I started shooting black and white over 15 years ago but later started introducing color after seeing the purposeful use of color in composition from legends like Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, and Saul Leiter. I think color should be used intentionally, not as a default. For most people, black and white is an afterthought; A last ditch effort to make a shot moody or artistic. Black and white will always be home for me. Black and white creates an extra step of abstraction from the world as you see it and reveals details differently than in color.
I'm interested in a lot of alternative and niche types of photography and I've tried a lot of different things. Over time my interest has gone into two main areas: Documentary/reportage style photographs of people, and infrared landscapes. Because I shoot in a documentary style, I capture moments as they happen and I don't like to fabricate or force things. I shoot what I see.
I shoot landscapes in infrared because I'm interested in revealing something the eye can't see. It's like a window into an invisible world that's always there, but you're don't even know it. It reminds me of what Frodo sees when he puts on the ring; it's not quite the world as you know it, but it's familiar enough to understand it. A part of the fun is the surprise I feel when something turns out way differently than I imagined it. Like with everything else, I'm inspired the most by old infrared films like Kodak HIE, Efke IR 820 Aura, and Kodak EIR/Aerochrome.
I've trimmed my selection of tools down for the specific ways that I shoot. I sold lot of my autofocus lenses in favor of manual focus prime lenses on mirrorless cameras. Less plastic, motors, and circuit boards - just brass and glass. I miss a few more shots than I used to but now I can be a little more involved in the making of the photograph. And a little missed focus never hurt anyone.
There comes a point when you stop saying "I'm interested in photography" and you start saying "I'm a photographer." It's not when you've started your own business or you've been published. It's when you think in frame lines and focal lengths. When you bring your camera even though it's not convenient. It's knowing both when to take a photo and when to pass. It's about passion.
That's pretty much it for where I'm at right now. When that changes, I'll let you know.
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Some words that I like:
"[Photographs] teach you about your own unraveling past, or the immediacy of yesterday. They show you what you looked at. If you take a photograph, you've been responsive to something, and you looked hard at it. Hard for a thousandth of a second, hard for ten minutes. But hard, nonetheless. And it's the quality of that bite that teaches you how up you were for that thing, and where you stand relative to it."
- Joel Meyerowitz
"I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed."
-Garry Winogrand
"The act of putting four edges around a collection of information or facts transforms it. A photograph is not what was photographed, it's something else."
-Garry Winogrand
"Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it."
-Morley Baer
"When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear."
-Alfred Eisenstaedt
"When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear."
-Alfred Eisenstaedt