JONATHAN CHERRY:Where do you take inspiration from?

IGOR STARKOV: I like to put myself in places where I will experience different things and receive fresh inspiration; this has become the basis of my work. I think that it’s highly important to allow people to critique your own work and to make sure that you engage with the work of others.

JC: What is your most recent project ‘boy’ all about?

IS: The project ‘Boy’ is all about my relationship with the son. This project is personal to me and I am a part of the story. For a few reasons I haven’t seen my son since his birth. We walked across the streets of town where he lives and I just took photographs of our experience together.

JC: I am interested in the above (first) image … what is it all about?

IS:  When I was a child I loved to build secret places for myself; often in trees. I feel as though every ‘secret place’ or location must have its own treasures. My son does the same now and this picture was made when he was searching for some stuff for his ‘secret harbour’.

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

IS: I have now turned my lens upon people who are close to me or people who just interest me; I am finding that person-oriented stories are the ones that attract me most to making photographs. The series “Boy” has been the beginnings for many more stories about the people around me.

JC: What equipment do you use and how do you think that it fits with your way of making images?

IS: I use Rolleicord - It was kept a German mans garage for a long time until he gave it to me because he never seemed to use it. I like it very much and would never change.

JC: What was the last photography book you picked?

IS: ‘Alchimistes aux fourneaux’ by Rip Hopkins.

JC: What are you excited about for 2010?

IS: I’m going to travel more across Siberia and Central Asia. I will possibly have work at Caucasus. Today I will fly to Murmansk, on the north of Russia and I will of course work as normal.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What has inspired you in the last 24hrs and why?

MARK WICKENS: I recently watched Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World”. His questions and insights in the film are really intriguing and the movie frames the subject matter in a curiously unique manner.

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

MW: Right now, I have Jason Schmidt’s “Artists” sitting on my desk. Its a compilation of portraits of artists in their creative environments. Highly recommended.

JC: Do you have a current project; if so, what is it all about?

MW: My main project over the past few years has been an exploration of the California landscape. It’s pretty remarkable how many different environments exist within the state.

JC: I can see that you are attracted to shafts of light and it seems the majority of your imagery contains heavy natural lighting - what is it that draws you to this? and leading on from that do you find it sometimes limiting to only shoot when natural light is available?

MW: I really enjoy the quality of natural light, especially how it is rendered on film. Day lit photographs tend to have a timeless quality to them that I find gets a bit muddled with the introduction of artificial light sources. Only shooting during the day can certainly be a bit limiting, especially in the winter when daylight is in short supply, but so it goes…

JC: What are you excited about for 2010?

MW: I’m excited for the World Cup! Go England! or…go USA! or…go Japan! I’ll split my support into thirds for those teams, though England will probably stumble…as usual.

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

MW: I’m hoping to start a project on coastal life in New England.

JC: Have you got any words of wisdom for young and emerging practitioners?

MW: Relax, enjoy life. Its no fun if its not fun.

JONATHAN CHERRY: How did you get into photography?

LUKE STEPHENSON: Quite a boring answer but just at school in art lessons there was a really bad darkroom but I just enjoyed faughing around and taking pictures and then I went to college and I got more involved

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

LS: I picked up a book on ravens by a japanese photographer at a friends house and can’t remember the name of it.

JC: Can you give two specific examples of people who truly inspire you and why?

LS: Well this is quite hard as being truly inspiring is a difficult task but lots of people just simply inspire me.

JC: What is ‘Stanelli’s Super Circus’ all about?

LS: Well I heard about a puppet theatre near my parents house that put on shows with traditional marionette puppets so I when and watched a show over christmas and discovered that the man who put on theses show had received a grant from the lottery to buy a collection of puppets created by one man called stan parker he made over 100 marionette puppets though out his life and part of this collection was 30 - 40 circus puppets which he used to perform all around the world. I was really interested by the whole story of Stan Parker and the fact that a mans life work had been saved and kept together, plus they are such wonderful objects on there own so I simply wanted to document them.

Lots of information, pictures and video’s about Stan and his puppets can be found here.

JC: How did you decide to compose each puppet / character in these images? I notice they all seem to have a sense of ownership towards the image … almost as if they are alive and giving you there best pose - was this intentional?

LS: Well it wasn’t intended but I soon realized that I couldn’t just have them hanging limp from a pole  in front of a colorama as they  looked dead, even a little detail like there feet not been flat on the floor just looked a bit daft , luckily I had a friend with me helping out or I wouldn’t have been able to take the photo’s and use the puppets so over the course of the day we photographed all the circus puppets and the thing that took the time was working out how each one moved and what they did as it wasn’t always clear and then it was a matter of just letting my friend use the puppet and put it in different positions until I felt I had got a good representation of that puppet. My friend had a great day just playing with puppets really.

JC: Have you ever found making portraits difficult? If yes, what were the circumstances?

LS: I find men a little easier to photograph than women I don’t quite understand why but I just seem to take better pictures of men.

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

LS: I am just finishing off a project which I’ve been doing on and off for the past couple of years, I’d like to do a book with it, but we’ll see. other than that I have lots of ideas. I would like to do a project involving people as I’ve been doing lots of still life type stuff. Other than that just carry on as always, but try to do more.

JC: Any thoughts to give recent photography graduates?

LS: Keep plodding on its not a quick fix being a photographer so just keep taking pictures.

JONATHAN CHERRY: Can you give two or three example of things that have inspired you in the last seven days?

YANIV WAISSA: My work is inspired by the sights that I visit during my photographic journys, and what I feel about them. I also insipred from reading photo blogs (such as Mrs. Deane, Conscientious, Tales of Light, Buffet, Loz, Urbanautica and many more). I always love to see works of different people from different places and of course my home library

JC: What was the last photography book you picked up and what did you like about it?

YW: A few days ago I got the new book of Simon Menner, a young photographer from Germany. The book contains 3 projects- “Camouflage”, “Murder Weapons” and “Boobytraps”. These different projects all try to deal with the nature of terror and the mechanisms that a used to spread terror and fear in peoples minds. I love his works because they make you shiver. I Also love the way he solves the problem of presenting three very distinct bodies of work on one kind of paper.

JC: What equipment are you currently using?

YW: My main cameras are Shen Hao 4x5 and Holga but I also used few polaroid and toy cameras

JC: What is ‘Disintegration of a Revived Nation’ all about and where did the ideas stem from?

YW: This project stem from my photographic journeys across various locations in Israel. I examine the relationship between man and nature and the constant tension between the past and the future. I deal with the urban revolution, manifested in the massive construction of buildings, roads, bridges and all kinds of huge concrete structures and the changing generations.

JC: Why did you choose to shoot in Black and White for ‘Disintegration of a Revived Nation’?

YW: I love shooting in black and white! I love the wide range of gray tones and the grain. I love to use color films/slides when the color is a main issue and important for the project and for this project I felt that b&w is better to express the overall atmosphere of the project.

JC: What are your hopes for 2010?

YW: I’m going to exhibit in the Time To Meet festival in Antwerp (March 2010) and hope to publish books with two new publishers so I hope to reach more people with my works. I also going to marry my girlfriend, Tal, so wish us the best of luck.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What was the last photography book you picked up?

MATTHEW AUSTIN: Long Life Cool White by Moyra Davey. My friend David Robert Elliott lent it to me at a critique about a month ago, it’s an incredible book. It provides a pretty amazing example of what it means to be fascinated by photography. Her self-criticisms are really honest and comforting, I think most photographers would relate to her writing.

JC: Over the last week has anything particularly inspired you?

MA: When I did laundry this week, I lost a collar tab from one of my collared shirts which inspired me to photograph it. I guess it was just interesting to feel like I should be disappointed in something so unnecessary: something to keep my collar stiff. Also, I recently watched the film Synecdoche, New York which was pretty amazing; that inspired me to carry on with a Phillip Seymour Hoffman marathon of movie watching.

JC: What equipment do you use and how do you feel it is appropriate to leaning itself to your way of shooting?

MA: I primarily use color negative film and a Tachihara 4x5. I would say most of the work that I make has something to do with encouraging further consideration for an idea. So, in the case of the large format, I’m forced to carefully think about the making of the photograph and then actually see the resultant image on the ground glass. I also can’t deny the fact that the camera itself has its controlling characteristics. I think the camera is intriguing to most people being photographed, intimidating or confusing; it has a significant presence.

JC: What is wake all about and where did the ideas stem from?

MA: Wake is a photographic narrative that began with my father’s eviction while I was studying abroad in Ireland. I couldn’t help him move his things being 7,000 miles away, so we kept in touch frequently via e-mail while he was going through this difficult experience. The book Wake includes photographs and journal entries of mine, along with intermittent excerpts of e-mails from my dad while I was in Ireland. After returning to America, I began making photographs strictly of me and my dad hugging in different locations of tragic memory, as a kind of visitation or closure on what had happened. The work continued to develop when we began to experience a number of deaths within our extended family. I began to see metaphorical connections between our present economic time and physical death. I wanted to treat the project like a reflective ceremony, as if it were a wake or a funeral; so making images then became far more intuitive. I would generally treat making a photograph like a reflection on a certain event or idea that had happened, which is why most of the imagery in the book is metaphorical and not documentary. So Wake was wrapped up as I realized its function as my personal understanding of our situation and the current universality of the story among many people who can now relate to these types of experiences.

JC: How have you found making photography work and ‘being seen’ during this time of culture / financial shift?

MA: I don’t think the financial changes in our economy has changed anything about the rate in which I make work, I owe that to the sometimes irresponsible priority of making work above certain other expenses. As far as “being seen,” I don’t know if I can say that I know a difference between making work in the current time of culture or another. I’m also not sure if I can compare ‘being seen’ to anything else, have I been seen? While not knowing if I’ve been seen, I guess I try to remind myself that there’s something worthwhile in my hopes with inviting people to look at work such as this book, even if making it is mostly self-satisfying. For me, I think that idea is supported by how often artists’ work is not seen; and that maybe no one involved in the contemporary photo-world would notice if I stopped photographing. Most likely, only my family and friends would be disappointed because they understood that photography meant something to me. So in that sense, I think one’s dedication to their work has to be enough for most of the time.

JC: What are you excited about for 2010?

MA: I’m excited to learn about what life is like not being a student. I’m also excited for the after school digital photography program that I’ll be continuing to teach in February at Jones College Prep.

JC: Have you found the photography / art blogosphere to be a benefit when coming to promoting your work and sharing thoughts?

MA: Yeah, definitely. It’s great having such access to learn about current exhibitions, awards being won, and work being made. I think that often the whole experience of participating in it can get pretty weird. Just in the way that it’s so easy to create celebrity out of artists whose work you really like, and then how weird it must be for them to receive that treatment. But overall, I think it’s very helpful. I find myself enjoying the sites that strictly feature artists such as this one, and Too Much Chocolate, and also the blogs that give you unexpected posts like Little Brown Mushroom and Pete Halupka’s blog.

JC: Any other thoughts?

MA: For anyone who’s interested in reading Wake, e-mail me at mattaustinphoto [at] gmail [dot] com to receive a PDF of it. And for those in Chicago, I’m checking out copies of the book like a library, so e-mail me to get on that list if you want.

Matthew continues to work and teach in Chicago, US. He blogs here.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What have you been inspired by over the last month?

BENYMIN REICH: The Old City of Jerusalem is a place which gives me a lot of inspiration: the various religions, the bustling spirituality within a market of tastes and odors, and the faces of believers from all over the world. I have also gained inspiration from a fascinating movie I have seen lately, “Schoene Tage”.

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

BR: The last photography book I looked through was Survivors, by the wonderful photographer Aliza Auerbach, documenting the personal stories of holocaust survivors.

JC: What is ‘The Dead Sea’ project all about?

BR: I have been working on the Dead Sea project for a few years. I try to capture the human and natural landscape of this unique place, now in danger of extinction, losing about three feet of its water level every year. I photograph the people coming there, soldiers with their arms and Palestinians, who cannot go to any other beach, as well as the primordial, desert landscape. The deep sense of history you feel there mixes with the strong smell of sulfur emanating from the salty water and the black mud. Sometimes I sit in a natural pool of warm sulfur water, looking at the other side of the lake. It is Jordan there, so close, and yet so far from us Israelis.

JC: I find the above (first) image really interesting - can you briefly explain it?

BR: Secluded places around the Dead Sea, such as some natural springs and pools, provide a sense of intimacy and unity to small groups of people who travel and hike there, and sometimes try to conceal it from others. When I took out my camera, it seemed to have disrupted the serenity of the place and the bathers. After a while I asked to take a picture, and they agreed.

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

BR: I would rather not spoil the readers’ surprise …

JC: What equipment do you use?

BR: My camera is a medium format, Roleiflex 2.8 gx, (limited edition 2000 347/500). I use mostly Velvia 50 ASA positive film.

JC: Any other thoughts?

BR: There are many plans to save the Dead Sea, but they are not carried out for political, economic and other reasons. I hope the neighboring countries, together with national and international organizations, will finally cooperate and save this unique spot on Earth.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What one thing today has inspired you?

KELIY ANDERSON-STALEY: I am always thinking about portraits and how I would portray strangers. Just today at the laundromat, I found myself starring at people as I often do. I am fascinated by the way people move, and especially the way they look when they don’t believe they’re being looked at.

JC: What draws you to photography?

KA: Photography allows me to shoot until I feel that I’ve completely exhausted a subject. It also allows several moments of creative intervention - the planning, the shooting, the printing, and the editing. The function of each image can change as the project develops, so photography has a kind of flexibility as a narrative and representational form that isn’t as readily available in other mediums.

JC: What is ‘Off The Grid’ all about?

KA: ‘Off The Grid’ is about several things at once - families who have chosen to live disconnected from the electrical grid (both those who have been living this way for decades and those who have moved off - grid more recently); about the aesthetic character of their improvised homes; about central Maine where life is still defined by wilderness, harsh winters and rugged individuals; and about my own upbringing. In my efforts to document these families and my own, I have deliberately blurred the line between portraiture and autobiography. Although I am interested in the significance of this lifestyle as a kind of response to the global environmental crisis, it of course doesn’t appeal to everyone, and it wouldn’t be a viable solution on a mass scale anyway. So, I am not seeking to romanticize this way of living, but rather to show it as it is.

JC: Can you put the above (first) image into context?

KA: “Tom Shaving” is a portrait of my father shaving in his cabin as he has for years, with a fragment of a mirror and a bowl of water heated on the wood stove. My father’s life in the winter is pretty much confined to ten feet around his wood stove where he reads, writes and makes art. I hoped with this portrait to capture his intellectual character, and his thoughtful approach to even the simplest daily activities. My father built his cabin when I was only two, so my entire life was shaped by his desire to live off the grid, a lifestyle he still maintains thirty years later.

JC: What makes a successful portrait?

KA: The best portrait is one that makes the viewer stop and really look at someone and think about who the person is and how he or she sees him or herself. My favorite portraits reveal and obscure at the same time, maybe allowing us to see a little more than the subject wants to project while still respecting his or her sense of privacy. Although ‘Off The Grid’ is about spaces and the portraits situate people in their environments, they are still formal portraits, and I often ask the individuals to look directly into the camera. Of course there is a long American portrait tradition of individuals standing proudly in front of their homes, on the frontier and elsewhere.

JC: What is next for you photographically?

KA: I am working on a sculptural installation of hundreds of tintype portraits that I have taken over the past few years.

JC: Any other thoughts?

KA: I think a lot of photography recently has tended to ignore the human subject. There has been a lot of emphasis on epic landscapes, urban settings void of people, and sparse horizons. A great deal of that work I find really profound and important, like Edward Burtynsky’s work, but I think it’s important to continue to photograph people, and to not forget the humanistic aspects of the form. Some photographers who are really doing this today include Erika Larsen, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Richard Renaldi and Elinor Carucci.

I studied at UCF with Lena. She was in the year below me. I was always fascinated with her approach to photography and admired her passion. I am thrilled to have her mull it over.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What two things have inspired you over the last week?

LENA DOBROWOLSKA: Definitely the snowy weather. I spent most of last month in Scotland and I found myself totally mesmerised by the northern landscape, the monochromatic colours, incredible light, just this vastness of space that makes you feel really tiny, in a good way.

The other thing would be the film I watched recently LILYA 4 - EVER by Lukas Moodysson, which actually involved lots of snow too and was shot in Russia as well as Sweden.

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

LD: ‘Afterglow’ by Ori Gersht - status of a Bible, really. Plus very interesting essay by Joanna Lowry which I highly recommend.

JC: What is your current project all about?

LD: My current project is concerned with the relation between the reality and it’s representation.

JC: What is the project ‘Blank’ all about?

LD: ‘Blank’ is still in progress, and it is a temporary title for this body of work It explores the detached relationship of a photograph with its subject matter. I am interested in the ability of a photographic portrait to become a kind of screen for viewer’s own revelations. It resembles the process of creation and identity; we only learn about oneself through others, through differentiation and recognition of those differences. I am continuing to photograph this group of children and I am hoping to finish by the end of June 2010 (which will make it exactly a year long project).

JC: I am fascinated by the above (first) image - Did you find it an easy process-photographing children?

LD: Certainly not, I am working with a large format camera, which must look really scary to the children; so in a way the initial process was rather tough. Working with this sort of equipment paid back though, because children are so used to cameras these days, they ‘pull’ their smiley snapshot faces instantly and almost instinctively as soon as they hear that they’ll be photographed. The very slow process of photographing with a large format camera made the whole experience of posing totally new to them. I think you can see this in my photographs, particularly the one you mentioned, a kind of fear of unknown, but trust too, for which I feel really grateful. Although, I must admit I never look at my subjects when I press the shutter, so I don’t know who is really scared of who.

JC: Have you got any exciting prospects for 2010?

LD: Hopefully will get my degree and have our final show both in Falmouth and London. After which, I plan to get really busy once I leave Cornwall, maybe a little trip to somewhere far North?

JC: Any other thoughts?

LD: Stay calm and carry on, come what may.

I have always enjoyed Rachel Hulins work and I know she has been an inspiration to many young and emerging photographers here in the UK. I am proud to have her mull it over.

JONATHAN CHERRY: Would you give us a few examples of who is influencing your practice at this time and why?

RACHEL HULIN: O man, that’s hard. I have some favorite photographers I always come back to - Bill Henson, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Richard Misrach, Sally Mann … there are really too many to list. I like folks who make narratives, who reflect life honestly and beautifully. I read a lot, and I think authors often influence my work as well. I love cheeky British literature … Nick Hornby and Martin Amis and PG Wodehouse.

JC: What equipment do you use for the majority of your personal images?

RH: General 6x7 film. So that means either my Mamiya 7 or Pentax 67. I still love the feeling and depth that film provides, and I think waiting some time between taking and seeing the pictures is generally a beneficial thing.

JC: Your approach to photography seems very personal. How highly do you value the experience of photographing and why?

RH: It is very personal- it sort of provides a bit of a diary or outlet for me. I like to photograph life as it happens, and I find it comforting to go back and see images of my family from years before. I like having a record. Even in times of strife or hardship, there’s always something beautiful. I’m hopelessly romantic about sunlight streaming through a window, or the breeze in the trees, or a beautiful bowl of fruit. I can’t get enough of those little elements.

JC: Have you got a project in the pipeline?

RH: I’ve been working a bit on my commercial book, shooting some lifestyle stuff. Times are so tricky for photographers right now that I want to be best positioned to work in the current market. You can see some of the new work here.

JC: What are your next big steps with regards to your photographic life?

RH: Good question! I think I will keep making work, and I’m working on a new blog/ online magazine. Stay tuned!

JC: For all the graduates out there - have you got any tips of how to get a foot in the door in the photographic world?

RH: Email editors who produce work you love, and email your favorite photographers as well. Everyone likes to be admired, and staying in touch with people as your work evolves is extremely important.

JC: Leading from that question, how did you make your mark on the photographic world?

RH: Have I made one? Ha! I worked for many years at The International Center of Photography, so I made a lot of contacts. And then I worked as an editor and got to hire folks. It’s really a surprisingly small world, so it’s not too difficult to go to openings and look at new photo books and generally be engaged. Being engaged and enthusiastic - those are the most important things, I think.

Rachel Hulin has a brand spanking new website up.

JONATHAN CHERRY: What is your current project all about?

BRYAN SCHUTMAAT: The project I’m presently most excited to work on is ‘Heartland’. It’s comprised of a lot of pictures of fields, churches, and things in rural America. My idea behind the project is to make the compositions as simple and straight forward as the way of life they depict, and even though the photos concentrate on topography devoid of human beings, the cultural presence of those who inhabit the land is conveyed in images of where they live, work, eat and pray.

JC: What equipment do you use?

BS: Zzzzzzz

JC: Has something in particular inspired you in the last 48 hours; What was it and why?

BS: I think it was a little over 48 hours ago, but I recently saw Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Red Desert.” It was shot in perhaps the ugliest industrial locations in Italy, yet through astute cinematography, Antonioni and his DP Carlo Di Palma somehow gave the film a magical, expressive quality like nothing I’ve seen before. So much of art and photography is about the pursuit of beauty in unlikely places, and I think this movie is a perfect example of that effort. It made me want to explore.

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

BS: I honestly haven’t bought a photo book in about six months, and that was a signed copy of Richard Renaldi’s Figure and Ground. A really good book. Yesterday, however, I bought a photo magazine: Photographs on the Brain Issue #1 edited by Bryan Formhals. I’m looking forward to when it come in the mail.

JC: Can you give some background information on ‘Western Frieze’?

Western Frieze is an examination the American West’s cultural identity from a traveler’s perspective. It all started when I drove from Houston to Colorado in the dead of winter to pick up a cello and a bicycle for my girlfriend. I made some photos along the way that resonated with me. Soon I took a couple of subsequent trips, shooting in New Mexico, Colorado, and north Texas. I’m moved by the mountains, the trees, the open spaces, and all the other natural beauty the American West has to offer. But I’m also moved by the places in between—the old cafes, motels, gas stations, and so on. These days, both the wilderness and these small businesses are in peril as developers move in and drastically alter the physical and economic landscape. With photography, I aim to preserve these aspects of the West that seem to be vanishing fast.  And for some reason, I try to re-create a vision of the West that’s in my mind from childhood, adhering to my first conceptions of the West, either images from popular culture or memories from trips with my family.

JC: What is the story behind the above (first) image?

BS: It’s a photo of a lovely mural that’s painted on the side of a building in New Mexico. The ground in the foreground isn’t part of the painting. The photo is meant to confound viewers and challenge them to decipher where “reality” ends and fiction begins. It’s intended to function as metaphor for society’s collective impression of the West and its mystique. I also think that this photo comments on the very nature of photography.

JC: Any other thoughts?

BS: Be positive. Love life.