26-NOV-2018
iPhone selfie, Phoenix, Arizona, 2018
I rarely make selfies, but felt it was about time to try one. I used window lighting, and include one of my favorite images, a framed photograph of Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite National Park, in the background. It adds a bit of context to the image. I converted it to black and white and warmed it a touch with sepia to remove the color on the wall, the colors on me, and the color in the photograph. All that color competed with the subject of the picture: myself.
18-JUN-2008
A man in a favored place to find expressive images, by Tim May, Jacksonville, Oregon, 2009
Tim finds me here me at work in a favored place, indeed. I am fascinated by the past, and how people, in their grief, create funerary monuments to remember their loved ones. Tim devotes most of this image to my surroundings, a vast cemetery in Jacksonville, Oregon. There is a sense of tranquility here. Symbolically, Tim portrays me as “pausing along the road of life” amidst reminders of those who have already traveled that path. Tim also makes sure to feature the dead leaves that litter its length. He also contrasts my size, as well as the small scale of the gravestones, to the massive arch of living trees that fill the frame overhead. Tim and I are shooting together at the same time and in the same place. Yet he is telling a different story than I am with the image I am making at this moment. The grave marker before me is white, while those that surround it are gray. By using my spot meter, I make the gray stones, shrouded in shadow, much darker. You can see my image, and the sad story it tells, here:
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/114571835/original
09-APR-2009
Wild West, by Tim May, Tucson, Arizona, 2009
I saw this shot for the first time in the spring of 2015, a full six years after Tim May made it just outside of Tucson's Amtrak Station. He found me photographing the life-sized sculptures of famed lawmen Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, which stand on the station's platform. The statues commemorate Earp's "Vendetta Ride" following the murder of his brother Morgan in the aftermath of the 1881 gunfight at Tombstone's OK Corral. Earp and Holliday pursued Frank Stilwell, one of Morgan's killers, to Tucson, and killed him at this train station. Tim finds a moment in time when my arms echo the body language of the statues. My face is partially hidden by my cap, while the faces of the statues are obscured in shadow. Tim desaturated this image to "make me appear more like the statues I am standing next to."
27-OCT-2014
Teaching, by Britta Higgins, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2014
Britta Higgins made this striking portrait of me as part of an exercise in portraiture during her field work in a one on one tutorial. She selected an area in a nearby shopping center that was finished in rough hewn stonework. I stood in a spot where light faded into deep shadow, and I was instructing her in the use of spot metering to "paint a portrait with light and shadow." That is exactly what she does here. Britta's portrait captures my enthusiasm for teaching, which I express through gesture and expression. The colors in this image were significantly altered by the vast contrast between light and shadow in the image. I later converted her image to a light sepia tone, which removes those problematical colors and replaces them with a vintage mood, right out of the old west.
25-MAR-2008
Portrait, by Kathy Khuner, Ranthambore, India, 2008
Kathy Khuner, a pbase photographer whose work can be seen at
http://www.pbase.com/kjkhuner, made this portrait of me just before leaving for a game drive through India’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve back in 2008. (She found this image in her files and sent it on to me in 2011. I am a little older and perhaps somewhat wiser, but the essentials are the same.) I wear this outback hat for shoots in the sun. It has a cord that I use to lash it to my head while riding in windy, uncovered vehicles. It also offers a ventilated crown, which I find ideal for keeping cool. I like this portrait because it finds me relatively relaxed and comfortable in my surroundings.
09-DEC-2010
Relaxation, by Connor Whooley, Phoenix, Arizona, 2010
Most of the images in this gallery were made of me either making photographs or else talking about them. In this case, my 17 year old grandson caught me over the Thanksgiving weekend relaxing at home in my favorite chair with a newspaper in hand. (A closer study shows that I am actually reading about cameras and electronics – subjects never far from my mind.) What I like most about this shot is the way Connor uses the newspaper as a reflector to bounce window light back on to my face. I am also wearing an ancient University of Michigan sweatshirt – which I traditionally don on the day of Michigan’s annual season-ending game with Ohio State. Despite Michigan’s painfully lopsided loss, I seem to have nicely recovered my equilibrium here. Photographs can say much about people, active or not. In this case it is the relative inactivity that tells the story. (I made this image by scanning a snapshot, which accounts for the lack of info on the camera used, exposure, etc.)
29-MAY-2010
Sharing ideas, by Rosemarie Astwood, Boise, Idaho, 2010
Pbase artist Rosemarie Astwood (
http://www.pbase.com/sunlightpix ) made this photograph of me as I was sharing some of my photographs via my iPad at the Boise Airport. She captured not only my enthusiasm for sharing ideas, but also a bit of character as well.
23-MAY-2010
Finding ghosts, by Tim May, Nevada City, Montana, 2010
I was framing a shot from between abandoned freight cars near the Nevada City ghost town when my friend pbase artist Tim May made this image of me. Tim uses the rail cars to abstract most of me – they show the wear and tear of time, which was exactly what I was searching for in my own shot.
28-APR-2009
The teacher, by Rusty Latshaw, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009
Rusty Latshaw (
http://www.pbase.com/russellt ) has traveled from Pennsylvania to Arizona four times since 2006 to work with me in my one on one tutorial training sessions. He made dozens of images of me during the two days we worked together, but the one we both liked the best was this portrait he made of me working with him in my office. He catches a characteristic hand gesture – I was expressing how and why I feel about the point at hand, and I seem to be referring to myself by bringing my hands towards myself. He also frames me within my environment, surrounded by the softly focused stuff that accompanies my iMac computer. (We can even see about half of my dog curled up within my desktop image.) And finally, there are all those pairs of glasses. I was wearing my computer glasses at the moment, but my regular glasses hang from my neck so I don’t have to hunt them down when I next need them. I think this is among the most expressive images as I’ve seen of myself in the role of a teacher.
08-OCT-2008
At Midway Basin, by Rosemarie Astwood, Yellowstone National Park, 2008
I was delighted to find this image in Rosemarie’s latest Yellowstone gallery on pbase (
http://www.pbase.com/sunlightpix/yellowstone_country_2008 ) She writes in her caption: “Phil is an outstanding photographer and has taught me many lessons, including composing with less sky, and looking at things in new ways. I observed him enraptured with a composition, and took his portrait, then flipped it upside down. Phil seems so happy taking pictures – he reminds me of Fred Astaire in the movie “Royal Wedding,” when he’s so happy that he dances upside down on the ceiling.”
I left this comment for Rosemarie: “This is a remarkable image – the flip does wonders for it, and so do the primary colors of my parka and hat. I can vouch for the happy feeling I get when making pictures, but I am considered a hazard on the dance floor.”
Rosemarie responds: “I was drawn to the primary colors when I composed this portrait. You are the red and yellow, combined with the blue into a trio of bold color. I was very careful to not include any sky, since I was getting a deeper blue from the reflection. And the steam makes a great background. Then I wanted to take it to another level to try to capture the “head over heels” joy that photography imparts.”
With this image, Rosemarie shows us that a successful portrait need not always show human features – but it should always express something about the character or interests of the subject. In this case, her image says that I love what I do, and that I often try to do it in a colorful way, Fred Astaire not withstanding.
08-JAN-2008
Pied Piper, by Tim May, Long Xuyen, Vietnam, 2008
They seldom see tourists in Long Xuyen. And so we drew a crowd of children wherever we walked in this Mekong River town. In this image, pbase artist Tim May catches me doing my best Pied Piper impersonation. No matter where we walked in this neighborhood of Long Xuyen, groups of laughing children followed us. They were fascinated with my camera, and at one point we must have had twenty kids watching, and commenting upon, our every move. None of them asked us for money, and none tried to sell us trinkets, as children did in other Vietnamese cities. All they wanted to do was to follow us, watch us, laugh at us and with us. To these children, I must have like an absurd visitor from another planet, making pictures of ordinary things they all took for granted. Seeing myself here as they must have seen me, I’d have to agree.
05-JAN-2008
Sharing, by Tim May, Can Tho, Vietnam, 2008
This image offers a great contrast in cultural trappings – I am draped in flopping masses of green and khaki, while the monk is draped in a simple orange robe. I am giving him a two minute crash course in expressive photography, and although he might not have understood all of my words, I hoped that he would understand the universal language of photography. I am amused by seeing all of the technology I have come to take for granted when I am shooting in the field – I rely on two digital cameras, a large watch, a handy pen, not to mention all the other stuff that is bulging in the pockets of my photographer’s vest and the computer, and battery chargers awaiting me back in the hotel room. I even wear a tiny Vietnamese flag on my floppy ventilated hat – a gesture of recognition to all of the kind people I encountered in the streets and fields of Vietnam, people just like this gracious monk who so patiently observes me here at my great passion -- teaching. Thanks, Tim, for making this example showing how others saw me in the streets of Vietnam in the first week of 2008.
In synch, by Celia Lim, Malacca, Malaysia, 2007
Celia Lim (
http://www.pbase.com/cecilialim ) catches me sitting next to my friend and fellow pbase photographer Tim May in the sanctuary of Malacca’s ancient Cheng Hoong Tang Temple. We are waiting for Celia to finish shooting her own images, and use the time to check our own progress, editing our work on the fly. Celia sees me as mirror image of Tim – we are wearing the same brand of shooting vest (Domke) and even the same brand of shirt (Ex-Officio), hold our cameras before us in the same way, tilt our eyes towards our LCD screens together, thereby highlighting the fact that we both have less on top than we used to have. Celia links us to the context of the temple by including a pair of windows above us, windows that rhythmically repeat our side-by-side positions. Celia says in her own caption for this image that “over the years of shooting together, Phil and Tim have become quite in synch with each other. They can even anticipate how the other will likely see or shoot an image.” She is correct – I often find myself shooting a “Timesque” image, and Tim will often repay the compliment. Tim and I have shot and edited side by side all over the world. Here, in Malacca’s Cheng Hoong Tang Temple, we seem joined at the hip.
Community, by Cecilia Lim, Singapore, 2007
My outstretched left arm seems to be the focal point of this image, made by Malaysian pbase artist Celia Lim (
http://www.pbase.com/cecilialim ) following a magical day of shooting with a group of fellow pbase photographers in Singapore in late August, 2007. We had pulled four tables together at a local Starbucks, and turned the room into an impromptu conference center. Although everyone appears to living this moment in their own unique way here, the interplay of hands and arms lends a sense of community to the scene. The cameras in the foreground speak of our mutual passion. Our Singapore shoot was graciously hosted by pbase artist Ai Li Lim ( no relation to Cecila ), who sits at left center.
29-APR-2008
Tutor, by Rusty Latshaw, Phoenix, Arizona, 2008
Rusty (
http://www.pbase.com/russellt ) has traveled from Pennsylvania to Arizona three times in three years to work with me in my one on one tutorial training sessions. He made hundreds of images during his two days with me, but the one that we both liked the best was a portrait he made of me during lunch in a very dark restaurant. Rusty has come to appreciate the value of shadow as an abstracting medium, and in this image he makes use of shadow to its full extent. Using a single bulb in an overhead fixture as his light source, Rusty finds me in a reflective mood. I was studying the menus of my own camera at the moment, and had no idea he was photographing me. He uses a high ISO to make the image, which largely envelops me in darkness. It is an appropriate darkness – our time together was filled with explorations that involved mutual discoveries and many unknowns. The image is intimate and subdued, an interlude of unusual silence, a rare moment during our intensive interplay of teaching and learning.
16-SEP-2007
With Tim May at the Summer Palace by Shirley Wang, Beijing, China, 2007
Shirley has placed my friend and travel companion Tim on one side of a tree and has me emerging from the other. She beautifully abstracts us with backlight, using the leaves of the tree as a counterpoint. I love how she stresses our varying approaches to the camera, too. I am looking down into my flip up viewfinder, while Tim presses his camera to his eye. We are virtually joined here – yet each of us is shooting in different directions.
17-SEP-2007
On the Great Wall, by Tim May, Mutianyu, China, 2007
Tim, who has tracked my adventures around the world, abstracts me here – I am not as much Phil Douglis as I am a photographer, exploring one of the greatest ruins on earth. The day was foggy, and Tim does not try to remake the image as it would look on a sunny day. Fog can be delightful weather for photography because it can hide as much as it can reveal and Tim tells it like it was. The moment Tim selects is a very characteristic one. I carry my hands away from the body, as if to gain traction on the uneven roadway. My head is down, seemingly giving me an air of determination. Actually I am watching each step – the uneven road is a recipe for disaster. Tim is standing within one of the wall’s towers, and he frames my distant figure within an arch that was built in the age of the Mongol invasions. I walk into history here – and that is what I probably love to do the most when I travel.
05-DEC-2007
Student and Mentor, by Vera Saltzman, Ottawa, Canada, 2007
When I challenged my new student Vera Saltzman (
http://www.pbase.com/saltzman40 ) to practice by becoming her own model, she not only took me up on it – she also decided to include me in the bargain. She says “this is a standard spot to find me lately; in front of Phil Douglis’ website, studying pictures.” It occurs to me that this is how everyone I’ve met on pbase must first see me –- staring back at them from the front of my cyberbook as an array of colored pixels on a computer monitor. Such is the nature of cyberlearning. The day may well come, however, as it has for many of my other pbase students, when I will get to meet Vera face to face, cameras in hand, as we share a shooting adventure together. Until then, I will imagine her as she appears here, sitting in the darkness wearing an orange fleece, skillfully juggling new concepts such as abstraction, incongruity and human values. Meanwhile, Vera will gradually come to know me through my writings and images, as well as by studying the many remarkable photographs in this particular gallery that have been made of me by other pbase students over the years. This image shows that Vera is a quick learner – she uses color and abstraction to tell the story of learning, which is a human value.
25-OCT-2007
Thinkers and teachers, electronic collage by Marcia Manzello, 2007
Marcia Manzello created this striking electronic collage by combining Peggy Hammond’s 2003 portrait of me (
http://www.pbase.com/image/33919891) with my own 2007 photograph of a Confucian Temple in Nanjing, China. (
http://www.pbase.com/image/86307890) By placing Peggy’s portrait of me, which relies largely on hands, just below the crossed hands of Confucius, she creates a strong symbolic linkage that expresses thought. I am struggling to know, while the serene hands of Confucius seem to already know. The incense sticks and smoke add a spiritual context to this linkage. Marcia speaks here of what I am and what I do -- I put much thought into my work, and then I teach what I learn. Marcia takes what had been reality, and by copying, pasting, merging and blending two images into one, she expresses her idea beautifully through fantasy.
01-SEP-2007
Double Vision, by Tim May, Maur, Malaysia, 2007
This is the only image (so far) in this gallery that not only shows how another photographer sees me, but also another observer. The man watching me work here brings his arms inwards, and appears to be quite relaxed. In contrast, I seem to be gasping for air. Two old geezers – one is passive, the other active. As Tim notes in his caption (
http://www.pbase.com/mityam/image/87404543) , “as we travel, many people look at what we are photographing and seem to wonder what in the heck we see. We see the world with new eyes – to them it is every day stuff.” Tim loves to photograph visual puns, and this image is a double play on the word “vision” in the sign just behind us. Both parties here wear glasses, and there is a large pair of spectacles on that sign. It also underscores another point: expressive photographers are often fixated on using their vision well. One more bonus here is the striking pink pair of trousers in the background, worn by our Malaysian host, pbase photographer Cecilia Lim. She and her husband Chor traveled with us through Singapore and China as well – and those pink trousers often helped us keep her in sight.
30-AUG-2007
At the Singapore River, by Ai Li Lim, Singapore, 2007
Our group of pbase photographers was photographing a group of statues on the bank of the Singapore River, life sized sculptures of children seemingly about to jump in for a swim. Our Singapore host, Ai Li Lim, (
http://www.pbase.com/limaili ) , manages to find the moment when the angle of my arm, poised to make a photograph, rhythmically echoes the arm of the statue of a boy ready for a swim. She also uncannily matches the expressions on our faces – we are both full of enthusiasm for the moment. Her black and white rendition of it gives the immediacy of a news photo. There is a lot more going on in this image as well. She does a good job in showing how I prepare for a shoot. A bottle of water is tucked into the pocket of my photo-vest, and a rain jacket is lashed around my waist. Singapore is hot. Hydration is essential. Yet the rains can come at any time, and on this day, they did. Even the old British bridge that spans the river can be seen in soft focus in the background. It is a wonderfully expressive image
On Ubin Island, by Melvin Austin Noronha, Singapore, 2007
Melvin catches a relaxed Phil here. We had been walking and shooting in the tropical heat for the better part of the morning, and I finally enjoyed a much-needed rest at the house of a former village chief. I had just feasted on a cold Coke, and a slice of sponge cake that Melvin had somehow acquired. The local dog was investigating my crumbs. By making this image black and white, Melvin makes the moment timeless. The shoot on Ubin was part of a delightful gathering featuring pbase photographers from three countries. See Melvin’s gallery on the shoot at
http://www.pbase.com/1melvin/pbase_meet
08-MAY-2007
Lion shoot, former Westward Ho Hotel, by Rusty Latshaw, Phoenix, Arizona, 2007
Pbase photographer Rusty Latshaw (
http://www.pbase.com/russellt ) recently spent a couple of days shooting in downtown Phoenix with me as part of a one-on-one tutorial session. We spent several hours searching for images together in a senior citizens residence, housed in what once was the lavish Westward Ho Hotel. The historic hotel was built in 1928 and closed forever in 1980, but many of its treasures are still intact, including this fountain featuring a ceramic lion’s head. Rusty and I were both photographing it, but I had had no idea that his concept involved me. I guess he saw the whimsically incongruous connection between my hat, which I originally purchased to use on an African safari, and that ceramic lion I am shooting. Rusty used the same kind of camera to make this image that I am holding in my hand – the Leica V-Lux-1. Its amazing image stabilization feature allowed him to make this image in a very dark hallway, without flash, at a one-third of a second exposure, hand-held. The image I am trying so hard to make here involved shooting that ceramic lion in profile. It never made my cut. I am fond of quoting my iconic mentor Henri Cartier Bresson, who also used a Leica, (but not this one). He said, “You have to milk the cow a lot, to get a little cheese.” In this case, there was a lot of milk, but alas, no cheese.
21-FEB-2007
Composing on the crest, by Tim May. Mesquite Flats, Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
Tim sees me as part of the landscape here, a lonely figure that gives his image scale incongruity. He titles his image simply “Photographer,” giving the image enough verbal context to define my purpose. Note how he waits until I stand astride the line where the sand ends and the shadow begins. In a way, he implies here that as photographers, we are often “pushing the edges” as we work, walking that tightrope between the reality before us and the power of our imaginations to transform it. (He also says in his caption that I was muttering the whole time I was working the image.” He is correct – sand dunes, particularly those trampled by dozens of other tourists, and populated by other photographers, are not my favorite subject matter.) I was able to make a worthwhile teaching image from here, however. You can see it in my Composition gallery by clicking on the thumbnail below:
18-FEB-2007
Painting with light, by Tim May, Shoshone, California, 2007
Tim found me photographing the old car that is the “cover” shot for my “Automotive Expression” gallery. (Click on thumbnail at bottom to see it.) This picture of me is Tim’s first image in the first of seven galleries he is posting on our Death Valley trip we shared in the spring of 2007. (
http://www.pbase.com/mityam/eastofvalley06 )
Tim shot this image through a side window of the old car I was photographing. He says in his caption that he sees this image as “a metaphor for image making – it is the artist trying to create clarity and interest out of the blur of the environment.” I left this comment in response: “As artists, we are all seeking clarity. I find clarity through abstraction – taking away, rather than adding. That’s what I am doing here, and that’s what you are doing here as well.”
(To some it might appear as if I am prayerful. Actually, the way I hold my camera as I am shooting is very revealing. Most photographers shoot with the camera to their eye. I shoot with the camera at my waist. I am studying the changes in exposure I get – in real time – as I scan the highlights and shadows on the old rusting car in active spot metering mode, abstracting the subject down to an essence. My camera, a Leica V-Lux-1, is letting me “paint with light” – showing me, as I work, exactly what my image is going to look like in terms of light, shadow, and color emphasis before I make the image, rather than after. The flip out “live-view” LCD viewfinder I am looking down into here is an essential creative tool. Without it, I would be shooting blind.)
24-SEP-2006
Expression, by Tim May, California Pizza Kitchen, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2006
To say that I express myself with my hands as well as with my imagery, is an understatement. My friend, pbase’s Tim May (
http://www.pbase.com/mityam ), who was traveling with me in Utah, catches me here as I debate a photographic fine point with pbase photographer Sheena Xin Liu, who caught up with us for a quick lunch at Salt Lake City’s California Pizza Kitchen. Poor Xin – I must have overwhelmed her with those flying hands – she has retreated out of Tim’s frame so that only a trace of her shoulder is visible. Tim uses a slow shutter speed – ¼ of a second – to not only blur my face, but even more importantly, blur my hands as well. He says in his caption at
http://www.pbase.com/image/69505115 that this shot “captures my enthusiasm for my art,” but I would say that it also captures the essence of who I am – intense, passionate, oblivious to everything except the point at hand. (Pun intended.)
22-SEP-2006
Vantage point, by Tim May, Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, 2006
Tim creates excellent scale incongruity here by stressing the massive arch, and using my distant crouching figure to tell us just how large it is. He also finds me taking a low vantage point for this shot, so that I could include light reflecting on the inside of the top of the arch. I must be using the wideangle focal length on my Leica D-Lux-2 camera here, which does not offer a flip out viewfinder, as does my Panasonic FZ-50. As a result, I must crouch close to the ground, which is not the easiest task for a 72 year old body with a bad knee. (My FZ-50, on the other hand, offers a flip up viewfinder, allowing me to simply lower just the camera toward the ground so I can just bend over, look down into it, and shoot without having to laboriously lower and raise my body to and from the ground.) As it turned out, I preferred a shot I made a bit later from another position. You can see it by clicking on the thumbnail below:
09-JUN-2006
Train enthusiast, by Dandan Liu, Wheeler, Oregon, 2006
One of my pbase students, Dandan Liu, (
http://www.pbase.com/celestine ) traveled from Montreal to Oregon to take Dave Wyman’s Vision Quest photo tour with me. I was making an image from a long forgotten railroad car while Dandan was quietly making pictures of me. Even when I noticed her, she kept shooting, and certainly caught my enthusiasm in this image. This train may not be going anywhere, but it almost seems as if I am about to magically make it ride the rails again. When I finished shooting here, I left Dandan to find her own images. She did – catching me as I trudged away down the track in search of an idea. You can see it at
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/65001079
09-JUN-2006
In search of an idea, by Dandan Liu, Wheeler, Oregon, 2006
My friend and pbase student Dandan Liu, had been making pictures of me on board an abandoned passenger car on a rusty siding in this tiny Oregon town. (See:
http://www.pbase.com/image/65001081) As I left, she kept on shooting, and using the powerful leading lines of the rusted track, she creates a masterfully composed image of a photographer in search of an idea. In shooting me from behind, she creates superb abstraction, one that gives me a view of myself that I have never seen before. The tiny abstracted figure offers scale incongruity, and the color a touch of melancholy. I never did find that idea. You can see this image, as well others she made on this Oregon photo trip, in her pbase gallery at
http://www.pbase.com/celestine/oregon06
12-JUN-2006
Captioning, by Anne Eastwood, Remote, Oregon, 2006
Words can be as important to me as the image itself. The captions and titles for my photographs must be accurate and complete. Just after shooting my portrait of Roxalee Barbee ( See it by clicking on the thumbnail at the bottom ) I gathered the information I needed for its caption and title. I am so intent on getting everything correct that I never saw Anne Eastwood make this image. By abstracting my face, Anne stresses the tension in my hands as I write. Meanwhile, Ms. Barbee was very patient with me, and Anne brings that out in this image as well.
10-JUN-2006
On the beach, by Dave Wyman, Otter Crest Beach, Oregon, 2006
I think Dave Wyman expresses an aspect of my approach to pictures in this reflection: a penchant for the incongruous and obscure. He made this image while I was searching for an incongruous exotic sight in a tide pool. (See what I was shooting by clicking on the thumbnail at the bottom. ) He abstracts me, and in the process reduces me to a presence, a symbol rather than a particular person. I was delighted with this view -- it could just as well serve as an example in my own reflection gallery at
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/reflections . Dave Wyman operated and led the photo-tour of Oregon that I was on when this image was made. His expressive pbase galleries can be viewed at
http://www.pbase.com/davewyman
20-MAY-2006
Field Tutorial, by Pauline Newman, Jerome, Arizona, 2006
When I teach tutorials in the field, I try to step back and watch my students make decisions that will produce learning. It is difficult to keep silent and let whatever happens, happen. But that is how field tutorials must work. Photographic exploration is, by nature, a solitary adventure. I lead my students to the water, so to speak, and let them drink what they may. Later, we discuss what we may have learned from the experience. Here, I watch Christine Newman, a greatly talented high-school photographer from Toronto, shoot through the window of an abandoned building in an old mining town near Sedona. She responds to what she sees in this symbolic darkness with great care and much thought. She will produce her own interpretation of what lies within, and I hope that she will learn much from the decisions she makes on this day in Jerome.
I simultaneously photographed the same interior that Christine studies here. I would eventually share the result with Christine and all of my pbase students -- click on the thumbnail at the bottom of this caption to see it. Christine interpreted this subject quite differently, and very successfully. She expressed her own point of view about this subject with a superwide angle lens and a vertical frame, gaining useful insights into the substantive effects of lens choice, format and framing. Meanwhile, Christine’s mother Pauline, who accompanied her to Arizona, interprets this moment in learning for both of us. She comments here on how I choose to teach, and how her daughter chooses to learn. (You can see Christine’s own pbase gallery at:
http://www.pbase.com/christinepnewman
21-MAR-2006
An exercise in photography, by Jennifer Zhou, Shanghai, China, 2006
On one of the two days I spent in Shanghai with pbase photographer Jen Zhou, she took me to Luxun Park to photograph the Chinese passion for exercise. I shamelessly walked into the middle of this group of exercisers and holding my camera high above them, attempted to capture their energy and grace. Meanwhile, Jen was making this wonderful shot of me as intent on my pursuit as they were on their exercises. (I had no idea she made this photo until she submitted it for this gallery. Although the particular shot I happen to be making here does not appear in my pbase galleries, an exercise image I had made a few moments earlier here in Luxun Park does appear in my Human Values gallery. (Click on the thumbnail at the bottom to see it.) Jen’s amusing image of me is abstract (she stresses my task instead of my appearance) and incongruous (my performance is hardly as elegant as theirs, and my six foot height and odd appearance offers surreal contrast. ) This is probably quite typical of how I must appear to locals everywhere, oblivious to everything around me but the shot at hand. It offers appropriate evidence of how others must see me.
20-MAR-2006
An extra measure of thanks, by Jennifer Zhou, Shanghai, China, 2006
Digital photography makes it possible to sometimes share the results of a picture with my subjects instantly. It brings them great pleasure. Although I was able to at least say “thank you” in Chinese, simply being able to show this family the photo I had just made of them ( click on thumbnail below to see it ) allowed me to offer them an extra measure of thanks. The gifted pbase photographer Jen Zhou not only made this image, but also made my image of them possible by talking with them as I photographed their interaction as a family. I had no idea that Jen had made this image – which is even richer in interaction than my own image of them. Jen had not shown it to me before now because she had felt this picture was technically flawed. She told me that she wished that “the people were not blurred," and felt that she "should have gotten more of me into the picture.” I told her that the blur added emotional content to the photograph, and that her tight framing did not hurt the expression of the message. Sometimes photographers can place greater value on form than on content. In this case, Jen’s content proves much more important than her form. It is a worthy addition to this gallery. ( You can see her own galleries at
http://www.pbase.com/angeleyes_zyl/root )
12-FEB-2006
Photographer as editor, by Tim May, Old Route 66, Barstow, California, 2006
I spend a lot of time editing my pictures while on a shoot, both on the fly and later on the laptop. Tim May caught me studying my images in camera – I was so absorbed in my task that I never saw him make this shot. Tim abstracts his image by taking a tight, intimate vantage point – the viewer is almost looking over my shoulder as I work. He later intensified the abstraction by converting the image to black and white. Some photographers would not crop a head shot this tightly in the frame, but Tim saw how closely I was looking at my pictures, and effectively brings in his frame to make the viewer look more closely at me.
11-FEB-2006
Framing Phil, by Carol Sandgren, Newberry Springs, California, 2006
Carol Sandgren’s abstract portrait of me composing a photograph through the window of an abandoned Airstream trailer in the Mohave Desert, embodies much of what I teach in this cyberbook. Her image is simple, abstract, geometrically designed, and incongruous. It is a portrait without a face, yet it expresses great intensity. Her composition echoes mine -- frame within frame within frame. She expresses my methods in this portrait, rather than my appearance. You can see Carol’s galleries at
http://www.pbase.com/sveetzel
24-OCT-2005
Geometry, by Tim May, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2005
I was drawn to this odd sculpture of Don Quixote because of our similarities. We both are tall, skinny, bearded and often dedicated to lost causes. My friend and fellow pbase photographer Tim May (
http://www.pbase.com/mityam ) finds geometry in my stance: my elbows flare, and my legs form a triangle with the sidewalk. Tim, whose images often show dry wit, incongruously compares my geometric assets with those of my subject. I intensely study my composition, while Quixote, whose arms and legs form numerous triangles, plays hard to get.
16-OCT-2004
The intensity of a journalist, by Tom Talbot, Yosemite National Park, California, 2004
In his caption, Tom Talbot says "I couldn't resist posting just one more of these shots of Phil composing his photos. I took this shot of Phil at Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. When he showed his resulting photograph at an evening get-together, it was truly inspiring to see how in a national park where everyone is looking up, simply looking down for a moment can reveal some of the most beautiful sights the park has to offer." Click on the thumbnail at the bottom to see the photograph that I was composing when Tom took this shot of me.
I like the shot because it expresses how absorbed I become when I am making my photographs. I also love the scale incongruity of this image -- it gives the viewer an excellent idea as to just how big those trees are, and how small man's efforts can be when weighed against nature's accomplishments. Ironically, the image I was shooting was also about scale incongruity. That's why I named the image I was making, "The Large and Small of it." Tom is a pbase photographer. You can see his galleries at
http://www.pbase.com/tomtalbot
26-AUG-2004
The Street Photographer, by Harry Chittick, Kinsale, Ireland, 2004
I never saw Harry when he made this shot. Harry Chittick is an LA photographer and fellow passenger on a European cruise. I was waiting, as usual, for a picture. I liked the contrasting colors of the building just across the street, but needed a figure to make it work. A few minutes after Harry grabbed this shot, I found my own -- you can see it by clicking on the thumbnail at the bottom. What I like about Harry's image of me is the sense of patience he brings out, and also the sense of solitude. Street photography is not a matter of walking down a street and firing away at what you may find. Rather, it often involves finding a setting, and then waiting for people to interact with that setting, or with each other. Street photography, like most other forms of imagery, is an individual activity. Harry's photo of me makes this clear.
15-MAY-2004
Closeup, by Linda Saunders, Phoenix, Arizona, 2004
Linda was working with me in a tutorial session at my home. She told me that she was shy about photographing others and usually made her images from too far away to be effective. I made her photograph me as close as she dared -- and in the process bring out the details that define my appearance and character. I told her not to use a telephoto zoom -- but rather move in and make a deeply personal image at close range. It was hard for her at first, but she gradually found that a close up portrait did not bite. In the process, she makes a image that brings her viewers into intimate contact with me -- closer than they may ever come in life. That is part of photography's lure -- it can take the viewer places they could otherwise never go. She comes so close that she crops off much of my head, bringing the viewer right into the eyes. As a portrait, Linda's image gives us a picture of resolve, patience, and thought. Not to mention being "up close and personal." I don't think she will ever be shy about taking people's pictures again. She shot this picture in color, but found the skin tones so startlingly real that the image made her uncomfortable. When we converted it to black and white, the skin tones vanish, and the image becomes more universal and less real, as much a symbol of the subject, as it is as a description.
12-NOV-2003
In thought, by Peggy Hammond, Phoenix, Arizona, 2003
This portrait was made by Peggy Hammond, a student in one of my tutorials in basic digital photography. She wanted to improve her portrait skills, and I asked her to throw a bunch of tough questions at me and then photograph me trying to answer them. She took many shots over a ten minute period. This was her favorite. And mine, as well. I use it as my pbase profile page portrait because it most accurately depicts me in action. Her portrait nails both the mission, and the man.
09-SEP-2003
Equine indifference, by Tim May, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2003
I was trying to explain an image I had just made to this horse on a Santa Fe ranch. It was part of an assignment that Tim and I were working for a course in digital photojournalism taught by the photojournalist Nevada Weir at the Santa Fe Workshops. Tim caught us at the decisive moment. My attempts at communication fall on alert, but deaf ears. Yet Tim manages to imply that I won’t give up easily.