–May is here. The sun is shining, the tourists are few. The winds are from the south, north, east and west. It is lovely here on Paros.
–My darkroom work is progressing nicely. I have been printing my Weather/Texture 35mm images on a regular basis and am finding great joy in the consistency of this portfolio. I have also been keeping up with my 4×5 portrait work and recently photographed a young artist who is visiting our fair isle. I made 12 exposures, of varying depths-of-field. I’ll develop them this weekend. Paros Portraits, Part II moves at its own pace…
–Recently a close friend gave me a lovely gift: Richard Avedon’s Woman in the Mirror . The images reminded me to look a little deeper into this photographer’s life. I have always been impressed by his work. I admire those who labor at what they love and have paid their dues, either through hard work, hard times, or both. Avedon was a skilled craftsman who supported himself and his family through commercial photography. While I never met the man, I get the feeling that while he became famous in his own time, he maintained his humility.
Avedon said that “I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.”
…also “sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me.”
He also believed that “a photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he’s wearing or how he looks.”
–Dig it.
–JDCM