Jan 12 2011

In 2011, Is There Such Thing as a Still (Only) Photographer?

Category: Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 7:11 pm

In this interview, Gail Mooney explains that at the Professional Photography Teleseminar she will be speaking to “photographers who think they might be interested in moving into motion.” Interviewer Adam of RETV jumps in and says:

Which is just about every photographer out there right now because it is such a huge movement. I mean, it’s very similar to when we switched over from film to digital. You know, you’ve got everyone out there right now trying to pick up a camera and shoot motion because the clients are asking for it.

I had never thought of the move into motion as being analogous to the switch from film to electronic capture and, in many ways, the shift seems to be a more massive one. After all, we’ve come to accept that a “still film photographer” and “still digital photographer” are, fundamentally, one and the same. On the other hand, a “still photographer only” and “still photographer and videographer” — which is how Mooney defines herself — are totally different creatures.

Sure, it’s possible that not every photographer is currently moving into motion as Adam suggests (and this blog assumes). But those photographers not at least interested in the potential of motion seem as rarefied as, say, a 1995-era photographer who insisted on only photographing with black-and-white film using an 11 x 14 view camera.

“Drop the Digital from Photography” Chase Jarvis blogged in November, asking, “Isn’t it time we implore the rest of the world to assimilate the term ‘digital photography’ back into ‘photography’ as a whole?”

As 2011 gets rolling, almost everyone who buys a new point-and-shoot camera or cell phone gains the ability to capture motion, and will so so comfortably. Given this, isn’t it becoming ridiculous, and perhaps self-limiting, to talk about “still photographers”?

I think that each photographer needs to define what his speciality is and what types of image making most interests him. But aren’t we getting to a point when saying “I’m a still photographer” is like saying, if even unintentionally, “I’m against the possibilities of motion”?

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Jan 04 2011

“And I Think I Saw See Through”

Category: Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 9:42 pm

“To be honest, you could say that I even enjoyed it a little,” the Narrator remarks of his condition in “Ishihara,” and in doing so pulls the words right out of my mouth. I’ve always enjoyed it a little and, when I was younger, if I’m honest, I enjoyed it a lot.

It doesn’t bother me any more now than it ever has, but over the years I have become increasingly, if softly, frustrated that I can do no better to explain it to others.

“So hang on, what exactly do you see?” a classmate asks the Narrator when his little secret is discovered. I still get this question more often than I would like. I don’t mind the question, which is a good one; I mind that I can’t come up with a good answer. And I feel that as a photographer, I should have one.

Sometimes, when someone becomes flabbergastedly interested in my condition, I ask, “How do you know that the red you see is the same as the red that someone else sees, even if you both agree that it’s the same red, and I do not?”

This is my attempt to ask, “How do we know what we know?” which I cannot do nearly as well as Jeff Carreira, who says, “It doesn’t make sense to question our sensations, but it does make sense to question our perceptions,” which might sound intriguing, but which I would not find satisfying if I had just asked, “So hang on, what exactly do you see?”

The best interaction I ever had regarding my condition occurred when I was nine, between me and my eye doctor, the second time in two years he assured me that I did indeed have the condition I secretly hoped that I did indeed have. After I had once again poured through those tests and didn’t see what most see (or saw things that most don’t) I blurted out: “How do you see the the ‘8′?”

“How do you not?” the doctor blurted back at me, taking me aback with his candor.

The doctor, you see, wasn’t frustrated nor being spiteful. He, I sensed, was being respectful. Even given his profession, he was as naturally mystified as any person without the condition would be by someone with the condition.

After all, we’re both staring at the same thing and seeing different visions. It might happen all the time in real life (You see a hag, I see my beautiful girlfriend, etc., etc.), but how often do we see it so clearly — our lack of clearly seeing the same thing?

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Dec 31 2010

My Favorite Image of the Year (of Mine)

Category: Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 4:07 pm

Here, a few hours before 2011 rolls around, I like the idea of sharing my favorite five or ten images from the year — images I’ve taken that is. And I also like the idea of identifying them with my memory, without searching through my high-ranked images in my catalogs, although that would be fun. I mean, shouldn’t we remember our favorite image, even if we captured hundreds or thousands that we might need to see again to really see for the first time?

Thing is, I got only 20 minutes before I walk out the door to meet up with the parents-in-law-to-be, before we head over to brother- and sister-in-laws to be, for a late night of ¡Feliz Año!, which gets a heck of a lot more play here in Argentina than any other holiday. This one is big!

But perhaps less (time) is more (honest). With no time, I’m going to share, as my favorite image of the year (0f mine), one that I’ve already shared before, when I reported on my teaming up with Human Rights Watch.

Here it is:

ACBlog_100810_HRW_2_Salwen_100728_0409

A few reasons this simple image gets Ethan’s #1 for 2010:

AC_Blog_100810_Human Rights Watch_11. It landed on the this cover for this Human Rights Watch report, which has turned out to be important in relation to current politics in Argentina (which is another story):

2. Actually, it didn’t just “land” on this cover. I made it for this cover, on assigmnment, which had very specific, but yet very open-ended requirements. In other words, this was a very real image-making challenge, and I succeeded at it, which makes the image more likable to me.

3. I captured this image very near the end of my four-hour shoot in Continue reading “My Favorite Image of the Year (of Mine)”

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Dec 23 2010

Walk More Slowly and Listen

Category: Creative Process, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 7:11 pm

I received David Julian’s email holiday card today, and I really enjoyed the sentiment, gently asking me to “walk more slowly and listen.” A photographer, illustrator, sculptor and educator who exudes a contagious sense of Artist as Explorer, Julian’s sentiment seems just right for the coming year. So many of us are trying to run faster, make more images, figure out. . .

Whoa!

Walk more slowly and listen more carefully. This is definitely something I would like to do more of. And I find it encouraging that as I look back on 2010, I can think of number of photographers who have mentioned the critical importance of putting down the camera, listening, reading, experiencing the natural world, getting to know their subjects better.

Ian Shive and Stewart Cohen come to mind, but there have been many others. Like David Julian, they all make wonderful images and are wonderful to listen to, so they must be on to something.

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Dec 20 2010

Judy Herrmann Proves that Blog Header Photographs Can Rock

Category: Business & Marketing, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 3:01 pm

AfterCapture Blog_101219_Best Picture 2011_1_2 Good Things_1

If you’ve tried to customize a blog header with one of your images, you know it aint easy. We are not used to making (or seeing) photographs as short, wide rectangles. Also, blog headers need to pop off the screen to arrest our attention, and yet not overwhelm the blog’s content. Most challenging: how to share our blog’s message into one, single image?

For her new 2 Good Things website, Judy Herrmann has succeeded in creating the best image for a blog header that I have ever seen. This rockin’ image draws us in, but it doesn’t overpower. Most important, it speaks wonderfully to both the content and the emotional thrust of the site. This is amazing branding with a single, 940 x 200 pixel image. (To better understand the message, see the site’s “Why 2 good things?” and “What’s up with the V sign?”)

See It In Context

AfterCapture Blog_101219_Best Picture 2011_1_2 Good Things_2Definitely head to 2 Good Things to see how this image works in conjunction with the blog’s layout. It looks better in context than it does on its own. And that’s how it should be: photograph and site design complimenting each other. The in-focus fingers draw us to the left, to the posts, while the out-of-focus face rests nicely above the categories and other links. The image has a surprising amount of depth for the restraints of its dimensions, and this welcomes us to the site, as does the positive energy from the out-of-focus face.

Where Did It Come From?

Having not yet spoken with Judy about the image, I can’t be sure that this is Judy we are seeing in the photograph, nor who made the photograph. (Perhaps it was captured by her life and business partner, Mike Starke). I suppose that this might even be a stock image, used very intelligently. But I doubt it. Even out of focus, this looks like Judy — the hair, the friendly energy in the eyes.

Less important than who the model is, I’m totally convinced that Judy orchestrated this image very specifically for this site. I can see her coming up with a strong concept and then playing around with captures until she got one that works just right for the space. This process would make sense. Judy is a commercial photographer dedicated to solving visual problems for her clients very specific needs. So why shouldn’t she do the same for her own blog?

So, Judy, am I right? Is this you, and did I envision your image-making process correctly. Any thoughts you want to share on making this best-ever blog header image?

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Dec 18 2010

What Do You See? – Episode One

Category: Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 10:03 pm

AfterCapture Blog_101218_What Do You See_One_Question
Screen grab from this video. Can you see anything? Make a guess what’s in that form and then check your instincts by looking at this image.

I share this because I’m fascinated by how we can use the tiniest amount of visual information to construct vibrant, powerful imagery in our imaginations.

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Dec 07 2010

Who Needs Photoshop to Lie?

Category: Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 6:09 pm

This image by Lucia Merle was printed with a story in the Clarín newspaper last Wednesday, December 1.

AfterCapture-Blog_101206_Photoshop-and-Lies_1

I was at the event were the image was taken last Tuesday, and I saw this:

AfterCapture-Blog_101206_Salwen_101130_0294_Photoshop-and-Lies_2

What’s In A Flip?

So the image by Merle was flipped for publication — by accident or for some purpose I can’t fathom. (It didn’t change the visual impact of the layout.) What’s the big deal? Not much, really, was my thought when I noticed the flip. Then again, manipulating images goes against journalistic standards. So, the Clarín’s version of the event is a lie, at worst, or at best, inaccurate reporting.

Either way, it’s another simple, clear example of how you don’t need Photoshop to manipulate images.

As my picture proves (if you believe this is what I really saw) Congresswoman María Luisa Storani was sitting to the right of Human Rights Watch’s Marianne Mollman (center), and not to the left, as the Clarín image proposes.

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Dec 02 2010

Unpretentious Jane Goodall by Stewart Cohen

Category: AfterCapture & Rangefinder Articles, Photographers, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 5:35 pm

“How naïve I was,” Jane Goodall recalls in Through the Window, going on to share:

As I had not had an undergraduate science education I didn’t realise that animals were not supposed to have personalities, or to think, or to feel emotions or pain . . . Not knowing, I freely made use of all those forbidden terms and concepts in my initial attempts to describe, to the best of my ability, the amazing things I had observed at Gombe.

AfterCapture-Blog_101202_Goodall_Cohen

When I read this last night it made me think of the portrait of Goodall that Stewart Cohen made for his book Identity.

I was reading Matt Ridley’s The Agile Gene, in which Ridley notes that, “Goodall’s anthropomorphism had driven a stake through the heart of human exceptionalism.” This is important to Ridly’s notion, when comparing human beings to “lesser animals,” that:

There is no exact parallel to the human scheme. But in the animal kingdom, there is nothing exceptional in being unique. Every species is unique.

AfterCapture Blog_101007_Stewart Cohen Identity_1This made me think of another one of Cohen’s Identity subjects, Erik “Lizardman” Sprague, who in the book shares: “I generally find the claim of being unique to be rather trite since we are all by nature individuals and thus unique.” That’s nice sentiment coming from a guy who has filed his teeth to points and tattooed green scales on his face. It also seems to speak to perfectly to Cohen’s approach to Identity, and so I used it in the opening of my article reporting on his project.

Identity Beyond Symbolism

In his simple, black-and-white portrait of Goodall Cohen has included a blatant visual reference to the concept of evolution. There Goodall is, sitting in Continue reading “Unpretentious Jane Goodall by Stewart Cohen”

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Nov 02 2010

When People Were More Camera Shy Than Gun Shy

Category: The Industry, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 2:43 pm

“It’s ingenious, but totally impractical,” Colin Harding emphasises, and then with a kind of respectful glee adds, “It’s such a stupid idea, really.”

Harding, the curator of photographic technology at the National Media Museum, is discussing why the Thompson Revolver Camera is one of his favorite items in the museums photo technology collection. He appreciates the craftsmanship and ingenuity but he clearly loves the “total lack of common sense” that went into this 1862 invention. As he says, “If you can across someone who was waving this in your direction, the last thing you’d want to do is smile.”

In the second half of this video, Harding delves nicely into concepts related to the history of photography in the 1860s, illuminating an era when making photographs was as challenging as it was rare. Back then, having any picture-making device pointed at you could be unnerving — but nothing as unnerving as a gun itself, even if a camera.

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Oct 29 2010

Make a Pledge to “Opening Our Eyes” — To Support, Learn, Feel Real Good

Category: Business & Marketing, Photographers, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 1:46 pm

AfterCapture Blog_101029_Kickstarter_1I just pledged $25 to Gail Mooney and Erin Kelly’s “Opening Our Eyes” documentary film project, and here’s three reasons you might want to:

#1. “Opening Our Eyes” is a great, worthy personal project.

#2. You’ll get a copy of the movie on DVD when completed. Sweet!

#3. This will give you a chance to see in action Kickstarter, a really cool site for funding creative projects that you very well might want to put into action one day. (And if you pledge to Mooney and Kelly, don’t you think they’ll pledge to you?)

To pledge $25, go here.

And hey, if you can’t afford the (potential) $25 donation, no worries. Just pledge a dollar! It can really help! As Mooney explains in her latest “Hybrid” blog post:

This past weekend I launched the project on Kickstarter.  Kickstarter is a website that posts creative projects for the purposes of finding funds. It’s a perfect example of crowd funding where one can donate anywhere from $1 to $10,000 to the project of their choice, and in the process make someone’s idea come to life.

I launched Opening Our Eyes on Thursday and within 3 days we reached 30 % of our goal. We still have a long way to go and have another 71 days to get fully funded.  The way Kickstarter works is that if you don’t get funded 100%, then all bets are off and you don’t receive anything.

I love this! This means I’m not just handing over $25 bucks to Mooney and Kelly. It means I’m donating $25 to a super project only if the team can raise $7,500. I’m not sure exactly why this is so attractive, but it is. Perhaps it means that I’m part of something big. Itt also means that Mooney and Kelly might be able to use my little pledge to leverage much bigger donnations, which is really cool.

AfterCapture Blog_101029_Kickstarter_2

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