A Bit About My Inspiration

A few people have asked me to post about my background and influences on my photography so I thought I'd share.

I've been taking photos since high school. I was in my father's closet one day in junior high and came across a shiny silver briefcase that contained his old manual film camera and 4 lenses. I took it off the shelf and held onto it for many years, not really knowing how to use it and being embarrassed by the 1970's patterned camera strap. I picked it up again in high school and played around a bit with it, but was always frustrated that I didn't know how to properly use it and in the days of film you had to waste a lot of shots learning and then wait days until you got the finished product back. I started seriously taking photos in college, when I needed them for theatre lighting portfolio purposes. I took a basic camera seminar and learned the mechanics and settings and finally felt like I had the knowledge to free me from my prior frustrations. I upgraded to digital about a year ago and fell in love with the instant gratification of it, and I found myself hooked. Aside from the seminar I took in college, I'm completely self/book taught, though I plan on eventually taking classes to fill the holes in my education. I'm also (for the most part) self taught in Photoshop, though I only use it for minimal cropping and color enhancement/removal purposes and rarely alter my photos significantly in post-processing. I'm mostly drawn to photography that is "true" in that the image stays representative of what it is through the viewfinder, and try to keep that purity in my own work.

My first significant influence was James Nachtwey. He does a completely different genre of photography than I do (he's a "witness" photographer/photojournalist), but I find his work to be incredible. In college I had the Black Star book that contains a lot of his work and one year he came to the performing arts center I worked at to give a lecture. For me, it's always a very enlightening experience when you can meet the artist behind a work. We read so many books, see so many movies, listen to so many songs without ever really knowing or even seeing the person behind them, so to listen to a photographer talk about his philosophy was incredible. I think the biggest influence he has on my work is the significance of your photo having a story. Whether you use color (or lack of color), the subject, the angle your photo should have a history in the image. I think that's where my love of things that show their wear and tear comes from.

Inspiration for me comes from many places. Looking at the work of others, talking with creative people, and even solitude inspires me sometimes. Very recently I came across this site of a NYC photographer. His love of deconstruction and the unique angles he uses are very similar to the type of photos I like taking, and I get great motivation from looking at his work. For me it's very hard to get myself into that place where I start looking at things for their photo potential. It isn't something that is always there, I have to find that place in my head where I can see what is in front of me and find the "story" the image needs to tell.