Looking Back

by Richard Avedon

The speed at which technology moves is dizzying, and photography always seems to riding that giant wave. With ridiculous mega pixel counts and rigs like the Canon 5D Mark II which shoots cinematic quality video, it can be easy to forget from whence we came. As often as I can, I like to take a minute to step back and look at just how far we’ve come.

One of my favorite photographers from the old school is Richard Avedon. The photo here is from his In the American West series. He essentially traveled the country, found normal everyday people, threw up a white back drop, and took their picture. His documentation of how the average person lives strikes a blow to your heart. His images are moving, and manage to capture a person’s  story in that one little frame.

Whenever you fill overwhelmed by all the techno babble, take a minute to look back to how it used to be done. You might just learn a thing or two.