Last weekend I attended a talk by self-taught documentary photographer Devin Allen. The Leica sponsored event was held in Brooklyn Bridge Park as part of the annual New York Photoville festival.  I drove up early enough so I could find a parking space and have enough time to walk around and make some photographs. Happily I succeeded in both cases!

The focus of Allen’s talk was on his work that centers on Black life and protests in Baltimore where he lives. It was an compelling and lively presentation, but a related topic turned out to be of greater interest to me. That was his work with young people. He discussed how important it is for teenagers to be mentored and how he’d raised funding that allowed him develop a program to give cameras to kids, hold youth workshops and organize an exhibition of their work.  What a way to help young people get started on their photographic journeys!

Two thing he said struck me the most …  that it’s never too early to start mentoring others, and that working with youth has made him a better photographer.

Allen works hard to pay it forward, and in doing so he gets as much as he gives.

Stay well,

Michael

A week ago I walked into town for the annual Doylestown Memorial Day Parade. First, I always photograph the festivities. Then, when the parade is over I walk over to the cemetery for the memorial service. As the parade was about to begin a teenager that looked vaguely familiar came up to me proudly holding his Canon AE-1 camera and zoom lens. He said that he saw me at last year’s parade and it had inspired him to start making pictures with film!  Damn! It turns out he lives around the corner from me! I told him give me a call and I’d give him a darkroom tour. We’re going to get together after school is done for the year. Maybe I can help him a little bit.

If you can, I think it’s a noble idea to pay it forward. I’m trying to do it with the high schoolers I’ve been working with and maybe I can do it here. I’m also talking to an art center about working with their teenage program and hope to be starting that in the fall. And why not? Kids are great and a lot of fun to be around!

I wish I had someone to show me a thing or two when I was young. Things worked out fine, but it might have been a little less painful if I had someone to give me a few pointers like “your meter only sees the world in middle grey”.  It took me awhile to realize what was going on. Books helped, though trying to fully understand Ansel Adams’ explanation of the Zone System was challenging. Thankfully I stumbled across Fred Picker’s little book The Zone VI Workshop and everything finally made sense!

As always the parade was fun and the memorial service was special. I’m grateful to all those that served and especially to those that made the ultimate sacrifice so I could enjoy all the fun that Memorial Day is.

I think I made a few good pictures and ended up with my own opportunity to pay it forward.

Stay well,

Michael

I taught three back to back photography classes this past week back at Nazareth Area High School and survived the experience. Actually I had a lot of fun and look forward to doing it again! The first two were Photo I classes and were a bit of a challenge. The kids didn’t say very much. The third was the Photo III class I have worked with several times before and they had recently co-exhibited with Monalog at Penn State.  They were great!

I showed them the gear I use and then about twenty prints, including those from two projects.  Then several of the students showed me some of their work for a critique. They were all a little bit nervous as I suspected they would be, but there was no reason at all to be scared. While I intended my critiques to be “friendly”, I didn’t expect that little or no changes in any of the work should be made! Their photographs were that good!

First, I was shown a delicate platinum landscape made at Glacier National Park. It was beautiful!  Next up was a diptych; two self-portraits that told a story that was immediately easy to see and understand. Well done! Finally, there was a large double exposed portrait of the great photographer Larry Fink who lives in the area. While the double exposure was unintended, the student was gifted enough to realize he had made a gem!  So much so that we discussed the possibility that he might wish to make more such portraits in the future.

I was humbled by the quality of the student’s work, their thoughts concerning how the work was made and most of all what they were trying to say with their images.  I felt I could learn something from them!

Truly a great experience. Again, I would like to thank Nicole Stager for giving me this wonderful opportunity.  She’s a terrific teacher and a great photographer, who really cares about her students … and it shows!

We talked about me coming back in the fall and I hope I can!

Stay well,

Michael

You can’t always have your camera with you but whenever you can it’s a good idea.  I was in Bethlehem, PA this past week with another Monalog member for a meeting at a gallery where we’re going to have a show in August. While walking to a diner for lunch a hairdresser in a somewhat bizarre dress walked outside the door of her shop. It would have been a good picture … if I had my camera with me #$%^&%^!

On Saturday my wife and I drove to Jersey (I always seem to be in Jersey these days) to see my grandchildren’s dance recital. This time I brought my Leica M2 and some Tri-X with me. So quiet, it was perfect and promised not to draw attention to itself or to me. Running late as usual, I ran out the door without loading my camera so I had to do it in the in the Middle School auditorium with the lights dimmed. Note to Self … don’t try loading film into a Leica M2 or M3 in poor light!  Not only do you have to somehow hold the removable bottom plate while loading, but you also have to remove the film spool and attach the film to it, then insert the film cannister with attached film spool and make sure the sprockets line up properly. Then re-attach the bottom plate and advance a few frames. Now you’re finally ready to go … except I couldn’t see well enough to do it.  So I waited to the intermission and loaded the camera without a hitch. Yeah I missed a few pictures during the first half of the recital, but having attended many of these before I knew the second half of the show would offer much of the same thing but with different outfits.

The lighting was challenging with my Summicron lens but I still managed to use an entire roll of film.  The tiny and cute pre-school ballerinas made the best pictures and I am hoping for some keepers. My purpose in attending the recital was to see my grandchildren, but if I didn’t have my camera with me I never would have had this added opportunity! So do yourself a favor and carry your camera with you whenever possible.

Oh, and another Note to Self … remember what I wrote here and don’t be a bozo!

Stay well,

Michael

This week started out badly. On Monday, my wife and I drove up to central Jersey to visit a dear family member who was in hospice. Sadly, an hour after we left the hospital she passed away.  A devastating loss. As terrible as that was, I am so grateful we saw her one last time, together with her devoted and loving husband. On Wednesday the funeral was held. Afterwards we went to the cemetery, and then to their daughter’s house where friends and family gathered to be together … and eat.

Every Jewish holiday or lifecycle event somehow revolves around, or at some point involves food … even the ones that require fasting because there is always the break-fast! Things were getting a whole lot better after three days of being together with family and noshing on deli. Seeking more grub, on the way home one day I found a few Jersey delis. Suffice to say by Friday night I had maxed out on bagels and cream cheese and the goodies that what went with them!

During one of the get togethers one of the family members mentioned she was going to the annual Harleys and Hotrods outdoor extravaganza held streetside in downtown Rahway New Jersey, so it was only a matter of course that on Saturday we met and I spent the afternoon photographing bikers and listening to outdoor classic rock and roll music.  I had a blast! I think I got some keepers and enjoyed Seventies cover band. So did most of the people I saw who happened to be of a certain age like me. And not surprising there was “weed, whites and wine” around (Little Feet, Seatrain and Linda Ronstadt if you must ask!).

On Sunday I concluded the week celebrating Mother’s Day with my wonderful wife and mother of our two children.

Sometimes things get better as time goes by.

Stay well,

Michael

I think Tim Vanderweert had one of the best photography sites on the net. I loved his no nonsense writing. I didn’t always agree, but Leicaphila.com remains in my favorites power rotation! His passing earlier this year was a tragedy but his photographs and writings will live on for those who visit this wonderful place. In an early blog entry he writes about, “Why B&W Photography”, as well as Robert Frank, who he considered to be his “photographic mentor”. I found the following particularly thought provoking:

“Photography, as Robert Frank has stated, is “an art for lazy people.” And it is an easy medium to master, more so now than ever. But really good photography, evocative images that have something to say, are still as rare as hen’s teeth. It’s always been that way with every creative medium. For every Mozart, a million Salieris; for every Robert Frank, a million photographers printing super large, vibrantly colorful, resolutely superb junk. The mistake comes from thinking that Art results simply from doing something competently. Its the mistake of the Salieris of the world. True Art, the product of a unique inspiration, uses the artistic medium as a way to make statements about itself rather than the subject in front of the artist. The best black and white photography, reducing images to essential visual elements of form, shape and tonal relationships, allows the viewer to see behind the photograph’s illusion as representation in a way not available to color images.”

I think what Frank should have said is lazy people think they can use photography to make art. And to say it a little differently than what Tim wrote, with modern digital cameras the technical aspects of medium are easy to master.

As I’ve written lately I’ve been on a bit of a book buying binge lately and feel that I have now just about rounded out my library fairly well … I am on the hunt for a reasonably priced three book set of Bruce Davidson’s work Outside, Inside, and if I had more space I could always buy more books to be more of a completist. So I’m pretty satisfied that my library is filled with books of great photographers that understood “the mistake comes from thinking that Art results simply from doing something competently … and that “True Art, the product of a unique inspiration, uses the artistic medium as a way to make statements about itself rather than the subject in front of the artist”.

I couldn’t agree more with Tim that “really good photography, evocative images that have something to say, are still as rare as hen’s teeth”. There are so few photographers that get it right. The great ones knew they were lucky to make many truly meaningful images in year’s time. Those are the ones I gravitate to and draw inspiration from.

I think Tim is also right in his statement about black and white can enable vs. color. And while it may be harsh … Tim always told you what he thought, not necessary what you wanted to hear … it is true that “for every Robert Frank, [there are] a million photographers printing super large, vibrantly colorful, resolutely superb junk”.

I also believe that hand in hand with great black and white photographs that “reduce images to essential visual elements of form, shape and tonal relationships” is the use of normal to no more than moderate wide angle lenses, e.g., not wider than 28mm (or equivalent in medium format or larger formats). The vast majority of the books I own by those photographers I greatly admire contain black and white images with a fairly normal field of view. There are some exceptions, e.g., color photography by Eliot Porter (“American Places”), Morley Baer (“The Wilder Shore”) and Jeffrey Becom (“Mediterranean Color”), but I can’t think of any photographer I gravitate to who’s pictures have an exaggerated angle of view.

So here’s what to do. Buy the books and learn from the masters, the one’s whose work has and will continue to stand the test of time. Then strive to make well seen and captured work that’s meaningful to you. It’s a constant struggle, but well worth the effort. Though frustrating, I’d rather have a but a few gems out of a year’s work than a bunch of also rans.

Oh, just one other thing … when you have some time listen to some Mozart.

Stay well,

Michael

Recently I saw an interview of Don McCullin on YouTube. In discussing his landscape work McCullin said:

“Many times I go home without a picture because the last minute clouds go somewhere else. The sun’s beating in my face. I get nothing and you know I align it for the same situation that somebody sits on the riverbank fishing. It’s not about catching fish or getting negatives. It’s about being there and having the privilege of being in command of your own joy.”

So there you have it. I’m not going to compare myself to the great master, but I got some serious satisfaction knowing that he thinks the same way I do about the “journey” and “being there”! Damn, he even uses the fishing analogy like I have!!

Here’s what I wrote almost eight years ago:

Photography and Fishing

When I was a boy I used to go fishing a lot.  Not too often in a boat, but mostly on local piers along the Niagara River, Lake Erie or Lake Ontario in and around Buffalo, NY where I lived.  Sometimes my Dad would come with me and hang out and other times he would drop me off with a couple of my friends.  As I got a little older I would lash my fishing rod onto the frame of my red Huffy bike, strap my tackle box to the rear rack and peddle all the way down to Niagara Street myself.  Neither my parents nor I ever thought twice about me riding down main streets by myself, miles from home, but I guess it was a different time then.

I would spend hours sitting on those old wooden or concrete structures that protruded into the water with my Dad, my friends or by myself.  The fact is that I didn’t catch very many fish.  But even at a relatively young age I realized that it wasn’t all about catching fish.  The fishing was a means to an end because I was having a great time talking about all the girls I liked that would never want to be seen with me, telling stories and bad jokes, and just meeting other people, particularly the old timers.

I was taking in a world that was different from the world of my family, school, Boy Scouts or Little League.  This was my special private world, void of expectations, but full of daydreams, fresh air, snacks and soda pop, and if I was lucky, sometimes some “keepers”.

Perhaps you are wondering why I am bringing up my fond memories of being young and going fishing.  Well what I described is how I have felt for over 45 years when I go out photographing.  I am in another special world.  Not the world of my family, work, religion, politics or a hundred other things, both wonderful and not so good.  This is my special world of seeing and just taking in life’s moments that are surrounding me as I walk, hike or drive.  It’s wonderful and another means to an end, just like it was when I was “fishing”, even if I don’t end up ever snapping the shutter or getting any “keepers”.  Of course not making an exposure or capturing a wonderful image is not the intended outcome, but just as I always hoped to catch a nice fish, it doesn’t always happen.  Seeing the world and taking it all in, on your own terms, in your own time, is really special and an opportunity to be grateful for.

Think about it.  You might enjoy yourself, and without the stress or self-imposed expectations of the results, you may get more “keepers” than before.

******

My feelings haven’t changed since I wrote that early entry. If anything, they’ve gotten stronger!  In fact, I have touched on this theme a number of times here. What’s gratifying for me is to know that others have the same experiences when they’re out there as I do … that as important as their work is … there is something more.

Stay well,

Michael