JONATHAN CHERRY: What has inspired you over the last week and why?

BENJAMIN LOTAN: I just moved into a new office+studio for a residency at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) in San Diego, and getting set up in a fresh space feels truly fantastic. Being here, I’m occupying a node at the intersection of art, academia, and the hi-tech industry. Through the next six months I will be working to understand the way these institutions encroach on each other.

JC: Have you made any new friends recently?

BL: Daniel Rehn has a studio just across the hall from me, we’ve found that our work has a lot of overlapping themes and we are getting along well. He’s the founder of LA GameSpace and is currently starting an art/design practice with his partner Sarah Caluag. We are beginning to collaborate on a new video project called Spchless. The main website is coming soon, but you can see our first video (starring Barack Obama) here.

JC: Would you give some background on the project ‘Recruit’ and how you came up with the idea?

BL: Recruit came out of my frustration with the wars we are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s not that I am necessarily opposed to the wars, but I feel so distant and it seems impossible for any of us to get a clear picture of what’s actually going on. I continually find that the media coverage is extremely poor, often biased, and difficult to fathom.

As a citizen as well as an artist, I began to think of ways I could engage with the military directly. I seriously considered joining the army as a kind of three year performance piece. Ultimately, the recruiting process itself was very fascinating, and I began to document the relationship I was forming with my recruiter. Though it became clear that joining was not the answer to my frustration, I was able to create and capture some new knowledge, which made the performance a success.

The climax of the project came when, in a private meeting recorded with a hidden microphone, I expressed confusion about my sexual orientation to my recruiter. As I opened up, I become an individual, and he in turn opened up to me. His response exposes the fragile and ethically complex reality recruiters are placed in, as top-down pressures urge them to sign more and more people up for military duty.

JC: Do you think that you will continue to bridge gaps between performance art and photography in the future?

BL: Yes, definitely. What’s compelling about performance is that it provides a framework to transform routine actions into the medium of an art work. For me, the simple act of reframing my experience as performance becomes a point of departure for a deep investigation of my surroundings. I believe that such an approach will become increasingly relevant as the crises of our times continue to develop.

JC: How do you plan to exhibit your new project ‘The Happy Light’?

BL: It really depends what kind of opportunities come my way. Right now I’m working with an editor to pull together a series of fragmented essays based on my experiences in Jerusalem. In Recruit, I mention a single moment that gave meaning to and framed the whole project, but with The Happy Light, there was so much more at play.

I found that one cannot travel to Jerusalem to study religion as a discrete subject. Perhaps there more than anywhere else, religious beliefs and practices are intertwined with social, political, and geographical conflict. In response to this awareness, the scope of the project became infinitely wide. In an exhibition of any kind, I imagine inundating the audience with all kinds of media and doing my best to detonate the fragile discourse that surrounds that region.

I have a lot of material to work with from the project, and what I have up on my website is only a starting point.

JC: What is next in the pipe line for you?

BL: Here at Calit2, I’m organizing an Internet video festival to bring together a diverse cross section of the best video content made specifically for the web. Ideally, we’ll open up a rich dialogue around the growing abundance of fantastic content.

For all the tumblr bloggers reading, I’ve got a project in the works that will allow you to put two photoblogs up against each other for a head-to-head battle. Keep an eye on my screening tumblog for more on that project and others coming real soon.

JC: What are you excited about for the year of 2010?

BL: I’ll be working with Teddy Cruz soon; he’s been one of my heros for some time, so that’s very exciting for me. The way he brings architecture, design, and social programming into an institutionally sanctioned artistic practice is inspiring, to say the least.

This decade I’m looking forward to seeing the art world and the public at large move towards more political and operational understandings of artistic practice. There is a great quote at the end of Holland Cotter’s New York Times piece on the past decade in art:

“In the real world the news of the decade was 9/11, two awful wars, staggering corporate greed and the election of an African-American president. In the art world a big event was Mr. Koons showing his sculptures at Versailles. In short, life passed art by. Maybe in the new decade they’ll meet.”

JONATHAN CHERRY: What was the last thing to really inspire you and why?

TOUFIC BEYHUM: Nearly everyday something inspires me but the last big inspiration for me was the Don McCullin photo exhibition in Berlin a few months back.

JC: What equipment did you use for the Swakopmund project?

TB: I used a Hasselblad 500 that a good friend of mine gave me last summer, for me the Hasselblad was the perfect camera for a place like Swakopmund, nice and slow.

JC: What is Swakopmund all about?

TB: This town is quite a strange one, its on the coast of Namibia, Wikipedia will tell you all about it. But in a nutshell its an ex German colony and It was founded in 1892. It was the main harbour for German South West-Africa. The town is surrounded by some of the biggest sand dunes in the world and there are also lots of Uranium mines dotted all over the place. Now a days its a very popular holiday destination for South Africans and Germans during Christmas time, the rest of the year its dead. The architecture is German, the streets are pristine and the people are very strange. David Lynch would have a field day here.

JC: In your own opinion what makes a successful portrait?

TB: For me a successful portrait is being able to tell the personality & even history of that person in one image. Portraits for me have to be spur of the moment, not all dressed up with make up and studio lights.

JC: What is next in the pipe line for you photographically?

TB: Im off to Petra, Jordan in mid April to photograph the Bedouins who live and work with tourists. Myself and a writer (Carl Gough) will be living with the Bedouins for about 3 months. We will document their everyday lives with still photos (Im taking 3 cameras with me, Hasselblad 500, Leica R4 and my Fuji GA645), words and we are even filming a small documentary. We are trying to get as much sponsorship as possible as this is a self funded project and as you know, film, processing and traveling dont come cheap. Have a look at the blog we started for it.

JC: Are you excited about 2010?

TB: 2009 was emotionally the hardest year of my life so I am definitely looking forward to this year.

JC: Have you got any other thoughts?

TB: I have plenty but I dont think it would fit on your web-page, besides, most of it is either weird or rubbish.

JC: Favourite meal at the moment?

TB: Im loving my lental soup.

JONATHAN CHERRY: Has there been something significant that has inspired you over the last 14 days?

CHRISTOPHER SIMS: I’ve been far too obsessed with some Neil Young bootleg records from the mid 1970s this week. I think it has something to do with the time of year, the winter Olympics in Canada, and Neil’s spectral appearance on the final broadcast of Conan O’Brien’s show last month.

JC: What was the last photography book you flicked through?

CS: BazanCuba, by Ernesto Bazan. Ernesto came and spoke last week to classes at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, where I work. I first saw his work over a decade ago and have seen it in various iterations over the years. To see it all collected together I felt again what an achievement it was, and how impressed I was he was able to keep his project going for so long.

JC: Why did you choose to make a body of work at Guantanamo Bay?

CS: Like many people, I first heard about the prison in Guantanamo Bay in January 2002, though I had always been curious about the U.S. Naval Station there. I didn’t really pursue it as a project for a couple more years, but I wondered about who was making photographs of that place - or even if it was possible to make photographs there. In the end it took about two and a half years of writing letters, and figuring out whom to contact in order to gain access. While waiting to hear back, I thought a lot about the project. There were some images that were coming out of Guantanamo, but they all looked pretty similar. You would see photographs of the prisoners, but you wouldn’t see their faces. You would see fences, and barbed wire, but you didn’t really see the place - I didn’t have a sense of what the place really looked like. I became interested in the idea of making war photographs that didn’t seem like war photographs - images that weren’t about seeing violence, or spectacle, or the things that make people turn away from most war photographs. I began thinking that maybe the thing to do was to try to make a type of war photograph that captured something else. I knew that there was the odd fact that it’s a U.S. military base located on a communist island, but the history of the base got even more fascinating the more I researched. It served as a way station for Haitian refugees in the 1990s. There are Jamaican and Filipino guest workers there now. There’s even a McDonald’s on the base. The question of what the place looked like became more and more intriguing. So, when I went it was not with the intent of excluding photos of the prison, or people, but to photograph beyond that too; to photograph the daily life of what it’s like to be there. I wondered what the life of a spouse of a military officer based there looked like, where a janitor would do his or her work, and where people would go after hours. And I wondered if there were details in those places that would somehow reveal something about ourselves, or about the war. Conceptually, I also came to think of the work as an archive; I was filling in the gaps of an archive that didn’t yet exist.

JC: What do you feel you learnt from your experience there?

CS: I was really struck by the landscape and the structures in Guantanamo Bay.It’s more ramshackle and improvised than you might think. It feels very isolated, and it also feels a little like you’re on a frontier. It feels like people are kind of improvising, and making do with the resources that they have. I had just assumed the whole place would be relatively state-of-the-art. A large part of Camp Delta is trailers. I think that’s not an image that comes to people’s minds when they think of the detention center there. Also, it can feel kind of lonely, even for a visitor such as myself. I think the base is about 45 square miles, but there are just a few pockets where people are.

JC: Was it hard to get access to photograph for ‘Theater of War’?

CS: I would say that it was hard in the sense that it requires a lot of patience while my requests to photograph on military bases went through the many layers of approval that are required. In an odd twist, many of the offices I was communicating with seemingly didn’t have answering machines, so I’d often have a long list of phone numbers that might have worked sometime in the past, and I’d just start down the list hoping to reach someone who knew on what desk my request might be.

But I would say the flip side to this is that, in time, you’d get a straightforward answer about whether or not you had received permission. And when the permission was granted, the public affairs offices were generally very helpful in setting up the arrangements - more than I think the average person might expect they’d be.

JC: What equipment do you use?

CS: I chiefly use a Hasselblad 503cw nowadays.

In Guantanamo Bay I used a Canon SLR digital camera - among the rules established there for photographers is that you have to use a digital camera, as they have censors who review your photographs before you leave the base. There weren’t such restrictions for Theater of War.

JC: What are your photographic plans for 2010?

CS: This spring I’m concentrating on preparing for a couple of exhibits forTheater of War: The Pretend Villages of Iraq and Afghanistan - at SF Camerawork, FotoFest in Houston, and at the SRO Gallery at Texas Tech in Lubbock. I also have a large stack of negatives to go through, which is a priority. Lastly, I’m looking forward to making new photographs over the summer, but I’m not sure exactly what direction I’ll be going in quite yet.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What were the last two memorable things to really inspire you?

JONATHAN BLAUSTEIN: Last Friday, some friends and I drove out to Tucson, Arizona to see the reconstructed “New Topographics” show at the Center for Creative Photography. I spent a good chunk of time looking at Robert Adams’s photographs from Colorado. He had a way of evoking beauty and wonder within the anti-aesthetic that I’ve been thinking about all week. And I listened to Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” three times through the other day. Same thing. Bleak beauty … criticality mixed with appreciation and respect.

JC: What was the last photographic book you picked up?

JB: Well, this morning I picked up Robert Adams “California,” but I think I read your email first, so that doesn’t count. In Tucson, a friend showed me a softcover book by a Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe, of whom I’d not heard before. Very striking black and white images, just the littlest bit surreal. I’ve been very influenced by Haruki Murakami’s fiction, and these images seemed to share that sense of otherworldliness embedded within reality.

JC: What is The Edge of Empire all about?

JB: I’m interested in understanding how life in the 21^st Century is different from what has come before. To me, the impact of Globalization and the communication technology revolution is where the story begins. So this project, which is ongoing, is my attempt to understand the world by looking at a place that has been the fringe of two major Empires in the last four centuries. Life is not easy, and survival is a day-to-day concern. The Valley used to have the benefit of not knowing what they didn’t have, and that is no longer possible. But natural beauty is ever-present, and that’s something I’m trying to grapple with.

JC: What is the above (first) photo all about?

JB: Whenever I’m in Antonito, I go and visit these two guys Roger and Tony, who hang out in a vintage store they opened last year. They know everyone in town, so there are always folks around. Last time I was there, Eugene was chatting, sharing coffee and cake, and when I asked if I could take someone’s portrait, they all said Eugene would do it. So he was already comfortable with me b/c I knew his friends. I took him to the front of the store to grab the window light, and so that the entire place would be the backdrop. I asked him what he did so that I could have a little context for the title, and he said out-of-work mechanic. Then he said, oh yeah, I used to be Mayor too. He’s thinking of running again.

JC: In your opinion what makes a successful portrait?

JB: I think a good portrait endeavors to tell a little truth about the sitter and a little truth about the photographer. Obviously, we all know there are limits to how much any one image can convey about the subject.  I’m attracted to intensity in the image, and sharpness helps as well. Often, the expression in the eyes can suggest ambiguity, which I like. Though of course someone like Amy Elkins, who has her subjects looking elsewhere, does a great job too.

JC: Do you find making portraits an easy or hard process?

JB: When I’m getting paid, (which is rarely) it’s hard. For my art practice, I find it easy. I try not to photograph someone unless I know them already, like Mel the butcher, or at least have them trust me a bit, like with Eugene. I got a good tip from the old school Santa Fe photographer Norman Mauskopf, who suggested that once the light and scene are set and the camera is up, wait two extra seconds. It creates a sense of discomfort, and it works well for me.

JC: What is next for you photographically?

JB: I’m planning to focus on this project for several more years. I’m working my way North in a huge Valley, and want to make a series of different image strands that interconnect. The first set of images glosses over the landscape, which is beyond photogenic. So I’ve got to figure out how to deal with the landscape in a way that is somewhat original. Quite a lot of work ahead of me.

JC: Whats in store for 2010?

JB: Well, I’m fortunate that I’m going to be able to exhibit some of the photographs from “The Edge of Empire,” this June at my gallery in Santa Fe, Zane Bennett. They’ll be up during Review Santa Fe, the major portfolio review event, so they’ll be seen by a pretty important audience. Beyond that, I want to make as much new work as possible, and perhaps hit an art fair or two.

JC: Any other thoughts?

JB: Well, first off, thanks for this. Writing always helps me gather my thoughts.  Secondly, I think that the “Inter-verse” allows us the opportunity to interact within a Global community. Having an audience for one’s work ought to be the goal of every artist with opinions, and I relish the opportunity to share my photographs with people around the world.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What has inspired you over the last seven days?

LI WEI: I was impressed by Ailing Zhang’s fiction Xiao Tuan Yuan.

JC: What was the last photography book that you had a flick through?

LW: Magnum photographer Larry Towell, The World From My Front Porch.

JC: Briefly explain the ideas surrounding your project ‘the Earth’?

LW: Inner Mongolia is my hometown. This project ‘The Earth’ is about the cultural change of Inner Mongolia in China today, is about Mongolian ethnic minority.

JC: Did your project ‘The Earth’ develop over time? If so, how?

LW: I started from 2008, now has completed more than half. I still need to cover more of the Inner Mongolia region.

JC: In your opinion what makes a successful portrait?

LW: An excellent portrait should reveal one’s  inner heart.

JC: What is the above (first) image all about?

LW: This image title is Nasong in Aili teahouse. In the winter of 2008, Inner Mongolia in China, A Mongolian herdsman named Nasong, dressed in Mongolian robe, ready to participate in the traditional Nadam Fair. Then I took this picture in this small restaurant.

JC: What has 2010 got in store for you photographically?

LW: In 2010, I will continue my project “The Earth”.

JC: Any other thoughts?

LW: Nothing yet.

JONATHAN CHERRY: Has anything really inspired you over the last seven days if so, why?

BEN HUFF: The dark winters in Alaska can be difficult for a photographer. By January I start to question the reality in colors and light. The light this time of year is magical, as we are gaining eight minutes of light every day now. I find impossible to put into words the feeling that swells as the light comes back.

Also, I’m in the Midwest right now, and I’m really moved by the landscape. I haven’t lived here, my birthplace, in over fifteen years. As I ‘ve gotten older, and habitually moved further and further from home, I’ve realized how deep my roots are here. I have a constant nagging to come back and make photographs.

JC: What were the initial ideas behind ‘The Last Road North’?

BH: Initially, and even now, for me, the work is about driving. It’s about being out there.  It sounds simplistic, but as the project has evolved, I’ve tried to retain that simplicity. The photographs themselves hold complexities, and the eventual edit will have layers of dichotomies and truth, themes and lies, but the heart of my experience is about driving and finding the next person, the next vantage point. Each of these experiences will, hopefully, culminate in a rich body of work. For now, I drive.

JC: Has the project developed since starting?

BH: I think the project has developed as I’ve developed. It sounds corny, but, somewhere up on that road I became a photographer. Early on I had the benefit of being awarded a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation that afforded me great liberty to make mistakes. That funding, along with the early decision to restart the work in a new format that I had no experience in informed much of where I am now. I try to keep with me that initial urgency, and fear, of not knowing what the hell I am doing and having the backing to do it anyway.

JC: What was the last photography book you picked up?

BH: Infinite Ice, The Arctic and the Alps from 1860 to Present. Last summer I had planned to get back to a few glaciers off the Richardson Highway, but failed to devote the time. This year I will make it a priority. I’ve been going over historical photos of Alaskan glaciers for a few months for context and inspiration. Although I just got my hands on it, it looks to be a good resource as well.

JC: Whats in store for 2010 photographically?

BH: Simply, to make more photographs. I am currently in an exhibition called America Now at the Montserrat Gallery that I am insanely proud of. I couldn’t ask for a better way to start the year. When I was preparing for the show this fall I made the decision to step back and spend the rest of the year concentrating on making new work.  I’m beginning to see very clearly where The Last Road North is headed. I have my next long trip planned in April, where I will start, again, to fill in the gaps.

JC: Any advice to recent photography graduates?

BH: That question is a difficult one. I’m self taught, and recently, actually, went back to get my MFA from University of Alaska Fairbanks. I don’t know that I’m qualified to answer such a question. I will say, though, that I’ve learned over the past three years  that none of this would be sustainable if I wasn’t absolutely invested in the photographs that I am making,  and love the place where I am making them. This must trump everything else. Photography is hard work - the future would be grim if I did not love the subjects I’ve chosen.

JC: Any other thoughts?

BH: I have to say that I’m excited about the future of the medium. I know that things are in the tank in many facets of the industry, but I’m inspired by what is growing from the rubble. With every small time publisher, cooperative, and intelligent online effort that makes a strong play, I feel confident that photography has something to offer.

JONATHAN CHERRY: Has anything really inspired you over the last 2 weeks … if so why?

JEREMY EDWARDS: Boredom inspires me to get up, go somewhere, and take pictures. With regards to content, I’m greatly inspired by the diversity of the city and the faces of complete strangers. Most recently, I’ve fallen in love with my experiment with street photography. And over the last few weeks, my project has somehow gained a little attention from the art community, so when people say, “I like it” - that inspires me, too. Other inspirations: unkept beards, people who walk with limps, animated facial expressions, bad lighting, empty public spaces, good lighting, the elderly, and suspicious characters.

JC:What was the last photographic book you picked up?

JE: I usually don’t pick up photography books because I don’t spend much time in libraries or bookstores anymore. Although, I was in a store recently, and picked up a few photobooks to pass the time. From what I can remember, there was one book about 1930s Chicago and gangsters, one about street photography in the Pilsen neighbourhood in the early 1990s by Paul D’Amato, and the Jazz Loft Project.

JC: What is the project AZ all about?

JE: I went to Arizona to spend time with friends during the holidays and I took pictures of what was beside, in front, behind, or above me. This is probably where the FTP project really took off artistically.

JC: What is the above (first) image all about?

JE: The Hoyt family visits a cemetery in West Mesa each year during the holidays to pay tribute to their grandparents, and two uncles who died tragically in a car accident many years ago. From what I know of them, they were incredible people who still today inspire and motivate the family to love and appreciate each other. In this image, two brothers were standing at the car talking about how they used to visit the cemetery as little boys, and chase each around the grounds dodging headstones. If you look in the background you’ll notice a headstone. This moment for me demonstrated a unique form of intimacy between two brothers. Casually standing at the car, yet their hands were close enough to illustrate how close they felt as brothers. One of my favorites.

JC: You seem to be a photographer that holds personal experience and photography hand in hand … is this correct and if so, how do you go about making images in this way?

JE: I think you’re right. But, I don’t believe that makes me any different than other photographers. Just like most hipsters with cameras, I also have a deep artistic appreciation of the ordinary and mundane. Everyone can relate to this. I feel that our obsession with production, progress, and aesthetics has trained our eyes to ignore the beauty in the ordinary. And, as much as I want to believe my life is full of vigor and vibrancy, it’s mostly boring, plain, and challenging. Taking pictures of these sorts of moments help me cope and work towards a sense of contentment with my life as it is.

JC: What has 2010 got in store for you photographically?

JE: I’m releasing FROM THE POCKET: Book One this Spring. It will feature the best of the FTP project to date. I intend to release Book Two as the project continues to grow throughout the year. I hope to better the project artistically and attract some of the influential actors of the art community. I want to exhibit some of my work here in the city. Not that I’m trying to become famous or anything, but nothing is better than having someone say, “dude, I like that picture.” I can pretend and say that I make big plans for myself photographically, but to be honest, it’s mostly spontaneous and off the cuff. If I were to orchestrate my plans for photography projects, I would never be able to finalize anything because I get so overwhelmed with making just small decisions when it comes to my photography. So, I keep it simple and raw - like sashimi.

JC: Any words of wisdom to recent photography graduates?

JE: Photography graduates? I feel pressured now. I taught myself how to take pictures by screwing up over and over. So, all I can offer is: find a job, keep it, use that money to buy stuff you need to live, fall in love with something, and take pictures of it.

JC: Any other thoughts?

JE: Stay tuned for the book release in early Spring. If you like my project, or the iphoneography phenomenon, tell others. Because that’s just a real nice thing to do. I also welcome insight or advice as to how I could better my project, or portfolio site, or whatever else. And for those of you who wear Ugg boots - stop it.

Jeremy Blogs here.

JONATHAN CHERRY: Do you think being born and raised in the US has had a significant impact on the way you make images?

MATT THOMAS: I know it has. I am just not sure exactly how.

Aesthetically, ideologically, I was shaped mostly by where I went to school for photography - Rochester Institute of Technology (especially on technique) (and Elaine O’Neil’s sage advice “Shoot what you know”) and Glasgow School of Art. But then you have to take into account all of those other things that make me who I am - Being born and raised in Elizabeth, NJ by a big supportive family, having a grandfather who was a serious amateur photographer, supportive parents who worked for everything they got. All of this has shaped me personally which has in turn shaped my artwork. Then there is being an American abroad. This shapes the way I work currently in that I am always acutely aware that I am culturally different from others around me at all times. Not so much an embodiment of America, just a capsule of American experiences.

JC: What has inspired you this last week and why?

MT: I’m easily inspired. Ever since I was born I would stare into space with my mouth wide open. I watch things and deconstruct it in my head. I like to think that everything I come in contact with, any event that goes on during the day could possibly be inspirational. Not in a motivational speaker sense. I’m a very visual person. And I am also easily entertained and amazed. Here is a shortlist of things that have inspired me. I tried to focus on the main ones.

Snow- it has been in Oslo since before Christmas. The coldest winter in 75 years I am told. I try to turn it into something positive, I like looking at fresh snow. I like photographing it too. Snow drift shapes, things covered in snow that probably aren’t mean’t to be, layers of snow. ETC. Robert Frank’s ‘Seven Stories’- It made me want to take polaroids again. So I have been taking mostly polaroids all week. The sleds at Vikingskiphuset - it boggles my mind that people were able to craft such beautiful things from wood that long ago, and that they survived Norway’s incredibly shitty weather. Oslo’s Opera House - It is my favorite building. I don’t appreciate architecture anywhere as much as I do in this place. The lines, the light, the way the architects played with space. It is stunning. My wife - Ina is a photographer too, and sometimes I just take pictures of things that remind me of her, she is so damn beautiful and smart. We need to collaborate more, which I think will happen when we move into our own place. My Mom- just left Norway. She was visiting me this last week and she was reminding me of everything that is different in this country from back home in New Jersey. It was refreshing. Beer - I am a huge beer geek. I started making my own homebrews recently. When I drink good beer it inspires me. I get very intense about tasting, smelling, the whole experience. The last one I had was Nøgne Ø imperial brown. Watching the Olympics in Norwegian - Watching the skiing. And my father-in-law watching skiing. I never understood winter sports (besides hockey) but he is so passionate about it like so many other Norwegians are. I’m starting to understand why. Especially Ski shooting. Works in the National Gallery in Oslo, specifically Munch.

JC: What was the last photography book you looked through?

MT: ‘Seven Stories’ by Robert Frank. It is a pleasure to hold. to feel. It is like you are looking through one of his sketchbooks. I love the intimacy of it. Especially the handwriting. Most of all I like the print quality. I like to think that in each one of these seven books there is some sort of narrative that he is totally aware of. But as the viewer going from image to image we are unaware of his intentions, just the fact that these people, these settings are significant to him. Maybe there is an elaborate story. But we have to make it up. It’s what I love about this work.

JC: What did you learn from making the body of work ‘American Landscapes’?

MT: Random photographs aren’t always random photographs.

Observations/photographs can be tied together in ways you don’t always forsee when you are releasing the shutter.

I thought I was just shooting around. I was just shooting around. This work was edited down from 4-5 years of photography. I wanted to put some of these pictures together on my website when I was building it, but I didn’t know how to fit them together. Then I realized what they had in common was they were all observations of what was around me. My environment. And I realized how stark in contrast these environments are. Then I realized this is America. The stark contrasts. The poor, the rich, the strong religious overtones. The consumption. The nature. All of those damn reality signs with freshly cut trees behind them. In some ways this series is my least favorite because it wasn’t something that I had fully thought out as a project. It was just thrown up on the web as a sort of exercise in editing. At times I wish I could go back and just photograph all these themes thoroughly. Other times I am content with the work.

JC: What is your Norway project all about and how did it start?

MT: I think I am still figuring out what it’s about. When I moved to Oslo last April I had this idea that I would document my transition of moving to Norway photographically. But how do you document a transition like that? New country, new language, new culture, it doesn’t fit so neatly in a frame. So I’ve been keeping the idea of transition in the back of my mind and just photographing the things that strike me as slightly absurdly Norwegian, or just objects that interest me, or the people that I have grown close to, or landscapes that I wouldn’t be able to find in the tri-state area. Just finding things outside my own American experience. I always wanted the end product to be a book. But I have so many rolls of film to get developed that I have no idea what direction this project will go in. I want the work to grow organically like my transition. I don’t know if such a thing can be visible in the photographs but I think it is important to me even if no one else can see it.

JC: What is the above (first) image about?

MT: It was an observation.

A bright orange shape struck me while I was walking a trail on Hovedøya, an island near Oslo’s city center. I walked closer to it and noticed that it was a Dolce&Gabbana towel. And then decided to photograph it. I think the absurdity of the scene is what I was trying to focus on. The fact that at this beach, there was this designer towel, on a tree branch where anyone could takel it. Such things are foreign to me and I find it interesting. Norway is such a rich country. you could see it on a towel, on a beach, on a sunny day. Aesthetically, I think somewhere in the back of my mind was some post-impressionist scene painting. Maybe ‘Dance of Life’ or something. There might have also been something calling me with the shadow on the trunk and that orange quadrilateral. Quadrilateral is a really good word.

JC: Are you excited about 2010 - if so why?

MT: It feels like the future. Twenty-Ten. I am excited to live in the future. I am excited to see what this year will bring technologically. More so than any other year since the year 2000. For centuries people probably wondered what the world would be like in the year 2000. Or 2010. And now we are here. It will probably be a let down. Wars will continue, there will still be widespread starvation and disease in parts of the world, greed and profiteering will still be the driving force of progress. But for me, I think it will be a good year. I’m moving, starting a new job, being featured on this website, what more can one ask in the start of a new year?

JC: What is your favourite colour?

MT: Recently, I started getting into color combinations. Saffron yellow and pale blue, or washed out red and pale blue. But if I had to choose it would probably have to be something light turquoise. Like the blue version of mint green. That’s the best.

I am pretty happy to have Peter MULL IT OVER with me. He is still studying but his work is truly inspirational and innovative. Makes me want to buy a 5x4 for some reason.

Love this quote on his website: “If you are interested in a print don’t hesitate to pay me large sums of money in exchange for one”

JONATHAN CHERRY: Over the last two weeks has anything really inspired you? If so, why?

PETER HALUPKA: Nipples and boy scout handbooks.

JC: What was the last photography book that you picked up?

PH: The last one that struck me was Chanarin and Broomberg’s Fig.

JC: How and when did you discover photography?

PH: I discovered it in some idylic story where I faked sick to stay home but my mom knew so she made me stay in my room. The one closet I had access to had all my dad’s old photo equipment so I checked it out, decided I would learn, then go to NYU. I did none of that actually.

Then four years later I wanted to hang out with the best skateboarders in my hometown. I was certainly not as good as them so because I had started taking pictures I asked if I could come out and skate with them and hang out. It worked and I actually was super down with the skate scene we had there till I moved away.

JC: What is your current body of work all about?

PH: I think it’s about fucking and the space between memory and forgetfulness.

JC: What is the attached image all about?

PH: I was super into cheese curls at the time and I told my brother to make one.

JC: What is next in the pipe line for you photographically?

PH: I just put my website up. Erin Jane Nelson and I want to make a film too. I wouldn’t mind showing some work soon! But I just sit and wait for that to happen when it will happen.

JC: Have you got any exciting plans for 2010?

PH: I have the perfect solution for this. Go visit www.peterhalupka.com and go to “Info” and view that list I have there. I think I made it so I can not only be held accountable for it all but also for people to reference in instances like this.

JC: What are your expectations upon graduating?

PH: I just need to graduate first. I have been at too many schools. Then I might just get a dog and get a farm.

JC: Any other thoughts?

PH: I’ve been thinking about how many people have died where I walk everyday. But that’s not that weird. It’s really natural actually. I don’t have anything clever to say here. At all.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What is it that you like most about your Pentax and how does it suit the way you make images?

BRIAN FERRY: I really like the control the Pentax gives me over my photos - the fact that it is fully manual suits me well. But what I probably like best is purely aesthetic - it’s a real tank of a camera, and it’s a very tactile process to take a photo with it. Each photo feels significant. The deep click of the shutter is quite satisfying to me. The significance of each photo means that I slow down and consider the photos I’m taking quite carefully. It allows for a more meditative, satisfying process (but I also think that is true of most film cameras).
JC: Has anything really inspired you in the last 24 hours if so, what and why?

BF: This video definitely inspired me yesterday for a number of reasons. I love the fact that these guys had the guts to start a business that they felt strongly about, and that they continue to pursue their particular vision and remain true and honest to that aesthetic. They are deliberate about what they do. And I love how enthusiastic they are about the simple things - serving food to people who appreciate it, building a community around their restaurants, even their excitement about something as simple as a meatball. People who are passionate always inspire me.

JC: What was the last photographic book you picked up?

BF: A small book of polaroids, by Steven Harrington. I love the way this guy sees the world.

JC: On your website you mention that you enjoy seeking out ‘good light’ - how do you go about this on a day to day basis?

BF: I find that I am incredibly affected by the light on any given day. I can feel my mood adjust based on the light around me - bright winter sun, grey london drizzle, gold light streaming into my office around 4pm, blue light just after the sun sets, and even artificial light - lamps, candles, or unforgiving flourescent light. Because I am hyper aware of the light, I think my photographs try to honestly capture the way that it feels to me at any given moment. Does that make any sense? I think it started when I decided to “chase the light” last winter. I wanted to take a series of photos, just for myself, that chased light in various forms. It was eye-opening and very instructional.

JC: What is your most recent project all about?

BF: Most recently, I’ve been trying to photograph my personal details - the seemingly mundane things that surround me on a day-to-day basis. I was inspired by some photos I saw in a magazine - they must’ve been advertising handbags or watches or something - but the way the photos were styled, they seemed to be an intensely personal peek into someone’s life. Their keys, bag, mobile phone, to-do lists, old receipts, notes, a discarded sweater, etc. It seemed to be such a good way of recording personal habits. I haven’t shared a lot of these yet, but it’s something I’m working on.

JC: What are your major plans for 2010?

BF: I plan to enjoy the hell out of living in London and exploring Europe and beyond.  I’m still getting used to living in a new city. And I can’t wait to visit Berlin, Scandinavia, and Paris (I’ve never been). There are so many other places I’m hoping to visit, too.

JC: What is next in the pipe line for you photographically?

BF: As for photography, it’s been a slow start for me in 2010 - I have a lot of ideas, but haven’t had the time to really make them happen. I’d really like to collaborate with another person, a photographer/artist/designer. I have a couple of ideas and I’m always open to suggestions from someone who might be interested. I think working with someone else will really challenge me and I am always up for a good challenge.

JC: Any advice to photography students and recent graduates?

BF: Oh man, I don’t know if I am qualified to give advice to a photography student or recent graduate. I’m self-taught, so they should probably call me with some helpful advice. But I guess the only thing I would offer is - be honest. People appreciate honesty. And look for inspiration in the everyday, mundane things.

JC: Any other thoughts?

BF: I think that’s all I’ve got. Thanks.