Greg Shamus (Photography ’93) | College for Creative Studies

By in Photography

Greg Shamus (Photography ’93) | College for Creative Studies

April 22, 2024


Greg Shamus with camera.

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[embedded content]

For Gregory Shamus, anything is possible. From weeknights spent in the darkroom at CCS to Sundays spent on the ground at Ford Field, his story is one of determination and grit.

Gregory has photographed some of the most iconic moments in sports history, from the Olympics to Superbowls and The Masters. His work can be seen anywhere from ESPN to The Golf Channel and Sports Illustrated, to name a few. We had the privilege of sitting down with Gregory to talk about his journey, what inspires him, and what he’s most proud of.

The Interview

“It won’t be easy, and it won’t be given to you, but if you believe in yourself it can be done. Don’t let anybody tell you that it can’t.”

– Greg Shamus

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - OCTOBER 30: Jahmyr Gibbs #26 of the Detroit Lions celebrates with fans in the front row after a touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders at Ford Field on October 30, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan.
(Gregory Shamus, Getty Images)

What led you to choose this career path in Sports Photography?

I’ve always been into sports. I played basketball in high school and was offered a scholarship to play basketball, but that college didn’t have very many programs that I was interested in. It was kind of a natural progression to go into a career in sports photography because It had been such a huge part of my life and my youth. It just seemed like the logical next step.

What motivates or inspires you?

What motivates me the most is that even if I’m going to the same stadium or the same arena, the game is always going to be different. Nothing repeats itself, and to me, that is the challenge. Trying to tell that story whether it’s the rookie playing their first game, or it’s some triple overtime win, or maybe there’s a celebrity there that needs to be covered, there’s always something unique about every game.

Kevin Durant #7 of Team United States celebrates following the United States' victory over France in the Men's Basketball Finals game on day fifteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Saitama Super Arena on August 07, 2021 in Saitama, Japan.
(Gregory Shamus, Getty Images)

What do you love most about what you do?

You know, you can take videos, and you can do other things but there is something about a photograph. It sits on somebody’s mantel or sits on somebody’s desk, or hangs on somebody’s wall and you can walk past it, you can stop and look at it and it immediately takes you back to that moment. Whether it’s Tiger reacting to a putt, or Tom Brady raising a Super Bowl Trophy, you can pinpoint exactly where you were, what you were doing, and what you were feeling when that moment happened. To be able to just relive it and continue on – to me that’s kind of the essence of a photograph. It’s not to sit down and watch for an hour, or to have a lengthy commitment to it – it’s to stop, look, remember, and move on.

I’ve had coaches that I’ve worked with tell me, and I’ve had players tell me, “I have that picture on the wall. I stop, I look at it, and I remember that moment,” and it doesn’t get much better than that.

“I’ve had coaches that I’ve worked with tell me, and I’ve had players tell me, ‘I have that picture on the wall. I stop, I look at it, and I remember that moment,’ and it doesn’t get much better than that.”

– Greg Shamus

PARK CITY, UTAH - FEBRUARY 02: Jaelin Kauf of the United States takes a training run for the Woman's Moguls during the 2021 Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International Ski World Cup at Deer Valley Resort on February 02, 2021 in Park City, Utah.
(Gregory Shamus, Getty Images)

How did CCS prepare you for your career?

CCS helped with my career path in many ways. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Commercial Photography. I’ve used many of the techniques that I learned at CCS when I’m out doing portraits, studio lighting, and arena lighting with strobes. I’ve used metering techniques that I learned in those classes. Even though you wouldn’t think that a commercial photography degree would translate, I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve used things I learned at CCS.

And then look at the fine art classes that I took. That’s where I learned what makes a pretty picture, how to compose a picture, and how to look at the background, foreground, and subject matter. So, you take it all together and apply it in the sports world, and it’s amazing how many things I use that I learned in those classes with those amazing instructors.

More about Photography at CCS. →

Craig Anderson #41 of the Ottawa Senators can't make a save on a shot by Chris Kunitz #14 of the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game One of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Consol Energy Center on May 14, 2013 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
(Gregory Shamus, Getty Images)

What are you the most proud of in your career?

My wife is also in Journalism, she works for the Detroit Free Press, and we have three amazing children. It’s not an easy career to have with a family. You spend time on the road, you’re working weekends, you’re working nights. So to get that support first and foremost is amazing.

And to work for a company like Getty Images, the support I’ve gotten from them through many different challenges over the last eight years while I’ve been on staff is also incredible. I’m very proud of the company I work for and the colleagues I work with. We have some of the best sports photographers in the world, and I’d put our staff up against just about anybody.

From a professional standpoint, I’ve had people tell me that they may send a great studio photographer if they know it’s going to be “situation a,” and they may send another photographer if they know it’s going to be “situation b.” If they’re not sure what the situation will be, they always send me, because I can handle many different aspects of the business, whether it’s dealing with a client, or working with a subject, studio lighting, action, or whatever it might be. My talents take me beyond just the camera. Being told that is something I’m pretty proud of.

It’s not always just about having the camera to your eye. You need to be able to interact with people. You need to be able to raise a family. So, it’s kind of the whole thing put together that makes me the most proud.

US President Barack Obama holds the Stanley Cup as he poses with the National Hockey League champion Pittsburgh Penguins at the White House in Washington, DC, September 10, 2009.
(Gregory Shamus, Getty Images)

What would you say to people who are apprehensive about pursuing their dream job?

I can say that I wake up every day and I don’t feel like I have a job in the traditional sense. I say all the time that I get paid to do something that a lot of people pay to go to. That comes with hard work, and you need a little luck along the way, but it happens to people all the time. You can look at so many artistic fields that if you have the drive and the persistence you can make it.

There are 30 staff photographers for Getty Images Sport in the United States. So, for me to take a step back and think of it, there are 30 of us in the United States and I’m one of them. It lets me know that all that hard work paid off, and that goes right back to spending all night in the darkroom. Pulling all-nighters with my classmates, down in the basement in the darkrooms putting together that freshman black and white series. It’s a work ethic that started here and then it’s just continued.

It won’t be easy, and it won’t be given to you, but if you believe in yourself it can be done. Don’t let anybody tell you that it can’t.

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Macro photography presents a unique challenge: finding compelling subjects in a world often overlooked. While dedicated macro photographers might cultivate specific environments for tiny creatures or invest in specialized equipment, the reality is that macro opportunities exist everywhere, from your backyard to local parks. The key lies in training your eye to see the miniature landscapes and intricate details that most people miss.

Coming to you from Andrew Lanxon Photography, this insightful video takes you on a journey through the Blair Adam Country Park in Scotland. Lanxon, an experienced macro photographer, demonstrates his approach to finding macro subjects in a vast and diverse environment. He emphasizes the importance of slowing down and observing your surroundings with a keen eye, highlighting the potential of seemingly mundane elements like decaying wood, moss-covered stones, and even fallen leaves. 

Lanxon’s exploration reveals the abundance of macro subjects hidden in plain sight. He captures the delicate textures of tree bark and lichen, the vibrant colors of mushrooms and moss, and the intricate patterns formed by fallen leaves and pine cones. His approach emphasizes experimentation with composition, angles, and camera settings, showcasing how different lenses and techniques can transform ordinary scenes into extraordinary macro photographs.

Beyond the technical aspects, Lanxon’s video underscores the importance of patience and a curious mind. He encourages viewers to explore their surroundings with a fresh perspective, reminding us that the most captivating macro subjects often reside in the most unexpected places. By embracing a slower pace and a willingness to experiment, you can unlock the hidden world of macro photography and discover the beauty in the miniature details of our world. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Lanxon.

If you would like to continue learning about macro photography, be sure to check out “Mastering Macro Photography: The Complete Shooting and Editing Tutorial With Andres Moline!”

The bigger picture: lifting the veil on the art market

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The bigger picture: lifting the veil on the art market

As the art world descended on Venice for the opening of its prestigious Biennale last week, the talk was of an industry at the peak of its powers. Such global extravaganzas, together with the big-money fairs and auctions, have transformed the art market. What was still a rarefied, slightly niche business at the turn of the millennium has evolved into a juggernaut with estimated total annual sales running to $65bn. Venice’s rich displays of art, old and new, now compete with parties in private palazzi and on billionaires’ boats.

Yet the market has a problem. For all the thousands of visitors to its sparkling events, traders are struggling to convert the next generation of enthusiasts into committed buyers. The sense that an overhyped market has hit a wall is captured in a crop of new books that illuminate some of the darker sides of the art world.

Persistent opacity around issues such as prices, ownership and condition reveals the limits of a market with no overarching oversight, and which still often relies on handshakes and hidden codes of conduct. Such grey areas have proved a playground for schemes ranging from opportunistic speculation to the downright criminal.

Recent scandals, while at the extreme of the largely legitimate and often mundane market, illustrate the need to question the status quo. In the past year alone, art adviser Lisa Schiff — who counted actor Leonardo DiCaprio among her clients — stands accused of running a Ponzi scheme amid legal claims that she owes other collectors nearly $7mn; art dealer Guy Wildenstein has been found guilty of tax fraud, sentenced to four years in prison and fined €1mn; and British artist Damien Hirst has been revealed to have backdated some recent works to his 1990s heyday. All this against a backdrop of the art world’s blind craze for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, with fortunes rising and falling in a matter of months.

The most sensational story so far has been that of Inigo Philbrick, an art dealer who flew too close to the sun — literally so, absconding to the south Pacific island of Vanuatu to hide from mounting legal claims before his FBI arrest there in 2020. Philbrick pleaded guilty to an audacious $86mn wire fraud scheme that took in collectors, investors and fellow dealers, and was handed a prison sentence of seven years.

Taking on his story is his erstwhile friend and colleague, Orlando Whitfield, with whom Philbrick had originally plotted to collaborate on a magazine feature to put across his side of events. Once Whitfield saw the paper trail documenting his friend’s behaviour, he wisely decided to go it alone. All That Glitters is the result.

Philbrick emerges as tough to turn down. Variously charming, persuasive and hare-brained, this is a portrait of a narcissist, always ready to star in the film of his life. “I don’t think failure ever even occurred to Inigo,” Whitfield notes. In a seemingly unchecked arena, his actions included creating a fake client and managing to sell 220 per cent of one artwork, a 2012 painting based on a photograph of Pablo Picasso by the briefly in-demand Italian conceptual artist Rudolf Stingel. (While it is more usual than many might realise for a hugely expensive painting to have more than one owner, obviously only 100 per cent of it is ever legally available.)

Alongside Philbrick, Whitfield, with a hefty dollop of British self-deprecation — he is described as “a failed art dealer” in the book’s brief blurb — comes through as the willing victim of his friend’s personality disorder. The book records his memories of 15 years of their unbalanced friendship, from meeting in their twenties at London’s Goldsmiths art school in 2006 through to intermittent conversations during Philbrick’s incarceration.

What the mismatched pair share, poignantly, are divorced parents and successful art-world fathers whom they were wired to impress — Philbrick’s was a museum director; Whitfield’s an auctioneer.

Some of these escapades seem barely believable. Whitfield admits he came to doubt many of Philbrick’s stories, including one in which the instinctive dealer buys a watch at one end of London’s Burlington Arcade then immediately resells it at the other end, making £500 in less than an hour.

More worrying for the art market is the potential for scams now that today’s buyers are more speculators than art lovers and don’t even see the works into which they park their millions. Philbrick sold another Stingel — one of his gold paintings in “hushed AmEx tones” — to a client and then, for $2.5mn, on to a joint venture that he himself ran with one of his early mentors, the esteemed White Cube gallery founder Jay Jopling.

Philbrick had originally bought the work for $300,000 because, as he knew, it was damaged to the extent that the artist wanted it destroyed. No one else knew the score and, unable to persuade his usual conservator to restore it, Philbrick found three people to execute a good-enough touch-up in a garage in London’s Mayfair. The work then got a clean bill of health (albeit unknowingly to the wider world) as “now a Philbrick-Stingel”, Whitfield writes. It is still in circulation somewhere.

The book proves as much about Whitfield as his anti-hero, but it is Philbrick who brings the pages alive. Such magnetism perhaps explains Whitfield’s enduring sympathy with Philbrick’s plight — a generosity that is hard to share. Philbrick seems anything but sorry, especially given what’s transpired since Whitfield wrote All That Glitters. At the start of this year, three years earlier than expected, Philbrick left prison on two years of supervised release. He marked this freedom on Instagram in a shared post with his girlfriend Victoria Baker-Harber, star of reality TV show Made In Chelsea; the pair were snapped on a picnic blanket with their toddler.

This happy family portrait was taken to accompany an article in Vanity Fair that gives Philbrick’s shame-free version of events. He was, he says, a novice rogue in an unregulated market of willing participants: “By no means am I blameless, but the people I was partnered with were all seeking an edge.” Perhaps this is the feature that Whitfield resisted writing.

Book cover of Token Supremacy by Zachary Small

Philbrick’s high-stakes deals were fostered within the art market’s increasingly financialised environment, with its promise of great returns despite flimsy data. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when in-person art events were nearly all cancelled, such promises morphed into a craze for digital, cryptocurrency-based, non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In Token Supremacy, journalist Zachary Small ably turns his forensic skills to the NFTs’ swift boom and bust.

Art comes across as offering a suitably shady environment. Small finds it was ripe for crypto-based speculation, partly because “it is one of the last major unregulated markets in the world”, offering “tactics that would be off-limits in traditional finance”, a recurring refrain and an environment that Philbrick says supported his schemes.

Token Supremacy tackles a jargon-heavy episode of art market history with welcome clarity and arch humour. The book is hooked on key characters, including the graphic designer turned artist Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, whose NFT of 5,000 daily digital images made since 2007, many of a puerile and cartoonish bent, sold for an eye-watering $69.3mn through Christie’s in 2021.

Small’s other crypto-hungry characters include Seth Goldstein, founder of New York’s Bright Moments Gallery — proof that even in a virtual world, people mostly prefer to congregate in a physical space. It opened in 2021 with mantras on the wall such as “you can’t spell culture without cult”.

Book cover of Art Auctions by Kathryn Brown

Small skilfully characterises the fine line between discretion and duplicity at the highest echelons of the art world, and has little love for the complicity of the auction houses in a frothy market. Their influence in this century is analysed further in Art Auctions by the academic Kathryn Brown, who offers a gentler look at the “theatre” of the salerooms in her slim tome. Her research into the psychology of buyers characterises the milieu that the likes of Inigo Philbrick could exploit.

A more grassroots perspective on the market’s machinations comes courtesy of another skilled journalist, Bianca Bosker, in Get the Picture, a page-turning romp around New York’s art world. Her quest, to determine what separates “good” from “bad” art, prompts her to find junior roles at art galleries, then with the artist Julie Curtiss and for the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, all while recording her findings. These reveal many of the baffling codes around intangible value, served up through genuine laugh-out-loud moments, not least her experience of having a social media “ass influencer” sit on her face in the name of art.

Book cover of Get The Picture by Bianca Bosker

It’s not all funny, however. Emerging artists and gallerists are illustrated juggling several jobs at the same time to make ends meet, all while helping “billionaires hang their second Rothko in their third home”. The sometimes cruel treatment of employers towards their junior gallerists is also exposed. Bosker finds behaviour “that was at best morally dubious, very frequently discriminatory, and at worst potentially criminal”.

As in Whitfield’s and Small’s books, she illustrates a world of accepted white-collar crimes. In one instance, a museum trustee buys two editions of a photograph — one to go in the museum, one for her home. “A little philanthropy, a little polite corruption,” Bosker writes, noting that the museum’s stamp of approval will increase the value of the personally owned picture. A fellow gallerist sympathises with her discomfort at the situation, soon after admitting that he has never paid any sales tax.

The stories might be extreme, but there is an uncomfortable familiarity to them. The industry’s integrity seems questionable at best when it is presented as a world in which someone like Philbrick can thrive, suffer disgrace and then set the stage for a sensational comeback. Brown notes the lack of any overarching responsibility. Auction houses, for example, “have no particular commitment to the sustainable functioning of art world of their markets,” she writes. Their remit is to sell art for the highest price for their consignors.

Midway through All That Glitters, Whitfield recalls a banker-collector who neatly sums up a world in which the dictum caveat emptor has rarely been more relevant: “‘The best thing about the art market,’ he told me, ‘is that it’s completely unregulated. However,’ he continued, ‘the worst thing about the art market is that it’s unregulated.’”

The reality, though, is that if the art market wants to grow, it can’t have it both ways. Before taking money from the next generation of buyers, some of their needs will have to be met. This means embracing the increased transparency and accountability that digital natives have come to expect. Regulation might not appeal to a world of freethinking creatives, but surely its time has come.

All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art by Orlando Whitfield Profile £17.99/Knopf $29, 336 pages

Token Supremacy: The Art of Finance, the Finance of Art and the Great Crypto Crash of 2022 by Zachary Small Knopf £27/$32, 368 pages

Art Auctions: Spectacle and Value in the 21st Century by Kathryn Brown Lund Humphries £19.99, 104 pages

Get The Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See by Bianca Bosker Viking $29/Atlantic £20, 384 pages

Melanie Gerlis is the FT’s art market correspondent

Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café and subscribe to our podcast Life & Art wherever you listen

ArtDependence | UBS Donates Major American Landscape Photographs to National Gallery of Art Washington

By in Photography

ArtDependence | UBS Donates Major American Landscape Photographs to National Gallery of Art Washington

The group of photographs was assembled in the 1990s by John Szarkowski, a photographer, curator, and former director of the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The gift adds important photographs made by a diverse group of artists who worked throughout the United States and in Latin America. It will allow the National Gallery to tell fuller, more varied, and inclusive stories about how Americans have conceived of, used, and celebrated the richness and variety of the land from the 1860s to the 1990s.

“This wonderful, wide-ranging gift from UBS adds key works to the National Gallery’s photography holdings by a wide range of artists, many of whom were not previously represented in our collection,” said Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs at the National Gallery of Art.

The gift from the UBS Art Collection includes several photographs by western American photographers—F. Jay Haynes, John K. Hillers, Darius Kinsey, Frederick Monsen, and Isaiah West Taber—who recorded the impact of railroads, mining, and logging on the land in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Other pictures made in the late 19th century, such as those by Henry Hamilton Bennett of the scenic Wisconsin Dells, show how photography was used to transform nature into a tourist commodity. Early 20th-century works by Laura Adams Armer, Jean Bernard, John G. Bullock, Nancy Ford Cones, Martha Hale Harvey, Gertrude Käsebier, William B. Post, Robert S. Redfield, and Edward Steichen evocatively reveal how pictorialist artists presented the landscape in a very different manner from their predecessors. Depicting nature’s quiet corners and intimate vistas, they domesticated and aestheticized the land, transforming it from a symbol of power and awe into one of manicured beauty and peaceful harmony.

A collection of social documentary work from the 1930s and 1940s includes key examples by celebrated Farm Security Administration photographers, such as Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Arthur Rothstein, and Marion Post Wolcott. Many of their pictures poignantly demonstrate how the depleted land could no longer support the inhabitants who depended on it. Two of the most iconic photographs include Lange’s Power farming displaces tenants from the land in the western dry cotton area, Childress County, Texas (1935) and Rothstein’s Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936).

Works by photographers such as Robert Adams, Edward Burtynsky, Stephen Callis, Robert Dawson, Terry Evans, Emmet Gowin, Mark Klett, and David Maisel cast a critical eye on the impact of humans on the landscape. Often making aerial photographs, they depict vast stretches of land that have been utterly transformed by human habitation.

The gift also includes work by Latin American photographers such as Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Valdir Cruz, Agustín Estrada, Flor Garduño, Graciela Iturbide, and Sebastião Salgado. Active in Mexico, Brazil, and Guatemala from the 1940s through the 1990s, the photographers made pictures commemorating the earth’s bounties—fruits, vegetables, birds, and fish that help sustain and enrich human life—as well as the people who lived and worked on the land.

Main Image Arthur Rothstein, Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936 gelatin silver print ,National Gallery of Art, Washington Gift of the UBS Art Collection

How photography and automation ruined the sport of astronomy

By in Photography

How photography and automation ruined the sport of astronomy

In the late nineteenth century, astronomers shifted from visual observations to using specialized telescopes with photographic plates. These plates revealed previously unknown celestial objects, including nebulae, asteroids, and stars. Initially, some astronomers resisted this shift, considering cameras an “obscene” instrument that would render the “sport” of astronomy obsolete.

How photography and automation ruined the sport of astronomy

ESO 422-41. (Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, C Kilpatrick).

New Delhi: The image above is a galaxy designated as ESO 422-41, at a distance of about 34 million lightyears in the direction of the constellation of Columba. This image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy was originally spotted in the 1970s by a brand new telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla facility in Chile, which was used to perform a survey of the southern sky.

The astronomical instrument was used to produce a collection of photographic plates that became the ESO (B) Atlas of the Southern Sky. Humans know the skies of the northern hemisphere much more intimately than the southern skies. ESO 422-41 is just one of the many galaxies, star clusters and nebulae spotted by the ESO (B) Atlas of the Southern Sky.

How photography killed the sport of astronomy

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, astronomers began using specialised telescopes which were essentially large, modified cameras to capture images of celestial objects on photographic plates. These photographic plates revealed hundreds of nebulae, asteroids and stars that were previously unknown.

An image from 1883 of the Orion Nebula. (Image Credit: Andrew Ainslie Common).

Those astronomers who laboriously scanned the skies for fleeting glimpses of transient objects considered cameras as an obscene instrument that would render the ‘sport’ of astronomy obsolete. At this time, astronomers did not even have the concept of galaxies, and did not understand that there were isolated islands of stars suspended in space.

The importance of photographic sky surveys

The equipment necessary for astrophotography steadily improved, and astronomers began to conduct systematic photographic surveys, imaging portions of the skies. The Carte du Ciel and the Astrographic Catalogue that was initiated in 1887 was a massive international scientific collaboration, using 20 observatories around the world to produce 22,000 photographic plates of the night sky. This ambitious project was only completed in 1962,

The development of the Schmidt telescope in the 1930s allowed for wide field imaging, producing deep sky maps. It was used for the Palomar Observatory Sky Surveys that resulted in a database of 20 million galaxies and over 100 million stars, significantly advancing our understanding of the cosmos.

The 18 inch Schmidt telescope during assembly. (Image Credit: Palomar/Caltech/Caltech Archives).

In the 1970s, the best available technology for recording the images for archival purposes was to use glass plates, treated with chemicals. This was the technology used to preserve the images captured by the ESO (B) Atlas of the Southern Skies, in the 1970s.

Automated sky surveys

Modern sky surveys do pretty much the same thing, but use automation to periodically scan the entire skies. Examples include ESA’s Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics (GAIA), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), Transient Optical Sky Survey Automated Telescope System (TOSS) and the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN).

ESA - Gaia astronomical revolution

The Gaia telescope. (Image Credit: ESA).

The modern automated sky surveys also benefit from using space telescopes. The atmosphere of the Earth absorbs most of the frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum, except those in optical frequencies, and those in the radio spectrum. The objects in the astronomical catalogues are prefixed by the names of the surveys for reference, allowing astronomers to easily track and identify objects such as ESO 422-41.

The universe is still vast, but going dark

When astronomers started using cameras to hunt down asteroids, people believed that all the asteroids would be found within a few decades. We continue to discover new objects within our own Solar System, let alone the entire galaxy and the universe. Despite the advent of astrophotography and automation, we have not discovered all the objects in the universe that we have seen. Humans have gathered so much data that scientists are seeking the help of the general public to classify objects, and even machine learning. Then there are objects that have been forever hidden from view because of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.

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Photographer Michael Kenna Presents ‘Japan / A Love Story’ in Daikanyama

By in Photography

Photographer Michael Kenna Presents ‘Japan / A Love Story’ in Daikanyama

Japan / A Love Story by acclaimed landscape photographer Michael Kenna is presently on display at the Daikanyama Hillside Forum in Daikanyama, Shibuya ward until May 5. The exhibition is accompanied by a book of the same name. After finishing its run in Tokyo, the exhibition will relocate to Los Angeles (May 11–July 20), and then London (September 24–October 20).

Kenna (70) is one of the world’s most preeminent landscape photographers. His work has been shown in hundreds of exhibitions in over 40 countries. A self-proclaimed “dinosaur,” he maintains the analog photographic traditions of his upbringing. He works solely in black and white, spending countless hours alone in the darkroom personally developing every print. A dedicated assistant of long-standing, Mark Silva, spends an equally voluminous amount of time retouching each print by hand. 

Hyomon, Study 1, Kussharo Lake, Hokkaido 2020 (©Michael Kenna)

Analog ‘Till I Die’

The analog option is an “extremely slow, patient, unpredictable, uncontrollable, process” he concludes, which is “all of the reasons why I love it.” The digital option is “too fast, too easy, too intense, too saturated, too everything — for my personal, very slow taste.”

His prints are predominantly 7 ¾ inches square (19.69 cm square) with some larger alternatives of 15 inches square. The small size is chosen to establish an intimacy with the viewer. The square shape of the prints is a function of his choice of camera, a prism viewfinder Hasselblad. 

Field of Sticks, Kamikawa, Hokkaido 2023 (©Michael Kenna)

Industrial Roots 

Kenna grew up in the industrial north of England within a working-class Catholic family. He attended a seminary school from the age of 10 in preparation for becoming a priest. Priorities changed at the age of 17, however, when — as stated in the press preview — he “discovered girls.” Art school followed, before a relocation to California in 1977. 

His love affair with Japan began a decade later, in 1987. “On my first visit to Japan” the exhibition flyer states, “I was blown away by the aesthetics, the spiritual and religious aspects.” He has been back innumerable times since. To celebrate his 50th birthday, in 2003, he completed the Shikoku pilgrimage. Japan was the last country he visited before the COVID-19 lockdown, and the first that he returned to after the lockdown was lifted. 

The Dark and Light of Black and White 

The exhibition is loosely divided into two sections. In the initial gallery, the black-and-white images are generally dark. In the following two galleries, there is an abundance of white. The latter shots were largely taken in Hokkaido during the winter months. 

“I went up to Northern Hokkaido in the middle of winter, and it looked to me like a stark sumi-e ink painting, a white canvas with Kanji characters marked on it” Kenna states. “I’ve been in love with the place ever since.”

Dancing Trees, Kussharo Lake, Hokkaido 2020 (©Michael Kenna)

Kenna is naturally drawn to mountains, coastlines, and lakes, but maintains a fascination for how humans relate to the land and what they place upon it. Within the Japanese countryside, a distinctive feature is the torii gate, which to Kenna symbolizes “respect and reverence” for the landscape. He finds common cause with the Japanese concept of gods inhabiting every object, no matter how humble — the notion that “everything is sacred” pervades his work. He feels the need to “ask permission” from whatever he is photographing. 

Torii, Study 4, Takashima, Honshu, Japan. 2007 (©Michael Kenna)

Pathways 

The human-made structures that he prefers are those that do not dominate the landscape. Boardwalks, jetties, fences, and posts, invariable attract his attention. They represent “pathways,” he states. They lead the viewer into the photographs, but their depiction within broad landscapes “leaves space for the viewer, to interpret, to imagine, to exist, to be themselves, to think.” 

Fishnet Structure, Biwa Lake, Honshu, Japan. 2022 (©Michael Kenna)

The Hokkaido-based shots are typically minimalist. They can have the feel of a Japanese rock garden, with snow substituting for raked gravel. They have been described by noted art critic, Kotaro Izawa, as “pictures written in short poem form,” of being “visual haiku.” It is a characterization that Kenna finds appealing. 

Asparagus Sticks, Study 3, Hokkaido, Japan. 2007 (©Michael Kenna)

A Love for Japan That Is Real

There is an infectiousness about Kenna that reminds one of the English north in the days before the internet and cable television, of nights at the pub, a knees up, singalongs around the piano — of a basic sense of faith founded in community and family. In a video presentation of his Hokkaido travels that concludes the exhibition, Kenna is shown completing a commendable rendition of a Japanese tune on the karaoke machine of a local bar. He looks right at home. 

Michael Kenna’s infectious smile of gratitude. (Photo by ©Paul de Vries )

Kenna is far from ungrateful for the hospitality he has received. The exhibition flyer declares a deep gratitude for “the curiosity” of the Japanese people, “their friendliness and generosity.” Through this exhibition, Kenna hopes to move towards squaring the ledger — to pay some of that generosity back. In Japan, however, the act of reciprocation can be a harder task than one might think. 

Deep Gratitude

I recounted to Kenna a personal anecdote of a night out with a group of younger coworkers during my third year in Japan. Here, at last, was my opportunity to pick up the lion’s share of the tab after years of having been treated by company workers of senior age — to be the host rather than guest. 

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When the young ones resisted my generosity, I became more than a little agitated. Had Kenna experienced something similar, I enquired. He had not, but with true northern English wit, he had a solution to my ongoing guestist dilemma: “You could always pay Japan back by writing nice comments about me” he joked — a task, in truth, that would be hard not to do. 

Astutely, Kenna has opted to repay the kindness he has received. Not in kind, but with what he does uniquely well — with an exhibition and book that symbolize his “immense ongoing appreciation and deep gratitude” for the “alluring and mysterious country” of Japan.  

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Author: Paul de Vries

Find other reviews and articles by the author on JAPAN Forward.

Exhibit features local photography and a book signing by Mark Albertin

By in Photography

Exhibit features local photography and a book signing by Mark Albertin

To celebrate local photographers in the CSRA,  the Arts and Heritage Center of North Augusta had a reception for the Eyes Wide Open Photography Invitational and book signing by local photographer Mark Albertin April 18.

The exhibit, which has been on display since April 4, gives local photographers a chance to display their work. 

“Here they can showcase their talents,” said Cassie Bear, who serves as the Arts and Heritage Center treasurer for the board of directors.

Local photographers Patrick Krohn and Susan Igel had some of their work on display. Krohn said his photography focuses on intentional camera movement, which is when you move the camera up and down.

Igel said she loves landscapes and internal camera movement and it her first invention exhibit

Jim Bevins came out to support Ellie McGuire’s photography, which is like retro pin-up style. In addition to McGuire’s work he has enjoyed art that is local to the area, such an image of the downtown Augusta skyline. 

“I like it because I know where it’s at. It’s something that I can relate to,” he said.

Photographer John Dean said he came to the event to meet with other photographers like himself, become a better photographer and get his name out there. His first photography exhibit will be displayed in May.

“I kind of got into photography to do stuff like this, present my work, and have people appreciate how I see the world,” he said.

Attendees had a chance to get a signed copy of Albertin’s book, “Along The Fall Line.”

“I feel really overwhelmed, and it feels really wonderful to be here with other photographers,” he said

Albertin said the photos in the book were processed in a dark room.

Albertin said a grant from Porter Fleming made his dream of making a book possible. 

“That was kind of the push to make me do it,” he said.

Watercolorist Laurie Cordaro was the first person to stop by to get her book signed.

“I came out to see Mark Albertin, a wonderful writer, photographer and a former neighbor,” Cordaro said.

Cordaro said she takes time to get to know people with his work and was glad to have her book signed by him.

Albertin said he hopes his work will interest other photographers to get back into film photography.

“I think it so interesting to look at all these different photographs and beautiful work,” he said

The Eyes Wide Open exhibit will be on display until April 26. Albertin will talk about his photographs at the Morris Museum of Art April 27 from 2-4 p.m. The free event will include a reception. 

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