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National Geographic Photographer Ira Block is Our Next Guest on Inside the Photographer’s Mind

Chris Gampat
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04/13/2018
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Last Updated on 04/15/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

Sony Artisan and National Geographic Photographer Ira Block is our next big guest

Photographer Ira Block has over 300,000 followers on Instagram–and part of it is obviously due to his fantastic work as a photographer over the years. A native New Yorker, one of his first big assignments took him to one of the coldest places in the world and put him among people with whom he didn’t even speak the same language. But there’s so much more to how Ira has evolved as a photographer and some of his personal experiences that he’d love to share with you. We’ll also be talking about his new book: Cuba Loves Baseball. Ira will be our next guest on Inside the Photographer’s Mind – part of our collaborative series with Adorama TV. You can catch us on April 18th at 5PM EST live on Facebook, or you can join us at the Adorama Event Space here in NYC.

A boy playing baseball near El Presidio Modelo Prison on La Isla de la Juventud, Cuba. This is where Castro and some of his men were held prisoner most from 1953 to 1955.

Ira Block is an internationally renowned photographer, teacher and lecturer who has produced over 30 stories for National Geographic Magazine. He has led National Geographic Photo Workshops, Expeditions and private workshops to Mongolia, Bhutan, Cuba and Tibet where students learn about culture and photographic vision. His documentary photography work is balanced by a stable of commercial clients for whom he shoots portraits and corporate branding.

Ira can best be described as a cultural documentary photographer. He uses his cameras and lights to document people around the world, recording changes in traditions and practices. The changes are most often gradual, which is why he returns to a location time after time after time, helping us see these changes and appreciate them through his eyes—and through social media.

Over 300,000 people currently follow him on Instagram. For Ira, this has become the new media for documentary photography.

He has had exhibitions around the world. As a Sony Artisan of Imagery, Ira is often called upon to comment and give critical feedback on the Sony products he uses to create his work. His latest book, Cuba Loves Baseball: A Photographic Journey, documents the culture of Cuba through its love for baseball and sports.

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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.