A couple of posts ago, I had mentioned the possibility of being mentored, specifically, by George DeWolfe. As a first step in the process, George asks that you call him on the telephone so that he can discuss the process with you and see if he might be able to help you.
I completed this first step last night. I spoke to George for about 15 minutes. As expected, based on what I saw of his photos, he is a soft spoken, kind person. He told me that he’d been doing this type of mentoring for 12 years. The length of the commitment is 1 year and consists of a number of assignments and contact with him, via telephone, about every 2 weeks. The next step is to provide him with a group of 20 photos with a common theme. The theme could be anything that you want. Along with that I needed to provide a page telling him about my passion for photography. After I told him that I have an online gallery as well as a blog, he said that he’d look at the pictures as well as read the blog. Further, he indicated that he is going to build a blog of his own. I look forward to that. It’s always interesting to see what’s behind the curtain. 
Using these 2 items, he will make a determination as to if he thinks that he can help me along my journey, assuming that I want to go ahead with it. We did not discuss price. I, for one, didn’t want that to come into play until I had the chance to decide if we were right for each other. The student and teacher must be a good fit to maximize the learning … on both parts.
Immediately after the call, I sat quietly and just started writing without thinking. That is, letting the words flow through me from wherever they come. In the end, I was rather surprised by what I’d written:
From the time that I picked up a camera, a Minolta SRT-101, back in 1980, I was hooked. Photography, for me, is something that I have never tired of. I am constantly seeking out new, better ways to portray a feeling. It is a means of sharing, of discovering, and often times, a way of working things out.
In recent years, I have been deeply touched by reading such books as the Tao Te Ching, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and The Power of Now, and various books on Zen. This has changed my outlook on life and my photography. It has caused me to look deeper still into the world, not simply the world of labels, but the that which exists beyond the label.
Certainly, the passion is still there, probably more entrenched, but the desire to see deeper is there as well. I’m no longer looking for the surface prettiness or the perfect light, but looking for that something more.My goal, I think, or more aptly, journey, would be to, first, hone my vision to a razor sharp edge, then to teach this type of photography to beginners and advanced beginners. To help them master the technical aspect of photography and to help them delve into spiritual realm within their own understanding. I seek to find a better way to express this deepening understanding of the world as I see it.
I photograph for myself, not in the selfish manner, but as I mentioned, to discover new things. I am not concerned with outside praise and competitions, as a matter of fact, I find them distracting. I photograph for the pure joy of it.
I want to bring greater power to my photographs. There are those moments of clarity, of lucidity, when I feel that I have reached the apex of my photography, when I come back with some photograph so sublime that I wonder if I was the one who took it. This is one of my favorites.
It causes a stillness in me when I look at it.
There are those other moments when I think that I fall miserably short, yet, the passion continues to drive me to do better. To dig deeper. There’s nothing like picking up the camera again, revisiting a place that you’ve visited dozens of times, and discovering something new, something amazing, something truly worthy of awe.
My passion drives me to attempt to catch the magic of the world that few people ever take time to stop and notice.
Paul
I had a devil of a time sending it to him because of Time Warner’s Road Runner service kept blocking my e-mails saying that I was a spammer! It finally got through! I had to send it from work and just received a confirmation from George.
So, I’m interested in hearing what the next steps entail. I’ll keep you informed …
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9 Responses to “My conversation with George DeWolfe”
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Heck, that favourite of yours is truly magical. Since you already have been making images like this one – who knows, this very one might even embody the vision of the images you see your self capturing in the near future – I believe there is a pretty good chance that at least you know what you want to get out of a mentoring year. I hope it works out well.
Paul, this is an excellent post. First of all, thank you for sharing your road trip on this. I hope you keep posting a progress. Next, I very much think I may do this next month. There are very few people I would trust to lead me but Mr. DeWolfe would be number one on that very short list. (number two also)
I really hope you keep writing like this.
@Ove: Thanks. I think that you’re right. I think that I distilled it down to its essence. I certainly don’t want to make the same photograph over again, but I do seek to capture that magic, stillness, other world-ness. I’m sure that the mentoring will work out just fine.
@Tom: Thank you. It is my pleasure to share this with you. Who knows, it may, in some way, help someone along the way. I know what you mean about the leading. The cautious part says that you have to have a mentor who will lead you to discover you, not to clone himself, or herself. I think that I’ve found that. Of course, I will share as much of journey as possible without giving away his teaching techniques or specific assignments, unless he gives me specific permission. But, I will be more than willing to share my impressions along the way and whatever I am learning.
I wish that I could keep writing like this, but you, of all people, know how inspiration works. Sometimes we just rise above the muck for a brief moment of lucidness, then back we go.
I’m really looking forward to this. He and I will probably speak again next week to firm things up.
It would not be the instructions I would be interested in, it would be YOUR journey. I just think this is an excellent model.
Interesting idea to have a mentor in that way. I’ve never thought of using a mentor. It is such a personal journey and I don’t know how mentoring would apply other than for any technical input but the vision is yours and yours alone influenced by your experiences and moods…not someone elses. Interesting.
Paul, … hopefully this will turn out to be somewhat like a kid who gets on a new bike, who heads down a unknown winding road, is having the time of his life in the process, and the curiosity is killing him to discover what is around that next curve.
Discovery!
You gotta love it!!
Michael
@Laurie: I think that the technical aspect, particularly post processing, could be beneficial to help bring out what I saw/felt when was taking the photo.
@Michael: Thanks, bud! I know that I will enjoy it. We need to get together for a burger soon!
Paul, such a well written post. I’d love to do this as well but I have that old Italian infliction this month, Fundsalow.
But, I’m glad we have others, such as yourself, to learn from as I can learn from EVERYONE.
@Tom: Well, I have the same affliction, which is why I’ll have to postpone a bit!