Name: Ron Pruitt
Hometown: Everyone is always in a hurry Los Angeles, California
Style of photography: Not sure, but it could be in the Documentary family if you have to classify it.
Type of camera(s): I mainly shot with my 35mm cannon Elan 7 or if I’m broke my 40d. My favorite camera would be my Hasselblad 500cm but it’s currently broken.
Website: www.ronpruittphoto.com

What gives you inspiration?

Inspiration can come in any form and at any moment. Lately it’s the world outside as I drive by every morning.

What are your influences?

I’m influenced by music, smells, weather, friends, family, my fiancée, creative people, my upbringing, a good story and all the talented photographers in this world.

Why did you choose these photos?

I chose these photographs because I feel they best represent my work and esthetic. I love the emotion of black and white and have a love/hate relationship with color.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography is my whole life, yet I find it can be a curse rather a blessing. Without it, I would be lost. Being on the other side of the lens is comforting and it’s a good excuse for being transparent.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Ron Pruitt

Name: Alexandra Wolkowicz
Hometown: Liverpool, UK
Style of photography: Fine art, documentary
Type of camera(s): Nikon D300, D700, Pentax 6×7, Leica D-Lux
Website: www.studiowolkowicz.com & www.wolkowicz.com

What gives you inspiration?

I get inspiration from escaping the everyday. Travel and new experiences help me gain new perspectives on life. I feel intrigued by mysterious objects, unfamiliar situations and haunting atmospheres… I look at nature, people and at myself to find themes worth exploring. I also feel inspired by other people and like to work collaboratively.

What are your influences?

My work is influenced by my early experiences of growing up in Germany with family roots in Poland. I remember hours spent in the car travelling between the countries. The transient quality of that time and a sense of otherness are intrinsic to me and characterize my work.
Another important influence was my experience of theatre. As a teenager I began working in a theatre and became mesmerized by that world. The immersive nature of performance and the power of ambiences created through light and sound have left a lasting impression on me. I try to create work that I can get lost in.

Why did you choose these photos?

I chose two photos from two recent projects that touch on the themes mentioned above.
‘Birds’ ear view’ is a collaborative project about bird and building collisions in NYC.
‘Time windows’ is a more personal project about my childhood and an attempt to grasp the passing of time.

BIRDS EAR VIEW

This series of photographs was taken in November 2009 while my father was moving out of his flat in Weilbergstr. 1 where I grew up. Whilst helping to pack I looked again at old photographs and began to map the past with the present. I became the viewer and the viewed.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography helps me to go through life with a more open mind. It allows me to see the world and my place within it.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Alexandra Wolkowicz

Name: Robin Jonsson
Hometown: Gothenburg, Sweden
Style of photography: Snapshot & Fashion
Type of camera(s): Yashica T4, Yashica Electro 35, and I have a Canon 5D that I despise.
Website:www.robinjonsson.com

What gives you inspiration?

Often times it’s my dark sense of humor, something I share with very few people. Me and my camera can be mean at times. Also, I’m easily bored. I want everything to be an adventure, which I think shows in both my personal series and my fashion images.

What are your influences?

At the moment, I’m mainly influenced by random photographers that I find online, on websites such as this one. Also, I love Ellliot Erwitt’s photos, they are a big source of inspiration for me. Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Air, Roy Anderson, David Bowie, and Karin Dreijer Anderson are worth mentioning, too.

Why did you choose these photos?

It’s really hard choosing four favorites among your own pictures, but each of these represent a very specific memory to me. I took them at times when it felt really good to be me.

What does photography mean to you?

I might have to grow up one day, so I’m collecting proof of the fact that life used to be fun.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Robin Jonsson

Download a free ILOVETHATPHOTO Background of Robin Jonsson here!

Name: Jacqueline McCullough
Hometown: South Shields, North East England, but I live in Brighton and hope to retire to Paris.
Style of photography: Social commentary
Type of camera(s): Mamiya RZ67
Website: www.jacquelinemccullough.com

What gives you inspiration?

I’m inspired most by friends, family, those that are close to me. I tend to be surrounded by creative people by choice or chance I’m not sure. Real lives, real people inspire me.

What are your influences?

As the daughter of a foster carer, my background influences my work. Growing up with such a large and ever changing family, inspired and broke my heart in equal measures. My Grandma and mum would be my top influences.

Why did you choose these photos?

These images are from a series called So Much Past, where I photographed those involved in some way with foster care. I’m interested in fostering and adoption as topic to explore with photography and I feel these photographs best represent the direction of my work.

What does photography mean to you?

It gives me a voice that I don’t have with words. It allows me to tell stories.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Jacqueline McCullough

Name: Cécilia Jauniau
Hometown: Paris. I was born in Dijon (France). My mother and my grand mother was born in Tunisia. My family is French, Italian and Greek. I grew up successively between my mother and my father.
Style of photography: I can’t answer that question. Romantic?
Type of camera(s): Nikon D700, Minolta X700, Leica C-Lux.
Website:www.ceciliajauniau.com

What gives you inspiration?

My desires.

What are your influences?

Artists who exhibit their intimity or the intimity of others. For example: Jan Saudeck, Nan Goldin (The
ballad of sexual dependency), Diane Arbus, Alexandre Rodtchenko (the portrait of Mayakovsky), John
Cassavetes (movies with his wife Gena Rowland), Larry Clark, Susan Meiselas (Carnival Strippers, Writers) also Jean Genet, Alberto Moravia and Marguerite Duras.

The detail of the composition, its mystery or its tension make the picture!

Why did you choose these photos?

To show the beginning of the story of my life and my work. The familiar environment and the atmosphere where I grew up. Series of still life which inaugurate a style of composing and the idea of the confrontation between a natural world and an artificial world (as opposition between human instinct and formalism). Now, I do more photographical portraits and abstract or figurative drawings of women.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography is the way to read the insides of life. I try to capture the individuality of my models through my portraits and to show my own obsessions.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Cecilia Jauniau

Name: Vins Baratta
Hometown: Milan, Italy
Style of photography: Portraits from a private diary
Type of camera(s): Nikon F100, Minolta Dinax, Olympus XA.
Website: www.vinsbaratta.com

What gives you inspiration?

I get inspired by people I take picture of, from the colors of their souls; I get easily surprised by their view on the world.

What are your influences?

The rational ones are: Amira Fritz, Andrea Galvani, Ryan Mc Ginley, Stacey Mark, Kid A, Motohiko Odani, Ernesto Neto. But I’m also inspired by Douglas Gordon and Paul McCarthy’s nightmares.

Why did you choose these photos?

At the moment they faithfully express my search path.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography is a fusion between my dreams and those made by the people portraited.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Vins Baratta

Name: Sophie Eekman
Hometown: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Style of photography: Human, personal, casual
Type of camera(s): All digital: Canon s90, Canon 400D, Sigma DP1.
Website: www.fotohotel.com

What gives you inspiration?

My everyday life. The people. sunlight, shadows and colours around me.

What are your influences?

I love looking at work from other photographers as Helen Levitt, Walker Evans or Joe Toreno. And I also like browsing in Flickr.

Why did you choose these photos?

It’s always hard to dive in the archive and come up with your best. These I like a lot because the people in them are dear to me or the situation was special, as last winter in Holland. I also like that they reflect different moods and are very different from each other.

What does photography mean to you?

It’s some kind of magic every time: you go out and all these photos are there somewhere. I just love to find them.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Sophie Eekman

Name: Natascha Libbert
Hometown: The Hague, The Netherlands
Style of photography: Autonomous/documentary
Type of camera(s): Hasselblad
Website: www.nataschalibbert.nl

What gives you inspiration?

The thought behind the intended and unintended.

What are your influences?

Alternatively photographers, artists, thoughts, essays.

Why did you choose these photos?

They give an indication of my work over the past 2 years.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography gives purpose to questions I have. If I would not photograph, I would have to study something like sociology. Or something else to answer questions.
Something which explains how the arrangements and codes we consider normal, came to be that way.
Somehow when I photograph something, the complexities fall into a grid. This is what I have in common with the things I photograph. They are the result of dealing with the world and its information.
I want to increase the amount of information I portray in my images and use this to question this idealized still life which I find in the cultivated world around me.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Natascha Libbert

Name: Cyrille Weiner
Hometown: Paris, France, where I am born and still live and work.
Style of photography: Poetic documentary?
Type of camera(s): I use Arca Swiss 4×5 inch view camera, Mamiya 7 and canon 1DSII. I also have a Contax T3 I use for personal diary pictures.
Website: www.cyrilleweiner.com

What gives you inspiration?

I am in a search for places - architectural, urban or natural - where I have a strong feeling of freedom, and where I can find people who make these places their own . Then I explore a kind of mental space, the intimate mood and feelings of people and mine in there. I find most places are too much planned and organized for collective uses. So I am in a search for an escape and alternative relationships between people and their surroundings. Norma and utopia are the keys of my research.

What are your influences?

My formal influences are in classical painting. Cinematography also when dealing with the way I edit pictures to build up sequences. The way I picture people in environments is also quite theatrical. Like actors on stage. I give a very deep attention to colors. Some of my favorite photographers are William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Philip Lorca di Corcia, Stephen Shore, Patrick Faigenbaum, Christophe Bourguedieu, Sophie Ristelhueber…
I have a blog called Silverpoetics. It started in 2007. I define it as ” a photographic journey inside the disturbing paths between reality, fiction and poetry.” It is a record of things I like.
http://silverpoetics.wordpress.com/

Why did you choose these photos?

It’s hard to say… I first thought of choosing pictures from a unique project. I finally decided to choose from different ones, like extract of different journeys. It’s an invitation to see more.

What does photography mean to you?

Its an intimate, sensual and sensitive relationship with the world and people. I can’t leave without making pictures. I mean the process of looking which is a way of being. I also walk a lot, especially when previewing locations. Walking is a very important part of my process. It’s a time that generates fiction and imaginary, while being on the concrete field.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Cyrille Weiner

Name: Barrett Emke
Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri, but currently Lawrence, Kansas
Style of photography: I’m not sure yet!
Type of camera(s): Minolta Maxxum 7000, Pentax Spotmatic, Pentax K1000, Yashica T4, Canon G10, etc.
Website: http://barrettemke.chompwomp.com

What gives you inspiration?

So many very different things. Looking, music, people, places, things, ideas. The other day I was reading an article for a class that made a connection between photography and metaphysics, in that the eye sees something and, along with the brain and the various senses, interprets and contextualizes vision into a unique experience. This idea that a photograph can be as visceral as any sort of memory is very fascinating to me.

What are your influences?

Again, so many. In terms of photographers, Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Eugene Atget, Nan Goldin, Diane Arbus, Cartier-Bresson… David Benjamin Sherry has been a huge influence since I discovered his work a couple of years ago. Lately, the films of Werner Herzog, especially Nosferatu.

Why did you choose these photos?

It was challenging for me to put together just a few photographs that work well together. I feel that these photos have a natural dialogue between them.

What does photography mean to you?

“When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.” - Robert Frank

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Barrett Emke