Rod Fernandez, a local doctor joined in the festivities at the annual International festival at Allegheny College Sunday. Meadville Tribune reporter Pete Chiodo and I went to cover the event. I had noticed this man dressed in a Taco outfit and pointed hm out to Pete. I mentioned I hadn't yet gotten a good photo of him. A few moments later Pete utter the words 'Rich, I talked to the Taco' meaning he interviewed him in case I wanted to get his picture. We both laughed at the line. I then introduced myself to Fernandez and told him I didn't want him to pose for a picture, but I was going to be hanging around waiting for something to happen candidly... a few moments later he was describing what the Pinata is and explained that children will get a chance to hit it with a stick and get the candy inside. This little girl responded positively to that. Unfortunately I couldn't stick around to photograph the busting open of the pinata, but was pleased to get this image. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
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I got up and made this, I intended on making something entirely different, but somehow came to this. I'm not entirely sure what it means, though I'm pretty sure it means something. Its a reaction to to being 44 I guess. I'm not one that gets bummed about getting older, in fact I like being older, but it does seem the end of 43 and the beginning of 44 has brought up a lot of wondering and re-evaluating. Its a good thing I guess--its something to go through and its something to make work about. I think tomorrow I'll look at this piece and several things will come to mind--perhaps influence the next piece. But for now--it gave me the featured picture I didn't have for Feb. 27. 2010--even though I created it at 3 a.m. on the 28th--the picture is a result of how the 27th ended. By Richard Sayer
Yesterday I posted a picture of Ernie Zolnai, a 90 year old man full of life. Meeting him is what I needed. I'm a pretty happy guy, but I've been feeling low lately. Meeting Ernie really jolted me into thinking about how good life is. He gave me an apple. At first I said -- oh no thanks I just had one, but then I thought--how odd--he is giving me an apple--I've been re-visiting my old imagery which an apple was a very very strong part of--it always was and it has represented everything from love to betrayal to my very being and soul in my paintings and drawings. And here--this man who doesn't know me, chooses to give me an apple out of the blue. It was really quite beautiful actually. I wasn't sure what to do with the apple, but decided today to eat it and when I was done I noticed how the core resembled the way I'd been feeling lately. I then realized that the core is still intact and inside the core are seeds. Seeds are hope! Seeds will grow and life goes on..... this is quite a beautiful gift that Ernie gave to me. I hope he likes his picture when it appears in the paper later this week! Photograph by Richard Sayer
This is a portrait of Ernie Zolnai of Linesville. He is 90 years old. Remarkable man. I told him today it would be easier for him to tell people the jobs and things he hasn't done in his life. Ernie married a girl named Bertha 65 years ago. They call themselves Bert and Ernie. Ernie was a boxer back in his youth and he won many championships, especially in the service. He told me many many stories in my short time with him this afternoon and we shared several laughs together. This is really why being a photographer for a small paper is the best job in the world. I met a great man today and took his picture in his boxing stance as if he were 20 years old again. Meadville Tribune photographs by Richard Sayer
Ever look back at how you started to do something? I've kept photography and my imagery in drawing and painting very separate over the years. I don't think I was ever grown up enough to combine them and be able to understand how one--photography as a documentary tool working for a newspaper has some very strict ethics regarding manipulation and or editorializing, And 2 how creating something with paint or charcoal is usually so internal that the documentation is really more personal. A year or so ago I began to combine all these things together in personal work, but it was very formulaic. Very little of the imagery was deeply personal or deeply meaningful to me. They were statements about this or that, but really, not cutting into the heart of what I am all about. I've been thinking a lot about how I got into drawing when I was in my early 20's. It was an obsession--mostly because I wasn't very good at it, but really felt I had something to say in the medium. So I drew and I drew and I drew. I began drawing things from my life, my food that I would carry and eat. One day I decided that I wanted to nail some fruit to a wall and draw it day after day. These were about many many things in my mind and as each days drawings progressed I found personal symbols and forms that seemed right to me. After all these years I found it funny that I never photographed this, just drew. So today I decided to photograph a still life of a banana peal and an apple nailed on to a board to revisit some old ideas in a new way. There is much going on in these--some of which was going on over 20 years ago and some stuff that has gone on since then. Its funny how much goes into something that seems so simple to look at. My students are in for it tomorrow as I'm going to really clobber them with this notion and see what they do with it. Photograph by Richard Sayer
I came across this photo the other day. I forgot where I made this picture. But, I know that it was within the last five years. When I saw it again, it renewed my love affair with photography. Capturing these moments has become an obsession, a passion, a need, a hunger, a reaching and a part of my everyday. Photo By: Harmony Motter
Teaching my students about composition is sometimes a very difficult endeavor. I teach them the 'rules' and I teach them to break the rules...so when does breaking the rules work and does it not work. This photo I took of Angela could be argued that it breaks rules...it could be argued that it isn't a very strong composition. But it could also be argued that the diagonal of Angela's head leads your eye to the darker corner which brings your eye back in- in a circular movement arriving back on Angela. Your eye doesn't leave the frame. Harmony Motter always says things like respect the shadows--respect the black...here I see it as that same idea. Respect the white, respect the space. Sometimes you don't want perfectly ordered compositions and tightly cropped to the subject framing. Sometimes you want there to be air to breathe. Photograph by Richard Sayer
A while back I wrote about seeing some old George Hurrell portraits of movie stars from the 30's, 40's and 50's while visiting Long Beach in October. I realized when I came back that I just didn't have the lights or sets/studio to duplicate his work, but I still learned a little about maybe elongating poses and having the model/subject look off to evoke a sense of thought beyond just having their picture taken. This isn't a real thought really, but an action of a thought. It works well with actors who are used to playing a role. It is interesting to play with this in the studio as it is so far removed from journalism. In journalism we capture moments of thought un-manipulated--or at least thats the goal. In the studio, its much like being on stage. We're going for a look of the person, a style of a persona and if we're lucky we also capture something real within the expression that takes it beyond the pose or the style and actually touches on who the person is inside. Its the hardest part of portraiture. Hard because of the difficulty of getting someone that comfortable to be themselves inside an environment that is not their own. And tough, because the culture of the family studio photograph is such that we don't want to capture our inner self, but are content simply capturing what we look like on the surface. This is why department store photo studios exist and thrive. They're not out to create a unique work of art, something that touches deep into the personalities or life of the subject, they are to get a likeness and hopefully a pleasant expression, nothing more. Harmony and I got into photography for reason far beyond just recording a likeness. We seek to capture the beauty of the soul of a person within their expression and body language and gestures. We're not content to simply to snap a picture and be done, collect the $20 and move on to the next. We love photography too much for that. Photograph by Richard Sayer
A while ago I really encouraged my good friend to post her personal work, to show the world her talent and inner beauty. This isn't an easy thing to do. As artists we expose our inner feelings and thoughts in the pieces we make. Some we make are at arms distance away so we have no difficulty showing them, others are very deeply inside of us that when we show them we expose ourselves in ways that can make us very vulnerable. Vulnerable to criticism and commentary that may or may not hit the mark. Many people think being an artist is making pictures, or making sculptures etc.... they don't realize the lifetime of thoughts and emotions involved to arrive at the piece before them. And they really don't need to know to enjoy or not enjoy the piece. But as artists we know all too well what does go into it. I've written before about trying to find my way back to what my work is about--where it started from years and years ago and why it has grown away from that and perhaps needs to come back to that ideal that got me started. This latest work I'm doing is exploring this heavily. This is one of the pieces I've been developing. It might not be the best piece, but its the one I'm willing to share now. My friend mentioned to me that its not easy to put yourself out there like this and she is dead right on that---but since I've been such a supporter of her doing it -- it seems a bit contradictory if I don't do the same. I may not show all the pieces I'm working on, in fact I'm pretty sure I won't have the guts to show them all, but I'll at least make a small step forward to join my friend in putting out this latest--hopefully authentic work. By Richard Sayer
I admit that, so far, 2010 hasn't been my favorite...but...I find myself thinking a lot about what it is that I do and get to do everyday. To me, an ideal day is having about three photographic assignments and enough time to dedicate to them to fully realize them and gain enough understanding into the story that I can find somewhere within the story the visual elements to help convey that story to others. One of the things I love to photograph is sports--not because I'm a sports fan--but because its real and happens before me and all I have to do is capture it. Not an easy task sometimes, but an enjoyable one. Since I photograph sports nearly every night and have done so for nearly 13 years, I get a chance to try different things from time to time. I'll take a lens that is a little too long for inside a gymnasium and shoot my whole take with that lens just to challenge myself. Sometimes I'll try some slow shutter speed stuff like I did to get this picture of Meadville wrestler Shelton Mack on Wednesday. I've been doing this long enough where I have confidence in myself that even when I push the limits of what may or may not work, I feel I'll come away with something. It isn't a stagnant thing for me, I need to try different things to achieve different looks in the paper each day. When I am photographing and living a creative photographic life I really do love what I do. I wish everyday was nothing but this. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
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