When I worked as a MUSIC and fashion photographer, I always had the nagging feeling that there was something missing, that I wasn't using my skills productively. I gave up photography - I walked away from it completely - and STARTED doing CAREWORK.
The photographer begins to FEELBIG and bloated and so big he can't walk through one of these doors because he gets a GOOD byline; he gets notices all over the world and so forth; but they're really - the IMPORTANT people are the people he photographs.
Well, I LIKED it - that was the main thing. I liked it, but I didn't THINK of it in terms of a career. I didn't REALLY know; I didn't really think about it. One thing just LED to another until finally I QUIT my job as a salesman and found myself working as a photographer.
Whatever it takes to get the image to reach that level is what that photographer NEEDS to do. And for me, I just have such a LOVE of the tactile and sensuous QUALITY of a black and white SILVER gelatin print.
To me, that is the essence of me as a photographer. It is those IDEAS, working with them, formulating them and eventually PUTTING them down on PAPER, photographing them and then GOING on to the NEXT step.
I don't THINK at that TIME I REALIZED how important it was and how important it was for me to be here and CARRY on that legacy in our FAMILY of being a photographer.
I LOVE it when a photographer LETS me create my own movement and feeling to the images. By that I mean he doesn't restrict me in his or her own ideas but RATHER gives me a direction and lets me work WITHIN those boundaries freely.
My FIRST big job was an Abercrombie &Fitch CAMPAIGN. But my MOM wouldn't let me skip school for it, so I missed half of the shoot. When we got there, we realized Bruce Weber was the photographer; we KNEW we had made a mistake!
I KNOW that sometimes the chemistry just isn't there between the model, photographer, hair and make-up. It's NOBODY's fault and you just have to do BETTER next time.