burn Magazine Emerging Photographer Fund – The Finalists

David Alen Harvey’s online magazine burn has a $10,000 grant that they’re giving out for the first time to one of 11 finalists. They just posted the last photo essay (here) on the magazine site and they’re announcing the winner at the Look3 Festival Of The Photograph this weekend.

Go have a look, there’s some good work on display and it’s amazing to see how David and his raucous group of photographers have built a strong presence for photojournalists and documentary photographers online.

Good luck finalists.

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Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Old Cameras New Attitude

I was pretty surprised a couple days ago to see Timothy Greenfield-Sanders starting a new portrait series on the Huffington Post (here). This is an incredibly encouraging sign as I strongly believe that photographers need to get out there and forge a path to the future. A photographer of Timothy’s caliber–contributing photographer for Vanity Fair, collected by major museums, multiple publishing deals and film projects cooking–doesn’t need to be looking for paths to the future, but those are the photographers who can really get people to take notice. I know what he’s doing may not seem extraordinarily radical to you, but these online media companies have been really slow to recognize the value of high quality photography in capturing an audience and bringing in advertising. That will change. I asked Timothy a couple questions.

APE: How did you get started contributing to the Huffington Post?

I first met Arianna Huffington in 1997 when I photographed her with the 20×24 Polaroid camera. She was extraordinarily bright and engaging and we stayed in touch. When she started The Huffington Post, Arianna asked me to blog for it and to recommend a few friends. I did both. Since then, The Huffington Post has grown into one of the most popular and important sources of news and commentary, period.

APE: I might label you an unlikely internet pioneer, because you favor a photographic process that uses ancient cameras and discontinued film, yet here you are at the forefront of the internet revolution producing original online content for a collective reporting site. What are your thoughts on photography and the future online?

I’ve been shooting large format portraits for over 30 years. In 1978, I bought a 1905 Folmer and Schwing 11×14 inch studio camera and for decades I shot black and white Kodak Ektapan film. My 1999 exhibition at Mary Boone Gallery in New York consisted of every artist, art dealer, art critic and art collector I had shot to date… all 700 of them. When Kodak discontinued my beloved Ektapan, I moved down to 8×10 and over to color chrome. I now shoot color negative, as chrome can no longer be printed without scanning. And of course, all along I shot 809 polaroid. We all know where that story ends.

But I use computers heavily, and find digital photography terrific in many ways. I also make films, so we have HD cameras and a full Final Cut Pro editing suite in the studio too. It’s just that I love the look and feel of large format. The beautiful old lenses, the shallow depth of field, the wonderful wooden camera itself, even the challenge of limiting yourself to just a few frames. I think they all contribute to my portraiture. And of course, one huge advantage shooting large format has over digital origination is the ability to print very large and very detailed.

I think my photographic style lends the work a certain elasticity that allows for a variety of sizes and contexts. The images are readable as thumbnails all the way up to 58 x 44 inch exhibition prints, regardless of whether the context is a book, magazine, blog, film, or museum show. What’s interesting is that a viewer interacts with different sizes and contexts in completely different ways. The work doesn’t change; the viewer does. But of course, these days, the media is changing too. The web audience is simply huge. Far more people will see my Sandra Bernhard portrait on Huffington than they would have in a magazine. To me, it’s just another avenue. I don’t see why there can’t be beautiful portraits on the web.

APE: I’ve just openly criticized Photo District News (at the prodding of several observant bloggers) for picking an all white jury for their 2009 Photography Annual awards. You’ve just finished a book project and film called the Black List where you feature prominent African Americans and tell their story. Do you think the media industry still has a long way to go in giving African-Americans equal opportunities and coverage?

Observant bloggers are best! I find it disappointing and sad that Photo District News would pick an all white jury for its 2009 Photography Awards. I’ve spend the last 3 years producing and directing “The Black List: Volume 1 and Volume 2” (as well as photographing all of the subjects in the film). 40 remarkable, gifted, unique African-Americans, from Toni Morrison to Colin Powell to Chris Rock to Angela Davis, to name a few (see the project here). Working on this project has really opened my eyes. I remember showing “The Black List: Volume 1” at a prominent film festival last year and after the screening we did a Q & A with the audience, which was about 50/50 black/white. To my amazement, the festival director only acknowledged questions from the white people in the audience. It was as if the African-Americans sitting right in front of him were invisible. There’s been some mumbling about “post-racial America” since the election in November, and maybe that’s the attitude PDN had when picking their jury. But having done The Black List, let me tell you, we’re not there yet.

If you want to see more work from Timothy visit his website (here) and keep an eye on the Huffington Post. His agent, Stockland Martel has a blog (here) where I discovered his new publishing venture.

William Eggleston in the Real World

“Photography tends to show, to describe much more than it can explain”

Also, check out this story (here) on Snag Films, the company that’s distributing the film for free online. They’re trying to help documentary filmmakers reach a broader audience.

A Third Is Photography, A Third Is Diplomacy, And A Third Is Politics

Martin Schoeller talks with writer Charlie Fish (read more here) for a piece in Resource Magazine. Here’s a couple quotes:

“If you’re going to take a picture, really try to make it the best picture you’ve ever taken, every time. Always strive for the best you can do.” This level of professionalism requires that you live, breathe and eat photography, and that every step along the way is executed with great attention to—what else—the details. “If you want to be a photographer,” he advises, “Be a photographer ten hours a day instead of spending five hours retouching some half-ass picture you don’t like in the first place.”

Schoeller reveals, “If you want to do portraits, you have to be outgoing and be able to engage people. I always say a third is photography, a third is diplomacy, and a third is politics. By doing a lot of research and finding out what they have done in the recent past I know where their mind is at. I’m able to engage them in a conversation so they forget for a moment that they’re being photographed.” While this may be common practice to many photographers, Schoeller’s research manifests itself in another way. “I always play music that I think they might like, or remind them of their childhood. We always have a little stereo with us.”

Documentary Photographer List

Verve photo looks like a great resource for anyone looking to hire a documentary photographer (here). I love a good list. Especially when someone else creates it.

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Remembering Shawn Mortensen

Talented, beloved photographer Shawn Mortensen passed away two days ago at the age of 43.

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Leigh Anderson, his former agent from Montage had this to say:

Shawn was one of the most talented photographers I’ve ever known, but that’s only a part of what made him so remarkable. He was incredibly passionate about art and culture, but humble about his place in that community. He knew everyone, and had the best stories, but never dropped names. Shawn knew what most thoughtful and intelligent people do, that people’s lives, however simple, make the best art. What made him unique was how he executed that. Every subject was given equal respect, equal measure. Not many contemporary photographers could do what he did – reconcile the business of photography with a sincere sense of social responsibility. More important than Shawn’s photography was who he was outside of it – he was a fiercely loyal friend and a true gentleman.

Shawn was the author of “Out of Mind”, a contributor to Vibe, i-D, Blackbook and Nylon among others. He was also a successful advertising photographer with clients such as Nike and AG. At the time of his death he was hard at work on his next book project – “MOR – Monster! Outlaws & Renegades”.

Rockers NYC T.V. Interviews Shawn Mortensen

Vibe Remembers Shawn Mortensen

Black Book – Shawn Mortensen, Rest In Peace

The Daily Swarm – R.I.P. Photographer Shawn Mortensen

Super Touch – In Loving Memory of Shawn Mortensen

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Favorite Art Photographers Who’ve Flown Under Radar

The April issue of Modern Painters Magazine is dedicated to photography (here). Curator and critic Vince Aletti introduces some of his favorite photographers who have heretofore flown under the radar (here). It’s always interesting and educational to read why someone is attracted to a series of photographs and here’s a few excerpts from Vince explaining why he picked these 5 photographers.

Mohamed Bourouissa “…he’s one of the few photographers making staged pictures that really feel exciting (a word I use sparingly) and believable…”

Ken Kitano “Japanese photographer Ken Kitano has been making composite portraits of groups of people, layering image upon image until one common face and a rather ghostly body emerges. It sounds gimmicky (and, yes, Nancy Burson was there first) but the results are gorgeous and mysterious…”

Dietmar Busse “…I think he’s reinvented himself over the past few years and is making black-and-white portraits of people in the downtown scene that are for once not bohemian clichés. I’m particularly interested in his double exposures — something I never thought I’d say about anyone…”

Viviane Sassen “Her photographs, taken in Uganda, Zambia, Kenya, and Tanzania, tease fashion conventions but with really witty and unexpected results, partly because her subjects are all young Africans who seem to have enjoyed collaborating with her.”

Bruce Wrighton “He took straightforward and rather artless color photos of people and places, but it’s the portraits that really hooked me. His subjects, mostly posed outdoors standing before building walls in natural sunlight, are stunningly ordinary, and I couldn’t stop looking at them.”

Eggleston Video

I don’t remember seeing this video when the Whitney retrospective was announced so I’m posting it now. Winston Eggleston talks about his father.

“He didn’t mean for any of his pictures to make any kind of statement. They just are what they are and how he’d like them to look I guess.” — Winston Eggleston

via, Thomas Hawk.

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s No Cash Deal With U2

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Bono confessed that he loved Sugimoto’s seascape photographs and began quizzing the artist about the work.

“He started taking notes as I talked,” Sugimoto recalled. Those notes became the foundation for the new album’s title track. Last year, during a visit to Dublin, Sugimoto heard the first demo tape, and a few months later was told by Bono that U2 wanted to use the Boden Sea image on the album jacket.

“I said, ‘Are you sure? If you use it you won’t be able to put anything on top of it, not even the U2 name,” the artist remembered.

He was surprised when Bono strongly agreed. Rolling Stone is now calling the text-free jacket “an early front runner for album cover of the year.” (The cover also features an equal sign, but it is attached to the plastic wrapper, so it disappears once opened it.) Then came talk of money.

“I gave myself just a second to think about it,” Sugimoto recalled, “and I said ‘How about a Stone Age deal — no cash?’ ”

Bono agreed on an “artist-to-artist” barter whereby Sugimoto could use the “No Line on the Horizon” song in any project he wanted in the future. Sugimoto says he still hasn’t made up his mind about how to use the song — which he says he likes, but liked even better in its “more hard rock” demo stage.

— From a story over on The Japan Times Online sent to me by Ellis Vener.

The Three Song Rule

I found this explanation of the three song rule for live music photographers interesting and if you read the rest of the interview you’ll see how he’s recently got out of it. Photo editor Nicole Radja interviews Chicago music photographer Paul Natkin on her blog called“In Studio On Location.”

Nicole: Another story I wanted to get out of you, was about our favorite three song rule. (Photographers are only allowed to photograph bands for the first three songs of a live show.) I know you don’t subscribe to that. I know you have a story of where this thing came from.

Paul: It started in the ’80’s with bands in New York, especially Springsteen. When a band played in New York, especially places like the Garden, they gave out tons of photo passes. At least half to paparazzi guys. Those people don’t know how to photograph, their only option is to put a flash on a camera. A lot of people didn’t even know how to change film, they knew they only had 36 shots. They were just doing it for the excitement of doing it.

Bruce would go up on stage, and there would be 50 photographers, all shooting flashes in his face. I don’t blame him, he walked off stage one night and said, we have to do something about this. Somebody said, why not just let them shoot the first fifteen minutes? Somebody figured out at a normal rock show, a song is about five minutes. Somebody said, let’s just let them shoot the first three songs. So it started with him and people in that era. It was also that MTV started around that time, and everybody wanted to look perfect, the way they looked in their videos.

Christopher Griffith Interview

“I regularly spend more time looking at something than I do shooting or lighting it.”

cg-portrat2I greatly admire the work of Christopher Griffith, but I never had the opportunity to work with him when I was photo editing. Each time I tried he was booked solid. He shoots a large variety of subjects yet they all seem to come from the same place. His intense graphical imagery is an Art Directors wet dream. Recently he has launched a new imprint of fine art photography books called Auditorium Editions where he published Blown, an intense graphical study of roadside blown-out tire detritus.

APE: Tell me about your background as a scientist and how it effects the way you work as a photographer?

I was a research biochemist in a previous life. I was in a postgrad program in London when I fell into photography. I had this split life of studying for my degree during the day and doing photography at night and on weekends. I think aspects of my process remain which are very scientifically based in that I really like to explore a variety of things in photography. It is why my career is slightly schizophrenic. I seem to get equal opportunity to shoot still life, architecture, portraits with the odd fashion shoot thrown in for old times sake. It can be really exhausting as I feel I never spend enough time on any single vocation because I am rarely doing the same thing twice. The upside is that we have traveled the world, have gone to some crazy locations and have a real cross section of clients who come to us for a real variety of projects. I guess that is the payoff in not getting pigeonholed into any singular aspect of photography.

APE: You assisted a tiny bit. Tell me how that worked out for you?

I actually never really properly assisted. I started in London in the early 90’s where I was doing a post grad degree and had friends
who were actively assisting old school ad guys. I would occasionally get the opportunity to tag along and get on set and basically just watch what was going on. I did attempt properly assisting for Julie Fisher in London, I think officially for 11 days. She fired me. Apparently I had the air of not wanting to hang around for very long. I never assisted again.

APE: You haven’t always been a still life photographer so why did you make a decision to pursue it and become known as on of the best?

cg-3bI am flattered that you might think I’m one of the best, but I think that is really a stretch. Still life is an odd one as I only began tinkering with it about 7 years ago and it was done as a way to keep me busy. After my book States was published, my career changed overnight from shooting fashion constantly to shooting a few big ad campaigns a year and there was a lot of time in between. So my agent and I thought it would be a good idea to see if I could treat small objects the same way as I had treated American landscapes in the book. It has gradually increased over time to become about half of the work that my studio takes on.

Years ago when I was shooting the ETRO campaign in the mid 90’s, the creative director Felice Perrini would always go on that I was really in essence a still life photographer. It annoyed me to no end, as we were shooting a fashion campaign at the time. But he was really right. I treat everything as though it were a still life. People, places and things. They are all objects.

APE: Your lighting and of course your backdrops seem incredibly minimalist and that leaves you with almost no room to work. What’s the secret to pulling this off?

I don’t see it as being limiting at all. It is exactly where I like to be. Stripped down and sort of naked. Sounds perverse. But I like to make things look big, bold and sort of heroic. I find it much easier to do this when they are stripped of context because I only have to concentrate on one thing. Truth is I regularly spend more time looking at something than I do shooting or lighting it.

Still life can quickly fall into pack shot photography if you are not careful. You have got to find a way to make it come alive and that comes from taking a really hard look at what is in front of me.

Way back when I was living in Paris, Jenny Capitan had hired me at paris Vogue. I was explaining that if they would just give me better clothes I could do great shoots. She replied, “this is Paris Vogue, everybody gets awful clothes and you are here to make them look amazing.” I have never forgotten this. It is sort of applicable to everything.

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APE: It seems like most of the top still life photographers have projects where they explore themes and lighting styles, how important is this?

It’s not really. I don’t come from a still life background, nor a photographic one for that matter. So I have never really seen it done properly. I am always making it up cause I do not really know the rules. So it probably takes me twice as long to get there. I am not that interested in crazy complicated lighting, gizmos etc. I am more about really finding a new way to look at something, or finding new meaning out of things which would otherwise go unnoticed. This has sort of been a theme of all 3 of my books. Forgotten America, the fallen leaf and blown out roadside detritus.

In all honesty, I stick to one front light whenever it is possible. I just find that too many lights end up diffusing out the texture and volume of an object. One light, with grid head and lots of hand-held bounce back reflector cards. It’s not rocket science.

APE: I read about your preference for working with film and honestly I think anyone who grew up with film will always prefer it, but do you think digital will completely replace film at any point?

cg-41No, but it is inevitable that film will become an ever shrinking niche market, but hopefully a niche retained for professional still life photographers. There are simply things that digital does not do as well or easily as a plate camera. I am sure many will want to step in and argue here, but the fact is that if you have built your aesthetic on film, getting it right on digital kind of sucks. Yes, it is fast, and it is amazing how much time is saved not waiting for polaroids to cook, but there is so much that needs to be done in post to make it look right. It is amazing how much time is spent on digital files making them look like film. Just get it right on film. Done. With the added benefit that if your hard drives all someday decide to pack up in an electromagnetic storm brought on by the apparently imminent global shift in magnetic polarity… actually having a hard copy would be quite a good thing.

APE: Do your clients still let you shoot film?

Actually, recently clients have been requesting film as I think in this economy they have gotten savvy to the potentially higher costs of shooting digital. Again, I am sure I will ensue a riot with the digital converts here, but if you are shooting still life, digital capture is rarely the cheaper option.

APE: I know you were working on this Blown book project for many years and something disturbing happened, that I can imagine happens to photographers once in a while. You discovered that Horacio Salinas was exhibiting the exact same work at the NY Photo Festival last spring. Were you crushed or angry when you saw it?

blown_68It is pretty disturbing when you spend 6 years on something and literally as it is being sent to press as a book, an identical series of images gets exhibited in your backyard. You initially feel completely robbed. It could be sheer coincidence. I really do not know. Ideas are cheap. I am sure I am not the only person to have the idea to explore tires. But this project has been on my site for several years and the images at NYPF were conceptually and executionally identical. He is a really talented photographer, but this is really quite unlike his style. People will come to their own conclusions about the authenticity for both these series.

Blown is now being distributed international, so the only real downside is that the claim to authorship has been diluted here in NYC but, this stuff happens. It is not the end of the world. I am actually more disappointed with those running the festival, as they all knew about the conflict well before the show opened and simply chose to ignore it.

APE: Have you spoken with Mr. Salinas or the person who made the assignment about the pictures?

blown_8No. My biggest regret in this is that I did not immediately contact his studio when I heard he was shooting the same thing last February and lay down the book in front of him. I am not sure it would have served any purpose, but at least I would have looked him straight in the eyes and ask him what he if he thought it was such a good idea to continue. I did get to speak with the curator who commissioned the work who admitted to knowing about the conflict from my website, but had standing loyalties to Salinas. Fair enough, but it seemed to be an odd decision when curating an exhibit which claimed to be promoting new ideas in photography.

APE: Got anything cool you’re working on that you can share with us so we can knock it off?

Actually, Blown was the first in an ongoing series of books loosely based on the idea of organizing chaos. Each book from the series will be exactly the same oversized format and design. The idea was to have a generic undesigned look, which is repeated for each title in the series where the images are the driving force behind the book design. The second in the series will be Power Tokyo. It is a series on the insanity of the municipal power lines of Tokyo which I have shot over the past 3 years. It will be released by Auditorium Editions this September. It has partially been on line for some time, so I guess I run the risk again of prying eyes, but I somehow do not see lightning striking twice. I am also working on a show for this September in NYC which will be a more juxtaposed collection of the graphic industrial side of what has become a large bulk of my personal work and then there is a much bigger book project on NYC which I hope to have fully shot by the end of 2010.

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50 States + 50 Photographers = Brilliant

I can’t imagine a more useful resource for discovering new photographers by state than this 50 states project (here). I recoginized quite a few names when I landed on the home page (Jeremy & Claire Weiss, Wayne Levin, Larry Schwarm, Juliana Beasley, Jesse Chehak, Naomi Harris, Shawn Records) which really helps. There seems to be a common thread among the photographers which is likely a reflection of the editor’s taste in photography and certainly helps the whole thing work because you know going in that this works for whatever project you have cooking.

I like the idea of the self assignments because that’s essentially what photo editors do when they look for photographers in magazines (assigned and completed here are the results) I’m just not sure that it works on that level because you don’t have the same limitations a magazine assignment would have. What I do like is seeing current work. I can tell a lot by looking at something just shot.

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PDN 30 Photographers To Watch- 2009

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PDN just published their annual list of 30 photographers to watch. See it here or go get a copy on the newsstand. This annual list has always been something worth checking out for photo editors looking for new talent and new approaches to old ideas. What makes this list great is there’s no entry fee. Someone with influence nominates you and then from the pool of nominees the editors pick 30. Some years the list is stronger than others but it really depends on the pool of people they are pulling from.

The only gripe I have with this and all the other contests out there as far as this goes is with the way they present the work online. Photo editors have been using the internets for quite awhile now so why don’t they take the lists of photographers and present it in an easy to use format. Getting published in the magazine is all well and good but the real value is in the potential to land jobs from it.

I’ve decided to do it for them this one time so you can see how useful it might be. I added my own keyword descriptions just to help people quickly find what they’re looking for although I need to find a better way to parse the term “Fine Art” and documentary or photojournalism because those terms cover too much ground. I would add reference photos but I think PDN might not like that.

New York
Kathryn Parker Almanas- Clinton, NY [Fine art interior/still life]
Lucas Foglia- New York, NY [People in landscape with a fine art influence]
Wendy Ball and Dara Albanese- Brooklyn, NY [Traditional travel]
Martine Fougeron New York, NY [Fine art youth lifestyle]
Chiara Goia Brooklyn, NY [Color documentary with a fine art influence]
Flora Hanitijo- Brooklyn, NY [Dense color, fine art people and places]
Cornelia Hediger- New York, NY [Fine art self portrait interiors]
Victoria Hely-Hutchinson- Brooklyn, NY [Fine art color people and places]
Jared Moossy- New York, NY [B/W and color photojournalism]
James Pomerantz- Brooklyn, NY [Color documentary]
Fernando Souto- Brooklyn, NY [B/W Documentary]
Lucas Zarebinski- New York, NY [Food and product still life]

California
Chloe Aftel- Los Angeles, CA [Lifestyle with a snapshotty/polaroid aesthetic]
Cole Barash- Oceanside, CA [Snowboard sports and lifestyle (Caution: Music)]
Melissa Kaseman- San Francisco, CA [Fine art objects, people and places]
Lisa Wiseman- San Francisco, CA [Fine art people]

Oregon
Corey Arnold Portland, OR [Rich color documentary with a fine art appeal]
Toni Greaves- Portland, OR [Color documentary with a fine art influence]

Argentina
Alejandro Chaskielberg- Capital Federal, Argentina [Fine art narrative with rich color and shallow depth of field]
Emma Livingston- Buenos Aires, Argentina [Fine art color landscape]

Australia
Adam Ferguson- Newport, Australia [Color photojournalism]

Germany
Julian Faulhaber- Dortmund, Germany [Fine art graphic interior and exterior with patterns and everyday subjects]
Susanne Ludwig- Hamburg, Germany [Fine art people and empty industrial interiors and objects in patterns]

Ohio
Nathan Harger- Cleveland, OH [Graphic industrial fine art]

Washington DC
Jeff Hutchens, Washington, DC [Color and B/W documentary with a modern aesthetic]

Pennnsylvania
Justin Maxon- Philadelphia, PA [B/W and color photojournalism]

Egypt
Dominic Nahr- Cairo, Egypt [Color photojournalism]

Japan
Kosuke Okahara- Yokyo, Japan [B/W documentary]

China
Ryan Pyle- Shanghai, China [Color documentary]

Singapore
Darren Soh- Singapore, Singapore [Traditional color industrial and modern natural landscape]

Pictures Of The Year International- Magazine Photographer Of The Year

POYi Announced their Magazine Photographer of the year on Friday. You can see the other winners (here) and still more to come as the finish the judging process. You can actually watch and hear the judging live (link on the front page) which is an education in itself.

First Place goes to Uriel Sinai of Getty Images
Singles
“Cyclone Narcisse in Burma”
“Congo Unrest”
“Gaza Israel Conflict in 2008”
“War in Georgia”
“Post-Election Violence in Kenya”

Second Place goes to Anthony Suau of Freelance / TIME Magazine
Singles
“U.S. Economy in Crisis”
“U.S. / Mexican Border”
“Culiacan – Mexican Drug War”
“Untitled”

Third Place goes to David Burnett of Contact Press Images

Images Currently Being Posted 3/2
Singles
“2008 Beijing Olympics”
“Las Vegas Boom and Bust”
“Hillary Clinton for President”
“Senator John McCain, Republican Presidential Candidate”
“Barack Obama”