Today was probably the best day I’ve had in close to a year and a half. I quit my job this morning and had the first Saturday off since February of 2016. Since then, I’ve worked every Saturday and Sunday with the exception of one week I went to Mexico. I didn’t quit on a whim mind you, I have another job starting Monday, but today I officially resigned.
I’d forgotten how much I absolutely love Saturdays. There’s a whole different feel in the air. It’s as though there’s a collective energy among everyone enjoying a day off after a long week of work. You just don’t get that feeling when you’re off on Thursdays. I’d become antisocial, withdrawn and really had become depressed. I didn’t realize how bad until today.
This morning I got up early, grabbed my camera and decided to go downtown and just spend the morning shooting “whatever”. I walked through the city, camera in hand and absorbed the energy. I stopped and had brunch and a Bloody Mary. Heading home, I realized what a great time I had.
Yes, today was a good day. Once again, I feel alive.
Today we turn back the clocks to the year 1982. Ronald Reagan was President, John Paul II was Pope and the Falklands War began and ended. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial premiered in theaters, we lose John Belushi to a drug overdose, and John DeLorean is arrested for selling cocaine to undercover FBI agents. Also that same year, the Commodore 64 is introduced, the first CD is produced in Germany and Kodak begins selling the Disc Camera.
“No other camera looks or works like it.” claimed Kodak. In response to their successful 110 Instamatic cameras which were introduced 10 years earlier, the Disc camera had at the time, cutting edge technology. The disc contained 15 frames around a cassette that you simply placed into the camera. The camera would take a photo, and then rotate the disk for the next shot. The cameras were small and thin with Auto exposure and Auto flash. Only color film was available, Slide and Black and White film were never produced. The Disc camera sparked the biggest ad campaign in the company’s history. Kodak would go on to sell 25 million of these cameras.
The problem was that these little cameras just did not produce quality pictures. Because of the small negatives, the images had to be greatly enlarged which in effect showed lots of grain and poor image quality. Photo Labs were also using optics designed for larger formats rather than use Kodak’s specially-designed system. Disc cameras were relatively expensive compared to other formats and with the increasing popularity of the new 35mm format, which produced far superior images, Kodak ended production of the Disc by 1988. They continued production of the film until 1999.
We close the books on the Disc camera and bid it a fond farewell. We also close the books on the year 1982 but before we go, I’d like to add just one more memory from that year. Sadly, in December of that year, ABBA disbanded and played together for the very last time.
Mary Ann Vecchio screams as she kneels over the body of Jeffrey Miller during an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University, Ohio, May 4, 1970.
John Filo captured the Pulitzer Prize photo on May 4th, 1970 as the Ohio National Guard opened fire on Kent State students during an anti-war protest.
Filo talks about that day:
The bullets were supposed to be blanks. When I put the camera back to my eye, I noticed a particular guardsman pointing at me. I said, “I’ll get a picture of this,” and his rifle went off. And almost simultaneously, as his rifle went off, a halo of dust came off a sculpture next to me, and the bullet lodged in a tree.
I dropped my camera in the realization that it was live ammunition. I don’t know what gave me the combination of innocence and stupidity… I started to flee–run down the hill and stopped myself. “Where are you going?” I said to myself, “This is why you are here!”
And I started to take pictures again. … I knew I was running out of film. I could see the emotion welling up inside of her. She began to sob. And it culminated in her saying an exclamation. I can’t remember what she said exactly … something like, “Oh, my God!”
The Guardsmen fired 67 rounds in a span of about 13 seconds. Four students were killed, nine injured.
The story actually begins 4 days earlier on Thursday, April 30th, 1970 when it was announced by President Nixon that the “Cambodian Incursion” had been launched by US Forces. It was widely believed that the war in Vietnam had been winding down in 1969 and the announcement of a Cambodian invasion fueled campuses nationwide to erupt in protest.
On Friday, May 1st, about 500 protesters gathered on the Commons at Kent State University. The Commons, located in the center of the campus was a traditional meeting place for rallies and protests. There was sweeping anger and a burning of a copy of the US Constitution, implying that President Nixon had killed it. The crowd dispersed shortly after noon and planned on another protest on May 4th. Around midnight that same day, trouble erupted in town after people left a bar and began throwing beer bottles at police and destroying local business store fronts. As the news spread, the crowd began to grow larger. As more police arrived, the crowd, now at about 120 had already set a small bonfire and hurled more bottles and began shouting obscenities at the local law enforcement. A State of Emergency was soon called for by Kent Mayor LeRoy Satrom and a call was placed to Governor Jim Rhodes asking for assistance. The bars were forced to close early, which in turn , increased the size of the crowd. Eventually the police dispersed the crowd using tear gas, forcing them several blocks away, back to the campus.
Saturday, May 2nd, rumors began to circulate that radical revolutionaries were in Kent to destroy the city and university. As a result of threats received by local businesses and leaders, Mayor Satrom met with city officials and representatives of Ohio’s Army National Guard. After the meeting, Satrom called Governor Rhodes requesting the National Guard be sent to Kent. He believed that the local officials would not be able to handle future disturbances. The request was granted and the National Guard was called in at 5:00 PM that day however, they did not arrive until later that evening, sometime around 10:00. By that time, a large protest was underway at the Commons and the campus ROTC building was ablaze. Kent firemen and police were struck by rocks and other debris as they attempted to put out the fire. Other Fire Departments had to be called in because protesters had carried away the fire hose and slashed it. By the end of the night the National Guard made several arrests and used tear gas to finally disperse the demonstrators. The arsonists were never caught, and no injuries were reported due to the fire. A later report on the blaze stated “Information developed by a FBI investigation of the ROTC building fire indicates that, of those who participated actively, a significant portion weren’t Kent State students. There is also evidence to suggest that the burning was planned beforehand: railroad flares, a machete, and ice picks are not customarily carried to peaceful rallies.”
Sunday May 3rd, a day before the shootings, Governor Rhodes holds a news conference at the firehouse, calling the protesters un-American and referring to them as ‘revolutionaries set on destroying higher education in Ohio’.
He goes on to say:
“We’ve seen here at the city of Kent especially, probably the most vicious form of campus-oriented violence yet perpetrated by dissident groups. They make definite plans of burning, destroying, and throwing rocks at police and at the National Guard and the Highway Patrol. This is when we’re going to use every part of the law enforcement agency of Ohio to drive them out of Kent. We are going to eradicate the problem. We’re not going to treat the symptoms. And these people just move from one campus to the other and terrorize the community. They’re worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes They’re the worst type of people that we harbor in America. Now I want to say this. They are not going to take over [the] campus. I think that we’re up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America.”
During the day, several of the students went to town to assist in the cleanup after the riots and were met with some ambivalence by the local business owners. In response to business leaders and a concerned public, Mayor Satrom issues a curfew until further notice. At 8 PM another rally was held at the Commons which was broken up about 45 minutes later by National Guardsmen firing tear gas into the crowd. The students relocated to the intersection of Lincoln and Main staging a sit-in with the intent of gaining a meeting with the Mayor and the University President. At 11 PM, curfew took effect and the National Guard dispersed the sit-in and escorted the students back to campus.
The Kent State Massacre, Monday May 4th, 1970. The protest, planned three days prior, was scheduled to begin at noon. The University handed out 12,000 flyers in an attempt to stop the gathering, stating the event had been cancelled. Still, over 2,000 students began gathering at the Commons. The first attempt to disperse the students was made by campus patrolmen who attempted to read an order to disperse or face arrest. The students reacted by throwing rocks and objects at the patrolmen, forcing them to retreat.
The National Guard returned in a second attempt to disperse the crowd. When the protesters refused to disperse, the National Guard began to fire tear gas which proved to be ineffective because of the wind that day. The students shouting “Pigs off campus!” retaliated by throwing rocks and the tear gas back at the Guardsmen, who were wearing gas masks.
After it was apparent that the protesters would not disperse, 77 National Guards, armed with M-1 rifles and bayonets, marched towards the Commons. As the Guardsmen approached, the crowd began to retreat from the Commons, up and over what is known as Blanket Hill. The National Guard continued to follow the crowd over the hill but instead of turning left at the bottom towards the Prentice Hall parking lot as the protesters did, they continued to march forward towards a practice field surrounded by a chain link fence. They remained on the practice field for about 10 minutes. At one point, several members of the Guard knelt and aimed their weapons towards the protestors now gathering to the left and front of them. After finally realizing that the only way back was to retrace their steps over Blanket Hill, they began to march back towards the Commons. Some of the students began to follow the Guard as they began to march back over the hill. As they climbed back up Blanket Hill, several of the guardsmen stopped, half turned and faced the gathering of students in the parking lot.
At 12:24, a guardsmen sergeant fired his .45 caliber pistol towards the crowd of students. A number of other guardsmen also turned and began to fire their rifles.
One witness was Chrissie Hynde, the future lead singer of The Pretenders and a student at Kent State University at the time. In her 2015 autobiography she described what she saw:
Then I heard the tatatatatatatatatat sound. I thought it was fireworks. An eerie sound fell over the common. The quiet felt like gravity pulling us to the ground. Then a young man’s voice: “They fucking killed somebody!” Everything slowed down and the silence got heavier.
The ROTC building, now nothing more than a few inches of charcoal, was surrounded by National Guardsmen. They were all on one knee and pointing their rifles at…us! Then they fired.
By the time I made my way to where I could see them it was still unclear what was going on. The guardsmen themselves looked stunned. We looked at them and they looked at us. They were just kids, 19 years old, like us. But in uniform. Like our boys in Vietnam.
29 of the 77 guardsmen claimed to have fired their weapons.
The shooting was estimated to have lasted 13 seconds.
According to Wikipedia, the shootings killed four students and wounded nine. Two of the four students killed, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, had participated in the protest, and the other two, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder, had been walking from one class to the next at the time of their deaths. Schroeder was also a member of the campus ROTC battalion. Of those wounded, none was closer than 71 feet (22 m) to the guardsmen. Of those killed, the nearest (Miller) was 225 feet (69 m) away, and their average distance from the guardsmen was 345 feet (105 m).
The question of why the shots were fired remains widely debated.
Yesterday we uncovered Ansel Adams’ life from his childhood to approx. 1930. In part 2 of our interview, we’ll discuss his success in the decades that followed.
Photography Zen: Welcome back Ansel, are you ready to continue?
Ansel Adams: (smiles) Sure, Fire away!
PZ: So, it’s 1930, you’ve decided to pursue a career in photography as opposed to the piano, your first portfolio was a success, what happens next?
AA: Between 1929 and 1942, I’d say my work matured and I became more established. In the course of my 60-year career, the 1930s were a particularly productive and experimental time. I expanded my works, focusing on detailed close-ups as well as large forms from mountains to factories. My first book Taos Pueblo was published in 1930 with text by writer Mary Hunter Austin. In New Mexico, I was introduced to notables such as painter Georgia O’Keeffe, artist John Marin, and photographer Paul Strand. It was my talkative, high-spirited nature combined with my excellent piano playing made me a hit within this circle of artist friends. Strand especially proved influential, sharing secrets of his technique with me, and finally convincing me to pursue photography with all my talent and energy. One of Strand’s suggestions which I adopted was to use glossy paper to intensify tonal values.
In 1927, I produced my first portfolio in my new style Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, which included my now famous image, Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, taken with my Korona view camera using glass plates and a dark red filter, to heighten the tonal contrasts.
PZ: So it appears your career really started taking off at this point.
AA: Very much so. I was able to put on my first solo museum exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in 1931 through a friend who had connections in Washington, featuring 60 prints taken in the High Sierra. I received an excellent review from the Washington Post that wrote my “photographs are like portraits of the giant peaks, which seem to be inhabited by mythical gods.” Despite my success,I felt that I was not yet up to the standards of Strand. I decided to broaden my subject matter to include still life and close-up photos, and to achieve higher quality by “visualizing” each image before taking it. I emphasized the use of small apertures and long exposures in natural light, which created sharp details with a wide range of focus, as demonstrated in Rose and Driftwood, I think, one of my finest still-life photographs.
PZ: I agree, visually stunning.
AA: I opened my own art and photography gallery in San Francisco in 1933 and I also began to publish essays in photography magazines and wrote my first instructional book Making a Photograph in 1935. During the summers, I often participated in Sierra Club High Trips outings, as a paid photographer for the group, and the rest of the year a core group of the Club members socialized regularly in San Francisco and Berkeley.
PZ: Please, tell us more about your involvement with the Sierra Club.
AA: I began to deploy my photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation. In part, I was inspired by the increasing desecration of Yosemite Valley by commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops, and auto-mobile traffic. I created a limited-edition book Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail in 1938, as part of the Sierra Club’s efforts to secure the designation of Sequoia and Kings Canyon as national parks. This book and my testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of the effort, and Congress designated the area as a National Park in 1940.
PZ: Generations of people Thank You and will be able to love Yosemite just as you did.
AA: Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters. At first the colossal aspect may dominate; then we perceive and respond to the delicate and persuasive complex of nature.
PZ: We’re almost finished with the 1930’s, take us up to 1940.
AA: During the balance of the 1930s, I took on many commercial assignments to supplement the income from the struggling Best’s Studio. Really, until the 1970’s, I was financially dependent on commercial projects. Some of my clients included Kodak, Fortune magazine, Pacific Gas and Electric, AT&T, and the American Trust Company. I photographed Timothy L. Pflueger’s new Patent Leather Bar for the St. Francis hotel in 1939. The same year, I was named an editor of U.S. Camera & Travel, the most popular photography magazine at that time.
PZ: Now that we’re in the 1940’s, please tell us what happened in 1941, more specifically, the story about Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.
Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico
AA: On a trip in New Mexico in 1941, I shot a scene of the Moon rising above a modest village with snow-covered mountains in the background, under a dominating black sky. The photograph is one of my most famous and is named Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico. My description in my later books of how it was made probably enhanced the photograph’s fame. The light on the crosses in the foreground was rapidly fading, and I could not find my exposure meter; however, I remembered the luminance of the Moon, and used it to calculate the proper exposure. My earlier account was less dramatic, stating simply that the photograph was made after sunset, with exposure determined using my Weston Master meter. In reality, the foreground was underexposed, the highlights in the clouds were quite dense, and the negative proved difficult to print. The initial publication of Moonrise was in U.S. Camera 1943 annual, after being selected by the “photo judge” for U.S. Camera, Edward Steichen. This gave Moonrise an audience before its first formal exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1944.
(Sidenote: Over nearly 40 years, Adams re-interpreted the image, his most popular by far, using the latest darkroom equipment at his disposal, making over 1,300 unique prints, most in 16″ by 20″ format.Many of the prints were made in the 1970s, finally giving Adams financial independence from commercial projects. The total value of these original prints exceeds $25,000,000 the highest price paid for a single print of Moonrise reached $609,600 at Sotheby’s New York auction in 2006.)
PZ: There’s more to the Moonrise story.
AA: Yes. In September 1941, I contracted with the Department of the Interior to make photographs of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other locations for use as mural-sized prints for decoration of the Department’s new building. Part of my understanding with the Department was that I might also make photographs for my own use, using my own film and processing. Although I kept meticulous records of my travel and expenses, I was less disciplined about recording the dates of my images, and neglected to note the date of Moonrise, so it was not clear whether it belonged to me or to the U.S. Government. But the position of the moon allowed the image to eventually be dated from astronomical calculations, and it was determined that Moonrise was made on November 1, 1941, a day for which I had not billed the Department, so the image belonged to me. The same was not true for many of my other negatives, including The Tetons and the Snake River, which, having been made for the Mural Project, became the property of the U.S. Government.
PZ: Incredible. We could probably spend an hour just discussing that. Anything else in the 1940’s you’d like to mention?
AA: Yes. In 1945, I was asked to form the first fine art photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute. I invited Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston to be guest lecturers and Minor White to be lead instructor. The photography department produced numerous notable photographers, including Philip Hyde, Benjamen Chinn, Bill Heick, and C. Cameron Macauley.
PZ: So take us through the 1950’s. Your success shows no signs of slowing down.
AA: In 1952 I was one of the founders of the magazine Aperture, which was intended as a serious journal of photography showcasing its best practitioners and newest innovations. I was also a contributor to Arizona Highways, a photo-rich travel magazine. My article on Mission San Xavier del Bac, with text by my longtime friend Nancy Newhall, was enlarged into a book published in 1954. This was the first of many collaborations with her. In June 1955, I also began my annual workshops, teaching thousands of students until 1981. I continued with commercial assignments for another twenty years, and became a consultant on a monthly retainer for Polaroid Corporation, which was founded by good friend Edwin Land. I made thousands of photographs with Polaroid products, El Capitan, Winter, Sunrise being the one he considered my most memorable.
El Capitan, Winter, Sunrise
PZ: What was in store for you during the 60’s and 70’s?
AA: In the 1960s, a few mainstream art galleries which originally would have considered photos unworthy of exhibit alongside fine paintings decided to show my images, particularly the former Kenmore Gallery in Philadelphia. In March 1963, Nancy Newhall and I accepted a commission from Clark Kerr, the president of the University of California, to produce a series of photographs of the University’s campuses to commemorate its centennial celebration. The collection, titled Fiat Lux after the University’s motto, was published in 1967 and now resides in the Museum of Photography at the University of California, Riverside. In 1974, I had a major retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Much of my time during the 1970s was spent curating and reprinting negatives from my vault, in part to satisfy the great demand of art museums which had finally created departments of photography and desired my works. I also devoted my considerable writing skills and prestige to the cause of environmentalism, focusing particularly on the Big Sur coastline of California and the protection of Yosemite from overuse. President Jimmy Carter commissioned me to make the first official portrait of a president made by a photograph. That year I also cofounded the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.
(I begin to see Mr Adams getting tired, I decide to finish the interview)
PZ: Ansel, you’ve live quite a remarkable life. Your influence in photography and your contributions to environmentalism will be appreciated for generations to come. I want to Thank You for your time and sharing your story with us.
AA: It was my pleasure. I am always happy to chat.
The inspiration for the 1992 movie “The Public Eye” starring Joe Pesci, Weegee was every bit as colorful as Hollywood portrayed.
Born Usher Fellig in Zloczew, Austria (now Zolochiv, Ukraine) in 1899, Fellig emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1909 and moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It was there he changed his name to Arthur because it sounded more American. Self-taught, Fellig took many odd jobs as a photographer and photographers assistant. In 1924 he became a darkroom technician and part time news photographer and at Acme Newspictures which later on became United Press International Photos (UPI).
In 1935, Arthur Fellig decided to become a freelance photographer, says Fellig:
“In my particular case I didn’t wait ’til somebody gave me a job or something, I went and created a job for myself—freelance photographer. And what I did, anybody else can do. What I did simply was this: I went down to Manhattan Police Headquarters and for two years I worked without a police card or any kind of credentials. When a story came over a police teletype, I would go to it. The idea was I sold the pictures to the newspapers. And naturally, I picked a story that meant something.”
Arthur Fellig would soon become known as Weegee, the phonetic pronunciation of the word Ouija, because of his uncanny ability to often appear at crime scenes before the authorities. His photos were soon published by the Herald Tribune, World-Telegram, Daily News, New York Post, New York Journal American, Sun, and others. Weegee worked at night, developing his photos in the darkroom he set up in the back of his car in order to expedite getting his photos to the waiting press. He also had a great feel for what photos sold best.
“Names make news. There’s a fight between a drunken couple on Third Avenue or Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, nobody cares. It’s just a barroom brawl. But if society has a fight in a Cadillac on Park Avenue and their names are in the Social Register, this makes news and the papers are interested in that”
Weegee based his photographic work around police headquarters, and in 1938 obtained permission to install a police radio in his car. This allowed him to take the first and most sensational photographs of news events and offer them for sale to publications such as the Herald-Tribune, Daily News and the Post Photograph: Weegee/International Center of Photography
“Crime was my oyster,” Weegee wrote in his 1961 memoir, “Weegee by Weegee.” “I was friend and confidant to them all. The bookies, madams, gamblers, call girls, pimps, con men, burglars and jewel fencers.”
Weegee’s peak period as a freelance crime and street photographer ran from the mid-1930s into the postwar years. He took thousands of photographs that defined Manhattan as a nightscape of hoodlums and gangsters, Bowery bums and tenement dwellers and victims of domestic disturbance, fires and car crashes. Aptly, he named it “The Naked City”. Weegee became a celebrity in his own right even creating a rubber stamp that he used to sign his photos that read “Credit Photo by Weegee the Famous”.
Weegee worked at night, developing his photos in the darkroom he set up in the back of his car in order to expedite getting his photos to the waiting press.
By the early 1940’s, Weegee was beginning to achieve success outside the mainstream media when in 1941, The Photo League in New York held and exhibition of his work and later in 1945 with an exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art. Weegee published 3 books of his work in the later 1940’s and his book “Naked City” inspired the movie “The Naked City” in 1947 which prompted him to move to Hollywood.
Weegee mingled with the Hollywood crowd, getting a couple of bit parts in small films, but by 1951, he was back in NY. Until his death in 1968, he spent his time experimenting with trick photography and distortions. He also toured the United States and Europe giving lectures and relishing in his fame.
Weegee.Saxophonist (Distortion)Weegee Portrait of a Man (Distortion)
Weegee still remains popular today and is still shown in galleries and museums around the world. His work is now owned by the International Center of Photography in New York.
Just like the American Buffalo, these little yellow roofed buildings dotted the landscape of America. If you’re under the age of 35, you probably have no idea what a Fotomat was. At one point there were 4000 Fotomats across the U.S. mostly located in suburban areas.
Fotomat was a drive up film processing service that promised “One Day Photo Service” You just simply filled out an envelope with your name, address and phone number, dropped the film in it and handed to the Fotomate (female Fotomat employee) or Fotomac (male employee- I kid you not), and picked up your prints the next day at a designated time. I sort of miss the anticipation of waiting on pictures to see how they came out. It was such a thrill to get the folder with your prints and negatives all in a neat little folder.
Fotomats slowly started disappearing with the advent of 1 Hour photo machines appearing in local drug stores and supermarkets. The final dagger was the dawn of digital photography and soon Fotomat was gone.
Today, many of the old Fotomat buildings are still around, many of them converted to Shaved Ice locations, Locksmiths and some still abandoned. If you look carefully, you can probably spot one close to you.
We remember you fondly Fotomat and remember through our prints.
War Photographer and Photojournalist Robert Capa is perhaps the greatest combat photographer in history.
Heavy statement from someone that shot combat scenes. I think when he refers to getting “closer”, he meant get more absorbed into the image, more visceral. This will in turn, make you better understand the force of what you are capturing and the essentia of your surroundings.
During his career he risked his life numerous times, most dramatically as the only photographer landing with the first wave on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
My favorite advice to anyone that’ll listen me is to spend couple of weeks just shooting with a 50mm lens. (35mm if you’re shooting cropped sensors). This just about forces you to get closer to your subject and not rely on telephoto lenses. Not only with this build your self-confidence but will help you in your composition and your ability to “feel” the shot. Use your legs, get in there, absorb the energy. If done correctly, it will manifest itself in your image. This is what Capa was talking about. You’re a storyteller and artist. Flaunt that in your images.
Barcelona, Spain. Running for shelter during an air raid alarm, January 1939
Once you understand the significance of Capa’s quote, your photography will improve. Keep it in mind the whenever you’re out shooting, let it become second nature. Think of it as a gift.
Although Capa said he was finished with war, in the early 1950’s he accepted an assignment for Life in Southeast Asia to cover the Indochina War. On May 25th, 1954, he accompanied a French regiment along with two other Time-Life journalists. While the regiment was approaching a hostile area under fire, he decided to leave the Jeep and go further up the road to photograph the advance. As he travelled up the road, he was killed after stepping on a land mine.
Profound. Read it again, “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” I’d like to use it as a talking point to discuss artistic development in photography.
Cartier-Bresson was not obsessed with the technical aspects of photography, his obsession was capturing the moment.“Sharpness is a bourgeois concept,” he once said, so having the latest and greatest equipment was of no concern to him. His statement refers to practice and developing an artistic eye and developing the intuition of capturing that moment.
I’ve literally taken thousands of photos, many of those shot back in the days of film, where you might shoot a couple of rolls a week. These days, 10,000 photos is nothing. Looking back at some of my earliest images, it’s interesting to see my own personal artistic development and how far I’ve advanced. Photography is a lot more than taking a sharp, well exposed image, it’s about capturing a moment in time and being a storyteller. Henri Cartier-Bresson was a master at this.
There is no substitute for experience, get out there and shoot. Evaluate, shoot again. Grow, develop your own style. Reflect on where you came from and watch your progress.
Weegee mingled with the Hollywood crowd, getting a couple of bit parts in small films, but by 1951, he was back in NY. Until his death in 1968, he spent his time experimenting with trick photography and distortions. He also toured the United States and Europe giving lectures and relishing in his fame.
Photography Zen 
