GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER

Philip is the 3rd photographer to take part in this guest photography series, and I'm very happy to be able to present a specific selection of his work here. 

I first met Philip at a 2013  Leica Akademie workshop in Point Reyes, Ca.  At  the  time I was working with Leica Akademie photographer, Tom Brichta, to produce 4 day workshops devoted to landscape photography.  This particular Pt Reyes workshop was devoted to "seeing" in black and white,  and we had some 15 photographers participate.  Among them, Dr. Wally Reichert, featured earlier in this webpage, and Philip, from Seattle, Washington. 

When I asked Philip to send me some of his work he responded with a note  saying :" I met you in Pt Reyes at about the same time I became serious about photography.  The workshop had a lasting impression on me, and I ended up using Leica cameras exclusively from that point.  Up until then I was experimenting with 

photography and had no definitive style.  This all changed in 2013, culminating with my series, "Solitude : Snow and Ice".  

Looking back to 2013, I remembered Philip as keeping quite to himself, speaking little, so often absorbed in thought.  I looked upon this as a good thing, and so made few, if any, attempts to approach him to help, though I was intrigued. Was he on his own path, as if he was figuring out where his photography was among this group setting? A walk along Abbotts Lagoon brought a brief encounter  as Philip attempted to photograph cranes flying off the marshes along our path to the ocean.  

Some months after the workshop Philip wrote to me about one of the photographs he had taken, wondering if it was ok to crop the image ? It was a photograph of that crane along Abbotts Lagoon, a  beautiful white wingspan lifting off over the delicate gray marshes.  " Of course you can crop it I exclaimed ", it looks great"!  That photograph ended up over a clients mantel if I remember correctly.  

Needless to say, I was so encouraged at his ability to see, and that the quiet  time in the workshop was actually an impetus to his development as a photographer.   

Philip has put in the hard work since that time we first met.  We had stayed in touch Instagram, as I do with many former students, and I was always happy to see Philip,  was indeed, carving out his own path, following his instinct, and doing  what  he wanted, in his own way.   He had developed a very honest approach to the landscape, a "straightforward" photography, an unadorned and clear vision.  He had taken the initiative to photograph regionally, around his own state, ( which many photographers ignore for some reason ), and I saw him continue  to build a body of work in black and white..as well as teaching through Leica Akademie, and realizing his photographs through large master prints..

Deservedly, Philip is now bringing  his work to a much wider audience, with the recently announced publishing of his new book "Solitude :  Snow and Ice" by Chatwin Books of Seattle, Wa. towards the end of 2022. The book has been in progress for 3 years.  See www.chatwinbooks.com/phil-blair.

Congratulations Philip, well deserved. I can see this book in my photography library! Keep up the good work!

For a more complete look at "Solitude: Snow and Ice, visit his website @ www.philipblairs.com

You may also follow Philip at www.facebook.com/phil.blair.3591 instagram.com/philip_s_blair or e-mail Philip at philip.s.blair@gmail.com

I first met Mauricio in one of the Leica Akademie workshops I had been producing along with Thomas Brichta around 2015.  Mauricio,  who makes his home in San Jose in Costa Rica with his wife Laura, and I learned we had something else in common besides photography . Seems we both lived several blocks from each other in the late 60's in San Francisco during the height of the "Love Generation" that had enveloped the city.   I was studying Fine Arts at  San Francisco State University living in the Haight,   while Mauricio was obtaining a BA in Economics from the University of SF close to my flat..we both had lots of stories about the "good old days" in SF, exaggerated to be even more entertaining by more than a few beers .  After SF, Mauricio went on t0 achieve his Masters of Political Science at Paris University. 

In 1973 he created Procine SA of Costa Rica, a commercial documentary film company. In 35 years Mauricio directed over 2000 TV commercials,  winning numerous awards.  In 2003  he  wrote and directed "Marasmo", a "love and revolution" political crime drama shown throughout  international film festivals.  The star of the film, Carolina Salano of Costa Rica , was awarded "Best Actress" for her role as Luz Angelica, a beautiful women traveling on a bus through Columbia,.  The film is distinguished by many as "beautiful to look at "! 

And that is how I view Mauricio's work. Since meeting Mauricio in 2015 he has attending several more Leica workshops with me and recently some one on ones.  Mauricio has a unique way of seeing things, bordering on the surreal at times, humorous at others, with  a straightforward manner of choosing his subjects in the manner of one of my favorite photographers, Manual Alvarez Bravo.  His love for B&W photography with his Leica M  Monochrome is shared with his joy of painting and writing.  He favors traveling to the American West to continue his pursuits of that "special" image and I hope soon we will be discovering life anew between laughs at another workshop in the Western landscape !!

I hope you enjoy discovering his work as much as I have ( 10 11, 13, 14, 29  are 5 of  my favorites). If you have any comments regarding his work let me know or reach him directly at <mauricio@mmendiola.com>. 

I met "Wally" as he likes to be called, for the first time in Point Reyes National Seashore while leading a "Leica in the Landscape" workshop.