Photographers At Work

Originally establishing his reputation in the 1960s as a street and portrait photographer in the style of Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, Meyerowitz has become renowned as one of the first photographers to work successfully with large-format color. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Twenty-eight color and two bandw photographs, as well as an interview with the accomplished photojournalist. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

PhotoWork is a collection of interviews by forty photographers about their approach to making photographs and, more importantly, a sustained body of work. Curator and lecturer Sasha Wolf was inspired to seek out and assemble responses to these questions after hearing from countless young photographers about how they often feel adrift in their own practice, wondering if they are doing it the "right" way. The responses, from both established and newly emerging photographers, reveal there is no single path.

Learn to ask better, more helpful questions of your work so that you can create stronger and more powerful photographs.

Photographers often look at an image—one they’ve either already created or are in the process of making—and ask themselves a simple question: “Is this a good photograph?” It’s an understandable question, but it’s really not very helpful. How are you supposed to answer that? What does “good” even mean? Is it the same for everyone?

What if you were equipped to ask better, more constructive questions of your work so that you could think more intentionally and creatively, and in doing so, bring more specific action and vision to the act of creating photographs? What if asking stronger questions allowed you to establish a more effective approach to your image-making? In The Heart of the Photograph: 100 Questions for Making Stronger, More Expressive Photographs, photographer and author David duChemin helps you learn to ask better questions of your work in order to craft more successful photographs—photographs that express and connect, photographs that are strong and, above all, photographs that are truly yours.

From the big-picture questions—What do I want this image to accomplish?—to the more detail-oriented questions that help you get there—What is the light doing? Where do the lines lead? What can I do about it?—David walks you through his thought process so that you can establish your own. Along the way, he discusses the building blocks from which compelling photographs are made, such as gesture, balance, scale, contrast, perspective, story, memory, symbolism, and much more. The Heart of the Photograph is not a theoretical book. It is a practical and useful book that equips you to think more intentionally as a photographer and empowers you to ask more helpful questions of you and your work, so that you can produce images that are not only better than “good,” but as powerful and authentic as you hope them to be.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Better Questions

PART ONE: A GOOD PHOTOGRAPH?
Is It Good?
The Audience's Good
The Photographer's Good

PART TWO: BETTER THAN GOOD
Better Subjects

PART THREE: BETTER EXPRESSION
Exploration and Expression
What Is the Light Doing?
What Does Colour Contribute?
What Role Do the Lines and Shapes Play?
What's Your Point of View?
What Is the Quality of the Moment?
Where Is the Story?
Where Is the Contrast?
What About Balance and Tension?
What Is the Energy?
How Can I Use Space and Scale?
Can I Go Deeper?
What About the Frame?
Do the Elements Repeat?
Harmony
Can I Exclude More?
Where Does the Eye Go?
How Does It Feel?
Where's the Mystery?
Remember When?
Can I Use Symbols?
Am I Being Too Literal?

PART FOUR: BETTER PHOTOGRAPHS
The Heart of the Photograph
Index

Today, being a professional photographer is about much more than the ability to make a technically perfect image, and photographers need to use many other skills that go beyond the production of a photograph. What are the relationships between photographer and clients really like? How should you prepare for a special effects shoot? What steps should you take to protect your equipment while shooting on location? In Photographers at Work, photographer and best-selling author Martin Evening examines these issues and much more, offering advice to help you succeed in an ever-changing–and challenging–field. Answers to these questions will give you the practical information and guidance you need to make it as a photographer in the creative fields of editorial, design, or advertising. This book takes an in-depth look at the industry, covering key topics that every working photographer needs to know–from working with models, to the legal and safety issues of working on location, to owning and running a studio, securing clients and work, and handling the complex finances of a business. While sharing his personal experience, Evening also introduces you to 18 working photographers and industry pros through video and written interviews in which they share their perspectives on this rapidly changing industry and offer advice to help you succeed as well. Includes links to 12 video interviews (more than 3 hours total runtime) by many of the featured photographers in the book, offering more image examples, anecdotes, and insights into the lives of working photographers. Provides access (available to all readers!) to downloadable Reader's Supplement, a 55-page guide that includes key concepts, terms and definitions, learning objectives, discussion questions, assignments, additional resources, and links to featured photographers. Focuses on all the skills a photographer needs to succeed–from handling the hidden costs of running a studio to finding and working with models to insuring a business. Offers essential tips on how to get started as a photographer, such as where to find clients and how to keep them.

The most well-known celebrity photographer working today focuses on a longtime fascination: dance. This collection of photographs features portraits of Mikhail Baryshnikov, taken over a period of more than ten years, which show the man behind the legend and also includes a selection of photos of other dancers. 30 black-and-white photographs.

The first definitive monograph of color photographs by American street photographer Vivian Maier. Photographer Vivian Maier’s allure endures even though many details of her life continue to remain a mystery. Her story—the secretive nanny-photographer who became a pioneer photographer—has only been pieced together from the thousands of images she made and the handful of facts that have surfaced about her life. Vivian Maier: The Color Work is the largest and most highly curated published collection of Maier’s full-color photographs to date. With a foreword by world-renowned photographer Joel Meyerowitz and text by curator Colin Westerbeck, this definitive volume sheds light on the nature of Maier’s color images, examining them within the context of her black-and-white work as well as the images of street photographers with whom she clearly had kinship, like Eugene Atget and Lee Friedlander. With more than 150 color photographs, most of which have never been published in book form, this collection of images deepens our understanding of Maier, as its immediacy demonstrates how keen she was to record and present her interpretation of the world around her.