James Friedman

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?


JF
As a five year old I took a self-portrait, became fascinated with photography and have been photographing ever since. That self-portrait has become part of a lifelong series which continues to sustain me. When I saw that self-portrait made as a five year old, I decided to become the photographer of my family’s life and grew to be passionate about the medium. I was inspired to dedicate my life to photography by my mentors, Minor White and Imogen Cunningham. I feel fortunate to have been accepted into the experimental graduate program, Toward A Whole Photography, directed by White at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From Minor, I learned the importance of superb craft and unique techniques which have helped me make enduring photographs. Further, Minor instilled in me the value of becoming an expert in the history of photography and the importance of discussing the medium in a lucid and insightful manner. Lastly, by his example, I was moved by Minor to become a generous and accessible teacher of photography. As an assistant to Imogen Cunningham, I observed how she devoted her life to photography; when I worked for her she had been a photographer for nearly 75 years. She was my link to Stieglitz, Weston, O’Keeffe, Kahlo, Kasebier, Lange, Curtis, Coburn and Strand, among others. From Imogen, whose work was uncommonly wide-ranging, I was empowered to be an artist comfortable working as a teacher, as a personal documentary photographer and portraitist, as an architectural photographer, as a street and landscape photographer, in still life work as well in commercial photography. I think about both Minor and Imogen every day and feel privileged to be able to share what I learned from them with students. Another memorable experience was participating in an extended workshop in Yosemite National Park, California with Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Jerry Uelsmann, Judy Dater and Jack Welpott, among others.


MW
In your opinion and experience, how can emerging photographers evaluate themselves as ready to start promoting their works and seek broader exposure for their photographs?


JF
I think it useful for emerging photographers to become thoroughly knowledgeable about their particular approach to the medium. They should be substantively familiar with historical and contemporary practitioners who share similar concerns. This may help emerging photographers to gauge their work against others, evaluate how it measures up and invent strategies to distinguish their work from those working the same terrain. Finding perceptive, experienced and articulate experts in photography and other visual media who are able to help with feedback, critical insights, editing and discussing how the work fits into a particular context is essential.


MW
What is one vital action you would recommend photographers undertake to find their audience, be included in exhibitions, and gain professional representation?


JF
One vital action is to be fearless in showing their work to those in positions to exhibit, publish and support their work. Again, knowing how their photography compares to those with similar photographic concerns and inventing strategies to differentiate their work from others, even in subtle ways, would be helpful in gaining recognition. The ability to discuss with clarity their own photographic strategies and myriad aspects of the medium is crucial.


MW
How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?


JF
Creating a dense archive of wide-ranging photography has been helpful. Working consistently and passionately in completing varied, provocative self-assigned projects has helped in finding an audience. I applied for grants and fellowships and have enjoyed success. I have traveled to centers of art and photography such as New York seeking to find exposure for my work.


2 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


3 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


5 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


20 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


39 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


40 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


46 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


74 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


113 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"


119 from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"

© all images James Friedman

Susan Wides

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?


SW
From early childhood, making art has been a central part of my life. My mother is a commercial artist and she provided me with outlets for creative expression through painting, puppetry and piano. My 3 great-aunts- a musician, a scholar/educator, & a social worker- who participated in early 20th C New York’s modern artistic and progressive scenes were a huge inspiration. Among my strongest memories from early childhood: sitting on the dunes with them in front of our easels painting the fantastic space and light of Provincetown’s desert-like dunes. This earlier time of feminism and progressive thinking of my great-aunts’ generation developed my acute awareness of the past and my sensitivity to sociocultural forces.


As a young child I was obsessed with memorizing every moment the way you’d memorize a poem-- the fleetingness of experience and its impossibility to hold. No doubt this contributed to my immediate connection with photography. It began when I fell in love with the futuristic spectacle of the New York World's Fair, the subject of my first childhood Brownie photographs shot from the Monorail high above the fairgrounds. Later, I compiled this first collection in a booklet uncannily prescient of my Mannahatta series. Exploring a sense of place and its history inspired my first 35mm photographs taken when I was a teenager working at an archeological dig in the Old City of Jerusalem near the Western Wall.

In college, I was fortunate to study with a renowned teacher and idiosyncratic artist Henry Holmes Smith. My fellow midwesterner and a favorite photographer, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, had also studied with him. Smith came from Moholy-Nagy’s New Bauhaus in Chicago and he was, for me, a living window into Modernist history. I still vividly recall discussions about his paintings and cameraless drawings and their metaphors. The Bauhausian idea of using photography not only to document but to encourage seeing in extraordinary ways struck a chord with me and threads through all my work.

My photographs explore what I see and what it sparks in me-- the way the physical phenomena of the world are experienced by the senses and imagination. Intuitive insights, states of awareness, and visual thinking - manifestations that exist only in fleeting perception are at the center of my work. In my work I attempt to recapture half-remembered memories - personal and collective- which might just be half-forgotten dreams, and to explore places and things that are visible manifestations of cultural forces of our times. The complex texture of these personal, cultural, and historical explorations and the new insights they bring keep me continually engaged in the work.


MW
In your opinion and experience, how can emerging photographers evaluate themselves as ready to start promoting their works and seek broader exposure for their photographs? What is one vital action you would recommend photographers undertake to find their audience, be included in exhibitions, and gain professional representation?


SW
Emerging photographers can gauge their readiness to start promoting their work by comparing their work with a broad range of the best contemporary and historical visual art.

Seeking broader exposure for your work is always a challenge. Emerging photographers should use all available resources to find publishing and exhibition opportunities in galleries and online. Create a professional quality website. Others on this blog have well described various facets of the currents systems of distribution.


Think about new ways for your photography to interact with other disciplines that interest you – current events, environment, technology, your community, any other field in liberal arts, etc. Cross-pollination with other disciplines strengthens the work and enriches its audiences.

Study the myriad ways photography and its new technology impacts our culture and vice versa. Cast a wide net. Find new contexts/audiences for your art beyond the gallery art world.

The collapsing economy has cracked open the systems and things are shifting. Form community with your peers -- both virtually and where you live. It is an great time to create your own opportunities with new ways you devise.


MW
How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?


SW
Perhaps the most important step in achieving success in the artworld is forming and cultivating the relationships that can support you - the artist - and your work. For me, these vital relationships include those with fellow artists and colleagues, curators, collectors, editors, writers, historians, publishers, friends, family, and most importantly, my husband, the artist Jim Holl.

At the beginning of my career, an important milestone was my first solo show, 'World of Wax 1983-88',in Paris in 1990 with the visionary gallerist Gilles Dusein of Galerie Urbi at Orbi alongside the Bechers, Ruff, Struth, Sugimoto, and Goldin. Another important achievement was representation by Kim Foster Gallery in New York City. I really enjoy working with Kim Foster and her support is truly invaluable in attracting the attention of collectors, curators, critics and many others to my work.

Another very significant step in achieving success as a photographer is to define what success means to you. I agree with those who have said that getting recognition as a serious and important artist is not a sprint race, but rather a lifelong marathon. I was influenced by Henry Holmes Smith who believed an artist's vision should develop out of the need to express passions and obsessions through creative experimentation while continuing to question and reevaluate, rather than out of the need to produce a singular marketable product. For me, the most interesting artists continue to grow and expand into new territories. To this day, I resist prescribed categories within photography. Instead, I highlight the subtle connections between my themes and concerns.

I cast a wide net -- from cultural fictions depicted in wax museums in the 80s, to my response to the death from AIDS in the 90s in images of botanical gardens, to bearing witness to the last days of the largest landfill on earth which subsequently received the wreckage from 9/11, witnessing Wall Street moments before the crash, always while allowing the spirit of each place and the moment to seep into my mind’s eye, my inner lens.



Mannahatta 7.12.07 (Wall St.)


Mannahatta 7.2.07 (From Time Warner)


Hudson River Landscape 10.15.04 (After Cole)


Hudson River Landscape 10.12.07 (After Cole et al)


Hudson River Landscape 1.30.98 (Near Olana)


Fresh Kills # 10 2000


The Name of the Rose (American Home) 1993


World of Wax (Strange Love 1) 1986


World of Wax (Emerald City 5) 1985

© all images Susan Wides

Terri Weifenbach

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field.


TW
This is the first part of a Pablo Neruda poem. I’ll let his words speak for me.

Poetry
And it was at that age ... Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.


MW
In your opinion and experience, how can emerging photographers evaluate themselves as ready to start promoting their works and seek broader exposure for their photographs? What is one vital action you would recommend photographers undertake to find their audience, be included in exhibitions, and gain professional representation?


TW
Look at one’s own work honestly and without the seduction of having been its creator. It’s also extremely helpful to know the field, including painting, sculpture, mixed media, etc.

When the work is ready, a medium that reaches the most eyes is vital. Books can do this. A well conceived, published, and distributed book, showing strong, vital work, can change an artist’s career into before and after.


MW
How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?


TW
See Neruda poem above. True success, which may not be monetary, comes in finding a piece of the story, both your own and The Story, recognizing it, and translating it with unflinching conviction.



from the series Secrets


from the series Secrets


from the series Secrets


from the series Secrets


from the series Between Maple And Chestnut


from the series Between Maple And Chestnut


from the series Between Maple And Chestnut


from the series Between Maple And Chestnut

© all images Terri Weifenbach

Jessica Todd Harper

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?


JTH
My whole childhood, I painted and drew with much enthusiasm. When I was 15, photography "happened" to me one summer when there was no more room in a painting class at the local junior college. I was placed in a photography class instead and from then on I couldn't put the camera down. I had a wonderfully encouraging teacher, Bill Jeagar, followed by still more excellent teachers in high school and in summer workshops (Mark VanWormer, Steve Bliss, Arnold Newman). I knew I was very excited about photography, but looking back, I was very fortunate that talented people were so generous with their time.

I think being an artist is not so much something you choose as something that you are born being. You are an artist and then you work around or with that. There are a lot of people in medicine in my family and I have often envied them for the logical progression of their careers: medical school, residency, patient care. It' s not like that with art. There are no guarantees that if you work hard enough, or are talented enough, that you will be successful, be able to support yourself, or importantly, make a meaningful contribution to others. But in the meantime, if you are an artist, the art just comes - weather you like it or not- because you can't stop it. Even when I have been very busy and don't actually make pictures, the world keeps presenting itself, day and night, and I can't stop wanting to make some sense of it, to describe it, to honor it, to record it. And I get this restlessness that is not relieved until I make some pictures. I keep working in this field not so much because I am inspired (though there are many I admire!) but because other than making pictures and putting them under my bed to show no one, I have no other choice than to be in my field.


MW
In your opinion and experience, how can emerging photographers evaluate themselves as ready to start promoting their works and seek broader exposure for their photographs? What is one vital action you would recommend photographers undertake to find their audience, be included in exhibitions, and gain professional representation?


JTH
Organized portfolio reviews are a very practical means by which curators and dealers can meet artists and vice versa. Review Santa Fe was particularly helpful for me.


MW
How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?


JTH
Oh gosh I was so lucky! Several things came together for me but what started a certain domino effect was being selected for PDN's 30 and as one of the winners of the Santa Fe Center for Photography (called "Center" now) Portfolio Competition. From there I found a dealer, Cohen Amador Gallery in NYC, and a rep, Judith Miller Inc. (NYC). These things build on each other, and soon I as talking with publishers and getting editorial assignments. Damiani published my first book. "Interior Exposure"- a beautiful production for which I am very grateful, and my gallery put on a beautiful show to accompany it. But in addition to luck, were two other key factors: a willingness to be rejected (often) and a body of work at the ready for the times when I was fortunate enough not to be.



Self Portrait with Christopher (Clementines), 2007


Mom, Dad and Emilie, 2004


Self Portrait with Christopher, Papa and Ah-Choo, 2003


Chloe with Sybil and Becky, 2005


Self Portrait with Mom and Dad, 2007


Sarah with Zephyr, 2006


Sybil with Colleen and Will, 2006


Becky in the Dining Room, 2005

© all images Jessica Todd Harper

Martin Parr

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?


MP
I am inspired by the crazy world we live in my desire to apply some order in my own head about this


MW
In your opinion and experience, how can emerging photographers evaluate themselves as ready to start promoting their works and seek broader exposure for their photographs? What is one vital action you would recommend photographers undertake to find their audience, be included in exhibitions, and gain professional representation?


MP
Be original and stick with it with passion and urgency


MW
How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?


MP
I just keep going, ie stamina.


from the series Luxury


from the series Luxury


from the series Luxury


from the series Playas


from the series Playas


from the series Playas


from the series Melbourne Cup


from the series Melbourne Cup


from the series Melbourne Cup

© all images Martin Parr

More about Martin Parr can be found on Artsy

Ron Jude

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?


RJ
It’s sort of fuzzy in terms of when I transitioned from being a photographer (as everybody is), to being a Photographer. I got my first instamatic camera when I was about ten years old, and my first 35mm when I was 16, but I didn’t take any art classes in photography until I was in college. As is the case with a lot of students of photography, my interest in my photo classes was peripheral to my main focus of study, which was philosophy. I was a junior in college when I figured out that my concerns in photography and my concerns in philosophy were beginning to merge, and that I enjoyed making pictures more than writing. (The medium of photography presents such a natural epistemological conundrum.) So, I guess the short answer to that question is that photography’s unique ability to simultaneously inform and misdirect us is what inspired me to start taking photographs in a serious way. It’s a medium that never fails to baffle me, which is why I still find it fascinating. The fact that I can never figure it out is what keeps me engaged and working.


MW
In your opinion and experience, how can emerging photographers evaluate themselves as ready to start promoting their works and seek broader exposure for their photographs? What is one vital action you would recommend photographers undertake to find their audience, be included in exhibitions, and gain professional representation?


RJ
This is a tricky question that has numerous valid answers. On the one hand, I could say that nobody’s work is ever completely ready and fully developed, so go ahead and start promoting your work as soon as you have the desire to show it to an audience. Make your professional mistakes with your early work, rather than screwing things up with photographs that really deserve to be seen. On the other hand, you don’t want to put people off by being too forceful and blindly ambitious with unfocused, undeveloped work that doesn’t merit their attention. (How’s that for avoiding the question?)

I think the best thing a young artist can do is to seek feedback and advice from other photographers, particularly those who have already established decent careers for themselves. The best critiques and professional guidance I ever received came from photographers, not curators or publishers, and certainly not gallerists. I think you can establish a pretty firm sense of whether you’re “ready” or not by the feedback you get from established photographers. It’s also important to have two or three peers whose advice you really trust. These should be photographers (or writers, or painters…) with whom you share camaraderie, and whose feedback you can seek on a moment’s notice. These are the people who will help you determine if you’re ready to show your work to curators or publishers. You should never work in a vacuum.

That said, I think young artists should take great care in terms of how they go about seeking guidance and advice from established photographers. When I was just starting out, we didn’t have the internet, so if I wanted to meet someone whose work I respected and show them my photographs, I had to call them, introduce myself, and, being respectful of their time, arrange a studio visit. (Their studio, not mine. I once rode a train for 24-hours from New Orleans to Washington D.C. for a one-hour studio visit with a photographer. This brief exchange was profoundly important to my development as an artist.) I see too many young artists using the shotgun approach, e-mailing artists and publishers whose work is totally irrelevant to what they’re doing, and hoping something will pan-out. This, in my opinion, is not the way to go about it. Go to the trouble of actually speaking to people, preferably in person. It’s a much better way of establishing a meaningful and lasting conversation about what you’re doing with photography.

Commercial representation is still a bit of a mystery to me. Gallerists are extremely fickle, and a little pre-validation goes a long way in terms of getting your foot in the door. Getting those first few shows and publications can be the toughest. This is where knowing a few established artists can help. Getting an introduction from someone who’s already represented at a gallery can make things easier. (That said, your goal in meeting established artists should never be to simply use them to get an introduction to their gallery. You should happily accept an offer for an introduction, but it’s bad form to ask for one.) Beyond that, I think the main thing about seeking representation is to make sure you’re targeting the right galleries. Do your homework. Visit a lot of galleries, go to openings, and have a clear sense that your work is appropriate for what their program is and who their clients are. And have patience. The art world can seem like a cruel place when you’re first starting out (or twenty years later, for that matter). Be prepared for closed doors and a fair share of indifference to your work, but don’t internalize it. Just go back a few times, and if that doesn’t work, move on to the next gallery. In the meantime, don’t stop trying to get your work seen in other settings like art centers and even alternative spaces. Build up momentum with what you’re doing. This will give you a sense of purpose and the edge of professionalism that you won’t have if you just hang around waiting for a gallery to represent you.


MW
How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?


RJ
I guess the idea of “success” is relative. I’m in my 40s, and I’ve been a working photographer for about twenty years and I’m still seen by many as an “emerging” artist. (I must have receded a few times.) I think there are many routes to success, and different levels of success. From a pragmatic standpoint, the success on my résumé has come from setting simple goals for myself with each body of work. Gallery shows, museum shows, and magazine and book publishing are all a part of the mix, depending on where my interests are at any given moment. (Right now, for instance, I’m more interested in book publishing than exhibitions. A person with real ambition would tell you to do both!) Doing the work is always the main priority, but finding the appropriate audience for it is just as important. For me, that part is a constant struggle. I’ve done pretty well career-wise, but I’ve never had that magical moment where suddenly everything changed for me and people were knocking on my door, wanting to work with me. It’s gotten easier the more I’ve done, but it’s still hard work in terms of getting my work out there. You have to believe that what you’re doing is important enough to show to an audience and maintain that belief despite the inevitable setbacks. As long as you continue to be interested in photography in a way that goes beyond having a glorified hobby, you will, by necessity, continue to seek an audience.

The way I’ve sustained my uniquely meandering level of success has been to maintain a sense of why I decided to pursue photography seriously in the first place. The medium of photography is maddingly limited in terms of how it communicates things, and in this limitation I find everything I love about it. I like what happens when you take a picture of something—the strange, indexical, yet fully fictional transformation that occurs. It’s an incomplete, visual form of muttering, and it’s perfect in that sense.



Brundage Mtn., ID 1998


Shore Lodge, McCall, ID 1998


Yellowpine, ID 1997


Mountain Cabin, Lick Creek Road 1998


Lakeside Home 1998


Untitled. From Alpine Star 2006


Untitled. From Alpine Star 2006


Untitled. From Alpine Star 2006


Untitled. From Alpine Star 2006

© all images Ron Jude