The Visual Toolbox: 60 Lessons for Stronger Photographs

Introduction

If I were to begin a school of photography right now, it would send the geeks screaming for the hills. Or at least avoiding my school in droves. Every student would spend one year with one camera—a fully manual 35mm camera like the Pentax Spotmatic or the Canon AE-1. It would have one prime lens and a light meter. Students would be restricted to black and white film. And they’d be restricted from using anything digital except an iPhone. There’d be no magazines and no how-to books. Students would spend a year making photographs, talking about them, studying the work of photographers—past and present—who had something to say, those who made their mark in some way. They’d study stories, and painting, and some art history beyond merely ...