This film was inspired by a conversation with photographer Elena Dorfman. (We teach workshops together.) We have been friends for years, and our professional careers have often overlapped, at least in some ways. Our talk was typical of conversations between photographers. She had just returned from an assignment in Japan and a quick trip to Albania to screen her film, which was making the rounds at film festivals. The life of a working photographer is often misunderstood, so during our chat, I had an epiphany. Why not have this conversation in public so anyone interested can join? Conversations like this happen often, but as a professional, there are certain things you can and should discuss, and others that are better kept private. My goal is to shed some light on what it means to be a professional photographer. For those of you who showed up for this in person, thank you! It was great seeing so many familiar faces.
Creative: Photographer/Photographer
Comments 6
Watching two pros talk shop, discuss obstacles, solutions, and ways to make good photos from a practical, ground-level perspective was instructive and a lot of fun. It didn’t hurt that Elena Dorfman is so articulate, poised, thoughtful and charming. I hope you’ll do more of these — it was a blast.
Author
I have these conversations frequently, so I hope to do more as well. She’s been doing this for over thirty years, and if you look at her site, you will see the range. And I don’t think the site even has much of what she’s done. Started in PJ, ten years for Marie Clare, the United Nations, etc. The tricky part for me is that once you are exposed to people like Elena, the online conversations around photographer are so mindless and lacking in depth it makes it impossible to engage.
Watching this was my reward for filling two garbage cans with weeds for recycling this morning. 4 more cans to go before the truck comes on Tuesday. Thanks, very inspirational, as was looking at her work online.
Author
She’s done so many different kinds of work over the years. Has numerous books and continues to expand her offerings.
This was absolutely superb Dan! Thank you very much for sharing it!
Author
Glad you enjoyed.