DANIELLA ZALCMAN . PHOTOGRAPHER

Over at  L1GHTB1TES György László seeks out interesting photographers and interviews them to find out what makes them click, literally. Today we have DANIELLA ZALCMAN . Interesting multilayered images that insist you look at them to get some understanding, here is the start of the interview and some pictures.

Our lives are surrounded, flooded by images. All of these images have an impact on us, but only a few of them register consciously and give you that ‘aha’ sensation. Daniella’s New York + London did just that to me: there’s some playful immediacy about them, you’re drawn into a game of trying to guess where they were taken. At the same time, many of them take you floating above these cities, showing you the world from a dreamy, lonely, god-like perspective.
GL: How did you discover your method of digital double exposure?
DZ: I basically had no experience with double exposures before this project, outside of accidental composites in my film photography. A few weeks before I moved to London I stumbled across the Image Blender app and thought it was kind of fun, and so when I came up with the idea for New York + London it just clicked.
daniella zalcmann ny:lnd 1All of the photos for my New York + London project were taken very casually — in New York, they were taken with a twinge of nostalgia as I was preparing to pack up and move, and London they were taken through the eyes of a tourist, essentially, in my new home. None of the images were taken with composites or specific pairings in mind — that all happened organically. For this specific double exposure, the New York photo was taken while on an assignment for the Wall Street Journal on the 100th anniversary of Grand Central Terminal, and the London image was taken just around the corner from my flat in Pimlico. READ MORE HERE

ANNALISA BRAMBILLA . PHOTOGRAPHER

Here is another link to L1teb1tes by György László.

The more pictures I look at, the less I am able to say why I feel attracted to some images. Sometimes the answer is not so much in the image itself but in the emotional attachment that forms between me, the viewer and the photo. It’s a strange umbilical cord that ties me to what I see, it has the power to turn me into the photographer who took the picture.
GL: Two pairs of feet, one black and white, the other color, two pictures from two different series but there’s some playfulness and intimacy that they share…..read the interview with Annalisa here

BRUNO BOUREL . PHOTOGRAPHER

from  L1GHTB1TES another gem from György László

GL: Any image is a record of two roads crossing: the person behind camera walks onto the path of the person in front of it. How did this meeting happen?
BB: This picture was born like many others of mine, like almost all of them. First, I check out if something is happening today in the town (or in the world) I am living in. For the past almost 20 years this city has been Budapest. That day in 2004, Hungary was celebrating joining the European Union. Having lived here – at that time – for more than 10 years, I knew that e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e was waiting for this moment. A huge, festive weekend took place and I was out with friends and kids, strolling on the waterfront, on the Buda side. When I had the feeling that something was about to happen I stopped and waited and told my friends that we’d meet somewhere later. Ninety-eight percent of the time I am alone when I work, but I remember that this day, there were many of us around.
GL: The metaphor we use when talking about ‘capturing a moment’ is misleading in some ways. A moment like this is about the years, months or minutes leading up to it that get you ready, as a photographer, as an observer to capture it.
Bruno_Bourel_Jaszai Mari ter-2BB: This is very difficult to explain. This is maybe the essence of the medium. To reach that rare moment of grace where everything is (?!) or seems to be perfect, seems to fall into place for the structure of the image: light, composition, emotions and above all – for me – the strength of a picture to go beyond time, the particular date or year that it was taken. No relation to time, just an instant extended to a whole lifetime. I think an image could guide or live with you until you die!!!
One has to disappear in front of the model, being at the right time at the right place and being willing to share a human emotion. I think I am walking on a very thin line: many subjects and topics all guided by the light that surrounds me and the goal is to go beyond the surroundings and to show the inner light!!!
And yes this requires concentration, paying attention almost every minute while at work. After all, everything is in front of you, but you do have to pick it up!!!

 

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MIMI MOLLICA . PHOTOGRAPHER

György László at  L1GHTB1TES keeps finding gems to tantalise us with, this one is from his first post.

GL: Your pictures from Dakar are currently on display at the Somerset House in London. When I saw them I sensed a mixture of immediacy and formal discipline. How did you take these pictures?
MM: While working on En Route To Dakar, I was lucky enough to be mentored by Mr. Martin Parr, whom I like to call Mr. Martin. Once, as he was commenting on my photographs, Mr. Martin told me, to spend much more time on taking my photographs. “Mr. Martin, more than one hour per photograph?”, I asked. “One hour? Mimi, you must stay one day, one week, one month on a photograph… until it is good!”
So I went back to Dakar and applied the methodology suggested by him. This picture must have been taken in March 2008. There was this spot along the motorway, where a bridge was to be built, but at that moment people still had to just cross the highway to go from one part of Dakar to the other. Every day from early morning until the evening, commuters, school kids, vendors, women… Everyone was flowing from one side to the other and I thought this was pretty symbolic, important for my story, and mostly, it was visually compelling!
I waited in the middle of the carriageway and stayed there all morning and the day after all afternoon and the following day from morning until late afternoon and so on… I have a lot of photographs of people jumping across the highway. This is one I am quite happy about. I like the colors, and I like the posture of this lady imposing her elegant and eloquent figure on my frame.
GL: How do you get ready for such moments mentally? And how do you make sure that the image is going to be okay technically?
MM: Generally speaking, I believe in the photographer’s expertise to be able to catch volatile moments, to be able to render them universal in a photograph. This is what is exciting about reportage/documentary photography. Only by doing so can you maintain a good honest balance between you, the photographer, and the reality you are trying to capture.
It’s a bit like fishing. If you go out to the ocean, place a bomb into the sea, detonate it and then come and collect the dead fish, this is not what I call fishing, this is plain and simple mass murder! But when you go out and spend a day with your rod waiting for the good catch, not only you’ll feel more in balance with nature, but you’ll have thought a great deal during that day. That’s why fishermen and photographers are usually wise people, because they learn to observe and to listen. The means are as important as the end!
I am always aware of the moments I would want to catch with my camera, even if for some reason I do not have the camera with me. This is my natural attitude towards life. Yes, I do go to places where things are more likely to ‘happen’ but photographs are virtually everywhere!
As far as the technical aspect of capturing the right image, here you need some skills, you need to know your tools, you have to master your camera and be ready to capture the moment without hesitation. I must admit that I did loose a few photographs along the years, but this is also part of the game. If it is true that you learn from your mistakes, then I must be very clever by now!

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DANIELLA ZALCMAN . PHOTOGRAPHER

From L1GHTB1TES

New York + London 52, 2013
Our lives are surrounded, flooded by images. All of these images have an impact on us, but only a few of them register consciously and give you that ‘aha’ sensation. Daniella’s New York + London did just that to me: there’s some playful immediacy about them, you’re drawn into a game of trying to guess where they were taken. At the same time, many of them take you floating above these cities, showing you the world from a dreamy, lonely, god-like perspective.
GL: How did you discover your method of digital double exposure?
DZ: I basically had no experience with double exposures before this project, outside of accidental composites in my film photography. A few weeks before I moved to London I stumbled across the Image Blender app and thought it was kind of fun, and so when I came up with the idea for New York + London it just clicked.
daniella zalcmann ny:lnd 1All of the photos for my New York + London project were taken very casually — in New York, they were taken with a twinge of nostalgia as I was preparing to pack up and move, and London they were taken through the eyes of a tourist, essentially, in my new home. None of the images were taken with composites or specific pairings in mind — that all happened organically. For this specific double exposure, the New York photo was taken while on an assignment for the Wall Street Journal on the 100th anniversary of Grand Central Terminal, and the London image was taken just around the corner from my flat in Pimlico.
GL: With street and documentary photography we all have our methods of being (almost) always ready to take a picture. How would you compare your own attitudes and strategies when you’re shooting film, digital or on a smartphone?
DZ: My attitudes differ pretty dramatically depending on whether I’m working with film, a DSLR, or an iPhone. With medium format film I’m slow and thoughtful, with my DSLR I’m a little trigger-happy. The iPhone is somewhere in between — because it’s such an informal medium, I tend not to overthink framing and composition, which can be surprisingly freeing.
18My phone is almost always in my hand. It’s a horrible habit (born of spending many years as a spot news photojournalist in New York City and always being on call in the event of… pretty much anything), but it means I’m always ready. For New York + London I was a little less in street photography hunting mode because so many of these images are architectural and, thankfully, buildings are a little more forgiving than people.

 

Want to read more? Go Here

ANDREW MIKSYS . PHOTOGRAPHER

L1GHTB1TES is the blog place of our friend György László. He has the simple but wonderfully perceptive idea of talking to photographers whose work he likes. Every so often he finds someone that intrigues him and he interviews them. I recommend you make  L1GHTB1TES one of your regular book marks

GL: How did you meet this girl in this disco that more than anything looks like a set from a David Lynch movie?
AM: The problem with photography is that you never know what’s going to work in a picture and what’s not. I find it impossible to plan a good photograph. It’s more about getting into interesting situations and environments and then just seeing what happens. I asked this girl if I could photograph her. The location was kinda good because it was in the lobby of the disco and not too chaotic. Then I tried a few different things from photographing her standing near a wall and then near this column. When I was photographing, I can’t remember seeing all the guys in the background in leather jackets, but when I saw them on the contact sheet I thought the contrast between the girl and the them looked great.
GL: How long work you working on this series? And how did you know that you were done with DISKO?
Andrew_Miksys_DISKO_03AM: I spent about 10 years on and off working on DISKO. It was really difficult to finish the series. I wasn’t exactly chasing after individual photographs. There was something more in the mood and atmosphere of rural Lithuania on empty back roads that I wanted to come through in the book and in a series of photographs. At one point a few years ago, I decided to stop photographing and look through every roll of film and start choosing images that worked together. There were about 75 images that seemed to fit the them which I later edited down to 45 for the book.
GL: What attracted you to the disco?
AM: I like projects that have many layers. In DISKO there were the teenagers growing up in a new post-Soviet reality with more influences from western Europe and the US. But the discos took place in Soviet-era cultural centers that were basically unchanged since the days of the USSR. Past, present, and future were all mixed together in one room. Lots of material. Photographing was always a bit cumbersome. I use a studio style flash on a stand. It’s pretty easy to move around, but I was rarely out on the dance floor trying to photograph. Instead I worked around the edges.

Interested to read more, go here

L1GHTB1TES a blog worth checking out

I was contacted today by György László who wanted to tell me about his blog and having had a chat with György and had a look at his site I thought I just had to share it with you.

As he said to me his blog is a weekly photography blog that I started about three months ago. Every week I select a picture that I like (mostly street/documentary/portrait photography), sometimes from famous authors, sometimes from young photographers. And I talk to the author about the picture: both about the craft side (camera, lens, settings, etc.) and about the artistic side of those decisions. His choice of photographers and images to discuss is interesting and the interviews can be revealing. If you are interested in photography, and if you are reading this you must be, I would recommend you check out his site, it is very nice looking too

BRUNO BOUREL

JEFF JACOBSON

ERICA MCDONALD

Here is a sample of the interview with Erica

GL: How did you ‘meet’ the woman behind the window?

EMD: It happened close to the end of the time when I was working on The Dark Light of This Nothing. I had the bones of the series laid down but was out looking for the kinds of moments I had missed in the previous months. The woman just happened to be looking out her window – we saw each other and shared a moment.

The Dark Light was done as personal project. Up until that point I had been focused on the single image, and I had decided that I’d like to invest myself in a long-term story. Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey runs a site called Burn and he had been encouraging a group of readers to see what they could accomplish over a period of a month or so. I met with David and told him about a few of my ideas, and together we came to the conclusion that I should focus on this one; what was started as a month-long project became a several-year endeavor.

See more of this interview and read the others here

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