There’s not a day goes by that I don’t see photographers being offered some shortcut or another on a craft that ultimately frowns darkly on shortcuts. Since I started teaching photography I’ve had one unwavering desire for my students: that they learn to make photographs that they love, in a way that they love, of the things that they love …
The Photographer’s Role
It comforts me to know I’m not a lone nutter standing on the edge of sanity shouting into the wind. In fact it turns out there’s really nothing about what I teach that better voices before mine have not taught. My voice is just an echo, but it echoes something I think is important – that this craft is a …
5 Ways to Make Deeper Images
In the coming weeks I’m going to be talking a lot about making images with soul, and being the source of that spark in our images. More than ever I believe, in our enthusiasm about the astonishing marvels our cameras can be, we’ve forgotten that in photography, to quote Eve Arnold “it’s the photographer, not the camera, that is the …
Why Go Monochrome?
I’ve been told it’s a curious decision to photograph so colourful a place as India in black and white, as though colour itself is the defining characteristic of the place therefore the most obvious way to photograph it. But there’s so much more to India than colour, though there’s plenty of that too. There is life and chaos and texture. …
It’s All Subjective
These were the questions I was asked last week and I think they open an interesting conversation. Here’s my take on it: Yes. A photograph needs a subject. It needs something about which to be. In the same way a story or a poem or a song needs to be about something, so too does a photograph. But remember …
Two Big Questions
Walking through Jodhpur with a friend last week he asked me a series of questions about the way I think when I photograph, specifically: how do I prioritize and make the decisions that I do? Do you choose aperture first, or shutter? Do you reach for a wider lens or a tighter? Do you back up, get close? So many …
The Soul of the Camera [Signature Edition]
**Update – As of May 25, the Signature Edition is now sold out. Thank you so much for the support.** On or around June 15, my next book, Soul of the Camera, The Photographer’s Place in Picture-Making, will be released. I have the first copy here beside me and I haven’t been this proud of something I’ve written in a …
The Best Camera?
When, a couple years ago, Chase Jarvis popularized the idea that the best camera was the one you had with you, I was totally on board. I still am; there is much truth in the idea. But if someone is asking the question, “which camera should I get?” it’s less helpful. And this is a question I hear too often …
You Can’t Zoom With Your Feet.
I get nervous when I hear teachers spouting platitudes, especially when they are expressed in the imperative. Do this. Do that. And I get really nervous when I hear my students repeating them. Platitudes are easy to remember. They simplify things. But they do not, generally speaking, teach. They do not change the way we think, only the way we …
High Ground: A Rant
This one might be more for me than for you, but I had to get it out and this is where I do that kind of thing. I’m hoping there’s someone out there that needs to hear it, someone for whom this will bring some creative freedom. Remember being a kid and climbing to the top of whatever we could …