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LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Brooks Jensen 8 Episodes Jul 3, 2026

LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process offers short 2-4 minute talks on the creative process in fine art photography. Host Brooks Jensen, publisher of the award-winning LensWork magazine, shares observations from his 35 years as a photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics range from finding subject matter to presenting work and building an audience, avoiding techno-talk and artspeak. The podcast aims to stimulate ideas and experience for photographers and art enthusiasts.

Episodes

HT2671 - Flung to the Far Unknown Jul 3, 2026 2:43 HT2671 - Flung to the Far Unknown Sending our artwork out into the world can be a dicey proposition. We lose control of its fate. Who knows if it will survive or where it will survive. (Maybe it all ends up in the Twiloid Zone. We will likely never know.) To us, once it is gone, it is almost as though it never existed. It resides in us only as a memory — like all other experiences in our life, as

HT2670 - The Dangers of Surrendering Control Jul 2, 2026 2:43 HT2670 - The Dangers of Surrendering Control Software and AI are also providing us with tremendous tools. At the same time, there is a risk of allowing them to make aesthetic decisions for us. This is not good. For example, the new "Assisted Culling" tool in Lightroom is designed to replace our human judgment about our failures. I want to look at my failures because that's how I learn. Show your

HT2669 - Photographic Artwork Jul 1, 2026 2:43 HT2669 - Photographic Artwork Isn't that an odd term? Do we refer to painting as "oil on canvas artwork?" Or sculpture as "carved marble artwork?" Is poetry referred to as "verbal artwork?" Do we use the term photographic artwork because not all photographs are artwork? Or is it that it's somehow important to specify the medium when we refer to artwork made by a human using a camera? Why not just

HT2668 - Pretty On the Brain Jun 30, 2026 2:43 HT2668 - Pretty On the Brain I remember once a photographer said to me that "Ansel Adams was the Helmut Newton of the landscape." I understand what they were getting at and I'm not sure I can disagree. Like most other media of artistic expression, photography loves the pretty. Pretty girls, pretty sunsets, pretty flower blossoms, pretty landscapes, pretty trees, — we photographers have pretty on

LW1511 - Ignored, But Possibly a Treasure Jun 29, 2026 LW1511 - Ignored, But Possibly a Treasure When I photographed in China in 2009, I assumed that the exotic landscape would create exotic pictures. I was wrong. One day in particular, we were photographing in the landscape on a day that was oppressively dreary and dull gray, heavily misted (or polluted), and boring. China was fascinating, but the photography was anything but. For years, I've ignore

HT2667 - The Grand Illusion of Art Jun 29, 2026 2:43 HT2667 - The Grand Illusion of Art One of the supposed virtues of artmaking is that our art becomes a vehicle of immortality. I'm not so sure. Testament, yes. Immortality? Not a chance. Recently we've lost Jay Dusard, Carl Chiarenza, Duane Michals, and Jeff Schewe, all LensWork alums. A week doesn't go by without a letter from a grieving LensWork subscriber's relative letting us know their lost l

HT2666 - The Wider the Focal Length Jun 28, 2026 2:43 HT2666 - The Wider the Focal Length Boy, I'm going to stick my neck out with this one. As a general rule of thumb, the shorter the focal length of your lens, the less personal the resulting image. Consider, for example Monument Valley. The wider the lens the more your picture will look like Monument Valley. The more the viewer identifies the location the less the image is about your response to t

HT2665 - Recovering Shadows Is Easier Than Recovering Highlights Jun 27, 2026 2:43 HT2665 - Recovering Shadows Is Easier Than Recovering Highlights When determining exposure, especially in high-contrast scenes, we often need to bias our settings to protect either the shadows or the highlights. With my cameras and the way I tend to process images, I'd much rather underexpose and protect the highlights after which I can always pull up enough in the shadows give a hint of life in

LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Episodes

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