„Fuck the midtones“ – How to make a book with Steidl

This Thursday for the first time on tv: the german documentary “How to make a book with Steidl”, Thursday night, 04.10.11 at 3sat.

“How to make a book with Steidl” is a documentary on Gerhard Steidl and his work as a printer and publisher in the art and photography world. The film was awarded the “Golden Dove” and received positive reviews so far, so I’ll definitely see that one!

Watch the trailer on http://www.howtomakeabookwithsteidl.de/file/Trailer.html, buy the dvd here.

Best moment of the trailer: Steidl discussing proofs with a (famous) photographer, who seems to be worried about the midtones of the pictures. Steidl’s reaction: „Fuck the midtones“

Read more here.

Dan Winters – Interview and new website

Austin (TX) based photographer Dan Winters has a new website with loads of new photographs and drawings I haven´t seen before. Such a pleasure to browse through his website. I think he is genius.

There is also a long interview with him at fstopmag. What I admire most is with how much passion he works on every single detail of a photos shoot (see the interview>Will Ferrel Shoot). Also interesting that he produced short movies with Ferrel for the Ipad version of Wired. Would love to see these.

If you are interested in his work here is an older post when is book came out last year.

UPDATE

There is a good multi media site at Flypmedia about Dan Winters. Here a video with the photographer:

Christoph Bangert radio interview

A bavarian radio station made a longer interview with photojournalist Christoph Bangert, but unfortunately it’s in german only. I once met Christoph in New York and what I like most about him is that he is a not only a good photojournalist with a lot of energy but also a really nice and likeable guy.

Some more Garry Winogrand videos and quotes

I did a post earlier on Winogrand (here) and everytime I see new videos of him working I am amazed again. He did many great pictures (and some of you might now that I’m hard to please with photo journalism / reportage style – but maybe he was just a documentary photographer?) though maybe even more his attitude, the way he works, the way his passion for photography dominated his life impresses (and shocks!) me most. He did what he had to do, and though it’s not easy to live a life like that it was probably the only way for him.

You find a transcription from both videos via this post at 2point8 blog.

Here are some quotes:

“I don’t lay myself down on the couch to figure out why I’m a photographer and not this or that. Whatever it is, I can’t seem to do enough of it. It’s a pleasure.”

“I think that there isn’t a photograph in the world that has any narrative ability. Any of ‘em. They do not tell stories – they show you what something looks like.”

“The nature of the photographic process – it is about failure. Most everything I do doesn’t quite make it. The failures can be intelligent.”

 

Related to the first Winogrand videos, see also this one of Joel Meyerowitz, with german comment only.

 

Juergen Teller Lecture Video / WTJ Blog

Especially when you are interested in editorial and portrait photography, Andrew Hetherington’s Blog WTJ (whatsthejackanory.com) gives good and amusing  insights, also with a focus on what’s going in in NYC. Andrew went to a lecture with Juergen Teller and filmed it – it’s quite long but also very interesting. I especially like the moment  Teller says that when he started out, a magazin (don’t remeber if he said FACE or ID) paid him 100 £ per page, and to reduce costs, he bought a 35 mm film (that’s what he still shoots) with only 12 exposures which forced him to work “very precise”.This guy really knows what he wants.

miad-fa382.blogspot.com / Lots of links

I found this blog where students from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) collected tons of links to interviews and blogs. Seems to be a good place to start browsing through the photography world!