Shooting Before Stopping and Thinking

In 2007, photographer Henry Wessel filmed a series of casual, conversational videos about his work and working style with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The video below outlines his artistic process. The main takeaway from this video is that in order to take truly unique photos, you cannot take the time to stop and contemplate your shot. Rather, you must simply take the photograph, and try not to think twice about it.

Wessel tells us that he tries to work before his mind interjects, such as contemplating what the shot could look like if things were shifted one way or another or if he could approach the subject from a different angle. While there are an infinite number of thoughts that might rush through a photographer's mind before they capture their image, Wessel is insistent that "you cannot be thinking".

Wessel believes that "Once you recognize something, then you're actually less aware." Once you become cognizant of your subject matter, that is the only thing you're able to focus on, and your photographs end up looking like everyone else's. This video is a wonderful insight into how a true photographer's mind works, and we could all learn a little something from Wessel, even if it's only that we shouldn't waste our time overthinking every little detail in life.

Stephen Shore's Sha-Mar Beauty Salon

On July 4, 1973, Stephen Shore captured the Sha-Mar Beauty Salon on Chestnut Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Born in 1947 in New York, New York, Shore is an American photographer who continues to practice his art while teaching at Bard College. Two of his greatest, most comprehensive works are titled Uncommon Places and American Surfaces. The image below is from his collection Uncommon Places, an oxymoron in itself, as the image is so mundane some might not even give it a second glance.

Contrary to the date when this photograph was taken, this image is not indicative of elaborate 4th of July festivities. In fact, the only thing special about this photograph is that the salon and shops around it are seemingly closed.

I, however, would argue that there are far more layers to this photograph than one might think. The film colors hint to the era in which this photograph was taken faster than you can look at the date itself. The colors and patterns within the image, too, reveal some sort of pre-all-things-digital sign of the times. 

However, the way which Shore framed the photograph gives the viewer the opportunity to drift away from Pennsylvania, and imagine this setting nearly anywhere – perhaps even a New York City block. This photograph is evidence that everyday photography can allow us to dissociate time from place, and vice versa, to better inform the world that we live in today. This is further amplified by the title of the collection that this photograph comes from: Uncommon Places. 

In sum, Shore's photographs give us the opportunity to analyze the daily moments we have all experienced, but maybe not found much beauty within. With photography, even the most boring moments become exciting and complex, as everything changes when it has been framed by a camera lens and some film. 

Five Tips on How to Help Yourself Compose a Formal Everyday Photograph

Although photography is a predominantly subjective form of art, it is always important to keep a few things in mind when out shooting. 

1. Camera always all ready to go with a few extra rolls of film in your pocket
2. Good light (or ready to make it yourself with a flash) 
3. Awareness of the weather
4. You might not strike gold
5. Keep an open mind

Although these tips might seem obvious, shooting the everyday is more more different than setting up a studio, walking into it, and closing off the rest of the world. That said, you never know what your day will bring, so it is always important to have your camera within reach if you think it’s possible you will be able to slow down for a second or two and snap a photograph. I can count too many times that I’ve regretted being without my camera. And, believe me, the moments that I could’ve shot become more and more remarkable in my head as I continue to dwell on them. 

That said, it’s hard to take your remarkable photo when it’s dark outside or the sun is too harsh. However, this tip is more contingent on how ambitious you are about taking photos, since the magic of photography is that it can happen anytime, anywhere. Curious about shooting in the dark? Find a flash, or even a tripod. Want to shoot when the sun is highest in the sky? Be ready to hide your lens from annoying sun glares, which leads into the third tip: (basically) always have an umbrella with you. Shooting in the rain can be a magical experience, or a camera-breaking experience. It’s up to you.

Next, welcome the fact that you might not strike gold when you try to seek it out. The moments will come to you. Conversely, however, keep an open mind, as there is truly no way to find out what something looks like in a photograph unless you go for it and take the shot. 

A Short Guide to Everyday Photographers

Below you will find a short ten person list of prominent everyday photographers who were all born in the twentieth century. Not only has the work of these photographers set the stage for now-emerging photographers, but they were inspired by earlier works by those from the century before. 

• Stephen Shore (1947-)
• William Eggleston (1939-)
• Henry Wessel (1942-2018)
• Garry Winogrand (1928-1984)
• Joel Sternfeld (1944-)
• Robert Adams (1937-)
• Robert Frank (1924-)
• Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)
• Lee Friedlander (1934-)
• Walker Evans (1903-1975)

Although the subject lines of the work of these photographers varies, it all comes back to the main idea of capturing the mundane everyday in predominantly the 35mm film medium. Thus, what's remarkable about this fact is that they all do so in wildly different styles. While Shore has traveled across America capturing the quintessential "everyday" look of life, one of Winogrand's most famous works is The Animals, where he took a critical view of how humans function in zoos. In a similar vein, Friedlander's The American Monument chronicles his visiting of everyday monuments across the United States, giving us a refreshing look about what exactly we deem as monument-deserving. 

While Winogrand and Friedlander selected very specific subjects to study, others were much more concentrated in their practices. For instance, Robert Adams' The New West specifically studies the shifting landscape of the West. Wessel's work pairs quite nicely with Adams', as Wessel largely concentrated on mundane scenes of the West, yet in a more intimate way. It is easy to suggest that Adams was greatly influenced by the work of Evans, who documented America during the Great Depression, commissioned by the Farm Security Administration. Both Cartier-Bresson and Sternfeld captured the everyday on intimate levels, mainly interacting with the subjects in their work. 

What makes these photographers' work so special is the fact that you can look at their work backwards and forwards a million times, but you see things differently each time you do so. Engaging with these photographers' work together allows the viewer to create a more intimate relationship with the outside world, as it becomes far more intriguing after looking at the work that has been created by these photographers. 

Henry Wessel: Arizona, California, and Colorado

Henry Wessel (1942–2018), was a photographer inspired by the works of Wright Morris, Robert Frank, and Gary Winogrand. 

In 1971, Wessel was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship with the goal of documenting the American highway system. What resulted was a portfolio of the American vernacular and the continuation of his documentation of the everyday. Below I have selected three of my favorite works. 

IMAGE ONE

Tucson, Arizona 1976

IMAGE TWO

Venice, California 1973

IMAGE THREE

Venice, California 1973

I am particularly interested in all three of these images as they all document different aspects of American life: inside public spaces, the exterior of the home, and roadside America. With great attention to light, Wessel was able to capture the spaces that many of us know incredibly well: the mundane parts of life that seemingly lack much interest or beauty. His minimalist approach to photography lives throughout his every piece, allowing us to bask in the small wonders of the everyday: chairs, windows, blinds, façades, even a long-gone telephone booth. In fact, Wessel summed it all up quite eloquently:

It can happen anytime, anywhere. I mean, you don't have to be in front of stuff that's going to make a good photograph. It's possible anywhere.

By simply glancing at Wessel's work, we have the opportunity to view the world through a completely different mindset: the everyday is, in fact, a beautiful place to be. 

An American Journey: In Robert Frank's Footsteps

An American Journey: In Robert Frank's Footsteps is a film made by French-American filmmaker Philippe Séclier in 2009. The 60-minute documentary traces Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank's hallmark The Americans photography book, published in 1958. The Americans chronicles Frank's travels through America while on a Guggenheim Fellowship, from the East Coast down to Florida, through the South and across the country, eventually ending up in California. 

Frank's The Americans was groundbreaking work in modern photography. Over fifty years later, Séclier retraced Frank's steps, visiting some of the most significant sites that Frank photographed. In "An American Journey," Séclier travels over 15,000 miles, and the documentary transitions between cinematography captured by Séclier and photography captured by Frank. 

Throughout the film, Séclier converses with a wide range of people including other photographers and cinematographers, but most interestingly, a few people who were in the scenes of Frank's photographs, and the manager of a hotel where he took a landscape photo. Séclier was able to humanize Frank's work through his strategic tracking down of the subjects of some of Frank's most famous photos. However, this was truly the only exciting part of the slow-moving one hour documentary. 

While I appreciated the grassroots-esque vibe of the documentary, the quality was lacking. In fact, it almost felt like the documentary was filmed on a home movie recorder. Although this parallels Frank's style of photography in his exclusive usage of 35mm film, for a documentary filmed in 2009, it seemed haphazardly made, as if it were in need of another round of edits and higher quality film. Along the lines of what else was missing from the documentary, the viewer seldom interacted with Séclier. I believe an introduction of the filmmaker would have forged a better relationship between not only the viewer and the documentary but also Séclier and the the subjects that he interacted with in the documentary. This would have reinforced how Frank took a look at America through more of an outsider's view as he was exiled from Europe, which would have played nicely with Séclier's French origins as well.

Although the documentary was groundbreaking in the sense that it unveiled those who were crystallized in one of the most significant photography books of all time, this documentary lends the viewer to believe that some works of art should only be interpreted and explained by the artist themself. And this is one of those cases. If you find yourself looking into documentaries about Robert Frank, I would recommend a different one: Don't Blink: Robert Frank. Here, the viewer gets to interact with Frank, getting an inside look at the genius himself. 

Why Digital Photography Promotes Creative Laziness in Amateur Photographers

Don't get me wrong, I think digital photography is great. There are few things more rewarding in everyday photography than connecting your memory card to Lightroom and, in a matter of seconds, seeing the magic you just created. From that moment, it seems the options and opportunities are infinite. And some would argue that this is where the magic begins.

In fact, it was a friend who was trying to convince me that film photography promotes laziness in photographers that made me realize how passionate I have become about film photography. As a person who has extensively dabbled in both digital and film photography, I have come to believe that digital photography promotes creative laziness in amateur photographers, especially when it comes to photographing the everyday.

Aside from instant gratification, the only aesthetic difference between film and digital photography is the difference in the quality of the image. And, of course, if your goal is to produce a crystal clear shot of a skyline or create content for an advertisement on the side of a highway, digital is the way to go. But in that case, you'd be a professional, who has hopefully set up camera settings an infinite number of times.

You'd be a professional who has most likely experienced every aspect of both film and digital photography. You've experimented with different types of film, camera lenses, types of cameras. You've spent hours upon hours in a darkroom, mixing chemicals, crossing your fingers that, despite the fact you think you did everything right, the chemistry didn't fool you and ruin your artwork. You have your spot in the darkroom, you have your enlarger, and you know which filter you'll need after a single test print.

Taking a step further back, you know how to use a camera. In today's world, it's easy to put everything on automatic, and it's easy to use things that we didn't even know were automatic (think: iPhone). While not everyone needs to know how to use a camera on manual, it sure is easy to hide behind the "Automatic" setting on your camera that we all know and sometimes love (I would know). While automatic shooting is great when it's coming from a place of utter necessity, it allows amateur photographers to shoot hundreds upon hundreds of photos in a single setting, as they know that they will be able to sit down at a computer within hours, scroll through every photo, and toggle the brightness, contrast, and angles as they deem necessary. And don't get me started on the editing "presets" that have reached peak popularity in recent times.

On the contrary, I believe there is a true artistry that begins with the act of loading a roll of 36 black and white exposures into your camera, all the way to developing it and making prints on your own. You are given true ownership over your photos, and the means of editing are minimal. Not only are they minimal, but they are just as intentional as all of the work that went into creating the single image on the roll of film itself.

I believe that we should always aim for quality over quantity, but shoot for quantity too. But at the very least, get to know your camera. If you don't have a film camera, switch your DSLR on manual, and watch a YouTube video on how to shoot that way. Get familiar with f/stops and shutter speeds. Wait a day or two before the instant gratification of plugging in your memory card hits, or perhaps delete the filters you were suckered into downloading. Either way, let your image shine on its own, without layers of digital information stacked atop.

Up Until Now

From do-it-yourself pinhole cameras to digital cameras that cost thousands, the range in innovation, cost, and experience from camera to camera is extreme. However, the basic functions from camera to camera, in fact, are nearly one and the same. In fact, the English word for camera is derived from camera obscura, meaning "veiled chamber".

Just as camera bodies have evolved, the means of accessing the images have as well. What was once a film-dominated realm has now largely transitioned into digital: the act of loading and unloading film, darkroom processing and print making has slowly faded into the past. We are now given memory cards, computers, cameras on our cellphones, and various editing programs with the opportunity to view photos taken just seconds prior. The terms aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and depth of field are no longer common vernacular.

But while those in younger generations might be completely foreign to the notion of delayed gratification when it comes to taking a photograph, the film photography section of photography still remains available for those who would like to enter. And that's where 35mm photography enters the scene, originating from the 1920s. 35mm film photography, with an aspect ratio of 3:2, has been applied in cameras in many ways, from single-lens reflex cameras to range-finder cameras and point-and-shoot film cameras.

35mm gets its name from the width of the film used in the medium, doubling the 24x18mm size used for cinema film. In general, 35mm simply differentiates itself from medium and large-format photography, using 135 film, which is far more accessible in terms of cost. As digital camera use continues to soar, these older means of photography remain available today for purchase through the use of both traditional camera stores such as B&H as well as vintage shops or platforms such as eBay. Film can be sent to your nearest developer for developing and scanning. It's all a matter of time.

Welcome to The Everyday

Hello there, and welcome to The Everyday, a blog that concentrates on everyday photography. If you don't know much about the photography world, welcome, because I am sure you've unknowingly experimented with some form of everyday photography yourself. This realm of photography is about stepping back from what the majority might deem as "photo-worthy" - a sunset, Times Square, perhaps your "Instagram-worthy" brunch - and taking a deeper look into the everyday, finding art in the ordinary.

This blog will take a look at those who tend to take the slower route of photography by shooting with a film camera, in order to share artists who work with the medium, independent publishers dedicated to spreading our work, and maybe some of my personal insight into photography itself.

Here's to sitting back and looking at (and reading about) photographs!