PHOTO TIPS

July20, 2007

“Candid,” photography brings up some decisions, ethically and technically. How candid do you want it? I try to be a “fly on the wall,” and not have eye contact at the moment of the photo capture, but, I also try to not sneak around and make sure everyone knows that I’m there, shooting. I think the price of the photography should be, at least, vulnerability. I am a photographer -thus not part of the “scene”- even though I am, by definition standing there. Yet, the very act of photographing makes you some weird part of every scene. The whole process is sort of a non-interaction interaction.

August 3, 2007

“You don’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need.” Mick Jaeger said that. I say, Amen. The whole idea is to get something. Then get back and produce it, get it into some visual form and then read it and try to learn from it and then figure out if it fits into your thinking, your way, your body of work. Eventually you will shoot more tightly, going for it. More and more your work should start to relate to itself. After all, if words are just symbols of thought, so are photos and if you have something to contribute it is that you are thinking and your thinking starts to be sharper and sharper. Eventually your work represents that thinking. Don’t worry about style. Worry about substance and the rest will follow.