We all know about the "six degrees of separation" - but we should not forget that this same kind of thing occurs in our own career relative to our own past work.

Listen Now:

There is a very good reason to consider cross-media production of our photographic artwork -- as this example from Jeremy Irons' involvement in "Brideshead Revisited" demonstrates.

Listen Now:

How long do you spend with a photography book, or at an exhibition? Could it be that our great challenge as photographers is to engage our audience in more profound ways?

Listen Now:

There is a limit to how much homemade bread a person can consume. What to do? A question surprisingly useful for photographers.

Listen Now:

Lessons from one area of life often can be unexpectedly applied in another. Here is an example.

Listen Now:

Photography is a technologically intensive pursuit. And, wherever technology is involved, change is inevitable -- as both the history of photography and our own personal histories tell us.

Listen Now:

One of the central themes in photography is its ability to connect us with one another -- over time, over distance, over differences. How marvelous!

Listen Now:

Each time we read that we've lost another great photographer (this week, Cornell Capa) is a reminder of the "thank you" they have earned -- and the torch they have passed to us.

Listen Now:

The downside of ubiquitous photography is that it may seduce us into postponing experiencing life in the present. Why live life now when we can pull it up from the hard drive when we have more time?

Listen Now:

Some may see this as the "Age of Contention," -- where we know what we like and that's all that we like. But, such specialization can also lead to deeper connections between artist and audience.

Listen Now:

Life is suffering, and it's not our role as artists to deny this. It is, however, our role to rise above it.

Listen Now:

Perhaps one of the very first steps in the creative life is to surround ourselves with an environment that supports it -- especially the mental environment.

Listen Now:

A foreign language is just noise to our untrained ears -- just like photographs that include foreign symbols and conventions are to an untrained eye/mind. Watch out for the "communication" in your photographs that fails to communicate.

Listen Now:

A closer examination of the intellectual response to a photograph.

Listen Now:

The general public can so easily relate to so many kinds of art -- like chocolate cake, for example, which is appreciated with a universal "yum." On the other hand, photography, unlike baked sweets, is rarely applauded with such enthusiastic zeal. Why?

Listen Now:

The real reason for making archival prints has little to do with time, but a great deal to do with our attitude toward our work.

Listen Now:

A perspective on history, 200 years of art and creativity, and the archival properties of our photographs -- with, I should add, a comment on photographic vanity.

Listen Now:

The folio paradigm is a creative structure that fosters production and yet allows -- even encourages! -- creative flexibility within that structure. A perfect paradigm for my particular way of working.

Listen Now:

Print size, empty magnification, and the experience of viewing a print held in one's hand.

Listen Now:

Photography is about relationships - and one of the things I love about folios is the way they create a physical, tactile relationship between the viewer and the print, and even between the photographer and the print.

Listen Now:

Binding individual flat prints is almost impossible. I know, I've tried. Instead of solving the problem of binding single sheets, why not just solve the problem by thinking creatively -- outside the binding, so to speak?

Listen Now:

This podcast begins a series on "folios" -- collections of prints that are neither a portfolio, nor a book -- a format of presentation ideal for individual, unbound prints. We've recently received a lot of inquiries about this folio idea, and this series discusses the concept and foundations in some detail. This first podcast describes what a folio is, and why a folio presentation makes sense for photographs that are not traditional wall art.

Listen Now:

I was invited to give a talk at an opening of an exhibition of my "Made of Steel" work at The Wilson Center for the Arts at Florida Community College in Jacksonville, Florida. This longer-than-normal podcast is the recording of that talk.

Listen Now:

True, creativity implies creating. But, artmaking -- and this is especially true in photography -- is also a process of reverse engineering. What lessons abound in working backwards!

Listen Now:

Few in photography would disagree with me in saying that Bill Jay is one of the great treasures in all of photography. Did you know he now has a website? An enthusiastic recommendation.

Listen Now:

Some say we live in "the age of the Internet." Step back for a slightly wider field of view and one could propose that we live in "the age of Media" -- and a changing and morphing world it is.

Listen Now:

What really fascinates me about photography is its ability to allow me to see the world through other's eyes. What magic!

Listen Now:

Print size preferences may be a function of what we're used to. In my case, my relationship with photographs is almost always the small print -- as seen in books, submissions to LensWork, etc. Where does all this buzz about large prints come from?

Listen Now:

When should the really big money come to a fine art photographer? While they are doing their great work (before they are famous) or after they are known? Perhaps a look at other areas of art and life can give us a clue to the sequence of things pecuniary.

Listen Now:

Every (photographic) mistake we make will be recorded in God's Little Black Book to be used against us in the Final Judgment Day. I was taught this when I was 6 and I can't seem to let go of the idea . . .

Listen Now:

When judging others work, to what do we compare it? To the best photography in our town? To the best photography in the world? To the best photography in all of history? What is fair?

Listen Now:

How I lost faith in equipment and found it in myself -- or, True Confessions from a Photographer Who Botched It Big Time. (There, I feel better.)

Listen Now:

"Gourmet Gold Medallion Coffee" and the art world, or "How Moichanding Has Infected the Arts."

Listen Now:

The relationship (or lack thereof) between art prices and the cash needed to put food on the table.

Listen Now:

I may be out on a limb here, but the way I see it, there are two kinds of fame in photography. There is fame that follows the photograph and fame that follows the concept.

Listen Now:

When you photograph, do you photograph what you photograph? Or, do you photograph what isn't?

Listen Now:

There is a difference between a retrospective and a monograph. A review of the highlights may give us a recap, but it is not the work itself.

Listen Now:

The visible hand of the artist in various media. Photography is, in some regards, more like musical composition than musical performance.

Listen Now:

In the olden days of photography when I was just a wee lad (ahem), we learned from the masters of photography. Now we learn from the masters of software.

Listen Now:

Hollywood routinely retouches the photographs of its stars to make them look better than real life. Hmmm . . .

Listen Now:

To this day, there are still those who think photography is not really an art form. We photographers would do well to remember this and take every opportunity to educate and persuade folks that it is.

Listen Now:

With 2008 just around the corner, time to think about next year's photo events. Some comments on workshops and "photo festivals."

Listen Now:

Here's a new technology to keep your eye on -- especially considering the pace of technological evolution. It may seem far-fetched today, but so did the Internet a scant 15 years ago.

Listen Now:

There are important and tangible disadvantages to the low resolution image (via the web, for example) that simply cannot due justice to a fine art photograph -- a truth I wish more judges and reviewers would remember in this age of digital submissions.

Listen Now:

Defining your audience can help direct the creation of the types of photographs you produce, but is it possible to make photographs that everyone can appreciate?

Listen Now:

Photography in the big, wide world of commerce -- and frequent flyer miles.

Listen Now:

Here is how we select work to publish in LensWork. This editing process can relate to how photographers go through their own editing process.

Listen Now:

The trend in today's world is toward more ephemeral forms of entertainments and culture. Does the archival photograph still make sense? Illogical as it may be, for some of us it does.

Listen Now:

With the recent announcements of a 21 megapixel camera and a 64" wide printer, the obvious question is Why?

Listen Now:

An example from a LensWork reader of how he cleared the decks for future creative work.

Listen Now:

Rather than "A Day In The Life" that documents us, wouldn't it be interesting to have a day in which there were no photographs made anywhere on the planet? Impossible, but fun to contemplate how far we've come in photography's short history.

Listen Now:

We all want people to see and connect to art. That being the case, we might give some attention to how we present our work and the context within which it will be seen.

Listen Now:

One of the fundamental challenges for all artmakers is to let go of themselves. An excerpt from our interview with Stewart Harvey from LensWork Extended #72.

Listen Now:

Today more than ever, there is not a single "audience" but rather a number of different audiences with different needs and different levels of commitment, scattered across t