Transcript
Speaker: Hi, I'm Alan Finger. Welcome to the Genius of Nothing podcast. Nothing is no particular thing.
Speaker: It's all things at once. Genius.
Speaker: Okay, welcome everyone to the Genius of Nothing podcast. I'm Katrina in London with Sebastian in Sweden. Hello and thank you for being with us.
Speaker: And Alan in Florida. Namaste, good morning. And we've got a super special guest today, Robert Sturman, who is has just told me he's in Santa Monica.
Speaker: Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Covering everywhere. Covering everywhere. So, Robert, i as I said earlier, watched your TED Talk, not knowing much about you. Alan has been talking about you.
Speaker: oh i have this student who does yoga photos, and I've never really... looked you up and i did in preparation for this show. And I have to say, you make me want to be a better person. Everything that you're doing is so I'm a fan. um And I know, you know, you have known Al, but I don't know for how long we don't know each other at all. So do you want to tell us a little bit about how you found yoga and found Al? And then we can talk a little bit more about the cool things you do.
Speaker: Well, thank you so much for having me, first of all. And I found yoga. I grew up in Los Angeles. So Al brought yoga here and I found it when I was a kid, pretty much. When I was 19, I went to my I had my girlfriend work behind the desk at Yoga Works. And so I did my first class there.
Speaker: And just over the years, I did a class here and a class there, but didn't really start immersing myself in it until I was probably about 30 years old. I'm 55 now.
Speaker: um I'm just speeding along, but because get to the good part. So I met Al where at Kripalu. He, uh,
Speaker: We just kind of, we were both teaching for um the yoga Yoga Love Magazine Summit, Art and Yoga Summit. And he just, um we we just caught eyes and, and, and,
Speaker: hung out a little bit and then he would always be sitting at the cafeteria the cafe downstairs every time I would walk he would just look at me and and just say please come come sit down I've been waiting for you
Speaker: what year was this I think it probably was 2017
Speaker: okay So you didn't know him back in the yoga works days when he was in L.A.? No, I didn't know him. No. The first time I saw him was on the cover of it was Yoga Life magazine.
Speaker: That was the first time I saw him. And then at Kripalu, Robbie, what happened? Well... he proceeded to tell me that I know nothing about the technical side of photography, which kind but it sounds about right which is by the way, your profession. Am I correct?
Speaker: But, but it was, it was absolutely 100% true. And because I always was an artist and my My desire to create poetry from feeling was so strong that it was able to carry me for many years as a successful artist, but he saw that I was missing something that I had truly longed to integrate in my life, and that was to build a bridge between art and science.
Speaker: And he saw that I lacked that. And that's when he started to proceed to be the biggest pain in the ass I've ever had in my life. And I was extremely resistant.
Speaker: And there were moments when he nudged me for maybe three years before I started to take him seriously. I mean, really nudged me. you know and And then I needed a new camera, so I flirted with the idea and brought it up to him, and he just started foaming at the mouth. because yeah Yeah, he does that.
Speaker: so excited it convert me. and And so I finally embraced it and moved into newer technology,
Speaker: And I got to tell you, for the first three, six months, I had a deal with him that I could call him at any time, middle of the night, whenever I had a problem, and he would stop a yoga class, whatever I needed.
Speaker: And I got to tell you that for the first six months, I was not sure if he was playing a trick on me. He would make wife miserable. And I almost called Sarah...
Speaker: and Satya and his son just to see if this is what he does to people and for us to start a club so that we could survive Alan. Yeah, absolutely. So then do you feel that he has helped you become a better photographer?
Speaker: I mean, that that's an understatement. He helped me to not just become a better photographer, but to step into ah kind of like a like a more of a da Vinci type of spirit that embraces opposites and holds space for them both. And not to say...
Speaker: I'm too old to do this, or I'm an artist, I don't need to do that, I'm into literature, I don't need to be into numbers. So all the things that I long to do it It pushed me to be able to embrace that. And photography was just the first part. And he absolutely is responsible for getting me interested and unafraid of of doing things that I was ideologically conditioned to believe I was not good at. Wow. So once you started doing yoga and meditation, do you feel like that added something to your photography? Did it change your way of shooting, your way of interacting with people? Did it change the dynamics in your photos? did it um
Speaker: Could you see before-after kind of effect of of the practice, not directly or you know right away, but over time? I think for one of the things is that...
Speaker: Sure, the the meditation i know is absolutely essential, but just the concept of stepping into embracing genius consciousness is and listening to Al how he just had an epiphany and understood light and how cameras work and photography and just being inspired to tap into genius consciousness has really, that has changed my life more than anything else, knowing that our potential is genius. Yeah, and and it's been, I must say, everything Robbie said is true.
Speaker: And I just wanted to add one thing is that when I did see his work, I saw amazing art and amazing feeling and everything.
Speaker: And I looked at the pictures and as you guys know, I sort of looked and I thought, he needs to learn photography, this guy. True. and it's true and so yeah i and and the reason i so love to do it as i did with sebastian and little bit with katrina and photography but it's like you know i'm old and i'm eighty and i've been through it and i've had studios and done all that in life But yet I wanted to be able to share and see someone blossom with the technology side of photography
Speaker: as well as the art side. And so Rob was just like a ah perfect blend for that. And so I've really enjoyed seeing his photography change from brilliant art into brilliant photography as well, and to have genius come through, where he's really capturing even more in the feel of the people that he photographs. It's kind of amazing.
Speaker: It is amazing. And I was so inspired by looking at your photographs and your person who, you know, a person who goes into places that are pretty extreme, like prisons and works with people. And you were talking about your dog and how important it was to meet people on their own level and not look down on people. And the message is very inspiring, but the photographs were also very beautiful. And to me, you seem to have found your unique voice
Speaker: And I don't know if ah for me, yoga helped me find my unique voice, and it continues to help me find my unique voice. But was it something that brought you, were you already doing a lot of that before you became a yogi? Or you've been at studying since you were 19. So has it just evolved like that, that you've gotten more comfortable with going into more extreme situations and finding beauty in them?
Speaker: Well, I think the the extreme situations were never an issue. That was just something that I always wanted to do, especially being in a an industry that when I first started photographing yoga, it was...
Speaker: It was so homogenous and um it was just portraying a ah very wealthy um group of of humanity. It seemed to be. And I just I wanted to balance that out and tell the whole story of.
Speaker: the whole world practicing yoga and healing together and which is what I was seeing. And so that was never a problem, but where yoga really played a role for me was that, like I said, with the way Alan helped me build bridges was it helped me to become all the things that I learned was afraid to become like a ah speaker, like doing public speak, like doing that Ted talk. That was a a massive accomplishment to have my my thoughts and my words my words and my cadence and everything in alignment and to approach the same level of
Speaker: of expertise that the actual photographs have. So I think that being able to do all of those things is what is is what my yoga journey has has been. And Alan was a pivotal part of that.
Speaker: So think it'd be interesting to see your photos a little bit more. So if you can just tell people where they can, your website, where they can kind of see your photos. and And also explain a little bit about your photos because you you you take these pictures mostly of people who are in prison doing yoga or military people, amputees, petise and you know these very, very strong and and and sad sometimes photos and happy. And they're like, it's all the emotions.
Speaker: And could you describe a little bit why you wanted to do this kind of work? It's robertsturmanstudio.com or just on Instagram at robertsturmanstudio.
Speaker: And before anybody else goes any further, I'd like to comment myself that I thought that the TED Talk was filled with pauses.
Speaker: And you were talking about the cadence. And there were some pauses where I thought, wow, I don't think I would be able to pause like that because it's giving so much space and when you're new to public speaking, you think you need to fill space. But I could see the yoga in the amount of time you were able to take for people to absorb what was in front of them and you didn't feel this great need to rush in and over complicate things in their mind. You you let the the talk breathe. Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you. Yeah, i worked very hard on that one. And we'd wake up at three o'clock in the morning to practice. And it was just, it was it was definitely something that I wanted to bring that that whole, my life's work up until that point together into one vision. And and for me, there's I know I'm i'm talking to yoga people right now, but i I wanted this message and I want these images to be understood by people who have never heard of yoga, seen yoga, practiced yoga, because there's a ah universal language that I feel like I'm quoting through the people that I'm working with of human beings and
Speaker: striving to be their best, to be our best. And we are immersed in a subculture of healing where all around me are these models and the poetic language of their bodies is reaching towards greatness, is is opening the heart, is slowing down, is finding stillness. And so it's the perfect It's the perfect language to me for me to tell a story that's been told throughout the history of art, of human beings aspiring towards something greater, to touch the divine.
Speaker: Even in animals and pet photography and animal photography, Rob caught so much in his dog, Otis.
Speaker: that Otis is like a human being. You can see his feelings in the pictures. Let me back up and explain to you that um it's not just, they weren't just photographs because my dog happens to be just a really beautiful creature. It was, there was, there was a deeper drive to that. My, um,
Speaker: You know, I'd always gone into prisons and and photographed the military telling a story of human beings healing and police officers. and But I wanted to do so things with animals. And Otis happens to be an animal testing survivor. He's got the big numbers tattoo under his ear. And what that means is they used him. he was born amongst hundreds of thousands of dogs that are used to...
Speaker: to test everything from tobacco to to Clorox and anything, you name it, they they test it. And it's it's ah it's a massive business where they've been doing it for years and they usually dispose of the animals after they're done testing on them. And Otis happened to be ah an extreme case of animal testing and ah the Freedom Project that rescued him ah negotiated because they wanted, they usually 99% of the time they will euthanize the dog. And so now with our, now that he's my buddy, we're on a mission together to raise awareness about animal testing. And there you have it. That's why I needed to not let him down and make the most exquisite photographs that I can possibly make of him to tell his story.
Speaker: about evolving into a more cruelty-free society. Yeah, beautiful. Yeah. That's something that, as a dog owner myself, I can't even understand how you can do that to another living being.
Speaker: But I wanted to go back and say one more thing about what really caught my attention about Alan. ah First of all, he was the funniest man I've ever met. i I thought for sure he was a...
Speaker: He taught abdominals because I laughed so hard I had a six-pack at the time Kripalu was over. So he when he spoke to me about... um Because I have done so much work with post-traumatic stress disorder, photographing people that are healing. And the way he described his father and how yoga came to his father and and the way he described shell shock...
Speaker: it i is it It was as if I was listening to the first story of the first soldier that used yoga and meditation to heal from the horrors of war.
Speaker: That was my dad, yeah. So did he ever get any treatment for his PTSD or for the shell shock? Did he ever get any professional help? Well, they didn't they they called it shell shock in those days because it was really from the war, and which which is part of post-traumatic stress syndrome and because many veterans have that.
Speaker: And um of course he turned to alcohol, as many do, but then to drugs and he was just gone. And your dad didn't even really know he had post-traumatic stress disorder. It wasn't a thing then. He just came. He had been on many in homes and he was in and out of homes.
Speaker: And my grandfather sent him to business, to to his businesses, and one of them was a business trip to America. And Yogananda was giving the lecture in the hotel where he was.
Speaker: and changed his life. That's what Yogananda said. i think I've said the story before, but turned his life and sent him to India, back to Africa to become, he said, a famous yogi.
Speaker: I got really lucky that he went on that trip, changed his life forever. But Robert, could you could you perhaps tell us a little bit about your training from before? Were you always trained as a photographer? or Or did you have an original training in something else? And also perhaps a little bit of why you shoot the way you shoot.
Speaker: Well, i was I was trained as a painter originally. And um so I was very much interested in just capturing a Beautiful idealistic type of interpretation of life. But then what happened was, so I did this massive series of yoga and and then but i I was also trained as a photographer as well. And then I was able to somehow integrate the two. And what happened was, because I always longed to be a National Geographic type of photographer, and then beyond just seeing beautiful yogis and capturing them on Main Street, on the Pacific Ocean, just practicing yoga like it was...
Speaker: Picasso's acrobats in the south of France. It was really beautiful series. But that's when I started, i was invited into a prison. And that's when an actual soldier asked if she could wear her uniform to do a shoot. And when I started to see that I had an opportunity to photograph all of humanity using this language, that's when it really, really began for me. because I could tell a full story of the human condition and a positive story. Like what do you hear? You most of the time, all you hear about prison is people ah getting stabbed or, you know, and and in you just hear negative stories all the time. And this gave me the opportunity to celebrate very positive things.
Speaker: but One of the most striking images to me in your talk that I just watched was of a soldier, I assume, his prosthetic legs, his prosthetic lower legs were on his mat and he was in handstand with his, just his thighs up to the knee. And you could, i i i the story was so striking, but equally I almost wanted the story of him and how you found him and how he ended up finding yoga. All these stories, to me, your images made me want to know more. You explained one of the images of a retired, i think it was a naval colonel who teaches yoga now, but the people's lives behind these images are really fascinating to understand. And you must you said some of them became friends of yours or... Of course. That's yeah that's Dan Nevins. he was in He's an army veteran and his legs were blown off in ah the first Iraq war, i believe. and um
Speaker: And after that, somehow he did he found yoga. i believe he found Baron Baptista's yoga. and And just it it saved his life. Amazing.
Speaker: But it's fascinating to me because, you know, you're you're you're coming into these very extreme environments sometimes, prisons, and, and you know, you're you're dealing with people that have had great trauma or PTSD and, you know, a lot a lot of pain and suffering. and And how do you make those people kind of trust you and open up to you and, and you know, find a confidant in in you? and because Because that's always the thing with, you know, photography when you do portrait photography, you know, to to really connect with the person and and to be able to bring something out of them to to that you really see in the in the shot. So how do you make that connection?
Speaker: Well, I think I'm lucky in the way that I've got a resume. And most of the time when I work with people, they've seen my work and know that i'm I'm up to good. I'm not exploiting people. I'm celebrating them. So that creates trust right there. But if I don't know them, it's just, I mean, I really strongly believe it's an energy because they just...
Speaker: Before thoughts and judgments come into place, I mean, you guys all know this. You you just you know the answer before there's the words and like you just know.
Speaker: So i I used to, when I first started to go into prisons, I would paint I used to just have a camera that was blue. I painted it blue to remind myself that I was an artist and and just carry that art spirit with me. And I think that because i at first they, I carried that in, they just probably thought I was a They didn't take me too seriously.
Speaker: And then i I believe that I just had smiled and and cared. they just If they know that you care, I think that that's where the trust is is built. because i mean But with photography, you do have to build trust because the camera has been used to exploit people. from so long and that's one of the reasons why I changed it within myself that I never take pictures of people because taking is stealing and I prefer to think of it and feel it as making photographs with with somebody and it's a collaborative effort and there's two artists creating something so I think that's how but there's not a lot of words that are spoken with it I think it's
Speaker: This might sound airy-fairy, but I think it's just a vibe. And you said you started out painting in the yoga and painting the the prisons. Is that is that right? so it was No. no i didn't paint I didn't go and paint ah realistic subject matter like that. No.
Speaker: i I just was fascinated with the history of painting. like I was very moved by the work of so many painters, you know, from looking at the Sistine Chapel to Van Gogh, um Mary Cassette, Frida Kahlo. I mean, so many artists made, Marc Chagall made such a deep impression on on me that I, that at first I was a photographer, a black and white photographer, but then I was fascinated with painting because I saw it as, wow, you can actually make something from nothing. And it took, I spent years doing it and i was fairly okay at it, but it was, it never became natural. It was always work, a muscle. And then I eventually went back to photography because I realized how, what a luxury it is to just be able to push the damn button and, and make a piece of art so that it showed me how,
Speaker: ah how natural it is for me to make photographs over sitting there using a paintbrush. But in between, Robbie, tell them how you went to Polaroids and then shifted the emulsion. Yeah, that that is the... Okay, so I was a somewhat of a documentary photographer for a while, and then I learned this...
Speaker: ah Then I started to learn painting and then I learned this photography process with a Polaroid camera and film in which the the Polaroid picture came out of the camera instantly. And then the emulsion, the, the,
Speaker: paint in the film, the the pigment, had ah it was malleable for a window of time in which I could sit down and warm up the picture and then use different tools like pen caps, dental tools, car keys, to actually go in and meticulously carve into the surface and create a very painterly photograph.
Speaker: See, I wasn't going to get into that because it's a little technical, but that... But that process really helped me integrate photography and painting. And it was before Photoshop was invented. so it it was It was all done by hand using the pigment that was already in the instant film. And what happened was yeah I could create these incredible photographs. And that took me all over the world.
Speaker: And it took me it it it took me into um being able to do things for for the Olympics and the Grammy Awards. And I really had a lot of success. And I left this part out about how my yoga...
Speaker: journey really got started was when Polaroid went out of business and that film became obsolete and I was at the height of my career. And so I had to reinvent myself. And right around then is when I started to do yoga and I devoted my last series of Polaroid, my my last ah batch of film, about a thousand exposures to the study and celebration of impressions of yoga.
Speaker: But let me tell you one more thing that I learned from that process because it was before Photoshop was invented. I didn't have those God awful words that say I'll fix it later in Photoshop.
Speaker: So what that forced me to do was pay attention. E be in the zone slow down, see, and hit my target and just not make mistakes because I had to, the light had to be perfect.
Speaker: the The composition had to be perfect. What the model was doing had to be perfect. and And then the carving had to be perfect. If any of those things went wrong, the Polaroid picture would be in the trash can. And i you know I'm ah budgeting and each Polaroid is $1.50, so I don't want to make mistakes. And that taught me how to pay attention and be in the moment and not give myself an excuse for mediocrity.
Speaker: And that's kind of interesting now when we live in an age of AI and how you can create photos in just a second. You don't have to go to Paris. You can just render a photo. um and And I still think, though, even though AI is really good and it's really only going to get better,
Speaker: I think or I kind of feel like when I'm shooting, especially when you shoot portraits, like there is something, there's a connection that you get, an energetic connection to people that kind of brings something out of them. And and the amazing thing is that it's never really spoken.
Speaker: You don't really have to speak. You don't have to say so much. just It's it's it's a glance. It's you know it's just... there and it's kind of beautiful because it's kind of you kind of feel it and it really shows up in the photos completely yeah absolutely So it's it's really that that connection that you get is something that you kind of practice in meditation because you have to be present to be able to have that connection with another human being or an animal or whatever it is.
Speaker: So there's something in neurology that is called the default mode network, DMN for short, and it kind of works. It's different brain regions that are linked together, and it kind of works like an autopilot. It goes on when we're daydreaming, reminiscing about the future, the past.
Speaker: So you can kind of start to understand that it kind of brings us out from the now and into a daydream kind of more. And that's the opposite of really what you want when you're shooting. You kind of want to be present, you want to be focused, you'd be right there. And meditation is all about, you know, effortless concentration.
Speaker: And it can translate into your photography and you have an ability to actually be more still and more focused and right there in your shot. And it makes you see things that you didn't see before. And for me, it shifted my photography totally. Yeah.
Speaker: Genius of nothing. Inspiration comes through only when you're still. And for any good artist, they have to be still for that for them to feel what they're seeing and doing. So I think that...
Speaker: Yeah, exactly what you're saying is that word, I don't know quite what you said, some letters for it in DMN. But DMN is eka grata.
Speaker: You can become one with your subject. Are you able to do life as brilliantly as you do photography as you're in the moment with photography? you you as enlightened in life as you are with the camera? Oh, I wish. That would be amazing. I would have such a great life. It would be just fantastic. But no, fortunately not. i But I do think that photography keeps teaching me photography you know, be the observer and you don't have to engage in everything. And when you observe, you know, you see things you never saw before.
Speaker: i like, I, if I could be as good at life as I am with the camera, like for instance, like I never tell a model to move. i just move because I realized that if I just move an inch, the whole world changes, but in real life, I'm telling everybody to change.
Speaker: God, maybe I should take up photography. keep telling you that. I mean, guys, even once you're talking, you have done four pictures. Of course you have.
Speaker: Ali, you should really have a disclaimer on your house when people come over because if if you come into your house, you will be photographed to death. There will be a million headshots of you when you leave.
Speaker: There is, like, no one gets away with it like it. Not only will you be photographed, like, a few minutes later, there'll be this massive print that you have to live with looking at yourself for the next however long you're going to be there on the kitchen counter. Yeah. wow If you're lucky, he'll Photoshop it. Or he just takes a giant portrait of you, prints it out massively big, and it kind of felt like, okay, I need to bring this home. So on my way home, was stopping off in New York. I stayed in Idaho Hotel. And when I came back in the afternoon to go to the airport...
Speaker: The photo was gone. Somebody had stolen that huge like portrait of me. And I'm baffled to even to today. like Who would steal you know a portrait of somebody? like I'm not that good looking. I'm not that kind of special. I'm not famous. and not That is funny. Why would you steal something like that? You might be on the side of in Times Square or something. Blown up. Yeah, who knows? That would be fun. But I don't think so. I think somebody got very disappointed.
Speaker: You know why do photography? Because when my mind is still, I see light falling on things and making them alive.
Speaker: And so whatever my dristy, awareness stops on, it's like a photograph, whatever it is. So I just snap it and print it and fix it and blow it up and then give it away.
Speaker: but al How do you so I know Robert was saying that you've helped him immensely with the technical side, but as we know, you're not a reader. So clearly, all of the learning that you've done about the technical side of yoga, which I would think would require, like reading manuals and understanding things. has been done very intuitively by you. And you have told the story before about how being in meditation with your dad, you saw how photography worked and knew everything about it. And I would love to be more artistic. I appreciate art. I look at lots of art. I look at lots of photography. But and nothing's ever really come to me as a, it's that's an and anti-intellectual exercise. I'm always sort of looking for the inspiration to sit down and like put a, I don't know, paint on somewhere, but it never works out.
Speaker: it's not First of all, I'd like to correct you because you don't just look once. I got you to start photography because you wanted something creative.
Speaker: Yeah. And you started doing beautiful pictures where you turned the camera yeah and got like the time lapse of the subject as you were. They were phenomenal.
Speaker: Yeah. And then you stopped. I would suggest you start again. Because it's a wonderful way of being able to see and capture things uniquely for you.
Speaker: And you you are very, very expressive and you just need the right tool. And I don't know if it's, I mean, I only only know photography, but I'm not sure.
Speaker: If it were painting, would also, or whatever it might be, is fine. But I have seen that ability in you. Yeah, but when we're talking about, you know, the right equipment, you have to kind of mention that Al is actually the one person in the world that changes cameras more often than anybody I've ever known. It's incredible the speed he changes and shifts gears. So i was using a Canon.
Speaker: i wasn't attached to Canon other than I was, they get you hooked in because you start collecting their lenses. And so you need to continue with that. But it wasn't I wasn't attached to it. But when it was time for me to move ah to mirrorless technology, Al was using Sony at the time.
Speaker: And I wanted to get the one for $1,000 cheaper and this, that, and the other. And it it all looked the same to me. And it was a huge step. But he was such...
Speaker: He would not, Robbie, Robbie, you must get this, you know, just on and on and on about how I had to have this one. um So I got that one. I just said, all right, if this guy's going to be, if he's going to devote so much time to making my life miserable, there must be some kind of reason behind it.
Speaker: So I bought it. And we worked. And also because I wanted to be in, I thought, okay, well, if I don't buy this, he's going to let me in his club. oh And he he said that he said, it'll be fun. We'll have our club. It'll just we'll talk photography. So I thought, OK, this is an opportunity. I better say yes to this. So I did.
Speaker: And I think that we worked on it for a couple of months. But then one day he said, Robbie, Robbie, I sold my camera. i have this now. I moved to Nikon. So he completely left the club.
Speaker: And you know what? it didn't bother me at all. But to me, it's my tool. It's just a paintbrush. It's my instrument. and And in order to be able to capture what I'm seeing...
Speaker: I need the best tool to do that, one that can do it. And, of course, my vision is extremely, what would you say, accurate, particular?
Speaker: Acute. Acute. And so I want to see, i want to be able to capture exactly, exactly what I'm seeing. And that's why, to me, I change the camera. It's nothing.
Speaker: I love it. But you know what? With Robbie, I've said to him, Robbie, don't change. ah but Rob, what's your camera? I have a Sony a7R5, but I feel like I would have been fine with 3 or the no, no. Exactly.
Speaker: There you go. He's having a slip again. This technology, like i' I'm trained on Photoshop. I would be willing to admit that I probably only know 1% of what Photoshop can do. And I've been using it for 25 years. And I feel like this camera has so much power. Wow.
Speaker: that I will never use all that, but he's always going to be there saying, no, no, no, Robbie. No, no, no. In my experience, Al always forces you to take the most expensive option.
Speaker: but Oh, yeah. and Unfortunately, that's usually the best. What can I say, you know? Especially in photography. but But you know what? I now said to Robbie, no, no, you're great. You're great with what you got. I'm not pushing him anymore.
Speaker: I can see. If something comes, sure, I'll be back knocking on Robbie's door. But at the moment, things are great for you. And you have the perfect camera. And it's an amazing camera, the Sony, the one you have.
Speaker: So, Robert, what what would you do if you weren't a photographer? Well, first, let me just ah tell you a quote that inspired my life as an artist. There's a few.
Speaker: But when someone asked Picasso, what he he who Pablo, what would you do if they sent you to prison and they took away your your supplies?
Speaker: He said, I'd spit on my finger and draw on the wall. So I feel like what Whatever we do, like for me, what would I do if I didn't have a camera?
Speaker: I would just... yeah I think ultimately what I would do if if I was truly skilled, I would just walk around and smile at people.
Speaker: That sounds like a good job. Because that's all I'm doing with a camera anyways is reflecting back to people that they're beautiful, that they're worthy, that they're okay, that they're worthy of being seen. so And there was another story that really inspired my career too. And it's ah it's an article I read in the...
Speaker: the New Yorker when I was in art school. And it was about the history of all the people that survived jumping off of the Golden Gate Bridge. And they interviewed all these people and every single one of them said that they regretted it the whole way down.
Speaker: And some people even jumped twice and survived and regretted it both times. And But what really struck me about this story is that a young man in his early 30s had jumped and the coroner went to his house. And when he walked in, it was about two miles away from the bridge. And he saw a note on the entry table and it said, I'm walking to the bridge.
Speaker: If one person smiles at me, I won't jump.
Speaker: Amazing. Beautiful. So that little thing is i carry into me with like the excuse to hold the phone and make a photograph of somebody is seeing others with respect and honoring that they are here.
Speaker: Beautiful, Robbie. Really beautiful. What an amazing conversation. Thank you for coming on the podcast to share that with us. Thank you. You guys are a great team.
Speaker: but serious we' We've grown into it. It's really wonderful. I'm also very excited to see what you're going to do in the future because I think this work you're doing is very, very important. And yeah, I can't wait to see what you're going to do next. And likewise, I want to you know, whenever I'm on a podcast, I feel like such a yeah a selfish guy because it's, you know, because I want to ask you guys questions about your life. And we didn't get to that, but I want i want to learn more about your work.
Speaker: sobel Robbie, you can come on again. This is the you know the one-timer. I'd love to come on and interview the the two of you. Alan, you can just relax. I'll just sit quiet, yes.
Speaker: i'll send that i might take a few pictures. but Beautiful. thank you Thank you so much, Robbie. Really moving.
Speaker: Thank you. Don't forget, in the moment, there's genius. within whatever your profession or your life brings you to. Namaste. Namaste, everyone. Namaste.
Speaker: Thank you again, Robert. Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us today and have a super wonderful week. Namaste.
