Photographer Nolan Conway‘s project Happy Meals is all about finding unique people in one of the world’s most commonplace locations on earth: McDonald’s restaurants. With his camera in tow, he has visited 150 McDonald’s in 22 states, photographing some 180 patrons in the process. Read more…
Platon (short for Platon Antoniu) is a Greek-English portrait photographer who has had the privilege of photographing some of the world’s most powerful people. From literal world leaders, to cultural world leaders, to regular people who are changing the world one day at a time, his photography has earned him many well-deserved awards and magazine covers.
Last week, he spoke to the folks at the Wired Business Conference about his work, and Wired was kind enough to share the video online. Read more…
Call it the an energy, call it an artist’s personality, call it whatever you want, Canadian portrait photographer Christopher Wahl has it. One of the best and best-known portrait photographers from the Great White North, his pictures have been published in every major magazine in his own country, and many beyond its borders.
And in this short segment, television program 16×9 goes behind the scenes at his studio and gives us a peek at one of the most energetic and passionate masters in the business. Read more…
You know those sometimes stylish, sometimes dramatic, and often funny pictures of the celebrity hosts that come up every time Saturday Night Live takes or comes back from a commercial break? Well, ever since 1999, it’s photographer Mary Ellen Matthews who has been in charge of putting those together each week. And in this short video, Plum TV catches up with Matthews to ask her about her daily life at SNL. Read more…
In 1906, etiologist and photographer Edward S. Curtis set out across the United States to draw, photograph and otherwise document the lives of Native Americans that hadn’t yet been contacted by Western society.
Funded by J.P. Morgan, he would return 20 years later with over 40,000 photographs, which he used to illustrate his famous 20 volume series “The North American Indian.” Only 222 complete sets were ever published (one of which sold last year for $1.44M at auction) and even though it has been criticized by some as misrepresenting the Native American culture at the time, its value as a documentary publication is enormous. Read more…
Back in April of last year, we featured an interesting project by photographer Tanja Hollander. Dubbed The Facebook Portrait Project, Hollander has spent the last year travelling around the world and taking portraits of all her Facebook friends. The project’s motivation was half photographical and half philosophical, an exploration of the definition of “true” friendship that Hollander is still in the midst of today.
As she found out recently, however, she’s not the only one: photographer Ty Morin has embarked on a similar journey. And even though they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the amount of attention the press has been giving Morin’s imitation has left Hollander feeling anything but flattered. Read more…
One of the most entertaining events that photographers get to enjoy each year is the annual Gulf Photo Plus shootout, in which 3 photographers each get 20 minutes to take a photo from concept to completion. In 2012, the shootout pinned David Hobby, Martin Prihoda, and Greg Heisler against each other. This year, John Keatley, Lindsay Adler and Zack Arias are the victims participants, and one of last year’s contestants is actually the subject. Read more…
French photographer Philippe Echaroux is known, among other things, as a great portrait photographer. You might remember his work taking studio quality “celebrity” portraits of random strangers on the street.
For his most recent portraiture project, however, he eschewed even the limited studio gear he brought out on the street with him, and issued himself a challenge: take a high-quality, professional portrait, using nothing more than an iPhone and a €10 lighting budget. Read more…
Annie Leibovitz is one of the most iconic portrait photographers of our time, and in this video we get to hear a young version of the 63-year-old photography legend talk about her past and her hopes for a future that is now her present.
From Richard Prior to the Rolling Stone cover of John Lennon that was taken the day Lennon was killed, Leibovits speaks about some of her most iconic photographs. Photographs that, at the time, weren’t quite so far in her past.
(via ISO 1200)
Musicians, and all creative types really, often cross over into other creative endeavors that may or may not have anything to do with the field they’re famous for. It was only a few weeks ago that we featured a video of musician Moby talking about how much he loved photographing LA architecture. And today Leica has put together another of their “Leica Portraits,” this one on soul musician — and, of course, photography enthusiast — Seal.
The video does have the necessary Leica plug (around 2:30) but besides that everything that Seal talks about — from trading photo time for play time with his daughter, to the emotional connection he feels is necessary for great street and portrait photography — is interesting and relevant to anybody who loves the art of picture taking.
Leica Portrait: Seal (via The Leica Camera Blog)
