Why Tracking Your Influences Is So Important



“Who are your influences?” It’s a question often asked by professors to help artists grow, critics to place artists’ work and ideas in context, and audiences to understand artists’ creations. It’s also a question we can ask to do all of these things for ourselves.

Track It Like A Hunter

When you have a realization, write it down. Writing not only creates a durable record you can refer to later, it also makes it far more likely that you will remember what you write. List all of your influences in one place, and you’ll see connections between your influences by making comparisons and contrasts –sometimes, finding these insights requires asking follow-up questions like, “How do the relationships between these things indicate shared qualities and themes within my own work?” and “How can the difference between these things be used to create something new?” Date the times you are influenced, and you’ll see how chain reactions of thoughts and feelings start, grow, and change. You can expand your understanding by writing more than lists. Write a simple line stating the essence of what the work means to you. You may find this process so rewarding that you write more in a short paragraph or two or three that will help you reveal more connections to other feelings, thoughts, and things to clarify the essence of your response, which you may repurpose in your own artist’s statements.

Sometimes, an influence, rather than coming from another artist’s entire body of work, comes from a single piece, perhaps even an atypical work. Sometimes, an influence comes from an artist working in a seemingly unrelated discipline. Sometimes, an influence comes from something we don’t like or resist. Of course, many other things influence us besides other artists’ works and are worth tracking, too.

Progress From What To How To Why

It’s one thing to list our artistic influences; it’s another to clarify how we are responding or what they mean to us. Moving beyond questions of what influences us to how and why they influence us deepens our understanding and connection to the things we are moved by. It only takes a sentence or two, maybe only a few phrases or even a single word, to find insights that move us in new directions or propel us to new heights.

Be Mindful

Being self-aware is different than being self-conscious. During this process, silence your inner critic. The voice(s) that helps you evaluate ideas or results is not the same voice that sees new possibilities and generates ideas. This critical aspect of ourselves can be very helpful, selecting and refining, and strengthening the best ideas drawn from many, but it serves us best after a process of observation and generation, if it is active during those processes, it can stop the flow of thoughts and feelings. Here, don’t judge; just watch.

Observing our inner world, our thoughts and feelings, our associations and disassociations, our fixations and aversions, and their interconnections move rich material from the dark corners of our subconscious into the light of the conscious mind. If we do this, we can find more material to work with, we can ask generative questions to help us grow, we can make clearer/better choices, and it’s very likely that we will be more productive and more fulfilled. When awareness is present, our artistic process becomes a journey of personal discovery, which is sometimes challenging but always rewarding.

Find out more about my influences here.












eBook – Antarctica / Two Visions (Caponigro & Resnick)

2Visions_Cover_425
Enchanting Antarctica is explored in this beautiful ebook.
Individual portfolios are followed by a selection of images shot at the same locations at the same times by both artists.
Essays include personal responses to place and insights into the many influences that arise by working side-by-side.
It’s inspiring!
46 images
60 pages
It’s free for a limited time only!
Download it here!
Find out about our next Antarctica workshop here.
2Visions1 2Visions2

PSW – The Fine Art of Digital


This evening is always one of my favorite events. DiVitale, Glyda, McNally, Maisel, Versace, Caponigro, Peterson. We all show recent work and talk about our creative processes. What we do. What we produce. Why we do the things we do. The really important stuff. It’s always different. I never do the same thing twice.
The evening is full of great pearls of wisdom. Like Joe McNally’s “If you want to take more interesting pictures, go to more interesting places.” Or, Jay Maisel, “Let the picture come to you.” Or Vincent Versace’s quotes of Ernst Hass, “Don’t take pictures. Be taken by pictures.” and Cartier Bresson, “Give me inspiration over perspiration.”
Tonight I’ll be showing new work from my recent voyage to Antarctica in January 2009.
See my work in Antarctica here and stay tuned for new updates.
See my text on Antarctica here and stay tuned for updates.
Watch for my Antarctica Blurb book update later this spring.
See upcoming destinations here.

Exhibit – Holbert and Steinhardt in Seattle


Last night presenters at the Epson Print Academy (Caponigro, Gorman, Holbert, Resnicki, Schewe) attended a gallery opening in downtown Seattle at the Benham Gallery showcasing images by members of their own ranks – Mac Holbert and Dan Steinhardt. Also on display were works by Robert Wade and Esther Sirotnik. Also in attendance was permanence expert Henry Wilhelm. Not surprisingly, the gallery talk quickly moved from early inspirations to a spirited discussion of process and permanence. “Giclee is meaningless!” “Archival is meaningless and no longer used by the ISO!” “C prints are no longer considered for collection by the Getty! They fade too fast!” “Color is now permanent!” You’ve got to see and hear it to believe it. What’s worse than being in a room with an expert? Being in a room with ten experts. Seriously though, it’s always interesting.
Mac Holbert described what it was like to leverage his 18 years of experience printing other people’s work when printing his own work several years ago for his first exhibit and more recently for this follow up. Dan Steinhardt also made interesting comments about why he chose to ask Mac Holbert to print for him. After a lifetime in photography, first as a photographer, then as a marketing expert for both Kodak and Epson, and recently in the last 5 years becoming more active in making his own images, he still decided to have an expert make the finest possible prints from his images. It’s an interesting decision that every photographer faces. Do you make your own prints? Do you have the time and knowledge base to do this? Or do you enlist master printmakers to make prints for you – a time honored tradition both within and without photography. Do you have the financial resources to enlist them and are you willing to engage in a collaborative process? There’s no right answer. It’s an individual decision. And you may make different decisions at for different projects and at different times in your life.
Mac also shared a story about his work. In the image above, he saw the Bible and the little girl when he made the exposure. But he didn’t see the ironic 666 written on the box in pencil until he made the print. So often, new things come to light when you make prints of your images.
The exhibit Placement of Place is on display from January 7 to February 14.
Find out more about Mac Holbert here.
Find out about the Benham Gallery here.
Improve your printing skills at the Epson Print Academy.
Learn to make master prints in my workshops.

Photoshop World Highlight – The Fine Art of Digital Evening


This evening is always one of the highlights of the event for me. We show our images and talk about how and why we made them. Nothing inspires me more than to hear top notch creatives talk about their process and passion. The images each individual makes, the ways they work, and the kinds of words they use to both are unique. That makes the total combination uniquely revealing. Tonight Jim DiVitale, Joe Glyda, Julianne Kost, John Paul Caponigro, Jay Maisel, Joe McNally, Moose Peterson all showed wonderful work and shared invaluable insights. Every time, every individual shows something different. It’s two hours of nonstop visual fireworks and inspiration. It’s a rare moment indeed. My advice? Sieze every chance you can to see and hear what other creatives are doing. Nothing is more inspirational.
If you were there, tell us about it! Comment!
Check out cobloggers coverage of PSW at the links below.
Corey Barker
John Paul Caponigro
RC Concepcion
Dave Cross
Laurie Excell
Martin Evening
Scott Kelby
Matt Koslowski
Deke McClelland
Joe McNally
John Nack
Moose Peterson
Jeff Schewe
Colin Smith
Ben Willmore
David Ziser

Photoshop World Highlight – Epson Print Academy


Everyone had a good time at the Epson Print Academy today. We always do.
This special half day version of the Epson Print Academy Track Two for Photoshop World runs lean and fast with fantastic content by Photoshop Hall of Fame Inductees – Andrew Rodney, Jeff Schewe, and John Paul Caponigro.
Rodney         Color Management
Schewe         Image Optimization
Rodney         Printing to an Epson Printer
Schewe         Advanced Black and White
Caponigro    Fine Art Printing – Performance Printing & The Art of Proofing
The handouts (for attendees only) are phenomenal. They’re electronic! So they’re green (no wasted paper), accessible anywhere, portable, with no limit to length, able to accomodate many file types (text, images, actions), and frequently updated. After you attend, you can always get the latest versions.
But wait, there’s more! Bonus prizes are often given to a few lucky attendees, like prints by Schewe, posters and DVDs by Caponigro … sometimes printers are even given away.
If you were there, tell us about it. Comment!
The Epson Print Academy is gearing up for a national tour again.
Stay tuned for important announcements at the end of the month.
Check out upcoming Epson Print Academy dates here.
Check out Schewe’s Photoshop News here.
Check out Rodney’s DigitalDog.net here.
Check out all of our books here.
Check out my free printing downloads here.
Check out my DVDs here.
Check out my workshops here.
Check out cobloggers coverage of PSW at the links below.
Corey Barker
John Paul Caponigro
Dave Cross
Laurie Excell
Martin Evening
Scott Kelby
Matt Koslowski
Deke McClelland
Joe McNally
John Nack
Moose Peterson
Jeff Schewe
Colin Smith
Ben Willmore
David Ziser

Blurb – People's Choice Awards


Blurb received over 2,000 entries for their recent Photography.Book.Now contest. Winners will be announced September 10th.
They’ve just added an additional award – the People’s Choice Award – so you have a chance to let the world know who you think is the best of the best. Voting is open through September 10th.
Here’s how it works.
You can vote for one book, and one book only. Just go to the Photography.Book.Now bookstore to see all the work, then click on the voting button under your favorite book. (The button’s big and orange, should be pretty easy to spot.) Want to stack the deck for your top choice? We have some tools to make it easy for you to spread the word. You can download an image to forward along in emails, or grab a People’s Choice voting badge for your website or blog by clicking here to save the file. Once you cast your vote, you can also send a note directly from the bookstore to bring your people right back to your top choice.
The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in San
Francisco on September 19th. Pick up your tickets here. The prize? They’re keeping that one a secret. Who doesn’t love a little surprise?
Check out my book entry Antarctica here.
If you like it, I’d appreciate your vote!

Caponigro & Versace – Free Weekend Workshop in Iceland


Focus on Nature (Photography Workshops in Iceland) announces the combined forces of John Paul Caponigro and Vincent Versace in a special weekend. John Paul and Vincent will work on location discussing their varied processes before, during, and after making images. Participants will be able to photograph side-by-side with John Paul and Vincent and ask them questions as they work. The weekend (August 16 & 17) is free to participants of their workshops.
Read more about Vincent’s Iceland workshop (August 11-15) here.
Read more about John Paul’s Iceland workshop (August 18-22) here.
Focus on Nature (Photography Workshops in Iceland) recently announced 15% discounts on their 2008 workshops. The discounts are made possible by excellent response from sponsors.
Enroll now! Space is limited.
What’s Iceland like? Stay tuned for future posts!