JONATHAN CHERRY: What did you have for breakfast this morning?
HORATIO BALTZ: I haven’t had breakfast yet but I have a feeling its going to be what I had last night - baby fetus marinated in chicken broth.
JC: Are there any emerging photographers who are inspiring your practice at the moment?
HB: I wouldnt say they are emerging as much as they are inspiring and surpassing my efforts by leaps and bounds - Johanna Landscheidt, Erin Hanson, Andrew Musson, Omar Mullick, Alex Cretey.
JC: Who are your photography heroes?
HB: Weegee, Gregory Crewdson, Carl Van Vechten, Eddie Adams, W Eugene Smith, and Louis Mendes - who I run into from time to time and has cracked many an eggs of knowledge on the blackened skillet of a head of mine.
JC: How highly do you value the actual experience of photographing?
Every click of the shutter and crank of the film advance is a tiny orgasm that, over rolls and rolls of film, has the unlikely ability to unravel the very fabric of your personal universe. Your forehead first grows cold, then completely numb as you find yourself covered in a film of sweat and floating on a cloud that is somehow chemically composed of tanned burlap sacks brimming with $100 dollar bills. The world becomes completely silent with the exception of the faint rumbling of an 8 lane highway in the far distance that seems to put the world at ease. Palestinians are hugging Israelis, Israelis are high-fiving Palestinians, fireworks start at 10pm Sunday thru Monday, all items are 50% off and buy one get one free, a pack of american spirits costs $4.36, and eggs always land sunny side up.
JC: What is your current project all about?
HB: I’m not sure if I have one yet. The last project I did was a series of portraits in New Orleans toward the beginning of the year. I started playing in this old-time jazz band so I haven’t had much time to think about what’s next as far as photography is concerned. Before the summer I was touring down south for about about 2 weeks. This summer I’ve been down South again for about 2 weeks and touring in the Northeast for about 2 weeks. Now im back in New York city scratching my head and trying to piece together the images I took along the way. Other than that, I’ve been thinking a lot about hell’s kitchen, glory holes, section 8 housing, Thomas Ott, and vhs porn.
JC: What is in store for you photographically over the next 6 months?
HB: hopefully regaining custody of it. I haven’t been treating it too well lately. I plan on getting my 4x5 in order - it needs a lensboard. I want to check out the rust belt, the iron triangle, Newark, and, like I said, take a closer look at hell’s kitchen here in New York. I met and shot an actor once who told me there is very much still a vibrant network of male ecuadorian sex slaves that roam the area around 42nd and 8th avenue, soliciting men for sex in order to send money home to their families for food and school supplies. In the basements of many of the porno stores are elaborate and often times enormous spaces retrofitted with dozens upon dozens of 4ft by 4ft rooms where these men pay as little as 20 dollars a night to stay off the street. More often than not, business is also conducted in these basements as well. On a clear, crisp October night, if you stand on any corner, you can hear the faint moans of a thousand american dreams as they leak forth from the sewage grates into the gutters of hell’s kitchen.
JC: In your opinion what makes a successful portrait?
HB: You know, I’m not sure - I like environmental portraits, I like seeing people do things that people do. I guess a portrait is successful when filling in the gaps comes effortlessly. whether this is by means of technique or by means of the situation and coincidence, I am not sure.
JC: What does photography mean to you?
HB: Photography is either 1 of 2 things - perhaps even both at once: 1) a dank, dark, cold hole at the bottom of the world brimming with self-deprecation, envy, processing costs, and realizations that perhaps all of your efforts are fruitless or 2) me at 3 in the morning sitting in a rickety wooden chair completely naked (with the exception of a stetson fedora) sweating profusely while scanning strips of negatives, listening to local public radio, chain smoking marlboro reds and wondering when to call it a night.
JONATHAN CHERRY: What did you have for breakfast today?
OLYA IVANOVA: I had porridge with orange jam.
JC: Are there any emerging photographers who are inspiring your practice at the moment?
OI: I like almost all the photographers from here. Now I’m interested in this theme a lot.
JC: Who are your photography heroes?
OI: My heroes are Diana Arbus, Vanessa Winship, Nan Goldin, Katy Grannan and many other people that have enough courage to continue to take pictures no matter what.
JC: How highly do you value the actual experience of photographing?
OI: It’s like swimming lessons. Before you learn to swim freely at any depth you have to do a lot of unnecessary movements.
JC: What is your current project all about?
OI: I’m working on the series about russian suburb and russian disappearing villages.
JC: What is in store for you photographically over the next 6 months?
OI: I don’t know exactly. I want to finish some of my old projects.
JC: In your opinion what makes a successful portrait?
OI: Clear vision of the result. Relationships. Background. Concentration. Mood. Chance.
JC: What does photography mean to you?
OI: Photography is my way to tell about life.
JONATHAN CHERRY: What did you have for breakfast this morning?
STEFANO MARCHIONINI: Two slices of brioche with fig confiture and a glass of milk.
JC: Are there any emerging photographers who are inspiring your practice at the moment?
SM: Jen Davis, Bobby Doherty, Aaron Fowler, Traci Matlock, Erin Jane Nelson, Giulia Nomis, Jan Postma, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Rafael Soldi, Jim Verburg, Davin Youngs. Everyone for different reasons.
JC: Who are your photography heroes?
SM: I’m thinking about the Nan Goldin from the 90’s, The Devil’s Playground is a masterpiece, and Willy Ronis, who is just endlessy inspiring.
JC: How highly do you value the actual experience of photographing?
SM: I like how it depends on the moment, sometimes you can be very excited while taking pictures and other times the experience is more relaxed or even boring. And the result doesn’t always depend on the amount of excitement you felt when you were shooting. Sometimes you forget the pictures you’ve taken, and when they come up to you there’s this magic moment when you finally see what you saw that day, and then you think “I’m lucky I took this picture even if I was bored as hell!”. Working on snapshots and diary like photographs one has to never feel tired to take a picture.
JC: What is your current project all about?
SM: I tend to build my work around the places where I live and the people that I know and that is a process that usually takes place just after an intense period of shooting. Most of my series are long-time projects and I keep adding photos as the years go by.
JC: What is in store for you photographically over the next 6 months?
SM: I hope to be able to finish the book project I’m working on with my boyfriend Vivien Ayroles, who’s also a photographer.
JC: In your opinion what makes a successful portrait?
SM: The right balance between honesty and fiction, the fact that the portrait has to say something about the person who’s been portrayed, as well as something about the photographer, since I do think that a portrait is in some way a photographer’s autoportrait. And it really has to talk to the viewer, whether he’s aware of who this person is or not. It has to be personal and universal at the same time. Quite difficult I must say!
JONATHAN CHERRY: What did you have for breakfast this morning?
LUKAS DESIMONE: I had a Mate (typical Argentina infusion) with last friend’s birthday sandwiches, a beatiful breakfast on a rainy morning today.
JC: Are there any emerging photographers who are inspiring your practice at the moment?
LD: I really like Bryan Schutmaat (USA) and Marija Strajnic’s (Serbia) work. Ian Whimore and Hin Chua too.
JC: Who are your photography heroes?
LD: Hero is my dog, and he will learning photography soon. About classics, I like Hiroshi Sugimoto, Salgado, Mapplethorpe, “the Düsseldorfs” Thomas Ruff and Gursky.
JC: How highly do you value the actual experience of photographing?
LD: Oh, I’m excited, happy and relaxed with it. I can walk around, cross the city with my camera and enjoy it as a dreaming storybook.
JC: What is your current project all about?
LD: Well, nothing in particular. Im chasing the light, capturing special day times, magical sunbaths on city walls. Making editions and orders in my archive. I’m also testing many differents old little medium format cameras.
JC: What is in store for you photographically over the next 6 months?
LD: I think I will travel to a new city, Latinamerica perhaps or Balkans. It is the best for me, landing in a new big photo-set as a city.
JC: In your opinion what makes a successful portrait?
LD: It’s a one curious thing, when you (as a viewer) can feel the same 5 senses of the portrayed person. Jonathan, you have a great portraits, have to say.
JC: What does photography mean to you?
LD: I enjoy living each moment as it comes without planning for it. Music and photography gives me a context for it. A cool way of life. A personal, mystical tool for communicating my deep understanding. And this, knowing and writing for you, showing people, answering and talking about differents photo-works around the world. I think that it’s a good life. Magic and happiness.
JONATHAN CHERRY: What time did you get up this morning?
ANDREW SPEAR: I got up around 9 a.m. today, slowly adjusting to the life of a college graduate.
JC: What was the last photography book you picked up?
AS: The mailman just dropped off Trent Parke’s new book titled Bedknobs & Broomsticks. I’m currently soaking it up/trying to wrap my head around everything, and I find it to be one of the more intriguing presentations of work I have seen recently. I’ve always been drawn to the relationship between photography and the written word.
JC: What is your current project all about?
AS: Having been surrounded by it for four years now, I’m currently working on a project regarding sexuality in college. I started work on the project in September of last year as a senior in college after some brainstorming and a lot of “I don’t know, man” moments amongst peers. Initially for class, I began to examine the sexual relationships students build with one another - everything from long-term relationships to random hook - ups. The project, however, is about much more than college kids having sex with a lot of different people. I’m pursuing students finding themselves in terms of homosexuality, heterosexuality, and bisexuality. I also believe that body image has a very relevant place in a project like this; students change eating and exercising habits with the goal of appearing attractive to the opposite sex, and not necessarily for the health benefits. I think it’s a topic that is largely overlooked because “that’s what people do in college,” but I find it important to document the sexual tension in a college town.
JC: Can you give us some examples of things that inspire you?
AS: Lately, I’d have to say awkward interactions with strangers and music. It’s always changing though, I recently picked up a TLR and have been walking around shooting portraits of people in my community. I’ve been really looking forward to the initial awkwardness that leads into a much longer conversation, especially when it becomes revealing for the both of us. There’s something very beautiful about having a complete stranger open up to you in just moments. As for music, I’ve been living (and will be for the next year) with a really talented group of musicians. We all push ourselves creatively as we’re very much on the same page, we’re just working in different mediums.
JC: What has the second half of 2010 got in store for you photographically?
AS: I’m looking at wrapping up my work in Glouster, Ohio (at least for the time being) and continuing my project on sexuality. I’m also beginning work on a new project, but I’m keeping it under wraps for the time being.
JC: What can you be found doing when the camera isn’t in your hands?
AS: I’m a big fan of bike rides, skiing, reading books, and driving through the country.
JC: Any tips for recent photography graduates?
AS: This is a question that people like myself could benefit from the answer, so as we’re in the same boat I’ll just give what’s working for me right now. Don’t stop shooting or thinking, pay attention to everything and try your hardest to understand your surroundings. Most importantly, shoot for yourself.
JC: Any other thoughts?
AS: Thanks so much for giving me this opportunity. You guys have featured some really beautiful work on MULL IT OVER.
JONATHAN CHERRY: What time did you get up this morning?
ANTHONY NOCETI: 7am and straight for the coffee!
JC: What is the Esoteric Traveler all about?
AN: Conveying a detached and voyeuristic presence, the mode in the Esoteric Traveler is that of a passenger moving through an ever changing landscape where the notion of reality is blurred. An omniscient sort of being, the passenger is more of an implied character who does not take part in the narrative, but only relates it to the viewer. In this sense the narrative takes on a feeling of esoteric projection, wherein the traveler leaves the physical to explore a greater realm.
JC: Has the Esoteric Traveler project developed over time?
AN: Yes, I spent two years compiling the narrative.
JC: What does photography mean to you?
AN: Many of the images I capture are taken from within vehicles during stretches of open travel. Along these journeys, I started noticing how the changing landscapes were affecting me on a subconscious level. Despite my stationary presence inside the vehicle, I found my mind was else where, exploring the landscape. Once I realized that I was having these kind of esoteric experiences, I could not help but document the places my mind was going, and low resolution digital and 35mm cameras became the perfect medium of communication.
JC: What is next for you photographically?
AN: I have several trips planned over the course of the next year or so, which include the High Sierra’s and the Mojave Desert.
JC: How highly do you value the actual experience of photographing?
AN: I feel very blessed to have a desire to communicate through photography.
JC: Any other thoughts?
AN: Thanks Jonathan for supporting this project. MULL IT OVER is such a fantastic site with so many amazing artists, I am so pleased to be in such amazing company … You all inspire me very much!
JONATHAN CHERRY: Where are you from and what got you started with photography?
IRWIN BARBE: I’m from Paris and I live in Paris and Bordeaux, France. I started taking pictures after I saw the movie Virgin Suicides, when I was about 14 years old.
JC: What are your plans photographically for the second half of 2010?
IB: I’d like to buy a stereoscopic camera, such as the Stereo-Realist. This technique looks really nice. I also want to publish a photo book with my friends Luna and Lyn, but I doubt that we’ll find any editions willing to publish our book.
JC: What does photography mean to you?
IB: It doesn’t mean much. It’s just a way to forget how pointless everything I do is.
JC: What is your recent project all about?
IB: I will be making a photographic diary this summer. I’ll shoot all the places I go to, all the people I meet and so on. As I don’t have any home anymore since my parents are moving, I will call it “Homeless Summer”.
JC: How highly do you value the actual experience of photographing as opposed to just simply documenting that experience?
IB: I don’t make any distinction between photographing and documenting. I guess I don’t care about photography in itself. Only the subject matters. I’m totally against photographers who say that “the important thing is not what is photographed, it’s how it’s photographed”.
JC: Who are some of your photography heroes?
IB: Hara Mikiko, Wolfang Tillmans, Larry Clark, Shomei Tomatsu, Eugene Richards, Todd Hido.
JC: What did you have for breakfast this morning?
IB: I didn’t have anything, I woke up at 1pm.
JONATHAN CHERRY: What time did you wake up today?
SE YOUNG: 7:00am
JC: What did you have for breakfast?
SY: Fresh summer peach, roasted twig tea & a handful of almonds.
JC: Who are your photography heroes?
SY: Anyone who isn’t following trends. Lone rangers. Contemporary photographers with an old-school eye. People whose work has longevity. Image makers that demand more from your eye and mind.
JC: Has something inspired you in the last 48 hours? If so, what and why?
SY: My mother’s strength and beauty. No, really. Enough said.
JC: What is your current project all about?
SY: Well, I’m currently working on a few seriously and have many ideas in the wings. The most flushed-out project is titled, Somewhere Between Here and There. This series explores different notions of what “home” can be and finding the common thread that ties all of those places together.
JC: How highly do you value the actual experience of photographing?
SY: The physical, tangible experience is sometimes a bit stressful for me in all honesty. There is a sort of ritual aspect that I quite like at times. Not to make it sound too serious, but by making images in a continuous way, you fall into some kind of pattern or groove. I also use it as a way to exercise and work out thoughts, so that becomes very therapeutic.
JC: What is in store for you photographically over the second half of 2010?
SY: Hoping to start a zine/project space/blog with a friend between Seoul and Tokyo. Wanting to do some more travel throughout Asia and get inspired. Changing up my process a bit and keeping image making a bit looser. Making connections and collaborating with people whose work I admire.
JC: What does photography mean to you?
SY: It’s definitely always evolving. In school, photography meant studying and learning more ways to develop a skill set. The dialogue of critique was also essential in finding a voice and a way to express certain concepts. After that, I struggled with photography because I don’t feel like I define and limit myself by it. I’m not one of those people who eat, sleeps and breathes it - and for awhile I felt guilty because of that. Now, I feel like I’m coming to a place where my images and thoughts are coming together in a more cohesive way. I’ve found a way for photography to work for me.
JC: Any other thoughts?
SY: I’ve recently connected with many amazing and supportive photographers through the internet. I sound like an old woman saying this, but there is really no limit on who can access your work. It really levels the playing field and gives people a voice who maybe normally wouldn’t be able to get their work out there. It also makes the community seem much more intimate, but the sheer volume of great work is also daunting at times.
Se also has a tumblr.
JONATHAN CHERRY: What time did you get up today?
SARAH GRAVES: I got up around 9 this morning and my cat immediately came over from his spot at the end of the bed to purr in my ear.
JC: Who are your photography heroes?
SG: Sally Mann, Elinor Carucci, Emmet Gowin, and Mona Kuhn. I have also been inspired by Bo Bartlett’s paintings and by folk music.
JC: You seem to have a dream like quality to some of your work - where do you draw inspiration from?
SG: While I was working on this project, I was reading Grimm’s Fairy Tales and drawing heavily on the more obscure stories that had been read to me as a child. I didn’t want to make connections that were too literal; I think ambiguity is much more powerful. I definitely have a completely different appreciation of “The Juniper Tree” as an adult.
JC: In your opinion what makes a successful portrait?
SG: Light is everything, in any photograph, and especially in portraiture. That said, I wait for the subject’s face to have a certain expression before taking the picture. I shoot with a large format 4x5 camera, so often this involves setting up the shot and simply waiting until the “decisive moment” occurs. Most people feel uncomfortable with a camera’s lens directed at them. They freeze or flash a goofy smile or just end up looking very uncomfortable. You have to wait for their face to relax back to the way they look the other 99% of the time.
My sister is my little muse, who I photographed throughout this project, and she has an incredible gaze. I think that’s the other part of portraiture - I occasionally encounter people who I am drawn to photograph. I think you have to follow your instincts when it comes down to it. I’ve begun projects before with no plans but to photograph a certain person and a body of work came out of it that I never could have planned.
JC: Have you discovered anything significant about yourself or your practice through the time of your studies?
SG: Everything I photograph is hugely personal. When I have done portrait projects focusing on other people, the themes running through the images always point back to me, forcing the subject to become merely a stand-in for my own memories, fears, and desires. Every photographer brings parts of themselves into their work, even friends of mine who photograph idyllic landscapes where it is difficult to see anything of the person in the images, unless they were to talk about them.
I guess I’ve also realized I often go for shock value in my work, but I try to keep it under control. Maybe I just have a good sense of what will elicit a response.
JC: What is your recent body of work all about and how did it develop?
SG: At the beginning, I had the intention of documenting a view of childhood innocence (and its loss), and the sense of wonder about the world where grownups live and interact. Drawing from the stories of classic fairy tales, with their themes of identity, mortality, growth, and decay, I created a narrative focusing on one young girl. The images study her physical self, as well as serving as windows into her states of mind. As the project progressed, I became attuned to its allusions to danger and to life’s fragility. It is a recalling of the time before our imaginings give way to the senses of self and reality that constitute maturity.
The more I grow up and read more Freud and become worldly (HAHA) I think I realize how everything seemed forbidden when I was young. So in a way I took this work to the extreme and explored what scared me as a child, and what I was scared of but drawn to nevertheless.
I set out to document the process of girl becoming woman, or becoming teenage girl at least. I was picturing a woman on the verge. In hindsight I realize what I was probably imagining was Sally Mann’s “At Twelve,” but the project became so much more than that. I think I found my own voice and established a style that is uniquely my own and not so much a regurgitation of my heroes.
JC: Whats next?
SG: I’d like to turn my lens to the opposite sex. I think there is a lot we can learn from each other. I may have exhausted the female photography theme, at least for the moment.
JONATHAN CHERRY: Where are you from and how did you get into photography?
BOGDAN RADENKOVIC: I am photographer from Serbia, and as a kid I always wondered to have machine that will ‘store my emotions’. In war “99 I found out that this machine is actually a photo camera. Mr. Bozidar Vlatkovic, museum photographer from my town later taught me the basics of camera usage, developing films and aesthetic principles. I also learned about art forms from my father and all the books I used to read then.
JC: What is your project bed after dreams all about?
BR: If I could literally explain it I surely wouldn’t take those photos. It’s rather emotional. I wanted to express the relief of bed as a link between dreams and things that really happened or are going to happen.
JC: Who are your photography heroes?
BR: Umm, lots of them - from fathers like A. Adams and H. C. Bresson to Stephen Shore, William Eggleston and finally Brian Ulrich, Louis Perreault and other contemporary artists. I find inspiration also in Sartre’s (see ‘La Nausee’), M. Krleža and Nietzsche’s books, Mahler’s symphonies and Wagner’s operas.
JC: What does photography mean to you?
BR: I see photography as a medium between the artist and his work - It’s not important if you paint, make music or movies, shoot film or digital it’s only important what you feel and what you create. I love photography because it always shows the ultimate reality, but it allows infinite interpretations.
JC: What is next for you photographically?
BR: I love to do it without definite plans - I have an idea about one or two books and a few new projects.
JC: Any other thoughts?
BR: Those final thoughts always sounds like a cliché to me.
