Image Magazine #02 by The Association of Photographers UK

COMMENT

ONCE UPON A TIME IN A MAGAZINE… Welcome to issue 2 of Image Magazine+, brought to you by the makers of British Journal of Photography for the Association of Photographers. Aimed at image-makers in advertising, editorial and design, we’ve included commissioned work and personal projects – and work that’s somewhere in between. Our feature on up-andcoming fashion photographers, for example – written by Magda Keaney, who has curated an exhibition and written a book on the topic – showcases work that’s made for magazines but expresses the tastes and style of a whole new generation; our portfolio, which has come from Greg White, was shot on assignment for Wired magazine in the TAG Heuer factory. Commercial work is well-paid, and personal work allows you to do what you want; editorial commissions help win advertising jobs but also get you access, says White. “For TAG Heuer it meant I could fly out to Basel, get picked up and have a free run of the factory for a few hours,” he says. “If I had been working on my own, that would have been much more difficult to arrange. As I’ve progressed, I do less and less personal work. The editorial becomes the personal.” With this in mind, we’re also profiling FT Weekend Magazine, which recently won the UK Supplement of the Year at the prestigious Press Awards for its outstanding mix of long-form articles and world-class photography. The magazine stands out for its hands-on approach to commissioning photography, and for picture editor Emma Bowkett, one of the most rewarding parts Portrait © Jonathan Worth www.jonathanworth.com

of the job is sparking off projects that the photographers then make their own. “One of the things I’m really passionate about and which I hope happens – and I know has happened – is that we work on a project with a photographer which then goes on to be a much bigger project for him or her,” she says. “Obviously, there’s that access and introduction to a story that maybe leads to something else. For example, we worked with Reed Young on a project about Muslims in New York, which he’s now forming a much bigger project on and which I hope he does really well with. That’s such a proud moment – when you know you may have had some sort of investment into that personal project.” The take-home message is that photographers are not on their own – there are supportive people out there who hope to help them make great work. And it’s not just the professionals – the AOP is currently drawing on the best of mutual organisations to offer an Open Membership to all photographers and those with an interest in imagemaking. It costs £82.50+ VAT per year, and gives those who take it up 8% of Apple Store purchases, discounted insurance, discounted access to AOP events and portfolio reviews, entry into the AOP Open Awards and – most importantly of course – a free subscription to this magazine. Helping connect photographers to the wider world of resources and ideas, it’s worth checking out here or contacting membership@aophoto.co.uk.

Diane Smyth Editor

CONTENTS

6 BOOKS NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM VASANTHA YOGANANTHAN’S SELF-PUBLISHED PIÉMANSON TO STEIDL’S REISSUE OF JIM GOLDBERG’S RICH AND POOR 16

EVENTS WHERE TO BE THIS AUTUMN FROM BRIGHTON PHOTO BIENNIAL TO THE PARIS PHOTO FAIR

21 CAMERAS NEW RELEASES AND NEWLY-AVAILABLE KIT FROM HASSELBLAD’S GROUND-BREAKING CFV-50C TO NIKON’S D810

26 VICE MAGAZINE

Cover From a story shot for Used magazine © Baker & Evans.

NOW A MAJOR NETWORK OF WEBSITES AND PRINT PUBLICATIONS, VICE RUNS HARD-HITTING PHOTOJOURNALISM ALONGSIDE ITS IRREVERENT YOUTH FOCUS

37 ÉDITIONS DU LIC A NEW PUBLISHER BASED IN SCANDINAVIA, ÉDITIONS DU LIC PUBLISHES BOOKS THAT EMBRACE FASHION AND ART

48 KEEPING IT REAL INTEGRATED CAMPAIGNS USE REAL-WORLD EVENTS AND A GRITTY APPROACH TO ADVERTISING TO GRAB ATTENTION AND GET SOCIAL MEDIA TRACTION

Image Magazine is the publication of the Association of Photographers, UK.

58 NEW STYLE THE NEXT GENERATION OF FASHION PHOTOGRAPHERS IS MAKING QUIRKY, INDIVIDUAL WORK SAYS CURATOR AND WRITER MAGDA KEANEY

74 INSIDE TAG HEUER GREG WHITE HAD JUST ONE DAY TO SHOOT TAG HEUER’S PRISTINE FACTORY FOR WIRED MAGAZINE FINDS COLIN PANTALL

86 WEEKENDER

FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE HAS TRANSFORMED WITH A NEW DESIGN, NEW TEAM AND NEWFOUND FOCUS ON TOPNOTCH PHOTOGRAPHY

99 FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC MUSIC AND PHOTOGRAPHY HAVE LONG BEEN LINKED BUT THEIR TIES ARE NOW DEEPENING ONLINE AND IN GALLERIES

115 NEW FRONTIERS

The Association of Photographers (AOP) is a not-for-profit member organisation representing commercial photographers, agents and assistants globally. Based in London (UK) the AOP supports its members with business and legal advice, workshops and talks, a member forum and an annual Awards programme to spotlight the best in commissioned and noncommissioned photography.

THIS SUMMER A NEW GENERATION OF IMAGE-MAKERS GRADUATED, WE PICK OUT FIVE OF THE BEST FOR SPECIAL COMMENDATION

For more information go to www.the-aop.org

141 THE DIGITAL PLUMBER

PAUL DAVID ELLIS, AKA THE DIGITAL PLUMBER, OFFERS TIPS ON CIRCUMVENTING AN EXPENSIVE MAC UPGRADE

146 AN ENGLISH LANDSCAPE TREVOR PAGLEN SHOWS HIDDEN ASPECTS OF THE AMERICAN MILITARY IN GLOUCESTER ROAD UNDERGROUND STATION

Office +44 (0) 20 7739 6669 Image magazine is the publication of the Association of Photographers, UK.

BOOKS

Social Landscapes in Britain in the 1970s Tony Bock Cafe Royal Books Books are printed in runs of 150 and cost £7; subscription deals are available www.caferoyalbooks.com

Craig Atkinson, a photographer and lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, set up Cafe Royal Books in 2005 to publish “well-finished, affordable, limited and collectible photobooks/zines”. More recently, he set himself a new challenge – to publish a zine every Thursday. That’s quite a schedule for a small publisher, but he’s doing so with aplomb, specialising in “work that documents an aspect of change, be it social, historical, architectural or otherwise”, and working with photographers such as Homer Sykes and John Darwell. The sheer quality of the publications and imagery has attracted critical attention, with photobook luminary Martin Parr describing the outfit as “a great archive of much forgotten documentary photography” and institutions such as Tate Britain and V&A in London, and MoMA in New York, acquiring publications for their collections. Train ride, Scarborough, from the book Social Landscapes in Britain in the 1970s © Tony Bock, published by Cafe Royal Books

BOOKS

Piemanson Vasantha Yogananthan Chose Commune First edition sold out; limited edition (includes a 20x25cm signed print), £120 plus shipping www.chosecommune.com

Piemanson is the last wild beach in France; set up in the 1970s when local campers simply took over the space, it’s now home to thousands of campers from all over Europe every summer. French photographer Vasantha Yogananthan stumbled across the 10km stretch of sand by chance in 2009 and, struck by the simple beauty of the place, returned every year for the next five years to document it. Staying with families and shooting with a medium format camera, his images provide an elegant, wistful insight into life lived for free, and have already won critical acclaim – exhibited in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris and awarded the Bourse du Talent Landscape Picto, the dummy was one of 12 Mack First Book Award finalists in March 2014 and the photobook – published with friends under the Chose Commune imprint – was nominated as Best Photobook 2013/14 at the prestigious Kassel Fotobookfestival. From the book Piemanson © Vasantha Yogananthan, published by Chose Commune.

BOOKS

Rich and Poor Jim Goldberg Steidl, €65 www.steidl.de

“It feels so good to be in my private world,” writes Mitzi Cohen. “The world out there is scary. There are so many problems. I guess my world is a bit isolated, but in my world there are problems too. Poorer people’s lives are less complicated. They do not have to worry about running such a big house, the boot needing constant repairs, or the servants wearing spotless white uniforms. Our lives are paralleled, however, when it comes to it. The pursuance of health, happiness and family fulfilment. From wherever one stands, ones problems always seem important.” The premise of Jim Goldberg’s classic 1985 photobook was simple; photograph rich and poor people at home in San Francisco, then give them a print of their portrait and ask them to hand-write their response on it. The effect is fascinating, shocking, funny and depressing in equal measure, with the poor often revealing their sense of powerlessness and the rich a cold arrogance. The book went out of print almost immediately– this version completely redesigns and expands the original, including previously unseen vintage and contemporary material. This picture says that we are a very emotional & tight family, like the Three Musketteers … Poverty sucks but it brings us closer together. San Francisco, USA, 1979. Image © Jim Goldberg/Magnum Photos, from the book Rich and Poor, published by Steidl.

BOOKS

The More I Learn About Women Lisa Kereszi Available for pre-order, ships October 2014 J&L Books, $29.95 www.jandlbooks.org

Lisa Kereszi is a distinguished photographer in her own right: after studying at Bard College and assisting Nan Goldin, she’s published three monographs and worked with magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Harper’s, W, GQ, Newsweek and Wallpaper*. Here, though, the camera’s been wielded by her father Joe Jr – a junkyard owner, biker and, you get the impression, quite a character. He shot them all in the 1970s and ’80s but only gave Kereszi the battered photo album a couple of years ago, when she was photographing his business for her last book, Joe’s Junk Yard. The contents were, as she puts it, “really a very odd group of images for a daughter to find – pics of biker babes showing off their tattoos, their boyfriends’ bikes and hot rods, and, well, breasts”. Kereszi decided to do something with them and re-photographed them for this book, cropping out many of the women’s heads – partly to protect their identities but also to reflect less sympathetic feelings. From the book The More I Learn About Women © Lisa Kereszi, published by J&L Books.

BOOKS

Bitter Honeydew Kirill Golovchenko Dewi Lewis, to be published in autumn www.europhotobookaward.eu

Kirill Golovchenko won the 2014 European Publishers’ Award for Photography for his project, Bitter Honeydew, which has also exhibited at the Fotofestiwal Łódz and forthcoming Noorderlicht Photofestival. This means it’s been published by Dewi Lewis in the UK, Actes Sud in France, Blume in Spain, Kehrer Verlag in Germany and Peliti Associati in Italy – quite a coup for the young Ukranian, especially given that the previous winners include Bruce Gilden, Dario Mitidieri, Simon Norfolk, Jacob sue Sobol and Paolo Pellegrin. The series was shot at the night markets that pop up along Ukraine’s highways in summer; makeshift constructions called “tochka” – a word that means ‘sales point’ but also sometimes refers to prostitution. “Do you think life is sweet when every car rushing by makes you cough and your teeth grind?” writes Golovchenko in his idiosyncratic introduction. “Soon morning comes, calling you to work again. Can you now imagine to ask the vendor in front of you if the melon really tastes like honey?” From the book Bitter Honeydew © Kirill Golovchenko, published in English by Dewi Lewis.

BOOKS

War Porn Christoph Bangert Kehrer Verlag, €29.90 www.artbooksheidelberg.de

Though small at just 12×16cm, this book packs quite a punch. Including images of horrific scenes shot in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza and Indonesia which have never been published in the mainstream media, it is photojournalist Christoph Bangert’s response to what he’s come to see as Western censorship. The grandson of a Nazi who made World War II sound like one big Boys’ Own caper, he feels he has a responsibility to show these images, he writes, and this book is his way of doing so. The book’s small size, its title, and Bangert’s thoughtful introduction all help mitigate against the charges of exploitation that will inevitably be levelled against him. His sincerity is unmistakable, and one of his strengths is his unwillingness to point fingers – there is censorship, he believes, but the media is just reflecting contemporary taste. Bangert freely admits he can’t remember taking some of the shots – and asks, if he can’t remember taking them, and the public at large can’t see them, how can any of us get to grips with contemporary conflict and suffering? The corpse of a civilian who appears to have been an innocent bystander lies in the street after a gun battle in central Kabul. Three suicide bombers attacked a police station, killing nine and injuring ten others. 18 June 2011, Kabul, Afghanistan. Image © Christoph Bangert, from the book War Porn, published by Kehrer Verlag.

BOOKS

The First World War in Colour Edited by Peter Walther Taschen, $59.99 www.taschen.com

Recently there has been a rash of early colour books – First World War in Colour offers a new twist by gathering together autochrome photographs of the Great War, shot by a small group pioneering the then recently invented technique. Showing the conflict from both sides, and depicting civilians and ruined cities as well as soldiers, it brings the war much closer to home than the familiar black-and-white shots – and it doesn’t. The autochrome process required relatively long exposures, so all of the images were carefully set up and have a stilted, stagey feel because of it; even so the shots, painstakingly put together from archives in Europe, the US and Australia, provide a fascinating insight into a conflict fast disappearing from living memory. Motorised gun carriage with an anti-aircraft gun, Verdun, 1916. From the book The First World War in Colour by Peter Walther, published by Taschen.

BOOKS

Hyenas of the Battlefield, Machines in the Garden Lisa Barnard Gost Books, £35 www.gostbooks.com

Lisa Barnard has been quietly working away on this major book for years – a study of the ‘unholy alliance’ between the military, the entertainment industry and technology, it includes grabs from American military simulations, shots taken at arms fairs, the apparently innocuous landscape in which drone operators work (just outside Las Vegas), and the remnants of drone attacks. A fascinating but chilling look at war in the 21st century, part of its trick is to show how little can be shown – how seamlessly war is integrated into Western lives, but also what little impact it has on them. Barnard won a major prize to make this book back in 2012 – the Albert Renger-Patzsch Prize, awarded once every three years by The Dietrich Oppenberg Stiftung, which is affiliated to the prestigious Museum Folkwang. Primitive Piece #1: Hellfire missile fragment from Waziristan. From the book Hyenas of the Battlefield, Machines in the Garden © Lisa Barnard.

BOOKS

Pictorialism Glen Luchford Rizzoli, $125 www.rizzoliusa.com

Born in Sussex in 1968, Glen Luchford moved to London to pursue fashion photography when he was just 19. He soon fell in with The Face, the iconic magazine of the time, and by 1997 had signed an exclusive two-year contract with Prada to shoot its ad campaigns. Though he’s still in his 40s, he’s undoubtedly one of the world’s top fashion photographers, commissioned by brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Chloe, Givenchy and Joseph, and magazines such as Vogue, The Gentlewoman, Self Service, Purple, Love and many others. He’s also been embraced by the art world – his collaborations with painter Jenny Saville have been exhibited at the Gagosian Gallery and the Victoria & Albert in London, and MoMA in New York, and he published his first book, Glen Luchford Photography, with SteidlDangin. This book compiles highlights from Luchford’s 33year career so far and adds a distinctly personal touch, including tear sheets, prints, Polaroids and other ephemera collected along the way. A spread from Glen Luchford’s book Pictorialism, which combines the photographer’s classic images with pages from his scrapbooks. Images © Glen Luchford, from the book Pictorialism published by Rizzoli.

EVENTS

Brighton Photo Biennial 04 October – 02 November www.bpb.org.uk

Britain’s largest photo festival is back this autumn, with a series of exhibitions, talks and events based on the idea of Community, Collectives & Collaborations. True to the spirit of the theme there’s no guest curator, instead Photoworks (which has organised the festival since 2012) has collaborated with groups such as the Market Photo Workshop, Joburg Photo Umbrella, Archive of Modern Conflict and Burn My Eye to commission new work, exhibit images produced by collectives, or unearth archival work by long-forgotten organisations. Kalpesh Lathigra and Thabiso Sekgala were commissioned to shoot similar concerns in two separate locations in South Africa and Brighton, for example, while photographer Jan von Holleben collaborated with young locals to make playful images toying with the history of photography. Roger Hargreaves and Federica Chiocchetti were asked by Archive of Modern Conflict to curate an exhibition of images by photographers working for Team Editorial Services in Italy in the 1970s; David Alan Mellor contributes another archive show, looking at the documentary work of the Co-Optic group of the mid-1970s, which included Martin Parr, Daniel Meadows, SirkkaLiisa Konttinen, Nick Hedges, Fay Godwin, Paul Hill, Ron McCormick and Gerry Badger. Contemplation, 2014 © Julie Cockburn, who’s a member of the Uncertain States collective. From the exhibition Five Contemporary Photography Collectives at Brighton Photo Biennial.

EVENTS

Guernsey Photography Festival 18 September – 18 October www.guernseyphotographyfestival.com

Held on a small island, and now in its fourth edition, Guernsey Photography Festival looks set to punch well above its weight this autumn, with an impressive roster of exhibitions looking at the theme of Faith, Family and Community. Michelle Sank has been commissioned to make new work, looking at the isolated Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes Guernsey, Sark, Alderney and Herm. This work follows a six-month residency she’s already completed on Jersey, initiated by Société Jersiaise and its Archisle programme. New work shot by Michelle Sank on commission for the Guernsey Photography Festival. Image © Michelle Sank.

EVENTS

Photography Oxford Festival 14 September – 05 October www.photographyoxford.co.uk

This September a new festival opens in the UK – the Photography Oxford Festival. Founded by photojournalist Robin Laurance, and with Colin Jacobson (former picture editor of The Observer Magazine and The Independent Magazine) and Francis Hodgson (the FT’s photography writer) on its organising committee, it’s got a strong bent towards photojournalism and a great series of talks and lectures. The festival’s major coup is getting England’s only World Press Photo exhibition; it’s also presenting solo shows by photographers such as Robin Hammond, Laura El-Tantawy and Mimi Mollica. Group exhibitions include On Solid Ground, which collects work by seven Panos Pictures photographers asking refugees and disaster survivors what home means to them. In total there are 23 exhibitions, held in venues across Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University and institutions such as Modern Art Oxford. The busy events programme includes contributions from experts such as Jessica Crombie (head of film and photography at Save the Children), David Campany (the writer and academic) and photographers such as Stuart Franklin, Jason Larkin and Peter Kennard. Brothers © Wendy Sacks, which will go on show in an exhibition called Photography & Healing at Photography Oxford’s inaugural festival.

EVENTS

Paris Photo 13 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 16 November www.parisphoto.com

Paris Photo is back, and the calibre of the galleries involved, the excellent talks and exhibitions programme, and the host of fringe events make it increasingly essential. This year the fair will feature 19 solo shows, by famous artists such as Joachim Schmid, Margaret Bourke-White, Roger Ballen, Mona Kuhn, Todd Hido and Trent Parke as well as less well-known artists from further afield, such as Chilean photographer Paz Errazuriz, Ukrainian photographer Stephan Crasneanscki (who is based in New York) and Syrian photographer Hrair Sarkissian (who is based in London). Paris Photo is also a great place to catch up on the best new photobooks, with 24 respected publishers and booksellers picking out their favourite new publications and the fair joining forces with Aperture Foundation to create a PhotoBook Awards. Beyond Paris Photo, ventures such as Off Print provide an excellent place to find artist books and zines far beyond the mainstream. Portrait of Qusuquzah ÂŠ Mickalene Thomas and courtesy Galerie Nathalia Obadia, which will be showing this work at Paris Photo.

CAMERAS

Sigma Quattro dp2 www.sigmaphoto.com

Sigma’s new range of Quattro compact cameras was launched a little while ago, but it has only just announced the pricing and availability of the first – the dp2 Quattro, available for $999. It’s a curious-looking camera, with a radical design that incorporates a new APS-C Foveon X3 Quattro sensor that measures 23.5×15.7mm and “uniquely records red, green and blue wavelengths at each pixel location within three layers”. Sigma claims this will give exceptional results and bump the resolution up to “a Bayer equivalent of a 39MP conventional sensor”. This sensor is paired with a new TRUE III image-processing engine. Like Sigma’s previous compacts, the Quattro dp2 features a fixed lens designed specifically for the sensor – in this case a 30mm f/2.8. The camera’s sensitivity ranges from ISO100 to ISO64,000.

CAMERAS

Hasselblad CFV-50c www.hasselblad.co.uk

Hasselblad has announced the CFV-50c – a CMOS sensor-based digital back designed to work on almost every V camera made by the company since 1957. The CFV-50c comes with a price tag of €11,000 (around £8716), and Hasselblad claims it boasts the same features and performance as the acclaimed H5D-50c camera. Key features include a CMOS sensor with ISO values up to 6400; a large high-resolution LCD screen; a higher frame rate than earlier CCD-based CFV backs; live video in Phocus in colour; a remote control option from Phocus using a 500EL-type or 503CW with winder; a new menu system and button layout; 90-degree viewfinders (photographers can use the PM90 and PME90 viewfinders for easier portrait or vertical shooting); and a 12.5-megapixel JPEG option in addition to the raw file.

CAMERAS

Nikon D810 imaging.nikon.com

Nikon has released a new DSLR, the D810. Featuring a new FX-format sensor and the same Expeed 4 image-processing used in the D4S, it offers 36.3 megapixels and a wide ISO range â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from ISO64 to ISO12,800, which can be extended to ISO32 to ISO51,200 equivalent. The camera features a multi-CAM 3500FX 51-point AF system and a new group area AF mode and that, plus faster continuous shooting speeds, means it should be possible to capture precise, full-resolution images at up to 5fps. In addition, the camera can shoot 15.3MP images at up to 7fps in DX crop mode. The D810 records Full HD (1080p) movies at 50p/69p frame rates, with reduced noise, moire and false colour, plus FX and DX sensor crop formats, as well as clean HDMI out, plus simultaneous capture of full-resolution footage in-camera and on an external recorder.

CAMERAS

Pentax 645Z

www.ricoh-imaging.co.uk

It was announced in spring, but it’s finally available – the Pentax 645Z, the medium format camera with DSLR style and (nearly) its price tag. Competing with some extremely pricey rivals – the Hasseblad H5D50C and the Phase One IQ250, which both use the same Sony sensor – it retails at £6799.99 for the body only, or £7699.99 for the body plus DFA 645 55mm f/2.8 lens. The camera features a newly developed 43.8x32.8mm CMOS sensor – 1.7 times larger than a 35mm full frame format – which holds 51.4 million pixels and should therefore offer much greater depth of detail. With sensitivity ranging from ISO100 to ISO204,800, it includes an AF module with 27 sensor points. Measuring 117mm×156mm×123mm, it weighs just over 1.5kg with a battery or memory card – largely because of its magnesium alloy frame and diecast aluminium body, and 76 special seals.

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Juliya Burvinyova taking the Naftalan oil treatment by the Caspian, from the project Caspian by Chloe Dewe Mathews, who won the series category in the 2011 International Photography Award. Image ÂŠ Chloe Dewe Mathews

VICE SQUAD Vice magazine is aimed at a youthful audience, but it tackles serious topics, as well as sex, drugs and rock â&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roll. It has a network of websites, including VBS.tv (videos), noisey.vice.com (music) and Munchies (food). Image caught up with European managing editor Bruno Bayley

VICE

IMAGE: What kind of photography does Vice run? BRUNO BAYLEY: We run everything from fine art

and fashion to reportage and news photography. Relaying new stories, or familiar ones from a new angle, is what we set out to do. We have published some great photojournalism – our South Sudan issue a few months back was, as far as I know, a first for any magazine, including just one article over a whole issue, with work by just one photographer [Tim Freccia] covering a really important and underexposed story. Vice is well known for its covers too, many of which have hinged on our approach to photography and have contributed to an instantly recognisable aesthetic. We have worked with a wonderful array of people – from old-school Magnum shooters like Martin Parr and Bruce Gilden, to genre-defining people like Ryan McGinley, and journalists like Robert King, Ben Anderson and Tim Freccia. It’s an incredibly broad spectrum.

IMAGE: How much photography does the title run

edition’s photo editor or editor, and to have a good idea for a story or some work that’s ready to be seen. As with approaching all titles, it’s never a good idea to pitch something that’s clearly not a good fit. IMAGE: How can a photographer get into the photo

annual?

BAYLEY: Over the last five or six years, we’ve

started to theme the photo issues more often, from the 2010 Still Life issue to this year’s trompe l’oeil. With those strongly themed issues comes a restriction on what can go in; it obviously affects whose work we run. There has always been amazing photographic work in Vice, but I think it’s clear that the overall quality has improved over recent years. We love including work from lesser-known, younger, or up-and-coming photographers, as well as the big names and old collaborators we have on side. That’s what has made photography in Vice what it is today – an unusual mix of content and contributors.

now?

IMAGE: Do you commission photography, or do

BAYLEY: We run photography both in print and online. The work has to be new and unseen across both formats, but there is undoubtedly a difference in the sort of photo albums and portfolios we run online and in the [print] magazine. In the magazine, we can still make the most of photographers’ thankfully undulled enthusiasm for print. The online photography is open to the most raucous, wild and messy end of the work we run. The site also runs great news photos and fashion pieces. The magazine still tends to be the best place within the company’s many channels to see heavier photographic work, in the format I believe still best represents it. But all the magazine’s photographic content also lives online, so it can be seen in the archives on vice.com.

BAYLEY: We do commission photography, usually from photographers we have worked with before who we trust to do a great job. We also send photographers out with our film crews, allowing us to run a story in print alongside, or in the lead-up to, a film’s release. It’s a great way for the magazine and the film guys to make the most of work and content. That said, a fair amount of the photographic work we run, especially in the UK, comes to us from photographers approaching us with new or previously unseen work. Then of course there’s the completed and unseen work we actively seek out via photographers we follow and respect, or at times through independent publishers working on upcoming books.

IMAGE: How much video does the company

IMAGE: Does work that appears in Vice

BAYLEY: Video content is a huge part of our work and output editorially; it’s something that we as a company have been ramping up as much as possible. Running the magazine, I of course tend to work predominantly with stills, but there’s a real effort to make content work across mediums and channels. So a great film can also produce a great article.

BAYLEY: International offices pitch content of all types, including photography, to the New York office for each issue. So when the New York issue comes out, it often includes work sourced from, say, the UK, Mexico, Germany, or any office whose pitch they liked. That issue is then used as a blueprint for all local editions, which have the freedom to run local content on top of, or in place of, features from the New York issue. So a story that runs in the US might not run in the UK or Italy, and likewise a photo essay the Italians publish might be included in the German issue, and so on.

run now?

IMAGE: What’s the best way to approach Vice? BAYLEY: The best approach is to email your local

photographers submit finished projects?

automatically go to other countries?

VICE

IMAGE: Do you pay for photography? BAYLEY: We do. What we pay varies widely and depends on the quality of the work, the sort of work it is, how much we want it, how much competition there is, how much the photographer wants, and how hard a bargain he or she drives. IMAGE: What does the company aim to do with

photography these days?

BAYLEY: As the company drives more and more

towards reporting on the world around us, the magazine still offers an unparalleled place for a certain type of reporting. The company’s aims are broadly the same across film, print and online, but clearly each medium has its own strong suit. Print’s strength is in making photographs look great, presenting them respectfully and pairing them with well-written and engaging copy. I would say the magazine is making the best of its attributes to use photography and photo reportage to cover stories that others aren’t covering as well as possible. Films are a large part of what we do now, but the power of film and the moving image doesn’t replace the power of still photography. They are two different ways of achieving the company’s editorial aims. Regardless of the platform, Vice has always been about telling important stories, and photography remains an important medium for storytelling in both the magazine and online. www.vice.com

Spread by Robert King from the 2012 Syria Issue. The images accompanied his piece on the rapidly intensifying crisis in the country; the issue covered Syria from a wide range of viewpoints, including showing Syrian expats in NYC, refugees, pro-regime teens, rebels, journalists, poets and Islamists.

One of many spreads from Vice’s South Sudan issue – which was dedicated to one extended article on the country’s situation, photographed by Tim Freccia and written about by Robert Young Pelton.

Carlos Alvarez Monteroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photographs accompanied a feature by Vice Mexicoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bernardo Loyola on vigilante anti-cartel groups in the country.

Noah Freidman-Rudovskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portrait of women from the Manitoba Colony opened a long piece on sexual attacks in the small, secluded community.

British photojournalist Spike Johnson’s feature on a small community of US veterans, who – after returning from war – found themselves living in downtown Houston’s sewers and canals.

Giles Clarkeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Prison Pit feature, which exposed the shocking conditions in a jail in El Salvador.

ÉDITIONS DU LIC From Ren Hang’s Republic to Synchrodogs’ Byzantine, new publishing house Éditions du Lic is behind some of the hottest photobooks of the moment. Image finds out more from one of the founders Nicholas McLean

ÉDITIONS DU LIC

IMAGE: Why did you start up? NICHOLAS McLEAN: Éditions du Lic was

founded with a mission to foster and promote underappreciated creative endeavours. Given our two greatest passions in life – photography and print – it seemed only natural to create high-quality photobooks. We saw that there was a sizeable gap in the photobook market between publishers producing budget zines and the masters of the photobook world such as Steidl, Aperture and Taschen. Young photographers found that the step between zine publishers and art publishers was too big to cross. Éditions du Lic is attempting to bridge that gap.

IMAGE: How would you describe your books? McLEAN: Éditions du Lic specialises in the

publication of provocative contemporary titles by emerging avant-garde photographers. Almost all our titles are debut volumes by young photographers whose work is previously either unpublished, self-published or only published in zines. Some of our earlier books were carefully curated monographs, but increasingly we are focusing on ‘project-based’ photobooks.

IMAGE: Are you specialising in fashion? McLEAN: If anything, we deliberately publish

photographers who operate in the contentious boundary between fashion and art photography. The old definitions of photography seem particularly outdated these days, especially when you consider the work of photographers such as Viviane Sassen, Lina Scheynius and Juergen Teller.

IMAGE: How do you find your photographers? McLEAN: Searching for emerging talent as

opposed to looking for established and already editionsdulic.com

acknowledged photographers requires an unconventional approach and a lot of hard work. These days, social media such as Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram, Cargo Collective, Facebook etc all play an important role. IMAGE: How can photographers get in touch? McLEAN: We tend to approach photographers who

we wish to collaborate with rather than waiting for photographers to contact us. However, we do receive a high number of submissions every day. Clearly, photographers who make it easy for us to understand their proposals and research their work give themselves an advantage.

IMAGE: Do photographers pay to publish with

you?

McLEAN: Unlike many publishers, Éditions du Lic

completely finances all publishing costs and never accepts any contributions from photographers. Even more unusually, Éditions du Lic shares profits (after costs) equally with its collaborating photographers. Despite our French name, we are a Scandinavian company and believe in democratic principles. All photographers and bookstore customers are treated equally, and we never negotiate or modify any of our agreements. As a company, we believe in being open, honest and fair to all.

IMAGE: Do you hope to publish more books in

future?

McLEAN: We published a total of 11 limited

editions in 2013. So far this year we have published a second edition and will be releasing 12 art editions (signed and numbered limited editions presented in a clamshell case with a limited edition artist print). We will publish 10 new books in 2014.

Spread from Trauerweide by Eylül Aslan All spreads courtesy Éditions du Lic

Spread from Trauerweide by Eyl端l Aslan

Spread from Flowers Shall Grow by Julie Pike

Spread from Byzantine by Synchrodogs

Spread from Between Us and the Sea by Tamara Lichtenstein

Tom Stoddart: It’s a Matter of Life & Death © Tom Stoddart

Direct Photographic were thrilled to work once again with Tom Stoddart and Reportage by Getty Images on a poster campaign commissioned for The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as attacks on healthcare workers and facilities have become a common feature of violent conflict throughout the world. The campaign, urges people to respect healthcare and healthcare workers in wars. The art director was Anthony Holland Parkin from Getty Images, alongside the ICRC, and the producers were Pamela Nolan from Getty Images and freelance producer Sasha Rickerd. Tom was assisted by Daniela Sbrisny and Chris Cox, the digital operator was Joe Stone and the DOP was Guy Isherwood.

TAP TO WATCH VIDEO (ONLINE CONNECTION NEEDED) IN THIS VIDEO, STAFF OF GETTY IMAGES AND THE ICRC, ALONG WITH PHOTOGRAPHER TOM STODDART, TELL HOW THEY CREATED IMAGES FOR THIS CAMPAIGN THAT DEPICT REAL-WORLD SCENARIOS.

directphotographic.com

KEEPING IT REAL Integrated ad campaigns are utilising the power of the internet and realworld interaction to grab peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention and get social media traction, says Eliza Williams

KEEPING IT REAL

Photography and print were once central to advertising; now brands can talk to customers via print, TV, social media, online channels such as Vimeo and YouTube, and even realworld pop-ups. Entire campaigns were once built on strong stills; in the face of the all-singing, all-dancing power of digital, that now looks a little staid. That’s not to say that advertising photography has disappeared altogether, though – it’s just become one cog in a much larger, more integrated marketing wheel. The winner of the top award in the press category at the 2014 Cannes Lions is a good example, going to a series of posters created as part of a much bigger campaign for Harvey Nichols by Adam&EveDDB agency. Titled Sorry I Spent It On Myself, the campaign was rooted in a series of appalling presents – including a small bag of gravel and a Biro pen – which you could buy for family and friends as a token gesture after you’d spent your Christmas present budget on yourself. Cheeky and humorous, the ads played out across film and print, but the real kick was in the products, which could actually be bought in-store. Adidas’ Jump With Derrick Rose campaign by TBWA\ London is another good example – also launched last year, and also a Cannes Lions winner, it included a pop-up store in London in which visitors were invited to show off their basketball skills by jumping to reach a pair of Adidas trainers on a 10-foot-high shelf. If they could reach them, they won them; the campaign continued online via a short film of the event, and via an elegant set of posters shot by Adam Hinton. Witty and surprising, both campaigns hoped to connect with their audiences and win shares on social media. For while few users will repost overt brand messages (it’s just not cool), when a big company does something unexpected, it can go viral. In fact, social media has become so important to brands that it has started to affect the look and feel of advertising photography; over the last couple of years there’s been a strong interest in the ‘real’, born of the fact that so many people now interact with photography via social media such as Facebook and Instagram. As much of the imagery on these sites is created by amateur photographers, it features real people taking part in normal activities, and this has sparked an interest in the ordinary among advertisers, which has replaced the highly stylised shots of old. Of course this imagery isn’t entirely real in the way you or I might experience it every day – everyone is beautiful, and while the setting may seem ordinary it is usually immaculately presented. “I would say there has been a leaning towards real rather than contrived imagery, but incorporating colour, vibrancy and energy,” says Sarah Pascoe, head of art production at BBH ad agency in London. “A good example are the recent Habitat posters by Frederik Helwig – they embody that sense of authenticity and championing of the individual. “This can also be seen in our ad for Vespa, shot by James Mollinson, which featured a room filled with the eclectic possessions of an unseen man of discerning taste,” she continues. “This reflects what’s happening in real life, with

people embracing and re-engaging with traditional craft skills and celebrating people’s own sense of style. You can see how this translates into still life photography, where once CGI could be the default. It’s about the tangible, and the purity and beauty of actually making and creating for real. For good examples, take a look at Metz + Racine and Ryan Hopkinson.” Both Hopkinson and Metz + Racine specialise in making images that feature ordinary objects presented in beautiful, fantastical displays – another popular trend in advertising photography at the moment. “I would say it has partly come out of the growing importance of set designers and model makers, who have their own strong, creative vision and tone of voice,” says Daniel Moorey, head of print at Adam&EveDDB. “They might also be represented by a photographer’s agent. They have the ability to drive a job forward creatively as much as a photographer does.” For Carl Burgess, it’s a visual trend that’s been adopted too wholeheartedly for too long. He railed against the current obsession with all things vintage or nostalgic in the August issue of Creative Review, attacking them as uninspired and retrograde. “It’s all so safe, and nothing is safer than our obsession with ‘craft’ and the handmade,” wrote the creative director and digital artist. “Speciality bread, gourmet coffee and craft beer – everything is ‘artisan’. Sometimes it seems as though we only equate value with processes that are generations old.” Burgess predicted the imminent return of CG, concluding that: “CG represents the future, the modern, the world as it might be, not as it was. It’s the opposite of safe and cosy. So let’s open the Nescafé Gold Blend, download a copy of Maya, leave yesterday behind, and embrace tomorrow.” Digital displays Whether Burgess is right or not, there is one place where the future has already arrived – the digital outdoor poster. These displays are now taking over from traditional billboards and prints, and advertisers and creatives are having a lot of fun playing with them. The Magic of Flying digital poster for British Airways, which appeared on two sites in London, featured a small child who stood up and pointed whenever a BA plane flew overhead, for example; rooted in the simple fascination all children have with planes, it required extremely complex technology to work. Similarly, when Swedish haircare brand Apotek Hjärtat was advertised on billboards in a Stockholm station, the model’s hair appeared to be blown around every time a train arrived at the platform. These campaigns are not exactly photographic, but they’re not exactly film either, and they are often being created by photographers. Grabbing the attention of passersby in a way that stills ads just can’t do, their aim is to be shared by viewers, whether they do so by talking about it in person or online. “There are more ways to advertise now, so there is more emphasis on making adverts that people actively engage with and share with their friends,” says Moorey. “Brands want to build relationships with their customers that seep into their downtime – they want more active participation.”

This ad for Swedish haircare range Apotek Hjärtat, made by creative agency Åkestam Holst and production company Stopp/Family, used a digital display and ultrasonic sensors to create the illusion that the model’s hair was blown around when a train arrived at the station.

These ads, shot for Habitat by Frederike Helwig, mix slick lifestyle imagery with a quirky, eccentric style. Images ÂŠ Frederike Helwig, courtesy of We Folk.

Still life duo Metz Racine combine high-quality imagery with real-life arrangements and avoid heavy, hyper-real CGI retouching. Image shot for Hermes ÂŠ Metz Racine.

Ryan Hopkinson – who was recently awarded a prestigious Young Gun status by the Art Directors Club, New York – works for worldclass clients but avoids overly-perfected styling. Image shot for Gucci © Ryan Hopkinson.

Sorry I Spent It On Myself was created by Adam&EveDDB Agency for Harvey Nichols, and combined understated still life photography with products that were actually on sale in-store. The campaign won the topÂ award in the press category in the 2014 Cannes Lions.

This ad for Vespa, which was shot by James Mollison and produced by BBH, showcases individuality via an unseen manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eclectic possessions. Image ÂŠ James Mollison.

NEW STYLE The next generation of fashion photographers is making quirky, idiosyncratic imagery that deserves its time in the sun, says Magdalene Keaney, who has just published a book and curated an exhibition about the influence of their work

NEW STYLE

Mario Testino, Nick Knight, Terry Richardson, Juergen Teller, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Mert & Marcus and David Sims – fashion photography at the moment is dominated by a small number of big names who get much of the high-profile advertising and editorial commissions. They weren’t always the establishment, though; in fact, they all originally made their names by making cutting-edge, idiosyncratic work. Each generation has a different set of circumstances to work with, and each individual inevitably does things his or her own way – and that’s more true than ever for the next crop of fashion photographers. Digital technology has made for a radical shift, both in terms of the hardware and software used to make images and how these images are presented, stored, shared and commoditised. The fact that universities now offer BA degrees in fashion photography has also had an impact on who makes this kind of work and how they think about it; in fact, I have a hunch it has encouraged more women into the industry. Beyond that there’s very little homogeneity – technically, stylistically or conceptually – in the work of emerging photographers. Fashion photography is varied, with many finding the courage – and the support – to follow some eccentric routes. The work they are making is incredibly innovative, and that’s what I set out to explore in my book, Fashion Photography Next, which was recently published by Thames & Hudson. A small selection of images from the book was exhibited at Foam over the summer under the title Don’t Stop Now: Fashion Photography Next. I chose three organising principles for the exhibition – artifice/authenticity; materiality; and play/arrangement – all of which help pose interesting questions about what’s going on in contemporary fashion photography. Artifice/ authenticity refers to two of the most prevalent approaches to subject, for example, which are the documentary or personal diaristic mode, and the fantastical or cinematic narrative construct. They sound like opposites but actually don’t divide up that neatly – it might be better to say each approach has a particular aesthetic style, which references a particular history in fashion photography. Jamie Hawkesworth, Chardchakaj Waikawee, Samuel Hodge, Chad Moore, and Tyrone Lebon all take a broadly realist approach, for example, often shooting friends or street casting, and moving confidently between portraiture, documentary, still life and fashion. These photographs have the potential to deal with complex issues around class, sexuality, identity and individuality, cultural or social alienation, or empowerment and celebration, but they don’t necessarily get rid of the fantasy altogether. Alice Hawkins may at times employ a documentary style, for example, but she also uses

role play and tableaux to celebrate her sitters’ sense of style. Immo Klink, meanwhile, offered up a Levi’s campaign that realistically presented a fake encounter with an alien. Narrative, fantasy and cinematic approaches are only limited by the photographer’s imagination and the platform showing the work. Photographers working in this way embrace the artifice of the fashion image and often subvert it to develop characters and stories over long sequences of images. Julia Hetta creates fantastical worlds in which colours can jolt the viewer back to the here and now, for example, while Saga Sig’s symbolism evokes neo-Viking magic. Robi Rodriguez works like a film director whose narratives gradually unfold, while Erik Madigan Heck uses a wide range of techniques to create dreamy, painterly images. Materiality refers to work that emphasises the process of making images and, perhaps surprisingly, doesn’t necessarily mean using digital techniques. In fact, while some are pursuing a hyper-real digital aesthetic that pushes the boundary of what’s beautiful, or even what’s an image, others are returning to analogue processes. Many fall somewhere in between, embracing both digital and analogue techniques as the need or inclination arises. Both Clare Shilland and Laetitia Negre still use Polaroid, for example, both for test shots and for the final edit. Axel Hoedt shoots with large format film cameras, meanwhile, constructing visual effects in-camera, then using traditional darkroom techniques and “mistakes” to create effects such as double exposures. Jonathan Hallam now shoots both digital and analogue, but the rich colour and tonal quality of negative film remains key to his images. Daniel Sannwald’s work is experimental and unpredictable, each commission finding a radical new approach to represent the garments. In some of his most extreme work so far, the figures were entirely deconstructed into pixellated colour blocks. This radical experimentation also makes Sannwald’s work playful, another approach I’ve picked out in my survey. Some contemporary fashion photography is ironic and humorous; some toys with a post-internet world characterised by generic images online and our consumption of them. Photographers working in this way often blatantly intervene in the images they are making, helping challenge the idea of objectivity or truth in photography. Laetitia Hotte’s work dispenses with the idea of narrative to convey a cool detachment, for example, while Hanna Putz – who shoots exclusively with film and natural light – uses minimal backgrounds, plain interiors and unpatterned clothes to get across a similar sense of formalism. The models, who are often her friends, become abstracted compositional

NEW STYLE

elements, strangely beautiful studies in shape and interaction. Brendan Baker and Daniel Evan use composition, framing and colour block backgrounds to create new readings for everyday objects such as earrings or hair extensions. Charlie Engman’s images, meanwhile, are frequently composites that use coloured backdrops and handmade sets to complicate the image and its relationship with the real world. In Jacob Sutton’s photographs, the human body is put through its paces to demonstrate balance, cause and effect, motion, gravity and speed. Many of these photographers are little-known outside the industry, but they’re creating work that’s vital, progressive and dynamic. The book and the exhibition were my opportunity to celebrate their images and, hopefully, help propel them towards the future. In Print Fashion Photography Next by Magdalene Keaney is published by Thames & Hudson, priced at £24.95. On Show Don’t Stop Now: Fashion Photography Next, curated by Magdalene Keaney, was shown at Foam in Amsterdam from 11 July to 07 September and will open soon at the Fashion Space Gallery in the London College of Fashion.

Dominga and Isabel, shot for the story Another Country ÂŠ Alice Hawkins.

From a story shot for Used magazine ÂŠ Baker & Evans.

Tracy in the back seat of a cab ÂŠ Chad Moore.

Untitled Grandqvist 2, 2012 ÂŠ Hanna Putz, courtesy of the artist and Foam.

Valerija with flower over whole face 2011 ÂŠ Mel Bles collaboration with Linder Sterling for Pop magazine. Courtesy Stuart Shave Modern Art London and Foam.

Youssef, 2005 ÂŠ Daniel Riera, courtesy Foam.

Pop, 2013 ÂŠ 2014 Mel Bles, courtesy Thames & Hudson.

Flaviana Matala, 2011 ÂŠ Axel Hoedt, 2014, courtesy Thames & Hudson.

Double, shot for Air France Madame, 2012 ÂŠ Laetitia Hotte, 2014, courtesy Thames & Hudson.

Salt Water, shot for Oyster, 2012 ÂŠ Bruna Kazinoti, 2014, courtesy Thames & Hudson.

Adwoa, shot for Stussy, 2013 ÂŠ Tyrone Lebon, 2014, courtesy Thames & Hudson.

Image ÂŠ Tomasz Gudzowaty | www.gudzowaty.com

SHOOT AFTER READING Available now for the iPad. Tap here to download. Tap here to see video preview

INSIDE TAG HEUER Greg White had just one day to shoot TAG Heuerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pristine factory for Wired magazine but, finds Colin Pantall, shooting cutting-edge technology is his speciality

INSIDE TAG HEUER

Greg White is a busy man. When I spoke to him by phone from his home in London, he had just finished an epic seven-day shoot for Audi; he’s also shot for Aston Martin, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz – among many more – and has an ongoing relationship with Nike. And if he’s a highly successful commercial photographer, he’s also in demand for editorial assignments with clients such as Wallpaper*, Dazed and The Times. This series was commissioned by Wired magazine, and shot inside the new TAG Heuer factory in Chevenez, Switzerland. “They were doing a supplement on TAG Heuer watches and wanted as much of a story as possible on the background of the watches,” says White. “So they sent me out to photograph the factory where they’re made.” The commission gave him access but, like all editorial shoots, it had a limited budget, so he had just two hours inside the factory and had to go it alone. That meant he had to do “a quick whiz round as soon as I got there, and decide who’s who and what’s what and get cracking”. “For me the whole place was interesting,” he adds. “It’s nestled in quite a nice little village in Switzerland, by the French border, so it’s quite a romantic place surrounded by idyllic Swiss countryside, but then you get there and find all these high-tech modern offices.” Fortunately, White is familiar with this kind of territory, having previously shot the decommissioned nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, the Svalbard Global Seed Bank on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, and various submarine, satellite and car plants. He also always researches places before he arrives, and in this case had already seen pictures of some of the rooms, but he says he still didn’t really know what to expect because it’s “always something of a surprise”. “When I got there I found a big open area where people were doing things to watches, but it was half empty because it’s a new building constructed with space to expand and because TAG Heuer was still in the process of moving in,” he says. “Then there were different rooms for different parts of the assembly process and they were interesting, especially the rooms for blasting and washing different parts of the watch. “It’s always interesting how things are put together and where,” he continues. “They [the workshops and factories] are either super-clean and high-tech, or dark and dirty – sometimes things can be really raw. You see this polished watch, but parts of how it is put together seem quite brutal. In the TAG Heuer series, for example, there’s one image that comes from a room with blowers, where they blow this metal dust over the watches to clean and polish them. The room is quite bizarre because it’s very high-tech, but it’s covered in a layer of metallic

dust.” Another image shows a machine on castors, its top covered with a translucent blue cover and with fans and steel extraction pipes running along the room’s grey ceiling. This image is from the early part of the watch-constructing business; a later one shows a large spindle on a cutting machine that carves out TAG Heuer’s finely honed pieces of metal. The overall impression is one of surgical cleanliness, depicted in forensic detail. Pared down White uses a Linhof Technika with Phase One digital back on a tripod, and very long exposures rather than extra lighting. “[At TAG Heuer] I probably had around 15 different areas to work in,” he says. “I didn’t take lighting. I use polarising filters and can get a huge depth-of-field with very long exposures – up to 15 seconds in this case. The longer exposure gives a brightness you wouldn’t otherwise get, then I bracket to get different levels of brightness for the final image. The long exposure means movement of machinery can be a factor, but the staff were incredibly accommodating at TAG Heuer and would switch machines off so there wouldn’t be blurring.” Working large format with a tripod, and using long exposures and bracketing, also means he works very slowly, taking 15-20 minutes to get the material for a single shot. White says he prefers this to “banging away a lot of images with a DSLR” because “it means the emphasis is on quality and not quantity”. Capturing most of the material in-camera also means the post-production is relatively quick and simple. “It’s normally about masking out areas, so if the window is too bright you mask it and use a darker exposure from a separate image,” he explains. “It’s not too time consuming or complicated. It’s really the same as doing the work in a darkroom, only doing it digitally with Photoshop.” What really fascinates White about places such as the TAG Heuer factory is their aesthetic – “not the question of how something is made, but the whole aesthetic of how factories are put together, of why this door is green and that machine hood is blue, and why that person is holding an orange cable. “For example, at TAG Heuer you have green machines and blue machines and these very clean white walls,” he says. “It’s fascinating to wonder why this is the case and how these places got made. I’ve always enjoyed getting out into the landscape, but over time I’ve become more interested in getting out into industrial landscapes like power stations or steel mills. You get there and you see all these towers and pipes, but there are hardly any people around. You know something is going on but

INSIDE TAG HEUER

you don’t know what.” This interest in technology is becoming a unifying factor in his work – whether personal or commissioned – sometimes in quite unexpected ways. “Even the car commissions I do connect to that because I tend to get commissions that are based on the personal,” he says. “For example, I did a job quite a while ago for Nike that came about because I had shot a steel factory at night. They wanted the same look, but with [footballers] Franck Ribéry and Didier Drogba. So I shot them in a studio, and then I shot a stadium and I gave it a night-time.” In fact, the different elements in his photography all work together to shape his career and his images – commercial jobs are pressured but they pay the bills; personal work is a release but it also helps win commissions. “A lot of art directors want to see something you’ve thought of yourself,” he says. “They want to see the real you and then that leads to the commercial work. “The editorial squeezes into the middle but is also essential because it helps get commercial work, and gets you access. For TAG Heuer, it meant I could fly out to Basel, get picked up and have a free run of the factory for a few hours. If I had been working on my own, that would have been much more difficult to arrange. As I’ve progressed, I do less and less personal work. The editorial becomes the personal.” gregwhite.tv/landscapes/1

From the series Inside TAG Heuer, shot on commission for Wired. Image ÂŠ Greg White

WEEKENDER

FT Weekend MagazineÂ has transformed over the last four years, with a comprehensive redesign, new writers, new sections and a newfound focus on top-notch photography. Diane Smyth meets the team

WEEKENDER

It commissions pretty much every photograph it prints; it has sent photographers up the Mekong River and inside Amazon.com; it regularly runs uninterrupted eight-page photo stories; and it won Supplement of the Year at the prestigious Press Awards in April. Which supplement is it? Not The Sunday Times Magazine, the Guardian Weekend or any of the other publications traditionally celebrated for their high-quality photography but FT Weekend Magazine, which has quietly but confidently fashioned itself into one of the best places to be seen in Britain – and beyond. When photo editor Emma Bowkett needed some images to go with an article on the Mekong River, she sent Baka Algirdas from Shanghai because “it was the perfect brief for him”; when the earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated Japan, she commissioned local photographer Senoue Toshiki to photograph it: “We’ve got a short lead time, and it meant we could respond to that story in a magazine style very quickly.” FT Weekend Magazine has also commissioned John Davies and Gillian Wearing to make original work, and regularly runs big, beautiful spreads of photographers’ personal projects, such as Andy Sewell’s Something like a Nest and Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen’s The Sochi Project. If there’s a big interviewee to photograph – and FT Weekend Magazine has a lot of big interviewees, from Patti Smith to Angela Merkel – Bowkett calls in world-class portrait photographers such as Brigitte Lacombe or Stefan Ruiz. And it’s not just the big features – what’s most impressive about the magazine’s commitment to high-quality photography is that it applies as much to the incidental and regular pages as it does to the big-hitters. A Walk with the FT, which appears about once a month, is illustrated with commissioned landscape photography, not stock landscape shots; The taste test, which each week compares humble items such as baked beans, chocolate digestives and takeaway sushi, is illustrated with original still lifes not pack shots. “We just strive to be the best we can be,” says FT Weekend Magazine editor Sue Matthias, “And those details do add up to the character of the magazine.” Short history The story of the supplement’s rise and rise begins back in June 2010, when Caroline Daniel – who had worked at the FT “for years and years, since 1999”, as she puts it – was appointed editor of FT Weekend. “At that point, the weakest area of the paper, both in terms of how it was performing commercially and also the look and feel of it, was FT Weekend Magazine,” she says. “So that was the first priority.” Daniel had a number of ambitions for the

magazine, not least to make it more visual and more consumer-focused. “FT Weekend Magazine had always been run by in-house people, and we have fantastic journalists at the FT, but they’re not always the most visual,” she explains. “Their backgrounds are in financial journalism or reporting. We knew we wanted to make a bigger change and bring in someone with a genuinely amazing magazine background.” That person was Matthias, former assistant editor of The Independent on Sunday, deputy editor of the New Statesman and acting editor of the Guardian Weekend magazine, who wanted to turn the supplement into “an intelligent treat”. “It’s a phrase that I had in mind when we were designing and thinking about what we were aiming for,” she says. “The idea was to relaunch the magazine in a new format, which we were lucky enough to do with a physically larger size and with glossy paper, which meant we could display photography beautifully. The magazine has evolved over the past four years, because we relaunched in October 2010, but photography has been an absolutely key element from the start.” Bowkett, who had been freelancing on the magazine for a year, was given the photo editor job and a deputy picture editor was appointed for the first time – at the time Aisha Zia, now Josh Lustig (who used to work at Panos Pictures). Liz Jobey, former deputy editor of Granta, editor of The Independent on Sunday Review, and author of numerous books on photography and the visual arts, joined as a commissioning editor, a role that’s evolved to include working closely with Bowkett on the visually led features; creative consultant Mark Leeds joined art director Paul Tansley to redesign the title. “Sue was very keen that photography take an important role in the magazine, so right from the outset that was a principal factor,” says Leeds, who still works on the publication one or two days a week. “She liked the sort of classic weekend magazine where you have good, strong articles and you match that with a commitment to photography. That fitted in very easily with my view on magazine design, and also with Emma as well.” “We just assumed we would use photography in many different ways,” adds Jobey. “We assumed there would be portraits, because there would be interviews, and there would be features that involved photography at different levels, by which I mean there would be long-form written pieces for which one would find photographs, and there would conversely be things that were photographically led that we would then back up [with text]… “But what quickly happened, and what Sue may consciously or unconsciously have done, was to allow us to establish the idea that there would be

WEEKENDER

six pages at a time, and sometimes more, that could be given over to something visual. And once there was this idea that photography would be given this kind of space, and be respected for being in there, there wasn’t really much dictating what it could be. It could be a book one week, it could be a story from Japan, it could be a set of news pictures; what was fantastic was that it was an empty space, and that allowed us to come up with things.” In use The supplement now typically includes four big features per week, one of which will often be an interview, and most of which are commissioned by the text editors. It’s then up to Bowkett, her team and the art directors to think how best to visually communicate these articles – often through photography, but sometimes through illustration too. One of the features will be visually led, though, and may have been commissioned by the pictures desk, have come from a photographer, or be taken from a forthcoming exhibition or book. These features often carry very little text, introducing the artist or project, or relating to what they’re showing, then letting the images do the talking. “With something like a traditional portfolio of work, often all you’ll need to do is introduce the work and then let the pictures communicate,” says Bowkett. “But it depends. Sometimes we’ll invite one of the FT journalists to write an accompanying piece. For example, for the Primrose Russian photography show [Primrose: Early Colour Photography in Russia, on show at The Photographers’ Gallery in London until 19 October] we asked our Russian correspondent to write a piece about Russian history. That adds another element to the piece which I find fascinating; I often learn so much from it. And it brings something for all audiences – some people are going to be coming [to the magazine] with a vast photography knowledge, others may not.” The food and drink pages were brought into the magazine in the redesign and were “absolutely core to anchoring the back section”, according to Daniel; getting them to work visually was a challenge, says Bowkett, and her hands-on approach to commissioning them came about partly as a result. “The taste test is especially interesting,” she says. “When Peter Bazalgette started doing it we tried out a few options, and I had a long conversation with my art director about it because I felt it didn’t have a personality. It didn’t have its own integrity, almost. “We didn’t want to just use a pack shot or a supplied image because we want all of the pages, and certainly the regulars, to have their own identity, so I said to Paul, ‘You know what would be really great, if we could commission it as a still life’. Selfishly it gives me an opportunity to commission some still life, but also, you know, it’s a small page

– we really wanted to let it have its own character. It was a conscious decision. Felicity [McCabe] now shoots most of them, and she does such an incredible job – it’s almost like it’s her portfolio page now.” Similar thinking underpinned another regular feature, A Walk with the FT, in which a writer takes a walk with a personality and reports back on their conversation – Bowkett was keen to commission it as a landscape rather than showing the figures in the landscape, to give it its own style and help mix up the photography in the magazine. “We do that [show environmental portraits] in the Pursuits section,” she says, referencing another regular spot in which the magazine investigates the pastimes of famous figures. “And there are some brilliant landscape photographers, so it’s really nice to be able to commission them. Also, we’ve got an intelligent readership and it’s really good for them to see the breadth of where photography can go.” The photography special was something Matthias was keen to run the first January after the redesign; initially not thought of as an annual event, it has become “a sort of tradition”, says Jobey. It started off with an issue featuring stories about Britain specially commissioned for the magazine, and most recently featuring exclusive images from Magnum Photos’ work on British industry for the Multistory commissioning agency. In general, says Daniel, “Emma has been fabulous in just each year, making the magazine stronger and stronger with the calibre of people we can work with. Five years ago I don’t think you would have expected to work with Brigitte Lacombe for the weekend magazine.” “We do put our resources into photography because we believe in what we’re doing, but we’ve also found we’ve been rewarded by the photographers themselves,” says Matthias. “Some of the world’s best photographers will work with us for the kind of budgets we can offer, even though they can earn vastly more elsewhere, because they like the magazine and I think they like the way their photographs are presented and treated.” Even so, Bowkett also works with much younger, less-established photographers, sometimes even picking up fresh talent straight out of university. She first met portrait and landscape photographer Jasper Fry when he was still studying, for example, and has also commissioned the rapidly emerging duo Luke and Nik. She will also run work by less well-known mid-career photographers, and commission photographers better-known for portrait or personal work to shoot still lifes for the food or occasional product pages. “I’m always looking for new stories and new photographers and, of course, I would invite photographers to contact us,” says Bowkett. “Photography is supported right from the top [at

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the FT] – from our editor Lionel Barber all the way through Caroline and Sue, and that’s incredible because it allows us to be creative in the choices we make on who we commission.” International But while good photography is strongly supported, the magazine doesn’t have unlimited resources and the photostories don’t have guaranteed places – the visually led stories have to jockey for position (and then for pages) against all the other suggestions in the features meetings. This means Bowkett has to be resourceful, and she often uses local photographers for overseas stories rather than flying outsiders in. She sent Bakas Algirdas to shoot the Mekong River partly because she knew he would make beautiful work, for example, but also because he’s based in Shanghai. When she looked into the logistics, it wasn’t much more expensive to fly him in than transport a local up-country. “We do try to commission within the region, unless there is a strong argument not to,” she says. “There are lots of really fantastic photographers in most places, and it’s nice to give them the opportunity. And if you’re in the region, you know the region, you know the politics of the region, then you’re more likely to be able to source help or advice if you need it. Obviously if there is one specific style of photography you want [from a nonlocal], then there’s no other option, but for me it can work with people in the region.” In fact making sure the photography and stories aren’t British- or Euro-centric is part of her remit, because the FT has an unusually international audience. Two-thirds of FT Weekend’s sales are outside the UK, says Daniel, and although the print magazine isn’t currently distributed beyond Britain, its content is – on the foreign edition arts pages and online. “Although the magazine doesn’t go everywhere, lots of it gets cut up and put into life and arts,” she says. “So I’m not thinking this is a UK audience and a bunch of metropolitan people in London – it’s something that can be read by someone sitting in Beijing, and that’s a really different pressure. You’re trying to write for someone in Japan about the housing market, alongside someone living in Russia, alongside someone who wants to invest in the housing market in London.” The FT is also backed up by an unusually broad network of editorial bureaus, and Bowkett will often work with them on stories outside the UK. The magazine has run special issues devoted to particular countries – for example, Russia, China, Brazil and India – and for those issues, the articles were commissioned by the local bureau editors rather than London staff. These editors then sent the briefs to Bowkett, who worked with them and her contacts to commission appropriate

photographers. “The Russia one was incredible – my contacts book of Russian photographers just exploded,” says Bowkett. “For a start I love Russian photography, so it gave me an excuse to look at mountains of it.” This international focus is set to expand too, with a dedicated FT Weekend Magazine web app launched at the start of July. Aimed at both the UK audience already familiar with the print magazine, and an international audience familiar with the content but not the format, it was carefully designed to make its various sections obvious while uniting them into a whole. “My frustration up until now is that, online, we haven’t made the most of the fact that we’ve got some of the most brilliant photographs in the world, [because] you can’t find it as easily on the website,” says Daniel. “But on the app it’s going to be much better. “Navigation was really important, loads of images – I’d like them to be bigger still because you want to have the full-blown success of seeing what’s in the magazine – and we’re probably going to be introducing a photo essay into the web version as well, so that again you can find it even more easily,” she adds. “The whole drive has been, ‘Don’t throw away this amazing stuff, and present it better in the app.’” Bowkett, her team and the art directors are now thinking through that presentation, as they – like the rest of the publishing industry – work out the best way to do things with this new format. They’re experimenting with “whether we have exploding slideshows, or the standard pull-through slideshows, or features with in-line images”, says Bowkett. “We’re kind of doing it on a piece-bypiece basis because there are no hard and fast rules. It’s exciting but at the same time challenging, but all the features that are in the magazine are online, and now that we have the app they’ll be presented in a more effective way.” It’s an exciting time altogether for the magazine, and the FT Weekend as a whole has also “finally got a brand campaign”, says Daniel. She argues that advertising it separately from the Monday to Friday paper is essential because it’s so different, and bought for such different reasons – whereas the dailies are often bought because they’re useful for work (or even bought for readers by their work), the weekend paper is a personal choice and often read by entirely different people. “The number we always cite is only a third of the readers who buy the FT during the week read FT Weekend,” she says. “My whole reason for having a separate brand campaign is to say, ‘It’s a different newspaper, lots of people buy it who would never buy the FT.’ You have to start to say, ‘Actually, the FT is for you. It’s about stuff you could be really interested in.’” www.ft.com/magazine

FT Weekend Magazine dedicates one issue to photography every January; the 2014 Photography Special was produced in collaboration with Magnum Photos, using images that photographers from the collective shot for the Open for Business project organised by Multistory. Published 04-05 January 2014.

Patti Smith, shot by Brigitte Lacombe to accompany an interview by Simon Schama. FT Weekend Magazine, 25-26 January 2014.

The Mekong River in northern Thailand, photographed by Bakas Algirdas to accompany an article by Pilita Clark. FT Weekend Magazine, 19-20 July 2014.

FT Weekend Magazine also runs stories self-initiated by the photographers involved; this spread shows work from the phenomenally successful Sochi Project, which photographer Rob Hornstra and writer Arnold van Bruggen put together. The FT ran a short text explaining the genesis of the project, and included details of the book and exhibition of the work, but otherwise let the duoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photography and captions do the work. FT Weekend Magazine, 16-17 November 2013.

The Bledington route, Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, shot by Harry Cory Wright to accompany the recurring A Walk with the FT feature. FT Weekend Magazine, 02-03 November 2013.

The Natural History Museumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s early human history show, exclusively photographed by Michael Bodiam for the FT ahead of the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opening. FT Weekend Magazine, 01-02 February 2014.

Still life shot of takeaway sushi, shot by Felicity McCabe to accompany Peter Bazalgetteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regular slot, The taste test. FT Weekend Magazine, 26-27 July 2014.

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FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC Music and photography have long been linked, but as both become ubiquitous in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digitised landscape, visual and sound artists are deepening their ties in print, in galleries and in film. Laurence Butet-Roch finds out how

ERIK KESSELS

A woman stands still in the middle of a minimalist set; as the soft voice of Fiona Jane Burgess, lead singer of Woman’s Hour, fills the room, she starts spilling out the lyrics of Her Ghost in sign language. Even when the music video is muted, her gestures convey the intimacy of the song. The clip is the result of an exceptional collaboration that involves the award-winning photographic duo Broomberg & Chanarin. The two sets of artists share an interest in the ambiguous: Oliver Broomberg and Adam Chanarin explore imagery that is created with a functional purpose yet can’t help but be poignant; Woman’s Hour releases songs that escape straight interpretation. Their association felt natural, almost predestined. “In both cases, whether visually or musically, we try to encourage people to question,” says Burgess. “Question the image – what they see; and question the song – what they hear.” The artists met in 2011 at London’s Paradise Row gallery; inspired to look into their work, Burgess found a collection of handbooks they had put together. One included an image showing women how to defend themselves in the event of sexual assault; cropped to show just clasping hands, this image became the cover shot for Woman’s Hour’s first single. “It’s wonderful to realise how these instructional images, designed strictly to be helpful and practical, take on a different meaning when decontextualised,” explains Burgess. “Some of them looked more violent, others more poetic. “When you first see the artwork for Our Love Has No Rhythm, the two hands evoke feelings of unity, strength, even love. However, the full image is about a woman being attacked and having to defend herself. Depending on how you read the image, you interpret the lyrics differently.” Off to a great start, the collaboration between these visual and musical artists has endured, and a sophisticated identity has emerged for the band. “We have been following our nose – we started a thread that we’re slowly unravelling, without knowing where it’s leading. It hasn’t been strategised or conceptualised,” says Broomberg, adding that he and his artistic partner have found that very liberating. “We all work within universes that have set parameters,” he says. “As an artist working mainly in galleries and institutional environments, you have a certain rulebook. You can try to tear it up as much as you want, but it is still there. It is a great pleasure to have this new platform for making new work. In this case, it hasn’t been about creating a piece with a monetary value attached to it – while you sell a photo in an art gallery for thousands of pounds, a CD barely costs £10. It’s much more democratic.” The partnership has also proved inspirational,

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feeding back into Broomberg & Chanarin’s art practice. While researching the Her Ghost video, for example, the pair bought The British Encyclopedia of Sign Language, in which 18,000 words are shown in photographs of the corresponding gestures. “It struck us as the most beautiful object,” says Broomberg. “Not only is it explaining a whole language, it’s also a collection of portraits of those demonstrating the motions.” In response, they put together an A to Z for deaf children, which will be released this autumn. Mixed media Across town, Dean Chalkley – a well-established music photographer who has photographed everyone from Paul McCartney to Lily Allen and Daft Punk – has been moving in the opposite direction, directing films destined for galleries and curating multidisciplinary exhibitions. “There are no boundaries,” he says. “The iPhone, the computer screen, the television, someone’s wall, a gallery - all these platforms are part of the visual communication apparatus.” His exhibition, The Return of the Rudeboy, shown at Somerset House in London this summer, illustrates the point perfectly. He and creative director Harris Elliot spent most of 2013 documenting the attitude of today’s rudeboys – modern-day descendants of disaffected youth in the shanty towns of Jamaica in the 1960s who, like their predecessors, look to American Jazz and R&B for styling inspiration. But for the exhibition he designed an immersive experience, collaborating with music personalities such as producer Rashad Smith (who has worked with Notorious B.I.G, Busta Rhymes and Nas) and DJ Don Letts (known for bringing punk and reggae together), and accompanying large portraits with playlists made by those photographed. Installations of bespoke briefcases, hat boxes and luggage sets, plus a working barbershop, completed the space. “When people walked into the gallery, rather than be confronted with a funereal sanctity – which would have been antithetical to the Rudeboy movement – I wanted them to feel free and hang around,” explains Chalkley. Focusing on the fans – or the subculture – rather than the musicians, this project continued an ongoing interest for Chalkley, who has also documented Southend’s indie scene, contemporary mods and the Northern Soul revival. His films are inspired by fashion rather than pop videos, and have a quirky take on music. The New Faces showed young mods dancing, for example, but used spoken testimonies rather than music as a soundtrack. Young Souls, on the other hand, relied almost entirely on the eight songs featured to convey the plot – young men reminiscing about a great night out dancing.

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“Fashion films are entirely unchartered and unregulated,” Chalkley explains. “They can either be very simple and minimalist, completely deconstructed and abstract, or methodically narrated.” Photographer and filmmaker Elaine Constantine was also inspired by Northern Soul and its footstomping beat, last autumn releasing a featurelength movie and book about the scene she grew up with. “It’s a very misunderstood culture, and hopefully both the film and the book will shed a bit of light on Britain’s most non-inclusive subculture,” she told Hunger TV in 2013. “The Northern Soul scene was the first template for what we know today as the club scene. This was the first time kids actually travelled to hear DJ sets.” The book, Northern Soul: An Illustrated History, includes interviews with devotees, plus archive photos and stills from the film; the stills – and the film they come from – look virtually indistinguishable from the originals. Constantine created this sense of authenticity the hard way, starting up a Northern Soul club four years ago in Bolton; now that the filming is over, she’s handed the Bolton space over to the youngsters, doing her own bit to further the revival. Music industry Piper Ferguson, meanwhile, has taken music videos in a slightly different direction – using film to document recording sessions rather than creating promos after the event. A club owner turned

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photographer, she’s been working for Apple and says filming the action was a natural evolution. “Every ‘session’ is done in the studios of Capitol Records. At first it was exciting – I would look at the pictures from the 1950s and try to channel that vibe – but over time it became harder to come up with novel ideas.” The company has quite strict aesthetic parameters – “no eyes closed, no backdrops, everyone needs to be in the shot and must be recognisable” – which sometimes clashed with the musicians’ desire to “have their recording session feel organic”, and filming seemed like a natural response. “I thought it was crazy not to fully document them,” she explains. “Suddenly my job went from taking less than three hours to more than eight. But it’s hard not to be around to witness and immortalise magic being created.” Either way, she says, whether she’s shooting for iTunes, record labels, bands or magazines, there are more opportunities than ever for photographers who like music to make their work a labour of love. “Bands and singers need images more than ever because there are so many more outlets for them now,” she says. “This is the opportunity to be more creative and develop new means of expressions.” Broomberg & Chanarin www.deanchalkley.com piperferguson.com

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Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin are known as artists and are very successful in this field, but they also have an ongoing relationship with the group Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hour, creating record covers with found imagery and shooting original videos with them. This image, for the single Her Ghost, shows an image taken from The British Encyclopaedia of Sign Language.

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The video for Her Ghost plays with the disconnect between music and images, showing a woman signing the lyrics of the song.

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This image, for the single Darkest Place, was taken from a first aid manual and was originally designed to show how to stop bleeding from a main artery.

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This image, for the single To The End, was taken from a Czech police manual.

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This image, for the single Our Love Has No Rhythm, was taken from a 1983 Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Code for Self Defence.

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Dean Chalkley is a successful music photographer, commissioned by all the major music magazines and by commercial clients such as Leviâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. But he also creates personal projects, which are shown in galleries and sold as prints. This image, which shows a music fan called Claire Digby, is taken from the series Young Souls, for which Chalkley also made a short film. Image ÂŠ Dean Chalkley.

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Dean Chalkleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s series The New Faces depicts contemporary mods, including Scott and Tomas, and also includes a short film.

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For his exhibition Return of the Rudeboy, shown at Somerset House over the summer, Chalkey teamed up with creative director Harris Elliott to include suitcases and even a fully functional barber shop. Installation shot ÂŠ Peter Macdiarmid/Getty.

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LA-based photographer Piper Ferguson has been shooting bands for Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iTunes Sessions album covers, and adding behind-thescenes footage of the sessions too. These images show the band Fun at work. Image ÂŠ Piper Ferguson.

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LA-based photographer Piper Ferguson has been shooting bands for Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iTunes Sessions album covers, and adding behind-the-scenes footage of the sessions too. These images show the band Fun at work. Image ÂŠ Piper Ferguson.

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Image ÂŠ Travis Jensen | http://TRAVISJENSENPHOTO.com | http://instagram.com/travisjensen

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NEW FRONTIERS This summer a new generation of image-makers graduated, putting together the final shows and portfolios that will launch them into the world of work. Here we profile five of the best graduates â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Dominic Hawgood, Felicity Hammond, Emma Gruner, Eduardo Leal, and duo Alex F Webb and Lewis Chaplin, who work together as fourteen-nineteen

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NEW FRONTIERS

DOMINIC HAWGOOD If you haven’t heard of Dominic Hawgood before, you probably will again; although he’s just graduated from the Royal College of Art he’s already been exhibited at Hyères festival of fashion and photography and Belfast Photo Festival, plus the Sirius Arts Centre, Cork, Michael Hoppen Gallery, Cork Street Gallery, Matt Roberts Project Space, among many, many more. He studied for his BA at University of Wales, Newport and got a First; his thesis for his MA was awarded a distinction. Hawgood’s work is an uncanny mix of photography, CGI, installation and lighting design – having “made my way through the studio and assisting route”, he says, lighting is his speciality. His most recent project, Under the Influence, takes evangelical Christianity as its starting point but moves far beyond straight documentary to include sickly sweet images influenced by theatre and advertising. “Under the Influence has emerged from an interest in trends within evangelical Christianity popular among predominantly African communities in London,” he explains. “The work is a study into the use of advertising within a specific church, and an exploration of the theatrical practice of deliverance that plays a central role in this belief system.” Hawgood has started to experiment with moving images and plans to pursue this on his residency in China this September; despite all this, and despite his success in the art world, he says he still works “mainly in advertising”. www.dominichawgood.com

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From the series Under the Influence ÂŠ Dominic Hawgood.

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From the series Under the Influence ÂŠ Dominic Hawgood.

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From the series Under the Influence ÂŠ Dominic Hawgood.

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From the series Under the Influence ÂŠ Dominic Hawgood.

NEW FRONTIERS

FELICITY HAMMOND The Royal College of Art’s photography MA is considered one of the best in the UK, with a list of alumni that reads like a who’s who of contemporary British art photography – Tom Hunter, Clare Strand, Idris Kahn and Tereza Zelenkova, and many more. Recent graduate Felicity Hammond is well on her way to joining that list. Her final project stands out for its sheer size, if nothing else: measuring 2.5m×4m, Restore to Factory Settings is quite a piece of work. It’s bright blue, the colour of future plans, she says, but also the colour of a screen unable to transmit information. It was inspired by memories of her father, an engineer struggling to grasp new technologies after his industry became obsolete, she says. It also references her inability to follow in her father’s and her grandfather’s footsteps, because the North London factory they both worked in is now closed. “I have been using photography in a way that allows me to engage with a landscape I was never really a part of,” she says. “This is where my title Restore to Factory Settings evolved from.” Hammond won the RCA Metro Imaging Prize and will work alongside the company for the next 12 months to make new work; she’s also been invited onto a residency at Black Cube Collective, where she’ll work with artist Alix Marie. “The residency will take place at Cockenzie House in Edinburgh, where we’ll be developing new works about flesh and stone,” she says. www.felicityhammond.com

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Restore to Factory Settings ÂŠ Felicity Hammond.

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Restore to Factory Settings ÂŠ Felicity Hammond.

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Restore to Factory Settings ÂŠ Felicity Hammond.

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NEW FRONTIERS

EMMA GRUNER “I’ve internalised the male gaze,” says Emma Gruner of her eye-opening images, made while studying at University of the Arts in Camberwell. “My images objectify to satisfy the male spectator, assuming he would be male.” Born in Alsace in France, Gruner started out by studying fine art but moved to London in her early 20s and spent the next 10 years working in clubs and restaurants before deciding to retrain as a photographer. These images started out as a compulsion rather than project, though, showing the photographer herself re-enacting hardcore content found online. “I’ve always taken pictures of myself, without really considering them art,” she says. “I did it just for myself, just for the camera.” Eventually she showed one of her images to some fellow students and, getting a strong reaction, decided to go overground. She’s fascinated by the sexualised way that some women – including herself – present themselves on the internet, and says that in tackling them more consciously she became interested in the gestures reproduced over and over again online, and the angles and perspectives they’re taken from. “I am reproducing and re-enacting a social phenomenon,” she says. “You can show yourself any way you want on the internet, but women seem to be obsessed with appearing sexually active, and I’m obsessed with that.” www.emmagruner.com

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From American Series ÂŠ Emma Gruner.

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From American Series ÂŠ Emma Gruner.

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From the series Black Undies ÂŠ Emma Gruner.

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From the series Black Undies ÂŠ Emma Gruner.

NEW FRONTIERS

EDUARDO LEAL Born in Portugal, 34-year-old Eduardo Leal has just graduated from the celebrated photojournalism and documentary photography course at London College of Communication with a project on bullfighting. It’s a well-worn topic, but he’s shot it up close and in sometimes graphic detail; he’s also opted to focus on Portuguese forcados, whose approach lies somewhere between Spanish bullfighters and American bullriders. Leal also took the time to get to know a group of forcados rather than simply photographing public fights, going to every bullfight, dinner and meeting until he had slowly won their trust. This meant he could capture intimate behind-the-scenes images rather than the usual shots, often homing in on details. “Anyone from outside is seen as an intruder,” he says. “Especially when you have a camera with you.” Leal graduated with a degree in journalism from Escola Superior de Jornalismo in Lisbon before studying for an MA; he’s currently based between Caracas and London, and says his work is focused on “Latin American social issues and politics, and Portuguese traditions”. He’s a consultant to Arpad A Busson Foundation on the Cuba In Revolution and Struggle During Apartheid photography collections, and in 2013 was selected as a Coup de Coeur by Association Nationale des Iconographes at Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan. His work has been published by national magazines and newspapers such as Time, Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet, Al Jazeera and Wired, and he regularly posts on his Tumblr AnOther Photo – recent shots have included desolate Argentinian supporters on Copacobana beach after the World Cup Final, and protests against the tournament by the Movement of Workers Without Ceilings. www.eduardoleal.co.uk

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Image from the series Forcados ÂŠ Eduardo Leal.

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Image from the series Forcados ÂŠ Eduardo Leal.

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Image from the series Forcados ÂŠ Eduardo Leal.

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Image from the series Forcados ÂŠ Eduardo Leal.

NEW FRONTIERS

ALEX F WEBB & LEWIS CHAPLIN Although they’ve only just graduated, Alex F Webb and Lewis Chaplin are already successful image-makers. They started collaborating in 2008 after finding each other on Flickr and have since made photographs together, made a music video for British indie band Noah and the Whale, and published photographers such as Daniel Shea, Jamie Hawkesworth and Sean Vegezzi via their fourteen-nineteen publishing company. They studied for their art foundation together at Camberwell College of Arts, then pursued separate degrees, with Webb going to University of Brighton to study photography and Chaplin going to Goldsmiths College to study anthropology, particularly visual anthropology. Chaplin’s final project is an oblique look at Tristan da Cunha, a remote British island he’s never actually been to. “Tristan is an entirely mediated place,” he says. “Being so difficult to access geographically, we know it through images.” Webb, meanwhile, graduated with two related projects – BLEU and Sunrise County – which both consider UFO sightings around the RAF Woodbridge airbase in Suffolk and both include the same image. “I’m interested in when a body of work is finished, or if it’s ever finished,” he says. “Through reusing certain images I hope to somehow question the finality of placing an image in a certain series and therefore a certain context.” www.alexfwebb.com www.lewischaplin.com home.fourteen-nineteen.com

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Image from the series Sunrise ÂŠ Alex F Webb.

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Image from the series Sunrise ÂŠ Alex F Webb.

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Image from the series Tristan da Cunha ÂŠ Lewis Chaplin.

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Image from the series Tristan da Cunha ÂŠ Lewis Chaplin.

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THE DIGITAL PLUMBER Paul David Ellis, aka The Digital Plumber, offers tips on circumventing an expensive Mac upgrade

It has been available for half a year, but people are still humming and hawing over whether to upgrade to the shiny new Mac Pro [below]. I’ve set up a few and it’s an excellent piece of design, and – unlike its predecessor – inaudible under most circumstances. But is it worth the outlay, or should you stick with your current Mac Pro? The answer is, it depends. If your current Mac Pro is four years old or less – and if it’s one of the 6-core 3.33GHz models – I reckon you’re best off sticking with it, upgrading its boot drive to SSD, and fitting it with one or two USB3 PCIe cards. It won’t do Thunderbolt, but that’s about all you’re missing. Its internal drive connections are Sata II rather than the Sata III that current Macs and SSDs support, so your SSD will be somewhat throttled, but nothing is stopping you from getting a couple of SSDs and making a Raid 0 volume from them to boot from. In comparison to booting from a hard disk, even one SSD will make your ageing Mac Pro feel as if it’s had a large injection of teen spirit and extend its useful life by two or three years. Which SSD? Samsung EVOs are highly regarded, but a pre-2013 Mac Pro can’t make use of their full speed, so I’d go for one or two Crucial MX100s. If your Mac Pro has a Sata connection in the second optical drive bay, you can simply plug an SSD into it and leave it dangling if you don’t move the Mac around much; if not, you’ll need a 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch adapter and have to fit it into one of the internal drive carriers. As for USB3, the Inateck 4 Port PCIe USB3 card is perfectly adequate. It supports an I/O protocol called UASP that when connected to a UASP USB3 enclosure makes SSDs in that enclosure really whizz (or so I’m told). It requires Mountain Lion 10.8.5 or above to work properly, ruling it out for first-generation Mac Pros made before 2008; it retails at £25. In with the new If your current Mac Pro is getting long in the tooth and you’ve decided an iMac doesn’t cut it, or you’re doing an appreciable amount of video or need 4K screens, you’ll want a new Mac Pro. The spec you choose involves trade-offs between processor speed, number of cores, and application and process multi-threading. Processor speed is easy: it’s the processor’s clock speed in gigahertz – the faster the better. Processor cores can most simply be thought of as individual processors ganged together and sharing data. You’d think more would be better, but if you examine the specs closely you’ll see that the more cores the Mac Pro has, the slower its overall clock speed. Multi-threading, put simply, means whether an application can do more than one thing at once, or whether a process can be split into separate parts for multiple cores to process

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simultaneously. Most Finder (and Photoshop) processes are single-threaded: you can’t split the process between multiple cores. The speed of execution of that process will be limited by the processor’s clock speed, so the faster, the better. At the other extreme, many video rendering and transcoding apps (and raw processors) are highly multithreaded and will make full use of all available cores. So, for overall responsiveness, you want maximum clock speed; for processing grunt, you want maximum cores. If you’re wondering just how much use you make of multiple cores with your current software, run Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder), keep its Floating CPU Window visible, and watch what happens in the course of a working day. You’ll soon find out whether more, rather than fewer, cores will be of practical use to you. Bear in mind that Apple is making it easier at the system level for app writers to code multi-threaded apps for multiple cores, and applications will make increasing use of them as time goes by. As for which model to buy, I recommend 4-core if that’s what your budget will stretch to; 6-core for most photographers; 8-core if you do a significant amount of video processing, at the cost of a machine that is a little less responsive for most things than the 6-core; 12-core if you spend all your time grading and transcoding video, or mixing huge audio-visual projects in real time. The 2013 Mac Pro has two video cards (Graphics Processing Units), and the trend is for applications to hand off more and more computation to these cards, which are incredibly powerful and efficient compared with the main processors. As for which cards to buy, it’s worth bearing in mind that GPU processing is still in its relatively early days – as with multi-threading, things will change significantly during the useful life of this computer. I’d play it safe and get the middle option. For memory, get the base model with 12GB Ram (the one on the left on the Apple Store website) and expand it with thirdparty memory, but be aware that memory modules larger than 8GB use a different type of memory that can’t be mixed with Apple’s 4GB modules. Either add another 4GB module and stick at 16GB, or throw the Apple stuff away and replace it with 8GB or 16GB modules. External connections Apart from RAM, this computer cannot be expanded internally – all expansion must be external and connected to the six Thunderbolt 2/DisplayPort ports, four USB3 ports, a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports and an HDMI port. Plug your main monitor into the HDMI if its native resolution is 1920×1200px or less. Above that, you may or may not get

full-screen resolution from the HDMI port, depending on which revision of HDMI your monitor supports. Be prepared to run out and get a Dual-Link DVI–DisplayPort adapter if needed, or a Mini DisplayPort cable if your monitor has a DisplayPort… erm, port. If you have legacy FireWire and eSata drive enclosures, Apple does a Thunderbolt-FireWire adapter for £25, so get a couple with your Mac Pro. It has been found to be problematic for tethering certain medium format backs, but a Lindy FireWire 800 Hub in series between the MF back and adapter sorts it out. Until recently there has been no low-cost way to adapt Thunderbolt to eSata, but the new Akitio Thunder Dock [above] sports a pair of port-multiplying eSata ports. It’s not yet available from UK suppliers, though, and I haven’t personally tested one. You might have thought the world would be awash with USB3 port multiplying eSata adapters, but that’s not the case. I’ve found one – the Datoptic U3 eSata – but you’ll have to get it directly from the manufacturer in the US. At $35 it’s worth a punt. All things considered, you might be better off retiring FireWire and eSata drive enclosures, and replacing them with USB3 or Thunderbolt boxes. USB3 is becoming very common, but can be problematic with Macs, with drives spontaneously unmounting or refusing to wake from sleep. There seems no clear pattern to this, and I suspect it’s an interaction between the model of USB chip in the enclosure, the specific brand of hard drive and its firmware, the Apple www.thedigitalplumber.co.uk

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USB hardware, and operating system version. At present I’m not able to make specific recommendations for kit known to work properly. That said, this problem will undoubtedly sort itself out in time. The four built-in USB3 ports are nowhere near enough, and the USB2 devices on the bus will slow everything down to their speed, so you’ll want to separate them via USB2 and USB3 hubs. Your monitor might already have a USB2 hub built in; if it does, use that for your keyboard and Wacom tablet. I have a client using an Anker 7-port USB3 hub without problems. Fast workspace Plumbing Academy acolytes will no doubt have laboriously constructed a Fast Workspace Raid array to improve file I/O for live projects. The Mac Pro’s on-board SSD beats the pants off that, but unless you’re prepared to work within its 1TB limit you’ll probably want to duplicate that facility somehow. You can, with a pair of SSDs in a Thunderbolt enclosure, which between them will come close to saturating a Thunderbolt 1 bus. At the price, I reckon you could do a lot worse than this dual-bay StarTech enclosure plus a pair of 1TB Samsung EVOs set up, as a Raid 0 volume with SoftRaid offers better performance and quieter operation. Don’t forget to run a frequent Chronosync backup. At the time of writing, Thunderbolt 2 enclosures are rarer than rocking-horse doo.

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AN ENGLISH LANDSCAPE

Trevor Paglen specialises in showing hidden aspects of the American military, and his latest project is no exception, despite being shot in Yorkshire, commissioned by Art on the Underground, and displayed at Gloucester Road Underground station. Diane Smyth investigates

AN ENGLISH LANDSCAPE

With a PhD in geography, Trevor Paglen is an unusual photographer; for the last decade, he has specialised in showing hidden aspects of the American military – from classified military bases to the Pentagon’s secret emblems. Doing so has drawn on his academic research skills, plus photographic technical know-how: for Limit Telephotography, which shows top-secret American government sites, he used high-end optics to shoot from several miles away; for The Other Night Sky he used long exposures to track classified American satellites. His latest project is no exception. Shot for Art on the Underground and on exhibit at Gloucester Road Underground station until June 2015, it’s a 62-metre photograph showing an idyllic English landscape and a Royal Air Force base that’s key to the American National Security Agency. The RAF base is at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, freely accessible to the public; it’s therefore a familiar sight to locals, but access to the installation is strictly forbidden. In fact, details about its exact use are also sketchy, but Paglen was intrigued by this contemporary update on the traditional English pastoral and decided to show the base in situ in the green rolling hills. “I was thinking about the English landscape and how it was depicted by artists such as Constable, Turner and Gainsborough,” he says. “It all came together with the idea of showing how the traditional English landscape looks today.” Working with Thierry Bal, a London-based photographer who specialises in helping artists realise images, he shot the base from four miles away, using a telephoto lens, a medium format camera and a digital back. The final image was made up of 20 different sections, stitched together by Tapestry, the media production agency based in Soho, London; the final output was complicated by the site it needed to slot into at

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Gloucester Road, which includes 19 neoclassical columns. Rather than creating different works for each alcove – as previous Art on the Underground artists have done – Paglen wanted to unify the image behind them to create a trompe d’oeil effect. “I thought the columns create a very nice Arcadian view and wondered what would happen if I thought of them as opening on to an exterior,” he says. “That was what led to thinking about the English countryside in the first place.” The finished result is so big and so detailed it’s like a piece of surveillance in itself; it also means it has enough visual impact to carry such a large site, but enough interest to sustain commuters going past it every day. “I enjoy public art – I like the fact that so many people see it,” says Paglen. “It blends into the visual concept of everyday life, and I also like the challenge of thinking about how the work fits in with a particular space. In this case I was thinking about the English landscape, but also about surveillance in the UK and what a huge thing it is,” he continues. “Even as you drive around the countryside [here], you see cameras recording number plates.” “Trevor makes beautiful public art, and his work asks very pertinent questions,” says Rebecca Heald, curator of the project. “We gave him a very open brief; he came back to us with a few ideas, and we worked through them together. We thought this one was the most visual – it doesn’t necessarily say one thing or the other, but it does raise interesting issues.” On Show Trevor Paglen’s An English Landscape (American Surveillance Base near Harrogate, Yorkshire), is on show at Gloucester Road Underground station until June 2015. art.tfl.gov.uk

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Pioneers in making the move from print to pixels.

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