Newsletter
Below are Newsletters that were sent in 2021, each Newsletter contains new photographs, stories, and insight from photographers featured during each month. For 2022 I plan to continue the newsletter, with a goal of achieving one for each month. If you would like to subscribe please join here
January Recap
January’s featured photographers took us across the globe and then back to a hometown one never expected to call home again. Sometimes social media neglects to share the truth about the places we call home, only showing the curated highlights
of how we want others to think we live.
As someone who has lived on and off in their childhood home, I believed I had to go far to be inspired. I had a teacher who always ended his class with
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at begin to change.”
This month’s newsletter highlights those who decided to do just that, by photographing
the place they know best, their home.
For anyone who lives at home, this one’s for you (+me).
It doesn’t matter where you live all that matters is you keep chasing your goals.
This month Jono Verrall shared work from his series ‘Everyday Punishments’ which is his response to an unexpected move home.
'Everyday Punishments' coincidentally became a platform of sorts for me to go out, unpack and engage with a place I never really expected to find myself in again."
I admired how he turned something unexpected and challenging into a new opportunity. Below he shares more about his perspective on moving home.
Returning Home
I'm sure for many the idea of returning to a place previously left behind in life comes across as a sort of regression. I know that I personally felt this way, returning to my hometown in 2018. It was the last place in the world I figured I'd find myself situated and about the last place I would've imagined being a source of visual inspiration. But over the course of time and after many walks around the block it became a place of refuge, a place in which, after many years of being relatively lost creatively, I was able to reconnect with taking photos that actually meant something to me. The simple act of gradually reintroducing myself to spaces that I'd forgotten about or sentimentally disconnected with, through the lens of a camera, I've since learnt is a very important aspect for not only understanding myself but that which surrounds me as well. However, this is only my own experience with returning home and to say that this is a one solution fixes all sorta deal would be silly. Places are transient even if at first glance they appear stagnant. In short, I'd say give yourself time, wherever it is you've found yourself.
Enrique Leyva shares how paying attention to the details we overlook in the ‘familiar’ are just as important as what we already know.
Now that I am home I had to change the way I create. I began to pay attention to the the light in my space, noticing it and studying the way it move through each room. As I began to know its patterns I added to it by adding a curtain to change it’s output. This time spent watching it allowed me to learn how to use it to change my environment.
I spend a lot of time driving all over my hometown. It has allowed me to focus in on the local spots and look at them in new ways. I pay more attention to the walls with the electric street cables and I now begin to use them elements to my advantage by adding them to the composition or having my subjects interact with them. There are advantages to making work in your hometown, you have the opportunity to see the place you now best in a whole new light. As I notice new details I make sure they find their way into my images.
Other Featured Photographers From January include:
Brennan Booker
Carson Gilliland
Terrain (TJ) Walker II
Clément Stalhberger
Natalie Wyborn
Leia Mia Morrison
Jessica Auer
February Recap (Using reference photographs to inspire your own work)
This month as couple began to express their love on Valentine’s Day I noticed that some of the images were great reference material for how to pose two people for a portrait in the future. While love was in the air I had great conversations with photographers who have already been referencing photographs of couples to inspire their own work.
Leia Mia Morrison shares how flipping through family albums helped inspire their artwork in the present.
I was looking through my grandmother’s photo albums when the Margate 1953 photograph just slipped out... I loved the anonymity of the image and it sparked an interest in recreating photographs that were intimate but anonymous at the same time. I tried to put my own spin on the photograph by using a studio set up and adding warmth through colour. I didn’t want it to feel like a mimic of the original image. I was recreating a feeling rather than a composition, if that makes sense?
Recently this notion of revisiting past photographs to stimulate new ideas has made its way back into my work. During the first lockdown, I found myself incredibly frustrated and unable to produce anything new and so I turned to old work to spark new ideas. It really got me thinking creatively again and helped me out of the rut that I think a lot of us found ourselves in during those first lockdown months.
Chris Behroozian shares how an artwork found through Instagram inspired their portrait of Rudy & Lorenzo
This shoot was pretty simple, these friends of mine lived a block from me at the time. So I was just hanging out and casually taking a few photos of them. I think I was finishing a roll of film I had started. But I did set up one shot, this one, based on a drawing I had seen on Instagram. I unfortunately don’t know who the artist is. But I’ve really been liking paintings and illustrations as references lately, they usually are a little more imaginative and cute and colorful. So they just have this feeling that I like attempting to mimic with a photo.
Other Featured Photographers From February include:
Emilio Espejel
Drew Sangria
Barry Falk
Shayd Johnson
Mike Sim
Kenneth Takacs
Amber Valley Evangelista
March Recap
In my recent reading of ‘The Parameters Of Our Cage,’ I came across Alec Soth’s thoughts on photographing family: “I don’t take serious photos of my family. I can’t seem to do it. Photography is a tool for me to explore the world while always preserving a certain amount of distance.”
I found myself relating to some of Soth’s words and therefore decided to turn this month’s newsletter into a feature of photographers who explore family relationships.
Matteo Buonomo speaks about paying attention to the details that can reveal family dynamics.
”What I can tell you about the portrait of Skyler and is Mom actually isn’t much. I didn’t give them any direction, it was something that was happening in front of my eyes. We went to the river to fish and swim a little, those days were so hot. On the way back home we were driving on a muddy road, and Kristal out of the blu stopped the car, jumped out and simply dived into the mud and started screaming and laughing asking Skyler and I to join her. Skyler was absolutely embarrassed of the situation and didn’t want to get dirty so Kristal started to throw pieces of mud towards him. He wasn’t very happy about it but to make his Mom happy he while joined her. All of this lasted for a couple of minutes and then I had them in front of me as the way you see the photo, I just ask them to look at me for a second and nothing else. What I did in this picture is recognize the feeling of their relationship. I recognized that in that specific moment it represented what I had been witnessing between the all along.
It showed their often inverted roles of their family with Skyler trying and forced to be an adult and take care of her Mom rather than the opposite and Kristal often impetuously and behaving childish.
I think in this photo you can see this and I think that's the reason why I consider it a good photo. If you look at it carefully It shows you something subtle, unrevealed and you might understand a large part of their relationship in this photo.”
Eleanor Beale shares from her ongoing series ‘A Leaf in the Daisy Field’ which explores her Sister’s relationship with her family members.
Myself and my little sister Daisy didn’t have a very strong relationship growing up, it wasn’t until our teenage years where I began to explore her Autism using photography that we finally began to understand each other as people.
Recently I have been re-visiting this body of work, aiming to explore the idea of phototherapy between us as siblings, while also shining a light on Daisy’s relationships with other members of our family.
A lot of the ideas behind the images stem from conversations between Daisy and myself, we recall moments of our childhood and in particular aspects of life she has had to overcome. I love to use my images as a milestone for her, in life we rarely get the chance to step back and reflect on our personal growth.
Therefore, we used performance style portraits to illustrate past obsessive behaviours she has had throughout life allowing for reflection and realisation of how far she has grown as a young woman.
The actual process of taking the images tends to be a playful experience and using film photography slows down the process and allows conversation and engagement between myself and Daisy. My best images are often stemmed from Daisy’s natural behaviour, even if we start the shoot with me posing her, she will do something in-between shots that looks beautiful and illustrates her character perfectly. I will pause her and take an image, the photography becomes a conversation between us and an alternative method of communication.
I love the idea that the audience can get a sense of the relationship between Daisy and myself through my images, even when I do not appear in the photographs, I think there is an obvious trust and bond between the subject and photographer. Including my parents in the series has also allowed me to show a more holistic view of Daisy’s family life as she has very different types of relationship with each of us. During these shoots, for example this image of Daisy and my mother, I allow them to be natural in front of the camera. I want them to interact with each other and then I pick out these moments of intimacy and often awkwardness and explore these. For a very long time Daisy was rejecting of any physical contact from family members and my mother in particular found this incredibly hard, whereas myself and Daisy have had a different relationship in that I will get a hug from her and sibling affection. This is something I illustrate in my images, using space, performance and touch to show the nature of these different relationships and also allow an insight into our family life.
For me the most important outcome of this work is not the images, it’s the need for Daisy to be proud of the art we have created together and proud of her differences. Therefore, every part of our process is collaborative, we make every decision together because this is her story and our relationship.
Other Featured Photographers From March include:
Josh Adam Jones
Daisy Gaston
Andy Pilsbury
Anne Vetter
Claudia Stranghöner
Ariel Sko
Jack Flame Sorokin
Robin Bernstein
April Recap
In honor of Mother’s day I wanted to send this newsletter as a celebration of a parent’s love and how it influences our perspective and ultimately finds its way into our art.
April’s interview featured Jon Henry’s series Stranger Fruit, which was created in response to the senseless murders of black men across the nation by police violence. Henry’s photographs depict Mother’s holding their sons in a way that ask them to imagine the loss of them to police violence. In my interview with Henry he reflects on the impact of hearing his Mother say ‘be careful out there.’
“It’s something you always hear from a parent, but you never understand the full scope of what it could mean until older.”
In addition to Henry’s interview feature, I shared Jamie Holland Jr portrait which had the original caption of “thinking about Ahmaud, and my dad, and history, and what kind of time we’re allotted and how we spend it and how it ends.”
Below he revisits this image through his perspective as a son.
Jamie Holland Jr
In the process of being someone’s son, particularly a black son to a black father, there exists so many inevitabilities. Events and teachings whose essence is shared, totemic, and wholly necessary. The only variable is time. When does my father first tell me to walk in front of, not behind him? When should he begin to insist that my hands remain in my pockets, and I not stare at any one thing in a store for too long? What day is best for him to explain himself, his reasons for encouraging me to dress more formal, to keep from certain friends? And how do I begin to digest these teachings, and prepare them for use?
Our most pivotal lesson builds on the foundation of all previous lessons, and its weight is so earnestly conveyed by tone of voice. It leaves the pleasant air of nagging reminder far behind, toiling in the sand of playgrounds and grass stained memory, and ascends into the upper registers of a pleading truth, of ‘I am serious’, of interwoven fingers to god.
“When you get stopped by police just…”
It would be dishonest of me to claim that I made this photograph, or others like it, with the active intention I imagine some others do. I don’t believe I seek these people out as conduits to a story I wish to tell, though sometimes thats what they turn out to be, and often it is beyond their ability to chose. Because they, like me, are here and brown, and beset by possibilities beautiful and tragic. There is value in these photographs only as it reflects us. Maybe it is that reflection that I look for.
Other Featured Photographers From April include:
Robin Bernstein
John Boaz
Tim Christokat
Pepa González
Jon Henry
Jaimie Holland Jr
Ashley Kittrell
Mathew Scott
Greg Turner
Kieran Warburton
Photographers Featured in May:
William Camargo
Jamie Campbell
Tadas Kazakevičius
Jeffrey Robbins
Greg Turner
Photographers Featured in June:
Chris Hoare
Louise Quignon
Kevin Sweeney
July Recap
In July, I had the opportunity to interview Emily Monforte; who upon reading their interview responses, I fell in love with their process just a little more. What impressed me the most was her creative approach. She often found models in grocery stores or was enticed by their homes. She wondered who could live inside some homes and would leave letters in their mailbox requesting to learn more.
When I applauded Monforte for their courageous efforts in their approach, they responded with “I have major, major anxiety about approaching people, it takes a lot of guts and emotional labor to work with as many strangers as I have.”
Revisit her interview here
Drew Sangria provides feedback after discovering Emily Monforte’s work on Anywhere Blvd.
“Every now and again I come across a photographer that refreshes my inspiration in regards to the medium of photography. There is something truly special about Emily Monforte's work. Her photographs have a tendency to feel both heavy and light simultaneously. This visually engaging paradox is one of the many qualities that has drawn me to her work. If you like artists like Carolyn Drake or Eva O'leary you will fall in love with Emily Monforte's work.”
An extra portrait and story from Emily Monforte
“I took this image at Colby's girlfriend's apartment in Middletown, CT. I crammed as many things that I found in the apartment that intrigued me into the shot- the image of his niece (to seem a possible daughter), the poofy pink bouquet, the TV's edge, and of course, the ironing board. I had him do the same motion about 50 times before I caught the exact moment I wanted. He was incredibly patient and eager to act out my vision.”
Photographers Featured in July:
Lewis Brymner
John Boaz
Kate Foster & John Hesselbarth
Enrique Leyva
Drew Sangria
August Recap
During August I had the opportunity to interview Sebastian Beierle about his series ‘Slowly the nights grew cold.’ I remember being in contact with Beierle during the time frame in which he worked on this project. What I admired about him was how open he was with his struggles with anxiety and depression. I found it bold of him to move to Peniscola, Spain during the off season in which isolation is common while tourists are away. He speaks more about his experience, “Loneliness was a central theme for me during this time. Even though I knew some people there by the end of the project, I was by myself a lot. This became a big problem on some days and I felt very bad at times.”
I am thankful and proud of him for embarking on this journey, challenging himself to work through the difficulties that arose.
Learn more by revisiting my interview with him here
In August I also had the pleasure of sharing work from Giulia Degasperi's on-going series ‘These Dark Mountains,’ which you can revisit starting here
Once Degasperi completes her series I will have the opportunity to interview her as well, in the mean time enjoy this additional story about Fèro.
“Fèro is known as the guardian of the woods. He lives alone in his self-built house in Tuenno, a little village close to my hometown Trento. In the woods, Fèro has found rests of plants that are 300 million years old, which made him famous among scientists worldwide. One being the ancestor of pines, has been called after him 'Ferovalentinia'. He doesn't only collect fossils but also herbs, which he's using mainly for food, but also as medicine. As a child he used to cure his father’s cattle with herbs. For all his life he has been fighting for nature and against those who wants to exploit it for money.
There is so much I could tell about him, but there’s one thing in particular, which he told me in his calm voice, that struck me:
"My life is the forest. I spend my days there. I don't really go for walks, I'm always looking for something. I have a passion that drives me. And that has been the strongest meaning I have found in existence.”
Additional Photographers Featured in August:
Lila Barth
Leon Düllberg
Monica Jane Frisell
Henry O. Head
Han Phan
Shayd Johnson
Sarah Stellino
Brian Van Lau