This from Linda:

6 eighteen studios is run by Linda Johnson (me) and Hinda Schuman (not me). Many years ago, several things happened: Hinda and I started our careers in photojournalism, we became fast friends, and I saw ‘Blue Man Group’ perform. As working journalists we were committed to providing a truthful accounting of the facts as they played out in our cameras. Blue Man Group was not. They did, however, provide a truthful accounting of the bizarre and beautiful nature of fractals, which, by their very nature, are compelled to provide a certain truth:

“Fractals are typically self-similar patterns, where self-similar means they are ‘the same from near as from far.’ Fractals may be exactly the same at every scale, or they may be nearly the same at different scales. The definition of fractal goes beyond self-similarity per se to exclude trivial self-similarity and include the idea of a detailed pattern repeating itself.” Think snowflake.

One beauty of discovering fractals and their dependable truth, is that it led us to consider that other strange and wonderful [seeming] constant, the Golden Ratio. Yes, Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man Golden Ratio. Yes, the Parthenon Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio which says that a perfect rectangle is that in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter side is 1.618, or, shorter to longer side: .618. One of nature’s most significant and persistent ratios, surprising in its ability to reveal itself– think nautilus– and in its ability to make us smile.

We are not fractals, as we are definitely not the same from glance to glance, or thought to thought. That is a good thing. But there is something extraordinary about simple honesty and consistency of service, no matter when you speak with us or where we meet. We are not snowflakes, or Parthenon rectangles. We are humans (surprise). But there is something extraordinary about the perfection  and persistence of this number, 618. We fall short of perfection (surprise #2), but we are perfectionists. We try our best. It is all in the striving.

This from Hinda:

Hi. I am the “not me”. I am the other- Hinda. I am more of a doer than a thinker. Linda thinks and creates, and I pick up a camera, a hammer or a bike. I sometimes forget what I am thinking. I am an educator, a photographer, a lover of a good meal in the backyard,

(This from Linda: “Sweet!”)

a swim in the ocean and a viewer of films on large screens in public places. When Linda and I work together it is Yin and Yang. “Yin and Yang are never static but in a constantly changing balance.” Linda has an idea, and I give it a name. We can be in the same place at the same time and see entirely differently. There are times when we are connected by an invisible line that allows us to communicate wordlessly. We have worked together first as photographers for a large metropolitan daily, and later- well much later, 20 years later, as independent photography professionals. Linda added graphic design and web design to her repertoire. I added photography education, and I created an atmosphere where people are thrilled to be totally immersed in the art of photography- their own, the history, what sells, the business of photography, or making photographs with emotion, design, content, and intelligence. We can do the same for you.