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10 minutes with Mike McGregor

21 Jan

When did you first know that you wanted to be a photographer?

I grew up around an antique camera collection and took photography in high-school – the impulse to create images has always been present. That said, being from the suburban Mid-West it never occurred to me that being a photographer that shot something other than senior portraits was a possibility. I went to Montana State to study engineering and after my freshman year I realized I did not want to live that life. At the same time my 101 photo class had opened my mind to all the possibilities that exist for professional photographers so much to the horror of my mother I dropped engineering and dove into photography.

 

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

 

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Who were some of the first photographers that inspired you? Is anyone new catching your eye today?

My junior year of high-school I happened upon a Gordon Parks retrospective and it blew my mind. The way he was able to uniquely celebrate the dignity in everyone he photographed made me realize the possibilities of the medium. His shots from the Harlem Riots were hung next to Dior couture and yet everything felt perfect. The show was full of huge gelatin silver prints you could just swim in and c-prints with a palate I had never seen. I left so excited I would say he single handedly caused me to start consistently shooting and opening my eyes to everything around me.

 

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

What are some of the best, and hardest, parts of being a photographer?

I make a living photographing the people who are shaping our world. It is amazing really. On a daily basis I am thankful for the opportunity to have my challenges be creative ones and not the pressing issues that 99% of the world face. However, it takes a certain type of personality to be able to accept a life with no security in an industry that is rapidly evolving. It’s funny being a photographer in NYC because everyone here is a photographer but there are only so many jobs out there. You have to set yourself apart, deliver consistently, and not be a pain. Creatively, keeping my work evolving yet remaining tight and meaningful is something that I think about constantly.

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

 

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

If you could go back ten years, what advice would you give yourself?

It can be crippling to try to come up with a New Big Idea which as a creative we are always trying to do. I would tell myself to shoot more and think less. Actually, not think less, but concentrate my energies on developing and expounding on ideas that have already been shot and put to paper. Looking back, my best projects ended up in significantly different places than where they started and the only way to get to B is work through A. Hunter said it right; “Buy the ticket, Take the ride.”

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Mike McGregor

Any words of wisdom for the up and comers?

A big part of what you are doing to cultivating relationships and it helps to empathize with your clients. Realize how much work went into any good assignment before it is handed to you and thus how much pressure that art buyer / photo editor is under to produce. Respect their time. Come to the table with ideas and be willing to let go of them if they are really off for what your client needs to achieve. Make sure that if you are asking people to hire you like a pro that you act like one. And more than anything make sure you love what you are doing because this is an amazing occupation and your love will show in your work.

 

(Mike is based in New York. See more of his work, here)

10 minutes with Moises Saman

14 Jan

When did you first know that you wanted to be a photographer?
 It was in the late 90′s, while studying Sociology in college. Sociology first opened my eyes to the world around me, and during that time i became fascinated by the coverage of the war in the Balkans. Early on I was drawn to the adventurous nature of bearing witness to far-away conflicts, and photography provided an excuse of sorts for being there. It was not until several years later that I started exploring photography as a means of self-expression.

 

Cairo, Egypt. July 2011.Egyptians on a street near Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. - Moises Saman

Cairo, Egypt. July 2011.
Egyptians on a street near Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. – Moises Saman

LYBIA. Outskirts of Zawiyah. March 9, 2011. A Qaddafi supporter holds a portrait of the Libyan leader as fireworks go up in the background on a soccer field in a suburb of Zawiyah where government minders took a group of foreign journalists to attend a staged celebration. - Moises Saman

LYBIA. Outskirts of Zawiyah. March 9, 2011. A Qaddafi supporter holds a portrait of the Libyan leader as fireworks go up in the background on a soccer field in a suburb of Zawiyah where government minders took a group of foreign journalists to attend a staged celebration. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Cairo, Egipto. Noviembre, 2011. Un manifestante durante batallas campales contra la policia egipcia cerca de la Plaza Tahrir. - Moises Saman

Cairo, Egipto. Noviembre, 2011.
Un manifestante durante batallas campales contra la policia egipcia cerca de la Plaza Tahrir. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

 

You have traveled throughout the world on assignment. Is there any one trip in the years that you have been documenting places, people and events that really stands out to you?
 Probably my first trip to Afghanistan in 2001. At the time I was not prepared to experience such a raw, beautiful and violent place. It was truly like stepping into a kind of Lord of the Rings setting for the biggest news story of my generation.

 

Moises Saman

AFGHANISTAN. Kandahar. March 2005. A boy covers his eyes during a sandstorm in the southern city of Kandahar. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

AFGHANISTAN. Kunar Province. March 2010. Afghan soldiers carry a wounded comrade into an American medevac helicopter after a Taliban ambush near the village of Tsunek, Kunar Province. - AFGHANISTAN. Kunar Province. March 2010. Afghan soldiers carry a wounded comrade into an American medevac helicopter after a Taliban ambush near the village of Tsunek, Kunar Province. - Moises Saman

AFGHANISTAN. Kunar Province. March 2010. Afghan soldiers carry a wounded comrade into an American medevac helicopter after a Taliban ambush near the village of Tsunek, Kunar Province. – AFGHANISTAN. Kunar Province. March 2010. Afghan soldiers carry a wounded comrade into an American medevac helicopter after a Taliban ambush near the village of Tsunek, Kunar Province. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

AFGHANISTAN. Marja, Helmand Province. March 2010. Marja's new district chief Hagi ZAHIR (far left top) meets with local elders in Marja's district center. - Moises Saman

AFGHANISTAN. Marja, Helmand Province. March 2010. Marja’s new district chief Hagi ZAHIR (far left top) meets with local elders in Marja’s district center.
- Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

HAITI. Port-au-Prince. January 18, 2010. A couple walks hand in hand through a devastated area in downtown Port-au-Prince, one of the hardest hit areas by the January 12th earthquake. - Moises Saman

HAITI. Port-au-Prince. January 18, 2010. A couple walks hand in hand through a devastated area in downtown Port-au-Prince, one of the hardest hit areas by the January 12th earthquake. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

 

With the demand for more and more images, and quicker turnaround, has your relationship to your work changed at all since the transition to digital photography?
I come from the first digital generation of photographers, and my background as a newspaper photographer got me used to the fast paced news cycles, but indeed the cycles keep getting faster and faster. As I grow older as a person and as a photographer I find myself resisting the idea of producing random images to just feed the machine, I am more interested in cultivating a body of work overtime on a region, or a single issue that I care about.

 

AFGHANISTAN. Golbahar. November 2001. Northern Alliance reinforcements arrive in the village of Golbahar north of Kabul to prepare for the final push to Kabul to retake the Afghan capital from the Taliban. - Moises Saman

AFGHANISTAN. Golbahar. November 2001. Northern Alliance reinforcements arrive in the village of Golbahar north of Kabul to prepare for the final push to Kabul to retake the Afghan capital from the Taliban. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

LIBYA. Tawerga. September 19, 2011. Debris from a Libyan Army tank destroyed by NATO bombing is scattered in the town of Tawerga, a village that used to be a Qaddafi loyalist stronghold and the staging area for attacks on nearby Misrata during the siege of that city. Tawerga is now a virtual ghost town as residents fearing reprisal fled during the rebel advance from Misrata. - Moises Saman

LIBYA. Tawerga. September 19, 2011. Debris from a Libyan Army tank destroyed by NATO bombing is scattered in the town of Tawerga, a village that used to be a Qaddafi loyalist stronghold and the staging area for attacks on nearby Misrata during the siege of that city. Tawerga is now a virtual ghost town as residents fearing reprisal fled during the rebel advance from Misrata. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

TURKEY. March 2, 2012. Along the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay Province. Under the cover of night a network of Syrian smugglers transport a family fleeing the violence inside Syria on a rowboat across the Orentes River, which marks a stretch of the border between northern Syria and southern Turkey. Since the start of the Syrian conflict in March of 2011 over 11,000 Syrian refugees have fled the country and are now living in refugee camps along the Turkish border. - Moises Saman

TURKEY. March 2, 2012. Along the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay Province. Under the cover of night a network of Syrian smugglers transport a family fleeing the violence inside Syria on a rowboat across the Orentes River, which marks a stretch of the border between northern Syria and southern Turkey. Since the start of the Syrian conflict in March of 2011 over 11,000 Syrian refugees have fled the country and are now living in refugee camps along the Turkish border. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

 
If you could go back ten years, what advice would you give yourself?
Read more, have a better understanding of the world around you, know when to slow down and take care of yourself, be more open-minded.

 

Cairo, Egypt. January 2012.A nurse and her patient inside a Muslim Brotherhood operated hospital in the Shobra district of Cairo. - Moises Saman

Cairo, Egypt. January 2012.
A nurse and her patient inside a Muslim Brotherhood operated hospital in the Shobra district of Cairo. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Tripoli, Libya. June 2011.Men inside a damaged house hit by a NATO airstrike in Tripoli, Libya. - Moises Saman

Tripoli, Libya. June 2011.
Men inside a damaged house hit by a NATO airstrike in Tripoli, Libya. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Cairo, Egypt. May 2012.The scene of clashes in the Abbaseya district if Cairo between supporters of the military and protestors demanding a return to civilian rule in Egypt. - Moises Saman

Cairo, Egypt. May 2012.
The scene of clashes in the Abbaseya district if Cairo between supporters of the military and protestors demanding a return to civilian rule in Egypt. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Cairo, Egypt. November 22, 2011.A protestor with a wound to the head is evacuated on a motorcycle from the front lines during clashes near Tahrir Square. - Moises Saman

Cairo, Egypt. November 22, 2011.
A protestor with a wound to the head is evacuated on a motorcycle from the front lines during clashes near Tahrir Square. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Tripoli, LIbya. August 2011.A Libyan tank destroyed in a NATO airstrike on the outskirts of Tripoli. - Moises Saman

Tripoli, LIbya. August 2011.
A Libyan tank destroyed in a NATO airstrike on the outskirts of Tripoli. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Tripoli, LIbya. August 2011.A Libyan tank destroyed in a NATO airstrike on the outskirts of Tripoli. - Moises Saman

Tripoli, LIbya. August 2011.
A Libyan tank destroyed in a NATO airstrike on the outskirts of Tripoli. – Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

Any words of wisdom for the up and comers?
Read more, have a better understanding of the world around you, know when to slow down and take care of yourself, be more open-minded.

 

(Moises is an Associate Member of Magnum Photos. See more of his work, here)

10 minutes with Muir Vidler

7 Jan

When did you first know that you wanted to be a photographer?

At university in Scotland in the 90′s I used to sit in the library and avoid writing my philosophy essays by looking at the photography books, so that got my thinking about it. The first books I really liked were by Weegee and Harry Benson.

 
Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Did you ever think of what else you might have done if for some reason photography hadn’t worked out?
Yes, and I still do. My brother’s friend is a coral reef farmer in Jamaica - I reckon I could do that, if the hours were flexible…
Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

 

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

 Can you tell me about your project Israeli Death Metal? Was this a personal project and how did you meet your subjects and get them comfortable with being photographed?
 
Yes it was a personal project. I’d heard about the upcoming Metalist Festival and got in touch with Oron Tanami, the promoter. Luckily  for me he turned out to be a friendly type who knew everyone in the Israeli metal scene, and he introduced me to some good people. 
As for getting them comfortable: most people are flattered by the idea of someone wanting to photograph them, especially if they’ve come over 2000 miles to do it, but it is something that naturally can make people feel a bit awkward, so I just try to create a relaxed atmosphere and  offer a bit of encouragement and praise. What I’m after is for people to feel at ease and act naturally. 
Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

 

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

 If you could go back ten years and give yourself advice, what would it be?
 
Enjoy the freedom of youth. My life and career have improved over the last 10 years but I’m not as free to dash around the place doing projects and taking risks. An earlier appreciation of that freedom would have been good…
 
Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

 

Muir Vidler

Muir Vidler

Any words of wisdom for the up and comers?
 
Shoot lots of pictures – the good photographers are all shooting a lot and working hard. And work out what people want and take it to them. If you want to work for magazines its unlikely that they’ll call you with a commission, but they all need content, so shoot something yourself that they might like and take it in to them. Its a cheap and easy way for them to fill up their magazine and you’ve got your foot in the door for future work…
 
(Muir is based in London, see more of his work, here)

10 minutes with Christy Lee Rogers

2 Jan

When did you first know that you wanted to be a photographer?

At an early age there was always this urge to create, mostly on a performance basis with my brother, then with painting, mixed media, poetry, filmmaking and then photography. So my love of photography came much later in my high school years when I was given my first camera.

 

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

 

 

Who were some of the first photographers that inspired you?

Surrealist photographers like Man Ray, although my biggest inspirations were and still are derived from music, poetry, lyrics and the world around us in the form of live pictures.

 

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

How did you come up with the idea to photograph your subjects in water, at night?

I’m from Hawaii and I loved water and wanted to be around it. The original idea was actually very simple and spontaneous. It felt organic and messy in a time when I was bored with shooting reality. I didn’t think much about the night time aspect, it just happened that way because I was a night person. The mystery of not knowing what would happen in water of course was exciting too. The results from the shoot were like nothing I’d ever seen before; ghostly and magical. From that point on I was obsessed with water as a medium and I threw everyone I knew in there so I could experiment; my mom, dad, brother, aunts, cousins, friends… anyone that would participate. For at least six years I experimented before I knew I was ready to release the first collection. Water just happened to be that element I was missing in my work up until that point.

 

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

 

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

Christy Lee Rogers

 

If you could go back ten years, what advice would you give yourself?

Trust yourself. Stop all pointless activities so you can do your art and be true to your vision no matter what anyone says.

 

(Christy is based in Los Angeles and Kailua, Hawaii. See more of her work, here.  If you happen to be in Paris, Christy is having a show of her work at the Galerie Joseph from January 10th – January 13th.)

10 minutes with Jeff Wilson

27 Dec

When did you first know that you wanted to be a photographer?
I took photojournalism in high school and fell victim to the old print-coming-up-in-the-developer trick that has lured many a young photographer into the craft, but I don’t think I ever considered it as a profession until my second year of college.  That was about the time when I started to look at photographs critically and really appreciate it as both an art form and as a possibility for the future, as well as the time that I started to meet people that had made photography their life’s work.  It just started to make sense.

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson

Screen Shot 2012-12-16 at 6.40.15 PM
Screen Shot 2012-12-16 at 6.41.26 PM
Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson


Who were some of the first photographers that inspired you, and who is inspiring you today?
Robert Frank was a revelation early on.  I don’t think I got it the first time I saw The Americans, but it was so intriguing I just kept looking until one day it clicked and I never looked back.  From there, I fell in love with the work of photographers like Gary Winogrand, William Eggleston, Bruce Davidson, Jacques Henri Lartigue, and Harry Callahan.  After I graduated from college, on whim I took a workshop in Santa Fe with Dan Winters.   That meeting eventually led to me working for him for 5 years and to an ongoing friendship that I count among my closest.  It was pretty humbling going out on shoots with him.  I realized at that point how little I knew about what it meant to be a photographer.  I would call Dan the biggest inspiration to me both then and now.  He’s endlessly, exhaustively creative.  A true artist.
Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson


Are you currently working on any personal projects?
I’m a big college football fan and I had been wanting to do a photo essay on the game day experience for a while.  I pitched an idea to The Alcalde, which is the alumni magazine of the University of Texas, to shoot everything except the actual game.  I ended up shooting at most of the home games for the year.  It was just published last month and I’m pretty proud of the outcome.  Currently,  I am planning a road trip along the east coast.  The area itself holds a lot of interest for me, and the solitude and the feeling of being a little bit lost are very inspiring.

 

Jeff Wilson - from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson – from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson - from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson – from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson - from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson – from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson - from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson – from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson - from the series Gameday

Jeff Wilson – from the series Gameday


What do you love most about living in Texas?
I’ve been a lot of places, some for extended periods of time, and no matter how great they are I am always happy to come home to Austin.  It has an overwhelming youthful enthusiasm and energy that carries into every aspect of its culture.  There is a pervasive feeling here that anything is possible for anyone with an idea.  It also has the odd quality of being a pretty large city, but you can still hit the road and in 15 minutes you are in the middle of nowhere.  Texas as a whole is so geographically diverse it is easy to be inspired visually by it.  You can go from dense urban areas to pine forests, to high desert, to the ocean, all in a days drive.  It’s changed a little bit for the worse in the last 10 to 15 years with the massive influx of people, but in my mind even at it’s worst its still better than anywhere else.
BULLETS AFTER BEING FIRED INTO A WATER TANK FOR BALLISTIC ANALYSIS - Jeff Wilson

Bullets after being fired into a water tank for ballistic analysis – Jeff Wilson

SELENA'S HAND-BEADED BUSTIER AND LIPSTICK COVERED MICROPHONE, TEXAS MONTHLY MAGAZINE - Jeff Wilson

Selena’s hand-beaded bustier and lipstick covered microphone – Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson


Any words of wisdom for the up and comers?
I’ve been asked that by people just starting out and I try to be as uplifting as possible.  Its pretty daunting. There are no roadmaps and most people in the business already look at you as a threat and would rather you just disappear off the face of the earth.  I would never pretend to understand how I got from point A to point B or how I will hopefully make it to point C in the future.  I know there’s a juncture at which preparation, hard work, and a little luck come together serendipitously and make things possible.  There are lots of very talented people who will never make a dent due to a lack of one or more of these.  I think the best piece of advice I could give at this point is that you will succeed the day you decide that failure is not an option.  That resolve is the only thing that will get you through the indignities you have to suffer in order to get through to the good stuff.  It’s what will determine if you become a professional or remain a tourist.

 

(Jeff is based in Austin, Texas. See more of his work, here)

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