Having spent a lot of time with Mark Steinmetz’s books South East and Greater Atlanta, I was curious about the history and photographer behind the work. So I asked Mark for an interview, and much to my delight he agreed to it.
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Lydia Panas’ portraits, which typically contain at least two, if not more people, possess that little something that lifts them above a lot of other portraiture and that at the same time is so undefinable, so indescribable. In Lydia’s case, the magic seems to be coming from the interaction between the subjects. Group portraits often contain an element of heroism - this alone would be a good topic for a longer discussion (see an example here) - and that heroism is absent in Lydia’s work. Instead, there are trust and displays of intimacy.
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Photographically, the continent of Africa, home of around one billion people and cradle of humanity, seems to be in a bit of a tight spot. While there is a lot of different work being produced about or in Africa, the most visible types of photography, the ones we get to see most often, are either photojournalistic depictions of war and/or poverty or what Jim Johnson called the freak show. David Wright’s Alebtong, Uganda was thus a very pleasant surprise for me: A young photographer going to Africa and producing images that do not center on photojournalistic clichés or on the overly exotic.
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Vanessa Winship’s work came to my attention when a friend of mine showed me the copy of Sweet Nothings, a most exquisite little book of portraiture of school children in Eastern Anatolia (Turkey). A little later, Vanessa sent me a copy of the book, and we started talking about her work, so I ended up asking her for an interview. Click on the images below to see slightly larger versions.
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Will Steacy’s current project is called “Down These Mean Streets”, and to take the photos, he hiked from the airport to the central business district of the cities he was photographing - at night, equipped with a large-format camera. This is not something photographers do all the time - so I approached Will to find out more about his work.
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(Homeless series, London 1987) Steve Pyke’s work is the first that made me really think about portraiture - what it does, how it works. Last year, I was invited to join a panel on portraiture, and I was extremely excited about meeting him (he was one of the other panelists) and hearing him talk about his work. I used the opportunity to ask him whether he would be available for a conversation, and much to my delight he agreed to it.
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I have long been an admirer of Carla van de Puttelaar’s photography, which, I think, is not that well known outside of Europe. Carla just had her new book “The Beholder’s Eye” published (available via Idea Books). Given I had been thinking a lot about nudity and/in portraiture for my show “Bare”, I approached Carla and asked her whether she would be willing to talk about her work. Please note the following images are NSFW.
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When my friend Richard Renaldi showed me the first images from the new series Touching Strangers I was just amazed. Asking two complete strangers to not only pose with each other, but to also touch each other while doing that… And this in a culture whose discomfort with touching someone you don’t know, or touching something that someone else might have touched still baffles me, even after having spent almost ten years in it!
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Charles Fréger works in series of portraits and is the mastermind behind a pan-European network of photographers - which provided ample reasons for me to approach him and ask for an interview. He was more than happy to share his thoughts about photography and about how to work together as a group of artists.
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Portraiture might be the most challenging photographic endeavor. It is a complex interaction between the photographer’s intent, the subject’s preconceptions and ideas, and the viewer’s background. So how do photographers manage to make great portraits? I have long been a fan of Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene. Her portraits of adolescents possess an extremely quiet and forceful beauty. I’ve often wondered how she manages to create work that is so beautiful, while always avoiding the trap of producing mere clichés. Deciding to approach Hellen to talk to her about her images, I was particularly happy to not only get a glimpse of her ideas about her work, but to also to see some of her very new photos that have not yet been seen publicly.
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It is no secret that I am particularly interested in portraiture, and a photographer who lately caught my attention is Rachael Dunville. I asked her whether she would be available for a conversation, and I was happy to learn that she was.
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When I first saw Andrew Miksys’ Baxt I realized I was dealing with something a bit different. Let’s face it: Most people only know the Roma (“gypsies”) as a comedic backdrop from the movie Borat, and there still exist considerable stereotypes (and worse) about them. So I asked Andrew whether he would be up for a conversation about his work.
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Todd Hido might be mostly known for his eerie night-time scenes of anonymous suburban settings, but has also done portraits. In fact, he is one of the photographers whose work will be shown in A New American Portrait. I talked with Todd about his work, and about how to shoot a great portrait.
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A photo by Roger Ballen is not something that you look at and then forget. His photography possesses a very intense beauty. I was recently given the opportunity to speak with Roger about his work and its background.
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When I looked at Sarah Martin’s photography and at her statements, which provide the background, a whole set of questions popped up in my head, and I asked Sarah whether she was willing to talk about her work. I was thrilled to learn that she was.
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Richard Renaldi’s Figure and Ground is one of my favourite photo books from this year. I immediately hoped to be able to talk to Richard about his work, and I was very excited when he agreed to do so.
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Amy Elkins is a young photographer whose portraits I quite like. Given my ongoing quest to ask photographers about their portraits I asked Amy whether she’d want to talk about them, and I’m glad that she agreed to do it.
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After reading Bill Sullivan’s description of his series “3 Situations” and after looking at the images, I got intrigued and asked him whether he would be willing to talk about the ideas behind his work in more detail. I was quite excited to learn that he was happy to do that.
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A few years back, Alec Soth’s Sleeping By the Mississippi took the photo world by storm. The book became one of those rare instant classics and a fine example of what contemporary photography can be about. With his next book, Niagara, published earlier this year, Alec managed to surprise a lot of people because of the subject matter. Just like “Mississippi”, “Niagara” contains an interesting mix of portraits, landscapes, interiors of buildings, and still lifes. Being a fan of his work, I was delighted when Alec agreed to talk with me about his work.
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When I saw Shen Wei’s portraits for the first time, I was struck by their expressiveness, which - invariably - had me thinking again about how photographic portraits can be approached - as a photographer, as a mere observer, and also as a subject. It was for that reason that I approached Shen Wei and asked him to talk about his work a little.
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Consumption and shopping are such integral parts of what we like to call our culture that very often, we do not realize the full extent of the whole complex any longer. But what does this fact really lead to? I first noticed the importance of shopping when I told American friends that on Sundays German shops are closed (or rather used to be closed since things are changing there). The standard question “But what do people do on a Sunday?” was accompanied by either bewildered or outright horrified facial expressions. Brian Ulrich’s photography is centered on consumption and shopping, with him covering both shopping malls - maybe the most American of all experiences somebody could ever have - and thrift stores - places that I personally have been immensely fascinated with. I talked with Brian about the different aspects of his work.
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(This is the first of what I hope will be many conversations with photographers about their photography. I’ve always wanted to do this, and I hope this is going to become a regular feature here. My thanks to Jay Parkinson for agreeing to be the first person to be interviewed for this blog.) When I saw Jay Parkinson’s shots of aspiring models for the first time, I got quite interested in them. To start with, it is quite an interesting project to do since - at least from what I know - there is quite a bit more to the modeling world than those famous fashion models on cat walks. I have no idea how you become a model. Do you make a decision? And how do you decide to become a specialized model, say for hands or bondage or whatever else there is?
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