So, You Want To Be a Famous Photographer, Do You? Do You?

I have a lot of respect for all kinds of photographers. Anyone who is making a living creating photographs is beating the odds--it's quite difficult to do these days. I was recently thinking about what kinds of photographers are the best known? Who can you name that is a famous photographers? I'd bet if asked,...

Ages Like a Fine Wine…

I found this the most interesting and inspiring line I've heard in a long time. In that talk by Richard Sandler I wrote about where he discusses and shows his street photography, he said he used to regularly bump into Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand and Bruce Gilden all pounding the same pavement throughout New York....

Social Media and the New Photography

Social media has a bad rap. It's full of great family photos but it has a whole lot of misinformation and even dangerous content. I think that's why people are afraid if you take their photograph with a real camera, like if you're a street photographer, because they don't know where their photo might end...

If You Could Wish For Any Photograph…

What do you love? What do you photograph? Is every photograph we make a self-portrait, a creation of something meaningful to us to show the world? What do you photograph? If we only photograph those things that grab us visually, does that mean that we are missing photographs because of lack of interest? Or is...

Shooting a Wedding on Film

"Wait, whaaaaaattt?" That doesn't sound like what you would expect nowadays with all the technology available, the Sony, the Canon, the Nikon. Have you seen the mirrorless? "Next you'll say you're not going to put them online." Yes, that would be my preference, to deliver you actual photographs printed and framed and in leather photo...

The Soul of Film Photography

What is soul and how does it apply to a photograph? Is it real or are film photographers just making it up? You know, when we talk about a film photograph having soul, unlike our digital photographs. I know for me, I see it. Clearly. I’m also connected to the photograph and the subject—they’re friends—so...

Simple Test: Are You a Photographer?

Are you a photographer? Here's a simple test: Can you show me a photograph? I didn't say "image", I said photograph. A photograph is something tangible, that I can hold in my hand. Printed on paper. I am a photographer and I have proof: I print photographs, my walls are covered in them and my...

My 2020 Homage to Henri Cartier-Bresson

Here's my take on life on the bank of a lake, 2020 style, with a nod to Henri Cartier-Bresson and his famous riverside picnic. I actually was thinking about Bresson when I was making this photograph. Kenneth Wajda's Dimanche au bord du lac Macintosh [Sunday on the banks of Lake Macintosh], Colorado USA, 2020 Henri...

If You Could Do One Thing as a Photographer…

Here's mine. If I could do one thing as a photographer, it would be to photograph people's parents and grandparents, sort of a celebrity photographer to regular people. Celebrating their magic. How about you, if you could do one thing as a photographer, what would you do? What would be the one thing one thing...

When the Audience Changes and We Have to Show Proof

A snapshot used to be a simple thing. We used a camera to save a moment from our lives to tuck it away under the bed in a shoebox or in a photo album, so that we could travel back in time at a future date and relive it. We even did it shortly after...