Question: “I struggle to edit my own work. Do you have any tips on the ruthless decision making bit?”
Towell: Only a good friend will tell you your pictures are lousy, you need to make better friends”
This from a recent Twitter with subsistence farmer and master photographer Larry Towell (Magnum, of course) and never truer words be spoken. The best way to improve your photography is to surround yourself with photographer friends and get let them take their best shots. I used to thumbtack 5x7s from Coney Island along my wall on 25th Street, and invite friends, like Bill Pierce, over to get feedback. If you don’t have friends, a good intimate workshop environment can work as well, such as the brawls that are a regular occurrence at 360Degree Workshops. The truth is that we all struggle to edit our own word, and digital photography has compounded the issue by keeping us in an almost unlimited capacity to shoot. With film there was always the lingering thought that the cost for each frame was 25 cents. This precluded a lot of the motor drive emulating captures that now are a regular feature on DSLRs. The easiest way to edit? Shoot less. Or shoot film, like Towell.
You can catch up on the rest of Towell’s twitter here (as well as get a look outside the Magnum offices on West 25th Street):
Magnum Blog / Transcript of Larry Towell Interview on Twitter – the photo blog of Magnum Photos.