Reaction Paper: John Messinger

Last Monday photographer John Messinger stopped by on of my classes to talk to us about his work. I really appreciate John coming because all of the advice he gave was really helpful. John Messinger is a photographer who does his work using a polaroid camera. He photographs computer screens and then places the images next to each other to create large images. I would definitely recommend checking out his website if you get the chance.

My favorite piece of advice he gave is to take whatever jobs come your way. As an artist it can at times be incredibly hard to agree to doing certain work that is not necessarily your specialty. This is often for me just based out of a fear of not knowing how the work would come out but ultimately it would be okay. I really love that he said that though because ultimately you need to be able to pay your bills. I also love the other aspect of why he said this because he was saying that whatever jobs you do will ultimately help you to get better and bring in a new approach to your way of doing whatever it is that you actually specialize in.

Another thing that he talked about that I really like was about choosing the branch of photography that you want to work in. He talked about how he thought he would be doing something completely different in photography back when he started and he also said that what he's doing is constantly changing. I really liked that he said that because I'm not really completely sure which branch of photography I want to go into yet. I have my ideas but nothing is set in stone. So for me to hear that someone as successful as John Messinger didn't always know either was really comforting.

I really loved getting to hear John Messinger speak. He was a really interesting guy but he was also really nice and just generally cool. I hope that I get the opportunity to cross paths with him again throughout my photographic career. I really appreciated all of the advice he shared and I am very confident that I will be putting his tips to use in the near future.