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WHERE PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO SHOOT IN BLACK AND WHITE COME TO LEARN, SHARE AND GROW
How Project Photography Can Elevate Your Work
Most photographers shoot reactively. Something interesting appears and they respond to it. Project photography is the opposite and the difference in what it produces is significant. Here is why committing to a subject over time is one of the most powerful things a photographer can do.
Seven Reasons to Actually Upgrade Your Gear
The photography industry is very good at making you feel like your current gear is not enough. Most of the time it is wrong. But sometimes upgrading is genuinely the right call. Here is how to tell the difference.
Many Years in the making: The Monochrome Triangle
Why do some black and white photographs stop you completely while others, technically accomplished and carefully processed, leave you feeling nothing? I have finally found a way to answer it.
Wabi Sabi and the Beauty of the Imperfect Photograph
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic philosophy that finds beauty in imperfection and impermanence. It is not a filter or a style. It is a way of seeing. And once you understand it, you will never look at a photograph the same way again.
Take the Cliché Photograph
The advice is everywhere. Do not take the same photograph as everyone else. Find a unique angle. Push past the obvious shot. It is good advice. It is also incomplete. Here is what it leaves out.
The Secret to Depth in a Black and White Photograph
A photograph is flat. It has no actual depth. Everything that makes a black and white image feel three dimensional is an illusion. Here is how to construct that illusion deliberately rather than accidentally.
What Sebastião Salgado Teaches Us About Making Work That Matters
Sebastião Salgado spent four decades photographing people the world preferred not to look at. This week those photographs are selling for six figures at auction in New York. Here is what that means and what it teaches us.
How to Think Like an Editor Of A Novel
A novelist without an editor is a photographer without a filter. The work might be brilliant. But without someone asking the hard questions it will never be as good as it could be. Here is how to be your own editor.
How to Build a Portfolio That Actually Gets Looked At
Foto's portfolio feature is one of the best tools available to photographers right now for sharing a body of work. Most people are not using it well. Here is how to change that.
A Novel Way To Measure Progress
Last night at Open Studios someone asked me to tell them about a photograph on the wall. What came out of my mouth told me more about my progress as a photographer than any comparison of old work to new ever has.
The More You Practice the Luckier You Get
The more I practice the luckier I get. It sounds like false modesty. It is actually one of the most precise descriptions of how creative skill develops that anyone has ever put into words.
The Day My Hard Drive Died and What It Taught Me
I have been working on a new backup strategy. Last week the external SSD holding my black and white photo library corrupted without warning. The recovery process is still ongoing. Here is what that experience taught me about the photographs we take for granted.