Mr Ed Devine From San Francisco

One of our professors from photo school once told us that we should always send our subjects the pictures we had taken of them. He told us a story about an American trucker he wanted to photograph for an assignment. He thought that the truck driver might not be happy to be the centerpiece of the story and cautiously asked him if it would be alright to snap a couple of photographs. The truck driver however happily agreed and showed him a photo book that another photographer had put together. It contained many beautiful photographs of the truck and portraits of the driver. Our photo professor was very impressed with the book, but more so with the previous photographer who went through the trouble of printing all these photographs. That book had totally opened the door for him and his story. Before, our professor said, he never used to send photos to his subjects, or even worse, sometimes he would promise to send them and then lost their address or just plain forgot about it. But after seeing that book, he vowed to always send his subjects beautiful prints, not only because it was better for his karma, but also because it helped the following photographers who wanted to take pictures of that person.

I think of that story every time I photograph someone and they ask me if I could send them the pictures. I usually hand them my business card and tell them to contact me, and then if they do, I email the pictures. When I was on assignment in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, I met an older gentleman, Ed Devine, who was having breakfast in one of the restaurants I had to photograph.

After I took pictures of the interior of the place (with Ed in it), he asked to take my picture. It was very early and I had just come back from a walk in the rain, sans umbrella, so I looked like a wet seal. Nevertheless, he insisted on taking my picture, and said he would send it to me. I thought he meant he would email them to me, but when I came home from my trip, I found several prints and a charming letter in my mailbox. Although I look like crap in the picture, I was absolutely delighted. What a nice surprise! It made me realize again how important it is to send your subjects their portraits.

Here’s the letter, and the accompanying picture.