Suspect Photography

It’s been one year since I reignited the fire that is Suspect Photography and struck out on my own by leaving my position at B&H Photo after 26 years. The year, with its unexpected highs, reinforced my decision that the time was right for change and investing my efforts into what had begun all those years ago in 1993. Suspecting so much was possible when you take smart chances. Here is the year in review for Suspect Photography. 

I resigned from B&H on Halloween Day 2023, like I had started on Halloween Day in 1997 working the camera counter (where I always felt comfortable). That night I celebrated with Barbara and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult at the Bowery Ballroom.

I started to have lunches with other teaching photographers in my network and was offered partnerships. Maine Media Workshops, which had been such an influence in my early marketing days, offered me the opportunity to lead a workshop in the fall of 2024. I began to map out a plan. I literally ‘broke the ice’ on a cold Winter weekend with my first workshop I co-taught with Steve Simon (the Passionate Photographer). An ambitious Milan workshop followed in April.

On a solo Washington Square Park Walkabout, I also met a photographer who would become a star student of mine, to prove that acorns do indeed become oaks (thank you Kim C.).

My plan entailed activating my old network and buidling & promoting some intricate educational programs such as the Spring NYC UN Workshop and a Fall Photo Retreat. Digital infrastructure and offerings were promoted and executed with live zooms and edited videos.

An online audience was growing, and websites were built while workshops went off flawlessly. Suspect Photography along with partner the Passionate Photographer sponsored a table at the International Photographers Council UN Awards Luncheon.

To see that logo alongside the best the photo industry offers, and a full table of students to share the experience with, was a momentous occasion. And all this only six months into the rebirth of Suspect Photography! (We have already filled the NYC Spring UN 2025 Workshop, but you can join the waitlist here.)

What has been truly thrilling this year has been getting to be a photographer and making work daily. It’s true that if you practice it, you will get better. It’s hard to juggle a full-time intense job and practice photography. This year was the year of photographing in the streets for me, and thus I discovered what was missing in my definition of the genre, humans in the photo.

I learned so much, and made a number of images I’m quite proud of, including one, “Personal Jesus”, that won a street photography online contest. I owe this mostly to Steve Simon, who opened my eyes and challenged me to be the photographer I wanted to be and supported my educational aspirations. I took my Street Photography practice in a formal manner not only in NYC, but to Paris, Mont Saint Michel and Milan.

The Milan 2025 workshop is live and taking deposits, so be sure to secure your spot.

I spent a hot summer in Italy continuing to plan future workshops. My north star was building a workshop and retreat that I would want to attend myself, and so Suspect Tulum, a Photo Workshop in Paradise was born!

I first went to Tulum in 1982 with my family and have returned many times since. It’s one of my favorite places on earth and I can’t wait to share it with photography lovers.

Learn More About Suspect Tulum- Photography Workshop In Paradise

I also dig the woods. Like a real lot, and have always been hiking and exploring them from the Appalachian Trail to Denali. I’m a big fan of Tree Beard the ‘Ent from the Lord of the Rings and have dreamed of creating a photo school in the serenity of the woods, so I created Suspect Photography Retreat In the Woods! I recruited the best of the best instructors and Barbara found the ultimate place to conduct the retreat, AutoCamp in the Catskills, featuring deluxe Airstreams sprinkled about pristine Mountain woods.

Expert instruction: Check! Killer Location: Check! Styled Models: Check! Workflow and a Printed Portfolio of the work- CHECK. Located in the Catskills, B&H Photo is providing shuttle service from the Super Store to Retreat and back. All the boxes are checked! Tulum has a limit of 6 students and the Retreat 25. They are filling up. Dream big, the only limit is one you set yourself.

Learn More About Retreat In the Woods

At the start of October I brought Finding and Developing Photographic Style to the Maine Media Workshops. That “acorn” I met at Washington Square Park back in January, along with a student from B&H’s Portfolio Development Program and a few new students, criss crossed across the Maine mid coast diving deep into my theories of photo style. It went so well I have been invited back. Stay tuned to the Suspect Photography Newsletter when registration goes live.

I’m spending the fall of 2024 doing photowalks and building the 2025 program. It’s very exciting. I hope you can be part of it- join a workshop or come to the Retreat. You’ll invest in yourself and have a great time.

Our complicated world can be understood with the power of images, so it truly pays to practice Photography. I can’t wait to see how the next year plays out, and I hope you can join me along the way. Did anyone say Street Photography in Paris?

David