Joseph McNally

I was very fortunate to have mentors early in my career such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gordon Parks, Jean Melee, Ralph Morse, and Carl Mydanse. Ralph took us all to lunch and taught us how to photograph the space program, which was an example of the mentorship he gave us.
 
Transcript: "Hi, back, always happy to talk about mentorship because where would we be without it? I was blessed in my early career, having many mentors, but particularly blessed in the sense that I started getting assigned as a young photographer to the time Inc, group of magazines, which included of course Time Life Sports Illustrated and the photographer's floor was the 28th floor and we get an assignment from a magazine and go up to 28 and pull Equipment and film from the supply window on 28, but all the photographer's historically, associated with Life Magazine had their offices up there and so literally I would be up there and Alfred eisenstaedt would walk past me. I'd be like, hey i z be like hello McNally, you know, and these photographers had seen and created so much. There's a coffee room on that floor and I was Always remember we were like little kids. We would sit on the floor of the coffee room and listened as you know, Gordon Parks, Alfred eisenstaedt, you know, Jean melee, you know, Ralph Morse, Carl. My dance. Carl was my hero. And my personal Mentor, I always felt very strongly about Carl, and what he gave to me in terms of advice and just the fortitude, he always displayed as a photographer, but I was very fortunate. To have a window into that era via the viewpoints of those photographers, the historical perspective, they had the lessons they were able to offer Ralph of course was the dean of American space photography. He was the original life photographer assigned to the Merc 7 and All those years passed after, you know, America had ups and downs in the space program. And then finally, the shuttle program came around again and America started to launch rockets, none of us, young photographers knew how to do it. Ralph took us all to lunch, even though we were his competition. He took us all to lunch and told us how to do it. That's the definition of mentorship."

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in photography?
 
Transcript: "Hi, Joe. McNally photographer, author director been in the field for the National Geographic for 25 years last photographer in the history of Life, magazine, contract photographer with Sports Illustrated, ask me a question Everything's on the table, philosophy. Creative tenacity, direction-- technical lighting. It's all there. Ask the question."