1. What was the three year study on musicians inspired by?
Several things inspired this project. First, I had the opportunity to do it as a sabbatical project at my college and I was excited to be able to do a project combining my dual backgrounds in both music and photography. The concept was to use the camera to reveal aspects of the lives and work of professional classical musicians that aren't typically seen by the audience — that behind-the-scenes work at rehearsals, backstage, and other places. I had the rare opportunity to work with the same group of folks over a long period of time, so I got to develop a relationship with the musicians that allowed me to make the sorts of photographs that would be difficult to make in a shorter visit.
2. "Is your goal to make art? To make money? To become famous? Something else?"
Those are very good questions. I think many people who have a passion for landscape photography think they can quit their day jobs and start shooting full time and make a lot of money. However, that is not really the case. Most folks who I know who shoot spend an awful lot of time marketing themselves. they run workshops, they deal with magazines, they deal with agencies, etc. The amount of shooting time they spend is minimal. I guess, I was just trying to get a sense of how you feel you have been able to turn this into an actual business and not just a hobby.
I'm in a somewhat unusual position. I have long had a college faculty position in music, my academic area, but I've also been serious about photography for my whole life. In fact, I often say that I came to a fork in the road early on with music on one path and potentially photography on the other, and at that time I chose music.
This means that I've had the incredible good fortune to make a life out of music and photography! I make money from my photography, but I don't have to rely on it for my primary income. And because of this and because I'm already teaching something else, I haven't done workshops — at least until now. All of this gives me the freedom to focus mostly on the photography itself.
3. You are one of the few proud and unabashed liberals I have met on the 'net (for which I am glad that Steve and I are not alone). Many of the people I encounter, while they love the art and love nature, are politically very conservative. How do you think people are able to reconcile their love of art and nature, and also support policies that are damaging to the environment.
That is a tough question. Although my politics are what might be described as moderately liberal, I understand that principled and intelligent people can have a wide range of political views. In fact, I think that the problem today isn't so much liberals or conservatives as it is a loss of the ability to speak to one another about things that we don't agree on. Whatever political perspective one has, I think that most of us can agree that we could do better if we would try to work together to find some productive compromise.
The environmental issues are tough right now. The majority of Americans and other people, whether conservative, moderate, or liberal, are coming to understand that we cannot continue the way we have been without some very serious problems ahead of us — resource destruction, climate change, pollution, and the rest. Slowly but (I hope!) surely, more and more people are getting it.
To some extent I view photography as a way to reconnect people to the world around them. A photograph can be an aesthetic experience, but it can also remind people of a place or a state of mind or the nature of a world that they can learn to value.
4. Are there any specific environmental causes you would like to talk about?
There are so many obvious ones that I think I'll bring up one that isn't talked about enough just yet. As we move to greater use of renewable energy sources, we rely more and more on solar generation. Unfortunately, one thread in this development is based on the old model of centralized, industrial scale power production, and it is leading to the construction of large solar arrays and similar facilities in places that many mistakenly regard as being empty wastelands — desert areas with plenty of sun, few inhabitants, and little obvious scenic value. But these places are not wasteland and they are not empty. They are often places of austere beauty, great solitude, and the homes of the creatures that live there. In my view, rather than building huge solar generation facilities in far flung locations, connected to the users by a huge array of distribution lines, it would make a lot more sense to put the solar generation where the power is needed — on urban rooftops and similar locations.
