“It has become my way of seeing and moving around in the world.”

Name: Johanna Wallin
Hometown: Born in Umeå, Sweden. Live in Tokyo, Japan.
Style of photography: Landscape. I like to take portraits of people, trees, monuments and things that seem forgotten and unseen.
Type of camera(s): Hasselblad (6×6), Mamiya (6×7) and all kinds of polaroid cameras.
Website: www.johannawallin.net

What gives you inspiration?

Long train rides, atlases and maps, reading lots of books, getting lost in just about anything.

What are your influences?

So many, but to mention a few: Wim Wenders, New Topographics, Jack Kerouac, Karin Apollonia Müller and Jan Kempenaers. 

Why did you choose these photos? 

These are four photographs from different places and they belong to different series, but I think together they describe what I am searching for.

What does photography mean to you?

It has become my way of seeing and moving around in the world.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Johanna Wallin

“Photography for me is what LSD did to people in the 70′s…”

Name: Mar Cuervo
Hometown: Vigo, Spain.
Style of photography: Portraiture
Type of camera(s): 35mm, Medium Format, Canon 7D
Website: www.marcuervo.com

What gives you inspiration?

I am usually inspired by my (girl)friends and our conversations; what worries them, what moves them… I very much use the hearing to take pictures, I feel it is a sometimes forgotten sense in photography.

What are your influences?

I love books of anthropology and sociology. I try to understand why we are as we are and try to translate it into images. I like photographers like A. Sander, Olya Ivanova, Lewis Hine, Jooney Woodward, Nadia Sablin, Russell Lee… but generally I must say I find inspiration from different sources such as paintings or sculptures, I adore Louise Bourgeois, Bill Viola or Antony Gormley.

Why did you choose these photos?

I’ve chosen them because it’s been my latest project with an all women community of clam diggers and because I want to pay tribute to the these women who taught me a very important lesson on independence, strength, fight and what I consider an unseen wave of feminism.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography for me is what LSD did to people in the 70′s; a door wide open to experience things and situations that normally you wouldn’t see yourself involved into.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Mar Cuervo

“Photography is a necessary path to understanding.”

Name: Juande Jiménez
Hometown: Málaga, Spain.
Style of photography: Landscape, architectural.
Type of camera(s): 4×5 field camera, Mamiya 7.
Website: www.juandejimenez.com

What gives you inspiration?

Inspiration – if it really exists – can come from anything. I believe the spark of an idea sits inside you for years, waiting to be somehow fueled and explode. Most of those sparks die with us.  

What are your influences?

I love old-fashioned classic architecture photographs, pictures of buildings from the early 1900s. When it comes to landscapes, I generally prefer paintings rather than photographs; framing with a camera is very similar to painting, in my opinion.

Why did you choose these photos? 

They belong to my last project and they represent quite well the type of photography that interests me at this point.

What does photography mean to you?

It is a necessary path to understanding.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Juande Jiménez
 

“I think people are the most significant inspiration…”

Name: Angela Blumen
Hometown: Stockholm has been my hometown for a while; right now I am in Berlin but I will probably be in Copenhagen in a matter of weeks and there to stay!
Style of photography: Analog, color.
Type of camera(s): Nikon (analog), Konica TC and Agfa middle format
Website: http://angelablumen.tumblr.com 
& http://cargocollective.com/angelablumen

What gives you inspiration?

People and shapes and colors. I think people are the most significant inspiration, there are so many amazing lives and thoughts that they carry around and live with!

What are your influences?

The internet, obviously. Since I work a lot on the computer I can’t keep myself away from browsing through all the blogs and websites. Also, once I go traveling I collect a lot of influences from new places.
 I’m very much influenced by light too, it becomes such an important thing once you don’t get enough of it!

Why did you choose these photos?

Because they represent very recent and very favourite works of mine.

What does photography mean to you?

It’s just another way of expression, maybe a more broader one than languages!

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Angela Blumen

“I remember seeing slide shows of Stephen Shore and Eggleston’s work for the first time. My eyes were just lit up. From that day forward I knew that this is what I wanted to do.”

Name: Sean Stewart
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Style of photography: Socially Informed Art Documentary Photography
Type of camera(s): 4×5 view camera, Kodak Portra and Ilford films
Website: www.seanstewartphotography.com

What gives you inspiration?    

Light.

What are your influences?

Early on I was influenced by color photography from the 1970′s. I remember seeing slide shows of Stephen Shore and Eggleston’s work for the first time. My eyes were just lit up. From that day forward I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I am also very much influenced by the flow of imagery on the Internet. Artists whose final product is Internet specific such as a website, or time-sensitive subject matter really fascinate me. I can never bring myself to make work to that effect, but those ideas do get stored somewhere in my brain for later use. I also gather a lot of inspiration from other photographers I know personally, who I can keep close tabs on their day-to-day. Check out Nat Ward, Lois Conner, and more recently Richard Rothman. 

Why did you choose these photos?

These photos are culled from an ever-growing archive of images that don’t quite fit into project form either contextually or by subject matter. They are from a series called Out East that is also on my recently relaunched website. I’ve fallen in love with photographs that occupy this gray area between mistake and ‘useful’ photography. I usually venture out with the intention of making a traditional photograph, either portrait or landscape that’s effective in telling a story or reaching an audience that can understand it. Instead, I often end up with images where the language is broken and the narrative is non-existent. By sequencing these one-offs, or mistakes, together in a series, it creates confusion (not intentionally), and elicits a response that is unlike the expected. For me, photo-journalism has the same problem.  Photography is almost never factual, but it’s there as an aid our understanding of a fact. We all want a well-rounded story or artist statement to explain the motifs, so we walk away happy, post-consumption. Conversely, I want to make images that feel like a splinter deep in your nail-bed, and you can’t find the tweezers anywhere.  

What does photography mean to you?

By the time I figure this out, color negative film won’t be manufactured anymore. 

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Sean Stewart

“Photography means nothing more or less than taking a shower or cutting your fingernails. It has to be done…”

Name: Prins de Vos
Hometown: Den Haag, the Netherlands

Style of photography: Documentary

Type of camera(s): Three different analog compact camera’s

Website: www.prinsdevos.nl

What gives you inspiration?

The idea that everything in the world is so very small and unimportant. It makes me able to focus on things and people that are near by me and give me warmth.

What are your influences?

Okay, a few names: Bertien van Manen, Josef Koudelka, Larry Clark, but also my boyfriend and musicians like Meredith Monk, Kimmo Pojohnen and Björk.

Why did you choose these photo’s?

My first photobook will be out in June this year. The book is about my series Enclose, and I chose these photo’s because they represent Enclose the best.

What does photography mean to you?

For me, photography means nothing more or less than taking a shower or cutting your fingernails. It has to be done, like some sort of necessity, in an abstract way. Afterwards, when you see what has come out, you kind of feel relieved and newborn. Just like after showering.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Prins de Vos

“I love to arrange objects and build a picture step by step.”

Name: Dominik Bönisch
Hometown: Erfurt, Germany.
Style of photography: still life photography
Type of camera(s): Full-frame digital SLR
Website: www.fallenforest.de

What gives you inspiration?

My everyday life is my biggest inspiration. Things I see, people I meet, places I visit, crap I buy and valuables which people throw away. An inspiration can be hidden in every piece – you only have to dig deep enough.

What are your influences?

I skip through many portfolios from international artists and local photographers. Lately I remember most Olivia Locher, Andrew B. Meyers, Csilla Klenyanzski, PutPut and severafrahm. Their body of work is awesome.

Why did you choose these photos?

The photographs I chose are from my new series „the vault“. It is a very personal project, which deals with my former life within my family and the people who influenced me at this time. I reminisce the memories and rebuild them as correct as possible.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography helps me to express myself and show what is on my mind. I love to arrange objects and build a picture step by step. I want to tell stories and affect the viewer.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Dominik Bönisch

“Viewers can build their own narrative, connection, or understanding to the work in a personal way.”

Name: Christine Morris
Hometown: Missoula, Montana (USA)
Style of photography: Unknown
Type of camera(s): Hasselblad
Website: www.ckmorris.com

What gives you inspiration? 

I am inspired by the beauty, complexity, and wonder of the Northern Rockies landscape. And by the people here I love and know. Their imagination, humor, and recklessness drives my desire to reflect the way in which they contain the elements of the wildness around us. The nature of this place where I photograph expands the definition of western reality. Because the environment is wild and so much is unknown or untameable, the possibilities for what can happen in a general sense increase. I am inspired by the stories we tell here. 

What are your influences?

Artists and scientists in a variety of disciplines influence my photography . The magical realism of Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and David Lynch help contextualize my vision and provide a framework for understanding the direction of my projects. Maya Deren, Wade Davis and Richard K. Nelson’s anthropological studies direct my inspiration and affirm a wonder in abilities beyond the realm of science. Photographically, I am drawn to the depiction of the supernatural by Victorian occult photographers and Francesca Woodman.  Graciella Iturbide, Nan Goldin, Rinko Kawauchi, Alec Soth, and Ron Jude also have provided me with powerful material to learn from and appreciate as I refine my own photographic eye.
 
Why did you choose these photos? 

I selected these four from my current project, Cult of the Dreamers. I began this work after returning to Montana from a four year absence. I wanted to explore the marks of the landscape written within the culture and consciousness of the people. The project is composed of three elements: portraits, landscapes, and mystical images. The people within the environment are the backbone and impetus of this project and four of these portraits are represented here.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography for me is a way to convey emotions and ideas that contain more depth and insight than what I could articulate in any other way. I could explain that we are shaped by our surroundings and give accounts of magical occurrences but a photograph can illuminate this intrinsically. Viewers can build their own narrative, connection, or understanding to the work in a personal way. I photograph because it is a way for me to create my own magic. As I see and photograph, time slows down, colors pick themselves out and intensify, and a moment is transformed. It is an incredible feeling to view the world in such vibrancy.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Christine Morris

“These four pictures are part of a new project called “Grüß Gott – a fairy tale” I have finished lately.”

Name: Florian Reischauer
Hometown: Born in Austria, living in Berlin since 2007
Style of photography: Story teller
Type of camera(s): 6×6
Website: florianreischauer.com

What gives you inspiration?

Mostly my surroundings: friends, the city I am living.

What are your influences?

I am influenced by great photographers like Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Richard Avedon, Alec Soth or Stefanie Schneider.

Why did you choose these photos?

These four pictures are part of a new project called “Grüß Gott – a fairy tale” I have finished lately. It was shot at the rural village I am actually coming from and is about fading memories, traditions, perennial cycles and things changing or not.

What does photography mean to you?

I like the fact that photography is a tool you can use to create realities in a new way, or to show the beautiful of the banality of our every day life.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Florian Reischauer

Interview Charles Bouchaib

Photography is a possession, a distortion of time and, sometimes, a strict emotion.

Interview Richard Gilligan

Photography for me is like a sponge that absorbs all the excess energy from my mind.

Interview Barnaby Kent

Photography for me is remembering and interpreting the bits and pieces around me…

Interview Lloyd Stubber

Photography for me is a way of telling stories.

Interview Vincent Bezuidenhout

“I revel in the fact that the medium of photography is such a contradiction.”

Interview Peter Hoffman

“The need to create is a survival mechanism…”

Interview Jennifer Timmer Trail

“From a deep connection to how things make me feel, I challenge myself to [re]create that feeling in a photograph.”

Interview Jamie Campbell

“Photography is great fun.”

Interview Anthony Georgis

“Photography for me is the chance to tell a story in a single image.”

Interview Elise Windsor

“I have always been interested in the physical things that are needed to create an image: camera, film, chemicals, paper and light.”