“RNP the Blog”

I have hinted at some updates in previous posts and I can finally share the news. I have signed with Wonderful Machine. Wonderful Machine is a full service agency that helps art buyers find photographers. They represent some amazing photographers in various cities throughout the United States and beyond. I am honored to join the ranks and represent Kansas City along with Kenny Johnson.

My buddy and fellow photographer Brandon Sullivan is also a member shooting out of my old stomping grounds of Phoenix. Some other personal favorites working with Wonderful Machine are Brian Smith out of Miami, Max Gerber out of Los Angeles, and Bob O’Connor out of Boston. I am very happy to be hanging in such good company.

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Via Amy Stein’s blog

Very interesting read from The Atlantic magazine regarding some controversy surrounding a recent Newsweek magazine cover image of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin that was not retouched.

Link to Article

Link to Image

Again I am fascinated that retouching has become so ingrained in our culture that a major news magazine would be expected by some segment of the population to retouch its images. Of course the subject of the photo and the stakes of the game she is currently involved in have a lot to do with controversy.

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One of my all time favorite photographers is Dan Winters. He is one of the few photographers whose work is generally respected and well received by everyone in the industry. Basically he is one of the few photographers that just about everyone agrees is an amazing photographer.

I was surprised recently to see that his work for New York Magazine (specifically the 40th Anniversary edition) was generally not well received at least by the folks commenting on the work online. A slide show of the piece can be viewed here and be sure to check out the comments for some of the “backlash.” I think it is the first time I have ever scene the word awful and Dan Winters in the same sentence.

Just a couple of thoughts. I was lucky enough to do a workshop with Dan a couple years ago and don’t have a single negative thing to say about him as a person or a photographer. The man is doing what he was made to do and does it at a level that I aspire to and does it without any ego or pretense. I think highly of him so I am admitting my bias.

I have to say I was really surprised by all the negative comments. I was surprised that many people brought up the issue of retouching and how the people looked in the photographs. As if a photographer’s primary job is to make people look better than they really look. Certainly there is a time and place for that type of work but if you read the written introduction to the piece the entire work was created around the idea of “real” New York actors. The shots were obviously shot to present the actors as themselves, real people, real New Yorkers.

I would also think in this day and age of Photoshop and over retouching that people would respond in a positive matter to work that is real and not over produced and over retouched. To cut through all the glossy pretense and see real people lurking with their flaws and imperfections. Maybe it is just me that has reached that point…

I love work in this vain and remember Dan talking about his desire as a photographer to take interesting photographs. I think that explains the piece perfectly. Interesting. I know Dan would take that as a compliment.

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One of the things that I am continually drawn to as a photographer is texture. Whether it be an old gas pump outside of Palmdale, California (by the way the price of gas was stuck on 13 cents a gallon):

Or a weathered red wall in Park City, Utah:

It is generally the first thing I look for when I am out location scouting (which is what I was doing when I shot both of these images). Basically I am drawn to texture like a moth to a flame.

I have been thinking lately about what it is about texture that draws my visual interest and it hit me at dinner tonight. As we were finishing up dinner my youngest daughter slipped on her chair and hit her mouth against our kitchen table. After we nursed her bloody lip we looked at the table to see if we could figure out where she hit and sure enough she made a nice indentation on the table with her teeth. Immediately our relatively new table become much more interesting to me, it has a new story to tell, a bit of history to share. As a one time teacher of history none of this is a surprise. Part of the reason I liked history was the narrative element of the classes.

Ultimately as a photographer I want my images to tell a story and things with texture and people with wrinkles tend to have more stories to tell than brand new all weather siding and a face full of botox.

So in my mind the weathered wall in Park City wanted to tell me about the winter of 1985 when a young couple shared their first kiss leaning against it and the old gas pump wanted to tell me about the amazing blonde that filled up her red convertible in September of 1939 before the world went crazy.

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For the first time I am entering a contest. The Kansas City Freelance Exchange is holding their annual Freebe awards and I am in the process of deciding what to enter.

Here are what I feel are my strongest options:

Lifelock campaign:

Miss America editorial:

Susie Castillo editorial:

My fellow photographers would tell me to enter the Susie Castillo image because the lighting/setting is unique and grungy (us photographers love grungy).

My mom would tell me to enter the Miss America shots because they are pretty.

My friends in the Advertisting world would tell me to enter the Lifelock campaign because you know it is a national campaign.

Of course I could just suck it up and enter all three.

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If you have been following along (and I know you have been) welcome to the new website and blog. If you would like to subscribe via e-mail input your e-mail address in the “Feed Burner–Subscribe Via E-mail” box  in the upper right hand corner. The posts will then be delivered automatically to your e-mail. You can also point your reader in the direction of this blog to stay up to date with the latest post. If you have any questions or need some guidance just ask.

Now that I have the site up and running I promise to start blogging a little more regularly.

Thanks for sticking it out with me.

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