Guy Tal | Photographer, Author
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To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future. —Bertrand Russell This continues Remembering the Future —... Continue Reading →
Announcements: After prematurely announcing its final date a few years ago, the Moab Photography Symposium will be back in September, 2025! I will join several of my talented photo colleagues and have the privilege of delivering the closing presentation. Seating is limited, so be sure to reserve your places in both the main event and... Continue Reading →
Those who feel guilty contemplating “betraying” the tradition they love by acknowledging their disapproval of elements within it should reflect on the fact that the very tradition to which they are so loyal . . . is in fact the evolved product of many adjustments firmly but delicately made by earlier lovers of the same... Continue Reading →
Whether it be a painting or photograph, the picture is a symbol that brings one immediately into close touch with reality. . . . In fact, it is often more effective than the reality would have been, because, in the picture, the non-essential and conflicting interests have been eliminated. —Lewis Hine Ask most photographers about... Continue Reading →
I could have done lots more, put in much more work and developed more pictures, but I had also a desire to say what I felt about life. —Consuelo Kanaga I’ve had several conversations recently about the topic of legacy. In hindsight, I realized, this has been one of the most consistent topics of conversation... Continue Reading →
So many people are busy worrying about the future of art or society, they have no time to preserve what is. Utopia is in the moment. Not in some future time, some other place, but in the here and now, or else it is nowhere. —Alfred Stieglitz From my camp on the edge of a... Continue Reading →
Some photographic movements have had a following in America, but none has ever held sway for any length of time. The Photo-Secession, documentary photography, photo-journalism, f/64, all made valuable individual contributions, but they all had to give way to the self-assertive individual photographer. Of course, individual photographers do bind themselves to certain limiting systems of... Continue Reading →
I recently had the great pleasure of joining my friend and workshop co-instructor, Michael Gordon, on a couple of events now available online for anyone to watch/listen: Our presentation Finding Meaning in Photography, hosted by Harold Davis, is now available for streaming on Harold's YouTube channel. Our conversation about The History of Photography via the podcast, F-Stop... Continue Reading →
This essay was adapted from one previously published in LensWork Magazine. On the road from fish, bird, and ape to the war-waging animal of our time, on the long road by which we hope in time to become men and gods, it could not have been the “normal” ones that had pressed forward from stage... Continue Reading →