Most of us can't imagine a world without images.  Granted, some can't imagine a world without instant messaging and emails, but I don't know anyone who adorns the walls of their office or home with text.  I've been working with pro photographers for the 10 years I've been at Kodak.  Nothing is more inspiring and rewarding.  With this new "Thousand Word" entry, I'll try and give you a brief glimpse into the passion and perspectives of some remarkable photographers.  Their work is all over my office and my home.  I can't imagine it any other way.

MARY ELLEN MARK is recognized as one of today's most respected and influential photographers in the world.  For over four decades, she has traveled extensively to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. Her images of our world's diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. She has achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work. She is a contributing photographer to The New Yorker and has published photo-essays and portraits in such publications as LIFE, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair.

A photo essay on runaway children in Seattle became the basis of the Academy Award nominated film STREETWISE, directed and photographed by her husband, Martin Bell.

Mary Ellen was presented with the Cornell Capa Award by the International Center of Photography in 2001. She has also received the Infinity Award for Journalism, an Erna & Victor Hasselblad Foundation Grant, and a Walter Annenberg Grant for her book and exhibition project on AMERICA. Among her other awards are the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Matrix Award for outstanding woman in the field of film/photography, and the Dr. Erich Salomon Award for outstanding merits in the field of journalistic photography. She was also presented with honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from her Alma Mater, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of the Arts; three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; the Photographer of the Year Award from the Friends of Photography; the World Press Award for Outstanding Body of Work Throughout the Years; the Victor Hasselblad Cover Award; two Robert F. Kennedy Awards; and the Creative Arts Award Citation for Photography at Brandeis University.

Q. What are you trying to achieve in your work?

Mary Ellen: I'm trying to make great images and that's not so easy. Great pictures are those that become iconic, the images that people remember and that have your signature on them. That's what I strive for but it's very difficult.

Q. What makes an image iconic?

Mary Ellen: It's very hard to define.  It has to be an image that evokes all kinds of feelings in the viewer.
It's the same thing with music, writing, and paintings. The work you remember is work that transcends the moment.

Q. Do you keep in touch with the people you photograph?

Mary Ellen: I'm really grateful to the people that have allowed me into their lives. I think it's very important, when it's possible, to keep in contact with those people. It's fascinating to see and document how people change and what life brings. I have been photographing Erin Blackwell (Tiny) since she was 13.  I photographed her and her nine children (she's about to have her tenth) for 25 years.  It has been an invaluable experience for me.

Q. What assignment or moment in your career has affected you the most?

Mary Ellen: That's an impossible question because it's cumulative. Every project I've worked on, whether it's Mother Teresa, the prostitutes in Bombay, Ward 81, or the Twins—all of them have affected me.  There's nothing more rewarding than looking at your contact sheets when you feel you've achieved something that is powerful.

Q. What do you believe is your ultimate responsibility as a photographer?

Mary Ellen: If you're a documentary photographer being honest and fair is your ultimate responsibility.

Q. What are the challenges of being a film photographer in a digital era.

Mary Ellen: Most photographers that I really admire are still shooting film. I've shot with Tri-X for more than 45 years and the look of my images has to do with that film stock.  Shooting digitally doesn't quite fit in with what I do. I love the look of Tri-X and it's taken me years to understand what it does.

I think digital has a real purpose and I respect it, but at the same time I think it's a big mistake that many schools have stopped teaching film and discontinued their darkrooms. Film and digital are different mediums and I think schools should teach both mediums and students should have the experience of both mediums.

Q: Why do you like Tri-X film?

Mary Ellen: I like the grain structure in Tri-X film.  I also like that Tri-X has a huge range especially when you rate it at 200. Tri-X is very much a part of the look of my photographs.

Q. What have you learned over the years?

Mary Ellen: I've learned everything from all of the different people that I've met and photographed over the years:  their similarities and their differences.

Q: Have you found a way to define what the common spark of humanity is that makes us all similar? 

Mary Ellen: The common threads of humanity exist in all of us -
love, hate, humor, tragedy, sadness, envy, greed. The important thing is to see the humanity in everybody.

Most of us can't imagine a world without images.  Granted, some can't imagine a world without instant messaging and emails, but I don't know anyone who adorns the walls of their office or home with text.  I've been working with pro photographers for the 10 years I've been at Kodak.  Nothing is more inspiring and rewarding.  With this new "Thousand Word" entry, I'll try and give you a brief glimpse into the passion and perspectives of some remarkable photographers.  Their work is all over my office and my home.  I can't imagine it any other way.

John Sexton is a revered photographer, master printmaker, author and workshop instructor.  He's best known for his luminous, quiet, black and white photographs of the natural environment.  He's the director of the John Sexton Photography Workshops program, and teaches numerous photography workshops each year for programs throughout the world including Anderson Ranch Arts Center, The Ansel Adams Gallery, Maine Photographic Workshops, emphasizing printing technique and mastery of the Zone System.

John's books include Recollections: Three Decades of Photographs, a retrospective volume, published in October 2006 by Ventana Editions; Quiet Light, a monograph representing fifteen years of his work; and, Listen to the Trees.

Q: What fascinates you about photography?

John: It's multi-faceted. It's a creative activity and at the same time, a technical one. I like to make the analogy between the craft of photography and the syntax of language. You have to have those basic skills in order to communicate. The term photography literally translates to 'writing with light'. Long ago, my friend and mentor Ansel Adams said that he still found it exciting, he still found it frustrating, and occasionally, difficult. That was a great lesson. I think the key is not necessarily photography; it is the creative process.

Q: How has being a photographer changed the way you look at the world?
John: I find myself paying more attention to the visual details of an experience. In my back pocket right now is a small piece of plastic, and cut into that is an opening the same proportion as my 4 x 5 view camera. So if I'm stuck in an airport, I can walk around without my camera and make mental photographs. It makes me see the world in the rectangular format of photography.

Q: Let's talk about your preference for black-and-white photography.
John: I suspect that goes back to a college photography class in 1973. We went on a trip to see an exhibition by three photographers: Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Wynn Bullock. I thought I wanted to be either an industrial or advertising photographer, and then we went to this exhibit and saw these black-and-white prints. It was the first time in my life I had tears come to my eyes when viewing a photograph.

Q: Do you see the world in black and white?
John: No, I'm looking at my desk right now and see a lot of different colored file folders. But if I think I'm going to make a photograph of my desk, I visualize and translate how those colors are going to work as shades of gray. I just love black and white. It's so bizarre to me that I can show you a picture that's black-and-white and you somehow think it represents reality. When's the last time you opened a window and it was black and white outdoors?

Q: What kind of light do you like to photograph in?
John: The right kind...

Q: Which is?
John:  That sounds like a ridiculous answer, but it's a light that suits the subject and your desires. Light is everything in a photograph. I really love soft light. When I'm teaching, if somebody needs assistance and I make a photograph, they often see it as a dull light but to me, it's luminous and subtle. Then I show them the results.

Q: Why do you like T-Max film?
John: T-Max gives me the smoothness, the fine grain and a sort of milky quality that I find desirable. I've made thousands and thousands of negatives on T-Max 100 and 400. No other photographic manufacturer can match Kodak's film-making history or the history of quality and consistency that's associated with it.

Q: Are there frustrations you still encounter?
John: I still make a picture with the lens cap on the lens. I end up with my cable in the frame; I can have the lens shade in my image; I can set the film speed wrong. But one of the more frustrating things that still happens is when you feel something, but somehow that magic just doesn't get on to the piece of film. There was something you were reacting to that was not something you could photograph.

Q: What do you carry when you go wandering through the landscape?
John: I have a pretty efficiently organized backpack which has my 4x5 camera and four to six lenses, my 4x5 ready-load film and conventional film holders, a carbon fiber lightweight tripod, and emergency gear. If you're going to be a landscape photographer, be prepared for the fact that it's a big world out there. I always take water and a jacket. Famous last words: 'I'm just going out to take a few pictures. I'll be back to the car in an hour.'

You can also see John's podcast at Kodak Close Up.