What constitutes good photography

David duChemin is a top-notch world photographer and author of best-selling books on photography. Four of his books, including his first and best-known “Within the Frame,” are translated into Korean.

But before committing to photography, he spent 12 years as a stand-up comedian, leading a nomadic life.

“My path has been a zigzag,” duChemin said in an email interview. “I have been interested in photography since childhood. But I went to school for theology, then I was a stand-up comedian, and then I went back to photography.”

It was his vision and passion that guided him to find his true calling ― being a humanitarian photographer.

And vision is, duChemin stressed, more important than any skills in photography.

“I think vision is why we develop our skills in photography, so that with the camera we can make the photographs that say what we want to say,” the Vancouver-based photographer said.

His own vision has grown and changed over the years, but duChemin said he has always been consistent in some important ways.

“I hope that by showing people the world as I see it ― as beautiful ― others will see it this way and live their lives in a way that honors the earth and her people.” 

duChemin's photograph (left) and David duChemin (right)

These days, the cameras are so good that people can easily make a sharply focused, well-exposed photograph. But the skill set involved with being a photographer is so much bigger than the ability to use a camera, duChemin said.

“It’s the vision, passion and curiosity. Especially when you’re photographing people, it’s the patience, compassion and the ability to relate to another person.”

DuChemin recalled an “unforgettable” experience with a village of Rendille people in northern Kenya with whom he had developed a very close relationship.

“When I fell off a wall in Italy four years ago and broke both my feet, the elders of the village called the village together to pray for me. It is a very humbling thing to be that close to people who are so different from me, on the other side of the world, and to know that for all our differences, we are very much the same.

“Of course people can be terrible. As a species we have done, and continue to do great harm, to each other and the planet. But we also have great beauty and goodness. When I travel among the poorest of this planet I am constantly reminded of this.” 

To answer what makes one a good photographer, duChemin quoted lines from a book written by Chaim Potok: “Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism, without home who has found his people everywhere."

“A good photographer,” the photographer added, “may also be a rebel who has found his people everywhere.”  

As an assignment photograher, duChemin has spent eight years doing humanitarian photography for big nongovernmental organizations, like World Vision and Save the Children, traveling to places like Africa and Southeast Asia. Recently, he has been working closely with a group called the BOMA Project, based in northern Kenya, which implements a high-impact income and savings program for ultra-poor women in the drought-threatened arid lands.

“I want to tell stories based on hope. I would also like to work on environmental issues because in so much of the world it is places of great environmental destruction that see the greatest poverty. They are connected,” he said. 

By Bae Su-kyeong

The writer is a freelance journalist residing in Europe. ― Ed.