London Photo Workshop

An Interview with Ira Block

Meet Ira Block. For more than thirty years, Ira has been covering assignments around the world for National Geographic — in locations as diverse as Africa, the Australian outback, the Gobi Desert, Siberia, the North Pole, Greenland, and Baffin Island. The subject matter of Ira's photographs is as varied as the destinations stamped in his passport. Some of his assignments include "The Samurai Way" and "Race to Save Incan Mummies." From gold coins retrieved from Havana's sunken treasure ships to the largest discovered T-Rex dinosaur, to a lost Confederate submarine, Ira's lens continues to capture and document amazing stories from around the globe. Ira will lead the July 14 departure of this workshop.

What aspect of your work as a photographer and storyteller are you most looking forward to sharing with our students in London this summer?

My interactions with people and cultures is what I want to share this summer with my students. You can learn so much about yourself by recognizing other cultures. Using photography helps you make friends and focus on interesting aspects of other people. In my work I spend a lot of time using light to make stronger photos, either natural light or my own light.

How did you get started as a photographer?

Photography was a hobby in high school; my father built a darkroom in our basement and I loved developing black and white photos. It was like magic to me. When I went to college I started to work for the student newspaper so I'd have access to a darkroom. Eventually the local newspaper hired me to work part time.

Do you have a hero or mentor?

My time working for the local newspaper while I attended college was like an apprenticeship. One of the older staff photographers was my mentor; he really taught me about taking photos and telling stories with them.

What aspect of your work as a photographer are you most proud of?

My cultural and archaeology images. Learning about our past and different cultures is so important for our society to move ahead. By making interesting imagery of remnants of the past I feel I've been able to keep the readers of National Geographic magazine excited about history.

What has been your most challenging (or interesting) assignment for National Geographic?

Every assignment is a challenge and a learning experience. I'm currently in Nepal in a remote village answering these questions — it's really incredible here, but it is also challenging. Most people think that being a National Geographic photographer is like going on vacation and taking beautiful pictures. There is a lot of work involving permissions, logistics and deciding on the best way to tell the story. I tend to tell people whatever assignment I'm working on at the moment is my most interesting.

What is an important lesson you have learned through your work as a photographer?

You can't impose your culture on other people. You can expose others to your culture and they can make their own decisions about integrating it into their world, but we don't have the right to force people to be like ‘us'. How would we feel if another group came to us and said you can't use the internet or your iPhone anymore?

What do you enjoy most about teaching photography?

When I dissect my photos during a workshop, I learn about myself and how my mind works when I'm photographing. When I'm out shooting an assignment I don't analyze how I'm shooting, I just react to situations and photograph them. When I teach and talk about photos taken by myself and my students however, I have the chance to break down images and assess what makes a good photo versus what makes an average photo.

Do you have advice for our students considering our London Photo Workshop this summer?

If you are getting a new camera for the workshop, use it before you come to London. Your time in London should be spent taking pictures and exploring your creativity, not learning how to operate a brand new camera. Also, look at a lot of photos and paintings and try to analyze why you like them – it will help you understand where your own vision is going.

Can you provide a little taste of the type of skills you'll be teaching this summer?

In my workshops I try to teach seeing photos and thinking about photos. Just because you have a great camera that can come up with good exposures and has an autofocus that gives you sharp images doesn't mean that it takes great pictures. That's up to you as the photographer. You need to have a photographic vision and intent. I always go over basic and fundamental photography, but training your mind to look for light, composition and moment is much more important to learn. We will get involved in some of the basics of how a camera works and how to best use it as a tool to interpret what you see.

www.irablock.com

Apply now for this program or call us for more information at 877-877-8759.