The Longer We Lived With It The

It's More Difficult Now, To Be A Geographic Photographer, Than It Was When I Came Along. And It Wasn't Easy At That Time.

I Was A Consultant For Kodak Back In The Late 80's. There Were Engineers There Who Told Me That In The Future, Most Photographs Would Be Taken On Telephones. They Weren't Able To Do Anything With That. They Were Engineers, Not Management.

In The Last Workshop I Taught, A Woman Flew In From Thailand. She's A Medical Doctor In Bangkok. I Asked Her In Her One-on-one Session Where She Wanted Photography To Be In Her Life.did She Want A Second Career? Was It About Earning Money? Or Was It Art? And She Said "none Of Those. I Want Photography To Be Serious In My Life." It Would Be Like Someone Wanting Music, Like Piano Playing, To Be A Richer, Deeper, And Maybe Even Harder Experience.

Above All, It's Hard Learning To Live With Vivid Mental Images Of Scenes I Cared For And Failed To Photograph. It Is The Edgy Existence Within Me Of These Unmade Images That Is The Only Assurance That The Best Photographs Are Yet To Be Made.

But There Is More To A Fine Photograph Than Information. We Are Also Seeking To Present An Image That Arouses The Curiosity Of The Viewer Or That, Best Of All, Provokes The Viewer To Think-to Ask A Question Or Simply To Gaze In Thoughtful Wonder. We Know That Photographs Inform People. We Also Know That Photographs Move People. The Photograph That Does Both Is The One We Want To See And Make. It Is The Kind Of Picture That Makes You Want To Pick Up Your Own Camera Again And Go To Work.