Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it

It dawned on me at some point last night that there might not be such a difference between my work doing picture research and interior design. The goals of both are to find the best-suited elements for a specific place and purpose. As a photo editor, I would find images that would fit the copy and make the best visual impact. It is the same with interior design, I would be looking for items that are most appropriate to serve its function in a given space. In both I was searching for the best form to serve a specific function. It could simply be there as eye candy, or it could be there to illustrate a point in the story, or in the case of interior design, a place to sit.
Both photography and design tell stories; and both, if done properly, will engage both the creator and the "experiencer" in some fashion. I think the best results in both come from those who really love what they are doing, and that is true in any field. I love being a photo editor, and I will love being an interior designer. But, as the song goes, "it's nice work if you can get it...."

'To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, 'There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.'

I was playing around with some images for an "HDR" effect; this is one of the results. I posted them on flickr and I got some good feedback, so I figured I would share it with you all. It was taken about a week after 9/11, the first time I'd been down there since the attacks. You'd think this photograph would evoke a more emotional or cathartic response in me, but I just see it as another photograph, I guess until now when I am putting into the context in which it was taken. I guess that is another example about the "dilemma" in photography, and art in general, the relationship between the creator and its viewer or "experiencer." I may be getting a bit Jamesian, so I shall stop.