Hoboken Almanac - Interviews - An Interview with Richard Rabinowitz

Return to Hoboken Almanac

Interviews

An Interview with Richard Rabinowitz

Richard Rabinowitz is the Vice President and Group Publisher of the magazines Popular Photography and American Photo. He is also the founder of the photography workshop, Mentor Series, and oversees the production of the website, TakeGreatPictures.com. The busy Mr. Rabinowitz took time off on a Saturday afternoon in May, 2002, and spent an hour with us for the following interview.

Who are you, how old are you, and how long have you been in photography?

I'm 49 and a quarter, and I've been involved, beyond typical involvement, since 1975 because I'm married to a professional photographer, Jill Enfield, who is a very successful photographer. In fact, her father and grandfather were also photographers. And so, since I've been dating Jill, which is around 1975, I've been involved with photography, as an art form, mostly. I went over to Popular Photography around 1985, and I was the Associate Publisher there for three years, and then the company moved me to a fashion magazine, Elle. I'm not a fashion guy, and three years later I came back to American Photo and Popular Photography as the Group Publisher, in 1991 or somewhere around there.

Oh, so who am I? Well, I kind of tell you what I do at work. And at home, I am a dad, a husband. Two sweet daughters, 11 and 8. And, you know, just a guy trying to make it all work and bring things along.

What other art forms attracted you?

Certainly painting. Violet Baxter, we collect her works. Her studio for the last 18 years was in the building on West Union Sq. And you can see the beautiful paintings she has done on her view [pointing to one of the paintings on the wall]. I love all art forms, theatres, movies, novels, sculptures. I like to see people express themselves.

What sort of paintings do you prefer?

I think I prefer oil or acrylic, and I like something that can be remotely termed as realism. I'm not real big on abstract, which I grew up with.

What about novels?

Let's see what I'm reading now... Well, I've just started on the new Nick Hornby novel, what's it called? It's in the bedroom - Easy to be Good? [How to be Good] He wrote High Fidelity, which I've read and another one of his. Probably my favorite contemporary novelist is David Lodge, who has written about ten books and a couple of papers. He lives in England and teaches in Birmingham, he teaches college there. He writes about 50 year old men who on the surface have everything that supposedly 50-year-old men could want, but still are miserable. Wonderful dark humor - he's very good. I'm only 49 1/2 so I'm sure it's not that I relate to the characters.

And how about movies?

Gosford Park, I thought it was a wonderful movie. I like those old period pieces or whenever they somehow depict a world utterly and completely with costume and sets.

You like Robert Altman?

Yes, I've seen all his movies. Prêt-à-Porter, Nashville, Mash. He's one of my favorite directors. I like the old, uh, who's that German guy who sort of died of self-destruction? Fassbinder, I like Fassbinder.

Wim Wenders?

I don't like him. I am not crazy about his work. I liken him to the abstract paintings that somehow I don't connect with, but I've seen a lot of his work.

Why photography?

Well, being married to someone in photography and... I started thinking that I completed the PhD program, except the thesis, to be a psychologist, and that's what I was thinking that I was going to go into, as a therapist. Then I got this job in the marketing department while I was on campus for a magazine, and that led (to other opportunities) in the magazine business. And we moved to NY, and I just continued in the magazine business. One day the CEO called me and asked how would you like to see your wife's work on the cover of American Photo, and I said great, and that never happened, though she has been published in many other places. So, we're sort of a photography family.

How would you characterize your style as a publisher?

Kind of shoot from the hip. If something seems like there was potential there, even if it wasn't immediately clear, as to what specifically the potential might be, but somehow a concept or energy seem worthwile then we will back into making it work. Team effort, no bull shit, not really a lot of corporate phases and that sort of things.

Where do you think photography will go with the new technologies?

I think the picture is still the important thing, and in ten years, probably no one will call digital cameras digital cameras, but just cameras. And I think people still want pictures, more than they want equipment. While there are always (a group of people) who carefully focus on the equipment, I think the world at large is more interested in the pictures. Of course there is the scary aspect of, with digital photography does it permit the power structure to be more oppressive through casting illusions through pictures that are positioned as real, whether they are real or not. There is always that frightening aspect to photo-journalism. As far as art, I think it will create more fanciful and amazing things. I think digital photography has a chance to really bring a whole new dimension to art, entertainment and education.

When Alice in Wonderland was written so many years ago, (Lewis Carroll) described Hookah the smoking Caterpillars sitting on a mushroom. Well now, a digital photographer can really make one that looks real. And there is something really exciting about that, that can end up showing itself in all kinds of fiction and non-fiction; textooks, etc. can become more exciting. Even entertainment centers - maybe the kids can hear a story, and as they walk in, have their photographs taken, and after seeing all these wonderful digital images, of say, Alice in Wonderland, as they are leaving the store, get the book, and (when they) look closely at the table at the mad tea party, (they will find) themselves with the Rabbit, etc. Digital photography, I think, is going to really come into its own in the next decade.

What is your view on the ethics of these new technologies?

It's the ethics of the people using the technology, and I am absolutely frightedned to death. We see what can happen, we do!

What have you learned about yourself through your profession?

That if you put your mind to something and throw yourself into it, whether or not the outcome is exactly what you envisioned when you begin, it is not as important as pursuing something to your best ability for an outcome, and it can be a satisfying process.

If you were a teacher of young photographers, what would be your philosophy in the classroom?

To pursue your vision, to not pay that much attention to the teacher, to just keep doing it and doing it, enabling the equipment to become an extension of your sense of creative expression, and that your style will emerge if you just persevere.

Where do you see yourself within today's photography community?

Being married to a successful commerical photographer, I see myself with photographers, concerned about the world and pursuing interesting projects that let us all have fun and do something important.

How do you imagine your future as a publisher?

I hope that I can continue to work with photographers, whether it's enhancing the magazine, which is all about sucessful photographers; whether it's television shows that will take us to Kathmandu or Kansas; whether it's bringing along a hundred readers to take pictures together at Morocco or Manhattan; or a website, certainly, which we have already built a number of those. To continue to speak to the rest of the world - photography is the universal language.

Please let us know what you think of the interview - e-mail us at editorial@hobokenalmanac.com.

Return to Hoboken Almanac