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plusDan WintersFlying BaByFrans lanting neW york nights meet matt eich20-inch taBletpanorama gear

Why would a big-time photographer use a phone on assignment?

Tim Flach talks about how and why he makes studio portraits of wild animals.

WeddingPhotographers

The aesthetics of an artist, the reexes of a sports shooter, the people skills of an Oprahand a big love for Love. Thats what it takes to be a top wedding pro today.

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A professional newspaper photographer for over 20

years, Reed began shooting digital in 1996 and is

an acclaimed digital expert who has helped nearly

50 organizations make the digital transition and

created countless photographic instruction and

workflow programs. A lover of the outdoors and

wildlife, hes covered everything from presidential elections to the

Super Bowl to Eco-Challenge adventure races across the globe, and

is a two-time winner of the National Press Photographers Association

Regional Photographer of the Year Award. A Nikon Mentor since 2000,

he has guided over 3- dozen treks, and hes impressed.

Mentor Treks are extraordinarily well planned, with a full and varied

itinerary. Everybody goes home exhausted but thrilled with what

theyve accomplished over several days, talking and living photography

with people on the same wavelength, and receiving personal one-on-

one critiques from friendly, accessible Nikon pro photographers. Its a

grand photo adventure that gives you precious time for exploration

and self-discovery, all while having a fun learning experience with

professional help always available. Two great things the China

participants came home with are a better understanding of control-

ling exposure and clearer concepts of composition, including framing,

foregrounds and backgrounds, and optimizing depth of field.

Were there to help people learn and grow, to better understand

photography so they can find their own great shots. The social element

adds another dimension to the experience because youre constantly

feeding off other peoples energy and ideas. You just might make

friends for life.

DAVE BLACKAn acclaimed sports shooter for over 30 years,

Daves dynamic images have appeared in such

iconic publications as Sports Illustrated, Time,

and Newsweek, and on the award-winning ESPN

show, Sports Century. Hes covered 12 Olympics,

countless NFL and NASCAR events, and his mastery

of specialized lighting is showcased in National Geographics moving

book on Arlington National Cemetery, Where Valor Rests. Ive con-

ducted hands-on workshops for over 25 years, says Dave, and this

Montana trek was one of the best. It gave trekkers from other regions

an authentic western experienceeverything from working ranches,

to Yellowstone National Park, to a real ghost town. As usual, the entire

event was superbly organized and we always seemed to be in the right

location at the right time to capture spectacular natural light.

One of the hallmarks of this program is that you dont waste time

youre usually busy making pictures, and when youre not, youre get-

ting great tips on photo techniques and technology that you then put

to immediate use to hone your skills. We covered light painting at two

different ranches and the cowboys and cowgirls we shot were working

ranch hands, not professional models. Anytime you can capture pictures

of real people it always makes the experienceand the imagesmore

authentic and meaningful. Another great aspect is the willingness of

the staff to stop when picture opportunities present themselvesthat

flexibility is priceless, especially in Montana where wildlife is so ac-

cessible. The camaraderie was exceptional, with everyone pitching in

to help fellow trekkers succeed. Best of all, these folks actually bring

home and use what theyve learnedas a mentor thats truly inspiring,

and its why so many people sign up for more.

LEARN FROM

NIKON MASTERS

WHILE TRAVELING

AROUND

THE WORLD

There is almost no better, faster way to enhance

your visual creativity, upgrade your photographic

skills, tap into the knowledge base of seasoned

professional photographers, and experience the

camaraderie and passion of fellow photo

enthusiasts than joining a Nikon-sponsored

Mentor Series Photo Trek. Acclaimed by experts

and participants as the most effective,

enlightening and enjoyable events of their

kind, they provide a unique hands-on learning

experiencea total-immersion course in

visual expression wrapped in a seamlessly

organized, carefree, once-in-a-lifetime

photographic adventure!

Mentored by approachable Nikon

professional photographers who share

their shooting secrets and priceless practical

tips, you will receive the kind of personal

one-on-one attention that will have you

shooting better pictures almost immediately.

You will also have the chance to use the latest

high-performance Nikon digital cameras with

legendary NIKKOR lenses, experience incredible

photo opportunities, and bring home images

to treasure forever.

What makes Nikon Mentors so special? Read

their amazing pro les and heartfelt comments

that follow.

REED HOFFMANN

Nikon D800 and D600 bodies, 16-35mm f/4, 50mm f/1.8, and 70-200mm f/2.8 VR Nikkor lenses SB900 Speedlight, Nikon Circular Polarizer, variable and graduated ND lters. When shooting wildlife, add 200-400mm f/4 VR Zoom Nikkor.

INSIDE REEDS CAMERA BAG

CHINA

MONTANA

Everybody goes home exhausted but thrilled with what theyveaccomplished over several days, talking and living photography withpeople on the same wavelength, and receiving personal one-on-onecritiques from friendly, accessible Nikon pro photographers.

One of the hallmarks of this program is that you dont waste timeyoure usually busy making pictures, and when youre not, youre getting great tips on photo techniques and technol-ogy that you then put to immediate use to hone your skills.

Nikon D4 and D800 bodies, 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 and 200-400mm f/4 Nikkor lenses, 2 SB900 Speedlights, Nikon SV-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander, graduated ND lter, (3X), circular Polarizer, SanDisk Extreme Pro CF cards.

INSIDE DAVES CAMERA BAG

Nikon 1 System: Nikon 1 V1 (now 1 V2) body, 10mm f/2.8, 18.5mm f/1.8, 10-30mm or 11-27mm f/3.5-5.6, 30-110mm f/3.5-5.6 in Nikon 1 mount, Nikon FT-1 adapter for mounting Nikon F-mount lenses. Alternate: Nikon D600 or D800 body, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8, and 70-200 f/2.8 VR.

INSIDE MARKS CAMERA BAG

PANAMA

DUBAI

The fun thing about a Mentor trek for me is that it takes a

learning experience and makes it fun and socialand when

you add travel, its a winning combination.

In the course of 4-10 days of intensive shooting with the prosyou have a unique opportunity to experience and explore amagni cent location in a safe and secure way while becominga better photographer.

Nikon D800 and D700 camera bodies, 16-35mm f/4-5.6, 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII, and 80-400mm f/4-5.6D VR Nikkor Zooms 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens, variable ND (3 stops) and graduated ND lters, electronic release, up to 5 SB800 Speedlights

INSIDE DAVIDS CAMERA BAG

For more information on Nikons digital

line-up, please visit nikonusa.com

WHERE ARE

WE GOING

IN 2013?

NEW ZEALAND

SAN ANTONIO, TX

WHITE SANDS, NM

CALIFORNIA COAST

SEDONA, AZ

UTAH

SOUTH DAKOTABLACK HILLS

GALAPAGOS

MONTANA

THAILAND

SCOTLAND

For more information,

and to sign up

www.mentorseries.com

MARK ALBERHASKYA retired physician, author, inventor, internationally

published, award-winning professional photogra-

pher, and esteemed educator, Marks experience

spans over 40 years, shooting subjects as diverse

as nature, wildlife, cityscapes, and peopleall with

a masterful use of light. Panama is remarkably

diverse, ranging from tropical rain forests to sprawling Panama City

to the historic Panama Canal, Mark recalls, and it was delightful to

cover it all with a Nikon 1 V1, a serious camera I could hold in the palm

of my hand.

The educational experience is seamless because the feature set is

identical to a DSLR, and Nikon even provided Nikon AW-100 cameras

so we could shoot underwater pictures in a mangrove swamp! The fun

thing about a Mentor trek for me is that it takes a learning experience

and makes it fun and socialand when you add travel, its a winning

combination. Trekkers are invariably enthusiastic photographers, and its

gratifying to show them how to see and use light effectively because

you can watch them evolve before your eyes.

Participants are given the priceless opportunity to pursue a non-stop,

dawn-to-dusk photo experience grouped with like-minded people

excited about making pictures. Everything is perfectly organized with

special access to spectacular venues at optimum times. The instructors

are all very knowledgeable and friendly, with an uncanny ability to con-

vey complex concepts one-on-one in simple language so you remember

what you learn. Their passion is contagious and thats one reason why

there are so many repeat trekkers.

DAVID TEJADAOne of Colorados most esteemed location photog-

raphers, David specializes in shooting iconic images

for the corporate annual reports of Fortune 500

companies, and has over 30 years experience in

creating visuals for graphic design firms and other

demanding clients. His work brilliantly integrates

exciting color, strong graphic composition, and a masterful use of light

to make the emphatic and memorable statements that define his style.

A seasoned educator, he has taught workshops all around the world.

Dubai is a great ice-breaker for Westerners traveling to the Middle

East, David observes, because it combines traditional Arab culture

with a vibrant Western influence. Our incredible itinerary included a

hot air balloon ride at sunrise, photographing Whirling Dervish dancers,

a Bedouin dinner in the desert, and shooting from the top of the Burj

Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Even more remarkable, while

taking in all these exotic sights, trekkers are busy meeting new friends,

shooting memorable pictures, and learning new skills from a variety

of accessible mentors, thereby increasing their joy of photography im-

mensely.

In the course of 4-10 days of intensive shooting with the pros you have

a unique opportunity to experience and explore a magnificent location

in a safe and secure way while becoming a better photographer. Youre

having so much fun youre on sensory overload, and everybody includ-

ing the mentors, goes home refreshed with new ideas and techniques

they can carry forward. Photography is always evolving and, as sea-

soned trekkers are well aware, its a great adventure.

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Ven

ice,

pho

to

Jacq

ues

Joffr

e / H

DRs

oft

March/april 2013

March/april 2013 aMericanphotoMag.coM 5

cover:

Matt M

iller. this page, from top:

tim

Flach;

Samm Blake.

Features

28 The Top 10 Wedding Photographers With the reexes of sports shooters and

the aesthetic skills of artists, the best

wedding pros bring their own sensibility

to the party. here are 2013s standouts.

BY aimee Baldridge

47 #iphoneonly in the brave new world of breakneck

news cycles and global social media

platforms, savvy photographers have a

new favorite tool: the smartphone.

BY travis marshall

54 Animal Insight We have no choice but to view animals

through human eyes. What do they

tell us about ourselves?

BY tim flach

On the cover in Matt Millers double portrait, bride

and groom Kendrick and David bring

a little Mexican spirit to their

wedding in St. petersburg, Florida.

28

54

This page: Tim Flachs portrait of Grace,

of the great gray owl (Strix nebulosa)

species; Samm Blake captures bridesmaids

helping the bride into her dress. Next page:

Alligator hunting near Shell Island,

Louisiana, 2009 by Matt Eich;

actor Colin Firth by Dan Winters.

SubScriptionS: American Photo (ISSN 1046-8986) (USPS 526-930), March/April, Volume 24, No. 2. American Photo is published bimonthly (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec) by Bonnier Corporation, 2 Park Ave., New York, NY 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY 10016 and at additional mailing ofces. Authorized periodicals postage by the Post Ofce Department, Ottawa, Canada, and for payment in cash. poStMAStEr: Send address changes to American Photo, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142; 386-246-0408; www.americanphotomag.com/cs. If the postal services alert us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. One-year subscription rate (six issues) for U.S. and possessions, $15; Canada, $25; and foreign, $35; cash orders only, payable in U.S. currency. Two years: U.S., $30; Canada, $50; and foreign, $70. Three years: U.S., $45; Canada, $75; and foreign, $105. CANADA POST: Publications Mail Agreement Number: 40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Pitney Bowes, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. For reprints email: [email protected].

6 aMericanphotoMag.coM March/april 2013

March/april 2013

Departments10 EDITORS NOTE

Another Faceintroducing our own art-world star.

By MiriaM Leuchter

Focus13 ONE TO WATCH

Triple Threat Matt eichs commercial work supports his ventures

in ne art and photojournalism. By MicheLLe Bogre

18 WORk IN PROGRESS

A Flock of Symbolsin suspended sculptures, thomas Jackson explores

the idea of groupthink. By judy geLMan Myers

20 BOOkS

Winters WonderlandDan Winters unleashed, Frans lanting in the wild,

nYc after hours, and arthur Meyerson on the road.

By jack crager

24 ON THE WALL

Cry Hometownlatoya ruby Fraziers city in ruins, george

georgious divided turkey, Sandy haber Fields

dreamworks, and more. By Lindsay coMstock

Gear63 COMING ATTRACTION

Screen Star panasonic shows off a 20-inch tablet prototype.

64 NEW STUFF

The Goodsthe coolest tools for all kinds of photographers.

68 REVIEW

Works on PaperWe put canons new pixma pro-10 photo

printer through the wringer.

By andrew darLow

72 PARTING SHOT

Flight of Fantasyin Flying Henry, rachel hulin sends her son aloft.

By Lori Fredrickson

20

From top:

Matt eich;

Dan W

inters

13

This product is from sustainably managed forests and controlled sources.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MIRIAM LEUCHTER

FEATURES EDITOR Debbie Grossman

TECHNICAL EDITOR Philip Ryan

MANAGING EDITOR Jill C. Shomer

PHOTO EDITOR Amy Berkley

ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Linzee Lichtman

DESIGNER Michael Moreno

COPY EDITOR Meg Ryan Heery

FACT CHECKER Rebecca Geiger

ONLINE EDITORS Dan Bracaglia, Stan Horaczek

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Aimee Baldridge, Lindsay Comstock,

Jack Crager, Michael Kaplan, Steve Morgenstern

CREATIVE DIRECTOR SAM SYED

BONNIERS TECHNOLOGY GROUP

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT ERIC ZINCZENKO

VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER STEVEN B. GRUNE

VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE SALES John Driscoll 212-779-5251

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EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Christopher Graves

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, MARKETING Mike Gallic

FINANCIAL DIRECTOR Tara Bisciello

EASTERN SALES DIRECTOR Jef Timm

NORTHEAST ADVERTISING OFFICE David Ginsberg, Caitlyn Welch, Margaret Kalaher

PHOTO CATEGORY MANAGER Sara Schiano Flynn

AD ASSISTANT Amanda Smyth

MIDWEST MANAGERS John Marquardt, Doug Leipprandt

AD ASSISTANTS Katy Marinaro, Kelsie Phillippo

WEST COAST ACCOUNT MANAGERS Robert Hoeck, Sara Laird OShaughnessy, Stacey Lakind

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ONLINE PRODUCER Steve Gianaca

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PRODUCTION MANAGER Patti Hall

CHAIRMAN Jonas BonnierCHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Dave Freygang

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Eric Zinczenko

CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER David Ritchie

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Randall Koubek

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VICE PRESIDENT, CONSUMER MARKETING Bruce Miller

VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCTION Lisa Earlywine

VICE PRESIDENT, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Shawn Larson

VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS Dean Turcol

GENERAL COUNSEL Jeremy Thompson

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For Customer Service and Subscription questions, such as Renewals, Address Changes, Email Preferences, Billing and Account Status, go to: americanphotomag.com/cs

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editors note

10 americanphotomag.com march/april 2013

march/april 2013 americanphotomag.com 11

Another Facefew months ago, when i added the job of lead-

ing American Photo to my work as editor-in-

chief of Popular Photography, i vowed to make

the change as seamless for you as i could. this is my

second issue, and ive altered very little, aside from

sharpening our focus on contemporary photography

and how its practiced at its highest level. and one of

the people helping to reshape that discussion is also

helping to reshape the art of photography itself.

meet our new features editor, Debbie grossman.

readers of Pop Photo will recognize her as the

longtime writer of the monthly Software Workshop,

as well as the force behind its coverage of image edit-

ing. But Debbie (im forgoing our formal style as a

colleague and friend) is also an artist. While working

full-time for Pop Photo, she earned an mFa in photog-

raphy, video, and related media from the School of Vi-

sual arts, where she won the paula rhodes memorial

prize; she is now represented by the Julie Saul gallery

in new York city. her images are in the permanent

collections of the metropolitan museum of art, Jewish

museum, and others. in fact, her series, My Pie Town, is

on view at the met in after photoshop: manipulated

photography in the Digital age through may 27.

one example of Debbies extraordinary work in

My Pie Town is at left. Using high-resolution, public-

domain scans of russell lees Depression-era photos

of pie town, new mexico, she

transformed it into a commu-

nity made up solely of women.

She subtly reshaped jawlines

and gures, smoothed over

beard stubble, and erased at

least one husband altogether.

her artwork challenges as-

sumptions about photography.

and i think that her experi-

ence and curatorial eye will

add a new dimension to what

you nd in American Photo.

MiriaM Leuchter, editor-in-chief

a

Debbie grossman/Julie Saul gallery

Debbie Grossmans

Jessie Evans-Whinery,

Homesteader, with Her

Wife Edith Evans-Whinery

and Their Baby, 2010.

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M

att Eich

Matt Eichs Chop, Houma,

Louisiana, 2010, from the

project Trouble in the

Water, about the alligator

industry in Louisiana.

ven as an undergraduate at Ohio Uni-

versity in Athens, Ohio, Matt Eich had a

rigorous work ethic. He freelanced as

a photographer, interned at newspapers including

the Orange County Register in California and Port-

lands The Oregonian, and picked up honors as the

2006 College Photographer of the Year, always a

career boost.

Then, when Eich was 21, he became a parent,

and life changed dramatically. I knew I had to up

my game if I was going to be able to support my

family, says Eich, now 26. I couldnt rely on one

client or one market. I needed some stability.

And up his game he did. Since graduating in

2008, Eich has built a roster of A-list clients such

as Apple, AARP, National Geographic, Time, and

Newsweek. Hes earned grants including an Aaron

Siskind fellowship, a National Geographic Magazine

Photography Grant, a ShootQ Grant, and a National

Press Photographers Association Short Grant. Hes

received international awards and his work is in

several museums and private collections.

E

tHE pEopLE bEHind tHE piCs Work in Progress 18 Books 20 on the Wall 24

MARCH/APRIl 2013 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 13

Matt Eich hustles commercial work to fund his photojournalism and ne art projects By Michelle Bogre

triple threat onE to WatCH

one to Watch

M

att Eich (3)

This year Eich will present a new solo show (his

sixth) in collaboration with the Virginia Museum

of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach for his

project The Seven Cities. I wanted to nd a reason

to work close to home, he says. I pitched to the

museum the idea of photographing all the cit-

ies that make up whats known as the Hampton

Roads and how dependent the area is both on the

water that surrounds it and the military industry.

Other work has come from the photo collective

lUCEO, which Eich formed with ve friends in

2007 to provide mutual creative feedback and cama-

raderie; he left it in 2012 to pursue other projects

and spend more time with his family. I thrive in a

creative community, and thats what lUCEO was

for me, he says. We would critique each others

work and thats where the real learning happened.

While with lUCEO, Eich began an ongoing

project, The Invisible Yoke, which comprises The

Seven Cities as well as two other series, Carry Me

Ohio and Sin & Salva-

tion in Baptist Town.

The latter began in

2010 as a brief assign-

ment on rural health

care for the AARP

Bulletin. Baptist Town

is a neighborhood in

CLosE-Up

Matt Eichmatteichphoto.com

Lives In Norfolk, VA

Studied At Ohio University

Awards F25 Award for Con-

cerned Photography, 2010;

Pictures of the Year Interna-

tional Community Awareness

Award, 2009

Clients Include Apple, Bloom-

berg Businessweek, Esquire,

GQ, Harpers, Mother Jones,

National Geographic, Time,

Sentara Healthcare

In the Bag Canon EOS 5D Mark

II; Canon EF lenses including

EF 35mm f/1.4L USM, EF 24mm

f/1.4L II USM, and EF 50mm f/1.2L

USM; Canon Speedlite 580EX II

14 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM MARCH/APRIl 2013

above: tornado after-

math, Joplin, Missouri,

2011, from an assignment

for Esquire. Right: Guy

McRoberts, Russellville,

ohio, 2012, from Carry

Me Ohio, part of Eichs

project The Invisible Yoke.

top: Mail boat to tangier

island, Virginia, 2010,

from Eichs series Poems,

Half Remembered. bottom:

demolition derby, athens,

ohio, 2012, from the series

Carry Me Ohio.

16 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM MARCH/APRIl 2013

one to Watch

Greenwood, Mississippi, plagued by poverty and

crime but held together by a sense of family

and community. I knew there was a much bigger

story there about the real legacies of racism in the

South, so I begged my editor, Michael Wichita, to

send me back, he recalls. I brought prints to the

Randal Ford (2); portrait by

Austin lochheed

people I had photographed and made friends.

After his second visit, one of the people hed be-

friended, Demetrius Butta Anderson, was shot to

death. Eich needed to photograph the funeralbut

he was broke. I didnt even have money for gas, so

a friend gave me money and my editor got me an

assignment so I could spend 48 hours there.

Even more determined to nish the project, he

raised $5,690 through the crowd-funding platform

Emphas.is so he could spend a month in Greenwood.

Then in 2012 he received $32,000 in grants, which

he applied to continuing the series. The Baptist

Town project functions well for me in the documen-

tary sphere, but thats not enough for me anymore,

Eich says. I want the images to function for the

community, so Ive been thinking about how to have

it play out in the streets or in social media. This

idea was sparked when he used Instagram as a sort

of digital Polaroid to engage people. Instagram is

much more permanent than a Polaroid if I can tag

[the subject] on a social site.

In upping his game, Eich always has different

projects in play. Between sessions on The Invisible

Yoke, he shoots commercial work. I hope that people

hire me for the way I see, he says, but I also hope

they know my pictures arent always dark. I nd

that I can create a situationand then real moments

will occur if I step back and let life unfold. AP M

att Eich (2)

New York Institute of Photography

My experience with the New York Institute of Photography was beyond what I expected. The books and

lessons provided all the information I needed. I always looked forward to receiving feedback from my

instructor. She was very professional, polite and always gave me great feedback and advice. Now that

I nished the course I feel much more comfortable with my camera. I highly recommend this course

to anyone who is interested in getting into the photography business or anyone who just wishes to

improve their skills. Thank you NYIP, youll always be a part of my photography journey.

ELISA B., CALIFORNIA, 2012 NYIP GRADUATE

Become a Better Photographer!

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2 1 1 E A S T 4 3 R D S T R E E T , S U I T E 2 4 0 2 N E W Y O R K , N E W Y O R K 1 0 0 1 7


ine-art photographer thomas Jackson

seeks to give form to shapes that appear

in his head. in his current work, those

shapes look a lot like self-organizing systems

or, in everyday lingo, ocks of birds, schools of sh,

termite mounds, swarming locusts. Swarming in-

sects ll us with fear and fascination, says Jackson,

and he loosely employs them as models for the

sculptures he constructs out of everyday objects

to tap into our subconscious dread of those forces

which we cant see but we know are real.

Jacksons recent photo series, Emergent Behav-

ior, also has roots in his work with found objects.

While working on an earlier series called The Robot,

Jackson fell in love with the art of building and

F

Thomas Jacksons suspended sculptures illuminate the idea of groupthink By Judy Gelman myers

A Flock of Symbols

lighting staged scenarios; he wanted to continue

that process with something more abstract. the

original idea was to pick up stuff lying around new

York city that i could build into a sculpture and

photograph to make come alive in a hallucinatory

sort of way, he says.

Jackson headed to an industrial section of imlay

Street, in Brooklyns red hook neighborhood,

where he found hundreds of pallet shards scattered

along sidewalks and gutters. he collected the scraps

and brought them back to his studio in Dumbo,

built a small sculpture, then returned to imlay

Street at 4 a.m. to photograph his creation in the

middle of the street with a 30-second exposure in

ambient light. he shot the sculpture in a slightly

Works from Thomas

Jacksons series Emergent

Behavior reect the collec-

tive action of self-organizing

systems. Above: Glow

Sticks #1. Opposite, from

top: Cups #1; Leaves #1.


thomas Jackson (3); portrait by carrie Dutcher

work in ProgreSS

different position, then repeated the process six or

eight times before assembling the shots digitally to

produce Broken pallet.

For his next image, leaves #1, he trekked to

the forest, where he gathered branches off the

ground. this time, though, he wove them into a

30-foot-long support structure hed built of wire

mesh. to get the oating effect, he hoisted the

thing eight feet in the air and attached it with

rope to nearby trees.

But Jackson soon became aware of the reality

of limiting himself to found objects: it basically

meant walking around new York city picking up

garbage, or out in the country picking up leaves

and sticks, he recalls. Ultimately, i found the

idea of extreme juxtaposition more interesting.

So for leaves #2, he rst took a photo at a city

intersection in Brooklyn, then wove that image

together digitally with shots of leaves thrown in

the air back at the studio.

context became the concept: For cups #1

he digitally relocated a welter of plastic drink-

ware from pennsylvania, where it was shot, to

the catskills, adding the shadow to give it a

sense of occupying space.

Jacksons preference, however, is to work entirely

in the eld and to create these mysterious effects in

camera. So now he uses the logistical lessons from

early experiments to build his sculptures onsite.

this often entails a race against the clock to get

materials assembled and shot by sundown and

battles with the weather. in plates #1, the sculp-

tureplastic plates attached to dozens of monola-

ments strung between a tree and a stepladderis

35 feet long, 9 feet tall and 4 feet deep. his glow

Sticks #1 looks as if its suspended in space, but its

sitting on a stand to keep it from swinging in the

breeze. Jackson removes the sculptural supports in

post production to keep the magic, he says, but he

no longer builds images in photoshop. i subtract,

but i dont add, he explains.

Jackson says hes halfway through the series

and wants to improvise further: instead of work-

ing around the wind, hell use it, making sculp-

tures that are supposed to move. he also hopes

to draw on scientic phenomena for his swarm

images. not long into his work on Emergent

Behavior, he was contacted by andrew hartnett,

a researcher at the couzin lab at princeton who

had seen Jacksons swarms. hartnett studies

startle events in schools of sh by poking one

of the creatures with a small monolament then

recording the schools response with a high-speed

camera. its super-cool, says Jackson, and

theres much more to be done with that.

he adds that hartnett is working on a theory

of collective decision making with potential ap-

plications on voting in human groups. Voting in

human groups? that should give Jackson plenty

of material for tapping into our dread of forces

we cant see but know are real. AP

and Caltar II-N f/5.6 150mm

lenses; Profoto AcuteB and/or

AlienBees strobes

Background After taking photo

classes in high school and

college, Jackson put the camera

away for 15 years and worked

as a magazine editor and

writer. He bought a Leica M3 to

shoot landscapes and, later, a

4x5 Graex Crown Graphic to

experiment with staged images.

He shot commercial work be-

fore dedicating himself to

ne-art photography.

CLOSE-UP

Thomas Jacksonthomasjacksonphotography.com

Lives In Brooklyn, NY

Studied At The College of

Wooster, Wooster, OH Awards/Honors Critical Mass,

Top 50, 2012

Inuences Environmental

sculptor Andy Goldsworthy;

artist/writer Yayoi Kusama;

lm director Andrei Tarkovsky In the Bag Shen Hao HZX45-IIA eld camera; Schneider Kreuz-

nach APO-Symmar f/5.6 135mm

The wild imaginings behind the craft of a top editorial image maker By Jack crager

Winters WonderlandDan Winterss america: icons anD ingenuityBy Dan Winters Telfair Museums of Savannah, GA $40

This book contains multitudes. Dan Winterss

America is at once wacky and poignant, buoyant

and grim, slick and artsy. Having established a

signature celebrity-shot style for publications

including The New York Times Magazine, Vanity

Fair, and Rolling Stone, Winters duly showcases

editorial portraits, from the campy Will Ferrell

cover image to somber studies of Heath Ledger

and Tupac Shakur. But Winters also reveals

his breadth with abstract art projects, surreal

anatomical montages, cameraless images of

Clockwise from left: Chris-

tina Ricci, Hollywood,

1997; Shuttle Endeavour

Launch, Cape Canaveral,

2011; Dolphin Tail,

Florida Keys, 1989.

20 americanpHoTomag.com marcH/apriL 2013

BOOKS

Dan W

inters (3)

splotchy ink patterns, and scientic forays such

as sepia-toned negative close-ups of honeybees.

With a chapter on space-shuttle photographs

from his project Last Launch: Discovery, Endeavour,

Atlantisthe subject of another book he released

in 2012Winters makes his point: The human

experience is the limit. photography has allowed

me to step into the lives of others, however briey,

and be inspired and amazed, he notes. it has

given me access to places and events that have

only been available to me as a practitioner of my

craft. He gives access, in turn, to his audience.


clockwise from top left:

Frans lanting; N

ew

York

at N

igh

t: P

hoto

gra

ph

y a

fter

Da

rk edited by norma Stevens and Yolanda cuomo, published by powerhouse Books; arthur m

eyerson

BOOKS

OkavangO: africas Last EdEn By Frans Lanting Taschen $40

expanding on material he rst published 20 years ago, photographer

Frans lanting returns to the okavango Delta region of Botswana to

update us on the fate of an untamed refuge. this volume offers a diverse

mix, ranging from insect close-ups to sweeping aerials, from scientic in-

quiry to aesthetic wonder. With his editor and wife, christine eckstrom,

lanting provides plenty of fun facts: We not only see warthogs butting

heads but also discover that lions consider them a delicacy. We learn that

antelopes have splayed hooves and eat tender

papyrus crowns, and that while hunters have made

crocodiles wary of humans, when crocs strike, they

do so with astonishing speed and strength. and we

witness an ecosystem in a delicate state of preserve.

in Botswana, he writes, the legitimate claims of

local people and the economic aspirations of a devel-

oping country must be balanced with the growing

concern over preserving the earths last edens.

thE cOLOr Of LightBy Arthur Meyerson Arthur Meyerson Editions $80

its abstract title sums up the contents: iridescent studies of

reections and shadows, textures and patterns, moods and

hues. meyerson is a houston-based commercial photog-

rapher whose nearly 40-year career has taken him to far-

ung locales; this self-published volume (arthurmeyerson

.com/book) highlights personal

snaps made along the way. With

help from designer lowell

Williams, meyerson pairs scenes

that are separated by time and

place but linked chromatically.

his favorite images are photos

that ask questions, he writes.

this collection is full of them.

nEw YOrk at night: PhOtOgraPhY aftEr dark Edited by Norma Stevens and Yolanda Cuomo powerHouse $125

With the possible exception of paris, no city has held a

more constant sway on the cameras eye than new York.

the editors of this 100-year survey credit its nocturnal

charmsfrom the honeycomb glow of Berenice abbotts

cityscape to the shadowy grit of Weegees candid shots to

the underground vibe of nan goldins party scenes. like a

taxi ride down Broadway, the story veers wildly but clips

along: haunting portraits by Diane

arbus, a deftly framed candid by irving

penn, and an iconic study in light by

Walker evans coexist in this scattered

narrative. the book makes a noble ef-

fort to live up to its epigraph, by F. Scott

Fitzgerald: the city seen for the rst

time, in its rst wild promise of all the

mystery and beauty in the world.

Clockwise from top left: Frans Lantings shot of four lionesses

awakening for the hunt in the wilds of Botswana; Berenice

Abbotts New York cityscape, The Nightview, 1932; Arthur

Meyersons Outdoor Restaurant, Vancouver, 2010.


latoya ruby Frazier (2)

on the wall

LaToya Ruby FRazieR:

a HaunTed CapiTaL

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, Mar. 22 Aug. 11 brooklynmuseum.org

in the tradition of social documentary that strives

to capture the essence of america, latoya ruby

Frazier has trained her lens on her troubled home-

town of Braddock, pennsylvania. located downriver

from pittsburgh, Braddock began as one of the rst

steel-mill towns in the United States. Since the

collapse of that industry, the once-thriving city has

shriveled to a population of less than 2,500, and the

state has considered it a distressed municipality.

in both still and moving images, Frazier document-

ed her family there for a decade, capturing human

resilience and family bonds amid the hard times.

her thought-provoking worksome of which was

included in the prestigious Whitney 2012 Biennial

and the new museums exhibition The Generational:

Younger than Jesustakes center stage in this solo

show of about 40 images.

an associate curator at rutgers University, where

shes also taught photography, Frazier calls her

artistic motivations both personal and sociological.

her work addresses how an individuals environ-

ment impacts the body and shapes how you perceive

yourself in the world, she said in a 2012 lm clip.

her stark black-and-white portraits challenge how

the poor are portrayed in the media, how we think

about the relationships between mothers and daugh-

ters, and how environmental racism persists in

many american cities like

Braddock, where environ-

mental degradation occurs

in low-income and minority

neighborhoods. the mind

is the battleground for

photography, Frazier says.

LaToya Ruby Frazier faces a homeland in ruins by Lindsay ComsToCk

Cry Hometown

From top, two of LaToya

Ruby Fraziers portraits

from her series The

Notion of Family: Self

Portrait (March 10am),

2009; Grandma Ruby

and Me, 2005.


on the wall

F GeorGe GeorGiou: Fault lines

Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA, through April 13 jacksonneart.com

the title of georgious Fault Lines refers to the ssures between

eastern and Western culture in turkey, where the British

photographer lived and shot for several years. georgiou creates

planes of vivid color and surreal light, depicting everyday life

in these rapidly developing communities. the underlying social

tension is made palpable as religious, political, cultural, and

geographic battles brew and the country oscillates between

holding on to its tradition and moving into modernity.

G Color rush: 75 Years oF Color

PhotoGraPhY in ameriCa

Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, through May 19 mam.org

this collection explores innovations in color photography between

1907, when autochrome lm was rst marketed, and 1981, when

(the curators maintain) color photography was fully accepted by

the art world. included among the nearly 200 images and objects

are works by pioneers such as harry callahan, William eggleston,

nan goldin, cindy Sherman, and Stephen Shore.

E Japans Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA, Mar. 26 Aug. 25

getty.edu

This exhibition contrasts the work of two inuential

Japanese lensmen: Hiroshi Hamaya, whose docu-

mentary work explored social and regional issues,

and Kansuke Yamamoto, whose experimental vision

brought traditional Japanese realism into the realm

of avant-garde surrealism.

Unseen: The Photographs of Jessica Lange Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA, through May 19 mopa.org

MOPAs retrospective unveils cinematic stills by the Oscar-winning actress.

The black-and-white images from Langes shoots in Europe, Ethiopia,

Russia, and North America demonstrate an eye for everyday drama. I nd

photography a most mysterious process, she notes, capturing that

moment in time and space, elusive and eeting, and crystallizing it.

Takuma Nakahira Circulation: Date, Place, Events Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY, May 23 July 12 yossimilo.com This solo exhibition was rst shown at the 7th Paris Biennale in 1971. Over

a week in Paris, the activist made around 100 images each day, developed

the lm at night, and showed works the next day without omissionwhat

he called pieces of reality cut out by means of the camera.

Also...

Clockwise from top left: Trabzon, by George Georgiou, 2006;

Missing Stair, from Sandi Haber Fields series After the Threshold;

A Chronicle of Drifting, 1949, by Kansuke Yamamoto; Huntsville,

Alabama, 1978, by William Eggleston, from Color Rush. clockwise from top left: george georgiou, courtesy Jackson Fine art;

Sandi haber Field, courtesy rick W

ester Fine art;

toshio Yamamoto; John glembin, eggleston artistic trust, courtesy cheim

& read, new York

G sandi haber FiField:

aFter the threshold

RICk WeSTeR FINe ART, NeW YoRk, NY, APRIL 18 MAY 30 rickwesterneart.com

the dreamlike vision of Sandi haber Field is built on what she

calls collisions and alignments of unrelated images. Drawing from

her archive of imagery, Field threads together incongruent scenes

in triptychs and quadriptychs. as a result, she explains, formal

connections reveal themselves and suggest the reassuring possibil-

ity of meaning and order in the apparent randomness of experi-

ence. the show coincides with a monograph of the same title.

7642 Woodwind Drive, Huntington Beach, CA 92647

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The Top 10 Wedding Photographers


Morgan Lynn Razi met both of her great loves

photography and her husband-to-bewhen she

was just 15 years old. By the time she was a ne-art

photography and business student at the University

of colorado, Boulder, she was already shooting wed-

dingsnever mind that her sideline didnt impress

her instructors or peers. i didnt feel like it was a

cool, hip thing to do, she says. But she combined

her artistic training with a meticulous technical

approachand came into her own just as wedding

photography was becoming more respected. now

its a really desirable job to get into, she says.

even more than her photographic skills, its her

afnity for great love stories that allows her to

bring out the beauty in each event. i get excited

and inspired by peoples joy and emotion, and by

people who are in love, she says. i can really

relate to that, because ive been so lucky in love.

the couple are now based in houston, where her

husband, amir, has recently started shooting with

her full-time.

razi applies her technical skill in the houston

event halls where receptions with elaborate and

varied lighting are often held, seeing the possibili-

Morgan Lynn razi

ties in challenges that many photographers would

nd daunting. her view reects the sanguine at-

titude she has toward every wedding she captures:

i probably have rose-colored glasses on, she says,

but i want to believe that these are two people

who are insanely in love with each other.

Above: The groom realizes

his wifes dress is hiked up

dangerously high during a

Houston wedding. Below:

Bride and bridesmaid dance

to a favorite song.


Sometimes it takes a big shift to set you on the path to the love youre meant

for. after matt millers punk-rock band decided to take a break in 2007,

he moved back to atlanta from Brooklyn and tried various jobs, including as

a concert photographer. When a friend recommended him to assist on a

wedding gig, he was skeptical. it sounded awful, he recalls. i didnt know

anything about wedding photography, and all i could think of was overly posed,

very stiff weddings, tuxedos, and boringness. But he needed the money, so he

went for it. the wedding, it turned out, had so much love and interestingness

to it, which for some reason id never thought of in wedding photography, that

i kind of fell in love with it. after assisting for three years, he took the lead

and started booking his own shoots.

as fate would have it, his background as a musician turned out to be a boon

for his wedding career. Being in a touring band for seven years, i got to meet

people across the U.S. and worldwide, he explains. i know tons of people in

bands and the punk-rock subculture, so a lot of the weddings i shoot are very

alternative. thats been a blessing for me. it ends up being a lot more personal.

the lighting skills miller picked up while working with bands in dark venues

also come into play in his wedding work. During receptions, he often sets up

studio lights that illuminate the whole space.

as miller has stuck around the wedding scene,

his rock-star dreams have taken a back seat, mak-

ing way for a brighter photographic styleand a

sunnier disposition. the more weddings i shot, the

more i fell in love with it and with the people get-

ting married, he reects. my outlook as a per-

son became a little bit happier. When my outlook

changed, the images started changing, too.

Matt MiLLer

Top: The newlyweds say

farewell to friends and

family in the Blue Ridge

Mountains, Georgia. Mid-

dle: The bride and groom

dance at the reception.

Bottom: A guest sweeps the

barefoot bride off her feet.this page: m

att m

iller (3). opposite: m

organ lynn razi (2).

Top: The 11/11/11 newly-

weds, also pictured on the

previous spread, kiss at

their reception. Bottom: A

ower girl hams it up at

a Manhattan reception.


this page: ryan Brenzier (2). opposite: Samm Blake (4).

When I started doing weddings, it was a eld

day for me, says new Yorkbased ryan Brenizer.

he had been working as a photographer for

columbia University, shooting academic events

that were usually less than exciting. at a wed-

ding, he says, i was walking into a scenario where

there were emotions and there was beauty, and i

could just build on that.

Brenizer certainly had the tools for the job,

with a knack for the technical and a background

in journalism. i do tend to approach weddings as

assignments, he says. Whoever the people are, i

want to tell their story. i want to show the things

that are different and unique about them, what

makes it their wedding.

recognized for his own unique approach,

Brenizer uses such techniques as composite light-

ing, free-lensing, and light painting, and he has

even come up with a way to capture panoramic

portraits with shallow depth of eld thats become

known by photographers as the Brenizer method.

nevertheless, he insists, the technical stuff is just

a means to an end. Whats important are the

moments between people.

ryan Brenizer

mentary projects. i realized that when im quiet,

its giving room to the couple, because im not

interjecting, she says. thats where the shots that

i really love start to happen. Blake gives her sub-

jects room to breathe compositionally too, creating

a spacious feel that echoes the western australian

landscape where she grew up, even when shes

shooting in her latest base, new York city.

many of Blakes clients work in creative elds

and appreciate her blend of artistry and documen-

tary, but above all, both they and Blake herself

value the moving authenticity her subtle style

achieves. i dont want it to just be a pretty picture

on a wall, she says of her work. When somebody

looks at my photography, i want their heart to beat

faster for a moment.

Clockwise from top left: The

newlyweds go up the stairs

of the Parliament House in

Melbourne, Australia. The

bride takes a moment. The

couple greets cheering re-

ception guests. On a balcony.


As a young photographer, Samm Blake explored

multiple genres, earning a degree in communica-

tions and making professional forays into the

fashion and commercial worlds. But it was the

wedding photography shed gotten into as a stu-

dent just to make a little money that ended up

captivating her. it was the one type of photogra-

phy where i was given complete creative freedom,

she explains. i could be completely myself and

have no one telling me how to shoot or what to

shoot. i guess im stubborn like that.

not that her approach is just about her creative

druthers. Blakes shooting style is informed by the

lessons in restraint learned from personal docu-

SaMM BLake


ryan joseph (3)

When Ryan Joseph was recruited to play foot-

ball at ohio University, little did he know that he

was enrolling at a school with a top photography

program. Four years later, he left ohio with a

photography degree in hand, eventually settling

in tampa and opening his own studio. joseph

works in a ne art style, but relishes drawing on

a wide variety of skills to achieve it. a wedding

photographer has to be a little bit of everything,

he observes. Youve got to be a photojournalist,

a portrait artist, a storytellersometimes youve

got to be a psychologist.

When it comes time for portraits, joseph puts

on his directors hat, making careful compositions

that use natural light. he also brings an attentive-

ness to his subjects that allows their personalities

and presence to determine the look of the im-

ages. the point of a portrait is exposing who that

person is on their wedding day, he explains. the

enduring quality of those pictures, joseph says,

comes from bringing out the genuineness in his

subjects. i want them to be as classic 20 years

from now as they are today, he says. and the job

never gets old for joseph. every time i think ive

seen it all, something else happens at a wedding,

he says. it keeps me on my toes.

ryan JoSeph

Opposite: A moment after

the bride has put on her

dress in Tuscany, Italy.

Right: The groom enjoys

a cigar and a scotch at his

reception in Montego Bay,

Jamaica. Below: In Tus-

cany, the bride and groom

share their rst dance after

the rain.




Top: A ower girl with

balloons. Bottom, from

left: A bride gets ready.

Bridesmaids talk with the

bride. The bride and her

sister help their father x

his bowtie.


For Emin Kuliyev, each wedding is a journey of dis-

covery, a photographic treasure hunt embarked upon

with an unusually happy bunch of traveling com-

panions. You dont know where youre going; you

dont know the people; you dont know anything, he

explains. Youre like a bee ying to the ower.

Kuliyevs own journey began when he left his

native city of Baku, azerbaijan, and settled in new

York. after he found work as a graphic designer,

his course made an unexpected turn when a car

crash took him off his feet for a year. he used

the time to learn how to operate his new digital

camera. When i could walk with a cane, he says,

eMin kuLiyevi started to shoot everything around my building.

Soon, he was exploring the city with his camera,

honing his skills by photographing everything from

portraits to cityscapes to gorillas at the Bronx Zoo.

When Kuliyev discovered wedding photography,

he realized hed found what he was looking for: im

my own boss, he says. i like to see happy people

around me, and i use all my skills in the wedding

eld. his thoughtfully composed images are by

turns witty, expressive, and poignantthe work of

someone who has, as he puts it, found my passion.

that isnt to say hes not open to the next adven-

ture. its hard to say what will happen tomorrow,

he muses. maybe i will write a poem, or paint

something interesting.

Top: Newlyweds on the

Baltic Sea island of Got-

land, Sweden, where the

groom spent summers when

he was a boy. Bottom: The

same bride, just before leav-

ing her cottage to walk to

the nearby church.

When Ashley Parsons was rst asked to photo-

graph a wedding, she was working as a doula and

presenting at a health fair for expectant moms. i

just laughed and said, im not a photographer, but

thank you, she recalls. But the requester, who had

seen family photographs she had taken, wouldnt

let it go. Shooting that rst wedding turned out

to be a revelation. i went from one experience to

another, and every photograph that i made was

like giving myself a present, she recalls. i came

home and said, jeremy, we have to become wed-

ding photographers. her enthusiasm won him

over. i went for it because i love spending time

with my wife and i hated my job, says jeremy, who

was working for a loan servicing company in their

home base of Kansas city, missouri, at the time.

the couple spent their savings on a booth at a

bridal show. they booked 18 weddings, and jer-

emy quit his job. now, after years of developing a

natural-looking documentary style together, the

parsons work with clients whom they get to know

personally before the wedding. Weve got to have a

connection to them that feels different than a cli-

ent, ashley explains. if we wanted to work with

clients, we could go back to the business world.

We want to have couples that we get. We get their

stories and what theyre about, and they get us.

that the leap of faith they made together has

worked out so well doesnt seem to surprise them.

as ashley says, how can you not feel inspired

when you have the love of your life with you?


aShLey and JereMy parSonS

this page: ashley and jeremy parsons (2). opposite: emin Kuliyev (4).

Above: Newlyweds share

a playful moment in Paris.

Below: The brides sister-

in-law-to-be xes her hair.

Opposite: Bride and groom

with a skull the groom

found.



Sean Flanigan began his career in 2005 shoot-

ing a combination of photojournalism and wed-

dingswork hed begun as a photography student

at the art institute of Seattle. But he came to a

crossroads when he was offered a staff position

at a newspaper. i was getting assignments, he

recalls, but they ended up not being as fun as the

jobs i was getting from wedding clients. Flanigan

turned the position down and began to cultivate a

clientele that valued his sometimes unconventional

aesthetic. only images that i would want to take

again would go in my portfolio, he explains.

as a result, many of his clients today are cre-

ative professionals who share his enthusiasm for

an artistic take on the wedding event. my bride

and groom are like my art directors of the day, he

says, and i want to get them on board with me to

collaborate as much as possible, so were coming

away with the images as a team.

Flanigans artistic approach includes occasional

shots with lomo lm cameras, plus a keen eye for

available light developed in the Seattle area, where

he grew up and where his business is based. it has

Sean FLanigan

a real scarcity of directional light, he says of his

hometown. So when i see the light, i go right to

it. ive got a knack for seeing where the interesting

light is. it just jumps out at me.

Beyond technique, Flanigan credits his suc-

cess to the trust and access his clients give him in

capturing the event. Ultimately, he says, what it

comes down to for me is just seeing them get mar-

ried and the looks on their faces. its awesome.

Sean Flanigan (3)

T

odd H

un

ter M

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Todd Hunter McGaw The Top 10 Wedding Photographers

The bride walks across

a eld on the family

property in the Gold

Coast hinterland of

Queensland, Australia,

where her wedding

was held.

MARCH/APRIL 2013 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 43

Above: A bride with her

bridesmaids. Below: A

groom (second from left)

walks off jitters with his

groomsmen.

this page

todd h

unter m

cgaw (2). opposite: tyler W

irken (4).


I didnt set out to be a wedding photographer,

says todd hunter mcgaw. i always wanted to be

a commercial photographer. But when someone

asked the Brisbane, australiabased photographer

to shoot a wedding, he realized he could work with

all of the elements he liked from multiple genres in

one place. i found that i could bring variety to my

approach to photographing weddings, and people

responded to that, he says.

mcgaws location brings lots of variety to him,

too. australia is quite a multicultural society, he

explains, so we do Vietnamese and chinese wed-

dings, tea ceremonies, Serbian orthodox weddings,

and also people with pop-culture inuences. mcgaw

has shot a wedding ofciated by Darth Vader and a

video-game-themed event where the bride walked

down the aisle to mario Brothers music. there are

lots of people injecting their own personalities into

their event, which we love, he says.

the common thread running through all the

weddings mcgaw shoots is his clients enthusiasm

for photography and the inventive portraits he cre-

ates with their collaboration. Were known for the

conceptual, creative shoots we include on the day,

todd hunter Mcgaw

he says. But as much as his clients love the por-

traits, theyre often pleasantly surprised when they

see the candid shots in their album. Says mcgaw:

We tell people, Youre really going to love the pho-

tos of you kissing your mom, and they say, Yeah,

yeah, but lets get to the interesting stuff. then

when they see the albums, they really appreciate

those little moments, which is honestly the whole

reason we do it.


Top: The bride sheds a tear

during the rst dance with

her husband. Bottom, from

left: The bride tosses her

bouquet. Reception guests

celebrate. The groom

dances his signature dance.

Were not for everybody, says tyler Wirken of his

Kansas city, missouri, studio. his clients, he explains,

are usually more interested in images of other people

at their wedding than of themselves. theyre not

center-of-attention people, he says. You could say

the same of Wirken himself. having started out as

a photojournalist, he takes an unobtrusive approach

to capturing the wedding day through candid shots

of shared moments. outside of portraits, i dont

direct anything, he says. if i talk to them a lot,

then i end up affecting the integrity of the moment.

Wirken even removes himself from the scene, at

times shooting with remote cameras in churches

and reception halls. But that doesnt mean he

tyLer wirkendoesnt have a personal connection with his clients.

i spend a lot of time with my couples before the

wedding, he explains, so by the time i get there,

ive got their trust.

establishing that personal relationship reso-

nates with his family-oriented clientele. i think

my style really ts in here, he says. most of my

clients still live in the town they grew up in. that

strong family bond really makes a difference.

illuminating long-standing bonds is his ultimate

goal, which is why he stays until the very end. if i

can dig deeper and show more of who people are,

aside from it being a wedding day, then i feel ive

succeeded, Wirken says. Usually at the end of the

night, that comes out. the partys over, and they

one hundred percent become themselves. AP

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Smartphone-savvy photographers nd their niches in the brave new world of pocket publishingby Travis Marshall#iphoneonly


s Superstorm Sandy bore down on the

eastern Seaboard, Time magazines direc

tor of photography, Kira pollack, had a

snap decision to make about how to document the

impending chaos. We came in Monday morn

ing [october 29, 2012]Sandy hit Monday night,

pollack says. We really didnt know what would

happen: whether the power would go out, or how

we would le images.

the solution? pollacks team contacted ve photo

journalists and handed them the keys to Times

instagram feed, granting unmediated access to

the magazines presence on the socialphotography

platform; the images would also appear on light

aBox, the magazines online photography portal.

i had immediate access to hundreds of thou

sands of viewers, photographer Michael christo

pher Brown says about shooting the assignment.

there was this tremendous sense of power, as

i was both a photographer and an editor, able to

reach an audience faster than any wire service.

Within hours, ve shooters hit the ground to

document the devastation: Brown, fellow editorial

photographer Ben lowy, frequent National Geo-

graphic shooter and Vii member ed Kashi, recent

australian transplant to new York and World

press photo award winner andrew Quilty, and

Stephen Wilkes, whod earned accolades for his

Journalist Ben Lowy

covered the aftermath of

Superstorm Sandy (above,

left) with his phone. Hed

used his phone for his work

before, for instance, docu-

menting events in Libya

during the summer of 2012

(above, right).

From left: Benjamin lowy/reportage by getty images;

Benjamin lowy/reportage by getty images for the M

agnum emergency Fund (4).


largeformat interiors in Ellis Island: Ghosts of Free-

dom. the kicker: Four of the ve relied primarily

on their smartphones. (Quilty used his DSlr and

his iphone; Wilkes had a laptop, which he used to

download one image.)

it was really about speed, pollack says. it was

a way to get images up as quickly as we could, but

we had to have the right photographers to make it

work. She explains that lowy, Brown, and Kashi

especially were chosen for their smartphone shoot

ing chops. these are extraordinary journalists, and

what they do with the technology is equally amaz

ing, she says. Brown was literally shooting images

in the middle of the nightin total darkness, with

the power out in the city and only minimal light

availableusing nothing but his cellphone.

lowy and Brown are no strangers to chaos in

the eld. each specializes in conict photography,

where, theyve found, smartphone technology adds

a layer of exibility and freedom to their jour

nalism. in libya, everyone used phones to take

pictures and videos, so what i was doing was no

different, Brown says.

Brown had shot mobile for a project in china

and then got his rst smartphoneonly assign

ment covering the Democratic republic of congo,

rwanda, and Uganda for Times mobile tech issue.

i ew to africa with three phones and no photo

equipment, he says. i have to thank Kira pollack

for believing in the project. on previous jobs with

other publications, the consensus was we were only

safe if we were using a 35mm.

lowy similarly garnered recognition when im

ages he took in afghanistan with the app hipsta

matic landed in The New York Times Magazine.

i ew back to new York from california as the

storm was coming in, lowy says. When the plane

landed i had an email from deputy photo editor

paul Moakley at Time saying they were thinking

of having me cover the storm, and i realized the

rockaways and coney island were where i needed

to be. in hindsight, his instincts were right on; his

iphone image of the waves pounding coney island

made the cover of Times subsequent print issue.

ConneCted CamerasDigital photography has become easier for every

one to create and distribute thanks to smartphones

and access to instantpublishing tools.

i think, with the democratization of photogra

phy, people look at what they have readily available

and they can say, i take a picture of my lunch or

my cat with my iphone, and this guy is using an

iphone to photograph afghanistan or libya or the

hurricane. it brings it that much closer to them,

lowy says. its not some foreign tool. its like a

very small psychological bridge that you can use to

connect with your audience.

this simple tool may have the power to change

how professional photographers interact, not only

#iphoneonly

M

ichael christopher Brown (3)


Covering the Democratic

Republic of Congo (opposite

and above) with his iPhones

has given Michael Chris-

topher Brown increased

freedom and exibility.

with their craft, subjects, and audiences but also

with the outlets that buy their work. its difcult to

shrug off the impact of connected photography.

in november 2012 Samsung released the galaxy

camera, a rst attempt to incorporate the android

oS and a cellular antenna into a compact camera.

then canon introduced the eoS 6D, a fullframe

DSlr with WiFi and sharing tools built in. this

connectivity will become the new normal, says

richard Koci hernandez, an emmywinning

multimedia journalist, assistant professor of jour

nalism at Uc Berkeley, and mobilephotography

maven. i never bet against technology.

hernandez was an early adopter of iphone

photography and social media. as a photojournalist

for the San Jose Mercury News, he bought his rst

iphone in 2007the rst iteration, with its brutally

grainy 2Mp cameraand almost immediately start

ed using it on the job. the combination of a camera

and an internet connection meant i didnt have to

bring out my laptop, hernandez says. it was so

convenient, i didnt want to use anything else.

hernandez was an avid lomo and holga user

before he embraced the iphone, and he thinks the

smartphones shortcomingslike poor lowlight

performance and lack of manual controlsare


small sacrices to make for the ability to edit and

publish images from the palm of his hand.

today hernandez has more than 160,000 follow

ers on instagram, and the moody blackandwhite

street images that populate his feed have been pub

lished everywhere from The New York Timess lens

blog and Slate to a national geographic book (pub

lished in germany) titled iPhone-Fotograe, which

features hernandez alongside four other iphone

photographers, including Michael christopher

Brown. With the iphone 4S, at least, the camera is

nally acceptable, hernandez says. good enough

to get blown up for a national geographic book.

at a time when every part of the imagemaking

businessne artists, news outlets, multinational

brandsare ghting for increasingly fragmented

and distracted audiences, nding ways to engage

people through social media and photosharing

sites is considered the brass ring. ive been ap

proached numerous times by major car companies,

clothing lines, and alcohol brands looking for mobile

photography expertise, hernandez says.


Early adopter Richard

Koci Hernandez (who

shot the three images on

this spread) has been a

camera-phone devotee since

he started using the rst

iPhone (with its 2MP

camera) to shoot assign-

ments for the San Jose

Mercury News.

#iphoneonly

Instagram takeoverthe role socialsavvy photographers such as her

nandez play in galvanizing communities around a

topic, whether its a new craft distillery or a vital

news event like Superstorm Sandy, is still very

much in its Wild West phase. But examples abound

of pioneering shooters who take great images with

simple tools, engage online audiences, and ulti

mately carve out careers for themselves based in

some part on photography they make with their

smartphones.

take liz eswein, whowith two other insta

grammers with big followings, Brian DiFeo and

anthony Daniellecofounded the Mobile Media

lab, one of the rst socialmedia marketing con

sultancies built almost entirely around instagram.

eswein was a student at nYU when she joined

the startup social photography site in 2011, well

before its current status as a Facebookowned

tech juggernaut. She casually chose the username

@newyorkcity. i decided i wanted to show photos

of the city. i tried a few names, and amazingly this

one was available, eswein says. i was so excited

when i had 50 followers, but then it just exploded.

eswein quickly realized the inherent value

of her username when people from all over the

world started liking, sharing, and commenting on

her snapshots of skylines, street scenes, food, and

fashion. her following quickly swelled into the

hundreds of thousandsmore than 560,000 as this

went to printand early last year eswein started

getting offers from nYcbased brands willing to

pay to build their mobile marketing and appear in

her photo stream.

Fresh out of college, eswein, then 23, had inad

vertently become a onewoman publishing house

with an audience to rival that of many magazines,

her feed the de facto face of new York city. cue

the light bulb.

Brian, anthony, and i were already being ap

proached individually when we decided to cofound

the company, and we got a big campaign with

Samsung right after we teamed up, eswein says.

its been really successful so farid say about 95

percent of our clients approach us, rather than the

other way around. Mobile Media labs recent work

has included coverage for Krastase at new York

Fashion Week and evian at the U.S. open, as well

as virtual guest appearancesknown as instagram

takeoversfor such outlets as Lucky magazine.

toward a mobIle aesthetICone byproduct of the spike in demand for mobile

photography is the widespread use of lters and

frames on images shared through instagram and

similar apps. they serve to mask the aws that

come with lowerquality images, but ltering has

also become its own kind of aesthetic.

Veteran sports photographer Brad Mangin

brought that look to the print pages of Sports

Illustrated when the July 23, 2012, issue included a

threepage spread comprising 18 instagram base

ball images that he took during spring training

and the regular season.

like many photographers getting a new per

spective on their craft thanks to the simplicity and

creativity of smartphone photography, Mangin

found it liberating to shed his big cameras and just

experiment. We are always looking for ways to

present the game of baseball in a fun photo essay,

Mangin says. and we liked the idea of instagram

because it was kind of newnone of the big weekly

magazines had done much with it yet. richard Koci hernandez (3)


Former art director turned iphone ographer

tim Young had never seriously picked up a camera

before he began sharing his iphone photos on insta

gram, but two of his images were selected for inclu

sion in the rst international iphoneography Show

at the Soho gallery for Digital art. the ensuing

snowball effect included a book with the creators of

the apps FX photo Studio and color Splash Studio,

more gallery shows, and commissioned works.

im a photographer that chooses to use an

iphone. its about ease of use, unobtrusivenessits

my dark room, apparatus, and gallery, Young says.

the technology lets me share test images with ef

fects quickly, then turn around the nal shots on a

tight deadline, but at the end of the day, my clients

want me for my artistry, not the device.

edItorIalIzIngWeb publishing is another venue for which instant

mobile photography is a perfect t. the past ve

years have seen an explosion of original online

content, and it all needs Weboptimized images Brad M

angin (4)


Sports photographer Brad

Mangin (opposite) used

an iPhone and Instagram

for his baseball portraits,

which later became part

of a book. Liz Eswein, who

shoots on Instagram with

the handle @newyorkcity,

has turned her feed into a

business. This shot (right)

was part of a sponsored

series for handbag designer

Gryson. Constantly on the

road, travel photographer

Kirsten Alana counts on

her iPhones camera to

quickly turn around images

like the one below.

#iphoneonly

that can move from camera to reader quickly.

Kirsten alana, a travel photographer, blogger,

and socialmedia consultant, fell into iphone pho

tography thanks to an equipment malfunction. My

canon eoS 5D Mark ii had a bad water encounter,

she says. So i decided to travel light and carry less

equipment, testing myself to see if i could still cap

ture images good enough to submit to editors.

now alana spends much of her life on the road

as a contributor for travel outlets such as Afar

magazine, Gadling, and Hostelworld and as a cor

respondent for expedia; she gives talks and classes

about smartphone photography along the way. ive

now been using an iphone as my work camera for

nearly two years, she says. So far, no complaints.

alana credits the pocketsized portability,

endless supply of apps, and the ability to publish

photos from anywhere as the primary reasons shes

chosen to work with a smartphone rather than her

DSlrs. i want people to feel like they are there,

traveling as well, experiencing a destination along

with me, she explains. an iphone lets me do this

better than most digital cameras.

the tos debateas this article was being led, instagram an

nounced planned changes to its terms of service,

sparking criticism among pros who use the site,

including many of the photographers interviewed

here. the most controversial among the proposed

changes were those construed as giving instagram

and parent company Facebook the rights to publish

and sell images for advertising without consent

from or compensation for the photographer.

the huge backlash among highprole users led

instagram ceo Kevin Systrom to release a clarify

ing blog post within 24 hours, part of which read,

to be clear: it is not our intention to sell your

photos. Shortly afterward, Systrom announced,

We are reverting this advertising section to the

original version that has been in effect since we

launched the service in october 2010.

Michael christopher Brown was willing to wait

for the dust to settle. initially, my reaction was to

wait for the nal verdict, he says. though if they

had changed the terms to what they were propos

ing, i would have closed the account. Mangin says

he was worried and would have left the service had

instagram not rolled back to its original terms, but

ultimately, is happy that the company listened to

its users. he continues to use the service.

in the era of social networking and instant

publishing, debates like these will keep popping

up. instagram, like many other social networking

platforms, may be a powerful publishing tool, but it

is also a forprot enterprise.

prInt-worthyUltimately, the reasons that Times photo team

chose smartphones to cover Superstorm Sandy

are much the same reasons eswein and alana use

them: in a fastpaced world, convenience, speed,

and connectivity rule the day.

Both a magazine and its readers benet when

reporting spreads as far and wide as possible.

pollack had published smartphone images before

Sandy; she even incorporated instagram into

Times rst Wireless issue. But the magazines

storm coverage was still very much an experi

mentits rst attempt at using the platform for

a breakingnews event of this magnitude.

the experiment worked, driving 13 percent of

the entire websites trafc during a week with one

of the highest trafc days in its history. the images

were strong, immediate, and emotional. and they

spread like wildre, pollack says. When it lends

itself to the right story, with the right photogra

phers, ill do it again. AP

From top: liz esw

ein; Kirsten alana

Jambo, a chimpanzee living

at Twycross Zoo in War-

wickshire, U.K., suffers

from alopecia totalis

and has no hair. Hes the

dominant male chimp in his

colony; this may account for

the scar on his head, per-

haps a consequence of trying

to maintain control over

the other chimps.

A commercial photographer based in London, Tim Flach rst became fascinated with

animals in 1993, when an ad shoot for Guinness required him to pair a python with a

vulture. He went on to pursue an ambit

american photo 2013-03-04

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