Process Driven

Kristopher Matheson is a photographer living in Tokyo after leaving Canada for a teaching position that was only supposed to last six months to a year. Twelve years later, he’s still there and has made Tokyo his home, at least for now. I was introduced to him through the terrific photos he began to post in the On Taking Pictures Google+ group. His images showed a side of Tokyo that I hadn’t really seen before – his composition and use of color made the photos somehow more personal and intimate, despite the fact that people are virtually absent from them. Kristopher and I have become friends over the past several years through calls and emails that are sometimes frequent, sometimes sporadic. But regardless of how often we talk, it seems like every exchange ends up being a slice of a larger ongoing discussion, where questions are raised and sometimes answered and rabbit holes are explored, often over the course of several interactions. CONNECT WITH KRISTOPHERWebsite: https://www.krismatheson.comInstagram: @kris

There’s a saying in photography that goes “pretty light plus a pretty subject equals a pretty picture.” And if you believe that, then you might be tempted to form an opinion about who Gareth Lewis is based solely on the provocative nature of his portfolio, but you’d be wrong. After booking a one-way flight from his native London to Australia, Gareth found himself a stranger in a strange land. Before settling in Melbourne, he spent the first year driving over 24,000 kilometers exploring Australia in a “Miami White” station wagon. Along the way, he picked tomatoes, clipped mandarins, and even did a brief stint as a jackaroo before eventually finding his way to a camera. CONNECT WITH GARETHWebsite: http://www.garethlewisphotography.comInstagram: @garethlewis MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Joshua K Jackson is a terrific street photographer from London. On paper he’s relatively new to the genre, but his already stunning body of work is every bit as compelling as those by some of his photographic heroes. Though Josh is quick to point out that he still has a lot to learn, his dedication to photography as both an art and a craft is immediately evident in his use of bold color and superb composition to communicate mood and narrative. While he often leaves the house with any sort of expectation or agenda, he says that the energy and buzz of the city is like fuel to keep shooting, especially since you never know what the scene could be just around the next corner. CONNECT WITH JOSHWebsite: https://www.joshkjack.com/Instagram: @joshkjackTwitter: @joshkjack MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine about Process Driven and he asked me why I did the show. Not from the standpoint of having the conversations, but rather why release them into the world. “What do you get out of it?” he asked. As I thought about it for a bit, I really couldn’t come up with an answer—no one that was coherent anyway. I’ve been thinking about it ever since—a lot—and I think I’ve come up with an answer—at least a partial answer and that it this. Throughout my life there have been a handful of people—and I’m talking about people other than family—who have taken an interest in me that went above and beyond what was expected and as a result of that interest, either subtly or dramatically altered the trajectory of my life.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSSIn addition to being an incredible film director, Stanley Kubrick was also a photographer. A new book called Through a Different Lens showcases around 300 of Kubrick’s images, many of which have never been seen publi

Simon Baxter is a fantastic landscape photographer from the north of England who I was introduced to by Sean Tucker. There’s something about Simon’s photographs that goes beyond light and composition and draws the viewer into the scene, rather than simply holding us at the periphery. Simon’s passion for photography and his connection to the local woodlands where he photographs are obvious from the moment you look at his body of work. What may not be obvious, however, is the amount of pain Simon often has to endure in order to produce them, and how none of it would be possible without a labradoodle named Meg. CONNECT WITH SIMONWebsite: https://baxter.photosYouTube: SimonBaxterPhotographyInstagram: @baxter.photos MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Kent Hall is tough to categorize. On one hand he’s a photographer who makes books. On the other, he’s a collage artist who makes books. But he’s also a poet—and yes, a poet who makes books. His fascination with the mundane and the detritus of modern life are the raw materials for much of what he creates and whether he’s being inspired by film or literature or simply watching the city move around him, his growing body of work gets more and more interesting with every new expression. CONNECT WITH KENTWebsite: https://www.kent.lyInstagram: @windsorknot MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Lately I’ve been seeing, or maybe just noticing, the word “iconic” as a means for makers to describe their own work—“my name is so and so and I make iconic portraits of whatever…,” and I’ve got to tell you, I’m having a hard time with how it’s being used.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSSThe Atlantic posted a terrific article on how the “Nifty 50” became the goto lens for many photographers.If you’ve ever thought about making your own photo book, you’ll want to check out this PDN article on the art and process of sequencing your images for photobooks.If you love model trains and miniatures, here’s a fascinating documentary about two brothers who quit their jobs to create Miniatur Wunderland a massive miniature city that has become the most popular tourist attraction in Germany.Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

One of the biggest struggles as a maker, regardless of what it is that you’re making, can be finding meaning in what you make. Whether you’re a painter, or a sculptor, or a writer, or a photographer, finding meaning in a particular project is often one of the obstacles that prevents us from starting, or can be one of the challenges to overcome in order to finish. As someone who spends a great deal of time talking to creative people, I often hear about projects at the poles, either early in the planning stages, or after the work has been completed, but rarely in the middle — which can be a challenge to talk about because there are often themes and ideas that haven’t quite come together yet. Oli Kellett is a street photographer from the UK who’s 18 months into a multi year project that brings him to America several times a year to photograph cities and the people who inhabit them.At its core, the project is about crossroads, but as you’ll hear in this conversation, Oli is still wrestling with the literal repres

Nick Mayo is a terrific street photographer from Grand Rapids, Michigan who is using YouTube and Instagram to build a platform centered around serving the photographic community and having an ongoing dialog discussing the challenges of making and sharing authentic work. His Two Minute Tuesdays for example are live weekly snapshots of some of the things he’s wrestling with not only as a visual artist, but also as a human being. In this conversation we discuss the value of revisiting a favorite location again and again and how being a little outside his comfort zone, is exactly where he likes to be. CONNECT WITH NICKYouTube: http://youtube.com/nickexposedInstagram: @NickExposedFacebook: @NickExposed MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

As much as I love artists like Rauschenberg, deKooning and even Boucher, the first artist I knew by name was Frank Frazetta. He painted worlds I had never seen before, filled with warriors being pulled by a team of polar bears, red eyed demons on horseback and beautiful scantily clad maidens. I poured over his books, meticulously copying my favorite characters. While it was great drawing practice, I wasn’t doing anything original. I had sketchbooks filled with Frazetta drawings, but not one that was a Saddoris.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSSI’m loving the work of Canadian illustrator Terry Edward Elkins. He has a terrific style that reminds me of vintage national parks posters and some of my favorite children’s book illustrators.Questlove is a monster. He’s the founder and drummer for the Roots, a DJ, a producer, a professor, and an author. As you’ll hear in this NPR conversation, he also has some really inspiring thoughts around creativity.Israeli photographer Natan Dvir was the win

Trying to make a living as a professional photographer is hard, really hard. You might get into it thinking that all you’re going to do is take pictures, but it doesn’t take long to realize that time with a camera in your hands is only a small part of a what’s required day to day. It’s even harder when you’re also working a full-time job. But Freddy Clark is doing the work. He’s taking his passion for photography, an encyclopedic knowledge of beer, and a background in IT and is steadily building a new career as a food and beverage photographer, and it all started at a small rock ’n’ roll radio station in the Poconos. CONNECT WITH FREDDYWebsite: http://santephoto.comInstagram: @santephotoTwitter: @santephoto MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Dutch street photographer Maarten Rots makes the kind of pictures that the graphic designer in me can’t get enough of. His purposeful compositions are made up of strong lines, bold colors, and subtle overlapping textures with just enough visual ambiguity to pull me in and ask myself, “what is that?” It’s the type of work that I seldom grow tired of and often find new details the more I look at it. In his self-published magazine March & Rock, Maarten’s work takes on a different dimension when it’s no longer confined to a phone or a browser and it’s exactly this project that I wanted to talk to him about. CONNECT WITH MAARTENWebsite: http://maartenrots.nlInstagram: @maartenrots MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Earlier today, Bill and I recorded episode 312 of On Taking Pictures and while I wouldn’t say it was our best show—it was a good show. I think every show is a good show for one reason or another. It was one of the more significant shows because of the number—episode 312. If you do the math, 312 marks the end of six years of doing On Taking Pictures every week and while I’ve talked in the past about what doing OTP has meant to me and what I’ve learned from it, how it has changed my life and the new friends I have as a result of it, those things are really byproducts of doing the work.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSSChristopher Burkett is a landscape photographer who uses a large format 8×10 film camera and discontinued Cibacrome paper to make stunning photographs of the natural world. Unfortunately, when Christopher runs out of paper, he will put away his camera and turn out the lights in his darkroom for the last time.Sanderson to Brackettville is short documentary made by filmmaker P

Sean Tucker is a photographer in London who I was introduced to by an On Taking Pictures listener who emailed me and told me “you have to see this guy’s work. I think it’s right up your alley.” He was right. Sean’s work is terrific, but it was his YouTube channel—how he approaches and speaks about photography and creativity—that was even more up my alley. As you’ll hear, Sean is honest, insightful, and the dedication he has to the craft of photography really shines through. We begin this episode at a point in the conversation where we were talking about some of the challenges commercial photographers face working with clients, specifically when your ability as a photographer to simply shoot the brief seems more important than having the talent and creativity to go beyond it. CONNECT WITH SEANWebsite: http://seantucker.photography/YouTube: Sean TuckerInstagram: @seantuckTwitter: @seantuck MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

I was introduced to Karl Taylor in 2010 when a friend gave me one of his photography training DVDs. Karl’s energy and enthusiasm for photography along with his incredible knowledge of how to make great pictures in virtually any situation really set him as my benchmark of what photographic training should be. He also has a brilliant way of bringing a fashion style and sensibility to commercial and product photography. Karl lives in the Channel Islands between England and France, and when he came to California in 2012 for a production, I got a chance to spend some time with him and his team in Long Beach and Joshua Tree and we’ve been friends ever since. In this conversation, Karl and I discuss the business side of creativity. I began by asking him to talk about how changes in the industry nearly forced him to close the doors of his studio earlier this year. CONNECT WITH KARLWebsite: karltaylorportfolio.comInstagram: @karltaylorphotographyFacebook: @karltaylorphotography MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) /

There are some photographs that just stick with you — images that once you see them, you simply can’t unsee. It happens across virtually all genres of photography. A single image, a particular project or an entire body of work seeps into our being and becomes a point of reference along an internal visual continuum. When I first saw the work of Nick Brandt, it was unlike anything I had ever seen. His photographs taken in East Africa transcended any wildlife photography that I had seen before. Nick is somehow able to photograph the souls of the animals, not just their image or likeness. In his newest body of work, called Inherit the Dust, Nick returns to East Africa to show how habitat loss as a result of population explosion and urbanization are dramatically changing the landscape and threatening biodiversity and the continued existence of species that roamed the plains of Africa for thousands of years prior to the proliferation of man. It’s a fascinating conversation and an incredibly powerful body of work. L

When I was a junior in high school I took my first photography class and one of the things we had to do before we got to shoot with the “real” cameras — in our case, they were Pentax K1000s loaded with Tri-X — was to build a pinhole camera from one of the round Quaker Oats boxes. And I remember thinking how incredible it was to see the simplicity of what photography is: light and time. Not even a lens — just a strip of gaffer tape covering a tiny hole in some tinfoil. But there we all were, toting our oatmeal boxes around making pictures. Then we would go into the darkroom and print little positive contact prints from the paper negatives and I’ve gotta tell you, it was alchemy. For us, the pinhole camera was just a stepping stone to get to use an SLR. In this episode, I’m talking to Jon Wilkening a photographer in Philadelphia who uses pinhole as his preferred platform for communicating his creativity. For Jon, pinhole is his tool of choice for expressing his point of view. Jon calls his work “the blurry midd

In the last episode, I had a conversation with Glenn D’Cruze from North Atlantic Explorers, who I was introduced to by a listener of On Taking Pictures. In this episode, my guest was recommended to me by one of my favorite photographers, John Keatley. A month or so ago I reached out to John and asked if he knew anyone who he thought would be interesting for me to talk to. He responded with two names, one of whom is my guest on this episode. Whether you know Tom Deslongchamp as an illustrator, an animator or even a ninja, he’s every bit an artist, both in the work that he makes and in how and why he makes it. In this episode, Tom and I talk about the importance of play, wrestling with labels and self-identification and his need to be in love with what he makes. LINKSJukabox – You Cried MeDavid ShrigleyNo Talking PlzCrayola MarkersThe Gift: Creativity and the Artist… CONNECT WITH TOMWebsite: tomdeslongchamp.comTwitter: @tomthinksInstagram: @tomthinks MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

In this episode, I’m doing something a little different. One of the goals I’ve had for Process Driven from the beginning has been to expand the scope of the conversations I have beyond visual arts as an exploration into how and where creativity overlaps, regardless of the discipline. In this episode I’m sitting down with Glenn D’Cruze, a Canadian musician who records under the name North Atlantic Explorers. I was introduced to Glenn’s music by a listener of my other podcast, On Taking Pictures who emailed and asked if he could send me one of Glenn’s CDs. I’m so grateful that he did. My Father was a Sailor is a gorgeous atmospheric homage to Glenn’s late father, who was an engineer on merchant ships in the North Atlantic during the 1950s. After his father died, Glenn embarked on a journey of his own that ultimately took him from his home in Vancouver to the seas sailed by his father nearly six decades earlier — and it all began with a pair of drum sticks and a stack of cardboard boxes. LINKSBBC Shipping Foreca

A few months ago, I attended a talk that Dan Winters gave at the Smithsonian and one of the things that struck me straight away was the language he used to describe his relationship to his work. I’ve been a fan for years and own a few of his books, but I never had the opportunity to hear him speak before. There’s such emotion and romance in how he relates to his work, especially in the making or the doing as he calls it. Words like “reverence” and “gratitude” are used often and as you’ll hear in this conversation, these aren’t simply buzzwords. They apply equally whether he’s shooting a campaign for a client or walking by himself through the streets of New York with a 50mm lens and a few rolls of Tri-X. There’s an incredible authenticity to Dan that seems to pervade his entire life, from the work that he does to the people and things he surrounds himself with. I began by asking Dan where his love of making began and how he stays connected to it 30 years in. LINKSKazimer MalevichChris CallisHarry CallahanW. Eu