AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER

The images you see here should come with a warning. Immediately provocative, they may haunt you long after you have stopped looking at them. Thrown into a line-up of other documentary photographers’ work, they are recognizable straightaway. Lyrical, engaging and foreboding all at once, they are a triumph of reportage and command me to find out more. The photographer has served his purpose. He has got me hooked and his obsession has become mine. And it is an obsession. Look at the images again. Can you think of any other way the creator Danny Wilcox Frazier could capture such heartfelt intensity? Coming straight off the back of an all-night edit for a book he is working on, Frazier is proud to tell me that this vanishing world is where he is from…

…This admission pleases me enormously. I am happy to hear that there are long-term documentary photographers such as Frazier shooting projects because they must; because they know the subject matter demands it. W. Eugene Smith – perhaps the greatest photographer ever – did it this way; often ignoring the demands of his assignments, much to the dismay of his editors, so he could give the issue before him the respect and gravitas it deserved. Frazier, who studied the arts, trained in journalism and then filmmaking, is more than prepared for whatever lies ahead. He has the eye, the curiosity and the indomitable spirit to succeed in the New World Order. Perhaps it is he and not his images that should come with a warning.

Hungry Eye Magazine, 2011

INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED PHOTOGRAPHER

Sean: Kurt, your wife mentioned earlier that you are spending a lot of time now photographing the Montana landscape. What are you trying for with these images?

Kurt: Oh, I am not trying for anything. What I do now, I do for pleasure. To be able to go out with a camera with no agenda is pretty special to me. I don’t feel I have to come up with a concept or reinvent photography now.

Sean: Do you feel you have already created iconic images of the American West?

Kurt: Hmm, let’s say up front you would assume too much that anyone would think I’ve done such a thing. I certainly don’t. I’ve never consciously searched for and photographed Americana. At best, I am a troubled and reluctant patriot, and the label I would least like applied to me is that of propagandist…

Sean: The images you created from that period are unforgettable. What was it like to be there and how were you received?

Kurt: Knowing there were no other photographers doing this and that I had this world to myself was tremendous fun. I could lose myself on these ranches and it was just beautiful; it was wonderful in fact. I lived with these guys. There were no barriers; I didn’t have to go to my hotel room an hour after my assignment was over. I lived the life and it became my foundation. I was seeing the world through the prism of people who were off the grid. I would do pictures just to collect them. I would do portraits just to collect them.

Hungry Eye Magazine, 2012

LA BASED PORTRAIT AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER

To tell a visual story well, the image maker must present to the viewer all of the information they require to make sense of the moment in the most economical way possible. From watching the way someone crosses a room in a single scene from a movie, to regarding the way a person may tilt their head awkwardly in a picture, the viewer is being given a moment’s chance to absorb the personality, the mood and the aesthetics of the character before them. To achieve the perfect moment, great filmmakers often draw from great photographers. They will focus the viewer’s attention on their character’s strengths and flaws when the character least expects it. Great photographers draw from great filmmakers when they edit live emotion down to the single most important and all revealing frame. Storytelling is all, but of course there are no rules…

…I imagine her poring over these moments, lining them up, and in doing so arranging frame after frame; in the same way a projectionist of days gone by might have lined up film in a movie theatre to ensure continuity. It is easy to forget that moving image is simply an arrangement of still images within an overarching narrative structure. Capable of capturing moments that reveal a great deal about her subjects, Dukoff is fortunate to have been blessed with a cinematic eye. Both her documentary and studio work is testament to that. And in much the same way she has allowed her stills photography and her career to develop naturally, I feel the move to archive her Polaroids is a subconscious step towards developing as a director. Completing this exercise will allow her to be inspired by her own work and for this inspiration to make its mark upon her moving images. For great storytellers, there is no going back, only forwards.

LA BASED PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILM MAKER

Sean: You are working on two feature films. Can you tell me more about them?

Anthony: The first film is Vlad, which is taking big steps forward. We are exploring cast, exploring budgets and locations. We have a script that we love and we are starting to take meetings about it with actors. It’s a big movie and will require a clever crew and schedule to work out how to film it all. We are talking about shooting in Romania, where there could be weather issues. For all we know, stuff could get locked off for six to eight months. The other film, Die in a Gunfight, is a smaller movie, which will be more mobile and shot faster. It’s set for the East Coast of America and we have a lot more flexibility as to when we can start it…

Sean: You have worked with sound on your music videos, but how do you feel about working with and capturing dialogue?

Anthony: When moving into features, there is an adjustment to working with dialogue and dialogue-driven material, but music is still really important to me when creating the mood. I was always fascinated by filmmakers who work with silence. Terrence Malik is known to do silent takes at the end of every scene, giving him this whole other layer to play with. Sound has always been an important element for me; whether it’s the sound of silence, music or dialogue. It holds the same place that light does for me; the addition of it, the subtraction of it or the shape of it.

Hungry Eye Magazine, 2011

LA BASED PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

Sheryl Nields is always on the move. My interview with her is arranged and then rearranged a number of times to accommodate her busy schedule, and when I finally manage to pin her down I find her excitable mood to be utterly infectious. Over the course of our conversation we talk Hollywood, discuss the gravity-defying phenomenon of short dresses in Las Vegas, house prices in London and the sad exile of her friendly neighborhood prostitute from Venice, Los Angeles, where she has lived for the past 16 years with her son Doss. When I do manage to steer her towards talking about her work, and in particular photographers shooting moving images, she tells me in no uncertain terms that it is the future of her industry.

…Nields’s strength as a photographer lies in her ability to adapt to rapidly-changing situations. I might even go so far as to say that she thrives on chaos. For as I feel I have come to understand her and her work, and prepare to say goodbye, she surprises by returning to the phenomenon that had her so amazed at the start of our conversation. “How do those girls in Las Vegas wear those dresses so short, where it’s one wrong move and it’s all out for everyone to see? Yet no matter what they do – bend over, sit down, stand up, dance – the dresses never move. How do they do that? They must have a secret weapon. You must discover what this secret weapon is.” With Sheryl Nields in motion, how can I do anything other than promise her I will?

Hungry Eye Magazine, 2011

STORYBOARD ARTIST AND FILM MAKER

Have you ever watched a movie and thought, “This doesn’t make any sense”? Have you said to yourself, “The storyline is flawed – parts of the film must be missing”? If so, you’ve probably blamed the storytelling and you’d be right. If you believed this to be the fault of the writer or the editor, however, you’d be wrong. Most likely the story leapt off the script and in the cutting room the editor worked brilliantly to inject whatever pace, energy, passion, drama, tension etc. the film required. No, the responsibility for its irksome lack of coherence rests solely with the director and the producer; both of whom most likely failed to storyboard the piece early enough in the film making process – if at all.

…For those film makers reading this who are still willing to take the chance of not storyboarding their next project, Buchinsky only has this to say: “If you are that short-sighted a director or producer that you are not using boards, I can only shrug my shoulders and say, ‘Good luck!’ When you are in post you will be wishing that you had. In this business you have to make the movie long before you make the movie.”

Hungry Eye Magazine, 2011

NEW YORK-BASED PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

“When shooting big groups or families, one of the first things you have to do is pick on someone. Find the person who has a big personality and can take it so you develop a rapport with the group. This unites everyone and they’ve got something to laugh about.” This may sound mercenary, but speaking to Jake over the phone I can tell through his cheeky laugh that this is an approach that serves him well. He is a people person. He has to be. How else could he have become one of today’s most successful portrait photographers?…

…The next time you are shooting a portrait, whether it’s an individual sitting or a group, remember to engage the subject. Get to know them, find out who they are and what makes them laugh or cry. You are the director and need to know how best to use the actors before you. Putting the subject at ease means you can distract them long enough to get the image you want, which means they will enjoy the experience and so will you, making it easier the next time around. Portraits are about the unique personality of the subject, but successful images are a team effort.

Photography Monthly Magazine

NEW YORK-BASED PHOTOGRAPHER

Looking at your immense volume of work, the images we’ve chosen are very graphic and I’d like to know how and why you developed that style. If you look at everything I do, it’s really a combination of three things: It’s graphics, it’s film or a combination of the two things – the filmatic graphic, I call it. What I mean by that is sometimes the shots are very simple. If you look at my shot of Tutankhamun’s Glove, I think that is very straightforward. If you had 10,000 photographers you could probably get as many as 9,500 or more of them who could take that picture. The thing that interested me was at that time nobody was doing anything like that, so it wasn’t that the photograph was exceptional; it’s not, in fact it’s straightforward. It’s a concept rather than being a wonderful photograph. It’s a wonderful object and the concept behind it is more important than the photograph. Monkey with a Gun is also a graphic and an idea…

…What was the idea for that? I have no idea. It just popped into my head. There’s an interesting article in the New York Times today about where ideas come from; they suddenly pop into your head. The article says there is probably a complex series of triggers in your brain where one thing leads to another and they all line up perfectly in the end, and you have an idea. Once I saw the image, I worked on achieving it. I thought there would be something interesting in it.

Professional Photographer Magazine

ICONIC PHOTOJOURNALIST AND FILM SET PHOTOGRAPHER

Imagine you want to write a film script documenting the life of American photographer Steve Schapiro. You might start with the moments he spent in the motel room occupied by Martin Luther King shortly after the civil rights campaigner had been assassinated. You could begin on the film set of TheGodfather while Schapiro was taking the now-iconic images of actor Marlon Brando, or perhaps the time he met US politician Robert Kennedy while following him on his 1968 presidential campaign trail…

…If I were to choose a scene to start the Film of Schapiro’s life, it would be the moments he spent photographing teenagers enjoying life on the beach at Coney Island. It is a gentle and happy time, and looking at these images offers a wonderful insight into the era. I am caught up so much in the spirit of the work, the colours, the tones and the players within the scenes, that my picture of the young, quiet, perhaps shy photographer making these images quickly fades away. Perhaps this is not the best way to introduce your lead character in a story, but then I remember this is what the images are supposed to do. This is the intention of the photographer and I think to myself, for a man who was never there, Steve Schapiro has witnessed a hell of a lot.

Professional Photographer Magazine

FILM MAKER BRINGING THE HOLLYWOOD APPROACH TO SHOOTING WEDDINGS

You have a storytelling background; talk me through the creative process behind a production.I want to figure out what was the most intense emotional point of the couple’s relationship: was it when they first met, was it the proposal or some moment after? Was there ever anything in doubt or in question in the relationship, which I can, in a tasteful way, blow up into a dramatised movie? I’ll find out what the story is going to be about. I’ll find out what the point of view is going to be – which of these two characters has more to lose in the story and make them the lead character…

…What do you think is the worst thing you can say to a subject when filming? You never give an actor the result, the emotion; for example, “be sad”. That doesn’t help an actor. A great actor will take that, understand it and filter it through their process and get to the emotion you want, but really if you are going to help them get to that place you work with them; if they are more of a traditional actor you can give them thoughts or action to help elicit that emotion. For great actors the theme is that once you have the material down and the lines memorised, your concentration should not be on the material, those words should just be coming out. So hearing this helped me to understand how to make adjustments if I wanted the material delivered in a different way, saying something to them to get them to adjust and not just giving them the result of what I wanted. There are a lot of huge directors who just say, “be sad”, there are directors who are craftsmen, they are cameramen, and then there are directors who are great theatre directors such as Sam Mendes. They really are actors’ directors and you will see great performances then.

Professional Photographer Magazine

NEW YORK SOCIETY PHOTOGRAPHER

You had a very successful career in the 1990s, but I have not seen as much of your work recently. I think what’s happened is that the industry feels the public wants a certain kind of image and that they lack a certain kind of sophistication. In the 1990s, you had a lot of magazines and editors that would take risks and run interesting pictures, whether it was black-and-white social commentary, reportage or an illustration or a photo story from a young photographer. Now, to my mind, it goes in two different ways. It’s either a kind of smile, say-cheese paparazzi colour shot where the subject is looking at the camera or it’s this type of portraiture that’s very influenced by Philip-Lorca diCorcia, let’s say, these art photographers who have trickled into editorial…

…I wonder if some commissioners today confuse the look of your work with the sort of images that news agencies, celebrities and their PRs don’t want to see printed. Perhaps it’s naivety, but a lot of times I think about these things and wonder why my phone isn’t ringing like it used to and I can’t quite come up with it. One thing is the whole black-and-white issue, which I kind of get. People say the public wants colour; colour sells and this is based on surveys we’ve done, but I just don’t think that should be as big a deal. I haven’t had this experience for a while, but there was a time when shooting celebrity portraits I would have to sign a form saying any picture I ever wanted to use from the shoot had to have approval. I was shocked by it. I had situations where the celebrity was being really crazily difficult and we just wouldn’t give them any coverage. Okay, the celebrity is protecting that image, but I don’t care how famous the person is; as a photographer, as a journalist I am providing them with free publicity. Am I successful in getting the types of pictures that are always wanted? I don’t know. Sometimes I am, but sometimes the client is going to have to run a picture because I have only that one image of Britney Spears as her security people were pushing everyone away. It’s not a Miles Ladin perhaps, but it’s why in the end I am hired really, to get the bone, like a dog gets the bone.

Professional Photographer Magazine

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER WITH THE TELEGRAPH NEWSPAPER GROUP

Talk me through how you came to cover the student riots in London. How did you get in the middle of it all? Another photographer from the Telegraph was actually covering the event from start to finish. I had been doing a portrait of somebody in Westminster, so I was hanging around in the general area and thought I would wander up and watch it as it went past Parliament. It was a very big march and I didn’t know where the other photographers would be. I thought I’d stick my oar in and have a little nose about. I was up by Parliament and a few of the kids had sat down in the middle of the road. I did a few frames of that; it was all very good-natured. I hung about there, wandering down to Parliament Square. There was not much going on, just lots and lots of people walking by. Not a great deal of police at all. Then, once the majority of the march had got past me, I received a text from my wife saying it was live on the news that the students were attacking Millbank and just as that happened I had a call from work saying could I go and check it out. I wandered up with another couple of photographers and before we knew it we were right next to the windows and main door where the police were trying to stop them from getting in…

…How is the relationship between the press and the police at the moment? It’s a lot better than it was in the past. I am vice-chairman of the British Press Photographers’ Association. Other members of the organisation have been going and talking to the police for the past 10 years trying to get them to understand we are allowed access to these things and they are not allowed to delete our pictures. Guidelines are drafted, but then the people on the ground are not told about them and there are still police officers who think they can come up and tell you to delete pictures from your camera. They need to be tuned in to what they can and can’t do. It’s a lot better, but it’s still not perfect, but I don’t know if it ever will be. That said the sergeant handling things at Millbank was absolutely brilliant. He was injured and had a cut on his face, but he remained very restrained. Hopefully the wind has changed and they realise they shouldn’t have a problem with us being there.

Professional Photographer Magazine

NEW YORK-BASED PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

“I want to photograph Margaret Thatcher. I bet she’d be a wonderful subject. I have this idea that I want to shoot her in a fish and chip shop. It would be her and the people behind the counter and some immigrant kids and some teenagers with their fish wrapped in paper…wait that’s my baby crying, can we continue in a few moments?” I break my telephone call with photographer Chris Buck so he can deal with his child. Chris and I have been discussing the unique way he sees the world. We’ve talked about actor Mickey Rourke, the Los Angeles Chief of Police and why he would love to  photograph actress Jessica Alba, but now I focus on Chris’s creative imagination and the source of his ideas. I wonder why advertising and editorial clients the world over consistently book him…

…Speaking of great locations I am reminded of the British setting Chris has chosen for Margaret Thatcher. It’s an image I want to see and I hope Chris has the opportunity. It would not be an easy process. He would have to clear it with the former Prime Minister and explain why he thinks it is a worthwhile picture. If approved he would then have to cast the other people he wants, but as Chris puts it, the contrast with her as this  conservative woman in contemporary London would be great. Even if the image isn’t as strong as I see it and Chris doesn’t use it, at least he tried. While it may fail as an image it should be seen as a success of the imagination. Dreaming the dream is the hardest step, learning how to make it reality is a close second, but who better to bring it all together than Chris Buck?

Professional Photographer Magazine

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER

Brian Skerry has spent more than a year of his life underwater. Over the last 30 years he has photographed beneath the frozen realms of the Arctic, in the shallow tropical waters of the Bahamas and throughout the deep oceans in between. He has been chased by a sperm whale in the Azores and lost beneath an ice pack. While in Canada he once surfaced to see his dive boat sinking. He later returned to the wreck in the vain hope that he could recover some of the camera equipment that went down with it…

…Through an addiction to underwater photography, a commitment to conservation and a passion for the oceans, Brian is able to capture enthralling images. I can’t help but wonder: are they taken with the eyes of a small boy growing up 40 miles from the ocean dreaming of what that world is really like?

Photography Monthly Magazine