Hi I'm Tamara Lackey. On this episode of
ReDefine show for AdoramaTV I speak with
my friend and fellow Nikon ambassador
the internationally acclaimed Joe
McNally on how he was the last staff
photographer for Life magazine. How he
brings his unique ideas to life so
powerfully and why partnering with the right
person can make all the difference
in the world.
Check it out.
Hey, Joe how are you?
Hey Tamara how is it going good.
Good.
We've actually never done this before
even though we're friends and photographers,
ambassadors and Adorama people
yeah well that's the weird thing about a
life as a photographer you can you
travel so much right?
Yes and you cannot see each other for
like two years right and then you just
pick up the conversation. So anyway
like I was saying. Yeah,
remember that time? Pretty much. You know,
three and a half years ago when we last
saw each other?
And we just think it's completely
normal. Yeah. Because that's the life we
lead. Exactly but I was thinking about
like the connections that I have to you
are like I think, obviously we both have
done work with Adorama, right, forever and
partnered with Adorama, right, but also Nikon
Nikon ambassadors and also Mylio we both were
early adopters of Mylio.
Early adopters yes. Together.
And there's something else?
I'm just trying to remember it?
It was fascinating, ingenious,
there was a great connection.
Well we're connected there
obviously because we're
both fascinating. Yes.
No I can't think of it, you know but
yeah we, I think the whole social media
swirl. Yes. And digital, and transmission
immediacy, and all that stuff has
connected us in ways we never could have
imagined when we started our career.
Yeah and you started your career
with tell us a little about Life Magazine.
Well I started working for them 1984.
Yeah. okay and I kept working for them and
then one way, shape or form or another
right through the early 2000s
and even now, I guess, you know, I have
done things through
two years ago for Life Books so it's
always been a 'brand' if you will that
I've have loved and associated myself
with. Incredible brand too, like. I was
the last staff photographer in the history
of the magazine. There was 90 of us who
trant at that magazine when when it
was still alive and viable, but I, they
have named it appropriately because it
went through so many lives.
Yeah. It got killed, it came back, it was a
weekly, then it was a monthly, then it was
a newspaper supplement and then it
became a book, you know book
division. So I think it's a, the
longevity of Life I think is a tribute
to the power of pictures.
Yeah it's amazing and what a distinction?
To have been the last staff photographer
I'm personally responsible for the death of
photojournalism. Congratulations. Thanks
Well done. Thanks. Did you see Smitty?
Was it Smitty? Which? The one with
Ben Stiller?
Yeah. The secret life of Walter Mitty.
Yes, yes, yes the re-up.
Yeah. Did you see that?
Yeah it was wonderful.
Did it feel familiar?
Absolutely. Because it was all about the demise
of Life magazine right? And it was
actually filmed in the timelife
building, at least partially. Yeah. You know I am
a little bit of Walter Mitty because I
live in the realm of my imagination
a great deal and my wife Anne, my beautiful
patient wife. Beautiful, patient, loving
Yes. And she's right there.
She'll, yes she is right over there, and she
will tell you that I drift, you know
sometimes like I might drift right now.
You just never know. We have a sharp nod yes.
Because, you know, you're just
wandering, you're thinking about and then
all of a sudden you think 'wow that', you know, and then
people kind of look at you funny, you know.
Like Joe. Are you still in there?
Is anybody home? You know,
but I often times find that's where
as I'm sure you do as well, your
imagination is a powerful thing
photographically. It implicates itself
into your work into your life and if you
can express it well, I think you'll end
up with some good photographs because
your imagination is close to your soul.
Oh I like that line. You know it's just
part of you. Its brilliant. It's true. And if you try
to explain it, I'm sure you've been in
pitch sessions too at magazines or
clients, where you are trying to explain
your imagined set of photographs.
Yeah don't you see it?
You know and it's like taking your
clothes off in a conference room because
you're actually stripping yourself naked
in lots of ways. Do you do that too?
Well it gets attention, you know.
It actually cuts to the chase, they either
give you the job at that point or they
don't. Get out. You know, but no you
I always tell young photographers.
Just the vulnerability of it.
Don't be afraid of your imagination
because it's the path to photographs that
will really resonate, because it is part
of your soul, it's part of your mind, it's
your life, you know, in life's embrace of
the world that you've seen and how you
then interpret that.
Yeah. You know. I remember talking to you once
and asking you if, because you do so
much travel, like if you're on a plane
and your laptop's dead and there's no
movie and you know you've read the book
and your wife's not there, it's just you
what do you do? Where does you're mind go?
Right I remember that question. You said?
Yeah you wander into like, what could I do or if
you're heading to a job certainly you start
to wander into the vagaries that the job
might present to you.
How's the client going to be?I hope the
talent is cooperative. I hope it doesn't
rain, you know,
I hope my rental car is there,
like they promised. I mean all the
things that can befall you as a
photographer, we are beset by
problems that are all around us and
sometimes the fact you actually come up
with a successful photograph out of a
location venture is a minor miracle
because lots of stuff conspires against you.
So I wander into that or I wander into a
future, future job I mean, I'm,
my mind is a bit of a 'beaver dam' you
know like, it doesn't let much go
downstream I kind of, I keep ideas in my
head for years and years and years, and
in fact like this year, I finally got
something I wanted to build a set
completely out of mirrors in the desert,
and so we did that, you know, and I had
thought about that literally for
probably 20 years. I t just came in your mind
and you're like one day I'll get to it
then but then you actually do it.
Yeah, it's like, it's like a bookmark in
your computer. How did you become known
as like a, so good with speedlights too?
I mean was that on purpose
is that just something you decided
that's one of your talents and
I'm going to put it on a bus, I mean what
what is that? To suggest that anything in my
career happened with a predestined
purpose or plan in mind? It's more like oh?
Is really speaking way too much, it is
too grand a claim. Okay. You know I sort of
fallen in the right and wrong direction
throughout my whole life, it's like, it's
like tumbling, you know, forward as a
photographer you bounce into rocks,
you leap the stream, you have no idea
what's over the bend?
I mean, I've made an entire career out of
doing whatever seems to be the next best
thing to do, which does sound mildly idiotic.
I get it, okay? It sounds floppy.
Yeah but you know, you do, I mean how can
you plan a life as a photographer?
Yeah, because you don't know what's next?
A phone call comes, can you do
this story and maybe it's a
sizable story and it's a different kind
of an experience that you realize you're
getting yourself into and I always
describe this to young photographers too,
you have to regard stories like that,
especially ones, that really terrify you
as gateways. You walk through that story
and it's a door that opens and on the
other side you'll be a different
photographer, because it changes you.
It just redirects your compass a
little bit and the tell tale sign of
knowing that this is an important story
is how much you are scared, to go do it.
Interesting. If you're really terrified
you must go do that. Yeah. Because you'll
be a different photographer on the other
side; win lose or draw. So the idea of
saying; my career's a straight line, I'm
not stopping for anybody, you know, forget
about it. It doesn't even work that way
To coin a phrase here in New York; forget about it.
Forget about it. So where can people find
out more about you?
well they can stop on my blog
joe@joemcnally.com/blog
I'm on Instagram @JoeMcNallyPhoto
Thank you so much Joe, such incredible work.
Join us here next time on AdoramaTV
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