The Jazz Loft: A Space Where Art and Music Converged

In the 1960s, New York's loft jazz scene was thriving, with musicians like Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Salvador Dali frequenting a particular loft that played music 24/7. Gene Smith, an artist and musician himself, was drawn to this space and soon moved in, becoming a chronicler of the scene through his photography and audio recordings. The Jazz Loft became a hub for creativity and experimentation, with Smith capturing tens of thousands of images of the musicians, flowers, and everyday life outside the window.

Smith's approach was innovative and groundbreaking. He wired the entire loft to capture sounds from every corner, including jam sessions, phone calls, and even deliveries. This created an incredible archive of sound that would later be used in various projects, including documentaries. The Jazz Loft was a space where art and music merged, with Smith's work capturing the essence of the scene and its musicians.

Over time, the Jazz Loft scene began to dwindle, with many musicians leaving due to the rise of drugs and other problems. By the time Smith left the loft, it had become a very different place from when he first arrived. Despite his efforts to chronicle this moment in history, there is still no comprehensive project that showcases the entirety of the Jazz Loft's story.

Gene Smith's work serves as a reminder of the importance of chronicling moments in time and space. His approach can be seen as a precursor to modern-day social media platforms like Instagram, where artists can share their work and tell stories. However, despite its potential, photography and other mediums have evolved significantly since Smith's time.

Today, we find ourselves at an interesting crossroads in terms of how we choose to present our work. With the rise of commercial work and social media, there are many outlets available for photographers to showcase their art. However, the traditional gallery and museum model has largely fallen out of favor for living artists. As a result, we are forced to explore new ways to tell stories and connect with audiences.

Smith's legacy serves as a reminder that establishing shots can be powerful tools in storytelling. By capturing a single moment or scene, photographers can create a sense of context and depth that draws the viewer in. This approach is essential for creating a cohesive project or body of work that tells a larger story.

In modern photography, we are often encouraged to present ourselves through our Instagram profiles, with many photographers showcasing their best shots and behind-the-scenes glimpses into their creative process. However, this can also lead to the creation of curated profiles that lack depth and context. Smith's work offers a valuable lesson in how to create sequential photographs that tell a story and provide a bigger picture.

By examining Smith's approach and the Jazz Loft scene, we can gain insight into the importance of establishing shots and their role in storytelling. We must consider how our work is presented, whether it be through a gallery, museum, or social media platform. By doing so, we can create photographs that tell a story, provide context, and draw the viewer in.

In conclusion, Gene Smith's legacy serves as a reminder of the power of chronicling moments in time and space. His approach to photography and audio recording offers valuable lessons for modern-day photographers. As artists, it is our responsibility to explore new ways to tell stories and connect with audiences, while also respecting the traditions that have come before us. By doing so, we can create work that is meaningful, engaging, and true to the spirit of artistic expression.

The Evolution of Photography: From Film to Digital

Photography has undergone significant changes since Gene Smith's time, with the advent of digital technology revolutionizing the medium. Today, photographers have access to a vast array of tools and techniques that were previously unavailable. However, this evolution also brings new challenges and opportunities for artists to explore.

One of the key differences between film and digital photography is the way in which images are presented. In the past, photographs were printed on physical paper or displayed through traditional exhibitions. Today, many photographers showcase their work online, using social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube. This has created new opportunities for artists to connect with audiences and share their work.

However, this shift to digital also raises questions about the nature of photography itself. As we become more comfortable with technology, we often forget that photographs are not just technical exercises but also tools for storytelling and expression. In order to truly capture the essence of a moment or scene, photographers must learn to use these new mediums in ways that serve their artistic vision.

Casey Neistat, a filmmaker and photographer, offers a prime example of how digital technology can be used to tell a story. Through his vlog, which documents his daily life as a creative professional, Neistat has built a massive following and established himself as one of the most successful online personalities in the industry.

Despite the many benefits of social media, there are still challenges that photographers face when it comes to showcasing their work. The sheer volume of content available online can make it difficult for artists to stand out and be noticed. Furthermore, the pressure to constantly produce new content and engage with audiences can be overwhelming.

However, by embracing these challenges and learning from Smith's legacy, photographers can create work that is truly meaningful and engaging. By focusing on storytelling and expression, rather than technical skill alone, we can create images that captivate audiences and inspire new perspectives.

In conclusion, the evolution of photography has brought many benefits and opportunities for artists. However, it also raises important questions about the nature of photography itself. As photographers continue to explore new mediums and techniques, they must remember that photographs are not just technical exercises but also tools for storytelling and expression. By embracing this approach and focusing on creating meaningful work, we can ensure that our art remains relevant and impactful in an ever-changing world.

The Legacy of Gene Smith: A Reminder of the Power of Storytelling

Gene Smith's legacy serves as a reminder of the power of storytelling in photography. Through his work at the Jazz Loft, Smith captured the essence of a moment in time and space, creating a body of work that continues to inspire artists today.

Smith's approach offers valuable lessons for modern-day photographers, particularly when it comes to the importance of establishing shots. By capturing sequential photographs that tell a story, photographers can create images that draw the viewer in and provide context. This approach is essential for creating a cohesive project or body of work that showcases an artist's vision.

As we continue to explore new mediums and techniques, Smith's legacy serves as a reminder of the importance of storytelling in photography. By focusing on expression and creativity, rather than technical skill alone, we can create images that captivate audiences and inspire new perspectives.

In conclusion, Gene Smith's work at the Jazz Loft is a testament to the power of photography as a tool for storytelling and expression. Through his innovative approach and commitment to chronicling moments in time, Smith created a body of work that continues to inspire artists today. As photographers, we would do well to remember the lessons of Smith's legacy and apply them to our own work.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enin this video we're gonna do something a little bit different and I want to borrow a concept from one medium and apply it to another we're gonna talk about the establishing shot which is a technique used in film that usually is the first shot of a movie or the first shot of a sequence that establishes the place in the mood that is being set and so I want to talk about how this relates to photography and hopefully this will bring up some awesome ideas and some inspiration from you guys but first I want to give a shout-out to our sponsor today who are the awesome folks over at story blocks story blocks is a massive online collection of b-roll motion backgrounds and even After Effects templates so these are essentially blocks of assets that you can use to tell your story through video now truth be known most of the projects that I work on do not have massive Hollywood budgets I don't have three million dollars where somebody says hey go hire a helicopter and get this incredible skyline of New York City I don't have that luxury so for me when I need a good establishing shot or I need assets or motion typography or something to enhance my video story blocks is where I go now if you have ever used to stock assets before you know the drill when you run into the wall with rights usage you download the little low resolution copy and put it in your project and it's all pixely and has a bad logo stamped on it and what's cool is with story blocks you don't have to worry about that stuff it's kind of an all-you-can-eat things so just download the studio quality footage that you need you can put it together to sell your story to a client everything is much better in the end the other cool thing is story blocks is constantly updating their library with new stuff so it never gets stale so head over and check them out I've got a link in the description below I'll put it here as well check out story blocks see if it's right for you and I want to give a special shout out and thanks to story blocks for sponsoring this episode of the art of photography so let's talk about this idea of an establishing shot and how we can apply this to photography and you may be thinking Ted this is a video technique it doesn't apply to still images and maybe you're right but does it and so first of all let's talk about the difference because there is a pretty stark difference between video work and still photography in that a still photograph represents just a like slice of time it's just a still moment that we can experience in real time in a much different way so that makes sense we're observing this moment that's just a fraction of a second but we can look at it we can relook at it we can study it and so it's much different the biggest difference between in doing film work is in film you have the element of time and you as a director or a creator can control all of that you control the order of the elements that your audience sees you control the pacing of that and that either can make sense or it can disorient but you can use either one of those here to your advantage so let's begin by talking about what is an establishing shot so in filmmaking an establishing shot is typically the first shot of the film or at least the first shot of a scene and what it does is it provides context it sets up what the viewer is about to see so for instance I'll give you some really famous examples the probably the best known of all time is the opening to the original Star Wars movie we have a scene that is set in space it's a planet that's clearly not earth so we know we're probably in another galaxy and then we start to be introduced to the sense of scale with two fighting spacecraft it is a very powerful shot and it establishes what is to come in the film I think another great example this is a western film called The Searchers this was a great John Wayne film it opens up with a really interesting vantage point of a woman opening up a door basically into Monument Valley and we get a sense that this is a Western it is beautifully shot it's from a different angle and so I think it's a really interesting establishing shot but I think this is another one of the great ones another particularly famous one and it's one of my favorite films ever is the opening to Apocalypse Now this is a movie that is pretty deep it is set in Vietnam and it deals with war and so this opening shot is of a series of trees that catch fire because of the napalm attack that's going on so each one of these shots is successful in that it establishes the place and the location for the story that's about to unfold but I think there's a second piece of criteria that you need to consider for an establishing shot to be successful and that is to set a mood it's to get you into the story that you're about to see and one thing that's really cool is when this is successful it's done non-verbally it's done with visuals so you see where we're starting to go into the photography world with this nothing is said but something is set up in each one of these examples that sets that tone so for instance in the Star Wars example I think it's the juxtaposition in size the the scale relationships between the two fighting ships it's pretty obvious that the little ship has ticked off the larger ship any battle is ensuing and something is about to unfold and of course we go on to see that a rebellion is happening against an empire that is awfully evil and so in the second example I think it's interesting because not only do we have basically that we're set in the desert but we also have this sense of wonder and the sense of excitement that accompanies the classic western film and in the third example obviously Vietnam is not a fun subject it's very dark it's very violent and I think we see that set up there nobody actually gets killed in this shot that we can see but it's pretty obvious that this jungle is burning and they're probably people inside and then beyond that we start to hear with the music the door song in the end that comes on and it sets a particularly interesting tone for a very serious film okay so we understand what an establishing shot is how does this relate to photography I got somebody I want you to meet so this is w gene Smith W gene Smith is one of my favorite photographers of all time he was one of the great photo journalists back in the days where Life magazine was one of the popular places where people would get news stories you have to remember that during this time television and film were not where they are today particularly television in terms of keeping up with a new cycle film was very expensive to produce it was just a different time and a lot of people look to the pages of Life magazine to get their information Eugene Smith was kind of the pioneer of this whole idea of the photo essay and you can kind of see where I'm starting to go with this with an establishing shot the photo essay Eugene Smith would go out and he would cover a story and then he would tell that in pictures it was set that by text that was written by somebody else but what's interesting is looking back how strong these are and this book is fabulous I've done a whole video on w gene Smith I'll link it up here I highly recommend you go check it out but let's look at what he was doing with the photo essay so one of the great examples is from 1948 and this was a story that life ran on a country doctor who lived outside of Denver in Colorado and this was a much different time and I think this even still is relevant now when we look back and see what life was like in that era and you see images in here of the doctor as he's administering to children and families and but what turns this from just being a report into something that's more cinematic in scope into something that actually tells a story is the way that Gene Smith used establishing shots and I know that he fought a lot with the editors of Life magazine he was very very conscious of how that story should be told the order things would come in the page layout the spread so and so forth but this opening shot of the country doctor sets the tone it sets the mood it works just like the movie examples that I showed you before one we have a place we can see where in the country two we set a mood because first of all the doctor does not look like he's having a good time it's a great day and he's off to go get his work done he has a look a concern on his face it's very dramatic also we see this big storm brewing behind him and so I think that this starts to tell a real story and we see this repeated throughout the article and I think that without these establishing shots it's not as strong it doesn't tell the same story so this whole idea of the establishing shot in a photo essay is extremely important and there are others as well a nurse midwife from 1951 centers around Maude Callan who is a state certified nurse who is part of a state-run program where they're trying to tackle the problem of death during childbirth in South Carolina and this is a really interesting story - of course times have changed since the mid century but I think these live on as chronicling a document of what life was like in the rural South during that time which is interesting because I think the photo essay unlike just having photos of things they tell a different story and they put context around things and again this whole idea of the establishing shot and showing how remote people are in terms of medical attention this is a really powerful story there's another one of Albert Schweitzer that was a little bit later and this was the last project he did for life and this was pretty controversial because he felt like there was some photo editing that got in the way of the photo journalistic integrity mercy of men from 1954 but again the the mood that he sets up with the establishing shot that begins this and as it carries through is pretty moving and it's pretty amazing and it gives you not only a sense of place but it sets up the story that's being told and those are the two criteria that I keep hammering home here so look in the show description I will link up to my W Eugene Smith video I think another fascination that I have with Smith is that he was indeed a photographer obviously but I really feel like he was a frustrated artist in the sense that there was no medium at the time and I think you could argue today there's still no medium that allows the type of artistic expression that he was trying to put out through photography and let me clarify what that means so one of his early project was this project on Pittsburgh he was supposed to go there for a couple weeks Chronicle the city saw a documentary the other day and they said well you could have sent Jane Smith anywhere he would have over chronicled it he sure did he came back with literally tens of thousands of images editors have tried to put these in a book format it's just too massive of a project and the other one I think was interesting was when he moved into the jazz loft in New York City shortly thereafter and he lived there for over ten years this was part of the loft jazz scene in New York at the time and people like Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis and Salvador Dali and all these luminaries would come hang out in this loft that played music 24/7 and seemed and so Gene Smith moved into this place and not only did he take flowers of the sorry take photos of the flower district outside his window he had microphones and wired the entire place for sounds so we literally have tens of thousands of images that exist of the jazz loft in its heyday and we have literally thousands of hours of recordings that were made from everything between the jam sessions two phone calls that were made to conversations on the street to deliveries everything and what he was doing was he was chronicling this in mass through audio but also through photography and you look at what might be similar to something like this what's a place in time by the time Gene Smith left the Jazz loft the scene had kind of dried up a lot of the musicians had moved out unfortunately drugs were a problem with that too and so it was a very different place in time than when he originally got there and his intent was to chronicle this no one has ever been really able to put all that together into a cohesive project there are documentaries on the Jazz loft there's a really good one that you can find on iTunes I'll link that up in the description is well highly recommended but that is one of the problems in the one of the tragedies with W Gene Smith is that he is essentially capturing everything around a time in a place and there is no way to display that so we're out of the realm of the establishing shop but I'm talking about the mass and I'm talking about the drive that he had as an artist because I think those are both really important so you may say Ted how does this apply to photography today we are not in the world of the photo essay anymore photography is not film what I'm trying to get you to look at here is to use and be able to draw inspiration from another medium so in this case film and a technique that's involved in that medium the establishing shots and think just for a minute how photography has changed today because I think this is one of those situations where we're all so close to the force that we see the trees I read comments in the videos and whenever I talk about Instagram I have a lot of people who complain about Instagram then the follow for follow or maybe it's a situation where well the people who are famous on Instagram do selfies and this this whole self-absorbed culture of somebody who wants to be a celebrity those things may be true but when you look at Instagram as a medium those things are successful because they're telling a story of somebody's life if you look at what Casey Neistat did on YouTube when he was doing his vlog full time he was chronicling his every day and I think that that's there's something amazing about that on the one hand and on the other hand I don't even think we've cracked the surface of what we can do with the mediums that we have now we're not an age where we have galleries and museums are really not successful for people who are still alive for the most part and so what are our outlets as photographers well there is commercial work but that has changed over the years too but now we have social media and love it or hate it it is an opportunity there in front of us right now to be able to tell a story what would W Gene Smith do if he lived today well he was a curmudgeon so he'd probably complain about it but who knows maybe not maybe he would have totally embraced it totally saw it as an avenue of expression and as a medium unto itself that he could use to tell some kind of story and I think that's the hump that we can't get over for whatever reasons so I would love to hear what you guys think on this like think in terms of like when somebody visits your Instagram profile what's the first thing they see when they go to your your grid they're like how does that layout how does it relate does it tell a story I can tell you right now mine has problems and it doesn't well that seems like a perfect opportunity to be able to put something sequential that does give somebody a bigger picture into what's happening so again this idea of the establishing shot how does that relate how does it tell a story how do these photographs all work together these are the things that are really important that I want us all to think about I think this is a discussion that we can come back to from time to time and it may be interesting to look at other cinematic types of influences that we can find as well anyway drop me a comment let me know what you think I'm getting along winded so I'll see you guys in the next video until then later youin this video we're gonna do something a little bit different and I want to borrow a concept from one medium and apply it to another we're gonna talk about the establishing shot which is a technique used in film that usually is the first shot of a movie or the first shot of a sequence that establishes the place in the mood that is being set and so I want to talk about how this relates to photography and hopefully this will bring up some awesome ideas and some inspiration from you guys but first I want to give a shout-out to our sponsor today who are the awesome folks over at story blocks story blocks is a massive online collection of b-roll motion backgrounds and even After Effects templates so these are essentially blocks of assets that you can use to tell your story through video now truth be known most of the projects that I work on do not have massive Hollywood budgets I don't have three million dollars where somebody says hey go hire a helicopter and get this incredible skyline of New York City I don't have that luxury so for me when I need a good establishing shot or I need assets or motion typography or something to enhance my video story blocks is where I go now if you have ever used to stock assets before you know the drill when you run into the wall with rights usage you download the little low resolution copy and put it in your project and it's all pixely and has a bad logo stamped on it and what's cool is with story blocks you don't have to worry about that stuff it's kind of an all-you-can-eat things so just download the studio quality footage that you need you can put it together to sell your story to a client everything is much better in the end the other cool thing is story blocks is constantly updating their library with new stuff so it never gets stale so head over and check them out I've got a link in the description below I'll put it here as well check out story blocks see if it's right for you and I want to give a special shout out and thanks to story blocks for sponsoring this episode of the art of photography so let's talk about this idea of an establishing shot and how we can apply this to photography and you may be thinking Ted this is a video technique it doesn't apply to still images and maybe you're right but does it and so first of all let's talk about the difference because there is a pretty stark difference between video work and still photography in that a still photograph represents just a like slice of time it's just a still moment that we can experience in real time in a much different way so that makes sense we're observing this moment that's just a fraction of a second but we can look at it we can relook at it we can study it and so it's much different the biggest difference between in doing film work is in film you have the element of time and you as a director or a creator can control all of that you control the order of the elements that your audience sees you control the pacing of that and that either can make sense or it can disorient but you can use either one of those here to your advantage so let's begin by talking about what is an establishing shot so in filmmaking an establishing shot is typically the first shot of the film or at least the first shot of a scene and what it does is it provides context it sets up what the viewer is about to see so for instance I'll give you some really famous examples the probably the best known of all time is the opening to the original Star Wars movie we have a scene that is set in space it's a planet that's clearly not earth so we know we're probably in another galaxy and then we start to be introduced to the sense of scale with two fighting spacecraft it is a very powerful shot and it establishes what is to come in the film I think another great example this is a western film called The Searchers this was a great John Wayne film it opens up with a really interesting vantage point of a woman opening up a door basically into Monument Valley and we get a sense that this is a Western it is beautifully shot it's from a different angle and so I think it's a really interesting establishing shot but I think this is another one of the great ones another particularly famous one and it's one of my favorite films ever is the opening to Apocalypse Now this is a movie that is pretty deep it is set in Vietnam and it deals with war and so this opening shot is of a series of trees that catch fire because of the napalm attack that's going on so each one of these shots is successful in that it establishes the place and the location for the story that's about to unfold but I think there's a second piece of criteria that you need to consider for an establishing shot to be successful and that is to set a mood it's to get you into the story that you're about to see and one thing that's really cool is when this is successful it's done non-verbally it's done with visuals so you see where we're starting to go into the photography world with this nothing is said but something is set up in each one of these examples that sets that tone so for instance in the Star Wars example I think it's the juxtaposition in size the the scale relationships between the two fighting ships it's pretty obvious that the little ship has ticked off the larger ship any battle is ensuing and something is about to unfold and of course we go on to see that a rebellion is happening against an empire that is awfully evil and so in the second example I think it's interesting because not only do we have basically that we're set in the desert but we also have this sense of wonder and the sense of excitement that accompanies the classic western film and in the third example obviously Vietnam is not a fun subject it's very dark it's very violent and I think we see that set up there nobody actually gets killed in this shot that we can see but it's pretty obvious that this jungle is burning and they're probably people inside and then beyond that we start to hear with the music the door song in the end that comes on and it sets a particularly interesting tone for a very serious film okay so we understand what an establishing shot is how does this relate to photography I got somebody I want you to meet so this is w gene Smith W gene Smith is one of my favorite photographers of all time he was one of the great photo journalists back in the days where Life magazine was one of the popular places where people would get news stories you have to remember that during this time television and film were not where they are today particularly television in terms of keeping up with a new cycle film was very expensive to produce it was just a different time and a lot of people look to the pages of Life magazine to get their information Eugene Smith was kind of the pioneer of this whole idea of the photo essay and you can kind of see where I'm starting to go with this with an establishing shot the photo essay Eugene Smith would go out and he would cover a story and then he would tell that in pictures it was set that by text that was written by somebody else but what's interesting is looking back how strong these are and this book is fabulous I've done a whole video on w gene Smith I'll link it up here I highly recommend you go check it out but let's look at what he was doing with the photo essay so one of the great examples is from 1948 and this was a story that life ran on a country doctor who lived outside of Denver in Colorado and this was a much different time and I think this even still is relevant now when we look back and see what life was like in that era and you see images in here of the doctor as he's administering to children and families and but what turns this from just being a report into something that's more cinematic in scope into something that actually tells a story is the way that Gene Smith used establishing shots and I know that he fought a lot with the editors of Life magazine he was very very conscious of how that story should be told the order things would come in the page layout the spread so and so forth but this opening shot of the country doctor sets the tone it sets the mood it works just like the movie examples that I showed you before one we have a place we can see where in the country two we set a mood because first of all the doctor does not look like he's having a good time it's a great day and he's off to go get his work done he has a look a concern on his face it's very dramatic also we see this big storm brewing behind him and so I think that this starts to tell a real story and we see this repeated throughout the article and I think that without these establishing shots it's not as strong it doesn't tell the same story so this whole idea of the establishing shot in a photo essay is extremely important and there are others as well a nurse midwife from 1951 centers around Maude Callan who is a state certified nurse who is part of a state-run program where they're trying to tackle the problem of death during childbirth in South Carolina and this is a really interesting story - of course times have changed since the mid century but I think these live on as chronicling a document of what life was like in the rural South during that time which is interesting because I think the photo essay unlike just having photos of things they tell a different story and they put context around things and again this whole idea of the establishing shot and showing how remote people are in terms of medical attention this is a really powerful story there's another one of Albert Schweitzer that was a little bit later and this was the last project he did for life and this was pretty controversial because he felt like there was some photo editing that got in the way of the photo journalistic integrity mercy of men from 1954 but again the the mood that he sets up with the establishing shot that begins this and as it carries through is pretty moving and it's pretty amazing and it gives you not only a sense of place but it sets up the story that's being told and those are the two criteria that I keep hammering home here so look in the show description I will link up to my W Eugene Smith video I think another fascination that I have with Smith is that he was indeed a photographer obviously but I really feel like he was a frustrated artist in the sense that there was no medium at the time and I think you could argue today there's still no medium that allows the type of artistic expression that he was trying to put out through photography and let me clarify what that means so one of his early project was this project on Pittsburgh he was supposed to go there for a couple weeks Chronicle the city saw a documentary the other day and they said well you could have sent Jane Smith anywhere he would have over chronicled it he sure did he came back with literally tens of thousands of images editors have tried to put these in a book format it's just too massive of a project and the other one I think was interesting was when he moved into the jazz loft in New York City shortly thereafter and he lived there for over ten years this was part of the loft jazz scene in New York at the time and people like Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis and Salvador Dali and all these luminaries would come hang out in this loft that played music 24/7 and seemed and so Gene Smith moved into this place and not only did he take flowers of the sorry take photos of the flower district outside his window he had microphones and wired the entire place for sounds so we literally have tens of thousands of images that exist of the jazz loft in its heyday and we have literally thousands of hours of recordings that were made from everything between the jam sessions two phone calls that were made to conversations on the street to deliveries everything and what he was doing was he was chronicling this in mass through audio but also through photography and you look at what might be similar to something like this what's a place in time by the time Gene Smith left the Jazz loft the scene had kind of dried up a lot of the musicians had moved out unfortunately drugs were a problem with that too and so it was a very different place in time than when he originally got there and his intent was to chronicle this no one has ever been really able to put all that together into a cohesive project there are documentaries on the Jazz loft there's a really good one that you can find on iTunes I'll link that up in the description is well highly recommended but that is one of the problems in the one of the tragedies with W Gene Smith is that he is essentially capturing everything around a time in a place and there is no way to display that so we're out of the realm of the establishing shop but I'm talking about the mass and I'm talking about the drive that he had as an artist because I think those are both really important so you may say Ted how does this apply to photography today we are not in the world of the photo essay anymore photography is not film what I'm trying to get you to look at here is to use and be able to draw inspiration from another medium so in this case film and a technique that's involved in that medium the establishing shots and think just for a minute how photography has changed today because I think this is one of those situations where we're all so close to the force that we see the trees I read comments in the videos and whenever I talk about Instagram I have a lot of people who complain about Instagram then the follow for follow or maybe it's a situation where well the people who are famous on Instagram do selfies and this this whole self-absorbed culture of somebody who wants to be a celebrity those things may be true but when you look at Instagram as a medium those things are successful because they're telling a story of somebody's life if you look at what Casey Neistat did on YouTube when he was doing his vlog full time he was chronicling his every day and I think that that's there's something amazing about that on the one hand and on the other hand I don't even think we've cracked the surface of what we can do with the mediums that we have now we're not an age where we have galleries and museums are really not successful for people who are still alive for the most part and so what are our outlets as photographers well there is commercial work but that has changed over the years too but now we have social media and love it or hate it it is an opportunity there in front of us right now to be able to tell a story what would W Gene Smith do if he lived today well he was a curmudgeon so he'd probably complain about it but who knows maybe not maybe he would have totally embraced it totally saw it as an avenue of expression and as a medium unto itself that he could use to tell some kind of story and I think that's the hump that we can't get over for whatever reasons so I would love to hear what you guys think on this like think in terms of like when somebody visits your Instagram profile what's the first thing they see when they go to your your grid they're like how does that layout how does it relate does it tell a story I can tell you right now mine has problems and it doesn't well that seems like a perfect opportunity to be able to put something sequential that does give somebody a bigger picture into what's happening so again this idea of the establishing shot how does that relate how does it tell a story how do these photographs all work together these are the things that are really important that I want us all to think about I think this is a discussion that we can come back to from time to time and it may be interesting to look at other cinematic types of influences that we can find as well anyway drop me a comment let me know what you think I'm getting along winded so I'll see you guys in the next video until then later you\n"