billyhowardfoto:

While covering the first Palestinian elections, I stopped along the road to Jericho in the West Bank and took a ride on this young entrepreneur&rsquo;s camel.

I wanted to write a series of blogs on how I became me, the photographer. &nbsp;I&amp;#8217;m going to start here. &nbsp;The reblogged photo was taken by the incomparable Billy Howard, who I have the great fortune of having known for most of my life at this point. &nbsp;When I picked up a camera for the first time around the age of 14 my mother and stepfather had a friend, named Billy, or as we like to call him for fun, Billy Bob. &nbsp;Billy is a character, he&amp;#8217;s really more like a cartoon character, and his artist/graphic designer wife is his perfect match. &nbsp;Billy was one of the three people in my high school years who taught me the fundamentals of photography. &nbsp;These fundamentals are the ones I&amp;#8217;ve ranted about elsewhere on my tumblog (ya know, that film related rant I went on here). &nbsp;He taught me about exposure, and printing. &nbsp;He taught me the first little bit I learned about lighting in a studio. &nbsp;He was the first person to explain to me how to make a living as a photographer, that commercial could pay the bills and pay for the art. &nbsp;But that it didn&amp;#8217;t mean you couldn&amp;#8217;t have fun doing the commercial work. &nbsp;He taught me about things that really mattered with a camera, and that you could tell a story for the person you were shooting. &nbsp;He taught me through his work with the AIDS community that not only could you help them tell their story, you could do real good in the process (you can find the book Epitaphs for the Living: &nbsp;Words and Images in the Time of AIDS here). &nbsp;He did it again later with Portrait of Spirit: One Story at a Time where he worked with Christopher Reeve and documented amazing people living with&nbsp;disabilities. &nbsp;Yet again, with Blind/Sight, Conversations with the Visually Impaired working with the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta.
Billy has the ability to read the spirit of a person and bring it to life in a way unlike any other photographer I&amp;#8217;ve seen. &nbsp;It&amp;#8217;s as though he can reach inside a person and bring out exactly what they are for the camera, even if they never thought this could be done. &nbsp;I should know, he&amp;#8217;s photographed me. &nbsp;Billy shot me for a tattoo project he was working on, at a time in my life where I was exceptionally self conscious. &nbsp;I had about two weeks sober at the time, I was feeling particularly bloated and not very happy with me. &nbsp;I was absolutely horrified at the idea of having my photo taken. &nbsp;I&amp;#8217;m still happy with the outcome of that shoot, which was now more than five years (many more tattoos, and a few pounds) ago. &nbsp;But it captured where I was at, at that particular moment in my life.
I&amp;#8217;m eternally grateful for Billy having been such a big part of the formative years of me as a photographer, if I haven&amp;#8217;t made my point about why you should check him out further I&amp;#8217;ll illustrate with a few more of his photos below, including one of me:

What Billy&amp;#8217;s Tumblr said about this shot:
Humanitarian&nbsp;
Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia -&nbsp;featured in Vogue Italia online
What Billy&amp;#8217;s Tumblr said about this shot:
In the basement of a church, I set up lights and a backdrop and waited for Desmond Tutu to finish his sermon. He came in, sat down and I shot a frame while he was having a quiet moment. He was both humble and gracious and the few moments I had with him filled me with awe.
featured in Vogue Italia online

What Billy&amp;#8217;s Tumblr said about this shot:
On the one hand, my wife doesn&rsquo;t like having her picture taken&mdash;on the other hand, she married a photographer so I don&rsquo;t really feel sorry for her. Here she is modeling props for an upcoming photo shoot.&nbsp;

Twenty four year old, newly sober, not at all comfortable in her own skin - me.
You can find out more about Billy and his work a few places:
www.billyhoward.com
Lensblr has featured him a couple different ways: &nbsp;http://lensblr.com/post/28446564444/billyhowardfoto-tumblr-com-documentary
http://lensblr.com/post/21434423748/interview-photographer-billy-howard
Last but not least his Tumblr: &nbsp;http://billyhowardfoto.tumblr.com/
Thanks for everything Billy Bob. &nbsp;-Austen