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CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF SALLY'S IMAGES

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All images © Sally Smith Clemens

Centrus III Over New York, New York

Images from the Industry is a feature in which we focus on the work and images of an individual who works in a photo-related position and is a talented image-maker, but not necessarily a full-time professional photographer. If you know someone who’s deserving of the spotlight, let us know about them by emailing us at editor@photoworkshop.com.



Sally Smith Clemens is a diversely talented photographer who has shot everything from dog obedience trials to marathon runners. She has also taught photography at the college level. Today, she travels throughout northern America in her role as Product Manager for Olympus Imaging America, Inc., and enjoys shooting images that she later combines in her “alien snapshot series.”


A Wide World of Subjects
Clemens first discovered photography as an undergraduate at the University of Kansas in the late ’70s, where she was studying design theory. She graduated in 1978, and stayed in the photo industry from that point on. “I’ve been in the industry for 30 years,” she points out proudly. “It’s not an easy field to choose in one’s life and you have to take a creative approach to stay viable within this area.”

Designer Series Craft

After graduation, she worked for a studio in the midwest that utilized a front-projection system. “A lot of my early exposure to the industry was very surreal,” she says. “With a front projection system, it was easy to alter an environment behind your subject electronically by projecting a scene behind the subject in the studio, so that it looked like they were on the slopes of Aspen, at the Grand Canyon, or on the beach, etc.” From there, she did a brief stint shooting marathon runners crossing the finish line, and traveled with a couple in their Volkswagen Microbus across the Midwest. “Their son, who at the time, was 5 – 8 years old, held the record in his age group for 10K marathons,” she explains. After this, she photographed dog obedience competitions. “I enjoyed this and didn’t know anybody else who did it.”

Clemens briefly left the shooting end of photography around 1979 to sell photographic equipment. “This is probably where I got bitten by the hardware bug,” Clemens acknowledges. She also got her own darkroom equipment and began doing her own black-and-white printing. “I was heavily into shooting infrared film,” she recalls. She also began making the rounds of the antique camera circuit for the business she represented. “I traveled to the different shows, like the stereo camera club shows, which only featured stereo equipment, or just antique equipment in general; turn-of-the-century wooden folding cameras, Leica and Alpa equipment—that was really interesting.” In 1989, she went to work as a press photographer for a publishing company that put out a variety of periodicals, weekly newspapers, and monthly magazines. Here, Clemens specialized in photo illustration, which is very prevalent in her work today. “The writers would come to me with a story idea and needed photographic art to illustrate it,” she states. “It was like the best dream I ever had, because it was creating something from scratch.”

The whole realm of digital technology started around 1985, Clemens notes, with the introduction of Apple computers and Windows-based machines. “But as far as imaging for photography purposes, it didn’t become mainstream until much later— like 10 years after that.” In order to be creative and construct abstract images, one had to shoot multiple exposures on  a single film frame, or do extensive dodging and burning in the darkroom. “I got my first Macintosh computer around 1991-92,” says Clemens. “That was really an epiphany for me because my world as an artist became greatly expanded. Now there was very little I couldn’t do or express in my work.”


Academic & Corporate Teaching
In 1996, she accepted her first college-level teaching position instructing students in large-format and commercial photography. “The institution was interested in developing a curriculum based around digital photography, video and multi-media,” Clemens says, and although she was still working for the publishing company, she taught school part-time for the next five years. “I

Droid Day at the Pool

was so smitten by the teaching bug, I decided to go back to school and get my Masters degree so that I could pursue a career in teaching at the college level at an accredited university.” Clemens earned her Masters degree in Studio Art with an emphasis on Electronic Media. But after graduating in 1998, she was approached by Olympus and was invited to apply for the position of Technical Representative based in Chicago. “While I wasn’t looking for a corporate position like that, I was curious because I was very familiar with their products,” she says. She applied, and as she puts it, “The rest is history.” Clemens likens her job to a corporate teaching position.

Olympus and other camera manufacturers introduced digital cameras to the masses around 1996, she says, “and it was apparent that there was a pretty steep learning curve for both the camera dealer and their employees, and for their customers.” This required not only the expertise of people who had computer experience, she points out, but also an extensive photographic background, ideally in digital imaging. “I fit perfectly in that role,” she says. “Working for Olympus has afforded me the opportunity to work with the latest, cutting-edge digital capture technology. This exposure has extended the narrative qualities of my finished work.” She’s also been able to pursue her own photographic art, and her still images and a piece of digital video have appeared in several exhibitions.

Today, Clemens is a Product Manager for Olympus, a position that she describes more accurately as being a product spokesperson. “The nice thing about working for a camera manufacturer is that they send you all this cool hardware, and encourage you to experiment with it and educate people about it," she comments, adding that this is a real passion for her. “Essentially when you’re representing a manufacturer like Olympus, you’re on the inside, learning about the emerging technology that the mainstream population isn’t aware of yet.” She learns about the technology coming out the following year, because once it hits the market, “There’s a lot of introducing and explaining the technology, and putting it in perspective for real-world application.”

The Fleet

Cutting-Edge Technology
She also travels a majority of time, covering the U.S. and Canada. “My primary role is dealing with the press,” she explains. “As much as anyone, they need to stay on the cutting edge of all the latest technology and product advancements. In order to facilitate their needs so that they can, in turn, satisfy their readers, that is my assigned audience.” She adds that her job has given her the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting photographers and journalists, and emphasizes that the new technology has affected photography dramatically. “The opportunity for an imaging artist to live through something this significant is really quite extraordinary.”

Clemens says that typically when she takes pictures on her travels, “I’m shooting with something else in mind. I’ll see an environment that I think I can create another reality out of—I call my work ‘subjective reality.’” It’s all photography, she says, but with her own take on what she’s envisioned. “Clearly, some of it’s real and some of it’s not, but it’s changed the way I shoot. I look for material that I can do something else with later.” She adds, “It used to be that snapping the shutter on the camera was about creating the end result. For me, snapping the shutter on one of my Olympus cameras is about creating the beginning of a whole new story.”

Nonetheless, she’s quick to point out that the fundamental principles of photography haven’t changed. “It’s the methods that we’re able to apply now that have gone through such a radical evolution. This is what causes our work to evolve, because the medium is so much more pliable. We now have a tremendous amount of increased control over the final outcome.” As she reminds people, “In the end when it all shakes down—whether you’re using a film or digital camera—it’s just a box that captures light.”

The Landing

Clemens’ Gear Box:

D-SLRs: “It varies of course, depending upon the subject or environment. I use the Olympus E-3—the ability to see and compose my subjects live on the LCD prior to shooting is a huge advantage for my shooting style, and because the LCD rotates, I can shoot from obscure angles easily. I also use the Olympus E-510 with live view, which is a lighter, more compact camera for those times when I may be hiking/biking, etc. and want to travel light.”

Lenses: “I'm a bit of a wide-angle freak, so you'll often find me with the Zuiko 8mm or 7-14mm lens attached to my SLR.  These Olympus lenses are designed specifically for digital capture—to collect light on to an electronic image sensor.  I am a huge advocate for matching the lens to the capture media.  This is one of the fundamental aspects of photography that has not changed throughout history.”

“I also have at least one point-and-shoot camera with me at all times; can't leave home without one.  It’s typically one of the Olympus Stylus series which are also available in water-proof/shock-proof versions. These give me the ability to safely shoot while on a kayak or underwater.  The (Olympus) products are so flexible that I've never found myself in a situation where I lack the hardware to get the shot.”

Software: Olympus Studio (allows for direct connect/capture from the computer with the Olympus D-SLRs), Adobe Photoshop, and Strata Studio (for 3-D renderings).

To learn more about Olympus products, visit www.olympusamerica.com.

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CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF SALLY'S IMAGES

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