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Features

Rick Friedman: A Lifetime of Photography

Chris Gampat
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06/13/2013
3 Mins read

Rick-Friedmans-image

Image by Rick Friedman. Be sure to check out the rest of creativeLive’s lineup this week.

Rick Friedman is an extremely accomplished photographer that has been shooting for over three decades. His published work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Stern, Discover and many other publications. He has produced over 75 book and magazine covers. Rick has been teaching the Location Lighting Workshop for a while as well and is spending time on creativeLive this week teaching about lighting.

Creative Live did a recent interview with Rick talking about his work. But we also asked a couple of other questions about finding inspiration and getting over a photographic slump.

 

Phoblographer: What was the biggest problem or obstacle that you had to overcome in your early career and how did you get over it?

Rick: The biggest obstacle at the beginning of my career was finding a noted agency to represent me. I had the drive and initiative to go out and create images and stories. Finding someone to see what I could offer was my first major hurdle to overcome. Success then came in 2 parts. Initially working as a stringer for UPI. and then having my work recognized by Howard Chapnick at Black Star. Howard became my mentor and guided me through the 28 years of my photographic journey. I was honored to be a member of Black Star .

Phoblographer: You’ve been shooting for years and years. We all go through creative slumps, so what is your advice on getting over them?

Rick: I shake things up. I look at a new ways to shoot and new stories to stimulate my creativity. I have the best job in the world. I get paid to run around the world, play with my toys and hang out with fascinating people.

Phoblographer: How do you stay inspired?

Rick: I look at the photography and lighting of great photographers to see how they would approach a situation. I look for new lighting angles and projects. Some of those projects go on for only days while other projects go on for years. The key is to love what you do.

Phoblographer: We keep hearing all over the web that the industry is dying. This was said during the transition to digital from film too. But we don’t think that the industry ever dies, it just evolves. What advice do you have for creatives to always stay current?

Rick: The adage “ a photograph is worth a thousand words” is still true today and maybe more so than in the past.

Working with technology enhances your photographs, but don’t let the technology take over for what you see and how you capture it. As the industry evolves, tools may change but the need for creativity is a constant.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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