tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34995064295761557432024-03-13T16:03:49.104-07:00Two Way LensCollected By Michael WernerAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-32767740385287897022014-08-05T09:50:00.000-07:002014-08-05T09:50:25.795-07:00Naomi HarrisMW<br />
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br />
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NH<br />
I began taking photographs in my third year of university. I was in the fine arts program with my focus in printmaking but since I used a lot of photo imagery in my prints I decided I should take a photography class in case I couldn't find existing imagery out there. Remember, this is before the days of the internet so when you wanted to find pictures you had to look through magazines and books like the encyclopedia. I went to Europe that summer for a holiday taking pictures while over there and when I came home and developed my film I decided to switch my focus to photography.<br />
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Milestones, that's tough. There are the obvious ones like having my first book "America Swings" published by TASCHEN, being selected by World Press Photo to attend their Joop Swart Master Class and receiving the Canada Council for the Arts grants but I guess every day I still do this and haven't quit photography yet is a milestone!<br />
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MW<br />
<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br />
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NH<br />
Editing is very intuitive for me. I look over a contact sheet and the best images stand out immediately so I circle them. This is something I miss when I shoot digitally, to be able to look at the contact sheet with my markings and notes all over it.<br />
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When working on a project I think it's important to make a very wide edit and scan these images to look further at as a group. Then you whittle your way down from there. Of course there are those photos that you know instantly you want to include but then sometimes you need to take stock as to what you already have, what is too similar to one another, what sorts of images are you lacking etc. Sometimes a picture might end up in your final edit and not because it's one of your favourites but because it's the only one of it's kind and you need it to complete the story and to make it more well rounded.<br />
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I think another important key to editing is to forget about the experiences that you had while taking the photograph. It's easy to get caught up in the backstory of how much fun you had or how hard it was to obtain that photo but that's your own personal experience, your viewer didn't share in that experience and only judge a photo based on it's contents not the hows and whys.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>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?</b><br />
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NH<br />
Each project I shoot is unique but all share this in common: will I get bored shooting this? Like the most recent project I'm working on EUSA I discovered while in Georgia shooting the last swinger party for America Swings. I stumbled upon this Bavarian town in the middle of America's deep south and after doing some research for other similar locations a project was born! I've been traveling around the US and Europe shooting this off and on since 2008 and hope to be done and a book released fall of 2015.<br />
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So far I shoot mainly reportage style waiting to see what will be there when I arrive. This is true of my portraits as well. But I'm interested in trying to shoot a little more conceptually though for future projects. For one thing I seem to always pick subjects that require a ton of travel and that ends up taking a toll both financially and physically. I find it harder and harder to find things that other photographers haven't gotten to first so maybe by coming up with something weird and wacky in my mind and executing it in a studio I can create something new and unique and not have to get dressed in the morning either!<br />
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MW<br />
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br />
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NH<br />
Hmmm, I'm still trying to figure that one out myself. Like when the swingers book came out it was before Twitter and I wasn't doing Facebook yet so I relied solely on the publisher to promote it. Today there are so many social media outlets as well as a ton of blogs which I also question a little. Like when I first started in this business there were a few photo magazines that published monthly or bimonthly and to be featured in there was a super big deal and each magazine wanted to be the first to discover a project and people really took stock in what was being featured. Today there are so many photo blogs and they need new content on a daily basis so I find the quality of work being showcased has gotten really pitiful. I think a lot of mediocre work ends up being elevated to some other level because of people sharing links on Facebook and Twitter and a buzz is created around it. As well as I find a lot of these media outlets to be lazy, like if your story was written up somewhere another blog will jump on board often not even interviewing you but just paraphrasing the original article and using those same photos, pretty much recycling it.<br />
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Last summer I drove around the US with my dog living out of my car and while I did use Instagram a little (to show Maggie on our travels) I didn't do a blog or too much around shooting. I think sometimes the focus is put on the promotion of a project and the social media angle and the experience of being present and taking good pictures is lost.<br />
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From How Campus Got Kinky, shot for Marie Claire UK, October 2013, from the series Portraits<br />
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Chewbacca On Set of "Star Wars XXX" Los Angeles, CA, shot for Bizarre Magazine, from the<br />
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Sebastian Copeland, Environmental Activist and Photographer, Los Angeles, CA, shot for<br />
"California Dreaming" Project, from the series Portraits <br />
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Norwood Young, Star of Bravo's, "High Maintenance 90210", Los Angeles, CA, shot for Marie<br />
Claire UK, from the series Portraits<br />
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The Harms Family, Vulcan, Alberta, June 2011, from the series Oh Canada<br />
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Sikh Motorcycle Club in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, March 2012, from the series<br />
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The 2010 Fjallkona (Icelandic for Ice Queen), Winnipeg, Manitoba, July 2011, from the series<br />
Oh Canada<br />
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Albino Identical Twins, Acadia Hutterite Colony, Manitoba, July 2011, from the series Oh Canada<br />
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Evelyn Having Her Hair Washed, Miami Beach, FL, from the series Haddon Hall<br />
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Leigh, Haddon Hall Hotel, Miami Beach, FL, from the series Haddon Hall<br />
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Pearl's Legs, Miami Beach, FL, from the series Haddon Hall<br />
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Evelyn At The Hair Dressers, Miami Beach, FL, from the series Haddon Hall<br />
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From the series EUSA<br />
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From the series EUSA<br />
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From the series EUSA<br />
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From the series EUSA<br />
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From the series EUSA<br />
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From the series EUSA<br />
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From the series EUSA<br />
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From the series EUSA<br />
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© copyright all images Naomi Harris, all rights reservedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-17310780920949150472014-06-23T10:13:00.000-07:002014-06-25T00:29:27.514-07:00Stacy Arezou MehrfarMW<br>
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br>
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SAM<br>
I grew up an only child. Well no, not exactly. I have two older brothers but they are much older than me, so it was as if I was an only child. I have vivid memories of hours spent going over family albums in solitude– making up stories about the pictures and pretending I was there even though most were taken before I was alive. This passion for storytelling stayed with me all through my childhood. I was the one in my family who always had the camera or camcorder in hand- documenting our family histories. And so it was natural for me to be a photographer- I was struck by the power of the image from a very early age.<br>
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Thinking back I’d have to say that the first milestone in my career was when I discovered the International Center for Photography (ICP) on 94th Street in NYC. It was like finding a secret magic hideaway in the big city. It was there where I fell in love with the darkroom. I went on to study at ICP (albeit in the midtown location) and from there I was introduced to a few key people working in the industry. It is because of the support from my teachers that I got my first big break – shooting a cover story for the New York Times Magazine. The most significant recent milestone would be producing my first monograph Tall Poppy Syndrome, published by Decode Books. It’s a huge honor to have your work made into a book and I feel privileged to have been able to do that.<br>
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MW<br>
<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br>
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SAM<br>
I aim to have an impartial, and rather cutthroat, approach to editing my images. It is crucial that I remove myself from the initial emotional/gut reaction/love affair. I often have to remind myself that no one else will know or care about the details that occurred behind the scenes and that what counts is only that which is explicitly within the image. Following that, a photograph only remains and becomes part of a series if it progresses the body of work as a whole.<br>
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I try to keep in mind the old adage that less is more.<br>
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MW<br>
<b>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?</b><br>
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SAM<br>
At the moment I’m doing a little of both. I am not someone who carries a camera with me everywhere. But I do always have a pen and paper (or the notepad and camera on my iPhone) working through ideas. If I see an “image” I write it down, take photos on my phone, and then shoot it again later in a more controlled manner. So I guess I run with daily inspiration and then once I have a more concrete concept in mind I shoot until the concept is realized.<br>
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MW<br>
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br>
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SAM<br>
I believe the same is true in the art world as is with any practice or profession - you need to have confidence in your work. And with that confidence comes pride and excitement. If you’re not excited then why should anyone else be? I aim to only put my work out for public viewing when I feel it is complete and ready to have a life of its own.<br>
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Another aspect (and this is also true in any profession) is that personal connections are really important. Building relationships with fellow artists is priceless. I feed off camaraderie with peers. And beyond that, I make time to go to openings, events, talks, fairs, etc. because I never know who I will meet.<br>
For me opportunities tend to arise through building personal relationships.<br>
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Lago Vista, Texas, from the series American Palimpsests<br>
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Covered Bridge. Austin, Texas, from the series American Palimpsests<br>
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Las Vegas, Nevada, from the series American Palimpsests<br>
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Magnolia, Texas #1, from the series American Palimpsests<br>
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Pasture. Plainfield, Illinois, from the series This Was What There Was<br>
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Sinclair Oil. Gateway, Colorado, from the series This Was What There Was<br>
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Mr. Dee’s Fish. Fredericksburg, Virginia, from the series This Was What There Was<br>
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Kudzu. Mobile, Alabama, from the series This Was What There Was<br>
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Distinguish Yourself From the Crowd, Broken Hill, from the series Tall Poppy Syndrome<br>
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Schoolchildren, Weethalle, from the series Tall Poppy Syndrome<br>
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Lillian, Broken Hill, from the series Tall Poppy Syndrome<br>
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Stands Out Like Dog’s Balls, Milton, from the series Tall Poppy Syndrome<br>
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Two Tall Trees, Mollymook, from the series Tall Poppy Syndrome<br>
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All images © copyright Stacy Arezou Mehrfar. All images from the series Tall Poppy Syndrome © copyright Stacy Arezou Mehrfar and Amy Stein, all rights reservedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-50272745429218063542014-05-14T10:13:00.002-07:002014-05-14T10:13:52.069-07:00Massimo VitaliMW<br />
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br />
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MV<br />
I've been taking photographs since I was 12 which for the time was quite unusual, but really my current project only started in 1994. It was then when I decided that I really wanted to photograph what I wanted and not what others wanted me to do.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br />
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MV<br />
The main approach to editing is to shoot very little. Just to give you an idea, in the past 20 years I have shot less than 5000 negatives. Even now with digital I only shoot the bare minimum number of shots and I immediately skip bracketing,HDR alternative versions. I know exactly what I want before so I can more or less shoot just one or two more shots for safety. Obviously when I started, I was using large format cameras and it would have been impossible to use a different shooting agenda. Therefor for me editing has never been a problem because I have a very clear idea beforehand of what picture I am going to take. That way I keep my hard disk unclogged!<br />
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MW<br />
<b>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?</b><br />
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MV<br />
Of course I shoot with a concept in mind and I must say it's always very tight and thoroughly researched. Digital or non-digital, I always use an 18 foot scaffolding structure from which to take my pictures and it's not so easy to move it around a lot.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br />
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MV<br />
Being recognizable, in the sense that people in a fair might not know your pictures or your name, but have to recognize your style.<br />
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Catania Under the Volcano, 2007<br />
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Sacred Pool Russians, 2008<br />
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Cefalu' Orange Yellow Blue, 2008<br />
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Mount Fuji Sicily, 2009<br />
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Gulpiyuri, 2011<br />
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Porto Miggiano Horizontal, 2011<br />
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Sarakiniko, 2011<br />
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Lencois Laguna do Peixe, 2012<br />
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Lencois Achrome, 2012<br />
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Lencois Laguna do Peixe NYT Cover, 2012<br />
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Piscinao de Ramos, 2012<br />
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Spargi Cala Corsara, 2013</div>
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GEAGESP Sao Paulo, 2012<br />
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© copyright all images Massimo Vitali, all rights reservedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-88499566172899133572013-11-27T11:35:00.000-08:002013-11-27T11:35:27.867-08:00Ellie DaviesMW<br />
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br />
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ED<br />
I grew up in the New Forest and I spent a great deal of time outside in the woods with my twin sister.<br />
The woods and heathland were a big part of our lives, whether we were making dens or skating on frozen ponds in the winter, we were in the landscape all year round. When I left home and moved first to Cheltenham and then to London I missed these wild places but gradually I found a way to bring them back into my life through my work.<br />
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I’ve always taken lots of photographs but it wasn’t until about 15 years ago that I started to think about it as a career. Throughout my teens I wanted to be a sculptor but I found the process of making something over many weeks a very intense and very solitary process. I loved it but because of its almost obsessive intensity I wasn’t sure how I could make it into a way of life.<br />
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When I first moved to London I started to assist lots of different photographers. I gained a great deal of invaluable experience over the next few years but also realized that my personal work, the work that I wanted to make from my heart, didn’t fit into any genre of commercial photography and that I wasn’t very happy working from commissions. <br />
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I took the MA Photography course at London College of Communication and came away with the certainty that I wanted to make landscape photography and it felt like a dream that I could spend my time out in the woods literally playing with ideas, building and making things, and capturing them as photographic images. I love the technology and the geekiness of photography but I also like to work in a very ‘low-fi’ way. Small kit, just me and my campervan in the woods.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br />
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ED<br />
I feel very emotionally involved with the images once I’ve made them because the experience is so fresh in my mind. I usually do a rough edit after shooting but I don’t begin the final selection for at least two weeks. This distance gives me a fresh eye, and allows a distance and an objectivity needed to separate the experience of making them from the images themselves.<br />
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The editing process can feel brutal, and it’s tough being really honest about whether an image is strong enough to stand on its own, as well as in a series. It can be hard to accept if you have invested time and emotional energy but it is worth it in the end because you know that every image deserves its place.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>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?
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ED<br />
I always have a concept in mind because my work involves a fair bit of preparation. I write down all my ideas, often in the form of simple lists with lots of diagrams and sketches. These gradually form themselves into a new concept. Once I’m fixed on a new series I can’t wait to shoot it but first I need to gather materials, decide where to shoot, make things to be taken into the wood, decide how I’m going to light it and the time of day to shoot. I like to work in overcast or rainy weather, the gloomier the better!<br />
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MW<br />
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br />
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ED<br />
When I left college I found it useful to have my work on art databases such as ArtSlant and Axis; various curators, buyers and gallery owners have all found my work through these sites.<br />
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Joining photography groups such as London Independent Photographers and London Photographers Association is a great way to meet other photographers who might be interested in putting together projects. For example, I was approached a while ago by Jonathan Illingworth who is a fellow member of LIP. He was collaborating with Tangerine Press to make a limited edition photo-book featuring four photographers working with forests. Since then the book has been purchased all over the world and added to the V and A’s National Art Library. This one contact lead to lots of exciting exposure for my work and illustrates how worthwhile it can be working in groups and collaborating with other artists.<br />
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Exhibiting is at the centre of my promotion. It’s a good idea to build your mailing list by having a visitors book so that you can keep in touch with your audience. To promote my exhibitions I send a press release to a wide range of listings sites such as ArtRabbit, Source, Re-title and Culture Shot, and to the photography blogs. I also send new bodies of work to photography magazines and blogs, they are often interested in featuring new work so it’s a great way to reach a wider audience. It’s also useful to get a Stat Counter on your website so that you can see how people are finding you online.<br />
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I’ve found it useful to enter competitions and submissions because this will get your work in front of curators that are otherwise hard to reach, and winning competitions has lead directly or indirectly to further exhibitions so I think it can be worthwhile as long as you look carefully at the terms.<br />
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Probably the best way to reach a receptive audience though is to work with a commercial gallery because they already have a wide and established audience for the work they promote. The relationship can continue long after the exhibition with further sales, a wider audience for new work and continuing opportunities to work together.<br />
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Between The Trees 1, 2013<br />
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Between The Trees 2, 2013<br />
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Between The Trees 3, 2013<br />
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Between The Trees 4, 2013<br />
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Between The Trees 5, 2013<br />
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The Dwellings 3, 2012<br />
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The Dwellings 4, 2012<br />
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The Dwellings 11, 2012<br />
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Come with Me 1, 2011<br />
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Come with Me 2, 2011<br />
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Come with Me 7, 2011<br />
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Smoke and Mirrors 1, 2010<br />
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Smoke and Mirrors 7, 2010<br />
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Smoke and Mirrors 5, 2010<br />
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Islands 1, 2010<br />
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Islands 2, 2010<br />
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© copyright all images Ellie Davies, all rights reserved.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-43701458835695852902013-10-23T12:23:00.002-07:002013-10-23T12:23:35.767-07:00Two Way Lens and Bokeh MagazineI am happy to announce some exiting news!<br />
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I have teamed up with Bokeh Magazine to feature a Two Way Lens interview from the archive in every new issue, starting with the current one.<br />
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Bokeh is an international photography magazine based in California and published exclusively on iPad and iPhone, available through iTunes.<br />
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The first interview from Two Way Lens in Bokeh No. 11, is with James Friedman and it looks terrific.<br />
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More about Bokeh and how to get it can be found<b> <a href="http://bokehonline.com/">here</a></b><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-61649770739543983572013-10-09T11:40:00.000-07:002013-10-09T11:40:12.647-07:00Klaus Pichler<br />
MW<br />
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br />
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KP<br />
My first attempts in photography happened in the early 1990s, when my parents gave me a compact camera as a present, but the spark did not ignite then. Eight or nine years later, when I was studying landscape architecture, I bought a Minolta because I wanted to have a camera to document the excursions I had in my studies. And, almost instantly, I noticed that I really enjoyed taking pictures and I felt that I had just discovered a powerful tool. After some time, in an honest moment, I admitted to myself that I enjoyed photography much more than my studies and decided to make a profession out of it after my degree. Retrospectively, I could not say that something particular 'inspired' me to start taking photography. It was more a feeling that I, as a creative person who is neither able to draw nor to design things, had found something to put my creative energy into. In the first phase, I did not have access to photo books or exhibitions, so it was a very unaffected way of getting into photography.<br />
Once I had made the decision to focus on photography (when I had three years of studying ahead) I consciously refused to look at other people's pictures or to get in contact with other photographers, because I felt that it would break my heart seeing other people making exhibitions or books while I was bond in my (sometimes much hated) studies. But quitting the studies was not an option, so there was only one solution: photographic hermitage... Same was when I started my first more serious attempts to create 'projects': I have been showing them to almost nobody because I was not sure if they were good enough, and spend nearly five years working on some series. Finally, I got a strong feeling that I had to go public with them, just to check if they were good or not. And since then, a lot has happened and I more and more began to consider myself as part of the (international) photo scene. Although it was a quite hard way, I am really happy about the fact that I am self-taught, because I had the opportunity to develop an own approach towards photography and towards working on different topics.<br />
Of course, there were some 'milestones' which were really important for me - mostly because in my solitude phase I lost the belief that any of these events would ever happen in my life, for example the first gallery exhibition or the first book release. But more important are the pictures that I have not made yet - I always try to look into the future and to think about new ideas.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>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?</b><br />
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KP<br />
It maybe sounds like a stereotype phrase, but I don't search for new topics, the topics just find me. Since I have gotten into photography more seriously, there is some kind of 'Pichler universe' in which my topics are located. Although sometimes the aesthetics and the outcome of the series are quite different, the topics itself have strong connections with each other. It's all about everyday life and it's strange aspects - sometimes within a special group of people, sometimes represented by artifacts. And I think, since society will exist as long as humans exist, I won't run out of new topics, since people are strange sometimes - and this strangeness is what inspires me, attracts me and appalls me at the same time.<br />
In a way, there is a slight idea of a concept when I begin to work on a new series, but I love to step back to a quite naive position in the beginning, to pretend that I don't know anything about my subject and that I have to start from the very beginning. This helps me not to be preoccupied and to get a sense for a variety of possible directions. In the end, I always have the feeling that every topic requires it's own aesthetic and that it is my job to tease out which one.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br />
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KP<br />
In my opinion, editing is almost as important as taking photos itself, especially when you work on a topic. Not only to select pictures, but to get a good feeling for the whole thing, the strengths and weaknesses of the series and the gaps which have to be filled. I spend long hours with the photographs of a new series, selecting them, arranging them, trying to get a feeling for the role of every single picture in the complete series. And also to find out, when one or more new pictures are added, if (and if yes, how) they change the whole series. I think in every series there are some 'pillar images' - the ones that carry the whole series - and it is very important to find out which ones take this function. When I am in the final stage of a new series, I sometimes get the feeling that every picture is like a close relative for me whom I know for a very long time. And I consider this as extremely important.<br />
In my opinion, following advices are very important: Rome has not been built on one day - so take your time when you work on a series, allow yourself some breaks (even if they are months long) and settle your own emotion towards everything. Also, try to look at your pictures with a distance view, with the eyes of a stranger, probably of a stranger who is hypercritical. Be honest to your self, painfully honest. If it hurts, it's good, because you find out that there still is some potential.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br />
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KP<br />
I think it is difficult to answer this question in general, because I think the way one promotes his or her work is deeply linked with one's personality. There are the real-life networking kings, the Facebook- queens etc. The most important thing is to find a way one really feels comfortable with, because it is easily noticeable if one is authentic or not.<br />
In my case, I just do know one way of promoting my work, because miraculously the first attempt of promoting my series (after five years of working in silence) worked out fine and still is working: when I finally decided to go public, I sent some self-introduction messages to the blogs I liked then (around 10 blogs, as far as I remember), and almost every blog I contacted posted my works. I did not expect that before, and I was amazed and shocked at the same time then. Now, three years after, this is still my way I do promotion, especially if I am introducing a new series - I just send the info to some of my favorite bloggers and hope that the word on my series is spread by them and that other people get aware of the series. Besides that, I am a lucky one because I cooperate with two galleries - one in the field of photography, the other one in contemporary fine art - and plenty of promotion is been done by them. Luckily, because I am not considering myself as a businessman, especially not when it comes to my own work...<br />
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PINEAPPLE<br />
Sort: Pineapple 'Nana'<br />
Place of production: Guayaquil, Ecuador<br />
Transport distance: 10.666 km<br />
Mode of Transport: Aircraft, Freight vehicle<br />
Cultivation: Outdoor plantation<br />
Harvest time: all- season<br />
Carbon footprint (production & transport) per kg: 11,94 kg<br />
Water requirement (production & transport) per kg: 360 l<br />
price: 2,10 € / 1 kg<br />
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STRAWBERRIES<br />
Sort: Strawberries 'Elsanta'<br />
Place of production: San Giovanni Lupatoto, Verona, Italy<br />
Transport distance: 741 km<br />
Mode of Transport: Freight vehicle<br />
Cultivation: Foil green house<br />
Harvest time: June – October<br />
Carbon footprint (production & transport) per kg: 0,35 kg<br />
Water requirement (production & transport) per kg: 348 l<br />
price: 7,96 € / 1 kg<br />
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LEMONS<br />
Sort: Lemons 'Lapithkiotiki'<br />
Place of production: Limassol, Cyprus<br />
Transport distance: 2050 km (linear distance)<br />
Mode of Transport: Ship, Freight vehicle<br />
Mode of Production: Outdoor plantation<br />
Production time: October to February<br />
Carbon footprint (production & transport) per kg: 0,72 kg<br />
Water requirement (production & transport) per kg: 448 l<br />
price: 1,99 € / kg<br />
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TOMATOES<br />
Sort: Cuore di Bue<br />
Place of production: Albenga, Italy<br />
Transport distance: 1035 km<br />
Mode of Transport: Freight vehicle<br />
Mode of Production: Foil green house<br />
Production time: all- season<br />
Carbon footprint (production & transport) per kg: 0,31 kg<br />
Water requirement (production & transport) per kg: 215 l<br />
price: 8,90 € / 1 kg<br />
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MELON<br />
Sort: Water Melon ‚Reina de Corazones’ red<br />
Place of production: Pilar de la Horadada, Alicante, Spain<br />
Transport distance: 2442 km<br />
Mode of Transport: Freight vehicle<br />
Cultivation: Outdoor plantation<br />
Harvest time: June – August<br />
Carbon footprint (production & transport) per kg: 0,54 kg<br />
Water requirement (production & transport) per kg: 1490 l<br />
price: 0,99€ / 1 kg<br />
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from the series Just the two of us<br />
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from the series Just the two of us<br />
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from the series Just the two of us<br />
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from the series Just the two of us<br />
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from the series Just the two of us<br />
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from the series Skeletons in the closet<br />
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from the series Skeletons in the closet<br />
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from the series Skeletons in the closet<br />
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from the series Skeletons in the closet<br />
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from the series Skeletons in the closet<br />
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© copyright all images Klaus Pichler, all rights reservedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-17455119958565690302013-08-30T10:54:00.000-07:002013-08-30T10:54:00.957-07:00Helen K. Garber<br />
MW<br />
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br />
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Dad with camera<br />
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HKG<br />
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. <br />
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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!!!<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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Milestones:<br />
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1. 1989 - 91<br />
My husband was the chiropractor for Le Cirque du Soleil and I get access front and backstage.<br />
Documented the troupe in Santa Monica, Orange County and Manhattan. <br />
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.<br />
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2. 1993<br />
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.<br />
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3. 1997<br />
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)<br />
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4. 1997<br />
Hired by Random House, Clarkson N. Potter to illustrate Parents at Last..<br />
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5. 1997- 2007<br />
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<br />
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6. 1998<br />
first one person show, book signing @ Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles<br />
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7.2000 - 2001<br />
Learn photoshop through Master Printer, Jack Duganne<br />
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7. 2002<br />
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.<br />
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8.2004-2005<br />
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<br />
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8.2005-2006<br />
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<br />
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9. 2007<br />
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.<br />
Exhibited at the entrance of the Venice Art Walk, FADA LA Art Fair (2010).<br />
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10. 2007<br />
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.<br />
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11. 2008 - 2013<br />
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<br />
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12. 2009<br />
Present Urban Noir- LA-NY at the Annenberg Space for Photography with original music played live by Grammy-nominated jazz musician, John Beasley<br />
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13.2010<br />
Urban Noir/ LA-NY is transferred to HD, projected at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Samuel Goldwyn Theatre Oscar Noir Festival<br />
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14. 2012<br />
NoirFest Santa Monica<br />
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<br />
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15. 2012 - present<br />
Begin teaching photo workshops at Otis College of Art and Design, Photo LA Emerging Focus + other venues I am starting to have conversations with.<br />
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16. 2012<br />
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.<br />
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17. 2014<br />
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.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br />
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HKG<br />
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.<br />
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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. <br />
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But it is always best to do the rough edit and have a second or third eye to look at your work.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>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?</b><br />
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HKG<br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br />
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HKG<br />
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.<br />
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Griffith Park Noir ©2009 from the series Noir Diptychs<br />
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> LACMA Lamps ©2009 from the series LA Noir</span></div>
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Shrine Oscars ©2000 from the series LA Noir<br />
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Getty Tram ©1999 from the series LA Noir<br />
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Disney Hall Noir ©2004 from the series LA Noir<br />
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> Second Avenue Subway Station ©2005 from the series NY Noir</span></div>
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St. Marks 3 ©2006 from the series Euro-Noir<br />
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Erdilin ©2003 from the series Euro-Noir<br />
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Windmill Ghosts ©2003 from the series Euro-Noir<br />
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Full Moon 6 ©2012 from the series Arizona Moon<br />
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A Night View of Los Angeles Detail (with full image inset) ©2006<br />
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Leigh Flying ©1994 from the portrait series<br />
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Disney Noir Two ©2011 from the series Encaustic Noir<br />
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Ghost Girl ©2013 from the series, New Mixed Media with Encaustic<br />
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© copyright all images Helen K. Garber, all rights reservedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-5736153099628143852013-07-30T07:43:00.000-07:002013-07-30T07:44:39.060-07:00Julia Fullerton-Batten<br />
MW<br />
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br />
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JFB<br />
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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br />
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JFB<br />
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.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>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?</b><br />
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JFB<br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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).<br />
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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.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br />
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JFB<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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Custody Battle, from the series Mothers and Daughters<br />
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Departure, from the series Mothers and Daughters<br />
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Pretty New Thing, from the series Mothers and Daughters<br />
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Miriam, from the series Unadorned<br />
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Ava, from the series Unadorned<br />
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Jessica, from the series Unadorned<br />
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Night Dress, from the series Awkward<br />
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Yellow Dress, from the series Awkward<br />
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Yuen, from the series Blind</div>
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Anna, from the series Blind</div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Harajuka, Tokyo, 2013</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Shimo, Tokyo, 2013</span></div>
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Vlada, Egoiste Magazine<br />
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Client: Renaissance<br />
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Client: Renaissance<br />
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Client: Schizophrenia<br />
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© copyright all images Julia Fullerton-Batten, all rights reservedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-83542596817976989552013-06-22T09:43:00.000-07:002013-06-22T09:43:51.696-07:00Stephen DiRado<br />
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MW<br />
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br />
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SDR<br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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Checking off important milestones in my career:<br />
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A.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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. <br />
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B.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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.<br />
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C.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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.<br />
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D.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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.<br />
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E.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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. <br />
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F.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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.<br />
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G.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
In my late twenties I purchased an 8x10 view camera. And I have been using it ever since.<br />
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H.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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.<br />
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I.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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.<br />
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J.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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. <br />
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K.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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. <br />
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L.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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. <br />
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MW<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br />
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SDR<br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>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?</b><br />
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SDR<br />
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.<br />
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My Celestial Series might be one of a few acceptations. I am only engaged when an event takes place. Comets are<br />
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. <br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
MW<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br />
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SDR<br />
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.<br />
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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. <br />
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Harold and Rebecca, Aquinnah, MA, August 13, 2011, from the series Beach People<br />
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Jenna, Aquinnah, MA, September 1, 1012, from the series Beach People<br />
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Rebecca, Aquinnah, MA, August 19, 2012, from the series Beach People<br />
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Roger, Aquinnah, MA, September 15, 2012, from the series Beach People<br />
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Cheryl, Michael and Jamie, Worcester, MA, 1983, from the series Bell Pond<br />
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Freddie and Terri, Worcester, MA, 1983, from the series Bell Pond<br />
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Hale Bopp, Spencer, MA, April 30, 1997, from the series Celestial<br />
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Merrimack, NH, January 9, 2011, from the Dinner Series</div>
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Worcester, MA, September 24, 2001, from the Dinner Series<br />
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Jacob, from the series Jacob's House<br />
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Worcester, MA, 1985, from the Mall Series</div>
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Worcester, MA, 1984, from the Mall Series<br />
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Worcester, MA, 1986, from the Mall series<br />
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Gene, Marlboro, MA, January 28, 2006, from the series With Dad<br />
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Gene, Marlboro, MA, November 6, 2009, from the series With Dad<br />
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Gene, Worcester, MA, May 1998, from the series With Dad<br />
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© copyright all images Stephen DiRado, all rights reserved<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-78503937735234616452013-05-20T09:03:00.000-07:002013-05-20T09:04:49.762-07:00Joshua Lutz<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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MW</div>
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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JL</div>
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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. </div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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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. </div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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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. </div>
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<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b></div>
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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. </div>
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On Carpal Tunnel</div>
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© copyright all images Joshua Lutz, all rights reserved.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-55169330327811785992013-04-15T12:09:00.000-07:002013-04-15T12:09:34.935-07:00Julie Blackmon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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It was a Photo 1 class in college. I was 19, and it this is where I was first introduced to the work of artists like Sally Mann, Diane Arbus, Nick Nixon, Helen Levitt, etc. I had never seen anything that moved me so much. I was blown away. But in the subject matter of these iconic works, I recognized some interesting aspects of my own life. As I started shooting for my class assignments, I didn’t have to go further than a couple blocks (my family lived close to the university). I was the oldest of nine, and when I’d show up with my camera, I could find any number of things going on --- like my mom having a garage sale, with my little sisters in charge of the money box – all the while eating donuts with their roller skates on. And then maybe my 85-year-old grandfather with Alzheimer’s would be sitting in the middle of all of that with one of the babies on his lap. I was lucky that way. There was always something worth shooting at any given time. </div>
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And even though I didn’t really go back to making photographs in this way for another 15 years, I never stopped thinking about photography. That class changed the way I saw life around me. </div>
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When I started shooting seriously again about 8 or 9 years ago, I really just wanted to get some good pictures of my kids, etc. I didn’t think about it as a possible career. But over the next year or two, the work became less and less about my own children. I guess I wanted something more. Those days in photo class must’ve stuck with me. A friend at the time encouraged me to enter them in a contest. I didn’t even know the photo world existed until then. When I won the Center award for the project competition in 2006, that was probably the biggest turning point, simply because it put my work out there for people to see. Not long after that Catherine Edelman in Chicago gave me a show, and other galleries followed. </div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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I think being able to edit well is something that just comes with doing a lot of it. There’s no shortcut in developing this sensibility. Sometimes though, you’re not sure – and if I’m in doubt, just getting the reaction of a family member as I go along is helpful – even if they know nothing about photography. They usually have an immediate reaction (or not) if it’s a strong image – without overthinking it. </div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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I’m probably a little different that way than most photographers. I think it’s expected that you work on a series for a couple years, and then you change gears and do another completely different series. The way I’m working, I think image to image, rather than about the whole project. And then later I can detect the gradual shifts that have taken place, and separate the work that way. </div>
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It’s like that famous book about writing, “Bird by Bird,” by Anne Lamott. She talks about how when her brother was 10 and had had 3 months to do research paper on birds, but he’d put it off until the night before it was due. He was in tears and immobilized by the hugeness of the task in front of him. Their father sat down, put his arm around him and said “Bird by Bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” I loved that. I apply it to everything that overwhelms me. </div>
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<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b></div>
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When I first started shooting (aside from what I did in school), as I mentioned before, I didn’t know the world of portfolio reviews existed. And, looking back, I think that was a good thing. It allowed me to focus on the work. I worked on that first body of work for at least two years before showing it anyone. I think too many starting out are thinking about how to get their work out into the world, when their time to could be better spent shooting (and editing). Too much focus on the end result can mess you up. Plus it’s a lot less emotionally draining than sending out hundreds of CDs and hearing nothing back! I really think if you focus on doing the best work you can do, and it’s really meant to be out there in the world, it will find its audience (or the world will find it) without too much effort. </div>
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all images © copyright Julie Blackmon, all rights reserved.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-44803292088183929092013-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:002013-01-21T09:14:32.814-08:00Fran Forman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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I've always loved pictures and I drew incessantly, often copying figures from magazine photos (I looked forward to the arrival of my family's Look magazines every week). I also made collages, combining magazine photos, torn paper and drawings.(My dad was a paper salesman, so we always had reams of paper samples on hand.)</div>
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But when I was introduced to a darkroom, I - like so many of us - fell immediately in love with the magical moment in which the image would emerge from the liquid bath, and I put away my pencils and picked up a Nikon. This 'discovery' came soon after I'd decided to pursue a graduate degree (an MFA, specializing in graphic design and photography). In fact, my 'discovery' of graphic design - the merging of fine art, commerce, image-making and communication - was an earlier milestone. When I was introduced to drawing on the computer in 1989 and to Photoshop in 1992, pre-layers, it all came together, so this was the next milestone. With this new toolkit and playground, I was now able to seamlessly composite my drawing with photographs.</div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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As I work in a solitary fashion, I find the editing process extremely difficult. I need feedback, so I might send a jpg to a trusted friend when I'm working on an image or ask my gallery director for an opinion. I also don't print my images immediately. I look at them on my iPad or some other device, let them 'sit' for awhile, think about them, and come back to them when I'm ready. Quite often, I then alter or discard many parts of the image. As each image takes a long time to create, it takes extreme fortitude to make these changes! I should add that most of the images never see the light of day, although I might cannabalize parts of them and re-use those pieces elsewhere.</div>
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I think it's helpful to look at an image upside down and sideways and to ask these questions about each composition: </div>
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does it make sense at least to me? </div>
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does every element work together and form cohesive relationships?</div>
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does every pixel have a purpose?</div>
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does it question and surprise?</div>
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does the image make me feel something?</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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I shoot what interests me and I later let the images draw me into their story. The idea of 'projects' comes after I've generated some images and I then discover their connections. The process is intuitive and allows me more freedom with my image-making.</div>
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<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b></div>
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Promoting one's fine art is so different than marketing a service, which is what I did for years as a designer. Learning to promote one's fine art is both daunting and only occasionally rewarding; it's required me to get over my shyness, my tendency towards self-effacement, my fear of self-promotion (how unladylike to promote oneself!), and it has forced me to accept rejection…it's not for the faint of heart! But I discovered that little successes lead to bigger ones - as long as the work is interesting and challenging and the craftsmanship, solid. For emerging artists, I recommend juried exhibits with respected jurors and occasional portfolio reviews. Social media is also a must, alas. But the real challenge is to avoid getting sucked into the vortex of marketing and promotion and to not lose sight of your art.</div>
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WINGED MAN IN A ROOM<br />
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SECRETS AT THE BONFIRE<br />
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WELLFLEET NIGHT<br />
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THE ROWER<br />
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OFFERING<br />
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CATCH A SHOOTING STAR<br />
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FLYING BOY OVER TRURO<br />
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MÉLIES' DREAM<br />
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HIDING GIRL<br />
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© copyright all images Fran FormanAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-57354645415775930822012-09-28T15:02:00.001-07:002012-09-28T15:44:42.762-07:00Chip Simone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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I’ve been doing photography for about a half century and over the years many things inspired me. Television was probably my first real visual influence. In 1950, when I was five years old, we got the first TV set in our neighborhood. I grew up watching black and white images on a small glass screen. Today, deep into my sixth decade, I am still mesmerized by some of the things that I see on a small glass screen. </div>
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I found a broken 1930’s camera that had a two piece pop-up viewfinder. I carried it with me everywhere and looked at everything through it. It quickly became my window onto a private world. By Junior High I was carrying a 35mm camera with me every day, working candidly by available light, imagining I was Alfred Eisenstaedt on assignment for LIFE. That was my first photo dream, along with owning a Leica.</div>
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As a high school student I apprenticed with a local commercial photographer who taught me basic photo-techniques and introduced me to the darkroom. I carried his equipment at weddings and watched from the wings while he made studio portraits on film that he retouched with a graphite pencil. He let me use his Super D Graflex, a 4x5 SLR from the late ‘40s. After school I used to proof his portraits on printing out paper in direct sunlight. A decade later I was using the same studio-proof paper to make elegant exhibition prints from my own 8x10 negatives by fixing the sun print with gold chloride solution. </div>
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As a young boy I demonstrated an aptitude for the visual arts. In grade school I was given special opportunities to draw, paint and work with clay. My high school actually waived most of my science classes so that I could spend additional time in studio art classes. They sent me to the Boston Museum School for special classes. Then in 1963 I was accepted at The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).</div>
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The legendary freshman foundation program at RISD prepared me well for professional level study. It provided intensive training in drawing, two + three dimensional design, creative visualization, calligraphy and art history. I learned the tools and ways of the visual artist. It also prepared me for something I didn’t see coming. In 1964, at age 19, I met the photographer Harry Callahan. I didn’t know who he was or anything about his considerable reputation. He was quiet and taciturn. Photography was his first language. He struggled to talk about pictures because he knew that the picture expressed itself best. He was totally dedicated to the pursuit of his vision. His motives were agnostic. There were many ways to do photography. Find one that suits you best; but find your own way; that was his core philosophy. Harry’s concerns were purely visual and poetic, never political or conceptual. He did photography most every day, not for money, but out of a passionate belief in the expressive power of the still photograph. He gave beginning students a series of exercises that acquainted them with the inherent properties of camera work and tonal control. He gave us exercises in seeing photographically, but he never told us what to photograph. He opened our eyes and encouraged us to see the world with passion. He never claimed it was easy to make a good picture. He never hid the struggle from us. Harry Callahan didn’t just teach basic photography, he taught basic photographer. Over the three years I was with him my ideas and beliefs about the power of photography were transformed into a quiet reverence for it. Photography became a verb, an ongoing act of existence and an expression of being. It gave form to my vision. Being with Harry Callahan at The Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-60s was the most important influence I could have ever had. And the older I get the more I appreciate his silences… </div>
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I was making informed photographs by the mid-1960s, just as the medium was emerging from the shadows. I first exhibited my work with other RISD photographers in 1966. At the time many in the art world, including galleries, museums and other artists, did not accept photography as a valid art form. When I was in art school there were only a few hundred photography students in the entire country. My schoolmates included Linda Conner, Jim Dow, Bill Burke, John McWilliams and Emmit Gowin. There were a small number of important teachers and role models to emulate. We studied the work of Minor White, Atget, Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, HCB, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Frederick Sommer, and some others. There was only one serious book: The History of Photography by Beaumont Newhall. The final image in the book was a double exposure by Harry Callahan. Creative photography was defined rather narrowly: emotionally sensitive images, intimately scaled B+W prints with dark brooding tones and dramatic silver highlights. We serious photographers took ourselves very seriously.</div>
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In 1973 I took up the 8x10 camera and used it exclusively for ten years. The big view camera reemerged in the 70s as an artists’ tool. It was a wonderful way to reconnect with traditional photographic essentials; a simple camera, a good lens, a sturdy tripod, and time. Obscure processes were resurrected. It was a deliberate and ritualized way to work. I brought the 8x10 into the streets to render the urban experience with greater acuity and a formal perfection. Every picture was a study. In 1979 I received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to photograph ‘Shrewsbury Street’, the blue-collar Italian-American neighborhood of Worcester, Mass. where I was born and raised. I did the project on 8”x10” negative in classic large format manner. I processed my prints by contact in Amidol water-bath developer using a variation on Edward Weston’s and Walker Evans’ formulas. Ninety-two prints from the project are in the permanent archive of the Worcester Historical Museum, the project’s sponsoring archive. In 1981 the museum exhibited 72 of the images. Hundreds of people I’d known since childhood came to the opening. Relatives baked cookies like they normally do for an Italian wedding. </div>
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In 1982 the NEA awarded me a fellowship. I made a radical jump from 8x10” negatives to Kodachrome slides; from the subtle grayscale of AZO paper to the saturated colors of K64. One way offered incredible control, the other virtually none. The slow color slide film had a narrow dynamic range which presented artistic challenges. I went back to the street where working with such an unforgiving film required technical discipline and a lot of experience. Working with K64 for a few years broadened my visual realm. Seeing in color was like lifting a veil from my eyes. At the time, however, there was no practical way to make a good and affordable print from Kodachrome, so after a few years I stopped using it.</div>
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In the 1990s I went back to 35mm B+W but after Kodachrome I found it unsatisfying. My pictures seemed to be pinned to the past. I began to feel that darkroom work was tedious, spending hours for one or two good prints. I was growing impatient. The process that I’d used for decades was feeling stale and restricting. At the same time I began to lose interest in exhibiting. A life in photography had to be more than a long list of shows. By 2000 my friends were encouraging me to try digital imaging, advice I stubbornly resisted. Finally I purchased an Olympus 5050, a little digital camera with a good lens. Working with a digital camera restored something that I hadn’t realized was missing from my work: fun and excitement. With the 5050 I did photography with the enthusiasm and abandon that I had as a kid. Simply seeing the picture on the small glass screen on the back of the camera lifted the burden of the wet process. The rituals of craft that hovered above every potential image were gone. Digital encouraged experimentation and it reminded me why I love photography in the first place: how I love having a sense of wonder about the visible world; about the human drama that plays out before my eyes every day; about the eccentric shadows and the unexpected epiphanies. I loved looking at all of it, the post cards as well as the discards. At the start of the 21st century my old obsession felt new again. </div>
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It took several generations of Photo Shop, plus improved printers, inks and papers, and as long as five years’ time, before I was able to get the quality I wanted from my image files. Through trial and error I developed an intuitive rapport with digital printing that intensified my vision. I eventually produced a stack of color prints that were as rich and expressive as any I’d done in monochrome. In 2009 I showed the prints to the Director of the Center for Creative Photography who was visiting my studio. She encouraged me to bring them to the curator at the High Museum of Art here in Atlanta. Her suggestion set in motion a remarkable chain of events. After looking through the prints HMA photo curator Julian Cox offered me an exhibition slated for mid-2011. I spent the next two years making more images and further refining my printmaking techniques. In June 2011 the High Museum opened the show called “The Resonant Image”. The exhibit of 64 images covered ten years of work and was up for five and a half months. It was the strongest and most sophisticated presentation of my work ever mounted. The Nazraeli Press published CHROMA, a beautifully produced companion book. Following the museum exhibit I showed at Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta’s foremost photography gallery. This show was followed in spring of 2012 by a 36 print exhibit at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York’s Chelsea district. Both Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta and the Steven Kasher gallery in NYC now represent my work. </div>
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The last twelve years have been a remarkable period of personal growth. The move to digital rejuvenated my vision. Color provided an enormous emotional vocabulary to draw from. The nuanced control of digital color is stunning. I can do things I never dreamed possible. The years I spent building a rapport with digital imagery led to some of the most visually arresting pictures I’ve ever made. </div>
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All of the things I’ve described here have, in some fashion, inspired me at different times and in different ways. The most important things are also among the most difficult: have confidence in your vision; find the patience to let your vision define itself over time. Make pictures often. Pay attention. You’ll see.</div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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I asked Harry Callahan how long one should work on a project. He replied, “Until you get sick of it.” </div>
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It may take decades for a picture to make sense to you. An image can move back and forth in time before it finds its place. You may have to grow wiser before you can fathom intellectually what your heart felt years earlier. It may take time to find the one image that will unlock the secrets of the others. </div>
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We all fall in love with our most recent work, but it often turns out to be infatuation and lust. Be patient. Give your pictures time to gestate. Give yourself some time to get over them. Put them away for a while and make more in the meantime. Then revisit them from time to time and see which ones stick to you. Which ones haunt you late at night? Those are the images that often hold the important clues about what matters. Be very critical of your work. Consider every aspect of it. Demand a lot from it. Pay attention to everything you see. Surprises come to those who expect them. Take them very seriously. For some of us it’s our whole life.</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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Choices about projects should be made as organically and intuitively as possible. Deciding on a project before any pictures are made will send you on a scavenger hunt for lifeless illustrations of a shallow idea. Find your pictures viscerally. Take chances. Be impulsive. Explore and discover. Photograph anything that feels like a picture. Accumulate a body of source images that trace your curiosities and echo your instincts. Look through the thumbnails to see what you’ve paid attention to. Look for patterns and subtexts. In time projects will form themselves, like gravity forms star dust into new planets. You are the gravitational force. Let the projects form from evidence of things that matter to you. Avoid cataloging things. Life isn’t academia. Of course, most of the pictures will fall short of your intentions and expectations. Learn to respect images that you dislike, especially when they’re your own. Don’t see them as failures. See them as the sacrifices that you make in order to see photographically. </div>
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Keep in mind that my suggestions may be seen by some curators, portfolio reviewers, critics and gallery owners as heresy. They prefer to see boxes of images with easy connections and obvious themes. But your job is not to make their job easier. Your ‘job’ is to get closer to understanding the nature of your creative vision and to make pictures your own way. The pictures you make are eccentric pieces of an unfinished mosaic. Each picture informs every other. If you’re lucky, this process will take a long time.</div>
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<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b></div>
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I helped start a photography community in Atlanta forty years ago. In 1973 we opened NEXUS, the first photography gallery in the region. Thirteen of us rented a storefront and formed a photo collective. We had a show every month for about three years. In essence, we were creating our own audience for photography. Nexus has since evolved into an art center. Many galleries here now show photography. I have given talks at local galleries and at the museum (which now has 5000 prints in its collection). I hold a monthly critique at the Atlanta Photography Gallery for all levels. I also conduct a discussion group about photography, or do interviews with prominent members of the photo community (High Museum photo curator Brett Abbott; Jane Jackson, curator of the Sir Elton John Photography Collection). I have a high profile in the Atlanta photo community, in part, because I am now a senior member of it. </div>
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Being part of a photo community has many political benefits. Networking is very important. Information is shared. Opportunities are posted. Organizations form for photographers with specialized interests. Make your interests known. Look for a group a bit above your level. Join and grow into it. </div>
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There are so damn many websites to wade through, I sometimes question their value. But, let’s face it, you need a web presence. The photography audience has become more discerning. If you build a site to represent your creative work it better be strong, clean and intuitive with no time consuming special effects. The images must be exceptional, skillfuly rendered and tightly edited. Don’t rush to put your work out before the public. Be as certain as possible that your work is of high quality. If you look like a beginner you won’t get a second glance. Find a mentor who will be blunt and truthful about where you are in the evolutionary process. Finally, self-publishing is a good way to get work out to galleries and curators. It’s easy to produce small inexpensive books to give away. I hear the Starn Twins made slick postcards which they sent each month to a select group in the art world. It worked out well for them.</div>
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Man In Drag With Blonde Wig, 2012</div>
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Vamp, Atlanta, 2005<br />
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Tattoo Back, Worcester, 2010<br />
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Covered Couple, Chimping, 2010</div>
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Hummingbird Corset, Atlanta, 2010<br />
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Red Over Ten, Atlanta, 2009<br />
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Dented Gutter, Worchester, 2010<br />
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Yellow On Red, Atlanta, 2008<br />
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Broken Arch, Atlanta, 2006<br />
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Midway In The Rain, Atlanta, 2004<br />
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White On White, Atlanta, 2008<br />
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Blue Truck Bed, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 2001<br />
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Purple Phone, Atlanta, 2007<br />
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Marilyn Monroe, Worchester, MA, 2007<br />
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Girl With Camera, 2009 </div>
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© copyright all images Chip SimoneAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-63890495490418065312012-08-30T11:05:00.000-07:002012-08-30T11:05:16.231-07:00Karen Halverson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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In 1975 I was living in New York City and working on a PhD in anthropology at Columbia University. I had been photographing for a few years and it held my attention, but somehow I couldn't yet think of it as a serious pursuit. I thought I was supposed to be an intellectual. At some point, I realized that my attraction both to anthropology and to photography came from a need to observe and comment on the world. I considered how photography could be used in anthropological work, as Margaret Mead had done. But then I realized I didn't want photography to be the handmaiden of something else. I wanted to make photographs as an end in themselves. So I made the leap, quit graduate school and hit the streets with my Nikon F and my one lens, the 35 mm. After working for a few months in the Garment District in New York, trying to make "good" pictures, I had a breakthrough. The congestion and constant activity of the street freed me up, forced me to stop thinking, yield conscious control, and let the shooting happen, quickly and intuitively. I well remember the emotional high I felt while shooting on the street and again later seeing the results. I had found the beginnings of a new identity that came from within. Nothing in my background explained it, but I trusted it.</div>
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When I started shooting, there were virtually no academic programs in photography. So I am self-taught like most everybody else who was working back then. The advantage of being self-taught is that you learn things because you absolutely need to know them. </div>
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I could chart milestones in any of several ways. But even though I'm much more interested in photographic content and expression than in photographic technique, I decided to think about milestones in terms of photographic equipment and processes.</div>
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A change in equipment always stirs me up in a good way. In the late 1970s I found a simple 5 x 7 view camera at a garage sale for $25. and bought it. It was made by the Rochester Camera Company in 1898. It has three shutter options: time, bulb, and instantaneous. It was a while before I could afford a Deardorff and even longer before I could manage a Red Dot Dagor lens to go with it. In the meantime, using that simple 5 x 7, I developed a love for the purity of tone and clarity of detail a large sheet of film can yield. A large format camera has been an important part of my tool kit ever since.</div>
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Around 1980, I began shooting color negative film with the large format camera and making color prints. I now know I am passionate about color, and that, in addition to subject, color is what I see first and forms the basis of how I organize pictorial space. Color printing taught me to see and understand the color and the behavior of light. I remember making a white building white, only to see that that threw everything else off. I then realized that the white building was, in fact, not white, because of reflected light.</div>
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As a child, I was taken on an epic 3-month car trip through the American West. That trip, I think, established the strong connection to the West I've felt ever since. In 1984 I made my first of many photographic trips the West, bringing along my view camera and my camping gear. That trip was pivotal. I was thrilled by the broad unobstructed vistas, largely unobstructed by trees. In time, I became as intrigued by how people live in the West as by the land itself. I have been exploring various aspects of the cultural and natural landscape of the West ever since. </div>
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In 1991, having moved from New York to Los Angeles, I bought the Fuji 6 x 17 panoramic camera because the broad mountainous landscape of the Los Angeles Basin begged for it. I quickly became aware of the aspect ratio of the frame as a prominent compositional element. Many photographers use the panoramic camera to emphasize linear space. My response was the opposite. I worked to break up the linearity of the frame in order to encourage the eye to roam around the broad space. Like the view camera, the Fuji 6 x 17 remains a piece of my basic equipment.</div>
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In the last five years, like so many other people, I have started doing my own high end scanning (with the Imacon scanner) and printing (with the Fuji 9880). Having final control of the production process is instructive, rewarding and as it should be, even though it means more time at the computer than I would like. </div>
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I just bought the Nikon D 800 DSLR. It is my first high-end digital camera. It will make for a new learning curve, of course. But I'm guessing it also will push me in a new direction. I'm thinking it might even lead me back to the streets of New York all these years later.</div>
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MW</div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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Editing one's work is challenging. I think it helps to let the work sit for a while until after the first fervent rush. Edit out anything you doubt, but revisit the rejects once in a while. Maybe you missed something. Let "accidents" inform you. Maybe they'll lead you in a new direction. On the other hand, you may find your first loves don't hold up with time. </div>
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Reviewing your work also helps reveal what really interests you, both in terms of content and in terms of how you use light, color, the photographic frame, all of it. </div>
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For me, editing means not only selection, but also organizing one's work. I usually create a sequence with a mind to establishing internal coherence, integrity, and the development of an idea or point of view. Bodies of work interest me more than individual images. Images can build on and play off each other to suggest a larger meaning.</div>
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I also think writing about one's work is helpful in terms of clarifying what it is you're after and what you think holds a body of work together. A few succinct paragraphs will do.</div>
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MW</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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KH</div>
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I love to travel, especially to somewhere I've never been. For me, photography is both an excuse to travel and a way to engage with what I find. So it'd be fair to say that location occurs to me first. I can't entirely anticipate how a place will strike me. Since it's not practical to take a suitcase full of equipment to the other side of the world, I try to have some sort of plan in advance. </div>
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In the early years of my shooting in the American West, I wandered around without itinerary, open to anything. But as time went by and I became more familiar with and knowledgeable about the West, I focused on more specific subjects like the Colorado River and Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. In different ways, each of those two series has to do with water issues in the arid West. I read up on the issues relevant to where I'm shooting and I ask questions wherever I go. What I learn along the way informs what and how I photograph. Content is very important to me. I want my work to be about something, something that I care strongly about. Now I always try to have at least some working concept or idea before embarking on a project, while also being open to what I discover along the way.</div>
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Last summer I went to the Dakotas because it was a part of the West I did not know. I knew the land would be flat. Pretty quickly I saw that the land is divided up into sections. I knew this had to be a result of the Homestead Act of 1862 that made parcels of land available to settlers who agreed to "improve" them. The result is that the land forms a kind of grid marked by north-south and east-west running roads, fences, lines of trees, etc. So, to express that historical imprint on the land, I made square images with the horizon line in the center of the frame and often with some other centrally positioned element. I emphasized anything that reinforced the geometry I was experiencing. I think of the resulting photographs as parcels. I had never worked so conceptually, or with such a tight compositional structure. I had arrived at a new approach to photographing the western landscape, one based on what I observed and on an understanding of history.</div>
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As with the West, I'd wanted to go to India since I was a child and read about Gandhi. Before I went the first time, I decided I wanted to make fairly close-up, frontal, consensual portraits on the street. I chose the Hasselblad because the square felt like a good portrait format. I chose the 80mm lens because the 50 could make for distortion and the 150 mm would be awkward to hand hold. Also, it would put me farther away from my subject than I wanted to be. Even though I love color and I knew India would be colorful, I chose B/W because I wanted the emphasis to be on the face, not on somebody's hot pink turban. </div>
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MW</div>
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<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b></div>
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KH</div>
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That's a tough one. It's always important to bear in mind that, as an artist, you're working for yourself. Only when you feel confident you have a body of work that represents you well and has internal integrity is it time to ask for the attention of someone other than your best friend. Better to hold back until you're ready, because you may not get a second chance. Edit carefully. They'll never miss what's not there. At this point, I think self-published books are a good way to show the work. The production process itself forces you to carefully review, edit, and sequence your work. </div>
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The Internet, of course, is a wonderful means of researching galleries, museums, art fairs, publishers, and other photographers' work. There's no excuse not to be well informed about an institution or gallery before trying to make a connection. It's important to be able to say why you think your work might be right for this particular venue. </div>
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In my experience, I have generally found it easier to get an appointment when I’m from elsewhere. Maybe it creates a sense of importance or urgency to be able to say you're in town for a few days and would like to show work while you're there. </div>
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It goes without saying that it helps to have a tough skin when pursuing a career in the arts. Rejection is part of the deal. Often you can learn something or get ideas from people's response to the work, whether you agree with them or not. It's all grist for the mill. </div>
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Pyramid Lake, Nevada<br />
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Route #190 near Keeler, California<br />
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Independence, California<br />
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Lodore Canyon, Colorado<br />
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Lake Powell, Utah<br />
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Palo Verde, California<br />
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Mulholland, Los Angeles, California<br />
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Mulholland Los Angeles, California<br />
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Mulholland, Los Angeles, California<br />
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Dickinson, North Dakota<br />
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Onida, South Dakota<br />
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Scenic, South Dakota<br />
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© copyright all images Karen HalversonAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-16503113450732219862012-07-31T13:50:00.000-07:002012-07-31T13:50:27.323-07:00David Husom<div style="text-align: left;">
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MW<br />
<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b><br />
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DH<br />
My father was an amateur photographer with a darkroom in the basement. I joined a camera club in junior high school, but I never saw photography as a possible career. I was interested in electronics and radio so I started college in engineering. I quickly realized that engineering was not what I thought it was going to be, so I switched majors to architecture.<br />
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I loved the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, however all my teachers preached Phillip Johnson’s modernism. Feeling lost in college I signed up for a photography course, thinking it would be a break while I decided what to do with myself. What I quickly realized was that I had found my home. But ironically my early interests in technology and human scale architecture has informed much of my work ever since.<br />
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I primarily studied with Jerome Liebling who had come out of the Photo League in New York. He was always very supportive of my work, even though it was very different than his. He had a way of saying “phoo-TOOG-raa-phyyy” that made it seem so important and honorable. He left about the time I graduated and moved back East to teach at a small college. There he became filmmaker Ken Burns’ mentor.<br />
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I lasted one day in a job as a janitor so I decided to go to graduate school almost immediately after finishing my undergraduate studies. There I worked in non-silver photography and pictoralism. It was only after seeing a Walker Evans show a few years later that it clicked that I wanted to shoot large format documentary, but in color. My first major work that got attention was a series on county fairgrounds in Minnesota. The photographs were published in an architecture magazine and then in Aperture Magazine. It has been in two J. Paul Getty Museum shows, including the show and book Where We Live. A work from the series is currently hanging in the Governor’s mansion in Minnesota.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>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?</b><br />
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DH<br />
I think it is very important to work on a series or project. Yet I do seem to fall into a project and let it define itself as I get deeper into it. I got interested in buildings built by the Works Progress Administration during the Depression in the 1930s. Some of the first photos I did were on a fairgrounds in Hibbing Minnesota, where Bob Dylan grew up. I quickly realized that the WPA was not the subject, but the fairgrounds were. I also knew I had found what I was looking for—a subject that would take me to every corner of the state (and eventually across the US) and allow me to explore theme and variation in these public structures.<br />
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I moved to rural Wisconsin 12 years ago, but at that time I was primarily using digital cameras for Web and screen based projects. But when the Mississippi River had major flooding near by, I returned to film and picked up my 4X5 camera again. When the water receded I continued to photograph the towns and vernacular architecture along the river. I never set out to photograph churches, one room schools and small town bars. But as I explored the towns along the river, that is what I was drawn to photograph.<br />
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Two years ago I came across a magazine in a Japanese bookstore that contained a kit to build a fully functional 35mm plastic twin lens reflex camera called a “Gakkenflex.” I really had no interest in plastic lens cameras. However when I tried the camera it became apparent that since it took vertical pictures, it would be an ideal camera for a series of images in a magazine format. I spent the next year photographing extensively with the Gakkenflex.<br />
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MW<br />
<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b><br />
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DH<br />
When I was a student there was an attitude that to promote yourself was beneath a true artist; that somehow good work would be discovered by itself. On the other hand I had some friends who were driven to be famous in the art world. They got into major museum shows and had important galleries carrying their work while they were still quite young. The problem was that every one of them was miserable with relationship problems. Since their success was so dependent on what was popular at the time, they were terribly insecure about their own work as well.<br />
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I learned that in the end it is important that you enjoy the work you do and that you believe in it. But you have to work for yourself above anything else. I was lucky in that I could drop in on people and show my work. However there are now great portfolio reviews where you can show your work to curators, gallery directors and editors in one place. As important as the reviews are, you also meet other photographers to share your work with.<br />
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I have always been a big fan of postcards. For almost any show I am in I will have postcards made and send them out. I also have done Lulu books, but recently I have gotten into magazines. I always liked to shoot 35mm slides when I traveled. My wife, photographer Ann-Marie Rose and I did slide shows of our travel/street photography including one for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Instead I now do magazines from MagCloud. The magazines are so inexpensive, twenty cents a page or less, that you can give them out to people who are interested in your work, or make your work available at a very reasonable cost. I now find that I really enjoy the whole process of designing and laying out a series of photos in a magazine format.<br />
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b><br />
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I remember hearing Ansel Adams’ son say that his father “knew exactly what a picture would look like when he pushed the shutter.” Any photographer who has worked a while knows their materials; Adams was a master at that. But the joy of photography is that in the end you do not know exactly what the images will look like. I think of Gary Winogrand’s quote “I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs.” That is the wonder and excitement of first seeing the contact prints, or these days seeing them on the computer screen.<br />
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So you do look analytically—looking at exposure, lighting, focus, depth of field, highlight-shadow detail etc. But in the end, editing is such an intuitive process. For over 12 years now I have done digital soft proofing. When shooting film I scan the negatives and view them on a computer first. With a digital camera, like my current Highway 35 project, you get so many images because it is so easy to take photos. You have to be a brutal editor and really study the works. Therefore, I always make large prints. I need to see them big laying on the floor or pinned to the wall. Even the Gakkenflex images, that I knew would only be 8.5X11 in a magazine, were printed at 24X36 as inkjet prints.<br />
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When it works you know you got it. I have learned that if something seems not quite right, even something small or seemingly insignificant, I reject it. If that voice is telling you it is not right, forget about the image and move on to the next. It is always that next photograph that keeps you going.</div>
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Brown County Fairgrounds, 1978 </div>
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Central Wisconsin Fairgrounds, 1995<br />
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House of Beauty - Durand Wisconsin, 2004<br />
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Full Gospel - Kenosha Wisconsin, 2005<br />
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Miles City Montana Fairgrounds, 1983<br />
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Amusement Park - Denver, 2007<br />
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Hwy 35 Bay City Wisconsin, 2011<br />
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Hwy 35 Hager City Wisconsin, 2012<br />
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Lock and Dam - Alma Wisconsin, 2011<br />
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Oak Grove Wisconsin Town Hall, 2003<br />
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River Road - Minneapolis, 2011<br />
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Skate Park - Bemidji Minnesota, 2011</div>
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© copyright all images David Husom</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-35968359632245923072012-06-24T07:56:00.000-07:002012-06-24T11:17:33.336-07:00Frank Yamrus<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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MW</div>
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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One of my favorite childhood Christmas gifts was a photography developing kit from my parents. I have this distinct memory of going in my bedroom closet and making it light tight by stuffing clothing around the door to load film into a developing tank. I’m not quite sure why my parents bought me this present since photography was not much a part of our life outside of the usual family snapshots for holidays, vacation and special events. I attribute much of my fascination with photography to this memory. I played with photography for many years but it was not until I moved to San Francisco in 1989 that my relationship with photography truly started to crystallize. Moving from the East Coast to the West Coast I left behind many things, but also viewed this fresh, yet complicated, start as an opportunity. My professional photography career started in San Francisco as I explored the “beautiful city by the bay” with my camera. </div>
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When I first started working with photography I studied with two photographers, Frank Espada and Cay Lang. These teachers / mentors were tremendous influences and would not be where I am today without them. In 1992, Cortland Jessup gave me my first exhibition. This validation was a huge break for me and gave me great street credibility in Provincetown. It also inspired me and gave me the confidence to undertake my next project - Primitive Behavior series which dealt with the loss of many friends to HIV/AIDS. Finishing this six-year project was also a huge milestone. (In all honesty, anytime I finish a project it feels like a milestone!) One of the Primitive Behavior images was my first museum acquisition by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 1995/1996. This is definitely one of my favorite all-time milestones. This event and an exhibition at Houston Center for Photography around that same time really helped me carve out a place in the photography community in Houston. This bond with Houston is near and dear to my heart. My first New York City one-person exhibition came about in 1996 at the Sarah Morthland Gallery. This was the beginning of a terrific relationship, and although Sarah does not have a gallery today, our friendship continues. When Sarah closed her doors in 2005, I moved to ClampArt and started a new relationship with Brian Clamp which has been as successful and rewarding. Both of these relationships represent significant steps in my career. Another significant body of work, Rapture, has the honor of being housed as a complete series in the public collection at the Kinsey Institute, and is displayed in total by a private collection in New York City. One of my favorite accomplishments is an artist book that I designed for my Bared and Bended series, a simple, delicate and quiet body of work that truly captures my first and only winter on Cape Cod. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention my latest work, I Feel Lucky. Another six-year project, after a break of sorts, this project documents my struggle with approaching 50 years old and beyond. The exhibition opened this past February at ClampArt along with the publication of my book under the same title. The pride and joy, and the sense of accomplishment I felt from this exhibition, the book, the great press and all the enthusiastic support is very overwhelming. </div>
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MW</div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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Editing can make or break a project, so I strongly suggest honing this skill set as much as your shooting skills. Personally, I like to shoot as much as I can especially now that I shoot digitally, but of course within the constraints of time, location, subject matter, budget, etc. The I Feel Lucky series was one of the first projects I shot with a digital camera. Quite frankly, I’m not sure the series would be as successful as it is if this was attempted on film or by some other method. Since I was in front of the camera as well as behind it, shooting digitally allowed me to refine the imagery that was captured in ways that the financial constraints of shooting film would have prohibited. Ultimately, I had very nuanced differences between frames which allowed for a more accurate depiction of my desired effect. </div>
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When I’m editing, very often one or two images immediately catch my eye. I must admit that I pay close attention to this gut reaction but also I make it a point, although sometimes an excruciating exercise, to look at all the frames that I shot. This step is an important part of the process of living with the work. Not only does it validate your choice of frames but it may provide some clarity within the piece. For me the process of creating does not begin and end with one shoot as sometimes one shoot will lead to a reshoot and /or inspire a completely new image. Although I have very specific ideas when I set out to make an image, I allow the process to unfold organically and have the confidence that my editing skills will lead me to “the” image. I used to always tell my students that if you have a doubt about an image in your portfolio, more than likely it doesn’t belong. Extricating images from your portfolio can be painful but often creates a stronger body of work.</div>
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MW</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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Generally I have a concept in mind when I initiate a new project; however, often it’s my casual, everyday shooting that leads to the concept. Once an idea begins to take hold, I make some images and attempt to define the project with words. This part of the creative process is intoxicating as anything and everything is fair game. I strongly encourage all artists to take advantage of this initial stage of a project. Everything you do, every image you make, every word you write informs the project, lays its foundation, and helps to define its parameters. Since I generally work a few years on each series, this time spent getting to know the project is very important as it helps me gauge my interest and my passion for the idea. If I don’t believe I can sustain the same level of interest and passion for the work over the long term, I won’t undertake it. However if my enthusiasm persists, it’s generally a good indicator that I’ll see a project through. I also find that a good project will inspire itself – often one image will lead to the next and the story begins to write itself. Again, let this flow and rely on your editing skills to make the work tight and powerful. </div>
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MW</div>
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<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b></div>
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For many of us, this is usually the more difficult part of being an artist. First, let me say this, your work needs to be good! I cannot emphasize this enough. Please take the time to create a solid body of work, let it “bake” for awhile, get supportive feedback from your family and friends but also get critical feedback from colleagues and professionals before you start promoting yourself or the work. When I first started out back in the mid-1990s, the most effective vehicle for marketing my work was developing professional relationships within the industry which I did by attending the Meeting Place at Fotofest in Houston, Texas. I cannot begin to name the number of curators, museum directors, collectors, gallery owners, publishers and other photographers I met at this event. Several of these folks are still integral to my work and career and I have the privilege of calling many of them friends. For example, I met Bill Hunt and Sunil Gupta in 1996 at The Meeting Place when I was showing my Primitive Behavior series. Both have followed my career and when I needed writers for “I Feel Lucky,” they were my first choices, not only because I respect what they do, but also because they had an intimate knowledge and greater understanding of me and my work. These professional relationships are a huge part of your audience and are key to successfully finding new audience members. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-npSb4RMrHOg/T-cPR_92MwI/AAAAAAAAFx8/CKKd9vzAmeM/s1600/01-kurt_muse_yamrusFrank_primitiveBehavior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="632" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-npSb4RMrHOg/T-cPR_92MwI/AAAAAAAAFx8/CKKd9vzAmeM/s640/01-kurt_muse_yamrusFrank_primitiveBehavior.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kurt (Muse), from the series Primitive Behavior</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laura (Veil), from the series Primitive Behavior</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve (Ritural), from the series Primitive Behavior</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wZE3D88fygY/T-cPiZxFOCI/AAAAAAAAFyc/7aqxMSPEJo0/s1600/05-paul_yamrusFrank_Rapture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wZE3D88fygY/T-cPiZxFOCI/AAAAAAAAFyc/7aqxMSPEJo0/s640/05-paul_yamrusFrank_Rapture.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Paul), from the series Rapture</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LyvtZJwd_oo/T-cPmArLlDI/AAAAAAAAFyk/0yzwbuvZCh0/s1600/06-cemetary_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LyvtZJwd_oo/T-cPmArLlDI/AAAAAAAAFyk/0yzwbuvZCh0/s640/06-cemetary_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Cemetery), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I5PMFVRo8c8/T-cPsB0GHQI/AAAAAAAAFys/9FMWLELEZLE/s1600/07-float_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I5PMFVRo8c8/T-cPsB0GHQI/AAAAAAAAFys/9FMWLELEZLE/s640/07-float_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Float), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aPgzDA8bF3Q/T-cPyhm047I/AAAAAAAAFy0/DFq25IvVHzI/s1600/08-nap_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aPgzDA8bF3Q/T-cPyhm047I/AAAAAAAAFy0/DFq25IvVHzI/s640/08-nap_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Nap), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vpkITkavxc8/T-cP1kcRm9I/AAAAAAAAFy8/0ZluPBCBCJ8/s1600/09-kitty_yamrusFrankjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vpkITkavxc8/T-cP1kcRm9I/AAAAAAAAFy8/0ZluPBCBCJ8/s640/09-kitty_yamrusFrankjpg.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Kitty), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AOuytipfZA4/T-cP6ZWXDjI/AAAAAAAAFzE/B7rbIqJOCf4/s1600/10-brooke_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AOuytipfZA4/T-cP6ZWXDjI/AAAAAAAAFzE/B7rbIqJOCf4/s640/10-brooke_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Brooke), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l47zxwKz11A/T-cP9mzeHVI/AAAAAAAAFzM/_J8FjFTLcgs/s1600/11-cross_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l47zxwKz11A/T-cP9mzeHVI/AAAAAAAAFzM/_J8FjFTLcgs/s640/11-cross_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="456" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Cross), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pdGjEjVf5iI/T-cQDPvP30I/AAAAAAAAFzU/cq9iF_qpppg/s1600/12-fountain_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pdGjEjVf5iI/T-cQDPvP30I/AAAAAAAAFzU/cq9iF_qpppg/s640/12-fountain_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Fountain), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Iys0MB8z9EQ/T-cQHdYaayI/AAAAAAAAFzc/3mZ3UWh8VAg/s1600/13-playground_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Iys0MB8z9EQ/T-cQHdYaayI/AAAAAAAAFzc/3mZ3UWh8VAg/s640/13-playground_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="456" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Playground), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vNR1nvpIdR8/T-cQMCdlFdI/AAAAAAAAFzk/7Jf_wLGyzC4/s1600/14-kiss_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vNR1nvpIdR8/T-cQMCdlFdI/AAAAAAAAFzk/7Jf_wLGyzC4/s640/14-kiss_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="456" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Kiss), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tfeyCVuG3tk/T-cQPNYMz1I/AAAAAAAAFzs/TeoRWtxjTRI/s1600/15-disappear_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tfeyCVuG3tk/T-cQPNYMz1I/AAAAAAAAFzs/TeoRWtxjTRI/s640/15-disappear_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Disappear), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--xpBJUhJIAs/T-cQTta23XI/AAAAAAAAFz0/rM4E_otfdBg/s1600/16-cake_yamrusFrank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--xpBJUhJIAs/T-cQTta23XI/AAAAAAAAFz0/rM4E_otfdBg/s640/16-cake_yamrusFrank.jpg" width="456" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled (Cake), from the series I Feel Lucky</td></tr>
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© Copyright all images Frank YamrusAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-90564285099454654652012-05-28T07:37:00.001-07:002012-05-28T08:42:05.454-07:00Greg Friedler<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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MW</div>
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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GF</div>
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When I was 17, I went away to school and my Dad gave me his old Olympus OM 1, 35 mm film camera. I took a photo class and was totally hooked. It came so naturally to me. Milestones… well the release of Naked New York, in 1997, sort of started it all off and was a huge milestone as this project was my thesis project for graduate school. Since then I have had four other monographs published and have been included in over 9 anthologies across the world. Two of the biggest milestones, by far, were having two feature length documentaries made about my work. Naked London, was a documentary about me shooting Naked London in the Summer of 1999, and aired on the BBC in December 1999. Stripped: Greg Friedler’s Naked Las Vegas, was made over a month in Las Vegas in August 2007. It aired on Showtime from March 2010 to March 2012. This has been vitally important to getting my message and work across to a global audience. I believe that the next great milestone will come in the form of a monograph I am doing with Alexander Scholz, of Galerie Vevais in Germany, called: Greg Friedler: HUMANITY.</div>
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MW</div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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I shoot very few frames. Even if I am shooting with a DSLR, I most likely will only take 4 or 5 images. Fewer if shooting with 4 by 5 film. As a photographer or any visual artist, one needs to spend a lot of time on their craft and learn from every mistake that is made, and then this informs what one does in the future. I think if photographers are still trying to “find their eye” they need to shoot a lot to see what works and what does not work. But in general, you have to go with your gut. If you are looking at a photograph you made and are not sure, then chances are that it wont make the cut. As photographers we want to make indelible images that will not soon be forgotten, this does not come easy. Meaning that if an image does not move you, strike you, or challenge you from the onset of seeing it, chances are that it was not stick with your audience. I think the best advice I can give others, looking at their work, is to stick to the “gut” thing, but also look at the photos a few times before deciding. I don’t believe in Photoshop, I shoot images exactly as I want to see them printed on the page. Hence, even though it is done millions of times a day, I advise staying away from dressing up a “mediocre” photograph in Photoshop to try to make it something it is not. I am rambling a bit, but anyways I lets say you are photographer “George” from wherever and you shoot 20 images of a certain subject matter. Chances are that even upon, first glance at your images, one of them will stand out and pop. That is your gut speaking, that is the image to run with!</div>
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MW</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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I am always open and see what I encounter or can conceptualize. It is always in flux. I am certainly not a photographer who sticks to one subject matter, with one camera, with one vantage point. I draw on whatever I need for the given project. For instance, right now I am shooting two very different projects. One on very close up abstracts of graffiti tags and another of formal portraits of bathers at a local hot springs.</div>
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<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b></div>
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Not sure Michael. I think all the books I have done, in addition to the films, have given me priceless exposure. The “art” market is totally different with far too many factors at play to mention. Do they like the work? Do they understand the relevance of the work? And sadly, especially now, can they sell the work? I am getting my work into the proper art galleries slowly, but they have to be the right fit. It does not make any sense to have a random gallery offer me a show, spend $8000 to print, frame, and ship the work, and then basically get nothing out of it! One has to be patient to find the right fit with the right gallery owner or art dealer.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UUUozeG0GXY/T8OPtdPIpfI/AAAAAAAAFuU/IIybOmIz_AQ/s1600/m01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UUUozeG0GXY/T8OPtdPIpfI/AAAAAAAAFuU/IIybOmIz_AQ/s640/m01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Still Lifes</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Still Lifes</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Still Lifes</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Portraits</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series portraits</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Lalaland</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Portraits</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6TMCbzV_yZg/T8OP6jdLr0I/AAAAAAAAFvM/tPqeheRbqJ8/s1600/m08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6TMCbzV_yZg/T8OP6jdLr0I/AAAAAAAAFvM/tPqeheRbqJ8/s640/m08.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Portraits</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Abstracts</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Abstracts</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Abstracts</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Exquisite Colors</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the series Exquisite Colors</td></tr>
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© copyright all images Greg Friedler</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-71300908426222927062012-04-27T08:11:00.000-07:002012-04-27T08:11:39.977-07:00Jesse Burke<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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MW</div>
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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I got my photographic start as a twenty-something skateboarder. I was shooting that lifestyle- my friends, action shots, landscapes of pools and ramps, stuff like that. It was a totally natural way for me to incorporate my new interest in photography into my existing life. It was very exciting. That spark really ignited a deep desire to become a photographer. It allowed me to see the world in a new more specific and meaningful way, shooting very personal subjects. Since those days two major things have guided my path as an artist, moving back to New England from the desert of Arizona where I found photography and having my 1st child. The landscape of New England and becoming a parent were really instrumental in who I have become as an artist. I consider those career milestones in a way. But also having my first solo exhibition at ClampArt in New York and the publication of my book, Intertidal, would be my more concrete milestones.</div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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I started this pattern of shoot, shoot, shoot, and edit later. Shoot every and anything, even things that initially seem disconnected. For me relationships between images often occur back in the studio, during the proof-printing process, once everything was up on the wall. Relationships that I was unaware of at the time and couldn't have possibly seen in camera. This way of working has become part of my core process and allows me to create the installations that I eventually exhibit. The process of acquiring the images in a free form way has also allowed me to shoot various types of pieces (portrait, still live, landscape) and exhibit them seamlessly together. I guess I'm editing all the way through, just in different ways. So my point is be open during the editing process to things outside of your expected comfort zone.</div>
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I'm a big believer that getting as many eyes on the work as possible can be great when editing. Share your work at all stages of the process with peers and friends. Let go of some the control and see what happens. I know this sounds elementary but print out the images, hang them on the wall, and look at the bigger picture. In the digital age I feel that more editing is done onscreen. Sit with things for a while and really look at what you're doing, look for connections.</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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I've had the fortune that most of my projects organically rise to the surface, sort of fall in my lap. I am always thinking about various concepts that interest me and how they can be related to my art making process and how I can implement them into my life. So there is stuff buzzing around all the time, then every once and a while I'll make some work about a topic. I float around between a few projects at once so I can spread out my attention, which keeps it fresh. I would say my practice is made of 50% of work that is preconceived and produced with an idea in mind and 50% on the fly as I go. but in the end all of the work will fit into the same project. for example, right now my daughter and I are driving around waiting for things to appear or happen, but at he same same time we are focused on shooting planned things. It's a really nice way to work because it allows me to be open to chance encounter but also make sure I have something solid happening that's ready to go.</div>
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For Intertidal I moved home to New England and was awaked by what I saw. The landscape, my friends and family, etc. I was coming back east after being away for 10 years. I became a visual artist while I was gone, so returning was crucial in creating that work. The move sort of dictated it in a natural way. Blind was sort of a commission in the early stages. I was invited by a friend to go down south and visit a hunting farm with him to hang out and possibly make some new work. When I arrived I knew that my next project was at hand.</div>
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The project I am currently working on really fell into my lap. I was on a road trip with my 5 year old daughter to explore nature and photograph what we encountered and before I knew it I was deep in the throes of a serious art project. Maybe the most complete one I've attempted in terms of what interests me the most at this point in my life.</div>
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<b>What ways have you found successful for promoting your work and finding a receptive audience for it?</b></div>
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I think making the rounds on the portfolio review circuit is important. It's a great way to show your work to the right people all in one place. It can be expensive but in my experience it has paid off. Review Santa Fe is the one of the best and has been integral in my career. I would definitely recommend it. Being a good self-promoter is crucial, emailing, social media, blogging, all of that keeps people aware of you and you're work on a daily basis. I'm on the grind all day, everyday. Just ask my wife.</div>
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Rapper Rick Ross says it best "Everyday I'm Hustlin'" It's funny, but 100% true.</div>
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Also, having the right dealer and agents is important. Everyone wants a gallery and a commercial agent, but the key is to find the right ones that are a perfect match for you and your work, then to work as a team. I took my time in finding the right gallery and agent to work with. Sometimes it's hard and scary to make the right decisions. But if you have a vision for how you see your future and what your team should be then don't settle for anything less. I'm not saying hold out for Gagosian, be realistic. Figure out where you fit and who you really want to work with and then go for it and give it your all. I feel like I should say, easier said than done right here, true, but getting the audience, collectors or jobs that you want comes from the right team. I've been incredibly fortunate to have a great team of people to work with. It makes me happy everyday to know that I can trust them and their vision of my work. Together we get the work in front of the right audience. </div>
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Franconia Hoop<br />
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Old Spice<br />
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Bloody Nose<br />
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Tree Farmer<br />
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Father, from the series Intertidal 1<br />
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Cannon Mountain View<br />
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Hidden, from the series Blind<br />
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Open Country, from the series Intertidal 1<br />
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Nectar Imperial, Nils, from the series Intertidal 1<br />
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Push Up, from the series Intertidal 1<br />
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Silver Bullet, from the series Intertidal 2<br />
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Postgame, from the series Intertidal 2<br />
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Wilson, from the series Intertidal 2<br />
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© copyright all images Jesse Burke, all rights reserved.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-62562049690769574602012-03-26T12:33:00.000-07:002012-03-26T12:33:15.647-07:00Chris Anthony<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what have been some of the most important milestones in your career up until now?</b></div>
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CA</div>
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As a teenager I was really into music and so I started a fanzine and of course we needed pictures so I started photographing the bands. The first few shows produced horrible results, but after awhile I started to get a bit better at it, and then fell in love with the process. </div>
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Photography studies followed, and I started shooting professionally for music magazines all over the world. Then at the ripe of old age of about 17 I gave it up and moved to Florence to study art history. </div>
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After that my love of film took over and I started working my way through the Swedish film industry and then began directing shorts which led to TV work and commercials, music videos etc. </div>
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The irony is when I ended up moving to Los Angeles, I gradually dropped out of film making and I picked up a still camera for the first time in over ten years and was utterly enchanted. </div>
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I've been shooting still photographs now full time for about 7 years and although I do the occasional campaign or album cover I mostly concentrate on my own work which is shown in galleries. </div>
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Just being able to make a living is the milestone, I think!</div>
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MW</div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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CA</div>
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Much of the editing is done before I even shoot, because I mostly use large format film and shoot very</div>
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few images. </div>
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I try to prepare as much as possible, so when the film is processed there's not much variation or much to choose from. Now that I've started working with wet plate, there's even less editing involved.</div>
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On the other hand, not everything comes out good, and knowing what to put out into the world is an art unto itself. I go with my gut, which isn't always right!</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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It usually begins with an awful lot of ruminating and brooding! Coming up with good ideas is the most difficult part of the process. </div>
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If I'm lucky I'll think of something decent once a year. </div>
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Then all the art direction / locations / costumes. Making costumes and/or masks. Perhaps renting or buying certain elements. Deciding on whether any type of crew is needed (I prefer to do as much as possible myself if I can get away with it). </div>
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The shoot itself is usually quite quick and painless if I've prepared properly. Unless of course the location is tough due to the elements.</div>
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I've done a lot of shooting in the Pacific ocean on cold, wet winter mornings and it's usually pretty tough on the models.</div>
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MW</div>
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My website is really the only platform I have. Sometimes I send out e-mails. </div>
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VENICE 1<br />
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VENICE 3<br />
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VENICE 7<br />
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VENICE 20<br />
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REGINA PELAGUS<br />
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TERRY FX MACGILLARCUDY<br />
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MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE / Warner Music<br />
The Black Parade<br />
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© copyright all images Chris AnthonyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-11619947406006673112012-02-24T13:22:00.000-08:002012-02-27T14:10:17.120-08:00Ruben Natal-San Miguel<div>
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On a personal level , that my work is already appreciated and in hands of very good and notable art collectors. It is important to me that the work sells and that it goes into the right hands. Being an art collector myself specialized in Fine Art Photography to me that speaks volumes of the work , that had been creating for the past 8 years. I never expected that publications like The Atlantic Magazine September 2011 issue) will contact my art dealer to publish one of my photographs , tilted ''Wonder'' and not only publish it also , pay me an editorial fee for it. During 2011, my work was published in 4 different publications ( Urban Italy, Wink , The Atlantic and Aperture Magazine) . I thought that was pretty amazing considering how competitive this field can be. My photographs had been shown in galleries, art fairs nationally and overseas so you can say, sort of still pinching myself about. Also being able to do public speaking about photography and my work as such venues as School of Visual Arts and Photo Plus 2011 at the Javitz Center were great highlights as well.</div>
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<b>How do you approach editing your work, and what advice would you give to others about evaluating their photographs?</b></div>
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Being a photography juror and portfolio reviewer for many years for organizations such as Photolucida, Woodstock Center for Photography, En Foco, American Society of Media Photographers NY Chapter and had conducted my own as well , I will highly recommend everybody to have a pair of good second eyes to help edit your work. Editing is a storytelling factor in a body of work or series. There are photographs that stand on its own but, if they are to be told as part of a narrative with others , its placement and sequence matter the most . On my case , I make the work , I edit it and post some on Social Media with a narrative with it an see the reaction of the public and my own. I have a very transparent and democratic way to approach my work and like to share my own personal experience of how I become of it. Since , I already have a trained eye, just present the work to my art dealer and together we decide what to show and why. I always take in consideration what can be ''sellable'' and what it is just other images that provide ''support '' to the rest of the body of work .</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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I like to do work that inspires me and moves me in such a way that no matter how much danger is involved , still gets done. I had been photographing in the Inner City areas of NYC for over 8 years and counting because, my sole purpose is to bring out the best of it, that endearing element that most people simply ignore because its geographical/ social-economic location. There is a constant gentrification in these areas and with that includes shifting in race demographics, economic, class, values and tradition. Every time , I go out there and hit the streets , I long and look for a NY that is constantly evolving and disappearing in front of my eyes by the minute. I had the pleasure of documenting Architecture, people, places and traditions that are almost extinct and great number gone already. After many years of capturing street life as it evolves in front of my eyes as a witness/voyeur now, I am focusing on the interior aspect or soul of the Inner City, their businesses and their life right at home which it is a more heartfelt, personal, intimate and human approach.</div>
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I am a true believer that Social Media works if you represent yourself and your work in a respectful manner and if there is true and strong message to communicate to the public. In my case due to my positioning in the photography business, it is very hard to separate my public persona in the photography business vs. my labor of love as a Fine Art Photographer. It is a tough act to balance and one that I still juggle with on a daily basis. I did get my first solo show out of someone seeing some of my photographs posted on Facebook so, that tells my story. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CjdkSY1uuuY/T0fluOaxJoI/AAAAAAAAE1Y/WRp-ULCya48/s1600/1-Nathans.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="448" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712787234649876098" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CjdkSY1uuuY/T0fluOaxJoI/AAAAAAAAE1Y/WRp-ULCya48/s640/1-Nathans.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Nathan's, 2012 Coney Island, NYC. From the ''Coney Island UnSeen'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aG0Tsjhzgvo/T0flt72mq8I/AAAAAAAAE1M/uMIHgELZjkg/s1600/2-Subway%2BGirl.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712787229666356162" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aG0Tsjhzgvo/T0flt72mq8I/AAAAAAAAE1M/uMIHgELZjkg/s640/2-Subway%2BGirl.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Subway Girl, 2012 NYC. From the '' Subway Chicas On The Go'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1Rx9O9ep-c/T0fltZBrsTI/AAAAAAAAE1A/wXBKZcv4HUw/s1600/3-Subway%2BBeauty.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712787220317581618" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1Rx9O9ep-c/T0fltZBrsTI/AAAAAAAAE1A/wXBKZcv4HUw/s640/3-Subway%2BBeauty.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Subway Beauty, 2012 NYC. From the ''Subway Chicas On The Go'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-thZGDFTmx6E/T0fltO121mI/AAAAAAAAE00/k0-cpB37Ruw/s1600/4-Black%2Bis%2Bbeautiful.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="481" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712787217583625826" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-thZGDFTmx6E/T0fltO121mI/AAAAAAAAE00/k0-cpB37Ruw/s640/4-Black%2Bis%2Bbeautiful.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Black is Beautiful, 2012 NYC. From the '' Portraits from All Walk of Life'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OVCwNcYwsFU/T0fltFm5BMI/AAAAAAAAE0s/NQu9vZqRYj8/s1600/5-Not%2Bover.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="403" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712787215104935106" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OVCwNcYwsFU/T0fltFm5BMI/AAAAAAAAE0s/NQu9vZqRYj8/s640/5-Not%2Bover.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Not Over, 2012 NYC. From the '' Portraits from All Walk of Life'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G_N88u3nbG8/T0flTILairI/AAAAAAAAE0g/BX3SxGZtkqg/s1600/6-Demolition%2BDepot3.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786769118399154" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G_N88u3nbG8/T0flTILairI/AAAAAAAAE0g/BX3SxGZtkqg/s640/6-Demolition%2BDepot3.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Demolition Depot, 2011 Harlem, NYC. From the '' Demolition Depot'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YLvuAj63Bs4/T0flS-oqFAI/AAAAAAAAE0U/_h0pd4bdnBU/s1600/7-Demolition%2BDepot4.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786766556697602" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YLvuAj63Bs4/T0flS-oqFAI/AAAAAAAAE0U/_h0pd4bdnBU/s640/7-Demolition%2BDepot4.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Demolition Depot, 2011 Harlem, NYC. From the '' Demolition Depot'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UZ32vpFuwNM/T0flSc9XN3I/AAAAAAAAE0E/nZpeRTltF7w/s1600/8-Demolition%2BDepot5.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786757516736370" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UZ32vpFuwNM/T0flSc9XN3I/AAAAAAAAE0E/nZpeRTltF7w/s640/8-Demolition%2BDepot5.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Demolition Depot, 2011 Harlem, NYC. From the '' Demolition Depot'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b6eBK_tqSKI/T0flSNplirI/AAAAAAAAEz4/bKQOKd4rH-4/s1600/9-Sams%2BPizza.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786753407257266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b6eBK_tqSKI/T0flSNplirI/AAAAAAAAEz4/bKQOKd4rH-4/s640/9-Sams%2BPizza.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Sam's Pizza, 2012 E. Harlem, NYC. From the '' Nocturnal / Activo De Noche'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-whoyUJ4_Xe8/T0flR0EtfhI/AAAAAAAAEzw/XyygF1Tr6IM/s1600/10-Cubana%2BCafe.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786746541702674" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-whoyUJ4_Xe8/T0flR0EtfhI/AAAAAAAAEzw/XyygF1Tr6IM/s640/10-Cubana%2BCafe.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Cubana Cafe, 2012 Brooklyn, NYC. From the ' Nocturnal / Activo De Noche'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kqEnESaIQwA/T0fk3Z4xccI/AAAAAAAAEzg/taUZeNyP9-w/s1600/11-Cuchifritos%2BGirl.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="488" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786292835709378" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kqEnESaIQwA/T0fk3Z4xccI/AAAAAAAAEzg/taUZeNyP9-w/s640/11-Cuchifritos%2BGirl.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Cuchifritos Girl, 2011. East Harlem, NYC. From the ''Holidays N Da Hood'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PrWmEQK4b4k/T0fk3DX8McI/AAAAAAAAEzY/vGNK7VsiguQ/s1600/12-Black%2BSanta.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="454" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786286792421826" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PrWmEQK4b4k/T0fk3DX8McI/AAAAAAAAEzY/vGNK7VsiguQ/s640/12-Black%2BSanta.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Black Santa, 2011. Brooklyn, NYC. From the ''Holidays N Da Hood'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_fDnJzbdivs/T0fk2lvF57I/AAAAAAAAEzI/H4bnJ_o7-Qc/s1600/13-Whitney%2BMemorial.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="572" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786278836463538" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_fDnJzbdivs/T0fk2lvF57I/AAAAAAAAEzI/H4bnJ_o7-Qc/s640/13-Whitney%2BMemorial.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Whitney Memorial @ The Apollo, 2012 Harlem, NYC. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L4HoQKeWA0o/T0fk2Ubc73I/AAAAAAAAEy8/xUbiuiWsM20/s1600/14-Whitney%2BMemorial3.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786274190684018" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L4HoQKeWA0o/T0fk2Ubc73I/AAAAAAAAEy8/xUbiuiWsM20/s640/14-Whitney%2BMemorial3.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Whitney Memorial @ The Apollo, 2012 Harlem, NYC. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M6sfNLd2klk/T0fk2HQXZzI/AAAAAAAAEy0/vAHjigxXBa4/s1600/15-Best%2BPrices.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="428" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712786270654523186" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M6sfNLd2klk/T0fk2HQXZzI/AAAAAAAAEy0/vAHjigxXBa4/s640/15-Best%2BPrices.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Best Prices in Town, 2012 Harlem, NYC. From ''The Love Project'' series. ©Ruben Natal-San Miguel</div>
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© copyright all images Ruben Natal-San Miguel<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-24397671818095223832012-01-26T12:03:00.001-08:002012-02-27T14:14:59.062-08:00John Arsenault<div>
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It was in my junior year of high school. My friend Cindy bet me she could take a better photograph then I could, so I enrolled in a photography class. And I fell in love with it right away. She lost the bet and I found my passion!</div>
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I’m inspired by living life. My goal is to produce a visual monologue about my own life: the aspects of myself that I am most mystified and riveted by - my sexuality, my personal relationships, the masculine vs. feminine parts of my identity and my place within society. </div>
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With that said, my work is a photographic diary. I use the camera as a tool to capture the experiences that life presents every day. This includes vibrant color, humor & my ability of transcending the mundane: celebrating and highlighting moments that we often overlook are paralleled with intimate moments with friends and lovers.</div>
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My relationship with my work is a lot like all my relationships - some days I feel totally connected and other days I feel totally disconnected. </div>
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MW</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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JA</div>
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I was very patient with finding gallery representation. I did extensive research on galleries in NYC. I attended openings on a regular basis to see what art the galleries were showing and to determine where I thought my art would fit in. I made a handmade book and gave it to Brian Clamp, owner of ClampArt Gallery (where I’m currently represented). Honestly, Brian didn’t take me on right away, but eventually we formed a relationship. I sent out endless slides and promo pieces on a regular basis. Basically, I put myself out there and was relentless. That's what it takes. </div>
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Today there are so many outlets for artist to promote their work; Tumblr, Facebook, personal websites, ibooks, emails, etc. These options weren’t even available when I was starting out. But you can look it in two ways. On one hand, there means that there are so many additional ways to reach an audience and get the word out about your work. On the other hand, it's a lot more work and much more active communication that you need to stay on top of.</div>
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One vital action that I would pass on? There’s a line between being ready and letting one’s ego lead. Creating the work is most important. One has to have the work to evaluate and promote. Don’t loose sight of this. Find peers to critique your work, peers that will give truthful, constructive criticism.</div>
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MW</div>
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<b>How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?</b></div>
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Commitment, determination, persistence, focus, talent, stubbornness and humility mixed with a lot of courage have allowed me to succeed. And I measure my success on my own terms, not by what the art community says.</div>
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During my freshman year at the Art Institute of Boston my professor Jane Tuckerman said to me “The art world is a crowded place and difficult to get into, but there’s always room if you’re determined and push your way in” I never lost sight of those words.</div>
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I created. I create. It's a process that never ends. And is my unfaltering commitment to my art and to myself.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p4N0GGnvq7Q/TyGyOUh6cSI/AAAAAAAAEnA/HSPcbnMRx_A/s1600/01.%2B%252522I%2Bam%2BMy%2BFather%2527s%2BSon%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMA.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034562326622498" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p4N0GGnvq7Q/TyGyOUh6cSI/AAAAAAAAEnA/HSPcbnMRx_A/s1600/01.%2B%252522I%2Bam%2BMy%2BFather%2527s%2BSon%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMA.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" /></a>I am My Father's Son, Provincetown, MA<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bwpPuSuJxZg/TyGyNz6-tdI/AAAAAAAAEm0/WpcCmvnLi54/s1600/02.%2B%252522Their%2BGod%2BCalled%2BME%252C%2BHe%2BSaid%2BNOT%2Bto%2BWorry%2Bcause%2BWe%2527re%2BNOT%2Bthe%2BSinners%2Bgoing%2Bto%2BHELL%252C%2BIt%2527s%2BThem%252522.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034553573389778" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bwpPuSuJxZg/TyGyNz6-tdI/AAAAAAAAEm0/WpcCmvnLi54/s1600/02.%2B%252522Their%2BGod%2BCalled%2BME%252C%2BHe%2BSaid%2BNOT%2Bto%2BWorry%2Bcause%2BWe%2527re%2BNOT%2Bthe%2BSinners%2Bgoing%2Bto%2BHELL%252C%2BIt%2527s%2BThem%252522.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" /></a><br />
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Their God Called ME, He Said NOT to Worry cause We're NOT the Sinners going to HELL, It's Them</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9C-uiHAvMQ4/TyGyNrku73I/AAAAAAAAEmo/nd4UKAlYvqw/s1600/03.%2B%252522His%2BVisitor%252522%2BEcho%2BPark%252C%2BCA.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="426" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034551332597618" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9C-uiHAvMQ4/TyGyNrku73I/AAAAAAAAEmo/nd4UKAlYvqw/s640/03.%2B%252522His%2BVisitor%252522%2BEcho%2BPark%252C%2BCA.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>His Visitor, Echo Park, CA</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eL7niuygAh8/TyGyNTSQQNI/AAAAAAAAEmc/yDv-d9EjmTM/s1600/04.%2B%252522FAGGOT%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMA.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034544812638418" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eL7niuygAh8/TyGyNTSQQNI/AAAAAAAAEmc/yDv-d9EjmTM/s1600/04.%2B%252522FAGGOT%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMA.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" /></a>FAGGOT, Provincetown, MA</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yBObpHYoLdY/TyGyNIVk5KI/AAAAAAAAEmQ/hwTS__OjMiU/s1600/05.%2B%252522Your%2BIgnorance%2BCould%2BSmother%2Bthe%2BWorld%252522%2BHookerhill%252C%2BNY.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034541873783970" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yBObpHYoLdY/TyGyNIVk5KI/AAAAAAAAEmQ/hwTS__OjMiU/s1600/05.%2B%252522Your%2BIgnorance%2BCould%2BSmother%2Bthe%2BWorld%252522%2BHookerhill%252C%2BNY.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" /></a>Your Ignorance Could Smother the World, Hookerhill, NY</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VDYQhzWNyDU/TyGx_COJpuI/AAAAAAAAEmA/RokhyRQVQ2U/s1600/06.2.%2B%252522Love%2BWon%2527t%2BLet%2BMe%2BWait%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMa.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034299713857250" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VDYQhzWNyDU/TyGx_COJpuI/AAAAAAAAEmA/RokhyRQVQ2U/s1600/06.2.%2B%252522Love%2BWon%2527t%2BLet%2BMe%2BWait%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMa.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" /></a>Love Won't Let Me Wait, Provincetown, Ma</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ud3oyksa10Q/TyGx--c0cfI/AAAAAAAAEl0/KjnWHxixI5U/s1600/07.%2B%252522I%2BWon%2527t%2BStop%2Btil%2BMy%2BTears%2Bare%2BAll%2BShed%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMa.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034298701640178" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ud3oyksa10Q/TyGx--c0cfI/AAAAAAAAEl0/KjnWHxixI5U/s1600/07.%2B%252522I%2BWon%2527t%2BStop%2Btil%2BMy%2BTears%2Bare%2BAll%2BShed%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMa.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" /></a>I Won't Stop till My Tears are All Shed, Provincetown, Ma</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sT-R51CHU0U/TyGx-tzm-8I/AAAAAAAAElo/0fZHusxhBeA/s1600/08.%2B%252522Lonely%252522%2BNYC.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034294233824194" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sT-R51CHU0U/TyGx-tzm-8I/AAAAAAAAElo/0fZHusxhBeA/s1600/08.%2B%252522Lonely%252522%2BNYC.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" /></a>Lonely, NYC</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5KqigPUMWSA/TyGx-L5pQ7I/AAAAAAAAElc/tY1A2qdiqd0/s1600/09.%2B%252522Forget%2BAbout%2BMy%2BTainted%2BHeart%252C%2BIt%2527s%2BYou%2BI%2Bkeep%2BMy%2BLegs%2BApart%2BFor%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMA.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034285132334002" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5KqigPUMWSA/TyGx-L5pQ7I/AAAAAAAAElc/tY1A2qdiqd0/s1600/09.%2B%252522Forget%2BAbout%2BMy%2BTainted%2BHeart%252C%2BIt%2527s%2BYou%2BI%2Bkeep%2BMy%2BLegs%2BApart%2BFor%252522%2BProvincetown%252C%2BMA.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" /></a>Forget About My Tainted Heart, It's You I keep My Legs Apart For, Provincetown, MA</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NmpXFYblh74/TyGx9-n0x7I/AAAAAAAAElQ/93quvOuj5Z0/s1600/10.%2B%252522New%2BGuy%2BIn%2BTown%252522%2BLos%2BAngeles%252C%2BCA.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="426" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702034281567930290" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NmpXFYblh74/TyGx9-n0x7I/AAAAAAAAElQ/93quvOuj5Z0/s640/10.%2B%252522New%2BGuy%2BIn%2BTown%252522%2BLos%2BAngeles%252C%2BCA.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>New Guy In Town, Los Angeles, CA</div>
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© copyright all images John Arsenault</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-68300374426504997942011-12-27T08:45:00.000-08:002012-02-27T14:16:58.262-08:00Ellen Jantzen<div>
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MW</div>
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<b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?</b></div>
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I am curious and my art has evolved as a result. I don't really consider my self a "Photographer", but rather an artist who uses photography as my art form. There have been several times in my life where photography played a roll, first when quite young. At the age of five, I received a Brownie camera for my birthday and proceeded to capture the world around me. I have dozens of spiral bound booklets of photos where I scribbled words on the backs of each in crayon. Later, in college, I learned the basics of how to use a camera. I developed my own film and printed enlargements in a makeshift darkroom. But all of this was abandoned, as I did not find it fulfilling. It seemed too "real", I couldn't find the art in it…. yet.</div>
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With the advent of digital cameras and the ability uploading my images into a computer and subsequently altering and changing them, I found my perfect medium. Through alteration, I am able to subvert the "decisive moment" concept. Every image is a flexible piece of information that can be brought into the future or blended with the past.</div>
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I am inspired by the natural world, science (recent discoveries in physics; "multiverses", doppelgängers) and human consciousness. I am intrigued with issues of reality, memory, time and loss. </div>
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The photograph, historically, was seen as an evidentiary medium but as we all know, photos lie. The first lie is the translation of three-dimensional space into a 2 dimensional form with its subsequent framing of reality (and what was just outside of that framed area? How does that affect the story being conveyed?)</div>
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I have just finished Errol Morris's book "Believing is Seeing (Observations on the Mysteries of Photography" where he shows that even documentary photography has been manipulated.</div>
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I must say that my primary inspiration that keeps me working in this field is magic.</div>
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Photographs are magical creations (or should be). I strive to surprise myself at every turn. My aim is to create images that speak to people, that convey my sensibilities in a way that leaves room for the viewer to insert themselves and their interpretations. </div>
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MW</div>
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<b>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?</b></div>
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EJ</div>
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There are many ways that emerging photographers can evaluate themselves. </div>
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First, a photographer must have a point of view, preferably a unique point of view. They must understand why they are using this medium as a creative outlet. (Writing a statement can help solidify one's objective).</div>
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They should study the work of other photographers and analyze what it is that they like and don't like and find a voice for describing their work in comparison to other's. It is always good to view work in person. Attend as many exhibitions as you are able to. </div>
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Create a personalized website, YourName.com (if possible) and upload a selection of your best work, update often with new pieces, begin sharing your URL.</div>
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Once the artist is fairly confident that they have a point of view worth sharing, I would recommend entering a few well selected juried competitions. Search for ones where the jurors are high profile professionals. This is a fairly inexpensive way to see if your work resonates. With the advent of so many social networks online, it is much easier for a lone photographer to become part of a community and learn about opportunities. Prepare for many, many rejections and don't be discouraged.</div>
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Much has been written about the benefits of portfolio reviews and I agree they have their place. But, the photographer has to be well prepared and well funded to participate. Attend with an open mind and take notes. Leave a little something behind so that the reviewer will remember you, a business card or post card. Follow up by thanking each reviewer by mail or email. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, etc.</div>
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It is vital to establish relationships with other photographers, curators and gallery owners.</div>
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MW</div>
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<b>How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?</b></div>
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EJ</div>
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First, I kept working and refining my point of view. I enlisted the help of my husband Michael Jantzen (who is an artist) to act as a sounding board. He has been a great help with my editing process (and my main model).</div>
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Second, I started writing statements. The act of putting thoughts, feelings and intentions into sentences, helped me solidify my unique point of view. </div>
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Third, I created my website.</div>
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Fourth, I started to establish a database of jurors, gallery owners, curators, and other photography and art contacts. All were culled from reading reviews, journals, blogs and by word of mouth.</div>
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Fifth, I began to enter juried competitions. There was a steep learning curve as I grew to know which exhibitions and opportunities were the most significant. Luckily I was able to attract a bit of attention this way and won a few honors. Next, I began to seek publication opportunities. I looked at small startup publications first and followed their submission requirements. </div>
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Sixth, I joined groups like the Center For Fine Art Photography, the Atlanta Photography Group, Humble Arts Foundation, Griffin Museum of Photography, The Texas Photo Society. They all have newsletters and post member's news.</div>
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I promoted myself whenever I got into an exhibition, or was published by sending emails.</div>
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Seventh, I attended one portfolio review in Atlanta and was energized by the reviewers and the subsequent interactions with each, both in emails and online (Twitter and Facebook). The reviewer Stella Kramer made one salient point; she suggested always including a photo in any email, not just links. She never clicks on a link unless she sees something that peaks her interest. </div>
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Eighth, I stepped up my presence on Facebook by joining several photo related groups like, Flak Photo Network, A New History of Photography, etc. I try to post comments and interesting bits of information I find on the web. Through these interactions, I established a relationship with Susan Spiritus of the Susan Spiritus Gallery in Newport Beach California. Once Susan started seeing my work come through juried competitions she was judging, she started to take an interest in my work and earlier this year started representing me. </div>
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All of this "overnight success" took about seven years.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gW1hKLhipmo/Tvn3F5tnK-I/AAAAAAAAEfs/uSYgBoKsXAk/s1600/1%2BProof.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690851284922870754" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gW1hKLhipmo/Tvn3F5tnK-I/AAAAAAAAEfs/uSYgBoKsXAk/s640/1%2BProof.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="480" /></a>Proof, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I_GSpHpkbHk/Tvn3FtAqkBI/AAAAAAAAEfc/4tQZiftXqM0/s1600/2%2BA%2BBalance%2Bof%2BForces.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690851281513123858" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I_GSpHpkbHk/Tvn3FtAqkBI/AAAAAAAAEfc/4tQZiftXqM0/s640/2%2BA%2BBalance%2Bof%2BForces.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="579" /></a>A Balance of Forces, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sc-YtcUo8KQ/Tvn3FBZamlI/AAAAAAAAEfU/eVUrOMtW9es/s1600/3%2BHiding%2Bthe%2BFiction.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="480" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690851269805775442" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sc-YtcUo8KQ/Tvn3FBZamlI/AAAAAAAAEfU/eVUrOMtW9es/s640/3%2BHiding%2Bthe%2BFiction.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Hiding the Fiction, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MZmQz1vIeXY/Tvn3E6yACeI/AAAAAAAAEfE/oFoRPSKmjOM/s1600/4%2BWithout%2BA%2BTrace.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="450" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690851268029843938" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MZmQz1vIeXY/Tvn3E6yACeI/AAAAAAAAEfE/oFoRPSKmjOM/s640/4%2BWithout%2BA%2BTrace.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Without A Trace, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B4ksNbL9l9s/Tvn3Ei18J0I/AAAAAAAAEe4/TNpKtGIyIv0/s1600/5%2BVital%2BSpirit.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="600" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690851261603915586" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B4ksNbL9l9s/Tvn3Ei18J0I/AAAAAAAAEe4/TNpKtGIyIv0/s640/5%2BVital%2BSpirit.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="640" /></a>Vital Spirit, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w1Lc9v8gPb8/Tvn2oC6rWsI/AAAAAAAAEeY/Wl6t0fHlk7Q/s1600/6%2BDescendant.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690850771997514434" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w1Lc9v8gPb8/Tvn2oC6rWsI/AAAAAAAAEeY/Wl6t0fHlk7Q/s640/6%2BDescendant.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="480" /></a>Descendant, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z3M-KooLtqo/Tvn2n4OoEvI/AAAAAAAAEeM/Au2lFWuzUbY/s1600/7%2BIncomplete%2BDream.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690850769128395506" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z3M-KooLtqo/Tvn2n4OoEvI/AAAAAAAAEeM/Au2lFWuzUbY/s640/7%2BIncomplete%2BDream.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="480" /></a>Incomplete Dream, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JjITNjH5cK4/Tvn2mMshWXI/AAAAAAAAEeE/jiXrl66czVA/s1600/8%2BMelancholia.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690850740262754674" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JjITNjH5cK4/Tvn2mMshWXI/AAAAAAAAEeE/jiXrl66czVA/s640/8%2BMelancholia.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="480" /></a>Melancholia, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vtIscZJwrsc/Tvn2l6T2MeI/AAAAAAAAEd4/-k_ZvXThNOg/s1600/9%2BBlossom.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690850735327424994" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vtIscZJwrsc/Tvn2l6T2MeI/AAAAAAAAEd4/-k_ZvXThNOg/s640/9%2BBlossom.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="480" /></a>Blossom, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss</div>
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© copyright al images Ellen Jantzen</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-30008165852642603922011-11-26T12:14:00.001-08:002012-02-27T14:19:25.014-08:00David Simonton<div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>MW</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">DS</span><span style="color: #242424; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b> </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">I’d like to start with two quotations. The first is from an article (which I’ll paraphrase) on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website. It describes a charming and significant portrait, although not a particularly powerful one, by a famous-photographer-to-be: <i>This simple portrait of Annie Philpot is an important one in Julia Margaret Cameron's oeuvre; it is inscribed “My very first success in photography, January 1864.” Mrs. Cameron had received the gift of a camera only one month before it was taken. Having begun her experiments in image making “with no knowledge of the art,” she described her jubilation at producing the picture: “I was in a transport of delight. I printed, toned, fixed and framed it, and presented it to her father that same day. Sweet, sunny haired Annie!” </i>The article goes on to say that the portrait manifests “the hallmarks Cameron would continue to use and refine over her 15-year career.” During that career she made many great portraits, as the history of photography acknowledges. Although that early one might not have been her best, Cameron said of her accomplishment, “No later prize has effaced the memory of this joy.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">The second quotation is by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Enthusiasm is the great engine of success.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Mine is the “camera and a darkroom kit for Christmas while I was in high school” story. The story also involves my parents getting divorced, and photography providing me with some stability and solace. Photography became a place for me to turn my attention and my efforts. It was a comfortable fit, and something I could control. At the same time, it helped me define myself at a formative period in my life. It provided a means of expression, and suited my temperament. It was, in short, a path forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Making good photographs on a regular basis, I soon found out, is a challenge—technically, aesthetically and intellectually. After I’d been out with my camera a couple of times, I was hooked. Today, when someone of the stature of Elliott Erwitt is asked what is his favorite of all of his photographs, and he answers “The next one,” I understand completely. The idea that <i>the best is yet to com</i>e is a potent stimulant! and it’s one of the things that compels me to pick up my camera.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">So the reason I started in photography, and the reason I continue, are actually one and the same: I really enjoy it. I love the <i>activity</i> of photography, and the amount of energy and attention it requires to do it well. As a film-and-darkroom photographer I embrace the craft aspect, too. And it feels good to be participating in something with a dynamic history and tradition. For me, making pictures is both a challenge and a great pleasure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">I used to worry a bit that “because I <i>like</i> it” might not be a good enough reason to essentially dedicate my life to photography. Then I came across a quotation by the American photographer, writer and MacArthur “genius award” recipient Robert Adams, that helped me relax: “Most photographs would never be taken were it not for an impulsive enjoyment, a delight that is notably free of big ideas.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Photography became the thread running through my life; whatever else I was doing—whatever job I happened to have at the time—it was the constant. If I wasn’t out photographing or working in the darkroom in my spare time, I was reading about photography or looking at photographs in books, or thinking about it. But I never showed my work to anyone (well, to relatives if they insisted). And it went on like this, happily, for many years.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">MW</span><span style="color: #242424; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b> </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>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?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">I recently read an interview with the esteemed photographer Steve McCurry. One passage in particular stood out. Asked for his advice he said, “The first thing you should do is enjoy yourself. Explore. Observe. And then take pictures.” I couldn’t agree more with the underlying sentiment: if you’re engaged in the process, the results will take care of themselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">When we start out as photographers, it’s common to imitate others, and to try out different styles and approaches. It takes time to become assured in our individual way of seeing and responding to things. It’s important to allow ourselves this time. The emulation/experimentation phase is when we learn to differentiate ourselves, and find our own vision and “voice”—something jurors and reviewers will be looking for. Why rush things? There’s valuable experience to be gained in taking your time. And not only valuable experience, but a growing body of steadily improving work. The more work you have, the more you’ll have to choose from; the strongest pictures will stand out as the others become less “precious.” Look at your pictures repeatedly over time (I keep recent work tacked up around the house). This practice will help you become a more objective editor. And look at your work in relation to other photographs you admire, and experiment with sequencing and pairing images.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">I’d like to offer a few thoughts on portfolio reviews and gallery representation. Although I’ve served as a reviewer, I’ve never taken my work to a portfolio review. And I don’t use gallery representation. For better or for worse, I've always represented myself. (I currently spend about as much time promoting my work as I do making it.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Although they undoubtedly represent a wonderful opportunity for some photographers, portfolio reviews aren’t for everyone. Your personality and temperament—and (let’s be realistic) your bank balance—are important factors to consider. Also, portfolio reviews are neither guarantees of, nor prerequisites for, success. And timing is absolutely critical. It can be self-defeating to participate too soon. Imagine Mrs. Cameron seeking a critical assessment of that early portrait of hers. One suspects she would have been advised (at best) to "Keep on working," something she would continue to do anyway; she was an artist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">She was, in fact, a <i>great</i> artist. But perhaps that wouldn’t have been recognized so early on. She hadn’t had the time yet to practice her photography and improve—she had only gotten her camera the month before. Cameron’s innate skill and unique vision were to develop and mature over time. It’s just possible that had her enthusiasm been dampened by a negative critique too early on, it could have sidetracked the very “engine of her success.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">So before you subject your work to the scrutiny of the most discriminating audience there is, consider trying it out on a few "test audiences" first. Enter competitions, locally, regionally and nationally. (I work best with a deadline). As much as possible, enter your work to participate in the process, not for the promise of prizes or sales. Then, when you feel like you have enough strong work, consider mounting a one-person exhibition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Gallery representation, if it happens at all, typically comes much later on. And keep in mind that a gallery might (might) be interested in your work<i> if they think it will sell.</i> "Commercial viability," however, needn’t be the goal of every creative endeavor. Although it might seem like it these days, gallery representation is not the be-all-and-end-all of artistic achievement. Besides, it’s the rare art photographer who can make a living on the sale of prints, image rights, etc. In fact, generally speaking, most of us will spend more money on our photography than we’ll make on it. And that will certainly be the case when we start out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Which brings me back to the article on J.M. Cameron: <i>That early portrait has the pictorial hallmarks that Cameron would continue to use and refine over her career. </i>And a <i>hallmark </i>is "a distinctive feature, especially one of excellence."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">The one vital action I would recommend you consider, then, is to strive for excellence, not “success.” That, and (wait for it) be patient. It’s a difficult thing to do these days, but nonetheless it’s important. Here’s a helpful way to think about it: <i>Patience is the suspension of expectations.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">If you’re talented and committed, and excellence is your guide (from your camerawork to presentation and promotion)—and you <i>enjoy</i> photography—you’re doing it right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">After all, Julia Margaret Cameron spoke of experiencing the "joy" of photography. The great Henri Cartier-Bresson said, "I have a passion for geometry. My greatest joy is facing a beautiful organization of forms." And, lest anyone think that a sense of joy and even elation is some bygone notion with no relevance to serious contemporary practice, here’s Alec Soth, in <i>Sleeping by the Mississippi</i> (2004), "There is no greater joy than wide-eyed wandering."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">DS</span><span style="color: #242424; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b> </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">In 1992 I had the privilege of meeting Harry Callahan and hearing him speak. I hung on his every word. This master photographer, 80 years old at the time, explained his reason for continuing to photograph: “To get out and walk and look is wonderful to me. Without any great intent, eventually I get something that amounts to something.” Thinking about the remarkable work that resulted from a lifetime of such looking inspires me to maintain that same approach.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">When you’re doing what you enjoy without the (perceived) pressure of what someone else might think about it distracting you, that’s when you do your best work. When I’m out with my camera, if I sense imaginary eyes peering over my shoulder, judging every shot, I tend to freeze. I work best when I don’t put that kind of pressure on myself. I once heard André Kertész say about his photography, “It’s for me, I do it only for myself.” And he made some of the finest photographs I know of.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">For almost twenty years I photographed without giving a single thought to what others might think about it; or even a single thought of exhibiting. It was just for me. The first time I showed a photograph was in a statewide juried photography exhibition. The following year I had my first solo exhibit at a local coffee shop. It was 1993 and I was 40 years old. My next one-person show was at a nearby Arts Council…and so on, and so on. Nearly two decades later, my photographs are in museum and corporate collections. The point being, that what worked for me as a self-taught art photographer was starting out small and local, and proceeding at a pace that was reasonable and practical, given financial realities. My only firm goal was the next picture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">As for the details, I like to focus on a project or two, establish a routine and see where it takes me. I also teach photography, and I exhibit my work, submitting exhibition and grant proposals and entering juried competitions on a regular basis (with an eye, always, on the juror[s]: <i>Who would I like to see my photographs?)</i> I seek out online opportunities, and I’ve made some wonderful connections. I have a website I maintain myself, and I engage in social media as it relates to photography. I continue to hone my craft, in the darkroom and at the computer—getting my prints to look “right” on the Web is a necessity in an age of online submissions and virtual exhibitions. And I look at lots and lots of photographs; online and in books, contemporary and “classical” (to borrow Bruce Davidson’s term). I look because I’m forever interested, and, yes, because I enjoy it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Needless to say, leading a fulfilling (i.e., successful) life as a photographer involves more than just adopting a “don’t worry, be happy” attitude. Hard work and sticking with it are required. But having said that… if you love photography, and you’re pursuing photography <i>because</i> you love it, you’re on a path that’s as valid, worthwhile and well-traveled as any there is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Photography, and especially art photography, has both enjoyed and endured significant changes over the years, including how it’s been perceived and valued by others. But for photographers, myself included, it has always been a magical and captivating medium.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">Bonnie Cook was a young student enrolled in her first formal photography class at a local college where I was teaching. She was a natural. Arriving early to class one Monday morning, Bonnie rushed over and said, “I shot <i>13 rolls</i> this weekend!” (the assignment had been for two). “And it was <i>amazing!”</i> Bear in mind that the students were using film, so Bonnie hadn’t even seen her pictures yet. Her enthusiasm had been generated by the sustained activity of making pictures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">In that exciting moment, Julia Margaret Cameron came to mind. And it occurred to me that, as much as the technology and aesthetics of photography have changed over time, this part—the joy part, the genuinely amazing part—never will.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px;">But you asked me about success. I guess I do feel successful in that my own early enthusiasm for photography has never diminished.</span></div>
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© copyright all images David Simonton</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-5961860582540008752011-10-27T07:14:00.001-07:002011-10-30T05:31:47.232-07:00Tom Griggs<div><div><div>MW</div><div><b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>TG</div><div>I started as a painter, but I discovered it requires a lot of isolation and the discipline of a monk. Frank Auerbach – to pick an example - paints 364 days a year in his studio from sun-up to sun-down. I found I’m not built to do that. I’m too interested in art as it relates to external life experiences, physical exploration of space, and interactions with other people.</div><div><br /></div><div>I began taking more photographs as I left painting. Its speed and portability were a revolution in terms of integrating my life and artistic practice. I discovered photography can be used to explore any discipline – from urban planning to rural sociology to jungle ecology. It gives me a reason to be part of events and allows me inside other people’s life experience. I can frame specific and direct questions about a subject. All of these things about the medium appeal to me.</div><div><br /></div><div>I keep photographing because it continues to feed me as a person and artist. There are moments I imagine myself doing other things, but it’s never a consistent line of thought. I don’t think of myself a photographer. I am a person curious to understand and experience and photography continues to be the best way I know to do that. If I come to another conclusion, I’ll sell my cameras.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>MW</div><div><b>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?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>TG</div><div>Taking on the second part of the question first, there have been a lot of good suggestions in other interviews on Two Way Lens. My recommendation is simply on when and how to use those suggestions: work as long as possible outside the gallery-museum-competition world before looking to enter it. Develop your craft, your vision and your relationship to the medium. Make images every day for a long time. Show them to people whose opinions you respect, then go back out and make more.</div><div><br /></div><div>The reasons for waiting are several. Navigating the art world takes energy and time away from making work. People start to define you as you gain exposure and exposure brings expectations. It can become more difficult to take the exploratory risks necessary to find your way forward as well as confusing to have other voices involved with your work while it’s young.</div><div><br /></div><div>As for how to know when you’re ready, I think that knowledge is based in developing an honest and reliable community around you. Self-evaluation is hard, especially at the start. Build a trusted circle of friends and look to establish mentors. Show them work, stay humble, listen. Be as objective with yourself about the work and where it’s at as you can. When it’s time, those people and the work itself will let you know its ready to be shown. You won’t have to think much about it.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>MW</div><div><b>How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>TG</div><div>I think the easiest way to answer these two questions - and hopefully the most useful response for others – is to list the ideas that I work with or am working towards.</div><div><br /></div><div>It’s a combination of lucky insights, stolen wisdom and brutal lessons:</div><div><br /></div><div>Not only are there no divisions between your bodies of work, there is no division between your work and your life – they are all part of one thing.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can’t do it all, but you can do one thing intensely.</div><div><br /></div><div>Don’t be afraid of beauty, but don’t make it your main subject or content. The same is true for light.</div><div><br /></div><div>Making images and thinking about your images need to be respected as separate processes done at separate times.</div><div><br /></div><div>Photography does not require a good camera, the perfect light, or enough time. If photography is something you should be doing, you’ll make images on the days when you don’t have these things.</div><div><br /></div><div>Carry your camera everywhere. A good image can be made anywhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>To paraphrase the commencement speaker at my undergraduate graduation who was paraphrasing someone else: talent in art is about as important as tits on a boar. Success on every level - from personal satisfaction to your first Guggenheim - is work, work, and more work.</div><div><br /></div><div>Give yourself permission to make photographs without prejudging them. You don’t have to show them to anyone. If you’re not sure if you should take the picture or not, take it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Put down your camera and spend time just looking - frequently.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take a few weeks off every year – at least.</div><div><br /></div><div>At some point on this list I have to provide my thoughts for the pure realists and Machiavellians:</div><div><br /></div><div>Photography has strong personalities, friendships of benefit, questionable minds with power, and straight-up assholes just like every other business. Many good photographers are not only good, they are also strategic and cutthroat. Exposure depends - to a degree - on developing connections and on what sells. You’ll have to market yourself; no one is out there waiting to discover your work. Sharpen your elbows as well as your vision.</div><div><br /></div><div>Turn outside of photography for instruction and inspiration – go to movies, operas and the theater. Have music on while you work at home. Read all the time. Digest slowly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Practical advice: Find a second source of income. Learn basic carpentry, become an EMT or study basic investing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Travel every opportunity you can, especially during your 20’s.</div><div><br /></div><div>We have witnessed an explosion of great photographers in this generation, but it’s an explosion of too frequently similar great photography. Understand longer cycles of art and have faith in understanding and developing your own innate drives within the medium.</div><div><br /></div><div>Decisions by juries and committee are notoriously fickle and are frequently a compromise between several people on someone / something. Learn from rejections and listen to criticism, but don’t pin your sense of worth as a person or photographer on these things. There’s a degree of correlation between quality and success in the photography world, but it is not a meritocracy nor is it rational.</div><div><br /></div><div>Build a community – photography is a game more fun played with other photographers. Go beyond yourself so that you rejoice in and actively help the success of others.</div><div><br /></div><div>The best photographs involve you on all three levels simultaneously: head, heart, and sex. [tip of the cap to Nicholas Nixon]</div><div><br /></div><div>The best photographers are students all of their life; photography can never be completely learned.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally and absolutely most importantly, laugh - and don’t be too hard on yourself, either. Photography is less serious than we usually think.</div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5-8aFdZyMY/Tq1DMY4_dtI/AAAAAAAAEL0/o49B_L9TC8A/s1600/Tom_Griggs_01.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5-8aFdZyMY/Tq1DMY4_dtI/AAAAAAAAEL0/o49B_L9TC8A/s400/Tom_Griggs_01.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261386048304850" /></a><br /><div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wrofspa6BXM/Tq1DMDQ9xNI/AAAAAAAAELs/daRB6JsYWI4/s1600/Tom_Griggs_02.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wrofspa6BXM/Tq1DMDQ9xNI/AAAAAAAAELs/daRB6JsYWI4/s400/Tom_Griggs_02.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261380243277010" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jZuoo2aKJsE/Tq1DLuy6OFI/AAAAAAAAELk/8EreH1hw3RI/s1600/Tom_Griggs_03.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jZuoo2aKJsE/Tq1DLuy6OFI/AAAAAAAAELk/8EreH1hw3RI/s400/Tom_Griggs_03.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261374748506194" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2qtleuh8GyI/Tq1DLoS4sqI/AAAAAAAAELQ/hMQLQKqJV94/s1600/Tom_Griggs_04.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2qtleuh8GyI/Tq1DLoS4sqI/AAAAAAAAELQ/hMQLQKqJV94/s400/Tom_Griggs_04.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261373003575970" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tN3nIztdR-c/Tq1DLaOfh1I/AAAAAAAAELI/gUiAZHc93jM/s1600/Tom_Griggs_05.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tN3nIztdR-c/Tq1DLaOfh1I/AAAAAAAAELI/gUiAZHc93jM/s400/Tom_Griggs_05.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261369227052882" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hm04vehdPRw/Tq1C-mbbK8I/AAAAAAAAEK8/iCryrUxeh9c/s1600/Tom_Griggs_06.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hm04vehdPRw/Tq1C-mbbK8I/AAAAAAAAEK8/iCryrUxeh9c/s400/Tom_Griggs_06.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261149164219330" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fV-BNpXpL6M/Tq1C96MsfgI/AAAAAAAAEK0/Hn5eZi0FWIY/s1600/Tom_Griggs_07.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fV-BNpXpL6M/Tq1C96MsfgI/AAAAAAAAEK0/Hn5eZi0FWIY/s400/Tom_Griggs_07.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261137291279874" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FrDN7PULVhw/Tq1C9n9Kj_I/AAAAAAAAEKg/-3Lnfu-eR9g/s1600/Tom_Griggs_08.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FrDN7PULVhw/Tq1C9n9Kj_I/AAAAAAAAEKg/-3Lnfu-eR9g/s400/Tom_Griggs_08.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261132394303474" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--PIheZJVPRw/Tq1C9vRP1EI/AAAAAAAAEKU/wTJ7FlG60aY/s1600/Tom_Griggs_09.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--PIheZJVPRw/Tq1C9vRP1EI/AAAAAAAAEKU/wTJ7FlG60aY/s400/Tom_Griggs_09.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261134357582914" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hziwohoq4rk/Tq1C9YJr8tI/AAAAAAAAEKM/DF0QgrAihlQ/s1600/Tom_Griggs_10.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hziwohoq4rk/Tq1C9YJr8tI/AAAAAAAAEKM/DF0QgrAihlQ/s400/Tom_Griggs_10.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669261128151855826" /></a><div><div><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>© copyright all images Tom Griggs</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499506429576155743.post-50669836270922568482011-09-28T06:27:00.001-07:002011-09-28T07:29:36.785-07:00Nick Turpin<div><div>MW</div><div><b>What inspired you to start taking photographs, and what is the primary inspiration for you to keep working in this field?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>NT</div><div>I was introduced to photography at school but didn't really take it seriously until I was at Art College and experimenting with painting, sculpture and design. I realised the unique power that photography has to engage head on and directly with the world as I experienced it day to day. I have always enquired into my own nature and photography became a part of that long term enquiry which probably explains why I have been committed to Street Photography for so long, it is the approach that most satisfies my wish to understand. I find working with a small camera in a public place with no preconceived aims to be a revelatory process, the act of being there and looking with that magical light recording device often results in the most unexpected results. I have always recognised that the still camera has this one wonderful trick, to freeze and store a scene for long term inspection. I don't think I will ever tire of playing with that process.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>MW</div><div><b>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?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>NT</div><div>I think it takes quite some time to find your own voice and vocabulary as a photographer and there are a lot of attractive diversions along the way. Inevitably one starts by mimicking the work one admires of the previous generation and hopefully along the way one stumbles, often by accident, on to a unique path of ones own and realises one has something new to contribute to the history of the medium. When I teach I always encourage my students to 'own' their pictures and be confident being the 'author' of them, I get them to explain their decisions and I don't think its ever to early to start this process of self assessment. When you are content that you are achieving your own goals as a photographer, that is probably the point at which you are ready to show your work more widely and seek external criticism and exposure.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a new photographer I think it is vital to recognise that people like to pigeon hole and categorise you and recognition will come more quickly if you focus your work in one area or style for the first few years, you will get shows, publications and work if you are the guy/girl that does 'that' thing....it's a shame but it's just the way humans do things. Once you are a name in your own right, you can experiment more widely and people will accept it.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div>MW</div><div><b>How did it come about that you achieved the status of successful, professional photographer? What steps were involved in reaching your level of success?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>NT</div><div>I think confidence, self belief, enthusiasm and above all energy have driven forward most of my projects and ideas. It takes a lot of faith to see through an idea you have during the night into a published book or a public exhibition. There are always times with any project when the pictures aren't coming and you begin to doubt the whole venture. I have developed strategies to get me through these periods and they come out of experience, out of having been there before. Having the confidence to experiment and do things a differently can go a long way to getting you noticed and for commercial work simply doing a great job is the best promotion you can have.</div><div><br /></div><div>Everyone needs a break at some point, mine was being given a job on The Independent Newspaper in London at the time when that paper was leading the way and transforming the perception of newspaper photography, it was a very exciting time to be there. I have made mistakes a long the way of course, my biggest lesson was when I started to get Advertising work in New York and allowed myself to be bullied into working in a different way to my usual approach, the pictures where not good so the next time I shot for a big US Agency I behaved like a Prima Dona, ignored the client, demanded to use my usual little cameras with no tripod making spontaneous observations like I do on the street.....it was the best commercial Ad campaign I've ever shot. Those kind of lessons can only be acquired the hard way and they are the lessons that make one a safe pair of hands for expensive commercial commissions.</div><div><br /></div><div>The climate for photographers has and is changing constantly though and we are all having to adapt quickly, my experience of 'making it' will very likely be different for someone starting out now. My advice to anyone on a photography course now would be to get out of the classroom and get some real world experience as regularly as you can, just go down and observe a professional shoot, make coffee at a photo reps office for a week and listen to the phone calls and conversations</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7kXRZ8YfagY/ToMhWmyOjjI/AAAAAAAAEAA/koOAguryxsU/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0000.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7kXRZ8YfagY/ToMhWmyOjjI/AAAAAAAAEAA/koOAguryxsU/s400/Nick_Turpin_0000.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657402229159530034" /></a>Grenoble, France 2010 From 'The French'<div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DIZsGVdBTzU/ToMhWT7d4gI/AAAAAAAAD_4/EfRghnfWB2U/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0001.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DIZsGVdBTzU/ToMhWT7d4gI/AAAAAAAAD_4/EfRghnfWB2U/s400/Nick_Turpin_0001.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657402224098009602" /></a>Contrevoz, France 2010 From 'The French'</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jZDYZSP2Zhk/ToMhQQ9mXHI/AAAAAAAAD_w/gdZhyis_6SQ/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0002.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jZDYZSP2Zhk/ToMhQQ9mXHI/AAAAAAAAD_w/gdZhyis_6SQ/s400/Nick_Turpin_0002.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657402120222432370" /></a>Le Touquet, France 2010 From 'The French'</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ttLFcfdLD3U/ToMhQQV46MI/AAAAAAAAD_o/ZyVie0Viqn0/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0003.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ttLFcfdLD3U/ToMhQQV46MI/AAAAAAAAD_o/ZyVie0Viqn0/s400/Nick_Turpin_0003.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657402120055875778" /></a>Artemare, France 2010 From 'The French'</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ciOqiPAFcAY/ToMhQN1vxvI/AAAAAAAAD_g/R64zfnHlR9c/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0004.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ciOqiPAFcAY/ToMhQN1vxvI/AAAAAAAAD_g/R64zfnHlR9c/s400/Nick_Turpin_0004.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657402119384188658" /></a>Lyon, France 2010 From 'The French'</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cW4sOkJSvWs/ToMhP0ti0GI/AAAAAAAAD_Y/ZwIFMISQSWg/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0005.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cW4sOkJSvWs/ToMhP0ti0GI/AAAAAAAAD_Y/ZwIFMISQSWg/s400/Nick_Turpin_0005.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657402112638898274" /></a>Lyon, France 2010 From 'The French'</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1eEcX--XnAE/ToMhP7ebALI/AAAAAAAAD_Q/WXHOJ7QbMHc/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0006.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1eEcX--XnAE/ToMhP7ebALI/AAAAAAAAD_Q/WXHOJ7QbMHc/s400/Nick_Turpin_0006.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657402114454519986" /></a>Contrevoz, France, 2010 From 'The French'</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sW3LmBW8Lz4/ToMhDxzXUkI/AAAAAAAAD_I/Z9NCP6ZbVGI/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0007.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sW3LmBW8Lz4/ToMhDxzXUkI/AAAAAAAAD_I/Z9NCP6ZbVGI/s400/Nick_Turpin_0007.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657401905699574338" /></a>Street Scene, London</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HMCxveDpqf4/ToMhDhS06VI/AAAAAAAAD_A/iMst2XsJnrs/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0008.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HMCxveDpqf4/ToMhDhS06VI/AAAAAAAAD_A/iMst2XsJnrs/s400/Nick_Turpin_0008.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657401901268134226" /></a>Street Scene, London</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d6gQ_631Uks/ToMhDhDL0XI/AAAAAAAAD-4/qcrxyiJQHkI/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 261px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d6gQ_631Uks/ToMhDhDL0XI/AAAAAAAAD-4/qcrxyiJQHkI/s400/Nick_Turpin_0009.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657401901202526578" /></a>Street Scene, London</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TznSVhHcaGA/ToMhDVCJrcI/AAAAAAAAD-w/odoUPJel544/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0010.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 261px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TznSVhHcaGA/ToMhDVCJrcI/AAAAAAAAD-w/odoUPJel544/s400/Nick_Turpin_0010.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657401897976966594" /></a>National Portrait Gallery, London</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-azJy8UWBi94/ToMhDDROVmI/AAAAAAAAD-o/0zeCcAgJRvo/s1600/Nick_Turpin_0011.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 261px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-azJy8UWBi94/ToMhDDROVmI/AAAAAAAAD-o/0zeCcAgJRvo/s400/Nick_Turpin_0011.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657401893208348258" /></a>Street Scene, London</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>© copyright all images Nick Turpin</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12989513891332605278noreply@blogger.com