Charles Traub's Advice for Young Photographers

Last Tuesday night I was privileged to be part of a panel discussion about photography at the Aperture Foundation in New York. The nominal topic of the discussion was supposed to have been the confluence of art and commerce, but everybody really wanted to talk about strategies for young photographers to get started in the field. No one had better advice than our panel leader, Charles Traub (left), a talented photographer whose day job is being chairman of the School of Visual Arts’s photography MFA program. His closing remarks for the evening were drawn from his 2006 book “The Education of a Photographer" (Allworth Press, $19.95). They were so clever, and so based in the modern reality of photography, at least as seen by the chairman of a major photography program, that I thought I would print them here.

Traub’s advice for young photographers is a list divided into “Dos” and Don’ts.” Here is an abridged version of the list:

Do something old in a new way.

Do something new in an old way.

Do something new in a new way. Whatever works, works.

Do it sharp—if you can’t, call it art.

Do fifty of them—you definitely will get a show.

Do it big—if you can’t do it big, do it red.

If you don’t know what to do, look up, or down—but continue looking.

Do celebrities—if you do a lot of them you’ll get a book.

Edit it yourself.

Design it yourself.

Publish it yourself.

Read Darwin, Marx, Freud, Einstein, Benjamin, McLuhan, and Barthes.

Construct your images from the edges inward.

If it’s the “real world,” do it in color.

If it can be done digitally, do it.

Be self-centered, self-involved, and generally entitled and always pushing—and damned to hell for doing it.

Don’t do it about yourself, your friend, or your family.

Don’t dare photograph yourself nude.

Don’t look at old family albums.

Don’t hand color it.

Don’t write on it.

Don’t use alternative processes—if it ain’t straight, do it in the computer.

Don’t gild the lily—a.k.a, less is more.

Don’t photograph indigent people—especially in foreign lands.

Don’t whine, Just produce.

--David Schonauer

Comments

[james]

having none of it. except barthes (and sontag). and construct your images from the edges outward : accept your images can only be edges.

[dan mckay]

shouldn't that be:

They were so "clever"

Hopefully these were tongue in cheek... or else he's just a smart alec

[Todd W.]

Yeah, tone would be good to understand. I mean, isn't "Do it big—if you can’t do it big, do it red" an art world joke? And warning against alternative process seems to contradict "Do something old in a new way."

[Paul Conrad]

"Be self-centered, self-involved, and generally entitled and always pushing—and damned to hell for doing it."

Yeah, right. And the ones that are self-centered, self-important, or egotistical can't shoot. I run into many of them.

They talk a good game, but can't play it.

The best photojournalists I've met are humble, quiet, unassuming and great people. That includes Nachtwey, Tony Suau, the Turnley Brothers, Chris Morris, Todd Heisler, Barry Gutierrez, Mark Osler, Janet Reeves, Patrick Witty, and so on.

[Cooper Strange]

Sure, many of them are old jokes or just plain cliche, but maybe the oldest sayings have stuck around because there is a kernel of truth to them. These tips are self-contradictory, mostly on purpose; for me, that seems to say that these are excellent tid-bits of advice, but we the photographers have to learn the art of when to apply which one.

[Roc]

I'm a chinese stady in paris. I love the photographice very much,and these tips are very useful for me, and I always do like he said~~

[Adrienne Deppe]

Thank you Charles for all that you provide. Your generosity as a mentor knows no limits, your contributions are always impactful. Best.

[Adrienne Deppe]

Thank you Charles for all that you provide. Your generosity as a mentor knows no limits, your contributions are always impactful. Best.

[Parks]

希望收到！

[robert]

so predictable, BORING !!