The Humanitarian Eye of Bill Wright

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For more information about Bill Wright, please see:

http://www.wrightworld.com

Bill Wright’s photographs are in permanent collections in the British Library in London; the Newberry Library in Chicago; the Princeton Collections of Western Americana in the Princeton University Library; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin; the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth; the Anthropology Archives of the Smithsonian Institution; the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.; and in other institutions and private collections. Wright has received many awards for his work including the Leica Medal of Excellence. He is represented by the Stephen L. Clark Gallery in Austin, the John Cleary Gallery in Houston, and the Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery in Dallas.

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The Humanitarian Eye of Bill Wright

Bill Wright describes himself as a fine art documentary photographer. Besides being a master photographer specializing in dramatic black & white images, he is also an eloquent author, ethnologist and born historian with a keen eye for the human condition. He has mounted numerous photography exhibitions and has published several books, including two photographic studies on Native American tribes: The Texas Kickapoo: Keepers of Tradition and The Tiguas: Pueblo Indians of Texas. His most recent work includes Portraits from the Desert: Bill Wright’s Big Bend (1998) and People’s Lives: A Photographic Celebration of the Human Spirit ( 2001). (The Texas Outback: Ranching on the Last Frontier by Bill Wright and June Van Cleef is Bill’s forthcoming book to be released by Texas A&M University Press in Spring 05.)

In his statement for People’s Lives, Wright describes how his lifelong passion for photography opened wide for him the world of diverse people, cultures and experiences, leading to memorable moments and close friendships - "visual bridges joining our lives." He also spoke of how photographs were "windows of opportunity."

With many thousand images I couldn't begin to estimate the time I would have to invest to find a specific image without an organizing system such as iView MediaPro.

Given the wealth of experience and visual reality Wright has explored - capturing details such as specific places, times, subjects recorded, and technical information - it has become increasingly critical for him to have a way of organizing and identifying his work.

"It is very important to me to be able to quickly locate specific photographs dealing with narrowly defined subject matter," Bill reports. "My wife is also a photographer [editor’s note: a highly accomplished photographer]. Because we use the same digital imaging equipment (Nikon D100) and are often shooting the same scenes when traveling, it is especially necessary to keep our material clearly identified."

When he began the digital management process, Wright used basic photo management software that came with his Nikon camera, a "lite" version of Canto’s Cumulus.

When he was ready to invest in a full-featured photo management software application, before simply going with the full Cumulus version he decided to check with photographers he knew and respected who had similar organizational and functionality needs. These recommendations plus some trial and error on his own led him to iView MediaPro.

Today, Wright relies on iView MediaPro to manage his 5,540 photographs (unscanned slides and negatives number over 50,000) for developing books, organizing exhibitions, and responding to requests from editors for specific images. He also uses it in his workshops and seminars.

The Wright Workflow

iView asked Wright to talk specifically about how he is using iView MediaPro. He provided the following description:

"When returning from a shoot, I always dump my portable hard drive and any files left on flash cards into a folder on my desktop. When that folder reaches 4 GB, I burn it all onto a DVD. At the same time, I copy them to my hard drive file so that they can be accessed by iView MediaPro. I batch rename the files appropriately and my staff assistant assigns keywords to specific files that I have identified as more likely to be used in the future.

"When a file is printed or converted to another file format, I create a folder for that image and place all versions within it. For example, perhaps an editor requests a polar bear photograph. I will convert several photographs of bears to .jpg files for transmission and each will go into a separate folder along with the raw file that produced it. If one of these images is printed, the master file, usually a .psd or .tif, will also be placed there. It is wonderful to be able to review your files after a keyword search and see the options available. I can see each file type version of the image and easily select the one I need for the situation at hand.

I find that iView MediaPro’s most useful features are: the ability to move easily from identifying the image to sending it to Photoshop for processing, and its ability to sort, batch rename and organize files.

As an iView MediaPro customer for several years now, Wright comments that the program is both so powerful and so flexible that he knows he could tap into even more useful features, including non-photo file type management.

Meantime, his investigative nature and ability to draw out stories from his subjects continue to allow him to connect people and inspire new creative efforts. Recently, Wright has begun to focus on the stories of World War II veterans. When the son of one of his interviewees heard about his father’s escape from a concentration camp, he went on to make a documentary film that is now scheduled to be released next year. To learn more about Wright’s world and expand your own, please visit his Web site, aptly named: www.wrightworld.com.