Behind the Lens with Rick Smolan
Monday, October 13, 2008 by stephanie roberts 
During the month of October, Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP) for the tenth consecutive year. ACP is an organization and city-wide photography festival comprised of more than 100 exhibitions and events inspiring discussion and showcasing work of photographers from around the world. ACP's mission is simple: to create an international city for photography in Atlanta. It feels good to be here.
This past weekend, I attended an ACP10 lecture hosted by Brooks Jensen, photographer and editor of fine art photography publication, LensWork. In his lecture, Jensen suggests that "Photography is not about light. Photography is about life." He encouraged us to first identify what we want to say with our images and then be open to share our stories with audiences in the form of not only still images, but audio and video. And with the recent launch of video-capture SLRs such as the Nikon D90 and the Canon 5D Mark II, my sisters, our images have the power to be still... or move if we choose. He suggests that photographers are not only image creators, we are oral historians and storytellers.
My friend, Rick Smolan, came to mind as I listened to Jensen's perspective on photography. Rick began his career as a photojournalist for Time, LIFE and National Geographic. His curious nature and love of life lead him to create From Alice to Ocean (book and CD-Rom) in the early 1990s, the photo/journal documentary of a woman's journey across Australian... on camel back. From that point on, Rick began to orchestrate massive visual storytelling projects involving teams of photojournalists and amateur photographers from all over the world to document and share stories about life in print book and digital form including the Day in the Life... series, Passage to Vietnam, Power to Heal, 24 Hours in Cyberspace, America 24/7 and most recently America at Home. I caught up with Rick recently and recorded our conversation to share with you. I was curious to trace his path as a photographer. To discover and share the secret of his success so I might follow in his footsteps. Was the secret revealed? Yes, from my perspective. But tell me what you think.
Listen online or download Behind the Lens with Rick Smolan – a thirty-minute deep dive.
Rick was kind to offer all of us a 25% discount (that's $10.00 off) his latest book, America at Home, for a limited time. Simply visit American at Home, create a custom cover with your image of home, and enter promotion code: fall08
The image above was captured by Rick Smolan and is shared with his permission. Ever since his children were toddlers, the first thing that Phoebe (7) and Jesse (5) Smolan do when they arrive at their grandfather's Long Island home is to climb into the painted school lockers to see how much they've grown since their last visit. A scrapbook kept by Grandpop Elliott Erwitt, a renowned photographer whose images appear on the walls of museums around the world, lets them chart their growth.
Reader Comments (13)
I love that image and what an awesome piece of furniture!