Not what I was Expecting

A few years ago I got a call from a small architectural firm located in Columbus, Georgia. They asked if I would be interested in photographing a public school in Albany, GA. To be honest, with that being the only information I had with which to start forming opinions, I was thinking this would likely be a typically mundane assignment. I have photographed a number of schools and the majority of them have been thoughtful and well executed but held hostage to the budgets and tastes of school boards who rarely venture out into anything coming close to experimental. Now, think south Georgia and you can easily see how I was forming my opinions.

Imagine my surprise when I started to discover the truth. This was a really cool and interesting thing to shoot. The firm, Andres Allen & Starr, apparently were given a lot of freedom from the Albany school board and I think they did something with a tremendous amount of character and interest.

I mention this now because I just got back from Albany where I shot the Willson Hospice for Perkins & Will and, while I was shooting that assignment, Michael Starr called me about shooting more of their work in Columbus. I have seen some preliminary images of the new projects and I think there is more fun shooting in the future for this firm. The firm now goes by the name 2WR. I love shooting things that are full of interesting angles, forms and textures.

Heartbreaking phone calls

No picture to go with this post. This is not about my photography. It is about those in this field who have been hit with economic uncertainty and have been trying the best they know how to 'tough it out' and survive the uncertainties of these times.

I have spoken with a handful of architectural photographers in various regions in the United States and, across the board, business is down. I can understand that as my business is also down. However, where I have experienced an upturn in the last couple of months many of these other photographers have not. I think it is no fault of theirs. I lay the blame on two things.

First, the economy is in a seemingly endless state of uncertainty. Lawmakers and those in charge of policy are doing little to nothing to instill confidence. As of the time of this post we do not know if taxes will be increased on the majority of businesses in 2011 or if Congress will do the correct thing in a recession and NOT raise taxes. This uncertainty is hindering business decision makers. The Health Care Bill is still something of an unknown. Remember, it had to be passed before we could find out what was in it. It was passed. Has anyone adequately explained it YET? No. Yet the health care industry must position itself to act according to the policies that will - or will not - be in effect shortly. Nobody knows right now what the health care industry will look like in 2011. A majority of the nation want to ditch the whole thing. Will Congress change hands and eventually repeal this? Nobody knows. Total uncertainty.

Financial reforms, Wall Street reforms, government bailouts, various and sundry stimulus packages that have yet to bring jobs to those in need of work. All of these things, in my opinion, are interfering with the natural market forces that must be allowed to operate relatively unfettered in order to deal efficiently with what ails us economically. Yes, I am a free market kind of guy. I believe in economic liberty. This means some will succeed and others will fail. I think that beats the kind of across-the-board failure that seems prevalent today. I do not see the spreading of wealth. I see the spreading of unserviceable debt.

An old Wall Street truism goes "The markets hate uncertainty". That applies to the investment community but the same psychology applies to any significant economic decision.

What I think we need at this point in time from our leaders and lawmakers is a specific plan to increase economic activity. This should be a plan that can pass the 'common sense' test. Easing taxes on businesses makes perfect sense but that threatens the base of the Democrats who still feel that the rich are not paying enough. That will likely not happen with this Congress. It should also be a plan that has staying power. Extending unemployment is putting a bandaid on a severed jugular. It might solve a very temporary problem (and buy a few votes in the process) but the end result is a net tax BURDEN that, in the long run, applies pressure for more jobs being killed by taxation.

This is a complex situation that has arisen for complex reasons. Both political parties share in the blame. Personally, my feeling is that we need to throw out the CAREER politicians whose jobs depend upon how many votes they can buy and send people to Washington who can do the right thing without the overhanging threat that their career status as a politician may be put to an end by a decision to do the RIGHT thing.

Wow, that went far afield. Back to those photographers. These people, myself included, are very small businesses. What we do is a valuable service to the building and design trades. I am blessed to have clients who, even when times are tough, realize that their investment in photography pays a return. My hope is that the economy will resist a 'double dip' and that those in Washington will start to realize that, like long ago, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Maybe they can put the fear mongering campaign rhetoric aside for once and start to do something wise and productive.

Maybe I am a cynic. I am for sure not going to hold my breath.

Hang in there guys.

Back from photographing the hospice

I have this really amazing record going with out of town assignments. In over 20 years I have NEVER failed to fulfill my client's shot list due to bad weather. Not once. I tend to build in a little margin and drive whenever possible. This last trip to Albany, GA to shoot for Perkins & Will was no exception. In fact, the weather provided everything I needed to shoot some innovative exteriors (full daylight, but combining direct sunlight exposures with 'cloudy' exposures) that hopefully will solve one of the client's needs.

As was expected, I felt somewhat emotional while shooting this. My father-in-law died just a few months ago and my mother is suffering from Alzheimer's at age 91. There was one shot that I wanted to do that was not on the shot list but after having seen the facility on the first night of photography I knew a dusk shot had to be produced. I have to confess, the little wisp of color in the sky is added. There was some pink in the sky just off to the right of the view and that color seemed to go so well with the wood and stone... I had to add this.

I see that wisp as symbolic of the souls who will leave this place. Life is short and time is relentless. Before I die I want to be able to fully embrace a line from a tune by 'Yes' in which 'the future is a friend of yours and mine'.

The full set of hospice images will be completed in a few days and I am hoping the client likes them as much as I.

Off to shoot next week (7/19)

I have a shoot next week that may be a little emotional. I'm shooting a hospice in south Georgia for Perkins & Will. My wife just lost her father 4 months ago and hospice was involved in the management of his last days.

I want to shoot this project with the idea that for many, these buildings will be the last shelter they will see on this planet. For some reason that seems to motivate me to make it as beautiful in the photographs as possible. Of course, that is always the goal. This time it is just a bit more emotional.

The buildings have a lodge-like quality to them. A lot of natural materials, especially exposed wood beam construction. The setting is also natural and surrounded by gardens and woods.

I'll post some images when completed.

Subtracting one dimension and stopping time is the photographer's job

Think about it. The world we live in consists of three physical dimensions plus a fourth dimension of time. A photograph loses the dimension of depth (Z axis for the math wiz) and freezes time at the moment the image was created.

The job of the photographer is to create an image in which the loss of depth and the loss of time is done in a purposeful manner that makes this loss not only painless, but perhaps beneficial.

The photographer must use height and width in the image to imply depth. This is done through careful composition and careful lighting mostly. Light must be used to differentiate intersecting planes as well as surfaces that are perpendicular to each other. Failure to do this results in a 'flat' image that has no 'depth'.

The loss of time can be a good thing. For one, the photograph will survive even if the thing photographed does not. We all look at photos of our families and love to see this daughter or that nephew displaying their gap-toothed grins. In architectural photography we manage things so that the image captures a uniquely purposeful slice of time that will forever serve as the iconic image of the structure. We shoot on a day when conditions are favorable. We shoot before the building interiors start to show age and wear. We produce our images not only in a pleasing composition (as defined by the X,Y,Z coordinates of everything visible to the camera) but also in the optimal time to capture the best image possible.

The mind of the average person is not trained to think this way. Many photographers are not trained to think this way. Perhaps some naturally stumble upon these things. I think I did. Others may see all of this as nonsense.

Study the work of photographers that you enjoy. Are these concepts on display in their images? Have they frozen an opportune moment? Have they learned how to turn the three dimensional world into a two dimensional one with an expert eye?

Blog is up and running?

OK, as a relatively literate computer user since, ahem..., 1973, I must confess that I am not exactly certain how the blogosphere works. Going to give it a go.

I am an architectural photographer and have been doing this for 28 years. I want to share some work, some stories and maybe share a little something with others about some of the places I have been fortunate to visit. For now, consider this as merely a test post.

About that computer that I first got into in 1973 -

It was a Univac located on the Emory University campus in Atlanta. I was a student at Druid Hills High School and we had an acoustic coupled modem that we could use from our 'computer room'. I was in charge as the 'aide' for 4th period. Our interface was a printer. Yep. A printer. After messing with this thing for about 6 months and writing some BASIC programs I got my first glimpse of a monitor. It was like... how strange... a computer on a TV? We actually would play games on the printer.

I wrote a simple program in BASIC that was about 60 lines of code. One day it was gone. I inquired "Where did my program go?". The answer? They needed the disk space. The hard drives were the size of a Lincoln Continental spare tire and probably held just a few megabytes.

Those were interesting times.