This podcast explores the important process “working” a situation, making a variety of images of a given subject, by changing the photographer’s position, the camera’s orientation, the focal length of the lens, etc. Read More
I just spent a good deal of time updating the resources pages on The Wells Point. I also added a couple new categories. The whole point of the resource pages is to introduce photographers to the world of opportunities and resources available to them. Some enable photographers to show or sell imagery while others suggest ways to fund the production of such work. Some of the resources recently changed their URLs, while others have gone out of business. Those can be found starting at https://www.davidhwells.com/resources/ Read More
I had an e-mail exchange recently with student on the question of creativity. He was not asking about software or lens choices, though those are perfectly valid questions at different points. He was asking the biggest, toughest question of all. I was impressed that he was able to articulate the question. He seemed impressed with my answer. That was when I realized that our exchange was worthy of a blog piece. Read More
Gobsmacked is a British colloquial expression meaning flabbergasted, astounded or shocked. It is one of my favorite words, partly because it is a great example of onomatopoeia, where the sound of the word suggests what it describes. I was recently gobsmacked, when my daughter showed me a blurb in a magazine showing a great new idea for a simple technology. I cannot remember if the smacking sound was the result of me slapping the side of my own head or my chin flapping in amazement, but gobsmacked I was. Read More
A week in China is hardly enough time to see much of anything, let alone make any kind of serious analysis. So what I am writing is not remotely all-encompassing. Still, I have been to India enough times and traveled enough in the developing world to be able to make a few reasonably well-informed comparisons. Read More
This podcast portrays the chaotic nature of road traffic in Bangalore, India Read More
While en route to Guangzhou, China, we spent a few fascinating days in Hong Kong. A series of events got me thinking about the old “is photography art?” question. I am not sure that such a question is ever really likely to be fully “settled.” Based on what I saw and did while in Hong Kong, I added a couple of new perspectives to my own thinking about that question. Proof again that one benefit of going half way around the world is that you see things differently after such a trip. Read More
I am on my way to China. I am not going on any work assignment. I am going to accompany my wife, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, (http://annumatthew.com/) who has work in the Guangzhou Photo Biennial. The hosts at the museum (and the University of Rhode Island) have been especially generous in making her trip possible. Our abundance of frequent flier miles has made it possible for me to go also. I am going to see China, obviously, but I am also going to see if I can get any perspective on what has changed in China since I went there back in 1986. Read More
In the first part of this two-part posting, I explained the basics of organized portfolio review events. Today, I am writing to share some of the things I learned having been on both sides of the portfolio-reviewing table, as a reviewer and a review-ee. Many (but not all) of the errors I allude to are mistakes I actually made at one point or another. Read More
A portfolio review is when you show your work to another person (duh). A portfolio review event is a more formalized event where reviewers (editors, curators, image buyers, agents, etc.) gather in one place with explicit plans to look at the work of the review-ees (in our case, photographers.) Portfolio review events have a long and important history in the world of photography. They have also recently turned into something of a big business. Having been both a reviewer and a review-ee, I can offer perspectives from both sides of the portfolio-reviewing table. Read More