Interview – Camera Obscura

Albert Elm, an extension of my own curiosity

Adèle Vicaire — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 12:36:29 +0000

Interview by Adèle Vicaire & Laura Ungur, photos by Albert Elm.

The simple, yet personal, events of his everyday life and the encounters with the new surroundings, which he is constantly facing, are the elements that rule Albert’s universe of photography. He is a young Danish artist that cut off the strings that held him close to his home town and moved to Scotland, where he is currently studying Fine Art Photography at the Glasgow School of Art. After a three years period of constant work of taking photos as he was used to, he decided to put himself into a weak and vulnerable spot and try something new. That is when he agreed to join his friend on the Trans-Siberian railway adventure, hoping to expand his artistic horizon. His analogue shots roughly unveil a pure instinct of curiosity and restlessness. He skillfully fuses black and white with colored pictures creating an intricate aesthetic that you are drawn to look at over and over again. A natural element of kitsch seems to be constantly present in his work, which takes you by surprise and ends up being accepted, even considered beautiful, as it is wrapped into this unknown territory that is yet to be discovered. We asked Albert a couple of questions and tried to decrypt his work and unravel the stories that lay behind each project.

What does photography mean to you? What does it enable you to do?

Photography means a lot to me. I’m a very restless person and photography somehow gives a purpose to my restlessness. Taking pictures is a great excuse to engage myself in the everyday life and transform each day into a special one.

What is it that makes one a “good” photographer/artist from your point of view?

I personally prefer photography and Art in general when it’s intuitive. The photographers I admire the most, all seem to take pictures as if it is/was a part of their life. I think photography and Art in general works best when it triggers a feeling of natural curiosity. Or simply when it communicates recognizable human emotions.

What do you need in order to get / stay inspired?

I started out just taking pictures of my daily life, surroundings and encounters, which ended up being my project What sort of life is this, but after doing that for three years, I felt a need to get out of my comfort zone and push my boundaries further. I decided to join my friend who was doing a project on the Trans-Siberian railway. Since then I have been seeking out inspiration in all the corners of the world. I think it’s magical to see things for the first time, so I try to use that in my work.

Also I’m fortunate to have many friends who work with Art and photography. I think it’s really inspiring and motivating to see how other people work and develop. Plus it means a lot to have someone close, who knows you and your practice, to talk to when you get stuck or if you doubt something.

Are you more influenced by places or people?

Both. My environment and the people in it are important in my work. Anything or anyone that catches my attention, really. It can be anything that I think tells something interesting about life.

What is it that catches your eye? What are you looking for through your camera lens?

I use photography as an extension of my own curiosity. I like to think of photography as something I grew up with. The camera helps me understand the world around me better. Or leave what I don’t understand for later in life, when I maybe know better. I believe it’s the same feeling people have when they use a diary.

I think what I am doing now isn’t much different from what I did when I was 15 years old, walking around in my neighborhood taking pictures. The only difference is that my horizon has moved as I have grown up a little and that I have become more aware of what I’m doing.

Primary colors are an element that often captivates me and triggers my eye. I think they are fun to work with and represent a good starting point when taking a picture.

I would like to ask you about a specific picture you took with the fox and the silky haired ginger. Would you like to describe or explain it with your own words, telling the story behind it?

The picture is called Vilja, and is named after the fox in the picture. It’s from my last trip to Siberia when I was working on my project, Fish Out of Water. Our local contact told us that he knew a girl with long red hair who had a fox, and that she was OK with being photographed. It made me very excited and I just couldn’t wait to capture those two together in my work. The picture I selected from the film rolls came out pretty much like I had imagined it would. It is taken in the university/research town Akademgorodok just South of Novosibirsk in Siberia. As far as I know, domesticated foxes had been a project in progress in the town since 1959. But the girl Irina mostly keeps Vilja as her pet.

Do you have a dream? Would you like to share it?

My dream is simply to be able to work with my photography without being too limited. I would like to have my work displayed in books and exhibitions and see people enjoying it.

What direction are your current projects taking?

I am going to Dubai in February to shoot a project that focuses on success, wealth and the victims that pay the price for it. I want to tell a more specific story that would go along side for my other long term projects. The plans is also to use some of the images I shot in India this summer, which I am working on at the moment and are part of the series Fish Out of Water.

Read more about Albert Elm in Dry Magazine issue IV.

Introducing Ryan Mills

Josh Campbell — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:40:26 +0000

Ryan Mills is a fine art photographer based out of Spokane, Washington. Currently, he works with 4×5 black and white film making provoking and emotional portraits of his friends and family, primarily concentrating on children. Read to learn why he works with large format cameras and about his time spent with legendary photographer, Jock Sturges.

Josh Campbell: How did you get started?

Ryan Mills: I came to photography in a roundabout way. I wasn’t interested in art in high school. I did youth works? And we did photography first and we’d hang them up on the wall—photography from floor to ceiling. After doing that for a while I really began to enjoy photography. At the time I was working at a thrift store and I had more cameras than I knew what to do with. There was no real skill involved at that time for me. Just a lot of clicking. I did what I could and slowly it evolved into something that I really got into. When I switched jobs I ended up selling a lot of the gear I had accumulated and I got out of the habit for a couple of years. Then digital photography started becoming prominent. I got a digital camera and started shooting with friends. In the last few years its grown into a serious endeavor. At the beginning I shot everything from weddings, to the elderly, to dogs, to landscapes. Over time I began to slowly focus on people, which is what interested me most.

Josh Campbell: Are you a full time photographer?

Ryan Mills: No, at this point its about the art side of it. Making money in photography has become much more difficult these days. Anyone can buy a digital camera and call themselves a photographer and there are even cell phones that can take acceptable photos. Its really changed the game. Where I live, there is an over-saturation of photographers who charge $25 for an hour session. It’s difficult to make money doing it unless you’re in a large market. What qualifies as a good image is lost because everyone is exposed to so many photos. You see this happen on Facebook all the time. Back in the day, a really good film shooter had a particular look. Nowadays, everyone’s shooting with a digital camera and it all looks the same. Art photography is my main consideration and my goal is exhibition in galleries.

Josh Campbell: How do you get into large format photography? Do you use a 4×5 or bigger?

Ryan Mills: I use a 4×5 camera. It’s gotten to the point where 10 shots will cost you $100. I’d really like to got up to 8×10, but its going to depend on what the market does. It has a lot to do with cost. While shooting digital, I was always trying to get a particular look. I spent a lot of time studying photography masters from the 30’s and after and trying to replicate that look. I couldn’t get it with digital. My interest in large format came from a desire to achieve that look and make really big prints.

Josh Campbell: Why do you prefer shooting large format and how does it change the way you photography?

Ryan Mills: With large format, you really have to stop, think about and look at what you’re going to shoot. You can’t just click away. Ever since I’ve gone to 4×5 I take far fewer photos, even when I shoot digital. During a session, I usually shoot 15 sheets of film, 25 sheets max, depending on the attention span of the subject. You have a lot more conversations with people by using a large format camera. They are more relaxed, which is counterintuitive because they have to sit there for a while. There’s a lot more time for conversation while I prepare the equipment and I get a more natural photo. I take a photo and we talk for a few minutes while I’m moving things around. Eventually I see something and say, “Oh yes! Hold that look.” I take the shot, we talk a little more, and we repeat the process. The flow of it works best for what I do.

Josh Campbell: Is the bulk of your work commissioned or self assigned?

Ryan Mills: Most of it is personal work and done with my friends and their kids. Its almost always someone I know. I don’t take a lot of cold calls. People see what I do and expect that I can make it happen with anyone. However, most of the work I make is based on the relationships I have with individuals. I work on a different level with them than I could with a stranger. Its hard to get the same dynamic withsomeone I haven’t met.

Josh Campbell: How do you find subjects?

Ryan Mills: About half of them are people who I know and ask if I can take some photos of their kids. Or I might approach them if their children have the right qualities. I have about 15-20 subjects I’ve been shooting for 5 or 6 years. Every summer I go through the list and find time to photograph each one.

Josh Campbell: What makes a good subject?

Ryan Mills: There are conceptual photographers and emotional photographers. I find myself on the emotional side. It’s more about connections with people rather than trying to project something on them. When I’m picking a subject, it’s not about an idea that I have for them. Jock Sturges told to me, “to watch your model move through space”. If you pose them, then you’re pushing yourself on them and not capturing how they really are. I’m looking for someone who’s relaxed and open and not trying to project something. That’s why I work with kids so often. Adults often show what they want others to see and not who they are. Kids always show who they are and are a lot easier to work with.

Josh Campbell: Do you use artificial or natural lighting?

Ryan Mills: I don’t do a lot of studio work. During the winter months I experiment with it, but I find it very sterile. I’ve seen people achieve very dynamic lighting in the studio, but I can’t get it and its not really my thing. I use natural light in all of my work. I don’t even use reflectors. It’s all about finding the right light. When I go to a place, most of the time I’m seeing problems left and right. Once you find a place with the right light and the right background you tend to use that one spot quite a bit.

Josh Campbell: Do you consider yourself a photographer or an artist?

Ryan Mills: I think both terms get thrown around way too much. I don’t feel accomplished enough to consider myself an artist. But a photographer is just someone who can use a camera. However, if I had to pick one, it would be photographer. To become an artist requires years of mastery which I just don’t have yet. A big part of meeting Jock was to see what a real artist is like. Where I live, I don’t get a lot of opportunities to meet a lot of big artists. It gives you a greater respect of what it means to be an artist when you get to talk with them. They talk about their work differently than a photographer who just shoots family photos. For now I call myself a photographer, but the goal is to become an artist.

Josh Campbell: Why did you choose photography?

Ryan Mills: I’m fascinated by people. Capturing something real is my goal every time I shoot. I have studied other forms of art—painting, sculpture, etc. But I just keep coming back to photography. There’s a level of realism that just isn’t there when I look at paintings. However, sculpture has interested me quite a bit. There’s a lot that goes into a sculpture. You’re working with something bland, you have no background, nothing around it, no shadows. You have none of the things that make a photo work. Its impressive when you see a sculpture that works.

Josh Campbell: What do you like best about being a photographer and what do you find most challenging?

Ryan Mills: The best part is working with people. I like the social aspect, which is a little strange for me. I’m not a very social person. Photographing people is the time I get to socialize. I love photographing my friends. I don’t get to see them very much and photography is the only time I get to spend with them.

The challenging part is getting consistent lighting. The quality of light changes the impact of a black and white photograph and finding it can be difficult. I try to scout locations beforehand, but it doesn’t always work out. When the location doesn’t work, you shoot something just to make sure the model doesn’t feel as if there’s something wrong with them. It’s important to reassure your model and make them feel comfortable. When you’re making mistakes, you have to be sure they know they aren’t doing anything wrong.

Josh Campbell: What’s the most important rule for you to stay true to?

Ryan Mills: I don’t necessarily have rules when I photograph. In the art world, there are a lot of ideas of what should be art. When I first started shooting digital, nobody in the art world would take you seriously if you weren’t shooting film. Now, there are some contests that won’t accept your work if you enter with film. The rules that used to apply don’t anymore. In the end I think it’s about the final product. It doesn’t really matter how you get there as long as the end result is good. On the digital end, they shoot so that it looks good on the screen and not the print. My only rule is to create something that’s of high quality in the end product.

Josh Campbell: How do you know when a series is finished?

Ryan Mills: I don’t think anything is ever final. My goal is not to get 6-10 photographs and call it a series. My work is intended to go on for a while. I’m looking at projects that are going to span time. I’ve got a friend of mine who just had a baby. By the time this kid is 25 I’d like to have 25 years worth of work and then I’ll feel like I’ve got a completed piece.

Josh Campbell: What are some artists that inspire you?

Ryan Mills: Such a tough list, I have been inspired by a lot of my betters over the years. But there are a few that have had a direct profound impact, Jock Sturges, Sally Mann and Mary Ellen Mark. They have all had a way of capturing life in a that feels very real, something I have great respect for. I spent a week in France working with Jock Sturges. His input was invaluable.

Josh Campbell: Where do you see your artwork in 5-10 years?

Ryan Mills: I’m at the tipping point for gallery work. I’ve been networking with those who are more involved in the art community and have been able to learn from them how to have work hung. It’s been motivating to hear that my work is good enough to show in a gallery. I’ve been cautious about putting too much work out there. I’m trying to wait for my moment. I think in the next year or so the body of work is going to be there and I’ll be ready to show in a gallery. In 10 years, I’d like to have a book published. A lot of galleries won’t show work without a book, but you can’t get a book without a gallery! By then, I’m hoping my body of work is large enough that I can make the book I want to make.

Josh Campbell: What do you wish you had known when you first started photography

Ryan Mills: Starting in film, I struggled a lot on the technical side, something that those who shoot digital won’t struggle with because they have instant feedback of the photo. For instance, now you can shoot a variety of f-stops and immediately see the result. If I had tried to shoot 4×5 ten years ago I would have failed miserably, but learning the craft through digital was game changing.

Josh Campbell: What advice would you give to budding artists?

Ryan Mills: Don’t shoot for anyone but yourself. There are a lot of people who would say that you shouldn’t study other’s work to stay true to yourself. I don’t agree with that. Studying other photographers is extremely important. You need to pick photographers that impress you. And that list is going to change from year to year as you progress. As I look back over what I considered to be my best work from years past they’re not as impressive as I once thought. Additionally, It’s important to study something other than photography. That advice comes from Jock Sturges. For me, its been sculpture. Studying sculpture makes you more aware of what a natural pose is. Sculptures are never forced.

Ultimately, you have to find what you love to photograph and then study art.

Photos by Ryan Mills, interview by Josh Campbell.

Small Town Inertia, an interview with Jim A Mortram

Fabiano Busdraghi — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:47:17 +0000

Gonzalo Bénard: Small Town Inertia: do you want to explain the title or the story behind it?

Jim A Mortram: Small Town Inertia is a long form documentary and environmental portraiture series that I have been working upon for the last 3 years. It concerns itself with the real life stories of several people within a 3 miles radius within my local community in Dereham, East Anglia in the UK. The title stems from the notion that many people end up and stay here even though they desire to leave.

  I entered into the series with the notion that everyone has a story and with a desire to afford a voice to those that often have no platform to communicate their story. Themes have varied from person and situation. I’ve reported about isolation, poverty, drug abuse, homelessness, self harm, mental illness, juvenile crime, epilepsy though for myself the over riding experience has been one of endurance in spite of the impossible walls life often presents to us. Wall’s that box us in, wall’s that separate us, wall’s to climb to be set free.

  Small Town Inertia reports from within these documented lives. Lives lived in the now. Lives lived within times of much change. As the cultural, political and economic landscape changes these stories depict the final destination for the results of many of those high up and far away decisions and influences. These photographs and supporting stories depict the full stop of the Welfare State cuts, Housing Benefit cuts, Health cuts, loopholes and failures of systems and what happens when the heart of a community is slowly eroded. They also depict the lives of those hanging on, bowed yet not broken, of lives where a fight to survive is very real. Fighting apathy, addiction, fighting loneliness, illness all the while clinging to self-respect, adrift in the community, in life, but not yet lost.

Gonzalo Bénard: Everybody can see the tremendous quality of your photography, even on internet where sometimes we can’t see it properly, so let’s not talk about it and let’s go beyond the technical stuff. Since I know your work you’ve been always focused on what it is to be human, bringing naked-fragile minds through your portraits. What’s the relation that you have with them all to achieve such deepness and honesty when doing a portrait?

Jim A Mortram: I always treat people, as I myself like to be treated. You can never feign nor fake interest in a person. I’ve never singled out people with an eye that they might make a good story for example; it’s a very organic evolvement. Though every person I’ve photographed I’ve met as a stranger over time bonds form, trust very much has to be earned. People are very giving and that humbles me greatly, my greatest debt is always to the person the other side of the lens. It’s such a great honor to be accepted and brought into another person’s life and given the access to document it. I’m sure I could work in a faster fashion but for me long form documentary is where my heart is. Often I’ll visit people and not even take an image, just talk and more importantly listen, and I listen more than I shoot. I have an equation that I always bear in mind Talk more than you shoot and listen more than you talk and it serves me well. I break shoots up into periods of straight documentary and periods so shoot portraits, make interviews and shoot video.   

The most wonderful outcome of the series is seeing the positive effects that it has upon the people featured within the series, our very real bonds and the sense of community, both with the people I photograph and from the wider photographic community itself whom have been of outstanding support.

Gonzalo Bénard: I know that your main job is to be a carer, but your hobby became a continuity of that. Do you feel a carer when you’re photographing them?

Jim A Mortram: That’s a really interesting question and something I’ve often mused on. My conclusion is that being a Carer, especially for a loved one, a member of the family has influenced me as a person and those experiences evidently trickle down and appear in my personality now so are present when I shoot. It’s a high stress situation working as a Carer and you need to develop many skills you’d never use in everyday life, elements such as thinking really fast in serious situation, life threatening ones from time to time, acute patience and knowing when to shut up and listen, to understand what a person needs when they can’t always communicate. All these have had a real impact on the way I communicate and especially listen during shoots but I have never felt like a Carer, everyone I shoot is just like me, were all human being regardless of what we might be experiencing, I always take that into every situation I go to document.

Gonzalo Bénard: Do you feel that for them is important you to be there and in some way leaving a register in your photographs? Do you feel this ex-change when you’re with them, being important for you to photograph and for them for being photographed?

Jim A Mortram: Yes. Very much show and for many reasons. Initially it’s to have an opportunity, ANY opportunity to share their experiences and to be heard. It’s, I feel a really empowering step for the people I work with on these long form series to make the decision to get involved, stay involved. It’s a way for many people to take a positive step, to maybe take some control where there might be a huge absence of any control in their lives. It’s also a mirror for many people, it might be the first time that they have paused for thought as every day is just surviving, enduring and when you live just to make it through one day to the next it’s often hard to distance yourself from that experience and take a moment for reflection.

Gonzalo Bénard: Do you want to share a special moment with any of the people you shoot towards your photography or you being photographer?

Jim A Mortram: I’d first encountered Shaunny totally by chance as I’d taken a street shot of him taking his shirt off outside a pub in Market Town. Subsequently that shot went on to place 3rd in the Photo Radar POTY (Documentary) and I wanted to find out who it was I’d made this random street image of.   

Market town is a small place and it did not take too long to find someone that knew someone that could put me in touch with Shaunny. I got an email and arranged a meeting at his home. At this time I was still borrowing a camera and lenses so I’d picked them up the morning of the shoot along with for the first time a 50mm.

  My sessions always work the same. There is a lot of talking. I’ll always set out what the project is about, where images will be shown etc and then we really get into exploring life. Many times the people I shoot have no significant opportunity to talk, open up or be listened to. I like to ask a question then let things roll, to let the person reveal as much as they are want to share and interject with further questions throughout the conversation making fresh junctions together, seeing where it takes us.  

I’d started with a 28mm, a f2.8 and the light was very dark that day and the D200 I was using was not the best camera for an interior, little light and so I was pretty much forced into putting the 50mm f1.8 to the body to give myself a little more room to play with.   This first shoot with Shaunny was one of the first that I’d really explored intense 1 on 1’s. Walking into a total strangers house was quite something but my own fears were suppressed by the desire to do justice to what was happening within the room. Shaunny was opening up more than I had expected. Within 15 minutes of arriving he was opening his soul to me, every pain, loss, regret began to flow forth, at first just a trickle but soon becoming a river that was to burst it’s banks.  

“I never talk to anyone about this stuff” Shaunny said as we talked through the loss of failed relationships, finding his Mother passed away at 15, the death of his young children, his battle with chronic back pain due to an accident, his self medication with alcohol.   

“Do you want to stop? I can put the camera down at any time” I told him, we were very close, the 50mm forces you to use your legs as a zoom so I was maybe 1 foot away from Shaunny, both of us standing parallel to the single window in his flat. Winter skies outside, I remember someone revving their car, redlining it, testing the engine outside a monotone drone that seemed to amplify the words, the stories Shaunny was sharing. There was no longer a camera between us. I often look over the viewfinder so actual eyes can lock, I shoot manual so that was spot metered and taken care of, shooting wide open at f1.8 hand held is tricky at the best of time and as Shaunny’s first tears started to come I fought to keep my own hands from shaking.  

“Do you want to stop mate, I don’t have to photograph this” I asked again “No, I want you to, this is the first time I think I’ve ever opened up about these things, I want people to know I have regrets, that I am sorry, that I’m not who they think I am, I want people to see that I hurt too”.

  Shaunny saying that was a revelation for me. I could easily have put the camera down had he not said that. In that moment I knew that to not do my best in this situation would be a dereliction of duty. Here I was, in another mans home, toe to toe with him baring his soul and tears, very old, bitter, painful and real tears spilling from his eyes and I felt for the first time the burden of a very wanted responsibility. I could feel myself totally engaged in this moment, this shared moment and also aware of controlling the camera, probably nervously as I’d never used a f1.8 50mm before so I was as nervous as all hell of getting it wrong but everything was happening so fast I just had to let the fear go, rely on instinct and carry on.  

I shot a lot in 10 minutes, maybe 40 images and most all with Shaunny looking right into the camera, right into me, right into the audience. These were intense shots. Being so close to another human being in pain, sobbing their heart out. As Shaunny reached the climax of his very personal cathartic out pouring I took one last shot placed the camera to one side “Mate, that was amazing. Have you any idea how much that touched me. I’m almost in tears too! How do you feel?” I asked. Shaunny drying his tears looked up and at me and said, “Fucking brilliant mate, I feel fucking brilliant. Like a weights gone. Thank you.”

  This really choked me. Thank me? I’d done nothing. Pressing a shutter is no big mystery to me. I’d not expected this day to unfold anywhere close to where its destination eventually was. It was becoming a moment of very real clarity for me too. These moments were teaching me why I had to pursue the Small Town Inertia series, that every person has their story, tales of loss, tales of joy, endurance regrets and hopes of redemption. Instead of 15 minutes of banal transient fame they deserve, instead of being the focus of an imposed ego destined to be art on a wall we all deserve to be listened to at the very least within our lives.

 I put my arms around Shaunny and gave him a hug “You don’t have to thank me mate, thank yourself, you found it in you to face all these things, to get them out. You feel the regrets you do, they affect you. You’ve shown that in extraordinary circumstances today. I’m proud of you… be proud of you too. “  

I packed my gear away and as I left I told Shaunny that I’d sit on the images for a while and visit again with a print, if he wanted them public we’d go from there. When I got home I was relieved the shots had come out at all. Whilst editing them I found the shots with open eyes a little too obvious and they somehow through all their evident pain lost some intensity and they did not really reflect the most poignant moment of that morning. The very last shot however did. When Shaunny paused for that final moment, tears upon his face with eyes closed finally reflecting upon the life, his life and all it’s pain and all his regrets that he had just fought into and excised and shared for me epitomized the pain, struggle, endurance, reflection and acceptance of that cold morning shared in a flat with a stranger. A few weeks later I returned with a print. I was weary, would Shaunny be pleased, would he not want to share the image at all. My fears were allayed instantly. Shaunny loved the image, was proud of the day. We’ve gone on to share many other moments together as I’ve documented his life and the portrait we made together hangs on his wall still.

Gonzalo Bénard: You’re creating a relation with them, only that way you can also have the honesty in your work that is so important, and I guess that this is not a short time project but a longer one. Do you want to show the evolution of being alive in such register?

Jim A Mortram: Absolutely. I could not see myself working in any other way than long form. Without the time invested I think I would document in a much shallower, ephemeral way so taking months, years to constantly document and share it gives the series context, there is a evolution within the lives, to tell any story you have to do more than read chapter one you have to read from the front to the back cover.

Gonzalo Bénard: Which is the evolution you noticed more since you started this social photographic work till this latest one you’re still developing?

Jim A Mortram: I firmly believe that you never reach a destination; I’m constantly moving forwards in terms of the way I do things mostly as I believe we never stop learning. The largest constraints to the work are financial; it’s hard to self-finance travel, film, equipment, bills etc when you pay for everything from Carers Allownce Benefits and that’s frustrating but not enough of an obstacle to stop my work on these series.

Gonzalo Bénard: Apart from the exposure you’re getting with your photography that can and should bring more awareness to our society, is there a immediate and practical help you’re getting or can get doing this work with/for them?

Jim A Mortram: I’ve had a wonderful reaction from so many photographic peers, curators and editors, something that began slowly and led to a point where I have a wonderful network of friends that help out in many ways which is something I value so dearly. RE the project I get no financial help outside the occasional donation, no Arts grants etc. One company that has helped me has been the UK Office of Hahnemuehle papers that were just fantastic in supporting my last exhibition, without their help the show could never have taken place at all.

Gonzalo Bénard: Of course that there’s always people who think that you’re taking advantage of them, and I’m saying this by some comments I read on an article about your project on BBC news, maybe from people who never did anything useful nor are aware of your real work. Is there anything you want to share to our readers who don’t know you?

Jim A Mortram: It’s easy for people to make a snap decision when looking at a series or a single image, I can understand that and honestly many of the situations people I work on stories are in, I’ve experienced myself so I have a real and true empathy, a connection with them and that’s mutual. I’ve always made sure everyone I’ve ever worked with fully understands the project, consent is always the first element discussed and I’ve never had a complaint from anyone that’s been a part of a series in fact it’s just the contrary as my phone often rings with people wanting to do it, to be involved. What people maybe don’t understand is the depth of commitment between all the people in the series and myself, it’s long term and very real.

Gonzalo Bénard: How can someone take part on this project or how can someone help you/them on this Small Town Inertia?

Jim A Mortram: The most important thing I would always say is to view the images in context with the interviews and testimony upon the Small Town Inertia site or the Aletheia Photos site of which I’m a member. If anyone would like to help the project there is a donate link upon the Small Town Inertia site.

Roger Ballen interview

Fabiano Busdraghi — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:22:35 +0000

Twirling wires, 2001
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Roger Ballen is one of my favorite photographer ever. His complex, beautiful and disturbing images are intense and powerful visions rooted deep inside the subconscious mind. Mysterious visions that last long time inside your brain, as vaguely unexpressed questions.

It was a great honor when Roger Ballen accepted to be art of CO-mag, and answer some question about his practice and vision.

Cat catcher, 1998
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Fabiano Busdraghi: You studied geology and before becoming a full time photographer you worked many years searching for minerals in South Africa. Speaking about your double scientific and artistic experience, some times ago you wrote to me: “In order to create strong images one has to be a scientist and artist.”

Personally I’m extremely interested in this topic, because I’ve be a physician during some year before switching to photography. So many people I met in the scientific or art word, think as they are two completely distinct universes, while during centuries art, science, technique… where simply considered the same expression of the human knowledge.

Lunchtime
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

What is in your vision of the relationship between science and art? Why it’s important to be an artist and a scientist at the same time?

Roger Ballen: One might think of the artist/scientist analogy as the relationship between the conscious/subconscious mind. Whilst there are many overlaps, creativity has to be channeled through a part of the mind that is is rational and is able to make decisions based on experience. Nevertheless the source of creativity is based deep inside the subconscious mind.

Eulogy
© Roger Ballen
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Fabiano Busdraghi: It’s easy to see the analogy between searching deep underground and the subconscious exploration in your photographs. But I ask to my self if there is something else, something more practical and direct compared to this metaphor.

Do you think that the formal training typical of science influenced your photographic approach? What is the role of the scientific method in your images?

Fragments, 2005
© Roger Ballen
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Roger Ballen: My goal in many ways is to become a master of the medium of black and white photography. As each year passes I continue to learn more about the media and how to “express greater complexity in a state of purer simplicity”. I think my training in the field of geologist assisted me in appreciating the relationships between cause and effect which is fundamental to the scientific approach.

Fabiano Busdraghi: When they started, many of my photographer friends had a lot of artistic ambitions. After a while, -mainly because of economical constraint- they started some parallel commercial activity: weddings, advertising, etc. The problem is that little by little they become prisoner of the economical appeal of their commercial work. The resulting situation usually killed their creativity and all the their artistic ambitions.

Head inside shirt, 2001
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

You practiced photography as an hobby for many years and -as a consequence- yo wasn’t obliged to make a living out of it. Do you think that this kind of freedom was fundamental to find your way? Would you suggest to young photographer to have a parallel and completely distinct job to experience the same freedom? Or it would be better to concentrate uniquely on photography form the beginning?

Roger Ballen: I often explain to younger photographers that the field of art photography is one of the most difficult careers in the world. There are literally trillions of photographs in the world and billions of people taking photographs. In order to have any possible success in this business ones work has to stand out and have lasting impact over time.

Crouched, 2003
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

In life it is crucial to find the correct balance. Whilst “what might work for one may not work for the other”; I have stated that firstly one ought to photograph for oneself not the market, secondly that being an art photography requires the same discipline and dedication that one might apply to any other field and thirdly that it is crucial to have another profession to subsidize the costs of daily life.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Looking at your photographic production, animals are extremely recurrent: dogs, cats, ducks, birds, snakes… Some time ago I was reading an analysis of Pink Floyd songs where animals had a central part, especially concerning Syd Barret. In the book, the massive presence all kind of real or mythological fauna, insects, and animal sounds could even be interpreted as an early sign of Syd mental illness. Even if I’m not sure about this statement, I think the parallel between a band who often explored the dark side of our existence and your introspective work is evident.

Three hands, 2006
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

So, why so many of your photos are populated by animals? What is the importance of animals in your work?

Roger Ballen: For most of my life I have been fascinated by the similarities of animal behavior to human. A substantial amount of my imagery over the past decades has attempted to decipher visually the animality of the human being.

On another level, my images comment on the complex relationship between mankind and animals. It is quite obvious that this interaction is not one of mutual trust and benefit. Quite the contrary.

Scavenging, 2004
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Fabiano Busdraghi: You have organized and diffused your work in the form of photo books. It seems to me that books are central in your production, and are the natural physical materialization of your work. Before exhibiting your work is so many galleries and museum, you already published several books, and it’s your book Platteland who drove so much attention on your practice and was a fundamental turning point in your life.

Can you explain why you have this fascination for books? What are the implication of having a photo book as the main objective? When you produce a new body of work, do you already think to it as a future book? Or after some year shooting new work, you “discover” a book editing all the raw material you gradually accumulated?

Caged, 2011
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Roger Ballen: My career has revolved around the production of books namely Boyhood, Dorps, Platteland, Outland, Shadow Chamber, Boarding House, and Asylum. These projects have all taken approximately five years to complete.

All of the above book projects started with a word that eventually became the title to the future book. During the years that it took to complete these projects my goal was to define in a purely visual, subjective manner the meaning of the particular word. Each strong, successful photograph added another dimension to the project in progress.

A book, unlike an exhibition is permanent, it is something one can go back to over and over again. It establishes a level from which one can begin the “next climb”.

Loner, 2001
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Gonzalo Bénard: I studied 12 years at a Jesuit’s school being an atheist since I remember myself, however, the very first photograph I knew from you was the most engaging portrait of God I ever seen. I have shown it in almost every master class I gave, as example of composition, conceptual photography, etc. But knowing you and your work, you’ve been always creating, projecting and representing your inner world, maybe as process of oneself knowledge. This photograph can be seen as an icon to a man full of faith and yet can also be an icon of a pure atheist, showing God as a nonsense dogma. The guy seems sleeping relaxed feeling protected yet giving the back to us, humanity; the dog seems asking “what the hell is going on here?”; the God himself as a wired puppet, a doll with a funny smile, and the whole environment as opposite to the golden church.

Where are the creator here? Where are you in this photograph?

Squawk, 2005
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Roger Ballen: I have always stated that whilst some may find this image titled “Loner” disturbing; it is ultimately conveying a profound statement about the meaning and nature of the identity of God.

On a formal level the photograph is integrated by the fact that the eye of the dog is comparable to the doll, the dog and the man on the bed lie in the form of a cross, and the reverse spelling of the word God is Dog.

Untitled, 2009
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Gonzalo Bénard: You often say that your photographs are a way to define yourself, your “psychological and existential journey”, however you do not come up on them, your real face/body is not visible in your work. Do you project yourself in the photographed beings – humans/animals? Most of your work has some kind of ritualistic mood, not coming up in the photographs yourself, are you playing the shaman, using others to project yourself in these rituals? Or going further if I may: are each one of your works a mask you use (or could use) being the shaman?

Roger Ballen: Like my photographs my being consists of endless fragments many of which I am oblivious of. Each photograph I produce reveals Roger Ballen’s mind through a camera. People fail to realize that a camera is fundamentally a tool of the mind; no different than a paint brush in the hand of a painter or a pen of a poet.

Ape skull, 2002
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Gonzalo Bénard: Parallel yet not separated from your photographic blood you run the Roger Ballen Foundation, with which you add an important role in South Africa education for culture, with lectures, classes, workshops, dealing with people who might be a world future great photographer. Knowing by my own experience, teaching and doing workshops can be an amazing way to learn from the new ones. What do you give from you? What do you get from them? Being teaching an ex-change of minds in which everybody should learn from the others, what’s the most pleasant for you leading the Roger Ballen Foundation? Do you want to share a bit your experience on this?

Roger Ballen: The purpose of the Roger Ballen Foundation is to increase the aesthetic awareness of contemporary photography in South Africa. Unless the public becomes aware of the value of photography and begins to collect photographs it will be almost impossible for young artists to continue in this field without other forms of material support.

Deathbed, 2010
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

The Foundation has organized and supported master classes, symposiums, exhibitions, and lectures over the years all of which have been very well attended.

Gonzalo Bénard: as an art-photographer I know that a serious interview about our work can get one tired, specially when we feel we already answered most of the questions people do, and sometimes we ended up giving an interview thinking: “pity they didn’t ask about this or that as it’s important”… like the importance of having a left nipple to chat with the right one. Do you want to answer to yourself?

Gasping, 2010
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Roger Ballen: Answering to yourself is the most important activity of an artist.

For more information and photos, please visit Roger Ballen website.

Possessed, 2009
© Roger Ballen
Please visit Roger Ballen interview for the full size image.

Interview with Dave Farnham

Gonzalo Bénard — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 19:01:30 +0000

Back in 2001 when I was invited to create and curate the International Salon of Contemporary Artists in Lisbon, I invited Dave Farnham to participate with a few art-videos that were a great success. Since then I’ve been following his work, always surprised at what he comes up with and awaiting the next pieces with anticipation. Dave Farnham lives and works in London.

Gonzalo Bénard: I have been aware of your work since you were eating pink marshmallows and rolling yourself in bubbles, whilst tying yourself to street lamps, scaring old ladies in the street. What has changed since then? I am guessing that the old ladies have died and now you are MRI scanning them?! Was that your plan, all along?

Dave Farnham: Wow, we have known each other for a long time. I hope the old ladies didn’t die! Art school is very different from the ‘Art World’ – so, I guess I grew up! The studio at art school is a very different place to the lonely studio of the artist in the real world. I had a very close-knit group of artist friends at university who I utilised within my work; once I left university, that group couldn’t stay together. My work back then was very much performance based – I can’t paint, I can’t draw, I don’t do sculpture, but I’m good with video – so it seemed a good way to go.

One thing I would mention is that my art school work was very heavily based around the body – mainly mine – and my new MRI scan works seem to have gone full circle and I am back on to the body – just not mine, this time.

Gonzalo Bénard: You are a multi-media artist who plays with videos, computer animation, fire, MRI scans, x-rays and political nonsense, happily picking everybody’s nose. Where do you locate the photography in your work?

Dave Farnham: A very interestingly worded question – nose picking?! Photography, for me, is very much a way of capturing my work. I won’t say that I am a photographer – I am an artist who happens to use photography. I have never had any training in traditional photography – I just know what I need to do to the camera to make my images appear. Photography came through wanting to capture still compositions that I had seen within my video works.

Gonzalo Bénard: This is an interview for a blogzine about photography, so I won’t ask questions about your videos, unless you ask, giving me a photographic reason for doing so. Please do.

Dave Farnham: My video works are built up from a series of photographs, which happen to be moving. I can’t talk about my photographic without talking about the video aspect, as this is where the photography comes from.

Gonzalo Bénard: Fireworks use to be for spectacular, open-space amusement, to put everybody in a happy mood, staring at a sky full of colours, lights and annoying sounds! You not only frame them, but you also play with them within a political war scene with ‘made in China’, plastic soldiers getting shot. I want to question this.

Dave Farnham: I never wanted to make political artwork, just works that are visually arresting – but, I have to accept that using toy soldiers within my work will always cross a political line. I always wanted to capture a representation of war, not a political message. Maybe that’s why I am slowly moving away from the toy soldiers?

Gonzalo Bénard: Your work started some years ago with a somewhat humorous style, or more of a light mood, as if you were laughing whilst working. Over the years, your work became more “serious”, more worried, not only sociologically but psychologically. Are you more aware of the importance of art as a socio-political play/dialogue?

Dave Farnham: Is playing with fireworks, explosions and toy soldiers in my garden, at three in the morning, more ‘serious’ work? Or, am I just getting too old to film myself bouncing up and down on a pogo stick in my pants?!

Gonzalo Bénard: Suddenly, a snooker piece to break from the fire works. For someone who sees your work chronologically, for the first time, this video is a surprise. Can you give us a picture of it? Did you make it as part of a personal ritual?

Dave Farnham: This work was a very personal project; it took me two years to make, not just because of the technical process but also because of a grief process. I have only exhibited this piece a couple of times (most recently in Florence). The work is about the loss of my Grandfather. I have never made work about family, or personal loss, before – but this felt right. Due to the humorous and aesthetic appeal of the work (the snooker players playing snooker with no snooker balls!), the viewer won’t necessarily read personal loss into the work straight away – unless they read the title!

Gonzalo Bénard: Light and fire; always connected within your photographic work. I would love to hear from you on how you prepare the sets for a shooting.

Dave Farnham: Setting up for my shoots is always very tense. A couple of days beforehand, I buy loads of fruit and props: wicker baskets; books; candles; bottles, etc. Then, I spend a day or so looking at old Masters and still life paintings/drawings.

I tend to stress a lot beforehand, mainly about the weather (as I always shoot my works outside, due to the fusewire being hazardous!)

I have a great assistant with whom I have for years, and he puts me at ease; between the two of us we spend about six hours, once the sun has gone down, shooting different compositions and then re-shooting and re-shooting until I have run out of fusewire and all the fruit is burnt and dead. We finish really late into the night, I drive him home and then I come back but usually I can’t sleep as I am buzzing about the new images.

Gonzalo Bénard: Soldiers and chess are often related, and side-by-side, in your pyrotechnic pieces. Do you play chess as a war tactic, with soldiers, when you’re alone, to create some dynamic within yourself, with a board for each subject?! I mean, they are often related in your work, but I don’t remember seeing a soldier playing with the queen in a game of chess. Why have you not put these together?

Dave Farnham: I don’t think they need to be in the same image. They both represent a version of war and putting them together ‘over-eggs the pudding’.

I moved into using chess pieces as a way of trying to move away from the overt political questions I had to answer with the toy soldiers. But, at the end of the day, using either chess pieces or toy soldiers, the viewer is still confronted with an artist’s representation of war – an artist who has no experience of war, only the reportage of the media. By the way, I am rubbish at chess and never used to play with toy soldiers as a kid – it’s all coming out later in life!

Gonzalo Bénard: Photography; video; animation; scanning. Can you imagine your work without any of these, or could you survive well enough and be happy/fulfilled with just photography?

Dave Farnham: I have always used these mediums within my work so for them to be taken away – I wouldn’t have an arts practice. I wouldn’t know what to do!

Having worked within the media (Post–Production), I am always looking for new ways of pushing my work, technically – new techniques, new technology, faster and bigger computers, scanners, cameras, etc. – it’s all very exciting stuff. I think just doing photography would be very limiting to me; both disciplines constantly merge and come together. As an example – in my new MRI scan pieces, I am taking the video footage of a body and re-building it using a photographic process.

Gonzalo Bénard: Is the hangover from creating a masterpiece too hard? Do you need time between series, or once you have worked on several, does it mean the whole process gives you the time needed to take a breath?

Dave Farnham: One always needs time to step back and just sit and assess the work. I tend to work on one body of thought, at one particular time.

With regards to creating a masterpiece – I did feel some pressure after winning the 2004 prospects drawing prize (see next video).

I had just left art school, having completed my MA, and I won a big London-based art competition. I had galleries, curators and artists calling me and trying to meet up and work on shows together, etc. It was a very exciting time – since then I have always subconsciously compared my new work to the art piece that won. I guess that’s not very healthy!

Gonzalo Bénard: Can you do a “MRI scan” of your latest works?

Dave Farnham: My recent body of work entitled, ‘Drawings From Life’ are an investigation into traditional Life Drawing – thinking of new techniques and methods of capturing the body. In this case I have taken MRI scanned footage of the body – and have exposed the footage in a photographic process, using a DSLR and an iPad.

An MRI scan is a technique used in radiology to visualise internal structures of the body, by using magnetic fields. By doing this I am not just presenting a traditional life drawing of the external body but an image that captures the internal workings of the sitter, their brain, muscles and bones etc. I am hoping to physically expose more of the sitter than a traditional life drawing would.

I don’t know the person in these images, why they have had a full body scan or what is wrong with them.

I have a number of ideas for future path of these works and the potential to scan other ‘things’ is very exciting – watch this space.

For more informations and art works, please visit Dave Farnham website and vimeo channell.

Interview with Aline Smithson

Fabiano Busdraghi — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 10:20:55 +0000

Interview with Aline Smithson, fine art photographer and curator of Lenscratch blogzine.

Fabiano Busdraghi: After working as a fashion editor with many master photographers, you become a successful photographer and artist. Today you are also the editor of Lenscratch, one of the most important photography blogs in the world, as well as a portfolio reviewer and curator for several magazines and galleries. Finally, you perform several educational activities in form of workshops and lectures.

© Aline Smithson
Please visit Interview with Aline Smithson for the full size image.

A current romantic cliché is that an artist should concentrate all his energy on artistic creation only. Personally I think an eclectic array of occupations makes life interesting and enriching, but -for example in my case personal- it’s easy to do to many things and never finish any of them. As a consequence, sometimes I’m afraid that too many different activities can somehow dilute artistic production. At the same time an interesting life, makes interesting art works possible.

Do you think that all your activities support and improve your artistic creation? Or all the different aspects of your professional and artistic life are just different manifestations of your love for photography? Or maybe your various experiences are simply the results of your eclectic interests?

Aline Smithson: Honestly, I am not sure that my activities support or improve my work… in fact, I think they hinder me in the sense that I have less time to make work and focus on myself. Truly, there are days that I just want to throw in the towel when I see so many amazing projects being created in the photography world. It’s inspiring and depressing to see:

how many photographers are making work these days;
how good so much of it is;
what one can achieve with an iPhone.

But none of that stops me from making work, or influences the work I make. I have a strong personal vision, but that doesn’t mean I don’t drool over work I see other photographers making.

My enthusiasm for photography, and my desire to understand and give back to my community is what drives all the things that surround the production of my own work. When I started writing my blog, it was going to be a place for me to share new work and ideas, but after a few months, I became bored with the idea of me, me, me and looked at it as an opportunity to learn about contemporary image makers, right along with the readers. And as an educator, I thought my students would grow from a daily dose of photography too.

When I feel like I have too many balls in the air, I clear some space—take a week with no distractions and clean my office, make some new work, read some articles and reboot myself. I wish we could have at least one day a week with no e-mail… it’s the e-mail that is beginning to kill me.

Fabiano Busdraghi: You have been quite successful in every field you explored. What do you think is the key of your success?

Aline Smithson: Hard work, not taking myself too seriously, being curious, kind, and professional. Saying thank you to every hand that has pulled me along. Celebrating those around me. Staying true to my own vision of the world. And did I say, hard work?

Fabiano Busdraghi: Personally, I think it’s very difficult to promote my photographic work. I enjoy every step in the process of creation, but promotion is something almost painful. Yet I understand is necessary. It’s a shame to close my photos inside a box or a hard drive, so I regularly force my self to make some promotion. When it happens, it seems to me that it takes all my energies and time, leaving no space for new creations. Recently, attending a lecture on young photography at Festival Circulations, I asked to all the present photographers, how they where able to find an equilibrium between creation and promotion. Everyone’s answer was that it is quite difficult, and extremely time consuming.

Do you agree with this statement? In your personal case, how do you balance diffusion and creation? In your opinion, how one young photographer should deal with promotional activities?

Aline Smithson: Promotion is like exercise… you don’t enjoy it, but you need to do it! I tell my students that they had better be making work that they will be happy to promote for the next 10 years. After you finish a body of work, you will be struggling to get it under the eyes of the photography world for years. After an intensive year in 2011 of exhibitions and travel, I have backed off submissions this year and now am only submitting to things where the juror or the venue is of interest. I am not jumping on all the varied bandwagons. One has to think of this journey as a long road, and we don’t need rush it or show up at every party. I slogged away for years, submitting, knocking on doors, attending portfolio reviews—none of what I have achieved has come without effort. But life gets in the way, and we can’t always have the same focus or energy to create and promote work, and once you make your peace with that, it feels more comfortable. I am in for the long haul, and if one year I’m in lots of shows, it’s fine with me to slow down the following year. We truly need time to NOT promote ourselves. I step in and out of the promotion place and the creative place all the time… you sort of get used to the rhythm of it.

But it IS a drag to have to constantly promote your work. You feel as if you are waving a flag saying, “Look at me, Look at my work”, and I hate that. But, the key is to surround yourself with a supportive community and when they wave their flags, you celebrate them in kind. As photographers, we are SO lucky to have the amount of opportunities available to get our work out into the world. There are amazing organizations like Center and Photolucida that totally support emerging photographers, and many many galleries and photo centers offering exhibition opportunities. Plus the on-line opportunities are endless. I’d suggest setting small goals… submit to something once a week… a small thing on-line, or one major thing a month. But spend the most time on making quality work.

Fabiano Busdraghi: How late-2000s financial crisis affected your practice? What is your business strategy during these difficult years? Do you have any suggestion for emerging fine arts photographers?

Aline Smithson: To be honest, there are very few fine art photographers that can actually make a living off of their work. Most are educators or work in some other field or are retired. I am teaching more and more, I have a stock agency, I have an agent that places my work into TV shows and movies, and I try to have lots of little venues to make money so it adds up to something. I am selling the same amount of work—actually selling well in Europe, but the galleries are drying up, and that is really, really sad. It’s time that we create a new template to selling work. It seems that the low and high end continues to sell, but the middle range is very slow. And technology has made everyone a photographer, so people are basically giving it all away.

Fabiano Busdraghi: I have been blogging with Camera Obscura during the last five years, and I still ask myself why I’m doing it. I know the answer, it’s not only to spread photographic culture, but above all my way to keep thinking and exercise my mind. A kind of brain gym. Anyway, the question is still important for me, and I like to ask the same thing to all the bloggers out there.

Can you describe why you decided starting your blogzine Lenscratch and why you still curate it today? Why blogging is an important activity for you?

Aline Smithson: I too often ask myself why I am carving out so much of my time to promote other people. On those nights, when I’ve had a cocktail or two and I’m just fading into sleep, I’ll remember that I didn’t write tomorrow’s post and force myself to do it. I have set a very high standard for myself by posting everyday—I may change that up in the future, but writing every day is truly, as you say, a brain gym. By writing daily, it becomes easier and easier. I remember once reading that soap opera stars had incredible memories as they had to recite pages of dialogue each day, and this feels the same.

I have also met or connected with hundreds of photographers through Lenscratch and when I can help them further along their road to success, it makes me very happy. I don’t want my photo journey to be a solo expedition, I want a band of merry makers along with me, and the blog has provided that. I have heard from photographers who have been working in isolation, what a remarkable thing it is to have someone take the time to really look at their work and who they are. That makes it all worthwhile.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Everyone will agree if I say that the Internet is a formidable tool to spread a photographic work to a really wide audience. But at the same time I have the feeling that is quite difficult to use it to convert the simple diffusion of the artist work in a concrete business. I mean, an art gallery exposition usually is visited by a maximum of a few hundreds visitors only, but often some of them will buy some prints. An on-line portfolio may be visited thousands of time every month, but how many visitors are interested in actually buying the artworks? Printed magazines generate money but most of the blogs are no profit. It seems to me that, even if Internet is perfect to spread a photographer name, this not necessary imply that it will be easier for him to sell his work and finally make a living from his art.

What is your opinion about this topic? Do you think is really useful for photographers to spend a lot of time and energy to spread their work on the Internet or is still better to make promotional work in the real word?

Aline Smithson: Well, ultimately, the work has to be stellar, and then it really doesn’t matter how the word gets out. In the commercial world, the pendulum is swinging back to physical promotional tools—postcards, etc, as art directors are tired of the flood of promotional newsletters and mailings. The Internet will get your work all over the world in a heartbeat—photographers I have featured have been contacted the next day by publications all over the world, showing interest in their work. That never could have happened by snail mail. We don’t even have a clue as to the amount of Internet opportunities these days—new magazines, blogs, and sales sites are starting up daily. We can spend our whole lives going down the rabbit holes of things to submit to or explore.

If you want to get your work into the world, the gallery show should not be the goal. Getting your work in a well-read magazine or blog will bring the eyes of the world to the work. And then think about galleries…

I am making sales because of that exposure. My galleries can also benefit from the exposure and my own self-promotion. My friend, Cole Thompson, sells directly from his site, and when I asked him who his collectors were, he said that most were photographers themselves. I think when Jen Beckman’s 20×200 started, every photographer I know was collecting work from that site. So all that exposure, geared to the photographic audience, pays off. We are supporting each other.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Another surprising aspect of Internet is the amount of available information and how this impacts our approach to information. I receive every day tens of post in my feed reader, and it’s difficult to find enough time and concentration to carefully read each of them. A well-known Internet behavior is that visitors tend to scan a page instead reading it. Sure, there is a lot of noise out there, and we have to find filtering strategies, but I notice that even the valuable information is still too abundant to be assimilated. In my opinion this problem determine a kind of cultural consumerism, and a tendency to superficially read every text, no matter the quality of the information inside it.

Do you agree with this description of Internet fruition? Is still valuable to write long and in depth analysis or it would be better just to tweet? What can be done to inverse this tendency?

Aline Smithson: I am one of those scanners. I hardly have time to read other blogs, and I’ve always been a person who is first drawn to the pictures before reading the article itself. I also think everyone has Attention Deficit Disorder. My children talk and text in a new language and the whole world is just looking for the next soundbite. Writing the blog is one of the few times during the day that I completely focus myself. Otherwise I’m doing a million things at once and not totally focused on one element. I sadly don’t have time to digest long, indepth articles, though I do read tweets… and I am fully aware that I am digesting the fast food of photography, and it doesn’t always make me feel good.

I’m not sure how to change it… Actually, I think it’s only going to get worse. I worry about the effects of all of this on our children. As someone who grew up without a computer, it feels like a tidal wave of technological pressure is always nipping at my heels. I know my children don’t feel that at all, and look at every new invention and app as something to relish.

Fabiano Busdraghi: I’m particularly interested in real life stories, anecdotes and behind the scenes. Can you chose some photos from your portfolio that are a bit special for you and tell their stories?

Harmony
© Aline Smithson
Please visit Interview with Aline Smithson for the full size image.

Aline Smithson: The image, Harmony, was created when I was in the throws of learning photography. One of my teachers told me that I needed to stake out what I was going to shoot and wait for the light. This is not always easy with small children underfoot. So, I was on a family vacation and was in the driver’s seat on the way down the California coast. It was raining and I passed a sign that said “Harmony” and knew it was make a great shot. I did a wild U-turn on Highway 101 and pulled over as my husband and children were all screaming at me. I jumped out with my toy camera and took one shot. I never followed that teacher’s advice again.

Lexie with a Peacock
© Aline Smithson
Please visit Interview with Aline Smithson for the full size image.

Lexie with a Peacock is an image that I thought about for a long time. I have always been enchanted by Lewis Carroll’s images of children, and I love the idea of color, texture, and exotic props all adding to the beauty of a composition. It also doesn’t hurt that I happen to own a taxidermied peacock. Lexie lives down the street and looks a lot like my daughter at that age; she also has that old soul quality that brings more substance to the portrait. What the viewer doesn’t see is that her mother, little sister, and a 13 year-old boy cousin from the Midwest, are sitting behind me thinking, “What is this woman doing!” In today’s photographic conversation, I think we have turned away from beautiful things and the desire to make beautiful work. I just felt like it was time to make some.

The Middle Fingers
© Aline Smithson
Please visit Interview with Aline Smithson for the full size image.

I can’t help it, but I like to be irreverent some of the time. This still life, The Middle Fingers, just made me laugh.

As much as I like to make work that has poignancy and meaning, I love to create something out of nothing, and images that are quirky. This image, Hugos in Hollywood, was created when I was visiting a friend staying in a swanky hotel before she attended the Golden Globes. I “just happened” to have 3 of my Hugo dolls with me and they were able to enjoy the remnants of her breakfast in bed.

Hugos in Hollywood
© Aline Smithson
Please visit Interview with Aline Smithson for the full size image.

And finally, I just loved this portrait of Elizabeth Taylor so much—the color and pose—that I wanted to figure out a way to celebrate it. It started me creating a little series of portraits in books I love, called Portraits of Portraits. And this one is titled, Roses and Liz.

For more informations, please visit Aline Smithson website or subscribe to Lenscratch, a blogzine dedicated to contemporary photography.

Roses and Liz
© Aline Smithson
Please visit Interview with Aline Smithson for the full size image.

Edelweiss, by Sharon Boothroyd

Sharon Boothroyd — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 05:01:56 +0000

Text and photos by Sharon Boothroyd.

When Fabiano contacted me to ask me to contribute I didn’t know where to start. I decided I wanted to write about my current project Edelweiss because this is currently what my life is about; my children and my art. I also run a photo-blog called photoparley where I interview artists that inspire me. So, in bringing these two things together I thought I would use this opportunity to be a bit narcissistic and a bit schizophrenic and interview myself for the purposes of this article.

Edelweiss

Edelweiss is an ongoing series conceived as a visual lullaby using my daughter Anais.

I began using the child as a means of portraying feminine grace, pain and suffering with all the trouble it brings. I am also interested in everyday moments where pain and routine events give way to some deeper point of connection; an enlightenment of sorts.

I based the project loosely on the lullaby because of the arresting clash between innocence and a sinister component often occurring and leading to a deeper reading. Rather than being an illustration of the song, Edelweiss, in it’s repetition, emotion and simplicity, seeks to disarm the viewer by using childhood troubles as a correlation to those of the adult world.

Sharon Boothroyd: You say you chose a visual lullaby as a means of creating that clash between innocence and something more sinister. Could you elaborate on this concept?

Sharon Boothroyd: I really didn’t want to make a series of cute photos of my daughters that I thought were lovely but everyone else thought were twee. This was my biggest fear in using my family as subject matter. It is hard to make pictures of children in an intellectual and considered manner. So I needed a concept to drive the material. In wanting to stay away from the cutesy I needed a harsh contrast to measure against. I take so many pictures over the course of a week and a good measure for the project rather than the family album is to see if they have that edginess that comes from conflict. Any good story has a healthy dose of good and evil.

Sharon Boothroyd: What do you hope to achieve in this work and what are your plans for it?

Sharon Boothroyd: I hope I can create a discussion in the photography world that engages with the idea of childhood and how adults view and interpret it. In one sense we feel cut off from it and it becomes inaccessible, even though we have all been there. This forgetfulness interests me. I think we have a lot to learn about ourselves by looking at children and I want to use myself as a starting point.

Practically I want to make a book and extensive exhibition. I imagine it will take years to finish it. I would also like to make it a research project for further academic study.

Sharon Boothroyd: In our current society images of children can be controversial and taboo, especially naked ones. Do you ever worry about creating a controversy using your daughter? How do you plan to navigate these issues?

Sharon Boothroyd: As we have seen with the Immediate Family work of Sally Mann in the 90’s and Tierney Gearon, I am a Camera at Saatchi in 2001, this will always be the case. People will take it the wrong way, manipulate it and make it about something else, often for the sake of a story. It’s a shame because it misses the point of the work. It misses the beauty that is present and the issues that could be spoken of, more edifying and interesting ones. I am aware of it and I want to be prepared to defend the work as well as being open to engage realistically with the issues that it brings up. At the same time I want to protect my children and don’t want to use them as a way to make a point for art’s sake. So it’s a fine balance I want to tread carefully. My plan is to keep thinking about it, be willing to engage and continue working in unison with my family.

Sharon Boothroyd: What do you think the main problem is about seeing children in photos and how has it come about?

Sharon Boothroyd: I think the media have created a lot of fear and concern for how images are used. Scary stories such as paedophile rings and photographs of children being used ‘inappropriately’ raise alarm bells for parents everywhere. I think the language is often unspecific so our imaginations are left wondering what happens with these images and so we just want to steer clear without really knowing why. Even I, when I was in the playground with my daughters and a man from TV came up asking if he could video them playing, said we are leaving now and sorry, no he couldn’t.

I also think the lack of control creates an unease for how these images are going to be used and with the internet allowing images to end up anywhere parents have a right to be wary. The general public sense these issues too and for fear of doing anything wrong or distasteful stay away from the contentious topic by keeping quiet.

Photographic law is very confusing and different from one country to the next. People have different values of privacy vs freedom of speech and I think this is where the conflict lies.

Sharon Boothroyd: What do you think is so troubling about seeing childhood emotion?

Sharon Boothroyd: Vulnerability is unsettling. I think we are always affected when faced with it. I also think true beauty comes from vulnerability. Facades and pretences don’t interest me and getting to the heart of someone or something means seeing past the pretence and getting to their essence.

Achieving real vulnerability and intimacy as adults is one of the hardest things to do because we quickly learn how to protect ourselves. Children are still trusting, open and haven’t fully learnt about concealing themselves. As they grow it is healthy that they will learn to protect themselves and build barriers but there is a phase in their life when their emotions are forming and they don’t know how to conceal them. They show them in all their heightened force and it is unsettling because we don’t know how to deal with it because we have buried it somewhere and left it behind as we deal with and confront life.

Sharon Boothroyd: Has this project helped you to have a deeper connection with your everyday world?

Sharon Boothroyd: Yes. Instead of waiting for good things to happen to me I search for them in the smallest moments. Like when Anais curls up on a step and asks me to take her picture or when she closes her eyes in the bath and becomes like a heavenly creature. I am constantly responding to the things around me as well as searching for ways to create them. It becomes more about being in the moment than waiting for something great to happen. It’s about watchfulness and being present.

Sharon Boothroyd: How has your life changed since having children?

Sharon Boothroyd: I am very tired. I am pushed for time. I hold tightly to my ‘me time’ and I become obsessed with progress.

At the same time and contradictorily, I am happier, I am more ‘successful’ and more at peace with my life’s purpose. I know that my definition of success isn’t what society tells me it should be but it is finding enjoyment in what I do and living an interesting life in close relationship with the people I love. In fact this experience of seeing little people grow makes me a fuller person and makes my work more interesting. It has become more of a lifestyle than a career.

Sharon Boothroyd: How do you find the time to do your art and be a full time mum?

You make time for the things you love. I also have a great husband who shares childcare so I can work on my projects. We both believe we can help each other prioritise our passions to make life great and worthwhile. There is an interesting discussion on this topic on Alec Soth’s blog: On being an artist and a mother conversation.

Oitarizme and Love Issue, interview with Constantin Nimigean

Fabiano Busdraghi — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:12:28 +0000

Interview with Romanian blogger Constantin Nimigean, about his two online platforms dedicated to contemporary photography: Oitarizme blog and Love Issue magazine.

Fabiano Busdraghi: First of all please, introduce Oitarizme, your photographic blog:

Constantin Nimigean: Oitzarisme website was born on January 15th 2007, after I purchased a digital camera and thought it would be nice to have a webpage for publishing my snapshots. Beside my photos, I was featuring a little story from my neighborhood, a social advertising campaign and few images of an artist found on internet. I was on my personal blog with four articles per week, with text and visual content, mine and other’s. After a while, I began to publish more visual content and less text, more visual art and less advertising, and for the last two years or so more photographic content and less painting or sculpture.

Oitzarisme is an invented word and it comes from Oiţă = sheep (my nickname) with the “risme” termination and it might mean “sheep things”.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Can you describe why you decided starting a photographic blog and why you still write today?

Constantin Nimigean: I rarely write texts among the projects that I feature. I usually quote artist’s statements. I can say about Oitzarisme that is a host for featuring artists, a virtual gallery for promoting their work with their words about it. I’m not a good writer, yet.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Actually my question was not about the act of writing itself, I used the verb “write” but maybe “curate” would be more accurate. So, I think I can rewrite my question like this: why do you curate your blog?

Constantin Nimigean: I do it to educate and inspire young photographers to create photographic projects and also to share what I find interesting to be shared from the big Internet. A friend of mine said that Love Issue can bring peace to people, can open minds and thoughts about people’s life, about little things in their routine that should be more exploited.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Recently you also started Love Issue, an on-line photographic magazine.

Constantin Nimigean: Love Issue was born on my 4th anniversary of Oitzarisme, when I decided to have a compact product of my blog, a “resume” of what I find interesting on the internet and worth sharing in a virtual graphic context. I launch it every two months and I feature artists with their love related projects and some personal articles also related to the selected theme.

The name of Love Issue came after a brainstorming with my girlfriend when I was thinking to feature love and couples in my first issue of “my-no-name-yet” magazine”.

– The first issue of our magazine should be about love.

– Yes, she said, Love Issue.

And that was it! It’s a photomagazine about love and issues.

Fabiano Busdraghi: A provocative question: the Internet is full of photo magazines, why add one more? You already write a blog, why you have the exigency to create another platform instead of publishing more articles directly on your blog?

Constantin Nimigean: They will never be enough platforms for promoting photographic projects, especially in Romania, where young photographers should be stimulated to create and not to know more about the technical details of their camera then the subjects that are photographed. So this is the first reason. The second one is that I meet great people with great stories that should be tell somehow and as I have these virtual friends who follow my blog, they trust in me and know that the magazine will show them some great stuff, too. Another reason is that I’ve always dream to have a magazine of my own.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Sometime I have the feeling that the real word of expositions, galleries, museums, fairs, etc and the on-line world are completely separated. It seems to me that the real word is more effective in building long term recognition for an artist and especially in converting the diffusion of his work in a real business. Sometime I think that even if Internet allow to spread a photographer name, this not necessary imply that it will be easier for him to sell his work and finally make money from his art.

What do you think about all of this? Do you think is really useful for photographers to have their work shown online on blogs?

Constantin Nimigean: It’s very important for photographers to be featured online, even if they are not going to gain clients for their prints and money from this. They will gain awareness and there is a boom of art-related blogs, tumblrs, online galleries that are really looking for young photographers on the internet. The real world will be used soon as a confirmation that we still breath and exist, everything will pass on virtual, unfortunately.

Fabiano Busdraghi: In my personal case I don’t earn any money thanks to my blog/magazine. I do it because I love photography, and this is my way to learn, to be exposed to all kind of contemporary photography, to keep my brain on and running. It’s much more personal development than business.

So, I ask almost the same question as the previous one, but from a different point of view. Do you think that it is interesting from blogger to write about photography or they are wasting their time and money?

Constantin Nimigean: I don’t earn any money either. Just like you, I’m doing it as a hobby but I’m thinking more and more seriously to transform this hobby in a job. As I said, I rarely write about photography, I’m just a “web-curator” and I want to push out this web thing and make a curatorial career. Romania is in need of photo-editors and agents and there are so many photographers with good series that deserve more publicity.

Fabiano Busdraghi: From what you publish on your blog, do you think that contemporary fine art photography is evolving and how?

Constantin Nimigean: I don’t really understand the expression “fine art”, my purpose is to look for contemporary photography only. I’m glad that the photographers are aware about the subjects that are overused in series. Social projects, war photography, diseases, desert camels, India… these are subjects that are no longer photographed these days. I’m talking about photography as a project for an exhibition and not for social causes or travel projects. Today we have strange people (Asger Carlsen), strange places (Rainbow gathering), and outrageous habits (Adam Krause). We want to be WOW-ed! The internet has over informed us with lots of normal stuff and we want emotions.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Is there something you think is missing or under represented in today art photography? What is your wish list for the future?

Constantin Nimigean:

It’s nothing missing in the world art photography, everybody is looking for new and stunning subjects and stories, I’m amazed of how many good quality photo-magazines there are in the world, of how fashion photography is getting more and more artistic and how many companies are organizing workshops, portfolio reviews and photo-fairs. In Romania, these things are moving slow and this is one of my wish list item, to raise the knowledge of contemporary photography among our photographers. Also, I look forward for the day when Love Issue will be an off-line magazine.

For more informations please visit Oitarizme blog and Love Issue magazine.

Interview with Yuan Yanwu

Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:02:30 +0000

13 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Following interview by Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞) and Yu-hui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Yuan Yanwu: Since I became interested in covering photography report in my early stage of learning journalism, till now I work on arts, to me ‘photography’ has evolved from its original sense; it is becoming an inconclusive concept. I am not sure whether I should still call myself a ‘photographer’, because during my work in recent two years, a ‘camera’ is no longer the precondition for creation. What is relevant to ‘photography’ is the photographs used as the original source (they are not necessarily taken by myself). For example, some times ago I used a digital camera to copy the old photos in my home, now I scan them directly to the computer and do the post production on the screen. When I held my first personal exhibition ‘Youth Self Portraits (part 1)’ in Paris, the post production is all based on photos, i.e. I combine the photographs and post production together; but in current projects, I almost use the ‘Brush’ tool only in Photoshop – I usually create multi layers over the original photo layer, and reproduce it in a way of painting (in a nutshell it is similar to the method of “tracing in black ink over characters printed in red” as a way of learning calligraphy). When the work is finished, I will delete the original photograph layer; that is to say, the final image is like being hand painted with brush completely, and there is no trace of photograph at all. I haven’t got an idea of how to define the work I am doing now. Although the process of ‘photography’ has been omitted from my actual practice, the final work is a creative duplication of the original photograph, and it has an unbreakable relationship with ‘photography’.

16 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Yuan Yanwu: I was born in Yansi Town, Huizhou County, Anhui Province in February 1976, which is the current Huangshan city. There is a village named Xixinan 10 km away from Yansi; that is where my childhood memories are stored, till now my grandma still lives in this village. After I was eight I moved to Shanghai to live with my mother’s parents. After I graduated from high school in Shanghai, I studied Journalism and Communications in Nanjing Univeristy from 1994 to 1998, and worked in the photography department of Xinmin Evening News back to Shanghai after graduation. Five years later, which is in 2003, I quitted my job and came to study in France. At first I studied in Institut Français de Presse in Pantheon-Assas Paris II University, then I did Bachelor and Master studies in the Department of Photography in the University of Paris VIII. Now I live and work in Paris. The contrast between my childhood memories in the village and the city life after I was eight; the history of my family; my life experience between the western and eastern culture – all these have immense influence on my work today.

2 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Yuan Yanwu: When I was studying journalism in Nanjing University, we had a course on news photography; at that time internet was not as popular as today, and I was very much attracted by several books translated from the west, which were about the leading figures in photography. All of a sudden I felt that news photography was more real and persuasive than words. Therefore I decided to work as an editor in the photography department of a press after I graduated. In the meantime I also did some interviews on photography; that was my first acquaintance with photography. Gradually I found that news photography was not enough to satisfy my desire of self-expression; at that time I also wanted to study abroad to see the world outside China, thus I chose France, the place of origin of photography. When I studied in the University of Paris VIII where both theory and practice were emphasized, I got to know the history of western photography, photography theories, aesthetic etc. Of course there were also practice on photography techniques and creative work. They all changed my understanding of photography. Possibly like many other students of photography, my works at that time were deeply influenced by the documentary style of School of Dusselfolf (for instance, I like the portrait works of Thomas Struth very much). The very strict techniques of this school (front view, keeping certain distance with the subject, neutral, no emotion at all, etc.) is completed opposite to the attitude of photography reporting in my previous knowledge.

Food (Jing)
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Then I gradually found that this so-called neutrality and objectivity by this school is just a method of expression. To quote the opinion in the book ‘Style Documentary’, ‘documentary’ here is a technique only, a style; it doesn’t represent the true record of the reality, and photographer can even obtain the style he/she wants through dark room and post production. Gradually, my photography practice has been transferred from the previous focus on onsite photography, to the emphasis on post-production. My photography work for Bachelor graduation is called ‘Food’, which is composed of over ten diptychs. On the right are portraits of every single person, and on the left is a dish made of the people photographed. From this work we can find the trace of documentary photography in terms of expression techniques. Meanwhile, I had started to do reproduction by employing post-production techniques, for example, simplifying the background of the portrait, adjusting the colour to make it more balanced, outstanding, and also clearer. The food also renders a very clean and light style after many ‘reproduction’ processes. This work aims to present the relations between food and the existence of human beings, therefore I put them together, and present people and food with the same size and weighting. In my works after that, post production takes up an ever bigger portion.

Elsewhere (Yan)
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

In ‘Elswhere’, I changed the indoor space of the subject according to my imagination, and did a lot of adjustments to the character. In ‘Double bind’, based on the real figures I created their virtual twin brothers and sisters. All these can be seen as my course of practice in using post-production techniques. In ‘Youth Self Portraits (part 1)’, seven portraits in my childhood were from the old photos in my home; originally they were not portraits but family photos. I can say that since this series, I have begun to search for new direction of creation: memory, time, reality, imagination, truth, fiction, closeness, distance…. Probably to me, ‘photography’ means ‘from the reality’ but ‘exceeds the reality’. ‘Photography’ is not that far from imagination and fiction.

Double bind
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

What is quite interesting is that after I studied photography, I began to seek inspiration from modern painting. The theme of my dissertation for master studies is photographic painting – ‘photo painting: from figuration to transfiguration’, the subject of research was not photographers but painters, to be exact those painters who use photographs as ‘models’. The painters of this school can be traced back to the Pop Art in the 50s and 60s in America, with Photorealism as representative (the realism painting of the early Chinese painters who studied in the States, for example Chen Yifei and Chen Danqing, have certain relationship with this school). Then we have Gerard Richter from Europe, and many modern painters who draw based on photos, who draw paintings according to the images downloaded from internet, who paint magazines and screens, etc… indeed there are countless painters. It is fair to say that in recent ten years, figurative paintings have found resource and inspiration from photographs and multi-media techniques, and gained new life. When I came to France in 2003, I visited the exhibition held in Strasbourg Contemporary Art Museum which retrospects the history of photorealism in USA. At that time I was not quite familiar with art genres because I didn’t specialize in art studies, but this exhibition gave me very deep impression, and I didn’t expect that my own work would be impacted by that. Another impressive exhibition was the personal exhibition by David Hokney in the National Portrait Gallery in London. I very much like the colour and the airiness of his works, and also his themes – portraits of his family and friends, the ordinary life scenes… there is a long list of artists. When I travel in Europe and other places, visiting local galleries, art museums is one of my routine assignments.

When I was in China, I focused on journalism, and my job was also in the journalism arena; it was after I came to France that I actually started to work on art. This experience is quite interesting for me to take a look back at the Chinese art as well.

14 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: I have the feeling that more and more young people have heterogeneous formations they might have quite diverged educational backgrounds and experiences and -as a consequence- their professional career starts later, which has a deep impact on their lives. For example in your case you evolved from photojournalism to art, and you also moved to a foreign country. It seems to me this is symptomatic of a trend in all capitalist countries, trend that can have important social implications.What is your point of view about this question?

Yuan Yanwu: My personal feeling is that whether a professional starts his or her career at an early stage is closely linked with their own personality and life experiences. For some people, they got mature thoughts about their career path very earlier on, and they didn’t experience many setbacks, so they start their career very early. But for some people, they become to get clear of what they want to do at a relatively later time. I think the most important thing is that as soon as you set your target, you should be firm and keep moving towards that goal. It’s really nice if you can do just one single thing very well. The trend you have described is very common in the capitalist countries, and I think this is also quite common in modern socialist countries, for example, China. The young people nowadays have a lot of choices; what subject they learn in the university does not have to be a speciality he or she works on for their whole lifetime.

5 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Yuan Yanwu: I work very slowly, on one hand I am a slow-paced person, on the other I am perfectionist in terms of work. If there is no deadline I might never be able to finish ever. I am not sure how my works should be categorized. From the visual perspective, they are more aligned to the photorealism in painting (the difference is that I use computer to paint). Also there are many people think they belong to Pop Art. In terms of theme, my works bear relatively strong autobiographical sense. I spend most of my time in front of the computer screen; this is a much enclosed work style, a bit like writers. My source comes from the existing photos; when I choose from them, usually it is those amateur, imperfect photos that give me inspirations and surprise. After they are re-produced, those imperfections become the highlights. This is very common in my current series.

I think it is a bit early to define my works, because it has been just over two years to devote myself in art works. What I present now is only the above water part of the iceberg. I think to define the works of an artist, you can’t just view the beginning; rather, you should look at the entire course, including his or her life. Plus, definition is usually done by others.

15 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Yuan Yanwu: As I have mentioned earlier, questions like the type of camera, techniques and skills etc. are not quite important in my current work; what’s more important is post-production. Thus, what matters more is the computer screen, Palette Graphics and final output. Simply speaking, the main technique I use is to draw on the screen with brush tool, and the colour of each stroke comes from the colour sample corresponding to the original photograph. Then I choose the parameter of brush, it’s just like painting, only with photographs as references for duplication. I use the imac workstation which specializes in graphic processing with a super large screen (I can only use the computer but I don’t know much about it, and I can’t remember the model and size either), and WACOM graphic tablet and pen.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Yuan Yanwu: Of course techniques and skills take up a certain proportion, for example, without the super-size and high pixel screen, without the graphic pen, I cannot do any work at all, and probably I wouldn’t be able to present the style as you see now. If I hadn’t been using the brush tool to process photographs for a long time, I wouldn’t be able to paint with it like this. Although it is a virtual tool, it does have differences in terms of speed, weight and style. In the beginning I couldn’t even draw a straight line, let alone draw a photograph with it. However, if the work itself is vague and the message it delivers (i.e. the content) is absent, it doesn’t mean anything to copy a photograph only.

9 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What do you like and dislike in the contemporary Chinese photography?

Yuan Yanwu: I like the boldness and dynamic of the contemporary photography in China1, also the richness of imagination, experiment in techniques and huge potential. But what I don’t like is sometimes it is quite utilitarian and money-driven.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Yuan Yanwu: As I have mentioned previously, my works are autobiographical in nature, and I hope they can be accepted by the international community.

I think artists are free from restrictions of nationality. No matter what is expressed in his or her works, he or she is representing something common of the entire human being.

Mother
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Yuan Yanwu: Firstly it depends on what type of photography career we are talking about. If it has an intimate relationship with the objective world, the role of geographic location can’t be neglected. But if it is pure artistic creation, I think in modern world today, the photographers/artists can live in any places on the earth, as long as they can keep in touch with the outside world in time (via internet, mobile phone, etc.); also they can walk around when necessary. I think this might also be the way of life for most artists today.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think it’s important to have a blog or a website or a blog? Is it is essential to have it translated into various languages? How the Internet contributes to the spread contemporary photography?

Yuan Yanwu: I don’t have a blog; I only have a personal website. I think no matter what kind of media we are using, the accessibility of your work on internet is rather important. English is the Global Language, so I think English is enough if it is not targeted at specific audience. In my opinion, internet plays a key role in facilitating the communication between the photography world in China and that of the west. In particular, via internet we can access a lot of information in China: exhibition information, critiques, personal websites of western photographers, blogs, etc., and vice versa: it is the same case with western photography world.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How would you describe the artistic and photographic scene in China? Is it that there are often exhibitions, festivals, events, etc.? What about commercial photography?

Yuan Yanwu: During these years when I am abroad, the information I have received about art world and photography community of contemporary China (mainly art world) is mostly from Europe, which means, an inarguable fact is that Chinese artists are receiving more and more attention in the international community. There has been a rapid development of the domestic art circle (including painter village, artist camps, etc.) and art market (galleries, art centres, etc.). In Beijing there are Song Zhuang, 798, Caochangdi etc.; in Shanghai there are art studio in Taixing Road, Moganshan Creativity campus, the art street of Duolun Road, art galleries residing in the Bund area, and emerging exhibition centres and art centres etc.

Regarding the relationship between art world and business community, these two circles have complicated and intertwined connection, no matter where you are and what time you are in. Art cannot be developed without the commercial world, and nowadays art now increasingly becomes part of the business community.

I also want to add one point, which actually has nothing to do with the art and photography world – the commercial photo studio in China (artistic portrait, wedding photography) is a unique phenomenon that doesn’t actually exist in the west; it should be quite interesting if we research on that.

Elsewhere Yan
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Yuan Yanwu: On my bookshelf there are ‘The Art History of China in 20th Century’ published by Peking University Press, ‘Black White Grey, A, Conscious Cultural Stance’ published by Hunan Fine Arts Press.

Last year when I went back to China, I found several quite good magazines, which are very helpful for understanding China’s contemporary art. For example, Art China, LEAP – The Bilingual art magazine of contemporary art, Art Map, Art Today, Hi Art, etc.
There should be a lot of blogs, but I have not been familiar enough to make any recommendations.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Yuan Yanwu: Lang Jingshan. The reason is because his works will withstand the test of time.

Please visit Yuan Yanwu website for more information and photographic painting.

Here I need to clarify that when talking about the contemporary photography in China, I mostly refer to the photography that belongs to art category.

Interview with Yan Ming

Yan Ming (严明) — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:05:01 +0000

Interview with Yan Ming (严明) and Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Yan Ming: Photography is the way that I experience my life.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Yan Ming: I was born in Bengbu, Anhui Province, and I studied Chinese in university. Now I live in Guangzhou, China.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Yan Ming: I had worked in music industry for ten years after I graduated. I worked in Southern Metropolis Daily from 2001 to 2007, and The Southern Daily from 2007 to 2010. Now I am a freelance photographer.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Yan Ming: My work is an experience; where I am unrestrained as I observe and watch. I am unrestrained, and I do not imprison myself with restrictions. As long as I can get to it, the location of my photo shoots is any place in China. I’m willing to be just a laborer as I photograph the worlds that I love best- ordinary people and the natural world. I want to calmly look upon this ever-changing era with modern eyes. I hope that I can always retain sincerity and that I will work with purity and trueness. While others fear that their work is not western or trendy, I worry that my work is not Chinese or classical. China’s unique culture, history, nature, and the persevering spirit that I inherited from my ancestors has shaped my style of photography. It has led me to feel what changes and what doesn’t.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Yan Ming: I am using Rolleiflex 2.8F film camera, and I use it to take black and white photos. I will enlarge the photos in the darkroom manually, but I don’t do any manipulation on them.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Yan Ming: The image itself and the material media by which it is presented are both important.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that the Chinese contemporary photography is different from the Western one? If yes what are those differences and how do you explain them? Do you think we can speak of a “Chinese school” or photography today is globalized?

Yan Ming: The aesthetic habit of Chinese people is different from that of the west; this leads to the difference on the selection and presentation of landscape and subject comparing to the western photographers.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How Chinese photography has evolved over the years? How would you describe the recent history of photography in China?

Yan Ming: The sense of calmness, subjectivity, and distance has been strengthened in the Chinese modern photography. Some works are gradually detached from the control of the system and ideology which have been in place for a rather long time. We have to admit that this is a move towards the global trend.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What do you like and dislike in the contemporary Chinese photography?

Yan Ming: I like the elements of classics, serenity and romanticism in China’s photography. I don’t like those works that aim to preach mechanically, those incendiary works to simply arouse people’s emotion, and those that report on the social system and service.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Yan Ming: I would like to be able to make living from photography without having to find another job.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Yan Ming: Geographic location is not important at all. In China, the problem is whether you can be in the right status to take the photographs. Time availability and economic condition is a precondition. For example, in order to keep ends meet, some photographers cannot enjoy even for 15 days of a year taking photographs purely for him or herself. Thus he or she can only be an amateur photographer. Only after the Chinese photographers can have the basic economic conditions and sufficient time to do the artistic creation, it is meaningful to discuss the environment and future of the photography in China.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think it’s important to have a website or a blog? Is it is essential to have it translated into various languages? How the Internet contributes to the spread contemporary photography?

Yan Ming: In order to present the works in a continuous manner, blog and personal website are very important. Otherwise, it can only been seen by submitting to the media, which is unimaginable.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How would you describe the artistic and photographic scene in China? Is it that there are often exhibitions, festivals, events, etc.? What about commercial photography?

Yan Ming: I only know that the galleries in China are of really low quality. They cannot provide much assistance, funding, support and promotion for the Chinese photographers. They contribute little to art, but consider a lot on other matters.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Yan Ming: I love just walking, not books.

Please visit Yan Ming website for more information and photographs.

Interview with Li Wei

Yu-Hui Liao 廖育卉 — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:24:11 +0000

Camel rider, 2010
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Following interview by Li Wei (李伟) et Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Li Wei: Photography is simply taking photos. The world I have sensed, the moments that I have experienced, the people I have met. I use photography to record all of them.

A bull in the grass, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Li Wei: I was born in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia in 1976. I was graduated from Communication University of China in 2001 majoring in communication engineering. Currently I work and live in Beijing as a freelance photographer.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Li Wei: I became interested in photography when I was in university. After I worked for a few years I quit my job and became a freelance photographer.

A couple in poolroom, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Li Wei: Recently I took a series of photographs of my hometown Inner Mongolia; it records the life of the minority people living in the border area of China.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Li Wei: I use a Mamiya RB67 and 120mm colour film to take photographs. The portraits and landscape are all presented in a relatively quiet way. I make very simple adjustment after the film is scanned.

A family, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Li Wei: I emphasize more about the idea that the work itself delivers.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How do you approach strangers? Do you ask if they accept to be photographed or otherwise you try not to be noticed? What are their typical reactions?

Li Wei: For some people I might have simple conversations with them before I take photographs; but sometimes I just photograph them without notifying beforehand.

A Mongolian man, 2010
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: When you are working in China, do you think that being Chinese and -as a consequence- to have a certain invisibility compared to a foreign photographer, is a major advantage?

Li Wei: I don’t think the invisibility is that important. Taking photographs is a rather obvious activity, and many foreign photographers have also created excellent works in China.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: A lot of photographers complain about the actual situation of documentary photography. Do you think that reportage has a major crisis now and why? What an be a possible solution?

Li Wei: I have never actually thought about issues like the crisis of documentary photography today. I would rather focus on taking my photographs, since those issues are not in my control at all.

Buddhist temple, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Li Wei: It’s definitely different. I believe that photography does bear a geographical nature – from the content that is photographed, to the cultural differences.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Your point of view is quite interesting. At this time I already interviewed at least a dozen photographers and their response was rather the opposite: culture influences people’s minds, but the practice of photography in China and the West is significantly the same. Can you deepen this important argument? What are the profound cultural differences that you mention?

Li Wei: The basic function of photography is to reflect the social reality. The contemporary photography in China certainly has many photographs about China, in my opinion, this differs from the European photography and American photography. In addition, when we talk about the cultural difference, the oriental aesthetic prefers the spirit of Zen; therefore I think the cultural essence of many photographers is still quite Chinese.

Haystack, 2010
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How Chinese photography has evolved over the years? How would you describe the recent history of photography in China?

Li Wei: From my understanding of the contemporary photography in China, it was used as a tool of propaganda by mass media since New China was founded, and then it evolved to landscape photography, then to documentary photography, and now it is becoming more individualistic, with a more diverse way of expression.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What do you like and dislike in the contemporary Chinese photography?

Li Wei: I don’t like many conceptual photographies; I think they are totally nonsense.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you give a more specific? What are you referring to?

Li Wei: Outstanding photographs will have penetrating power in them. Much conceptual photography seems to be quite meaningless and is very rigid and arbitrary. Without referring to the text illustration, you will not have the faintest idea what it is about. Sometimes, even after you read the illustration, you still don’t know what is going on.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Li Wei: I can only talk about myself. I hope I have enough time and energy to take good photographs – that’s enough for me.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Li Wei: It’s sure that Beijing and Shanghai are good places for development, because there are more exhibitions, which can help you open up your mind, and there are more art events. However, with the development of internet, geographic location is not a big restriction any more.

Li Wei: I think it is very important. A blog or personal website is a relatively fast and convenient way for other people to know your works. They can get a lot of information from it.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Li Wei: The books on photography are: the Documentary on Paper Series, which has published “Mai Ke” by Hou Dengke, “North, South” by Luo Dan, etc. Blog on photography: The blog of Ren Yue.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Li Wei: Lv Nan. Photography is self-cultivation, and I can sense the power of his inner world from his works.

Please visit Li Wei web site for more informations and photographs.

Interview with Li Jie and Zhang Jungang

Li Jie (李洁) — Fri, 13 May 2011 10:29:53 +0000

Following interview with Li Jie and Zhang Jungang (李洁 and 张君钢) by Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Photography is part of our lives.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Li Jie, born in Shanghai in 1975; Zhang Jungang, born in Harbin in 1980.We live together in Harbin now.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: We don’t regard photography as work, but rather as a lifestyle. We will bring our cameras wherever we go. We use photography to record the moments when human hearts dance with the world around – be it memories, exclamations, or compliments.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Mostly we use 135mm film camera to take photographs, I don’t mind reproducing photos; I will use some basic simple techniques on computer or in the darkroom (e.g. curves adjustment, resize, colour adjustment). I am not familiar with very complicated techniques.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Yes it is important. Any forms or messages are important.

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Photography is a worldwide phenomenon.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How Chinese photography has evolved over the years? How would you describe the recent history of photography in China?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: We rarely think about this type of questions; they don’t mean much for us.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: We hope that there will be institutions and organizations that engage particularly in photograph album publication; there will be more exhibitions that focus on traditional photography rather than contemporary art themes; there will be more people like you who concern about the history and environment of China’s photography to consolidate the works of photographers nowadays, and help them promote their works more effectively.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: We have more freedom on internet; freedom is the most important instead of cities.

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Compared to blog, personal website is more important to photographers. But I like the media as a blog, especially in China where the mass publication environment is rather bad, internet media such as blog is particularly useful for you to speak what you want to speak about and do what you want to do – this is critically important.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Fake magazine. If you want to know about the status-quo of photography in China, especially the folk photographers and pioneer photographers, this website is very informative.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: I very much like the current exhibition ‘the middle school students of the 80s’ by Ren Shulin. It presents the desire and admiration of the young bodies, which is something I really would like to photograph.

Please visit Li Jie and Zhang Jungang for more photographs and informations.

Interview with Xiaomei Chen

Xiaomei Chen (陈小枚) — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:40:19 +0000

Following interview by Xiaomei Chen (陈小枚) and Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: What does “photography” mean to you?

Xiaomei Chen: To me, photography is first of all a tool of exploration and expression. The camera is my passport; it gives me a reason to travel, observe, explore and understand among different cultures and geographic locations. Because of the camera, my horizon is being continuously expanded. My cognition of this world becomes more tangible, and my feeling more real. I understand myself better, too. Each time, no matter what theme I am working on – documentary, artistic, I am always like a curious child, who tries to understand the world and herself through lenses.

In the meantime, although I no longer believe that photography can change the world, still I hope that they can provide people with visual information, and inform people of social problems, so that they can reflect upon them.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Xiaomei Chen: My parents gave me the name of Chen Xiaomei, and I changed one character by myself when I was in elementary school. I was born in Heyuan, Guangdong in China in 1974, and grew up in a traditional Hakka cultural environment. I currently live in Dallas, United States. Initially I had a degree in education, and after teaching English in a teaching college for six years, I turned to Journalism and got a Master degree in Journalism from Jinan University in Guangzhou. Then I became interested in anthropology. In 2004 I went to America and studied anthropology in University of Colorado, and obtained a master degree in anthropology in 2006. In the same year I gave up a PHD scholarship offered by the University of Wisconsin, and started my career as a photographer. I got a Master degree in photography from Ohio University in 2010. Now I work as an independent photographer.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: How did you become a photographer?

Xiaomei Chen: I always admire artists. My younger brother is an artist and he is very gifted. I almost adore him, and I would never think that I could do creative work like him. How did you become a photographer Nor did I think I could do anything related to visual art. In the eyes of myself, my family, or friends and classmates, I am supposed to be a teacher who works with pen. Now I still write for the media in China from time to time.

The first time I picked up a camera was when I traveled to Inner Mongolia during the summer vacation of my sophomore year. I borrowed a point-and-shoot camera and took snapshots of the landscape. They are intolerable when I look at them today, but at that time I really enjoyed the process of looking at the world from a viewfinder. In 1999, I travelled to the Tibet, and for the first time I used an SLR, Nikon FM2, but I had no single idea about aperture and shutter speed at all, and of course they were just tourism photos. When I got back, the local media reported my trip and asked me to write a series of travel journals of my journey to Tibet. Along with that some photographs were published. That was the first time I publish my photos. But I didn’t think about becoming a photographer, and I didn’t dare to, because I thought a pen is easier to use than a camera.

When I studied Journalism in Jinan University, I became an amateur photographer. Since it was not my major, I knew little about photography, and there were not many materials available to learn, so it was purely a leisure activity without any restrictions. I took tourism photographs, I shot plants, and sometimes street scenes as well. Occasionally I even received some praises. When I was about to graduate, I photographed Xiaoguwei, a disappearing historic village in the suburb of Guangzhou. Later, my photos were exhibited by Jiangnanliguo in Guangzhou.

When I studied anthropology in the US, photography became a seasoning of my life, because academic research was very monotonous. I sat in on lectures on fine art photography in the department of Arts, and lectures on photojournalism in the department of Journalism. I got acquainted with Kevin Moloney, the photographer with New York Times and his father Paul Moloney. With their encouragement, I seriously started to consider being a professional photographer. In the end I gave up the PHD scholarship and became a full time photographer.

After working for nearly one year for a newspaper in Colorado, I was encouraged by Rich Clarkson, the former photography director of National Geographic, to accept the Enlight Fellowship from University of Ohio. I studied visual communication and documentary photography.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Xiaomei Chen: My job is a lot of fun, but at the same time it is very demanding, both physically and mentally. When doing academic research I felt it rather tiring and boring, and I admired people who do art because I thought their job is very easy and full of fun. But when I became a full time photographer, I find that photography is sometimes even more difficult than academic research. Doing academic study only requires hard work and accumulation, and as long as you keep thinking, you will gain achievement. However, creative art work is really hard, and accumulation might turn out to be repetition and restrictions.

A Chinese proverb says, “You cannot know the shape of a mountain when you stand in the mountain.” It is very difficult for me to judge my own work. You may want to seek comments from those people in this field who are familiar with my work. For example, Terry Eiler, the director of Faculty of Visual Communication, photographer Tom Ondrey, Bill Alen, the former chief editor of National Geographic.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Xiaomei Chen: Maybe because of my academic background in Journalism and Anthropology, basically my approach is quite straightforward. Most of my work is documentary. In addition, under the influence of photojournlistic ethics in the US, do very little retouching except the traditional dodging and burning. Generally I don’t change the original look of the photograph.

I mainly use Nikon DSLR, sometimes 135mm and 120mm films as well. I got a 4×5 view camera recently, so I hope I can do more film photography.

I like to try different ways, and I do not want myself constrained by techniques or styles.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Xiaomei Chen: Post processing is not very important in my work. Whether it is documentary or studio photography, I emphasize more the photograph per se and the message it conveys. If I want to get a specific effect, I’d rather get it from the shooting than the post processing.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: How do you approach strangers? Do you ask if they accept to be photographed or otherwise you try not to be noticed? What are their typical reactions?

Xiaomei Chen: Usually before I take a photograph, I will ask for permission from the subject. However, if I have to capture a fabulous moment that can’t be missed out, I will take the photograph first, and tell the subject that I just took a photo of him or her. In the States, most people are very friendly, and they don’t mind being photographed. But if they ask me not to shoot them, I will stop, except for some special news events, such as photographing the detainees.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: When you are working in China, do you think that being Chinese and -as a consequence- to have a certain invisibility compared to a foreign photographer, is a major advantage?

Xiaomei Chen: I don’t think I have certain invisibility as a Chinese to photograph in China. The camera itself unveils your desire to photograph. On the contrary, I think that photographing in China is indeed more difficult, because Chinese people seem to be shy in front of the camera, and meanwhile they are more alert.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you think that being a women modifies the reactions people have when you take their photographs? Do you think that shooting reportage can put yourself in difficult context for a women or the danger is the same for everyone? Have you ever find your self in this kind of situations?

Xiaomei Chen: In the US, it is an advantage for me to be a female photographer and a foreigner as well. It is because a woman, compared to a man, does not pose any threat to the subject, so the subject may feel relatively relaxed. Moreover, as a foreign female, it is quite often that people are curious about me and they would love to talk to me. Therefore they give me the chance to express my friendliness, and it is easier for me to get access to photograph them.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: One of your first work was a trip to Tibet, a special autonomous region where Chinese peoples usually need special authorizations to visit it. Did you had complete freedom or you experienced any form of pressure from the authorities? More generally, what is your personal experience concerning the freedom of the press in China?

Xiaomei Chen: When I first went to Tibet years ago, rather than as a photographer or a journalist, I was just a tourist. Therefore I did not need any special authorization. Also it might be that the time and social circumstance then was rather different from nowadays, so I didn’t find any restrictions.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you describe the two projects you have chosen to illustrate the interview?

Xiaomei Chen: The photographs of these two series are projects in progress. The beginning of Zen of Fire is rather accidental — the house of my boyfriend’s mother was on fire. The purpose of this project is to explore the meaning behind disasters, and make people rethink of disasters. Laozi once said, weal and woe come side by side. Woe may be a blessing in disguise, and luck can be the next neighbour to misfortune. What I want to express is just a simple philosophy as such. Because of this project, I found myself having quite different thinking compared to the western photographers, and the influence of Chinese culture is very penetrating.

“Embrace Pain” aims to explore some marginalized American people from an anthropological point of view. I photograph them, not simply because their behaviour is quite odd in the eyes of the “ordinary people”, but because I am curious about their inner world, and I would like to re-contemplate about the contemporary society through their eyes. I want to question again “what is normal?”, and this project reveals the very fact that to me, that photography is an instrument of exploration.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: A lot of photographers complain about the actual situation of documentary photography. Do you think that reportage has a major crisis now and why? What an be a possible solution?

Xiaomei Chen: It is rather difficult to judge whether we are facing crisis in documentary photography, but it seems that we are experiencing a transition, a bit uncertain state. According to the traditional Chinese philosophy, “crisis” breeds “opportunity.” Possibly we will embrace a whole new opportunity in documentary photography, or even the entire photography realm. The only thing is that we haven’t found it yet.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you think that the situation is the same in the Western world and in China?

Xiaomei Chen: Maybe there are some differences in theory and practice between the Chinese and western photography. However, in China as in the West, technological developments, changes of opinion and the economic situations influence more or less the mindset, approaches, techniques and means of disseminating photographs. With globalization the gap between Asia and the Western world is diminishing.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: More generally, do you think that the Chinese contemporary photography is different from the Western one? If yes what are those differences and how do you explain them? Do you think we can speak of a “Chinese school” or photography today is globalized?

Xiaomei Chen: I am not really familiar with the specific distinctions between the modern photography of China and that of the West. But I think unlike words, photography is a language without national boarders. It is true that the environment and culture in which we grow up will leave marks on us and influence the way how we work, but every photographer has his or her own way, no matter in the west or in China. It is difficult to judge the photographer’s nationality from an image.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: What do you like and dislike in the contemporary Chinese photography?

Xiaomei Chen: A very small number of photojournalists do staged photography, or do a lot of post processing work, and I don’t agree with that. I am not against the post production of art photography, but for journalism and documentary photography, it is better not do post production in order to reflect the reality.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream?

Xiaomei Chen: Practice photography in an honest manner, and meanwhile don’t have to be starved.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Xiaomei Chen: Geographic location is not a restriction. Restrictions come from a closed mind, as well as economic constraints.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you think it’s important to have a website or a blog? Is it is essential to have it translated into various languages? How the Internet contributes to the spread contemporary photography?

Xiaomei Chen: The blog is indeed a very personal way of expression. It can help people see and know more about the photographer’s work. But in an era when blogs are flooded, there are very few photography blogs that can receive much attention. I have a blog, but the purpose is not to promote my work, but share with friends. However, I do think photographers should have their own websites. I designed and established my own website.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: How would you describe the artistic and photographic scene in China? Is it that there are often exhibitions, festivals, events, etc.? What about commercial photography?

Xiaomei Chen: The relation between the art world and the commercial community is very tricky. Art needs commercial support, but might be undermined by the commercial world. The resistance and attraction are going on at the same time.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Xiaomei Chen: The blog of Ren Yue, a teacher of China Renmin University, is very informative.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Xiaomei Chen: Gu Zheng’s fine art photography is quite in-depth. The documentary photography of Lu Guang very much deserves attention.

Please read Xiaomei Chen’s contributed article Between In and Out and visit Xiaomei Chen website for more informations and documentary photographs.

Interview with Sheila Zhao

Sheila Zhao — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:49:25 +0000

Following interview by Sheila Zhao and Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Sheila Zhao: Photography is a craft that belongs to its own world. Photography allows me to visually translate and share the way I see the world.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Sheila Zhao: I was born in Beijing, China, in 1983 and spent the first part of my childhood there. At the age of 7, I followed my parents to the United States, where they have been working and trying to establish themselves. I spent the rest of my childhood and teenage years growing up and attending secondary school in New Jersey, then continued on to study at Indiana University (with frequent trips back to China in between). I graduated with a degree in journalism, concentrating in public relations, and then came back to Beijing for a three months long internship at General Motors Beijing. During those three months, I enjoyed the excitement of Beijing very much and decided to pursue a job at an international public relations agency post internship.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Sheila Zhao: After a year and a half working at the public relations agency, I realized that I was unhappy and unfulfilled working there. My mind began drifting and through a series of coincidences, I made the very impetuous decision of becoming a full time photographer.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: I think you made a courageous choice. A lot of people are scared by the incertitude of a creative profession, that is often see as difficult and precarious. How did your entourage reacted to your decision? Did they encourage you or did they tried to dissuade you?

Sheila Zhao: Thank you. Again, I would like to stress that when I decided to change profession, I was very young, inexperienced, without any proper education in photography, and without any realistic expectations. As a result, the decision I made to go into photography was, in hindsight, very impetuous and irresponsible. While I don’t have any regrets about what I did and am very grateful for everything I have learned and gained through this decision, I don’t encourage anyone to go about things the way I have. That said, I’m also very grateful for a strong support network. My parents were never, and still are not thrilled by my career choice, but I’m very grateful that at the end of the day, they are the most patient with me and the people who supports me the most.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Sheila Zhao: My photography is still evolving and still learning (I’m self taught, and there’s a lot to learn!). Where I started out is very different than what I do now. My current personal work is a bit hard to explain, mostly because I just began it earlier this year and I’m still trying to make sense of it myself. Very broadly, I guess you can describe it as a series of photos where I try to express a similar set of emotional commonality within a variety of different situations and settings.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique? Digital or film, a lot of editing or absence of manipulation, equipment used, etc..

Sheila Zhao: For my current personal work, I am shooting black and white film and do my post processing digitally.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Sheila Zhao: Personally, I think that content is always more important than what equipment you use. Of course, that’s not to say that the technical aspect is not important at all. Every decision you make, from beginning to end, all impacts how your picture will turn out. However, one shouldn’t always relay on a cool camera effect, a cool post-processing filter, or be restricted to the traditional confines of what a “good” picture is in order to create an impactful image. For me, at the end of the day, a great image should clearly show what the photographer is trying to express and if it reveals a bit of the photographer’s vulnerability.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you speak a little bit further about your recent personal work? Is it a precise project or it’s your everyday visual diary? What is your current theme of interest?

Sheila Zhao: I just began a new series of personal work from the beginning of this year. It’s difficult for me to make sense of it now as I am still very much in the initial phase of this new journey, much less provide an articulate explanation. I very much stumbled upon the work – I was visiting a friend in Pusan, Korea, and we went to visit Pusan’s famous fish market for fun. I shot about a roll of film there. When I developed the film, there were a few frames I liked, so I decided to continue on photographing fish and other aquatic food we eat at fish markets. By another coincidence, I happened to go to Japan a month after Pusan. I spent about 5 days in Tokyo and happened to be staying within walking distance from the Tsukiji fish market and continued photographing what I saw there. However, it was only recently that I realized the photos I have been taking are about more than just fish. The important thing was how I was interpreting the situation, the shared feeling of the images, and what the pictures said about me. Currently, I’m working on expanding the work.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How do you approach peoples? Do you ask them if they accept to be photographed or you try not to be noticed?

Sheila Zhao: Every situation is different. Generally speaking, I don’t like being too obtusely intrusive. Plus, I have my own issue of being a big wimp and am very shy to approach strangers. I’ve gotten a little bit better over time, but it’s still very much a problem with me. Ideally, I would love if people don’t notice me or if I already have an element of trust with the people whom I am taking pictures of, but of course that is not possible all the time. I think one just has to learn how to work with each situation and what their limits are.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that in China you have the freedom to take photo of everything or some subject is off limits? I’m thinking about both people negative reaction as well as pressures from the authorities. Did you experienced anything like this?

Sheila Zhao: Like most countries in the world, China has its restrictions. How it effects a photographer depends on the intention of the photographer and how they approach the subject. Photojournalists working in China experience the brunt of this, I think, because of the nature of their work. That said, there are other photographers and artists who make their point across with photography in more subtle, creative ways. For example, Ai Weiwei had a series of photographs he made, which showed him giving the middle finger to various famous landmarks around the world, including the White House, Eiffel Tower and Tiananmen Square.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: When you are working in China, do you think that being Chinese and -as a consequence- to have a certain invisibility compared to a foreign photographer, is a major advantage?

Sheila Zhao: Yes and no. Being Chinese (or looking Asian) generally makes you stick out less in a crowd. People will notice a white guy with a big camera a lot sooner than noticing me. However, the advantage of being a foreigner photographing in China is that some people are quicker to let their guard down with a foreigner because they see the foreigner as non-threatening. That, or they assume the foreigner does not speak Chinese and will not hassle the photographer too much.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that being a women modifies the reactions people have when you take their photographs? Do you think that shooting can put yourself in difficult context for a women or the danger is the same for everyone? Have you ever find your self in this kind of situations?

Sheila Zhao: I try not to think about my gender, or consequences of my gender, when I am working. It might be different if I am working on pictures addressing gender issues, but as I have not done that and am currently not doing that, I try not to think about it and try to listen to my instinct more. Again, depending on the context and the situation, one’s gender can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. To use another photojournalism example: male photographers might find it easier to work in high testosterone, mostly male dominated situation. However, the chances of them photographing in situations involving secluded, highly guarded women, is slim (such as “behind the veil” moments with certain groups of Islamic women). Women photographers are generally seen as less threatening while male photographers are generally taken more seriously by various non-photo related entities. So both have their pros and cons, one just needs to learn how to work with their own situation.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that your Chinese origins and cultural background are important in your photographic work and in your aesthetic vision?

Sheila Zhao: Not consciously. I have heard from some other non-Chinese photographer friends that one general style of Chinese photography is quiet, subtle pictures. Some of my previous work fall under that category, although it was completely coincidental. Maybe that is a result of similar cultural background? Who knows.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Sheila Zhao: I would like to learn to lose control and let my instinct and passion guide me through my work.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Sheila Zhao: I think you can live anywhere you feel comfortable with, whether it’s a big city or a small town. I am personally a big city girl and won’t know what to do with myself if I’m stuck in the countryside for too long!

Sheila Zhao: It’s not imperative, but a website never hurts. Of course, it’s important for the language of the website to be in a widely used international language, but whatever the photographer can manage is more important. At the end of they day, whether or not a photographer needs a website depends more on his/ her intentions.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How Chinese photography has changed over the years? How would you describe the recent history of photography in China?

Sheila Zhao: Everyone and their mother has a camera now! A lot of hobbyist photographers have nicer equipment than I do. I think very much like the west, there is a massive flood of content and China is facing the same situation as the west concerning usage, copyright, etc.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How would you describe the artistic and photographic scene in China? Is it that there are often exhibitions, festivals, events, etc.? What about commercial photography?

Sheila Zhao: Promising and growing. While I don’t think China’s photography scene is as mature as other countries in Asia, I certainly do think that it will grow – the sky’s the limit. I’m sure there are a lot of photographers doing interesting work. And there are also photo exhibitions in Beijing and various photo festivals around China, such as Caochangdi Photo Spring, Pingyao, etc.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Which countries you are referring to? What do you think China can and should do to fill the gap and improve the situation?

Sheila Zhao: Japan has a rich photo history and has produced some of my favorite photography masters, such as Daido Moriyama, Masahisa Fukase, Shomei Tomatsu, etc. South Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh are currently also producing some very talented younger photographers. I think there are a lot of talents in China, but the general culture and awareness is not as refined. On a collective level, I think part of that is a lack of exposure to high quality work and a lack of guidance by international photo masters. Recent past history and how the country developed probably also influenced the development of photography in China. But I do think everything just takes time. International photo festivals are great opportunities for everyone involved, and I think more should be organized.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why.

Sheila Zhao: A colleague recently sent me work from Chinese photographer Qiu, which I really liked. His work reminded me of the rawness of pictures produced by photographers such as Daido Moriyama, but also has a sense of subtle whimsy.

For more information and photos please read Shifting Focus: China Roads or visit Sheila Zhao web site.

Interview with Rian Dundon

Yu-Hui Liao 廖育卉 — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:57:21 +0000

Following interview by Rian Dundon and Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Rian Dundon: Photography for me means taking an active role in the world. It means dedication to the pursuit of something meaningful. And it means confronting ourselves with notions of truth that are not always comfortable or of tangible benefit. Photography means reaching a state of vulnerability within oneself and recognizing that vulnerability in others.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Rian Dundon: I was born in Portland, Oregon in 1980. December 23. Grew up in Monterey, California. Earned a B.F.A. degree from New York University (Photography and Imaging: 2003). I’ve lived in China on-and-off between 2005 and 2010 working as a photographer and consultant. I’m currently an M.A. candidate at University of California, Santa Cruz (Social Documentation: 2012).

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Rian Dundon: I started photographing in high school and pursuing it full-time since shortly thereafter. At some point while at university I narrowed my focus to working on more long-term documentary projects. Most of my current work continues to be this type of socially engaged documentary photography. I use photography as a form of participant observation and as a means to enter social realities different from my own.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Rian Dundon: I’m trying to embrace people with my photographs, trying to hold on to people in my work. Perhaps this is an impossibility, but I’m always pushing towards a certain depth of intimate meaning in my photographs. I’m desperately searching for something I know I might never find.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How do you approach peoples? Do you ask them if they accept to be photographed or you try not to be noticed?

Rian Dundon: It’s always different but in general I try to get to know the people I photograph. I don’t hide: there is always some kind of interaction or relationship between us.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is their typical reaction?

Rian Dundon: I believe most people genuinely like to have their picture taken.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that the fact you are a stranger makes easier to take photos of people? Or it’s the contrary?

Rian Dundon: I try not to be a stranger. The people I photograph are people I generally spend a lot of time with and become very close to. Being a stranger in a foreign country is difficult but it also allows me to open myself to new people and experiences in a way that is hard to do at home.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: In your series “Chinese youth” you explore the experience of young people in Mainland China. Do you think that there is a fundamental difference with the youth from the western world? Or on the contrary all human beings today share the same experience? Does geographical differences are still important or the world is globalized?

Rian Dundon: That project was looking to explore universal themes of youth and self-identity: not necessarily just those brought on by globalization, but the deeper emotional experiences that we all share. That being said I think there are many important factors that shape and differentiate the lives of young Chinese. There is no single Chinese youth identity, but I do think that socio-political influences have helped shape and dictate the structure and experience of this generation of Chinese youth in particular.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Your work sometimes show difficult situations. For example “Addiction in Kunming” tells the story of heroin addiction and AIDS infection in the Yunnan province. Sometimes, here in Europe, we have the impression that the Chinese government tends to control all the informations and hide the negative news. Did you experienced any form of pressure from the authorities? Hod do you deal with this question?

Rian Dundon: I never experienced pressure or threat from the Chinese government. The Yunnan work deals with difficult issues but it’s not explicitly critical of state policy.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Rian Dundon: It’s all film. I do minimal manipulation, try to keep most of the tones in a print or scan. Always full-frame (or close to it). I shoot almost everything with one lens and one camera. I try to minimize technological variables in my work. This process works for me, it keeps things simple.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Are the technical aspects that you mentioned important or is what really matters only the final result?

Rian Dundon: Of course final results depend on formal and technical aspects, as well as the theoretical. Everything matters equally. In visual art the way we physically create a final product is as important as the ideas behind it. One cant exist without the other.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you further describe your relationship with China?

Rian Dundon: As I said I lived in China on-and-off between 2005-2010, first in Hunan and later in Beijing and Shanghai. Originally my girlfriend had gotten a job there so I moved with her. I like China very much and speak Mandarin OK. I keep going back to China because of the good friends I’ve made there over the years. And the food is quite good.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think it is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a constraint?

Rian Dundon: Many places are interesting and unique and important in their own ways. Some people prefer to live in large cities, some the countryside. The Internet has nothing to do with the tactile reality of inhabiting a place.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think it’s important to have a website? Is it is essential to have it translated into various languages? How the Internet contributes to the spread of contemporary photography?

Rian Dundon: Having a website is not nearly as important as making prints and looking at them. The Internet allows our work to be seen by a vast transnational audience. But as that audience slowly becomes immune to the subtleties of photographs the Internet can also cheapen the impact of our images. I think people are less capable of connecting with photographs now. We see too many images (and as photographers we produce too many photographs). Our visual sense has dulled. I think photographers should make less pictures, but smarter ones. We need to spend more time looking at our images and thinking about what they really mean before we throw them up on the Internet. Make prints first, then worry about a website.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Rian Dundon: Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Rian Dundon: Zhang Hai’er – Intimacy and closeness with people. I haven’t seen much of his work but what I have seen is beautiful. Li Yu and Liu Bo – Their project “13 months in the year of the dog” is fascinating. Zhou Hai – Atmosphere.

Please visit Rian Dundon website for more informations and documentary photography.

Interview – Camera Obscura

Albert Elm, an extension of my own curiosity

Introducing Ryan Mills

Small Town Inertia, an interview with Jim A Mortram

Roger Ballen interview

Interview with Dave Farnham

Interview with Aline Smithson

Edelweiss, by Sharon Boothroyd

Edelweiss

Oitarizme and Love Issue, interview with Constantin Nimigean

﻿Interview with Yuan Yanwu

Interview with Yan Ming

﻿Interview with Li Wei

﻿Interview with Li Jie and Zhang Jungang

Interview with Xiaomei Chen

Interview with Sheila Zhao

﻿Interview with Rian Dundon

Interview with Yuan Yanwu

Interview with Li Wei

Interview with Li Jie and Zhang Jungang

Interview with Rian Dundon