I am an image gatherer. For thirty-nine years I peered through the lens of my camera, pressed a button, and rolled on life as it moved past my eye. Oh, the sights I have seen in my viewfinder. I have recorded every imaginable facet of the human condition and in doing so, gathered an incredible array of real life images.
That's me in 1979 holding the Ickegami HL79 ENG camera
I have recorded images of war, race riots, plane crashes, and devastation caused by the forces of nature. Of course there were also the sexy hot babes wiggling and jiggling, murderers in prison pleading their innocence, tattooed jocks with muscles rippling, millionaires and billionaires, people in emotional crisis, Hollywood’s finest, and everything in between. My gathered images have been seen by millions of people, on the evening news, TV magazine shows, reality shows, and documentaries.
Gathering images at the Super Bowl in Miami, Florida
As an image gatherer my task each day was to take my camera and tell the story of a person, place, or event. The people I shot were not actors. They said what they said, walked where they walked, and did what they did. My challenge was to artfully gather their images without controlling their actions. Care still had to be given to proper exposure, composition, and lighting, but the images were always gathered, not directed. This has always been the case in my profession which actually dates back to over forty thousand years ago when our prehistoric ancestors painted images on the walls of their caves. Basically, they did the same thing that I did. It is only the technology that has changed. Below is entitled cameras over the years!!!!
The unique aspect of my career was the fact that in my thirty-nine years in the industry, I have witnessed more profound technological change in a shorter time period than has ever been experienced in the entire human image gathering experience. I began my career shooting 16mm film, moved on to videotape and electronic cameras, and finally ended up shooting discs and recording hi-def digitally onto drives. I have shot with close to twenty different cameras and five different recording formats. Each format came with advantages and disadvantages that challenged me, and my generation to make major adjustments on the fly. It was an interesting and exciting four decades.
This blog will trace the thread of those thirty-nine years. For more information go to:
www.imagegathering.com