A video interview with landscape photographer Alain Briot on SmibsTV (Episode 24). In an interesting bit from the early going in the interview, Alain talks about how hard he was working making at living at something that didn't make him very happy, at which point, he says, he asked himself the question in the post title. The rest, as they say, is history. It's certainly an interesting way to look at life.
Alain's new book is due out later this month and is available for pre-order
Featured Comment by Dustin: "Great interview. It was motivating to hear a photographer actually talking about being able to make a living doing what you love. It seems that most of the time we all hear about the negatives a whole lot more than the positives."
Featured Comment by Ken Tanaka: "That's a very nice talk with Alain. I encourage young people, in particular, to watch this interview as it's full of encouragement for reality-checking and rational self-assessment. I also encourage practicing 'fine art' photographers to watch, this as Alain's attitudes regarding the balance between his art and his business is a very healthy and productive one that many others might benefit from studying and adopting. Yes, he admits encounters with luck. But when you look at the whole story you realize that he made the opportunities for lucky encounters.
"I do not follow landscape photography very closely, per se, but I consider Alain to be one of America's preeminent practitioners today. I admire his work as the wonderful art that it is...nobody does it better. But I also admire his determination and fortitude to succeed and his willingness to share time and perspectives with others."
Doing the interview with Alain was great fun. Watch out, we'll soon post a second part to it. Thanks for posting this Mike.
Posted by: Peter Urban | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 01:02 AM
In light of the Edgar Martin brouhaha, I thought Briot's statement "If I don't manipulate I do something wrong" was interesting. Different strokes for different folks.
Posted by: Dave Kee | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 01:18 AM
"Different strokes for different folks."
Not really. There are just different kinds of photography. Same as the standard for an academic paper and a short story are very different; what's allowable as well as desirable for one isn't necessarily so for the other...either way. It's not to say one's "better" than the other, it's just that there are different expectations and different standards.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 01:44 AM
Mike, it also depends on what you mean with "manipulation". If I remember Briot's essays over on LL correctly, he's talking about colour, contrast and so on.
Besides, even if he's not talking just about that... if you do a landscape photo and there's a bit of an electricity pylon intruding from the left edge, do you leave the bit in or clone it out? I'd clone it out. Landscape photography is more related to painting than to news/documentary photography anyway.
Posted by: erlik | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 02:38 AM
Txs for that great link. Very insipirational.
Posted by: Markus Busch | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 05:17 AM
As a photographer and an artist Alain Briot is quite the salesperson.
Posted by: scott_h | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 07:26 AM
I relate to what erlik just said "...and there's a bit of..." - the key here is a bit, a blip, a minor disturbance. If there is a pylon cutting across the center of my image, well, I wouldn't have shot it from that angle.
But Alain, a radically honest person, says what he does. As for Mr. Martins, the article(s) mention he says he never photoshops his images.
I am surprised people are not discussing this more.
His not being honest (reputedly, we did not have a real chance to hear him) is less interesting to me than NYT, or anyone else's fascination with his spiel about long exposures and no-photoshop.
Is no-photoshop in?
Posted by: Michael Cytrynowicz | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 08:36 AM
Erlik, I think Alain writes quite often about manipulations that move far beyond "colour and contrast": "In fact I clone, change the colors, alter the contrast, and even remove houses that look ugly in the middle of a pristine wilderness.”
(http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/just-say-yes.shtml)
And if you would clone out an electricity pylon, you're only proving Mike's point that "there are different expectations and different standards for different kinds of photography."
For example with regard to the Edgar Martins brouhaha, cloning out the electricity pylon would not meet a newspaper's standards but would meet those of the landscape-art galleries that sell Briot's photographs.
Posted by: Robert Noble | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 11:20 AM
Heh, am I detecting a (slight) Southern slur in Briot's voice?
Posted by: Andreas | Thursday, 09 July 2009 at 11:54 AM
Alain Briot comes across well in this interview, unfortunately his articles for LL have for the most part been sleep inducing as he tends to belabour the point,probably something a good editor would fix.
As regards his need to share his knowledge of his art I'm afraid it comes at quite a price in monetary terms.
Posted by: Michael | Friday, 10 July 2009 at 01:23 PM