An enterprising Toronto-based photographer whose first name is Matt (he seems too shy to disclose his full name) took on the courageous, maybe quixotic, task of starting a web-based photography magazine named Photoblogs Magazine (May 2010 – now defunct). While I think the web is a great place to display pictures and try out new work on a broad audience, it lacks the permanence and sheer tactile feel of a good book.

You pass your bookshelf and grab that Harry Callahan book, wondering at just how he made that image which came to mind the other day. You switch on your computer and, by contrast, it’s a mixture of work (I stare at one of these things all day trying to make a living) and fear (Will it lock up on me again?) And with the present state of the art, the printed image leaves the electronic one in the dust.

Not least of a web publisher’s problems is how to get his site known in the vast sea of noise that is the world wide web. On the other hand, go to a good newsagent or bookshop and the handful of magazines publishing good photography are there, easily accessed and eagerly thumbed, without any fear of overload.

Still Matt should be respected for his efforts and I wish him well.

A few weeks ago I had the good fortune of being asked to be the first ‘Spotlight’ featured photographer in Matt’s magazine. The approach is that the photographer is asked five questions and his responses are then published with a few of his pictures. Well, strangely, even though my responses to the questions asked were exceptionally terse, sadly only four made the published page (or screen, if you prefer).

The unpublished question and answer were:

Q. With whom do you like to photograph most?
A. When it comes to taking pictures, one person is invisible, two are a crowd.

My response was rooted in the deeply held belief that photography, whether street candids or the great vistas of the American west, is a lonely pastime. You simply cannot go with another photographer, both set up your cameras in similar locations, and not be plagued by the thought that you are standing in the Kodak Picture Spot recording a Kodak Moment. The photographer must be free, whether to mutter aloud to himself and complain about the light, lean this way and that in the search of the perfect perspective, or wait for hours for just the right moment. Another photographer is a powerful distraction in all these activities.

Maybe the worst manifestation of the group approach so beloved amongst those with no individual thoughts or totally lacking in imagination, is the photo workshop. Given that technique can be learned from a book, and the art of seeing is either something you have or do not, what possible purpose can the workshop serve, unless it is to fill the pockets of the sponsors and the film stock of the participant with near identical images? Ok, so it’s fine for learning technical stuff, but it will not teach you to see. You can either see or you need to try another hobby. It’s a binary issue.