By Conor Risch

Last year, Lewis Blackwell had the idea to create Photowisdom: Master Photographers on Their Art, a new book (published by PQ Blackwell/Chronicle Books) that considers current photographic practice through interviews with 50 leading photographers. Recognizing that the medium has reached a particularly interesting point in its trajectory, Blackwell, a photography editor, writer and curator who was formerly creative head of Getty Images, felt it was a perfect time to introduce a project in which a wide range of photographers shared their ideas, philosophies and personal experiences.

Beginning early this year, Blackwell approached a diverse group of photographers, from Edward Burtynsky to Platon, Loretta Lux to Stephen Shore, and conducted original interviews for the book, talking with each photographer about their techniques and vision, what the medium means to them and why they were drawn to photography in the first place. (Only two of the photographers' statements were taken from previous interviews.) Blackwell then worked with each photographer to edit down and refine the text, and selected images that represented the photographers' work.

Chuck Close explains that the increasing difficulty of creating a recognized signature style makes photography the most difficult artistic medium. Elliot Erwitt, among other photographers, laments that young people are finding it harder to get started and progress in a photography career. "I think the best thing for a young photographer to do today is to be an heir," he says.

"A lot of people put their intellectual concerns first with photography, but I think it is a discipline that is at first a visceral one," Joel Meyerowitz relates. Platon says that studying and interacting with people are, to him, the most important things about his photographic practice, and points out that his own humility is essential to the dynamic between him and his subject when he makes a portrait.

Lux notes that her work draws more on the history of painting than on photography, and points out that digital technology allows her an important level of control in her image-making. Shore delves into the "analytic" nature of the photography process. "[You are] starting with the whole world in front of you and placing an order on it," Shore says.

"It surprised me how much [working on the book] refueled my own passion for photographers and photography, and discussion of photography," Blackwell says. The book should have a similar effect on anyone who picks it up.

Some photographers were more involved in editing the text than others, says Blackwell. "I think it shows in the depth we managed to get in some of the interviews, where people really wanted a point to come across and they worked hard to make sure that did happen."

Blackwell believes the book's value lies in the variety of the photographers' statements, which demonstrate the many ways one can work in photography and also the "diversity of what photography means to society." The texts are, for the most part, accessible and free of jargon, which means that they can potentially reach a broad range of people—from enthusiasts to students and aspiring professionals. But Blackwell also hopes the book is something his and the photographers' peers will recognize as a "credible and interesting statement of this time."