Yesterday was an incredible day. Newhouse worked extremely hard to put on this amazing event of the 4 amigos: Seth Resnick, Stephen Wilkes, Clint Clemens, and Eric Meola. It was an entire day of critiques, talks, Q&A sessions, and having the opportunity to meet some really talented people in the industry.
I made a new friend, Michael Newler, who is the founder of the Canon Explorers of Light. At about 11:30 PM at the reception, he called me over to talk and the next thing I knew it was 4:30 AM and we were still chatting about photography. I learned so much more about myself, math, and photography in that 5 hour conversation. Thank you so much Michael for your words and time. It was an honor to meet you and hear all about your life long incredible journey.
I also had the opportunity to not only listen to Seth Resnick, Stephen Wilkes, Clint Clemens, and Eric Meola speak, but to share my work with them as well during a critique session in Mike Davis's class. It was really great to have them give feedback and advice on how to move forward on our 'bodies of work in progress.'
RECAP: Some words of advice from our guest speakers:
Clint Clemens:
•Photography is problem solving
•You can't just photograph one thing. You need multiple things to happen in your life
•Advertising is about telling a story in one picture
•If you shoot with a telephoto lens, you're an observer, and if you shoot with a wide angle lens, you're a participant
•Invest in yourself and take small chances
•Focus on and do what you love
•Learn something new every day; you're always a student
•Embrace technology and change
•Your greatest teacher is failure
Seth Resnick:
•Find your MUSE
•Come up with a written vision statement for yourself
•Keyword images and keyword yourself: see which images that you take also have you in them
•We're only as good as our last picture
•Take breaks. Your mind needs them
•Write down why you love places
•He started photographing his thoughts that he would write down in the morning
•Great quote by Imogen Cunningham: "Which is my favorite photo? The one I'll take tomorrow"
Eric Meola:
•"What is a photographer?" - He collects quotes about this to try to define what being a photographer means
•If you're "freelance" - you're unemployed
•Stop always looking down at your cellphone. "You want to look out and dream, not look at the little thing in your hand"
•Make a statement: This is who I am and this is what I do
•Everything is out there happening every day, but we are not out there everyday, and so we don't see everything
•Sometimes you just start photographing things and you're not sure where they're going to go
•What's the story?
Stephen Wilkes:
•Work on a body of work
•Find a mentor
•Day to Night series -- he considers himself to be a "Street photographer 50 feet in the air."
•Don't show the work that you don't want to do
•Find a creative way to innovate yourself into the market
•Be your own rep for awhile
I'm so thankful to be able to attend a university that can make these kinds of events happen. Thank you, Newhouse, and all of the staff who made this event possible.
(Left to Right), Stephen Wilkes, Eric Meola, Gregory Heisler, Seth Resnick, Clint Clemens, being photographed by Mike Davis and JC Carey, as Dean Branham of Newhouse looks on.
Michael Newler & I.