Interviews

Gregory Crewdson is one of the best known and influential fine art photographers working today. He is currently the director of the photography department at Yale University where he received his MFA early on.

A few weeks ago a representative from Meyer-Optik-Görlitz contacted us to see if we were interested in interviewing Dr. Wolf-Dieter Prenzel about Meyer-Optik-Görlitz’s new Trioplan f2.9/50. Dr. Prezel was Chief Engineer at the original Meyer-Optik-Görlitz company and is currently the Chief Technology Officer.

If you want to be inspired by a photographer who left a great job to pursue their passion for photography, look no further than photographer Michael O'Neal.

Natalie Brasington is a New York-based advertising and entertainment photographer who shoots for a variety of clients, including Comedy Central, Pantene, DirecTV, Details and Rolling Stone. She recently spoke about pricing at a round table discussion put on by PhotoShelter, and we were intrigued by her approach and outlook.

Fuji announced last month that it's killing off the FP-100C, its last peel-apart instant film. Then last week we reported that Impossible Project founder Florian Kaps is now working to keep the film alive.

Photo & Go is a new photo-making concept retail store that launched in Las Vegas in August 2015. The store was launched by Polaroid Fotobar's founders to take the idea of liberating digital photos to the next level. We spoke to co-founder Dov Quint about the store and the industry.

Mickey H. Osterreicher is a lawyer who has served as General Counsel of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) since 2006. We had a chat with Osterreicher about his life and the state of photographers' rights.

Brandon and Brian Wright, better known as The Brothers Wright, are the identical twins behind the craft film company CineStill Film.

Music photography "rock star" Danny Clinch was recently interviewed by Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes. You can watch the 4.5-minute segment above. Clinch has created iconic images of many of the music world's biggest stars.

Farrah Karapetian is a renowned Los Angeles based conceptual artist who creates stunning imagery through photograms or “cameraless” photography. She studied as an undergraduate at Yale University and received her MFA at UCLA. She just concluded an exhibition at Danziger Gallery in New York City and looks forward to her second exhibition at Von Lintel Gallery in Los Angeles in January 2016.

Holly Andres is an American fine art and commercial photographer who has been creating dynamic and compelling images for over a decade. She started out shooting mostly fine art photography, but gradually branched into editorial assignments with the New York Times Magazine and many others. She continues to evolve and expand her art. For her fine art work, she is represented by the Robert Mann Gallery (New York City), Robert Koch Gallery (San Francisco), Jackson Fine Art (Atlanta), and Charles A.

John Biever is one of only four photographers who has shot at every single Super Bowl over the past half century. In the 2-minute segment above, Biever talks to CBS News about his experiences and how the world has changed from when he shot Super Bowl I as a 15-year-old kid (his dad was the Green Bay Packers team photographer).

Bryan Carnathan is a photographer and the founder of The Digital Picture, one of the leading Canon DSLR gear review websites in the world. We had a chat with Carnathan to learn more about his popular site and his thoughts on the camera industry.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. On January 28th, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger broke up 73 into its flight into space, killing the 7 astronauts on board.

We reported last December that the National Park Service photography program had posted a new job listing for a full-time photographer to document the country's natural landscapes -- the same position once held by legendary photographer Ansel Adams.

If you want to see a photojournalist who cares deeply about the subject they're covering, watch this 3-minute National Geographic video. In it, photographer Charlie Hamilton James discusses his photos of vultures -- one of the fastest declining families of birds in history, and what James calls "the world's forgotten environmental disaster." …

PBS NewsHour just published this short interview with photographer Ken Van Sickle as a segment in its "Brief But Spectacular" series. It examines the question "what makes a photographer when everyone is taking pictures?"

Given the utter ubiquity of photography in the USA, most Americans probably don’t view photography as special. But in impoverished areas around the world, personal photos can be rare. On visits to her birthplace of Kolkata, India, Bipasha Shom frequently took portraits of people she met, and she was struck by how many people lacked access to a camera and had no family photos of her own.

Tim Jones is a Bristol-based photographer who is currently serving as a British Army Photographer covering West Midlands and Wales. His photos for the army are published in local and national publications …

Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki has done quite a good job at boosting his brand's reputation in the world of photography over the past few years, as the company's Art series of lenses has drawn rave reviews for their optical quality, solid build, and relative affordability.

Here's a 6-minute video by Green Label that focuses on the work of Travis Jensen, the San Francisco (and LA) based street photographer that we also featured back in February.

Brad Mangin is a freelance sports photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He regularly shoots for Sports Illustrated and Major League Baseball Photos, and he has photographed 19 World Series and a number of Super Bowls and NBA Finals so far. We had a chat with Mangin about his life, career, and love for sports photography.

Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York has millions of online followers and two NYTimes bestselling books by capturing people's portraits and stories on NYC streets. Elias Weiss Friedman has had a similar type of success by photographing dogs.

Renowned "Afghan Girl" photojournalist Steve McCurry was at Ground Zero in New York City on September 11th, 2001, and he was also in the Stade de France last Friday when the terrorist attacks were being carried out in Paris. In the interview with CBS above, McCurry shares some photos of the chaos and describes how he thought he was going to die.

Ringo Starr is best known as the rock star drummer of the Beatles, but he was also a passionate photographer who documented the life of one of history's biggest bands first hand. The video above is a 9-minute short film titled "Ringo Starr: Photographer." Made by portrait photographer Mark Seliger for Rolling Stone, it sheds light on Starr's "other life's work." …

Nick Cahill is a photographer and filmmaker based in Incline Village, Nevada. One of his photos was recently selected for the cover of National Geographic magazine -- the "Guide to the Night Sky" issue. We had a chat with Cahill about his life, work, and cover photo experience.

In 1966, Bob Dylan released his 7th studio album, titled "Blonde on Blonde," which went double-platinum and contained some of Dylan's best-known songs. It's also known for it's unusual cover photo. It's a blurry portrait of Dylan, created by photographer Jerry Schatzberg in New York City's meat-packing district.

Back in 2009, Samantha Cristoforetti was selected by the European Space Agency to become Italy's first female astronaut. She went on to spend 200 days aboard the International Space Station, setting the record for the longest continuous space flight by a woman.

Back in 2012, photography broadcaster Frederick Van Johnson conducted this short 6-minute video interview with photographer Ralph A. Clevenger, who shares the story behind his famous iceberg stock photo (which you've probably seen before in various forms).

Thomas Demand is a German photographer and sculpturist who is internationally known for his remarkable and engaging political still life artworks. I had the opportunity recently to ask Thomas about the thoughts and processes that go into making his art and photos.

Jason Kirby is a photographer and entrepreneur who is working on building Togally, a new online marketplace for connecting photographers and those who need photos shot. We had a chat with Kirby about his new venture.

Tina Barney is one of the most acclaimed fine art photographers in the U.S. She became well known photographing her real family in Rhode Island, and making large color prints from these interactions. While still in the midst of a thriving career, she recently had an exhibition of her current and past works called Four Decades at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York.

CBS Evening News just aired this short segment on the work of photographer Rick Guidotti, who has spent years shooting portraits of people with genetic conditions for his non-profit, Positive Exposure. As we first shared back in 2013, Guidotti is using his background as a major fashion photographer to change the way people see and think about beauty.

Last month, we shared a glimpse into the intense gym workouts of renowned adventure photographer Jimmy Chin, who constantly trains his body for his next extreme shoot when he's between assignments. If you'd like to see what those workouts are for, check out this new 5-minute feature by VICE Sports.

When protests and riots erupted in Baltimore earlier this year after the death of Freddie Gray, 27-year-old photographer Devin Allen began capturing remarkable photos from ground level, giving the world a look at the events through his eyes. Amidst the powerful stream of images he shared on Instagram was one particularly iconic shot of a protestor running from a crowd of police officers -- a photo that soon appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.

Jamey Price is an award-winning motorsport photojournalist who was recently named one of GQ Magazine's '10 Best Car / Racing Instagram Accounts to Follow.' Price has had his work published around the globe by Road and Track, RACER Magazine, F1 Racing Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Motorsport Magazine, ESPN, SPEEDTV, The Washington Post, and many more. He also currently works as a freelancer for a number of commercial clients including Ducati, Audi, Lamborghini, Aston Martin Racing, Mitsubishi, …

Branden Harvey became a professional photographer at the age of 16. He has since become an extremely popular photographer on social media, boasting over 104,000 followers on Instagram and one of the largest followings of a photographer on Snapchat (with 50,000+ views per image shared). We spoke to Harvey about his unique career path and perspective.

Yesterday, NBC News aired this short but interesting look into the life and career of photographer Roberto Salas. At the age of 15 in 1955, Salas met an activist named Fidel Castro during a photo assignment with Salas' photographer father. The encounter ended up giving Salas front-row seats to the revolution that was about to unfold, allowing Salas to capture intimate photos of Castro that other photojournalists in the country could only dream about.

They say to learn about a person you should look at their bookshelf to see what they read. Similarly, we believe that delving into a photographer’s bag sheds light on their personality and style. Today’s article is the first in a series that explores the bags of professional photographers and, of course, your friends here at PetaPixel. Step inside my bag to see what I carry on a daily basis and the significance of each item.

Wayne Fromm is a Canadian inventor who's widely recognized as being one of the main inventors of the selfie stick (with the other being Hiroshi Ueda of Japan). Fromm holds original patents for selfie sticks created for compact cameras and smartphones, and he current sells selfie sticks through his Quik Pod brand.

Garth Milan is one of the top action sports photographers in the world, traveling the world to photograph some of the world's most talented and most extreme athletes. Recently we featured Milan's photos of athlete Robbie Maddison surfing giant waves on a dirt bike. We had the privilege of chatting with Milan to talk about his life, career, and the future of the action sports industry.

Michael Kamber is a photojournalist who has been working around the world since 1986; he has traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, the Sudan, Haiti, Israel, and many other countries to capture conflict. Kamber has been published in most major newspapers in both the United States and Europe.

Giles Penfound is a photographer with an engrossing past and a story to tell. Penfound began his journey as a professional photographer over 25 years ago and spent most of his time documenting military operations from within the British Army. Documentary photographer Neale James approached Penfound to produce a short film about his life and work, and the result is the inspirational 30-minute video above. (Note: the video contains some strong language.)

Earlier this year, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr made an appearance on Conan O'Brien's late night talk show. One of the subjects discussed during the interview was Starr's new photo book, titled Photograph, which contains rare and unseen photos captured by Ringo during his childhood, his years in The Beatles, and beyond. In the 2.5-minute clip above, Ringo shares about a few of the photos in the book, which will be released on September 21st for $35.

Quintin Lake is a fine art and architectural photographer based in Cheltenham, England. He has been working on an ambitious photo project titled The Perimeter, which involves walking 10,000km (~6214 miles) around the British coast in sections at a time. The journey started back in April, and Lake expects that it will take him 5 years to complete the challenge.

We spoke with the founder of Sphericam, Jeffrey Martin, on the future of the company’s 360-degree spherical camera lineup and where virtual reality imaging may be headed in the next decade. The Sphericam 2 has already surpassed its Kickstarter funding goal of $150,000, collecting over $400,000, with two days of the campaign remaining. Dive into this interview to learn what challenges the team faced and what they have around the corner.

Want to hear the story of how the iconic Afghan Girl photo was shot? NPR's All Things Considered interviewed renowned photojournalist Steve McCurry to find out the background behind the famous National Geographic cover picture.

Photographer Andrew Fladeboe has spent years traveling to countries around the world with the goal of capturing the unique relationship between humans and dogs. His goal is to document the different ways cultures have come to rely on working dogs in shepherding livestock. The ongoing project is titled The Shepherd's Realm.

Lytro’s research into the world of light field technology has produced two consumer devices. Their first camera was released in 2012 and introduced photographers to the concept of being able to refocus images after they had been taken. Then in 2014, Lytro released their flagship: the ILLUM. Armed with an integrated 30-250mm f/2.0 lens, a 40 megaray sensor, and upgraded software, Lytro was ready to show the world that their technology wasn’t just a gimmick.