LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics include a wide range of subjects from finding subject matter to presenting your work, and building an audience.

Included in this RSS Feed are the LensWork Podcasts — posted weekly, typically 10-20 minutes exploring a topic a bit more deeply — and our almost daily Here's a thought… audios (extracted from the videos.) Here's a thought… are snippets, fragments, morsels, and tidbits from Brooks' fertile (and sometimes swiss-cheesy) brain. Usually just a minute or two. Always about photography and the art life.

Brooks Jensen is the publisher of LensWork, one of the world's most respected and award-winning photography publications, known for its museum-book quality printing and luxurious design. LensWork has subscribers in over 73 countries. He is the author of 13 books on photography and the creative life -- the latest books are The Best of the LensWork Interviews (2016), Photography, Art, and Media (2016), and the four annual volumes of Seeing in SIXES (2016-2019).

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Episodes

HT2314 - The Fly in the Acrobat Ointment

HT2314 - The Fly in the Acrobat Ointment I love publishing PDFs for Acrobat for several reasons including cross platform compatibility (Mac, PC, tablet, etc.), layout integrity, typographic fidelity, and book-like pages. There is one drawback to PDFs, however, that is frustrating. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Jul 10, 2025•3 min

HT2313 - Anthologies

HT2313 - Anthologies As we all know, you can't please all the people all the time. This is one of the foundational philosophies behind the anthology nature in both LensWork and in my personal work published in Kokoro. The strategy here is that even though a reader might find any given project uninteresting, an anthology increases the possibility that each viewer will find something they like and appreciate. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… w...

Jul 09, 2025•3 min

HT2312 - Photo Vests

HT2312 - Photo Vests For 50 years now I've had an on again, off again relationship with photo vests. I'll go through periods where I find them convenient, comfortable, and adequate, then periods when I find them too limiting. The real issue, obviously, is not the vest but rather the amount of gear I feel is necessary for me to do the work I want to do. That issue always leads me back to gear minimalism, and the search for the least possible gear needed. I'd long for the yesterdays of just a came...

Jul 08, 2025•3 min

HT2311 - The Quiet Light, Digitally

HT2311 - The Quiet Light, Digitally John Sexton published a wonderful monograph of his work titled, The Quiet Light. His images glowed off the page. This effect was due to his extraordinary skill as a printer in combination with a side effect from reciprocity failure with gelatin silver film. It's wonderful aesthetic that was difficult to achieve but beautiful to behold. Now, with digital processing, it's a few clicks away and easy. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free...

Jul 07, 2025•3 min

LW1461 - The Photo Game Is Changing

LW1461 - The Photo Game Is Changing An incredibly important part of artwork is the wonder of how it could possibly have been done. When that mystery is removed, what's left is considerably diminished, unremarkable, even common. I've seen this happen to photography in the last 50 years. What could make photography wonderful (full of wonder) again? All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online . 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, teraby...

Jul 07, 2025•13 min

HT2310 - What You Might Do Someday

HT2310 - What You Might Do Someday WIt occurs to me that marketing camera gear is all about convincing you that your current gear is somehow inadequate. It also occurs to me that art making art is the revelation of the possible, that is to say, all art is made with the tools we have at hand. No one, of course, is going to run an expensive marketing campaign to show you all the things your current camera is fully capable of accomplishing. We have to remind ourselves of the incredible capabilities...

Jul 06, 2025•3 min

HT2309 - A Nagging Sense of Guilt

HT2309 - A Nagging Sense of Guilt It's been over a year since my last publication of a new issue of Kokoro . I feel a sense of guilt about this. In that same time, I've release 400 Here's a Thought , 60 podcasts, 60 episodes of Finding the Picture , 5 issues of LensWork , and that doesn't count episodes of Looking at Images , Seeing in SIXES commentaries, or Trilogies commentaries. So why this nagging sense of guilt? The pressure to produce takes many forms. Show your appreciation for our free w...

Jul 05, 2025•3 min

HT2308 - Removing Sharpness

HT2308 - Removing Sharpness Most (but not all) images require a sharpness that has us searching for and treasuring tack sharp lenses. We shouldn't let that, however, determine our aesthetic decisions. We can always reduce sharpness from a sharp capture if needed, but we can't create more sharpness than the lens captures. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Jul 04, 2025•3 min

HT2307 - Memory Card Lifespan

HT2307 - Memory Card Lifespan The other day I mentioned my search for new hard drives to replace my aging, 5-year old ones. I received an email from a listener who brought to mind another aspect I'd never thought about. He mentioned that the memory cards we use in our cameras also are subject to aging and should also be replaced every 5-10 years just like SSDs. I've used the same cards for over a decade. Time to do some more research and shopping. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podca...

Jul 03, 2025•3 min

HT2306 - Enough with the Vibrance Already

HT2306 - Enough with the Vibrance Already The vibrance and saturation sliders are taking over the world. I use a Windows PC and every day when I fire up my computer, I'm confronted with and over-saturated landscape. This morning's abomination set a new record. I didn't realize it was possible to crank up the saturation control to 1,000, but it is. My concern is that if dialing up the saturation is a virtue, then its opposite (realistic or muted color) is becoming a sin. Show your appreciation fo...

Jul 02, 2025•3 min

HT2305 - It Truly Makes No Difference

HT2305 - It Truly Makes No Difference I was putting together a new project for the next issue of Kokoro when I realized that the 15 images in the final edit came out of 14 different cameras. Looking at the images, I would never be able to identify the camera without referring to the metadata. The lesson? You already own a sufficient camera, no matter what camera you own. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Jul 01, 2025•3 min

LW1460 - What Makes a Photograph Special

LW1460 - What Makes a Photograph Special I'm seriously concerned that photography has become too easy. Craft is no longer a serious virtue. Because it has become so easy, it is losing its sense of being special. This is particularly true for fine art photography. What, today, makes a photograph special? All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online . 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that e...

Jun 30, 2025•13 min

HT2304 - Tablets vs Phones

HT2304 - Tablets vs Phones With each issue of LensWork, we make a tablet edition for those who prefer the convenience of a digital publication. I suspect most people don't use a tablet for the tablet edition; they use a smart phone. That is, they view a 2¼x3¼" image rather than a 7x8" image. Should we care? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Jun 30, 2025•3 min

HT2303 - Limited Edition, um, Cheerios

HT2303 - Limited Edition, um, Cheerios What do your photographs and Honey Nut Cheerios® have in common? They are both produced in a limited edition, that is, according to the cereal box I was reading this morning at breakfast. Surprisingly, that didn't make the Cheerios more valuable. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Jun 29, 2025•3 min

HT2302 - How the Work Gets Done

HT2302 - How the Work Gets Done I've heard the art making process on occasion described as taking dictation from God. It's as though the artwork is completely formed before we begin producing it and all we have to do is execute the craft. I've never had that experience. Instead, for me, I have to begin the process of art making before I know where the conclusion Will lead me. I have to have faith in the process. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thoug...

Jun 28, 2025•3 min

HT2301 - Real World Corner Sharpness

HT2301 - Real World Corner Sharpness A while back, I purchased a new lens and needed to give it a good test to see how it performs. The most difficult areas for most lenses are the corners. The corners on this new lens were a little soft, so I set out to compare that to my very best, super-sharp lens. The tests gave one result, but the real world suggested a different result. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Jun 27, 2025•3 min

HT2300 - Pounce, With the Patience of a Cat

HT2300 - Pounce, With the Patience of a Cat We are babysitting some cats this week and I've been watching how fascinated and patient they are watching the bird feeder just outside the living room window. They sit for hours watching, hardly moving. Then, when the opportunity arises, you can see they just want to pounce but for the window between them and their target. Watching them reminded me of advice from David Hearn, the MAGNUM photographer Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast a...

Jun 26, 2025•3 min

HT2299 - Time for New Hard Drives

HT2299 - Time for New Hard Drives I'm not an expert on technology so I listen to the advice of those who know. I once read that it is a good strategy to replace our hard drives every 3-5 years or so. It's been five since my last updates, so I've been on the hunt. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Jun 25, 2025•3 min

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