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More Poe than Van Gogh
The classification of photography as an “art” has done it a great disservice. Art demands that the viewer appreciate the technique behind it. It calls attention to its technical merits. A good photograph should never do this. Rather, it should just be. In 1951, Robert Frank told Life Magazine “When people look at my pictures…
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(Finally) Facebooked
Facebook (noun): 1. a small book, splayed open and placed upon the face to block ambient light and improve napping efficiency. 2. a popular social networking website on which ULTRAsomething finally has a presence.
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Masochism? Anachronism!
Most anachronistic people were fashionable once. One day, they’re the epitome of style. The next day, they’re passé — victims of passive indifference to the fickle tastes of humanity. Me? I’ve been a photographic anachronism in every time. Twenty years ago, I jumped through flaming hoops to photograph digitally. Today, I’m jumping through a whole…
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The Pious Lens (Part 2)
This is the second half of a two-part article in which I moan extensively (but cathartically) about 135mm lenses. I’ve received a fair bit of mail since posting Part 1 on The Leica Blog — apparently misery loves company.
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The Pious Lens (Part 1)
This is the first of a two-part article about life, love, mourning, failure, blackouts, silliness and sin. Yes, you guessed right: it’s an article all about 135mm lenses.
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Don’t Feed the Ostrich
Short of taking photographs, few things excite a photographer more than planning their next major camera purchase. Conversely, short of a trip to the dentist, few things excite a photographer less than contemplating a backup camera strategy. But all it takes is a single camera failure to nullify the years of hard work you spent…
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Saving Souls
Can a camera save your soul? My second “f/Egor” column, which I write for Leica Camera, makes a case for this absurd supposition.
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The Accidental Blogger
Fresh from the whoduthunkit files comes another newflash — I am now a guest columnist for The Leica Blog, and will occasionally hack out… oops… I mean “craft” a column for them, which is called “f/Egor.” Since Leica saw fit to give me my own aperture stop, I reciprocated by granting them 30-day exclusive publication…
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The Soft Grey Line
When is a photograph no longer a photograph? At what point is an image so “pimped out” that it leaves the realm of photography, and enters the province of illustration? If you clone a crumpled beer can from of a landscape shot, is it still a photograph? If you merge multiple shots into a single…
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instinct
Instinct is traditionally abstract and intangible. Some people have a natural inclination to trust theirs. Others must cultivate the relationship. Many, instead, opt to borrow it from friends, family or colleagues. But Instinct now comes in a convenient and palpable new physical form — a book. Instinct is my new photography monograph — a collection of…
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Vacate Shun
I’m no etymologist, but personal experience would suggest that the word “vacation” derives from two sources — the words “vacate” and “shun.” Vacate means to leave, or to give up a place or position. Shun means to avoid or ignore something. For me, “vacation” means “to ignore my usual photographic inclinations, and to give up…
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How To Ignore “How-To” Guides
The world is full of many things to see — big, small, chaotic, and quiet. Every person who looks out at this world sees it, feels it, and experiences it differently. The problem, for each of us, is to figure out how to craft a photograph that expresses exactly what it is that we see,…
