David Hilliard

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


DH
My father and my grandfather were both photographic hobbyists. In the beginning I merely followed their lead. But for me my connection to the medium quickly grew deeper. Photography became a vehicle through which I could navigate and maintain a kind of control. I could order events, categorize friends and places…edit my world. Photography made everything around me look better. It made life clearer. As a boy I felt as though I had very little control over my life. Photography was an antidote. It was my escape. Now, as an adult and practicing artist, I make photographs for multiple reasons, but I’m sure, at my core, there is still this therapeutic/historic connection to the camera.


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?


DH
I think an artist knows when the work is ready. When it’s as good as it can be at THAT moment…and perhaps when it needs an audience. I would suggest to any emerging talent to start looking at galleries/exhibition spaces that they perhaps feel a kinship with…a sense of alignment. Investigate the procedures for getting your work in front of them and do it. Play by their rules. Be prepared. Speak well about what you make, write solid statements about your work and be prepared to handle criticism. Don’t be defensive…turn off. Write thank you notes! It only takes that one or two galleries or supporter/backer to start the ball rolling. Make the work, but also know that you have the daunting task of marketing it and sending it out into the world.


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?


DH
Work, lots of energy and a blind faith that what I was making mattered not only to myself but to others as well. I knew that I had to get the work out there. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do; make my imagery and make a living doing it. I worked, and continue to work very hard. I make, I fail, I make, I succeed. It’s a kind of battle. But through it all I’m learning and finding inspiration. And I might also suggest building a large skill set. Make fine art, commercial art, editorial art, teach, assist, etc, etc. Do it all. It keeps you going and in the end I truly believe that it can inform aspects of your work.



Mary Remembering, 2008


A Kiss, 1994


Aftertaste Of Ritual, 2008


Boys Tethered, 2008


Hope, 2008


Of A Certain Temperance, 2008


Hug, 2008


Susie Floating, 2003


Shirts vs. Skins, 2001


The Lone Wolf, 1993

© all images David Hilliard

Tony Mendoza

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


TM
The short answer was that I studied architecture in graduate school and I had to take lots of pictures of buildings and models of buildings and building sites as part of my work as an architect. So I became somewhat skilled as a photographer, and had the money to buy good equipment, set up a darkroom etc. The long answer was that I was influenced by the 60s, and felt that going to an office was a sellout to the establishment. I also moved into a commune where everyone was dropping out of their regular careers and jobs. This happened in the early 70s. Everybody was having a good time going after what they really wanted to do in life. I looked around to see what else I could do and photography seemed liked something that would be fun, wouldn't require me to go to an office, and would allow me to do art. I also hated getting up at 7 in the morning to go to work, so being an artist would allow me to sleep late. Then I started on the road to making it as a photographer, and I ended up working twice as hard as I worked as an architect.
 
I kept at it because I loved the freedom of being a self-employed artist. I was single at the time and being a good artist seemed like a sure-fire way to attract girls, and I liked the challenge of making it in a very competitive field where most people give up and do something else. Living in a commune throughout the Seventies helped because my rent and food payments were minimal, around $130 a month, so I could pursue an art photography direction, which didn't pay as opposed to a commercial direction, which would have been as deadly as working in an architectural office.
 

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?
 

TM
This is a tough question because I don't consider my career as successful in a traditional sense. Some people know if my work, but most don't and I don't have a photography gallery in NYC, which is a requirement today if you are going to make it as an art photographer. But I don't want to sell myself short, because I do have a great job, as a photography professor at the Ohio State University, and I've published four photography books I'm proud of. The first book I published, Ernie: A Photographer's Memoir, a book about a cat, is an interesting story, about perseverance, and hanging in there, which is what I would advice anyone trying to make it as a photographer. Here is the story:
 
I was slow getting going as a photographer. I started photographing full time in 1973 and worked diligently for years to improve my craft, but I didn't have a show in a decent gallery till 1981, when I moved to NYC. In New York, I had trouble paying the rent for the loft I shared, and had no money to go out and participate in all the stuff going on in the city, so I mostly stayed in the loft and photographed my loftmate's cat. I did it for 3 years and took some 10,000 pictures of Ernie, the cat. I had a few shows of  cat pictures, and everyone seemed to really like the pictures. I also sold the pictures in a street corner in Soho for $40 dollars a picture, and whenever I set up in the corner of West Broadway and Broome St, the pictures would fly till I met the rent payments due that month, so I knew I had a popular body of work, which gave me the idea I should do a book. For the next 2 years I got 50 rejections from publishers. I ran out of money and had to leave the loft and move to Brooklyn, but I kept at it, sending the work out, and finally a small press in California said they loved the pictures and would do the book. The publisher was very cautious about the first printing, 3000 copies. I knew some art directors in NYC, and found out thru them what reviewers in NY magazines had cats and I send them all copies. It worked because the book was incredibly well reviewed by Vogue, People and Newsweek. The first printing sold out in one week. It went thru 10 printings at the small press and then a large publisher (Chronicle Books)  picked it up 14 years after it was first published, republished it in a better printed edition, and the book did very well all over again. Then a Japanese publisher picked it up and it did very well in Japan. It still sells 24 years after it was originally published.
 
This story tells me that the 50 publishers that rejected it didn't have a clue, that lots of people in the photo business don't have a clue,  and that if you believe you have a really good project, one should keep plugging at it till something happens. It seemed to work for me. So to answer the question, I'm a believer in hanging in there. I tell students that it's very difficult to make it in art photography, but if you really want it, and you are willing to hang in there, and you are willing to struggle financially, you can do it. Most people quit.
 

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?
 

TM
After I published the first book I geared my work to books, as opposed to the gallery world, because I liked what results from a book, as opposed to a show. 300 people will see a show, and if you are very lucky, the show will get reviewed, but a book has a huge audience, and a book lingers on. I still get e-mails from fans of the Ernie book. The second book I published (Stories, Atlantic Monthly Press) was fairly easy to publish, because the success of the first book opened the doors of publishers, but after that it has been difficult to publish other books, because the economics of photo books are tough. They cost a lot to produce and they have a small audience, a deadly combination. Still, I published a third book with a university press, (Cuba:Going Back, University of Texas Press) and a fourth book, (Flowers, Nazraeli Press) with a photo book publisher, so I've hung in there. I'm now trying to published a book about my dog Bob, which are the pictures I've included in this interview. Like all the other books, it's a struggle to find a publisher, but I'm confident I will, so I will keep at it.  



all images are from Tony Mendoza's series "Bob"






























© all images Tony Mendoza

Oliver Weber

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


OW
I can’t remember anymore when my big passion with photography started. I do remember with great pleasure that in my childhood I absolutely wanted to become a detective! From the outset there was this urge to grasp the things that surrounded me and to look into them with my always curious eyes. Even today, that hasn’t changed! Everything that moved around me aroused my interest. Observing my environment was exciting and gave me, as a boy of seven, a gigantic sense of joy. In particular, small, everyday situations with animals and people did it to me. So it didn’t take long before I went out with my first camera, a Minolta Hi Matic, as a small detective on a photo tour. Unfortunately the pictures from these exciting exploratory exhibitions have been lost.

I think back with pleasure to this time, and even today the overwhelming joy and passion in taking photos seizes me over and over again. Holding onto my environment with its small everyday stories, above all, about the people who I meet.

Since 2002, I’ve pursued photography, if you want to put it this way, seriously. The so-called “street photography” has arisen through my creating different cycles. It comes to life through spontaneity and the feelings and recognitions within situations and moods. You never know what will happen next. The art is to use foresight to grasp the right moment and take the picture. Once the moment is over, it is lost for good.

As a general rule, I drift along on the streets; things don’t come to me at a hectic pace or in a rush. Photography is not actually at the forefront of my mind, rather it’s about having a lot of human interaction. The image through the viewfinder creates a sense of eagerness in me, as well as a sense of relaxation at the same time. All events condense around me in one moment. Then it’s a matter of capturing it in such a way that it becomes something special. My photos aim to reveal deep insights into human lives. The situations hit the essentials of what develops while watching people’s lives and tell unmistakable small stories. I’m never an outsider to the story. Photography is, for me, a picture language that everyone all over the world can understand. This makes it valuable as well as inimitable and this is why I love it so much.

It isn’t very usual anymore, as it was when I first came to La Gomera, where I live and work today, that I take photos of the scenery of the Canary Islands. Such photos show the viewer the calm in which the partly dray, sun burnt scenery lies while at the same time reflecting the strength and variety of nature in its quite special colors.

I need a lot of time to take photos; this is one reason why I’ve been taking photos seriously for over a year. I primarily use analogue film, with different cameras, sometimes black and white and also sometimes colour. The process in analogue photography from the original image up to the finished print is clearly longer than the process of using digital photography. This time frame, using analogue photography, allows me a greater objectivity in evaluating my own pictures.

Even today a good and successful photograph lies not in the superficial controlling of the photographic method, rather in an important aspect of the application of different recording devices which I steadily pursue further. I take photos because of the pictures, because of what I see, how it feels, the motifs which fascinate me within the people and street scenes, in nature and in scenery. I would like to hold on to all of this forever, to own the visual image that has fascinated me at the location, and take home with me to look at it again and again. And I’d like to share my joy in my pictures with other people; I like to fascinate them as viewers so they cannot forget my pictures.


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?


OW
For me, in whose life photography plays out a rather big role, I pursue the audience for my work. However not being a professional photographer as such, it’s certainly not an easy undertaking to give young and ambitious photo artists good advice on their way to professionalism. Maybe suggestions can be gleaned if I speak about my photography and myself and how I pursue images and an audience, and how it is important for me.

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve counted myself as a so called “street photographer” since 2002. I like to drift, completely without rushing or a hectic pace. The photo is not in the foreground first of all, rather quite a lot of human interactions and meetings that originate from it. I am an “autodidact”. Before I thought of attracting attention to my kind of photography, of having my first exhibition or my first book, I actually dealt more with myself and what I would like to achieve, instead of my pictures. Rather quickly I recognised that for me, serious photography is something that requires a lot of time and skill, an immense amount of sensitivity, major empathy, and endless perseverance in the darkroom too. I often ask myself how my own setting relates to the photography, what my personal values are in the photograph.

First of all, joy is very important for me in my pictures. At the same time I would like to speak through them, and have what I want to say with my pictures understood. I use my pictures instead of words, as a photographer I reveal my own quiet messages to others, particularly like-minded people who are open to sharing them. If my pictures didn’t interest anybody and no one liked them, they would have missed their purpose, for me they would be worthless no matter how high the photo-technical achievement presented. Therefore
I see little sense in keeping a lookout for motifs that have already been shown successfully by other photographers.

I am especially interested in people. With my pictures I would like to show how they really live. Therefore I go out to people with the intention of understanding them, of telling their personal stories sympathetically in my photos. I don’t take a photo of people because they could deliver good photo motifs or push character representations of individuals that are of interest to a particular exhibition.

What I take photos of, move me internally, it inspires me to speak through my pictures. I concentrate upon the motifs that interest me personally. Thus I can venture into the feelings, the life settings, and the core of the people and make my picture when the right moment comes along. By that practice I have developed my own ability to not orientate myself exclusively by the works of other photographers. This is for me a basic condition of being able to take photos successfully.

However, to find inspiration in the pictures of other photographers, in exhibitions, in publications or the like, is very stimulating for my own photographic interests, it is especially important for me and conducive to good work. It allows me to view my own work anew. To quote Amy Stein in Two Way Lens:
“They should be extremely honest with themselves about where they are in their career and brutally honest with themselves about their photographs. Put in the time and don't show the work until you have a lot more than just a couple of good photographs.”

Before you enter, do your homework and make sure the reviewers, judges or past winners are a good fit for your work.

Any imitation of another photographer’s style on an ongoing basis brings no satisfaction and it doesn’t prompt me to find my own style, to take my own individual kind of photos which are able to speak for me. As an “amateur photographer” I have the opportunity to express myself freely because I seldom do “photography-to-order” or commissioned work, and therefore I want to be a photographer working from my own impulses and agenda.

I have found my own style, it develops constantly but viewers can still understand what I want to say and recognise me in my pictures each time. It inspires me to find the perfect expression of my personal style, and pushes my photographic sense forward. I question my activities and myself self critically and honestly, particularly in regard to discussing the production of photography with other photographers.

While refining my own style I am certainly not a photographer who is only in love with his photographic equipment and completely forgets to take the making of pictures seriously. If one concentrates his interests more on the photographic instruments than on the real aim of creating pictures which reflect his own personality, one will very quickly lose that real intention. You can make good pictures that speak to the viewer with any camera, it doesn’t matter which type or brand it is. I think while on the road to a good photo, every photographer should try to combine the following qualities in their work: a picture should attract attention; the intention of the photographer and the sense of the picture should be clearly recognisable; the photo should stimulate the senses – feelings can release feelings; and finally, it should reveal a graphic creation.

Eventually every photographer should find their own photographic style, their future path. Then it seems to me, you come into a good time with a steadily growing need to show others your own pictures, in exhibitions for example. Today there are endless opportunities to show, discuss and exchange ideas about the process of photography with a wide and interested audience. Also through this process, it’s certainly advisable to discover more and more new ways to refine and perfect your own photography and to inspire yourself. Its especially helpful to be inspired by the work of like-minded photographers with similarly high aspirations, and to see what they have to show.


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?


OW
As an “amateur photographer” and “autodidact”, photography is not my true profession. It is my big passion, almost and addiction which I pursue very seriously when my occupation as a doctor allows me time for it. Today I still make my pictures by the method I’ve described, and I will probably continue to do so in the future.
Photography, in my very personal style, has become the elixir of life for me. It gives me strength, it makes me happy and I like being able to share the joy that I experience through it with other people who are attracted to my pictures. If someone asks me if I want to show my pictures in exhibitions, then yes, I really like to do that as often as possible. When the moment comes that there are more rather than fewer exhibitions, I’ll have to say that I have become a professional photographer to a certain extent, as long as its about the refinement of my personal style as a “street photographer”. I especially like to show my pictures to people who view them as everyday stories. If they can understand my pictures, that level of “professionalism” is basically enough for me.


from the series Marrakech


from the series Marrakech


from the series Marrakech


from the series Marrakech


from the series Peninsula


from the series Peninsula


from the series Peninsula


from the series La Matanza


from the series La Matanza


from the series Holga Day


© all images Oliver Weber

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