I Was Asked By A Student What

I Was Asked By A Student What My Most Significant Accomplishment Was At National Geographic, After Thirty Years, And I Said That My Career Came To An Appropriate Close, And I Still Loved Photography. Not Everybody Who Spends Their Career At Anything Ends Up Fascinated And Involved With It.

In Almost Every Photograph I Have Ever Made, There Is Something I Would Do To Complete It. I Take That To Be The Spirit Hole Or The Deliberate Mistake That's In A Navajo Rug To Not Be Godlike, But To Be Human.

But There Is More To A Fine Photograph Than Information. We Are Also Seeking To Present An Image That Arouses The Curiosity Of The Viewer Or That, Best Of All, Provokes The Viewer To Think-to Ask A Question Or Simply To Gaze In Thoughtful Wonder. We Know That Photographs Inform People. We Also Know That Photographs Move People. The Photograph That Does Both Is The One We Want To See And Make. It Is The Kind Of Picture That Makes You Want To Pick Up Your Own Camera Again And Go To Work.

When I First Went To 'national Geographic,' I Thought I Was The Least Qualified Person To Step Through The Doors. But Because Of My Parents And The Culture Of Continual Learning They Imposed On Us, I Later Came To Believe I Was The Most Qualified Person Who Ever Worked There.

Even Though I Teach With 35mm, My Method Takes People By Surprise, Because It Isn't Fast, And It Isn't About Hardware Or Software, Or Even Great Results. It's About Great Process.