graeme mitchell

I recently spoke to a class at Parsons, invited by the wonderful fine-art photographer and super sweet gal to boot, Amy Stein. Seeing what interested this next generation of photographers and the fashion work they were doing was enlightening for me and took me completely out of my usual box of viewing the landscape of photography. I had a feeling I left the talk more inspired than the students!

We of course touched on technique and equipment, and it was nice to see most of the students embracing 35mm for fashion work and their surprise and positive reaction to much of my work being on 35mm. It’s obvious from this blog that I’m far far far from an equipment junky or even from being interested in equipment beyond its working and not breaking. I will use about any camera within reach or that I happen to have film for, but with that I’ve always been fond of 35mm b/c it’s a format, like all, that if given a certain kind of love can give unique results other formats can’t. The smaller negative if well shot has a bite and crunch to it that can’t be mimicked by other formats, and well shot is the key word here, b/c you really need to be a technically superior photographer to shoot well on 35mm: any errors are magnified many fold when repro sizes get big: try printing a soft 6×7 neg to 11×14 and it’s pretty; try it with a 35mm neg and it looks, well, soft…that is if sharp is your cup of tea, which it may not be, like H.C. Bresson you might facetiously humor focus as conceit of the bourgeoisie. Also, a lot of people pick up 35mm and default to candid on all production fronts including the very basic use of light, while a seasoned 35mm photographer (hey, Peter Lindbergh) never forgets that good light is good light, no matter what size the film is. You know? Anyway, this is an ode to those guys who don’t shelve the Nikons on shoot day and to those up and coming kids I met burning up all 36 of them frames. 36 chances at fame! Keep doing it.

photo: from men’s fashion story, ©Graeme Mitchell 2006

When shooting 4×5 it’s not uncommon for other photographers to inquire about the camera I use, b/c the camera itself is a bit uncommon, so I figured it was worth noting here. First a little background, when I originally set out to find a 4×5, I searched for some time trying to find one that suited my style of shooting fashion and portraits, both on location and in the studio. I wanted a camera that was tuff, small, quick to operate, but also with decent bellow draw and movements to spare on both standards. These criteria ruled out everything I knew of. Finally, I was informed about the Linhof Color.

A hidden gem, it’s been out of production for ages as far as I can tell, but it basically amounts to a Linhof Technika on a rail. It’s built like a tank, sexy, and I can fit it, a few lenses, and holders in a Domke bag.

As I side note, yeah, sure, for the most part a 67 RZ can cover almost everything, but for that extra 3%…well, a nice piece of sheet film can be something else.

photo: Covet Spring ‘07, ©Graeme Mitchell, 2006

What I’m doing is not original by any means, quite the rather; the saying goes that everyone in NYC is a photographer, which turns out to be not much of a hyperbole at all, b/c everyone is a photographer in NYC…along with their roommates. I’ve gotten a little further than some, and not nearly as far as others as far as succeeding here is concerned - well, actually, success here in general is a pretty narrowly defined mark that looks something like this: $. Well I never seem to have any of that ($), making me in fact pitifully and tremendously unsuccessful, but in regards to not having a day job and being able to call myself a photographer w/o being full of shit, in these regards, I’ve had my little victories. The point of this…oh, yes, the point is to offer a little bit of perspective on the process of trying to make it in NYC as a photographer. Make it, make it, so to speak I guess. It’s a simple goal, making it, populated with simple devices, taking pictures, printing pictures, etc. The problem is that, it’s just not easy to do well in practice. This is fine, b/c as my dentist said a long while back when I garbled at him that making it here is one of the hardest things I’ve attempted so far, he offered softly and with great lucidity, “anything worth doing is.” Well, said, I thought, I’m going to use that.

The idea here is, that there are a few things I’ve learned and much I’ve unlearned, and I’m not talking about how to take pictures or make art or anything like that, one is on there own amid those deserts, but I’m speaking more about basic advice. Or let me say it like this, if I ran into a younger I, someone about to partake in the adventure of moving here to shoot and work, what could I offer them. People told me anything from “become inspired” to “make lots of money.” Boring. The only really useful one was, “have lots of fun.” So sitting here this afternoon, I came up with my small list, which is as follows:

-attrition: it takes time, hard time, and chances are you’ll have to do ample amounts of it before you take even a small step.

-a sense of humor: the chances are you aren’t going to make it to the top, only a few people do out of many, and even then, it’s only pictures.

-ideas: good photographers are a dime a dozen, good ideas are not (ideas is interchangeable with style or vision).

-connections: as the old adage goes…

-work ethic: shoot as much as you can, and work your ass off. Exhaust yourself.

-direction: at least in an A market, don’t come to dabble or figure things out, come knowing what you want.

Gosh, there’s more, but I’d say that’s plenty for the time being, and frankly the rest are more vague, opinionated, and artsy fartsy. And I fear what I have already needs more than a grain of salt…
This isn’t intended to sound curmudgeonly, or discouraging, the opposite actually. I write it with a harrowed grin and a hearty pat on the back, as I’d encourage anyone daydreaming of jumping into the deep end to do it without reserve.

photo: ©Graeme Mitchell 2006

photo: ©Graeme Mitchell 2006