are hereby signing a work for hire contract that governs all previous and future work as a photographer throughout the universe in all mediums known and unknown in perpetuity.
DL: The US department of Labor states that the Employment of photographers is expected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations through 2016. Photographers can expect keen competition for job openings because the work is attractive to many people. Could this be?
RB(AKAPE): Sure, who doesn't want to hang out with Mickey and Goofy and snap pictures of screaming kids all day long.
DL: There are currently 122,000 professional photographers in the US alone, with a median hourly income of $12 dollars and 58 cents. Please explain ?
RB(AKAPE): And with expenses of $12 an hour that leaves a pure profit of 58 cents an hour.
DL: Which of the following would cause the unemployment rate to increase?
I. A man who quits his job to spend more time with his children II. A woman who has not looked for a job in two years and begins looking again III. A woman who quits her job and begins looking for a new job in another city.
RB(AKAPE): IV. Blogging for a living.
DL: And to conclude this interview please explain:
1- Definition of social stratification 2- Social class in terms of wealth, income, education, occupation, and lifestyle 3- Concepts of power, prestige and status, both ascribed and achieved 4- Social inequality involving race, gender, class, age, prejudice, and discrimination 5- Functional and conflict theories of stratification 6- Horizontal, vertical, inter-generational social mobility 7- Poverty/life chances
RB(AKAPE): Ask someone who cares.