A location photographer's stock in trade is his/her skill in environmental portraiture. If you get hired by a magazine, 95% of the time that's the gig—photograph someone (usually some white guy in a tie) in an environment. Like their office. Or their workplace. If you're lucky, you get to drag them to someplace that has some metaphorical association to the story. Like the risk management expert that I perched underneath a maze of highway overpasses, back when stories of them collapsing was in the news. For a cultural instant it had the frisson of a dangerous place to be, and it worked for the story.
This week I'm photographing some typical hyper-achieving Uchicago students/graduates in something that resembles what they do. A playwright on a stage, looking beyond the fourth wall. A couple of improv artists, pretending to be gargoyles. A violinist-composer, who brought in some friends (viola, cello, harp) for a faux performance for the camera.
In each instance, what was the most wonderful aspect of the encounter was getting to spend a little time in someone else's world. The playwright was a “little communist baby” in Poland, and we had a wonderful discussion about the role of paranoia in the current political climate. With one of the improv guys we mixed up our jackets, which were identical, which made me either totally cool or him totally nerdy. When I had them looking over a balcony I said, you know, this is a reprise of the Beatles Blue Album. The reference went over their heads, which allowed me to tease them about their lack of cultural literacy. With the musicians I had a lot to talk about, mostly in musical arenas beyond their direct experience because I'm such a folkie and they are all classically trained, and we riffed on the differences between the traditions.
What I tell baby photographers is, don't get a photography education. It's only a skill set, and it changes every five years anyway. Get a liberal arts education. Learn everything you can about everything. Your job, if you choose to stay in this profession, is to be curious for a living.
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