Howard Greenberg

After a quick Blackberry Google search, I was on the train ride toward Macaulay Honors College, excited to hear the story of Howard Greenberg the photographer. I sat there hoping to be interested and engaged, but he ended up relating to me on a much more personal level. When he spoke about being a Psychology major who opted out of Grad school to pursue his passion for Photography, I reflected on my own life and where i’m going. I chose a Psychology major because I saw it as the “lesser of the evils,” but I haven’t yet found my “thing,” my passion, something I would be happy to do for the rest of my life. I was astounded by how easy it seemed for him to find what he loved and drop everything else to make a living out of that.

A few things about the discussion specifically stuck out in my mind. I admire that Mr. Greenberg mainly sticks to mid-century photographs, being well aware that there is a lot more money in modern style photography. The unique technique he uses of combining photographs in the dark room to make pictures that are impossible in nature shows me that there is a lot more to photography than pointing and shooting with your fancy camera. Mr. Greenberg even mentioned that it’s not about the equipment at all, an iPhone can take a high quality picture but it’s all about the vision behind it. The Meet the Artist discussion gave me a new perspective of Photography as an art. I don’t think that this is my passion but I’ve learned that whenever that epiphany comes to me and I find what I love, I have an obligation to follow it.