Wendy Ewald

Learn how a high school teacher guided Wendy Ewald to a career of helping people see their lives through photography.

"I felt photography was a way for me to be alive and to be sane. I knew if I didn't look hard at the world around me, I would become self absorbed in an unhealthy way."
Wendy Ewald

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Considering a career in Photography...

When you were a teen what did you want to be?
Before I decided on becoming a photographer, I thought I might study languages or sociology. However, I had a sensational photography teacher in high school, Wendy MacNeil. She now teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design.

I knew I wanted to be involved with lots of different kinds of people, but I felt that being a social worker was dishonest. I felt I couldn't presume to tell anyone else how to live her life.

By the end of my senior year in high school I had decided to become a photographer and written my first grant proposal.

What makes a good photograph? The subject or photographer?

I think both the photographer and subject create the photograph. But you can make an interesting photograph out of anything. You can also make lousy photographs out of interesting subject matter.

What skills make for a good photographer?

I think it's vital to be interested in the world around you. You also must have great patience to wait for a photograph to appear or for people to trust you. If you are photographing people, you must have respect for them and how they see the world. Flexibility and visual awareness are also keys.

Have you ever taken a bad picture?

I take bad pictures all the time. All photographers do. It's important to know when they're bad-i.e. to be able to edit your own work. For many years when I was working on a project, I would put all the pictures I was interested in on my walls. Then over weeks or months I would edit them down. That's how I learned to edit.

What photographers do you admire and why?

I've admired different photographers at different times in my life. Early on Wendy MacNeil and Emmet Gowin were very important to me. The lyricism and intensity of their photographs opened photography up to me.

Now I'm very interested in photographers who don't see themselves as art photographers or photojournalists such as studio photographers in India or Africa. I'm also interested in installation art and conceptual work.

As a high school photographer, how do I start to get my photo's published?

I don't know the venues for getting photographs published. I'm not a photojournalist. I prefer to publish books, which I have edited, so I can control the context of my images. I would think the best way to publish would be to self-publishing.

It would be great to create a high school photography magazine. With the technology that's available today, it's certainly possible.

What are the best/worst parts of your job?

The most difficult part of my job right now is juggling work and my family. I need to travel to do my work and that's hard on my family and me. For me it's a bit lonely. It's terrific, though to meet the interesting people I work with and to see the places they live. Photography also allows me to become immersed in my surroundings, wherever they may be.

What advice would you give to teens interested in photography?

Take as many pictures as you can and look at them. Try to see what they convey to you and others. Keep a journal about the things you see and think about. Become sensitive to what's around you.

If you love taking photographs, how can you tell if you should continue it as a hobby or whether you should become photographer?

I knew I wanted to be a photographer from such an early age that this is a difficult question for me to answer. I guess I felt photography was a way for me to be alive and to be sane. I knew if I didn't look hard at the world around me, I would become self absorbed in an unhealthy way. In short, it was necessary for me but also painful at times.

-- interview conducted March 2002