Two Way Lens

Friday, August 30, 2013

Helen K. Garber

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?

Dad with camera

HKG
This is my favorite photo of my dad, Alex Kolikow, taking his self portrait in 1941 with his Argus C-3 camera. The camera he taught me how to shoot with. He was an enthusiastic amateur with a darkroom in a closet in our basement in Brooklyn. I wasn't interested in spending time in the dungeon-like darkroom, so didn't process my own film or print until the 1990's...when I really became serious about my art. He also had a twin lens reflex Voightlander which he got while overseas in WW II. I recall him saying it was a Nazi souvenir, but I could be wrong. He had a German rifle, a bayonet and a luger in the darkroom, so it is possible. Anyway, he taught me how to use the Voightlander for a science project in elementary school. I grew onions in different conditions and documented their growth. We printed the photos and attached them to poster board for the display, so my first photo exhibit was in 1966. I won at the elementary school level and it was featured at the Brooklyn Borough Science Fair that year..where I believe it earned an honorable mention. I still have both cameras in my closet.

My dad died in 2005. He enjoyed photography all his life and taught his fellow retirees in his complex in Century City Florida as well as photographed and printed the photos for the community newspaper. He also learned how to use the computer very well and taught classes in that until he became ill. He was very creative and had a lot of fun with all his "hobbies". Didn't ruin his fun with trying to make a living with it...the money part kind of ruins the fun unless you are opening an envelope with a nice fat check in it!!!

In the late 1960"s, I started to shoot my friends with easier to use Kodak Instamatics with the square flash bulb which rotated for 4 flashes. My parents gave me a Minolta srt 101 for my high school graduation present and I aimed it mostly at my friends in college as that is what my dad did with his camera. And began adding landscapes as I went to school in the beautiful Hudson Valley in upstate NY.

I was more a film history nut than photography and didn't study the history of photography until the early 1990's. Although we had subscriptions to Life, Look, Newsweek and National Geographic magazines, so I absorbed great photography on a daily basis. But when asked, I say I was more influenced by great visual filmmakers, Hitchcock being number 1, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Carol Reed, Billy Wilder, etc. and their cinematographers. Film Noir of course. German Expressionism and Surrealism in art, film. and theatre. Music and literature have always been great influences on my work. My college degree is in scenic design which is why there is a theatricality to my work.

Milestones:

1. 1989 - 91
My husband was the chiropractor for Le Cirque du Soleil and I get access front and backstage.
Documented the troupe in Santa Monica, Orange County and Manhattan.
Showed the members of the amazing troupe my photos and was accepted as a fellow artist. Through the time spent with them learned one must follow their passion to lead a fulfilled life. Decide to drop all the other mediums I was working in and become a professional photographer.

2. 1993
Grand prize 20th Century photo contest. Use the $3500.00 prize money to build out my first professional studio in Venice across from Gold's Gym. Shot editorial and portraits commercially. Documented the visually extreme members of Gold's Gym and perfected my portrait skills.

3. 1997
Hired by American Photo Magazine to shoot and star in Freeze Frame San Diego for the Travel Channel, Travel Holiday, American Photo and Pop Photo Magazines. 30 minute travelogue (on youtube and my website) and large photo spread in all three magazines)

4. 1997
Hired by Random House, Clarkson N. Potter to illustrate Parents at Last..

5. 1997- 2007
Went up to the Empire State Building at night and snuck a mini tripod to the Observation Deck. Begin the 10 year project, Urban Noir. Shot images in LA, NY, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Paris, Venice and Rome. Still want to continue adding cities

6. 1998
first one person show, book signing @ Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles

7.2000 - 2001
Learn photoshop through Master Printer, Jack Duganne

7. 2002
Read that Vintage Books were re-issuing Raymond Chandler Books , begin reading pulp fiction and adding text using city as character to caption my images, thus begin the multi -media portion of LA Noir.

8.2004-2005
Move my studio to Ocean Front Walk , document the area with the first Nikon dslr, manipulate the images in photoshop and self publish what will become the official publication of the Venice Centennial, Venice Beach, California Carnivale

8.2005-2006
Invited to shoot on the Heli-pad of the US Bank Tower. Commissioned to turn A Night View of Los Angeles, the 360 degree panorama of the entire city of LA into a 40 foot long print on silk for the 2006 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Attend the Biennale and shoot Venice, Italy at Night

9. 2007
Night View of Los Angeles is printed on banner vinyl, exhibited outside at the front entrance of Photo LA, then partner with Duce to invite the most notorious Graffiti Writers to lay their tag on the print.
Exhibited at the entrance of the Venice Art Walk, FADA LA Art Fair (2010).

10. 2007
One person show at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY (my alma mater) of Urban Noir, LA-NY that includes 20 silver prints that are acquired by the museum, first projection prototype of Urban Noir/LA-NY incorporating images, text and existing music.

11. 2008 - 2013
Direct 50 artists around Southern CA to document their neighborhoods and present them in multi media installations designed by Internationally renowned architectural firm minarc. Installations are opening nights for Month of PHotography, Los Angeles 2009, 2010 and Autumn Lights Festival, 2010. Also Medium Festival of Photography, San Diego, November 2013

12. 2009
Present Urban Noir- LA-NY at the Annenberg Space for Photography with original music played live by Grammy-nominated jazz musician, John Beasley

13.2010
Urban Noir/ LA-NY is transferred to HD, projected at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Samuel Goldwyn Theatre Oscar Noir Festival

14. 2012
NoirFest Santa Monica
Direct 3 month integrative arts festival with Noir as the central theme. At the same time, have one-person show, Encaustic Noir @ dnj Gallery, Santa Monica opening during Photo LA Weekend

15. 2012 - present
Begin teaching photo workshops at Otis College of Art and Design, Photo LA Emerging Focus + other venues I am starting to have conversations with.

16. 2012
Venice Yesterday, Today or still crazy after all these years. Diptychs of images past and present, working with the Venice Historical Society and printer Titano Cruz.

17. 2014
Santa Monica Arts Fellowship, from Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Department, Santa Monica, CA. My project will be to photograph waves shot from the Santa Monica Pier and incorporating them into mixed media assemblages along with reclaimed wood from the pier and encaustic wax medium.

MW
How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?

HKG
You need to learn how to tell the story. Shoot as if you are making a movie. Master, medium and close up images of the your subject matter and put them in a sequence that has great rhythm and design.

Learn history of photography, design, composition, color theory, art history, listen to music, read literature, get a great background in art and design and shoot, shoot, shoot. Work with mentors or go to school to learn what creates a great photograph. Then you can feel confident about your own editing capabilities.

But it is always best to do the rough edit and have a second or third eye to look at your work.

MW
How do you decide on new projects to work on? Do you always shoot with a concept in mind or do you wait to be inspired as you go?

HKG
Venice, CA has amazing creative energy and the successful artist is one that is able to absorb and focus the energy to create great works. Think of my neighbors, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Ed Moses, Frank Gehry, Peter Alexander, Lauren Greenfield...the list goes on and on.....We are attracted to this area as it feels wonderful and has amazing light. I always have a list of projects that interest me....It is just a matter of prioritizing.

You have to find a subject matter that you are passionate about as you will spend enormous time conceptualizing, photographing, printing, editing, attracting support, exhibiting, and promoting it. So it better be something you love.

In the case of the Parents at Last book, it was about adoption and the new ways of making families. I never had an interest in having children...even after doing that project. And I was a hired hand, recommended by a mutual friend who worked at People Magazine. Although I was paid a nice sum of money to do it and enjoyed meeting and documenting the families, when it came to promotion, found people wanting to tell me their own stories, which did not interest me very much at all. And while they also complemented my images as I was signing books for them , I sat there wishing it was a book about adopting dogs instead of children. So that lesson was learned pretty early on... And ended my editorial career. I became a fine art photographer and only shot projects that I initiated. I charged a lot of money for the few commercial assignments over the years as I did not enjoy working on assignment.

Now I don't have to worry about that as there are so few assignments out there. Maybe it was a prophetic understanding which allowed me to continue working, not waiting for someone to tell me what to do, but I have always been very self motivated and controlling about my work.

MW
What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?

HKG
I am liking Linked In at the moment. I lecture and do photo workshops as well. 10 years ago it was Photo Reviews. Before that printed resource directories. Depends where you are in your career and what the fashion is. You always have to stay ahead of the curve. The internet allows your work to be seen around the world 24 hours a day. Which is amazing exposure. You just have to figure out how to stand out from the pack. My mixed media work is a different nut, and although it is no longer straight photography and might limit me in the photographic world, it also opens up to the possibility of fine art galleries interested in mixed media work. Building a strong network is essential...which is why I like Linked In at the moment. I just picked up a show in Italy by reading an announcement of a new gallery opening and connecting with the owner.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Julia Fullerton-Batten

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?

JFB
My father is a keen photographer. He started photographing earnestly when we children were born. He took his camera, then an old East German Praktica SLR, with him wherever he went. As well as family photographs he enjoyed street photography. After a shooting session he would disappear into his home darkroom to develop and print B&W film. We would later find the prints floating in the family bath for us to examine. I can claim to have grown up with washed off fixing solution and photography in my veins!

I had to make a career choice when I was sixteen. My parents were amazed when I told them that I was aiming to become a photographer. The die was set and milestone after milestone came and helped to build up my career. Frankly there are too many important milestones to list; I’ll choose a few just to illuminate that my passion for photography, hard work and perseverance were a constant reason why I also, to a certain extent, created the luck that seems to have accompanied me over the years.

The first and significant milestone was, without a doubt, the career path for me, to decide to go to college to study the basics of photography and then follow this up with five years ‘apprenticeship’ assisting many professional photographers. During those five hard but rewarding years I developed many skills.

My efforts to enter and do well in photographic competitions and develop a strong portfolio and keep it constantly up-to-date led to me getting a German agent and, from them, my very first large commercial contract. I became a fully fledged professional photographer.

After a couple of years of commercial engagements I began to exercise my passion for shooting non-commercial, personal work. Through this I got from the National Portrait Gallery in London a prestigious commission to photograph portraits of sixteen very important people in the UK’s National Health Service. These were hung prominently for several months in the NPG, helping to establish my growing reputation further.

At the same time as my portraits were exhibited in the NPG I had my first solo exhibitions of my project ‘Teenage Stories’ in galleries in London, followed by my images being exhibited around the world. I also continued to win prizes for both my commercial and fine-art work, as well as for my website. I was also profiled in many national and international photographic magazines, both amateur and professional.

MW
How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?

JFB
After shooting a project, I find I need to distance myself from it. So I put it aside for a few days, or weeks, and keep coming back to it. I welcome opinions from other people, who may or may not be photographers.

MW
How do you decide on new projects to work on? Do you always shoot with a concept in mind or do you wait to be inspired as you go?

JFB
I always have a concept in mind; on the day of the shoot I have everything prepared and planned. Obviously if something goes awry, I am flexible enough to adapt to the circumstance.

New project ideas occur to me constantly, some never see the light of day, others are put onto the back-burner so that I can concentrate on the specific one that I have chosen. Once my mind is made up for a particular project and I have budgeted the project, the gradual process leading up to the shoot commences. This frequently taking several months before the actual shoot. The shoot itself can take just a couple of days, but also be fairly extended, depending on the project.

The planning phase involves hardening up my ideas on scenes, choices of location, models, clothing, props, etc. The day or days of the shoot also require considerable preparation – selecting my team, hiring additional lights or equipment that may be needed, arranging the logistics of getting my team and the models to the location and for accommodation (if needed).

I plan meticulously all details of the project and the shoot itself. Post-production work, including editing (if needed), releasing the images to my agents, the public, the media, and handling all sort of enquiries is supplemental to the above. However once the project is put to bed, it’s not long before the creative juices start working anew, and the entire cycle begins again.

MW
What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?

JFB
Very early in my career, still an assistant, I decided to enter photographic competitions and develop a powerful portfolio. After my first agent found me, I now have agents in many countries, who are not only responsible for drumming up business, both commercial and fine-art, and also for getting my work exhibited. I have already alluded to my success with photographic magazines, which also is a powerful tool for promoting my work. I have also had a book published.
In the meantime, I have continuously expanded my promotional activities with a website, and occasionally by using Facebook.. I frequently change the front-page of my web-site. This avoids the viewer getting bored with seeing the same front-page every visit. I also include information about forthcoming exhibitions of my work anywhere in the world, and have added a blog which gives up-to-date news about awards, details of exhibitions, and anything else of relevance.

Custody Battle, from the series Mothers and Daughters

Departure, from the series Mothers and Daughters

Pretty New Thing, from the series Mothers and Daughters

Miriam, from the series Unadorned

Ava, from the series Unadorned

Jessica, from the series Unadorned

Night Dress, from the series Awkward

Yellow Dress, from the series Awkward

Yuen, from the series Blind

Anna, from the series Blind

Harajuka, Tokyo, 2013

Shimo, Tokyo, 2013

Vlada, Egoiste Magazine

Client: Renaissance

Client: Schizophrenia

© copyright all images Julia Fullerton-Batten, all rights reserved

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Stephen DiRado

MW
What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?

SDR
My father, a professional artist, trained me at a very early age to draw and paint. He also passionately exposed me to the history of art by way of numerous field-trips to art museums. Aside of the grandiose paintings and sculpture, it was the photography that intrigued me the most. At around the age of twelve, using my father’s medium format camera, I got to explore and document my surroundings. The second I shot my first roll of film and inspected the contact sheet I knew I was hooked.

Unlike the slow and deliberate act of painting or drawing, making photographs is electrifying; you succeed or fail in rapid successions. The camera also connected me to community; giving me purpose to intimately observe family and friends. This is a reoccurring theme that I have been exploring for well over forty years.

Checking off important milestones in my career:

A.
At twelve, I fell in love with the medium of photography. This included every aspect of it, from the process of shooting, editing, darkroom work as well as the enjoying the audience the resulting material attracts.

B.
In my teens, I worked as a journalist for a local paper. This experience helped me perfect my craft and to articulate the best possible narrative. One learns quickly that lousy photographs rarely are published but you can bet on good ones having the chance to make the front page.

C.
College accelerated my explorations to help me find an individual voice. It added the question: “How is my work valid or pertinent in our time?” I also fell in love with films through a number of courses. Movies from this point on will have a major influence on how I construct a photograph. I also started using a 4”x5” view camera.

D.
After college, I committed to making work exclusively for myself at all costs. I washed windows and worked in a lab to generate an income. And very content to function on this level.

E.
At twenty-five I produced Bell Pond. It was my first mature body of work that depicted an urban community that frequented a public park and pond. It legitimized my career as a photographer concluding with a major show, sales and articles.

F.
My next project Mall Series took three years to complete. I spent thousands of hours documenting mall habitat in one inner city mall. It concluded with my first museum exhibition. I was very proud of this work but knew it was too familiar for most people to see objectively. At that time, it was not well received.

G.
In my late twenties I purchased an 8x10 view camera. And I have been using it ever since.

H.
From this point onward I started a series of projects that will guide me for decades: Dinner Series, Beach People, Jacob’s House, Portraits and Celestial Series are some of the major ones.

I.
Receiving grants and fellowships like the John Simon Guggenheim, NEA, and numerous Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowships, enormously helped liberate the burden of the expenses of materials and an occasional piece of equipment to continue my projects.

J.
With Dad, is a twenty year commitment to document my father succumbing to Alzheimer’s. An obviously personal project that will be marked as my most difficult, and yet most spiritually based in my life. I was the unofficial artist in residents in a nursing home the last seven years of my father’s life. Its profound effect has been the glue for all art to follow in my life.

K.
The making and editing of my autobiographical film Summer Spent over four years has changed how I evaluate my still photography. It raised my awareness to beware of becoming complacent or formulaic and for me to keep rethinking my past accomplishments to guide new work.

L.
Teaching students how to see. This is an on-going process that has changed over decades. Each generation of students have a different perspective on how they interpret the world. My mission is to be sensitive to this so as to work effectively with them. This style of teaching also feeds me and helps keeps my art honest and connected to the present world.

MW
How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?

SDR
I deliberately work with a cumbersome 8”x10” film view camera so as to think through an image before making a photograph. This brings my editing down to about one in six photographs that are keepers. A keeper is defined as a work that doesn’t hold anything back and allows me to identify to the subject on a number of levels. Universally editing is simply about weeding out images that do not add up. All good work comes from having a well thought-out idea. If an image does not equal my concept, then it is time to let it go.

Also I am not afraid to fail because failure breeds success. Strange as it is, making an incredibly bad photograph, and be painfully aware of it, means you hit rock-bottom. This sets up a series of challenges to break into a new territory. It is frightening as taking on a new relationship.

MW
How do you decide on new projects to work on? Do you always shoot with a concept in mind or do you wait to be inspired as you go?

SDR
New projects are born from existing ones. One day you look back and you realize that all the while you were shooting landscapes a portrait or two found their way into the pile. Over time, you start asking yourself questions about them, and why are they inspiring. And before you know it, a project is in the works.

My Celestial Series might be one of a few acceptations. I am only engaged when an event takes place. Comets are
fairly rare, they appear for days or weeks, and then go away. It is like a brief affair, you become acquainted, fall in love, thinking you have a handle on it all, and before you know it, it fades away.

MW
What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?

SDR
The work always comes first for me with no specified audience intended. This keeps me independent to explore and expand possibilities with my work without the stress of diluting it in any way. I can never predict what will be successful or appealing to an audience out there. I am my own worst critic, and if I feel the work is soft in any way or lacking in depth, it will never be witnessed by others and I am most likely to destroy any evidence that it existed at all. Years back, I started photographing the stars and celestial events because it was simply a distraction from my other work and a time to play. A number of galleries insisted on showing this work and it sold incredibly well. Museums and collectors were hungry for it. I could have never predicted this. The work I made of my father succumbing to Alzheimer’s was never made with any intentions of making money. Far more importantly I made photographing and caring for him my job. Very early into his illness we discussed my intentions as a collaborative effort. It was near the end of his life, when he no longer recognized me or the camera that it became difficult to keep shooting. But at the same time, it was the most creative period of this work. It was my way of surviving and pushing through something we both started.

I cannot tell you what will happen next in my career. Projects continue and they expand and morph into other projects. I still play all the time and fail miserably as well. I am sure something of interest to others will come about. It always does.

Harold and Rebecca, Aquinnah, MA, August 13, 2011, from the series Beach People

Jenna, Aquinnah, MA, September 1, 1012, from the series Beach People

Rebecca, Aquinnah, MA, August 19, 2012, from the series Beach People

Roger, Aquinnah, MA, September 15, 2012, from the series Beach People

Cheryl, Michael and Jamie, Worcester, MA, 1983, from the series Bell Pond

Freddie and Terri, Worcester, MA, 1983, from the series Bell Pond

Hale Bopp, Spencer, MA, April 30, 1997, from the series Celestial

Merrimack, NH, January 9, 2011, from the Dinner Series

Worcester, MA, September 24, 2001, from the Dinner Series

Jacob, from the series Jacob's House

Worcester, MA, 1985, from the Mall Series

Worcester, MA, 1984, from the Mall Series

Worcester, MA, 1986, from the Mall series

Gene, Marlboro, MA, January 28, 2006, from the series With Dad

Gene, Marlboro, MA, November 6, 2009, from the series With Dad

Gene, Worcester, MA, May 1998, from the series With Dad

© copyright all images Stephen DiRado, all rights reserved

Monday, May 20, 2013

Joshua Lutz

What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?

I started taking pictures to have something to print. I did't really like taking pictures so much, I liked printing. I liked escaping the world by being in the dark and listening to music. The picture making was incidental. It wasn't until I started to not like the images that I was printing that I started to think about what to photograph. As far as milestones go they usually aren’t the ones I think they will be. The ones that move the work and change my process are not related to what typically constitutes a milestone. Usually its just a conversation or an encounter that changes my direction and not an award or a show. Those things act more as placeholders like New Years Eve or birthdays.

How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?

There are all different types of editing for all different types of projects. I generally take a long time and that becomes part of the process. I like to sit with work and move it around for as long as I can. I do not trust instinct or gut reaction. Something moves me for whatever reason and then I continue to ask why and if it continues to move me a month or two later and then hopefully it can stick for longer as well. The shooting is much more instinctual, you dont have the luxury of time when you are behind the camera. Something can happen, the light could change and that moment is gone. As far as advice goes. I would suggest look at as much work as possible. When you see a show or look at a book find what works rather than what doesn't. There is a tendency to reject so much work and that usually comes from a place of not knowing or simply being confused.

How do you decide on new projects to work on? Do you always shoot with a concept in mind or do you wait to be inspired as you go?

I make work very similarly to how I read books as I have a few going on at once and occasionally one rises to the top. There are a dozen books next to my bed and some of have been there for a year or more occasionally picking them up only to set them aside again. Generally its the previously finished work that ends up informing what that next thing will be for me. I tend to want to make new work to have a conversation with the last work and not be a repetition of it. I do wait to be inspired but that inspiration usually isn't to go and photograph it is to think through an idea. The next step is to research that idea. The photographs come last.

What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?

I always come back to the idea of right intention. If my intentions are from a good place that it doesn't feel like promoting. If my intentions fall off track then no amount of promotion can bring it back. Basically I come back to the question of goals. If it is to make as much money as possible, I have failed tremendously. If it is to engage a conversation and have a bunch of people see the work then promoting becomes something that is innate in the process.

School Bus

Hangnot, Slipnot

Fresh Seafood

Balancing Rock

Antabuse

Do Not Wake

Personal Belongings

Wisconsin Layers

Whitestone Bridge

Wall Collapsing

Emergency

Exit 17

Harlem Valley

Fuck You, I

Quiet Room

Roots

On Carpal Tunnel

About this Blog

Two Way Lens is a project designed to inform and inspire emerging photographers wanting to focus their creative output in a way that enhances their chances of finding an audience, being included in exhibitions and ultimately achieving gallery representation. The journey from inspired artist to successful artist is one that is often difficult to negotiate and hard to control. On these pages, I will feature the experiences and opinions of other photographers who I have found inspiring, and hopefully the knowledge they have built in their own experiences will be valuable to all of us finding our own way to sharing our creativity with the wider world.