American PHOTO 2014-05-06

You might also like

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 72

PLUS

CHERNOBYLS
LONG SHADOW
WAR TOYS
NEXT-GEN GEAR
HIPSTERS
AT HOME

KODACHROME
LIVES

LEGENDS
AT WORK

WHY
ELLIOTT

ERWITT
CANT QUIT NOW
Arthur Miller
by Elliott Erwitt

HOW
MASTERS

KEEP IT FRESH
MARY ELLEN

MARK
ROBERT

ADAMS

SYLVIA

PLACHY
SHEILA

METZNER
JOEL

MEYEROWITZ

WorldMags.net

25%
OFF
Your First Order!

*Get 25% of your frst order with Bay Photo Lab! For instructions
on how to redeem this special ofer, fll out the New Customer
Account Request form at bayphoto.com.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
MAY/June 2014

34
Features
26 Ripple Effect
Following chernobyls devastating wake
through generations. BY gerd ludwig

42

34 Erwitt at Work
the king of photographic wit takes our
questionsand sets many of them aside.
BY michael kaplan

42 Legends in the Field


Five masters of photography prove that
passing age 70 is no reason to retire.
BY michael kaplan

54 Pioneers of the
Good Life
a crop of lifestyle magazines celebrate
the alternative, the DiY, and the hipster
(but dont call it that). their photography
follows the same ethos. BY lindsaY comstock

4 americanphotomag.com maY/June 2014

Clockwise from top left: Barras Market, Gallowgate,


Glasgow, Scotland, 2011, by Elliott Erwitt; Giraffe
Peek, 2012, by Zack Seckler; Iron Dome, 2012, by
Brian McCarty; Amanda and her cousin Amy, Valdese,
North Carolina, USA, 1990, by Mary Ellen Mark.

WorldMags.net

11

WorldMags.net
Departments
8 EDITORS NOTE

Present Tense
photography at a crossroads. By MiriaM Leuchter

Focus
11 ONE TO WATCH

Paradox Viewer
From different sides of the genre divide, Zack
Seckler fnds his own middle road.
By JacK craGer

14 WORk IN PROGRESS

War Torn
Brian mccarty replicates the lives of children
surrounded by confict. By MicheLLe BoGre
16 BOOkS
this spread, clockwise from top left: elliott erwitt/magnum photos; Zack Seckler; Brian mccarty; elliott erwitt/magnum photos; mary ellen mark

Asia Minor
harajuku fashionistas get a big-girl book; Stephen
Shore roams the holy Land; Wynn Bullock is a revelation; John cyr fnds the art in developer trays (you
remember developer trays, right?). By JacK craGer
20 ON THE WALL

Interior Portraits
Jen Daviss revealing self-explorations; richard
renaldis Touching Strangers; caleb cain marcuss
ice portraits; a survey of african american beauty;
plus amish, adams, Bull Durham, and more.
By teMa Stauffer

14

Gear
61 HANDS ON

Good to Go
Fujiflms rugged X-t1 begs to be taken outside.
By PhiLiP ryan

62 NEW STUFF

The Goods
Serious photographic tools of all shapes and sizes.
64 TREND

Bigger Gets Better

On the Cover
elliott erwitt photographed
playwright arthur miller in
new York in 1954, but the
image looks like it could have
been made just yesterday.

a new crop of medium-format sensors arrives this


spring. By ruSSeLL hart
70 PARTING SHOT

Rochester Reverie
rebecca norris Webb and alex Webb bring Kodachrome back to its birthplace. By JiLL c. ShoMer

SubScriptionS: American Photo (ISSN 1046-8986) (USPS 526-930), May/June, Volume 24, No. 4. American Photo is published bimonthly (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec)
by Bonnier Corporation, 2 Park Ave., New York, NY 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY 10016 and at additional mailing ofces. Authorized periodicals postage by the Post Ofce Department, Ottawa,
Canada, and for payment in cash. poStMAStEr: Send address changes to American Photo, P.O. Box 6364, Harlan, IA 51593. If the postal services alert us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further
obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. One-year subscription rate (six issues) for U.S. and possessions, $15; Canada, $25; and foreign, $35; cash orders only, payable in U.S. currency.
Two years: U.S., $30; Canada, $50; and foreign, $70. Three years: U.S., $45; Canada, $75; and foreign, $105. CANADA POST: Publications Mail Agreement Number: 40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian
addresses to: IMEX Global Solutions, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. For reprints email: reprints@bonniercorp.com.

maY/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 5


WorldMags.net

ADVERTISEMENT

WorldMags.net
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MIRIAM LEUCHTER

Enter Your
Best Shots
To Win An
Awesome
Photo
Adventure!

FEATURES EDITOR Debbie Grossman


TECHNICAL EDITOR Philip Ryan
MANAGING EDITOR Jill C. Shomer
PHOTO EDITOR Bifen Xu
ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Linzee Lichtman
DESIGNER Wesley Fulghum
COPY EDITOR Meg Ryan Heery
FACT CHECKER Rebecca Geiger
ONLINE EDITORS Dan Bracaglia, Stan Horaczek
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Crager
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Aimee Baldridge,
Lori Frederickson. Michael Kaplan
BONNIERS TECHNOLOGY GROUP
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT ERIC ZINCZENKO
GROUP PUBLISHER GREGORY D. GATTO
PUBLISHER ANTHONY M. RUOTOLO Anthony.Ruotolo@bonniercorp.com

Transitions adaptive lenses seamlessly adjust from clear to dark to


protect your eyes and let you see the
world in all its vivid colors and crisp
clarity. Thats why were looking for
vibrant images that showcase the
power of light and lighting effects.
Enter yours and you can win an
all-expenses-paid Mentor Series
Trek, and have your winning image
showcased in Popular Science.

Submit your images to

popsci.com/transitionscontest2014
from April 15August 15, 2014

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Elizabeth Burnham Murphy


ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, MARKETING Michael Gallic
FINANCIAL DIRECTOR Tara Bisciello
PHOTO AND TRAVEL MANAGER Sara Schiano Flynn
AD ASSISTANT Amanda Smyth
MIDWEST MANAGERS Doug Leipprandt, Carl Benson
AD ASSISTANT Lindsay Kuhlmann
WEST COAST ACCOUNT MANAGER Bob Meth
AD ASSISTANT Sam Miller-Christiansen
DETROIT MANAGERS Edward A. Bartley, Jef Roberge
AD ASSISTANT Diane Pahl
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING SALES Shawn Lindeman, Chip Parham
ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Irene Reyes Coles
DIRECTOR OF CUSTOM SOLUTIONS Noreen Myers
GENERAL MANAGER, DIGITAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Shannon Rudd
DIGITAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Rochelle Rodriguez
DIGITAL CAMPAIGN MANAGERS Amanda Alimo, Wilber Perez
DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Elizabeth Besada
DIGITAL SALES COORDINATOR Mojdeh Zarrinnal
GROUP SALES DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Alex Garcia
SENIOR SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Amanda Gastelum
SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS Kate Gregory, Charlotte Grima, Kelly Martin
GROUP CREATIVE SERVICES DIRECTOR Ingrid Reslmaier
MARKETING DESIGN DIRECTORS Jonathan Berger, Gabe Ramirez
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Sarah Hughes
DIGITAL DESIGN MANAGER Steve Gianaca
GROUP EVENTS AND PROMOTIONS DIRECTOR Beth Hetrick
DIRECTOR OF PROMOTIONS AND EVENTS Michelle Cast
ASSISTANT EVENTS & PROMOTIONS MANAGER Vanessa Vazquez
EVENTS AND PROMOTIONS COORDINATOR Christine Detris
CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR Bob Cohn
RETAIL SINGLE COPY SALES ProCirc Retail Solutions Group, Tony DiBisceglie
HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR Kim Putman
GROUP PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Jef Cassell
PRODUCTION MANAGER Kristina Rojas

CHAIRMAN Jonas Bonnier


CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Dave Freygang
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Eric Zinczenko
CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER David Ritchie
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Nancy Coalter
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Lisa Earlywine
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Elizabeth Burnham Murphy
CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICE Leslie Glenn
CHIEF BRAND DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Sean Holzman
VICE PRESIDENT, CONSUMER MARKETING John Reese
GENERAL COUNSEL Jeremy Thompson

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AT BONNIERCORP.COM

POWERED BY

This product is from sustainably managed forests and controlled sources.

For customer service and subscription questions, such as renewals, address changes, email preferences, billing and account status,

go to: americanphotomag.com/cs. You can also email APOcustserv@cdsfulllment.com, in the U.S. call toll free
WorldMags.net
800-274-4514, outside the U.S. call 515-237-3697. Or write to American Photo, P.O. Box 6364, Harlan, IA 51593

WorldMags.net

UNCOMPROMISING.
Quality, reliability and versatility.
The 17-70mm F2.8-4 lens, designed for
APS-C format cameras, delivers stunning
images in a lens 30% smaller than
conventional models.

1770mmF2.84DC
MacroOSHSM
Case and Hood LH780-03 included.
*OS is not available for Pentax and Sony mount
USA 4 Year Service Protection

SIGMAUSBDock
Update, adjust & personalize. Customization
never thought possible. Sold separately.

SIGMA Corporation of America | 15 Fleetwood Court | Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, U.S.A. | Tel: (631) 585-1144 | www.SigmaPhoto.com
Follow us Twitter @sigma_photo and Facebook.com/sigmacorporationofamerica

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Present Tense
hotography, and the institutions that promote it, is at a
complicated crossroads. And
perhaps no institution exemplies this
as much as the International Center of
Photography in New York City.
Started 40 years ago by Cornell Capa
as a bastion of concerned photography in the tradition of his brother and
fellow photojournalist Robert Capa
(whose little-known color work is on
view there through May 4), ICP now
exhibits and teaches not just documentary but, increasingly, conceptual and
experimental photographic artlike
Alison Rossiters series of vintage, longexpired photo paper, developed without a negative, included in What Is a
Photograph? (also through May 4). And
now theres visual culture and visual
literacypeople using photography as
a form of direct communication, not

just as a moment in time that needs


to be preserved and put on the wall,
says Mark Lubell, ICPs new executive director. So theres a tremendous
change in our role.
He refers, of course, to the explosion of images taken and shared by
billions through smartphones, instant
messaging, and social networks. Lubell
cites Facebooks $19 billion purchase of
WhatsApp, which elds some 500 million photos a day. The opportunity for
ICP is to become an arbiter of visual
culture. Were stepping in there and
trying to be part of the conversation.
Mixing curation and connoisseurship with the radical democratization
of image making and dissemination,
the physicality of objects with the
ephemerality of the webits these
inherent contradictions that make
photography so exciting today.

8 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM MAY/JUNE 2014

WorldMags.net

Alison Rossiters
Kilborn Acme Kruxo,
exact expiration date
unknown, ca. 1940s,
processed in 2013
(#1), a unique print
on exhibit at ICP.

MIRIAM LEUCHTER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

From top: Alison Rossiter, courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York; Patrick James Miller

EDITORS NOTE

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

manfrotto.us

Feast

WorldMags.net
Forget Snapchat, Instagram, and Tumblr!
Heres a chance to linger over great pictures
printed to perfection. A buffet of photography
books from National Geographic informs,
inspires, surprises, and delights. Take your pic.

on photography

This exquisite collection by Peter Essick


offers new views of one of Americas most
striking landscapes.

Riveting photojournalism by National Geographics


women explorer-photographers delivers powerful
photo-narratives of the past decade.

Photographed by ten world-class photographers


including National Geographics William Albert Allard
this book is an anthem to an iconic American way of life.

AVAILABLE WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD


and at nationalgeographic.com/books
Like us on Facebook: Nat Geo Books

Follow us on Twitter: @NatGeoBooks

Get closer to National Geographic explorers and photographers, and connect with other members around the globe.
Join us todayits freeat national geographic.comWorldMags.net
/join.

2014 National Geographic Society

Images culled from the worlds top photographers


paired with evocative quotations from leading
environmentalists capture the glory of nature.

WorldMags.net
The peOple behInd The pIcS Work in Progress 14 books 16 on the Wall 20

One TO WaTch

Paradox Viewer
From different sides of the genre divide, Zack Seckler fnds his own middle road
ack Seckler started his photography
career in a tried-and-true way: shooting assignments for newspapers and wire
services in Boston and later in New York City.
But he soon decided to break out from straight
documentary work.
One thing that frustrated me with photojournalism was having to follow the ethical guidelines
of not interfering with a scene or asking some-

Zack Seckler

above: Safari, 2011. as


many people guess, this
gorilla was not actually
on the top of this vehicle,
Seckler says. I shot the
gorilla for about 20 min
utes as it posed for me. It
was a star performance.

By jack crager

one to do something, explains Seckler, 33. There


would be times when I was just waiting for a person to repeat somethingyoud see them do it once
and hope theyd do it again. Just waiting. It can be
very frustrating.
This eventually led Seckler to shift to what he
calls produced work in the realms of fne art,
editorial, and advertising. I remember thinking,
Wow, I can tell people to do what I want! he says

WorldMags.net
maY/JuNe 2014 amerICaNphOTOmag.COm 11

one to Watch

WorldMags.net

with a laugh. I can hire a model and create a set.


Whatever it is, you have much more control. Once
I opened that door, I never really went back.
The result is Secklers growing portfolio of personal work (often in a humorous vein), geometrically strong landscapes, and clever commercial
shots. Thats kind of the holy grail, he says, to do
great creative work and get paid for it, right? his
client list ranges from electronic giants Samsung
and Lg to retail mainstays gap and Starbucks
to publications including Harpers Bazaar, Marie
Claire, and New York.
While Seckler says theres often a hard line
between art and commercial photography, he likes
to cross freely into both camps. I like the collaborative aspect of advertising, whereas the fneart work Ive been doing is landscape oriented,
working by myself, he says, as long as Im able to
express myself visually, thats what its all about.
Self-expression frst drew Seckler to the camera at age 21, redirecting his career arc while
he was attending Syracuse university. I studied
psychology and economics, but I got interested
in photography during the summer between
my sophomore and junior years, he recalls. It
went very quickly, from the time I frst started
taking pictures with a purpose to when I changed
my career course. I took an introductory blackand-white darkroom class and I said, Thats it!
12 amerICaNphOTOmag.COm maY/JuNe 2014

This page, from top:


Okavango Swirl, from
Secklers 2014 exhibition
Botswana at new Yorks
Robin Rice Gallery; Girl
with helmet, 2010. Oppo
site, from top: captain,
2014; high Five, 2013.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

clOSeUp

Zack Seckler

Zack Seckler (5)

zackseckler.com
Lives In New York, NY
Studied At Syracuse University
(Psychology and Economics)
Clients Include BBDO New York,
Chronicle Books, Fallon, Gap,
Harpers Bazaar, Marie Claire,
New York, Publicis Kaplan Thaler,
Samsung, Starbucks, Vicks
In the Bag For studio work:
Canon EOS 5D Mark III and a
range of L quality zoom lenses,
Seckler says. The new Canon
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM is my
workhorse. I use Profoto lighting:
different packs and modifers,
depending on the shoot. In the
feld: Im a fan of the Profoto
Acute B2 600Ws packs for their
portability. I carry Photofex
aluminum Litepanels to either
bounce, diffuse, or block light.

I love this. Im going to be a photographer.


Neophytism doesnt seem to daunt him. I didnt
have much formal education in photography, he
notes, though he took a couple of photojournalism
courses at Syracuses Newhouse School. he moved
to New York on a whim in 2003. But I had
wanted to live there since I was a kid, he adds.
I grew up in a rural suburb [Lincoln, massachusetts, near Boston], an insulated town, the opposite
of the big city. I was always keen to get in that
urban environment.
Yet most of his landscapes depict pristine scenes
far from city lights. I kind of become visually numb
to my surroundings [in New York], he says. When
Im in a new place, everything I see is registering,
lights are going offeven if Im just looking at a
parking lot. Seeing something for the frst time is
stimulating. and in New York, everything is kind of
clutteredtheres not a lot of open space and clean
lines. Thats something Im drawn to visually: sharp
lines, space, a kind of simple, minimalist approach.
For a story he posted on his own webzine project,
F-Stop, Seckler had the good fortune to interview one
of his heroes, photographer albert Watson. reminded that Watson is a fellow art-and-commerce genrebendernot unlike such forebears as Irving penn
and richard avedonSeckler laughs. If my name is
ever put in the same sentence as one of those folks,
he says, I would die a very happy man. aP
maY/JuNe 2014 amerICaNphOTOmag.COm 13
WorldMags.net

Work in progress

War Torn

Brian McCarty replicates the lives of children surrounded by confict


By Michelle Bogre

orking with children in war zones, Brian


mccarty has discovered a couple of truisms: Whoevers shooting at you is the bad
guy; and its really hard to talk about war. you can
read studies on the effects of war on children, but
you almost never get them talking about itespecially the most traumatized, whove sometimes lost
the ability to talk altogether, the photographer says.
art is a way for them to share their experiences.
these observations underpin mccartys recent
self-published book, War-Toys ($32, wartoysproject
.com). composed of images paired with childrens
drawings made in israel and palestine, the book is
the frst phase of a planned transcontinental survey
giving voice to children traumatized by war.
mccarty works with art therapists who ask the
youngsters to draw pictures refecting their experiences of living amid confict. in subsequent inter-

14 americanphotomag.com may/june 2014

Above left: Youth Resistance, Dheisheh Refugee


Camp, West Bank, 2011.
This is based on a drawing by a boy at the camp,
McCarty says. The mural
in the background is of
17-year-old martyr Qusai
Alafandi, killed in 2008
after throwing a Molotov
cocktail at [Israeli Defense
Forces] soldiers. Top
right: Telecom Airstrike,
Northern Gaza Strip,
2012. This stems from a
boys drawing of the death
of his father, a telecom
worker killed in 2008 as
IDF troops took out command and control centers.

views, mccarty uses the drawings to coax more


details from the children. the photographer then
constructs mise-en-scnes based on their experience, placing toy surrogates in locations the same
as or similar to those in the drawings.
mccarty is something of a toy specialist: he
started taking pictures of them as an undergrad at
parsons the new School for Design; now his commercial clients include mattel, Disney interactive,
and the cartoon network. photographing toys in
war zones, however, has brought surprises, such as
getting caught in an escalated eight-day offensive
operation pillar of Defense (the israeli name) and
operation Stones of Baked clay (the palestinian
name)during a planned photo shoot.
For that brief moment i realized how high the
stakes are, and that the fear i felt is just a matter of
daily life for the kids, he recalls. While air strikes
rained on the region, he continued shooting; the result, house Bombinggaza Strip, depicts a house
on fre in the background with toy people lying
dead in the foreground and a fghter jet overhead.
its a wonderful shot, he says, but it also summarized how helpless and powerless i felt.
his process is not always so intense. after deciding which drawings to interpret, he scouts for toys

WorldMags.net

Brian mccarty (4); portrait by mika Fowler

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

CLOSE-UP

Brian McCarty
brianmccarty.com
wartoysproject.com

Lives In West Hollywood, CA


Studied At Parsons The New
School for Design, New York
Publications War-Toys: West
Bank, Gaza Strip (McCarty
PhotoWorks, 2013); Art-Toys
(Baby Tattoo Books, 2010)
Ongoing Work With the completion of the frst phase of
War-Toys in Israel, McCarty
is raising money for a trip to
Afghanistan; he hopes to continue the project in regions of
Sudan, Mali, and the Congo.
In the Bag Canon EOS 5D Mark
II; Canon lenses (24mm, 15mm,
50mm, 24-105mm, 600EX);
Gitzo GT2531EX tripod with
ball head; Shure LensHopper
VP83F microphone; Zacuto
Z-Finder viewfnder; 13-inch
Apple MacBook Air; LaCie
Rugged Hard Drives (2 TB)

Above: Sderot Home,


Israel, 2012, based on drawing at right by a child who
had been living in a bunker.

in local shops; this refects area socioeconomic


realities, as well as the proliferation of american
war-toy designs. the idea that war toys are as
ubiquitous as the aK-47 is fascinating, he says,
because it refects ideas of exported westernization, violence, and ways of conducting war.
however political this project may seem,
mccarty makes it clear he steers neutral. it
would be very complicated with ngos and
nonprofts if i were to take a political stance,
he notes. and i need to take on the mindsets
of the kids i am working with. AP

may/june 2014 americanphotomag.com 15


WorldMags.net

BOOKS

WorldMags.net

Asia Minors

Thomas C. Card captures the bright and dark sides of urban Japans
youth couture By matthew ismael Ruiz

tokyo adorned
Kumamiki turned her
signature style into the DIY
fashion brand Party Baby,
kids clothing for adults.

2014 Thomas C. Card

By Thomas C. Card Abrams $40


Tokyos Harajuku kids, named for the neighborhood in which they congregate, are known around
the world for their loud and distinct fashion sense.
Street-style photographers swarm their ranks,
and pop star Gwen Stefani even appropriated the
vibrant culture for her 2004 album Love. Angel.
Music. Baby. But what drew photographer Thomas
C. Card to Tokyo and its various fashion tribes was
tragedynamely the surge in self-expression that
reverberated in the aftermath of the earthquake
and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011.
In a culture centered around discipline and
uniformity, the Harajuku kids celebrate personalization. In Tokyo Adorned, Card offers a micro view of
the many girls (and a few boys) that populate this
dynamic scene. Arranged mostly in diptychs juxtaposing full-body portraits with medium closeups,
Cards portraits of these young models against white
seamless free them from context and champion
their individuality. Outside the scene, they appear
vulnerable yet self-assured. The attention to detail
and craftsmanship (many outfts are
homemade) astound, and
Cards style puts all of
it on displayeven
painfully obvious
colored contact
lenses. One of the
intro essays, by
fashion maven Samantha Boardman, is titled
Clothes Speak Volumes.
For some, style is a
tribal aesthetic, but
others, like Kumamiki
(right), have a stronger sense of ownership: Shes turned
Party Baby into her
own clothing line.

16 AmerICAnPHOTOmAG.COm mAy/June 2014

WorldMags.net

Stewart Powers

WorldMags.net

Picture Perfect. Telephoto That Delivers.

SP 70-200mm
F/2.8 Di VC USD

Eortless Performance,Outstanding Resolution, A Class Apart.


Tamrons SP (Super Performance) 70200mm F/2.8 lens delivers high resolution and high performance
to cater to the needs of experienced amateurs or professionals who demand the best standards.
Whether youre preserving a special moment, capturing the right image to communicate a feeling, or
shooting to make a cover photo, Tamrons 70200mm F/2.8 brings photographer and camera together
in awless unison. Tamrons proprietary USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive) combined with VC (Vibration
Compensation) captures action in high-speed without distracting from the momentand without
camera-shake. This compact, full-size telephoto zoom lens oers serious photographers the
power to capture the moment from afar while preserving it in high delity.
Model A009
For Canon, Nikon, Sony* mount
* Sony mount without VC

www.tamron-usa.com

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
from galilee to the negev

By Stephen Shore Phaidon $100


From his early work documenting Andy Warhols Factory through his crosscountry explorations of the u.S., Stephen Shore has always shown a restless
spirit, drawing inspiration from the wide world around him as well as the
day-to-day trivialities in front of him.
Having converted to the Jewish faith,
Shore takes his all-consuming curiosity
on a pilgrimage to Israel, where his eye
roves between pastoral landscapes and
crowded settlements, from archeological
digs to urban scenes blending old and new
artifacts. Shore illuminates such disputed
locales as Jerusalem and Gaza as sunny
habitats for their citizenspunctuated by
reminders of ongoing confict (such as the
soldier sketch in Hebron at far left). His
ambitious survey shows the vast vagaries
of the Holy Land.

Text by Brett Abbott and Barbara Bullock-Wilson University of Texas Press $65
A contemporary of edward Weston and edward Steichen who was acknowledged by each for his artistry, Wynn Bullock has gone relatively unnoticed
in the pantheon of 20th-century photography. yet as evinced by this volume
and its companion exhibition at Atlantas High museum, he was a master
of both abstraction and realism, a purveyor of forms in the natural world
and the human realm whose beautifully composed images beckon a larger
audience. In the 1960s, Bullocks series
Color Light Abstractions was far ahead
of both public taste and technology;
his frustrations with color printing
led him back to black and white. Here
his Kodachrome originals have been
wondrously revived digitally, nearly 40
years after his death.
From top: A shot by Stephen Shore in
Hebron, in Israels West Bank, 2010;
Wynn Bullocks Edna, 1956; John Cyns
photo of Edna Bullocks developer tray.

developer trays

By John Cyr powerHouse $35


For those who remember what developer trays were aboutback when analog
prints were mainly rendered in the darkroom (and we walked to school barefoot in the snow)this is a mesmerizing
array of photographic tools shot in loving
detail. For anyone who loves great imagery,
this is a whos who of legendary names:
Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock (see above),
Lillian Bassman, Bruce Davidson, elliott
erwitt, emmet Gowin, and Sally mann all
have trays studied by the lens of John Cyr,
who duly depicts his own. Among the surprises are variations in the trays wear and
tear: Sylvia Plachys grooves are frayed;
Adam Fusss aluminum alloy still shines.
Cyr has group shots, toofrom the photo
studio at the met, for instance. But this
collection is really about individuals.

WorldMags.net

From top: Stephen Shore; Bullock Family Photography LLC; John Cyr, published by powerHouse Books

wynn bullock: revelations

WorldMags.net

Lenses and accessories shown are not included

Shoot the next Hollywood blockbuster with the


worlds most amazing digital cinema camera!
The worlds most mind blowing feature lms, television commercials and music
videos look amazing because they are lmed with digital lm cameras! The new
award winning Blackmagic Cinema Camera is unlike a regular video camera
or DSLR camera because its a true high end digital lm camera! You get a true
Hollywood cinematic look with 13 stops of dynamic range, interchangeable lenses,
high quality RAW and ProRes le recording plus much more!
Dramatically Better than DSLR Video
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera includes a large 2.5K sensor
for super sharp images that eliminate resolution loss HD bayer
sensors suffer from, while creating manageable les that are
not too big! The large screen LCD allows easy focusing and the high speed SSD
recorder lets you record in ProRes , DNxHD and RAW le formats for Final Cut Pro
X and DaVinci Resolve!
Super Wide Dynamic Range

Film Industry Quality


Every feature of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera has been
designed for quality. With 2 separate models, you can choose
from the worlds most amazing EF or MFT lenses from crafters
such as Canon, Zeiss and more. For extreme high end work, you can shoot
full 12 bit CinemaDNG RAW uncompressed les for incredible creative range in
DaVinci Resolve color correction, as well as the worlds best chroma keying!
Accessories Built In
High end cinema cameras often require thousands of dollars of
extra accessories to make them work, however the Blackmagic
Cinema Camera includes accessories you need built in! You get a
large 5 inch monitor, super fast SSD RAW recorder and professional audio recorder
all built in! You also get UltraScope software, used via the built in Thunderbolt
connection, for on set waveform monitoring!

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera captures an incredible 13 stops


of dynamic range so you can simultaneously capture the brightest
highlights and the darkest shadows all at the same time into the
recorded le! This means you capture more of the scene than a regular video
camera can so you get more freedom for color correction for a feature lm look!
You also get a full copy of DaVinci Resolve!

Learn more today www.blackmagicdesign.com/cinemacamera

WorldMags.net

Blackmagic Cinema Camera

1,995

Includes DaVinci Resolve Software

on the wall

WorldMags.net

Private Views

jen davis: eleven years


ClampArt Gallery, New York, NY, May 22 July 3 clampart.com
Jen Daviss investigation of her identity and struggles in relation to the perception of her body bravely
reveal her desire for intimacy and her search for
self-acceptance. challenging typical representations
of female beauty and sexuality, this autobiographical work invites us to consider the deepest reaches
20 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

Jen Daviss Untitled No.


14, 2013, an archival
pigment print from her
self-portrait series.

By tema stauffer

of the artists interior life and insecurities. Shot over


more than a decade, the series includes images of
Davis grappling with her physicality alone and
in scenarios involving fantasies with men or in
the company of other women. her self-portraits
refect basic human longings to be loved, desired,
and valued. the show is accompanied by a monograph, Eleven Years (Kehrer Verlag).

WorldMags.net

Jen Davis, courtesy of


clampart, new york city

Jen Daviss self-portraits explore the universal impact of intimate issues

WorldMags.net
Proud winner of the TIPA award

Best Photo Lab Worldwide


awarded by the editors of 28 leading photography magazines

Lambda & LightJet prints on


Fuji and Kodak paper,
pigment & canvas prints
Mountings on aluminum
and under acrylic

*Pictured: House of Savreda by Werner Pawlok, from LUMAS.COM

More than 3,000 framing


options
Custom sizes
Over 220,000 satisfied
customers
The lab of choice for
10,000 pros and 300
galleries
5-year guarantee
Winner of 45 awards from
the photo press

your
photo under
acrylic, from

$19

gallery quality for your photos


WorldMags.net

WhiteWall.com

on the wall

WorldMags.net
Also Showing
F touCHing strangers: PHotograPHs
By riCHard renaldi
Aperture Gallery, New York, NY,
through May 15 aperture.org

F CaleB Cain
marCus: a
Portrait of iCe
National Academy of Sciences,
Washington, DC, through July 7
cpnas.org

a new yorker who was born


in colorados rocky mountains, caleb cain marcus
has traveled from patagonia
to alaska to iceland making
portraits of glaciers. his
minimalist yet grandiose compositions focus on ice and sky
with no traces of human presence or interference. poetic
and timeless, these ethereal
images are seductive through
their serene grandeur and
subtle variations of color.

F Posing Beauty in
afriCan ameriCan
Culture
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA,
April 26 July 27 vmfa.state.va.us

this group show of more than


80 images explores ways in
which african and african
american beauty has been
represented in historical and
contemporary contexts. highlights include self-portraits
by carrie mae Weems; environmental studies of urban
communities by charles teenie harris, Jamel Shabazz,
and David heath; and studio
portraits of women in the
early 1900s by thomas askew.

PHotoespaa 2014
Various venues, Madrid, Spain, June 4 July 27 phe.es
This year Madrids photo festival expands both outward
and inward: Several curators share the artistic direction,
while the imagery itself focuses on work by Spanish artists.
Highlights range from historic forerunners such as Jos
Ortiz Echage to 1970s documenters like Cristina Garca
Rodero to contemporary digital innovators, including
30and30, a roundup of young visual artists.

in focus: ansel adams


The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA, through July 20 getty.edu
Thirty years after the death of Ansel Adams, the Getty
presents its frst exhibition of his work. The show includes
selections from one of Adamss Museum Setslimited
edition portfolios printed by the photographer for collectors
on the condition that the work be donated to a museum
or schooland prints from the Gettys collection.

fidel and Ches Cuba:


a revolution in Pictures
Rebekah Jacob Gallery, Charleston, SC, May 20 June 30
rebekahjacobgallery.com
This exhibition spotlights work by Cuban and foreign
photojournalistsphotographs that documented and,
in some cases, even helped to incite the revolutionary
movement in Cuba. Included are images by Alberto Korda,
Roberto Salas, Osvaldo Salas, Raul Corrales, and others.

Bull City summer


North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, through Aug. 31
ncartmuseum.org
Ten artists, including Alec Soth and Hank Willis Thomas,
portray the culture of minor league baseballfrom fans
and ballplayers to bright lights and green grassin a show
saluting the 25th anniversary of the flm Bull Durham.

another america:
a testimonial to the amish
Eastman House, Rochester, NY, through May 25 eastmanhouse.org
Photographer Robert Weingarten portrays Amish communities in Indiana, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and
Wisconsin. His simple, elegant compositions respectfully
convey the values and everyday lives of his subjects.

Clockwise from top left: Richard


Renaldis Jeromy and Matthew,
Columbus, OH, 2011; a detail from
Beatriz Ruibals Colecciones, nmeros
del 1 al 24, 2012; Jamel Shabazzs
Rude Boy from Back in the Days,
1980; an image by Caleb Cain Marcus
near Fox Glacier, New Zealand.

WorldMags.net

clockwise from top left: richard renaldi; Beatriz ruibal; Jamel Shabazz; caleb cain marcus

renaldis portraits result from


unlikely unions of strangers
whom he has asked to pose
in a temporary embrace. the
objective, renaldi notes, is
to introduce an unpredictable variable into a traditional
photographic formula and to
create spontaneous, feeting
relationships between complete strangers. this exhibition of 71 images, made
throughout the u.S. since 2007,
is accompanied by a book of
the same title (aperture).

WorldMags.net
The moment
the light changes
and reveals something new.
This is the moment we work for.

// DISTAGON T* 1,4/35
MADE BY ZEISS

Distagon T* 1,4/35
Capture the story as it emerges. This versatile, high-speed wide-angle lens enables you to isolate
a single element in stunning detail, while maintaining a eld of view wide enough to give context.
With its harmonious bokeh, optimum reection reduction and aspherical lens element, its designed
without compromise to address the demands of both close-up and available light photography.

www.zeiss.com/photo/capturethestory

WorldMags.net

JUNE 6-8, 2014

Elevate your perspective on Colorados Mount Evans Scenic Byway, the


highest paved road in North America. A journey to the top climbs nearly
5,000 feet in elevation and ends at the summit of Mount Evans, where
views of snow-capped peaks, alpine lakes and endless blue skies will
take your breath away. Join the Mentor Series and Nikon professional
photographers Bob Smith and Tom Bol for a memorable photo workshop
in the mountains of Colorado. Scenic overlooks along the Mount
Evans Scenic Byway provide wonderful views of the alpine lakes below.
Photograph the distinctive Lincoln Lake, which is located 800 feet below
the road; the Chicago Lakes Basin and Summit Lake, a high alpine lake
edged by rocky ridges and cliffs. We have arranged an evening workshop
at Summit Overlook to capture the sunset from one of the grandest
panoramas in Colorado. A tour of the historic towns of Idaho Springs and
Georgetown will provide opportunities to photograph trout fishermen,
narrow gauge trains and remnants of what was the center of the mining
industry during the late nineteenth century. We have arranged a portrait
session with railroad engineers costumed in the traditional rail workers
uniform of this era. You will not want to miss this adventure.

REGISTER ONLINE AT
WWW.MENTORSERIES.COM

CALIFORNIA
JUNE 20-22, 2014

Gary Crabble

COLORADO

Stephen Johnson

WorldMags.net

Take Highway 395 across the quiet terrain of Eastern California, where
the Great Basin Desert meets the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and where
youll nd some of the most stunning and iconic locations for landscape
photography in the Western United States. Join Mentor Series and
Nikon professional photographers Dave Black and Michael Schwarz as
they travel to this unique region to experience the range of light in
the Eastern Sierra mountains. Mono Lake is a majestic body of water
covering approximately 65 square miles. Tufa owers are formed by
the interaction of freshwater springs and the highly-alkaline lake water,
which creates the ower-like calcium-carbonate formations that stretch
high above the surface of the water and give the landscape of Mono Lake
its ethereal quality. After a sunrise shoot on Mono Lake, we will continue
on to the ghost town of Bodie. A town preserved in arrested decay
and a fascinating subject for any photographer interested in capturing a
glimpse of American history. Practice your landscape photography skills
as our mentors teach you techniques for bringing this ghost town to
life. Experience this beautiful desert region and the ghostly remnants of
American history framed by sunlight over the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

With additional support from:

WorldMags.net
For more information, call toll-free 888-676-6468.

FOLLOW US ON
Mentor Series Ultimate Photo Adventure

FOR THE PAST 17 YEARS, the Mentor Series has taken photo enthusiasts to
destinations across the country and around the world. With top Nikon professional
photographers accompanying participants every day and teaching them how and
what to shoot, theres nothing like a Mentor Series trek. You and your photography
will never be the same!

Donnie Sexton

MONTANA
JULY 9-13, 2014

The Mentor Series is headed to one of our most popular destinations,


Glacier National Park, Montana. Often referred to as the Crown of the
Continent, the park will be dressed in its summer best, with carpets
of multi-colored wildflowers set against the backdrop of rugged
peaks. Join Mentor Series and Nikon professional photographers Reed
Hoffmann, Tom Bol, and Bob Smith to learn the ultimate photo tips
and techniques for capturing all the beauty that Montana and Glacier
National Park have to offer. One day is devoted to the Many Glacier
valley, and includes boat rides across Swiftcurrent and Josephine
Lakes to the trailhead for Grinnell Glacier. The historic and massive
Many Glacier Hotel offers up the chance to focus on architectural
photography at days end. Adding to the amazing photos ops in
Glacier will be a visit to the Triple D Game Farm to shoot some big
animals in their native environment. Another highlight of this trek will
be a day devoted to the North American Indian Days. Taking place
on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, this native celebration offers up
endless chances to capture vibrant dance competitions and drumming,
as well as parade action. This action-packed workshop, with so much
diversity for photography, is not to be missed.

Come on a Mentor Series trek and try out some


of the latest equipment that Nikon offers
including their high-performance HD-SLRs,
NIKKOR lenses, the Nikon 1 System and a variety
of COOLPIX compact digital cameras.

Lillian Rodriguez

WorldMags.net

PUERTO RICO VIDEO


SEPTEMBER 11-14, 2014

Prepare yourself for a trek unlike any other as you travel to Puerto Rico
with Nikon professional photographers Michael Schwarz and Reed
Hoffmann for a multimedia experience. On this trip you will not only
expand your knowledge of still photography, but also discover how to
use your camera to record sound and capture HD video using Nikons
latest HD-SLR equipment. With this new skill set, the power of visual
storytelling is in your hands. Spend the weekend photographing the
narrow streets of Old San Juan, colonial-era architecture and colorful
edifices of this historic neighborhood. We will also cover the local
people, cigar rollers and surfers on the bay, followed by an evening
sunset shoot alongside your mentors learning the time-lapse technique
to convey movement in your video. El Yunque Rain Forest, with its lush
foliage, waterfalls and rivers, will provide an excellent setting for you to
press the record button and gather a world of sights and sounds of a
verdant and misty tropical rainforest. Listen for the sounds of frogs and
birds as we hike the trails of this national treasure. Combining still and
video techniques will leave you prepared to narrate a richer, fuller story.

Special thanks
to our premier
sponsor:
COOLPIX A
D610
WorldMags.net

D800

Ripple Effect
Documenting Chernobyls impact over generations
despite the risks to body and gear
By Gerd LudwiG as told to MeG ryan Heery
26 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

WorldMags.net

Gerd Ludwig/Institute

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Personal items abandoned


at a home in Opachichi,
Ukraine, 1993. The Soviet
Union acknowledged a
nuclear accident had
occurred two days after
the incident and hastily
evacuated the area
surrounding the plant.

WorldMags.net

gerd Ludwig/institute (2)

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

isiting an orphanage in gomel, Belarus,


in 2005, i made a request to photograph
the children it housed. the director said,
oK, come tomorrow morning.
the next day i was greeted by two offcials,
who told me, oh, children anywhere can be born
with malformations. you wont fnd chernobyl
victims here.
i said, are you sure? not even secondary problems, like those from the mothers alcoholism or
children who were given up by parents who couldnt
handle the stress of relocation and their own diseases? they replied, no, no, no, nothing here!
i knew that many orphanages in Belarus
receive funding from international foundations
dedicated to helping chernobyl victims. So i
argued, oK. if you give it to me in writing that
none of your children here are in any way related
to the chernobyl accident, ill pick up my cameras
and leave without taking a single picture. But of
course then we will report in National Geographic
that this kindergarten doesnt need any help from
the chernobyl funds because you dont have victims from chernobyl here. you should have seen
how fast they changed their minds. From my frst
visit to the region, i learned that you cant trust
anything about chernobyl.
Since the 1986 chernobyl nuclear accident,
millions of people in ukraine, Belarus, and russia

Opposite: Tomatoes
from the garden of Ivan
Martynenko, 77, and his
wife, Gapa Semenenko, 82,
who returned after being
evacuated from their home
in the Exclusion Zone,
Illintsy, Ukraine, 2005.
Below: Igor, 5, Vesnova,
Belarus, 2005. He was
given up by his parents to a
childrens orphanage.

On the Job

classifed as chernobly victims have become


eligible to receive benefts for illnesses and other
problems. i started photographing the people in this
region in 1993 and got hooked on the subject. When
i proposed a project to mark the disasters 25th
anniversary, in 2011, to several magazinesincluding National Geographicnobody was interested. i
believe that there is a continuous desire for serious
issue-driven reporting, even if its outside of a magazine, and with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, i
got the project funded and returned to the region to
document the changes. the result was the ipad app
The Long Shadow of Chernobyl. this past February
i launched another Kickstarter to publish a photo
book that refects two decades of coverage, including
my latest trip in September 2013.
a 30-kilometer area known as the exclusion
Zone surrounds the the reactor. it comprises
many zones of increasing levels of security as one
approaches the facility. the Zone includes the
city of pripyat, originally built for the the power
plants personnel and their families, as well as
nearly 200 small villages. the whole area was
evacuated in the days following the explosion,
but several hundred residents came back, at frst
illegally, to live out their lives on their own soil instead of dying of a broken heart in an anonymous
city suburb, as one returnee described it. to go
back to the area, they had to ignore the dangers

WorldMags.net
may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 29

completely. i know i take a risk by eating with


them, but i dont say no when they offer me their
tomatoes or their moonshine.
i frst entered the Zone seven years after the
accident for an assignment for National Geographic
on pollution in the former Soviet union. in those
days access was diffcult, but i managed to contact
the militia (the local police force), and they were
willing to show me around. the only transportation was a big school bus. and like any vehicle that
remained in the Zone, it had been exposed to radiation. it was just me, my assistant, and the militia
person in a 30-seat radioactive school bus.
the militia were well-meaning but poorly informed. at one point they told me, its not very
safe here. We shouldnt stay too long. i had my
own geiger counter and dosimeterequipment
which they did not have and which they asked me
not to carry outside my clothing so as not to scare
peopleso i measured the actual radiation there.
it was oK. then in an area they told me was safe,
it was not. they didnt realize that the radiation
moved around as wind blew the surface soil. i
quickly learned to trust only my own equipment.
my frst access deep inside the sarcophagus of reactor number 4which i call the belly of the beast
30 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

Above: Inside an
abandoned building,
Pripyat, Ukraine, 2013.
The city was evacuated 36
hours after the Chernobyl
accident; residents were
allowed to take only
vital documents and
belongings. Today the
buildings are pilfered
by looters and nature is
reclaiming empty spaces.
Opposite, from top:
Toys and gas masks,
likely arranged by a
tourist, have become a
standard motif; Pripyat,
2011. Banners, posters,
and drawings glorify
the Soviet Union in an
abandoned classroom,
Pripyat, 2005.

was in 2005. i frst photographed in the control


room where the accident occurred. radiation levels
there are relatively lowwearing protective gear, i
was able to stay nearly 45 minutes. compare that
with my most recent visit last fall: in some rooms
i had only a few seconds to shoot. i needed to duck
out of the room just to reload my strobe in order to
conserve my radiation exposure allowance. naturally as a photographer, i always want to stay just a
little bit longer and capture a few more frames.
of course, we go through a very intense decontamination processa change of clothes, long, hot
showersand i have my equipment thoroughly
checked on the way out. at this point on my last
trip i could see in the guards face that she thought i
was being paranoid: Oh, theres this American. He was
probably just outside here on the construction site. But
when she checked my camera, her facial expression totally changed. She said, oh my god! oh my
god! you have to wash your cameras. you have to
clean your gear. and your camera straps. you need
to wash them. i had some Velcro around my strobe
and she said, youve got to discard that because
thats where the radioactive specks of dust settled.
that was the frst thing i had to throw out. i eventually got new camera straps because i was uncom-

WorldMags.net

gerd Ludwig/institute (3); portrait by Douglas Kirkland

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Gerd Ludwigs coverage


of post-Soviet Russia for
National Geographic over the
past 20 years has garnered
him distinction as the worlds
foremost color photographer
documenting the region.
Based in Los Angeles, he
has won numerous awards,
including the IPAs 2006 Lucie
Award for International
Photographer of the Year.

WorldMags.net
may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 31

WorldMags.net

Above: Workers wear


respirators and multiple
layers of protective clothing
inside the sarcophagus
of Chernobyl Unit 4,
2005. Even with safety
precautions, they can work
only 15 minutes per day
before they reach their daily
maximum dose of radiation.
Left: In 2005 Oleg Shapiro,
54, and Dima Bogdanovich,
13, received thyroid cancer
treatment in Minsk,
Belarus, where surgery is
performed daily. Shapiro
was exposed to extreme
levels of radiation while
working as a liquidator.
Dimas mother blames
Chernobyls nuclear fallout
for her sons illness.

32 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

WorldMags.net

gerd Ludwig/institute (3)

On the Job

WorldMags.net

fortable having them around my neck all the time.


in my last couple of trips its been interesting
to document how the Zone has deteriorated and
transformed. as looters go in at night and take
out anything of use, the rooms are getting emptier. in pripyat, the buildings are starting to crumble. the elderly returnees have dwindled from 700
to about 200. nature has begun to reclaim unused
areas. one scientist i talked to in the Zone said
we may as well post signs around that read not
intended for human habitation for 24,000 years
the half-life of plutonium 239, which hasnt seeped
as deep into the earth as expected.
i hope my work makes people reconsider our
sources of energy and our thirst for its constant
supply. im not one of those people who walks
around with an anti-nuclear button on his shirt,
but i do want people to think about the consequences of human hubris. chernobyl was blamed
on communist incompetence, ineffciency, carelessness. then a very similar accident happened at
Fukushimaby all accounts a very modern, carefully maintained plant. and still nuclear energy is
promoted as an effcient way to produce energy.
Figure in the costs of these accidentstwentysome countries are paying more than $2 billion

The New Safe Confne


ment under construction
in Chernobyl in 2013.
The $2 billion structure
will replace the present
containment structure
and confne solid radio
active waste for the next
100 years.

out of taxpayer money for the new Safe confnement, being built to contain the radiation from
the chernobyl reactorand it becomes apparent
that nuclear energy is not effcient or safe at all.
i do this work so that in the future people wont
simply believe what their government tells them.
as a journalist, i document catastrophes to have an
impact, to help us learn from them and avoid the
same mistakes in the future.
i was drawn to documentary photography because of eddie adams, nick ut, and philip Jones
griffths, whose wonderful images helped stop the
Vietnam War. But i understand that not everybody
can make that one world-changing image. theres
this great story a friend once told me where on the
coast in italy, these starfsh are washing up on the
shore and are dying. the children run to them to
try to help, while the old men of the village shake
their heads and say, What a mess! What are
you doing? there are millions of them washed up
hereyou cant fx this, you wont make a difference. So one kid takes one of the starfsh and says,
it makes a difference for this one, and puts it back
into the water. and thats my understanding: that if
we as photographers all contribute our little share,
together we can make a huge difference. aP

may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 33


WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Eratwitt

Work

Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos

Photographys preeminent wit answers some


of our questionsand evades most of them.
Fortunately, his pictures speak for
themselves. By Michael Kaplan

may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 35


WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

tep off central park West and into


elliott erwitts ground-foor studio
and youre struck immediately by the
breadth of his success. hanging on the walls and in
the pages of his many books are iconic images that
span all genres: black-and-white photojournalism
from the pages of Life magazine, celebrity portraits
that capture the likes of Marilyn Monroe and a
young arnold Schwarzenegger, and of course his
signature dog photos.
erwitt, dressed in a red Shanghai tang jacket,
is sorting through images as i enter his expansive
workroom. hes just returned from hong Kong
hence the jacketand soon leaves for Kuala Lumpur. at age 86, he works hard and consistently,
putting together books, shooting assignments, and
making appearances for exhibitions. a collection of his color work, appropriately titled Kolor
(teneues), was published last fall. and a large

36 aMericanphotoMag.coM May/June 2014

journalistic-style commission for the Macallan


Distillers has just been made into a book that
accompanies a limited-edition bottle of the highend single-malt Scotch.
Born in paris and raised in italy, erwitt came to
the united States in 1939, frst settled in new york,
moved to Los angeles, and began shooting weddings at age 16right around the time his father
took off and left young elliott to fend for himself.
Following a two-year stint in the military, where
he shot for the army and for various wire services,
erwitt was scooped up by the Magnum photo
agency at the invitation of robert capa. that was
in the mid-1950s, and hes been there ever since.
erwitt can be wildly modest, incredibly aloof,
and apparently uninterested in speaking about
his work, but that didnt stop us from trying to
tease out some insight into his long and successful
career. Beyond still photos, he has shot a number

WorldMags.net

Above: USA, New York,


1953. Opposite: USA,
1962.
Previous spread: Dogs mad
with anticipation at the
Glorious Twelfth Grouse
Shoot, The Coignafearn
Estate, Tomatin, Inverness,
Highlands, Scotland, 2011.

elliott erwitt/Magnum photos (2)

WorldMags.net

of documentaries (including one on Dustin hoffman and another about a nudist colony), done
camera work for the Maysles Brothers Gimme
Shelter, and contributed to Martin Scorceses Bob
Dylan documentary No Direction Home.
hes long managed to juggle a roster of work
that mixes the editorial, the commercial, and the
personal. it can be hard to keep track. i was not
familiar with elliotts photos from the 1940s and
50s; i was more familiar with Dog Days and things
like that, says Brian Wallis, the chief curator of
the international center of photography, which
mounted an erwitt retrospective in 2011. his
early work is so lyrical and sensitive and subtle.
it was a revelation for me. that he would become
a journalist and take on the challenges of assignments is impressive. he does so many different
things with so much skill and grace and a seeming
effortlessness that is very deceptive.

Erwitt at Work

For a photographer in his eighties whos put out


dozens of books, still maintains a slate of commercial clients (including Jacob cohen, artemide, and
Lavazza), and continues to shoot his crowd-pleasing
dog photos, the Leica-wielding erwitt refects
on it all with little more than a shrug. When he
describes the making of photos as just composing
all the parts in a rectangle, its more than likely
that this highly skilled master isnt just being selfeffacing. Wallis remembers the sole color image in
the icp retrospective: it was a photo of obamas
[frst] inauguration. elliott told me that he walked
into the room, took that one picture, and left.
there were no back-up shots, no working the
scene, no hanging out just to see what else might
unfold. Whats unbelievable, says Wallis, is his
ability to represent these feeting moments time
and time again. he gets once-in-a-lifetime photos
with such regularity. its astounding.

WorldMags.net
May/June 2014 aMericanphotoMag.coM 37

Erwitt at Work

WorldMags.net

AMERICAN PHOTO: Nice jacket. Were you just


in Hong Kong?
ELLIOTT ERWITT: i was traveling, doing interviews for the Macallan project. in each place, we
had an exhibition with photos from the book. the
receptions were very nice. Some of the questions
[from reporters] were rather stupid. in Moscow,
there were 500 journalistssupposed journalists.
three or four of them were intelligent. one asked
if i was there when the pictures were taken. i
replied, probably.
Did you expect your career to thrive for so many
years?
ive always been busy. thats how i support my four
ex-wives and eight-and-a-half grandchildren.
Youve shot such a broad range of subjects, but
many people know you for your dog pictures. How
did you get so into photographing dogs?
its simple. i like dogs. theyre nice and they dont
ask for prints. theyre everywhere and we bark a
common language. ive done eight books on dogs
and had a dog until recently. i had him for 17 years.
he went to heaven.
Are you shooting mostly digital or flm these days?
Both. Digital is more convenient. But i like flm.
people like digital because youre fnished up on
the day that you shoot. you have the results. For
advertising people, digital is safer, more convenient,
and cheaper.
But
But i am used to flm and i like it better. i like
the results better.
Is there something psychological about not seeing the picture and letting things progress more
organically?
i dont look at the digital images as im going. i just
use the frst in the same way that i would use a
polaroid, making sure that the light is right. Last
time i did digital was a shoe piece for Town & Country and a fashion job for Jacob cohen.
Whats the most recent commercial job in which
you were really happy with the outcome and you
fgured that you would have done that job for
yourself?
i would never have done a commercial job for
myself. So that takes care of that. But what job did
i like best? the Scotland book [for Macallan] was
a good one. i got hired to take pictures in Scotland
of anything i wanted. it started out as a 10-day job.
i liked it, and made three trips. they were hysterically happy to send me back. they wanted me to
do whatever i wanted to do.
How did that work, in terms of what you shot?
i went to the main cities and the countryside and
to whisky producers. its all pretty obvious. theyre
38 aMericanphotoMag.coM May/June 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos

Below: Jamaica, British


West Indies, 1961.

may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 39


WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

a whisky company. Its not a brain challenge. I hired


a car, went around, met people.
Do any particular images stand out?
We went on a hunt. Theres a day of the year that
is the opening of the grouse-shooting season and we
went with a bunch of grouse-shooting people. This
gets taken very seriously. It was very interesting.
Eating the birds afterward was not so interesting.
40 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM MAY/JUNE 2014

From top: Highland


sheep, South of Siabost
bho Dheas, Isle of Lewis,
Scotland, 2012; the
Reverend Canon Robert
Breaden, Portree Lifeboat
Station, Portree, Isle of
Skye, Scotland, 2012.

You can break your teeth on the pellets that are still
in the birds. Freshly killed grouse is an acquired
taste. Scottish cooking is not the best.
What made you decide to do your most recent
book, Kolor?
The designer I work with thought there was a book
in there. I didnt agree. But we started looking
through the material, and after a year I thought
there was enough. I got kind of talked into it.
The cover is that great, iconic picture of yours from
the set of The Mists, with Marilyn Monroe and
Montgomery Clift. What comes to mind when you
look at it now?
Its just a picture of people in a movie. It may be
interesting because they all died after the movie
came out and theyre famous. Shooting famous
people and non-famous people is pretty much the
same thing, except that famous people sell. Very
often the non-famous person is the better photo,
but if you want to have your work sold, its better
to stick with famous people.
You obviously prefer shooting black-and-white
over color. Why?
It looks better. I have more control and everything
is out of my darkroom. I work with a printer and
supervise everything. I was surprised. I never
thought much about color, but looking at it, the
color is pretty good. The color is mostly for assignmentads or journalism. When I take pictures for

WorldMags.net

elliott erwitt/Magnum photos (3)

WorldMags.net

my own amusement, its black and white. i prefer


that for personal work. For professional work,
i dont care.
Is there a new book in the offng?
right now i am working on my next book, images of
women. its a big project. i look through my contact
sheets, i make work prints, and i see what can be
put together.
What is a typical day like for you?
When im here, a typical day is to get up in the
morning, go through my archives and look for images. im just at the beginning of the women book.
im going through 60 years of work, so i dont know
that much yet, but i did fnd some stuff thats good.
Can you tell me about what you found?
Some pictures.
Can you say what they are or tell me how you felt
when you saw them?
how can i describe a picture? you look through
your stuff, you fnd some good pictures, you print
them. Whats there to describe? you have to see
the pictures.
Can I see them?
no. no! im at the beginning of a huge thing. im
just making contact sheets.
How did you come up with the idea for Sequentially
Yours [which shows photographs of Erwitts plus the
ones that preceded and followed]?
thats a strange question. i just thought of it. i

Above: Boat of Garten


train station, Highlands,
Scotland, 2011.

look through my work. thats my alphabet. its like


with Kolor. that book was never meant to be. But i
warmed to it.
What convinced you that it would work?
pardon?
Youre not going to like this question.
i dont like many of your questions.
How come?
i think that the work is what its about. i hope that
the work is what its about. you ask me what makes
me do the Kolor book. its because i thought it was
a good idea. Maybe its not a great idea. i just think
you have all this material, you just look at the material, and maybe you decide if its worthy or not. if it
is, you do it. if its not you drop it.
How quickly can you tell whether or not it
will work?
how long is a piece of string? i hope that the one
im working on now will work. if it doesnt, ill do
another collection. or maybe shoot something new
if i have the energy.
Is there anything you are looking foward to shooting?
at the moment, no. im tired. after this trip to
Kuala Lumpur, i am going to vegetate for a while.
And fgure out what to do next?
ill go to my house in the country and probably fsh.
Youre into fshing?
ive never done it. But i might try it. i hear that
they have fsh up there. ap

WorldMags.net
May/June 2014 aMericanphotoMag.coM 41

WorldMags.net

Legends
in the

Field

Five masters of photography prove that reaching 70 is no reason to retire


By MichaeL KapLan

42 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Terry Richardson, Art Partner licensing. Opposite: Chuck Close, courtesy of Pace Gallery.

Kay Macy among her


fowers a few days before
her 100th birthday, Cold
Spring Harbor, 2012, by
Sylvia Plachy.

may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 43


WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Sylvia Plachy
When Sylvia plachy, 70, got serious about photography, she was in
her junior year at pratt institute and engaging in a medium that
other students saw as a distant second to fne art. But i fell in love
with taking pictures, she remembers. i decided that this is what
i wanted to do. though plachy is a contributing photographer for
The New Yorker and has shot for a number of publications including
the New York Times Magazine, she was most prolifc when working
with the Village Voice, snagging black-and-white images from one
corner of new york city to the other as well as internationally.
With several shows in europethree last fall, another later this
yearand her seventh book in the works, she says, i am looking
back and rescuing pictures that i have taken and not seen. i am at
the age where i want to make sure i see them.
Back when she was shooting for the Voice, plachy worked
continually and imagined her photos would have longevity. in
fact she was creating a serious body of work: her photos wound
up in museums and private collections. having accomplished all
of that, shes now investigating the corners of her career, digging
out images that didnt necessarily make the printed page but
still resonate. For example, she says, there are really interesting photos that i took on the way to the assignments. im rescuing photos that have been clamoring for attention. im seeking
pictures that i can look at for a long time. i want pictures that
are timeless and that have meaning to me now.

Left: Invisible Man,


Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2002.

WorldMags.net

Legends in the Field

WorldMags.net

This spread and previous: Sylvia Plachy (4)

From top: Crone, Sicily,


1988; Tightrope Walker,
New Orleans, 2011.

may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 45


WorldMags.net

Legends in the Field

WorldMags.net

Joel Meyerowitz
When Joel meyerowitz, 76, was in tuscany last
summer, he didnt do as much people-watching as
you might expect from a man who made his bones
as a street photographer. the area was suffering a
relentless heat wave, which presented the perfect
opportunity to stay indoors and tuck into an interest in still life hed picked up about a year before.
inside the farmhouse he was renting, meyerowitz
began contemplating some old pewter objects, a hotwater bottle, and a decanter that he had purchased
in a provence fea market. Wanting to capture
their battered beauty, he reached for his Leica S2
and started to photograph the items in a darkened
hayloft. i felt like i was rescuing these things from
their days of utility being over, says meyerowitz.
i felt like i was bringing them back to the stage
for a second chance.
inspired by edward Westons famous photo of a
pepper, meyerowitz has unexpectedly gone still-life
crazy. this has allowed me to once again experience
46 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

Above: New York


City, 1975. Opposite:
Czannes Objects, 2013.

the sense of discovery, says the man who counts


robert Frank as a major role model and once shook
up the photo world by shooting street photos in
color. its given me back my youthful sensibility.
that one of his gallerists at paris photo managed to
sell a nearly nine-foot-tall still life (shown, at right)
for more than meyerowitz could have imagined has
not dampened his enthusiasm. the picture was a
result of a visit to paul czannes art studio in the
south of France, where meyerowitz managed to
shoot a group of objects that he spotted on a shelf
near where czanne set up his still lifes.
at home in new york city, where he spent the
beginning of this century shooting in and around
ground Zero, meyerowitz now looks for dented
coffee pots and old metal cups. i work with these
objects not for their beauty but because of what
they emanate, he says. they lived their lives and
took their knocks, just like the people i photograph on the street.

WorldMags.net

Joel meyerowitz, courtesy of howard greenberg gallery (2)

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 47

WorldMags.net

Mary Ellen Mark


Look at mary ellen marks photos and its clear
that she knows how to connect with people.
underpinning her picturesrecent ones such as
the photograph of the boy and the bird and earlier
ones like the Damm family in their caris her
uncanny ability to align herself with her subjects.
While she says that people have become more
48 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

Above: The Damm


Family in Their Car,
Los Angeles, California,
USA, 1987.

media savvy and now invariably wonder if their


image will end up on the internet, she doesnt
let that get in the way of making pictures. my
heart is still in people and in showing them, says
mark, 74, who is in the process of revisiting tiny,
a seminal subject in Streetwise, her landmark 1983
series on Seattle runaways. i still love the street.

WorldMags.net

Legends in the Field

WorldMags.net

From top: Child clown with his bird, roadside near


Oaxaca, Mexico, 2010; The Filatov Institute, Odessa,
Ukraine, 2012.

mary ellen mark (3)

i am challenged by it. its easy to get a good picture but almost impossible to get a great picture.
everything has to be right. i like the challenge of
getting everything in the frame when i shoot it.
indeed, when it comes to photojournalistic
integrity, mark remains as old school as it gets.
She still shoots flm and maintains a strict code
against digital tweaking, a policy she says stems
from early in her career, when changing a picture
was considered wrong. i am a realist and i believe
that the most interesting things come from reality,
and that has not changed, mark says. i was able
to convince people to let me do these projects that
were in my mind, she says. it was like a grant
to be able to do what i wanted to do. these days,
mark often creates her own assignments; works
on books, some of which include her classic images
(Man and Beast, out in march from the university
of texas press, is the latest); and takes on corporate jobs when they seem right (the baby below
is from an annual report shot for novartis). you
dont stop because you cant stop, she says. taking these photos is who i am and what i do.

WorldMags.net
may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 49

Legends in the Field

WorldMags.net

Robert Adams
robert adams, 76, makes stunning, subtle photos
that contain a message. For decades he focused on
the high plains country of eastern colorado, often
concentrating on new tract homes that distressingly altered the landscape. By 1997 he felt he had
done as much as he could in colorado and decided
to move to the west coast of oregon, where he
and his wife had often vacationed. upon relocating, he says, i felt as if somebody had turned
off the electrical current. i felt little impulse to
photograph, and it was restful. then adams got
accustomed to the difference in lightmarine
light as opposed to high-altitude, dry, southwestern light, what weather reports call severe
clearand found his new subject matter: clearcut forests and the ocean.
troubled by what he saw, adams took aim at
relentless deforestation. one of the great rain
forests of the world is being clear-cut, he says. its
gotten to the point that i look out my window and
see some of the campsites that Lewis and clark occupied before reaching the ocean, but the rest of the
view is clear-cut hills. When i am not photographing the diffcult stufftree stumpsi have been
photographing the glory of the sea. testament to
adamss skill are a collection housed at yale university art gallery, a recent book called Skogen, and an
exhibition on view through late may at the Jeu de
paume in paris. By keeping his collectible photos out
there, adams fulflls a civic purpose that he believes
is integral for art. i realize that i can take all the
photos i want of brutal housing and it wont change
anything, he says. But art reminds people of what
they already know. i hope it gives them courage and
brings them to reengage with life.
50 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Robert Adams, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York (3)

Clockwise from below:


Denver, Colorado, 1970;
Untitled, ca. 2012; Foot
prints and bicycle track,
Nehalem Spit, Tillamook
County, Oregon, 2012.

may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 51


WorldMags.net

Legends in the Field

WorldMags.net

Sheila Metzner
Long before Facebook, Sheila metzner, 75, began
creating vast crisscrossing networks of friends, coworkers who turn into friends, and family members.
With a big personality and a penchant for travel, she
has built a global network fortifed by wide-ranging
assignments that keep her on the move. its amazing how many lines cross through one anotherand
they increase as you get older, says metzner, who
met ralph Lauren after writing him a fan letter and
has been shooting his ad campaigns on and off for
decades. photography is my whole life. it has been
part of my personal search. i met Warren Beatty
after i told an interviewer from the Daily News that
i wanted to photograph him. i got to meet David
Lynch during a story for House & Garden. i told him
that id love to work on one of his movies and he
invited me to the set of Wild at Heart. i just wrote a
letter to [artist] James turrell. he bought a volcanic
52 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

Above: The Passion of


Rome, shot for Fendi,
1986. Opposite: LAtelier
DArtiste for the
magazine Grey VI, 2012.

crater and did the interior of it. clearly metzner


wants an inviteand if her track record is any
indication, shell probably get one.
photography has given metzner a reason to
travel, a license to explore, and a way to connect
with others. By being what she describes as brave
but not brazen, shes gotten a friend of a friend
to take her into alaskan waters so she could
shoot the best icebergs and went from covering a
camel race in Dubai to photographing the western
desert of egypt. its a task to document things
that have value, based on my own curiosity, she
says. i always remember that photography isnt
just taking pictures. its a tremendous exchange.
the photographer is in the picture, and i think
people forget that. you are there, you see things,
and you fear that youre not going to get them,
and just wish that you do. ap

WorldMags.net

Sheila Metzner (2)

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 53

Pioneers
WorldMags.net

of the Good

Life

The new look of lifestyle photography is unembellished, natural,


and refned. And these photographers, along with a cadre of
independent magazines, are the visionaries behind it.

Alice Gao. Opposite: Nicole Franzen (2).

By Lindsay ComstoCk

54 AmericANphOtOmAG.cOm mAY/JuNe 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
tep aside, martha Stewart: photosaturated under-the-radar publications with names such as Kinfolk, Cherry
Bombe, and Backyard Bill are redefning the good
lifeand the way we look at it. With a focus on
the homegrown and handmade, this new wave of
magazines and blogs is aimed at folks seeking a
new style of livingcreators, hipsters, and DiYtypes whose alternative looks and semi-subversive
values are unlikely to show up on the pages of
Martha Stewart Living anytime soon. And the
photographers who make the images that fll their
pages are bringing an unadorned aesthetic to their
work that belies its careful production.
the democratization of the visual world over the
past decade has allowed fashion and lifestyle blogs
like Bill Gentles Backyard Bill to fourish. Gentle
believes lifestyle photography today is the peoples
photography; for the people, by the people. Nicole
Franzen, who shoots for small-circulation publications Cherry Bombe and Kinfolk as well as power

This page: Will Lisak of


Etwas by Nicole Franzen,
2014.
Opposite: Alice Gao for
Madewell, 2013.

players like Bon Apptit and Martha Stewart Living,


agrees. She notes that this up-and-coming lifestyle
aesthetic represents an approachable luxury. She
explains: i think its the young people striving to
be better. i think were trying to change. Were
kind of rebelling against corporate America.
Franzens work in particular refects a pareddown photographic look that has grown up along
with the DiY and farm-to-table movements of the
aughts and the longing for authenticity that these
types of magazines emphasize. She says photographers of her milieu are trying to fnd the soul
in things with simple sunlit scenes that convey a
feeling of approachability. i like fnding the beauty
in everyday things that may be mundane, she
says. ive always been a minimalist by nature.
Former Dwell photo editor turned photographer Aya Brackettwho shoots food and still-life
editorial for several of the same publications that
Franzen doessays her assignments call for
work thats beautiful and approachable with
a general trend toward natural light. Brackett

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

From top: Bill Gentle; Nicole Franzen. Opposite: Aya Brackett.

WorldMags.net

conceptualizes her shoots the way she would compose a painting, she says, thinking about the play
of color blocks, texture, and daylight-balanced
strobes (or actual daylight when its available)
to re-create a sunlit scene. her process yields
graphically striking photographic stories, and
recently a cookbook, focusing on slow food and
locally sourced organic cuisine. her favorite work
tends to be the messy food shots she does for
clients like Cherry Bombe magazine, which puts
a fashion and fne-art spin on food photography,
and a recent personal series about food thats
fallen to the ground and rendered inedible.
Gentle too, is concerned with fnding the
extraordinary within the ordinary. i like to play
with light and colors; i like blown-out foreground
textures and shadows casting interesting patterns,
he says. i think its hard to decipher; thats the
magic, the umami. its what your eye sees at that
particular moment. But it wasnt until after he
developed his blog in 2008 that his visual language
of classic portraiture, street style, and a twist of
quirky comedy developed, he says.
the rise in this genre of photography is directly
related to a cultural shift thats taken place in
creative communities in urban centers throughout
the country, says Brooklyn-based Franzen. its
about going back to our roots. people are recognizing beauty in things made by hand. We want to
know who is making things and the artistry
behind it; its really appealing. everyone from
chefs to fashion designers to foral arrangers to
furniture makers are doing unique things with

From top: Soko in Venice


Beach, California. June
13th, 2013, by Bill Gentle;
Ariele Alaskos wood
working studio in Brooklyn,
2012, by Nicole Franzen.
Opposite: Picnic, by Aya
Brackett, part of the Soiled
series, 2013.

WorldMags.net
mAY/JuNe 2014 AmericANphOtOmAG.cOm 57

WorldMags.net

their hands and taking time to master their craft.


Gentle echoes Franzens sentiment: i think
what we are dealing with now is a much younger
side: people who have really learned a trade and
skillfully know their craft; [the photography] is
more specialized and personal than in mainstream publications, in part because of its subject.
Georgia Francis King, editor of the quarterly
Kinfolk, says her publication is a reminder that
another existence outside of the digital world is
possible. the rise of new technologiesand all of
58 AmericANphOtOmAG.cOm mAY/JuNe 2014

Chard, by Aya Brackett,


part of the Between Meals
series, 2011.

the amazing innovations that have come from


that boomare incredibly important to our
society. however, it would be a pity if this new
world replaced the old one instead of just being
a welcome addition, she says. Were there to
remind people to slow down and focus not just
on the things in your lives but the people and the
stories that surround them.
King calls her magazines look clean, balanced,
and detailed. She says she looks for original
ideas and expert execution, giving photographers

WorldMags.net

Bill Gentle (2). Opposite: Aya Brackett.

WorldMags.net

mood boards pre-shoot. its also important for


us to constantly be staying ahead of ourselves and
not becoming a stereotyped style. too often we
see photographers pitching us work that personifes Kinfolk as it stood two years ago; being able to
create new work that moves our aesthetic forward
instead of replicating it is key.
But these magazines dont deny their mainstream roots; in fact, they embrace them. magazines like Kinfolk are a simplifed reaction to the
more ornate martha Stewart era, but that doesnt

From top: William Bryan


Purcell in Milanville,
Pennsylvania. June 14th,
2014, and Lauren
Manoogian in Milanville,
Pennsylvania. June 14th,
2014, by Bill Gentle.

mean that both dont still have their place, King


says. claudia Wu, who cofounded Cherry Bombe
with Kerry Diamond (the pair originally met at
Harpers Bazaar), explains that the Brooklyn-based
biannual magazine dedicated mostly to women
interested in food, design, and style wouldnt exist
if martha Stewart hadnt paved the way. [Martha
Stewart Living] really had a huge impact on both
Kerry and me. the magazine really revolutionized
the food/lifestyle publication world.
Franzen calls the frst time she shot for martha
Stewart a dream. She sees the success of indie
publications as coming from their ability to keep
a fne-tuned eye on a smaller and more easily
identifable audience, whereas larger publications
have to paint with a broader brush.
Brackett says she works much differently for
clients like martha Stewart, for example, where
the stories are totally gorgeous and beautiful, but
not always edgy, she explains. like, you wouldnt
put a cigarette or something on a plate. You have
to keep it a little more tasteful. She says larger
magazines actually tend to be easier to shoot for
because of the high production value, but the
additional artistic freedom she gets shooting for
smaller publications and her own projects can
be the most rewarding. its really hard to shoot
if you dont feel inspired, or arent working on
your own instinct. its hard to get anything good
if youre just doing what you think is going to be
pleasing, but not what you believe in. aP

WorldMags.net
mAY/JuNe 2014 AmericANphOtOmAG.cOm 59

PROMOTION

WorldMags.net

Travel to destinations across the country and around the world

A PHOTOGR APHIC JOURNEY


Photograph alongside Nikon professional photographers!

Rich Cruse
Noppawat Tom
Charoensinphon

George Marchant

Dejan Smaic

Steve Wallace

If youre serious about taking your photography to the highest


level while experiencing an incredible amount of learning
and fun theres no better way than signing up for the
acclaimed Mentor Series treks. Youll have the priceless
opportunity to tap into the knowledge base of Nikon professional instructors with one-on-one personal instruction

Hands-On Learning
Exclusive Photo Opportunities

and experience the heartfelt camaraderie and passion of


fellow photo enthusiasts. Youll also have the chance to use the
latest high-performance Nikon digital cameras and legendary
NIKKOR lenses. Its nothing less than a total immersion
course in visual expression wrapped in a seamlessly organized,
carefree photographic adventure.

Shoot with Nikon Pros in the Field


Special Video & Lighting Workshops

Digitial Review Sessions


Alumni Communities

UPCOMING DESTINATIONS INCLUDE:


MAINE COLORADO CALIFORNIA MONTANA IRELAND PUERTO RICO VIDEO CHARLESTON LIGHTING PRAGUE

REGISTER ONLINE AT
MENTORSERIES.COM
For more information call
toll-free at 888-676-6468.

WorldMags.net
COOLPIX A
D610

D800

WorldMags.net
what photoGraphers need
The goods 62 Trend 64

notewoRthy sPecs

Good to Go
A tough and versatile ILC for out-of-doors and in

SENSOR 16.3MP APS-C-format


X-Trans CMOS II
SENSITIVITY ISO 2006400
(RAW and JPEG); ISO 100 and
12,80051,200 (JPEG only)
AUTOFOCUS TTL contrast and
phase detection with 49 selectable focus areas
SHUTTER 1/400030 sec plus
Bulb in 1/3-EV steps
VIEWFINDER Eye-level 2.36
million-dot 0.5" OLED with 0.77X
magnifcation
BURSTS 8 fps up to 47 shots
(full-size JPEG); 8 fps up to 23
shots (RAW)
LCD Tilting 3-inch TFT LCD with
1.04 million-dot resolution
DIMENSIONS 5.0 x 3.5 x 1.8 in.
WEIGHT 1.0 lb with battery
and memory card
BUY IT $1,300 body only; $1,700
with 1855mm f/2.84 Fujinon XF
R OIS lens; fujiflmusa.com

By PhiliP Ryan

hile Fujiflms X-Series cameras frst won


attention for their retro rangefnder styling, its new X-T1 resembles a diminutive
DSLR. And with its rugged weather-sealed body,
outstanding electronic viewfnder, plethora of dials
and wheels, and extremely high image quality up to
ISO 400, this fagship interchangeable-lens compact
packs DSLR-style capabilities too.
The X-T1 uses the same 16.3-megapixel, APSC-sized X-Trans CMOS sensor that Fujiflm put in
its recent X-E2, but the sensitivity reaches an extra
stop to ISO 51,200a setting hidden in menus and
not evident on the cameras otherwise well-marked
dials. Like its siblings, the X-T1 permits only JPEG
capture, not RAW, at the extremes of sensitivity (in
this case ISO 100 and ISO 12,800 and above).
Our sister magazines report from the Popular
Photography Test Lab rated overall image quality
extremely high through ISO 400, with solid noise
control to that point and only moderate noise at
ISO 800. After this, noise turns unacceptablenot
surprising in a camera this small. Some false-color
aliasing was detected in diagonal line arrays, though
JPEGs from the camera showed little of this effect.
Solid in the hand, the magnesium-alloy body has
a comfortable grip. ISO, shutter speed, drive mode,
metering mode, and exposure compensation all
have dedicated dials; the drive and metering dials
are stacked underneath those for ISO and shutter
speed, respectively, and can be adjusted using a tab.

Theres a PC sync terminal to trigger studio strobes.


The X-T1s new EVF offers a vast improvement.
This 0.5-inch, 2.36 milliondot OLED has 0.77X
magnifcation and an extremely brief display lag
billed as 0.005 second. The image feels enormous,
and users can choose between an immersive full
setting and a smaller normal that pushes most
data outside the image frame. Technical-minded
photographers can even see a histogram while
framing the shot.
Action shooters will enjoy the X-T1s continuous
drive of 8 frames per second for up to 47 JPEGs
(23 in RAW) before the buffer flls; in slower 3 fps
mode, bursts can continue until the memory card is
full. And the EVFs short lag time affords a view of
whats happening during bursts, unusual in ILCs.
Wi-Fi, sensibly, is built in. Fujiflms Camera
Remote app works with iOS and Android devices
for viewing, controls, and capture. users can select
autofocus points and remotely adjust any major
camera setting, including fash mode, white balance, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and exposure
compensation; theres even a battery-level indicator.
Video should be good enough for most casual
shooting: It showed a pleasing amount of detail and
well-saturated colors, but also more artifacts than
we get from other ILCs.
These minor gripes aside, the X-T1 is a wonderful camera with plenty to offer outdoor and indoor
location photographers alike. aP

what looks like a pentaprism housing on top of


the Fujiflm X-t1 actually
houses a big, sharp oLed
electronic viewfnder with a
very fast image-refresh rate.

WorldMags.net
MAy/JunE 2014 AMERICAnPhOTOMAG.COM 61

WorldMags.net

the goods
Serious photographic tools of every size
By the editors of american photo

turBo Video

SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC/SDXC UHS-II When handling


4K video, memory cards feld tons of dataexactly
what this SD card series is built to do. A UHS-II
Speed Class 3, it has a maximum transfer speed of
280MB/s for video. For photos, the speed caps out at
250MB/s. But UHS-II requires a compatible camera,
and so far the only still model to support it is the
Fujiflm X-T1. BUY IT From $75 (16GB); sandisk.com

the s is for speed

Nikon D4s Used frst by a handful of sports shooters at the Sochi Olympics, the latest Nikon fagship
has a new 16.2MP full-frame CMOS sensor with sensitivity expandable to ISO 409,600. Its Expeed 4
processor helps bursts chug along at 11 frames per second for up to 200 JPEGs before the buffer
flls. A slew of smaller upgrades includes a boost in the limit on automatic time-lapse from 999
to 9,999 shots; simultaneous video recording from HDMI and to a memory card; and the addition
of RAW S capture for photojournalists who prize speed over resolution. This generates 12-bit
uncompressed RAW fles at 2464 x 1640 pixels and about half the fle size of a full-sized RAW image.
BUY IT $6,500; nikonusa.com

long ranger

Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD


Thanks to kit lenses, variable-aperture zooms tend
to get a bad rap among high-end shooters. But
as DSLRs low-light performance skyrockets, the
prospect of giving up that f/2.8 number for a lot
more focal range becomes much more appealing.
This 150-600mm lens comes in Canon, Nikon, and
Sony mounts, and is compatible with both fullframe and APS-C sensors. It has built-in vibration
compensation, three low-dispersion elements,
and Tamrons best coatingsat an inspiringly low
price. And you dont need a wheelbarrow just to
lug it around. BUY IT $1,100; tamron-usa.com

62 americanphotomag.com may/June 2014

WorldMags.net

control-freak compact

Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II With a new 12.8MP 1.5inch sensor and its latest Digic 6 processor, Canon
makes low-light performance a priority in its new
fagship compact. Other premium features like RAW
capture, a 3-inch rotating touchscreen, and control
rings around the lens help to keep this model above
the fray as smartphones decimate the low end of
the compact market. BUY IT $800; usa.canon.com

WorldMags.net

Quad racing
Sigma dp2 Quattro The new iteration
of Sigmas fxed-lens compact
line really shakes things upand
not just with the cool design. Each
Quattro (the 45mm-equivalent
dp1, the 28mm dp2, and the 75mm
dp3) has the retooled APS-C-sized
Foveon X3 sensor. It has far more
pixels on the blue layer than on the
green and red, auguring smaller
fle sizes and hopefully faster incamera processing. BUY IT Price to
be announced; sigmaphoto.com

utility player
Olympus OM-D E-M10 For photographers who like the traditional style of Olympuss
OM-D line of Micro Four Thirds ILCs but can forgo the original E-M5s weathersealing, this new entry-level model offers a lot of bang for the buck. The E-M10 has
the same 16.1MP sensor as the E-5 and the faster TruePicVII processor of the much
pricier E-M1. Olympus improved the EVF and 3-inch tilting touchscreen, then added
a pop-up fash that can fre off-camera units, an 81-point autofocus system that
covers the whole image frame, and Wi-Fi that turns a smartphone into a robust
remote controller, geotagger, and photo-sharing device. BUY IT $700 body only,
$800 with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II M.Zuiko R lens; getolympus.com

rolling along
Lowepro Pro Roller AW Shooters with too much gear to lug on their
backs will appreciate this updated case series. Resembling a
typical black rolling suitcase, the Pro Rollers come in three sizes:
The X100 and X200 are small enough to work as carry-ons, while
the massive X300 will need to be checked (or saved for road trips).
The bags interior protection system uses a ballistic nylon shell;
new MaxFit foam dividers should allow for more precise padding.
BUY IT $399 for the X200 (shown); lowepro.com

ultra hd shooter
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 The outside of this new Micro Four Thirds ILC
looks a lot like the GH3, but its guts are built for the rigors of 4K video.
Its 16.05MP Live MOS sensor and revamped Venus processor can
record video at a resolution of 4096 x 2196roughly 24 8.9MP images
per second. BUY IT Price to be announced; shop.panasonic.com
may/June 2014 americanphotomag.com 63
WorldMags.net

Trend

WorldMags.net

Bigger Gets Better


A new crop of medium-format sensors arrives this spring
By Russell HaRt

n the flm era, medium-format photography was considered 35mms clumsy


cousin, trading a bulkier camera and slower
operation for substantial gains in image quality.
That calculus has persisted into the digital age, but
the reasons are more complicated now. Back at the
turn of the millennium, Canons EOS D30 digital
SLR was frst to swap out the trusty, archetypal
CCDthe charge-coupled device that had served
to capture images since the frst video camcordersfor a CMOS image sensor. (That stands for

64 aMERiCanphOTOMag.COM May/junE 2014

No wonder Phase One


shows an action shot in
press images of its new
IQ250 back: It features
a top shutter speed of
1/10,000 sec, depending
on the camera to which
its attached.

complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, if you


care.) almost all digital cameras with image sensors
35mm-sized or smaller have since followed suit, and
for good reason. The gains of CMOSs very different
image-capture technology are considerable.
Medium-format cameras, by contrast, have
clung to their clumsy CCDsuntil late january,
when out came the frst medium-format digital
back to incorporate a CMOS image sensor, the
phase One iQ250. hasselblad tried to claim the
race with a promissory note for the hasselblad

WorldMags.net

I N S P I R AT I O N E D U C AT I O N T E C H N O LO G Y

(c) GREGORY HEISLER 2014

WorldMags.net

AMERICAS MOST COMPREHENSIVE

FINE ART & COMMERCIAL


PORTFOLIO REVIEW

OVER 1200 PORTFOLIO REVIEWS

WORKSHOPS INCLUDE:

WILL YOU BE THERE?

DUANE MICHALS: THE MASTER CLASS


STEVE SCHAPIRO: DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
TODD H IDO : PERSONAL WORK AS FINE ART
FRANK OCKENFELS : THE SIGNATURE PORTRAIT
DAVID MUENCH: DESERT LIGHT: THE COLOR LANDSCAPE
GREGORY HEISLER : ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS
ELENA KALIS: PHOTOGRAPHING MODELS UNDERWATER
GREG GORMAN: THE FINE ART FEMALE & MALE NUDE
STA N L E Y G R E E N E : PH OTOJ OUR NALISM
BRIAN SMITH: STUDIO & LOCATION PORTRAIT LIGHTING
G L E N W E X L E R : M A N U FAC T U R E D R E A L I T I E S
IAN RU HTE R : WE T- PL AT E COLLODION IMAGES
TI M GR I FFITH : ARCHITEC TUR AL PHOTOGR APHY
FLE TCH E R M U R R AY: DSLR V ID EO B O OT C A M P
ART STREIBER : EDITORIAL PHOTO CRASH COURSE
THE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS IN PHOTOGRAPHY
TWENTY IMPORTANT SEMINARS TO CHOOSE FROM

1 - 8 0 0 9 2 8 - 8 314
Palm Springs Photo Festival is presented by

STUDENT DISCOUNTS

E M E R G I N G P H O T O WorldMags.net
GRAPHER SCHOLARSHIPS
RAFFLES

PORTFOLIO REVIEW PRIZE

Trend

WorldMags.net

noteworthy specs

PHASE ONE IQ250


SENSOR 50MP 44x33mm medium-format CMOS
SENSITIVITY ISO 1006400
LCD 3.2-inch 1.15 million-dot touchscreen
BACK MOUNTS Phase One 645DF+ and Mamiya 645DF+;
Hasselblad H1 and H2; Hasselblad 555ELD, 553ELX, 503CW,
and 501CM; Contax 645AF; Mamiya RZ67 Pro IID and RB67
(with an adaptor)
BUY IT $35,000, back only; phaseone.com

3i 1 9 1 4 8 d s l r

Right: Phase One


IQ250 back. Opposite:
Hasselblad H5D-50c.

H5D-50c, which should be available by the


time you read this; Ricoh isnt far behind
with its Pentax 645D 2014. (The year is
part of the name, at least for now.) The
Phase One and Hasselblad reportedly use
the same 50-megapixel Sony-built chip;
specs on the Pentax were yet to come as
of this writing.
That it took so long for CMOS to make its
way into medium format seems inexplicable.
While CMOS sensors were once inferior to
CCDs in their image qualitywhich made
them a nonstarter for quality-driven medium
formatthis hasnt been the case for years.
CMOS chips are also much less powerhungry than CCDs. They allow images to be
captured more quickly and in rapid succession, which in turn produces smooth video.
But the game-changing thing about CMOS
sensors in medium-format cameras, at
least for photographers working outside the
studio, is that they are more effcient than
CCDs at their main assignment, gathering
light. More about this in a minute.
One other beneft, of no small consequence to manufacturers, is that CMOS
chips are cheaper to makeif you make
them fairly small. Theres the rub. Cutting
up a silicon wafer in pieces big enough for
medium-format chips is a dicey business.
And a few bad pixels can ruin an image sensor that is much larger and thus more expensive to manufacture than a 35mm-sized,
or smaller, sensor. You have to throw more
of them away. Given that sales of mediumformat cameras are orders of magnitude
less than those of more compact cameras,
the economies of scale that apply to smaller
sensorswhether in a cellphone or a digital
SLRsimply dont come into play.
Indeed, while CMOS sensors are cheaper
to manufacture, it seems this wont make
an immediate difference in the breathtaking
prices of medium-format digital. The new
Phase One costs $35,000, nearly 12 times the
price of the full-frame Nikon D800, which
at 36MP has only a third fewer pixels. That
doesnt even include the $5,000 or $6,000 for

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

noteworthy specs

HASSELBLAD H5D-50C
SENSOR 50MP 44x33mm medium-format CMOS
SENSITIVITY ISO 1006400
LCD 3-inch 460,320-dot TFT
SHUTTER SPEED 1/800 sec to 12 min
VIEWFINDER OPTIONS HVD 90x (90-degree eye-level with 3.1X
magnifcation); HV 90x (90-degree eye-level with 2.7X magnifcation); HVM (waist-level with 3.2X magnifcation)
BUY IT $27,500, back only; hasselbladusa.com

No power? No problem!
ION Portable Power for Studio Lights

Make remote shots as convenient as


studio work with the new Photogenic ION...
Lithium ION Pure Sine Wave Inverter
Reliable, durable and compact
Compatible with most monolights
Standard USB port
LED Power Monitor
Dual 3-prong AC outlet
Produces over 1000* ashes
and recharges quickly

* Based on performance of 320 WS Monolight per charge

PHOTOGENIC

(800) 682.7668
WorldMags.net

photogenic.com

CHECK OUT
LATEST
REBATES

Image Pete Wright

a medium-format camera body. The Hasselblad H5D-50c is almost as pricey. (We can
hope that the Pentax will be less expensive
given that the current 40MP Pentax 645D
now costs a paltry $7,000.) And whether
for cost-saving reasons or manufacturing
constraints, that price buys you a physically
smaller sensor than traditional medium
format: The Phase One IQ250s CMOS chip
measures 33x44 millimeters, as opposed
to the 40x54mm CCDs of previous Phase
Ones. This sensor crop causes an effective
increase in focal length, just as it does with
the APS-sized chips used in 35mm-style
DSLRs. In the IQ250s case, the focal length
multiplier is 1.3X.
Forgetting those prices for a moment
and hoping that Moores Law drives them
down in a hurryin what ways does a
CMOS sensor really beneft medium-format
photographers? For one thing, it handles
more tasks than a CCD. A CMOS chip
converts the analog electrical information
that comprises a photograph into digital
form (A-to-D) before that data even leaves
the chip, while a CCD must send analog
information to a separate processor for
conversion. And, unlike a CCD, a CMOS
image sensor makes initial autofocus calculations onboard. When it does send data
elsewhere, a CMOS chip has more pathways
along which to dispatch electrons. These
abilities allow a CMOS chip to speed up the
camera, affording a faster framing rate and
nimbler autofocus, much-needed improvements with still-sluggish medium-format
digital. (CMOS, along with ever-faster
image-processing engines, has endowed
smaller cameras with fashy features such
as sweep panorama and in-camera HDR.)
In the Phase One IQ250, the CMOS chip
doubles shooting speed, though at 2 frames
per second rather than the previous 1 fps
or less, photographers probably wont be
shooting sports anytime soon with mediumformat digital.
They will, however, be able to capture
images in much lower light levels without as

Trend

WorldMags.net

Above: Hasselblad H5D-50c

much annoying image noise. While current


CCD-based medium-format digital cameras
give iffy results even at their modest top
sensitivity of iSO 800, the new CMOS models
promise pleasing image quality at that speed
and very acceptable quality at their top
iSO of 6400. photographers will be able to
handhold a medium-format camera where
none has gone beforecapturing unblurred
available-light candids that werent possible
with CCD models. Whats more, CMOS delivers better image quality at longer shutter
speeds, so it should open up new possibilities
with tripod-mounted photography as well.
if the idea of fnally putting CMOS sensors into medium-format digital cameras
is to make them a viable alternative to
high-resolution DSLRs, were not there
yet. The frst of these models, even if they
deliver the expected image quality in lower
light, are still likely to be too sluggish for
photographers accustomed to 35mm-style
DSLRs. just as signifcant, theyre simply
too expensive for all but the most wellendowed shooters (and those who rent or
lease their gear for commercial work). yet
as anyone who has watched digital technology race through the photographic world
should know by now, those hurdles may
yet be cleared. ap

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

AMERICAN PHOTO

SAVE TIME
24 /7

CUSTOMER SERVICE
is only a click away!

Change Your Address


PHOTO
WORKSHOPS
Maine

Check Your Account Status


Renew, Give a Gift or Pay a Bill
Replace Missing Issues

Join Photographer/authors Frank Van Riper and Judith


Goodman for low-key small class, photo workshops in down
east Lubec, Maine. July and August. No entrance
requirements. Come join us in photo paradise.
Go to www.SummerKeys.com or www.GVRphoto.com

Just log on to:

Shoot life on the Bold Coast with the authors of


Serenissima: Venice in Winter (www.veniceinwinter.com)

americanphotomag.com/cs

WorldMags.net

PARTING SHOT

WorldMags.net

Two flm photographers pay tribute to a city and the medium that put it on the map

or their project Memory City, photographers


rebecca norris Webb and her husband
alex Webb traveled to rochester, new
Yorkthe home of eastman Kodak for 125 years
to document the city in the wake of the companys
bankruptcy in 2012 and to pay tribute to their
respective relationships to analog imagery.
Both photographers used Kodak flm for this
project. her husband shot with Kodachrome, his
sole medium for more than 30 years; its oncevibrant color can now be processed only with blackand-white chemistry, giving it a distressed look he
likens to fading memories. norris Webb, who still
uses flm for all her work, used portra, inspired by
an analogy of the medium as a womans specialoccasion outftmemorable, but feeting, worn only
once. i think its the tactile quality that ill miss

70 americanphotomag.com maY/June 2014

Amanda and Her Flower


Dress, by Rebecca Norris
Webb, from her book
Memory City (with Alex
Webb), to be published by
Radius Books in June.

By Jill c. ShomeR

most when i have to eventually switch to digital,


she says. that slip of celluloid thats accompanied
me to every moment ive ever photographed, like a
delicate yet indelible dress.
norris Webbs portraits of rochester women
include the image shown here, of the Webbs
former assistant, amanda Webster. She and
her family refect the citys past and present in
photography: her father and grandfather both
worked for Kodak, and amanda is currently
studying photography at the rochester institute
of technology. norris Webb photographed
her in her grandmothers house in the 14621
neighbohoodknown by its zip code, its one of
the most ethnically diverse in the cityin the
spring of 2012, holding a dress she had worn to
an uncles wedding. AP

WorldMags.net

rebecca norris Webb

ROCHESTER REVERIE

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

One step beyond

SP 150-600mm
F/5-6.3 Di VC USD

Capture clear, sharp images all the


way to 600mm. With advanced optical
technology, Ultrasonic Silent Drive
autofocusing and Vibration Compensation,
our stylish new zoom can take you closer
to the extraordinary.
Model A011
For Canon, Nikon and Sony* mounts
*Sony mount without VC

Hiroto Fukuda

www.tamron-usa.com

WorldMags.net

Focal length 483mm; f/9 at 1/2000 ISO 800

You might also like