Stop obsessing over lenses, and “make sure you have mentors.”

Question: What are some common mistakes rnthat novice photographersrnmake?

Carol Friedman: This rnwhole business of all these lenses is ridiculous.  Yourn know, it’s like you have to capturernyour picture.  You have to creaternit.  You have to see it.  Yourn have to seize it and you have tornmove in to get it, so those lenses are just an escape of some sort or arnshield.  I think that people getrninto trouble when they photograph something that they... that is not in rntheirrnworld.  It’s like when they sayrn"write what you know."  I can’t tellrnyou how many reshoots I’ve done from, you know, famous photographers whorn reallyrnlove just to shoot models and failed at shooting a Patti Labelle or rnsomeonernlike that because Patti Labelle didn’t turn them on, so you have to rnshoot whatrnyou care about.  For me if there isrnnot a component of intelligence or music or culture or something that isrn fascinatingrnto me I really don’t care about photographing the person. rn That is just it’s about thatrnpsychological exchange.  That isrnwhat is interesting to me.  I thinkrnthat people have to just go with their gut and follow their passion if rnthey’rernphotographers.

Question: Who have been your mentors in rnthe music industry?

Carol Friedman: rnOkay.  Just I really havernbeen lucky to have a lot of mentors in the music industry. rn Quincy Jones, Ahmet Ertegun, JerryrnWexler, Bob Krasnow, Bruce Lundvall, you know all label heads and that rnera isrnagain, the music industry era is gone, but those rules still apply, rnbecause yournknow the record business is kind of a metaphor for life in a lot of rnways, justrnbecause of all the components that had to come together and make an rnartist. Andrnmost of these people except for Ahmet, you know, came from the street rnand builtrnempires, and you asked before about what would I recommend to youngrnphotographers.  Make sure you havernmentors, you know, to teach you, because you can’t just intuit life byrnyourself, especially now.

Question: Have you ever acted as a mentorrn yourself?

Carol Friedman: I think mentoring is rnessential in life, bothrnbeing a mentor to someone and being mentored, and I think that when you rnarernmentored it inspires a generosity in you to mentor others and that I rnknow isrnwhat happened with me, so for instance, the people that come through my rnstudiornto work for me, it’s not good enough for me to just give them a rnpaycheck.  I want to help them get to wherernthey…  You know I don’t care ifrnit’s you know an intern or a full-time employee.  Irn want to help them arrive at who they are or who they wantrnto be in the world and that is one of the questions I ask them when I rnmeetrnthem.  You know, who do they wantrnto be.  So I think that that’s anrnessential part of life and if you don’t get to do that and receive it rnyou’re missingrnsomething.

Recorded on April 21, 2010
Interviewed by Austin Allen