Candles & Prayers, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2010

AFTER LOOKING AT 19 PHOTOGRAPHS, and having what I hope has been a productive discussion about the visual language, I’ve been resisting giving a checklist because I strongly suspect that anytime we reduce things to formulas or checklists, we remove from our art the creative and unique stamp that makes it ours to begin with. I’ve also yet to give you the experience I inflict on the students who join me on the workshops I’ve led with friends like Matt Brandon and Jeffrey Chapman. If you’ll remember, one of my first rules is that the photographer has to remain silent. I’ve been anything but. Barring the foolishness of artist statements, the photographer speaks through his photograph, and if the photograph isn’t strong enough to say that thing the photographer wanted to say....