Week of Photographers

This past week was a time for me to attending photographic lectures. I didn't really plan it that way, but it's the way things turned out....

It started with Darrell Gulin Saturday. For the gory details, see my earlier post.

Wednesday was David Hume Kennerly at the Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum. The museum has an exhibit of his work going on and he was in town to open the exhibit and promote his new book of the Ford administration. He was Fords photographer and was given complete access to the President and the family. This was one way Ford tried to open up the White House after the excesses of the Nixon administration. He talked about the family and threw barbs at most political figures he mentioned. I toured the exhibit after the talk and enjoyed every one of his photographs. Of course I had to buy his book and get it autographed.

Thursday was National Geographics Sam Abell. A local camera store brought him in for promotion. His talk was the one I liked best. Not only did he show his work, but he explained his thought process behind the photos. He would show a series on how a photograph develops in the field, when he first finds a subject to the last photo where he gets the shot he wants. He also went over some personal history about how he got where he is now, and went into quite a few personal details.

The best point I got out of the talk was a point he made about conversations. He of course had to plug the camera store that brought him into town and talked about how one can have a conversation with a camera store that you may not have with other ways of buying equipment. Later on he continued this theme with a comment about the photographer having a conversation with the viewer. For some reason, this resonated with me. I'm continuing to mull this over and I need to see how this fits into my own photography.

While he wasn't promoting a new book, I did buy an older book of his and had it autographed.

Definitely a busy week, but worth it.

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