Thomas Broening

Monday, August 31, 2009

After Capture Magazine profiles TB

“If I didn’t care about my own work,
I might as well be an accountant—it’d be
an easier way to go for sure. Ever since I’ve
started photography, I’ve been doing work
for myself. If there was another way to do it,
I would. If I could be happy just taking pictures
for other people and not taking pictures
for myself, I’d do it. But I’ve always felt
compelled to make photographs for myself.
Photography is such a gift in the way that
through the simple act of looking at something
and giving it your full attention you
can transform a simple, mundane thing and
make it beautiful and thought-provoking.”

" After graduation,
he wanted to be a documentary photographer,
and left for the retirement town of Sun
City, AZ, to document the community that
was developed in the 50s. In the process, he
became burned out with photography. “I
sold all my equipment, moved out to California
and stopped shooting for five or six
years,” Broening says. “I honestly thought I
was done shooting. But during the hiatus I
continued to see photographs all the time.
Mostly I was struck by how light fell on
something and then I would think about
where in the scene the photograph was. I
think I am hard-wired that way. Strange as
it may sound, you don’t need a camera to
be a photographer.”

Friday, July 24, 2009

Heal

It looks like that as the result of an injury I will have to put my career as a professinal pickup soccer player to the side. Which means I will have to go to the good old fall back:photography. I have been cranking on a bunch of editorial the last few weeks while I wait for my leg to heal.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Watering the office

I went to the gardening section at The Home Depot in search of something to photograph on the sod and found this attachment. I connected it to the hose next to the house and had my 8 year old turn on the water while I made an exposure. The water came on stronger than I expected and ended up on the ceiling and the floor. My daughter and I thought it was funny but my wife.
Not so much.