Continuing with our theme of craftiness today, here are some of Erik Boker's product dissections.

From Boker's project statement:

"I am interested in the notions of art as commercial product, art as artifact, and the nature of the museum, and I continue to explore our understanding of their roles, and the inherent beauty, humor, and horror that lies within them."

Horror is Aquafresh's thorax, spread wide for all to see.

I received an introductory email from Dan Saelinger the other day (that's him, above). Turns out he shot the cover of July's Self-Promotion themed PDN, and was using some newly-inspired guerilla tactics to get himself out there; he sent me some promos and said some humorous things. And you know what-- it worked! Saelinger turns out to be an incredibly affable guy, and was kind enough to share some knowledge about his journey through the wilds of this industry we call photo.

Without further ado.... Q&A! GO!




How did you land the PDN cover, and how did the shoot come together? How did the experience change your approach to self-promotion?

Jeanine Fijol called me for that assignment out of the blue one day. I had never published in PDN before; she found me through one of my promos-- since the shoot was about self-promotion, I guess you could say things came full circle! Jeanine came to me with a pretty specific idea and we were fortunate to have Keren Sachs at Martha Stewart lend us her promos. I was excited to see one of mine among them. It's nice to know your promos don't always end up in the wastebasket! Anyhow, it was really inspiring seeing all these great promos, and it really hit home how special your work needs to be to compete in this industry.


What are you hoping to accomplish with the new promos you made-- what's your target audience?

I have a several-pronged approach to my own promotion. The promos I sent to you are my email promos. Actually clients can even make an instant version of them on my site. When you browse images, there is an option to save an image, and it automatically downloads in a nice little promo-card format. I also send out traditional mailers, normally two to three times a year. In the spring I sent out a mini 5x5 book with 25 images in it. In the next month or so I'll be sending out an accordion-style promo with about 10 images. I prefer sending out a sampling of work as opposed to a single image or spread. Since I shoot a variety of subjects, it allows me to bring it all together in a nice package. I try to keep the mailing reasonably tight, targeting ad agencies and magazines.




My favorite one you sent me is the bunny money/ antler hair... what's the story of those images-- are they personal work?

The images you mentioned were both shot for clients. The bunnies were shot for Maxim for a story on how to multiply your money. The antlers shaved into the man's head were for Field & Stream for a story on boot camp for hunting. Both were tons of fun to shoot and I think good examples of what can happen when you get the opportunity to really play with the concept of a story.


It looks like, although you do have some advertising clients, that most of your professional work is in the editorial field.

I've been shooting professionally about 3 years, so as I think is the case for most photographers, I'm still cutting my teeth on the editorial, finding my vision and honing my skills. I see myself ideally shooting a combo of the two. Obviously with editorial there is a bit of freedom in the assignments that can make a job more enticing, making up sometimes for the lower rates. Though I've gotten to the point where if the price isn't right or the job just doesn't seem rewarding enough, I'll pass.


Popular Mechanics/ Inc, 2006/2007

I just remember being younger looking at all these amazing photographs in magazines and thinking, I want my name in here.  I guess it's a little bit the idea of getting recognition, and the thrill of knowing you have an image that hundreds of thousands people are going to engage with.


Nike, 2007

You seem to have good relationships with many magazines, whom you shoot for repeatedly (I'm seeing Maxim, Men's Journal, Prevention and some others appear again and again in your portfolio)... how do you keep these relationships fresh?

Repeat clients have really been key in my success and sustaining and growing my business, and I feel very fortunate to have such a great clientele. I like to think that I am pleasant to work with on set and give my clients something they are extremely happy with. Keeping it fresh is definitely important, and I do try to approach each new assignment independently from past assignments. I've gotten annual feature packages multiple years in a row and I'll look what we did before and look to push it in another direction, explore something maybe we didn't the year before. I also try to make sure my lighting and style are constantly evolving in new directions.


Maxim, 2006


Money Magazine, 2008

Are there specific photo editors you love working with?

Of course I love all the photo editors I work with!

(ed note : touché)

I get so many great assignments from so many amazing photo editors. I definitely want to give a shout out to Amy Berkley at Field & Stream. She gave me my first major editorial assignment and we still work together pretty much every month. Amy strives to keep the art fresh, giving me latitude to be creative, and it's allowed us to collaborate on some pretty great images. I've found the longer you work together and the more comfortable the relationship, the more creative the collaboration becomes.


Field & Stream, 2007

It's pretty hard for me to distinguish your personal work from your commercial work, which a good sign that a photographer has found his or her niche in the industry. What do you like to shoot best? Still lives, landscapes? It seems like you do a bit more portraiture in your personal work, but it's pretty close, otherwise. Do you agree?


personal work, 2008

Yeah they do intertwine quite a bit. I think like most photographers, I like to shoot everything. Commercially speaking, still life has definitely been my bread and butter.


personal work, 2008

I started the portraiture as way to get comfortable with people in front of my lens again; actually, when I was in school, I shot only people and fashion, but when you get out you get pigeon-holed very quickly. I wanted to go back to something I was very excited about when I started out.

The landscape work started off as a way for me to get out of the studio and work solo on my "art." Now I'm showing it in my book; in fact one of my landscapes recently got picked up for a big ad campaign.


Savannah, Georgia, 2004


Have you had a rep for most of your career-- does that keep you from promoting yourself?

I was very fortunate and very lucky to get a fantastic rep at the beginning of my career. Clare O'Dea (my agent) has been a huge proponent for consistently promoting my work. We have pretty regular conversations and maintain an ongoing advertising plan. I think there is a general belief among photographers that if you have a rep you can sit back and wait for the work to roll in. Where in reality, it's really a matter of combining your efforts so that both rep and photographer are promoting the work.


I LOVE this fish image: tell me how you made it!




I was shooting something totally different that day - can't even remember what - but it involved water in plastic cups, I think. Anyhow, it just struck me it would be cool to put a goldfish in there. So I ran to a pet store and made it happen. It's just a simple plexi background, no digital tricks, just straightforward, somewhat-still life.


Did your Dad's love of hunting affect your work? I'm seeing a lot of animals, nature, and fishing references in your pictures...


Field & Stream, 2008

Haha, I guess I do have a lot of that in my work. Truthfully I think it's from shooting so much for Field & Stream, which is appropriate since my dad has been subscribing to it since I can remember.

This is Ryan Pfluger. He's awesome. He's a photographer. I was delighted to hire him to write a blog at Nerve.com; he makes beautiful, intimate work that invites the viewer into his world.

Ryan made a really nice transition into editorial work after graduating from SVA's MFA program last year; I squeal with delight every time I see his name in a magazine, and I squealed super loudly yesterday, when I saw he'd taken David Carr's picture for The New York Times Magazine's excellent cover story this week.

I think it's really beautiful.


David Carr, for The New York Times Magazine.


After I finished squealing, I emailed Ryan and barraged him with questions. He placated me with some answers and some outtakes, and now I share them with you. Huzzah!

How did you get this assignment for the Times? What is your history with them-- I know Kathy Ryan was your mentor when you were at SVA-- how has that relationship translated?

Well, after shooting for the Times last August, I'm kind of just in their archive of photographers to use. Besides Kathy, I've met with most of the photo department at the magazine, so they are familiar with my work. Kathy Ryan was my mentor while doing my Masters at SVA last year, and she has continued the relationship. While being one of the most influential photo editors in NYC, she is also the most grounded and down to earth. She is wonderfully supportive of my work, and always interested in seeing what I'm up to.


Kahlief for The New York Times Magazine, 2007

This seems like a great story for you to shoot, given your personal work about your own father. Was that a consideration, do you know, when you were given the assignment?

I believe it was a consideration. One thing about the Times Magazine, is that they really fit the right photographers with the right assignments. They really take in consideration everything the photographer has done, and really makes sure their work and history will match. 


Ryan and his dad.

What specifications were you given for this portrait, and how many setups did you try? Can you share any outtakes?

Pretty much do what I do.  I'm a very laid back photographer.... I'm not one to give a lot of direction, with the exception of where I want people situated.. after that I leave it very open.  I like to think my work is pretty soulful and intimate, and I always try and establish that with my subject regardless if they are a close friend, or its an assignment editorially. I attached a few of the outtakes.. I usually just move around with my subject and chat about their life. That's a whole lot more interesting to me than contrived poses or something.


outtake 1


outtake 2

Lame gear question- how did you shoot it? camera/ lights?

I use a Mamiya RZ and strobes.  I don't use a lot of lighting, usually just one or two.  I like working with natural light.

What were you shooting today for OUT Magazine? How is the editorial work coming, can you pay the bills? Doing any commercial work? Any new personal projects/other exciting things in the works?

I was shooting Aaron Yoo (from Disturbia and 21) and Jonathan B. Wright (Spring Awakening). They are in a movie together with Michael Cera called Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. We just chilled out in Brooklyn by the water and fooled around. I'm a big fan of Aaron's work so it was fun to hang out with him. The editorial work is building better and better. It does pay the bills, really well sometimes and sometimes it's really bad (it takes awhile to get checks nowadays).


Gus Van Sant, Paper Magazine, 2007


Ed Westwick, 2008

I'm hoping to branch into commercial work as well. I'm not one of those photographers who thinks it's selling out or anything doing magazine and commercial work. I'm still who I am and I photograph the way I want to. 

As for personal work, I started a project about two months back entitled "Edited".  I'm photographing all the photo editors/curators/dealers in New York that I can. It's all about turning the lens on the people who are currently making decisions about photography. Most photographers don't even know what half these people look like. They are all environmental portraits in their homes, studios or galleries. I've already photographed people like Kathy Ryan, Brian Clamp, and Brooke Nipar. George Pitts, Leslie Martin and Tim Barber are also some of the people that are future subjects.

This is Thomas Prior. On the left, 18, the right-- 28. This in itself tells a pretty nice story, and stories are something Prior is apparently exceedingly good at. He sent over his blog this morning and I've been completely mesmerized ever since.

I was be-bopping on the subway yesterday to Depeche Mode's photographic, and it was like a lightbulb went off! Or a flashbulb; there are so many great songs with photography as a theme. I spent last night running the batteries down on my ipod just to bring these songs to you this morning. I'm not sure I would say this is a definitive list-- clearly you're going to need to tell me which ones I'm missing (hint: The Kinks).

Also, some are more literal than others. You may be forced to use your imagination at points.

In any case, here are my ten, in order of no real importance, except that Wilco is my favorite, and this youtube video is actually from a Polaroid commercial that was never aired. So it's interesting x 2.


1. wilco, kamera


2. depeche mode, photographic


3. def leppard, photograph


4. death cab for cutie, photobooth


5. outkast, hey ya!

don't be frightened that there are no pictures; outkast is clearly on top of their copyright stuff on youtube.

6. the smiths, paint a vulgar picture


7. weezer, photograph


8. elliot smith, pictures of me


9. jack johnson, f-stop blues


10. the cure, pictures of you


Oh, Robert.

Ooh, we were so excited to see aerial photographer extraordinaire Cameron Davidson's work in the August issue of Vanity Fair. You know, the one with the starlets we talked about yesterday. Cameron kept away from the starlets and went closer to the stars (sorry, it's Friday) to shoot incredible aerials demonstrating the luxe life that is Hamptons real estate. The results are beautiful, green, dollhouse-esque images that I just adore.

I asked Davidson a million questions about this shoot and his photography career, and he obliged me, even though he was on deadline for another project. Class act!

Up up and away:


Tell me about this assignment for Vanity Fair. How did it come about?

Richard Villani, the previous Photography Producer for the magazine phoned me in May and asked if I was interested in shooting the Hamptons piece. Richard was in the process of leaving the magazine so I ended up working with Mark Jacobson, a picture editor. Basically, the idea was to show this amazing real estate from a unique angle. The deadline was short as the story was planned for the August issue.

Richard and I spoke about the properties and how best to show them-- ie., low altitude versus higher overall views. It ended up being a mix. I think the magazine wanted a grand overview of the properties and a consistent viewpoint. These are incredibly expensive and expansive homes. The grand overview seemed to be the right approach for this story.

How did you scout the actual locations for the shoot, and what gear did you use?

The initial list given to me was scouted using topozone and google earth. I then flew to Long Island and scouted the locations by car, using my GPS to plot each location. I also used SunPath to check where the light would fall during the morning. I planned my flight schedule around each property.








Seven Sisters houses


How long was the shoot?

Two days. Mark and I spoke after the first day of the shoot and I went back to the Hamptons to shoot some additional material that we felt would strengthen the story. There was one shot I really wanted to get of the Seven Sisters houses in the first shoot that did not happen due to the weather closing in on us. The second shoot was at sunrise and the light was perfect.


What is your working history with Vanity Fair?

Ann Schneider, a picture researcher for the magazine phoned me two years ago looking for a dramatic aerial of New York City for their green issue. It was pretty cool shot that the magazine had retouched to show what Manhattan would look like if the polar ice caps were to melt. A couple of months after that ran, Sasha Erwitt, a picture editor, called me to shoot a grounded yacht "The Legacy" north of the Florida Keys.


The Legacy

The Legacy had run aground in a protected zone and the owner was unable to move the boat for close to a couple of years. I flew to Key West and charted a helicopter to take me out to the boat. We shot everything from a few feet off the water to several hundred feet above the ship. The magazine ran several images from the shoot in January 2007, and it helped complete the story. 

A couple of months later, I was in NYC and had a a chance to meet Sasha, Ann and Susan White, the Director of Photography. Last summer, I was assigned to shoot the Anne Bass estate in Northwestern Connecticut. That was a great shoot. I shot at sunrise. The estate is designed around an early American Village and was quite stunning in its layout. It was also the first time I had shot medium format digital in the air, which was a eye-opener in terms of quality but a bit too slow for the way I shoot.


Ann Bass Estate

Which pilots do you fly with?

I have a long list of trusted pilots that I keep and go to it first. For flying in the Mid-Atlantic I always fly with Steve Bussman of Heloflights in Virginia, or Helo Air in Richmond or Hampton Roads Charter in the Norfolk area. In NYC I fly with a couple of guys out of Teterboro or I will fly Steve and his Hughes 500C up to the city. I also fly a lot with the Chief Pilot for a division of Bell Helicopter.

For the VF shoot I flew with Michael Demarchi of Centennial Helicopters in Danbury, Ct. for two reasons-- I had flown with Michael before on the Anne Bass story. I liked his style of flying for the camera and I trusted him. I did not want to fly with a pilot from Long Island given the nature of the assignment. Is it always the same person? No, I fly with a lot of motion picture pilots who know how to fly for the camera.

How have you been able to combine your love of flying and photography so well-- was there a "eureka moment", or did you always know this was what you wanted to do?

The love of aerials came from my first National Geographic assignment in southern Maryland. Bob Gilka, the former Director of Photography, gave me the go ahead to charter a Jet Ranger from the DC area to shoot a Great Blue Heron rookery along the Patuxent River. I fell in love with the combination of being able to shoot a graphic image that also conveyed important story information. Plus, I love to fly and there is nothing better than being in the back seat of a turbine helicopter, working as a team with a pilot you trust and creating images that show the world from a slightly different perspective.


Mountain Top Removal

I've been lucky to shoot aerials for some amazing magazines and clients. Audubon published a personal project on Mountain Top Removal last year along with giving me several assignments that featured my aerial work, Field and Stream sent me to Wyoming last year for a project on the affects of gas drilling on wildlife migration, Wired has sent me to Arizona for an all aerial story. For many years I shot stories for Smithsonian that included aerials and the Geographic has assigned me to shoot the aftermath of several natural disasters for the magazine-- Hurricane Andrew, Mississippi River Flood and Western Wildfires.


What's your favorite image from the VF story, and what's your favorite image from your portfolio?

My favorite image from the story is either the lead spread or the second spread that shows the estate along Mecox Bay.


Mecox Bay spread


From the current portfolio, I'd say, a low-level aerial of White Pelicans in ground effect flying over the Gulf of Mexico coastline that I shot last fall for the Ducks Unlimited annual report.




Can you show us any outtakes From the Vanity Fair shoot?

Oh yeah, how about Mobile Homes along the Hamptons coastline or some amazing hedgerows?





Yes, I love this hedge!

....ahem.

How did you became known for aerial photography do begin with? Are you a pilot?

I have my license but am not flying much these days. I'd like to get back to flying later this fall. I need to become current again and do a new check ride and take a new medical.

I'm not sure how I became known for my aerials other than lots of promotion, getting lucky with some of the contests and a couple of very nice profiles. I've shot four aerial books and have a couple in the works right now. I'm in the design stage for a book on the Chesapeake Bay and should have it published by Spring.


 
Want more? Check out Davidson's personal site, and his work in the PhotoShelter collection.

I had a little conundrum last week, believe it or not, when I had to choose one medium format camera to bring on vacation. I was feeling the 67 format, and wanted something that would truly reflect the beauty of, say, afternoon light in Florence.

Hmm, I thought. I probably want something with low depth-of-field capacity. And nothing too sharp.

But o dear, my Pentax67 is a beast! Heavy like you wouldn't believe!

I brought it anyway.

Like the rest of the country, we were saddened to hear about the news of George Carlin's passing, and felt that we should honor him in some way. We thought and thought, and then came upon an idea; why not research stock repositories for Carlin's "seven words you can never say on television"? Researchers, you know you like to type outrageous words into the search field when you're bored. This time we do it for you. To fairly represent the breadth of the industry, we searched both PhotoShelter and Getty.

The only rule: I had to choose an image from the first page of results. If you don't trust my findings, search for yourself! Some results make sense, some clearly do not. Number 5 is just amazing.

Ok! Here we go:


1. Sh&t


Hunting cabin outhouse.



Businessman holding construction plan, showing thumbs up sign, portrait, close-up.

 

2. P*ss


Three boys show bottles of urine samples during a Saturday morning session run by the LA County sheriff's department.



Person in bull costume using urinal, rear view.



3. F%ck


Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, Panda bears in Washington, DC National Zoo, in act of mating.



Gay couple flirting while washing a car together.


 
4. C#nt (only 1 result each)


A man in shirt and tie stood in front of a garage door with an obscene insult.



ISTANBUL, TURKEY: Besiktas Istanbul`s player Federico Cunti (R) fights for the control of the ball with Galatasaray Istanbul`s player Ayhan Akman.

 


5. C@cks*cker

Anildo the steelworker smokes a cigar.



A fighting-cock breeder sucks the blood out of his bird's head after it received several wounds during a fight 26 February at a Mexico City cockfight arena.




6. M!therf*cker


Gold painted fire extinguisher on wall with funny sign



**NO GETTY IMAGE RESULTS



7. T$ts


Sexy girl on a red bike, isolated on white.

Renata Boeck enjoying breakfast in bed at the Regency Hotel in New York, 1964.


I came upon Slim Aarons' work this morning, and although I had seen his chronicling of all things famous and aristocratic from the '50s to the '70s, it was only today that I realized how deep his trove of work really is.

Aarons is perhaps most well known for his 1974 cult favorite book A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life, which surveys castles, chalets, motor boats and villas that house beautiful people doing glamorous things. Aarons was born in modest circumstances in the beginning of the century in New Hampshire, and thus embodies the outsider photographer looking in. He built his image archive through his work for Vogue, Town and Country, Life, Holiday, and Travel and Leisure Magazine after beginning his career as a war photographer during WWII.

These portraits are glittering and fascinating and I can't get enough of them. Have a look-see. See if you're not in the mood for Rio when you're done. Or a Capote novel.



Circa 1960:  German born American architect Mies Van Der Rohe (1886 - 1969) on the rooftop of a skyscraper in Chicago. 



Film star Joan Collins relaxes with her pink poodle on her pink bed.



1953:  English playwright, actor and composer Noel Coward (1899 - 1973) on holiday in Jamaica in a hired rowing boat. 



Hon Desmond Guinness in his recently acquired home Leixlip Castle, Co Kildare, Ireland with his children Marina and Patrick. Their mother is Princess Marie Gabrielle von Urach.  Holiday Magazine - 1963.



1977:  At the 16th hole on Pebble Beach golf course, singer and film star Bing Crosby (in red) and A Thomas Taylor.

You all know how I love a floater, so I about hit the roof when I saw the fashion images Jill Greenberg shot for the latest issue of RADAR Magazine. I think this is a darn clever and un-boring way to simultaneously showcase clothes and shoes and the U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swimming Team.

Clothes! Shoes! Synchronized Swimming! Seriously, this could be a musical.

In any case, I tracked down the brilliant photo editor Stacey Pittman at RADAR (also a PS photographer), who produced the shoot, to tell me how it all came together, because man, does that look complicated.


High-tech IM interview follows:

__

RH: Did Jill Greenberg do that swimming fashion shoot just for you guys?

SP: Yeah, I produced it. RADAR loves working with Jill, she also shot Lindsay Lohan for us. Our editor in chief Maer Roshan is a big fan!

RH: It's great, where was it shot, how did it happen, did Jill don scuba-gear?

SP: Outside of San Francisco, Pleasant Hill. We had to do hair and makeup at their apartment because their rival team was practicing and thought they would steal their moves. She was underwater the whole time with a scuba instructor. There was housing on the camera with two flashes and it was a monster, I have a picture of it.

RH: Ooh, you don"t want to share that, do ya?




SP: This is her assistant holding it. Jill couldn't hold it above water but worked it out underwater. She also rented a cherry picker for the overhead shot. It wasn't tethered so she had to come up to put card in to check images. She was also trying to work out a system to have her lights fire using a water bottle and a slave but she could explain that better. It didn't work out but was pretty darn smart. She knew exactly what she wanted - she had a vision.

RH: It seems complicated! Plus, the coordination of all the fashion...

SP: It was kind of a bear to produce because the pool we were going to shoot in fell through the night before I left for San Francisco, because someone had been paralyzed there some years before and sued the city so the insurance and responsibility requirements were insane.

I found another one but it was surrounded by buildings, not grass and blue sky like the other one. That's why the leg and high heel shot goes black in the back, because there was some ugly building in the background. The stylist was amazing though, and had some great stuff and a lot of really beautiful shots didn't make it in because of space constraints.

These are from the inspiring Christian Patterson. I like the fire, unsurprisingly.

Further to our theme today, come these pictures of the "dirty thunderstorm" created by Chile's erupting Chaitén volcano, which started spewing lava, ash, and lightning (!) on May 3rd, after behaving itself for 9,000 years. Who angered the beast?!

From the full story in National Geographic:

"The little-understood storms may be sparked when rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in the plume collide to produce static charges--just as ice particles collide to create charge in regular thunderstorms."

The pictures, by Carlos Gutierrez of UPI/Landov, are pretty incredible. Hopefully people are staying as safe as possible. Today's color is purple.

I went to see a few of the short films at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend, and was so struck by some of the imagery that it stuck in my head for hours afterwards. I always remember images more than narrative.

The seven shorts we saw were all centered on themes of coming-of-age, and the morning after, I felt compelled to pull out Mnemosyne, Bill Henson's 2005 definitive retrospective book from Scalo. This is perhaps my most prized photo book of all; I discovered his portraits of adolescents adrift in the night while a PE at Nerve.com, and was absolutely transfixed. Henson is Australian, and his catalog is deep; included in this book are projects that span twenty years, starting in the mid-seventies, including a project on ballet, body and nude portraits, photographs of street-crowds, Baroque Triptychs, pictures taken in the Australian suburbs and Egypt, Los Angeles and New York nightscapes, and his famous cut-out collages shown at the centenary Venice Biennale in 1995.

But this time, it was the magical compositions of Henson's Paris Opera Project from 1990-91 that grabbed me. I can't quite understand how he was able to make these images; the lighting is simply stunning, and the poses as lyrical as it gets. I did a little hunting around, and found an interview by Dominic Sidhu with Henson at EGO Magazine that answers some of my questions. The most topical:

The figures seem darkened or rather that they are moving in and out of imposed darkness. How do you achieve your effect?
I always shoot on negative film because it has potential for far greater extremes in lighting situations. And also, negative film is designed to be half the process, the second half being the making of the print. More often than not, I make test prints and let them sit around in a kind of semi-finished state. Gradually, my ideas start to shift as to what this image could be about and how I should modulate it formally and technically. It is quite a lengthy process. I go into the darkroom, change the density of some areas, or maybe change the emphasis between various elements within the picture, and push it around.

The exhibition prints don't look anything like the original negative that came out of the camera. My work is all done in the traditional manner in the darkroom; there's no digital technology in there mainly because I do not find it useful for my work.


With the Paris Opera House series, you spoke about a universal primal reaction to music that is beyond class distinctions.
What I was interested in terms of Paris Opera series was that whole strange business of finding oneself with a whole lot of other people gathered in a darkened space, such as the opera, awaiting some special event. There is something quite magical about it. I've always found that people sitting in the dark just waiting for something is the most haunting sort of experience. It seemed to me it was a common experience, a universal thing that everyone feels, really, at some point or another.

Your teenage subjects seem to exist outside of society in an almost hypnotic state.
The reason I like working with teenagers is because they represent a kind of breach between the dimensions that people cross through. The classical root of the word "adolescence" means to grow towards something. I am fascinated with that interval, that sort of highly ambiguous and uncertain period where you have an exponential growth of experience and knowledge, but also a kind of tenuous grasp on the certainties of adult life.

There is a kind of removal in your pictures. It's as if the emptiness in the photograph, the disappearance of detail, and the figure within in it become the focus of the photograph rather than the subject itself.
Well, putting it in other words, the photograph has to suggest, not prescribe. Any work of art needs to do that. From my point of view, art is what almost goes missing in the shadows. It is what is not clearly delineated but, in fact, just suggested. Rather than the clearly described surface detail of a highlight of skin, or the surface of a tree or something, it's when the light slides off into a sort of half shadow and darkness. It is the way in which you somehow have something, but do not have it, that offers the greatest potential.

I became acquainted with Tim Flach's work back when I did a tearsheet feature about the trend of kittens in advertising, and I've been thinking about his Equus project ever since. The series is expansive to say the least; Flach traveled to India, Utah, Iceland, Moscow and the UAE, among others, to explore the origins of the horse. As a photographer who focuses primarily on animal imagery, Flach is extremely interested in the anthropomorphic qualities of his subjects, and especially in the human reaction to the imagery. Much of the work he produces is ambiguous; the nape of a horse's neck could easily be mistaken for the rise of a mountain range.

The allure of horses is undeniable; I certainly spent some childhood years sleeping with a velvet hardhat next to my pillow. But I think these images are extraordinary in their scope and craftsmanship. Abrams Books will be publishing the Equus monograph in October; I'm gunning for a signed copy.


I spoke to Tim about the work:

How long did the Equus project take?
The majority of this work was realized in the last two years. 180 of the 190 images.

How did the project initially come about?
The publisher PQ Blackwell approached me initially, but it was actually that we'd spoken years before when the publisher was owned by a different company, and we'd discussed doing a project. They'd seen my other work and my awards. We discussed a suitable subject, and as you know from the work I've done, with bats and monkeys and pigs, I've always had an interest in the anthropomorphic link between man and animal and the horse was a subject that I thought would be accessible to a broad audience. And as you probably know, it is very difficult to make a monograph that reaches a broad audience and doing a book that's themed around a subject matter is much easier. And I thought that it was probably a good stage in my career to actually have an extended period working around the challenge of one subject; I have a tendency to be quite nomadic, which is to say I pick a subject for a few days and then I move on to another subject. Well, you don't penetrate much by doing that. In the case of the horse book, I would like to think that I looked at the very way that consciousness is linked to that species, and how was that determined, and how that stretches right back to paleolithic times.




How were you able to afford it?
The publisher gave me a nominal advance, which wouldn't really even cover the people helping with production. Essentially, I funded it by doing advertising in between. You have to be disciplined and strategic. I researched it and prioritized. For example, when I learned that there were Zonkeys and Zorses, I chased that idea, and found out where I could shoot them.


Tell me more about the Zonkey and the Zorse. I really love those images.
Oh yes, the crossbreeds. The reason I approached them is that they're animals that can't breed on. You know,  we cross breed a donkey and a horse to make a mule, and it can't breed on. But the donkey has a function-- basically it has low-mileage if you talk about food against how much work it does. So a mule is an efficient breed. We have it because we don't have to give it a lot of food, and it's sure-footed and it's strong. Well, a Zonkey and a Zorse, which are other crossbreeds, don't have any of those attributes. They're merely done because man can do it, and we fancy the exotic. And their mentality is totally schizophrenic; I mean, they're not stable, you can't ride them. The point is, they're bred because people can breed them, not because they have any logical function. I think it really brings in to question why man is doing these things.





What was is favorite image from the project?
I don't know, I have images which I think were rewarding which I didn't expect; I mean, I quite like the blind eye, for example. I feel very pleased with the one that we call "Chestnut Window", which is this horse against a window where it kind of looks like a fake window, but it's actually a real landscape. We lit it to be quite ambiguous. It looks like it's been retouched. The embryos I think do some interesting things, and the horse that was shot going down the track at thirty miles an hour, frozen, where you can see the veins and everything. Or the one where I put on a scuba kit and shot the horse under water. It looks evocative of a Rothko painting. There are certain images where it's less about the interesting photography; sometimes there's something almost teddy bear-like about the horses.














Why did you choose to shoot embryos?
The embryos, the reason the embryos are there-- it's not all about having images for the aesthetic, I mean, they are aesthetic, but for some people they're not easy to look at. But the thing about them-- one of them is circular, it looks like a round planet. Well, that's a live embryo; it was moved from one horse from another so they could save the valuable horse (whose genes it carries) so it could carry on playing polo or showing. They want to breed with the best horse, but don't want to get held up with a pregnancy. I shot this in embryonic fluid. This reason I photographed it isn't just because it looks like a planet and a beginning, and at thirty days look like  baby (and all mammals at this stage tend to look similar), but I'm interested in how it is one thing but also looks like something else. I'm very interested in this idea of ambiguity. The neck of a horse can look like a mountain, but it still looks like a horse.













Why do you think horses are so evocative for people?
We initially hunted the horse, and it was our main food source in Europe; early man painted and drew the horse first. Their consciousness was surrounded by the horse before we even domesticated it. If you think of that, it's so rooted in our consciousness, which is one reason why this was a subject to be taken. But also, if you think of most of the photographers who do horse pictures do treat it with a lot of sentiment. And I think the danger of that of course is that it only offers light and not dark, like a bag of sweets. When the foal is sort of running through its buttercup field and there's some dialogue in the book talking about how it's a "lovely day and it's running to its mummy" or something, I think it at some point sort of clocks people out.



 


I love the closeup image of the horse's eye.  It's very dark, except for the lashes....
I found that one rather curious, because that was done for one of the members of the Abu Dhabi royal family. It was one of their horses. And His Highness keeps showing this picture, which is on his wall, to his guests who come in. And out there, they keep saying it looks like a jellyfish. And he finds it amusing to ask people what they think and they usually say "jellyfish". I think that must be a cultural thing. No one over here thinks it looks like a jellyfish.






More after the jump!

photo by Clay Enos

Since it's kind of photojournalism day here on the blog, and since one of the winning Pulitzer photographs this year happened to be from Myanmar, I thought I'd post a short Q&A session I was lucky enough to have with Antonin Kratochvil. Kratochvil, if he's new to you, is a Czech-born American photojournalist. He is also founding member of the VII Photo Agency. His career is rather epic at this point; when not in Mongolia or Iraq, he's working on issues between the ACLU and the Department of Homeland Security, or bringing his unique style to Ray Ban or Harley Davidson. He's also won many of these awards. And he's a nice fellow, to boot. Below, Kratochvil answers some questions about his photographic journey.


Do you find it distracting to balance jobs that run the gamut of the
industry- photographing Mongolian children for the Museum of Natural
History, shooting a campaign for Ray Ban, going on assignment for
Fortune, or working on a book project? Does the commercial work ever
inspire the personal work, or only vice versa?

To be honest, I don't do much of the commercial work.  But, sometimes I miss a juicy editorial job because I am booked on a commercial job.  You have to commit.  So, I don't, really.  I enjoy different challenges.  Because 70% of my work is editorial, I only get hired for jobs that are within my main thrust, humanity in crisis.  I get hired for a kind of conflict, or social photography.






How has the use of embedded photojournalists changed the images we see
coming from Iraq? Is there any truly objective imagery coming out of the
region now? And how do you think the embedding has changed war photography?

Uh, that's a very long answer.  You know by being a western photojournalist in Iraq it's very hard to cover it, and give a voice to the opposition. To give a complete picture of the war in Iraq, it's become difficult, because the opposition hasn't been given a voice.  And in the beginning of the war, which I covered, I was independent.  I was unilateral, so I got the other side of the conflict, where the embedded got the view of the moving of the forces.  There were two sets of embedded photojournalists; one with Saddam and the other with the invading forces.  A third set was unilateral, meaning independent, and it was a very small percentage. So basically, even though the unilateral journalists existed in Iraq during the invasion, the Pentagon considered these people illegal and they were subject to arrest and deportation.   I was a unilateral photojournalist in that conflict. I didn't want to be embedded, because I was concerned that my opinion would be obscured, by associating too closely with the soldiers.  I think definitely being embedded can cloud your vision and judgment. On the other hand it gave photojournalists unprecedented access and it was up to their objectivity.

Antonin Kratochvil, from Iraq Documentary - January, 2006

Antonin Kratochvil, from Iraq Documentary - January, 2006

The movement and abstraction that your work is famous for is something
that's becoming increasingly rare with the rise of digital imagery and
the tack-sharp images many editors crave. How do you preserve this look
and feel when you do shoot digitally? Have you felt pressure to change
your style?

 No I haven't, because it's actually possible to achieve the same results with digital capture. You achieve the same result, but you have to master the new media.  It takes time.

Your Myanmar prison image from 2003 is seared in my brain. Did the
actual photo meet your expectation/conception of when you shot it? Are you ever surprised at your images when you see them?

 This particular image was a big surprise to me.  I mean, I felt it, because that's how I photograph, I feel.  People asked me how I made this picture, I don't know how I made it, but I felt it.  A lot of my pictures are off the cuff, made through my subconscious.

 

Tell me about your involvement with Project Red. Bono has become a real
international symbol for justice; what has he been like to work with?

Um, Bono, let's see. Working with Bono, is working with a man who stands for the same things as I do.  That's it.

photo by Antonin Kratochvil

I hear you are a big fan of the restaurant Republic. I like the salmon broth noodles. What's your favorite dish?
'Kay my favorite dish is hot beef soup, and fried tofu as an appetizer. My son likes the mint noodles, and my wife likes the duck noodles.

Yum!

photo by Kelly Shimoda, from The Pollinators, 2008

In honor of the almighty Pulitzers, I've spent the morning compiling a list of contests, grants, fellowships and publishing opportunities that are particularly geared to you photojournalists out there. I can't claim all the research credit here; I reached out for help to Kelly Shimoda, of Veras Images, a "collective of emerging international photographers based in New York who have assembled to provide coverage of compelling feature stories, under-reported topics, and significant social trends."

Luckily for me, Kelly is a keeper of the contest list for Veras, and passed on her info. Remember dudes, you must spread your application seeds far and wide to gather the fruits of your photographic labor. Go to it!


*and send me any we missed; obviously there are scads.


In no particular order....


World Press Photo
The contest is open to all professional press photographers. There is no entry fee.
Not only photographers, but photo agencies, newspapers and magazines from anywhere in the world are invited to submit their best news-related pictures of the previous year. Both single images and photo stories are eligible. The results are published on this website. Entry forms for the contest come out in October.

National Press Photographers Association
Loads of contests and grants happening here. Best to go to the site.

Alexia Foundation
The professional Alexia Grant recipient will receive $15,000 for the production of the proposed project (there is also a student category). The Alexia Grant was not established with the single purpose of rewarding the best photographers -- this is not a portfolio competition. The grant will be awarded to a photojournalist who can further cultural understanding and world peace by conceiving and writing a concise, focused, and meaningful story proposal, and who can demonstrate the ability to visually execute that story with compelling images. There is no mathematical formula for determining grantees, but the proposal and photography must both be considered of the highest quality.

The F award
Fabrica and Forma, International Center of Photography (Milan), are proud to launch the second edition of the F Award, an international contest for concerned photography open to photographers from all over the world.

Inge Morath Award
Magnum Photos announces the fifth Inge Morath Prize to be awarded to a woman photographer under thirty years of age. The $5000 prize is given to assist in the completion of a long term documentary project. Inge Morath was an Austrian-born photographer who was associated with Magnum for almost fifty years. She died in January, 2002. As Inge devoted much of her enthusiasm to encouraging women photographers, this award is given as a tribute by her colleagues.

Leica Publishers' Award
The Leica European Publishers' Award for Photography is a photography award, handed out once each year by the photo book publishing firms Actes Sud (France), Apeiron Photos (Greece), Dewi Lewis Publishing (UK), Edition Braus im Wachter Verlag (Germany), Lunwerg Editores (Spain), Peliti Associati (Italy), Mets & Schilt (The Netherlands) and Leica.. To be eligible for submission, photographers must submit completed and unpublished photo projects in book form. The project of the winning participant is published by the participating publishing firms in the relevant country and in the relevant language in a total of 5,000 copies.

Aperture Portfolio Prize
The purpose of the Portfolio Prize is to identify trends in contemporary photography and specific artists whom we can help by bringing their work to a wider audience. In choosing the first-prize winner and runners-up, we are looking for work that is fresh and that hasn't been widely seen in major publications or exhibition venues.
First prize is $2,500. The first-prize winner and runners-up are featured on Aperture's website for approximately one year. Winners are also announced in the foundation's e-newsletter, which reaches thousands of subscribers in the photography community.

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant
The W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography is presented annually to a photographer whose past work and proposed project, as judged by a panel of experts, follows the tradition of W. Eugene Smith's compassionate dedication exhibited during his 45-year career as a photographic essayist. For 2007, the grant will be $30,000, with an additional $5,000 in fellowship money to be awarded at the discretion of the jury. The grant program is independently administered by the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund.

Alicia Patterson Prize
The Alicia Patterson fellowships are open only to U.S. citizens who are fulltime print journalists, or to non-U.S. citizens who work fulltime for U.S. print publications, either in America or abroad. The aim of the trustees who established the foundation was to improve the quality of U.S. print journalism. The fellowship stipend is $35,000 for twelve months and must cover your travel and research costs. Winners are expected to begin their fellowships within the first three months of the calendar year. Fellowships last 12 months.

Soros Foundation: Moving Walls 15 Documentary Photography Exhibition
Moving Walls is an annual documentary photography exhibition produced by OSI, a private operating and grantmaking foundation that works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. The exhibition series is an artistic interpretation of the obstacles--such as political oppression, economic instability, and racism--that society often erects, and the struggles to tear those barriers down. Since its inception in 1998, Moving Walls has featured nearly 100 photographers whose work addresses a variety of social justice and human rights issues that coincide with OSI's mission.The Open Society Institute encourages photographers to submit documentary work of national or international subjects that coincide with the issues and geographical areas that are principally of concern to OSI.

Amnesty International Media Awards
The annual Media Awards recognize excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledge journalism's significant contribution to the UK public's awareness and understanding of human rights issues.

Visa Pour L'image
Many Awards Available, including the Canon Female Photojournalist of the Year, the Care International Award for Humanitarian Reporting, and the City of Perpignon Young Reporter Award.

Toscana Photographic Workshops - Boulat Scholarship
To honor the memory of Alexandra Boulat, who taught  at TPW in these last years, TPW has created a special scholarship. This will consist in the possibility to attend a workshop in Tuscany for free (included room and board - not including travel expenses) and work under the guidance of  master photographers. It will be offered to a young photojournalist, male or female, under 35 year old.

Gordon Parks International Photo Competition
An integral part of the Gordon Parks Celebration for Culture and Diversity will be the Gordon Parks International Photo Competition which has been conducted by Fort Scott Community College since 1990. More than 3,100 individuals from around the world have participated in this annual program that, inspired by the photography of Gordon Parks, reflects important themes in life such as social injustice, the suffering of others, and family values.

Center (Santa Fe)
The competitions are open to all photographers, national and international, except Center employees, board members, advisory council members and contest sponsors.
Work derived from all photographic processes, both traditional and digital, are accepted, as well as mixed media work that is photo-based. Both fine art and documentary photography are welcomed. Work that has been published in book-length form by a photographic publishing house or university press is not eligible for the Project Competition. Previous winners of the Project Competition may not enter again with the same body of work.

The Berenice Abbott Prize for an Emerging Photographer
The Julia Dean Photo Workshops is Proud to Announce The Berenice Abbott Prize for an
Emerging Photographer. Prize includes A Canon EOS Digital SLR Camera, plus all expenses paid for a one-person exhibition at the Julia Dean Gallery at Venice Beach, California.

FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography 
Now in its 14th year, the International Fund for Documentary Photography competition remains one of the premiere photography programs in the world. As the core program of FiftyCrows, the Photo Fund supports emerging documentary photographers whose outstanding ability in visual storytelling leads us to a better understanding of our common humanity.

National Geographic Grant
*do this one next year, the deadline was Feb 15.
Following its long tradition of supporting and fostering new photographic talent, National Geographic magazine will again award an annual grant of $50,000 to a professional still photographer. In addition to the grant, the magazine will assign a photography editor to provide guidance for a project undertaken by the grantee. The grantee will have full access to all of the facilities provided to the magazine's regular contributing photographers.

Puffin Foundation Grants

The Puffin Foundation Ltd. continues to make grants that encourage emerging artists in the fields of art, music, theater, dance, photography, and literature whose works due to their genre and/or social philosophy might have difficulty being aired. The Foundation does not have the means to fund large film/documentary proposals, grants for travel, continuing education, or the writing or publishing of books. Average grants are: $1,000.00 - $2,500.00

 

photo by Lucas Foglia, a 2007 artist-in-residence

You should. Since 1976 over 300 artists have participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program. Be the next, yo.

"Each year Light Work invites 12-15 artists to participate in its residency program. Artists selected for the residency program are invited to live in Syracuse for one month. They receive a $4,000 stipend, an apartment to stay in, private darkroom, and 24-hour access to our facility. Our newly renovated lab facility can accommodate just about any black and white process from alternative processes to mural printing. Our color facility includes a Hope 32" color processor. Our color managed digital imaging lab features Macintosh workstations equipped with flatbed & film scanners. Output includes three 44" Epson seven-color printers (9600 and 9800) that can render continuous gray-scale and color prints onto a broad variety of materials. Artists use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Macromedia Director Studio, Flash, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro software packages, iLife, and more."

"While there is no formal deadline, we complete reviews of portfolios every two or three months. The next review process will consider all portfolios we have received by the end of April. We are currently scheduling residencies for 2009, although one or two spots remain for 2008."

Here are some of the people who have taken advantage of this amazing opportunity:

James Casebere
Renee Cox
Carrie Mae Weems
James Welling
Cindy Sherman
Joel Sternfeld
Dawoud Bey
David Graham
Andrea Modica
Lisa M. Robinson

Not too shabby. And there are tons more.

Each week, we'll be discussing an ad campaign that has been deemed especially noteworthy by an industry professional. This feature will be called Tearsheet. We'll kick off our first installment with input from Amanda Sosa-Stone, a freelance photography consultant. Before moving to Florida and starting her consulting career, Sosa-Stone was an art buyer at Foote, Cone & Belding in New York. As a consultant, Sosa-Stone advises photographers on portfolio structuring, marketing and promotion, website design, film editing, and more. The lady knows her stuff!  And she's psyched about whiskey. Me, I've always thought it tastes like soap. It's a shortcoming. But I agree with Amanda that the new Canadian Club ads kick some serious ass.

Hey Amanda! Why do you like these CC ads that Robert Whitman shot?

Amanda:  "Robert executed the Art Director's vision to the "T" on this project. With Robert's style and the art director's vision this ad to me was very successful.  With creative copy, a great concept and good photography this is a home run."

 

OK, let's take a look.

First off, I'm pretty happy about the irreverent tone we have here. "Damn Right Your Dad Drank It" is a hilarious tagline. They're treating me like an adult. They're not taking themselves too seriously. Plus, my dad was smokin'! Look at him! This angle seems like it will work for men and women, although presumably a whiskey ad is geared more towards men. So, if I'm pretending to be a man for a second, I'm thinking "My dad was smokin'! I'm smokin' too! Plus, I feel thirsty."

Second, the imagery is outrageously authentic-seeming. Nothing beats a wood-paneled basement with a polka dot dress. These images look like they're really, truly from the '60s. How'd they do that? We'll investigate!

Here is the list of creatives who are responsible for this campaign:

Advertising Agency: Energy BBDO, Chicago, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Marty Orzio
Creative Directors: Derek Sherman, Jason Stanfield
Copywriter: Derek Sherman
Art Director: Jason Stanfield
Designers: Steve Denekas, Jason Hardy
Senior Art Buyer: Liz Miller- Gershfeld
Assistant Art Buyer: Jackie VanWinkle
Print Producer: Linda Dos Santos
Photographer: Robert Whitman
Account Services: Doug Ryan, Marzena Grecki

I spoke with the Senior Art Buyer, Liz Miller-Gershfeld, to understand the process. First, the concept is sold to the client, and BBDO wins their business. This happened in early summer 2007. Art director Jason Stanfield and copywriter Derek Sherman took the lead there.  Then, Liz got involved. I asked Liz if the art buyer position is always clear-cut, and she said no: "It depends on the art director. Art buyer is a shape-shifter role. I've done it for a long time. At its most basic level of collaboration, I'll do a photographer search, and the AD and I narrow down the field together. We bring in some books. I'm very involved in the conversations with the photographers."

In this case, the original idea was to use only actual old family photographs, and not to shoot anything. But this posed some problems. Liz: "Reality comes in and there are a lot of legal issues, especially with a liquor client. Everyone in the image has to be twenty-five. So we looked at people who shot period photography, but we really wanted spontaneity. So we also looked at people who shot reportage." They finally settled on Robert Whitman. Liz had worked with him in the past, and felt that there was "nothing canned about his work." She also knew he'd be willing to experiment until they had the right feel.

Next, Liz helped find a producer who could add cinematic experience to the production. They found a costume designer who understood film, having worked on Walk the Line, and 310 to Yuma. It was critical that the pictures look authentic, especially since they decided to intersperse real imagery with the images that Robert shot. The actual shoot took about a week, and was in Los Angeles.

I spoke with Robert Whitman to see what his thinking was."My approach was to shoot it with old cameras.  We shot mostly with an old Brownie Hawkeye, and found a lab in Colorado that still processes C22 film".

Robert said the experience was amazing, especially since he had the freedom to find the right tone for the imagery. In addition to the Brownie, he experimented with a Contax point and shoot, a Nikon F6, and a Holga. When the final images were made, they were scanned and edited in post to "look a bit more worn".

Liz and everyone at BBDO were thrilled with the results, as was the client. She knew they had nailed it when she got a call one day from someone saying his father was in one of the images, and that the woman he was with was not his wife. Liz's heart sank, thinking somehow a model release hadn't been procured for one of the images that was actually taken in '60s. She was enormously relieved (and proud) when she realized the man was mistaken; he was referring to one of the pictures Robert had made.

Job well done!

See more of the Canadian Club ads after the jump! That link down there. I like that man with the van.