Adam Robert Taylor

Adam, how did you get started in photography?

My dad was into it. I remember being 5 or 6 years old and discovering his collection of kodachrome slides from all his travels before he had met my mum, and also some beautiful stuff from when they first met and the beach parties they used to have with all their friends. I was  fascinated with the feel and colour of those images. I remember Dad hosting slide nights with our family and having friends over and the atmosphere within the darkened room with dad being a great storyteller. The slides projected onto the wall and the beautiful images, massive on our lounge-room wall, and everyone looked so young and attractive! I  was in awe.  It was intoxicating!

That was the seed being planted early, blueprinted into my imagination and it grew from there. I setup my own darkroom under our house down in the cellar. Digital hadn’t arrived just yet so I was processing and printing all my own black & white film. Watching the images slowly appear in the developer down in the cellar was like being a part of my own secret society.

I remember having a fascinating art teacher in high school, she was into photography and we had another darkroom at school that we could use during art lessons. All this gave me a wonderful enthusiasm for the medium. I developed a deep obsession with photography as a way of interpreting my world. Also I was incredibly shy as a teenager and it was a great way to be a little isolated and outside of things with the camera and then retreating into the darkroom. I used to tentatively photograph my family, friends and girlfriends. The feeling of being the “director” of a portrait photoshoot felt right.

When I was about 20 I went for a job as a photojournalist and I had no experience at all in journalism but the editor really liked my photos, and gave me the job. I was thrown in the deep end without really having much experience and had to learn very quickly. I had to deal with the capturing of images and juggling an interview at the same time. As a result I quickly became quite social, I came out from my shell, the shy teenager had disappeared.

I did that for a while then decided it wasn’t really my thing and went into a wonderful art school in Sydney. The National Art School for 4 years and majored in photography – this was very liberating and such a discovery. I  felt at home there and comfortable amongst other artists, no matter what their medium. I finished Art school and went over to London and assisted advertising and fashion photographers for a couple of years, I traveled and explored some incredible cultures and peoples with my camera during that time. I returned to Sydney, Australia in 2000. My first jobs as a freelance photographer were doing portraits and fashion stories for surf and music magazines.

How do you go about taking a portrait? Can you tell us about your process?

I do my homework and have a few cards up my sleeve for the day of the portrait. By “homework” I mean having worked out a creative angle for the shoot. Also if the person is well known, I do research on the Internet. This is always helpful. I see how that person has been photographed before, this helps me find my own path for the portrait. I do all the work beforehand in my head. I pre-visualize the image that I am aiming for and I also have backup image(s) that I’m thinking about as well.

My approach is to find the “humanness” to break down the barriers and the power. I go a lot on my intuition and gut feeling with people. Sometimes you have to ease your way into the portrait slowly, other times “snap” you can get the portrait in the first few frames.

I was a boy scout when I was about 11, and the scout’s motto’s was: “be prepared” !

What advice do you have regarding photographing strangers? How do you go about doing this?

Strangers, people in the street, someone you walk up to and say, “excuse me, can I take your photograph”. This is always so challenging and the fear of rejection is ever prevalent. I find that you really have to be totally 100% committed for approaching people like this. People can sense when you are honestly enthusiastic, excited and buzzing about them and will respond to your dedication 95% of the time you will get a co-operative response.

Otherwise it’s a reportage approach and the trick is to capture your subject totally unaware — a moment of grace. This is very difficult with the large bulky 35mm SLRs. I find it works better with the smaller more discrete cameras.

Is there anything you wish you had known before becoming a professional photographer?

A great question, and very difficult to answer – all I can say is what I have learn’t along the way – most importantly that there is no set path to becoming a professional photographer.

What is the most challenging aspect of what you do?

I’m continually challenged – that’s what I love about it.

Are there any specific things you’ve learned along the way that caused big improvements in the quality of your work?

Always try new things and take risks. Show your work to as many people as you can and seek out those people who you trust to give you honest constructive criticism on your work.

Surround yourself with good people, mentors and friends.

Don’t be in it for the money. Do it because you enjoy it. The money will come.

Thank You very much Adam for the interesting interview. Good luck and good light

Photos:

Official site: www.adamtaylorphotography.com

12►

Official site: www.alina-lebedeva.ru

12►

Official site: www.alexandergronsky.com

Born in Paris of Jewish-Russian immigrant parents, Erwitt served as a photographer’s assistant in the 1950’s in the United States Army while stationed in France and Germany. Erwitt was influenced by his meeting the famous photographers Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker. Stryker, the former Director of the Farm Security Administration’s photography department, hired Erwitt to work on a photography project for the Standard Oil Company. Erwitt then began a freelance photographer career and produced work for Collier’s, Look, Life and Holiday magazines. Joining the Magnum Photos agency in 1953 allowed Erwitt to shoot photography projects around the world. Become a full Member of Magnum Photos at 1954.In the late 1960s Erwitt served as Magnum’s president for three years. He then turned to film: in the 1970s he produced several noted documentaries and in the 1980s eighteen comedy films for Home Box Office. Erwitt became known for benevolent irony, and for a humanistic sensibility traditional to the spirit of Magnum.

“It’s about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.” – Elliott Erwitt

Photos by Elliott Erwitt:

1234►

Official site: www.elliotterwitt.com

Toby Burrows

Since Toby’s return to Sydney in 2000 he has established a significant base of leading advertising clients both in Australia and Internationally including BMF, Whybin TBWA, Clemenger (Proximity) London and DDB. He has also just completed a recent project working as a Director of Photography together with a well renowned Director for Proximity Films and BMF Sydney. Recent personal projects include a series on professional Thai boxers and a “Portraits And Places” series documenting the desolate road to Broken Hill. He recently held a solo exhibition at the Blender Gallery in Paddington, Sydney.

His edgy style and award-winning photography have been celebrated with a New York Festival Gold, numerous Cannes and one show finalists, a World Press Award, Folio Awards, ADMA Awards, as well as nominations for the International Colour Awards and the Black & White Spider Photography Awards. Toby has now been nominated in two consecutive years as a finalist for his portraiture in the Sydney Morning Herald 2007/08 “Shoot the Chef” competition.

In 2006-07, Toby was commissioned by National Geographic and Australian Tourism on three separate occasions to photograph remote locations throughout Australia, accompanied by an English journalist. Together, they documented people in their extraordinary environments living extraordinary lives – a recurring theme throughout Toby’s portfolio of work.

Photos by Toby Burrows:

12►

Official site: www.tobyburrows.com

Marcin Stawiarz

He has always been fascinated by landscapes – places that are absolutely desolate, where He can stay one on one with nature. For Marcin, the growing joy right before pressing the shutter button as well as the possibility of interacting with the world filled with inspiration is as important as the creative act itself. This initial fascination has rapidly grown into obsession that eventually took control over his life.

Since the beginning of his adventure with photography, every landscape has been an unforgettable experience, thanks to which He has learned how to interpret light – the single most important (and the single most waited for) factor that shapes images. On the other hand, lighting is directly connected with another key element of photography – luck. Proper weather, interesting cloud patterns or even a couple of sunrays breaking through the clouds, have many times decided that after a couple of failed attempts He was able to reach a satisfactory effect the moment nature displayed her most unpredictable face.

Lately, his interests widened to cityscapes, where He pursue qualities characteristic to nature – harmony and peace. As it is getting harder to find traits like that in our more and more hectic world, while taking pictures in the biggest European cities He had to develop the most important virtue of a photographer – patience. That is one of the reasons why there are usually no people (or only their silhouettes) on most of his photographs. But such character of work is also a result of other factor. Whereas taking pictures with the main focus on a person involves emotions that are relatively easy to define, depicting an empty street or portraying pulsing nature usually requires qualitatively different feelings that have to fill in for the missing elements, thus making such photograph something more than a simple document.

Photos by Marcin Stawiarz:

123►

Official site: www.stawiarz.com

In Milan, Holz developed his own unique style. Photo Italiana called him “a new up-and-comer with a unique independent style.” In Europe, Holz’s work appeared in Italian Vogue, Lei, Linea Italiana, Madame Figaro and French Elle. After critical acclaim in Europe, he returned to Los Angeles for a short period where he photographed album covers, including a young Madonna for the iconic “Borderline” album. He moved to New York City in the mid 1980’s and opened a studio in the Village.

In New York, his fashion and beauty work appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Interview Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine. Holz photographed many advertising campaigns for diverse clients including Max Factor, DeBeers Diamonds, and Elizabeth Arden. His “Gold” campaign for the International Gold Corp won him a Clio Award. A unique use of light, shadow, motion, and composition continue to be his trademarks.

Holz took advantage of the sets, models, and locations that editorial and advertising work afforded him to pursue his personal work. He photographed a large series of nudes in his studio, juxtaposing them with animal bones and unusual industrial objects. Later, he turned his camera to photograph his subjects on locations throughout the world: forests, jungles, deserts, rivers, and vast landscapes.

In the early 1990’s Holz’s work segued into celebrity portraiture. He began shooting in LA and NY for clients such as Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, and In Style. His list of subjects included a long series of A list celebrities, including Jack Nicholson, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce, and President Bill Clinton. Holz photographed movie posters including “Face Off” for Paramount Pictures with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage. His album cover for Suzanne Vega’s “Days of Open Hand” won him a Grammy Award.

Holz’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world including Budapest, London, Tokyo, and Vienna. His exhibit, “Original Sin,” a collection of platinum prints sponsored by Tres Generationes Tequila, traveled to major cities in the US including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. His work is in permanent collections at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, and Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City. He is represented by Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles and Staley Wise Gallery in New York.

George Holz currently divides his time between assignments in New York, Los Angeles and Europe. When he’s not photographing, he lives with his wife and son on their farm in upstate New York. He is currently working on a book of his nudes, slated for release in 2010.

Photos of Angelina Jolie by George Holz:

Old retro nudes by George Holz:

Official site: www.georgeholz.com

• Take time to explore. Part of the joy of landscape photography is being out in nature. Wander around and get a sense of the place. It will take time and patience to discover the best way to show what makes it unique.
• Visualize your photograph. Create the image in your mind the way a painter woul d create it on a canvas. Then think about the time, light, and composition that will translate what you see in your mind into a photograph.
• Get out before sunrise and stay out after sunset—the times when the light is best. Use the harsher light of midday to scout.
• It’s much more fruitful to spend time on one or two locations than to race around. A great shot of one place beats several mediocre ones of many. Such an approach allows you to be creative. Once you have recorded the image you were thinking about, try something different. Climb a tree, wade out to the middle of a stream, use a flower or other object in the foreground, try another lens or a slow shutter speed. Play with the subject and your gear. Have fun. You may be surprised at the results, and you will often capture something more than what postcards show—something original and quite personal.
• Be careful in the placement of foreground elements. You don’t want them to detract from what your photograph is really about.
• Framing can be very helpful when you cannot get close to your subject. It can give you an interesting way to deal with empty space in the foreground or in the sky.
• Since we usually look for details, it can be harder to see blocks of color or shape. Squint a bit: Details will blur and you will see things as masses.
• Buy a small liquid level and attach it to your tripod head.
• Lens flare can be a problem with wide lenses. Use your hand or a piece of cardboard to screen the lens from the sun—but keep the screen out of the frame.
• If you are staying in one place for several days, check out the long-range weather forecast and plan your shoots around the weather that is best for specific subjects.
• If you are with friends, don’t be shy about using them in images to get a sense of scale. But remember that the photos are of the place, not the people.
• To learn how light direction affects the look and feel of images, photograph a tree lit from the front, the side, and the back.
• Gaffer’s tape is an essential photographic accessory. Among its innumerable uses: taping reflectors and flashes in place, labeling film type on the back of cameras, and sealing camera cases.
• If you want circular star trails, point the camera at the North Star.
• When making long exposures, use a remote release to avoid camera movement. If you don’t have a remote release, use the camera’s self-timer. And be mindful of any breeze that might be moving your subject.
• Avoid getting your equipment wet. If you are shooting near a fall that is sending up a lot of spray, cover your camera with a plastic bag as you would to protect it from rain. If it or a lens gets wet, wipe the item immediately and put in the sun to dry.
• Never be content with what you see in the viewfinder the first time you raise it to your eye. Move around, lie down, find a different angle.

By Robert Caputo, August 2007
From Photography Field Guide: Landscapes and Ultimate Photography Field Guide: Landscapes

Philippe Halsman ( 2 May 1906 Riga, Latvia - 25 June 1979 New York City) was a Latvian-born American famous portrait photographer. Born to a Jewish family of Morduch (Max) Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, a grammar school principal, in Riga, Halsman studied electrical engineering in Dresden. In September 1928, Halsman went on a hiking tour in the Austrian Alps with his father, Morduch. During this tour, Morduch died from severe head injuries. The circumstances were never completely clarified and Halsman was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for patricide. The case provoked anti-Jewish propaganda and thus gained international publicity, and Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann wrote in support of Halsman. Halsman was finally released in 1931, under the condition that he leave Austria for good, never to return.

Halsman consequently left Austria for France. He began contributing to fashion magazines such as Vogue and soon gained a reputation as one of the best portrait photographers in France, renowned for his sharp, dark images that shunned the old soft focus look. When France was invaded, Halsman fled to Marseille and he eventually managed to obtain a U.S. visa, aided by family friend Albert Einstein (whom he later famously photographed in 1947).

Halsman had his first success in America when the cosmetics firm Elizabeth Arden used his image of model Constance Ford against the American flag in an advertising campaign for “Victory Red” lipstick. A year later in 1942 he found work with Life magazine, photographing hat designs, one of which, a portrait of a model in a Lilly Daché hat, was his first of the many covers he would do for Life.

In 1941 Halsman met the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and they began to collaborate in the late 1940s. The 1948 work Dali Atomicusexplores the idea of suspension, depicting three cats flying, a bucket of thrown water, and Salvador Dalí in mid air. The title of the photograph is a reference to Dalí’s work Leda Atomica which can be seen in the right of the photograph behind the two cats. Halsman reported that it took 28 attempts to be satisfied with the result. Halsman and Dali eventually released a compendium of their collaborations in the 1954 book Dali’s Mustache, which features 36 different views of the artist’s distinctive mustache. Another famous collaboration between the two was In Voluptas Mors, a surrealistic portrait of Dali beside a large skull, in fact a tableau vivant composed of seven nudes. Halsman took three hours to arrange the models according to a sketch by Dali. A version of In Voluptas Mors was used subtly in the poster for the film The Silence of The Lambs, and less subtly for the film The Descent.

In 1947, he made what was to become one of his most famous photos of a mournful Albert Einstein, who during the photography session recounted his regrets about his role in the United States pursuing the atomic bomb. The photo would later be used in 1966 on a U.S. postage stamp and in 1999, on the cover of Time Magazine, when Time dubbed Einstein as “Person of the Century.”

Other celebrities photographed by Halsman include Alfred Hitchcock, Judy Garland, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Dandridge, and Pablo Picasso. Many of those photographs appeared on the cover of Life.

In 1952, John F. Kennedy had two photograph sittings by Halsman. The result was that one photograph from the first sitting appeared on the jacket of the original edition of Profiles in Courage. In the second sitting a photograph was used in the senatorial campaign.

In 1958 Halsman was listed in Popular Photography’s “World’s Ten Greatest Photographers”, and in 1975 he received the Life Achievement in Photography Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers. He also held numerous large exhibitions worldwide.

The Halsman trial was dramatized in the 2007 film Jump!, in which Halsman was portrayed by Ben Silverstone.

Photos:

123►

Spencer Tunick

Tunick was born in the United States in Middletown, Orange County, New York.

In 1986, he visited London, where he took photographs of a nude at a bus stop and of scores of nudes in Alleyn’s School’s Lower School Hall in Dulwich, Southwark. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Emerson College in 1988.

In 1992, Tunick began documenting live nudes in public locations in New York through video and photographs. His early works from this period focus more on a single nude individual or on small groups of nudes. These works are much more intimate images than the massive installations for which he is now known. By 1994 Tunick had organized and photographed over 65 temporary site related installations in the United States and abroad. Since then, he has taken his celebration of the nude form internationally, and has taken photos in cities that include Cork, Dublin, Bruges, Buenos Aires, Buffalo, Lisbon, London, Lyon, Melbourne, Montreal, Rome, San Sebastián, São Paulo, Caracas, Newcastle/Gateshead, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Helsinki, Santiago, Mexico City, and Amsterdam. In August 1997, Tunick photographed a large group of nudes at The Great Went, a festival hosted by Phish in Limestone, Maine.

In June 2003, Tunick photographed 7,000 naked people in Barcelona. On June 26, 2004, he completed his largest installation in the United States in Cleveland, Ohio, with 2,754 people posing. In August 2004, a photo shoot was completed in Buffalo of about 1,800 nudes in Buffalo’s old central train station. On July 17, 2005 he photographed almost 1,700 nudes on the quaysides at Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, including the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.[4] On September 11, 2005, he shot 1,493 nudes in Lyon on the Rhône quaysides and footbridge resp. between containers.[5] On March 19, 2006, Tunick photographed 1,500 nudes in Caracas, having people standing up, lying down, and on their knees beside the main Simon Bolivar statue.

On May 6, 2007, approximately 18,000 people posed for Tunick in Mexico City’s principal square, the Zócalo, setting a new record,[7] and more than doubling the previous highest number of 7,000 people who had turned out in Barcelona in 2003. Male and female volunteers of different ages stood and saluted, lay down on the ground, crouched in the fetal position, and otherwise posed for Tunick’s lens in the city’s massive central plaza, the Plaza de la Constitución. Here, the specific problems of photographing great numbers of people outside became clear: as Tunick could only shoot from buildings located west of the square (the three other sides of the square are government buildings and the cathedral), there was a rush to take the pictures before dawn to avoid getting sunflare in the lens.

In 2007 Spencer Tunick was commissioned by the Dream Amsterdam Foundation to realize art projects for the artistic event Dream Amsterdam. On April 15, 2007, Tunick realized an installation in a tulip field in Schermerhorn. On June 3, 2007, he made installations with 2000 participants in Amsterdam. Tunick’s first installation with 2000 people was in a car park; the following installations were with 250 men at a nearby gas station and 250 women on bicycles on the Lijnbaansgracht – Lauriergracht. Tunick’s final installation was made with a small selected group of participants on a canal called Leliegracht. For this installation a special bridge construction was made to create the illusion that the people were floating over the water.

His subjects rarely smile or smoulder, and there are so many bodies squeezed together that it’s hard for any single one to exert any sexual power on the viewer.

“I’m trying to create flesh architecture,” Tunick says in his fifth-floor studio in north Tribeca, the downtown area of New York thick with converted warehouses like this one. “I aim to get a sculptural feel for groups of bodies, as well as create performance art.”

“On my website, you can apply to be a model, and you give your skin tone on a colour chart,” he says, as he clicks open a page on his computer showing seven boxes ranging from stark white, through baby-powder pink, to dark chocolate. “I can then play off your flesh tone against the other end of the spectrum, or group you with people of the same colour.

Photos:

123►

Official site: www.spencertunick.com