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
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
I am starting an interesting assignment in California. So far, it has been a lot of fun, but it has also been a great deal of hard work. To be honest, because I do not work on as many assignments as I once did, I was worried I would be rusty. In fact it has been quite the opposite. All the skills I developed over the decades that I was doing assignment work came back to me easily, a bit like riding a bicycle (or motorcycle.) Thinking about them led me to writing them down as a blog post. Read More
In the last week, I have been editing lots of images, looking at thousands and cutting those down to hundreds (or less.) Over the years, I have become a pretty fast editor who can easily articulate why an image does (or does not) work. When a good friend told me she was having trouble editing down her own work, I walked her through some strategies to help her improve her editing skills. By the time we were finished, I realized our conversation was “made” to be a blog entry. Read More
I am writing today about a variety of resources for photographers. Of course, the major one that I am thinking about is The Wells Point web site. Yes, this could easily be interpreted as a shameless self-promotion. I prefer to think of it as an information-advisory about all the valuable things on the site. Read the whole post and then you decide. Read More
This podcast explores the experience of call center workers in Bangalore, India Read More
When mid April rolls around, many things seem to happen all at once. Tax day is the most obvious one. For many photographers in the chilly North East, April is the time to start venturing outside again to photograph regularly. For me, mid-April also means I can start riding my motorcycle after the long winter hiatus. I was out riding recently and I ended up thinking about the similarities (and differences) between the folks outside enjoying their cameras and enjoying their motorcycles. Read More