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Showing posts with label philadelphia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philadelphia. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2012
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Reinterpretation
view gallery: Reinterpretation
She was my first love. I found her on the pages of “Life Magazine” and hanging from the walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts. She was small, rich in the colors of black and white. She was the representation of an artist’s reaction to life. She was the etchings of Rembrandt and Brueghel and the photographs of Weston and Smith. Her images were honest, brutal and beautiful. She inspired my first black and white photographs. It was love at first sight. It became my method of interpretation of life as I felt it.
Musicians often reinterpret their work. Visual artists tend to create with the sprit of one and done. While visual artists might work on a theme or style for a series we seldom go back to the single original and rework it.
Recently I have had occasion to revisit some recent photographs. A client had asked me to convert a couple images into black and white. I did not simply do an image>mode>grayscale in Photoshop but I went back to the original raw file and completely reworked it. It was like bumping into my first love all over again. Seeing these images anew in Black and White rekindled a passion that had been left behind.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Advice to a New Photographer
| News Flash! The Photography Industry is not dead. It is not even dying. Good photographers, with good business and marketing skills are earning good money every day in every niche of this industry. It is not easy. It is not fair. If you want to be a fashion photographer and you live in Montana, forget it. But if you can match your skills to the needs of your area and if you know how to market yourself, you can make it. I have been working full time as a photographer since 1982. I can honestly tell you that each year, in fact almost every month, some photographer laments that the gig is up. They are right it was up for them but not for others. I will say that starting out in this industry is not for the faint of heart or those who need lots of cash flow right away. Like the music industry or being a professional athlete few, very few will make it and even fewer will rise to the top. So how to start? I would suggest that you make a list of photographers whose work and career you admire. Then I would camp out at their doors. When they say go away, I would go away for a week and camp out again. I would do this over and over again until somebody gives me a break and lets me in. I would not ask for money. I would fine a way to support myself during the night or better yet, on weekends. I would just hang out and learn as much as possible. Do this long enough, a year or so, and you will know what your next step is. It is a very hard road and it might not be for you. That's ok. In twenty years of running my own studio. I have seen assistants’ come and go. Only one as made it to the ranks of being a true professional photographer and supporting himself well. You might be better off with a career in web design or information technology and just enjoying photographing for its pure pleasure. If a professional career is what you seek then follow the road to the brightest doors. People like to blame the demise of Photographic Profession on digital cameras. They say it makes it to easy to take a decent picture. Has anyone noticed how word processors have made a dent in the book business? Has anyone noticed that having the latest version of Word makes people better writers? I am not saying it’s easy, it never was. But, it is still doable if you have the talent, the discipline, the ambition and the people skills. A little luck also helps. Sincerely, Zave Smith | |
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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