Julian Velard, Stefan Mumaw, Amy Wynne, Jim Krause, Ben Long, Tracey Clark, Denise Jacobs, and George Maestri

My dad built a darkroom in the upstairs bathroom when I was ten or eleven (this replaced some gerbils that had been living in the bathtub there, but that's another story). I don't believe I got any good pictures out of that darkroom but I did get to experience the amazement of seeing images appear out of all of those magic liquids. A lot of people lament the loss of analog shooting but I think there's even more wonder to be derived from modern tools and from the continual process of exploring one's own sense of seeing. It's rare that I don't learn something about my own visual sense when I'm shooting and I find that fascinating. I love new gear as much as the next photographer, but I believe that improving at photography or any other media production is a process of self-exploration, not technical. This has informed all of my work, from still photography to video production to writing. Through that self-exploration, I learn more about why subjects interest me and why I understand the world the way I do. That, in turn, makes it easier for me to effectively convey concepts and ideas to others.