Eye of the Beholder
With the Publication of his 24th Photo Collection, Howard Schatz has no Intention of Slowing Down
In his latest photography collection, Pairs, photographer Howard Schatz explores the world of diptychs, which refers to grouping two images in order to create jarring contrasts or similarities.
Since the 1990s, Schatz has published 24 books with some of photography’s best publishing houses and received much critical praise for his work. In a review of Pairs for the photography publication Frames, W. Scott Olsen hails the new work for ranging “all over the realm of possibilities. And every image is a celebration.”
I had the pleasure to talk to Schatz about his artistic growth and evolution in a recent interview. I love that he came to his art after first pursuing a career as an ophthalmologist and retinal specialist. There’s just something poetic about a photographer who also happens to be a doctor of the eyes, don’t you think?
Here’s something from our conversation, friends. I hope you enjoy it.
Before photography, you had a career in medicine. I’m sure I’m not the first person to ever point out that there’s an interesting connection there. In both of your careers, as a doctor and a photographer, you’ve helped people with different aspects of seeing.
I’ve been asked that many times, and there’s certainly a connection there. I’ve always understood how lenses and light work in both of my careers. But I think another connection also has to do with the way I remember imagery. I’ve always had a real ability to remember imagery the way other people can remember sounds.
Back when I had a practice, I became a specialist in helping people with retinal problems, and a lot of that work involved photographing the back of the eye in detail. I wrote many scientific papers and academic books about this and was known for my research. One of my books includes 1,200 photos of the retina, and, I’m not kidding you, I could remember all of them. I think my ease with imagery carried over from that profession into photography.
Why did you only start out as a photographer in the middle of your career? Why not sooner?
I had a camera with me in medical school. I always carried it everywhere and made pictures just for fun. But I didn’t begin in earnest until my daughters graduated high school and were off to college. Then I found I had more time to pursue it. When I started, I was only able to dedicate one day every week, Saturday, to studying and making photographs. I made sure I optimized my time, and I loved it. Over eight years, between 1987 and 1995, I managed to have four books published, multiple gallery shows, and I started getting calls to do editorial work. Time magazine even asked me to do a cover, but I couldn’t do the shoot. The timing just didn’t work out.
For several years you juggled your growing photography career with your medical practice and research. So what changed? What was the springboard that led you to pursue your art full-time?
My wife. (chuckles) No, really. Beverly’s a brilliant news producer, and at the time that I was working on photography, she was the head of news at KQED in San Francisco. She was the one who got the word out about me while I focused on making photos that made me happy.
When the Time magazine shoot didn’t work out, she suggested taking a year’s sabbatical and going to New York. She said: “Let’s go and play hardball and see if this can become a full-time business.” So I took a year off starting in October 1995, and, a year later, we were having such a fantastic time and meeting so many interesting people that I extended my sabbatical. I like to say I’ve been upping my sabbatical ever since, and I’m in my 80s now.
What’s the story behind your early books, starting with Gifted Woman in 1992?
I was really interested in learning portraiture. My wife had done many programs about women’s issues with PBS, so I wanted to make a book of portraits about famous women. I wanted to present a group of women who were considered important because of what they’ve given to the world, not because of how they looked. I was able to include many political figures, including Nancy Pelosi, Condoleezza Rice, and Barbara Boxer, as well as many artists, scientists, and other trailblazers.
That book was shot in black and white, and in my next one, Seeing Red: The Rapture of Redheads (1993), I experimented with color. Whenever my wife and I were out somewhere, if I saw someone with red hair, I’d give them my card and ask if I could photograph them. If it was a child with red hair, then I’d give my card to their parents. I offered to give them each a copy of their photograph in exchange for their time. It worked out.
That seems like a fair trade. I’m especially interested in how you moved from those two books to your next one, Homeless: Portraits of Americans in Hard Times (1993). That seems like a real departure from the previous subject matter.
It was, and it meant a lot to me. Seeing the homeless situation moved me, and I wanted to do something to call more attention to it. I saw so many poor people on the streets with mental illness or addictions or other reasons for their situations. I went out every weekend and took pictures. A year later, when I was done, I had photographed a thousand people. It was a huge body of work. When the book was finished, former San Francisco mayor and California senator Dianne Feinstein had copies given to members of Congress with the proceeds going to healthcare support for the homeless. It was a great project for me. I learned so much. It was educational.
It sounds like that book pushed you well outside of your comfort zone, right? It forced you to leave the studio behind.
Yes, it definitely forced me out of my studio, but I figured out what to do.
Were you nervous?
To be honest, it was a little frightening at first. But I learned I could talk to just about anybody.
Most people like having their picture taken if they feel they’re not being laughed at or being taken advantage of. Wherever I went, if I found someone who was hesitant, I asked them to stick around and watch. They would see how I shook hands and talked to each subject, and that I really respected everyone. Most of them would eventually come around and want me to take their picture.
Where did the idea for Pairs come from?
I’ve always been intrigued with the relationships between two related images. That’s the idea behind the diptych, a term associated with the paintings you sometimes see in churches. There are two panels, for example, and one shows Jesus being born and the other one shows him being crucified. It’s a really powerful juxtaposition. Diptychs are often about contrasts like that, and that’s what I wanted to explore in my new book.
Your photo of dancer Ashley Carrizo is intriguing. Even though she presents us with just a single subject, you found a way to create the sense of a pairing there.
Dance is about movement, depth, and sound, and a photo doesn’t have any of that. It isn’t moving, it’s flat, and it’s quiet. I faced a real challenge with that one. How could a photograph depict the dynamics of dance so that you could see all those things? I tested so many different techniques. I left the shutter open and used the flash in all sorts of ways and eventually came up with this image. The pairing came from the fact that she was dancing on a reflective floor.
Tell me about the photo of model Ashley Dickey and her mother, Cindy.
That comes from my Models & Mothers project. Models come to the U.S. from all over the world, and of course their mothers will come and visit them. I thought it would be interesting to photograph them together. I contacted several agencies and told them I was working on a book about models and their moms. This photo is one of the results that I included in my other project and wanted to include here. I wanted to show these beautiful women alongside the women who gave birth to them. It offers us another kind of wonderful diptych.
I like paintings in which the artist includes him or herself in the scene. You do this several times in your new book. I especially like the one of you with world heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko. It would take a lot for me to go shirtless next to this guy. Why did you decide to step in front of the camera with him?
It’s the only way I could get him to take the picture! I wanted him to take his shirt off and he wouldn’t do it. I said, “look, I’ll take my shirt off, too.” I gave him control of the camera so he could decide when to take the picture. You can see him holding the control in his right hand. I think that helped.
There’s so much photographic variety in this book. It seems to be part-retrospective and part-new collection.
Every page is meant to be like a box of chocolate. Every turn of the page brings you to something different. But I don’t think it should be experienced in one sitting. It’s impossible to look at this book all at once. Instead, I hope people will just look at 4 or 5 photos at a time and then ask themselves, what was he thinking there? Where’s the diptych? Where’s the pairing he wants us to see? They’re not always so obvious.
What advice would you give to photographers who are just entering your profession?
If they want to develop their own creativity and be artists and sell their work through galleries, I’d say to just follow their dreams and don’t listen to anyone. Follow what’s inside you. Work really hard. The more you work on an image, the more possibilities you’ll see in it. There are a hundred ways to do something, and to find the one you want takes a lot of experimentation, exploration, time, and patience.
If they’re going into the commercial field and want to make money in advertising, my advice is a little different. They’ve got to pay attention to what’s being done and try to make images that are just as good or better than what’s already out there. They should copy and learn the techniques that are being used, and then find out what they can bring to it. You always need to ask yourself, what can I bring to this work that really shows me?
You have to work hard at it, but it’s still possible to have fun. There’s definitely joy in that journey, too.
Learn more about Howard Schatz, Pairs, and his other work at his website.
