Cole Thompson Photography Newsletter No. 135 - August 23, 2025

10:09 |

cole thompson photography

newsletter

Issue 135 - August 23, 2025

Cole at Drangarnir

Cintila!

I'm back home from the Faroe's, it was my sixth visit and I'm still impressed with this magical place.

It's not just the photographic opportunities that impress me, but the way the Faroese live: simply, ruggedly and honestly.

Cole

In this issue:

Quotes
Ten New Diary Entries
Studio Tour October 25 & 26
Horizons Photography Conference
Why Print?
The Story Behind the Image
Print Drawing

Quotes

"Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner."

Lao Tzu

"When you truly don't care what anyone thinks of you, you've reached a dangerous level of freedom."

Jim Carrey

"Do not waste a minute - not a second - in trying to demonstrate to others the merits of your performance. If your work does not vindicate itself, you cannot vindicate it."

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

"For the artist, the dilemma seems obvious: risk rejection by exploring new worlds, or court acceptance by following well-explored paths."

Art and Fear

“There’s never a crowd on the leading edge of thought.”

Esther Hicks

"You have 206 bones in your body. Surely, one of them is creative."

MacIntosh Computer Ad

"I believe everybody is creative, and everybody is talented. I just don’t think that everybody is disciplined. I think that’s a rare commodity."

Al Hirschfield

"The creative adult is the child who has survived."

Ursula Le Guin

"No need to think outside the box, simply realize there is no box."

Unknown

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Ten Diary Entries

Harbinger No. 65

"So everything we make as artists are essentially diary entries. So should I be concerned that someone else might not like my diary entry? It doesn’t make sense, it has nothing to do with them. My diary entry has nothing to do with anyone else.” Rick Rubin

Monolith No. 86

Dunes of Nude No. 4

Rocky Point

Melting Giants No. 16

Death Valley Fun

Dunes of Nude No. 146

Harbinger No. 54

Monolith No. 108

Death Valley Dune and Mountain No. 1

Studio Tour

October 25 & 26, 2025

Auschwitz No. 4

If you're going to be in Northern Colorado in late October, please join me at my home gallery for the Fort Collins Studio Tour. It runs from Saturday 10/25/2025 from 10 am to 5 pm and on Sunday 10/26/2025 from 12 pm to 5 pm.

This year I will be exhibiting "The Ghost of Auschwitz-Birkenau" series, along with images from my recently completed "Ancient Stones" series.

Horizon's Photography Conference

October 2-5

I've been invited to participate at the Horizons Photography Conference this upcoming October 2-5 in Durango, Colorado.

There will be many great photographers there and many good friends such as Beth Buelow, Brooks Jensen, Matt Payne, and Sarah Marino.

And no, "he" will not be there...

Learn more about the conference and start planning to come to Colorado in October for the beautiful fall colors! (did I just say that???)

https://www.horizonsphoto.com/

Something I forgot to mention the first time I promoted this event: you can use this code: COLE100 for a $100 discount. If you've already signed up, contact the good folk at Horizons and let them know I forgot to give you the code!

Why Print?

"The Print" by Time-Life

When I was a young boy my window into the photographic world was books, and there was one book that I really loved: "The Print.“ It was one of several in the Time-Life photography series that introduced me to the great masters of photography.

For 170 years, the print was the only way one could view a photograph. If you didn’t print it, it couldn’t be seen. Some even would argue that if you didn’t print it, it wasn’t yet a photograph.

The exception to prints were slides, which my grandfather used to torture us with his long vacation presentations on his Kodak Carousel projector: "And this is another photo of Old Faithful..."

Even at the beginning of the digital era, people still printed their photographs by going down to Walgreens and using the Kodak Kiosk. And later we had color inkjet printers in our homes so that we could print the images ourselves.

But then came along the iPhone and the iPad. We could now view any image from anywhere in the world, at any time and at any place, from bedroom to bathroom! It opened up the world to every photographer...and put one more nail in the coffin of the print. Who needs to print?

And while viewing an image on a digital screen has many, many advantages, it's not as personal as viewing a "real" print.

Digital viewing generally means small screens. And because there are billions of images available, we can scroll through hundreds per sitting and spend only seconds on each one: scroll, scroll, scroll, like, like, like, faster, faster, faster.

Viewing an image on a digital screen pales in comparison to holding and viewing a "real" print.

I can't tell you why that's true, and I have wondered if I'm just being nostalgic because I grew up in the era of "the print." But I don't think so and here's why: when I speak to high school students who grew up with digital images, and show them "real" prints...something interesting happens:

They hold them.

They slow down.

They look longer.

They look closer.

They contemplate the image.

And they express surprise at how different a print is.

There is something wonderful about a "real" print. Yes, I love the accessibility and reach of a digital image, but I'd far prefer that you hold one of my prints in your hands.

That's the reason I give a print away with each newsletter.

And here's another thought about prints: I heard a woman reminisce about how she would sit on her grandmother's lap and look through a family photo album that covered three generations. That caused the woman to wonder what it would be like when she was older and her granddaughter sat on her lap to view her photos.

She imagined the little girl opening the photo app on her iPhone and asking:

"grandma, what's this?" And she would answer: "this is a meal I once ate." And the little girl would go to the next photo and ask: "what’s that?" And the she would say: "this is a pair of shoes I was thinking of buying."

A single family album could hold the memories of three generations, while our iPhones can hold thousands of meaningless images that might cover only three years. And when we are gone, what will become of the tens of thousands of images that reside on our electronic devices or hard drives?

My guess is that they will never be viewed.

But an album of family photographs or a collection of the images that you have created and love...I think those will have a chance of surviving and being appreciated.

Keep your images alive: print them, hang them on your walls, give them away, and fill your albums and books with them.

The Story Behind the Image

Smile, Lenin's Tomb

This is one of my "silly little projects" that make me smile, and that no one else will ever appreciate. This project is called "Smile" and it's simply photographs of people taking photographs of their loved ones.

This was created at Red Square, in front of Lenin's Tomb (not Lennon). On the day I visited, they had just reopened the tomb, which had been closed so that they could put a fresh coat of makeup on dear Lenin.

Going through the tomb is quite a serious affair: No talking, no smiling, no laughing, no chewing gum, no photographs, and no anything! You walk through reverently and quietly, and this is emphasized by the presence of armed guards.

And how was the experience? It was odd, it would be like going to Washington DC and viewing a petrified George Washington, it was just odd.

When we came out of the tomb we were met by a television crew that had set up to interview the first visitors. Apparently there was some public debate on whether or not they should continue to display Lenin, and as I exited I was asked what I thought.

In the split second before I answered, here are the thoughts that went through my mind:

What a great opportunity to say something funny and irreverent!

There's my son smiling at me and his look says: I dare you!

There's those armed guards with big guns...

I am in Russia and they have really nasty prisons.

Perhaps I'll skip this opportunity to be a smart-ass and play it safe.

And I simply said: I think that's for the Russian people to decide. Yes, I wisely chickened out.

When in a foreign country, it’s good for me to remember that I am a guest and that I do not have the same constitutional protections that enjoy here in the US.