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At last, my formal introduction

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Richard Boutwell

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Joined
Jul 21, 2003
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583
Location
Philadelphia
Format
8x10 Format
After more than a year of lurking is the shadows of APUG and Photo.net I have decided that is time to actively participate in these wonderful and interesting communities.

My name: Richard John-Henry Boutwell

Age: 22

Occupation: assistant and apprentice to Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee

Place of residence: Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Brief self description: A willfully displaced Southern Californian desert rat living on the wrong coast--learning how to live as everyone dreams, but rarely does.

_____________________________________

After beginning as a musician, I was surprised when I found photographs to be my true form of creative expression. Directly out of high school I was offered a chance to be a working jazz bassist in New Orleans. I thought my dreams were coming true and I spent the majority of my time preparing for the move from where I grew up, in the desert of Southern California.

The majority of that summer was spent practicing, sometime during which, I was given a 35 mm camera. After that, my time was spent doing things other than music--mainly hiking and taking pictures. I thought I could put off the move until I learned a little about photography. That was a roughly four years ago, and in those four years I all but quit music. I went from using a 35mm camera and getting color, one-hour prints, to exclusively making black and white contact prints-mostly with an 8x10 inch view camera.

A little more than two years ago, while living in the small town of Joshua Tree, California I got yet another, equally great opportunity to move across the county. This time to work as the assistant and apprentice to two master photographers, Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee. There was no question that this was the right thing for me to do. Within two weeks I quit my job and drove what would be the first of six cross-country trips that year. Working for them has found me in the darkroom and in the kitchen, all the way to Baja California and most recently, Iceland. Not only have I learned camera and darkroom skills, but I am learning what it really means to be an artist--and what it means to be truly alive.
 
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welcome. I am sure we will both enjoy and benefit from your participation. BTW remind MAS of the deal we had about the weston book. i haven't heard from him.
 
Welcome.
 
I'm new to APUG too, and only lurked for about two months before jumping in! It sounds like you've had a great opportunity these past couple of years, and I'm looking forward to seeing your work in the galleries. Welcome!
 
Welcome! All those years of lugging the bass around should make the 8x10" camera feel like an instamatic.
 
Do you play at all anymore? If so, please give it all up, move to Minneapolis, and be in my trio! I need a bass player; right now it's just saxophones (me - tenor and sop) and drums...

Seriously, congrats on following your heart/dreams/whatever-you-call-it. I allowed my "day job" to slip into a "career" somehow...
 
Wow! Geez there's nothing more to say! Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to your pictures in the gallery and your posts to the forum!
Jeanette
 
Welcome to the forum Richard.

Just a question to satisfy my curiousity, how did you become assistant to Michael and Paula? Its not the sort of position that comes available on the open market, or if it is I always missed them

Hope you enjoy the forum, post some picture and pass on tips where appropriate

Phill
 
The short version . . .

I basically walked up to him and asked how they hired assistants.

There is a much longer story to that.

I became acquainted with their work first through B+W and later through their website. I saw that they were attending the 2002 View Camera Conference in Albuquerque and knew that I had to meet them. If nothing more that to talk to them for a few minutes. During Michael's talk I just asked questions. Afterward, he handed me a box of prints and told me to carry them to his booth. That is where it really started.

I met Paula and we talked a little bit. Things worked out and I was invited to be their assistant. I could have dropped the ball, but I wrote them a long letter it made a good impression.

Frankly, I was aggressive. Michael mentioned to someone that I got the job by being on the ball. When working around them so closely, that is the most important thing to be.



I have been playing my bass, almost daily since coming back from Iceland. Nothing more than scales or improving, but it is slowly coming back. There were two years when my bass didn't move out of it's corner in my house.

"All those years of lugging the bass around should make the 8x10" camera feel like an instamatic."----Well, I remember one day I carried my electric bass, a mid-sized amplifier, and my tenor saxophone home on the bus.

I have a Calumet c-1, so you can see that I don't really care how heavy things get.
 
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Welcome Richard. It's good to have your company here at APUG. But I do love listening toa good Jazz bassist.

gene
 
Richard about time you got here. We met in Monterey in april. Everyone his work is great. You should see it up close and personal like tim *noseoil* and I did.
 
I'm also quite new here in APUG but still would like to welcome you. How on earth could you lurk in the backrounds :smile:? I registered immediately when I got the tip of this forum and read the magic words "non-digital" :D!
 
The number of combi-photographer/musician is astounding! I played lead trombone in a small “classical” jazz band in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. I know first hand how important it is to have a reliable and talented bass player to give the performance that certain sparkle.

Welcome Richard!!
 
Richard, welcome! It was a nice surprise to see your name here. We met in Iceland a few months ago when I took the workshop with Michael and Paula. What a great experience that has been.

I didn't know that you were a musician. That's great!. I always felt myself as a musician without an instrument. My life is not over yet at 33, it is just barely starting, and maybe one day I will be playing an instrument.

For now, it is photographs that I enjoy making. The workshop with Michael and Paula was wonderful. I feel I learned a lot. I can see it in my photographs, and it is only the beginning.

I am sure your are a fine photographer even without having seen any of your prints, but please show us your stuff. I know you need a scanner, but hey, they are dirt cheap these days.

Have you got your proofs from Iceland yet?

Hope to see you posting soon and often.

Christian
 
Post pictures in the galleries.
 
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