The Everyday and the Searching Eye

Photography for me has always been about the imagery and never really about the business of being a photographer. That I tended to leave to professionals, like my lawyer, accountant and business manager. All I really ever wanted to do was shoot. I knew how the rest worked and how to do it, but I chose not to involve myself in the day to day grind of running a business,except for the need to interrelate with people. That I enjoyed doing. As I look back now on 40 some years as a photographer, I realize that the people I met were equally as important to my career as the images I captured. They added a rich depth to my images and rewarded my efforts with lasting glimpses into another's perspective on life,living and humanity. Now, as I move from assignment work towards more rewarding efforts in documentary and fine art photography, I find I am looking forward as much to the interaction with potential subjects as to the imagery it will produce. I also am beginning to realize that great imagery and stories are no further away than your own front door! Not, that I would turn down any opportunity to go to the far ends of the earth for an image or story, but rather that great stories and images are right here at home in the meantime.

I think that many of us, tend to ignore the obvious, in favour of the exotic, when often the obvious is just as rewarding. Some of the greatest social historians amongst us realized that and accomplished some of their most memorable work right here at home. Bruce Davidson comes to mind ahead of most others, with his bodies of work shot throughout the United States. Works such as East 100th Street are magnificent examples of great works and stories found at home as opposed to halfway across the world. Now an octogenarian, Davidson is still shooting and publishing as well as being shown in the art world worldwide. Of course, photographers such as Elliot Erwitt, Diane Arbus , Eugene Smith and Robert Frank all fall into this same category and have produced some equally compelling work. I can not place myself in that company, by any means, but I do feel compelled to try and see the world around me from my kitchen window,rather than than the window of an airplane.