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 …
Postcards from the Revillagigedo Archipelago
Good morning from Mexico’s sunny San Jose del Cabo! I got off the Nautilus Belle Amie yesterday after 10 days at sea and another astonishing series of underwater encounters that blew my mind. Here are a small handful of them, including one of my dive buddy and good friend Jason Bradley after this one solitary black Jack (the kind of …
Postcards from Bahamas: Sharks!
A friend recently talked to me about his photography was driven by some of his fears, noteably the fear of getting old. I think some of my recent work taps into this a little, both in terms of what I am photographing, and how I am doing it. I think leaning into fear is a good thing; it’s healthy to …
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 …
More Postcards from Jodhpur
I’m writing this in turbulence 40,000 ft over Afghanistan on the way home from India, so it’s hardly a postcard from Jodhpur but then I usually send my mother her postcards when I get home too, so that makes you family. I’ve just wrapped up 2 weeks in Rajasthan, and now making a run for home to get my hands …