The Gates frame the Plaza Hotel in New York. © Damaso Reyes
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 Chickens for sale in a traditional market in Makassar, Indonesia. © Damaso Reyes “If your pictures aren’t good enough you aren’t getting close enough.” -Robert Capa
That quotation has become a truism, cliché and whatever else you want to call it but that doesn’t stop it from being true. Perhaps the biggest single problem I see in the photographs of amateur photographers is that of distance: most of the time people just don’t get close enough, they don’t cross the critical distance.  A Marine recruit faces his final test. © Damaso Reyes What do I mean by critical distance? Essentially it is the amount of space that we usually keep between ourselves and other people or objects. In the case of street photography it is the view that we might have of a scene as we walk by. Most photographers, especially when just starting out, feel uncomfortable getting close and crossing that critical distance.  Anti-war activist Brian Haw loses his election bid to Parliment. © Damaso Reyes But as the phrase implies it is critical to put yourself in that space. As photographers our job is to go places that the viewer never would. In large part this is what makes many images interesting or different from a simple snapshot. Part of going there is getting up close and personal. Often one of the first assignments I give to my students is one where they shoot at or near the minimum focusing distance of their lens. By forcing yourself to get closer you change your relationship to the subject even if it is an object and not a person.  A child receives treatment for Malaria in Tanzania. © Damaso Reyes Filling the frame is just part of what I’m talking about, an essential part to be sure but more important is the idea that you as the photographer are occupying the same emotional space as your subject. By doing so you understand more about what you are photographing and hopefully can better convey what you are experiencing to your viewers. The photographer is the bridge that spans the gap between subject and viewer. The gap is the critical distance and the only way to make good photographs is to fill that space.
 Cancer survivor. © Damaso Reyes
It’s also important to remember that the critical distance is not a static amount of space, it changes just as the situation you photograph changes. In reality the critical space is that feeling inside of us that we are close to something, regardless of physical distance. The critical distance is not a measurement of space but of emotion.  An intimate portrait. © Damaso Reyes
 A victim of sexual violence during the genocide in Rwanda tells her story. © Damaso Reyes To see more images from Rwanda please visit damaso.com  Nature's Bounty. Brooklyn 2008
 New Orleans 2006. © Damaso Reyes Life continues even after the waters recede and the media leaves. To see more images from New Orleans please visit damaso.com  A sign of summer. © Damaso Reyes Editing is one of the most important parts of photography but a skill few photographers learn to master. Back in the good old days of photojournalism most photographers would hand off their film to someone else to process and edit. Today photographers are expected to come up with an edit on their own. One thing I learned as a young freelance photojournalist is to never give the editors too many choices because inevitably they will choose the “wrong” picture. But what is the “right” photo? It’s a question my students often ask. Like everything else about photography it is subjective. The “best” photo is not always the loveliest, or the most direct. What makes a photograph good, at least when you are editing, is how the image conveys the information you are trying to communicate. How well does the image balance its visual elements? Something which is often overlooked is how well does the image work within the context of a photo essay or larger group of images? This is one of the most important issues because even if you are just posting your images on Facebook or Flickr nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to see ten nearly identical shots of the same thing, no matter how pretty you think that sunset was or how lovely your new kitten is. The inability to edit, to make a choice and stick by it, is the hallmark of an amateur. For this personal project I’ve been working on I have faced the time honored problem of what to do when you have a lot of good pictures of the same thing. My subject, the wonderful Paul “Spazzy” Winston, is a pianist and composer. Naturally he spends a great deal of time tickling the ivories and just as naturally I spent a lot of time photographing him doing so. Here are a few images, all of them great in their own way.
And these aren’t even all of them! See my point? Including even three of these images in a 15 or 20 image essay would be incredibly repetitive although they all have some interesting points. My challenge is to find one or perhaps two images which are interesting enough to represent everything else the other images convey. This is where I use criteria like composition and visual beauty to narrow the field down. Some images are nicer than others while still having the same information. Other images carry more emotional or metaphorical weight. Using that reasoning these three images make the cut.
There is something very pure about the first image. It is nice, simple and spare. At the same time I feel like it can be anyone’s hands. The photo while nice is not that intimate or compelling.
The second photo is a lot more interesting, at least to me. It is up close and personal; we can really start to see the hairs and veins that make this hand unique. Also the position of the fingers make for a lovely form themselves and begin to transform the hand into a kind of metaphor.
The third image is the one I like the best. I don’t think it is the most visually appealing but look at those hands, those veins! The crossed hands upend our sense of what a pianist does and creates a very dynamic image, one that we really have to spend time with to understand all the nuances. This photo does what I think all good art does; show us something we think we know in a new and interesting way. And that’s our lesson for today! Thanks for coming!  Models wait backstage at a fashion show. © Damaso Reyes  Children watch as their mother has teeth extracted at a mobile medical clinic organized by KFOR soldiers. Kosovo 2005 ©Damaso Reyes
 Restaraunt Sign. Berlin 2007 © Damaso Reyes To see more images from Berlin please visit The Europeans. Why is it that so many people fail to follow their dreams? Often I hear people say that a particular dream is “not realistic.” But isn’t that the whole point of a dream? Our dreams are rooted in our fantasies and our aspirations. Our dreams embody all that we hope for and sometimes what we fear, don’t forget dreams can be bad too. But dreams are never meant to be real. Our dreams are where the impossible is commonplace; where that which we don’t fully understand becomes real, at least in our minds. People kill their dreams when they try to force the laws and rules of reality upon them. But what is a good night’s sleep without the release of our dreams? What do we live for except our dreams? How can we hope to become more than we are without the reckless belief in that which is not yet tangible?  Dreams are always unfinished. When I talk to people who are just starting down the road of photography I try to relate how important dreams are to your vision. If you want to make money, become a banker I say. There are many more ways to earn a living, almost all of them less frustrating and more secure. But if your dream is to change the way that people see the world around them then you should become a photographer. At a certain point in life most people walk away from their dreams. Often life intervenes but sometimes we say to ourselves “this is impossible” and close the door to what might make us happy. The thing about a dream is that you never know how it is going to end. Some people can’t live with that kind of uncertainty. Some people would rather lead a circumscribed life and feel safe in the belief that something more fulfilling or interesting just could never be. Others want to feel the roll of that uncharted sea and steer the ship of their lives on a course that may not be plotted but will be interesting…  Signs of the past in Brooklyn  A tourist poses with a statue in Brastilava. ©2009 Damaso Reyes |
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