On Taking Pictures

This week, we’re talking about film gear and answering some listener questions about our favorite film cameras. Also, a discussion around the challenges of becoming derivative of your own work, especially when you’ve done it for decades. We use Billy Joel and Mark Seliger as examples. Plus, despite low earnings, camera makers are still developing some pretty incredible tech. Lorna Simpson is our P...

This week, have the tools taken the mystery out of photography? When you no longer think about technical requirements to make photographs, have we gone too far or is that the point? Also, a couple terrific submissions from listeners — including one that has us marvelling at photos from an earlier time in America. Plus, is there value in keeping meticulous records of your life? We’re celebrating Bl...

This week, we discuss the seemingly innate skills and abilities of our fathers and grandfathers and how somewhere along the way, that “folk wisdom” was either lost or perhaps no longer needed. Were the skills handed down to them, or simply a byproduct of the time and place in which they lived? Have we evolved? Also, we mention a few terrific documentaries about art and design that are currently av...

This week, a discussion around the historic worldwide Women’s March on Washington has us wondering “are we so used to things ‘being Photoshopped’ that we ignore actual photographic evidence?” Also, Jeffery gets a faux secret service detail. Plus, getting “the shot” in three minutes — what do you do if you didn’t get it? Has Fuji gotten the feel right with the new X100F and XT-20? Rusty Fox is our...

This week, we discuss the connection between purpose and happiness. Are they connected? Does one precede the other? What happens to our work when we no longer feel any purpose in engaging in it? Does it merely become practice? If so, to what end? Also, a reflection on the life of Gene Cernan and men like him, who dared to leave their home behind “just to see if they could do it.” Luigi Ghirri is o...

Sometimes, you need to take stock of the path you’re on to make sure you get where you’re trying to go. Other times, you may need to change the destination entirely. This week, we’re talking about looking at where we are and what to do if it’s just a little off. We’re also talking about new projects and how sometimes just rolling up your sleeves and doing the work is all that matters. Jerry Schatz...

We’re starting out the new year discussing transformation — specifically, the transformation that seems to be an essential component to making art with a capital ‘A.’ To help with the discussion, we’re using a terrific Netflix documentary series that traces the foundations and evolution of Hip Hop that brilliantly exemplifies transformation at work. Through interviews and archival footage, we see...

This week, trying to reconcile the highs and lows of the past year and how for some of us, when an artist dies, a little piece of our history or even the personal identity that we have associated with the person (or their body of work) dies as well. It’s as if our potential, whether realized or not is inexorably tied to their energy. Also, a little about what’s next for each of us in 2017. Rodney...

This week, we’re starting off with a little about gear, specifically the new Microsoft Surface Studio and the uncertain future of desktop Macs. From there it’s on to David Hockney and a somewhat relativistic view of the “good” of art and whether or not one piece of art is really any better than another. Also, are bigger prints always better? Plus, we take a trip to the Crit Wall. Lori Vrba is our...

This week, we discuss TIME’s Person of the Year cover and portfolio, made by Nadav Kandar. Specifically, we unpack questions raised by the potentially subversive nature of the work and whether or not an artist has a responsibility to art before personal belief. As part of the discussion, we also reference a collection of Dorothea Lange’s previously censored photographs of FDR’s Japanese concentrat...

This week, details about the OTP Gift Exchange and some of our book suggestions. Also, how would what you make and release into the world — your art — be different if there were negative consequences to showing it? Plus, is it worth it to print all of your photos? Danny Clinch is our Photographer of the Week. Links for this episode: On Taking Pictures - Google+ - Assignment: #decisiveMoment OTP Gi...

This week, making decisions. Sometimes moving through fear means letting go of the reigns — emotionally, creatively, maybe even geographically. But once you do, how much control do you actually have to change course? Are you at the whim of inertia, or do small moves open up new territories, whether you want them to or not? Plus, is monetization after the fact different or better than having it as...

This week, what would you do as an artist without the right to express yourself freely? Do you censor your work or do you use your voice and push harder to make your point of view known? Also, what would you give up creatively in order to immerse yourself in something new? Plus, a couple entries from the Crit Wall. Ruth Gruber is our Photographer of the Week. Links for this episode: On Taking Pict...

This week, we discuss the recent election not from a political perspective, but rather from the standpoint of making art and how to translate the reactionary energy into something good. Also, what are some differences between good and great street photography? Are there objective markers or is it merely great by degrees? Vicki Dasilva is our Photographer of the Week. Links for this episode: On Tak...

This week, with the proliferation of low cost gear and the barrier of entry so low, have the mechanics of making become too easy? Also, is there such a thing as “objectively good” and if so, how do you know it when you see it? Plus, has photo software reached the tipping point in terms of features? Jerome Liebling is our Photographer of the Week. Links for this episode: Bruce Campbell on 16mm film...

This week, we’re talking about the ups and downs we go to when we just can’t seem to connect with what we make. How do you keep moving forward when it feels like your wheels are just spinning in the mud. It’s not the feeling of being stuck because energy is still being expended — there’s just the feeling of not moving. Plus, does innovation happen by committee or does there need to be a single vis...

This week, how do you know — or can you know — when a piece of work will be more than what you thought it would be going into it? Can you predict greatness or is it only available in hindsight? At what point do you call the game if you’re not going to win? Also, a discussion around how appreciating art can often be affected by the room or the way it’s displayed, using the newly reopened East Wing...

This week, Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for literature and it inspires a discussion around boundaries as they pertain to art and creative pursuits. Does Dylan winning this re-define what qualifies as literature? How does this discussion pertain to photography? Is portraiture more valid than street photography? Is shooting wildlife somehow “better” than shooting weddings? Also, how much does crea...

This week, we’re discussing changing directions creatively inspired by both new gear and a new environment, which raises a couple questions for us that we’d like to also ask you. To what degree does what you use affect what you make? Aside from tools, how does the environment you create in contribute to the work you produce? Also, once you make a dramatic shift and have the necessities locked in,...

This week a few thoughts around the new National Museum of African American History & Culture and how photography was sourced and is used throughout the museum. Also, rock and roll photography — has increasingly limited access to the band and performances limited the resulting quality of the work? Sails Chong is our Photographer of the Week. Links for this episode: National Museum of African A...

This week, we’re in a few different directions and we begin with a discussion around the Smithsonian’s newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture. Specifically, do you feel an obligation to visit places like these - places that are as much a historical record as they are a cultural cautionary tale? Also, a followup to the gear discussion that we started last week. Plus, a...

This week, we begin with a discussion around how we actually discuss art, including some of the collective meaning of the terms we use. Also, can concepts like “commentary” and “criticism” be as effective if they are non-verbal? For example, is a jazz improvisation an appropriate response to a particular work of art? Also, we spend some time talking about gear, from Hackintoshes, to the slew of ne...

This week, we’re talking about getting work out the door, and some of the difficulties that can arise around trying to figure out how and why to make the changes necessary to do it. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to take a step back from the thinking and the strategizing and just make. Also, we discuss the Documerica project and how differently a similar project might look today. Jacob Rii...

This week, we’re doing another Q&A show and, as usual, you all sent in some terrific questions that we had a great time going through. Topics include: how often to update your website, whether or not to shoot DNG, how to get more engaging street shots, whether or not to print in-house and a bunch more. Marc Riboud is our Photographer of the Week. Links for this episode: On Taking Pictures - Go...

This week, a discussion around photojournalism inspired by the Netflix series Conflict that raises a few questions for us to chew on. Would you ever put yourself in harm’s way for a photograph? If you already do, why? Is it for the photograph or the thrill of the shoot? Or some combination of both? Is a photograph more valuable than the life that is potentially lost capturing it? Also, does taking...