July 19, 2004 - This week, we interview Joseph O. Holmes from Joe's NYC:

Please tell us a little about yourself:
I'm a freelance writer and photographer living with my wife and two kids in Brooklyn, NY. I was born and raised in a tiny steel town, Muncy, Pennsylvania, and after college I moved around the East coast for a few years, working at various times as a teacher, a criminal appeals attorney, a freelance computer journalist (MacAddict and MacUser magazines, Ric Ford's MacInTouch, Apple), and a short story and screenplay writer. I settled in Brooklyn, NY, in 1984.

So how does a computer geek get involved in photography?
I first starting taking and developing pictures in junior high school in the late 60s using my dad's Miranda Sensorex and his closet darkroom. For many years I shot only Tri-X Pan black and white film. There's still nothing that quite matches the pleasure of watching a print slowly appear on a sheet of photo paper in a tray of developer. There must be something in the DNA - my sister and both of my brothers are avid and talented photographers, too.

So it's safe to assume you're purely a film guy?
I love film - the beauty of the grain, the flexibility of processing and printing - but once I got used to the freedom of shooting without a thought of the cost, I never went back. It's not that digital is cheaper - considering the costs of cameras, photo printers, ink, storage cards, etc., it's probably more expensive. But I can't stand that voice in the back of my mind that calcuates the cost of each shot I take on film. That always tended to suppress my spontaneity and experimentation. I've been using a Nikon Coolpix 4500 for about a year - that's the twist body, great for sneaky shots - but I've just moved up to a Nikon D70. As I've been telling my friends, it's like coming home. It's really wonderful to go back to using a real SLR, and it's already making a difference in how I shoot. I also just dug out my uncle's 1950s-era Leica M3, and I'm really looking forward to shooting a roll or two in that just to see if I remember what it's like to go all-manual.

So why does photography interest you so much?
Of the various arts in which I've been involved, only street photography demands such intense immersion in my neighborhood and city. In order to keep getting better, I'm forced to get out and explore the city and actually look at the faces of the people - something New Yorkers usually avoid! It's fun - a trip to fix a flat tire, a drive to the plumbing supply store - they no longer feel like dreaded chores but instead like photo opportunities. What other art form can match that?

Speaking of avoidance from New Yorkers, what do you think of the recent Subway ban problems?
Silly. Banning photography in the subway? Ineffective against terrorism and a waste of police resources. The rule is so obviously pointless that it makes me curious about the actual motivation behind the proposal. Who's afraid of being captured on film?

On a better note, what's your most memorable photographic experience?
Two memories: Sneaking an SLR into a Grateful Dead concert in 1971, back when cameras and recorders were still banned. That's tied with standing next to the stage at a Procol Harum concert and swapping shooting tips with Whiter Shade of Pale keyboard player Gary Brooker. Hmmm... I'm seeing a rock concert theme emerging here.

Excellent! So what is a New Yorker's shooting style?
New York is an astonishingly rich subject for any photographer, on every level - its architecture, people, deeper structure. It's a thrill to successfully capture a slice of the city, not just what the city looks like, but how it feels. It's hard to imagine that I'd have a photoblog if I were living in a rural area. New York City fascinates me, every single day, whether I'm shooting or not. I hope some of my fascination comes through in my shots.

You have any favorite New York spots? Either for fun or for taking photos?
There are parts of the city I visit over and over and never tire of shooting. Chinatown is the obvious example - the streets sometimes resemble a marketplace from far away and long ago. And the East Village and Lower East Side are also great because the streets so strongly reflect the people. That's what makes Times Square so horrrible for photography - who wants to shoot a tourist-filled, committee-designed mall? Where's New York in all that? And that's what makes Brooklyn so much fun to shoot. The streets reveal the people. That's what I love to discover and shoot and share.

Why did you start Joe's NYC?
I first started my photoblog because I thought it would be easier to share pictures with my distant family. But once I started including some shots of NYC, and people started stopping by every day, I discovered that I enjoyed the modest pressure to go out and take more shots for the next entries. In the months since I started Joe's NYC, I've become a far better photographer - and I still have a long way to go.

You say without NYC, you'd have no photoblog. Without NYC, would you have photography in your life? Is the city the lone reason you've become a better photographer?
Photography has always been a serious hobby, no matter where I lived. And having lived in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Columbus, Ohio, I'm sure I could enjoy shooting any interesting city, maybe because I grew up in such a small town. But New York feels infinitely more rich and deep than anywhere else I've been, Paris coming in a distant second.

What have been the biggest joys in running your site?
The greatest joy has been meeting other photographers. I've made a few new friends, shared ideas, gotten together to shoot. The folks I've met are a really fun, generous bunch. Another joy, of course, has been reading strangers' comments posted on my site. The best of them point out aspects of a picture that I had never even thought about. But even criticism is welcome - the whole idea is to use the photoblog to become better and better.

The biggest strains?
I've been lucky - I don't feel any strains. It's all enjoyable. I'll head out on some sort of errand and return home with five or ten really great shots I can post on the site. Mind you, that's five or ten out of 100 or more, and hours of hiking around the city. But for that reason, I never feel any panic about getting something ready for the next day's post.

Has photography and photoblogging changed your life?
Well just the joy of showing photos to a large number of visitors is a new-found pleasure. In addition, I was recently invited to show a number of my subway prints at the Transition Gallery at Idaho State University, in Pocatello. Suddenly I'm thinking about what to wear to the opening, and how pretentious to sound when folks ask me about the shots. Unlike photoblogging, I hear that people can actually walk up to you at a gallery show and ask questions right to your face. What a novel concept!

Hope all goes well for you... Who are your inspirations? Both in photography and photoblogs?
I love all the famous, professional photographers, all the familiar names like Diane Arbus (and her daughter Amy), Gregory Crewdson, Lee Friendlander, Cartier-Bresson, etc. But in the past months I've been directly inspired by some local photobloggers. Eliot Shepard of Slower.net, has an enviable combination of street photographer's eye and a gift for design, color, shape. His shots make me want to get out and take more pictures. And Keith Kin Yan at Overshadowed posts some of the most powerful, moody, almost supernatural shots. There's a guy who can use Photoshop the way the old photographers used the darkroom.

Speaking of Photoshop, what are your thoughts on it? How 'hardcore' are you on photography and digital manipulation?
Photoshop is one of the greatest artistic inventions of our time. Mastering Photoshop is today's equivalent of mastering the darkroom. People who rail against Photoshop seem to have no problem with a darkroom phhotographer who burns and dodges and tints and slaps down sheets of polycontrast paper. The real problem with Photoshop is that, like any tool, it can be used poorly. In fact it's often used poorly. A photo that looks like it's been run through Photoshop is, in my opinion, a bad photo.

Are you involved in anything else photography-wise other than your photoblog?
I often go out on a photo hike around the city with my 9-year-old daughter (you can see some of her shots of her here). And my thirteen year-old son has taken some really great photos. This summer he's going to be using my wife's old Nikon FM2, a manual film camera, for a photo class at camp. So photography will continue to be a great chance to do things with the whole family.

Good to see bloggers involving their family. As always, we thank you for this interview, and best of luck with your site.