Serendipity or Epiphany?

How did you come to be a professional photographer? It's a question often asked of those of us who do this for a living. Some photographers chose this path, they went to school, looked at courses and said, "Hum...this looks easy or fun." And they become photographers; usually ending up in an ivory tower teaching others to follow a path that they've never pursued themselves.

Some had photography forced upon them in the service of their country. They go into the military and someone says, "Hey, you - forget being in artillery you're going into photography." And when they retire they go from "grip and grin" to shooting kiddy portraits.

Some have a "passion" - oh, such an overused expression - for taking pictures and after having their co-workers tell them "this stuff is really good" they get a web site for $6 a month and become professional photographers, usually specializing in weddings, families, kids, senior portraits, pets, babies, pregnant moms, corporate head shots, bar mitzvahs...basically they "specialize" in everything. But...they're passionate.

And then there's the guys and gals like me. We were cruising through life without any hint of the adventure that was before us hidden by the next curve. I was looking for a hobby to balance out a stressful job and was going to go back into writing. Figured I'd use a camera to see if I could record a scene and then go back later and become Ernest Hemingway by studying it. So I borrowed a camera from a friend I'd been in theater with. And I was just playing around with the thing, you know, figuring out what an f/stop was, how to change the shutter speed. Innocent stuff.

That's always how it starts out...innocently.

My nephew had a habit of wandering into my room and putting on my head phones that I used to listen to music and pick out my parts on guitar. He'd come in, put them on and turn on the music. Innocence. One day while I had this Pentax 35mm camera in my hands I saw him sneak into my room. I knew what he was going to do so I thought I'd catch him in the act. And I did. Probably at 400 ASA, 1/60 of a second at f/4.

Turned the film into Fotomat. That was a booth out in a shopping center parking lot where you dropped off film and came back a week later and picked up your prints. You could also buy flash cubes there too. They were little plastic cubes with 4 flash bulbs in them that would rotate to the next bulb when you used it. The flash you see would destroy the bulb and burn your finger if you touched it too soon so having a 4 flash bulb was, well, like having a 4GB RAM for your laptop. Now these booths are usually run by old guys who make copies of your keys for you for a dollar.

Anyway a week later I drive by in my 73 Plymouth Fury leaving a trail of smoke and oil on the pavement and pick up my film. Parked in the lot and opened the package up. Picture of my lizard, girlfriend, something in the park, you know - the usual garbage that you show to your friends and have to explain "that's a shot of my dad's boat out on the lake - if you use this magnifying glass you can see it".

And there it was. Like opening a can of beer in front of a recovering alcoholic or taking Tiger Woods out to Hooters. I was defeated before I even started. Hooked, taken captive, seduced, hypnotized by a siren's call that I never knew had existed. The image...it was haunting, serene, beautiful in only the way a child's face can reflect a truth that's so pure even a skeptic holds his tongue because to speak would be wrong.

Serendipity or an epiphany? I don't know. But this image gradually lead me down a path that has dominated and defined my adult life. It has taken me on a journey that at times I've tried to walk away from only to be brought back by the joy of it. An adventure that has often demanded my money, my tears, my sweat, my time...

I have been so blessed by God to have been allowed to walk a path that most people would envy but shy away from only because they don't have the courage to follow it themselves. Even if I have to put my gear away one day I've had the ride of my life. And I'll never regret that.

And all because of that one image. Just think, if I hadn't borrowed that camera and taken that image...I might have ended up with a real job and an ordinary life.

Boggles the mind, don't it?

Miroslav Tichy

Miroslav Tichy (pronounced TEE-kee) was born in the Czech Republic in 1926 in the town of Kyjov. He briefly studied at the Academy of Fine Arts school in Prague but he dropped out and returned to Moravia after the communist takeover in 1948. His work originally was a response to the oppressive regime of the socialists but evolved into an almost voyeuristic study of women, usually in the most banal circumstances. He has suffered from mental illness and been institutionalized at times. The bulk of his images were created between 1965 to 1980.

Recently his work has been the rage of European collectors and currently he has a show at the prestigious International Center of Photography. Mr. Tichy's comment on his new found fame? “If you want to be famous, you must do something more badly than anybody in the entire world.”

I'm not sure what is more remarkable about his work how it is presented or how it was created. You see Miroslav lived under the poverty of communism where owning a nice camera was not only almost impossible but also probably subversive. So he made his own camera. From cardboard.

Typically the printed images are poorly focused, weathered and tattered around the edges. Some critics compare his work to that of the German painter Gerhard Richter, or the American photographer Garry Winogrand. Personally I think, in some fashion, it is reminiscent of the work of Clarence White. In any case Miroslav never intended to exhibit his work it was done for himself, an audience of one.

You may argue that his work isn't art but simply really bad pictures but they are selling for up to ten thousand euros a piece.

In an era where part time photographers with seven thousand dollar cameras spend hours in Photoshop trying to create art Miroslav Tichy's work is a refreshing reminder that it's not the tools that create the image, it's the artist.

The official website for Miroslav Tichy is: http://www.tichyfotograf.cz/

Here are some additional links to find out more about Miroslav Tichy:


http://www.tichyocean.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/arts/design/12photos.html

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/81346

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Miroslav-Tichy/51627990618?v=wall

http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.5708951/k.9236/Miroslav_Tichy.htm

A Field of Sunflowers

Many years ago farmers in the Hampton Roads market tried their hands at growing sunflowers. Seems that everything about a sunflower was good; you could sell the seeds to people for snacks, birds as feed and gardeners as seed.The stalks and leaves were high in nutrition and could be fed to hogs. And you could plant and harvest sunflowers twice a year.Unfortunately the trend only lasted about two years. But during that period I was fortunate enough to be chasing the light one day out in the country and came across this field. I've always been fascinated by sunflowers and was really blown away by the portfolio that Paul Caponigro published in 1974 entitled "Sunflower".

This image was created using Kodak 400 4x5 sheet film, a Calumet monorail view camera with a Copal 210mm lens at f/45. Of all my images this is probably my favorite and will be the cover image for the book.

Farm and Silos circa 1982

Back in the early 1980s my goal as a photographer was to become Ansel Adams or Paul Strand. To pursue this goal I purchased a 4x5 View Camera. I was so ignorant of the types of equipment that was available that I ended up acquiring a 20 inch monorail studio camera from Calumet instead of a field camera. That thing was, and still is, a monster. I would take it backpacking to the mountains, the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, the farm and downtown.

The days I preferred to shoot on were days that were overcast or had a storm front moving through. They would give me skies filled with clouds. Paul Strand once quipped that he disliked “bald headed days”, days in which the sun shone bright and clear. You have to remember that back then there was no Photoshop; what you shot was what you got. While he may not have been the only photographer working with multiple images Jerry Uelsmann was and still is the master of combining several disparate ideas into a unique and seamless whole. If you’ve never seen his work go to: http://www.uelsmann.net/ . However I had neither the talent nor desire to work in that genre at this point in my life. For me it had to be “the decisive moment” as Henri Cartier-Bresson had described the moment a photographer pushed the shutter. It still is whether you’re working on a portrait, being a photojournalist or working with a landscape.

I would drive around in my green Pinto and when I saw that moment I would pull over, pop open the hatchback and set up. Fortunately most of the time I was out on country roads so traffic wasn’t an issue but I would carry an A Frame sign that read “Photographer at work. I drive slow and stop a lot. Just pass me.” On the day that Farm and Silos was shot I was driving around watching an approaching summer storm coming in. When I saw the farm I knew I had my shot if I could set up and capture it before it started to pour.

There were two sets of “ideas” that attracted me to this scene. First was the disparity between the pastoral image of the farmhouse with the silos behind it. The contrast of the clapboard farmhouse, an iconic image ingrained in the mythology of the American story, against the modern and imposing metal silos looming behind it. Add to this tension the storm clouds building overhead. The second concept was the juxtaposition or chiaroscuro in the house itself. I metered for the asphalt shingles on the roof as being at Zone III or textured black and the white clapboard on the house as being a Zone VII, white with texture. The light is coming from behind me and to my right (you can look at the shadow on the house and see how it is falling). I cannot remember what the sky was metered for but when printed it did require some burning in to bring it out. I do know that a split Neutral Density Filter would have helped but I did not use one at that time. If I used any filtration at all it would probably have been a Yellow Filter to enhance the sky. I would have shot Kodak 400 ASA 4x5 sheet film, developed in a metol – sodium sulfite solution and used selenium toner to intensify the negative. This image would have been printed on a grade 3 Paper; at that time Agfa and Brilliant made some wonderful papers.

This image ad others will be included in a coffee table book I’m self publishing this spring. Fine art prints, matted and framed are available as well.

Frankencamera?

Okay, it's winter and things are slow. Years ago I heard a prominent photographer from the mid-west say they actually closed down from December 24th to the end of February. At this time of the year I'm working on wedding albums and videos for clients. Today one of my friends sent me this article from National Public Radio. The Ultimate Camera. It's...strange but interesting. Here's the link, hope you enjoy!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113692571&sc=emaf

I just am trying to imagine bringing this to a wedding...

Oh BABY but it's cold on the beach!

I have a new project I'm working on which is bringing me to the beach for the pre-dawn light which in January is a very, very invigorating experience! These were all captured digitally but as I play with this I'm thinking this may be the perfect excuse to return to the 4x5 or RB67 and shoot film again.

Photography Lessons

I heard a story, a parable, the other day. It went like this: A carpenter hired a young apprentice. The apprentice was eager to get busy with building houses, too eager to take the time to learn the carpentry trade. "Very well," said the carpenter, "if you are so certain of yourself, go ahead and build." Halfway through the construction project, the lopsided frame he was erecting collapsed. The young apprentice turned in his tools and shamefacedly said, "I have to quit. I'm not a carpenter. I can't build anything." "Excellent," the carpenter replied. "Now you are ready to learn how to build."

Probably about 30 years ago I took a photography class that was being offered through a local camera store. I was still a dedicated hobbyist, I loved taking pictures but was frustrated that so much of what I saw I could not convey into becoming a printed image. The guy teaching the class was a structural engineer but an avid amateur photographer - Don Maccubbin. Don didn't teach me to be a professional photographer. What he did teach me was how the camera worked and how to "see light". And that was enough to put me on a path of spending hours and hours in my spare time learning the art and craft of photography.

And, yes, eventually I did make that huge leap of faith and stepped off the cliff of a sure thing, a 40 hour a week job with a paycheck and benefits to pursue what my gift. Now I make no one that promise, Don was a very special man and I was a very determined student and it took years of time, tears and toil to become a professional. But not everyone has the goal of working on the edge like this, for many people they just want to take better pictures of their families and the life they see swirling around them.

And that I can help you do. If you'd like to enroll for my winter class please use the contact form on my web site: http://www.wadestudio.com/.

You do need a camera that you use in a manual mode, it doesn't matter if it's film or digital. I'm looking for a class size of no more than 10 students so once I reach that goal the classes will begin. And currently I have 6 students signed up.

I will say this also, if you're like the carpenter's apprentice in the parable you won't be ready for this class until you're ready to learn. I'm not looking for hot shot photographers who think they're already pretty good. I'm looking for people with a teachable spirit.