We Need To Print Our Photos So We Have Something To Write On

I'm a fan of Duane Michals and how he creates art by conceiving of a photograph, then writing on it to give it more depth. To change its meaning into a story he created. Like this one, titled, "This Is My Proof". The subject of the photo is the photographer's sister and her husband, just...

The Difference Between Going Out to Make Photos and Simply Going Out to Live (and Finding Photos)!

There is one way to make photos that involves taking the camera down off the shelf, dusting off its (n)everyready case, peeling that leather wrap off and setting it aside, removing the lens cap, putting the camera in hand and heading out to make photographs at the birthday party, holiday celebration, or ___________ (your event...

Gluttonous at the All-You-Can-Shoot Photography Buffet Called Life

Too much of a good thing is not a good thing. The ability to shoot a thousand images isn't a blessing. (What will we do with them?) The fact we have our phone cameras documenting everything in real-time takes us out of the moment. The thousands of images that we are making, clouding, and burying...

The Library of Photography: A Temporary Archive for Photographs

I have an idea for a photographic service, perhaps called The Library of Photography, that I think could be quite useful for photographers, though not Nowographers. See it would be for archiving actual photographs by photographers to be delivered to people at a later time, once the photographs become valuable. We are often making photographs...

Photography Doesn’t Work Anymore As A Way To Relive Moments (In the Short Term)

I have a dilemma. I went to friends' family gathering celebrating their grandson turning one. The big "one"! They are a beautiful family and I looked forward to going and of course brought a camera. That's always the big decision: Do I take a film camera, a Leica M5 with a 50mm f1.4 Summilux or...

Portfolio Reviews & One-on-One Mentoring, Maybe For You

When I'm not making photographs, I'm reading about photography, writing about photography (like on this blog), hosting photography programs for other photographers to meet and show work, visiting galleries and museums to view photography exhibits, and generally immersing myself in all things photographic. It's what I do, what I've always been about since I started...

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It? (Then Three Tell It Better!)

Perhaps. Sometimes photographs in series tell a better story than a single photo. But not always. Here are two series of kids playing that I think work best as a photo story with more than one photograph, because it shows the moment unfolding--a pair of girls playing jump rope with a branch instead of a...

Just Have To Ask

Mike Johnston publishes a wonderful photography blog called The Online Photographer. Last week he had a call out for work for an exhibition he was doing on his site with a theme of grandparents and grandchildren. I sent this in, and he chose to run it as a standalone story instead. Take a look. It...

A Photographic Revolution In the Air

I'm reading a biography of the legendary photographer, Alfred Stieglitz by Dorothy Norman. I'm finding it a fascinating read, how he challenged rules. When he was young and played sports, he often wanted to change the rules of the game. In his photography and his life, he wanted to not "hit the target, but hit...

Making a Photographic Difference

Legacies. Making a mark on the world. The reason for being here. The point. What's yours? Mine's obvious to me. Like Eugene Atget's goal of documenting old Paris before it changed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which he knew was his life's goal, even if no one else knew about it while he...