PKR - Live and learn. I posted the same OP on LUF and the reaction was better, without the imputation of motives. But this, and "constant" you speak of is what makes this board often boring.
The funny thing is that, in my view, the photos on this board are generally better than on LUF. In the LUF thread someone who took a DAH workshop in NYC last year wrote that DAH is "
simply saying put your vision ahead of the gear. The right gear will fall into place once you know what kind of photographer you are, want to be, and the message you want to send. Everything else is just details."
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Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine
Let me tell you about an old friend. We'll call her Meg, because some would figure out who she is.
In my early film days, I did as much busness as possible with a local camera store, who's co-owner was a friend. They were always struggling to stay afloat. When I bought Kodachrome, I would buy it in 100+ roll batches, after testing available emulsions. The store had a Kodak contract, but often didn't have the money to order big batches. So, I paid in advance. They had rental darkrooms that were used by local art photo students. My friend was a grad of the local art school. So, you have a picture of the environment.
In talking to my friend, he asked me to look at the work a women was printing in the rental lab. I met her one afternoon and saw a couple of B&W pictures she was trying to print. This women had almost no technical skill. The darkroom assistant, Danny, was trying to help her but was frustrated. Danny, another grad of the local art school, and I were friends.
I told her that my friend, the store owner, asked me to look at her work. She showed me a couple of prints- poorly printed; but I knew at once, she was very talented, though knew little about photography.
This women was very high strung and very difficult to teach. She had it in her mind that this photography stuff was difficult. Danny took one of the negatives and with her watching made an acceptable print at first try. She wanted to be able to do that. 5 prints later her mouth was hanging open at what could be done with her negative.
Meg was an attractive women. It turns out that she earned her living by taking her cloths off at a local high end strip club. With the money she made working, she put herself through the nearby top ten university, and earned an MFA.
She wanted to document the lives of her coworkers, and had started the project months before we met. She had a simple film camera, A Nikkormat and one lens, as I recall. She learned how to operate the camera and was comfortable with it. Keep things simple and she was okay.
My work schedule kept me from visits to the camera store, but Danny, also recognizing her talent, taught her how to make acceptable prints. Fast forward about a year, and she has a stack of prints for her project. In short, it became a book in no time.
A few months pass and she is offered a job shooting small fashion assignments for Macy's. With Danny's printing help and a lot of encouragement from her photo friends, she made quick work of these simple assignments. A few of these pictures were run as half or full page adds in a big (no name) newspaper. She couldn't believe her minor success. She kept taking these small assignments for about a year. One of the Macy's art directors offered her a contract.. to make the photographs for the daily run half page ad in the big newspaper. She was afraid. She wanted it but, it came with some extremely heavy requirements. The images had to be made with a 2 1/4, or larger camera, and she had to use studio flash when it was called for.
By this time she was making good money from Macy's and no longer took her cloths off in front of a bunch of men in the evening. At the camera store owners suggestion, she bought a Hasselblad with an 80 and rented some studio flash gear.
I didn't know about all of this because of out of town travel, but one day I got a panic call from my camera store friend. Meg has a Hasselblad and needs to learn how to load film into the back. Danny is on his way to her studio, can you help? Meg's new studio was a block away from mine. I knocked on the door and was greeted by a women who was in need of serious Psychological help. I'm not good with crazy women. She had this new camera she knew nothing about, and some lights that were from outer space and a Macy's deadline. Danny showed up. We loaded the single back she had and set up her lights. We told Meg we would stick around until her assignment was ready for processing. She could now afford the expensive B&W printer in our neighborhood. He could print circles around her and made her stuff look great.
Fast forward again... and every week day, when I opened the big paper, I would see her work. At worst, it was good, at best, it was wonderful. Meg did this 5 day photo thing for Macy's for several years. I rarely saw her but heard stories of various fashion groups sending her to Egypt, and other exotic places to photograph their products.
I was visiting with my store owner friend one day and he says, did you hear about Meg? I said no.. he says, I got a letter from her. She met some famous film director in Europe and got married. She closed her studio and now helps with his film work and makes art with her camera.. and lived happily ever after!
It's about being able to see.
Edit: I was curious, as I hadn't beard much about my old friend in a long time. She has an unusual name, so I'm sure it's her: IMDb has her credited as writer for 5 films, Director for 2 and producer and editor for 1 each.
