It's about experiences, not things

I wasn't going to write an end of the year reflective post but then I was listening to public radio today and they were talking about experiences rather than things is what fills and fulfills our lives, it was a great reminder to the amazing year it was. Things are cool for a week or two until they aren't new anymore, but experiences become memories that do last a lifetime. They travel with you no matter where you are and they are so full of intellectual and heart felt thoughts and emotion. So on the last day of this year, 2013, I reflect and find my heart and mind filled with new experiences. Most of those experiences are from people near and dear to me. Family, friends, co-workers, fellow artists, poets, all these people have blessed this past year with amazing shared experiences.

I continue to be blessed to have my one true love and soul mate by my side for the last 29 years. Filled with many stories of heartache and trouble we have persevered and continue to grow stronger and learn from each other, every day. My kids will always be a focal point in my life and I'm glad for the baby steps taken this year to begin rebuilding the relationship with my son Phil. A momma's boy to the end I love every minute I spend with my mom. I need to work next year on strengthening my relationship with my sister who inspires me with her strength, kindness and hard work. We need to add to our many shared wonderful experiences.

Many great experiences shaped my life this past year and I want to highlight four individuals who weren't in my life last year, who have help enhance and make my life and me, better this year.

The greatest being my grandson, Brayden. This new life showed me how to appreciate more, love more and be a kinder more compassionate individual.

The next three new connections came through the conduit of photography. These three amazing individuals have taught me with their honesty, sensitivity and openness. Maybe not the same as their own, two of these fine people have given me a renewed sense of the spiritual which had been missing in my life for many years. I will never believe in the same way they do but they have opened my heart to new possibilities and what we share is more similar than different. Another has shown me a humor and wit that creates real teachable moments through her eyes. Life is serious but let's lighten up people, we are all in this together. All beautiful individuals who have had an impact on me and continue to do so through our continued dialog, yes often times through Facebook but people who I'm honored to call, friends.

The Road Less Traveled

The road less traveled

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

And that has made all the difference! I started down this road almost two years ago when I committed to pursuing my Identity project. Conformity was something I've always struggled with since my personality is such that I often feel as though I don't fit in, even when invited. This is as much my own doing as it is the clique's I've found so prevalent in both society and creative circles.

The Identity project brought into my life 33 amazing individuals that had a variety of personal reasons of their own to be included in this series. This visual journey was the road less traveled and took me way out of my own personal comfort zone even though the subject matter was one I knew and lived my whole life. So this road of “wanted wear” opened my eyes and my heart to experiences and stories much greater than the photographs they represented.

“Yet knowing how way leads to way”, I doubt I will ever come back. The year Two Thousand Thirteen has brought, once again, personal rewards that are much deeper than the two dimensional photographs created. As a visual storyteller I have realized my greatest gift in creating my photographs is to listen. I listen with my ears, my eyes and my heart and it has transformed the way I make photographs. I shoot less and listen more. I pay attention to the sitters body language to guide my photographic narratives. In the end I want my photographs to speak of beauty, strength and empowerment. I often find that the subjects I resonate with the most also have chosen the road less traveled. I share this years road with many amazing and beautiful individuals. You know who you are and that has made all the difference.

One hit wonder, The Best of, or Stay tuned...

Resuscitating my blog! Seeing many of my fellow friends and artists write about their personal thoughts and observations of late has inspired me to revive my own blogging which has been mostly neglected four almost four years. Looking through some of my early posts I found this one which is still relevant to me today so I will begin with one of my favorite posts from 2008. If you enjoy what I've posted in the past on FB, follow my blog for my unique and personal view on life and experience.

Photographers must withstand, with the help of their families and friends, the psychic battering that comes from what they see. In order to make pictures that no one has made before, they have to be attentive and imaginative, qualities partly assigned and partly chosen, but in any case ones that leave them vulnerable. When Robert Frank put down his camera after photographing The Americans he could not so readily escape the sadness of the world he recorded as could we when we closed the book.
Paradoxically, photographers must also face the threat that their vision may one day be denied them. Their capacity to find their way to art, which is their consolation-to see things whole-may fail for an hour or a month or forever because of fatigue or misjudgment or some shift in spirit that cannot be predicted or understood or even recognized until it has happened past correction. For every Atget, Stieglitz, Weston, or Brandt who remains visionary to the end, there is an Ansel Adams who, after a period of extraordinary creativity, lapses into formula. excerpt from THE EDUCATION of a PHOTOGRAPHER, edited by Charles H. Traub, Steven Heller, and Adam B. Bell.
I often think about this potential fate. You see it often with artists/writers, they produce a great body of work for a period of time and then reach a plateau in their career. The work becomes average instead of ground breaking or innovative. Will I succeed? Only time will tell. A one hit wonder or a visionary to the end?

Caged Bird Sings ©William Zuback

Shutters/Dead ends/Lens/Pens

New additions to the collaborative project with David Press is available at our Tumblr blog, Shutters/Dead ends/Lens/Pens. Check it out and insightful comments are always appreciated.

Film, why have I ignored you so long?

It has been about six weeks since I immersed myself completely in shooting film again with my fine art and commission work after over a decade hiatus shooting only digital. I have spent most of my professional life shooting with film but when digital took over, the economics and convenience of it was to much to ignore. Dedicating myself to strictly digital since 2001 has now brought me back full circle. Film; Why have I ignored you so long?

What has the return to film photography meant to me personally and professionally? Film has enlivened a child like enthusiasm to what and how I see again. I am paying closer attention to the details, knowing that I need to get this right, here at the capture stage, because there isn't any fancy post production work that will fix it if I don't.

I have begun capturing my images with a variety of 2 1/4 as well as sheet film camera's. I think I am most enjoying the process of shooting again with a view camera. Dark cloth over the head, loupe on the ground glass, meticulously analyzing all four corners and everything in-between. I have once again fallen in love with the process of photographing people with this large cumbersome piece of equipment. Part of your attention is definitely on the equipment itself because there is so much you need to do prior to capture. I have found though, that this slow methodical process has also  created a real openness and clarity when a person is in front of the lens.

It is because of the slowness of set-up and capture that you need to maintain a genuine and honest dialog with the sitter. A dialog that goes beyond the instruction of pose and one more personal and real. You do shoot less, the client doesn't get 50+ images to choose from but you create a real live experience that is wonderful, challenging and rewarding.

Color Rush: 75 Years of Color Photography in America

I saw the Color Rush exhibit today at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Since my initial interest in photography was in/as a commercial-advertising photographer I really appreciated seeing all of those early ad and magazine references. Other than the beautiful more traditional portraits by both Stieglitz and Steichen, these images are my favorite from the exhibition.

Harlem Number, Anton Bruehl, 1943 carbo print

Roddy McDowall as Ariel, Eliot Elisofon, 1957 dye transfer

Summer Sleep, Irving Penn, 1949

I was also interested in researching Bruce Nauman's series, "Eleven Color Photographs" that depict visuals of common phrases. I wish that the show would have shown a few more of Cindy Sherman's color work but it is a very nice exhibit.

Teaching this fall

I am thrilled to announce that I will be teaching a class this fall at Carroll University on Commercial Photography. I plan to cover both the photographic expectations that can encompass the role of a commercial photographer, as well as, the important business side of commercial photography.

Along with teaching at Carroll University I will also be teaching two online photography coursed for UWM's Continuing Education program. These two courses fall into the sports and recreation department. I am in the process of developing the syllabi for these two courses but they will be part of the UWM Continuing Education catalog of offered classes. The two classes that I am developing to be taught online are Digital Photography - Intermediate and Digital Photography - Advanced.

If you are interested in learning more about photography or want to be inspired to challenge your photographic vision and skills then stay tuned for information to register for one of these two classes.

Model in Repose

This is one of my quick favorites from Saturday's photo shoot. I shot part of the session with a Hasselblad CM with an 80mm lens and part of the session's captures are from a very old field camera that uses 2 1/4 by 3 1/4 sheet film. It is a pretty amazing vintage camera. First image from the field camera is below. Notice the funky ghosting and density changes on this image from some light leaking into the film holder as well as some streaking from hand processing the film in a tray. One of those happy accidents.

Going back to my photographic roots

I have been in photography in some way, shape or form since 1976 when my uncle taught me how to develop and print my first roll of film. I was in 7th grade at the time. Analog photography was  the way of my schooling and profession up until the late 90's and early 2000. By 2001 my studio switched to digital capture and by 2003 we were 100% digital with our photography. Ten years have passed since I shot a roll or a sheet of film but in 2013 I have committed myself to analog photography once again, not in my commercial work but in my fine art work.

To shoot digital or analog is certainly a personal choice for all of those involved in photography today. What was my motivation to go old school again, back to my photographic roots? Personally, I have found over the last ten years that it became easier to be lazier with my photography. I can fix that in Photoshop was the mantra of choice instead of spending the time on set, lighting and composing for the capture. I have fallen in love all over again with the meticulous study through the viewfinder in composing the image. Film forces me to slow down and study the scene in all it's elements of creation. Composition, lighting, depth of field all have to be thought out prior to capture. Ultimately, are my images better than those I captured and created digitally? No. Do I believe that I see with a renewed sense of discipline for the craft of photography? Absolutely.

This statement is not a judgement  for those who find personal enrichment and satisfaction creating images through digital capture and processing. It is my personal journey and rediscovery of what photography means to me as an artist. I am early in my exploration of this new/old process and I look forward to both the successes and the failures that will come with this visual journey.

So as 2013 unfolds in my photographic journal, revisit the blog to see, explore and comment on my visual journey.