“Try to find one website that doesn’t have an image on it,” said photographer and Weehawken resident Katrin Eismann recently. With people sharing their photos on social-networking websites like Facebook and MySpace, that’s pretty hard to do.
As chair of digital photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Eismann has been working in photography well before the digital era – when film still had to be developed by hand.
Her new book “The Creative Digital Darkroom” opens up the world of digital photography – through composition to advanced techniques – to amateurs and professionals alike.
“Nowadays, digital photography is photography,” Eismann said. With digital cameras in a modern day arms race over megapixels and optical zoom, cameras are becoming less expensive and easier to use.
“Photography has gotten so accessible,” Eismann said. “I think it’s wonderful. I’ve always said that photography is a democratic art – that everyone can do it.”
She encourages her students to take pictures as often as possible.
“Now, when I’m walking down the street and I see a restaurant I want to go to,” Eismann said, “I just take a picture.”
Her new book opens the door to the digital darkroom.
“[The book] translates skills, concepts, and nomenclature of the traditional darkroom into digital solutions,” Eismann said.
With an expansive knowledge of both film and digital photography, Eismann’s book bridges the two fields.
“Despite the newness of the technologies,” Eismann said, “there remains a timeless method for learning and practicing photography the right way.”
The good ‘Life’
Eismann’s love of photography began as a child with her first Kodak Instamatic camera.
“My mother always knew that I’d become a photographer,” Eismann said. “I would run around with a crystal stopper from one of her perfume bottles [pretending] to take pictures.”
But it wasn’t until Eismann saw the works of photographers in Life magazine that she knew she would pursue a career in photography.
With well-respected works by the likes of Carl Mydans, Andreas Feininger, and Ernest Hass delivered to her door, Eismann said, “[the photos] captured my imagination.”
Soon after, Eismann began studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she earned a degree in fine art photography.
After years of honing her craft, Eismann was selected by Adobe Photoshop for a once-in-a-lifetime expedition to Tasmania.
Lightroom Adventure 2008: Tasmania
Recently, Adobe, a leading software company, invited Eismann and 18 other world-renowned photographers to Tasmania to road test their newest program, Lightroom II.
Working with influential photographers like Charlie Kramer and world-renowned National Geographic photographer Bruce Dale was both a challenge and inspiration, Eismann said.
With the serene surroundings of Tasmania, Eismann decided to focus her work on the impact of human society on nature.
“Nowadays, digital photography is photography.” – Katrin Eismann
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According to Eismann, 40 percent of the country is designated park land.
Visiting the Hobart dump, one of Tasmania’s largest, Eismann captured sorted garbage waiting to be reused or recycled at an on-site thrift store.
“[The collection] is a still life out of the themes I found, like ping-pong paddles, paint lids, and bathroom scales,” she said.
After two weeks of photographing, she and the other photographers auctioned their works for over $7,000. It was donated to the Fund to Save the Tasmanian Devil. The Tasmanian Devil is actually a marsupial (in the kangaroo family) that is on the brink of extinction. Many of the creatures are battling a mysterious form of cancer.
“I’ve always been interested in the traces we leave behind on the environment,” Eismann said, “and looking where man and nature intersect.”
Now at her Weehawken home, Eismann is working on a collection called, “Underfoot,” documenting items she finds on Weehawken streets.
“I’m still photographing garbage,” Eismann joked. “There are a lot of single gloves out there.”
For more information on Eismann and her work, please visit: www.katrineismann.com.