How is it that two photographers can stand in the same place and make two very different photographs? What accounts for the frustrating reality that, in that moment, one photographer can make something truly compelling and beautiful while the results of the other’s efforts are underwhelming? Surely it can’t be just better gear. Sometimes it’s different gear. Different gear represents different possibilities, …
Study The Work of Others
In my last article, I suggested studying the work of others as one path toward making your own work stronger. To shoot what things feel like requires that we first have feelings about things but also to understand what possibilities exist for translating feelings into photographs themselves. It’s a conversation that could get touchy-feely really quickly, but if it gets too far …
My Favourite Photography Books
I’m often asked for recommendations about photography books. Not, mind you, books about photography, but books of photographs. Here are my current favourites. They of course represent my own tastes and lean heavily toward black and white documentary photographs, but you can learn from all photography, and I think black and white images are simpler, allowing us (often) to get …
Light , Gesture, & Color
The first, and only time, I met Jay Maisel, he asked what kind of photography I did. At the time I was busy with humanitarian assignments and I told him so. He looked me in the eye, having just met me, and said, “You mean people pay you to do that? You’re an evil man.” And then he laughed. …
Study the Masters: Margaret Bourke-White
At the Time of the Louisville Flood (1937) Gandhi (1946) “If you want to photograph a man spinning, give some thought to why he spins. Understanding for a photographer is as important as the equipment he uses.” –Margaret Bourke-White “Utter truth is essential and that is what stirs me when I look through the camera” –Margaret Bourke-White. Margaret Bourke-White …
Study the Masters: Elliott Erwitt
USA, California, 1955 USA. 2000.New York city. “It’s about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.” – Elliott Erwitt Elliott Erwitt (1928 – present) is …
Study the Masters: Galen Rowell
Winter sunset, Gates of the Valley, Yosemite National Park (California, 1990) Split rock and cloud, Eastern Sierra (California, 1976) “Photography was a means of visual expression to communicate what I had seen to people who weren’t there. At first I was disturbed that 99 percent of my images didn’t look as good as what I had seen. The other one …
Study the Masters: Ansel Adams
Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, Ansel Adams. “I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print” When I started this series I knew I was going to have to write about Ansel Adams (1902-1984). People …
Study the Masters: Edward Burtynsky
Thjorsá River #1Iceland, 2012, copyright Edward Burtynsky “We took what we needed from the Earth and this is what we left behind. That is the informational layer of my work, but there is also a political layer and an autobiographical one.” Edward Burtynsky (1955 – present) is still very much alive and working today. One of Canada’s most respected photographers, …
Study the Masters: Magnum
When Robert Capa conceived of Magnum Photos I suspect he had no idea what it would become. Founded in 1947 by Capa and Cartier-Bresson, among several others, Magnum has become a rallying place for excellence in photojournalism. Notable members over the years include Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Eve Arnold, Steve McCurry, Elliott Erwitt, Ernst Haas, Don McCullin, W. Eugene Smith, …
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