I Had A Book Come Out Several Years Ago, When There Were No Blogs. This Is A Mark To Me About How The Environment Has Changed.
Even Though I Teach With 35mm, My Method Takes People By Surprise, Because It Isn't Fast, And It Isn't About Hardware Or Software, Or Even Great Results. It's About Great Process.
The Thing With My Workshops Is, Photography Is A Thoughtful Process. In An Atmosphere Of Fast Photography, And Generally Thoughtless, Quick, Automatic Photography, I Think That There Is An Interest In The Slowed Down, Thoughtful Approach.
Yes, There Are Billions More Photographers, And Billions More Photographs Every Day, But Who's Building Up A Point Of View? Who's Photographing With Intention, And Whose Body Of Work Will Sustain Itself And Survive?
The Class That I Teach Is Called "the Life Of A Photograph." It Takes Up The Question, Of The Billion Photographs That Were Taken Today, How Many Will Have A Life, And Why? So The New Reality Has Made The Question More Pertinent, Not Less Pertinent.
[in The Late 80's] That's The First Time I Heard About That Astonishing Idea [that Most Photographs Would Be Taken On Telephones]. And Now I've Been Watching The Tsunami Of Images.
I Was A Consultant For Kodak Back In The Late 80's. There Were Engineers There Who Told Me That In The Future, Most Photographs Would Be Taken On Telephones. They Weren't Able To Do Anything With That. They Were Engineers, Not Management.
For Example, In My Dorm, At The University Of Kentucky, I Had The Only Camera. I Don't Think Anyone Came To College With A Camera, Other Than Me.
It's More Difficult Now, To Be A Geographic Photographer, Than It Was When I Came Along. And It Wasn't Easy At That Time.
My Least Favorite Photographer To Have Would Be Myself. Someone Who Wanted A Career At National Geographic. Because It's Almost Mathematically Impossible To Achieve That.
My Dad Took A Workshop From A Photographer Who Worked At The Toledo Blade, A Newspaper I Delivered. I Knew This Photographer's Work. My Dad Took A Night Class From Him At The University Of Toledo. Without That Class, I Wouldn't Have Become A Photographer, Because My Dad Came Home And Taught Me What He Learned In Class.
When Assignments Were Over, Photography Continued. One Of The Primary Reasons It Did Was That I Wanted And Needed To Have Fresh Work. Also, It's Very Stimulating To Be Around Non-professional Photographers. They're The Ones With The Purest Flame Burning About Their Photography. I Appreciate That.
