Like most businesses, I’m fairly vigilant with analyzing data about visitors to my website (www.ToddBigelowPhotography.com). The data is provided, free of charge I might add, by Google Analytics. No doubt an invaluable tool. I can determine how people are finding my site, what keywords are used to locate my work, entry pages, exit pages, length of time spent on site, specific cities where visitors are viewing from and even the speed of their connections (great to know if you’re using a slow loading flash page). But what is totally invaluable is, of course, the photographs that are being viewed.

Using the information provided by Analytics as well as my website host (Photoshelter), I can easily determine the content that is of greatest interest to visitors. For example, the 10 most often used keywords in the past week have been: drunk boating, lake havasu party cove, Nate and Nick Montana, Steve Clarkson, bikini cove gallery, copper cove lake havasu, havasu party cove, how high is copper canyon in lake havasu, lake havasu boat party, and lake havasu girls drunk. What’s it all mean? Well, all I can do is guess, but I imagine that the story I shot years ago for People Magazine looking at boating under the influence and posted on my site is of tremendous interest, though I think it’s easy to surmise that most visitors are more interested in the subjects of the story as opposed to the subject of the story, if you get my drift. If not, simply consider the following image from the story that has recently been viewed 336 times:

Partying on Lake Havasu

In fact, nine of the top 10 most viewed images are from that gallery. When I first looked at the data from Google Analytics I decided to place the gallery more prominently on my site. Since then the visits have increased and visitors are staying on my site longer and viewing other galleries. The lone image to break the “Girls of Havasu”, so-to-speak, monopoly in the top ten is a image I made along the US/Mexico border recently, but that has been viewed a mere 56 times!

Rancher along US/Mexico border in Campo, CA.

The information is useful in that it enables me to gauge what is of interest from the galleries I provide for viewing. By using the keywords provided in the data I am able to shift galleries that are not prominently displayed onto my homepage in order to meet the interest.

Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie, both superstars of the LA Sparks, also generate a lot of interest. Obviously there are some WNBA fans as proven by a consistent showing of keywords for the two players, seen below from a shoot for Sports Illustrated a year ago:

Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker

Thankfully, the data does prove that there are some people out there truly concerned about issues like immigration, as noted above, and health care, as opposed to just bikini girls and sports! The health care issue is one of the top searches as well on my website (and on this blog). But the searches are usually centered around “crowded waiting room” or “crowded emergency room,” obviously a concern for the public and a issue for publications to address. Several licenses, including a textbook cover, were recently written from my site for visitors searching for photos depicting such.

Crowded Waiting Room

So using the data can be surprising, as was the case with the boating under the influence story, as well as useful in determining how to improve the traffic to my site.

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO

The sadness and feelings of despair have invaded the deepest part of me. It is hard to concentrate on anything else but the loss I, like millions of others, am enduring. How will we function now? What will fill the void? We’ve all suffered losses in the past, but this seems particularly hard to overcome. It obviously affects everyone, but it will hit hardest among the young ones since they will never really know the value of what they have lost. They will hear stories from their parents, but how can that make up for experiencing the real thing? As the grief permeates me, I too want to lay flowers and write my condolences and pray for a miracle resurrection.

I’m not talking about the loss of Michael Jackson. I’m talking about the death of education in California as funding is slashed with the broad strokes of a legislative machete.

But so few people seem to be upset with the loss. Of education, that is. Millions are pouring out their hearts and souls over the tragic death of the King of Pop, but where are the mourners over the draconian cuts in education that is tantamount to a death sentence?

Don’t misinterpret my words as you read them. I am sad to see the passing of Michael Jackson, a person of unbelievable talent. But the non-stop memorializing for nearly a week only makes it obvious that we are a society that is obsessed with stardom and largely blase to all else. God rest his soul, but Michael Jackson is not a President, not a exiled spiritual leader such as the Dalai Lama, not a Dr Martin Luther King, not even a person of sustained inegrity such as Mother Antonia

Mother Antonia moved out of her Beverly Hills, CA home in 1973 and into one of Latin America's most notorious prisons where she ministers to the inmates at La Mesa penitentiary in Tijuana, Mexico.

who shed her life of privilige in Beverly Hills to move into a Mexican prison to minister to the forgotten. He was a pop singer with questionable moral fortitude. In other words, let’s appreciate and mourn the loss of a talented pop star, but let’s not canonize the man.

Perspective is so lacking in this celebrity-consumed society. You can’t necessarily blame the media either since the media are feeding what the public wants to see, hear and read. That is why, according to the Project in Excellence in Journalism at The Pew Research Center posted the following: “From the time of the announcement of [Michael Jackson's] death through the end of day Friday, more than 28 hours (60% of news coverage studied) was dedicated to Jackson’s passing. Cable news led the coverage, devoting 93% of airtime to the icon on Thursday and Friday. The story captured 55% of online coverage and 37% of front-page newspaper coverage. All other stories vied for attention amidst the biggest celebrity story in a decade.” For the complete story from the Project in Excellence in Journalism, click here.

Yes, it’s a big story. But is it the most important story six days later? Is it more important than the drastic cuts to education in California that will affect millions of students? In terms of a measurable affect, it’s easy to reason that the firing of teachers, larger class sizes, and the elimination of programs will have a much more profound and direct impact on people than the funeral arrangements for a pop icon.

Perhaps if our society showed the same amount of interest in non-celebrity news, such as the cuts to education, the unrest in Iran, or health care reform, then maybe the satellite trucks and morning talk show hosts would set up their makeshift studios not at Neverland Ranch, but in front of the Board of Education or City Council. There they could demand answers and request reports about the cuts in the same exact manner they do now when reporting about Jackson’s will, custody issues and prescription medications. Imagine the possibilities, but don’t hold out hope this will happen. After all, there’s always Jon and Kate, and their exploited 8, to fall back on.

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO

My closest friends are from Iran. I consider them my brothers and they treat me like family. They’ve told me their tales of escaping a country after the revolution and finding their way to America and freedom. Each is a successful, humble, respectful and loyal person. And each still has family in Iran. Even though they were all tied up with personal commitments on Saturday, I headed down to the Federal Building in Westwood to photograph the protest by Iranian Americans in support of their fellow Iranians at home battling for freedom.

I’ve photographed for too many years and know the perils of actually participating in a protest as opposed to documenting it as a photojournalist. The line between photojournalist and protester is an important one. Although I was there to document, my love and respect for my friends (who weren’t there) made it a more personal experience than most other demonstrations I’ve covered.

Protesters gather in support of those in Iran who are battling government forces over disputed election results. A thousand demonstrators gathered at the Westwood Federal Building in Los Angeles.

A protestor holds a photo allegedly of "Neda" who was shot and killed Saturday in Iran.

The demonstrators were passionate and peaceful, yet they exhibited a energy that seemed destined to find it’s way to the men and women defying threats at home to battle government forces in ways that haven’t been seen in nearly thirty years (or so I’ve been told). There were older Iranians standing next to teens twittering on their iPhones, women leading chants with megaphones and children with signs they made themselves. Everyone was draped in green, signs depicted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a criminal and photos from the protests in Iran showing spilled blood circulated widely.

Protesters gather in support of those in Iran who are battling government forces over disputed election results.

Time will tell if the protests both in Iran and worldwide will have an impact, but if Saturday was any indication, the support from the Los Angeles Iranian American community is not likely to subside anytime soon.

Click on images or here to be taken to a photo gallery.

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO

Protesters gather in support of those in Iran who are battling government forces over disputed election results.

I’m a huge believer in destiny. Always have been. The greatest book I’ve ever read was Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist which is a fictional tale of a sheepherder who feels he has a destiny pulling him but wonders if he has gotten off the path. Without turning this into a book review (since most of you have probably read it anyhow), let’s just agree that it deals with all the “signs” that you might or might not notice as you journey through life. Those signs are key. They’ll often indicate if you’re on the path to your own destiny (in the book it’s called your own personal legend) or if you’ve wandered astray.

Not all signs in life are so pivotal, so vital as to be life changing. Some are designed to simply raise your awareness. I had one of those moments this past week.

Crowded waiting room at the South Central Family Health Center in Los Angeles

I shot an assignment a little over a week ago at a community health center in Los Angeles. The story dealt with Federal stimulus money finding it’s way to health organizations that aid the poor, mostly immigrant community. The shoot was simple enough. Having done similar stories in years past, I was prepared for the crowded waiting room. Sure enough, within an hour of opening at 7am, the waiting room at the South Central Family Health Center had nearly 50 people waiting.

As I drove home I reflected on how calm and tranquil all the patients were. No one was screaming that it was their turn. Children quietly minded their time, adults sat quietly and waited as they likely had hundreds of times before. This is their life. This is the norm when their child has a cold or dad injured himself at work. Sit and wait half the day for health care.

I didn’t know until Sunday night that it was a sign. Sunday night I ended up visiting an emergency room for a large rash and four day headache. I literally was the only one in the waiting room. I had to sit for about 20 minutes and found myself actually getting irritated. My brother was in town visiting and I wanted to get this over with and get home. Why was it taking so long anyway, I thought to myself with irritation. Then my wife read a posting stating that the hospital  no longer accepted Medical and I immediately flashed back to my assignment at the South Central Family Health Center. I felt foolish at my irritation of having to wait less than a half hour to be seen by doctors. I ended up spending the night in the hospital and receiving excellent care, but I believe now that the assignment I shot followed by my ER visit a week later were destined to remind me that I need to be more patient in life. How else could I interpret these two events?

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IMAGES OF CROWDED WAITING ROOMS, PLEASE SIMPLY CLICK ON EITHER IMAGE TO BE TAKEN TO A PHOTO GALLERY

The relationship between sports media and professional athletes is so difficult to describe. But the plain and simple fact is that most professional athletes forget the most basic tenet of business: Without the media, the athlete will be a average paid, middle class working “joe.” Yet despite that fact, many of professional athletes that I’ve encountered as a photographer lose sight of this once they’ve hit the big time.

No doubt the emerging star embraces the media exposure and the requests for interviews and photo shoots. Why? Simple. Money, baby. The emerging star understands that exposure leads to discovery and discovery leads eventually to the pros (never discounting the significance of the athlete’s talent and perseverance). Pros receive hefty contracts from their teams and/or lucrative endorsement deals with various sponsors. That process all starts as early as middle school for some, high school and college athletes for most. Top notch high school athletes have press agents and people that handle their publicity. Hey, that’s smart in my book, but the problem is that most pro athletes forget that the media was an integral part of their journey to prosperity.

The reason teams pay big money to big name athletes is to draw paying fans into their arenas, stadiums, courses etc. How are fans going to be excited about seeing a particular athlete if the fans have no idea who they are? Without the magazines, newspapers, radio and online publications writing about and photographing the athlete, fans would have no desire to pay $50 to see a baseball game. Case and point: When the Dodgers signed Manny Ramirez, ticket sales went through the roof. Fans pay to see star athletes and those fans rely on the media to tell them about the athlete’s accomplishments (and failures).

Jordin Tootoo on the Hudson Bay near his home in Rankins Inlet, Canada.

Like many relationships, the athlete/media relationship doesn’t have to be based on love. But it does need a healthy dose of mutual respect and understanding to prosper.  So it’s refreshing to come across  pro athletes who still understand this union. And there are a number of them out there. A couple years ago I spent time with NHL player Jordin Tootoo , right, and his family at their home near the Arctic Circle. Very, very cool, humble people who treated me like family (even breaking out the good beer one night!). Another example was when I had the chance to spend a few days with LPGA star (and crossover celebrity who had her own reality show) Natalie Gulbis. Extremely genuine person who was friendly, helpful and thankful for the story and shoot SI did.  ‘Course, her dad rides a Harley and has a law enforcement background, so it’s easy to see how she stayed grounded.

Brain Gay enjoys his family at the beach in Mayakoba near Cancun, Mexico.

Most recently, I spent a few days with Brian Gay and his family in Mayakoba which is about an hour south of Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula. Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck was writing a piece about Brian’s long and hard road to success on the PGA Tour, out this week and available here. Brian travels most the time with his wife, Kimberly, and their two young daughters. Brian is on the quiet side but was friendly, pleasant and accepting of spending quite a bit of time shooting away from the course. The same for his wife who told me on more than one occasion how much they appreciated the time we were putting into the story. That’s rare. Even more rare was returning to my room to find a bottle of wine, some gourmet cheese and a note from the Gay family thanking me again. Good manners or good business? Both! It’s smart business and plain old nice to treat people with dignity and respect.

Lorena Ochoa is a fan and media favorite.

Lorena Ochoa, the best female golfer in the world, and one of the richest,  knows like few others how to treat everyone with respect. She’s notorious for stopping by to visit with the grounds crew at a tournament and for inviting them out to celebrate on the final hole when she wins a tournament. And she’s a fan favorite, too. Pure class. And a pure understanding of how it all works.

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO

I’ve been thinking a lot about solitude. It’s a word that has significant meaning. Solitude, from the Latin Solitudo, is a word often associated with loneliness but truly means a state of being alone or in an uninhabited place. Though the literal translation of the word insists you can not be around others and achieve solitude, I totally disagree. In my opinion, solitude or uninhabited places can be mental or physical. I believe solitude is as much spiritual as physical, hence the feeling of being all “alone” while meditating or kissing a loved one in a crowded place.

It’s a word I’ve always loved and upon reflection find my photographs often gravitate toward moments of solitude, both conceptually and literally. I love moments that capture a person’s or place’s solitude, or moments whereby I imply solitude by composition. The aspect of isolation is intriguing in photography as it is in life. Perhaps my interest in finding that solitude in my life is the reason it comes from me naturally in my photographs. I seek solitude, like most others, when I need to recharge myself. I’ve found solitude physically when I’m snowboarding or fishing in the Sierras, hiking in the local mountains or laying on a beach. A recent assignment in Mayakoba in the Mexican Riviera was great for many reasons, but it’s funny how often I’ve thought about the pleasure I had in simply opening my door to a mangrove, no one within sight and hearing nothing but birds and parrots. That was solitude. That recharged me physically and emotionally. Emotional solitude often comes from being alone, but I’ve experienced this type of respite when among others. Consider meditation. Isn’t that the act of finding solitude even if you’re among a group? I’ve hardly perfected meditation, but I have attempted it on dozens of occasions and found mental solitude while with others.

A young man is alone with his thoughts on a rural road in Texas.

So I gathered a selection of images together that I think reflect on this word. Mind you, I didn’t set out to shoot images of solitude. Instead, I found myself reflecting on the word after coming back from a recent trip which led me to see how my images have reflected the feeling of solitude.

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO

Taxes are a pain. Doing your taxes is depressing. Filing your taxes causes anxiety. It’s all true, right down to the world’s biggest cliche of The Two Certainties in Life: Death and Taxes.

But are taxes good for you?

The last several tax returns have provided me a great tool for business assessment and planning. Any freelance photographer should realize the information you gather, categorize and itemize in preparation for filing taxes is extremely valuable and should be seen as a asset instead of a pain. And not just for what appears on “the

Undocumented immigrants scaling US/Mexico border

bottom line.” No doubt we all wish to turn healthy profits, but there are so many mitigating factors that play into the “bottom line”. The factors create the bottom line. Ignore those factors and you might have recurring problems in future years. Embrace and analyze those mitigating factors and you might grow and prosper even in tougher years. Or at least stay in business.

I don’t claim to be some business clairvoyant who runs a perfect business (whatever that might be), but I have taken the time to review my freelance business and adjust for variations in our industry which has proven helpful.

The biggest mistake I see most people making is the assumption that the more money you make the better off your business will be. Wrong! And my last tax report supports that it’s wrong. The assumption that making more money is key to everything only takes in one-half of the equation. The other half? Expenses! And the information on your expenses is readily apparent during tax preparation. Use that information. It’s hardly a secret that you need to keep expenses down when business is down. Well, did you last year? Take the expense/tax information from last year and project for the coming year and it’s easier to weather the bad economy.

Getting the expenses in check when there is a slowdown was priority one for me. Priority number two was likely the same as everyone elses;  increase revenue. Quite a few years ago I set out to increase my royalty income derived from licensing images through my agency, Aurora Photos. My tax accountant mentioned back then  that royalties are not subject to self employment tax (which is half of the social security tax or 7.5%). Therefore, royalty income was listed separately from my wages (eg: assignment income on 10-99). I was able to use the tax return to see exactly how my income was broken down. Using that information, and knowing how well several of my colleagues have done licensing photos, I set out to grow that end of my income.

Why is that important to consider now? Because with publications cutting assignments I  assumed my assignment income would diminish during this economic downturn. And it did, by about 20%. No surprise there. But since I made a concerted effort over the last half dozen years to grow my archive, my royalty income grew nearly 20% last year. Again, that information was available by comparing 2007 and 2008 tax returns. Truthfully, the 20% growth still didn’t match the 20% decline in assignment income, but it definitely helped offset it. And it took a lot of hard work.

Besides your tax returns, there’s other information available to photographers to help sustain or grow your business even during tough times. About the same time that I created a workflow and spent my non-shooting days working on my images for licensing, Aurora Photos began to grow and make outstanding headway with licensing the archive of all their photographers. Part of that growth was to provide a detailed, monthly report to photographers stating which images sold, to whom they sold and for what price. Again, that information has been used to help me formulate and understand how the licensing market is evolving and which images have sold consistently. Using the information provided by my agency I determined that the image embedded above (migrants scaling the US/Mexico border fence) is one of my most often licensed photos.

Licensing your images for additional income assumes you own the right to the images. If you were foolish enough to sign those rights away in order to get an assignment, then you don’t have the option of the additional revenue. The publication does. It also assumes you are willing to work hard at a fairly tedious process of ingesting, editing, adjusting, sizing, applying complete and accurate metadata and uploading images on a daily basis. Obviously, placing your images on a website that has e-commerce and is easily navigable is as essential as having a reliable car to get you to assignments. My personal archive is on Photoshelter and I couldn’t be happier. An excellent company that provides photographers with information and the ability to make their images available. Once your images are available, try Google Analytics (it’s free!) to begin evaluating traffic and interest in your website. Then use that information to further adjust keywording etc, all of which will hopefully translate into additional royalties.

Makes the shooting end of things seem easy!

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO

In this day and age devoted to constant connection (email, Twitter, text, Facebook, MySpace, cells……..), do you ever think about leaving the Blackberry, computer, IPhone, Netbook or any other electronic leash behind and just “checking out” from time to time?

As any freelancer can attest, you have to be reachable if you’re going to succeed. Which is absolutely true. It’s also the absolute reason it’s necessary to disconnect from time to time.

Disconnecting is necessary from time to time.

I just got back from snowboarding with my son in Mammoth. Two months ago, I brought my Blackberry on the mountain. Not this time. I disconnected. I changed the voicemail message to let any callers know I’d be checking messages at the end of each day. I felt so much more relaxed and honestly enjoyed myself more. My attention was on having fun (and trying to beat my speed demon son down the mountain). And I did. What a difference…………… But just as you seem to notice, say, all blue cars after you buy a blue car, I noticed how many others were on their phones, texting or otherwise connected. Even my son was annoyed at the guy on the lift talking loudly about a real estate deal at one point. Disconnect and enjoy the view, I thought.

I’m not going to complain about the guy, though he was annoying. My point is simple: As technology makes it easier to connect from any place at any time, sometimes it’s best to simply disconnect.

Our beloved Crackberries need to be recharged, right? It only goes to reason that so do I.

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO

US Customs & Border Protection marine unit patrols waters near US/Mexico border.

I had a recent shoot at the US/Mexico border for TIME that had me thinking about my “early” days shooting along the border. I began venturing down to the border in San Diego in the early 1990’s. Back then it was completely normal to see hundreds of migrants standing just inside the United States along the Tijuana River levy. In broad daylight, no less. They would form small groups, talk amongst themselves with their backpacks laying beside them in the dirt. At that time there was only a single fence that was so easy to climb that rumor had it the fence was installed improperly. Border Patrol vehicles would speed up to the migrants, hardly catching them by surprise, and the groups would scatter quickly back to Mexico. Many times, including once when I was shooting for TIME, the migrants would simply sit on top of the fence and exchange good-natured barbs with the agents .

US Border Patrol outnumbered at the US/Mexico border fence.

I don’t want to imply that the agents were not taking their jobs seriously, for they definitely did, but things were altogether different then. The Border Patrol was severely out numbered and they knew it. So they caught as many as they could and generally played the proverbial cat-and-mouse game (right).

Until 1994 and the beginning of the build up to stop illegal immigration.They called it Operation Gatekeeper.

I don’t want to bore anyone reading this with pages devoted to every shoot I did from San Diego to Texas, but trust me when I tell you that I would never have thought that the border would become so difficult to cross that migrants would be taking to the sea like their counterparts in Cuba and Haiti. But that’s exactly what is happening. Nearly 15 years of building fences, installing lights and sensors and placing agents along the nearly 2000 miles of border between the US and Mexico has, to say the least, drastically changed the game. In fact, it’s become so difficult to cross the border that migrants are choosing to hug the bottom of a 15 ft Panga (Mexican fishing boat) with twenty others praying the unreliable outboard gets them to El Norte.

Walking down the boat ramp on a recent Sunday morning hours before the sun would rise, I couldn’t help but think about the changes. I climbed aboard the 39 foot, 1000 horsepower Customs and Border Protection boat for a pretty wild ride. The patrol works in the dark with lights out. Using night vision and instruments for guidance, the CBP agents patrol the waters in tandem with helicopters who call out suspicious boats for the marine unit to stop. But even if a Panga makes it past the Blackhawk’s and the speed boats, they have to avoid the Coast Guard cutters and helicopters. If they’re lucky enough to drift past them as well, one shoreline favored by smugglers seems to be picturesque Torrey Pines State Beach. There you’ll find a Lifeguard-Peace Officer who regularly patrols the beach and fully expects to soon hear a distress call announcing a capsized boat with dozens of migrants in the heavy surf. He has already come across several deserted Pangas in previous months, surmising the successful landing of smugglers and their human cargo.

How times have changed.

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO

Since late last fall I had the opportunity to view a number of portfolios by some talented college photographers. One obvious trend emerged that gave me concern, though I can’t say it’s a new trend or that I’m the first to be concerned. In fact, it’s likely been around since the advent of photo contests.

The work that I viewed from the young photojournalists deals overwhelmingly with poverty, drug addiction, homelessness and other “dire looking” issues. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with covering these issues and they should be examined, but there is a definitive line between exploitation and honest examination. In other words, the relevance of photographing the poor and destitute should be weighed against what the photographer is revealing. There has to be substance that brings to light new awareness to the topic. Example: Years ago a student of mine asked to do his final photo project on homelessness. I asked him, as I asked all of my students, to tell my what he wanted to say with his photographs (students weren’t allowed to shoot a topic until I signed off on it). When he replied that he wanted to show what it was like to be homeless, I said “no”. I challenged him to find something with more meaning and purpose, something that had not been done a million times, something that would awaken the viewers perception of homelessness. He rose to the challenge and produced a dynamic set of images chronicling the incredible bond between a homeless couple. The story was more about their intense love-hate relationship that was affected by their homelessness than it was about “just being homeless.” However, I haven’t seen much of that with the student’s work I’ve viewed. Most of it borders heavily on exploitation.

Let’s face it,  it’s simple to take the easy route and spend time photographing the down and out, but if your images aren’t shedding new light or portraying your subjects in a way that helps viewers to develop a new understanding or awareness of their situation, you’re exploiting them.

Poor youths play in a abandoned car at Slab City

And I’ve seen this with other photographers as well, though they weren’t college photographers, they were relatively young. Quite recently, in fact, there was a situation in which a couple of photographers had the opportunity to make some potentially significant images relating to the economic situation facing ordinary Americans. However, those photographers, for reasons unknown, failed to rise to the challenge of making extraordinary images from a somewhat ordinary environment, the true mark of a gifted photographer. One photographer instead decided to photograph the down and out as a means to replace the “economic” image that had been requested and expected. I can’t say for sure why this occurred, but I can say that it appears as if the easy route (eg: photographing the visually destitute) was taken as a way to produce a “compelling” image that would have been more difficult to capture had the photographer covered the required subject matter. In other words, and strictly hypothetically speaking, if a photographer is challenged with producing compelling images from a union hall which reflects the current economic situation, that photographer is going to have to work hard to capture a fleeting moment of, say, despair in the eyes of someone looking at an empty job postings board. Opting out of that situation and photographing a group of obviously chronic homeless people in a park is taking the easy route that has a higher likelihood of producing a “dramatic” image.

Wars, famines, poverty, drug abuse and the likes are all important subjects. But they are subjects that young photographers too often (in my opinion) document to make their mark. The real test of a talented photographer is to produce extraordinary images from the ordinary (ala Alex Webb, Bill Allard, etc), not vice versa. In fairness I’ll point out that one young photographer’s portfolio that I recently viewed from the same group of students had exactly what I’m talking about. She had produced a wonderful story on a small, Colorado town that had beautifully composed images executed in wonderful light that showed her ability to stroll down a typical Main street and produce extraordinary images. The story left me with a awareness and understanding for that town and it’s people.

I simply think the younger photographers looking to win contests and create a name for themselves need to have an understanding that there is a fine line between examination of a subject and exploitation of a subject. Some guidance from others will hopefully channel their energy to taking on a variety of subject matter and not just rely on the destitute to make compelling photographs.

TO VIEW AND/OR LICENSE THE IMAGES, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO