Jeff Curto's Camera Position

How do you consider yourself as a photographer in terms of the work you do? Is it important to tell your viewers how you define your work as being a particular kind or made with a particular camera, or does the work you make define you instead? If I make more images, like the one in this post, am I a #lunarphotographer or a #GreatLakesPhotographer? If I shoot it with #film or with #digital, how does that change what the image says? I think my intent as a photographer matters more than the label or the gear and if you make photographs that are genuinely yours, your own personal hashtag will write itself. Rather than think of myself as this kind of photographer or that kind of photographer, I prefer to think of myself as photographer – I’m interested in subject matter as it presents itself to me, or as I think of it relative to things I’ve read, music I’ve listened to, places I’ve gone… Rather than pigeonholing yourself into a particular genre of image-making, or that you use a particular kind of camera, think rather of how the work you make defines who you are and let that be your “hashtag.” Play Podcast: Links for this Episode: * PhotoPlace Gallery in Vermont* Composed Exhibition* Jeff’s essay about the work* My Instagram Feed – Follow me and I’ll follow back* Podcast Facebook Page Blue Hour Moonset – Lake Superior – photograph by Jeff Curto

This episode covers some practical details. I go over the places where you can listen to Camera Position and list a number of online resources for you to explore photography that go beyond the “usual suspects” of Instagram – Flickr – Facebook. – Sources – Where to Listen to Camera Position Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsiHeartRadioSpotifyStitcherAmazon MusiciOS App (free!)YouTubeAndroid App Play Podcast: – Resources – Where to Find Quality Photography & Photography Inspiration Online LENSCRATCH – “an online platform dedicated to supporting and celebrating the photographic arts and photographic artists through exposure, discussion, community collaboration, and education.” LensCulture – “LensCulture is one of the most comprehensive and far-reaching resources for discovering contemporary photography talent around the world.” Artsy – “Artsy features the world’s leading galleries, museum collections, foundations, artist estates, art fairs, and benefit auctions, all in one place.” – Over 1,000,000 artworks online Museum of Contemporary Photography – “The MoCP is the world’s premier college art museum dedicated to photography.

“Whatever you do with your photography – don’t ever do… that.” Our desire to learn quickly, be noticed in social media and not make any mistakes has led to some photography pundits saying things like the above with increasing frequency. The whole idea that there are pictures that you should never make or techniques or ideas you should never try is confusing to me. What happened to the notion of experimenting with photography and exploring the world and the medium as you work out the best way to create images that mean something to you? Play Podcast: Links for this Episode: * My Instagram Feed – Follow me and I’ll follow back* Podcast Facebook Page Birches – from the project “The Whisper of the Pale Trees” – 2020/2021 – photograph by Jeff Curto

I can’t think of a time in my life that has been more disconcerting than this last year. The pandemic and the disruption to our daily routine. We don’t work the same, we don’t socialize in the same way, we don’t go out or see friends or family. We are certainly in strange and uncertain times, a situation that brings anxiety to many. I’ve discovered that for me the disquiet of our time is calmed by the camera. I’ve learned that spending some time exploring some part of the world through the lens takes me away from the chaos and uncertainty and brings me back to center. It doesn’t matter if I just take a walk around the kitchen in the warm morning light or grab the camera and spend a few minutes just outside the front door seeing what the siding looks like in the rain, if I take some photographs, it helps push disquiet away. Moving my cognition over to the right side of my brain – the creative side – lifts the weight of the world from me. How about you? Do you find that raising the camera to your eye is a component of helping you create balance in your life? Let me know what your routine is below or on the podcast Facebook page. Play Podcast: Links for this Episode: * My Instagram Feed – Follow me and I’ll follow back* Podcast Facebook Page Late Autumn Forest, Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan – Photograph by Jeff Curto

During this pandemic time, we have been forced to trade in the allure of travel for the allure of the backyard. As I return to the podcast after a long absence, I explore the idea that you don’t need to go somewhere special to make special photographs. Instead, you need to go deeper wherever you are. Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: * My Instagram Feed – Follow me and I’ll follow back Still Life, Cortona, Tuscany – Photograph by Jeff Curto

By slowing down as we look at photographs – ours or someone else’s – we can more easily bring ourselves to the photograph, and by doing that, learn more about the medium and ourselves. Play Podcast: Links for this Episode: * My Instagram Feed – Follow me and I’ll follow back * Sign up for the Workshops Mailing List – Planning is underway for the 2020 Italy Photography Workshops A couple of images from my winter in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Musicians warm up before they make music, but what about visual artists? Do photographers need to warm up before they create photographs? I think yes, and with the help of a podcast listener, we posit some ideas for getting warmed up visually. Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: * University of Georgia’s Cortona Studies Abroad – a great opportunity for any arts-oriented college student – young or old! * Tuscany: In Search of The Personal – a couple of spots are left in my 2019 Tuscany Photography Workshop

Some thoughts on living an artful life, led off by poet Mary Oliver’s “Instructions on Living a Life” Pay attention Be Astonished Tell about it. Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: * Mary Oliver– The American poet at the Poetry Foundation * Twyla Tharp – a brief video of some of Tharp’s choreography * Samuel Beckett – Some information about the poet & playwright * Pablo Picasso – A collection of paintings, quotes and a bio

Rather than trying to make art your life, work instead on trying to make every day of your life into art. “You just have to live and life will give you pictures.” -Henri Cartier Bresson Play Podcast:  

The act of making photographs connects me to the world, to my medium and to myself. When I make photographs, there is always a reward. Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: Places you can find and listen to Camera Position: * iTunes Podcasts * Player FM * Stitcher * iHeart Radio * Short Orange

Many people think of a wide lens as a way to get farther away from a subject, but I think of a wide lens as a way for us to get closer… a wide lens is really a close-up lens, allowing us to create a dominant subject in the frame by emphasizing the difference in distance from near to far. Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: Evidence of Hands on Stone – Jeff’s Italian architectural photographs The Curtometer – An Aid To Seeing – a deceptively simple device to help you sort out camera position and focal length Places you can find and listen to Camera Position: * iTunes Podcasts * Player FM * Stitcher * iHeart Radio * Short Orange

Podcast listener Tracy wrote: “Photography comes from the depths of who we are. It is not only an exploration of our world, it is also an exploration of ourselves.” This episode is a “part 2” of self-exploration and its relationship to our photography, utilizing a worksheet that you can download called “Passion and Mission” to help you think through not only what you care about, but how you can take those things and transform them into a body of photographic work. Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: * Passion and Mission PDF * E. E. Cummings at the Poetry Foundation * Got a minute? Leave a review of this podcast on iTunes

What is your story? What are you curious about? What do you care about? How can your photographs express those interests? Making stronger photographs often depends on digging deep to determine your passion and then translating those passions into images. Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: * Morton Arboretum Photographic Society – Where I’ll be speaking on the Creative Process on Monday, April 9, 2018 * Got a minute? Leave a review of this podcast on iTunes  

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes and art is knowing which mistakes to keep. Instead of living in fear of “getting it wrong,”  a better, more useful strategy is to keep moving – plowing through the things that don’t work and slowly refining the process to get to the things that resonate for you and with viewers of your work. “Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.” ~Neil Gaiman Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: * Neil Gaiman’s website * Morton Arboretum Photographic Society – Where I’ll be speaking on the Creative Process on Monday, April 9, 2018 * Got a minute? Leave a review of this podcast on iTunes

“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.” -Miles Davis One of the most consistent questions I get from students is this one: “how do I develop my own style?” Miles Davis helps with an answer. Play Podcast:   Links for this Episode: * Miles Davis Interview on YouTube * Got a minute? Leave a review of this podcast on iTunes * Sign up for the Italy Photography Workshops Mailing List – The 2018 workshops are sold out, but planning is underway for the 2019 Workshops