The Steven Frischling Power Hour

Some guy named "ArtoftheImage" who apparently has no ability to Google did a one-hour interview with Steven Frischling about photography. It went exactly as you would expect.

In the first 10 minutes alone, Frischling claims:

• He first began shooting spot news at 10, on his bike, with a 1965 Nikkormat FS and Kodachrome (naturally)
• He claims he did a photography project for 20 airlines, when over the course of 12 days he went around the world shooting in 15 cities in 13 countries and all on two iPhones. (Where are these photos?) (Looks like he really did this. Word is execution of this project was exactly what you would expect from Steven Frischling.)
• His current work for spot news includes "abductions." (Where are these photos?)
• He lost his job at CRN because he was "downsized," as they merged the art director and photo director positions. LOL.
• He claims he did "social media" for Kodak from 1994 to 1999... (Apparently lying all day on AOL forums is considered social media, according to Frischling.)
• He did a "Photo of the Day" project for Discovery Channel and FedEx showed up at his house with a rare 6 mm Nikkor lens (recent price: $160,000) and a Post It note that simply said "Figure this out." (Where are these photos?)

And it goes on and on and on with ridiculous tales. This is all so believable, isn't it? Let's take a look at his claim that he was "downsized" from CRN.

On two forums, he claims he voluntarily "quite" before he was about to be laid off (which makes so much sense, since layoffs from a major corporation usually go with severance packages! How does not getting a severance package "work out well" for him?). He claims he had to travel so much and he wanted to be with his son who "barely knew" him and his imaginary wife was getting "stretched to thing":

"I ended up quitting my job as a Director of Photography overseeing 5 international business magazines (worked out well as my job was about to be made 'redundant'). I quite because I wanted to be with my son and he barely knew me, and my wife was really getting stretched to thing." Sep 10, 2008 12:04

Five months later, the story has changed. On the SAME forum he now claims he resigned because of the "extreme pressure" for him to implement Work for Hire contracts for his "photogs," which he refused to do, because of his incredible integrity:

"Do NOT take it. Work For Hire is bad for you, bad for business, bad for the industry. At $5k per shoot WFH is bad for business. I actually left my job as a magazine director of photography, overseeing multiple international business magazines, in part because of the extreme pressure to implement a WFH contract. I'd be paying $750+ for the shoots, and as the person in charge I fought it and refused to issue it to my photogs." Feb 21, 2009 16:26

Now the story has changed and he was downsized, and the two positions merged into one. He said the same thing here on Twitter. That's odd - why was he quickly replaced by someone else with the same job title? Another photographer was hired and stayed for six+ years. That's a long time to be at a company where the job you do doesn't exist...

Perhaps the most ridiculous claim is around 26:30 when he brags that his daughter was a published photographer at age 4. Seriously. Somehow when he wasn't looking, apparently his 4-year-old daughter took his camera and took a picture that was chosen as a magazine cover and he only realized later that it wasn't his photo. And he gets some "demented pleasure" from his daughter "dodging junkies" shooting housefires. Who is Art of the Image and how is he so gullible as to believe this?

Happy lying!