Michael Clark on Photography, His Vision, and Japan

When did you realize you wanted to become a photographer?

When I was really young, my family and I found out I had a God-given gift for art and could draw things very nearly photographically real. From then on I was in a wide variety of art classes before I ever went to school. I spent time working in just about every art medium there is including drawing (pencil, charcoal, prismacolor, pastels, etc.), painting, mixed media, lithography, wood-block printing, sculpture, glass blowing, and photography. As a teenager I tried out photography and even interned with a local photographer for a year. I learned photography while working with that local photographer and became obsessed with it. Even though I went on to study Physics in University, when I started rock climbing I brought the camera with me and found my love for photography all over again. It was at that point, while being a dirtbag climber in the south of France, that I realized my images seemed on par with the images I saw in the climbing magazines and the thought of a career was formed.

If you weren’t allowed to be a photographer and could be anything else, what would you be?

I was a dreamer early on. My first two dreams as a teenager were to be an Astronaut or a pro Tennis player. I played tennis four to eight hours a day for many years in my teens. I was so passionate and obsessed with tennis that it really took over my life. I was never good enough to make that dream happen. I went into Physics because I wanted to chase the astronaut career route via science. When I started rock climbing that became my full-time passion. Becoming a pro photographer was my third place dream so to speak, but I have to say it turned out quite well. Last year it all came full circle when I gave a talk at NASA and got a VIP behind the scenes tour. That was certainly a career highlight!

How did you get your “big break” as a photographer?

Well, there wasn’t really one big break. As for most photographers, it is a series of slightly bigger and bigger assignments that add up over time. At first it was magazine assignments, then a bigger budget and more prestigious magazine assignment for a magazine like Men’s Journal. After that it was a series of commercial assignments, mostly in the climbing and outdoor space, then a big assignment shooting for the launch of Adobe Lightroom back in 2006.

I suppose that Adobe assignment was a big one that really set me up to chase after big commercial advertising work. That assignment came via a Yahoo groups message board for professional photographers and one of the seven Adobe CEOs was watching it to find photographers who might be able to help Adobe perfect raw image processing in Adobe Camera Raw. I sent him a copy of my Newsletter after he reached out to me and he sent that Newsletter, which is essentially a 30-page PDF magazine, out to all 5,000 employees at Adobe. One of those employees just happened to be heading up the Adobe Shadowlands project, which later became Lightroom. You never know where or how an assignment will come about—it is always kind of random.

After the Adobe assignment, there were a series of assignments with larger and larger companies like Red Bull, Nikon, Apple, Nike, Nokia and so forth. The reality for professional photographers is most of the work is getting the next job instead of constantly being out there creating photos.

What were your first impressions of Japan after coming here last year?

Last year, Fujifilm brought me over to speak at the launch for their new medium format camera—the GFX 100. It was a career highlight for sure—both shooting ad content for the launch of the camera and also being flown to Japan to be at the launch event and speak afterwards. That started my trip to Japan with some pretty amazing experiences and some great dinners with the Fujifilm folks.

My girlfriend and I spent another week on vacation exploring Japan afterwards as well. In those two weeks we saw and experienced only a very small part of Japan but we found out that Japan is the most civilized country in the world by far (and I have traveled a LOT), and the people are incredibly honorable, respectful and hospitable. The Japanese seem to live an incredibly well-crafted life. We learned a lot about living well – and eating well in Japan. It is a fascinating culture.

You’re very much a detail-oriented person. Do you think you may have been Japanese in a previous life?

I am not sure of that. I can certainly learn a lot about life and living from the Japanese people and their culture – as we all can.

You’re sought after to teach workshops all over the world. Why do you think people gravitate towards you as a teacher? (It’s okay you can do a “humble brag”!)

As a former Physicist who sought to explore nature and the universe, I am a very curious person. When I get into a new sport or hobby I go all the way. That is just my personality. Hence, I want to know as much as possible about everything to do with photography and being a professional. Because of that I have spent a lot of time exploring some of the main topics related to digital photography like modern digital camera technology, digital workflow, advanced lighting techniques and what it takes to make it as a working professional. In short, I am a total photography geek and I guess that translates well to teaching photography workshops. I am an effective teacher as well—by teaching I also learn all of this stuff more effectively for myself. And finally I have a lot of fun teaching and seeing photographers expand their craft.

What is your vision for a workshop in Japan? What do you hope to accomplish? And why should people travel all the way to Japan to learn from you?

With its incredible culture and sense of design, Japan is a fantastic location for a photography workshop. Japan has so many ancient art forms and interesting locations that we can create some really amazing images. In every workshop, I hope to convey my passion and ignite a fire in the participants for creating images, not just taking images. We will concentrate on crafting an image well beyond what most might create on their own. Japan is the canvas, and the people we will work with there are collaborating with us to create something unique and different than we could create anywhere else.

With the “shelter in place” directives that we have at the moment, how are you spending your time? What kinds of projects are you working on?

At this moment, I am working on updating my e-book entitled A Professional Photographer’s Workflow: Using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. This will be the 7th edition of the e-book and it is in excess of 500-pages so updating it is a big task. The first edition of this e-book came out shortly after I shot the Adobe Lightroom campaign way back in 2006. I haven’t updated it in five years so it really needs to be updated. I am almost finished with the update as I have been working on this for over a year when I had time between assignments. Now with the self-quarantine, I have a lot of time to get it finished. I hope to have the new version out by the end of March. The e-book is an encyclopedia on everything digital and it has sold very well over the years. Back in the day, Adobe had this e-book on their website—one of only three books—that they promoted to help folks learn Adobe Lightroom.

Aside from the e-book, I am still working from my home office responding to emails from various clients and licensing images directly to magazines and commercial clients. Basically I am doing everything I normally do save for estimating, producing and shooting assignments. I am even teaching a workshop here in a few weeks online using Zoom as our platform so that everyone in the workshop can learn from home. I am also looking at what I can create here at home. I have a studio space where I can create new portraits though obviously I will have to be very careful as to who comes over if anyone.

Aside from work, we are watching a fair number of movies and taking our Husky out for long walks a few times a day.

Our viewers love to be inspired, especially during difficult times. Where can we see some of your inspiring work?

The two best places to see my work are on my website and my Instagram account.

There is also a ton of info on my website and blog—much of it for free. Check out my blog.

And finally, if people want some reading material for entertainment there are dozens and dozens of my past Newsletters available for download on my website for free.

Find out more about Michael’s upcoming workshop in 2021

Japan: The Art of motion with michael clark