I have always been someone who stood up for my rights in my copyrighted images as well as the moral right to be acknowledged as the author of the work. Some of you might know that I am running a court case in the Delhi high court against Roli Books, the publisher of my book ‘Street Food of India‘ for claiming copyright in the work.

So what can you do when you find your work used by someone else online? Here is one thing you SHOULD do, but mind you that if you want to shoot, shoot don’t talk. If you intend to go after such copyright thieves you should get in touch with an intelectual property lawyer. Another thing to keep in mind that this thing is time consuming and unless you have someone to do this work for you you will be spending your days chasing ghosts instead of working.

How to send a Cease and Desist notice

So, this is what you do. First of all get on a website like http://who.is/ and find the registered owner of the infringing domain so that your mail goes to a person and that person knows that you know who he is. Send a letter of request/demand to remove the unauthorised images and never use them again or face legal action. This kind of letter is called Cease and Desist letter and is available on various places on the net. Feel free to use the one attached below.

It is important to do the following:

1. Mention the exact place where the image was originally published/created.
2. Stick to the facts without bringing in any emotions. Don’t say anything like “I am hurt/ disappointed/ amazed” etc. It has no value.
3. Be direct with what you demand/expect and give a time frame for that.

I am the proprietors of all copyright in a number of photographic works on the subject of ___________ (The “Work”). I have reserved all rights in the specific Work which was first expressed in material form on my website <YOUR WEBSITE> and specifically on <THE EXACT LINK TO THE PAGE WITH THE ORIGINAL IMAGE> on  <DATE WHEN THE IMAGE WAS PUBLISHED ON YOUR WEBSITE>

It has come to my attention that your work entitled <THE INFRINGING WEBSITE WHERE THE IMAGE IS USED> uses identical images to my copyrighted Work. Some of the images containing watermark were also altered to remove the watermark and include a different signature which illegally deprives me of my moral right to be recognized as author of the work. Permission was neither asked nor granted to reproduce the Work and your Work therefore constitutes infringement of my rights. In terms of the Copyright Statutes, I am entitled to an injunction against your continued infringement, as well as to recover damages from you for the loss I have suffered as a result of your infringing conduct. In the circumstances, I demand that you immediately:

1. remove all infringing content and notify me in writing that you have done so;

2. immediately cease the use and distribution of my copyrighted material;

3. undertake in writing to desist from using any of my copyrighted Work in future without prior written authority from me.

If I have not received an affirmative response from you by the close of business on <TWO WEEKS FROM THE TIME OF YOUR LETTER> indicating that you have fully complied with these requirements, I will be forced take further action against you that will include, but will not be limited to: asking my lawyers to address this issue, reporting this to any ad programs you may have on electronic copies, and seeking proper copyright infringement litigation for any damages caused by this reproduction. This is written without prejudice to my rights, all of which are hereby expressly reserved.

Sincerely,

<YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFO>

Try this one and let me know how it worked. I’d say that in about 90% of the cases your image will be removed from the infringing website. In some cases you will get an apology while other times the image will simply be take off which is actually good enough. Good luck.

Let’s call a thief by his real name

There are of course other ways to go about copyright thieves. For example we can all write a nice stinker to the infringing website. The image below is stolen by this copyright infringing website who is @LimoBroker on twitter and also here on Facebook. Not only that they lifted the image from my website but they also placed their own new watermark over mine and if this was not enough they claim copyright in all the material on their website!

This image of a Muslim bride originally published on my website on November 5th 2009 (click on the image for the original post) is very popular with copyright thieves and can be found in many places on the web.

The stolen image as used on an infringing website (Click on the image for the web page and feel free to mail them with some bad words)

The audacity

So I decided to let the social media know about the copyright thief called @LimoBroker and tweeted the following:
@LimoBroker is a copyright thief using my copyrighted image on their weddingcarhire.co.uk website . see bit.ly/sF2F6h Please RT

To which they have replied this unbelievable tweet calling me childish and saying that all I needed to do is write them and request a credit or removal of the image! :-)

P.S The image of Beware of Dog used for this post is taken from a free for any use webpage HERE

There are quite a few blogs I like reading and one in particular is Don Giannatti’ posterous stream (@wizwow) where not too long a go I came across a wonderful link to a post on a photographer’s website called ‘We have no budget for photos‘. I’m sure many of you have received this kind of mail in the past. Needless to say I never give my images for free but I absolutely loved Tony Sleep’s post as it was right on target and saves me the time to write all of it again in reply to these clients.

I knew I’d one day come back to that wonderful post but I have just done more than that. I have answered a mail with only a link directing to this post! I’d like to share the little correspondence with you all to see how smooth the person on the other side was. I am not going to be apologetic about sharing the full details of this ‘client’ so feel free to write to them if you so please.

here it is:

Subject: Greetings from Wedding Affair magazine

 On 16-Dec-2011, at 3:57 PM, Priyadarshini Das <priyadarshini.weddingaffair@gmail.com> wrote:

 Hi Sephi,

 I am writing to you on behalf of the Wedding Affair magazine, New Delhi. We are a bi-monthly magazine concentrating on Indian tradition that encompasses wedding rituals, weddings of the season and lifestyle stories.

 For our Feb-March issue, we are doing a story on the Kashmiri (Hindu Pandit) community wedding. I happened to chance upon your work on the same on the internet. I would like to know if it would be possible to get the images featured on the website (we would require high resolution images) to facilitate the story. We would like to confirm that our magazine will give image courtesy to all the images used.

 Looking forward to a positive response.

 Warm regards,

 Priyadarshini Das

Editorial Assistant

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 4:51 AM, FotoWala | Sephi Bergerson Photography <sephi@fotowala.in> wrote:

 Dear Priyadarshini,

 Thank you for this mail. Is your magazine distributed free of charge?

 Sephi Bergerson

Fotowala | Photography & Archive

 On 17-Dec-2011, at 3:26 PM, Priyadarshini Das wrote:

 Hi Sephi,

 Thanks for your response. This is to inform you that our magazine is not distributed free of cost and is priced Rs. 100 per copy. If you allow us to use your pictures, we will surely send you complementary (free of charge) copies for your reading pleasure.

Warm regards,

Priyadarshini Das

Editorial Assistant
Wedding Affair

Did you get this?  they will send me complementary (free of charge) copies for my “reading pleasure”. I might be wrong but the last time I looked in the mirror I had nothing on my forehead saying “Mother Teresa”. I was going to write a really nasty mail back but instead I simply replied by directing Ms. editorial assistant to Tony Sleep post. After all, what a lovely post it is. read it HERE
Another great post is Reasons Why Professional Photographers Cannot Work for Free which is maybe more polite but conveys the same idea.

Happy to hear your views and comments on this.

(Featured image of pile of money via Meta B)

The Contact Sheet

I was in Mumbai this weekend for the Ganesh Chaturthi seminar workshop. I didn’t really shoot much this time and tried to pay more attention to the workshop participants. When I shoot I actually live in a sparate world and see everything through the viewfinder. Having a group of people with me really made it impossible for me to focus on my own process. It is this process that I want to talk about. I had shown the following sequence of images at the seminar but I feel that it is a good reminder for the participants, and a good thing to share with others as well. Many people shoot single images and do not go beyond that. It is said that Isaac Newton got the idea of gravity when he was hit on the head with an apple while sitting under an apple tree. It is not necessary to sit under trees and wait for an apple to fall – we can get up and shake the tree. We can produce our own chance events.

You must climb the tree or at least shake it

The reason I’m showing this sequence is to emphasize the fact that good images don’t just fall off the tree. Many times it is not enough to just point your camera at a subject and come out with a great image. It is a process, and I have many like these, where I saw a potential for a good image and had to start moving around it, explore it and dig in until it presented itself the way I was hoping it would. I notice, especially with young and inexperienced photographers, that this process is not a part of the way they work. Shooting a lot is the way to go.

I was in Mumbai for Ganesh Chaturthi in 2009 to shoot for my book ‘Horn Please‘ on trucks and trucking in India. I saw the orange flag and knew this could be a strong element in the picture and started moving around it so that I could capture all the desired elements in one picture. I wanted the flag, the idol and the truck to be close enough. It did not happen until the ninth shot out of ten that I got what i wanted. In the selected image the hand that holds the flag creates a frame inside the frame for the approaching truck, the flag looks good and so does the idol which gives me the sense of location. I took another picture after that but I already knew that I got what I wanted.

Here is the sequence of shots that lead to the final one (above) which is number 9 out of 10. (Click on the image to move on to the next one)

Behind every great photographer stands a great retoucher

There was another saying that I recently heard again around the talk on James Nachtwey’s post processed images of 9/11 , that behind every great photographer stands a great retoucher. Not everyone is aware of the role post-production plays in some photographer’s style, and not everyone is able to easily spot and identity such retouching. This example could start a debate about what is allowed and what is not allowed in documentary photography so let me just tell you right away that I do not intend to get into this debate. I am not a news photographer and the way I see it is that if it can be done in lightroom than as far as I’m concerned it is allowed. Introducing flash in a dark situation is also interfering with the ‘truth’ of a photograph, whatever this might be. Let’s leave it at that.

I am showing the before and after post production so that young photographers would understand that post production is an inseparable part of the work in today’s photography. Most of what we shoot is crap and many times the selected images are ‘cooked’ and dressed to look good. It is not the only way to work of course but cards on the table,  many times it is the way that things are done. So go out there, shoot a lot and come back home to make a selection. Make yourself a cup of coffee or open a cold beer and start learning post production.

A creative talent is not a vendor

Not like in the editorial or the advertising world where a photo editor usually has more experience of working with different photographers and creative talents, a wedding client is likely to be looking for a professional photographer for the first time in her/his life. You are looking to purchase services from an artist and it is a mistake to confuse him with a vendor. It is a very easy mistake to make. In the day to day life you are used to buying services from the telephone company, your insurance guy, your local store. Maybe you work in the service industry, an investment banker, a travel agency. However, a photographer is not a vendor. He has a talent, a magic that a vendor does not possess. A vendor is there to sell something and many times it doesn’t really matter what they sell as long as there is a financial transaction at the end of the process. You can haggle, compare prices, make a bid, do what you want basically and as long as the contract is signed properly you will get what you ordered and the quality of the service or product that you purchase will not be affected by the negotiating process. The coconut water will taste the same. Not with a photographer. The quality of the work you get from a photographer changes based on how you work with him and this is the biggest difference between a vendor and a creative talent. If you treat a photographer like a vendor you are shooting yourself in the foot and are likely to get a mediocre result in return. On the other hand, if you treat a coconut vendor like an artist you’ll be wasting your time and money.

The fact  is that vendors are easier to replace than artists

Vendors could spend the day in office cubicles under fluorescent lights and wait for that call to come and an order to be placed. They will be happy to fill out the forms and spend time negotiating the terms and conditions. They could stand all day in the sun on the streets of India and sell the same chai every day without a difference in quality. They could be indifferent about what they sell as the focus here is volume and continuity. While a photographer is also paid to take pictures he is not a vendor and is not motivated in the same way. The fact  is that vendors are easier to replace that artists.

Capturing the perfect moment is the magic

Getting the perfect moment, or creating the perfect picture, takes more than owning a new camera and having a website with pictures. Even if your wedding planner created the most beautiful setup and all the elements are there, it is still up to the photographer to make his magic. The next guy will be selling the same coconut but another photographer will not take the same pictures. The industry, every industry, is built on relationship and many vendors expect, and sometimes value, an impersonal nature of relationship. The flower vendor really does not care and many times not interested in who buys the flowers. The same goes for the catering and all other service providers, but not with a photographer or an artist. Yes, of course you should treat vendors with respect. All human beings deserve respect and will do their best work if treated fairly, but when you want someone to dig deep and bring something out that is beyond the number of pictures that you get at the end of the day, you’re going to have to respond in kind.

BLACK STAR RISING  is an online extention of the Black Star photographic agency. This is a group blog featuring articles to educate professional photographers, aspiring pros, and photography buyers alike. The stories offer advice and viewpoints on the art and business of photography, based on the personal experiences of our contributors. The bloggers have the freedom to write about issues of interest to them and address substantive issues.

BURN

CONSCIENTIOUS Winner of LIFE.com’s 2011 Photo Blog Awards Conscientious is one of the longest-running photo blogs out there, and since its founding in 2002 has offered countless profiles of photographers and their work. The blog is packed with in-depth interviews, news and commentary on exhibitions and book reviews. There’s not an ounce of fluff here, which is why Conscientious is rightly seen and lauded as one of the very few essential photography destinations on the Web.

EYECURIOUS  

(NOTES ON) POLITICS, THEORY & PHOTOGRAPHY “What we need is a critique of visual culture that is alert to the power of images for good and evil and that is capable on discriminating the variety and historical speciefity of their uses.” – W.J.T. MITCHELL. PICTURE THEORY (1994). is a political theorist with neither experience as, nor any real aspiration to be, a photographer. His interest is in the task Mitchell identifies in the passage quote in the header. It remains, in his estimation, woefully neglected.

THE RUSSIAN PHOTOS BLOG – Corporate and Editorial photography in Moscow, Russia and the formet Soviet Union. Written, photographed and thrown together by Jeremy Nicholl who specialised in photography of the former Soviet Union for a wide range of clients for nearly twenty years. He’s also worked in the UK for the British national press, in particular the Sunday Times and the Independent. The blog is updated regularly, usually on Mondays, but sometimes more often. 

LENS  is the photography blog of The New York Times, presenting the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slideshows. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web.

RAW FILE  is WIRED magazine’s photography blog featuring incredible photo interviews, stories, single images and assignments “exposing the WIRED world one photo at a time”, Fantastic blog.

RESOLVE is the photo blog of LiveBooks and is a collaborative online community that brings together photographers and creative professionals of every kind to find ways to keep photography relevant, respected, and profitable.

TIFFINBOX News, Reviews and Interviews For Photographers. Tiffinbox, the only ‘India related’ blog on the list, is a blog for image makers – those who use photography or moving images to express and communicate their vision of the world, with the world. Tiffinbox is a container [a glorified lunch-box] used widely in India to conveniently carry yummy food to work, school or a picnic. Seshu, the blog owner, grew up in India where he carried one to school everyday. Lunch, may have been the highlight of his day, because of the surprises that awaited him inside. Tiffinbox hopes to be a feast for your eyes and mind and promises to feed you only small, healthy spoonfuls of information that you’ll find useful.

I would also recommend having a look at the following two lists for the Best of the Best: SOURCE and LIFE.com 2011 Photo Blog Awards. Also check out Strobist, Joe McNally, Lighting-Essentials, Chase Jarvis, Zack Arias . . . Please feel free to link to your own blog, recommend another special one and most of all, add to my list of Indian photography blogs.

Back in 2009 (yes quite some time back) I posted a list of  Ten Movies Every Photographer Should See and it is a high time we now look at photography books that we should all read. While there are thousands of photography books in the market it is not such an easy task to make a list of ten books on the subject of photography. I could think of four or five off the top of my head but the rest were a problem. Starting with the books I’ve already read I asked friends and colleagues about their own favorites. The search  came up with some very interesting results, some of which I have not heard of before and are now on my wish list.

The Ongoing Moment / Geoff Dyer

“‘I am not a photographer … I don’t even own a camera.” Says Geoff Dyer in the beginning of this book, but as one who holds no camera the insights into the world of photography will change the way you see the world forever.

Benches, roads, doors, blind people, hats, fences, streets and road signs are only some of the common subjects he explores while comparing the works of some of the canonical figures –many of whom never met– like Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, André Kertész, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, and William Eggleston to mention a few. Dyer constructs a narrative in which these photographers constantly encounter one another along his journey to identify their signature styles. The result of this study is an original work of extraordinary depth and insight. I could not leave this book alone and read it with a pencil while under lining about half the sentences in the book. A simple MUST READ book, this is one of the best books I have ever read, in any genre!

Camera Lucida / Roland Barthes

This book, as well as the next one on this list, were two that I read in Hebrew while still in photography school at the recommendation of one of my professors.

Barthes, as Geoff Dyer,  is not a photographer. Camera Lucida is a philosophical reflection on the medium of photography. He argues many subtle idea about that technical skill being entirely irrelevant to the photographic process while going deep into the meaning vs the effect of the photograph. Barthes was in morning over the death of his mother at the time he wrote the book and indeed while the first half of the book is spent musing over the significance and appeal of photography, the second half is spent reminiscing over photos of his mother. A slow but a very interesting read in the time of digital photography.

 On Photography / Susan Sontag

This collection of essays by Susan Sontag originally appeared as a series of essays in the New York Review of Books between 1973 and 1977. On Photography won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for 1977 and was selected among the top 20 books of 1977 by the editors of the New Times Book Review.

In the book, Sontag expresses her views on the history and present-day role of photography in capitalist societies as of the 1970s. Sontag discusses many examples of modern photography. Among these, she contrasts Diane Arbus’s work with that of Depression-era documentary photography commissioned by the Farm Security Administration. She also explores the history of American photography in relation to the idealistic notions of America put forth by Walt Whitman and traces these ideas through to the increasingly cynical aesthetic notions of the 1970s, particularly in relation to Arbus and Andy Warhol. This is probably the most famous and the most read book on photography that was ever published.

Ways of Seeing / John Berger

This is arguably one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic commented: ‘This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.’ Berger’s scripts were adapted into a book of the same name. The series and book criticize traditional Western cultural aesthetics by raising questions about hidden ideologies in visual images.

The Camera / Ansel Adams

This book along with the two others; The Negative and The Print, and one should probably also mention Ansel Adams: An Autobiography, are simply a must read.

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was one of the great artists and environmentalists of the twentieth century. In a remarkable career spanning more than sixty years, he made over 40,000 photographs. This legendary technical series has been the primary references from which most other technical photography books and magazines derive for decades. Adams was a master teacher as well as a master photographer, and in these books, an ever  lasting contribution to the artistic, practical, and technical aspects of black-and-white photography, he reveals how he did what he did. Every paragraph is packed with more useful information than entire chapters of lesser books, these are a must read for every photographer.

The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present / Beaumont Newhall

Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993) was an influential curator, art historian, writer and photographer. In 1935 he became the Librarian at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1940, he became the first Director of MoMA’s Photography Department. He served as Curator of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House from 1948 to 1958, then as its Director from 1958 to 1971. While at the Eastman House, Newhall was responsible for amassing one of the greatest photographic collectionsin the world.

Since its first publication in 1937, this lucid and scholarly chronicle of the history of photography has been hailed as the classic work on the subject. No other book and no other author have managed to relate the aesthetic evolution of the art of photography to its technical innovations with such an absorbing combination of clarity, scholarship, and enthusiasm. Through more than 300 works by such master photographers as William Henry Fox Talbot, Timothy O’Sullivan, Julia Margaret Cameron, Eugene Atget, Peter Henry Emerson, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Harry Callahan, Minor White, Robert Frank and Diane Arbus, the author presents a fascinating, comprehensive study of the significant trends and developments in the medium since the first photographs were made in 1839.

Looking at The Photographs /  John Szarkowski

Originally published in 1973, this survey of The Museum of Modern Art’s photography collection explores the evolution of the photographic medium using specific examples to illustrate its development. In concise analyses, John Szarkowski investigates the aesthetic, formal, social and historical issues of 100 photographs selected from “the Modern’s” collections. This archive of pictures contains a vast range of works from familiar and not-so-familiar photographers. Included are some the of most recognizable pictures of the past 150 years by acknowledged masters of their field such as Adamson, Cameron, Stieglitz, Weston, Cartier-Bresson, Cunningham, Arbus and Frank.

For further readin: The Online Photographer had written a nice informative review of this book when the new edition came back to print.

The Photographer’s Eye /  John Szarkowski

The Photographer’s Eye is a twentieth-century classic and an indispensable introduction to the visual language of photography. Based on a landmark exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1964, and originally published in 1966, the book has long been out of print but is now available again to a new generation of photographers and lovers of photography. Szarkowski’s compact text eloquently complements skillfully selected and sequenced groupings of 172 photographs drawn from the entire history and range of the medium. Celebrated works by such masters as Cartier-Bresson, Evans, Steichen, Strand, and Weston are juxtaposed with vernacular documents and even amateur snapshots to analyze the fundamental challenges and opportunities that all photographers have faced. Szarkowski, the legendary curator who worked at the Museum from 1962 to 1991, has published many influential books. But none more radically and succinctly demonstrates why, as U.S. News & World Report put it in 1990, “whether Americans know it or not,” his thinking about photography “has become our thinking about photography.”

Photographers on Photography / Nathan Lyons (editor)

A small (23 images) book not many people seem to know about but looks very interesting. It is one of the only books where photographers from Ansel Adams through Edward Weston (actually Berenice Abbott through Margaret Bourke-White) express their views about photography. It is potentially much more interesting to read what photographers have to say about photography than what other tell

Circles of Confusion / Hollis Frampton

Another book I have not even heard of before and also seems to be one that is hard to get. Only a few copies are available via amazon and they are quite expensive. However, it seems like it would probably be a very interesting read based on a few reviews I received. Note down for future reference.

As Hollis Frampton’s photographs and celebrated experimental films were testing the boundaries of the camera arts in the 1960s and 1970s, his provocative and highly literate writings were attempting to establish an intellectually resonant form of discourse for these critically underexplored fields. It was a time when artists working in diverse disciplines were beginning to pick up cameras and produce films and videotapes, well before these practices were understood or embraced by institutions of contemporary art. Circles of Confusion assembles eleven articles in which what Frampton does as a critic is much like what he does as a filmmaker; strip the creative process down to its basic elements and then arrange and display the components. He always comes back to basic ontological questions: What is photography? Film? Video? What are the properties that make them unique? What has film to do with narrative? Photography with space and time?

Please feel free to comment on any of the photography books on the lost if you read them, and of course add other books of your own so that we can all benefit and expand our knowledge.

“When you start out in photography you will experiment with numerous styles and genres. This is necessary, and desirable too. You will also imitate the styles of photographers whose work you have liked. This is natural. However to graduate to becoming a photographer in your own right you must not be content with being a clone. You must find your own expression. There is great merit in being able to do different kinds of photography competently and particularly useful if you are going to make a living out of it. However, you must identify what you are most interested in. Once you have discovered the kind of photography you wish to do, pursue it with resolve. As you progress in your career, you must strive to create your own visual style to give yourself a distinct identity. But always remember, you must constantly reinvent yourself and your style should continuously evolve, or you will find yourself stagnating.”

Wonderfully put but where I would like to add is the point where he says “you must strive to create your own visual style to give yourself a distinct identity.” I actually don’t think that this is something that is possible to do. One cannot strive to create a style. This is something that needs to slowly evolve and show itself through the accumulative process of selection that a photographer applies to his work.

For me style and identity are two different things that are indeed interlinked but do not necessarily come together. One needs to find his/her own identity and photography is a great medium for self exploration. Once a photographer finds his or her identity their images will start showing that identity and people will start recognizing their images as a distinct and unique visual expression of an individual photographer.

You cannot copy what I do because I don’t do anything

It so happened that a few days ago I saw a great movie called ‘Four Beats to the Bar and No Cheating’ about the legendary photographer David Bailey. I had to stop the movie for a sec to note down a fantastic thing he said about style; “This is what I like about my pictures . .” said Bailey, ” . . You cannot copy what I do because I don’t do anything“. I love this quote because I feel the same about my work. I don’t do anything. I am there with my camera and I take a picture (Sorry Prashant. A force of habit like you said). David Bailey also says, and I agree with that statement as well, that he never wanted to have a style. His was the fact that he had non. From a creative point of view, Bailey did not want to limit himself to looking at his images and making a selection based on whether an image fit into a certain box or not.

Find your own identity as a photographer to create your own visual style

Now don’t get me wrong. Having a distinct photographic language is a great thing and will surely be a marketing advantage. Many photographers out there run workshops in order to help young photographers find it so surely there is a demand for it. If you have one, and if you recognize it, it is easier for you to find the right clients, and it is also easier for a client to book you for what you do best. However, having one can sometimes be a great limitation. I am often asked what ‘kind’ of a photographer I am. A photojournalist? a travel photographer? a food photographer? am I a wedding photographer? It has always been a very difficult question for me to answer and I end up saying something about personal projects and making a living. Do I have a style? Maybe. Is it important to me? No.

What I’m saying is don’t go looking for a style. Instead go look for your identity as a human being and let your style develop on it’s own. If your journey is sincere and continuous, if you do what you do because you are committed, because you have no choice, if you keep asking the difficult questions and keep getting up when you fall, your style will be a reflection of who you are as a person and so will certainly be unique. You must strive to find your own identity as a photographer in order to create your own visual style, and not the other way around.

House-to-house combat training targets. Israel. copyright © 2000 Sephi Bergerson

For further reading on the same subject have a look at my earlier post Photography is not about HOW you take your picture but about WHY you do that .

The International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (IGVP) was created to build bridges of peace across ethnic, cultural, and religious lines through visual communication that is both accountable to an ethical standard and created by those who authentically care about people. I am honored to be a part of this group and encourage you all to come on board.

The guest post titled Where I failed describes the unique short encounter with the nomad woman and compares the iPhone image to a famous image by Dorothea Lang of a farmer in California during the depression. I think you might enjoy reading it. Please feel free to comment here or on the IGVP blog.

A nomad woman near Tsomoriri, Ladakh. June 2011. iPhone image © 2011 Sephi Bergerson

Dorothea Lange Jobless on Edge of Pea Field, Imperial Valley, California 1937 Copyright The Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California,

It is the red hat!

Zen is more of an attitude than a belief and this is where the red hat story comes to focus. I am not a Zen teacher, nor am I trying to pretend that I am, but when I finally decided that I don’t give a shit (pardon my French) if I get the assignment or not, I finally got it. I was wearing my red hat. This is not a metaphor, I was actually wearing it and I didn’t care if people thought I looked ridiculous, I liked it enough that day to wear it to my meeting at the advertising agency. They were asking for a landscape portfolio and I didn’t have any landscape pictures so I was sure the assignment was not for me, but decided to go anyway just for networking. I came in as nonchalant as you can imagine and in the middle of my meeting with the art directorI realized that what she was actually looking for was not landscape but lifestyle images. I got up, closed my portfolio, and told her I will come the next day with the right material. She later told me that at that moment she knew I will be the photographer to get the assignment.

My original shot using Kodak T-MAX 400 B&W film

There is a very famous book called Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. Herrigel describes Zen in archery as follows:

“(…) The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull’s-eye which confronts him. This state of unconscious is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill, though there is in it something of a quite different order which cannot be attained by any progressive study of the art (…)”

Don’t try to make it happen, it will never happen, just let it happen . . .

There is a somehow similar concept in the Indian Bhagavad Gita where Lord Krishna tells to Arjuna: “Arjuna, your right is to work only, but never to the fruit thereof. Let not the fruit of action be your object (aim), nor let your attachment lead to inaction.” Do it because it is the right thing to do, not because you expect any certain result. Lord Krishna basically tells Arjuna that he has no control over the results of his actions and relieves him of this worry. Every creative person will have the same kind of story about the moment when he/she stopped caring and let go of the expectations only to realize that it was this moment that released the pressure and opened the door. It takes time to come to this point but it will come for sure if you are persistent in following the path and walking your own journey. After all, it is all about having a great journey and not about reaching anywhere . . .

Art Director: Chen Ziv | Vision & Art

]]> http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/zen-in-the-art-of-photography/feed/ 7 http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/where-influence-ends-and-creativity-begins/ http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/where-influence-ends-and-creativity-begins/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:00:07 +0000 sephi http://www.sephi.com/?p=4204 My recent post about the question of originality ‘What is an original photograph? Do you create original work?‘ showed a couple of examples of similar images shot by different photographers raising the question of influence and intent. The comment thread on this post brought up some new angles and questions about originality and creativity that I thought would be interesting to keep debating. Someone had mentioned painters as opposed to photographers, while another person mailed me and said that a lot of her writing work often soak in other worlds and is influenced by them but she likes to believe that she writes in an original way. So, I think the questions should be where does influence stop and creativity begins, and is it really a question of intent? How old or famous does the work need to be before it can be counted as influence?

A learning process, a homage or a matter of misrepresentation?

When I was a young and inexperienced, yet-to-go-to-school photographer, I loved the amazing landscapes captured by Ansel Adams in the US southwest. I actually took a road trip to go visit all these locations in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Texas and all over the southwest. I remember trying to find the exact angle that was used by Ansel Adams and take the exact image he took. Naturally I was not working with a large format camera and used color transparencies, but the idea was the same. Unfortunately I have no scans of these old pictures but there are many others who have done the same and shot the same kind of images in Monument valley, Yosemite national park, White Sands and all of those incredible locations. This was a great learning experience for me and I must admit that I printed and presented some of these images in my portfolio for the interview at the photography school. I presented these images as my own. Others must have done and still do the same. As a matter of fact, my friend Brian Hirschy tells me that many of Ansel Adams’ famous shot locations have holes where you can place your tripod with the settings he used to try and replicate his shot. I honestly think that it is normal and healthy to study the work of other artists, and even imitate their work as a means to explore one’s personal vision. Things have worked this way throughout history in all mediums of creative expression, and remember that one advances, as Sir Isaac Newton said, by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Ansel Adams, Yosemite valley 1942. How many people have take their Yosemity picture form this exact location?

I grew up and studies the history of art and the history of photography and found some new inspiration in the works of other artists. One of my all time favorite works of art is Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

This masterpiece had influenced some of the greatest artists, from Pierre et Gilles, David LaChapelle, Andy Warhol, Joel Peter Witkin and many, many younger and less famous artists and photographers, to create their own work using the same perfect composition.

image © David LaChapelle

Joel-Peter Witkin - Gods of Earth and Heaven, Los Angeles 1988

and even this:

Birth of Venus by Nathan Stein via flickr

There are hundreds and thousands of other examples one can bring to illustrate this point but I think this is enough. It is of course a part of a learning process for some, a homage for others and at times a matter of misrepresentation. Where does the line go? Is this a question of age? experience? We are not talking about a village of technician painters in China working to reproduce copies of fine art work to sell on the streets of Paris here. This is a matter of one on one. It does seem, however, that in this recent time of digital photography, where anyone with a buck can get himself a great camera and everything photographic suddenly seems possible, that it has become easier and easier to duplicate what has been done before, and get away with it without any acknowledgment. It is then the standard of ethics and integrity that is being redefined. But can a person really re-create the same exact image as the source of his influence? And at the end of the day, does it really matter? Living in India where the issue of copyright and originality gets a different perspective than in the west one needs to admit that when your work is copied it actually means you are successful! Yes, flattery wears thin after a while but the true journey of photography means that one should work hard and with passion towards finding his or her own voice and style. It could be extremely difficult, at times almost impossible, to stay creative and keep producing original work but the pleasure and satisfaction lies in the journey itself and not in the final destination. Stop worrying about copies and about being copied as there is really no way to fight it. Focus on your next step and produce your next original work.

Two photographers take similar pictures in the same location on two separate occasions. Is it still original work?

Now here is a big challenge. How will you tell if a photograph was copied, if there was any influence or if the two photographers just happened to be at the same place and see the same image? And how will you tell who was there first? Will the senior photographer always get the credit due to his seniority? Will one of them risk loosing his reputation?

I have actually  just seen a good example last week with two photogrphers that I follow on twitter and tweeted it on June 26th:
@FotoWala: two people see the same door in Jodhpur http://bit.ly/iPFutt (by @pixelatedimage ) and http://bit.ly/kB3N7c by Brett Cole

Here are the images of the same door in Jodhpur shot by Brett Cole (left) and David duChemin (@pixelatedimage) (right)

Door in Jodhpur © Brett Cole

Door in Jodhpur © David duChemin

So who’s image is it originally? Who saw it first and does it really matter? Do they have the right to claim it is their image? Does this mean that one of them lacks the ability to think independently and creatively? and what if someone else sees the same door and clickes it?

I have another example of my own from Dharavi. It was in 2007 and Dharavi was big in the news all over the world. Many photographers came down to Mumbai to shoot there and I was one of them. I was there for five days and one of the images I loved the most out of the entire shoot was this one of a girl walking on the water pipe in the industrial area of Dharavi. It just so happened that this image was sold quite a few times and was very successful.

Some time after coming back from Dharavi I came upon a great photo shoot done in Dharavi for National Geographic by Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen. The Nat Geo shoot was done before I came to Dharavi and Jonas Bendiksen will not be suspected of taking my picture or composition, so what does this mean? Do I have the right to call this image my own? Am I allowed to show it or will I be ridiculed as a plagiarist?

Following a comment by Christopher Paquette I went and had a look at his blog called Photo Arts Magazine and found a great post on the subject of Influence & Originality in Photography that could shed even more light on this topic. You should go and check it out.

How to become a professional photographer

1. BUSINESS IDENTITY is the first thing in the list. Make a business card saying ‘Professional Photographer’. You might want to include a picture on the card. Getting a logo using an old film perforation, a camera design or an image of and eye can make it simple for those who can’t read. Everyone will know immediately that you are into photography.
2. ONLINE PRESENCE. Get a website with lots of flash galleries and effects to stun the visitors. Use shock and awe effects. Use music to leave an ever lasting impression. HTML is way too simple and people might think you are cheap. Get an interesting splash ‘page loading’ effect.
3. DISCOVER THE ARTIST IN YOU. Once you have a website, you must create a ‘My Art’ gallery. Everyone has it. After all, you don’t want people to think that you are not creative enough, right? It is very simple to do. A few B&W pictures, a snap of a blue wall with a lock, a red door or an interesting reflection and you are there.
4. EQUIPMENT. Get a Canon camera. All the pro’s use Canon. buy two if you can afford it.
5. ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE. Start talking only about equipment and which camera is better, Canon or Nikon. it is a very important question and you will never run out of words or people to talk with. Learn all you can about cameras and lenses, and make a wish list for the gear you want to get. If you see a picture that you like by someone else, try to find which camera he/she used and what was the settings.
6. CREATE YOUR IMAGE. Rent or borrow a BIG lens and get your Facebook profile picture taken holding it. It will draw tons of comments and people will envy you.
7. SOCIAL NETWORKING. Carry your camera bag to openings of photo exhibitions and photo fairs so that people don’t think you are just a regular visitor. It is best if you wear a photo vest. If you don’t have one you can hang your camera on your shoulder instead.
8. COMPLETE THE LOOK. Want to be a photographer? Start looking like one! If you are into photojournalism, buy a bandana, a white kafiya or light scarf and use it to complete the  grunge ‘look’. 
If you smoke, start rolling your own cigarettes. Get an iPhone.
9. ASSIGNMENTS. Tell everyone you are loaded with work.
10. YOU ARE READY. Get an assistant!

This is not a complete list and not all the tips fit everyone’s needs. Use what you think is good for you and disregard the rest. This might sound funny to you but believe me, it worked for many people out there who are now busy traveling all over the world taking pictures and making money. What if it doesn’t work out? well, you can at least say you tried, or you’ll have to work really hard.

A few days ago I went to the Delhi FCC for a farewell party and ran into Prashant Panjiar, a photographer whom I like and respect. Prashant had just completed a very interesting  multimedia presentation of his latest work on farmer’s suicide in Vidarbha and it reminded me of a somewhat similar story I had worked on in Punjab in 2006. It was a good time to catch up and discuss the changing realities of the photography industry and what makes a good photograph.

Photography is not about HOW you take your picture but about WHY you do that

We agreed that a good photo is not necessarily elaborate or difficult to make. It is in the simple moments that the beauty or power is found. It does not have to take a long time to produce if – and it is a big IF – you connect! If you have the sensitivity to feel the moment and to empathise. If you love your subject and if you have something to say about it. It is true for documentary photography but also for any other aspect of photography, be it portraiture, nature, food, fashion or weddings. You must have something to say. You must bring yourself into the picture or it will only be another picture out there and will never shine.

For his story on the farmers’ suicide Prashant had traveled for three days between villages looking for homes where a suicide case had just happened or for a family that had suffered. “We had a deadline and had to deliver the pictures fast” he said. “Sometimes you come to a place and you only have fifteen minutes to take a picture. You can’t wait for the good light or build trust as you must get to the next village before dark. This is where experience comes to play . . . I have been there before, I’ve seen this pain somewhere and can recognize it intuitively”.

Being a photographer is not about the camera or the technique, it is about what you have inside your mind. It is the sum of all your life experiences and your point of view. It is where you’ve been, how much you cried, how much you’ve loved and been loved, how much you have experienced pain and how much you care. Photography is not about the HOW but about the WHY. It is about the reason behind your images and not about the exposure or the focus.

Many photographers are more concerned with how to take pictures then with why they do it and what they want to say. A good picture is very simple to find but you must look for it inside first, and for this you need to experience life.

What I look at when I photograph food

By saying “not about the styling” I may annoy a few food stylists, but the truth is that I seldom use food stylists. I like working with the food the way it is presented to me to eat and not beautify it beyond recognition. More than about styling, photographing food is about passion. I like talking with the chef, try to see the dish through his eyes, ‘taste’ it through his buds. I focus on the feeling that I get from looking at a dish rather than looking at the flower pot or the wine glass next to the plate. I know this is over simplifying things and I am not trying to belittle anyone’s work or make him/her redundant, but be it a chef at an expensive restaurant or a vendor on the street in Old Delhi, they both try to cater to your taste buds, and this is exactly what I am looking for. I want you to feel that you can eat the picture, that you WANT to eat what is in the picture. More over, I want to create an expectation that can be fulfilled if you ever come to eat this very dish.

I used to think that food photography is something very difficult that takes a lot of practice, but I changed my mind about it. Taking pictures of food is as simple as eating it, and taking a good food shot should actually take less time than to eat the dish. Shoot it quickly before it doesn’t look fresh, and then eat.

Food styling, Yes or No?

Let me make it right for the food stylists before I continue. There is of course a need for good styling in food photos but there is a limit to what a stylist can do. Getting the right plates, table cloth, color matching takes a good eye and expertise, but once your sandwich looks soggy no one can revive it. What I’m trying to say is not that we should get rid of the stylists but that making a good picture is about something else. It is as simple as can be. Work with your heart. Focus only on making the food look good and forget about all the rest.

I personally like to work with available light as much as possible but I sometime carry  a couple of simple garden tungsten lights that I bought a few years back for $10 each at a local market. I feel that the warm color of tungsten is fantastic for food and I don’t correct the white balance. I also like working with an open lens at f/2.8 to get a shallow depth of field. I feel it leaves something for the imagination and that it is good for everyone.

Here are a couple of images shot in Delhi last week for a story in a Spanish magazine. For the record I have to mention that I am a pure vegetarian so did not touch these specific two dishes, but having lunch after the shoot was a long and enjoyable process :-)

Sizzling hot Stone Baked Cod served at 'ai', an oriental restaurant in south Delhi

Gnocci with Soft Shell Crab & Tiger Prawns at Olive Bar & Kitchen in south Delhi

]]> http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/food-photography-should-make-you-hungry/feed/ 2 http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/the-photo-nazi/ http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/the-photo-nazi/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:50:03 +0000 sephi http://www.sephi.com/?p=3166 Some of you might call me a Photo Nazi but i think it is important to put the discussion out there. Every now and then I get emails from young photography enthusiasts or aspiring photographers asking for advice or showing me their portfolio seeking opinion. It sometimes takes me a few days but I always answer these mail, trying to be as constructive and respectful as possible, but I suddenly realized that this is no help to anyone and decided to change my approach. I call it the honest and brutal truth!

Here is a mail I received a couple of days ago from Sunil (real name and contact information with me):

Hi

Now I know you get mails like these a lot and I am pretty sure you wouldn’t read it. But sir I have heard a lot about you and am in love with your work. Actually I want some help from you. I am resident of Delhi pursuing my engineering from here. I have a passion of photography. I know its just a hobby but I quite know I am not made to do what i am doing right now and will do ahead. I took some photographs and here’s a link to my gallery.
(flickr gallery attached here)
It would be an honor if you could just take a look at them and comment if they have got some life or are worthless. For once I wanna work in this field of photography and want to know if should give it a try as a professional. I do not quite have any knowledge about it and the photographs were taken by myself using a 4.1 mp digital camera. Looking for help from you in any way.

Thank you!

Sunil Agarwal

This is how I replied:

Dear Sunil,

You are right, I do get many emails like this, and the truth is I usually answer as politely as possible but I do not think this helps anyone.

The fact is that I think it is disrespectful to me and to this profession for you to be writing with a ‘portfolio’ like this, with images of sunsets and dirty children.

It is probably not your fault as you are a victim of the digital age, but I’ll give you this alarm clock now that will hopefully wake you up.

Everyone suddenly has a camera and wants to be a photographer. You take pictures and they are immediately transferred to your computer for you to upload to facebook. Easy. You don’t even have to spend money on film and processing, not to mention wait for the film to come back from the lab. Do you even know what shutter speed and aperture means? So you are an engineer, a hotel manager, a housewife or whatever, and you fell pray to the culture of quick satisfaction. You want to know what your pictures are worth and instead of picking up a book or professional magazines and reading to learn a bit about photography so that you know what you are actually doing, you write to someone you know has done all this and ask him to give you a shortcut. Well son, there is no shortcut! I have spent two years of sixty hours a week at a photography school, and more than twenty years of hard work after that to get to where I am right now, and I respect my profession very much. Go out there and learn something on your own first before you write to me again. There is nothing in your pictures that I haven’t seen before from hundreds of people who did not even want to become photographers.

I know this is not what you were hoping to hear but believe me, this is the most constructive criticism anyone will give you for a long, long time. If after this you continue on your own than maybe, just maybe, you have what it takes to become a photographer.

Good luck!

Sephi Bergerson
Photographer

And I haven’t even mentioned photoshop and all other photo manipulation techniques that people mistake for photography . . .

How to find a boring image and make it beautiful

I have just come back from Punjab where I was shooting a feature for a science magazine about the depleting level of underground water. Farmers in Punjab are facing problems of depleting levels of underground water that in some places is already as deep as 700ft! They complain that the state government does not supply enough electricity to use the pumps. They only receive 3-5hr of electricity per day and have to use diesel generators to pump the water for their fields. I got all the images of farmers and water pumps that I needed but I was looking for an image to illustrate the story and saw this painted wall. This is basically an advertisement for water pumps painted on a shed on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana highway.

iso 200, 1/400 sec at f/10

Not a bad image as it has all the elements of the story; the field, the water pump and the electric pole, but it just doesn’t look good enough, not to say boring! I decided to come back to it later in the evening and see how it looks in better light.

This is how it looked just after sunset. Hmm . . mud city! terrible.

iso 200, 1/15 sec at f/9

I had to underexpose to get the sky back in, but then it looks like this. Beautiful sky, but no detail in the building.

iso 200, 8 sec at f/22

A flash on camera is out of the question so I had to think creative. I have two speedlights with me, SB-900 and SB-800. both very reliable, but no one to hold them and I do not travel with stands. I decided to ‘paint’ the scene with a long exposure. I zoomed my SB-900 to 200mm and clicked the shutter with 5sec delay. You can see me on the left side of the picture holding the flash.

iso 200, 6 sec at f/5.6

ok, this is going to look good eventually but I have to be more accurate with the exposure, as well as my location. I also have to bring in the grass and the electric tower into the light. Light is changing fast and it is getting dark so I play with the exposure a bit to save time and keep the longer exposure for the final shot. Low flash from the left of camera to light the grass.

iso 200, 10 sec at f/4.5

Ok, I got it. I need three flashes, one for the building, one for the tower, and one for the grass. Quickly before the color of the sky is gone as it is already way after sunset.

The final shot. iso 200, 13 sec at f/5.6

]]> http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/painting-with-light-how-to-find-a-boring-image-and-make-it-beautiful/feed/ 10 http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/10-photographers-who-have-influenced-me-over-the-years/ http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/10-photographers-who-have-influenced-me-over-the-years/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:49:53 +0000 sephi http://www.sephi.com/?p=2297 Who are the most influential photographers of our time, and what makes a photographer influential? The other day someone asked photographers on Twitter to name 1 or 2 top of the classic photographers that they think one must get to know. My immediate reply was to ask why only 1 or 2, and then I thought that after more than twenty years as a professional photographer, I should actually make a small list of my own.

Interestingly, PDN had recently published their own list of twenty most influential photographers and have obviously listed many of the photographer that have been my influence, and would most probably made it to my list.  Helmut Newton, especially his book Polaroids, and his clear vision of how he directs models. Marry Ellen Mark and her project Falkland Road: Prostitutes of Bombay,  Nan Goldin who pissed me off when I first saw her book, but then I saw her exhibition in Prague and understood her simplicity and greatness, and of course all the rest of them. Albert Watson who’s book I actually shop-lifted one day (a long long time ago) as I had no money to buy it but could absolutely not bring myself to leave the store without it. Wow, there is something fantastic to say about every single one of them, but as I said, I do not want to repeat the same list.

I have decided to make a list of photographers who are not on the PDN list. A list of photographers who have made an unforgettable impression, and have made a mark on who I am today as a photographer. Some are really famous, and some who are maybe less famous, but were there at major turning points of my career. This list is far from finished and there are many others I would have loved to mention if I had more space, and if I thought you would want to read… So here it is, and not by order of importance :-)

Ansel Adams - Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941

1. Ansel Adams – Who doesn’t know Ansel Adams!? why would I mention him, right? Adams was my first idol as a young photographer, and made me drive all the way down to White Sands national park in New Mexico looking for what he saw. He is important on this list because from him I learned not only the zone system, but also not to do the same thing all my life. He was the greatest master of black & white photography but did the same thing all his life. With all my respect to his work, I knew that I would not go the same way.

W. Eugene Smith - A Country Doctor, 1948

2. W. Eugene Smith the grand master of photojournalism who was the hero of my first B&W teacher in photography school, Glen Richmond. His refusal to compromise professional standards and his amazing feature stories, the most memorable of all to me, maybe not his most famous, is the one about the Country Doctor from 1948. This was in my mind when I was working on the Polio initiative in India.

Joel-Peter Witkin - Gods of Earth and Heaven, Los Angeles 1988

3. Joel Peter Witkin Finding beauty within the grotesque, Witkin pursues this complex issue through people most often cast aside by society — human spectacles including hermaphrodites, dwarfs, amputees, androgynes, carcases, people with odd physical capabilities, fetishists and “any living myth … anyone bearing the wounds of Christ.” His fascination with other people’s physicality has inspired works that confront our sense of normalcy and decency. His constant reference to paintings from art history, including the works of Picasso, Balthus, Goya, Velásquez and Miro, have always intrigued me and set me on a quest into art history books. Witkin seeks out his collaborators visiting medicals schools, morgues and insane asylums around the world. The resulting photographs are haunting and beautiful, grotesque yet bold in their defiance – a hideous beauty that is as compelling as it is taboo.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard - Cranston Ritchie, still life, mannequin

4. Ralph Eugene Meatyard Regarded by his peers as among the most original and disturbing imagery ever created with a camera, Meatyard’s images had nothing to do with the street photography of the east coast or the romantic view camera realism of the west coast. His best known images were populated with dolls and masks, with family, friends and neighbors pictured in abandoned buildings or in ordinary suburban backyards. Meatyard’s work challenged most of the cultural and aesthetic conventions of his time and did not fit in with the dominant notions of the kind of art photography could and should be. While others roamed the streets searching for America and truth, Meatyard haunted the world of inner experience, continually posing unsettling questions about our emotional realities through his pictures. After his early death at the age of 47, It was left to friends and colleagues to complete an Aperture monograph on Meatyard and carry through with the publication of The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater (1974) which he had laid out and sequenced before his death. He was from Normal, Illinois.

© Joyce Tenneson

5. Joyce Tenneson is an American photographer known for her distinctive style of photography, which often involved nude or semi-nude women. Tenneson shoots primarily with the Polaroid 20×24 camera. She has had her work displayed in over 100 exhibitions around the world. Her way of working with Polaroid, the amazing use of light, and the angel-like portraits, have all set me on an experimental journey that lasted throughout my years as a commercial photographer. Even today I sometimes find myself building my frames with her images in mind.

photo: Ireland 1972. © Joseph Koudelka

6. Josef Koudelka Throughout his career, Koudelka has been praised for his ability to capture the presence of the human spirit amidst dark landscapes. Desolation, waste, departure, despair and alienation are common themes in his work. His characters sometimes seem to come out of fairytales. Still, some see hope within his work — the endurance of human endeavor, in spite of its fragility. Koudelka’s sense of balanced composition and his way of dividing his frame has always been a subject of fascination for me.

Trichur, Kerala, 1985 © Succession Raghubir Singh

7. Raghubir Singh is considered a pioneer of color photography. In the 1970s he was one of the first photographers to reinvent the use of color at a time when color photography was still widely disconsidered. His photographs, acclaimed for their organization of space, reflect the multiple aspects of contemporary India. Raghubir Singh was the first Indian photographer I ever heard of, when I was still living in Tel Aviv. I had bought his book River of Colors online, and still to this day I keep trying to see images through his eyes. He had showed me how to work in the chaos of India and still make sense and put it in order.

Alex Levak, Jerusalem 2001

8. Alex Levak is a one-of-a-kind street photographer of the old school. Awarded the ‘Israel Lifetime Achievement Award’, (Pras Israel) in 2005, he is maybe the photographer who best captures the irony of the Israeli life. Committed and disciplined and with a sharp eye, his work belongs to the ‘decisive moment’ genre. I met Alex as a student of photography when he came for our school’s documentary series critics. Not everyone liked my work that day, but Alex said that it was “good photojournalism” and ‘saved’ me. I never forgot that, and probably never will. I met him a couple of times after that day, a simple, down-to-earth man who simply “works in photography” as he says. He gets up in the morning and has work to do. A wonderful man.

© Amir Weinberg

9. Amir Weinberg I met Amir Weinberg when I was still a commercial photographer in Tel Aviv and admired his freedom and his ability to travel and shoot the subjects that he likes. My decision to give up the commercial studio and come to India in pursue of my dream has so much to do with him. He is also the one who gave me the courage to print my work in large size. The first big size print I made after seeing his work is still hanging in my living room. Born in Israel. Studied at  ICP (International Center of Photography) in New- York. Weiberg was a Press photographer for Time Magazine, Yediot Achronot, Stern Reuters Agency, AFP and Sygma. With inconceivable obsess, Amir Weinberg creates a photographic frame that provides the viewer with a new concept of the visible and invisible in nature. The concept of light and space created by Weinberg offers the viewer a brand new world, sometimes hallucinated and sometimes accurate.

Philippe Lopez - Pushkar camel fair, 2003

10. Philippe Lopez A long time staff photographer and photo editor for AFP, Philippe is now chief photographer in Shanghai. We met in Delhi when I first arrived in India and had really no idea about photojournalism and working in the field. Philippe’s experience and dedication to his work, as well as his amazing ability to deliver great ‘sellable’ images out of every situation, had given me a very strong base for my comfort and ease of work today. From him I learned not to neglect myself in the name of getting a good image. Have a proper lunch, and only then go to work.

I have only mentioned ten people but cannot close this post without at least mentioning Gary Winogrand, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, and of course, James Nachtway and Sebastiao Salgado whom I recently had the pleasure of meeting in person here in New Delhi. I am forever grateful.

P.S Oh my God! I’ve been so serious :-) how could I forget David LaChapelle and Pierre et Gilles?! they deserve a whole new post just for them! :-) who is on your list?

David LaChapelle

Pierre et Gilles

How I did it at home with some help from PhotoShop

Being a documentary photographer, I usually don’t play with PhotoShop effects in my work, but here I decided to give it a go and use some techniques that I wanted to experiment with.

The first picture, about two weeks ago, natural light coming form the door on the left side of the frame. Slow shutter speed. To get the color effect I first converted the image to Grayscale and then applied ‘Antique light’ filter in LR. Further enhancement in PS to give some more depth and contrast. I then superimposed a second shot of a sheet of brown paper to achieve the texture on the wall and her body.

The second session, a week later. On the same wall in our living room but this time using two Nikon Speedlights, an SB900 on the left, and an SB800 on the right. Again, image was then converted to Grayscale and exported to PhotoShop. Worked with filters to achieve the metal blue body color. I then stepped out to the roof, took a shot of the concrete floor and used it for the textured wall.

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]]> http://www.sephi.com/personal/two-simple-maternity-shots-and-how-i-did-it/feed/ 15 http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/ten-photo-tips-that-can-change-the-way-you-shoot/ http://www.sephi.com/tips-for-photographers/ten-photo-tips-that-can-change-the-way-you-shoot/#comments Sat, 16 May 2009 12:24:28 +0000 sephi http://www.sephi.com/?p=1593 Now, more that ever, digital cameras have reduced the technical limits to producing high-quality images. Almost everyone who has a camera and a small amount of training can make satisfactory photographs. Yet, despite the ever-growing popularity of the medium, and the billions of photographs created all over the world on a daily basis, very few images reveal the unique personal style of the photographer. Finding your own voice and identity in the photographs that you make is possibly the most challenging aspect of your photographic journey, and remains one of the most difficult tasks even to the very experienced photographer.

I believe that photography is a language, and if you want to be able to express yourself in this language you must learn its rules. You cannot say that your B&W print that came out gray is a style unless you know how to produce the perfect B&W print. You need to know the rules to break the rules. Learning the rules is important in your formative years, and often helps to create very pleasing photographs. Nevertheless, you will never create anything new if you always do what is expected of you.

Ten photo tips that can change the way you shoot

I have discussed the three sources of knowledge in a previous post and I will try to enhance on this theme in this post, and give a few tips that will help you explore your own creative process.

I have been a student of photography for more than twenty years and these are tips that worked for me. Some are quick to implement while others will take more time to develop and learn from. Some will have immediate results and others will have a slow and accumulating effect on your style of work.

Use rear-curtain flash sync

1. Start working on a long term project. I think that every photographer must be engaged in a long term personal project. When you work on a long term project the subject stays the same and you can slowly start noticing how your style changes around it.

2. Choose a subject that is close to your heart. Concentrate on something that you like and is accessible. If you are not a volcanologist don’t start a project about volcanoes. Your family can be a great subject to start with. Decide what you want to say and start shooting regularly, at least once week. Keep your mind open to see how the project develops beyond your initial ideas. A personal project could be a three-month-long project that will result in a series of 8-12 images, or a much longer one that might even become a book.

3. Study the work of other artists. Watch movies about the masters of photography and how they work. Study the history of photography and the techniques that were used before the digital age. Study Ansel Adam’s zone system. Start going to book stores and sit with books to get inspiration.

4. Try shooting with both eyes open. this will give you the ability to see beyond your frame and be prepared for changes. This might prove a bit strange at first but you will get used to it very fast.

5. Shoot from the hip / shoot without looking. Break the way you see the frame and let yourself be surprised by what you shoot. This will also enable you to shoot people form up close without making them look into the lens. Don’t be afraid to get bad results. If you don’t take risks you will never get great images.

6. Pattern plus. Look for patterns and break them. This is a simple exercise but will help you open your eyes to patters around you. A mountain of green apples and one is red is a simple example. Try to find others.

A+B=C

7. A+B=C. is a technique of using an ironic juxtaposition of two elements in the composition (A+B) and the relations between them to tell a story and lead the viewer to understand the subtle statement (C).

8. Frame inside a frame. Create frames inside your composition and position your subject inside it. Open a window into another world that lies beyond the two dimension of the photograph and emphasize your statement.

Frame inside a frame

9. Change the settings in your camera menu to use two separate buttons for the AF and shutter release so that you focus with your thumb and release the shutter with your shooting finger. This is a simple trick that will help you frame better and prevent your focus from changing when you shoot.

10. Use rear-curtain flash sync

11. I know, I said ten :-) Smile and have fun. A smile will get you out of almost any tight spot, especially while shooting in foreign countries where you do not speak the local language.

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When I first heard about the project from Chiki Sarkar, the editor in chief of Random House, I was a bit hesitant as I was told that the budget for the photographs was very small. She wanted photographs of the kitchen, of dishes and of people eating, something I estimated in about 6-7 days of work. Never the less, I wanted to meet Ritu and see what she is all about, and see how I feel about the project. We decided to all meet for lunch and discuss the options. Ritu came first , after all it was her own restaurant, and it was love at first sight. She is a fun and energetic soul running a few very successful restaurants in Delhi, the most famous one is of course DIVA in GK2 market. By the time Chiki had arrived I already knew I would be happy to work on the book but the concept was still not decided.

We had a great green salad, raviol (I had two portions), and penacotta with a strong espresso. Chiki and Ritu were discussing the number of images that they wanted and I suddenly thought it could actually be very simple. I suggested that we do it the ‘Italian way’. Organize a big Tuscany-style lunch for about thirty people and I would shoot the entire book in one day, starting in the kitchen in the morning with Ritu cooking, then take a few pictures of dishes and then shoot everyone eating and enjoying a winter lunch. This would enable us to get all the images that we need and also fit the budget. They loved it!

It was just before Christmas and we had to get things in motion fast to avoid the winter fog that would delay the project by a few months, so we scheduled for three weeks away. A location was found in one the farm houses outside of the city and the guests were invited for a Sunday lunch. It was wonderful.

I started with Ritu at her home kitchen very early in the morning, shooting with available window light and trying as much as possible not to interfere with her work, moving around her and getting the feel of the kitchen. From time to time I would take a ready dish to the other room and shot the plate in the sun coming from the open window. I used a few small mirrors to fill in the dark shadows but no artificial light. I wanted to keep it simple and real.

When we finally reached the location with all the food and people started coming, I switched to a longer lens (80-200/f2.8) and shot the entire lunch like this. Close up shots of the food on the table as well as the people talking and enjoying the party. by 4PM we were having desert and the I had what I wanted.

All the images form the book are available on my ARCHIVE.

Click HERE to order the book online.

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