as my first blog entry, i thought i'd let you know what this will hopefully be all about. my one long standing passion in life has been photography. i have been immersed in it (in its many forms- more on that later), all of my adult life.
i also enjoy sharing what i have learned, so i will have tutorials and how-to's, as well as maybe even revealing secret locations (!) that i love, both in my home state of maine and elsewhere.
my other passion in this life is my love of the great unspoiled (or at least moderately unspoiled) outdoor locations in the world. as i'm sure you know, by unspoiled, i mean not mucked up by man (or woman, for that matter - they're just as capable). that is why most of my photography tends to be devoid of people. a great portrait photographer i am not, nor have i aspired to be. but i have paid my dues (more on that later).
i won't bore you with all the details of growing up in the midwest (places like detroit and chicago), but i will tell you that living in the 'burbs and seeing nothing but cement, asphalt and steel taught me the value of the natural world (or what's left of it).
so, here's a novella tracing my photographic path. hopefully, it will make for some entertaining reading. if not, just skip to the next entry (where i reveal secret photographic locations!).
it all started in the winter of 1971, in a suburb of detroit, where i checked out my buddy's new makeshift darkroom he had just set up in his parents' basement. it consisted of old blankets hung from the ceiling rafters to form a lightproof (sort of) enclosure. as i stood bathed in the warm sensual glow of a 30 watt red safelight bulb, i watched in amazement as an image appeared on the sheet of photo paper soaking in the developer tray. from that moment on, i was forever hooked! i purchased a used (and somewhat beat up) kodak folding camera and a couple rolls of verichrome pan roll film, some developer, stop bath, fixer and 5x7 doubleweight fiber base printing paper and i was on my way! there was no formal training, everything was trial and (mostly) error.
since i didn't have a clue about what it took to be a
real photographer, between college courses i worked in photofinishing labs so i could be around photography. by the time i had quit (or gotten fired from) my third lab job, i finally figured out that the photofinishing industry had nothing to do with
making photographs. i then thought maybe working in part time camera stores was the answer. after a stint or two in that arena, i concluded while it was somewhat closer, it still wasn't the ticket, as they say. i mean i
was seeing lots of photographs, it's just that they weren't mine. i guess i was just too picky.
all the while i was trying to get my groove on, i was shooting, developing and printing all my own work. (almost all of it black and white - for the occasional roll of color print film, i relied on those damn photofinishing labs!) but my work was advancing and in the process was leaning heavily towards color, almost exclusively slide film. i had become a scuba diver along the way and underwater photography seemed like a natural extension of my craft. but underwater photos didn't lend themselves well to black and white, so i basically abandoned black and white for many years.
oh well, the decade was over anyway. my fiance and i bid adieu to florida and moved to new hampshire. in the process of seeking gainful employment i happened to show my portfolio to the hiring manager for a medical microfilming company, who then proceeded to offer me a job running their photo lab; it turned out to be a great learning experience, as i learned so much about film characteristics, controlling light and predicting your final results (real photo science stuff!)
during my tenure there, a number of my fellow employees noticed how much camera equipment i had amassed over the years, and figured i would be a competent wedding photographer. it was a good thing i didn't charge them much! what i lacked in skill, i made up for with passion and enthusiasm. i learned as i went and as i got better at it, more people hired me to capture their "special day". hey, i was making money at photography! who would've thought?
well, towards the latter part of that decade, my wife decided it was time to move back to maine.
(anyone who has ever married a mainer knows that you can't keep them away from their state indefinitely). well maine, being a rural state and all, didn't offer the wealth of job opportunities i had anticipated (
insert sarcasm here), so after a couple more episodes with some of the local photo labs (what, again? hey, at least this time they were
professional photolabs), i felt that i had learned enough over the years to actually go into business for myself.
so i managed to get a loan, found a space for a studio and viola,
foreside photographics was born. whereas i was pretty tech savvy and had, over the years developed a fairly good eye, i was not the least bit prepared for dealing with the wild, wacky world of advertising agencies, temperamental art directors and the ever present
deadlines. boy, did i ever have to hit the ground running! but after awhile, i found my stride and began to really enjoy it. this was during the waning days of big photo shoot budgets, models, stylists and catered meals in the studio. life was good, too good. digital had yet to rear its ugly head. but i could feel its hot breath on my neck...
well, i was a hungry, relatively young photographer and was not about to refuse any job that paid good money, so naturally, given my track record, i started jonesing for weddings. little did i know that ad agencies would not chance embarrassing themselves by bringing in the same photographer who shot the client's daughters wedding to shoot the client's annual report. and, so began the super-secret, dark and clandestine world of
foreside photographics commercial photography and
foreside photographics wedding photography and senior portraits! i felt like a double agent! it was quite a balancing act at times, but i managed to keep one from discovering the other.
well, nothing ever stays the same, does it? turns out that those new fangled digital cameras had finally arrived on the scene (early models in 35mm format came in at around $30,000). as luck would have it, a few of the local commercial photogs
could afford them. (dirty little secret #1 - many of the local commercial photogs were trust fund babies, so they could afford almost
anything). be that as it may, literally overnight most of the agencies' art directors were seduced by the digital darkside. being able to see images out of the camera immediately, instead of having to wait
3 whole hours for the photo lab results simply toppled them. they went limp and slobbered like pavlov's dogs at this new digitial wonder. several of the agencies i had spent years busting my hump for cast me aside like yesterday's newspaper. i wasn't the only one, most of my colleagues who didn't have the coin suffered the same fate. my income was cut in half - but thank monte zucker i still had weddings.
wedding photography was lucrative in those days. moms and dads wanted their children's weddings to be memorable - but the big day was over so fast. why, what better way to preserve those fleeting memories than with a big, fat, full of photos wedding album, courtesy of
foreside photographics wedding photography and senior portraits? life was once again good. however, spending every friday night, saturday, and sometimes sunday from april to november in a church or local v.f.w. hall gets old fast. but since
foreside photographics commercial photography had become a pale shell of its former self, i persevered. for about 6 years, all told. hundreds and hundreds of cake cuttings, garter tosses and more renditions of "and you're daddy's little girl" than even the guests at guantanamo bay should have to endure.
fortunately, help arrived just in time. an adjunct faculty position opened at a local community college - teaching computer technology and photographic techniques no less! well, this was a very good thing, as i had lots of experience at both and the freedom to create new programs and classes and then unleash them on unsuspecting students! i schlepped in lots of old studio equipment and we had lighting and modeling sessions. i dragged the students on photographic outings! they submitted their work for review (and chastisement)! it was all so good (for about 5 years, anyway), until the new college president decided that our department wasn't making enough money (or maybe
no money, who knows?) and proceeded to dissolve the entire continuing education division. bye bye.
so, for the past several years, i have gone into a type of photographic hibernation, as it were. but this slumber was not to be permanent -despite overwhelming odds, the photographic flame refuses to be extinguished inside of me.
i have found new inspiration, possibly due to my time away from photography. the camera to me is an old friend (a
very old friend) and i feel it to be an extension of my heart. even though digital cameras and computer software have forever changed (and re-shaped) the photography that i have known for over 39 years, i still feel to need to express myself with my lens - and my mind's eye.
-gary
