Smart phones are all around us. In the past four years, the number of iPhones, Android-based phones, tabelts, iPads, etc. that people own has grown exponentially. They’re everywhere! Concerts, parks, on trains, in  schools… And one of the main consequences of this is that we are now back in the mode of photography being shared instantly. Sometimes this has enormous social consequences like Arab Spring. Other times it’s annoying like hipsters taking pictures of every freaking course at a restaurant.

Either way, using smart phones to take pictures and immediately see them and share them is just as exciting and relevant as it was when we (okay, when Rick – because he’s so damn old) used Polaroid cameras.

Is this a good thing? Is it foretelling the doom of “good” photography like Rick suggests? Is going to force pro shooters to step up and get even better – even when they are using their smart phones – like Rob claims?

Our Artists

Today’s artists have nothing to do with smart phones.

Our first artist is Spanish chocolatier, Enrico Rovira. A master of building and minimalism, Rovira’s chocolate eggs are stunning pieces of sculpture. The fact that they are also edible makes his work all the more amazing. Watch the video below!

Our photographer is Russian minimalist and abstract photographer, Ciro Totku. His ability to achieve balance in his images is obvious and the results make for some pure beauty.

ENRIC ROVIRA – CANGURS ER from Enric Rovira on Vimeo.

Smart Phones are the New Polaroids – Episode 44

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Dear friends, you will notice three differences in today’s photography podcast:

1. Rick is missing (he’s in Naw’lins) but we’ve got an amazing guest to fill his shoes.
2. There’s no featured artist or photographer this week as our guest, on behalf of galleries, features all artists.
3. 95% of the show features intelligence and well-articulated thoughts – because our guest spoke for 94.5% of the show! But don’t worry, bizarre behavior and poorly-formatted thoughts will return next episode!

And [drumroll] Introducing… Ginger Fear!

Can photography still be a viable piece of art sold by a gallery?  If you’re a fine art photographer, you need to listen to this episode. As it turns out, there is actually a lot of potential and hope for photography (and other art) in the digital age and Jason even suggests some surprising actions to take.

If you shoot fine art photography, the information in this book is worth far more than the selling price

Seriously, this has to be one of our greatest shows ever. Jason Horejs, the owner of Xanada Gallery in Scottsdale AZ drops by and gives us incredible insights into the role of an art gallery and how photographers can do a better job getting gallery representation. His wit, knowledge, charm, and insight into the gallery world provided the show with a lot more information than we were expecting.

If you’re interested in learning more about the art world and Xanadu Gallery (where, in fact, they do not roller skate and wear satin pantsuits to Tony’s dismay), look for Jason at:

• His blog, Red Dot Blog
• Xanadu Gallery
• His Facebook page
• His book Starving to Successful

What do you think? Let us know here and on Twitter!

Fine Art Photography – Is It Still Viable?

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Looking Back

Tonight is a different show. Any fool can take a look back at earlier shows when they hit a special milestone but it takes creative and talented fools to do it when there’s no particular reason. And we are, if nothing else, creative and talented fools! So, we took the opportunity this week to do a retrospect.

Alternative print process – the fine art nude

Looking back through all 41 previous episodes, we each chose our top three episodes along with an honorable mention. We didn’t tell each other which episodes we were choosing or why we chose them and it is interesting to see which episodes we did choose. Some were predictable, others were quite a surprise. Education was big on our list, as was networking and the importance of guests and what they brought to the show.

Then we did the same with our featured artists and photographers.

So give this show a listen and let us know here, or on Twitter, if you agree with our choice or disagree. What were your favorite shows up until now?

Don’t Forget!

We could really use your help to offset the financial cost of putting the show on (hosting, etc.) so why not treat yourself to some awesome Polarizing Images swag from the Polarizing Images Swag Emporium on CafePress?

Finally, a huge thank you to all of our listeners and guests – it’s been fun and we’re only getting better and bigger!

A Retrospect – 1+41=42, Episode 42

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You want disagreement and yelling? Today we look at the people who are in the business of selling photography and are dragging their feet when it comes to change. But don’t worry, it’s a self-correcting problem.

We start off right on  target until Tony asks a seemingly innocent question – does a store really need a traditional, trained sales staff? Then shit gets serious and we think Rick may have started crying. He didn’t: turns out he was just speaking into a muted mic. But before we get onto the topic about selling photography, we need to bitch and moan about why Australia just wants to fuck with you and how a shark got it right in the 1960′s. Tony also thinks a sting ray got one right a few years ago. Too soon, Tony, too soon.

Selling Photography – Do We Even Need To?

We actually intended this to be more photography-related than it ended up being, but the reason for this topic is because a large and well-established camera store in Chicago is closing its doors and the guys think it was their inability – or unwillingness – to adapt to the photography industry today. It certainly wasn’t the skill level or experience of their staff as that has always been top-notch. But the store died the death of a thousand cuts. An online presence that was virtually non-existent, major retailer for Nikon and Canon but where were the other manufacturers, a lack of related tools (no audio gear, very little video support, no computers or software…)

Winston Churchill by Yousef Karsh

So what is more important when selling photography: a sales team or an educational team? Tony vehemently argues for the education, Rick passionately defends sales staff with photography experience, and Rob finds himself leaning toward Camp Tony where he’d usually be the first to call bullshit!

What are your thoughts? Does selling photography today require sales staff or educators? Leave us a comment on the site, call in your thoughts, or Tweet your reaction.

Our Fortnight Artists

We even manage to have a heated argument about our photographer, Yousef Karsh. You may not know his name, but you sure as hell know his work. Famous for his portrait of Churchill (seen here), he shot a lot of historically famous and significant people – many of those shots are still the iconic image for those people.But really, who amongst us today can have such access to famous, important, and polar opposite figures? Probably no one. Maybe an era really is over.

We don’t have “an” artist today. Rather, Tony introduces us to an artists’ collective, Papunya Tula (go ahead, sing their name to Hakuna Matata, you know you want to). This is a group of Aboriginal artists whose art is as much a form of communication as it is visual beauty. Their work reminds Rob of the folding lines found in Origami.

Oh yeah, Welcome you ignorant masses!

Selling Photography – Photography Today Is Killing Off the Dinosaurs

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How Important is Networking?

Networking? Really? Yeah, believe it or not, a lot of photographers (the three of us included) are firmly of the opinion that our art, skills, and techniques can only improve when we’re willing to talk to other photographers. Whether we are giving/receiving critiques, asking/answering questions, or just shooting the shit with other people behind the lens, networking is where we grow.

We’ve bitched (a lot, actually) about those shooters who keep everything to themselves and refuse to share their “secrets”. To those guys (and, yeah, they’re almost always guys) we say, “spoiler alert – your secrets are nothing more than cobbled-together tricks you read in widely available books.” So get over yourselves.

As Rob points out, this podcast only exists because Tony believes in networking with other photographers and Rob believes in the same. Think about some of the great guests we’ve had on the show: from Ted Forbes to Giulio Sciorio to Steven Chappell: all great photographers who also understand the importance of collaborating.

I could go on, but you get the point! BTW, speaking of collaborating, don’t forget to leave a comment or call our line and leave a message.

Our Artists

Leonard Nimoy’s Shekhina

With two of the three guys being Trekkies, it’s a good thing that the third (Rob) is writing the show notes – that’s how we’ve avoided the obvious Star Trek references when we look at our highlighted photographer, Leonard Nimoy. Tony and Rick are both wrong when they guess that Rob’s main attraction to Mr Nimoy’s photography is the dance section. Nope, gotta check out Shekina. It’s his interpretation of the feminine nature of God. With a fine art twist, of course! Like his work or not, Rob is completely entranced with his photography!

Rick, keeping with his “Seriously, WTF?!” artist theme, chose the director David Lynch as the featured artist. From Twin Peaks to Blue Velvet, Lynch’s non-traditional approach to film making is a real inspiration not only to the three guys but should be to all photographers (and artists) looking to work outside of that proverbial “box”. Nimoy and Lynch, as artists, may be too famous for networking with but there are plenty of artists who are following their paths. We just have to find them and learn to trust their vision.

Networking – Episode #33, Networking with Other Photographers

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Do You Have Regrets About Your Photography?

We regret nothing! That’s a crock of shit, yes we do! Okay, maybe this isn’t so much about regrets but, knowing what we do now about the photography industry, if we could go back 10 years, what would we do differently?

A slow start as we have to do a debrief on Tony’s trip and we have a hard time focusing (don’t worry, it’s just the booze talking) but we eventually get down to an excellent discussion about what we wish we could go back in time and what choices we made that we’d like to do over. We’re typically in agreement that we all wish we had adopted a digital workflow a lot earlier.

To sum it up, Rob wishes he had gotten into digital earlier, Tony wishes he had learned Photoshop earlier, and Rick wishes he had learned to drink Negronis a lot earlier. But we might be wrong about that. One thing for sure, Rick doesn’t regret his lack of use of social media!

How about you? If you could go back and change any choices you made, what would they be? Let us know!

Our Artist of the Fortnight

Tonight, Rick introduces us to Cindy Sherman, well known for her self-portraits. But don’t dismiss that, she’s an original and they are not the kind of self-portrait that you’re likely thinking of! Some absolutely amazing work but to fully appreciate some of her pieces, you’ll need to get used to her style first. Go ahead and do that, though, it’s worth it.

Tony (surprise, surprise) chooses another musical group. This time, he takes a band from Akron, OH, the Black Keys.

Regrets About Your Photography? If You Could Change Anything…

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After months and months of talking about it, we finally got together with a bunch of listeners (and members of our CDP group) for an afternoon of shooting and an evening of eating, drinking, and recording. Thanks for coming, everyone!

We ended up recording at the studio with a special guest who we’ve been wanting to get on the show for a long time: Ivan! The four of us got together and tried to have a relatively cohesive discussion about the role of social media and networking for photographers. Warning, if you’re looking for a sober and in-depth conversation, we do have it but you’ll have to wade through some drunken rambling. But wait, you should be used to that by now.

Social media and photography: Good, bad, or otherwise?

And We’re Live! Episode 28

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Another episode, another rant. But this time we decided to be different. Instead of three guys who have never practiced true photojournalism before, we brought in one of our regular listeners, Grammar Nazi! (a.k.a. Steven). Steven, or Mr. Nazi if you prefer to be formal like Tony, not only has been teaching photojournalism at the university level for a really long time (how long? listen to the damn show and find out!) but has also worked as a journalist and photojournalist.

Can you believe it? We actually got someone with real credentials to talk about it. And (to quote my current favorite show, Archer) “Holy shit balls!” This guy is good and knows what the hell he is talking about. So, yeah, maybe we turned the clock back a bit and the show is a bit NPR-ish but when you hear what Steven has to say, you’ll know why all three of us are super-excited about this episode.

Is Photojournalism Dead?

That’s the obvious question, isn’t it? All three of the guys were almost ready to declare professional photojournalism as a dead vocation. Grammar Nazi assures us that it isn’t. It’s just found in different places these days. He points out that, while large papers like New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are laying far more people off than they are hiring, they are also completely ignoring smaller towns and cities with their coverage. So, to answer Rob’s question about what career path awaits a graduating journalist, Steven paraphrases the famous line, “go small, young man!”

Our Featured Artists

Sumi-e requires patience and time; two things that are the antithesis of photojournalism

Again… holy shit balls! If you listened to episode 16 (you did listen, right?) you heard Rick go off like a Roman Candle about flower photography. Don’t worry, he still despises it in most incarnations (in-carnations… see what I did there?) but he also chose to pay homage to Nancy Rotenberg, a recently deceased photographer who worked with floral subjects a lot. And did so in a way that Rick found inspiring.

Rob has discovered the beautiful sumi-e work of Yolanda Mayhall. Ms. Mayhall is an American artist who learned the traditional sumi-e art when she lived in Japan with her husband, another artist who died in 2005 (welcome to the dead artists’ episode). As you’ve been listening to the show and learning about Rob’s affinity for simple design and aesthetics, you will immediately know why he is drawn to her work.

Again, a huge thank you to Steven the Grammar Nazi for his insight, humor, and time in sharing with us the past, present, and future of photojournalism. You can follow Steven on Twitter @thegrammarnazi or read his blog at http://www.stevenchappell.com/

Photojournalism – Is it Still Viable? Episode 17

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Finally, Tony and Rob disagree on a topic. And we like it!

Like or Dislike?

Are you one of those people that hits “Like” on a regular basis? Actually, it doesn’t matter if the button says “Like” or subscribe or list or add or… could you possibly be contributing to the dilution of photography’s impact? In today’s topic Tony, Rick, and Rob talk about the Like button and how we see it as being a problem for photography.

The questions we (try) to cover today are:

• Are people just hitting the like button with out thinking?
• How does this impact photographers?
• Has it killed personal tastes?
• How do we stop from falling into the trap of just hitting the like button?
• Are there any upsides to this?
• Is there anyway/need to solve the problems it causes?
• Is it possible that, when we require standards, we can make art less accessible? Art needs to be accessible but where is the line between being available and just being inundated with 500 crappy pictures of a person’s vacation?

Please leave a comment on the post to let us know if you agree or disagree. Better yet, let us know what you think is a viable solution to the problem.

—————————————-

Today’s artist is Norman Lindsay.

Today’s photographer is Joe McNally. Oh, and here’s the link to the YouTube video of Joe that Rob refers to in the episode. This guy goes places that none of us three would ever dare! Well, maybe Rick.

Like it? But I Don’t Like It!

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Have you found yourself in a period of stagnation? Whether it’s a short and temporary “artist’s block” or a longer-term period of not producing your art, at some point in time, all of us experience a period where we just don’t produce any art.

Listen to today’s episode where Tony & Rob are joined by Rick, Rob’s long-time photography partner and friend. We discuss the reasons behind falling into a slump, how to recognize the fact that we are stagnating, and possible ways to break out of it. This is a longer episode but easy flowing and it goes by quickly. Does being accountable to another artist help or hinder? This is a show full of questions, but short on answer – and that’s a good thing, I think.

Today’s showcased photographer is Jeff Wall and our artist is Bob Kingsmill.

Don’t forget to sign up for our Flickr group and follow us @PolarizingImage (yeah, one too many letters in our name).

Stagnating as an Artist and a Photographer

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Yeah, we’re a week late getting the recording out but we’ve dealt with it and so should you! After figuring out our technical issues, we’re back with this week’s topic, the Artist’s Statement. We cover the why and, to a bit, the how of the artist’s statement. Find out, if you don’t have one, why you need one. It’s about legacy, style, and telling people who you really are.

Our featured photographer on this show is Clyde Butcher and our artist is Brett Whitely. Word of caution, Whitley’s web site automatically starts playing an audio track of the artist speaking so turn off your speakers or jump to another page to make it stop!

B_Mo, you know we’ve mentioned you, so we know you’re going to listen…

Scene 5, Take 2

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Number two is in the can! (See what I did there?)  Today’s topics include the critique; why critiquing the technical aspects of a photo is only half the equation, why it’s good to be Edward Weston, and a rant about people who don’t understand what post-processing is all about.

Here’s the article we discuss: 10 Ways to Critique a Photo

Photos we critiqued:

• Steve McCurry: Afghan Girl
• Arnold Newman: Igor Stravinsky (Includes before and after crop)
• Edward Weston: Nude 1923
• My Nude: 2009

Our Second Episode – Are We Legit Yet?

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A Repost of a radio interview of Rob and Rick by Conrad Hall from Social Media: Cheap and Easy. It’s a good interview but the volume is really low. Sorry about that!

Social Media and the Business of Photography

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