It is such an honor to welcome back one of our most popular speakers, the proflic Guy Tal. Guy continues to reinvent his work and connection to the natural environment with his images but also with his words. He continues to produce even more deep and insightful work but is appearing less and less in public. So it is with great excitement that he will be presenting completely new materials that have not been shared in any other public forms.

In his words:

Poet Mary Oliver wrote, “In truth, the work itself is the adventure. And no artist could go about this work, or would want to, with less than extraordinary energy and concentration. The extraordinary is what art is about.” Similarly, in an interview about his work, artist Francis Bacon said, “It’s all so meaningless, we may as well be extraordinary.”

What does it mean to be extraordinary? It means being your own unique self, striving — and daring — to make the most of who you are and the opportunities available to you. It is what existential philosophers referred to as living authentically.

For those of us who are artists, being extraordinary means expressing our own uniqueness in our work. As it turns out, being yourself is not easy. It requires first learning who you are: your personality traits, your motivations, and your goals, rather than take for granted what others are doing or think you should do. But that’s only the first part. The second, often harder, part is finding the ways and the courage to, as Friedrich Nietzsche admonished, become who you are.

These are the themes for Guy’s upcoming book, Be Extraordinary: Philosophical advice for Photographic (and Other) Artists, due to be released in late 2024. Guy will share thoughts and insights about these topics and read parts of his manuscript in progress.