It’s Only Art?

I was recently speaking with Paul Sveda after looking at his photos. This is Paul’s blog . I asked if he would let me interview him for my blog. Here are some of his responses:

“My father was always into photography in one form or another. I still remember a wild high-speed 2 hour race back to a hotel room where he left his old Contax and Zeiss lenses behind. Fortunately, he recovered them and we didn’t have to put up with a sullen face for the rest of the trip. There has always been a Nikon brochure or Vistek magazine laying around the house and he always had a stream of photo oriented friends though the subject always fell to the technical side of the hobby. I also spent 20 years of my life with my nose glued to one National Geographic or another and dreaming of being a field photographer.”

“Once I got into high school my teacher, Mr. Ainslie, got me interested in photography and with my involvement in the local band scene I shot a good number of B&W works until I left the school and lost access to the dark room. Then photography pretty much died for me for a decade as development costs became too much to deal with and I pursued a career in graphic design. It was almost a decade before accessible digital hardware got me back into it. It just seemed like a nice natural progression from my graphic design experience.”

“I actually do and oddly enough it was from a Canon G2. I’d gone up to the escarpment above the downtown core of Hamilton and shot a sequence of photographs on a tripod that I planned on stitching together as a panorama. Though the individual shots weren’t something I was happy with, the finally stitched photo made me feel accomplished. The piece ended up getting printed and auctioned off at a charity shortly there after.”

“Honestly I don’t, though I gravitate towards landscapes, nature and automotive - which I realize might be an odd mix. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a variety of other subject but those I find myself more comfortable with.”

“Anything and anyone, though I love kids, cars and animals. In all three of those cases they are either unaware or completely forget about the lens and can provide for funny, dramatic and interesting shots.”

“I’ve been trying to get around to shooting a single subject using a variety of focal lengths and positions and putting it all together on one frame. It would best be described as a post composite’d cubism and give me a chance to fold in more of my graphic design work. I’ll see if it’s a complete bust though.”

“I shoot mainly digital and employ a grab bag of common filters, lenses, heads and tripods. . . I don’t prefer any equipment. I started out with Nikon and am now vested enough in glass to stick with Nikon. I am sure I would say the exact same thing if I had started out with Canon or Contax or something else. Quality lenses are critical and the camera at the end of the day doesn’t matter anywhere near as much as learning its quirks, tricks and appropriate ways to use it under varying condition and even that doesn’t matter as much as the man/woman behind the lens. Though I will take the opportunity to take Nikon vs Canon jabs at fellow friends when shooting together.”

When I asked Paul about his sources of inspiration - “I couldn’t put a finger on that if I tried. Sometimes its everyday life and other times it’s someone else’s shot or words or idea that gets my head stirring.”

What photographers do you admire? “Ansel Adams, Michael Nichols, David Allan Harvey among many others. Really enjoyed the recent work done by David Burnett as he documented the post Katrina landscape and people in NOLA. The skinny is that if a photographer has been featured in National Geographic then I have probably admired them or made note of their work.”

What was the toughest subject or shoot you’ve encountered? “Nature is always a tough subject and is ever changing where it can be only moments before a unique lighting situation or pattern is gone. You can’t move the sun, stop the clouds or convince any animal to pose or hold for a second. You rarely get second chances when something interesting happens and more often than not the minute you move your finger from the shutter you miss something of interest. I hate setting up studio lighting but at least in a studio there is some element of control.”

What are your interests and dislikes in photography? “I can’t say I dislike anything though there are techniques and styles that strike a discord with me. However if a style I have a hard time appreciating has a following then it has some validity and artistic merit. If I dig deep then I guess my beef would be people who purchase high-end equipment (think Hasselblad) to do the occasional family event and then store their gear away. I know it’s the green-eyed-monster in me and I’m not happy to admit it but its there.”

Thankyou, Paul. I’ll check in with you from time to time.

Daniel Ferris