Okay, I am going to be honest. I have bought stuff that I didn’t need. There I said it. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but there it is. I’m guilty.
Oh, I could justify the purchase at the time. I either needed it for a job or a project that I was intending to work on. And there was always the voice of my accountant who reminds me that ‘you have to spend it to keep it’. There was always a reason why I would make the purchase, convincing myself that it was a good investment.
But then inventory time comes in the studio. I am looking through all the drawers and shelves and I discover several items, some of which I don’t even remember purchasing in the first place.
If I added up the value of many of those things, they would easily add up to the thousands of dollars. If I ever wondered where all the money goes, I didn’t have to look very far.
Now, I am not a spendthrift. As my wife, will attest, I am frugal, though she would likely use another word to describe me. Nevertheless, I try not to spend money impulsively. Yet, as I go through my inventory and I wonder whether the money would have been better spent elsewhere.
I am thinking about this now, because I considering investing in a new camera system this year. I have moved away from DSLRs, but have yet to commit to a new system. Besides my Fujifilm x100s and a Samsung NX1, I can easily do what I need to do. But as I look at the work that I am increasingly called to do and my personal needs, I am wondering whether it’s time to dive into one system or another.
Thus, I am looking at all the offerings from Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Pentax and even Nikon and Canon, trying to figure out not only what I need today, but what I may need for the several 3-5 years. It can be quite exhausting to filter through the myriad of features and designs offered by all these products and try to figure out what’s the best for me.
But I am also considering whether that money would be better spent on something else other than equipment.
Would some of that money be better spent on creating photographic experiences for myself? Would photo-centric travel or even a photographic workshop be a better investment of money and time than spending more money on more gear.
For the past 12 months, I have been working with the equipment that I already have in my possession. And what I didn’t need, I was easily able to rent without having to plop down a chunk of cash for one-time use. So, I am thinking that I might be able to do the same this coming year and that the funds I have allocated for gear could be applied elsewhere.
Though my wife and travel regularly, it’s not the same as taking a week or two that is dedicated 100% to photography. I might have a job that calls for 2-3 days of shooting, but that’s the not the same as several continuous days of photograph what I want, where I want and how I want.
For the last couple of years, my photography has been mixed in with the business and the personal. This has resulted in less time to just practice what I love for its own sake. I have not had the luxury and just immersing myself in photography, which is ironic considering that I spent much of my time interviewing and producing a show that revolves around photography.
As I begin the year, I am thinking about not only about how I want to spend my money, but also how do I want to spend my time, the latter which I am finding is much more valuable than any kit I could ever have in my bag.
Looking at my white-board which has all my goals for 2017, I am realizing that there is some time that must be made for me. It can’t all be all about the show, the business, the money. That’s important, but there must be a value associated with creating opportunities for me to practice photography, just for photography’s sake. That may mean delaying the purchase of equipment, but it may result in the best investment that I will make this year.
When filmmaker Ilie Mitaru first discovered Serbest Salih’s Instagram feed, he was struck by the power of the photographs—vivid, intimate images made by children from displaced and marginalized communities across Turkey. These weren’t typical snapshots. They revealed a bold visual instinct and emotional clarity that defied the children’s limited experience behind the camera. Ilie saw not just compelling photographs, but a powerful story of self-expression—one that urgently needed telling.
That story became First Frames, a film that shifts focus away from trauma and instead highlights the playful, curious, and complex inner lives of its young image-makers.
Jasmine Benjamin, a California native, embodies the laid-back spirit of Northern California where she was born and the dynamic energy of Hollywood, where her work thrives. With a career spanning 17 plus years as a stylist, consultant, and creative director, she has established herself as a key figure in culture.
Her latest project, CITY OF ANGELS: “A book about L.A. style”, is her first coffee table book, capturing the essence of contemporary LA style through 120 plus portraits of local luminaries.
Matthew Finley (b. 1972) uses his photography to express himself and connect to the world around him. With a variety of photography processes, he explores intimate emotions through gesture and line to communicate his experience. In 2024 Finley was awarded CENTER Santa Fe’s Personal Award as well as the Center for Photographic Art’s LGBTQ+ Artist Grant for his project An Impossibly Normal Life.
Founder and Publisher Daniel Power started powerHouse Books in 1995, and was joined by Craig Cohen in 1996. The early years had Power and Cohen tag-teaming on a few books at a time, raising the bar each season when, in 1998, PowerHouse Books had its first best-seller, Women Before 10 A.M. by Véronique Vial. Power and Cohen followed up on that success in 1999 with the critically acclaimed cult monographs X-Ray by François Nars and Life is Paradise by Francesco Clemente and Vincent Katz.
He collaborated with photographer Larry Fink on the latter’s posthumous retrospective monograph, Larry Fink: Hands On / A Passionate Life of Looking.
Jeffery Saddoris is not only a talented artist, writer, and podcaster but a friend. A repeat guest of the podcast, we have enjoyed wonderful conversations about what it means to lead a creative life. What started as a technical test of my new podcast set-up turned into another wonderful conversation. We discussed recent events in my life and where we stand in our creative lives. Most importantly, this episode marks our return to regular production with new episodes of great conversations with and about photographers. Thank you for your kindness, support, and patience over the past three months.
It has been a little more than a month since the Eaton Fires devastated areas in Southern California, including the Palisades and Ibarionex’s home of Altadena. The show remains in hiatus as Ibarionex and his family contend with being displaced.
In this episode, Ibarionex provides an update on the status of his and his family’s journey to recover and rebuild.
The recent Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, impacted Ibarionex and his family. They lost their home and studio and are among the tens of thousands of people displaced by the disaster. In this episode, he describes his escape from the fire and the early days of recovery.
Lana Z Caplan works across various media – including single-channel films or videos in essay form, interactive installations, video art, and photography. Her recent photographic monograph, Oceano (for seven generations) published by Kehrer Verlag in 2023, contrasts the historic inhabitants of California’s Oceano Dunes – the Indigenous Chumash and a colony of depression-era artist and mystic squatters – with the current ATV riding community which is the source of a public health crisis in neighboring communities.
Dana Stirling is a fine art photographer and the Co-Founder & Editor In-Chief of Float Photo Magazine since 2014. Originally from Jerusalem Israel, Dana is now based in Queens New York. She received her MFA from The School Of Visual Arts in Photography, Video, and Related Media in 2016 and her BA from Hadassah College Jerusalem in Photographic Communications in 2013. Her latest book is Why Am I Sad.
Jacque Rupp is a documentary and fine-art photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A visual storyteller, Rupp uses the camera to challenge and question, offering a unique perspective on the world around us. In her most recent work, Rupp focuses on womanhood, using herself and experiences. As the subject matter, Rupp ventures off into the imagined, exploring issues of identity and purpose. Her new book is The Red Purse.
Michael Rababy documents US American gambling culture in his new book, Casinoland - Tired of Winning. Rows of shrill slot machines, glowing billboards, and gaudy splendor appear alongside exhausted faces, tired looks, and lost games. Rababy’s realistic camera view scrutinizes the glamorous appearance of the gleaming gambling halls and exposes their mendacious promises of wealth.
David Hobby is the lead instructor for all X-Peditions trips.
He spent 20 years as a staff photojournalist, completing more than 10,000 assignments before leaving The Baltimore Sun in 2006 to found Strobist.com. Over the following 15 years, Strobist grew to be the world’s most popular resource for professional-level photographic lighting education.
Valérie Jardin is an award-winning French photographer who has developed a unique style that is both evocative and authentic. Her work is characterized by a strong sense of narrative, capturing candid moments that reveal the human experience in all its complexity and beauty. With a discerning eye for composition and a keen understanding of light and shadow, Valérie Jardin creates emotionally charged photographs of everyday moments.
Rob Hammer is a photographer based in Denver, Colorado, who shoots for commercial clients like Nike, Adidas, Foot Locker, Fox Sports, and Smithsonian and produces other personal documentary exemplary art projects, including American barbershops, basketball culture, duck hunting, and real Cowboys in the American West.
Mikko Takkunen is a photo editor at The New York Times’s Foreign desk, where he spent more than five years between 2016 and 2021 in Hong Kong as the desk’s Asia photo editor. He began taking these photographs in early 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued until the summer of 2021 when he left Hong Kong. His latest monograph is titled, Hong Kong.
Ivan McClellan is a photojournalist and designer based in Portland, Oregon. His work reveals marginalized aspects of black culture and challenges broad assumptions and myths about racial identity in America.
In 2015, photographer Ivan McClellan attended the Roy LeBlanc Invitational in Oklahoma, the country’s longest-running Black rodeo, at the invitation of Charles Perry, director and producer of The Black Cowbo
For over 40 years, Jay Silverman has excelled as a leading Director, Producer, and Photographer specializing in award-winning films, television, digital, and print campaigns.
Jay’s narrative films have been awarded numerous Best Feature and Audience Awards at festivals nationwide. His current dramatic feature ‘Camera’, stars Golden Globe, Emmy, and Grammy Award Winner Beau Bridges, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Scotty Tovar, Bruce Davison, and Miguel Gabriel.
When photographer Justin Black first picked up a camera, he was drawn not just to the art of image-making but to the power of photography as a tool for exploration, conservation, and connection. Over the years, that passion has evolved into a remarkable career that bridges fine art, environmental advocacy, and education. As a co-founder of Visionary Wild and former executive director of the International League of Conservation Photographers, Justin has helped shape how we think about the relationship between photography and the natural world.