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| Neil Schneider had always liked cameras, and one day he decided he might as well make some money off his hobby. Thirty-five years later, he's still doing just that, with an impressive portfolio and several awards from the Associated Press and New York Press Photographers' Association to show for his efforts. At first, Neil did most of his work for newspapers, spending 12 years as a staff photographer for the New York Post. When he left that paper in 1993, he continued his editorial work for the New York Daily News but eventually decided that these assignments were getting in the way of the freelancing he preferred. However hectic those years with the newspapers were, Neil gained valuable experience seeking and capturing scenes and events of interest. "I never really thought of it as a technique," he says when asked to describe his method. Basically, "I decide to cover what’s newsworthy, then go out and shoot it." And what does he consider newsworthy? The best part about freelancing, he believes, is that he no longer has to spend time on "local stuff-the PTA mom and her kids, that kind of thing." Instead, "I photograph conventions, presidential visits, political gatherings, even train or plane wrecks-anything that could be considered a national issue." Neil's main focus these days is corporate work, though he still submits his editorial work to an agency. One project he especially remembers was a brochure for the National Physical Society, designed to recruit female high school and college students to become future physicists. Museums have become a particular specialty of his, and he's recently completed shoots for the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Children's Museum, among others. Usually, his photos are used in museum catalogs and brochures, and to document special events, though one project involved a larger campaign to make the Brooklyn Museum of Art "more people-oriented." The front of the museum received a facelift, patrons were given a place to congregate, and Neil’s photos documented the entire process, including the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the open house event. Over the past five years, Neil has steadily increased his use of digital equipment, and now estimates that he’s about "99% percent digital, with very few clients who still want film." He’s hesitant to entirely abandon chromes [slides], since it has yet to be determined how well digital images will hold up once they are archived. Also, though Neil stopped processing his own film when he started working for newspapers-he had no time, and the in-house machines were more reliable-hand-processing is still associated with a greater degree of artistic craftsmanship. Ultimately, of course, Neil says that the way a photo is processed is secondary to the image itself: "It's about how you see a picture, how you compose it in the camera rather than in the darkroom." Digital does have one significant advantage: the time factor. "When I have a rush job, I can actually take the image from a disk, do complete post-production work, transfer it to CD or DVD, and get it to the client the next day." He does offer one caveat about the relative ease and apparent magic of the digital process: "Take nothing out. If you're doing art, okay. But once you've manipulated an image, it's not the truth any more." TO READ MORE ABOUT NEIL SCHNEIDER PICK UP THE DECEMBER ISSUE OF INCREDIBLE PHOTOGRAPHY |
