Richard Dorr

Photography – Philadelphia

Joe Rosenthal said, of the photograph he took on February 23, 1945 of the United States (U.S.) Marines raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima, “When you take a picture like that, you don’t come away thinking that you got a great shot. You don’t know.” His iconic photograph was printed in Sunday newspapers on February 25, 1945 and soon after became the most impactful and most recognizable image of World War II for the United States. It also became the first image to win a Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication. Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima has undoubtedly influenced my photography journey, and life. Rosenthal’s picture is everything that a photograph should be: influential, inspirational, prevailing, and tells a story without containing words. Rosenthal’s photograph of the U.S. Marines on “Iwo” is so influential to me because I marvel at how one photograph could make such an impression upon the world! I thought, “if one photo can have that kind of impact than Photography must become a hobby of mine.” In the summer of 2013, following over a decade of federal active duty service in the United States Army (a decision Rosenthal’s photograph had a role in), I signed up for my first Photography class at Leeward College in Pearl City, Hawaii. I had to drop out early due to the death of my late grandmother, Alice Dorr, but I didn’t stop pursuing Photography. Following the funeral of my late grandmother, Alice, I moved to Maine to reconnect with nature and myself. It was in Maine, with its mostly untouched landscape, that I was drawn to Landscape Photography. After a few years, I moved to Philadelphia, where I’m originally from. While driving the home stretch, along Interstate 95 North (I-95), Philadelphia’s magnificent skyline came into view. As I crossed over Philadelphia’s iconic bridge, Benjamin Franklin Bridge, I took a moment to appreciate the city’s skyline in a way I never have before. In fact, I never really appreciated before then. I knew at that moment, cityscapes would be my new passion in Photography. I haven’t looked back since. I also haven’t stopped looking at the world as photographs either. Photography, for me, is not just a hobby. It’s a passion. A way of life. Its purpose when I don’t understand my own purpose. With all the resources at my fingertips, on the internet, I’ve continued self-teaching myself the art of photography. I’ve scratched and saved to buy equipment that would take me to the next level of my passion. I’ve taught myself Adobe Lightroom and other various post-processing methods as well. I only have one principle when it comes to post-processing, and that is “don’t replace the realism with special effects.” I want anyone to be able look at my photographs and believe that they’re capable of doing the same. Erasing imprecations is the same as erasing the realism, the truth, of a photograph. My philosophy is that passion replaces the absence of a classroom. The most successful people in the world are mostly self-taught. A quote by Peter Lindbergh says it best, “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” Classrooms teach you to think-inside-the-box, to play-it-safe, and to color inside the lines. I am firm believer of challenging those rules and that following your gut will take you further than following a text book or manual. A picture is meaningless without an eye, without imagination, and without love and passion. A great photograph isn't great because of its technical aspects, it's great because of the passion behind it. My belief is that passion overcomes skill when skill fails to have passion. That philosophy can be applied to anything in life. I don’t know where this journey of photography is going to take me, but I only have one hope and that is to take one photograph that leaves an impression upon the world.