My Influences - Harold Feinstein
“You must photograph where you are involved; where you are overwhelmed by what you see before you; where you hold your breath while releasing the shutter, not because you are afraid of jarring the camera, but because you are seeing with your guts wide open to the sweet pain of an image that is part of your life.”
© Harold Feinstein Photography
Have you heard of Harold Feinstein? He was an American photographer, born in 1931, he started his photography career at 15 years old in New York! I can’t imagine picking up anything at 15 and having that be THE thing that I get to do for the rest of my life. He has a very broad range of subjects from Coney Island, portraits, nature, and of course the ones that speak to me the most, flowers and butterflies.
Of course, you can see that his style of photographing butterflies is different than how I photograph butterflies. His work is beautiful studio lighting with preserved butterflies and I go out in nature, and to places like Butterfly Wonderland, to photograph the butterflies as they fly all around. These photographs of Harold’s are an inspiration to me because his work is ALWAYS fantastic, the details of the butterflies show off their brilliant colors and patterns, and they are just so real that I expect them to fly off the page.
© Harold Feinstein Photography
One of the things that I appreciate so much in finding an artist that inspires you is you find someone who does work that you love and you think, how can I make something from this that inspires me!? His photos often show the inside of the wings but think it is so interesting when the work shows the beauty of the wings from the inside, where we always think about the exquisite beauty and shows the outside of the wings as well. It is fascinating to see some butterflies, like a Blue Morpho butterfly, that has spots on the outsides of its wings and a vivid blue on the inside.
I don’t remember exactly when I discovered Harold’s work but I believe it was after he passed away in 2015. I was struck by his work and started to collect the different books that he published. My two favorite books are The Infinite Tulip and the Infinite Rose because I love to see the very wide variety of both these types of flowers.
Now that you have had a brief introduction to Harold Feinstein take a bit of time to check out some of his other work as well. Click here to go to his website. Let me know what some of your favorite work is of his!
