Title: Illuminations: Earning a Living with Dynamic Photography
Author: Raymond J. Klein
Publisher: Pageturner, Press and Media
ISBN: 978-1649082459
Pages: 92
Genre: Biography
Reviewed By: Dan MacIntosh
Hollywood Book Reviews
Raymond J. Klein’s book is part biography, part resume and partially a history of the photography business. In less than one hundred pages, the reader learns plenty about Klein’s life, the most notable pictures he’s taken over the years and about how the photography business has evolved over the years.
It all started when Klein found his dad’s camera and began experimenting with it. He was a natural photographer because he soon after had one of his photographs published in a local newspaper. Everywhere he went, it seems, he found a way to combine his various activities with taking pictures. For instance, while serving in the U.S. Air Force, he served in a photography unit.
Klein has smartly divided his book’s chapters by events and pictures illustrating these events. Each chapter concludes with a photographic example, so the reader can see exactly what Klein has written about. For example, the work’s seventh chapter, titled Explosion of Assignments, explores some of the memorable photography assignments Klein took on while working in Chicago. A music studio, which just happened to me a mile away from the studio, needed an album cover for jazz saxophonist Lou Donaldson. Klein created a colorful cover for Donaldson’s At His Best album, which is included at the chapter’s conclusion. Although Klein doesn’t editorialize about the state of the music business in this chapter, it’s worth noting that album covers were once one of the best forums for creative photography. These were 12×12 canvases, if you will, which showcased a whole lot of creative photography, as well as many other tools of the visual arts.
While Klein’s book will appeal to those with only a passing interest in photography, some of these chapters are especially helpful to professional photographers. When detailing his photographs for product advertisements, Klein goes into great detail about how he set up each shot. Even if you’re not a photographer, you’ve probably asked yourself at times, ‘How did the photographer get that picture?’ Well, Klein lets us all in on some of his techniques. Klein also details all of the factors that go into creating an advertisement’s photograph. This involves so much more than merely pointing the camera and shooting. There are many times models, that must get paid, for instance. There are materials that may need to be purchased. In some instances, Klein needed extensive time to construct a temporary studio, so to speak. Reading this book may make you wonder how much work went into the photographs you view, which you may often take for granted.
The photography business has evolved quite a bit since Klein first happened upon his dad’s camera. Klein mentions how digitalization, for example, has changed the way photographers do their work. He concludes his book with chapters explaining how he was able to exhibit some of his favorite photographs in galleries. He was also able to collaborate with writers that created poems inspired by some of his pictures. He sure has had a variety-filled career.
Illuminations offers an eye-opening glimpse into the world of photography. Sure, everybody these days has a camera on their phone. But as we all know, these are pictures we mainly take to remember various events in our lives. They’re not, most of the time, art. Raymond J. Klein, though, has created a fine book about the wonderful art of photography.