I know – too much about film. Don’t worry the only reason is I have had Aperture 3 on the brain for way way too long over the last few days going through the latest soon to be released (this week I promise) Organization eBook. So now that I took a break from that today I wanted to wrap up the ongoing mini-posts I have been doing on Delta 100. So far we have seen a bit of the image I wanted to talk about rear it’s ugly head...
Some of you probably know that Jeanloup Sieff is one of my inspirations and has been since I was a young photographer in the 80′s. His work spans decades and transcends his label as a “fashion photographer”. Except for some of the well know iconic people that are in his images that for ever set a time – I feel that his work is as fresh and relevant as it was when it was first made. I have written quite a bit about him and suggested a book titled...
I urge you to take a few moments, moments when you are not distracted by anything else, not tempted to click somewhere else, not distracted by your email and – watch these few short videos from photojournalists brought to use by the Sydney Morning Herald. You can learn a lot from listening to these people – more than you can by reading about lenses, the latest digital non-sense, or noise tests. Look at their photographs while they are speaking. Here are the mini-interviews All of these people sum up...
Forgive me for not updating the site in what seems like a decade. I would love to say that I have been hard at work on finishing up the Aperture 3 updates to my eBooks or producing a gaggle of Aperture 3 screencasts that are better and more reasonably priced than my more capitalistic colleagues but the fact is that I have been suffering from spring fever. Happens every year. I hope to be over it soon. On that note I have been at least jotting down all of...
One of my all time favorites. My work is heavily influenced by Helmut Newton. Like Salgado (which I admire but is not a giant influence in my own endeavors), when I think I am doing okay – I revisit some of Newtons vast archive of decades of photography. That sets me strait with how much further I have to grow and I get back to work again. Helmut Newton is one of the few successful commercial photographers that blended his own vision for his art with a commercial commodity...
Salgado is the journalistic photographer that to me symbolizes the art of journalistic photography. His images are everything a photograph can be. It isn’t just one aspect of the image – it is everything. The concept, the story, the content, the light, the framing, the moment, the people. When I grow up I want to make images like Salgado. Journalistic images, like a photojournalist but I also want them to be fantastically beautiful art. I want them to be good journalism and I want them to be good art....
Here is an oldie but goodie. You have probably seen at least one photograph by Horst in your lifetime, even if you had no idea who made it. You probably even remember it if you run across it again now that you know who it is. I looked at Horst the first time in my teens and have returned to his work over and over again. As with all of the photographers that I introduce in this series I never seem to get tired of the work. As a...
Okay – back to old school. If you have not delved into Irving Penn’s work, you should. Not just a quick fly by, or surf by. You cannot really get a sense of this guy looking at his images for about 1/2 second each. I was quite the radical – not just in his time. In any time. Again, it’s all about the subtlety. His radical nature does not SCREAM at you. I guess that is why he was so successful for so many decades as both an artist...
Yes I am obsessing on Sieff – got a couple of more emails either thanking me for turning people onto him that have never seen his work or thanking me for reminding them of this fantastic photographer. I also got a couple requests to recommend the “best” book of Sieff’s work. Well I have a few and have no idea if there are newer better books than my favorite. My favorite book that I happen to own on Sieff is titled “Jeanloup Sieff 40 Years of Photography”. This book...
This guy has been one of my photographic heros since I was a kid. I sought him out after trying to figure out who the heck shot some of the fashion advertising images in magazines that I was blown away with. When I was a late teenager or in my early twenties I read a biography that was available and instantly knew that I identified with his aesthetic and more than that totally got where he was coming from. He remains on my top list even now through a...
