Obsessions

All art is somehow obsessive but many photographers take it to extremes (where most of the best pictures are): extremes of place, extremes of climate, extremes of consciousness. In this blog, we are investigating those obsessions, i.e. the extremes photographers will go to make a point.

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Canon versus Nikon: off the record interview

 

Photo by Michael DeStefano

Canon: I don’t know what the big deal is. There is no rivalry. We’re pretty much good friends.

Nikon: Well it’s not like we hang out or anything. Except at big events like Olympics, inaugurations, car races...stuff like that.

Canon: He’s a jerk sometimes. We’ve had our differences. But he won’t admit he loves me.

Nikon: Shut up.

Canon: We’re always trying to one up each other but we have a lot in common though. We’re getting along much better now.

Nikon: The worst part? He’s into color, I still love black & white. Classic.

Canon: Canon Leica Nikon. haha

Nikon: Jeez. Haven’t heard that one in at least half an hour.

Canon: We have both been part of photography history. An integral part.

Nikon: But I was first.

Canon: You always manage to work that into every conversation. Get over it.

Nikon: The highlights? Hard one. Maybe all the prizes I’ve won. Pulitzers. World Press Photo. You know?

Canon: Nah! All the great photos of pretty girls. Cars. Pinups. Marilyn. Beyonce. Lamborghinis.

Nikon: Come on. You can never be serious.

Canon: & you can never take a joke. Like the time with that space shuttle fiasco. You screwed the pooch on that one.

Nikon: That wasn’t funny.

Canon: Regrets? Photography has always been kind of expensive. Might like that to change.

Nikon: But that digital thing, who saw that coming?

Canon: Helped my career.

Photo by Michael DeStefano

 

Nikon: Most of the others have come & gone but we are still hanging in there. Photography is probably more important today than ever. The responsibility is palpable.

Canon: Yeah. Who remembers Argus, Yashika, Ricoh, Polaroid, Kodak?

Nikon: Be nice.

Canon: Oh yeah & those crotch shots of Britney Spears & stuff. Awesome.

Nikon: Cut it out!

Canon: Hah. Knew that would get him. Do not believe all that stuff. When he’s off the record he’s a horn dog. Really into the porn...Just kidding.

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How I introduced POLAROID to Japan

How I introduced POLAROID to Japan In the 1980s and early 1990s, I traveled to Japan every year “piggybacking” assignments for a diverse assortment of commercial and editorial entities. By sharing expenses amongst more than one client I could make it worthwhile for them to send me such a huge distance and for a lengthy period of time.

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CHASING JAMES BALDWIN: The Evolution of a Road Warrior

Sophomore year in college I washed dishes for two semesters to pay for a ticket on a tramp steamer to hitchhike around Europe. I acted like a tourist, spoke high school French and stumbled around using a guidebook, “Europe On Five Dollars A Day.” I ate snails and learned about escargot. My first trip to Paris found me sleeping under bridges and it was exhilarating.

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Collecting Photographers: Jay Maisel

  

My assistant and I were racing, doing almost 80mph on two lane roads. Driving directly north. Risking life and limb. Obviously we were in a hurry. 

  

I had been teaching commercial photography at the MAINE PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKSHOP all week but I got a special assignment back in Boston that I could not pass up. My assistant and I drove down late the night before the job and were well rested for the early morning shoot. The only problem was I was supposed to present at the weekly "all-campus" lecture that same night. We finished the shoot a little late and set out on the long journey back to Rockport, Maine. Traffic was terrible. We crept along behind vacationing tourists, slow moving RVs and an inadequate highway system. 

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PhotoPlus Expo Over The Years

 

My fiscal year ends and begins in October. The PhotoPlus Expo held in New York City marks the culmination of all things photo. Another great seminar – thanks to all who attended. Now I hit the ground running across the USA with a large, repeat client.

 

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Happy Birthday Red Sox

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday dear FENWAY... It has been a long time since I moved here, and it has taken me that long to be able to sing those words.

I moved to Boston from Washington, D.C. The last baseball team I rooted for was the defunct Washington Senators. Sneaking out of town and abandoning dedicated fans had left the capital teamless for over four decades, and me shell shocked. My father was a lifelong Baltimore Orioles fan, but that only left a hole in my expectations. I harbored a grudge. 

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Q&A: How To Get A Gallery Show

 Recently, an established photographer contacted me looking for advice on how to find a gallery that will show his work and the kind of work to submit, as he has spent many decades photographing portraits, furniture, architecture and more.

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Hey Rube! Carnivals Circuses Fairs

Recently, "This American Life" on National Public Radio (NPR) did a broadcast episode about carnivals. It brought back cobwebs of memories. I was no older than eight. My parents imagined giving my sister and me the "Leave It to Beaver" summer family vacation experience. We traveled to Wildwood, New Jersey. 

 

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One Penny Post

 In photography’s infancy first came the carte-de-visite.  A fashionable gentleman would make a social call and leave his picture card on a silver tray in the parlor.  Then in the 1850s, after Napoleon iii posed for his formal portrait, they became all the rage.  During the Civil War, photographers documented families for posterity. The small albumen prints gained tremendous momentum as soldiers marched off to battle.  Millions were sold.  They were sent in great numbers at the height of European colonialism.

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Hotel Motel Holiday Inn

Caveat emptor to all those who have to rent a room. For some they are housing, for others an opportunity for rebirth. From the minute you check in you can be anyone you want. You start with a clean slate. Anonymous. Invisible. Or you can adopt that bon vivant personality you have always felt to be your real self.

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Metropolis: 10 Traveled Cities

All the time I am asked the question “What do you like to shoot?” It is a lot harder to answer than you might think. Ultimately, I have to admit I just like to expose film. Whereas some people specialize in landscapes, architecture, animals, flowers or still life, mostly I photograph people. And the best place to find large concentrations is cities—big cities—metropolis.

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Push Pins: Remnants of a Photographers Journey

Reminiscent of the gothic novel Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, downstairs in my photography studio, instead of a painting I harbor a world map.  Like the book’s protagonist I treat it with great reverence.  Over time & with every new escapade it changes, ie I scar it with another pushpin.  There are dozens.  Almost every inch of landmass is covered.  Only the oceans are vacant.  My memories substitutes pushpins for the adventure.

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8 Causes Of Bad Photography

A pet peeve amongst veteran photographers, albeit condescending, is how many neophytes approach the craft expecting someone to paint an “X” on the ground where they are supposed to stand, instruct them what f/stop & shutter speed to use & exactly when to push the button. That is not photography. It is painting-by-numbers. Photography is a moving target. And it requires repetition similar to practicing piano scales. Therefore pundits talk ad infinitum about the lonely learning curve necessary for taking “better pictures”: composition, rules, technique, tricks, etc. But lost in the discussion remains all sorts of significant factors that conspire against you & keep you from making Good pictures. Nobody talks about that.

These “maladies” plague everyone: amateurs & pros. And they never abate. For our whole lives we have to fight them.

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Salt and pepper

Certain things are always found in pairs: shoes, peanut butter & jelly, Fred Astaire/Ginger Rodgers, hydrogen atoms, yin & yang.  Salt & pepper.  Ubiquitous.  Inexpensive.  They compliment each other well.  But it was not always thus.  Until recently they were rare & valuable commodities.  Though they have varied origins their modern day relationship is in tandem.

Since before history, salt & pepper have been objects of desire.  The matchup began in the days when salting was the only way to preserve meat & fish.  Pepper was added to make the salty food more palatable.  Besides being condiments, they were used as currency, even salaries.  Over time trade routes were established, cities were founded & continents were discovered to satisfy the taste.

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Lou Jones Interveiwed

One year ago we traveled to New York City to be interviewed by James Sullivan of 1PROPHOTO. James teaches a compact and complete course called Photo Assistant Boot Camp for photo assistants & digital assistants and runs the website 1PROPHOTO.com featuring online tutorials, industry links, and photographic resources.

We were videotaped at SANDBOX STUDIOS on a pleasant day in Manhattan. James asks questions about my entire career, from my transition from science to photography and the struggles that I faced, to finding my professional voice and making an impact on the industry.

Its a Four part video Posted up at 1PROPHOTO.com here is the 1st part...


Lou Jones interview part 1 from 1ProPhotoCom on Vimeo.


To see the other Three parts of the interview please go HERE...

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47 Most Fascinating Apps

About a year ago I passed one of my favorite haunts in the middle of the night & a homeless guy was standing under neon lights begging for spare change.  He had his hand out for alms but at the same time he was talking on a cell phone.  What's wrong with this picture?  It is a crazy world we live in.  A schizophrenic one.  People starving & our biggest concern is what "app" to add to our "smartphone".  (I think app stands for application or apparition or appropriate or something like that.)

$.99.  Two bucks.  Three dollars.  FREE.  There are millions to be made buying/selling additional purposes for a telephone.  They are practically traded on the New York Stock Exchange.  Apps are what makes iPHONEs, DROIDs, BLACKBERRYs, PALMs brilliant.  CAVEAT EMPTOR.  There are lots of gimmicks.

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SEVEN WONDERS of my WORLD

In my photographic life, I never set out searching for “wonders”.  I was just bitten by the travel bug.  This list is just a result of attrition.

A few years ago Morgan Freeman & Jack Nicholson made a movie.  Although with top tier stars & a huge budget it was not their best effort but it introduced a phrase into the American lexicon “The Bucket List”;  Places you want to go or things you want to do before you “kick the bucket”.  I think most people dream about it in one way or another.  For most of my travel life it has been foremost in my mind even though I have never given the slightest acknowledgment of death.

The ancients made up a list centuries ago: Seven Wonders of the World.  We memorized it in high school.  The man-made monuments are legends that have lost much of their significance but the concept still lingers:  Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria.

The idea seems a little artificial to me but it begs the question “what are the most amazing things I personally have seen before I die."  Hopefully it has evolved over time & I continually add new phenomena as I get older.

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Worst Airplane Flights

I fly…
Not professionally…but for most of my assignments. And because I so often don’t have feet on the ground I get into a lot of trouble. Not intentionally. Just as an “innocent bystander”.

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From Russia With Love

Touch down at Pulkovo Airport (LED).  Hired car driving me to the hotel in the middle of the city.  Nose pressed to the window, staring out at unfamiliar landscape into a gray light.  Drab, overcast, partially raining.  A new city.  A new country.  The billboards are the only color albeit unintelligible.  A foreign language.  But I spot a word I can almost read.  Then another.  Like a child I phonetically sound out each syllable & guess at the unrecognizable leftovers.  By the time we reach my destination the startling revelation that I can read Russian becomes apparent.

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