Christmas Morning Photographs (Tuesday Morning, Too!)

I saw someone published a photograph of Christmas morning by Diane Arbus and another one by Elliott Erwitt on Christmas Day. Both were from the 1950s and they were significant because they were...old. They showed us how we used to be. You've heard me say if you read my essays regularly, that photographs only get...

We Have Choices Today. I Choose the Analog. The Tangible.

Like vinyl records versus digital CDs. Tube versus solid-state guitar amplifiers. Home-cooked meals versus microwaved. Hand-written (or typed) greeting cards versus emails. Film versus digital photography. Traditional photographic prints versus NFTs. I'm in the tangible art business!~Kenneth Wajda I make film portraits using 20th-century techniques and cameras and print in a traditional darkroom. For those...

Gauche in the Living Room? No Way! (Changing The World, One Photograph at a Time)

It's a quite different world nowadays the way we use photography from when I was growing up. When I was a kid, there were regular visits to the portrait studio or a school photographer would setup in our auditorium to make our class photos. There was something to it--the lights, the camera, the tripod, the...

Wajdaotype Circa 2015-Present: A Photographic Process

I have simple aspirations. I don't need fame or fortunes. Some income from my work, yes. Comfortable, sure. Financially secure, please. But fortune? I don't need that much. I do want to change the world--the world of future generations who will always have beautiful portraits of their ancestors. I want to foster more photographers to...

The 11 Questions You Must Ask Yourself As a Photographer

I have 11 questions for you. You can answer by replying in the space below this post, or you can email me at info@kennethwajda.com if you'd prefer to send a direct message to me. Or you can answer them just to yourself. I hope I'm giving you some things to think about with this post,...

The Prestige of an Annual Family Album Like a New Model Year Car

Most people don't bother to have family photographs made anymore. They figure they have a phone and they make pictures all the time, that's good enough. That's thinking small. Not big. When the automobile industry was young, a salesman suggested they make a new model every year. The sales manager asked. "Why would we do...

You Don’t Find Your Style, Your Style Finds You (And Reveals You!)

I am a believer in artists creating work that shows a bit about them, that reveals who they are. What we photograph and show says to others, "Look at this, this is what I made, what I think is valuable, what I want you to associate with me." We can make any number of kinds...

A Couple 6×6 Portraits and Some Documentary Photographs

It's always a treat to take out the Rolleiflex. You never know who'll you'll meet with it, and you always get to interact with people who are enamored by the camera and thus willing to pose for you. I'd written in the past about how the camera you're using will dictate the photos that you'll...

If New Camera Equals Inspiration Then Go Get It

Whatever it takes. Call it GAS (gear acquisition syndrome), JWSN (just wanting something new) or NWCIB (now what can I buy), but if a new camera is what it takes to inspire us to create, then get the new camera. The end result is all that matters. The photographs. They don't care what they were...

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,...