Joe McNally

El lenguaje de la luz. (The language of light).

The venue of the conference was FES Acatlan and it was organized by Fotofestín.

Joe McNally is an American professional photographer.

He is very important, and he even claimed to be Nikon’s ambassador.

He started talking about his career. He told us he had worked for important magazines like National Geographic, and had made portraits for actors and musicians. He also showed us some of the photographies he had took.

I found the following photos very interesting because the first of them show us a great domain of color in a composition, and the second is important to understand McNally’s use of the camera for technical purposes.

Although we can’t see the image clearly, I chose this photo because, like other photos

he showed us, this one has vivid and contrasting colors but they have harmony.

He explained us he had achieved this effect experimenting with shutter speed of his camera. Al though he didn’t know exactly how to get this

effect, he said he had tried with different shutter speeds until he got this, which is very important because it is the way he said he did his photos: playing and exploring.

Also he told us this last photo was exclusive because it was took during Brazil’s Olympic games. He told us he liked to teach instead of hiding his knowledge about photography. He said that photography was a team work.

I had learned a lot in this conference.

McNally asked some people in the audience to show us how he worked to manipulate the environment with different thecniques like flash and diffuser screens.

He also integrated all the persons in public. He asked us how we thought we could solve some framing proposals and then he showed us his ability with camera.

He not only taught us about technical issues, he also talked about what photography was for him. He said it was to register your own story as a photographer, and give people your own point of view about the way you see the world.

He said he liked photography because it was a way to connect with people. He told us he always became friends with people he had portrayed because to take a good photography you need to know the people you were working with personally.

He also told us the world nowadays was purely visual, but must of the production of images was not worth. He literally said it was shit.

He sees photography as a responsibility not only with himself and his bosses, also with the followers of his work

He and his assistant were very charismatic persons willing to teach.

McNally is very fun and has a great domain of light.

Ha also talked to us about how is the photographer’s life. He told us it was a passion but also he had suffered alot being apart of his family for long periods of time. It was really easy to empathize with him.

Joe McNally with the staff of Fotofestín.