Andy Spyra

This is the view I had while editing with Andy - that's him in the upper right and the edited Kashmir story in the Photo Mechanic window.

Andy Spyra is intense. And so are his pictures. Imagine that.

I had the pleasure of working with Andy this week, editing three of his stories into a rhythmic flow in two forms. He’ll show a larger edit of the sequenced stories to publications and he’ll submit a shorter edit to be considered as one of 12 fortunate photographers World Press Photos chooses for its Joop Swart Masterclass.

It’s been a notable week for Andy. He was just chosen as one of PDN’s 30 Under 30, new and emerging photographers to watch.

This was the first time we worked together but it’s not likely to be the last. The first part of that process for me is always getting the know the photographer and how he or she sees. Steps to that end begin with sending me some work that I can browse and then arranging a time to talk. Andy and I talked by video Skype link from Andy’s home in Germany to mine in Portland, Oregon, to get to know each other and the work before starting an edit in earnest.

There is great variability in how much time it takes to understand how a photographer sees. The more complex the seeing, the longer it takes to comprehend the depth of the seeing. It’s like the difference between drinking and appreciating wine that was made last year versus a decades-old vintage. It took a long time to savor Andy’s photos – even though he’s only 25.

One of my impressions is that he makes photographs organically. There is no automatic way to build the frame in response to the scene in front of him. Each approach is fresh to the scene. He makes whole frames.

I told Andy that was my impression and he was modest in response. He said he just tries to feel what is important in a given setting and make pictures about that feeling.

We talked at some length about the making of pictures. It was great fun.

One of the things he said was: “Up to a certain point you can learn photography. Then you have to just see.”

There is a progression, I agreed. We start by fumbling with the mechanics of the machine, the camera. If we master the mechanics, then we’re still looking through this gizmo at the world – we are still looking through the machine and are limited by how the human eye sees, as compared to how the camera sees. If we reach the last phase, the camera becomes invisible, we see as it does and are guided by all that we can say and feel and make happen in the space that is a photograph.

As Andy put it: “To meet a photographer after seeing his work is like already having met the person.”

We are the photographs we make and they are us. Andy makes amazing photographs.