Windhover
Photojournalism }

walking in the light: a life in photography


PHOTO JOURNAL

I plan on sharing some thoughts on photography based on my nearly 30 years of teaching, 50 some years being around cameras, and the last 10 years freelancing. Former students might hear some echoes of comments made in class. My favorites remain the same: Eugene Smith, Father Don Doll, James Nachtwey, Jim Richardson, and of course, for pure art--Ansel Adams. This is the starting line-up, but the bench is full and plenty of other shooters are first-teamers in anyone’s book. Periodically, I may comment on a particular photo, its ripple effect in the world of writing with light. Photos, when all the planets are aligned, can become--to paraphrase Thoreau--a moment’s monument. Those of the masters don’t really NEED my words commenting on them, but I like to think about photos, and these journal comments will be my solitary standing ovation, clapping alone here in my study, to some photographs and photographers I admire.

Anyone wanting to share a response, can reach me at windhover_b@yahoo.com

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Earthquakes and photographs

On my long driving trip to Winnemucca, I had lots of time to think, and not surprisingly the recent earthquakes around the world weighed on my mind. One of the most surprising facts about the Chilean quake was that it was so massive that geologists say that it caused the earth to spin differently--enough so to make our days a nano-second shorter. Talk about power.
This thought came back to me as I was sitting in a workshop session looking at the wonderful and powerful images of Jodi Cobb, most of whose work has appeared in National Geographic. The impact of her photos caused me to realize that a great photographer can make the world actually stop. Like the impact of an earthquake, a photo that is perfect and clear and revealing of life can make the world frozen for all to see. Complexity is illuminated when the earth can stand still for 1/250th of a second or whatever shutter speed Jodi Cobb or any of us might be using. In her work I saw what I have alluded to before--A Moment's Monument.