Sofie Dittmann's Photography Blog

Some good advice by Steve McCurry to novice photographers.

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One automatically asks oneself who the people behind the amazing photographs in the National Geographic and elsewhere are. We don’t get very many people of this stature here in Ohio, as this place is typically not important enough to attract them. Nevertheless, today we went to a book signing by a man if not larger than life, then pretty close to it.

Steve McCurry turned out to be a regular guy, and a very nice one to boot. Charming and somewhat introverted, somebody I would have liked to just have had time to chat over a beer or a glass of wine with. He’s likely happier in Asia than among all the star-struck people here, but what an inspiration this was.

A snapshot my son took of him signing one of the posters we bought is below.

It was amazing to for once be able to see and, if only briefly, experience a person whose work I have admired for as long as I can think. The Joseph Saxton Gallery didn’t have a lot of his photographs on display, but enough to re-encounter some old friends, like the sheep herder with the henna beard, and of course Sharbat Gula, the photograph he’s most associated with and most famous for. I bought a book, and two posters featuring that portrait for the youngens, the sale of which benefited ImagineAsia.

I couldn’t find any more information, but Steve is at least on their Board and a major contributor, but it almost appeared to me as if he co-founded the organization. Their website is only marginal, with little to no useful information and heinous navigation. A little more can be found on Steve’s own website, a link to which I have posted above.

Unfortunately we had to forgo the talk at Malone University this evening, which I would have liked to have gone to. I’ll just add this to my list of things I would have liked to turn out differently in my life.

When I am reborn, I’ll work for the National Geographic. Or something.

Sofie Dittmann Check this out!, Photo Event, Photography General afghan girl, canton, national geographic, Ohio, photography, steve mccurry

It’s amazing how tirelessly you can work when you are truly drawn into something. Since posting them in color, I have been converting all 98 photos from the Kidron series into black and white.

And, as the pros out there can attest to, there is no cookie-cutter approach to digital black and white – even when you’re using such an awesome tool like Silver Efex Pro (I can’t believe I used to do this the long way…).

Anyway.

I like them better in black and white. What’s your take?

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A few more pics from Kidron, Ohio…

Sofie Dittmann Check this out!, Photographs, Photography General fine art, kidron livestock auction, Ohio, photography

Thank God for the gift of time. One of the projects I was working on last year was one with a subject that I have been living closeby of for years. But just like everything else – if it’s readily available, it’s the last thing on your mind. Or something you don’t think of for a photo project.

I have been at the Kidron Livestock Auction a number of times with visitors, and we did what everybody does when they get there. We took the usual touristy pictures. My daughter calls those “touron shots”.

Yet, as my mind was wandering one day this past summer, it occurred to me that one reason those kinds of photos are not only boring, but hopelessly stereotypical is that they always a) focus on the Amish, as if this were some kind of a zoo, and b) thereby either mostly romanticize or sometimes actually villify their subject.

Most people don’t see this place for what it is: a microcosm of the local economy, full of hard-working and down-to-earth people. There are of course the Amish, their “English” counterparts, who come there to auction off and buy livestock. There are the peddlers and vendors, the hotdog cart and the Asians selling cheap plastic items of all kinds. There are the busloads of tourons. And there was me. And so here is my version of Ohio rural street photography, all taken over the last five months within the same block around the Kidron Auction.

I was interested mostly in interactions between different people, but also in their individual state of being.

Sofie Dittmann Check this out!, Photographs, Photography General fine art, kidron livestock auction, Ohio, photography