This Week In Photography Books – Aaron Huey

by Jonathan Blaustein

My mother was sitting in her home, recently, minding her own business. Suddenly, she heard a loud thump, and was shaken and concerned. (Obviously.)

Mom looked out the window and saw a majestic, brown and gray raptor. It was lying on the ground, just outside. As she peeked, its last breath escaped into the atmosphere. It was beautiful, she thought. So beautiful.

Later in the day, she invited me over to see it. I arrived, and realized I was looking at a Peregrine Falcon, meant to be the fastest creature known to man. It was perfectly still, lying on the brown dirt, but flies and ants were crawling on the corpse, preparing for a large meal.

“What should we do with it,” my Mom asked?

A fair question.

Immediately, I thought of our good family friend, a Native American artist, who lived less than a mile away on the Taos Pueblo. After a brief call, she agreed to take the bird, honor its spirit, and make sure the feathers were harvested properly to be used in ceremonial attire. Problem solved.

I roughly shoveled our dead, new friend into a garbage bag, and entrusted it to my almost-six-year-old son. He was entranced, holding it carefully, and kept saying, “I like it so much. I like it so much.” He wanted to keep it, so we discussed the taxidermy process, and my belief that the bird’s soul would be sad, trapped on a shelf until we moved or died.

We delivered the cargo in short order, and were promised it would be treated with respect. My son asked for the talons, as it was clear the Falcon was now his spirit animal. (Mine used to be a coyote, then an eagle, but now it’s a snake.) Needless to say, as crazy as the two previous sentences might sound to you, out here, they’re commonplace concepts.

Our collective fascination with the religion and culture of Native America will never abate. It is a permanent fixture in global consciousness, one that enables us all to focus on the majesty that remains in a set of communities that have been ravaged beyond belief. Our collective shame, so much less pleasurable a sensation, gets buried under our obsession with magic and mystery.

Whether or not you forever brand me as a new-age hipster, I’m speaking the truth. Having been around Native American communities since I was a teen, and written my first essay excoriating US policy as a freshman in high school, I speak with confidence. The vestiges of conquest have yet to lift from the broad shoulders of Native America, and the resulting alcoholism, drug and sexual abuse, and internecine violence are max-level-tragic.

I wish things were different. Would that I could make it all better. Would that anyone could. As photographers, image makers, and media manipulators, it’s hard to imagine anyone capturing that spirit of desperation, misery, beauty, and cultural pride. Even if it could be done, would it make a difference? In an age of infinite distraction, if a tree of truth falls on a plain, will anyone be there to listen?

Fortunately, this is not a thought-experiment. Aaron Huey has put in the requisite time, and spent years among the Oglala Lakota in South Dakota. You might have heard of the Pine Ridge reservation before, but you’ve never seen it like this.

The project, which has received much acclaim, is now in book form, called “Mitakuye Oyasin,” published by Radius. Like last week’s offering, this one speaks for itself. I’ve seen bits and pieces of Mr. Huey’s work on the Internet, and admired from a far. But now, I’m officially blown away.

The photographs contained within are supremely excellent, and drip with tension and emotion. It’s a big, well-crafted book, and there are many photos, (and a few inserts,) so I’ll only be able to share a small sample, unfortunately. You’ll have to buy it to get the full impact.

With my eyes closed, I can see a little girl bathing in the filthy kitchen sink, surrounded by dirty dishes, a boy playing atop a trash pile, pockmarked faces and swollen noses, and another boy, leaning out his window, talking to a friend on horseback. There was a graffiti tag that said “All my heroes killed cowboys,” or something like that. I recall a cavalcade of people carrying a fallen tree, a masked gunman, a child pressed against the rear window of an overstuffed car, and a bison in someone’s back-yard.

I’m sure I come off as an ethnocentric American, at times. (I do love this country, though I live in a spot that is far from typical.) Love it or hate it, the fact remains that this continent was stolen, and most of its inhabitants were killed. We cannot change this, so we choose to forget.

The depth of poverty experienced on many, if not all, Native American reservations in this country is a national disgrace. Can it be improved? Is there any hope at all? I don’t know.

I can tell you that if you want to see for yourself what an in-depth reality looks like, this is the book for you. That Mr. Huey is a Caucasian-American has no bearing on this story. He may have a spirit animal, as I do, or he might believe that such babble, out of the mouth of a gringo, is disrespectful and bourgeois. I have no way of knowing.

But I have come to see this weekly column as an opportunity to shine light on the best work out there. Some weeks I’m funny, and some weeks I’m not. Today, I’m just doing whatever I can, small as the gesture might be, to claw back some of our collective ignorance. No matter what you’re doing today, or how pitiful your paycheck has become, there are people out there in far worse shape than you are. And they were here first.

Bottom Line: A brilliant book that honors a culture, and exposes our national disgrace

To Purchase “Mitakuye Oyasin” Visit Photo-Eye

Full Disclosure: Books are provided by Photo-Eye in exchange for links back for purchase.

Books are found in the bookstore and submissions are not accepted.

Art Producers Speak: Erik Madigan Heck

We emailed Art Buyers and Art Producers around the world asking them to submit names of established photographers who were keeping it fresh and up-and-comers who they are keeping their eye on. If you are an Art Buyer/Producer or an Art Director at an agency and want to submit a photographer anonymously for this column email: Suzanne.sease@verizon.net

Anonymous Art producer: I nominate Erik Madigan Heck. I had the pleasure to meet him over a year ago. He has such a thoughtful process and is really going places.

How many years have you been in business?

I started photographing when I was 14, and finding my path in the industry around 23, and since then it’s been about 6 more years of photographing and clarifying what I want to say with photographs.

Are you self-taught or photography school taught?

Technically, I’m self-taught (although I’m not a very technical photographer). I did go on to study photography and film-related media in graduate school. (I received my MFA from Parsons.)

Who was your greatest influence that inspired you to get into this business?

The photographer who I always credit for really whetting my appetite for photography over other mediums in art was Harry Callahan. He was able to create these supremely complex compositions out of very simple elements—and very few elements, I might add. He was the all-time minimalist. However, unlike most minimalist artists, his work retained emotion, and humanity, or a deep sense of love of life. I saw photography as a medium that was actually doing something new when Callahan took photographs, because he had perfected this space where reduction and minimalism were not exclusive to humanity.

How do you find your inspiration to be so fresh, push the envelope, stay true to yourself so that creative folks are noticing you and hiring you?

Honestly, I don’t really pay attention to what I think art buyers or advertising agencies are looking for (that’s who I assume you’re referring to when you say “creatives”). My work doesn’t adhere to a specific time or place, and I don’t think it belongs to a specific photographic and generational movement. In fact, it probably couldn’t be more different from my generation’s photography, which would be easy to argue has very much been defined by Ryan McGinley, and the beautifying and documenting of youth culture. What I think keeps my work fresh is that it isn’t contemporary in its aesthetic stamp, nor does it deal with youth culture. It aims for something much broader, yet at the same time it tries to deal with contemporary ideas about where photography is going and hopefully challenges the idea of belonging to “now.” I think underneath the purposeful beauty of the image lie a lot of questions that are worth asking. Art should always ask questions.

Do you find that some creatives love your work but the client holds you back?

No, clients typically don’t hold me back. I’d like to think if they’ve hired me, they’ve already made a decision to take a risk and are willing to go all in. My work isn’t for everyone. It’s very specific, and it’s not necessarily what the mass public is used to digesting, and I think most clients I work with have come to me for that very reason.

What are you doing to get your vision out to the buying audience?

I release new work almost weekly online on different websites. I’m a huge advocate of publishing online, as opposed to in print. As much as I love the printed object—the beauty of books, and zines, and seeing something in a magazine—the point is for as many people to see and be affected by my work, and the Internet’s reach is far greater any book or magazine.

What is your advice for those who are showing what they think the buyers want to see?

Inherently, art buyers need to be shown what is contemporary by the artists, not the other way around. Artists have the unique position of defining what buyers need, and creating a new mode of thinking and desire. My advice would be to remember as the artist you always are in the position of power, even though it may not appear that way in the commercial landscape anymore.

Are you shooting for yourself and creating new work to keep your artistic talent true to you?

Yes, always. Every project I do is for me, even if it’s a commission. I don’t differentiate from commercial and private work. I see them as always integrated. One ongoing project I’m always working on is photographing flowers, which I’ve found to be one of the most challenging subjects to work with.

How often are you shooting new work?

I try to shoot new work, or at least concept it, every week.

Erik Madigan Heck was born in Excelsior in 1983, to Croatian and Northern Irish parents. He earned his MFA in Photography and Film Related Studies from Parsons School of Design in New York in 2009- where he currently lives and works. Heck is a continuing guest lecturer in both the graduate and undergraduate programs at The School of Visual Arts in New York, and is the creative director of the semi-annual art journalNomenus Quarterly 

Heck’s advertising and editorial clients include Levis, BMW, Neiman Marcus, Eres, Vanity Fair, W Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Le Monde, The New Yorker, amongst many others. His fashion clients include Ann Demeulemeester, Haider Ackermann, Giambattista Valli, Kenzo, Mary Katrantzou, and The Row. 

In 2012 Erik Madigan Heck was a recipient of “The Shot” award, and named as one of the top 6 “exhilarating new talents” by W Magazine and the International Center of Photography. In 2011 he received both the Forbes Magazine 30 under 30 Award, as well as the PDN 30 Award. Heck was also nominated for the prestigious ICP Infinity award in the applied fashion category. Heck is also a past National Scholastic Gold Medal recipient.

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s, after founding the art buying department at The Martin Agency then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies. She has a new Twitter fed with helpful marketing information.  Follow her@SuzanneSease.

The Weekly Edit
Variety: Chris Mihal and Bailey Franklin

(photograph by  Francois Dischinger )
(photograph by  Jamie Chung)

Variety Magazine

Creative Director: Chris Mihal
Director of Photography: Bailey Franklin
Art Director: Cheyne Gateley
Photo Editor: Janine Lew

Variety has seen some changes recently with the redesign, going to a weekly. In terms of keeping the magazine moving forward what do you hope to do with the project?

Chris: I just put together a presentation for the group last week. It started with asking them to think back where they were 5 months ago, proceeded by showing images of old daily Variety pages. Followed by some of the highlights from that week’s issue. In this business we tend to forget how fast it’s moving and how far they’ve come in such a short amount of time. Robb Rice and Nelson Anderson did such an amazing job setting up an informative and smart product, but we need to keep working with the staff to keep it evolving and growing. I used the analogy of buying a Porsche but not knowing how to drive a stick. I figured automobile references were appropriate for LA, especially with our owner Jay. But keeping it moving forward, I think we need to be better at pacing throughout the book, planning, short form storytelling. We’re falling into the trap of thinking of every piece of content as long-form which is a tough newspaper mindset to break, but we’re getting there slowly. Planning is a big issue for us when approach celebrities and getting them to commit to shoots.


(photograph by  Jamie Chung)

You came from managing several different titles both weeklies and dailies, (Creative Director at Asbury Park Press Design Studio-Gannet) how is it to focus just one one project? What’s been your biggest challenge?

Chris: Ya, I came from a big operation of doing 15 daily newspapers and its weeklies with a staff of over 70 designers. In a situation like that you have to accept the idea of picking battles and living with a lot of simple, rudimentary pages and content. At Variety, it’s the opposite. We place a premium on every single page and these books are anywhere from 100-120 pages a week (150 for Cannes). We’re putting out a magazine that’s bigger than a lot of monthlies, so it gets pretty intense but that’s what makes it exciting. On top of that, I walked in at the worst possible time. It was two weeks before we started doing daily issues for the Cannes Film Festival as well as the weekly issue. That was then followed by putting out standalone issues for the Emmys during June which recently concluded. So there have only been a few weeks to focus solely on the weekly. But I think my previous experience prepared me a little for that workload, but it was a very intense first two months.

Tell us about the cover direction, is it mostly image or concept based?  What direction are you moving towards in terms of photography?

Chris: We try and keep a good balance of illustration and photography with the cover. Our stories tend to be more on the conceptual side which is what separates us from our competition, but I’m a firm believer in never limiting our tools to tell a story. I’m lucky to have rockstars like Bailey Franklin and Larry Williams to really think out how to best tell the story visually. We’ve run into subjects that want a little too much creative control, so we’ve taken the approach of finding the right image and pairing it with illustration. We’ve run into the issue of having to visually represent something as abstract as TV Upfronts, so we went with Andy Samberg who was staring in one of the more anticipated shows to be picked up. Right now we’re still building up a reputation for smart visual storytelling and photography, so getting access hasn’t been easy. But the more we shoot and the better we get at planning, the access issues will go away. We’ve done some of that by shooting Samberg, Steven Spielberg was on the cover a few weeks ago. J.R. Mankoof did some amazing work for us when we were doing panels for our Emmy content. But part of me is glad it’s hard to get access because it keeps us balanced with our approach. Otherwise we might fall in a rut of shooting celebrities for each cover and we start to look like every other magazine.

 

(photograph by  Brian Finke)

Heidi: How much movie Hollywood knowledge did you have coming into this project?

Chris: I remember sitting in the first edit meeting and thinking, “What the hell are these people talking about?” Names were being dropped left and right. Variety is well known for developing it’s own terminology, so for the first few weeks I had to preface my questions with “I hope I don’t sound dense, but …” It has probably been the hardest adjustment since taking on the new job. But luckily I have a staff that’s well versed in the industry from years of experience as well as Nelson to answer any stupid questions I might have.

What’s your favorite movie?

Chris: The favorite movie is a tough question. If I could only watch one movie for the rest of my life it’d probably be Fight Club. Norton and Pitt are amazing. Fincher is probably one of my favorite directors. The story is original. And it’s completely appropriate to end every single day with the Pixies’ “Where is My Mind?”

You arrived from the East coast, so far whats the biggest difference is terms of work?  East vs West?

Chris: I think the one thing I’ve noticed is the number of creatives in editorial are far less than what I would have expected for a city the size of Los Angeles. New York goes without saying is the epicenter for what we do, but I didn’t think there would be such a disparity between the two cities. So we’re constantly looking for up-and-coming talent in LA.

Hollywood has a busy schedule, how hard is it to plan shoots and secure time?

Bailey: Scheduling is definitely one of our biggest challenges. We often have only a day or two to put together a shoot from the time that we first hear about it, so we have had plenty of practice working with the subject to quickly assess a situation and come up with the best options available. We also have to be extremely flexible as we frequently have only ten to fifteen minutes with someone, and that time frame can shift multiple times in the course of production. Fortunately, we have a roster of very creative and experienced photographers who are very adept at quickly sizing up any given location and making something happen. It doesn’t always go as planned or hoped, but I’d like to think that we are getting better at reducing the number of clunkers over time.

If I were a photographer, how would I land a shoot with you? and do I have to have shot a celebrity to be considered?

Bailey: To be honest, although we sometimes shoot celebrities, we are primarily entertainment industry focused, so a celebrity portfolio isn’t really necessary. I love getting old fashioned promo cards, and I make a point of clicking on every email link he gets from photographers. We are big believers in taking chances and working with new talent, especially if their work shows a really strong visual identity and flexibility dealing with a range of subjects and lighting situations. The more they can demonstrate the ability to create smart, fresh and compelling images out of the most basic of elements, the better!

Pricing & Negotiating: Portraits of Real Customers for Advertising Shoot

by Jess Dudley Wonderful Machine

Shoot Concept: Environmental portraits of real customers/users on location.

Licensing: National Advertising (Print, Web and OOH) and Collateral use (in all media) of up to eight “hero” images for three years from shoot date. We used specific language requested by the agency: unlimited national print, in-store signage, OOH electronic media and online video use.

Location: Four homes/small businesses in Southern California.

Shoot Days: Three.

Photographer: Seasoned East Coast based lifestyle and portrait shooter.

Agency: Large, based in New York.

Client: Prominent electronics manufacturer with a household name.

Here’s the initial estimate:
Click to enlarge.Click to enlarge.

Here’s how I arrived at those numbers:

Concept/Licensing: The agency came to us with four distinct concepts/ads, each portraying a specific product in use at home or in a business. The client had already selected the talent (real customers), from a casting they did using social media, that considered the subject’s look, their space and their story. The photographer was charged with covering two situations with each person at their home or business; one portrait, posed with product, the other candid, product in use. Since two of the locations were relatively close to one another, we were asked to quote it assuming we could double up the talent and locations on one of the three shoot days.

When determining licensing fees, I usually value the first image higher than the rest. It is not uncommon for a client to build a campaign around a single hero image and then have several supporting images. For projects that feature only one concept/product but ask for alternate talent, wardrobe or slight compositional variations, I routinely set the value of the first image based on the licensing, concept and complexity, then determine a percentage value for each additional image, typically dropping down to 50-75% the value of the first image. The reason being that each of the slightly varied additional images doesn’t go that much farther to help the end client convey their message. In cases where the concepts vary to target different audiences, emphasize different product features, or promote different products made by the same client, I will assign a higher percentage to the additional images, 75-100% the value of the first. In this case, the client makes two different product lines, one for business, one for home. They also make a variety of products within each of those segments. For those reasons, I decided to set the fee for the four portraits at one rate, and the candid variation at 50% of that price.

Considering the use, size/prominence of the client & agency, number of images, various brand messages achieved, volume of work/shoot days, and the photographer’s experience, I set the fee at 8000.00 for each of the four portraits and 4000.00 for each of the candids. For the purposes of the estimate, I bundled it all together as an overall licensing/creative fee of 48000.00. Blinkbid’s bid consultant provided a range of 9450.00-13,500.00 per image, or 226,800.00-324,000.00 for all eight. Corbis quoted 17,500.00 per image for the first year and didn’t have a three year option for the quote pack I’d selected. Fotoquote suggested 30,976.00 per image for the use. None of these resources readily factor in any discount for additional images/variations or the prominence of the client, but they still offer great perspective.

Photographer Travel/Tech-Scout Days: The photographer would need two full travel days and a tech/scout day to get a sense of the locations and talent/subjects before the shoot.

Producer Days: The producer (me in this case) is responsible for coordinating travel, scheduling and crew. This takes the pressure off the photographer. It’s the producer’s job to plan and coordinate the logistics so the photographer can focus on the making great pictures. I estimated two prep days, two travel, one tech/scout, three shoot and one wrap day. When the photographer is traveling, it is not unusual to bring his/her local producer.

First Assistant Days: The photographer would be bringing his first assistant. It is standard for a photographer to travel with a first. Since the photographer shoots with minimal lighting, only one trusted photo assistant was necessary.

Digital Tech Days: The photographer would be shooting tethered to allow for immediate image review and layout composting. The rate included the tech’s fee, a supped up 27″ iMac and all the necessary accouterments.

Equipment Rental: The photographer would be shooting with Canon DLSRs and lenses, basic grip equipment and a few Profoto packs/heads for supplemental light (if needed).

Image Processing for Editing: This fee covers the time, equipment and costs to handle the basic color correction, edit and upload of all of the images to an FTP for client review. Depending on number of shoot days and estimated number of scenarios/images, this rate can vary.

Selects Processed for Reproduction: This per image processing fee for the photographer to handle basic processing (color correction and blemish removal) for the client selects. Anything over and above the basic processing would be considered retouching and be billed at 150.00/hr, which is covered in the terms and conditions.

Location Scout Day: Even though the casting process required submission of scouting shots of each subject’s space, we wanted to get a professional out get some quality shots of each of the selected spaces to make sure we weren’t walking into any unusually difficult scenarios. I also wanted him to check out orientation, windows, and parking options.

Wardrobe Styling: We’d need a stylist to source wardrobe for each of the talent. Two options for each, one for the posed, one for the candid. I estimated two days to shop, three days for the shoot and one day to return. We budgeted 200.00 in non-returnable items for each wardrobe change.

Prop Styling: The prop stylist would need to purchase supplemental props to augment or update each space. We estimated two days for shopping, three days of shooting and one day of return for the stylist, one day of prep and three shoot days for the assistant, 500.00 in non-returnable props per location, and five days of prop-truck/van rental.

Groomer: Since we would only be shooting one talent at a time, we could get away with one wardrobe stylist and one make-up stylist who can also handle light wardrobe adjustments on set (a groomer). We included the groomer for all three shoot days

Airfare, Lodging and Car Rentals: Using Kayak, I priced out airfare & baggage costs, lodging and car rentals for the photographer, assistant & producer. I was sure to also include any taxes, fees, insurance and gas necessary.

Catering: I estimated three days of catering for 12 people at 50.00pp/day.

RV Days: Even though we were being provided indoor locations, I wanted to make sure our crew had the space to handle wardrobe, HMU and gear. RV’s also give the client/agency a space to hang out while shots are being set up and catering a place to stage.

Miles, Parking, FTP, Misc: I included costs for traveling meals, dinners, parking (at the hotel and airport), mileage, FTP for file upload and a little bit to cover any miscellaneous expenses that may arise.

Housekeeping: I made sure to indicate that the client/agency would be responsible for providing all advance scouting, casting, talent, locations and releases. Since these are all elements that might normally be included in a production estimate, I wanted to make certain it was clear that, as discussed, we would not be providing any of them and that the client or agency would be responsible for each.  Lastly, I noted that a 50% advance would be required.

At first, the art buyer told me that our numbers looked good, but then she called back a little later to say that they had another photographer who was willing to give them unrestricted use of all the pictures – for $10k less than we were bidding. She asked what we could do to match that. I have to admit, it’s a little annoying when a client asked us to meet another bidder’s licensing terms. After all, you can find any photographer to bid any price and terms. And it’s not reasonable to expect to have the pictures from one photographer at the price of another. I had a good enough relationship with the art buyer that I was able to call her out on this, asking that she ask the other photographer to raise his rates to meet ours. But, she wouldn’t do that. She also told us that the client wanted to license “outtakes” from the shoot to use on their website. And even though the client only wanted to use them on their website, they wanted the licensing to match that of the hero shots. Not being comfortable just licensing some unlimited number of images, we settled on an additional 32 images. Now, just because a client asks for something doesn’t mean you have to do it. I was pretty confident that my photographer was competing on quality rather than price, so while I didn’t feel that we need to match the other photographer’s terms we did decide to bend, coming down 3000.00 on the fee and including use of 40 images. Adding in the additional processing fees for the “outtakes” actually brought us back up above our original quote.

Here’s the final estimate:
Click to enlarge.Click to enlarge.

After a few days, the job was officially awarded to us and I immediately set to work on the production. The shoot went well and the agency, client and photographer were all thrilled with the results.

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please give us a call at (610) 260-0200. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs—from small stock sales to big ad campaigns.

Time is the raw material of creation

Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating. Creating consumes. It is all day, every day. It knows neither weekends nor vacations. It is not when we feel like it. It is habit, compulsion, obsession, vocation. The common thread that links creators is how they spend their time. No matter what you read, no matter what they claim, nearly all creators spend nearly all their time on the work of creation. There are few overnight successes and many up-all-night successes.

via Creative People Say No — Thoughts on creativity — Medium.

He has on occasion pulled me back from the abyss

Firstly, I became a photographer. This may sound easy but it went against the very fiber of my upbringing. He helped me allow this part of my life to flourish. There have been so many roadblocks along the way that he helped me fight off and allow me to focus my energies on my work.

But most importantly I began to understand myself and my feelings. How I thwart myself from succeeding, how I made others miserable with my anger and frustration, and most importantly no matter how unhappy or critical I am with myself he always believed in me.

via The End Starts Here.

the do-it-yourself disruption has led to a flourishing of book making creativity and innovation

They have resolutely camped out in no man’s land, bring prose that is more than a caption but less than an essay into direct conversation with individual images, allowing each photograph to open up further. And they have rejected the notion that such a product need thump down on your coffee table, and have instead offered us a physical form that can be enjoyed with unassuming pleasure. All in, Soth and Zellar have taken a bunch of obvious risks and delivered something of unpretentious grace and genius, a product that elegantly fits both who they are and the way they see the world.

via DLK COLLECTION: Book: Alec Soth and Brad Zellar, LBM Dispatch #5: Colorado.

This Week In Photography Books – Vanessa Winship

by Jonathan Blaustein

The fire alarm went off in the middle of the night. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. I heard it first from the other end of the house, where the children sleep. It’s loud like a jet engine is loud: in a painful manner that will damage your hearing.

I was doped up on two Benadryl, as my allergies kicked up the other day. I never had them before last summer, but now I suffer like so many others. (From allergies, not fire alarms.)
Aggravated, I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but my muddled mind was afraid the BEEEEEEEEEPING might return.

I knew there was no fear of fire; only that the tired batteries were giving way, having been changed this time last year. My anxiety crested, and then it BEEEEEEEEEEEEEPED again. Before I knew it, a door creaked in the distance, and a crying child soon crept into bed. A good night sleep was not to be had.

So I sit here, now, trying to force my brain to think properly. Deadlines wait for no man, and books need to be reviewed. After three double-espressos, I felt now was as good a time to try as any other. Forgive me if I’m less-than-profound.

Fortunately, I picked a great book up off the stack this week. It should help alleviate your concern for my lack of witty banter. “she dances on Jackson” is a lovely publication, by Vanessa Winship, recently put out my MACK. (I have a love-hate relationship with those guys. Some books are poetic and perfect, like this one, while others stretch my credulity. At least they don’t play it safe.)

The book cover depicts an image of birds and trees. The color is as close to a “Burnt Sienna” crayola crayon as I’ve seen since I was eight. It’s a beautiful color, and yet the only one we’ll see. The rest of the book is in black and white.

I must have mentioned before that I came to photography on a cross-country road trip in 1996. Does that make me a sucker for this type of work? You bet it does. But given that we all still talk about “The Americans” as if it came out last week, I’m surely not alone in this preference.

So many artists are out there at a given time, pointing cameras at anything that moves. Or doesn’t. And yet, how often do we feel that someone has actually added to our overall body of knowledge? How often do we look at a photograph and think, I’d like to meet that person and visit for a while? Surely, I’d learn more about the human condition if only we could chat for a few minutes.

These are such pictures. I loved that all specific references to place were erased. It made me curious where she’d been. At first, it seemed like a Southern-based project, with drippy trees and lots of overgrowth. But, as I turned the pages, I saw mountains, and then desert that looked like here in New Mexico. Soon, Northern cities appeared, and industry followed.

The people within are mostly young, and don’t seem to be on top of the world at present. The landscape photos, devoid of people, share that sense of worn, warm comfort. The bank-type-office built into a dirt berm was a favorite, as was the tree stump adorned with shoes, and the abandoned subway cars sitting still on overhead tracks. Your favorites, invariably, will be different.

At the end, we get a taut, brief story, in French and English, that alludes directly to the otherwise opaque title. A list of locations is also provided, ending the confusion: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. (A pretty solid sample of the US of A, IMHO.)

I’ve been to all, save Montana, hence the sense of familiarity. One photo of some cotton growing along a dirt stretch took me right back to my own big adventure, in the previous century. I remembered a day in Mississippi, and how free it felt to be so unencumbered.

Bottom Line: Excellent, poignant B&W photos across contemporary America

To Purchase “she dances on Jackson” Visit Photo-Eye

Full Disclosure: Books are provided by Photo-Eye in exchange for links back for purchase.

Books are found in the bookstore and submissions are not accepted.

 

Art Producers Speak: Nick Ruechel

We emailed Art Buyers and Art Producers around the world asking them to submit names of established photographers who were keeping it fresh and up-and-comers who they are keeping their eye on. If you are an Art Buyer/Producer or an Art Director at an agency and want to submit a photographer anonymously for this column email: Suzanne.sease@verizon.net

Anonymous Art Producer: I nominate: Nick Ruechel. “I love his work, it has a lot of soul, his lighting is beautiful. He is a perfectionist and the connection he gets with subjects shows lovely in his portraits.”

‘Maximo & Agustin, Brooklyn, 2012’
‘India, Chinatown,NYC, 2011’
‘Rooz, Brooklyn, 2007’
‘Reggie Watts, Comedian, NYC, 2009’
‘Sahr Ngaujah, (FELA!), NYC, 2009’
‘Chico Hamilton, Musician, NYC, 2008’
‘Philip Glass, NYC, 2008’
‘Children in a rickshaw on their way to school, Mysore, India, 2012’
‘Visitors, Coney Island, Memorial Day, 2012’
‘Satmar Hasidim, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2012’

How many years have you been in business?

11 Years

Are you self-taught or photography school taught?

My first encounter with cameras was in high school in Germany as a member of the photography club. We’d get access to Nikon F’s and B/W film and would be sent out on little photojournalistic assignments. I remember once covering the demolition of an historic building which had caused great upheaval in the local community. I had no idea what I was doing apart from rotating shutter and f-stop dials in such as way as to keep the light meter in a viable range of exposure. I felt accomplished because the resulting negatives were actually printable. The club dissolved a couple of semesters later which turned into a 10-year hiatus from taking pictures.

After moving to New York City and graduating from NYU in the late 90’s, I took a job as a freelance talent scout for a record company but I soon realized that I loved music too much to become involved with selling it: I was bored out of my mind. During that time, I purchased an old Nikon F3 with a 50mm lens and a couple of books on basic photographic technique. I began to experiment again: trial and error, roll-by-roll. I would get one or two contact sheets made per week and reviewed my mistakes. Luckily, I soon came across a couple of working photographers who were either sympathetic to my autodidactic plight or plain crazy to give someone a job who had no practical experience at all. I started as a 3rd assistant on German fashion catalogue shoots and worked part-time in the equipment room of a major rental studio in Manhattan. I didn’t do much else; it was a full-immersion crash course.

After freelancing for a number of renowned portrait and fashion photographers for about 18 months, I wound up becoming Annie Leibovitz’s full-time first assistant for two years which seemed like transitioning from weekend outings in the National Guard to full-out warfare in the Marine Corps. It was the best finishing school I could have hoped for. After my tenure, I quit assisting and to went out on my own. It was time.

Who was your greatest influence that inspired you to get into this business?

As cliché as it may sound, Irving Penn probably is a central figure in my photographic development. The discipline and integrity of his photographs have always fascinated me. He was a true innovator across so many genres of photography. Penn’s approach to taking portraits still seems to be the basic blueprint from which so many of us operate, knowingly or unknowingly. Arnold Newman, Jeff Wall and William Eggleston are others who subsequently informed and influenced my ideas about the color environmental portrait. The list is long and always evolving.

Not surprisingly, I have always loved film and cinematography ever since I was old enough to be admitted to a Sunday matinée. But it isn’t photography or visual art per sé which motivated me to choose this profession: it’s more the idea that you can bring something fresh and new into existence every day, meet complete strangers through an “instrument” and learn something about their condition, even if it’s just within the span of a brief moment. It enables you to develop a point of view about the constant sensory impingement that is life. That’s my inspiration. I think that’s what aesthetics are, ultimately.

How do you find your inspiration to be so fresh, push the envelope, stay true to yourself so that creative folks are noticing you and hiring you?

In my opinion, staying true to yourself implies that you trust and follow your creative instinct. That is ultimately what clients hire you for. Contemplating too much what ‘others’ may like, can be dangerous to one’s process. This is not to say that you shouldn’t follow direction in the commercial realm: that is what you are getting compensated for. In the ideal case, a client will trust/expect you to bring your personal vision and ideas to the project so it becomes synergetic: a collaboration.

There are lots of good “technicians” in this business. Executing decent lighting and any other part of photographic technique is a function of practice; even a part of the so-called “eye” is part of that. A way of looking at the world in photographic terms (such as composition) can be learned but it doesn’t replace raw talent: it merely supports it. Once you master technique, you should ‘forget’ it and pay attention to what is really going on around you. Creatives want to see a tangible point of view; images which reflect a sense of identity – a thread of sorts that permeates your work. Some people call that ‘style’, although I think that term is a bit limiting (Maybe it’s necessary to be categorizable in order to be successful in this new environment). In the end, it’s externalizing some of what’s inside of you.

By contrast, it’s also very important to be content to do absolutely nothing sometimes. Putting all your emphasis on being prolific can often come at the expense of producing mediocre work. There is a new theory in the field of Quantum Physics which examines how the creative process really works in humans. The first stage is information gathering, the second stage, a state of inertia or ‘incubation’, as it were, where we permit ideas and concepts to proliferate within our mind. It all sounds pretty haughty and theoretical but it does make sense to me. Then again, everyone’s different. If you can produce 20 good pictures each day, good for you. Charles Bukowski most likely wasn’t too involved with physics and he once said: “This is very important — to take leisure time. Pace is the essence. Without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you’re gonna lose everything…just to do nothing at all, very, very important. And how many people do this in modern society? Very few. That’s why they’re all totally mad, frustrated, angry and hateful.” Ironically, he was a very “prolific” writer so go figure.

Do you find that some creatives love your work but the client holds you back?

It depends what shop you are working with: some agencies represent more traditional clients and have to be a bit more conservative in their creative approach. If time permits and it’s feasible, I try to shoot things in a number of different ways from ‘safe’ to a bit more towards the proverbial ‘edge’. Every situation is different and you generally get a good idea at the outset as to how flexible the client is when it comes to creative concepts and their execution. There is a time and place for everything.

What are you doing to get your vision out to the buying audience?

Websites and iPads have replaced much of the physical portfolios photographers were circulating in large numbers only a few years ago. Not having to constantly update ten or more books with prints and sleeves is a bit of a blessing in disguise. Creatives can now pre-screen your work on the web to determine whether your work is consistent and appropriate for their purposes. It’s more productive and time-saving for everyone involved.

Nonetheless, I feel that a face-to-face meeting with a client and showing physical prints is more important than ever before. Nowadays, personal meetings are also an examination of your personality: we live in a world with far fewer jobs and a lot more photographers than ever before. There are thousands of talented artists out there who can execute any given project well. An individual in a position to award you a job will want to make sure you are a nice person and a team player. Nobody wants to work with a Diva/Ego-tripper.

I email images to art buyers and photo editors on a regular basis but I personalize every message rather than ‘mass-blasting’ 5000 potential clients. I think that invites immediate deletion. It seems better to develop a relationship with a select number of people than carpet-bombing the entire industry. Keep it short and sweet. If an art buyer or creative director takes time out of their crazed schedule to click on your message, they most likely want to see one image and a brief message, rather than your life story and half your website. If you have the time, check out the agencies you’re targeting and what accounts they are servicing. Is your work applicable to any of their accounts?

What is your advice for those who are showing what they think the buyers want to see?

As mentioned before, I think in quite a few cases, this approach can put you on the road to confusion and failure: you’ll never truly know what creatives are looking for and things are always changing. You’ll pose that question to 15 people and you will most likely get 15 different answers. Portfolio reviews are a good indicator of this: some people will respond to certain images, others will react differently. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be open to criticism and input: some people might be better editors of your work than you are. I have good friends in the industry who have pointed out things to me that were of great value.

One’s relationship with art is quite personal and subjective. I follow my intuition but regularly get feedback from my agent, peers, and other individuals whose judgment and experience I trust. One can sometimes be too close to one’s own work: others have more distance and that can be conducive to a better edit. No one book is right for all occasions; every possible job you bid on might require a modification of your portfolio, i.e., the addition or subtraction of images which might or might not be relevant to the project at hand.

Are you shooting for yourself and creating new work to keep your artistic talent true to you?

Always. Personal work is essential to my mental health. I always feel compelled to self-assign to pursue ideas that I find exciting and relevant. Coincidentally, that is the work that creatives seem to respond to most enthusiastically. To me, it’s the most accurate reflection of who you are as a photographer. I constantly write down new ideas for new images in a small journal I carry. I refer back to it, re-edit, modify and delete things until I select something to work on.

How often are you shooting new work?

Apart from using my iPhone and Instagram, I try to shoot something once or twice a week, depending on how busy I get with editorial and commercial assignments. It’s not a compulsive thing; I try to relax as much as possible which paves the way for being inspired to go out and putting a good idea into a better photograph.

Nick Ruechel was born in Berlin, Germany and moved to New York City in the mid-1990’s. His photographs have appeared in many editorial publications such as: Vogue, Vanity Fair, Esquire, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Newsweek, Men’s Journal, VIBE, Interview, Wired, Fast Company and others. Notable commercial clients include: NBC/Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, CNN, Bravo and Showtime Networks, AVAYA, Sun America Banking, Hyperion Books, Discovery Channel and others Some of Ruechel’s recent work has been selected to appear in AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY’s AP29 annual, to be published in May of 2013. Besides editorial and commercial assignments, Ruechel has been working on a large portrait retrospective of Jazz musicians since 2004, entitled, ‘I can’t get started’ , a new series of close-up video portraits, entitled ‘Padartha’ and a documentary short film, entitiled “Las Piezas Que Faltan (“Missing Pieces”) He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s, after founding the art buying department at The Martin Agency then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies. She has a new Twitter fed with helpful marketing information.  Follow her@SuzanneSease.

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Photographer Arne Svenson

The New York photographer who provoked controversy by photographing his neighbors through their apartment windows and exhibiting the images in a show has fended off lawsuit for invasion of privacy. New York State court judge Judge Eileen  A. Rakower dismissed the claim against photographer Arne Svenson, ruling that the photos in question were protected by the First Amendment. She also ruled that the images did not violate New York State civil rights laws, as the plaintiffs had claimed.”An artist may create and sell a work of art that resembles an individual without his or her written consent,” Judge Rakower wrote in her decision, underscoring a central principle of the case.

via PDN.

Don’t go to art school

By their own estimation, the cost of a four year education at RISD is $245,816. As way of comparison, the cost of a diploma from Harvard Law School is a mere $236,100. This is embarrassing. It’s downright shameful. That any art school should deceive its students into believing that this is a smart decision is cruel and unusual. Artists are neither doctors nor lawyers. We do not, on average, make huge six-figure salaries. We can make livable salaries, certainly. Even comfortable salaries. But we ain’t usually making a quarter mil a year. Hate to break it to you.

via Medium.

This Week In Photography Books – Patrik Budenz

by Jonathan Blaustein

Tourists just love Times Square. They flock, as if someone was giving out free, all-you-can-eat ice cream. Hordes of people drive, train or fly across the country, just so they can eat in a Fridays. (Or Sbarro) Depending on your personality type, you either find that ironic and hysterical, or poetic and sad.

The reality is, most people prefer to know those things that reenforce what they already believe. It’s easier to fit new information into the tidy, empty folders of a well-organized mind. Juggling juxtaposition and hypocrisy is best left to professional bloviators like me. Most folks from the heartland, therefore, are happy to hit Times Square, take in a Broadway show, and then hop a cab back to Newark Airport.

I mention this, because I recently had occasion to view several versions of Ansel Adams’ “Moonrise over Hernandez,” which is meant to be the world’s most famous photograph. It reads differently here in New Mexico, as we locals always giggle that Mr. Adams hornswoggled everyone so thoroughly. Majestic and magical as the photo might be, it depicts the massively edgy Española Valley.

Española, or Espa, as we call it here, is among the most hardcore places in the New Mexico. It sits along an important drug trafficking route, so heroin is always a massive concern. (Probably an epidemic, but who am I to say.) Mostly, Espa is a rough, tough, La Raza-style place, filled with bumpin’ low-riders and tinted down, jacked up trucks. It’s like a mini-East LA, surrounded by mountains and desert cliffs.

As I was approaching Espa from the South last week, I noticed a billboard that almost made me laugh milk through my nose. (Which is tricky, if you’re not actually drinking milk.) Some poor sap was advertising cremation services, right next to the local movie theater. Honestly. Cremation billboards? $1200 to pre-plan the vaporization of your bodily remains?

Of course, I found it ironic and amusing. (That’s the way I roll.) Perhaps someone else would have found it tragic; that the best way to get people to engage with the inevitability of death was with a roadside advertising message. It’s possible, even, that some old lady drove by, dialed the number, and gave up her credit card info on the spot. (Operators are standing by now. Our fires are the hottest around, so you don’t have to worry about any pesky bones rattling around the urn.)

Joke all you like, Blaustein, that still doesn’t change the fact that death is sad. Right? Well, I suppose so. I’d love to say that I’m so enlightened, I’m anxiously awaiting my chance to decompose into the waiting Earth. But it’s not so. I’m hoping to get as many good years on this planet as I can. (Aren’t we all.)

What comes next is not pretty, at least for the shell that houses our soul. We might not know where our spirit is headed after we die, but there is little surprise about where the corpse goes next. Which is why it’s surprising that I’ve never seen a book like the aptly titled “post mortem,” by Patrik Budenz, recently published by Peperoni Books in Germany.

*Spoiler Alert* Don’t look at the photos below if you aren’t prepared for a little gruesomeness. After last week’s Summer Vacation column, I came at you hard this week. Mr. Budenz’s book is literal, and looks at a succession of human remains at a funeral home. (Could be multiple homes, maybe even a morgue, but does it matter?)

Gray skin, suture marks, pursed lips closed forever, toes wrinkled like they’ve been in the bath too long… it’s all here. The open chest cavity was a bit much, but mostly, the book delivers on the title’s promise. The camera even follows the corpses into the cremation chamber, which is interesting, technically, but also provides a glimpse of something we were not meant to see.

It’s a fantastic photography project, embedded in a well-made, spartan book, that basically shows us something we work really hard to avoid. That’s as good a definition of excellent art as I’m likely to muster up today, sitting on my trusty green couch. Forgive me if I’ve upset your appetite, but there is always time to get hungry again. Until there isn’t.

Bottom Line: Powerful, excellent, morbid photos of dead people

To Purchase “post mortem” Visit Photo-Eye

Full Disclosure: Books are provided by Photo-Eye in exchange for links back for purchase.

Books are found in the bookstore and submissions are not accepted.

 

Being smart is highly overrated, according to Kenneth Goldsmith, the Museum of Modern Art’s first poet laureate.

“Dumb favors re—recontextualization, reframing, redoing, remixing, recycling—rather than having to go through the effort of creating something from scratch. Dumb embraces the messiness of contradiction and revels in the beauty of the ridiculously obvious. … Since dumb has nothing to lose, dumb owes nothing to anyone, and in that way it is free.”

via In Praise of Being Dumb | IdeaFeed | Big Think.

Art Producers Speak: Daeja Fallas

We emailed Art Buyers and Art Producers around the world asking them to submit names of established photographers who were keeping it fresh and up-and-comers who they are keeping their eye on. If you are an Art Buyer/Producer or an Art Director at an agency and want to submit a photographer anonymously for this column email: Suzanne.sease@verizon.net

Anonymous Art Director: I nominate: Daeja Fallas. “She is a good egg and talented”

I was working with a lingerie company on their branding and we fell in love with the song “Cosmic Love” by Florence and the Machine, which lead to the creation of this image.
Billabong recently licensed some of my images to create a capsule collection line of t-shirts. An illustrator friend of mine and I created the graphics using my images and her illustrations then got together again to shoot the collection we named “Coast to Coast”
lucky rainbow!
Raymond Meier and I worked together on this – what an experience! I shot 12 people in Hawaii over 4 days and Raymond worked from New York on the still life. I’ll never forget that!
Michelle, my friend, my silly sister, my little muse.
This was shot on Long Island for a men’s line of surf shorts made from recycled plastic bottles.
Wings
Creating images for a brand of apparel, I really wanted to capture the heat and energy of New York City in the summer. This was an outtake I shot when part of her ice cream fell but it worked out and became one of the images they used in their advertising.
Brooklyn’s Afro Punk Fest
Fall in upstate NY
India Menuez is such a vibrant, interesting young actress. After meeting her and taking a few photos I didn’t feel like we had captured “her” so I ran down to a bodega in Bushwick where we were shooting and bought several bouquets of neon daisies. We pulled the petals off of all of them and I asked her to blow them into my camera lens. When she did I thought, “now, this feels like India.”
Returning home to shoot other female surfers is such a treat. This was made for Free People.

How many years have you been in business?

I finished up my days of assisting and got a studio space in the summer of 2011, so it’s been just under 2 years that I’ve been in business for myself.

Are you self-taught or photography school taught?

I took a few photo classes while in school studying French Lit. When I started to take photos every day one of my teachers noticed and found me an internship at Paris Match, a French news magazine. As an intern, I was given small local assignments. That taught me a lot about working on assignment with edits and deadlines, which was a great education in being a working photographer.

Who was your greatest influence that inspired you to get into this business?

I come from a family of artists so although there have been several photographers whose work has been important to me, my family has been my biggest influence. While in high school my mom bought me a book on photography and showed me the Richard Avedon photo of Dovima with elephants, I’ve been hooked ever since!

How do you find your inspiration to be so fresh, push the envelope, stay true to yourself so that creative folks are noticing you and hiring you?

Growing up my mom would often say, “Mother Nature is the ultimate artist.” My work is, possibly as a result of that, heavily inspired by moods and tone of environment. As nature is always changing, I find my inspiration comes from different places depending on where I am. I love the way the light is constantly changing in New York, throughout the seasons it shifts in position and color, it changes the way my apartment and studio feel with each new season. In Hawaii, where I grew up and spent every day in the ocean, the light is bright and hot and the colors are vibrant and almost glowing sometimes–all of these things affect the way I feel, and therefore how and what I shoot.

Do you find that some creatives love your work but the client holds you back?

I have had the good fortune of working with creatives and clients who have made me a large part of the creative process, giving me freedom to try things and suggest ideas and the ideal environment for me in any working relationship is one where communication is high.

What are you doing to get your vision out to the buying audience?

Although I use social media quite a bit and have had success in using various platforms, I have a weakness for the tangible, so I try to print my work as often as possible. Using different outlets from shooting editorial to printing simple postcards and zines has been a good way to share my work. If someone is drawn to a particular image, I’ll make a print and send it to them.

I remember an art buyer really loving one of my images in particular. She kept returning to it saying “I love this! I can just feel the warmth in this image and I want to live in it!” That was wonderful to hear, so I made her a print.

What is your advice for those who are showing what they think the buyers want to see?

Find your voice and own it! Your perspective is unique to you, so show the images that resonate with you and people will notice.

Are you shooting for yourself and creating new work to keep your artistic talent true to you?

Absolutely. We all start out shooting for ourselves and I think it is important to continue that process and nurture your own creativity.

How often are you shooting new work?

Sometimes I shoot almost every day and other times maybe only once a week–it depends on what I am working on.

Daeja Fallas
www.daejafallas.com
www.tinker-street.com
blog: http://daejafallas.tumblr.com

Daeja Fallas was born in Hawaii and grew surfing on Maui’s North Shore. At the age of 8, her grandfather put a camera in her hands when they set out to drive from Los Angeles to Hershey, Pennsylvania in a Volkswagen bus. Her mission was to photograph every deer and squirrel along the way. Since that summer Daeja has continued to travel with a camera in her pocket documenting the world around her.

Surfing and photography led Daeja and her best friend from Maui to other coast lines and eventually to the small island of Tavarua Fiji to spend their last summer surfing and taking pictures together. This trip led to Daeja’s first published editorial.

Continuing her travels, Daeja moved to Paris where she lived for 6 years completing her studies in French Literature and Art History at the Sorbonne. Soon after college she began photographing her own projects while assisting photographers in Paris and eventually moved to New York where she now resides.

Daeja is represented by Jesse Miller at Tinker Street *.

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s, after founding the art buying department at The Martin Agency then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies. She has a new Twitter fed with helpful marketing information.  Follow her@SuzanneSease.