March 2004
To the young and old,
Words of advice for young photographers... (if you are familiar with William S. Burroughs you´ll know what I mean):
Old photographers can pass on advice - only they are allowed to! If they are still photographers then obviously they know something that must be worth listening to. The rest of us can, and do, just talk about stuff we´ve seen and done...some of it comes under headings such as: tips (check there is film in the camera), or "this works for me” (remember there´s more than one way to skin a possum), the instructions (read them), and drivel (heaps of it).
So, like life, you get along as best you can, with the information you have, and try to learn from your mistakes. And if you don´t quit too early you´ll probably get somewhere...maybe even to become a qualified-to-speak old photographer.
Read last month´s PM (again) ...carefully. Richard, as usual, hit the nail on the head in his column - the "how” is only one thing - the content is really something else!; and check out what Melanie´s mate, picture editor Mike Davis, said with his "verb/adjective analogy” approach to creating compelling images.
"I remember when...” (yup, here´s one of those stories) ...a well known photo editor criticised my trusty Olympus gear: "When are you going to get a real camera?” I was a bit beflummoxed by that but I was far enough beyond the technical obsessions of my early days to know it´s not what you´ve got but how you use it etc. Anyway, "his" problem got solved shortly afterwards on 42nd Street in New York by some guys who bundled me into an alley and emptied my camera bag of three bodies and several lenses (I wonder if he sent them...?) American Express to the rescue...however I don´t believe for one second that the new EOS kit improved my pictures (Ew, I guess I shouldn´t have said that Canon make the best stuff going, ok?). Did you know, the old Leica gear that was used for some of the most well known, beautiful, loved images was really technically inferior to what we have today??? Even some point & shoots are way better!
So, don´t get hung up about WHAT you are driving - better to get hung up about what drives YOU!
My tip of the month is: Don´t leave your cameras lying around unprotected, in case a pigeon poops on them!
Righto then,
Dean