Handling Important Pictures: He produced hundreds of these pictures of sun and clouds, mostly made with a 4 x 5-inch Graflex camera. He processed them by means within the reach of any amateur, printing by contact on gelatin-silver paper. He called these pictures "equivalents," and he put them in series with other pictures of expressive, often evocative, content and Handling important pictures—a meadow glistening with raindrops, a woman's hands pressed palm to palm between her knees.
There are two important skills you must master if you are to be financially successful as a free lance photographer. One skill is encompassed in the ability to take good pictures. The other, and equally important skill, lies in the ability to sell your pictures.
The term "good pictures," it should be understood, does not mean masterpieces of artistic quality. Pictures of the most ordinary quality are readily salable. Anyone with normal intelligence can master the fundamentals sufficiently in a short time to shoot pictures for pay if he has his heart in it. And nobody is too young or too old. Junior can pick up spending money with a box camera around school, and his grandfather can keep shooting pictures for profit as long as he has the strength to lift a Leica. |
