No, this is not Richard Anderson. But it is one of his images.
Photographer, digital standards expert and photography community activist Richard Anderson is incredibly mild mannered — definitely easy to miss in the massive crowds of PhotoPlus Expo, but definitely worth tracking down to see face-to-face. That’s what I did last Thursday, borrowing a cell phone from Judy Herrmann (Thanks, Judy. My cheap, three-year-old Argentine cell phone is no iPhone), and meeting up with Anderson to shoot the breeze in person, which we hadn’t done in two years.
I talk to Anderson fairly often, as he is always incredibly generous with his time and knowledge, and he provides me information to improve my reporting, and also acts as a sounding board on the issues most important to cover.
As the driving force behind dpBestflow.org, the co-author of Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook and the princial author of UPDIG, Anderson knows a heck of lot about all things related to the broad, critical topic of digital best practices — from in-camera exposure to final file hand-off.
The thing is, such a statement makes Anderson sound like an über geek. OK, I guess in some sense Anderson is an über geek. But, he is a lot more interested in making images than in discussing technical fine points, and only does the latter to help him do the former. And the former he does with creative passion, having achieved great success as a working photographer.
For the October/November 2009 issue of AfterCapture I wrote “Richard Anderson: Bringing Passion to Best Practices.” I wanted to share the human and creative sides behind the nerdier sides of Anderson. I also wanted to share the passion behind the man who you wouldn’t notice at PhotoPlus if you didn’t know him, but who is doing so very much for the photography community as a whole. In my article I highlight that while Anderson has always been obsessed with adding efficiency to his obsession with image making, he’s not interested in the nerdy stuff for the sake of nerdy stuff.
I think photographers will find Anderson’s personal and professional journey to success of great interest. I also think it is important to get to know some of the people having such a deep impact on the evolving landscape of photographic practices. Anderson doesn’t promote his own “brand” very aggressively, but what his is doing is helping many of us every day, directly with what he wrote for UPDIG, indirectly with the positive ripple effects that come from that document.
In May, Anderson was awarded the 2009 International Photographic Council (IPC) Photographer Leadership Award for his volunteer work on UPIG as well as for securing funds from the Library of Congress for the dpBestflow.org project. This is great and appropriate, and relates to why I referred to Anderson as a “photography community activist.” That’s a strange label, but by it I mean: Anderson is driven to help us all, trying to create greater understanding and clearer exchanges of knowledge. This is what he did with that UPDIG, and this is what he is taking to a new level with dbBestflow.org.
Dpbestfow.org is schedule to go live in about a week and when it does (I’ll let you know), I think you’ll appreciate what Anderson is doing for us all, even as he remains primarily committed to his family, his own photography and, of course, his cycling. (The man is a serious rider, and I didn’t mention that in the article.
To learn more about the man behind the digital guidance, check out “Richard Anderson: Bringing Passion to Best Practices.”