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The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. ~John Ruskin
I write these words as I am coming to terms with recent changes in my life. A prolonged illness left me feeling different (truly the only term that seems appropriate), and I am learning to make peace with, and to find meaning in, the change.
I was asked again recently if I have advice for budding photographers. In the past, such questions made me a bit uncomfortable, not because I don’t have worthwhile lessons from three decades of making photographs that I believe are worth sharing, but because I find it hard to address photography in the abstract and without also explaining its role in my life. Photography to me has always been a way of augmenting experiences, rather than to pursue something for its own sake. The most important lesson I learned is that photography, when practised with certain attitudes and priorities, has the power to not just serve as a means of capturing and sharing visual anecdotes but also to help the photographer grow as a person. Knowing that such rewards are possible, what good is any advice for making “better” photographs if it doesn’t also direct the photographer toward loftier life goals?
And so, my advice to photographers—whether budding or accomplished—is this: think not only about improving your photography but also about how, through photography, you may also improve yourself.