October 6, 2009 Robert Catto

<p>I had the opportunity to show David Vestal in-progress work on a personal project. David spent time with the pictures, and then, instead of talking about them directly, asked about my editing. “Do you look for mistakes, and get rid of them? Or do you look for good stuff to hold on to?”</p> <p>I was dumbfounded, like after the Zen master’s slap upside the head. There was no middle ground, no gray area, no way around it: I had never in my life thought of the editing process as anything but taking a berserker’s broad-axe to the shoot, eliminating anything that showed the slightest weakness, the least flaw or error…this was a radical change of thought. Instantly, I knew he was right.</p>

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