The Education of a Photographer (Charles Traub)

advice for young photographers

Do something old in a new way.

Do something new in an old way.

Do something new in a new way. Whatever works, works.

Do it sharp—if you can’t, call it art.

Do fifty of them—you definitely will get a show.

Do it big—if you can’t do it big, do it red.

If you don’t know what to do, look up, or down—but continue looking.

Do celebrities—if you do a lot of them you’ll get a book.

Edit it yourself.

Design it yourself.

Publish it yourself.

Read Darwin, Marx, Freud, Einstein, Benjamin, McLuhan, and Barthes.

Construct your images from the edges inward.

If it’s the “real world,” do it in color.

If it can be done digitally, do it.

Be self-centered, self-involved, and generally entitled and always pushing—and damned to hell for doing it.


Don’t do it about yourself, your friend, or your family.

Don’t dare photograph yourself nude.

Don’t look at old family albums.

Don’t hand color it.

Don’t write on it.

Don’t use alternative processes—if it ain’t straight, do it in the computer.

Don’t gild the lily—a.k.a, less is more.

Don’t photograph indigent people—especially in foreign lands.

Don’t whine, Just produce.