This week Colortrails is taking a slightly different tack for the artist interview process, by talking with accomplished amateur photographer Stuart Sipahigil. Stuart photographs landscapes and other subjects, and has recently published an eBook on the Craft & Vision web site called Close to Home, which is all about finding beauty and interesting photographic subjects near the place you live.
Image © Stuart Sipahigil
Colortrails: Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you get your start in photography? What drew you to the medium and keeps you going?
Stuart: I consider myself an amateur photographer; that is, I don’t do this for a living. But I am passionate about it and I love making photographs. On my blog, I tell the story of getting a plastic 120 film camera for Christmas, shooting everything in sight, then opening the back to see my pictures. I was devastated when my grandfather gently explained to me what I’d done.
I really began to think of myself as a photographer when I was in college studying architecture. I took a photography class as a media elective and immediately fell in love with it. I spent as much time as I could shooting and in the darkroom—which might explain why I’m not an architect today. Seriously though, I loved both the artistic and the technical side of photography, and I still do. I find myself drawn more toward the artistic side these days, but there’s still an inner geek that wants the latest and greatest stuff.
For me, photography is a bit of an obsession, but in a good way. If I haven’t been able to shoot for a while, I really miss it and I do my best to get back out there as soon as possible. It helps that I’m a bit of an explorer at heart, so I’m always on the look out for places I’ve never been or techniques I’ve never tried. It’s one of the great things about photography for me; the constant experimentation and exploration. It truly never ends.
Colortrails: It’s interesting that you consider yourself an amateur, even though you have formal education in photography (i.e. technical proficiency), and today make compelling photos (i.e. artistic proficiency) that are sold as prints and part of a new book (sales worthy). While it is true that one’s “profession” is traditionally what they do Monday thru Friday, is there something to the idea that real mark of “professional” in photography, is the quality of the pictures above all else? Certainly those who make a stable living from it have passed the test of what it means to be professional.. all the same, “pro vs. amateur” feels like a pointless distinction in some ways.
Stuart: To me, a “professional” photographer is someone who: a) is making their living [from] photography; and b) spends at least some of their time photographing specifically for clients. I consider myself a “professional” designer because [I earn my living from it and work for clients], but with my photography I do neither. Being labeled a “professional” does imply that a person has a certain level of proficiency; [your are being paid to deliver a service and product] and you need to be able to deliver a good product to them in return. However, it certainly doesn’t mean that a “non-professional” isn’t capable of technical and artistic proficiency… . I find these labels to be unimportant when we’re just talking about making good photographs.
Image © Stuart Sipahigil
Colortrails: Those are good points. You recently published an eBook called Close to Home. At its most fundamental level it’s about seeing and appreciating the world that is around each of us every day. Tell us more about that concept, what it means to you and what motivated you to publish this work.
Stuart: Close to Home actually sprang out of a comment that got posted on a photography web site called Faded & Blurred. They were getting ready to do a podcast interview with David duChemin and asked their readers to submit questions for him.
One of the questions that got posted was something like “Where I live is so ordinary compared to other places around the world. How can I create something extraordinary from the ordinary?” and it really struck a nerve for me. I live in rural Indiana, which isn’t exactly known for it’s photographic splendor, but I’ve managed to find some pretty good photographs here anyway. The question made me think about how I was able to do that—and how anyone could find great photographs without the need to travel to exotic places. That’s when I decided I wanted to get that message out to other photographers who might be struggling with the same question.
To get it published was trickier. I met David in April of 2010 at a workshop in Italy and was a big fan of the Craft & Vision ebooks that he was publishing. Eli Reinholdsten, who was also in the Italy workshop, was in the midst of putting together her own ebook at David’s urging, and I felt that would be a great way for me to bring this idea to life. I emailed David and asked him if he would be interested. He said “yes,” and it took off from there.
Colortrails: One thing that all serious photographers learn quickly, whether they shoot for a living or not, is that photography can be an expensive habit. DSLRs, pro glass, carbon fiber tripods, computers, software, even insurance -and of course travel- are all things that can cost thousands of dollars a year, even if you are a “smart shopper”. Do you feel that ultimately, a person needs a decent travel budget to make a living in this field, assuming that they are not looking to photograph community events (weddings, portraits, youth athletics)?
Stuart: I think it depends, as you said, on what your photographic goals are. As a vocational photographer, you need to decide what kind of client you want to serve, at least at first. It doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind later, but it’s nearly impossible to market yourself and find clients when they don’t know what kind of a photographer you are. Of course, if you want to be a travel photographer, you have to travel. At first, that may mean saving some money, getting on a plane, and going to the places you want to photograph until you can convince someone to hire you. It’s really the same process you’d go through even as a wedding or portrait photographer. It’s just that your subjects are in another country or culture.
I should also say here that expensive gear isn’t always necessary. If you’ve got the equipment you need to tell the stories you want to, there’s no need to spend a ton of money on gear. As you get better and outgrow your camera body or lenses, hopefully you’ll be making enough to afford something better—if it’s necessary… .
Colortrails: As a self-employed creative professional operating in a tough economy, I have to watch the budget like anyone else, but I am fortunate to live close to Chicago, which is a beautiful city (even though it’s pretty cold and grey these days!). Not everyone has the chance to live driving distance from a scenic city or national park. For aspiring urban and outdoor photographers who do not have budget to travel, what -in your view- is the most important skill they can work on to advance their career?
Stuart: I think … learning to “see” photographs [is really important]. I mention in Close to Home that “your subject is not your photograph,” and people have asked me what I mean by that. Essentially, I think that we tend to look for things to photograph, rather than for the photographs themselves. In other words, by learning to see photographs and not just subjects, you move past only recording what is in front of you and you start looking at things like composition, light, and perspective. You move past making a photograph and on to what Ansel Adams said was “the equivalent of what I saw and felt.”
I think you do this by employing many of the things I talk about in the book: slowing down and looking deeper into the world around you that you may have dismissed as too familiar or even boring. There’s a great exercise where you make a cardboard cutout in the same proportion as your camera uses and walk around looking at the world through that. It forces you look at the world like a photograph and to consider what you want to include within the frame of your image. This kind of “seeing” is extremely beneficial to understanding the difference between a subject and a photograph.
Colortrails: That is a great idea for any photographer IMO, to remind ourselves of what we’re trying to accomplish with the camera. It’s always tempting -almost ingrained- to assume the camera sees what we see and how we see it, but nothing could be further from the truth.
A big thank you to Stuart for sharing his insights into the field of photography, and some of the things we can all do to become better at our craft. You can learn more about Stuart and his works on his web site, The Light Without.
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