Enticing the Light » F-BoM

Shedding Light on Gianni Galassi

Miserere — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:05:01 +0000

by Miserere

Gianni Galassi’s PhotoGraphia was October 2010′s F-BoM. We hop on our Vespa and brave the crazy Roman traffic to find Gianni and ask him a few questions. A lot of hand gestures are sure to be involved.

Ciao Gianni! Grazie mille per parlare con noi. Why don’t we start off with the easy stuff (and stick to English!), like telling us how you got started in Photography and how long you’ve been practising.

When I was a child I was green with envy because of that mysterious and gorgeous device hanging from my uncle’s neck (it was a Rolleicord). The few times he allowed me to look through the viewfinder I was so excited that eventually my parents gave me a Ferrania Eura for my birthday. I was five or six and I wasn’t even able to put film inside it. But I started learning how to guesstimate focus and get a decent framing. By the way, I lost track of the Eura, whereas my uncle’s Rollei now sits in my cameras closet. So to answer your question, I started taking snapshots exactly 50 years ago, but my first “aware” photographs go back to when I was 14.

The next obvious question is to ask how you arrived at your current Photographic style. What would you call your genre, Square Contrastivism maybe?

Well, I never bothered looking for a proper name for my photographic style, but if you agree I’ll adopt yours, which is clever, learned, thorough and concise. How did I get there? The process took my entire life, of course. Looking back to my older works, I can recognize in retrospect the traces of what I do now. Have I been aware I was following this path since the beginning? Hell, no. I wish I had. But what makes a beginner a beginner is exactly this anxiety-inducing unawareness. It was deeply frustrating sometimes, as creativity is a tough thing to get hold of. Especially when you are in your twenties. Now I am definitely a happier photographer than I was at that time. Generally speaking, I am a happier man.

By all means, adopt the term, I’ll be honoured! Looking through your exhibition catalogue, Square, I enjoyed not only the images, but the evolution that I saw taking place before my eyes as I flipped the pages. Your first images from 2005-06 are more literal, and I feel maybe tentative, as if you were timid and unsure of where you were going. By 2008 the images are bold and self-assured and I feel your artistic vision is crystal clear. Am I imagining this?

On the contrary, you are making a point here. Until 2007, the year of my EXTRALIGHT exhibition, I was still concerned about codes. That is, notwithstanding my strong interest for the new aesthetic territories I was exploring, I was afraid to stray too much from the realm of what we usually consider “photography”. So there was a certain restraint, a sort of stylistic chasteness, in my images most of the times. For the same reason I still captioned my photographs according to the classic what-where-when pattern. Now I got rid of all this, along with other redundant elements within the image.

When and how did you arrive at the square format?

When I was a commercial photographer I primarily shot on rectangular 4×5 inch sheet film and sometimes on rectangular 24×36 mm film. Rectangular frame made me feel at home. This is why I hated when my customers asked me for 6×6 cm negatives or transparencies. Square frame made me feel lost. When shooting my Hasselblad or Rolleiflex I really became clumsy. Getting a well balanced and geometrically organized setting without the comfort of the rectangle turned out to be almost impossible to me. Until the day I stumbled upon Flickr, the online photo community whose members can post their rectangular photographs (landscape or portrait) into an invisible square grid. Soon I realized that if I wanted to take advantage of the whole available area inside that grid, so that my photographs would appear bigger, I’d have to post square ones. And I did. I have been editing square photographs for about four years now. My third last exhibition bore the word SQUARE as its title, and BLACK&BLUE, the one I did in Venice this summer, was exclusively made of square photographs as well. In short, this discovery of mine (big deal!, you’ll say) is the result of a technical feature/limitation.

Your photographs, though mostly abstract, rely heavily on urban subjects. You concentrate on Rome, your hometown, but do you ever purposely go elsewhere looking for new inspiration?

Devoting much of my time to photography, sometimes I randomly catch a good shot, sometimes I roam aimlessly all over my city (or wherever I happen to be) and find my subjects serendipitously. In other words, my locations can be deliberately selected, or found by chance. Anyway I made a habit of noting down anything interesting I see, so that I can come back under more favorable lighting conditions. And I always—I mean ALWAYS—have a camera with me. Furthermore, I always get out alone. Following me during my photo wanderings would be a torture for anyone. Although my wife and I always take into account the photographic value of the places we visit, I don’t travel purposely. But about one third of my photographs have been taken out of Rome.

Do you take other types of photos or do you dedicate yourself exclusively to your Square Contrastivism?

I have been working on merchant ships and wharfs for the last five years, taking photographs in Europe and North-Africa. But those files are sitting almost unexploited in my hard disk for the time being, as I’m not so interested in a literal portrayal of those subjects. Therefore I’m experimenting new ways to build a body of work about ships, based on a strong visual concept. The concept is clear enough to me: a celebration of bigness, metal and engineering. The trouble is that this idea should translate into an actual technique sooner or later. Which is not easy at all, if you have standards. It’s a trial-and-error-and-thinking-and-retrial process. But it’s not frustrating at all. It’s stimulating, exciting sometimes. Meanwhile my working on Square Contrastivism (hey, I’m already familiar with this definition) goes on. In my effort to get rid of any superfluous element, I’m going more abstract lately. And experimenting with split compositions. I’m also seeing a lot of early 20^th century paintings; they are very inspirational. Photography has more debts with contemporary art than we usually think.

Most urban photographers rely on their trusty legs to get around while photographing, but you use a bicycle to get around. Having experienced the traffic of Rome, I find this insane from a self-preservation point of view, but I also wonder how it is you spot subjects while cycling, an activity that takes a lot more concentration than walking.

That’s what I wonder too. As a matter of fact, Rome is the only Middle-East capital devoid of a European district. On the other hand, more than camera, the choice of vehicle is crucial. We are speaking of a badly managed urban environment here. That’s why I even sold my car six months ago. In heavy traffic, a car is a calamity, and parking is a hassle. Despite a couple of motorcycles sleeping in my garage, when it comes to photography I prefer my bicycle. I actually think a bicycle is the best photographer’s companion. You don’t have to wear a helmet—at least in my country—you can easily go against traffic or cross pedestrian areas, and you can stop wherever and whenever you want, in order to survey your location or get the best shooting point. If it wasn’t for my bicycle, most of my best photographs wouldn’t even exist. The EXIF data should include a “means of transport” field. It’s a crucial information. But you are right: bicycling and shooting at the same time would be a risky business no matter the place, and doing it in Rome is insanely dangerous. Yet there are more dangers at issue. A man with a camera is never welcome in the surroundings of a factory or of a building site, especially in a country of crooks like Italy. At various times I have been roughly approached by people who looked like having something to hide. That’s why I always carry a couple of my books when I’m out shooting; they help me demonstrate that I’m not a journalist looking for a scoop, and make a handy gift to soften even the toughest watchdog.

Now we come to the nearly obligatory gear section. You are somewhat atypical in your choice of equipment in that you prefer small-sensor zoom cameras, and lately you’ve been using micro-4/3 too. Did your square photographs evolve with your taste in cameras and did one influence the other?

Yes and yes. After ditching DSLRs three years ago I switched to compact cameras. I was looking for a lighter, smaller and unobtrusive tool like the film M Leicas I was familiar with, but the first digital M, the M8, apart from its insane price, was so disappointing that I resold it one month later. This is why I started trying alternatives. So came the Canon G10, an almost perfect camera I’m still very fond of: its ergonomics remind me of my old Lecica CL (one of my favorite cameras ever) and low-ISO image quality is really stunning. Later, after the launch of the Micro Four Thirds system, I decided that a Panasonic GF1 with three lenses (20mm, 14-45mm and 14-140mm) would be a reliable substitute to my old Nikon APS-C equipment. Last year I also bought a pocketable Panasonic TZ-65, and I’m now getting familiar with the Canon S95, another gem. As you can see, I gradually gave up optical viewfinders, and I learned framing through the rear LCD screen. Doing this, I found again my old view camera ways, with the advantage of an un-reversed image, which improved my ability to geometrically compose before shooting. Moreover, thanks to the LCD’s adjustable brightness, I can pre-visualize the contrast and closed shadows that mark out my stile. As for the square format, I never use the 1:1 option available, for instance, in the GF1, as I need more image on the sides to correct vertical perspective in Photoshop. 4:3 is the ratio I use the most.

You’ve been quite outspoken in your blog about your perfect camera. Could you explain it again for those of our readers who aren’t familiar with your blog? And could you tell us on a scale of 0 to 10 how likely you think it is that this ideal camera will ever be made?

My dream camera should be, more or less, like this:

Body and ergonomics: like the Canon G series, except for the mode dial, which should be replaced by a programmable shutter-speed/aperture dial, and the viewfinder, which should be electronic (1,5 million dots) and located at the left corner, like in Leica M bodies.
12–15 megapixel backlit sensor, 1/1,7” or a little bigger: firmware and image processor are getting better every day; IMHO the future is not in the so called “full frame” (“full” as to what?) but in the development of smaller and better chips.
Fully configurable buttons and dials via Panasonic or Nikon styled menus; forget Canon crappy menus; this configuration should be done once and for all, whereas everyday shooting options should mainly be operated through the physical interface (buttons and dials).
Fixed 25-300mm equivalent lens, self-collapsing and self-capping; lateral color aberration and geometric distortion should be firmware corrected in-camera.
B (bulb) shutter mode.
Video and flash: I don’t care, as I never use either.

Being an optimist and a lucky man, I think the chances a manufacturer will sell a camera like this in the next three years are at least 6 over 10.

Ha ha ha, how precise of you, a 60% chance. I think it’s more like 10%, but I’m a cynical realist! Now back to your Photography. Your images are unabashedly postprocessed; do you know exactly what you want to do to an image when you take the photo, or is there some experimenting on the computer once you see the initial image on the screen?

I hate having too many files to manage, so I never press the shutter button if I don’t have a precise idea of the image that will come out of that capture. On the other hand I never stop experimenting, and sometimes, during post-processing, I find new unexpected ways to interpret my shot and consequently render my photograph. For instance, I’m experimenting with daylight long exposures lately. I don’t know whether results will come or not, but I’m sure I’ll learn something which will end up improving my more usual style. A successful photograph is the result of a process that is non-linear and full of mistakes and rejects: it’s all in there.

You cite Lucien Hervé and El Lissitzky as two major influences, and it’s eerie to look at their art because it’s quite clear that if the two had a baby, it would be you! Did you consciously set out to create a blend of these two artists’ work or was it a subconscious thing?

If you ask me if I deliberately tried to follow the same paths of the artists I admire, the answer is no. When it comes to art, one becomes aware of his/her debts only at the end of a process. Nonetheless there are masters whose work has always moved something inside me. More often painters than photographers, I must say. Last month I visited the Guggenheim Collection in Venice for the umpteenth time. There is a room where I always stand in deep emotion, where my favorite Sironi and De Chirico paintings are displayed side by side.

That’s a good point, that influences only become apparent after the fact and are not something purposeful. Do you plan on continuing with this style for the foreseeable future or is this just “a phase”? If so, where do you see yourself photographically in 5 years?

Well, I think I’m dealing with a contradiction here: creativity is an evolutionary process, yet I have the strange feeling that I always take the same photograph. As for the future, I don’t know exactly where I will be in 5 years, but I’m reasonably sure that I’ll be more far away from literal photography than I am now: not an easy task, but a fascinating and exciting quest. “Less is more” is my guiding mantra.

Thank you so much for your time, Gianni. Can I give you a call next time I’m in Rome? Maybe I can hitch a ride on the back of your bicycle.

You will be welcome. The final destination of our ride will be a good restaurant, I promise.

PS: I was going to ask Gianni one last question about his exhibits and what goes on behind the scenes, but I saw that shortly after I sent him my interview questions he wrote a post about it which is probably more in-depth than any answer he could have given me, so I direct you to his article Knowledge if you wish to learn about the intricacies of exhibiting, Gianni Galassi style.

All photos: ©Gianni Galassi.

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F-BoM October 2010: Gianni Galassi

Miserere — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:05:15 +0000

by Miserere

Featured Blog of the Month: GIANNI GALASSI PhotoGraphia

If you’ve taken a look at the links in EtL’s revolving blogroll you may have come across Gianni Galassi’s blog and wondered why it was on our list. True, it is very different to the type of Photography we tend to feature on this site, but I find it refreshing and satisfying—a break from the cat and flower pics my eyes are assaulted with most days of the week. Not that there’s anything wrong with cat a flower pics.

Or maybe it’s just that after working on my B&W street photography, when I look at Gianni’s work it’s like being hit in the face with a bold-coloured, high-contrast water balloon filled with ice-cold water—jarring, refreshing and fun.

One thing you’ll notice immediately about his work is the choice of a square format for his images. I find it helps increase the tension and their capacity for confusion; much like an Escher drawing, it’s not always clear in Gianni’s images what’s up, down, in or out. He is also a master of deceit, making you believe small structures are large, small, large, and sometimes just plain not letting you know what you’re looking at.

To call Gianni’s Art abstract is misinterpreting it; he hovers around abstractness like a bee looking for the best angle to approach a flower, so you never know whether to interpret a given image as literal or abstract, and this is part of his magic—he keeps you guessing, always.

All photos: ©Gianni Galassi.

Read our interview with Gianni Galassi.

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F-BoM February 2010: Street Vision

Miserere — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:15:06 +0000

by Miserere

Featured Blog of the Month: Street Vision

For some, Photography is a way of expressing artistic urges, for others it is a way of making pretty pictures, but for my friend Javier, Photography is an end in and of itself.

He wanders the streets in and around Los Angeles photographing the people, the buildings…a slice of Life.

He also uses Photography as a way to break down barriers between classes. Where other street photographers stay on the other side of the wall that is their camera, Javier climbs this wall and becomes a part of his subjects. It couldn’t be any other way for him, his generosity and big heart wouldn’t allow it.

But Javier also has a softer side, which he’s not afraid to show when the chance presents itself.

All photos: ©Javier Gutierre.

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Shedding Light on Haje Jan Kamps

Miserere — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:15:49 +0000

by Miserere

Haje Jan Kamps from PhotoCritic was July 2009′s F-BoM. We put on our clogs, buy a dozen tulips, and head off to enjoy some gouda with Haje while getting a few answers to our questions.

Thanks for agreeing to chat with us, Haje! Why don’t we start off finding out how you ended up in the U.K., passing through Norway, after starting off in Holland (where you were born)? (But first, tell us how to pronounce your name!)

My name is pronounced like “Higher” but without the last R. Or perhaps like “Hiya”, the greeting commonly used in Liverpool, much to my confusion when I lived there. My globetrotting ways are entirely unglamorous, actually – I was born in the Netherlands, but was dragged off to Norway when I was 5 years old or so. My dad’s a petroleum engineer, so he goes where the oil lives – my parents have done a lot of moving about, including stints in India and Trinidad. Without us, sadly, but it’s great for going on holiday, of course!

I ended up in England by accident, actually. At the time about 10 years ago, I was working part-time in a petrol station, with aspirations of being a writer. Petrol station work is intensely boring, but that meant I had a lot of time to spend in my own head, coming up with characters, plots, etc. I genuinely planned to just continue doing that: Writing the Next Great Novel, and working at a petrol station. My parents – but my mum especially – wasn’t particularly enthralled by that idea, and proposed I’d go to University.

I was going to Folkehøgskole at the time, and met someone who became a good friend, who was from the UK. Around the same time as the discussions with my parents about uni were taking place, he was filling in his uni forms, and that gave me an idea. I went to my parents and said “Ok, then, I’ll go to uni… But only if I can go to the UK”. I had expected them to turn it down, but they were rather enthusiastic about it, actually (quite obvious, in retrospect, with their globetrotting ways), and so I applied, got accepted, moved to Liverpool… and now I’m still in the UK!

How many photos do you take with your iPhone each day, and how long will it take you to start a blog about it?

At least 5 on average, I think, but I doubt I’ll be blogging about it specifically. I have done a couple of posts about the iPhone’s photography capabilities, of course, one with 100 great examples of iPhone photos, and an interview with the fantastic Sion Fullana, about how he manages to get such great results. Ultimately, however, the iPhone has a pretty rubbish camera, and while you can do pretty cool stuff with it, it’s never going to be a huge part of my photographic aspirations. It’s great for always having a camera in your pocket, however, and I do use my iPhone to show off my portfolio of photos to potential clients.

Tell us about your stint making money as a photographer. Would you go back to that?

Never. In my more inebriated moments, I liken it to prostitution. Sex, like photography, is amazing and great, but only when you’re in the mood – as soon as people start paying you for it, there are demands for quality, and you have to take photos to a deadline, not when you feel an irrepressible urge to go take pictures. To be honest, I hated it with a passion.

The problem is that when I’m working at my most creative, only one out of a thousand photos comes out well: I’m experimenting, playing, having fun, and learning all at once. Some times, I can spend hours shooting and never walk away with a single shot that I’m happy with. It’s still worth it, because I’ll have a deeper understanding of photography and why some things work and others don’t, but I challenge you to have that conversation with the bride… “Yeah, I know I took 6,000 photos at your wedding, but none of them were any good, so you can’t have any pictures”. It just wouldn’t work.

In a commercial setting, as a commercial photographer, 0.1% hit rate is completely unacceptable. You need closer to 10% – or better. Much better. As a result, you drop your creativity, and use the techniques and tricks that you know are effective. The problem is that you’re falling into cliches, and just doing the same old thing again and again. It’s dreadfully boring, but what’s worse is that you end up not taking pictures for fun anymore.

I have a lot of respect for commercial photographers, they deliver amazing work… It’s just not what I’m cut out to do

I feel the same way; once you’re paid to do something, and have to do it on somebody else’s terms, I just cannot imagine it being fun anymore. And speaking of jobs, you recently quit yours. How do you pay the rent?

I’m a writer! Currently, I’m working on several exciting books about photography—a ghost-writing project, and another book which will be published in my own name. I can’t go into details about either book, but I’ll announce the latter in due course, of course In addition to book writing, I take on other writing tasks for various agencies, and I do the occasional job from Elance.com.

How cool! Maybe you’ll send a copy over to EtL HQ so I can review it (ahem, ahem)…

In my F-BoM post I highlighted my amazement at the amount of time you seem to have on your hands. Are you the most organised person in the World? How do you do it? I’ve been thinking of getting a divorce so I can free up some time for the blog…

Well, considering it has taken me 6 months to get back to you on this interview, I guess that answers your own question I think my thing is just that I’m like a heat-seeking missile: I find something that excites me, and I go after it like a blood hound until it is completed. When I’m in ‘Ooh! Excited!’ mode, I can go for 20 hours a day without sleeping and with a minimum of food and drink, fuelled by excitement and adrenaline. That’s generally how Things Get Done in Haje-world

Is there a particular style of photography you like? Looking at your Flickr page I see a bit of everything. You seem like a jack of all trades.

I like photography on two levels: On one side, photography is a fantastic technical achievement: If you stop to think how incredible it is that we can use electronics, pieces of metal and chunks of glass to capture light… It sounds like science fiction! But I also really enjoy the artistic side of photography. It’s doable, to be documentary and very literal in your photography (“this is a picture of a bench”, “This is a picture of a goose”), but it’s also possible to go beyond that, and create or capture scenes which have an inherent artistic quality.

My photographic style is whimsical at best, but I do enjoy a challenge, I think that’s why my Flickr stream comes across as rather ADD Having said that, my two favourite photo styles are concert photography and street photography.

That would explain your latest book, Put Another Dime in the Jukebox, a how-to on photographing live music.

What is the goal you set yourself when you started your blog, and how has that goal evolved?

My very first post on the blog was about how to create a macro extension tube out of a pringles can. That post went insane, got me on Slashdot, Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit, got me commissions from Make Magazine, and eventually was the reason that my first book was commissioned, too.

The blog started off being about DIY things to do with photography, but I eventually realised that I wanted to cast my net wider. It’s my blog, after all, and I can write about whatever I want. These days, the strapline to the blog is ‘Doing cool stuff with photography’, which is a pretty decent description. I write about fun techniques, photography ideas, things that inspire me, and all that. I try to avoid writing about equipment, because those posts are so quickly ‘old news’, and I don’t want Photocritic to be a news-driven site at all. That’s partially why the articles aren’t dated (you can find a date when something was published, but you’ll have to search around a little). That’s not a coincidence; basically, I’m hoping to write in such a way that an article written today is valid next week, next month, and next year, too. That way, I’m building up a reasonably big portfolio of articles that are worth reading whenever you fancy exploring and learning new things about photography.

The idea of a timeless article is how I tackle my Philosophical Ramblings, but sometimes I do get excited about photo news and just have to share it. Or give people my opinion, which they never ask for. Maybe you are a better human being, Haje

How do you find themes to write about?

The themes tend to find me, I think—an idea that pops into my head, a question in a comment on one of my posts, or a statement someone makes on Facebook of Twitter that makes me think… And if I feel I have something to contribute, I’ll write about it.

Do you think there’s anything new to discuss in Photography? People fixate on the equipment, but the principles driving Photography as Art are still the same they were a century ago. Is there anything new to say?

I really don’t care about equipment, it’s the least important aspect of photography… I still think that people are doing a lot of amazing things with photos, though, and I like the idea of collaboration, inspiration, and learning that the Internet offers people. I understand your question, and no, I doubt there has been much ‘new’ that hasn’t been done before. But just because there isn’t much new to say, there are always different ways of saying them, and I’d love to think that I have a way of explaining things that people can understand.

Now you need to live up to your blog’s title: What makes a good photo?

I did a post a while ago titled how to win a photography contest, which explains a lot of the things I feel strongly about. Basically, a good photo has vision, passion, and tells a story. It doesn’t have to be technically perfect, but if it isn’t, there has to be a damn good reason for it. A great photo does something unusual, makes you think, and challenges the way you look at the world. A truly great photo does all of these things and makes it seem as if time slows down. What you are looking at echoes something that speaks to you strongly. I’m sad to say I’ve never yet taken a truly great photo

Great photos are overrated—I take about one a day, and look where I am. I know it’s hard to choose, but show me a photograph you took that you’re very proud of.

I’m proud of a lot of my concert photos, and I think there are some gems among my street photography work as well. If I had to pick one, however, it would have to be a street-photo style photo I took in Vietnam last year (see below). I brought a Canon EOS 450D and a 50mm f/1.4 with me—and nothing else—for 3 weeks, and the resulting limitations were a challenge… But it also means that you eventually know your equipment extremely well. You don’t have to fuss about with changing lenses (I didn’t bring any others), lighting equipment (I didn’t bring any), Tripods (again… Didn’t have one) etc. It becomes a very pure experience, and when you occasionally get a good shot, boy does it feel amazing.

I have to agree, that is a winning portrait…even if it’s not B&W

After touring Scandinavia, where will you go next with your yellow motorbike? Let me know if you make a stop in Boston!

I would love to, but my yellow motorbike has gone to pastures new, I’m afraid. I wrote it off in a roundabout a couple of months ago, by parking it unceremoniously into the side of a peoplecarrier (what Americans would call a minivan, I believe). There’s nothing left of the bike, and I escaped with a slightly squashed knee, luckily! I’m waiting for my insurance money, and hopefully I’ll be able to buy another bike for new adventures!

Oh no! That’s so sad, although I’m glad you’re OK.

Has anyone told you that with a beard you look a bit like Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Haha, no that’s a first, thank you

What inspires you to pick up a camera and shoot?

You know, I honestly have absolutely no idea. Sometimes months go by without touching my camera, other times I just can’t put it down. It varies a lot, but it depends on what I am doing, I suppose. I was working on a book in the Netherlands over Christmas, and had left my camera at home – I got the urge to take photos, and it was hideous to not have my camera in arm’s reach…

Thanks, Haje! We wish you the best of luck in your freelance future. And please keep your blog running with Dutch efficiency

Thank you!

All photos: ©Haje Jan Kamps.

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F-BoM August 2009: Urban Creative

Miserere — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:15:04 +0000

by Miserere

Featured Blog of the Month: Urban Creative

Most photographers I know, myself included, spend too much time obsessing over lens sharpness, chromatic aberrations, interpolation methods, and myriad other things that don’t make our photography any better. Then there are those, like Kappii, who delight in the process of taking pictures and draw joy from experimenting with film developing.

Have you ever thought of throwing leaves or plastic cling wrap on your negative? How about nail varnish? Random double exposure, maybe? If it sounds weird or downright barmy, Kappii has done it. It ain’t called Urban Creative fer nuttin’.

Whereas you or I may think a $3,000 DSLR is the only camera capable of producing adequate photos, Kappii goes out into the city with a toy camera that costs less than your lens cap.

What I love about her blog, apart from her pictures, is her contagious enthusiasm for Photography, with a capital P. Not the equipment, not the sharpness of the image or other superfluous aspects, but the act of taking, developing, and making photographs. Whenever I need some inspiration for my own photography, I go check Kappii’s blog to see what she’s up to and what crazy stunt she’s pulled on her negatives this time.

All photos: ©Kappii Do Photography.

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F-BoM July 2009: PhotoCritic

Miserere — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:29:10 +0000

by Miserere

Featured Blog of the Month: PhotoCritic

When he’s not riding around Europe on his self-painted yellow motorbike, or setting up his own editorial consulting business, Haje runs PhotoCritic, his blog. And when he has free time, I believe he takes some photographs. That’s what he claims, anyway.

His blog has been up since 2005, so if nothing else the guy is persistent. He writes about whatever tickles his photographic fancy, and also features articles by other photographers. Did you know he wrote a book about macro photography? Well now you do. He’s also edited a few photography books in his other free time (c’mon, the guy must have at least two sets of free times!).

The following portrait caught my attention months ago, so much so that I went fishing in his Flickr stream and eventually found it. Anybody agree with me on it?

Apparently, “Haje” means “dances with sheep” in Dutch (Haje was born in Holland), which explains the following photo from a wedding shoot.

Something that doesn’t come across on the internet is just how nice Haje actually is. For example, when a friend needed someone to photograph her fashion designs, Haje immediately stopped everything he was doing and gave up his (third set?) of free time to shoot his friend’s clothes. It is not every photographer who would have done this! (See right –>)

I’m showing the last photo for a number of reasons. 1) It turns out that Haje has time (we’re no longer surprised) to shoot concerts, and he keeps a site on it, 3Songs.org; 2) I love B&W concert photography (see here!); 3) It’s a cool photo; and 4) I happen to like the Norwegian band Tristania. The photo shows their previous singer, Vibeke Stene.

All photos: ©Haje Jan Kamps.

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F-BoM June 2009: Gaping Void

Miserere — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:13:54 +0000

by Miserere

Featured Blog of the Month: Gaping Void

While not dealing with Photography, I find Gaping Void such an inspiration that I decided to name it this month’s F-BoM. Is it chewing gum for the soul? Ketchup for a fried brain? Maybe it’s Zen on a ticker, or Web 2.0′s fortune cookie. Describe them as you will, but Hugh MacLeod’s witty cartoons drawn on the back of business cards are not your standard internet gimmickry. Sometimes harsh, sometimes touching, but always thought-provoking, Hugh’s short messages resonate with today’s 140 character culture; add to that some unique “squiggly drawings” and you have yourself the perfect conversation starter for the 3rd Millenium. Although now they’re called Cube Grenades (get with the program already!).

Don’t let his Gaping Void cartoons lead you to think that Hugh is only capable of single sentences. On June 11 he will be releasing his book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. This is a compilation of ideas from his blog (which he must’ve started shortly after the Industrial Revolution) and which was originally published in an unpolished form as How To Be Creative back in 2004. It was reading this tome some months ago that turned me on to Hugh’s thinking and style.

Shortly after Ignore Everybody is released I will be giving away a copy of the book to one lucky blog reader. I’m still not sure how I will decide who gets it, so if you have any ideas, let me know!

Until then, tune in to Hugh’s mental frequency and heed his order: Create or Die. As an artist, you have no other option.

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Shedding Light on David duChemin

Miserere — Mon, 18 May 2009 05:15:33 +0000

by Miserere

David is the one with the beard. OK, the one with the beard and sunglasses.

David duChemin from Pixelated Image was May’s F-BoM. Traversing the whole of the American continent we find ourselves in Vancouver, Canada, ready to bombard David with questions. So here we go!

Do you speak English with a Quebecois accent?

No I don’t. Was raised by a British mother and had a British accent until I was about 6 or 7.

I know it’s early in the interview, but I don’t want you to think this is a walk in the park, so tell me, which is your favourite photograph that you’ve taken, and why?

That changes from day to day. I’ll often go through stages and prefer one image over another, then realize I’m in a rut and prefer something totally different. Right this moment it’s still an image I shot in Boudhanath, the Tibetan side of Kathmandu. It’s a motion blur shot in front of a prayer wheel and currently it’s on the front page of my website. I like the memory it brings to mind. I love Kathmandu; it feels like home to me.

You took a rather strange path to becoming a photographer, as you relate in this story. You got a degree in Theology, and then did the obvious thing: You became a professional comedian. After a little over a decade on stage you (finally) admitted that what you really wanted to be when you grew up was a photographer. So, to sum up your life up until now, can you tell us a joke involving God and photography?

If my life could be summed up with a joke about God and photography I’d need more than a sense of humour to deal with that. So, reluctantly, no. But you’re right, my path has been a winding one.

Who is your favourite stand-up comedian? I’ve always loved stand-up, and for a time daydreamed that I could do it. When I told my family and friends I wanted to be a stand-up comedian they started laughing, and that’s a good start, right? As for my favourite comedian, it has to be George Carlin, although recently I’ve been digging Louis C.K. George was an avid pianist while Louis is a photographer (and a Leicaphile, no less). Do you think there is something about comedy that attracts artistic, creative types?

My favourite comedian at the moment is Brian Regan. He’s intelligent, plays a great character, and does a clean routine that kills me over and over. Eddie Izzard runs a close second. Dane Cook is dead last. But what’s funny to one is not what’s funny to another—much like perceiving art in a photograph. To one person it’s art and speaks to them, to another just a snapshot. Does comedy attract creative types? Of course, it’s a creative field.

I love this Eddie Izzard routine, especially the ducks! Did all those years on stage use up all your comedy? I ask because when I look at the work in your online portfolio I do not sense any humour. I’m not saying your images are depressing or sad, but they mostly tug at my heart strings rather than making me laugh.

No, they didn’t. But the things I find funny now differ greatly. There’s a very thin line between comedy and tragedy. These days the stories I tell are a much better balance of the two than the relatively shallow comedy I performed.

I have the same view on working as a photographer that you did in the past: If photography is something I have to do, then it will lose its appeal and the passion will dry up. I imagine you have a different opinion now, but I still have to ask: How do you keep the fire alive when you know you have to pay the bills with your photography, whether you like it or not?

I know this’ll sound profoundly idealistic but I simply don’t shoot projects I don’t want to. I wouldn’t write a book I didn’t want to, or perform a routine I didn’t want to. Life is too short and while I’m saying that from the position of one who’s not living close to the survival line, I know that if I shot work I had no passion for the work would suffer. So I guess I keep the fire alive by not putting water on it. I don’t think my opinion on the need for passion in my work has changed at all. The difference, from the days I opted not to shoot for a living is that I didn’t know then what stories I wanted to tell. Now I do and it’s a joy to do it.

As I mentioned in my F-BoM post, you use the words
Passion, Vision, and Dreams very often in your posts. Could you give us a quick definition of what each of them means to you personally in respect to Photography?

Not a simple or quick one, no. It took me a whole chapter in Within The Frame to wrap my words around vision and I’m still not sure I nailed it. The closest I could come is to say that your vision is not only what you see but how you see it and includes the things about which you are passionate. For me that’s the people, places, and cultures of this planet, but more specifically the poor and the excluded.

Following on from this question, I have one from Ian Furniss, who heeded my request for questions on David’s forum. I paraphrase, because Ian’s initial question was quite long, but I think this is the substance of it: He also notes you talk a lot about vision, and wants to know if by vision you mean the capability to “see” pretty pictures, or if it’s a vision that guides you in a path of inner, self discovery.

It’s both, Ian. I think the more you know yourself, and your own journey, the more capable you are of seeing with an enlarge heart, mind, or eyes. It’s also the ability to see ugliness, injustice, expressions of faith or hunger, etc. Photographic vision isn’t just saying “Here’s what I see” it’s about interpretation, saying “here’s how I think or feel about what I see.”

Of all the countries you’ve visited, which did you like the most as a tourist (i.e., imagining you hadn’t been a photographer)? And as a photographer?

I can’t imagine going anywhere without my camera and as a tourist. The thought of it makes me curl into a fetal position and whimper. But if I HAD to, probably Bali or somewhere I could just relax, go snorkelling or sailing. As a photographer, I would love to return to Mongolia. Or Ethiopia.

I ask these questions because I want to know whether you can disengage your Photography Superpowers Do you always carry a camera with you?

No, I’m pretty OK with just walking around without the thing, but even then I use my iPhone a lot. There are times I regret that, but I do have a life, though not an exciting one, without my cameras.

My wife has been a supporter of World Vision for almost a decade, and I’m sure we’ve seen your photos in their publications. I always considered the photography they used to be much better than that of other charities, and often wondered whether one of the higher-ups was a photography fan, or just somebody who recognised the power of photography. How did you become involved with World Vision, and how deep is your collaboration with them?

My participation with World Vision is only now going into it’s fourth year. I think their ethics and mine intersect at a lot of points which makes it a pretty great working relationship. I shoot almost exclusively for their Christmas Gift Catalogue and got the gig through an agency that collaborates with WV in it’s creation. I haven’t even met the higher-ups but I spend a lot of time with field staff and I love them.

Do you have a special affinity for children? Do you think the fact that you have, or don’t have, children influences your photography?

I’ve worked with children in some capacity since I was a teenager. My wife and I have no kids and that gives me more freedom to do the work I do but I think that’s irrelevant to the work I do.

You use both monochrome and colour in your photography. Do you decide ahead of time whether a particular photograph will be colour or monochrome, or is that something you figure out in the digital darkroom?

Sometimes both, but usually it’s not much of a decision. I see an image in a certain way and then do what needs to be done in post-production to bring into alignment with that. Sometimes, on rare occasions, both a monotone or duotone image and a colour image will express my vision equally and then it’s a matter of staring at them until one resonates with me a little more, and that be for all kinds of reasons.

If I am a good boy for the rest of the year and finish my vegetables every dinnertime, will you take me with you to Ladakh next year? Please…?

We’d be happy to consider you, but all the brussell’s sprouts in the world won’t get you to the front of the line. Matt Brandon and I plan these on a year-to-year basis and while I’m sure we’ll do Ladakh again in 2010, we’ll only be making those choices after this year’s tour with Ami Vitale is done.

You have a book, Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision, that started shipping a few short days ago. Again, that word: Vision. Please tell us what you hoped to accomplish when writing this book, and what you left out that might make its way into another book.

Mostly I wanted to write a book that would do for other photographers what books like Freeman Patterson’s books did for me when I was just beginning. I see the shelves full of how-to books but their perilously thin when it comes to books about why we do what we do and how that drives our choice of technique with visual language. I think it’s a book with a healthy connection between theory and practice, information and inspiration. I left lots out and have more books coming, but I’ll let my publisher let the cat out of the bag later this year when the next one is released. But the next couple will follow different themes than Within The Frame does.

Thank you for your time, David. I wish you the best of luck with your book, and we look forward to the next one!

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F-BoM May 2009: Pixelated Image

Miserere — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:15:43 +0000

by Miserere

Featured Blog of the Month: Pixelated Image

Some people like writing, some prefer taking photographs. Some like both. Vancouver based David duChemin is one of the latter. From his e-soapbox at Pixelated Image he talks (writes!) about Passion, Vision, Dreams, Hope and, every now and again, Photography.

With passport stamps from countries in 5 different continents, travel photographer just doesn’t do him justice. It would be like saying Ayrton Senna was a pretty good chauffeur. David doesn’t travel to take photos—I believe he travels to see…and taking photos is his way of making us see with him.

David is also a teacher, offering workshops in places as far flung as Ladakh (which is in Northern India, in case you’re wondering). But if you ask him, I think he would tell you he’s a humanitarian photographer, which is not a term you hear often. I was attracted to his work for World Vision, a charity organisation that my wife introduced me to as she has been sponsoring children through them for almost a decade. I have leafed through many of their brochures, never knowing that some of the touching, respectful photographs I was seeing had been shot by David. I’d like to think he appreciates this serendipity.

Make sure you check out his website too.

My interview with David duChemin.

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F-BoM April 2009: Voltron of Awesomness

Miserere — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:15:00 +0000

by Miserere

Featured Blog of the Month: Voltron of Awesomness

To paraphrase Clint Eastwood’s character in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, there are two types of wedding photographers—those who record events at a wedding, and those that make Art of them. Jeff Newsom is the latter.

In his bizarrely-named blog, Jeff shares some of those wedding shots with his readers, as well as some other curious pics he might be working on in between wedding gigs. If you like talking about “looks”, then Jeff should become a topic of conversation at your next photography party. It’s not just the colour or heavy contrast, even his subjects have a definite Voltron look. How he achieves that with people that are not professional models, I don’t know, but I’ll be sure to ask him when/if I interview him. I’ll also ask him how he struck a deal with the faeries for photos such as this:

There is also an underlying irreverence (which sometimes isn’t so well hidden, as in the pic below) that makes his photos seem fresh and cheeky. Oh, and did I mention that he loves his tilt lenses? If I were his significant other, I might get jealous. As it is, I am now pining for a tilt lens. Damn that awesome Jeff Newsom!

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