My dad was a fantastic photographer. He wasn’t a pro, but he was (and is) a proud and loving husband and father who enjoyed taking photos of his family, and he knew how to compose, account for exposure, and capture emotion beautifully. And it was with his encouragement and support that I became a photographer. My first camera was an Olympus point-and-shoot he purchased for my 12th birthday. I brought it to Summer Camp that year and shot with it until it was stolen in a break-in about 25 years later. The first SLR I owned was a 1969 Canon FTb, which my dad bought when he learned my mom was pregnant and I was on the way. That camera accompanied me on a 6-week mission trip to Peru between my high school junior and senior years and it traveled with me to 13 countries on three continents when I spent a year abroad in college. It’s the camera I shot with while studying photography after receiving my degree in Literature (which my dad rightly suggested I pursue in lieu of something as horrible as pre-law) and it’s what I used to shoot professionally until it, too, was stolen in a break-in. In both cases, it wasn’t so much the loss of the equipment, but the loss of the memories of the equipment that I still feel sad about. I’ve been fortunate enough to work along side some of the country’s premier photographers-Paul Elledge, Danny Clinch, Kwaku Alston, , Dennis Manarchy, Andy Goodwin, Jessica Tampas, Andre LaCour, and so many others—and I’ve been a part of teams who’ve created iconic images, photos you’ve seen on billboards and on the covers of magazines. I’m incredibly happy that my grade-school classmate and friend, Colleen Plumb, is an instructor of photography at Columbia College and that I own not only one of her beautiful prints, but also her book, Animals Are Outside Today. I’m fortunate to have been a part of a class of talented assistants such as Brian Eaves Flint Chaney, Jacob Hand, Lisa Predko and Andrew Williamson who themselves have become amazing photographers. And I’m proud to be surrounded by young and incredibly talented peers such as Alain Milotti, Alissa Pagels, Lizz Giordano and others who I collaborate with regularly to better our work. My career has taken me throughout the world; I’ve shot rockstars, politicians, celebrities, titans of industry and hundreds of amazing and beautiful couples and families. But most of my favorite photographs are not my own, are images that never made it into magazines, and that were never displayed in galleries or museums. They are images of my mom when she and my dad were newly married. They’re photos of me on a vacation in Ireland at 7 years old holding up a beautiful 2lb trout I landed while fishing and smiling like I’d just saved the world. They’re photos of my junior high football teammates making game-saving plays. They’re slides housed in carousels in my parent’s home and they were shot by my dad. Happy father’s day to my mentor and my best friend.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:44:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015