“My working outfit is very casual: jeans, a shirt, documentary photographer shoes and a jacket. When we meet in these godforsaken places, we all look alike with our Timberlands, our scarves and jackets with lots of pockets. I guess there is such a thing as a documentary photographer look.” -Paolo Pellegrin talking with Nowness

There’s a strange and small interview with Paolo Pellegrin at Nowness to accompany a small selection of pictures from his upcoming Magnum Fashion magazine “Storm.” If you’re reading this here, no doubt you already know Pellegrin’s work, but on the off chance that you don’t, go get educated at the Magnum site with Pellegrin’s portfolio.

I’m not a big fan of videos of photographers taking pictures, but if it involves two of my favorite photographers talking about their creative process, I won’t complain much. In the video, we see Trent Parke and Narelle Autio (and check out her previous agency Oculi for more down-under goodness) working together and on their own personal projects, as well as a glimpse into Autio’s less-glamorous assignments when she was at the Sydney Morning Herald. It’s a rare look into the way photographers work, and it’s well worth a watch.

(via Two Looks)

One of my favorite things from the photo-web-universe is the 2008 interview of portrait photographer Platon from World Press Photo where he describes the circumstances behind one of my favorite portraits of all time: the cover shot of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year Vladimir Putin. The photograph won first prize in portraiture at World Press that year, and the story behind it is amazing for russophiles and to gain huge appreciation for what Platon goes through to get his images. If you haven’t seen or heard it yet, you must go listen. (click on the 2008 tab)

Jump to today, when a few people alerted me to The New Yorker’s presentation of Platon’s Portraits of Power. Each image of a world leader, taken in a five-day period at the UN this September, is accompanied by audio of Platon talking about the photograph, the situation, the person sitting.

It’s rich, inspiring and above all enlightening. You gotta have a look.

Jason Eskenazi talks about Wonderland and Title Nation from Habitus A Diaspora Journal on Vimeo.

Thanks to Habitus Magazine for pointing us to their interview with Jason Eskenazi, whose book “Wonderland” (1 used at Amazon for $656.00!) you should know. In the video, Eskenazi discusses the narrative structure of Wonderland, the nature of being a photographer, finding pictures in Grozny, and collaborating with Valerii Nistratov for the portraits in “Title Nation.” The video was produced as part of Habitus‘ Moscow issue.

Rich-Joseph Facun is a favorite of mine. His essays come from unexpected angles and work subtly until they punch you in the gut. There’s always an undeniable energy to his work, but the quiet poetry shines through. Though we’ve never met in person, we’ve got a little bit of shared photo history in NYC and Chicagoland. After a few years shooting for the Virginian-Pilot, he picked up stakes and moved to Abu Dhabi as a staff photographer for the startup publication, The National. He’s been doing great work there, some of which can be seen on his website and blog. I was excited when he sent an email telling us here at dvafoto about a new project on the streets of Varansai, India, and the conversation grew to include Facun’s thoughts about the importance of personal work.

When he first let us know about the project, the email started out: “I just returned from India and it was an amazing experience. Initially I went for a recharge but also to look into an idea I had for a book project. I ended up in Varanasi which is known as the Holy City to the Hindus. Each year millions of pilgrims travel from around India to bathe in the sacred river Ganga. Some travel to die in Varanasi in order to attain “moksha” which is essentially to be liberated from the cycle of reincarnation. It is believed by the Hindus that by being cremated at one of the burning ghats along the river will help them achieve this right. It was truly fascinating and beautiful…the trip has inspired me to work on an essay that will eventually take me from the birth of the river Ganga in the Himalayans 1500 miles south to the Bay of Bengal where the great river comes to rest. ”

dvafoto: Was this work done on assignment for the National or any other publication?
RJF: The work done in India was not done on assignment for The National or another publication. As I mentioned previously, this is a personal project. Working in the United Arab Emirates is very challenging for many reasons ranging from access to cultural differences. To say the least, it can deflate your passion and drive very quickly. Fortunately for me, my wife and muse Jasmine encouraged me to pick a country and go work on something personal. Rather than approach the work as a photojournalist she suggested that I get out and have fun by simply pursuing my first love with the camera, street photography.

India seemed like the obvious choice as it is only a three hour flight from Abu Dhabi and I could visit it regularly if I found something that interested me. After some very minor research I decided to visit Varanasi. It seemed like a perfect fit. I’ve always had a fascination with religious studies and Varanasi being recognized by Hindus as their Holy City felt right. Not to mention the Ganges is also considered a sacred river and is worshipped by the Hindus as the goddess Ganga. It was a no brainer. As soon as I landed in Varansai it was only a matter of minutes that I knew I made the right choice.

How was access during the shooting you’ve done so far? Easy to interact with people, get into their homes, the burning ghats, etc.?

Most of the people I met in Varanasi spoke some level of English and those who didn’t, well I got the feeling that we both shared an equal interests in each other so we made do with the small amount of communication we could share. I’m heavily tattooed so quite often the pilgrims visiting Varanasi came from small villages in India and were always curious about my stained skin. It was often an icebreaker. Others often asked me if I was Indian and when I replied no, they reacted with surprise and would comment that some of my facial features looked Indian. Sometimes, while sitting alone on one of the many ghats, groups of people would approach me to ask about my tattoos and where I was from. This opened up a few doors for some images to be made in a more photo-j approach rather than street photography.

The one place that I did face challenges was at the Manikarnika Ghat where cremations take place along the Ganga. You’re not allowed to take pictures at the burning ghats, it’s not unheard of, if you’re wiling to pay about 150-300 rupees a frame, roughly 3-6 USD a photograph. However, I found a local who introduced me to one of the untouchables who worked with the dead bodies and families at the ghat. Eventually I was allowed to take three photos but from a distance and at no charge. I could have shot more for a price but it just seemed forced and unnatural. This is something I’ll work on more when I return.

Do you plan on shooting more with the project?
I definitely plan on returning to India to further my work on this project, tentatively called Darshana Ganga. Roughly translated, “Darshana” comes from a verb meaning “to see,” and it conveys the understanding that any philosophy is one way of seeing a truth that can be viewed from different angles. “Ganga” is the Hindi word for the Ganges, the river, associated in myth and reality with the land and people of India. I hope that my work, when completed, will convey this title to some degree both literally and conceptually.

In January I’m planning to head to Kolkata where the Ganga breaks into several deltas before it finds rests in the Bay of Bengal. In March I hope to trek north to the Himalayans where the river is born. At that point I will have shot the locations that are considered the beginning, middle and end of the rivers flow. Afterwards, I’ll determine where to head next along the banks of the Ganga. Ideally I’ll end up in an another area that offers diversity in subject matter. Currently, I have a few towns and rural villages in mind. I’m in no rush to finish, I’m only in a hurry to get back to India to start shooting more on this body of work.

Why shoot this project now?

I’m shooting this project now because I can. When else will I live close enough to India that I can fly there so frequently for such a fair price? I never know what opportunity is going to come knocking on my door next so I want to make sure that I take full advantage of what is available to me today. As I mentioned earlier, shooting in the Emirates is very challenging. Photography is something I don’t choose to do, it’s something I have to do or else I get extremely manic. Ask my wife. But in doing photography I have to be shooting something that moves me. Something I feel connected to. But to get down to it, I’ve fallen in love again and her name is India. Don’t tell the misses, she might get jealous.

Any idea what the final project will look like?

This project started very much in the same manner as a previous body of work of mine entitled “Rollin’ Revival.” In the beginning I was shooting the resurgence of roller derby as an outlet outside of my daily photojournalism work. Later my wife and a friend suggested I consider investing more time with the topic in order to produce a book.

Well, three or four years later and I am finally working with the amazing former White House and National Geographic editor Mike Davis to finalize a selection of images for the book-in-progress. Point being, I didn’t know where I was going with the derby work, I didn’t have a purpose in the start, but in the end it is all coming together. I prefer the dynamics of this type of workflow.

All things aside, I hope the final outcome of my India work will ideally become a book. It’s really way too early to tell. It’s like proposing after going out on the first date (wait…I did that with my wife), it’s really too soon to logically know. In the end, I think it’ll simply be a love story.

Last week we had a look at Tomas van Houtryve’s brilliant and cunning pull-back-the-curtain look at North Korea called “Secrets and Lies”. Via his blog today I found this interview with the BBC World Service (which is playing today, I suppose. He also mentions it will only be available for 7 days) where he discusses his new worldwide project about the few remaining communist states Comrades Revisited and the methods (and reasoning) he used to photograph in a new way in North Korea. Have a listen, it is the first segment.

With the next interview in our ongoing series we’re talking to photographer Donald Weber who is based in Eastern Europe and is with the VII Network. You should quickly see why he and I have connected, given our overlapping interests with a certain part of the world. Many of the questions I asked, frankly, were bent to my own personal interest in what it means to move halfway around the world to photograph stories you’re personally passionate about. I’m sure some of you can relate. But more importantly to most of you, he is producing interesting and important work much on his own terms and is rising his profile, and has had an interesting life so far. And has interesting things to say about what he is doing.

Amongst many accomplishments Weber has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lange-Taylor Prize and a World Press Photo award. He was a 2006 winner of the Photolucida Critical Mass review which just published his book Bastard Eden, Our Chernobyl (which I previously mentioned here). Before becoming a photographer, he worked as an architect with the world-renowned Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. For his full biography have a look at the about page on his website.

What is your background, in interests and academics? Where do you come from?
Well, Canadian, from Toronto, downtown, which may have influenced my outlook. Taking the subway at 12 years old to school everyday definitely gives an impression on a youngster, glad I was able to see what I did. Anyway, my academic background is not so academic, I studied at an alternative high school that offered an intensive arts education, from the age of 16 until graduation in grade 13, I studied art all day everyday. We had four hours of life drawing two days a week – that would be nudes, thus lots of people were jealous of us, plus an 8 hour day of art history and then we would major and minor in two artistic practices. I wanted to be artist, not really sure what that was or how I would do it, but initially that was my goal. I then went on to study at art college, the Ontario College of Art & Design, where I majored in – I forget the complex phrasing of the subject, something like Art and the Environment. Basically, making massive intrusions into the public landscape. Great! But I totally wasted my time, as far as I’m concerned, education is wasted on the young! It was a conflict in my youth of what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it. I loved the idea of creating something, anything, I didn’t care how as long as I could. Then I had this interest in photography, and in particular photojournalism, which went against all the grains of an artistic education that I was brought up on.
So it was an interesting education, for almost 10 years I was schooled in very sophisticated forms of visual education that certainly influences me to this day. The practicalities may have changed, but the essence of being visual are always the same. Line, shape, form, colour, mood, tone, conceptual processes, etc., are all linked at the very core, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to have had an education that grounded these roots into my young head.

Tell me about your time with architecture.
Well architecture came about rather haphazardly. in order to understand my time within that field, you have to understand first how I ended up there; it’s a rather convoluted process but one that is inherent as to my position today.

Back to my high schooling. As I stated before, I had an interest in both art and photojournalism. My passion, in my final year, was won out with photojournalism. It was in November of that year before graduation where in Canada we make our applications to post secondary institutions. I wanted to apply to two – Rochester Institute of Technology for PJ, and a smaller college just outside of Toronto for a basic three year photography course. I asked my photography (and I quote verbatim the following conversation):

Me: Robert, which school do you think I should apply to? RIT or Sheridan?
Robert (the teacher): What? Why would you apply to either? You suck as a photographer!

Thus, I literally brought my cameras home and put them in a drawer, not to be touched for about 10 years. It was then I decided to find a different path. I replaced photography with ceramics; my mother was not so pleased. Anyway, while studying at OCAD, I developed an interest in architecture, planning and landscape design and was captured by the writings and designs of the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. So, I set my sights on working for him. When I graduated in 1996, I headed overseas to Rotterdam where his practice was based, and promptly got a job, precisely because I was not a trained architect. I worked there for about three years. It was a great experience, but certainly soul crushing. I found architecture to be a rather drab profession and nearly impossible to do anything of interest, save for the exception of Rem Koolhaas and a few others. But I learned about ideas, how to think in a conceptual manner and to find ways to bring those ideas into fruition. It also taught me on more practical levels things about budgeting and planning and just being professional; things I think we take for granted that all go into the realities of being a working photographer.

Anyway, it was not a highlight of my life but I think a necessary step.

What brought you to photography? Was there a specific event that made you say “I am going to be a photographer”?
Yes, very specific event! My whole life has these cascading elements that when all put together certainly illuminate what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I was born in 1973, thus when the events of the late 80’s and early 90’s came around, I was at the ripe age to start taking notice. For me, these were the most historical and important times of my generation. The collapse of communism, the events in Tiananmen Square, the first Iraq War. These were all events that were shaped and played out in magazines and television. I was a teenager and just discovering more than my backyard, it was an awakening physically, mentally, socially, everything, for me. I remember clearly watching hundreds of thousands of Eastern European refugees fleeing their countries for elsewhere, the Wall collapsing, the Ceaucescu’s being executed, Boris Yeltsin on top of a tank. All these events were seared into my mind, and those events shaped what I wanted to do with my life. I had always been aware of news images, but never before did I connect that somebody actually went out there and made those pictures until I was older. It was a massive lightbulb that went off and I wanted to be a part of it.

Anyway, that was event number one. The second event was my diversion to architecture for awhile; I listened to closely what my high school teacher had to say; never again! Anyway, it was while I was living in Europe that I remembered what photography was all about. I wanted to remember living in Europe, so I bought a camera – it was great! I couldn’t put it down, all I did was take photos. Crappy, but they were photos. It was then that I said okay – I’m going to be a photographer – but how was a much more difficult question. It wasn’t until March of 2000, a few days before I was to leave on a year long trip to ride my motorcycle across Africa (something I had previously done in 1998) where the jump was finally made. I had just quit my job as an architect, not really knowing what to do. I was taking the bike out for one last tune up spin when I got hit by a car. I just remember sliding across the hood of some old Chevy, sliding on my back seeing my crumpled bike and thinking, okay, now’s the time to be a photographer. So I never did the bike trip to Africa; I “became” a photographer. That summer I got an internship at the Toronto Sun, a tabloid.

Vorkuta, Russia: Vorkuta, regional centre of one of the largest concentrations of Gulag camps in the USSR. Founded by prisoners, the region is populated by descendants of former zeks and prison authorities.
What were your early interests as a photographer? Influences?
I don’t really know, for me it was such a long battle to finally start taking pictures that influences and interests were a secondary thought! But, as a teenager, photojournalism was a very powerful force in me. I remember Kenneth Jarecke’s burned Iraqi soldier from the first Iraq War, Chris Morris’ Panama photos, Don McCullin – it was important because what they were photographing was important – and that was important to me! So I’d say my interests were in the realm that photography could act as a document; the total opposite of my art education. to me art had become superfluous, something dilettantes dabbled in; it had lost it’s meaning. Photography was the opposite. As I grew, my more literal influences was the photographer Raymond Depardon, still is. To me he has managed to encapsulate perfectly what a photographer is and should be. Bridge influences and ideas from all facets and present them in his own manner. That is something I strive to do, to take what I see but also to take what I feel and make my own story of it.

My interests are always morphing; there was a time when I thought Chris Morris could do no wrong (still do). But my art training definitely influenced me in the way I see; not what I see, but how I interpret that. I used to really enjoy the old masters and specifically religious paintings of the 15 – 17 centuries. So much blood, red, white, gold, colour, pain; totally terrified me.
Read on »

Yea, so this is a few days late and I’m sure you’ve all seen it, but there was a terrific interview with Chris Buck over on A Photo Editor last week. In parts One and Two. I’ll save the hyperbole: go read it. It is very good.

I had certainly heard his name and seen some photos, but I needed to go look through Mr. Buck’s website to really get up to speed. And that’s where I found this photo, and oh what a gem.

Utter jealousy .. Buck photographed one of my favorite people in music, the lead singer and mastermind behind the band Neutral Milk Hotel. (here is a Youtube of Jeff singing his haunting song ‘Oh Comely’). Buck made a great image from this, a big hat tip to him. Thanks too for the nice read at APE.

PS – I’m back from some travels and stuck in some ugly weather in Seattle, so hopefully I’ll be back up to full blogging speed soon. If for nothing else than to entertain me. I’ll have some words and pictures from my trek to sunny Southern Florida to visit my grandfather soon too.

I’m very pleased to introduce you all to my friend, and source of inspiration, Djordje Jovanovic of Belgrade. I met him and his ‘crew’ in 2007 while studying abroad in the Balkans and from the very first beer we had I knew he was a special one. And not only because we had the very same taste in photographers and ideas on what photography should and can be, but because of his passion and ideas for how to push things forward in the otherwise stifling society of post-conflict, post-communist ex-Yugoslavia. Though he has recently put photography aside (makes me sad.. look at this work!) to pursue innovative and ground-breaking projects with his company XAOC Creative (the Serbian word, in Cyrillic, for Chaos) he still edits, designs and publishes the amazing XAOC Magazine, which has introduced me to countless interesting photographers from around the world. He was even so kind as to feature M. Scott in Issue 3 and Me in Issue 2. If you click on no other links for this post, check out these magazines.

Tell me a little about your city and your country
Belgrade is the capital of a small European country – Serbia. Serbia, in a recent history, was part of a larger country – a communist Yugoslavia. Now the country is in a process of transition and European integration. There are ongoing reforms in almost all state and social sectors . Belgrade is a vibrant city that has a tendency towards a group violence every few months. Interesting and loved city by many westerners and locals… known for cheep drinks, friendly people and beautiful girls ) bla bla
 
What did you go to school for?
I went to a High school for design – graphic design department, and just got my degree in computer arts and design at the academy of arts BK in Belgrade.

How did you decide to pursue this?
I really don’t remember but I guess that I like to draw when I was a kid and being a son of a photographer kind of pushed me into it… and I liked it.
 
What are you doing now?
Now I’m working on a creative and administrative processes in a company called Xaoc Creative that I started a year ago with two friends. Essentially it’s a creative center dealing with all kinds of visual communication. We’re mostly focused on graphic design for web and print, advanced web development and of course image production.

What changed between school, your first jobs as a photographer and where you are now?
A lot! Everything. My first full time job was in Serbian national news agency Tanjug. I was a kid just finished high school that suddenly was attending all the government and parliament sessions and traveling around the country and region with all the heads of state. It had a big impact on my process of thinking. Later on I started to work for Kurir daily newspaper simultaneously while working for Tanjug and studying. That brought even more fun to my life. Kurir is a tabloid, something like The sun in UK, so I was now in a even wider company of people, including entertainment and sport stars, criminals and a lot of very diverse ordinary folks with big problems. It was very interesting period, parliament session in the morning, gypsy settlement in poverty on the afternoon and VIP fashion show/party in the evening… that’s how my days looked like. . Later on I switched to Gazeta news paper and later to Hello! Magazine. During this four year period I was mainly interested in documentary photography. But I realized that photography is not enough for me anymore in terms of expression and impact. So I decided to start a company and put some more media in, some more people and more serious projects.
 
What did you enjoy about working as a photojournalist?
Process of creation was most enjoyable compared to the same process in other media. It was fast, simple and powerful.
Then of course the interaction with people and places that I was able to have working as a photojournalist.
“Photographing because I want to change the world and help people in need” is the line that we can hear from many big names in this business but I think it’s a big lie. I seriously doubt that anyone is photographing with that goal in mind.

Why did you leave photography?
Photography just don’t have big impact on society anymore. At least I think so. I wanted something with much bigger impact and that’s why we’re working with more media now. Also I wanted more control and more freedom and I felt that I could contribute more than I could as a photojournalist.
 

Tell me about Xaoc and your team.
Core team consist of tree man. Marko Kecman (Ed- Another terrific photographer and friend of mine.. check xaocphoto.com), Jovan Damjanovic and myself. We also have two developers, and two men that are dealing with photo production and a lot of contributors.

What kind of work are you doing?
A lot of web and print projects. In image production we are doing everything that a newspaper or a magazine would like us to do in a BtoB model. Fashion editorials, Products, reportages, interviews, campaigns… whatever you can think of… (Ed- Have a look at this project XAOC has done called Victims! of Serbian Politics. It combines nifty design, terrific photography and a social motive in an interesting and engaging way.)

Tell me about Xaoc Magazine. Who do you feature?
Xaoc magazine is a noncommercial free time project that has a potential for growth. We weren’t satisfied with the photo scene in Serbia so we felt the need to do something about it. Web magazine was the easiest way to do it… we’ve done only three issues for now, but had a nice feedback from people all over the world. Selection is based upon the aesthetics that we find interesting and that cant be found in a media scene in Belgrade… not in a mainstream at least. It’s internationally orientated but we always put at least one Serbian photographer in it.

What is the media scene in Serbia?
Rich and expanding. Quality I want comment on.
 
What kind of relationship do you have with the rest of the region (Balkans) and Europe?
Rich and expanding. Yes we do have a big problem here with visas, but we’re managing to overcome it. Other than that it’s fine. Balkans and Europe are rich in war history but I don’t find it to be an issue.
 
What are your goals for Xaoc? For yourself?
To expand our business internationally is the first next step. On a long run we want to contribute to an ongoing evolution for a better society. We’re living in a very interesting time now and not just in a last few decades or centuries but form the beginning of a mankind. We believe that humans are soon to evolve into much more powerful and peaceful beings and with great anticipation are looking into the future.
 
Any predictions for the Serbian, Balkan and worldwide media scenes?
For a serious answer a serious analysis is necessary but I’m not worried. I think that things are going In a positive direction and that we’re going to enjoy much richer and better media in the future.

Any links we need to see?
X Geek – Stuff you don’t know and Serbian photographer in New York Boogie. (ed- he is also the cover story in XAOC Magazine #2)

On a personal note, I cannot wait to be back in Belgrade; Djordje and the other guys from Xaoc know how to have a good time and still get up the next morning and work your butt off. And, I’ve just got to say, that opening picture is simply one of my favorite pictures from anyone anywhere.

Matt Slaby – John McCain reflected at the 2008 Republican National Convention, St. Paul, Minnesota.

David Walter Banks – 2008 Democratic National Convention

For our next dvafoto interview, we’re talking to Matt Slaby and David Walter Banks, both of the new collective Luceo Images. I got to know the two and their work through the excellent APhotoADay email list, and consider them among my favorite young photographers. Matt Slaby’s got one of the most contemplative approaches I’ve seen among young photojournalists, and his writing is not to be missed. David Walter Banks has some of the strongest (and sometimes strangest) use of color going. The two paired up to cover both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions for the 2008 US presidential election, and I took an adversarial approach when I asked them about their process, the value of photographing such choreographed events, and their general journalistic philosophy. My questions and their answers follow:

David Walter Banks – Attendees wave flags as Al Gore addresses the crowd at Invesco Stadium on the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado where Barack Obama officially announced his acceptance of his nomination as the Democratic Party's canidate for the President of the United States of America.

Matt Slaby – Alabama delegate Hal Pierce at the Republican National Convention.

What are your backgrounds? David, a lot of your work is lit portraiture; how do you get on an editor’s list to do an assignment that’s more documentary and newsy in nature?

David Walter Banks (DWB): I have a background in newspaper photography which I believe was an outstanding training ground for the work I do now. Despite the wretched state of the current newspaper industry and the disgraceful way they treat their photographers, there could have been no better way for me to learn my craft hands-on. About two-thirds of the work on my website and about the same amount of my daily shooting is documentary in nature with the lit portraiture accounting for the last third, so I guess the question throws me off a little. This particular shoot, I got because I’ve developed a relationship with Stern through shooting for them a couple times including coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings last year. I called and told the editor that I wanted to shoot the conventions, and eventually it ended up working out. Most of my documentary work just comes from continued marketing, word of mouth, and face-to-face meetings.

Matt Slaby (MS): I am colorblind and always thought that it would prohibit me from being a serious photographer. The short story is that I taught myself black and white photography, had some extra money one winter, and took a class with New York Times contract photographer Kevin Moloney in order to try and learn color photography. It was supposed to just be something to allay personal curiosity, nothing serious. At the time I had plans to become a lawyer and a few months to kill before starting law school. Ten minutes into his class it became clear that the things that I am particularly passionate about seemed to have a place in photography and that colorblindness was not as big of a hurdle as I had imagined.

The longer story is that I worked through undergrad as a firefighter and an EMT. During the summers, I went off with the Forest Service and travelled around with a hotshot crew chasing large wildfires, returning for the winters to work with a metropolitan ambulance company about two miles from Columbine High School. I had always been interested in taking photographs and, one morning at the end of a long shift at the ambulance company, I dropped into a used camera store with the idea that I would buy a darkroom setup if I could find one for less than 200 bucks. I found one, set it up in my bathroom, and taught myself the basics of black film-work over the course of the next few years. The darkroom travelled with me during the summers to different fire barracks where I was based around Montana and Arizona. During the summers I made pictures of the people that I worked with and the fires that we travelled to. I developed them on our days off when we returned back to our quarters and really just kind of had a lot of freedom to experiment without consequence. If a picture didn’t turn out, it didn’t turn out. Make notes, try it again next time. No angry editors, no nasty critiques. Artistically speaking, it was a healthy way to start.

Fast forward a couple of years and I had set my life in a direction towards becoming a lawyer. I had been accepted to school, received full funding for study, and was just killing time one winter by taking Kevin’s class. Really a life-changer, as far as I’m concerned. Although I spent the next four years finishing my J.D., I was able to fit in an internship at U.S. News & World Report as well as pursue several long-term projects on subjects that I am particularly passionate about –immigration, labor, and the unique subculture that thrives in my home-city of Denver.

Late last year I took the final steps towards shooting full-time, started working with David and crew on the project that has become Luceo Images, set up the business-end of my photography, and, for the first time in my life, feel like I am 100% committed towards something that I really love.

David Walter Banks – 2008 Democratic National Convention

Matt Slaby – Rep. Barney Frank addresses lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender delegates.

Matt, you seem to favor longer term, conceptual work; how does a big overproduced news event fit in with that?

MS: Um, yeah. If by “longer term” you mean wanting to have the freedom to explore all the subplots to the main event, than yeah.

Two things inform that approach: first, my time working in emergency services –fire and EMS –taught me a lot about the nature of finding the real story apart from the obvious. The thing that fascinated me about being on a big fire was not the dramatic flames, but the banter of the firefighters, the way life goes on in good humor as you’re working. Working fire forces you into tight quarters with people you would never think to associate with –and those people become some of your closest friends in spite of their differences. There are all these quiet moments that, if you’re working the job, really come to define how you feel about the work and those things, to me, are the truest pieces to the bigger story of firefighting. Sitting on a remote ridgeline in northern Idaho at the end of a long shift, the way the ground feels under your feet when a tree falls, the pranks and the trash talking that fill the hours between real work, your bottomless appetite at the end of an honest day’s work. Similar subtleties working EMS. Say, for example, someone is dead in their house. The thing that always moved me the most was how traffic would carry on outside the front door completely unaware of the “big moment” happening on the other side of the wall. The kids playing in the neighbor’s yard, the sprinkler that hasn’t been turned off, the newspaper left open on the table, and the way you’d go and get lunch later that day and joke with whoever you were assigned to work with about regular stuff. In each line of work, there are unique cultures and, it seemed to me, that the bigger story could be told by looking at those quieter moments, the one’s that don’t make sensational news but get at the bigger picture of what it actually feels like to be there.

The second thing that informs the longer-term, conceptual stuff has been my experience with law school and my dwindling belief in objectivity as a legitimate paradigm. What I mean is that, for a profession that supposedly values balance, equity, equality, and justice, it doesn’t take long to figure out that lawyers, judges, politicians, and law students all flavor their “objective opinions” with their highly subjective backgrounds. It’s not surprising to me that the sons and daughters of industry –and, yes, law school can feel like being at the country club from time to time –flavor their “objectivity” with a lot of assumptions. Journalists do the same thing and I kind of favor an approach that showcases these subjectivities rather than pretend that they don’t exist.

So when it comes to covering a big, overproduced news event, I kind of draw on those two ideas in the course of making a photograph. I really don’t care to pretend like I’m an objective observer and I honestly believe that the wide world of politics has the same cultural traits as the groups I interacted with in my former working life. Those events are made up of people and there are all these tiny little moments that, put together, kind of establish some kind of emotional tenor for what it actually feels like to be there.

David Walter Banks – 2008 Democratic National Convention

David Walter Banks – The teleprompter feeds Sarah Palin lines for her speech to the crowd at the Xcel Energy Center during the third night of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul Minnesota.

How did you two approach the political conventions? David, you shot it on assignment, right? How did you plan it out with your editor? Matt, were you shooting for anybody? If not, how did that affect your coverage?

MS: My credentials for the conventions were through Mother Jones magazine. Since the credentialling happened so far in advance of the convention itself, the magazine had little idea of if or whether there would be space for the photos. In the end, my clients for both the RNC and DNC were spread along a spectrum from Newsweek to the Human Rights Campaign. As a freelancer, I’m thankful that Mark Murrman at Mother Jones helped me work through the credentialling process and just as happy to have been able to find paying outlets to help produce the larger body of work.

DWB: I was on assignment for Stern Magazine and I was given the directive by my editor to be as funky and creative as I want, not to worry about talking heads, shoot whatever I want, and generally avoid shooting ‘wire’ photos. This was absolute music-to-my-ears and the exact approach I prefer to take. At an event like this the standard image is available from 20 different angles and spread across the web before you can bat an eye.

The only way for someone like myself, or Luceo Images as a group, to really compete is to rely on our creativity and unique approach. My goal was to attempt to shoot for mood, broader themes and to look at it in more of an essay style. Furthermore, with this event, or any for that matter, it’s my goal to show my viewer something more than what they would have seen had they been there. I believe the mass public has a more sophisticated visual pallet than we give them credit for, and with the bombardment of images they see every day, they need something that makes them stop and question what they are looking at.

David Walter Banks – John McCain addresses the crowd in the Xcel Energy Center at the Republican National Convention and accepts his nomination as Republican candidate for the President of the United States of America in St. Paul, Minnesota.

David Walter Banks – A police officer trains his gun on a protester holding up a flower to the line of police dressed in riot gear forming a blockade to stop a protest march in St. Paul, Minnesota which ended in mass arrests and tear gass on the final day of the Republican National Convention.

You two traveled together and shot together at both conventions and in between. Now you’re editing and presenting together. Why? What does this approach bring to the project that shooting alone would not have? How did you plan the coverage between the both of you? How do you tagteam pitching the story now that it’s in a somewhat finished form?

DWB: Partially the idea was that we would have strength in numbers and be able to tell a more comprehensive story than either of us could alone. In the very competitive and solitary world of freelance photography, it’s extremely refreshing to have someone in your corner. We were able to share information, split up and report back if anything was happening and generally double our knowledge of our surroundings in the midst of covering a very large event. Not only did we help each other, but we had a handful of other young photographers at the convention all calling each other and sharing information. We also had the help of an on-site editor every day via each other to help sift through work from the day.

We were able to present work together through a Photoshelter virtual agency to prospective editors at news magazines, and between the two of us had enough of a selection of fresh unpublished work that it was worth the editors time to look at our galleries along with the wire services (I had a deal worked out where Stern had first refusal right and I could offer the images to other editors).

We didn’t extensively plan or direct each other in exactly how our coverage would work, it was more of an organic process. We continually discussed what we were really trying to illustrate, and both went about approaching that in our own ways. Tagteam pitching the story, as you put it, is certainly new grounds for us, but the response is continually refreshing. Editors and art buyers just seem to like the idea of photographers working together and speaking highly of each other in an industry that is by nature very cutthroat. Pitching this story was mainly done by reaching out to editors during the actual convention. Such a time-sensitive piece after the fact has pretty slim hopes of selling, but it will likely be one of the cornerstones for our next group marketing trip to NYC, and hopefully a base for further political work in the future.

MS: I think David answered this question pretty well but I’ll take a swing at giving it a little more spin. The bottom line is that the approach to shooting and editing the convention work came as a natural extension to the work that we have been doing with Luceo over the last few months. That endeavor is highly collaborative and something that draws from the different backgrounds and strengths that each photographer brings to the group. It also runs a little contrary to the traditional notion of photographer as lone wolf in the sense that we all share a core enthusiasm and belief in the power of photography rather than the power of any single photographer. I think –and I don’t believe there’s any dissenters in our ranks on this point –that that’s really the glue holding us together.

When I talked with David last March about shooting the DNC in Denver (my home-base) we kind of hatched the idea to collaborate on covering that event and the excitement of putting that together pretty much carried the project over to the RNC and into the editing process. It just made sense that the team-effort photography continue towards a collaborative end-product. Take, for example, the acceptance speech at the DNC. We were able to hedge each others’ bets in our approach to shooting that event. David took the chance of taking a shooting position at, literally, the furthest point in the stadium from Obama. Upper deck, back row, behind the candidate. I stayed on the floor and spent my afternoon crouched on the floor inside of the Minnesota delegation hiding from the Fire Marshals who were busy clearing the floor of all press (thanks, Minnesota). Turns out that David’s risk made for some fantastic photographs. It’s just something that is much harder to do when you’re working in lone-wolf mode.

David Walter Banks – Protestor outside the Democratic National Convention

Matt Slaby – A dog at the home of local Hillary supporters.

Why did you photograph the conventions? In my mind, political events like these are the least interesting things in the world. They’re manufactured to make the prettiest pictures and show the subjects, literally using spotlights, in the best light possible. Newspapers and magazine usually don’t print press releases, so why photograph the visual equivalent? Matt, how’d your experience with US News & World Report enter into the approach? What’s more, every wire service in the world was at these events? Why photograph something that’s so over-photographed? David, I imagine you and your editor for the assignment talked about this aspect exactly. Any particular approach to find something different? Was that even an issue?

MS: Like I said above, the thing that fascinates me about these events is not the politics but the culture and production surrounding the main event. I feel like, in the best of all possible worlds, publications would give the candidates a degree of coverage but would spend their dollars drilling down into the issues the candidates talk about rather than focussing on the candidates talking. Of course, in an era of dwindling budgets and a publishing industry that is struggling to stay solvent, it makes more sense to illustrate these stories with images of the politicians rather than of the issues. I think the math on that looks like this: one day to cover the candidate vs. weeks to cover an issue.

The back-story and context for these kinds of events is, to me, the most interesting aspect of politics. Covering the White House while interning at U.S. News I got a taste of some of the more aggressive handlers in the business. The Bush administration’s ability to wrangle coverage to fit its agenda is well documented (thinking, in particular, about Helen Thomas’ book and related interviews) and something that was clear from my first day there. So, at the time, it seemed only natural to focus on that back-story, to show the behind the scenes of the Washington PR machine rather than the thing they were pretty much cramming down your throat. The conventions are just an extension of those observations.

DWB: I’ve been extraordinarily interested in the political game this time around. The entire culture of presidential politics is very much a staged circus, and the conventions can be seen as the grand gesture of this in my opinion. Despite how over-covered it may be, it was still a draw to me to cover such a large-scale event that has impact on not only our nation but the world at large. It’s kind of like shooting the Olympics (with added possible impact on the world economy) in that it may be over-covered but it’s still a historical if not monumental event.

I would always prefer to be the only photographer present documenting a particular event, person, or place, but the over-saturation of media is also almost a draw for me. It gives you even more of a reason to ignore where the politicians want you to look and walk your own path. It was perhaps some of the truest-to-myself documentary shooting I’ve done all year long. My goal was to shoot these conventions in a way that I didn’t see done in the mainstream media, and that’s what my editor was looking for. So for me, I just followed my own instincts and tried to think in terms of a more broad essay-style look at the whole circus rather than think so much on daily coverage.

David Walter Banks – Sarah Palin, Republican nominee for the Vice President of the United States of America, addresses the crowd at the Xcel Energy Center during the third night of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul Minnesota.

Matt Slaby – Political activist outside the Democratic National Convention in favor of seating Washington, D.C. as a voting entity in the U.S. Congress.

What about your less straightforward pictures? Who publishes these pictures? In the US, at least, the coverage is dominated by wire-style podium pictures, close-ups of the big-names, etc. I’m sure a lot of readers would look at your pictures (David, the blue-lit little girl on the red carpet, for instance; or Matt, the big McCain projection/reflection) and wonder why you even made the picture? Do photographers alienate nonphotographers with these sorts of pictures? Is this an uncharitable view of readers’ visual literacy? How do these sorts of pictures (the impressionistic, the offbeat) fit into your edits and pitches?

MS: Funny, I kind of feel like your question is less charitable to photographers than it is to readers. By way of analogy, if mass-appeal was the only thing that motivated society, we’d be photographing an election between Toby Keith and Britney Spears. So, the short answer is that I think that just because a picture breaks from the visual norm of a clean, tight, lit politician –well, that’s not really enough reason not to make the photograph. I was talking with David about this on the drive to the RNC, how so much of who a photographer is has to do with their select images and not the whole take. If you go through either of our contact sheets, the clean, standard frames are there. No doubt. Just that those pictures didn’t fit with the final vision for this body of work.

DWB: I will be the first to admit that sometimes I shoot ‘less-straigtforward’ or downright weird images just for the sake of doing so. That being said, I do believe they can also serve a purpose in helping the flow of an essay or simply striking a new chord with viewers. Using your example, the image of the little girl with the blue color-caste fit in with a series of images aimed at showing the nearly-absurd nature of a grandiose 14,000 square-foot tent filled with presidential memorabilia, including the mock oval office behind her. I don’t expect every viewer to pull all of that out of it, but nonetheless I think it fits in with the larger essay look at the event.

As I said above, I personally believe the mass public has a more sophisticated visual pallet than we give them credit for, and with the bombardment of images they see every day, they need something that makes them stop and question what they are looking at. I think more and more editors are keen to this too, not to mention the European ones who are much more-so. Often, the editor will pick the ’safer’ photograph to publish, but I find it’s the more risky ones that make them hire you again. For me, photography is an opportunity to show the world in a way that’s a little more surreal and hopefully something more that what that viewer may have seen had they been there themself.

MS: As far as readers are concerned, I tend to think that photography has a lot in common with music in the sense that the emotional tone that an image creates is a lot like a song. Major or minor key, rhythm, chorus is kind of the same as color, composition, content –these things are immediately accessible. I think that, like a song, even if someone can’t articulate why they like something, the connection is immediate. Our industry doesn’t give enough credit to the power of the photograph or the visual literacy of our culture. I mean, honestly, on my short drive to the coffee shop where I am writing this, I probably passed by a few thousand things designed for to have some kind of visual impact –buildings, advertisements, landscaping, painted things, outdoor art, people’s fashion, the way cars look –all these things are designed for some degree of visual appeal. Except for people who are blind, we are bombarded by things informing our visual literacy and I think its cynical to think that readers just don’t have the capacity to “see.”

David Walter Banks – Protestors outside the Democratic National Convention

Matt Slaby – Police arrest protestors and journalists outside the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Why did you photograph the protests? I imagine politicians and delegates are pretty sheltered from demonstrations at these sorts of events, which would lead me to believe that the protests are done mostly for the benefit of the media. How do you photograph a protest? Most protests look the same and any signs in pictures dominate the frame and make a picture a political message.

MS: Funny, most political photographs look the same in that they are dominated by signs and political backdrops of carefully chosen people to make a political message.

I’m not sure that I have a good answer to this line of questioning other than to point out that the messaging of most protest tends to be the product of some sort of disenfranchisement from the decision-making process. If you go back a short time in history prior to the most current Iraq invasion, dissenters were literally removed from the picture. NPR had a wonderful snippet the other day about how Rumsfeld’s war plan didn’t include any post-invasion strategy because he simply didn’t believe in “nation building.” So it came to pass that the way the war was conducted (and the consequential guerilla war that we are now fighting) was supposed to conform to what he wanted to believe rather than what was real. Rumsfeld cut the dissenters from his earshot. The largest protests in recorded human history –larger than the protests against the Vietnam War–happened prior to the Iraq War and were given little play or consideration in that dialogue.

Given the less-than-remarkable coverage of those protests, I kind of think that a good percentage of the protests at both the RNC and DNC were for the benefit of the delegates and spectators more than the media. I obviously can’t speak for the protesters, but that was my impression.

DWB: For me, the story of the conventions was just as much what was going on outside the respective convention venues as what was happening inside. The emotion in the air and general feeling of the city hosting the event. Inside you have the delegates and the super-elite, often one in the same. These conventions started as something that was ‘for the people’ and have turned into something that is ‘for the rich-elite people’. Then outside the convention, you have all these people who have a disagreement with the way our country is run and they are completely ignored.

Despite the huge presence of consenting voices and police violence, I saw very little on the topic published in the media. I try at all costs to avoid ’sign’ photos and believe I did in most cases this time around. The idea was less to tell their particular fight or cause, and more to portray the general fight-to-be-heard for their dissatisfaction of our government. In a time when most Americans are feeling very disenfranchised with their government, showing this side of the events was very important to me. For example, the Iraq Veterans Against the War led a huge march that ended in a nearly violent confrontation with the Denver Police simply because they were denied access to give a letter to the Obama staff about the poor treatment of veterans and the Iraqi people. If part of the media’s job is to be a watch dog, I believe it’s important to cover the dissent.

Matt Slaby – The crowd at the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Matt Slaby – A man hawks copies of The Onion, a comedic newspaper, to people waiting the enter the Republican National Convention.

How did your own political leanings figure into the shoot? Matt, I think it was your photo of McCain reflected or projected onto a teleprompter or other weird surface–he looks like Big Brother; I don’t know your political affiliation, but can take a pretty good guess from that picture. David, your photos of the protests in particular belie a sympathy with the protesters and a distrust and contempt for the police. Maybe these are my own politics coloring my interpretation of the photos, too. Of course, injecting your own view into the shoot is not necessarily a bad thing. Does/should something like David Alan Harvey’s notion of authorship and vision extend to politics and inform photography of hot-button political issues?

MS: I don’t know. I kind of feel like taking the question apart a little bit to get at what I think you’re really asking. That is, I think that photography –as far as journalism is concerned –has an aesthetic that is relatively straight-forward. A picture with clean borders, clean background, light, and moment is a solid B+ picture for the purpose that it serves towards selling print. And, in as far as journalism is a business, those kinds of pictures fill space without being too distracting or risky. They make for a saleable product.

The problem that I found in D.C. is that the handlers and PR people are on to the this. They are more than happy to oblige photographers by creating huge, clean backdrops with slick messaging printed on it for candidates and politicians to appear in front of. They are usually pretty good with lighting the podium and skilled politicians are good at making dramatic hand gestures to help brand themselves by way of the still photograph. If you are working the floor in front of any political podium and have the chance to stop and watch the candidate and listen to the shutter sounds, those motor drives only really sound off like gunfire when the subject is gesturing. You don’t need to be Pavlov to figure out that, at some point, PR-hungry politicians cue to this in their speech choreography.

The conclusion that I came to is that if your goal from a political event is to come away with a clean frame of the politician, you might as well also ask the reporter to just reprint the talking points from the speech. That’s a pretty low bar and I guess I feel that photography is something that can (and should) be a little more sophisticated.

Given that, what I think you’re really asking is why we’re not showing an edit of standard-ish, clean political photography. And the answer to that is something that I think you’ve hinted at in previous questions: these events are choreographed, overproduced, and staged for the benefit of creating a PR package for the party and their candidate. Honestly, I’m interested in figuring out how to provide some kind of context to these events, to look at the production itself including all those little things that go into the staging. I kind of think that there’s a lot of value in talking openly about he behind-the-scenes and spin-heavy components of these events. So the reflection of McCain is just one tool for getting at that and not really a political statement about the candidate.

DWB: I’m not now, nor do I believe I will ever be a void-of-opinion drone pressing the button at whatever happens to be in front of me and I’m proud of this. I have my own ethical guidelines and opinion on when to be fair and just, but I have strong views about this world. I attempt to let my emotion and feeling guide my shooting, so there’s no doubt that my personal feelings about the world come through.

I want to say something about the world with my photography and I want to attempt to make art and not just record. I would go further to say that photographers who say they are completely unbiased are probably lying to themselves. As soon as we step foot into a documentary situation and point our cameras one way instead of another we have made a choice as to how we’re going to show that event, inevitably revealing at least a piece of ourselves. In my ideal world I’m not some stone-faced outsider without any human compassion towards my subject, at best case they become my friend if they aren’t already. For me photography is an entrenched part of my life and the idea of separating my personal and professional photographic life is impossible.

Matt Slaby – Delegates at the Democratic National Convention

David Walter Banks – A protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota shows his red and blistered body before seeking medical attention after a clash with police which ended in broken windows, a pepper sprayed crowd and show of force by police during the first day of the Republican National Convention.

David, how’d you get sprayed in the face with pepper spray? Did that change your approach to shooting the protest?

Alex Boerner – Photographer David Walter Banks after being hit with pepper spray while covering protests outside the Republican National Convention

DWB: I got sprayed in the face because I was standing next to a protester that a cop deemed had gone too far and the cop was trying to throw out a show of force. It didn’t matter that I was a member of the press with a huge badge around my neck that allowed me access to the floor of the RNC in spitting distance of the presidential candidate. I was still somehow deemed a threat, and it wouldn’t be the last time I was threatened or bullied by the St. Paul Police. I guess I shouldn’t have been photographing someone exercising their first amendment rights (sarcasm). It did nothing to effect my approach except to use a little more protection and caution for myself as well as create a further distrust for the police.

MS: Not sure if you caught any of David’s impromptu press conference on television, but it made for a fun entrance into the convention later that night. Apparently video of the spraying had been playing on television all day long. David was hosed with so much pepper spray that it literally ruined the laminate on his credential so that it looked more like a soggy piece of paper hanging from his neck than it did any kind of official document. Anyhow, I was standing behind him in line to get into the convention as he was explaining to the officer at the checkpoint what happened to his credential. Somewhere in the middle of his explanation, the officer interrupted him, exclaiming: “Oh, we know. You’re famous. You’ve been on the Jumbotron all day. You really oughta’ stay away from stuff like that.”

David Walter Banks – An attendee of the Republican National Convention walks around the convention floor after John McCain addressed the crowd in the Xcel Energy Center accepting his nomination as Republican candidate for the President of the United States of America in St. Paul, Minnesota.

David Walter Banks – Pins bearing a portrait of Barack Obama

How’s Luceo Images doing? What’s the value in a collective? Why’d you guys team up? It seems like this project, between the two of you, is the sort of thing that can grow out of a collective. How do you guys pitch the collective? I saw Luceo mentioned on Rob Haggarts Aphotoeditor.com; how’s the response been from other photo editors?

MS: I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm and developments of Luceo over the last couple months. We’ve been building the collective for a while and, really, I think the strength of the group is twofold: first, I think it’s safe to say that each photographer brings to the group a belief in the power of photography rather than the power of any single photographer. Kevin German talked about this on his blog (here-link) and David’s words on aphotoeditor elaborated that point in a way that, I thought, was pretty spot-on (here-link). Second, on a logistical note, each photographer brings their own unique background and specialties to the group, allowing us to be efficient as we build the collective. Chip has a background in graphic design, Tim is a crack flash designer, David has marketing nailed to a T, Kendrick has a knack for numbers and network-building, Matt understands the niche aspects of the industry, I speak legalese –it makes for clear division of labor.

DWB: I’m happy to say that Luceo is doing well and I’m very excited for the future if we keep progressing at the rate we have. For me the value is a belief in helping each other out and being open in the photo industry rather than the one-for-all mentality that is so engrained. We can all work together to edit new projects, work up budgets, make pitches and generally have strength in numbers. We can also market ourselves together which is perhaps one of the most practical values in the group.

There is also the lofty idealistic aspect of having a place for us to display our personal work and projects that has no outside influences. Going forward, we hope to make the Luceo website even more of a destination rather than just a portfolio. The goal is to make it more of a fresh space for visual narrative as content provider, rather than an agency-style website. Luckily our resident web-guru Tim Lytvinenko has some pretty exciting advancements for website 2.0

We do all feel like we have styles and approaches to photography that mesh with each other. We hope that this aesthetic is one more element will keep editors coming back and that the personal relationships we build will give them the desire to continue do work with our collective.

On a recent trip to New York, Matt Slaby and I made the rounds of many of the major magazines, and it was very well received. It also seemed a novel concept that we were talking so highly of other photographers and showing their work. We’re basically trying to keep our idealistic goals while making this a sustainable business model for ourselves, and I’m excited so far.

I think Kevin German put it best when he said that it is not the collective representing the photographer but the photographer representing the collective.

MS: The most encouraging thing, for me, was the way editors responded to our first visit to New York. We were enthusiastically received and, I think, it had a lot to do with the simple fact that Luceo is really a break from the lone-wolf-photographer model. In terms of pitching the idea, we bring something unique to our meetings in the sense that we use that time to showcase several quality photographers from across the geographic spectrum and we are truly enthusiastic about each others’ work. If an editor doesn’t care for my work, for example, we can move the meeting along to a photographer that better suits their taste. In that sense, our meetings aren’t one-trick-ponies.

I don’t know, I could be completely wrong, but I think that collaborations like this are refreshing to editors who do their job for the same reason we formed our collective: because they don’t just believe in one photographer, rather in the broader power of the whole of photography.

Matt Slaby – People's Law Project attorney before midnight arraignment hearings for protestor arrested outside the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Matt Slaby – Before the Democratic National Convention

Any more dual or collective projects on the horizon? What about individually–what are you guys shooting now?

DWB: Well, we actually just had an online meeting about a larger scale collective project that most of us will participate in, but I’m gonna keep my lips sealed until it starts to materialize. If things go according to plan though, there should be something of that nature in a few months. Personally, outside of daily assignment shooting I’m working on a project on Cannabis Culture in the US that’s coming along slowly but steadily.

MS: I’ve been working on a project that looks at the broader spectrum of guns, gun owners, and the role of the gun in mainstream U.S. culture coinciding with the recent Supreme Court decision on the DC gun ban in which the court held, for the first time in history, that private citizens actually have a Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The legal back-story is particularly interesting given that, until June of this year, the Second Amendment has held little sway over state and local regulations on guns and gun ownership. The impact of this decision is currently being played out as part of a larger legal strategy to defeat local gun regulations in several U.S. cities in favor of greater access and availability of guns. So the project basically looks at the gun-toting side of America, the spectrum of gun owners, from hobbyists to proponents of sidearm self-defense, as a way of tackling the issue.

Who are some photographers you’ve been looking at lately that people haven’t heard of? What about any blogs/magazines/newspapers that you’re always telling people about?

MS: Obviously, I’m a fan of the Luceo photographers and have had the pleasure of seeing more work from the group. Outside of that collaboration, I’m a huge fan of Krisanne Johnson, Matt Mallams, Michael Rubenstein, Bob Croslin, some guy named Kathryn Cook, and Bryan Derballa. This list could literally drag on for another ten pages and I’d hate to make it sound like those are my only favorites. Melissa Lyttle and the entire list at aphotoaday.org has been an incredible resource for both developing a sense of personal vision as well as peeking at new and exciting work. It’s obviously how I know you and also the same place where I became familiar with the work of the other Luceo photographers.

DWB: The photographers I look up to most right now are mostly my peers and that’s part of what makes me so excited about the future of this field. It’s not the giants of the industry that have been around for 30 years, but the young photographers that are really inspiring me to push myself. Of course my colleagues in Luceo Images are some of my favorite photographers out there and that’s exactly why I’m involved so closely with them. Others that I’ve been into lately include Justin Mott, Peter McCollough, and Shaena Mallett and Matt Mallams just to name a few.

Matt Slaby – John McCain takes to the stage at the Republican National Convention.

Matt Slaby – Clay and Lauren Whitfield. Guests of the Florida Delegation to the Republican National Convention.

What are your links?

David Walter Banks:

Website: http://www.davidwalterbanks.com
Blog: http://david.luceoimages.com
Collective: http://www.luceoimages.com

Matt Slaby:

Website: http://www.mattslaby.com
Blog: http://mattslaby.blogspot.com
Collective: http://www.luceoimages.com