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...

Here Comes the Flood, Save the Photos (What Photos?)

Last week, Hurricane Ida tore through New York and New Jersey and one of the towns that was hard hit was one I used to live in, Lambertville, New Jersey. It's a sweet river town situated beside the Delaware River just north of the Capitol, Trenton, and across from its more famous neighbor, New Hope,...

Saving Faces (Or Not) in the Modern World

It's difficult to imagine, but for most of the time humans have walked the earth--117 billion humans since the dawn of time; there are 7 billion on the earth presently--there was no way to save the face of a loved one. People lived and died without ever having a way to preserve the faces of...

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...

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...

I Don’t Plan to Make Photographs

You really never know when your friend is going to resemble an umbrella pole/post, and the camera has to be with you, on and ready to shoot. This is why I take a camera with me everywhere. I don't intend to shoot anything when I take my camera. I just notice life's little moments and...

Photography is Wonderful

There is one thing I am sure about, that photography is special, magical, wonderful. It allows us to keep loved ones with us forever. It stops time. It's a time travel machine. It's something that for most of humankind, didn't exist. (It's only 182 years old, this photographic medium. Before 1839, no one had ever...

When The Trend Is In Your Favor

I've been a photojournalist my whole photography career, starting as a staff photographer at a daily newspaper in New Jersey, The Times of Trenton, and have been working editorial assignments ever since. It's my favorite type of work, creating storytelling photographs for publication. So, to have inquiries from people about having photojournalist-style photographs made of...