Musing: July 2011

“It’s like obituaries, when you die they finally give you good reviews.”

Roger Maris

The first “real” critique I received as a professional photographer occurred in 1980 at the Rochester Institute of Technology Color Photojournalism Workshop. I was a very young and inexperienced newspaper photographer attending my first workshop. I didn’t know most of the teachers but I knew the publications they worked for: Associated Press, National Geographic, Washington Star, and Louisville Courier Journal. The workshop began with a full day of critique and by the end of that first day all the six instructors would critique the thirty participants.

My first critique was with Bill Strode, picture editor of the Louisville Courier Journal. It was one of the best newspapers in its use of photography and had won numerous awards over the previous few years. Bill asked who wanted to go first and, being young and stupid I said, “I would.” He asked how I wanted him to look at my portfolio and I asked if there was anything I could improve upon and what he would say if I applied for a job with his paper.

Forty-three minutes later I had my answer. The highlight of that critique was Bill holding up one print and saying, “You almost have a photograph here but you have no idea why.” At that moment I would have happily traded what little camera equipment I owned for a bus ticket home to East Tennessee – and I still had five other “big name” photographers to show my work to. I was in trouble, feeling way in over my head and out of my league. Word seemed to go out very quickly to other participants and teachers because I seemed to be treated with kid gloves for the rest of the day. I am sure they didn’t want a suicide upsetting the week. It would have been a great “photo op” but would have broken up the flow of the workshop! I don’t remember my meetings with any of the other instructors or talking to the other students that day. I was embarrassed and ashamed of my work and wanted to run and hide.

Bill pulled me aside that evening and we sat down to talk. He explained that my ego was outsized for my experience level, that I had no idea of where I stood in the world of photojournalism, and that I didn’t really understand what good photojournalism was. However, during that conversation he also gave me hope and concrete advice for ways to improve my photography. He told me the real key to being a good photographer was a simple blend of 99% hard work and 1% inspiration.

His suggestions to me included:

1. Subscribe to newspapers and magazines that do a good job using photography. Spend time each day looking at these photographs. Compare my prints, side-by-side, with those in the publications. (If I covered a football game compare my images with Sports Illustrated. I may have covered a high school game and they covered the pro game, but it is the same game. Be objective and ask myself why their photograph was better than mine.)

2. Think about what I am going to photograph before I get there. Think about camera angles and camera placement. Try to figure out where the best vantage point will be and get there early enough to be there first.

3. Figure out how different lenses “see.”

4. Work hard.

5. Take visual chances.

6. Aspire to be the best.

In essence he was telling me to do a self-critique every day. Look very hard at the best of my work and the worst. Was I in the best position for that shot? Did I use the right lens? Did I capture the peak of action? Did I care about what I was covering, the story I was telling? He gave me a pathway to success as a photographer. He pointed me in the right direction. Would I have heard his advice before I had heard his critique? I doubt it. I’m grateful for his honesty, and glad I took what he had to say to heart rather than taking that long bus ride back home.

Today when asked to critique a student’s work I always remember my own first experience. I don’t want to destroy their love of photography. Most are taking my class, not because they are or want to be professionals, but because they are passionate about making photographs and telling visual stories. They want to improve their work and so are asking for help to do so. I like to say that I am doing a “review” rather than a “critique.” I do this one-on-one, two photographers looking at work together. It is a conversation about images and, I stress, it’s only my opinion. I can’t get your images into a museum collection, a major show, or hire you to work for me. I can look at work and tell you how I relate to it.

The best review of your work is often a self-critique. Here are a few ideas for a regular self-critique based on what Bill Strode told me:

1. Find your best 10 images and place them where you can see them every day. Spend time looking at them.

2. Find work that inspires you and look at it every day. Compare your work to that work. Look critically at the two and figure out the differences that make one inspirational and the other not so.

3. When you are going out to photograph, think about where you are going and what images you want to make. Think about what you expect to find and how you want to capture it.

4. Understand your equipment inside and out by using it. Know how each lens “sees” and learn how to use these differences in your photographs.

5. Think about your photography every day. Ask yourself “why” you make the choices to photograph the subjects in the way you do.

6. Work hard. Be willing to make bad images to find good ones.

7. Be your own harshest critic as well as your own best friend. You know your work better than anyone else. If you study the history of photography, become aware of what is happening in contemporary photography and follow your own muse then anything the rest of us say about your work can be a conversation, a dialogue, rather than a torture session.

8. Aspire to be the best.

Work hard, find the best of the best to compare your work to and critique your work regularly. You will make better photographs.

Have a great summer!

Tillman