This summer Austin features one of its own in a solo photographic exhibit of the current body of work of Bill Baker.  The Smokin from Shootin Studio emerged onto the SoCo scene within the past year and represents an iconic series of progressive Austin images in digital.

From classic urban architecture and figurative study to natural scenery, Bill Baker’s work represents a world where futuristic hope springs out of the wreckage of industrialized technology.  Described as “a way out” and “a train to everywhere” these images stand as portraits of the future eternal in a time when doubt reigns as the zeitgeist of the day. 

It would be difficult for me to report objectively about this newly minted progressive archetype of an artist without coming clean:  he’s my brother.  But in my defense I feel that I stand not only as his biggest fan but probably his biggest critic.  We are hard on each other for a reason.  Caring always requires that.

Bill Baker is a force. Not just your ordinary man about town with a mission but a forward thinking rattler.  He touches base with the people, artists of every type, and he understands at a very basic level what drives current expression in one of the most progressive cities on the planet.    His images portray every inch of that.

Since the very time of our upbringing in a home filled with artifacts of human creativity, art absolutely everywhere, he embodied a way of seeing things for what they were and not getting caught up in social protocol of how they should be.  He calls it straight.  If it was a lemon, he’ll label it a lemon.  If it was a priceless paramount in time and space, you’ll hear it.  His body language will shoot straight out and there will be this wince that comes out of his left eye.  You get the feeling when you see an image he has created that it is part of a piece of truth.

As an artist, Bill Baker is sincere – painfully so.  Progressive culture needed of shot of Bill in the arm.  We need someone with pointed vision to steer us clear of the fungus and the glam.

Here comes my own honesty…

One day, I received a call from Bill and it went something like this, “You know, Beck.  I’m ready to shoot.  What do I need?”  Threw me back against a couch! Wait, wait, wait a minute Bill.  I OWN that.  It’s MY sport. You don’t just change family labeling at the slightest little whim.  There’s a pecking order here!  I’m the artist.

I’m the one- for years slid off her clothes at the slightest adrenaline thought in front of my Nikon F and a timed shutter.  I printed those silver halide images by hand under my stairwell using the kitchen sink with fixer.  I’m the one who dragged that Hasselblad 500C handheld through Southern Mexico for three months and threw up an exhibition in a law office by hanging wire from the ceiling rafters.  I’m the one who searched mountaineering supplies like a rabid cat for a watertight bag so that I could throw my Nikon D200 in a kayak and capture abstract water and light reflections at dusk!  I was a little bit put off!

It’s funny how time skews all things into familiarity.  Bill grew persistent and manic about his practice of photography, technical even. 

Within one year he carried around at any given time the Canon G10, Holga toy camera, Canon RXT converted to infrared, Canon RXS, my old Hasselblad 500c (with a digital back in negotiation) and one of the Fuji instant cameras, all digital.  There was no stopping him.

In his own words, which are golden, he states:

“The G10 is what I carry every day now.  It’s the best. I have the Hasselblad but have achieved nothing out of that soul…yet.  It will become part of my workflow soon and likely, once I have the digital back it will be everything and all of what I carry on a daily basis.

I poked a hole in a body cap and put it on my best camera and walked around for a week taking digital pinhole images.  I dream of having a Holga lens fitted to my Hasselblad with a digital back.  How cool would that be…  I love the experimental relationship that I have with my cameras.  I am constantly trying to incorporate the soul of film into my digital work.  There’s a film hole there that I am trying to fill without actually loading film.  But truthfully I need the immediacy of the digital format. If I could put a digital back on a Brownie, I would.  Having the opportunity to put a digital back on my Hasselblad would be priceless. 

I use Adobe Lightroom for post-processing but have not yet used Photoshop.  I haven’t found a need for Photoshop in my workflow because it would tempt me to make more changes to my images than I think I should.  I want to stay as pure as I can.  I missed the whole film thing but have so much respect for it that I want my images to be as real as possible.  But real is relative when you’re talking about photography.  You have to manipulate the image just enough to convey the moment or the feeling without running astray of reality.  But sometimes I run amok and it feels good.

I know what my sister is trying to tell me.  I dare you.”

When I think back now the days of photographic passion and intrigue that revolved around the silver halide of my youth, it brings me a sly grin.  I remember thinking that it would be impossible for me to share this with anyone that would truly understand, not really. 

I realize now that he was there all along.  We share it and it exists between us.

Bill’s work can be seen at http://www.smokinfromshootin.com

Remember when networking was something that was accomplished at blazer-wearing cocktail parties and on the golf course followed by a cocktail?  Even if you don’t remember that, one must realize historically there was such a thing.  Leaving the house and beating the streets socially was absolutely the only way possible to network in the community and create a name, credibility and resource.  It was an era of creating importance amongst people of importance.

Enter the Digital Era of Networking

Got a computer?  Of course you do.  Well, throw away your taste for shrimp cocktail and the smell of freshly cut grass coupled with too many gin and tonics.  Your social and business network has not only become easier to access but absolutely endless.   You are a rock star in the infinite world of your own virtual networking.

There are no people of self importance.  We now understand that importance is relative to the task.  And we also understand that the tasks are constantly evolving.  It’s a better day.

Modern Party Chatter and Tee Off Times

The basic difference between networking in the past and networking now is the comparison of a closed circle to an infinite web.   There are no limits to a social web presence, guaranteed.  And you don’t have to hear the rancid gossip either.

Creating a brand name or identity in the digital era involves a very simple infrastructure of URL presences coupled with what we in the digital social networking industry like to call maintenance.

The infrastructure is the name branding and the maintenance is the social trust building.

Digital Social Infrastructures

Social networking sites are ever evolving.  They change faster than you can beat an egg.  The sites of interest to networkers today are: Face Book, Twitter and Linked In.  These URL’s maintain groups of social networks that constantly interact, change and identify.  It is imperative in modern social networking that you do not only have one presence but many that interlink.  They work together.

Other important factors that assist in connecting equally are:  e-mail accounts, personal or professional websites and blogs.  Each one of these is a necessary piece but not one of them more important than the others..  That chain is the infinite web of digital social networking.

The system works perfectly.

The Hitch

Quite frankly, even though this system is an extremely effective method to achieve niche recognition – there is one major drawback.  It takes a great deal of time to update, connect and communicate.  There absolutely aren’t enough hours in the day to run a business AND keep an interactive web presence for marketing purposes.

It can be done.  It has to be done.  But it doesn’t have to be done alone.

But not to worry, mind you.  You will notice more agencies that specialize in the area of social networking maintenance to assist in the process.  

And you will notice more specialized niche business coming your way as well as higher sales in the process.

And lastly, you never had to lift a cocktail fork or listen to so and so go on about his bum knee and his bad marriage.  Imagine that.

It’s a brave new world.
 

Almost everyone has dabbled in throwing up a web page to promote their business.  With the invention and discovery of the internet, I think all of us have considered the latent power of owning web real estate.

Some web pages are extremely well designed. They satisfy the creative eye, are informative and insightful.  But do you ever feel like your site is just sitting there in the vast galaxy of time and space going unnoticed?  Wouldn’t it be nice to get a little more traffic and create some sales out of it?

I know many of us have had that thought run through our heads.

To generate sales through a website many large and small business owners have discovered various ways to be seen and heard out there.  They use search engine marketing such as Pay Per Click or SEO (search engine optimization) to drive traffic to their site. They develop a more user friendly web site by creating a live video feed or interject informative video clips.  They gather contact information from the potential customer through a web response form that sends follow-up e-mails with tips or coupons.

The question is do any of these solutions individually work as a complete answer to bringing in sales leads to a site and ultimately generating revenue?

What if the total solution isn’t any one of these?  What if the perfect storm of synergistic flow combines ALL elements?  How about a pipeline effect that generates sales leading all the way from generating leads, directing the client within the site and then moving them towards a sale?

An idea that I have considered is that a commercial site must not only exist by showing web presence but also live multi-dimensionally and interactively to bring in sales.

Where did I get this idea?  Well, I have recently become affiliated with a company that has started to dabble with the concept.  The concept has opened my eyes to the whole idea of making existing web sites profitable through not only driving traffic to a site but also informing them while they are there and then taking the extra step to drive the sale home, all as one web marketing package.

Visit Motiliti Inc

What I find fascinating about this idea is the fact that it takes customer relations and product advertising to a level of mutual functionality.  The bottom line in this kind of web based marketing system not only works through an integrated turn key system but also works to bring qualified consumer leads to an existing business with a quality product.  These leads are not only looking for the product being sold but they already most likely desire to purchase it.  

In addition, we have the ability to track traffic statistically to tweak and improve client results.
I’ve known the Motiliti co-CEO, Scott Martin, for years and have watched him accomplish a great amount in the world of digital media, including being a documentary finalist in the Banff Film Festival, being an accomplished musician and running a digital litigation support company for some years.  He contributed the idea of a new form of video he named Live On Page TM to the Motiliti business model.  His good friend and co-CEO, Joe Schaeffer contributed the online marketing expertise for driving traffic to a site and then gathering information about web visitors through simple voluntary questionnaires.  In an unlikely combination, he is a 6th degree Kung Fu black belt, Master of three Shaolin schools, sports a PhD in neurophysiology and has accumulated a vast amount of marketing knowledge.
When I first met with the two of them together to discuss the fledgling business, I noticed almost immediately the synergistic chemistry between the two.  They told me about their hatched master business plan for Motiliti Inc.  I remembered how we referred to their original warehouse office as "the cave" and chuckled talking all the while about world web domination through their simple integrated step-by-step system.
I knew without a doubt that I would accept their offer to come on as a project manager with the newly formed marketing firm.  It was a matter of wanting to be part of something progressive and innovative.  
Today we run a staff of about ten including the two CEO’s, myself, a VP of Sales, a VP of IT, an additional computer architect, a CPA, and two production associates.  We no longer operate out of "the cave".  We run the business now out of a state of the art office brimming with Macs, PCs, DreamWeaver, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and other tools that are always being added to the mix and morphing our outlook on technical possibility.
Equally, our IT team of engineers are constantly updating and improving upon the code that facilitates the inner workings of this process, evolving the way we think about ourselves and the business model
The backbone of this brand of marketing is based on the idea that technology cannot exist in a vacuum.  It has to be part of a highly functioning system built to meet the needs of the consumer on a human level.  It is an act of combining the best in design technology, IT technology and a knowledgeable cast of characters behind the scenes to direct the traffic flow toward a final sale.
In a time when we are all recession proofing our livelihoods, it’s good to know that there are solutions for making this happen that involve converting qualified leads into actual sales.

My life in photography progressed from this place after graduation to my grandfathers Nikon F and then my first fully automated camera the Nikon 6006.  After a time came my Hasselblad 500C that I used hand held in crazy little nooks in southern Mexican markets.  This was my life.

But at one point I took a step backwards away from photography and began graduate studies in psychotherapy.  It didn’t keep me away from my passion.  I became a closet photographer slyly carrying around my Canon Elph wherever I went and slipping the files into some inferior photo- morphing program that had come in the box.  I was tinkering with it still and carrying on the passion.
Not surprisingly, during my studies it was suggested to me that incorporating what I knew of the art of photography and psychotherapy into one enchilada wasn’t a bad idea.  It didn’t take long for my mentor in this field, Dr. John Garcia, to convince me that it was not only possible but also the most likely way for me to link everything that I had known to everything I wanted to know.  And then in walked the box full of Nikon Coolpix cameras.

So, there I stood two years later after writing a proposal, getting the approval, funding, participants and the cameras.  I was standing in a closed room with eight girls adopted from the Chinese Social Welfare system and eight Nikon Coolpix cameras.  We were entering digital photography together on a grander collective scale and it was looking like it was going to mean something.  We were discovering not only the technology before us but what that meant to create something meaningful together using them.  We called it Pixel Voice.
_The project that inspired this work was strikingly similar.  The original study took place in 2002 in Mainland China. Dr. Caroline Wang took a group of female peasant farmers and gave them single-lens reflex cameras and instructed them in the physical aspects of photography, the ethics involved and a brief discussion about what might be important to take images of.  The women were then instructed to head out into their daily lives and document what they saw that was important to them on silver halide. Then they would meet, explore meaning and come to consensus about their collective social conditions.

My research pays homage to the integrity of this project and brings the technology forward into the digital era.
There were some similarities and there were some differences.  There is the common denominator of the participants being born on Mainland China and given cameras.  The divergence occurred with the introduction of technology.  We were using digital cameras, uploading the files to laptops, manipulating them with Photoshop CS2 as our darkroom and displaying them digitally on websites.  Dr. Wang gave her participants SLR’s and roll film.  They printed hard copies of the images and displayed them in a gallery setting for government officials.  We were similar but we were different.

What I found out that was significant about our project almost immediately was the amount of advanced learning the girls had in photography before we even started.  I would have never been able to predict this being that the average age was about ten years old.   I became, almost immediately in the world of the technology before us, more student than teacher.  They walked in the door already having a vast history since early childhood of seeing the use of digital photographs around their house, at school, or in the media.  They had held digital cameras already and some of them even owned their own digital cameras.  All of the girls knew what it meant to be a subject and to my surprise understood the ethics behind being a photographer saying “I would never take an image of someone if they didn’t want me to” or “that isn’t what I want to say; that is”.
So, I was left immediately to determine what I actually had to offer these girls holding the eight Nikon Coolpix cameras donated by Dell Computers.  What could I possibly teach them they didn’t already know?

Well, as it turns out there was a lot to learn.  Beyond the technical aspect for anyone who has the photography bug is the “why”.  Why do we do this?  Who is the audience?  What are we trying to say?  What is the purpose?  It’s the higher level of thinking that we are all striving for; it should have meaning and functionality.
And although I thought for sure in my planning that we would primarily be discussing and exploring the technical aspects of photography from the onset, I was pleasantly surprised that the greater goal of something larger and more significant, the meaning, came straight to the top almost immediately.
I guess my point is that in this age of the prolific use of digital photography equipment and the use of pocket sized automatic cameras with large file sizes, worrying about the details of the exposure isn’t even on the table.  For the modern average everyday photographer (most people?) digital is now the norm.

What distinguishes the average photographer and the experienced photographer is a new set of rules, answering some of the more important questions about what this thing we are doing is about.  And the girls and I found us immediately thrust up against that fact.  We had the tools to say something and we had some things to communicate.
What did we need to communicate? 
It took us awhile but we eventually came to the idea that we wanted to come to consensus about who we were as a collective force through our image making.  We wanted each other to know and understand that our “voice” together was important to understand who we are.  We found that we had more power this way to communicate to each other and anyone that would listen, as a collective group rather than individually, and we ran with that.
What did we learn about the process?  Well, we learned that the taking of images when done thoughtfully has power to communicate.  We learned that we had a responsibility to take that seriously. 
We sort of operated from that place.  Shoot all week, meet, view together, talk about it, come to consensus about meaning, shoot all week, meet, etc.  We did this for six weeks.

In the end we used photography mainly as an effective psychotherapeutic tool to create community and solidarity of identity about the group we had formed.  It was about personal growth and general understanding.
The physical project for me is completed now.  I’m in the middle of finishing up the last edits of my thesis and soon it will be published as formal research.  It’ll get shoved into a series of searchable databases for the use of other researchers, this much I know for certain.   I’ve been thinking now about what greater gifts I can give the girls with this collective work that we have put together.  I have 200 images in total that are fairly decent and 50 that for me really speak for the collective work.  I’m trying to think of the most thoughtful way of representing the body of work for the greater purpose of education.  There is some interest in archiving the files and a possible exhibition in an Asian American museum.   I’m moving towards this goal as a place to house the historical aspects of what we represent.

I am also continually looking for other avenues of getting the word out.  I think we have something to say together about living in diversity that is important to know.
My life as a photographer moves forward. Today, I shoot with a Nikon D200 and an 18-200mm lens and a free month subscription to Photoshop CS2, and I am experiencing a second awakening.  Photography has ebbed and flowed in my life but never left.  I am completely passionate about it and after all these years, it is still a true love.  Though I will most likely move forward in the world of psychotherapy, I was grateful for the opportunity to revisit my adoration for the visual arts through imaging. 
And I have a feeling I will be balancing the mistress all my life.

(For more information about this project and others contact pixelvoice@yahoo.com)