Jay Watson Photography

I have written a virtual letter to Richard Avedon in order to get a few simple answers regarding the state of the digital world today. Maybe he has some of the answers that I am looking for, or maybe he is holding out. Everyone is welcome to respond.

Richard Avedon May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004

Dear Mr. Avedon,
I have been a fan of your work for a number of years and have been inspired with your tireless dedication to photography. In this letter I wanted to ask you a few questions. I don’t know how you are going to answer me, but I am sure the universe will provide a way.

I hear so many modern photographers complaining about the current state of affairs. Way back when you were shooting in 2004, things must have been different. I know it is not wise to compare photographers of different eras, but surely you must have been somewhat effected by the technology from 4 years ago, albeit primitive by 2008 standards. That was then, and now we have CS3, dual quad processors in our computers, a full frame sensor by Nikon, and according to the marketplace we don’t even need Polaroid anymore. Did you contribute to any online forums? I never saw your user name or Flickr avatar, but maybe you used a pseudonym. Oh you crafty Avedon, I should have known! What about blogs? Did you subscribe to any blogs and what was in your feeder? Did they have feeders back then?

I am sure you had plenty to say about the technology of your time. Who can forget all the hype regarding fax machines, the death of cassette tapes, debates over answering machine ethics, and other lost forms of communication. It sure must have been much harder to connect with people in 2004. If a client needed files delivered I bet you would think Fed Ex. How 90’s of you. Oh you funny Avedon! We use FTP and YouSendIt now!

Mr. Avedon do you think your work would still have legs today? How would you stand out from the crowd? Would your strategy involve the super poke or do you honestly think you would meet with people face to face? Seems like a good idea, but it will never catch on. How many friends would be in your network? I bet you would also cast this aside as being trite and say we should concentrate more on making images. Oh you facetious Avedon! You must have kept the crew in stitches at the studio. Like it or not, some people think every business person needs an online presence to stay valid and up to date in 2008. Mr. Avedon, what would you do? It is a simple question. Facebook or LinkedIn?

I assume you’ll have an assistant hand deliver a letter or send it by pony express. Whatever works best for you is fine with me. Looking forward to your response. Until then, maybe I’ll play you in Second Life.

Sincerely,
JW

© Jay Watson Photography

Tags: art, digital, marketing, photography, Richard Avedon, social networking, technology

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.