Larry Lawhead
Active member
In my readings today I came across this quote from photographer Cherie Hiser: “Most famous photographers work their entire life and produce tens of thousands of negatives and hundreds or perhaps thousands of prints, but are remembered for fewer than five and famous for just one.” How very true! As photographers we must persist and continue on in our journey relentlessly. Think of Weston’s Pepper # 30. We have all seen it but have we seen 1-29 or any of the probable 31plus pepper shots that are not remembered? Just to entertain your curiosity, Weston started taking pepper photos in1927 and was still shooting peppers in 1930 yet we only remember that one remarkable photo. It was taken in 1929. Evidently he did not realize he had already taken his masterpiece and kept on in his journey???!!
I remember reading an article, several years ago, back when I subscribed to hard-copy magazines. Some photographer had been granted access to some restricted local, and had put together a show. There were probably 20-25 photos in the magazine, and they were brilliant. Reading the article. he talked about spending several months taking tens of thousands of photos in order to come up with the images he presented. I don't remember the photographer, or the place, but I remember the tens of thousands of "clicks" to get a couple dozen photos. This was pre-digital... that's a lot of film!