Ethan G. Salwen

Ethan G. Salwen is a writer and photographer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he moved from the United States in 2006. His professional focus is writing on diverse topics of photography, with a focus on the intersection of technology, creativity and business success. Photographically his passion is documenting the cultures he encounters in his travels and his life in Buenos Aires.

On Living Abroad

After four years in Buenos Aires and feeling more at home there every week, Ethan has no plans of again living in the United States. “It’s all about the Digital Revolution,” Salwen explains. “Thanks to the Internet I am now far more connected to my network of family, friends and colleagues than I was in 2000, when I went into business for myself .” Salwen says that living abroad is still a “daily adventure” but that his adventures in discovery have become more subtle, especially now that he has learned some basic Spanish and how to navigate the bus system, the medical system, buy most foods without confusion and, most critical, to let go his Gringo sense of Time.

We’ll stop talking about Salwen in the third person, as we is really me and I’m really not one for formalities. Therefore, even if you don’t read the rest of this “About” page, I encourage you to contact me directly, whether just to drop a line out or to inquire about my professional services.

Wherever I might pysically, I’ll be plugged in at:

Email: ethan@ethanslawen.com

Phone: (001) 646/233-1475

On My Writing Life

I write regularly for a number of North American magazines on diverse topics of photography, although I am always looking for new publishing outlets and opportunities to take on new subject matter. (Download samples on my “Writing” page.)

While my regular editors sometimes ask me to write specific articles, I typically generate the ideas for my pieces, pitching them to appropriate editors. This works well, as it keeps me totally invested with my craft and ensures that I am producing the most relevant material for each specific audience. Having begun my career as an in-house editor, I am an editor-friendly writer who understands how to deliver exactly what is needed.

For After Capture I write a regular column, “Raw Processing Solutions,” which is pretty techie, but also cool stuff, and I try to make it digestible. I also host AfterCapture magazines’s blog, which is decidedly less techie, covering all aspects of digital image making, drawing on my great network of some truly amazing photographers.

Although most of my recent writing falls under the banner of “photography,” I have pushed my content to cover the the personalities and processes of a wide gammet of creative professionals, artistic techniques, business strategies, industry themes and the intersection of all of these, which I like to think of as “culture,” now that new and constantly emerging technologies are blending all these themes together in one big blending machine of creativity meets digital revolution meets global financial crisis.

I try to explore the positive aspects of the topics about which I write. I find that the most successful of professionals — defined by making enough income to survive by working at a craft of passion — are incredibly positive and upbeat, although never polyanas. This is the spirit I try to convey in my writing.

On My Photography

My passion has always been for documentary photography — from beginning to snap away for my high school yearbook at 13 to photographing porteños as they ride the buses in Buenos Aires 24 years later. I tend to be drawn to what is called conscientious photography. This term, overlapping with documentary photography, photojournalism and even travel photography, means different things to different people. The best way I can explain my relationship to photography is:

I am drawn to photograph what I consider to be “real people” in “real” situations in a “straight” photographic manner. I am particularly interested in the lives of working-class people of “foriegn” cultures — from my limited perspective as a person born and raised in the United States. I enjoy trying to find the exciting in the seemingly mundand and to try to make images that invite First-World viewers to not dismiss or simply smile at or gawk at those living in the Third World. (People in the Third World call it the Third World, never the “developing world.”)

When people think of “conscientious photography” they often think of exposé photographs of  people living in unjust squalor. I do have an interest in making a difference with my photography, but so far most of my photography has been very selfish — primarily about me making connections with the people I photograph, blowing my socks off by exploring  through the act of photography.

If you are not a photographer and live in the United States, the idea of pushing a camera into a stranger’s face might unnerve you. The offense. The liability. The, “I’ll sue you.” But if you’ve ever photographed people in developing countries in non-tourist destinations, you will know that photographing someone can be a compliment, and even, in a true-if-corny sense, a diplomat of the United States.

And yes, I’m also interested in recording the relatively rich as well as their trappings. My attitude is that any image made with a true humanistic sensibility can be considered conscientious — no matter how rich or poor the person in front of the lens. Lewis Hine’s photographs that helped dramatically change working conditions for the poor are amazing. So are Robert Capa’s images of war. So are Henri Cartie Bresson’s images of the elite French circles in which he clicked. These were all image makers who cared, first and foremost, about telling the story of their subjects. Secondly, they cared about beautiful images. They all made conscientious photographs with a humanitarian attitude, and so are three of my photographic heroes.

On My Education

I studied photography for two years at the Rochester Institute of Technology, earning an associates degree in applied photography, also known as “photojournalism with a super, über nerdy curriculum.” (Yes, I can read a D-logE curve.) I went on to spend four years earning my bachelor’s degree in English at New York University. My focus was on creative writing and the Classics. (Yes, all my passwords are in Ancient Greek I do not actually understand.) Later, I picked up a master’s degree in English Education from Columbia University. (Yes, I’m certified to teach middle- and high school students, but that’s actually just a sad statement about the US educational system.)

Of course like everyone, my greatest education has been outside of school, where I continue to hone my skills through years of trial and error, learning write, report, edit and project manage for numerous publications. Some consider me an expert in aspects of digital photography, but now adays pretty much every one is. (Tip: Free tutorials on YouTube.) The hardest photographic lesson I have taught myself is to ignore the fear that grips me when I walk into unknown places with my camera out in the open.

On Travel and Cultural Adventures

My truest passion is travel. However, I do not have a very strict definition of travel. It certainly is not about meerly covering ground, although that is often exciting. To me, travel is more about satisfying my curiosity about a wide range of cultural ideas as well as pushing my own comfort level. Travel is about exploring, which is really what I wanted to be when I grew up: an adventuring explorer. I was thinking along the lines of becoming someone like the kick-ass, unstoppable Norwegian Rauld Amundson who headed to the South Pole in 1912 or the shy but unflappable Neil Armstrong who headed to the Moon in 1969. For shear scope of vision I was always pretty impressed by the maritime explorer Ferdinand Magellan from Portugual who in 1519 set out to lead what would become the first expedition to circumnavigate the Earth by ship.

At some point in my teenage years I realized that the so-called Golden Age of exploration had passed long before I was born. It was a major bummer to find out all the proverbial blank spots on the map had already been filled in. I got over my dejection by realizing that my blank spots on my personal map could never be filled in. Even if I make it to the South Pole, the Moon and sail around the world, like all travelers, I’ll only just be beginning.

It’s true that in many ways the world is an utter mess these days, but it has never been so ripe and full of possibilities for the exploring traveler. One of the functions of this website is to help me share my ideas and images about my modest, mundane and offbeat travels and misadventures, as well as to help motivate me to engage in them in the first place. (A cool aspect of this Web 2.0 Thing. Live & Share made easy.)

On My Humanist Perspective

In case you must know, to all of the big, standard questions about belief systems, religion, politics and so on, my answer is: Humanist. What other way is there to go? To offer a sense of humanism I share a line from one of the novels by the late, great writer and humanist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. The character Mr. Rosewater says:

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

– Ethan G. Sawen