Having fun with yesterday’s blog and thinking about how timid people are when it comes to approaching their icons , got me thinking about the qualities that make the “legends” we respect the most.   One key ingredient of so many past icons was longevity.  Don Blair, Monte Zucker, Avedon, Karsh, Scavullo, Penn – all iconic figures and each one had been shooting for years.

Today many of our icons are younger, but the qualities that make us love their work, their ideas and their ability to educate are still the same:

Image Quality:  Their images are never compromised.  You’ll rarely see a short cut and every image is capable of standing on its own as a single photograph.   Exposure, composition, expression and impact seem to be as consistent as the sun coming up every morning. So often their images leave us thinking, “Why don’t my images look like that?”  

Lifestyle Quality:  The photographers we consider iconic all maintain a lifestyle of giving back, a strong sense of family and friendships, professionalism and when they do “slip” a little it’s a work hard – play hard philosophy.  They have integrity, they have poise and they follow through on their promises.  They also tend to surround themselves with people of similar commitments.

Loyalty:  Whether it’s to the vendors they work with or their friends, their loyalty is rarely questioned.  Everyone watches each other’s backs and the mutual respect and admiration, at least from my perspective, is pretty much unmatched in other industries. 

Humor:  Okay, not everybody is another Robin Williams, but think about any program you’ve attended that you loved and learned something – I’m willing to bet some where in the presentation you laughed…a lot.  Today’s photography icons are comfortable with admitting when they do something stupid, have fun with a client or completely screw up a job and live to tell about it.

Humility: Not everyone has it, but even those few we might consider a little arrogant – if they knew how they were being perceived they’d be upset and ready to work on a different persona.  So, I’m not sure if the quality is humility or a willingness to listen, but they’ve got it.

Confidence:  This is so unique to our icons – they believe in their abilities, their willingness to learn new skills and they understand their camera gear and photography cold – there’s no second guessing and no “chimping” either.  Even when they talk about a new idea or technology, you’ll pick up a unique tone in their voice, almost as if they’ve been shooting this way for years.

Diverse Skills: It goes with confidence, but there seems to be nothing they can’t shoot.  We might know them as a portrait photographer and then we’ll see work that’s fine art, landscape, architectural – they refuse to be type-cast into any one skill set.

Passion: It’s the last word on the list, but it drives everything they do!  It’s not just about photography, but about life in general – they simply never stop loving the craft, their lives, their friends, families – you name it and passion is what drives them to succeed.

I found a great quote by a business theorist and author who I like, Jim Collins.  I’ve used it once before, but that doesn’t change how appropriate it is this morning.

The kind of commitment I find among the best performers across virtually every field is a single-minded passion for what they do, an unwavering desire for excellence in the way they think and the way they work. Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step.