It’s ironic that my most favorite blog of the week has become the simplicity of Sunday mornings, a time when a lot of people don’t even bother to blog, because “traffic” is low.  However, those of you who know me, know this blog is a labor of love and Sunday’s are pretty special.  There’s  nothing really going on, no great battles in the industry to address, just the pure enjoyment of a short blog. 

I ran across a great quote by Winston Churchill:

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”

I was thinking about how these words would apply to some of the icons in our industry who we respect the most.  Clearly “honor”, “duty” and “hope” stand out, but there are a few other great and simple things these people have that earns our respect and admiration.  How about integrity, focus, sincerity and passion?

Then there are a few photographic terms that jump in when you look at their work.  Single simple words that refer to their images…composition and impact.  Their composition is often so strong, they literally see scenes so many of us miss.   Their mind’s eye is unique and continuously providing us with images that time and time again cause us to stop, stare and wonder how they saw what we failed to even notice.

On February 6 I’m celebrating forty years in the photographic industry.  Avedon once made me pasta in his kitchen. Scavullo’s dog tried to bite me.  Arnold Newman could never remember my name. Cornell Cappa refused to talk to me because Hasselblad didn’t donate enough to an exhibit.  I have the keys to Ansel Adams’ Cadillac in my desk drawer and Don Imus once referred to me as “one of the crooks at Hasselblad” when he got stuck with the high bid on Ansel Adams’ camera gear, helping to raise $100,000 for charity.

Most of you will think that’s a pretty impressive series of names to drop, but the truth is Churchill was right about the simplicity of great things.  The most impressive photographers and people in our industry are so many of you who I have yet to meet.  You may not have made the headlines yet, but your passion inspires us.  The new Young Guns are setting the pace and pushing the envelope every day in terms of creativity.   They’re throwing down the gauntlet to raise the bar, but not losing sight of standards like quality, originality and consistency.

Great things in photography truly are simple and can be described in single words.  They’ll all set the pace for 2010.

It’s might be just another Sunday morning, but then again, it’s never just another day – every day is unique, challenging and who knows what door might open for any of us in the week ahead!