ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG

How to Steal Like an Artist

I wanted to post this fantistic, wonderfully written and inspirational piece of wisdon by Austin Kleon.  He brings up a lot of the subjects that I talk about during my university lectures, and does so in a way that is truly meaningful to anyone starting out in any artistic field, including photojournalism/photography.  Here are a couple of quotes to get you started:

 

"I get a lot of e-mails from young artists who ask how they can find an audience. “How do I get discovered?”

I sympathize with them. There was a kind of fallout that happened when I left college. The classroom is a wonderful, if artificial place: your professor gets paid to pay attention to your ideas, and your classmates are paying to pay attention to your ideas.

Never in your life will you have such a captive audience.

Soon after, you learn that most of the world doesn’t necessarily care about what you think. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. As Steven Pressfield said, “It’s not that people are mean or cruel, they’re just busy.”

If there was a secret formula for getting an audience, or gaining a following, I would give it to you. But there’s only one not-so-secret formula that I know: “Do good work and put it where people can see it.”

It’s a two step process.

Step one, “do good work,” is incredibly hard. There are no shortcuts. Make stuff every day. Fail. Get better.

Step two, “put it where people can see it,” was really hard up until about 10 years ago. Now, it’s very simple: “put your stuff on the internet.”

 

"Creativity is subtraction.

It’s often what an artist chooses to leave out that makes the art interesting. What isn’t shown vs. what is.

In this age of information overload and abundance, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what’s important to them.

Devoting yourself to something means shutting out other things.

What makes you interesting isn’t just what you’ve experienced, but also what you haven’t experienced.

The same is true when you make art: you must embrace your limitations and keep moving.

Creativity isn’t just the things we chose to put in, it’s also the things we chose to leave out. Or black out."

 

 

"The thing is: art takes a lot of energy to make. You don’t have that energy if you waste it on other stuff.

Art is all about the slow accumulation over time. Writing a page one day doesn’t seem like much. Do it for 365 days and you have a big novel.

Take care of yourself.

Eat breakfast, do some pushups, get some sleep. Remember what I said earlier about good art coming from the body?

Stay out of debt.

Live on the cheap. Pinch pennies. Freedom from monetary stress means freedom in your art."

 

 

These are just a few of my favorite points that Austin brings up.  Make sure to read his full post to really get the benefit of his ideas.

 

The Boy In The Crowd

A boy peers through a group of school children on the streets a rural area outside of Kampala, Uganda

Occupy Wall Street Photos - Part 2

I figured I should get these pictures up before December when all of these poor people will freeze to death on the streets of New York City. I am not going to insult your intellegency by captioning these pictures, I think they are all fairly self explanitory :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actor Trevor White Portraying Me On Stage in London

This photo is of actor Trevor White playing me in the London theatrical presentation of On The Record.  My sincere thanks to Christine and Noah who wrote the play and brought me out to see it and and speak with the audience.  Thanks to Trevor White for doing such a good job and putting so much time into learning about my life ahead of the production (I would probably get a restraining order if anyone else knew this much about me!)  Thank you Fondas for the wonderful tour of London.  Thanks to Michael, Selva, Paul, Nathalie, Kika, Michelle and all the rest involved in the production.  Thanks to Ellie for the rooftop cocktails at your posh night club, as we watched rioters burning down London from beside the pool.  I miss all of you guys and look forward to returning to London soon for a visit.

And last but definitely not least, a big thanks to London based photographer Jon Holloway for allowing me to publish this photograph.  Jon specializes in shooting people and places and if you need a shooter in London I can easily reccommend him.

 

Actor Trevor White playing me on the stage in London.

 

How To Fix A Wet Camera - The Ghetto Guide to Camera Repair in The Field

I was with a workshop student recently in Bangkok when we got stuck in the rain.  The temptation to shoot in the rain was too great and she pulled out the camera now and then to snap a shot (the photos did come out quite nice!)  Unfortunately her camera began to malfunction and stopped working completely after a couple of minutes.  Needless to say she was quite upset, but I assured her that I had a solution that would most likely solve the problem.  When I told her what we would do she looked at me as if I was completely mentally ill...until the next day when her camera was snapping away as if nothing had happened to it.  

Here is a bit of information on what you can do if you camera gets wet (this is probably where i should say that I am no expert on this subject and I am sure it would always be best to have a professional look at your camera if it gets wet.)  However, if you are in a remote spot and and you accept the risks of trying this, it just might get you out of a bind.

This can be applied to mobile phones and many other electronic items, not just cameras.

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The first thing to do is to pop the battery out as quickly as possible (if it will take you a while to get to the battery, for instance with a phone, then make sure the power is off...even if the camera is still working for moment, shut it off immediately.

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If you are in the US or Europe, or you want to pack this in your luggage, a desiccant (a substance that soaks up moisture and humidity around it) is the ideal substance for you.  Here is one from B&H Photo that is something like what you can use/have around.

Now, if you don't have the luxury of having a nice photo shop nearby, which I rarely do, here is what has worked for me and my students:

1.) Buy a large bag of rice.  In Bangkok we picked up a ten pound bag at Seven Eleven for a few dollars.  

2.) Get a couple of extra bags from the shop when you buy it, or swipe a few garbage bags from your hotel when you get back.

3.) Stuff some toilette paper or plastic where the battery was so that rice does not get lodged in the camera. 

4.) Take about a quarter of the rice out of the bag then stick your camera in the bag.

5.) Pour back the rice you took out on top of your camera and try to have it cover the entire camera.

6.) Close the bag up tightly so no outside air can get in.  Wrap the other bags around it as well, just to be sure air wont get in.

7.) Wait at least 24 hours, take our your camera, de-rice it, pop in the battery and say a prayer.

 

Whatever water was in your camera should now be in the rice and assuming no circuits got fried, your camera should now work.  And you can now give the bag of rice to a family in need and they will get some good meals out of it!

Warning:  I am not an expert, so you assume all the risk if you try this.  It is something that works for me but your results may vary.  I claim no liability for the advice contained in post.