WHY I PHOTOGRAPH

JAMES P. BLAIR

I have been a photographer all my life. On this winter morning, as the sun rose across the glistening snow, there was a moment of pure beauty. The crystals that had fallen overnight were reflecting all the light of a new day, here in the high Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Now, it’s gone. Clouds, the promise of more snow, and the photograph I have just made are all that remain. It’s a good photograph. You see the sharpness of the brilliant snow, the black silhouette of the ponderosa pines, and a certain pleasing composition. I will develop the black-and-white film, make a print, and bring it back to Washington to show my friends. It will remind them of stories. We will laugh and talk about their past experiences with snow or skiing. With luck, the image will remain with them, like a fragment of a poem.

This is the simple essence and joy of being a photographer, to capture a moment in time and space and have it to remember.

I had the good fortune to discover when I was young that photography could do more than just spark pleasant memories. It could even make a difference on issues of great importance. As a student in college I was exposed to the social documentary photography of Lewis Hine (1874-1940) and I will always remember his words “that photographs could exert the force to right wrongs.” I’ll never forget his many photographs of children working in mills and mines—vivid images that in 1916 finally helped bring about the passage of the Keating-Owen Act, which restricted the employment of children under the age of 14.

In 1951, I jumped at the chance to work for Roy E. Stryker. He was famous for having organized the Historical Section of the Farm Security Administration in 1935, at the height of the Depression. He sent photographers out across the country to document the hard times of the era. I always think of Dorothea Lange’s photograph of the migrant mother, a photograph that defined those troubled times.

In the 1950s, Stryker was the director of the Pittsburgh Photographic Library, and I was invited to work with other photographers to document my hometown. He would talk about the historical value of photography and the importance of what we were doing. Indeed, since that time, Pittsburgh has completely reinvented itself. The mills are gone. Only the photographs remain to show us of the generations of workers who made the steel that built the bridges and buildings of America.

In 1957, I met a young picture editor for the National Geographic Magazine, Bill Garrett (CC ’66). His motto has always been “F-8, and be there.” In 1959, he gave me an assignment to photograph Rotterdam, Holland. The coverage was a success and I learned the joy of having my photographs published in a major magazine.

One assignment led to another. I joined the National Geographic staff in 1962 and by 1994 I had done many articles concerned with social issues. Bill went on to become editor of National Geographic and, by 1988, the whole staff could celebrate the centennial of the Society and point out with pride that we had a membership of more than 10,000,000. This was photojournalism at its best. We were documenting the world and helping our readers understand its changing nature.

Now, in 2001, I look back and think about why I photograph. We all want to record our lives—our child’s birthday—first tennis trophy—the new girlfriend—the marriage—the grandkids. We photograph the best times because I think it makes our memories more real.

I continue to photograph. I get up early to catch the light. I look carefully. I select the film, the lens, the f-stop, and the shutter speed. I click the shutter. If I have done it all just right, at exactly the right moment, I have another memory, a bit of history. And, if I’m really lucky, a bit of art.

James P. Blair (CC ’98) was a staff photographer for the National Geographic Magazine from 1962- 1994. During that time, he contributed 47 stories, with particular emphasis on the problems of the environment.

Return to COSMOS 2001 Table of Contents
Return to COSMOS Journals
Return to COSMOS Home Page