In The Last Workshop I Taught, A

The Unusual Wins Out Over The Usual.

For Spiritual Companions I Have Had The Many Artists Who Have Relied On Nature To Help Shape Their Imagination. And Their Most Elaborate Equipment Was A Deep Reverence For The World Through Which They Passed. Photographers Share Something With These Artists. We Seek Only To See And To Describe With Our Own Voices, And, Though We Are Seldom Heard As Soloists, We Cannot Photograph The World In Any Other Way.

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.

It's More Difficult Now, To Be A Geographic Photographer, Than It Was When I Came Along. And It Wasn't Easy At That Time.

And That Desire-the Strong Desire To Take Pictures-is Important. It Borders On A Need, Based On A Habit: The Habit Of Seeing. Whether Working Or Not, Photographers Are Looking, Seeing, And Thinking About What They See, A Habit That Is Both A Pleasure And A Problem, For We Seldom Capture In A Single Photograph The Full Expression Of What We See And Feel. It Is The Hope That We Might Express Ourselves Fully-and The Evidence That Other Photographers Have Done So-that Keep Us Taking Pictures.