Monthly Archives: December 2011

Old School / New School

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Without fail, during the teaching process, one of the obvious questions is: “How much Photoshop work do I do?”.  It may not be a stretch to say that some photographers may tend to exaggerate slightly.  It could be fair to say that in my past life, I may have been just like that person.  Lets get back on track.  I do extremely minimal amount of Photoshop.  Why you ask?  Because I’m not very good at it.  Why you ask?  Probably because I do not apply myself and I have a full day of photography, film making, and editing.  Id like to leave Photoshop to the experts.  Over the years, I’ve been blessed with several great assistants who are able to do absolute magic with the tools in Photoshop.  Scott Melanson is one of them, a graduate of CIA (Cleveland Institute of Art).  Enya Mommsen, also an absolute wizard.  Our newest assistant, Matt Tidridge has proven to be not only equal to the task, but in some ways, superior.  We had a friend come in who had a 1908 photograph of his wife’s mother as a child and wanted to rebuild the image.  I particularly thought of old-school in actually trying to restore the original print.  Not happening!  I pieced it together and shot the raw image, handed the file to Matt and he did his magic, which in my opinion is absolutely gorgeous.  So I take off my beret to Matt, who can generate an original piece of art from a tattered, 100+ year old print.  Knowing the tools, and how to use them, is a good thing.

Bill Eppridge in a Class by Himself

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on
In my career I have been blessed with a few fortunate lucky right place, right time relationships. The first and foremost was attending the University of Missouri school of Journalism Workshop.  It really doesn’t get better than that. The second would be assisting W. Eugene Smith who taught me more about communications then anyone. Actually, he taught me more about many things but for the purpose of this we won’t go there. When asked to deliver a keynote speech at the NPPA, one of the people I thanked was Bill Eppridge. I would love to tell you that I know Bill well but as the truth be known, that’s just is not so. But here’s what I do know. Bill Eppridge has very few peers. He stands alone with his great talent.  He also has another quality that generally photographers don’t have. He’s an extremely humble about what he’s accomplished over the last few decades and he’s still a viable force to be dealt with. Bill invited me to his retrospective at the Fairfield Museum. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend. This past Sunday I had a little time off and decided to go to Fairfield, Connecticut to see the show.  I thought I knew exactly what I was going to see. Boy, was I wrong. I had no idea the depth and scope of his work. Like many other photographers, we know about the positive RFK Photos, but the retrospective truly showed what an amazingly great talent he is. This is one of the few times I wish I was a great writer because there aren’t enough adjectives to express what an important body of work he has. Photographer Alfred Eisenstadt, once told me, he had maybe only a dozen fine photographs.  When I had the audacity to tell him, “no you have thousands of great photographs,” he smiled, clicked his heels and said, “one day you will understand.”
Thanks Bill for continuing to teach me the importance and power of a great still image.

A World Without Kodak

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Most photographers would disagree with almost everything: camera brands, focal length of lenses, the school of 8×10 to 35mm, and back again.  Color, black and white, c-print, r-print, die transfer, to light or not to light, in studio or out.  Lets face it, photographers don’t agree on a whole lot of things.  But I would guess, and I could be wrong, we were all weaned on Kodak film and the Kodak brand.  As a young photographer coming up I remember calling it the “Great Yellow Father”.  In my career, I’ve done several adds for Kodak, and an award winning short-film.  The idea that one day I will get up and Kodak will not be there is absolutely frightening.  My first camera, like many of my piers, was a Kodak Brownie.

“Kodak was once such a pervasive part of our lives that the “Kodak moment,” defined as a personal event that demanded to be recorded for posterity, entered our lexicon.

Now when even the most private Kodak moment seems to unfold before the digital gaze of a hundred iPhones, it looks as though Kodak’s moment has passed. The circle of life in business is a natural phenomenon, the lesson of which shouldn’t be overlooked by companies that seem to have cemented themselves into permanent spots at the top of the world today — including Apple, Google and Facebook. The lesson is: Nothing lasts forever.”
-Michael Hiltzik 2011

 

Kasuku

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

I’ve known Peter B. Kaplan for over four decades.  To say the least, Peter is quite the character.  We have a few things in common and we both get our own special fm channel on the radio that plays right through our brains;  almost like a stereo lobotomy.  But that’s not such a bad thing.  I guess it would be fair to say that Peter is one of the leading photographers when it comes to “height photography” and his work has been published all over the world.  Like many photographers, it seems like they all have some quirks or things that they are known by besides their photography, Peter traveled the world with an equally creative, crazy, bird on his shoulder by the name of Kasuku.  I remember the first time peter came for a day out on the sound.  We were going to do some sailing and some fishing.  He said he was bringing his bird and I said “Peter that’s not such a good idea, I have two English Springer Spaniels known for being some of the greatest bird dogs in the world”.  Peter assured me that his bird would have no problem with the dogs and that the dogs may be intimidated by Kasuku!  Knowing Peter the way I do, I just presumed it was an over-the-top statement.  Well, I was wrong.  Kasuku came in and stared down Tobasco and Ruffian.  To save face, lets say it was a draw.  Having said that, Peter would remind me that it was two 40 pound dogs and one relatively small bird.  One of the great things of having a bird like Kasuku, is that they usually live to be about 75, so there was a pretty good chance that the bird would bury Peter.  Unfortunately, that did not happen.  Oops, I didn’t mean it that way!  Last week, Kasuku was on Peters chest and passed away at 37 years old.  Peter, I’m very sorry for your loss.  It’s not easy to lose an old friend. Joe D.

Copyright Joe DiMaggio

Copyright JoAnne Kalish

Copyright JoAnne Kalish

Copyright JoAnne Kalish