Why “Kept Light?”

Photography is the remains of light entering the lens and hitting the light sensitive surface. I visualize this as follows: by photographing something, we “keep some light”; thus the name of the site and the blog, Kept Light.

I began with a Leica

I started my photographic journey by playing with my father’s Leica (without fully appreciating what I was holding in my hands) when I was around eight years old. It surely felt different from the box camera that my mother occasionally allowed me to handle. It was one of the early Leica models and the bottom loading the film was a challenge. We took photographs off again, on again with that camera with very mixed results mainly, I believe, due to the available film quality and poor developing.

I continued taking photographs with these cameras and tried to borrow, at least to look at them closely, different cameras from family friends. I once borrowed a Voightlander from my uncle when I took a trip to a village to visit a friend. That trip was epiphany. The photographs I took received many favorable comments starting with the photographer who developed and printed them. This was followed by favorable comments and encouragements from family and friends.

Encouraged by this, I proceeded to make plans to buy a larger format camera, like a Rolleiflex. Of course it was way out of my reach and I had to settle for an imitation, a Flexaret which I still own. It was 1963. I visited the same village and took many more photographs some of which you will see among the ones here.

The Flexaret remained as my main camera for some time until I ordered, through some family friends in Germany, a “state-of-the-art” Exakta Vx 1000. That carried me through 1972 when I made the switch to a Canon FTb and still remain a Canon user after many models of Canon cameras, lenses and so on. The only exception to my Canon affinity was my Nikon Coolpix 995 since when I made the purchase it was the best one for me. Now, I use a 5D with an assortment of mostly Canon lenses, a Canon G7 converted for IR, and a Canon G9 to carry with me often. I no longer own a practical film camera as I have fully switched to the digital environment.

I have been a professor of marketing at Providence College for over thirty years. I enjoy teaching and even get a chance to incorporate my creative work in one of the courses I teach, marketing on the Internet, where Web design is a strong component of the course work. Additionally, I do Web design for a small group of clients.

My Blog

The blog section is the dumping ground of my thoughts on photography. I do extensive photography and think about it a lot, not only from a technical side but also from its artistic, critical side. I want to talk about photography as much as I want to photograph. This helps me understand what I do, and in the end, benefits my photographic work.

I encourage you to think about what it means to photograph, its aesthetic dimensions, ethical dimensions, technical dimensions. Don’t forget its contextual dimensions either. This process will help you understand your photography. Also, try to look at photographs critically, try to go beyond simply “liking” or “disliking” a photograph. Force yourself to explain why you do so.

Photography needs more than a camera and a dozen lenses. It needs, most of all, a seeing mind, not a pair of looking eyes. At times, I am reminded a saying that came my way via e-mail one day:

“When a finger points at the Moon, the imbecile looks at the finger.“