June 20, 2008
Last year, I was helping a friend prepare a presentation on his experience surviving the 1994 Rwanda genocide. I turned to Flickr to find some images to supplement my own, and while surfing around, I saw this image as a little thumbnail, and thought I recognized someone in it. I went in for a closer look, and sure enough, here was this guy in a yellow shirt that had been a part of the group my wife and I lived with for six weeks on an internship right out of college. But, whose picture was this? Who was this guy with the earring and the camera? A few emails later, and I had met two new Canadian friends, Mike Todd and David DuChemin. I had the pleasure of sharing a hamburger with the two of them last summer at a very Canadian restaurant in Vancouver.
David has been a very big influence on me, a great source of wisdom and insight, and a paragon of patience while I’ve pelted him with annoying “How can I be just like you” questions from afar. I thought you might enjoy hearing a little bit about him and his work, so I asked him to sit down, electronically, for this interview.
Greg Kendall-Ball: Good morning, David! (Or is it “afternoon?” For all I know, it could be late evening where you are. And, after all, isn’t time simply relative? It may be morning here, but in Calcutta…but I digress). I hope you’re doing well. For the sake of those few people who might read this interview, I’m going to feign ignorance and pretend that I don’t know anything about you. Let’s start with your name, and your current whereabouts:
David DuChemin: Hi Greg. I’m David duChemin. I’m currently in Vancouver, Canada. It’s raining out but I’m in the middle of planning for trips to Kashmir, Kathmandu, Cuba, Cairo, back to Kathmandu, Vietnam and Vanuatu. So my mind is anywhere but here.
GKB: Ah, excellent. That is brand new information to me. I had no idea you lived in Canada (wink, wink).
DD: Play nice Mr. America. Our Canadian Army is poised on the border and we will annex you in a heartbeat if our beer and blubber supplies run low.
GKB: Well, let’s dive right in, shall we? You are a photographer, yes?
DD: I am.
GKB: Very good. Thanks for being here, and God Save The Queen!
DD: I’m also a British citizen, so I’ll take your toast to Her Majesty as a kindness, but you’d better be drinking a gin and tonic (or a Guinness) when you say it.
GKB: Hang on a second. Do you have a few minutes to spare? I have a few post-interview questions, if you’re willing.
DD: Post-interview? That was it? You never went to journalism school, did you?
GKB: Right, first of all, tell anyone who may have stuck around for the post-interview questions a little bit about yourself. Let’s do it in reverse chronological order. What were you doing last week? What were you doing one year ago today? What were you doing five years ago? And ten?
DD: Last week I was negotiating a book deal. A year ago I was just back from Nepal and on assignment in the Dominican Republic for World Vision. Five years ago I was still a career comedian. Ten years ago, same thing. I was a comedian for a long time.
GKB: Three words: Rubber. Chicken. Guy (Google, my friend, is a powerful tool!) Your response?
DD: Stunned silence, mostly. Few people know me by that moniker anymore. It’s a deep dark secret I try to keep hidden. Actually the twelve years I spent doing comedy were really great years – no regrets.
GKB: What was it that made you put the green suit in the closet and bust out the cargo pants and the photo vests?
DD: I think the easiest way to reply to that is to chalk it up to a matter of calling. My passions changed, I got tired of the stage and wanted to tell stories that were more urgent, more vital. I still use my love for laughter as a professional photographer, but the world’s become a little bigger for me and the things I laugh at are a little more real now perhaps.
GKB: Hmmm. I didn’t hear anything about years and years at a special artsy university getting a degree in photography. Is that true? Are you *gasp* self-taught?
DD: Well, no one is self-taught really. I mean we learn by experience and books, the influence of other photographers. But in the sense that I had no formal training, that’s certainly true. I trained to be a pastor, I went into comedy, and then returned to photography which has been a passion for over 20 years – how’s that for a career path?
GKB: Interesting. How has that hindered you, or been a boon, to your career?
DD: Honestly, I have no idea. I think the path I took has made me who I am, but what I might have been otherwise, I can’t say. I hope I’m a more sensitive photographer for the training I have, and I think discovering my own vision and my own way of doing things is a reward in itself, so that’s a boon. I think no matter how much education you get formally there’s always the sense that you’re being pushed into a mold, so by necessity I think you need to do some un-learning and find your own path. But that’s true of all of us all the time. I think the learning process is an ongoing dialectic.
GKB: Now, on your blog, you’re always going on about having the latest and greatest gear, and about how having the most expensive equipment is the most important part of getting a good image, right? Apart from that, what do you think is important? Try to keep it to six words or less, since I used so many words for this question:
DD: I think you need to re-read my writing. Six words or less, huh? GEAR IS GOOD, VISION IS BETTER.
GKB: Care to elaborate?
DD: Do I get a word limit? Photographers tend to get addicted to the WAY we create our art – we fall in love with the HOW and forget the WHY. As a result there’s much work that’s technically perfect but totally devoid of passion or humanity.
GKB: You’re on the beach somewhere, shooting for some client, when your foot rubs against a buried magic lamp (do they have these types of stories in Canada? Genies and so on?) A genie pops out (Robin Williams or Barbara Eden, your pick), and it turns out, he/she is the Magic Career Genie. In a weird twist of genie-ing, you will only be permitted to take one more image, for the rest of your life. BUT, that one image will radically transform the world, like ending all wars or ending poverty or something along those lines. Where do you go? What do you shoot?
DD: Well if the image I shoot is guaranteed to do those things, does it matter which image it is? More important, once I’ve saved the world, is how do I con the soul-sucking genie back into the bottle so I can pick up my camera and take photographs again. For that matter, where is this client who sends me to the beaches to shoot?
GKB: Back to reality: high-quality digital cameras are becoming more and more affordable. More and more people are snapping them up, buying a few lenses, and then hanging out a shingle marketing themselves as a “photographer.” Now, on one hand, this is a good thing. I’m speaking selfishly, because if I had never purchased an inexpensive DSLR a few years ago, I might never have started down the path I’m on. But as a few “real” photographer friends have bemoaned recently, it’s making it harder to find jobs because there are suddenly a lot of lower-cost “alternatives” (and I put “alternatives” in parentheses). So, how do you see this affecting business, and what do you do to stand out from the growing number of people with cameras?
DD: In a sea of mediocre photographers the competition for mediocre fees will be fierce. But for people who want to shoot what they love, there’s work for us all. There is only one Steve McCurry, one James Nachtwey, one Ami Vitale. There’s also only one of me – so if I’m competing on price, I’ll lose every time. But if I’m selling my unique vision, which is how artists through the centuries have done it (that and patrons, a concept I’d be happy to pursue!), then I’m less concerned.
GKB: Canon or Nikon?
DD: I shoot Canon. But I’d happily shoot Nikon too. What’s important is shooting on gear that will get out of the way so you can realize your vision. The arguments that go on and on about whether Canon or Nikon is the best, are made by people who mistake being passionate about cameras for being passionate about serving their vision photographically. Not the same thing at all.
GKB: Anything you want to ask me? (Just checking, I don’t want to monopolize the question asking here…) No? Well, moving on…
GKB: This blog is frequented mostly by a few friends of mine who have nothing better to do, and a bunch of folks who use StumbleUpon and get sent here (Do you have StumbleUpon in Canada?). With this audience in mind, what word of advice (or words of advice if we want to be technical) would you give to these folks? It can be about life, or photography (although, don’t say “f/8 and Be There!” because that’s cheesy!)
DD: Just make me care. Shoot something that matters, even if it’s a flower – shoot it in such a way that I care. Sure, your craft matters, but given a choice I’ll take a less than perfect photograph (whatever that is) in favour of one that makes me see, think, or feel something. Tell me a story. And shoot with your heart, not just your eye.
GKB: Well, thanks, David. I hope this wasn’t too painful! Have a nice day.
DD: My pleasure. Peace.
Posted in Interviews, Life, Quotes, Resources 
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A few links to brighten your dreary Wednesday. However, if you are like me and are living in a parched wasteland featuring triple-digit temperatures, consider these links a cup of cool water to soothe your scorched souls (or soles, as it may be, especially if you walked out to the curb recently in bare feet thinking it wouldn’t be that hot…): 
