Look3 – Festival of the Photograph

Walking amongst famous photographers like Eugene Richards, James Nachtwey, Sylvia Plachy, and other emerging photographers is pretty darn inspiring. Last weekend I attended the annual Look3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, VA. Lots of images, cameras, and shooters in a relatively small city. I keep one of those "Moleskine" pocket sized notebooks around with me wherever I go to jot down any photographic, artistic, or any other miscellaneous inspiration I hear or see. I'll share some of the highlights of what I got out of this festival if you'd like to read:

• Sylvia Plachy – "I lost my language, but I gained my vision." Referring to her escape from Hungary to live in Austria; while not speaking the language she observed mostly through sight.

• Phillip Toledano – "If people believe in the integrity of your projects then they really will go along way to help."

• Gilles Peress – "I photograph to understand the world."

• James Roh – "That's just one of those times you risk it for a biscuit." In response to a World Press Photograph showing a ring of tear gas.

Neglected Newspapers

I came across a few newspapers outside my dorm a few nights ago that had been left there for a few days and soaked up that day's heavy rain.  It caught my eye and made me think about the whole state of print media and newspapers in general.  Just last year my plans for after college were to get a paid internship at a local newspaper, eventually joining staff, moving to a bigger paper, and branch off from there.  Now with the state of the industry there's been a change of plans.  Business models are changing.  In the meantime, staffs are shrinking, papers are going bankrupt, and few know what's going to happen down the road.  Anyways, the site of these soggy newspapers sitting untouched outside a college dormitory struck a chord inside me.  This is where I once thought I had job security.  Nowadays photojournalists are going to have to work harder than ever to be the most creative and the most versatile in order to find jobs.  On a brighter note, I find comfort in the fact that Ohio University grads are high on a lot of employer's lists.  And even though I'm anxious about the future, I love what I do.  It's amazingly challenging but I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.

Palmer Fest

"Palmer Fest" got a little out of hand this year. Like many other photographers I was harassed by police officers, some saying "if you want to keep your camera, you had better get your ass home."

The student being arrested above is a fellow photographer, whose camera was confiscated.