Throwback Thursday with Clay Blackmore - Back to 2010

by Skip Cohen

​The year is 2010, and we were living in Akron, Ohio. I had a lecture series I put together called the Akron Photo Series. Each month a different photographer would come to the area, and we'd host an evening workshop. The proceeds all went to Akron Children's Hospital. While I got a lot of great feedback from photographers in the area, the real benefit for us was getting quality time with friends from the industry.

Clay Blackmore was one of the artists who joined us in the series that year. In wandering through my archives looking for a few throwbacks to share today, I found these. They represent some of my most favorite images of Sheila and me, and while Clay shot in both color and B&W - I still love the black and whites the most.

But there's a sidebar backstory - as much as I love the fact that Clay definitely captured our spirit as a couple - what I cherish the most is a portrait created by a good buddy. Clay started working with Monte Zucker right around the same time I started at Hasselblad. We've worked together on dozens of different projects over the years, shared lots of meals, and I can't count the number of times we've been together and laughed over life in the photo industry.

As the seasonality of the fourth quarter approaches, use your blog and presence in social media to remind your readers it's time for a new family portrait. There's a renewed sense of family in the world, and what "Grandma" misses the most is her family. Of course, that means the perfect gifts this holiday season all relate to imaging, but you've got to start planting those seeds of ideas now!

Happy Throwback Thursday!

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