Blue Planet Photography

Over your lifetime you’ve built up quite a collection of film (slides, negatives), prints, and now maybe digital files as well. After you’re gone, what’s going to happen to those images? Will your relatives just toss them out or divide them amongst themselves, not really knowing what else to do with them, eventually rotting away in an attic or garage someplace or sold at a garage sale? A few years ago I met Al Weber, an instructor for Ansel Adams, well-known commercial photographer, and long-time workshop instructor. He gave a talk about preserving photographic archives and it struck a chord with me since I’m a bit of a history buff (in that I enjoy looking at historical images and even collect the occasional old photo).

The main question he asked was “what’s going to happen to your images after you’re gone?” He recounted several stories of prominent photographers who had passed away and how he saved negatives and prints from being dumped at the local landfill. There were even stories of the prominent photographers themselves burning and destroying their own collections, thinking they weren’t useful anymore or they didn’t want anyone else to have access to them. Some of these collections were saved, others not. Photographs are visual histories of the times, places, and people we’ve encountered. They are our individual points of view, a document of our existence. When those images are gone, a part of history disappears as well. I posted about this here some time ago, but it’s an important consideration for photographers and I have some new information to pass on.

Al Weber has been instrumental in setting up photo archives and assisting photographers in establishing what happens to their images when nobody else cares. His work has been with the collections of career photographers, but there are many collections from amateur photographers that are valuable and should be preserved. He has helped form the Foundation for Photographic Preservation, an organization whose goal is to Preserve the significant work of career photographers, Identify suitable archives for bodies of photographic work, and Assist photographers, their families, and their estates in preparing collections for placement.

I encourage all photographers to look over the website. It’s not extensive, but there are a couple essays you should read to get you thinking about what you want to happen to your photos. It’s an important consideration for film and even more important for digital files. If you have any questions, please contact the foundation. Look after yourself.

I’m in the process of completely redesigning my website. The current site design has been up for about 4 years now and it’s time for a change. I used to be on top of HTML and, to some extent, CSS (when it first came out). But, other pressures have kept me away so now I’m trying to catch up. It would be nice to have a designer available who was on the same wavelength and who I could afford. I like to tinker, though, and working the website design, as much time as it takes, is somewhat cathartic for me. Like sketching or pottery might be for others. Technology, too, tends to take things away from the creative process. We are getting less and less “hands on” and more “convenienced” by packages that tend to be homogeneous, expressing less of the character of the individual. Especially websites.

Now, before I get too far along in my diatribe, I have to admit I’m using (partially) a package process for a portion of my website. I’ve been a basic subscriber to PhotoShelter for several years, which provides me with some online space and a Photoshelter branded portfolio. For my current website I’ve been using the open source application Gallery 2 that came with my hosting package. It’s a bit unwieldy, even for a tinkerer like myself. Especially since I’m not much of a code monkey anymore, not that I ever was. Simple is my motto. But, PhotoShelter is made for photographers, with very nice applications, customization and integration with a current website, e-commerce, even stock licensing with pricing through FotoQuote, which I use. Simplification, functionality, and ease of use. A reasonable rate, and I can tinker to my heart’s content within the confines of my limited knowledge.

The advantage is primarily the online portfolio feature and licensing. Uploading and managing various portfolios and galleries is really easy versus the process I had to go through with Gallery. With Gallery, and my hosting plan, there was one database to upload to, and several steps involved to get the image into the location I wanted it to be in. It was not an efficient process for me to add images to the gallery so I’m really far behind in adding new work to the website. Adding any e-commerce (for print sales or licensing) was very difficult or (to me) impossible, particularly with my meager skill set. I have a merchant account for my business, and one thing I don’t like about PhotoShelter, is they limit the e-commerce set up to either their merchant services account vendor or PayPal. It would be nice if they offered a wider range of processors for those of us who are already spending money for a processor. I have a PayPal account, so we’ll see how that works for now. A buyer can always contact me directly to make a purchase or license if they wish.

The new site will be much smaller and more compact, with some pages going away and others being consolidated through PhotoShelter. Navigation should be simpler and easier to follow, even though I’ve only received positive feedback about my site, look a bit more professional, offer more images and be updated more often. And, when I get around to making another update, I think it will be easier to accomplish.

So, the new site isn’t up and ready yet, but here’s a teaser with my new logo. I’ll let you know when it’s all new, if you don’t see it first.

I consider myself an artist first, before I am an editorial or commercial shooter. Probably because I was an artist long before I started trying to make money at it. You can certainly be a photographer without “artistic passion” but, for me, there needs to be something more than just economics driving my creativity. I continue to shoot artistically even though I derive less income from it. Because it is personally satisfying, it’s time for me and not someone else. It’s necessary for me to remain creative and not fall into the hole of repetition and cookie-cutter production.

I know some commercial photographers who admittedly do not understand or have any interest in “artsy fartsy” photography and are in the business as a business. In reality, these types of individuals could probably just as easily be in any other career. They don’t “need” to be a photographer whereas an artist, whether that person is creating “pure” art or commercial art, has a need through passion to be working in that medium for whatever reason.

I know several artists who, once they became commercially famous, lost their desire to create because of the demands (through distributors/publishers) forcing them (through contracts) to create works that didn’t interest them personally or artistically but were commercially successful (to a broad market where once they were creating limited, high end works to a smaller, “more appreciative” audience). They were essentially “owned” by the companies they signed with. They made tons of money, but were artistically and personally unsatisfied because the work was less like art and more like work.

The successful artist, in my mind, is one who can balance the capitalistic, profit maximizing demands of the marketplace with personal control of the work being produced (if a person wants to make money creating art). That means the individual has to take a stand for themselves, understand the marketplace and the demands it requires, to look at the longer view and not be blinded by perceived short term gains, to be in control of their own destiny.

There are many, many people creating excellent art with no intention or desire to make money at it. They are creating art because it satisfies them in some way and that, in itself, is enough.

Aphotoeditor pointed to an article in the NY Times Magazine entitled “What is Art For?” a profile of author Lewis Hyde that inspired this post.

If you’d like to embed this show into your blog or website, click on the up arrow at the bottom right of the slideshow to get the code.

Eddie Adams (1933 - 2004) covered 13 wars as a Marine combat photographer between 1950 and 1991. He also photographed celebrities, fashion, editorial, corporate and advertising and remains one of the most published photographers in the U.S. However, it wasn’t the awards, war photos or celebrity photos he was most proud of, but the photographs that moved and inspired people to do good.

A 1979 photograph of 50 Vietnamese refugees crowded onto a 30-foot fishing boat inspired Congress and President Carter to allow more than 200,000 Vietnamese refugees into the U.S.

A 1995 photo essay for Parade showing a 3-yr-old with Leukemia moved a woman so much that she started Project Linus, a non-profit organization providing security blankets to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need. Today, there are more than 300 chapters of Project Linus worldwide.

A picture can be worth much more than a thousand words.

In 1988, Eddie Adams started an annual photojournalism workshop called Barnstorm: The Eddie Adams Workshop. It is an intense 4-day gathering of top photojournalists and 100 selected students with the purpose of sharing ideas, techniques, and philosophies among established members and new students. The four days include shooting, editing, speeches and panel discussions. You can apply through the site, if you’d like to try and attend.

If you aren’t able to attend, though, there is the aforementioned treasure trove of audio of past speeches given by Eddie Adams, Gordon Parks, Carl Mydans, David Hume Kennerly, George Tames, Peter Jennings, Bill Eppridge and others, giving their thoughts about photography, the times in which they were photographing, the photographs they were taking, and the impacts those photographs had/have on society.

If you didn’t see the audio link in the above paragraph, you can go here —> http://www.eddieadamsworkshop.com/info/?c=audio or click here then select the audio you want to listen to at the upper right of the page.

The only downside is you can’t pause and scroll back the audio to repeat segments.

Amazing.