Getting inspired through the work of others

- Hi, this week on the Practicing Photographer, we're going to talk about books. Steve, this is my good friend, Steve Simon, photographer. Yes, Steve. - Yes. I love my books. - I love my photo books. - You got a lot of photo books. Now on a previous Practicing Photographer, I talked about the importance of looking at what's come before. There's been a lot of great photography over the last 150 years. And a lot of the times, photo students don't ever study any of it, so I encourage you to go out and look at some of the great works of Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt. And there's so many - There's so much to choose from, there is. inspiration here.

- I will go to a book for inspiration. I'm always inspired when I go to a library and check out a photo book. - So, is that mostly what you do? You get them out of the library? You look online? You just buy them? - Well, I try... I sort of don't get them out of the library. I collect them and I have my own library. But what I say is I go in, and I'll always find inspiration in a book because when I'm looking at a book, I'm looking at the best of a photographer's work. I may look at their lifetime of work. Or maybe it's on a specific topic, and I know that that photographer has labored over every image that goes in and labored the order.

And they made them as good as they can be. And there's a lot of inspiration to be found here. - Alright, I want to see three of your choices, Okay, yes. which really inspiring. I'm just going to... Okay. step off camera and grab... - One of the things that I think is interesting about Steve's collection, there's a lot of photographers here that you've probably never heard of. It's easy for us to think, "Well, I must go look at Eugene Richards," which you should, but you shouldn't ignore names you haven't heard of. - Now the first book that I'm going to choose here is by someone that maybe a lot of our viewers know or should know.

His name is Josef Koudelka. He's a Magnum photographer. And this is one of my favorite books. - Meaning he's part of the Magnum photo agency in New York. - That's right. The cream of the crop. - It's a world organization, the best of the best documentary photographers. And his book, "Exiles," and this is a collection of images that he made mostly in his native Eastern Europe. There's kind of a magic and a mystery to it. And I wondered if it was the palette of Eastern Europe from which he works or is it his own vision, himself.

And I've kind of come to the conclusion in my studies of photography and photographers, that it's always a combination of the both. But that photographer's vision is most important. There's such a simplicity in his composition that you see over and over again. Something to strive for for me when I look at his work, I think "Yeah, I got to step it up." - It's interesting looking at these. Actually, it does make me think of looking at Cartier-Bresson and other street photographers, who worked in environments that weren't full of cars.

(Ben and Steve laugh) You'd speak to the simplicity of his images. And in a way, he was in an environment that feels simpler than the urban environments that's (mumbles)... - Well yeah, it's true, yeah. Look, you can still go to these rural environments and find these kind of scenes. I don't think things have necessarily changed all that much, but you're right, an urban environment can often be much more challenging because there's so many distractions. And as a street photographer, it's difficult to subdue those distractions, which means that you've got to shoot a lot and be very careful. - Which speaks to the lesson of you're not necessarily looking at these saying, "I want to go take pictures like these." But to draw a lesson, "Oh simplicity, that's what's making these work." "So, I'm going to go into my environment, "whatever it may be, and try to take "that idea and (mumbles). - Absolutely because you can emulate or try and copy, but you'll never really be able to do that.

And what happens is whatever attracts you about a certain photographer's style, I think that ultimately can be infused into your style and your vision. And so that's why I'm constantly sort of scanning and looking to be inspired because it's stuff that I could tangibly bring to my own work when I notice it in others. - Cool, okay. Koudelka. - So that's why, okay. Now here's something completely different. There's a photographer, and his name is Tucker Shaw. And though this is a photo project, you may not necessarily think that these pictures are all that great, but it's called "Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth." (Ben laughs) And in it, you'll find everything that Tucker Shaw ingested in one year.

And this is, it's a... - With a calendar! - With a calendar, it's a crazy little idea! The pictures themselves are not all that masterful, perhaps, dare I say, but the message of this book... And when I thumbed through it at first, I'm going like, "What, what, what?" This is a photo book, it is. And I looked through this book, and I think, "Well, what would my book look like if I did "a picture of everything I ate, "a year in the life of my mouth?" Because Tucker Shaw says, "There's nothing missing here." He didn't hide that cheesecake in the middle of night (Ben laughs) or anything like that and it just made me think.

And I thought, "You know what, "this is kind of a novelty idea, but message delivered." So, I think it's an interesting idea and because of that, he was able to get it published and I bought it. - I think that there's an interesting lesson there. It's a cliche, the person who goes into the modern art museum and looks at the painting and says, "Well, my four-year-old could do that." Great work is not always about masterful technical skill. And you're right, these are snapshots... May I ask when was this published? Do you know? - I think it was a few years ago now, yeah. - Because it's a pretty normal thing now, especially with camera phones for people to shoot pictures of their food.

- You're right, you're right. And this predates that. - This predates that. And you look at these and you go, "These are just snapshots. "Aren't I supposed to be striving "for something better than snapshots?" It's interesting to see a work that moved you and made you think, "Doesn't necessarily have to be built on great technical "prowess." - And this is the whole thing about a project, the sum is definitely greater than the parts. And each of these individual parts taken by themselves is really not that memorable. But when you put it all together, and the message is "Okay, 'Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth.'" The message is kind of profound.

And that's why I like it. It's a photo book. It's a photo project. Not necessarily any one picture I'm going to hang on my wall, but it's an interesting idea. - Which is something to think about when thinking about your own projects. But it also is something to think about when you're looking at a work that is a project. Don't get hung up on individual images. Think about the whole. And think about if you've got any ideas like that as well. - And shooting, shooting, shooting, I mean he was forced to be taking pictures all the time. And then having your camera and being warmed up all the time, maybe beyond this for photographers out there doing this kind of thing, they're ready for other things.

So new opportunities, new ideas. My third book, it's called "The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings." And it's by Kaylynn Deveney. And basically, it's the story of this one gentleman, Albert Hastings, who's an older gentleman living in Wales. And the images are very simple and very beautiful. Once she got permission to work with Mr. Hastings to document his life, she got him to write the captions in his own handwriting. And as I thumb through this book, it just was a very moving and touching book.

And I thought to myself, "You know, there are people in my own life, "similar to Mr. Hastings, who have long since retired "and lead a quiet life." And it was a very moving book. And the take-away for me was, "Yeah, it's always great to go to these exotic places "to photograph," but there are so many wonderful opportunities right around us all the time if we're willing to commit and look for them. And this is a simple book, but again, the more specific you are on this one little gentleman, the more universal it becomes.

Because he becomes an icon for... the people like him, I guess. And it was just a very beautifully shot, simple book. - And this is in a way the opposite of the food book in that she really has done her basic photography work. These are nice pictures. - Yeah, these are beautiful photographs, they really are! And it's hard. And you go in and sometimes it's just a little detail, but even the details are just beautifully photographed, beautifully composed. Everything picture is strong.

And that's what I love about books because you're getting the best of the best of that photographer for that particular project. And you can learn from that. - Alright well, you weren't looking, but I went and dug through your shelves. - You did? - Yeah because you showed me this book a while ago and I just love it, "Unofficial Portraits" by Andrew Danson. I'm going to let you tell the story of this book (Steve laughs) because it's a great concept! - You know, it really is! - And the pictures are fantastic! - Andrew Danson is a Canadian photographer. This book is older now, but when he did this book, he basically went out and sought permission to photograph Canadian public figures, politicians, but with a twist.

He would go meet them. He would want to do an environmental portrait. So he would go to their office, pick out a location, set up the lights, but then he would give them a cable release and leave the room. And they would photograph themselves. And you know what? You could try to puff yourself up and look a certain way, but the camera reveals it all. And it's very telling! - It is! You can see the release in their hands. So, these are inherently people of a certain bent.

These are people who have sought power. These are people who have sought... - And people known to the public to a certain degree in Canada. - So they're conscious of their image. What I find fascinating about these images is it reveals what they believe the flattering, powerful image of what themself is. And in a lot of cases it is puffed up or it isn't. (Steve laughs) Or in this case, looking thoughtful or I don't know what that is! - Or humorous. Yeah or humorous. Exactly. - It's a fantastic way of getting them to reveal something about themselves through really... It's kind of sneaky. (Ben and Steve laugh) Back door.

- Yeah, but the beauty is, I think the really important aspect here, I think you might agree, is the old style cable release in the image because that the trigger to show you that, "Yeah, they are taking their own pictures." - They made this decision. - It's a great idea. I'm glad that you picked this one out. - Well, what I like about... My takeaway from this is one, that the images are very enjoyable. And there's a lot of depth to them because it is revealing a lot of the psychology of the subjects. But this is thinking way out of the box in terms of doing something as simple as taking an environmental portrait of an important figure. To let them take over is really radical thinking and very, very clever.

- Yeah it really is. - It's something that I never would have thought of, so again, a reason to go look at work that other people have done. - Yeah, and why not take this idea and make it your own. When you look at photography, some of the great classic images are just simple portraits. And the portrait is something that will always be interesting. Why not? - So you don't have to go as berserk as Steve has and fill your house with photo books. - This is years though, of accumulation. - Yeah, hopefully someone you know will because it's really fun to go look through them and not have to dust them on you shelves. - Photographers can't afford photo books! So often a lot of these books were bought as remainders.

That's the sad thing, but they do build in value. And some of them have become collectable. But you can always find this kind of the web. But it's not the same. - It's not the same. I don't want to sound It's nice seeing... like an old guy, but there's something about the intimacy of having a book in your hands. - And reflected light versus transmissive light is very different. So, get out to the library. Get to the local bookstore. Take a look at some photo books. Don't be a chauvinist and only look at those big names that you've always heard of. There are some great names that you probably never have heard of that can be very inspiring.