Anna Ristuccia
www.flickr.com/photos/annaristuccia/
Raphael Janzer
www.raphaeljanzer.com
Lill-Veronica Skoglund
www.flickr.com/photos/lill-veronica/
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Larry Silver Š 2009
Meet:
LARRY SILVER
An influential photogreapher from Connecticut, Larry Silver, is a former member of the Photo League, and his work has been featured in many galleries worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
What sorts of steps did you take to learn photography? Classes, workshops, books? Well, lets see. I went to high school for photography in New York from 1949-1953. It was one of the only high schools in the country with photography at that time. In New York City in the 1950’s I attended a school of design. I won a photography scholarship to go there. Only high school students were admitted there and they were giving a few scholarships out to students. When did you know you finally "made it" as a professional? Well, you never really make it. You always strive to go above as you have before. When you feel you’ve made it with in anything in life you know that you have to keep going. I still think that at my age of 75 that I am growing and learning to do new work. I don’t think I’ll ever know when I’ve made it.
It’s all how you process what you see. e sky is beautiful, and so is nature, and so are all kinds of subjects that are right there next door. So, traveling is not necessarily necessary for an art photographer; it may be necessary for a documentary photographer or a photojournalist who is going off to Iraq, for instance. But if you’re an artist, you can really take work anywhere. Do you still shoot only with a film camera, or have you started to make the conversion to digital photography? I only do film. All my work is done in the darkroom, and images are manipulated and worked on in the darkroom. I’m using techniques in the darkroom that I have perfected over the past 60 years of my career. Do you process your own images? Yes, I develop my own film and make my own prints. I’m toning, and bleaching, painting; doing all kinds of manipulations on my own pictures; things that you’re not supposed to do, to make a totally unique image.
What do people coming into this field need to know? What would you say to other photographers who aspire to do what you’ve achieved? I’m unusual in one respect; I was in both worlds of photography. I was in the commercial world, and I’m currently in the fine art world, where my work is just in collections and things. So, uh, I’ve managed to scale both worlds, which is fairly unusual. So when you ask me what I would suggest to another photographer to get in the field, you have to specify. What field? Photography is very vast, its not just a little niche, and I would suggest that if a person wants to be a photographer and they want to live and pers take pictures, and they want to do it only without trying to make What is your favorite photograph that you’ve taken? Why? money and achieve success, and they look around and see what My favorite photograph? I don’t know if I really have a favorite other people are doing, and what they like to do, and eventually photograph. I’m known for certain pictures, but I don’t know if you’ll get your own point of view, your own personal way of those are my favorite. I think my favorite photograph is prob- seeing, that no on else has ever had. Like a musician, who sees ably the one that I’m going to take tomorrow! what he’s playing and what other people are doing, and eventually he creates his own sound. If you look long enough, and Where has your career taken you, in terms of traveling? you’re open minded, and experimental, you can definitely find I was an advertising photographer in New York for about 40 your own voice. years. I had lots of assignments and I traveled around the country a great deal, doing photographs for newspapers and maga- Well, thank you so much, Larry, for taking the time to do this zines. I’ve also traveled on my own: I’ve photographed a lot of interview with us. It’s fascinating to see through the eyes of a work in China, I’ve been to Europe, and I’ve been to Iceland. professional. You can do great photography in your own backyard, and you No, thank you! It’s my pleasure. 24 can do great photography in your neighborhood.
What originally led you to pursue photography and what keeps you passionate about it after all these years? Well, I first became infatuated with the developing and printing of a photograph. Darkroom art fascinated me, and still to this very day there’s nothing like watching a print come alive in the darkroom. I don’t know, just to make satisfying pictures, I’m doing more experimental and very contemporary and unusual work now. I have been producing totally different images over the past 10 years. My work now has a lot of color, is very abstract, and very different. st
Francesco Paolo Catalano http://francescocatalano.carbonmade.com/
Ninja Hanna
www.flickr.com/photos/ninjahanna/
Katarina Dubcova
www.ickr.com/photos/katkea/
Being this is your first column, introduce yourself to us! Well, in all seriousness, I utterly hate talking about myself. I hate filling out those generic profile pages that ask pressing questions like: "About You". But since you’re asking, I must confess that I am a "Jersey Boy"; I was born in Trenton, New Jersey, but was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a kid I adored my art classes each Friday afternoon, and when I showed enough interest, my parents enrolled me in private art lessons. From that point on, it all went uphill. Of pr course, in my elementary years it wasn't a huge deal, but I began to realize that art was one of my strengths. In midadolescence, my family and I moved to Chicago, where I currently still reside. e move sparked an interest in photography that had always been there, in the constant want of disposable cameras, and my whining to use my father's camera. I started to fiddle a bit more with digital mediums, and I began to submerge myself more seriously into art, heavily devoting my hours to sifting through magazines, reading art history literature, and constantly viewing other artist’s work on online communities like DeviantArt and Flickr. And by my freshman year in high school, I had ventured into the world of publications, namely INK Maga zine, WWIT Magazine, Creo Magazine, and TITLE Magazine. I began gaining contacts through these jobs, and soon found myself starry-eyed and in love with fashion photography. I like to try keeping up with a lot of different art mediums... painting, drawing, ceramics, graphic design, and of course, photography. I've photographed designers like ANN YEE, Peeps, ROZ, Yvette Wesley, and more. As of now, I am finishing my high school years and I plan on n studying photography, fine art, and fashion at an art school. I hope I didn't say too much, or too little. But I am more than happy to answer all of your questions! What do you think about when composing a portrait? Honestly, there aren't rules. at is by far the number one
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JohnTroxel will now take your questions. misconception of portraiture and photography in general. Yes, there are artists who have established "guidelines", but whether or not you choose to follow them is personal preference. One of the more well known of these tips is the ‘Rule of irds’, basically stating that your main point of interest in a photo should be off center, and not in the direct middle of the composition. But really, everyone has seen (and usually square, medium format, film Hasselblad photoliked) those squa graphs, where the subject is in the dead middle. It's basically that some things work visually, and some things don't. You don't want to photograph your subject at an absurd angle, so that their features are distorted, or cut off half their head. Also, looking straight on at someone in a photograph can be awkward, have your subject turn on an angle. Really it is all preference, and your artistic license to do what you want, when you want, with your photographs. What is a medium format camera? To put it simply, the term generally applies to film and cameras that are used to produce images larger than the 24x36mm of 135mm film, but smaller than the 4”×5” size, which is considered to be large format. In digital photography, medium format refers either to cameras adapted from medium format film photography (by adding a digital camera back), or to cameras making use of sensors larger than that of a 35mm film frame. ese types of cameras are the rave of today’s "gimme more megapixel" desires. came Medium format digital cameras have sensors of anywhere from 33 to 60 MP. ese medium format cameras have monopolized the fashion photography industry, and are a preference to worldrenowned photographers like Annie Leibovitz, while photographers such as Bruce Weber prefer to continue with film. It's all about preference. To submit questions and comments on art in general, email: pavementspeaks@gmail.com
John Troxel
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Raw Magazine Š 2010