Photographers you have met

[KevinR]

Craig mentioned something about Annie Liebowitz and it got me thinking.

Who have you met and/or got a chance to talk to? And if they made an impression, good or bad. What was it?

I was shooting an event at the University of Detroit/Mercy and I got a chance to sit down and talk with Tony Spina. He was the chief photographer for the Detroit Free Press, and won a Pulitzer for his images of the race riots in the 60's. He had published I think 6 books. A number of the Pope's pictures people saw when he was in the U.S was his shots. Anyway, he was a really cool guy to talk to. He very much stressed education vs. learning on your own. Although I am not big on photojournalism, he really inspired me to go out and produce better work.

So let's hear your stories.

 

[danalec99]

Anyway, he was a really cool guy to talk to. He very much stressed education vs. learning on your own.

What was his stand on this, if I may ask?

 

[KevinR]

He really felt that people should go to school for their BA. For not only the education, but for the maturity.

 

[Mumfandc]

Two months ago I met portrait/still life photographer Joyce Tenneson (http://www.joycetenneson.com/). One of her famous books is "Wise Women". She's photographed on assignment Jodi Foster, Salma Hayek, Marisa Tomei, Isabella Rossellini, Demi Moore, Rudolph Giuliani, Sir Ben Kingsley..some others.

I was walking back to school with a friend during lunch break, and she was in front of the campus with a backdrop photographing some girls. My friend then tells me that she was photographed by "that woman" yesterday. I tell her that's Joyce Tenneson, I knew her work from a lot of photography books/catalogs I have, and also from an article when she was titled one of the Hasselblad "Masters" (even though she was shooting with a Canon 1ds MKII!). Anyway, this time my friend had her baby with her, so Joyce took some more photos of her w/the baby.

It was great seeing her work with her assistants and all. I think they were doing a documentary video of her workflow, there was a crew with a videocamera. She turned to me and introduced herself, I told her I knew who she was.

 

[craig]

After 18 years in NYC; I have to say that my proudest "photo greats" experience was during this years (spring) Photography at the Summit. http://www.photographyatthesummit.com/. I had a portfolio review with my personal hero Jay Maisel. Long story short; he did not find my work exciting. I am also proud to say that I worked in the same studio as Polaroid's traveling 20x24 camera.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Have met, worked with, known, or got drunk with:
Tim Page
Don McCullin
Ed White
Andy Earl
Brian Griffin
Karena Perronet-Miller
Nick Knight
Bruce Brown
John Swannell
David Bailey
Graham Ford
Bill Brandt
Fay Godwin
Norman Tudgay
John Blakemore
- and many others I have forgotten, unfortunately.

Used to have postal discussions with Les Krims too...

(If it seems a lot it's because I studied Photography at Bournemouth: http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa120400b.htm)

 

[Hertz van Rental]

I've thought of a few more but I'm not going to post them - I think I already killed this thread. Sorry!

 

[KevinR]

I guess I was looking for a good story behind one of these meetings. Whether you came away learning anything interesting or just a much better experiance than you expected. Or maybe they where just a-holes. Something like that. Hopefully the thread isn't dead yet.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Where do I start?
Some of those people I knew for years and a lot of the stories I could tell couldn't possibly be made public here.
Griffin told me that some of my pictures made him horny....
Norm Tudgay was Principal of Bournemouth Art College when I was there. He was a lovely man. If his office door was open you could just walk in and he'd stop whatever he was doing to have a chat. Always came to the student parties as well (it was rumoured that you would fail your course if you didn't invite him) and he was good company to get drunk with. I remember crawling home along a gutter with him once...
About 5 years ago I got in touch with him again, just in time for a retrospective (he was a painter before he became a photographer) and I saw a lot of his pictures - none of which I had ever seen (or even known about) when I was at College.
Turns out he was one of the first people into Nagasaki after the bomb, taking pictures for the British Army.
I think I was very privileged to have attended a College he was in charge of.

 

[craig]

Jay is in his 70's and definitely from Brooklyn, NY. It was little like being at SVA again. His crits were like "what the f¨ç? you mean you don't know? you took the the f¨ç?ing photo". A lot of questioning every detail in the frame. That part inspired everyone.

So; I have my personal review. I brought every thing I printed in the last year. I had 12 matted prints that I thought we could talk about. He liked the fact that I brought prints. A lot of people had their Powerbook's and he is not so computer savvy. He blazed through them in 12 seconds. I went to show him the rest my work and all my 4x6 prints literally went flying. He was not impressed. He said if you have to ask "what is that?" you kill the photo. He shot down my favorite Antigone (garden sculpture) photo; "you can't take pictures of someone else's art. Then he said "nothing excites me here. What excites you about these?" I started to spill form and colour and he was not having it. The whole deal lasted less then 10 minutes.

The other students nick named him "Simon" (from American Idol or what ever). On one hand I am challenged by exciting the viewer. Who wants to hear "good photo" anyway. On the other hand; just because you went to Harvard and knew Alexi Bodovitch does not make you the greatest photographer ever.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

I first met John Blakemore in the late 70's when I was trying to get into Photography College.
He was one of the lecturers at Derby College of Art.
My interview there was a disaster. The course was run by Euan Duff - a photogtapher who was stuck in the 60's. He and his acolytes sat around me in a circle and proceeded to tear me and my work to shreds. Blakemore was the only one to show any interest but the others kept shutting him up. He wanted to talk about my pictures (at the time I was experimenting with the new colour Xerox photocopier machines and using them to print my photos - it was a novelty then) but the others were just interested in rubbishing me.
More than ten years later I was suffering a crisis in my work (and in me). I remembered John and his attitude at the interview, and on impulse I 'phoned him up.
He didn't remember me (why should he?) but he invited me to his house and we spent the best part of a day talking about Photography. I showed him my work and he was complimentary and very helpful. Then he showed me what he was working on - and asked my opinion. He took my comments seriously and we spent a lot of time discussing my ideas and point of view. He introduced me to a lot of critical theory and many new photographers.
I learned more about Photography and looking at photographs in 5 hours than I had in 10 years.