Strictly Business Post today " Shooting your way out..."

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The Only Way Out is to Shoot Our Way Out. link

ASMP Strictly Business Lecture Basic Business Video

The SB2 Video's have finally hit the web, here is the first installment, my video presentation of business basics. I asked my business team of adviser's what advice they would offer to emerging photographers. This is what they said, here is the link


My Team: Carl Caputo, Caputo Insurance; Cindy Moore, Esq.; David Oster, C.P.A.; Donna Dooley, Financial Advisor.

Mentor Appreciation Week - Art Kane

I have been fortunate to have had very good mentors and teachers throughout my discovery and practice of photography. Sometime in the near future I will share some of the stories and learning experiences that these mentors shared with me.

Today, I would like to briefly celebrate the life of Art Kane, born Arthur Kanofsky on April 9 1925, he died February 21 1995 here is the NY Times Obituary.

Here is the link to the Art Kane Portfolio

Here is the link to the Art Directors Club page featuring Art Kane

Here is the link to the story of the picture A Great Day in Harlem

Here is the link to the "A Great Day in Harlem" film by Jean Bach

Here is the link to Harper's Magazine Art Kane & Andy Warhol portraits

Here is the link to a film made about the Ghost Army, which Art served in WWII

Now that we got that out of the way, what about the mentoring story.

I was Art Kane's First Assistant, in the mid 1980's. He taught me many things over the course of our friendship here are a few of those lessons.

Art said that good photography, will tell more than one story, and if it is really good will reveal much about the photographer.

Another variation of that concept, A good art director/designer will make a good photographer look good. A bad art director/designer will make a great photographer look bad. A great art director/designer will make a good photographer look great. He always said to only work with great art director/designer. And I do.

Edit with your gut, not with your head. Photographers tend to over think their photographs, to the seduction of the making of the pictures, or the subject, the lens we just bought, or the trendy technique. He never seconded guessed his edits.

As a former art director, Art approached each assignment or project first with a concept. He carried a pad with pen sketches and had the visual for the photograph pretty mapped out. But as true as he was to the original idea - layout, he always reminded me that even though it was good to have an idea going into a shoot, don't be afraid to change your mind once you get there. Many times after a editing a shoot, I would go back to his original sketch, something he rarely did, many times the photographs matched the sketch.

And finally, when shooting, editing or presenting your work, think like a filmmaker. If whatever it is, is not moving the scene or films intention forward, take it out. Art and I went to films, talked about films and referenced films throughout our friendship. He introduced me to BLADERUNNER, which we referenced in a number of his projects.

Thanks Art, I still have a lot to learn.

Mentor Appreciation Week - Kurt Markus

April is a crazy month for me, with in a short period of a few weeks, My friends Paul (April 5) and Ian (April 2) in New York, My dad (April 6), and two of my mentors, Art Kane and Kurt Markus (also April 6) and me on April 10 have birthdays. That is a lot of Arian's to contend with.

Anyway, it seems like the perfect week to talk about mentors. Using two of my own as examples of why mentors and mentoring is important in the artist's development.

Kurt Markus, is a photographer based in Kalispell, Montana. Kurt and I met back around 1988. He had recently released a book, After Barbed Wire, to great acclaim and his photography of cowboys and horses was segueing to models and fashion. His photo agent referred Kurt to me as a photo assistant, familiar to the challenges of shooting Fashion in NYC.

Kurt's career, like many of the photographers I worked with was not the photo-school path, Kurt had many different paths before photography, the one I choose to follow was that he was a writer / editor of Western Horseman. Knowing of Kurt's writing career, really sets the tone for his photography career. Kurt has a deep understanding of photography's history and it's place. He understands and has control over this interpretation of life and light.

And that is what Kurt taught me, by example his, "code of a photographer." His version of Gene Autrey's Cowboy code. His respect for his subjects, his production team, his locations, and his work is something I have adopted.

Another lesson is one of simplicity, his selection of light, his selection of composition, of location, of gesture. Simpler is better.

Having worked for a conceptual creator in Art Kane, it was a valuable lesson to realize that a photographer does not always have to go into a photograph with too much of an idea. But a sensitivity to the space, light, subject may be enough.

a valuable lesson, for today's emerging photographer, was the importance of the craft of photography. Sometimes, it is trendy, especially in the fashion photo world, to not have a complete understanding and practice for the craft of photography or it's history. Kurt respected both.

To my good friend and mentor Happy Birthday. April 6

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