Jeff Curto's Camera Position

Who is your audience and how will they best see the work? Audience and Distribution considers not only who is interested in the work you’re producing, but also to consider how they can access the work you’re creating. Links for this podcast: * Books from Blurb.com * Portfolio reviews at Photo Lucida

Now that we have an idea for a project and a mission for what that project will do and for whom, we have to start making some images and actually creating the body of work. This episode deals with our needs, our habits and our goals, all aspects of project time managment.

Taking passion and combining it with purpose gives you a direction in your work. This episode talks about taking the list of 20 things that are important and using that passion to build a mission for your photography. Passion & Mission PDF

What do you care about? What things are really important to you as a person in the world? The next step in the project planning roadmap is to make a list of at least 20 things that are really important to you. We’ll use this list in the next episode of Camera Position,

The second part of the Photographer’s Project Planning Roadmap series looks at idea germination; how do you find new ideas and nurture them? * Download the Hard & Soft exercise PDF

Defining and planning a project is one of the most useful ways to build a body of work, learn about yourself and learn about your personal response to photography. With this podcast, we start a series of Camera Position episodes that will create and follow a project planning roadmap for photographers.

Photographer’s Bookshelf #5 highlights a stunning and interesting reprinting of Robert Frank’s important 1959 book “The Americans,” a must-have for your photographic book collection. Also, a reminder about registration for the Tuscany Workshop May 16 to 23, 2009 – the registration deadline is Friday, February 6 – register now! * Robert Frank’s The Americans at Amazon * Jeff Curto’s Tuscany Photography Workshop information

I am very pleased to announce that I will be leading a workshop to Tuscany this May. In Search of the Personal: Photographing Tuscany with Jeff Curto Saturday, May 16 to Saturday, May 23, 2009 For more information, visit www.photographitaly.com Enjoy a photographic journey where you will experience many aspects of Tuscany’s remarkable culture, landscape and hill towns and work towards a personal photographic response to the Tuscan sense of place. Working from our base at the beautiful Casa Cornacchi, located near Bucine, ideally situated in the Chianti area halfway between Siena and Arezzo, we will fan out across the Tuscan landscape and explore hill towns, markets, vineyards and the remarkable architecture of the region. By immersing ourselves in the culture, we will get to know the people, food and wine of the region. I will push you to go beyond the picturesque and help you discover your own response to the texture, rhythm and spirit of Tuscany. This workshop is limited to a maximum of 12 participants in order to ensure the best level of personal instructional attention. This is an intermediate-level photographic experience; participants should have at least three years experience making photographs, have a basic understanding of photographic processes and technology and should be comfortable using a digital SLR camera in manual mode.

How to get really good at photography! Finally, the secret is revealed. Turns out, it’s not all that hard… just live a life in the world. And make pictures. Tractor, Sycamore Steam Fest, 2008 and Spring Grapevine, Tuscany, 2008 Photographs by Jeff Curto (click for a larger view) Books mentioned in the podcast: * Photography in Print: Writings from 1816 to the Present * Classic Essays on Photography

Part two of our examination of the concepts of Gestalt in composition. Gestalt is a psychology of visual communication that helps explain how the mind works to make sense of the visual world. This episode talks about “similarity” and “proximity.” Photographs by Jeff Curto (click for a larger view)

We examine the concepts of Gestalt as they relates to composition. Gestalt is a psychology of visual communication that helps explain how the mind works to make sense of the visual world. This episode talks about “Closure” and “Continuance.” Photographs by Jeff Curto

Zoom with your feet! Zoom lenses can interfere with the creative process by letting you get lazy with where you’re positioning your camera. Switching to a “prime” lens of a single focal length can help your composition and your thought process. We also look at “The Poor Man’s Tripod” – a simple device for helping to steady your camera. Photographs by Jeff Curto (click for larger versions) Poor Man’s Tripod

Photographers must love the act of photographing; the mechanics of making a picture. But, before that, they have to love the simple act of seeing the world around them. Some pictures are best made without a camera. Lunch – Still Life with Tomato & Basil Salad – Photograph by Jeff Curto * “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange * ” I am always mentally photographing everything as practice.” -Minor White

Human memory is a curious thing; sometimes it’s spot-on perfect, other times it’s altered by the passage of time. Photographs are a way that we can extend or enhance our memories and this episode is about a way that my memory was both rewarded and tested in the Italian mountain village of Scanno.

Photography is about doing, but it’s also about thinking… looking, seeing, appreciating. It’s possible to learn more about photography just by doing it, but it’s a lot easier when you pay attention to how others do it. This episode of Camera Position discusses the ideas of connoisseurship; the art of how we come to know what’s good. Looking at, studying and collecting photographs that you love is a part of learning photography. Marion Post-Wolcott – Biscuit lady, a member of Wilkins family making biscuits on corn-husking day, North Carolina, 1939 Links for this episode: * Art Institute of Chicago – Photography Department * Museum of Contemporary Photography – Chicago