MAKING A - American Photo

ON CAMPUS
S U M M E R
MAKING A
STATEMENT
Fashion photographer Andrew Yee on
finding an aesthetic and building a career
VIDEO, PHOTO—WHY CHOOSE?
How pros Gillian Laub and the duo
We Are The Rhoads balance both
CLASS OF 2015
Seven amazing photographers who just
happen to be graduating this year
2 0 1 5
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For information, please email: [email protected]
2 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS FEBRUARY 2011
SUMMER 2015
D E P A R T M E N T S
4
EDITOR’S NOTE
12
What I learned at the Society for Photographic
Education confab. BY MIRIAM LEUCHTER
5
TWO YEARS OUT
Sophie Klafter’s portraits open eyes to the
ordinary lives of people with extraordinary
challenges. BY JACK CRAGER
8
BOOKS & SHOWS
How the world treats its dead; the antiNormal vision of Eugene Meatyard;
maleness examined; and more.
10
PHOTO REALISM
Graduating? Relax. School gave you this secret
weapon for success IRL. BY ALLEGRA WILDE
34
PERSPECTIVE
Larry Fink reflects on the work of his
mentee Sophie Klafter. BY JACK CRAGER
20
F E A T U R E S
12
VIDEO 101
These still photographers made the jump
into motion pictures and multimedia—
and so can you. BY LINDSAY COMSTOCK
Cover: © Andrew Yee. This page, from top: © We Are The Rhoads; © Andrew Yee.
20
MORE IS MORE
A conversation with Andrew Yee about
extreme aesthetics, improvised efficiency,
and other paradoxes of the serious game of
fashion. BY MEG RYAN
26
THE CLASS OF 2015
These seven standout photo students are
about to embark on their careers. With
work like this, they have a pretty good shot.
BY SARA CRAVATTS
G E A R
31
PREVIEW
JVC’s new 4K camcorder-shaped
camcorder. BY PHILIP RYAN
32
TOOLBOX
Photo gear for work and play.
From top: Image from “California Dreaming,” Kinfolk Issue 11, 2014, by We Are
The Rhoads; image in Utopia, Texas, from How To Spend It, 2013, by Andrew Yee.
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 3
E D I TO R ’ S
N OT E
ON CAMPUS
< ON THE
COVER
Fashion photographer
Andrew Yee, profiled on
page 20, shot this image in
2013 for How To Spend It,
the luxury lifestyle magazine of the Financial Times.
Styled by Damian Foxe.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MIRIAM LEUCHTER
FEATURES EDITOR Debbie Grossman
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Crager
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Scott Alexander,
Russell Hart, Allegra Wilde
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MANAGING EDITOR Jill C. Shomer
PHOTO EDITOR Sabine Rogers
DESIGNER Sarah Hughes
COPY EDITOR Meg Ryan
WEB EDITOR Stan Horaczek
ASSISTANT WEB EDITORS Jeanette D. Moses, Eugene Reznik
BONNIER’S TECHNOLOGY GROUP
GROUP PUBLISHER GREGORY D. GATTO
PUBLISHER ANTHONY M. RUOTOLO
[email protected]
It’s hard to believe that this year is drawing to a close. This
academic year, that is. And for many of you, that means an end to
your time on campus—perhaps for good. Our columnist Allegra Wilde
offers some pointed advice for your post-graduation life on page 10.
Her exhortation to get out and meet more people in the photography world spurred me to drop in on the Society for Photographic
Education’s annual conference in New Orleans in March. I arrived
mainly as an observer, but by the time I left I was determined to
become a member. Any professional conference gives you a chance
to hang out with old friends and make new ones, and I did plenty
of both. But I also discovered a community of teachers, students,
artists, and writers with a shared commitment to exploring and
advancing photography in diverse ways.
The presentations yielded some surprises, too. Some 300 people
packed the room for a talk by Brady Wilks called “Concept & Process:
Getting Over the Novelty of Alternative Processes.” (His new book,
Alternative Photographic Processes: Evidence of the Photographer’s Hand,
is just out from Focal Press.) The founder of BagNewsNotes, Michael
Shaw, announced that he’s applying for nonprofit status to bring his
salon format of live online panel discussions into the classroom to
foster visual literacy in photojournalism. And the inspiring keynotes
by writer Rebecca Solnit and photographers Chris Jordan and
Hank Willis Thomas pulled audiences of more than 1,200. These
artists and activists, in their speaking and in their work itself, combine intellectual rigor with tremendous passion. They draw on rich
cross-disciplinary collaborations to create vibrant and profoundly
meaningful work. Hearing these dazzling thinkers in person sparked
some creative and personal insights that will last me quite a while.
This year may be over, but you can keep finding insights
into photography all summer long with us online at
AmericanPhotoMag.com. And connect with us on
Facebook so we can hear from you, too. See you next fall! MIRIAM LEUCHTER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
4 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
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From top: © Andrew Yee; © Patrick James Miller
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PRODUCTION MANAGER Erika Hernandez
FI LTER
DISPATCHES FROM THE FIELD
BOOKS AND SHOWS 8 PHOTO REALISM 10
T W O
Y E A R S
O U T
© Sophie Klafter
Pa r t o f t h e b e a u t y i s t h a t m y s u b j e c t s s h a r e
m y e x c i t e m e n t f o r w h a t I ’m t r y i n g t o a c c o m p l i s h .
Sophie Klafter opens viewers’ eyes to the
humanness within extraordinary humans
BY JACK CRAGER
Above: Born with albinism, Justin works at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art and is building his career as a model.
‘
‘SELF & OTHER
SOPHIE KLAFTER
n opening night at her photo exhibit at
Brooklyn’s Invisible Dog gallery, Sophie
Klafter stops in front of her portrait of
a wheelchair-bound man named Steve
who was born with muscular dystrophy. “We met
on [the dating site] OKCupid,” she says with a smile.
“We’re just good friends. He’s a comedian and I’ve
watched his performances. He’s funny but intense—
he makes people laugh about uncomfortable things.”
A 2013 graduate of Bard College’s photo program,
Klafter has spent nearly three years creating
O
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 5
6 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
© Sophie Klafter (3)
FI LTER
portraits of people coping with physical challenges
for a series called corpoReality. “Each person I’ve
photographed has a unique story to tell, and my job
is to help tell it,” she says. “Through this series I
hope to make those who are able-bodied more comfortable with and compassionate toward those with
differences. I believe people with physical differences are too often judged solely by their appearance—
being ignored, or even worse, seen as spectacles.”
Klafter speaks from experience. She lives with
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a rare neuromuscular disorder that affects motor and sensory
nerves throughout the body, especially in the feet
and lower legs. Her current series grew out of a
set of self-portraits she started as a student. The
new work earned Klafter a Tierney Fellowship
grant in 2013 and has been shown in a solo exhibition at Annandale-on-Hudson and at Photoville
in Brooklyn. “Since childhood, I have had to be
sharply observant of my surroundings—details such
as little grooves in the pavement or uneven bricks
on the sidewalk could make the difference between
a pleasant outing and a catastrophic fall,” Klafter
writes in her artist statement. “My unique physicality eventually evolved into the desire to document the natural variations of the human body.”
Klafter inherited CMT from her father; it was
her self-portrait “Dad and Me” (bottom right) that
won the 2014 VSA Emerging Artist Award of Excellence from the Kennedy Center. Her other subjects include Sarah, a painter, sculptor, and harpist
born with no legs and one complete arm; and Geri
(top right), who was born with diastrophic dysplasia and advocates about disability awareness. “I
spend a lot of time finding my subjects, but some
I meet in random ways,” Klafter says. “I’ve posted
ads on signposts and Craigslist. I’ve contacted hospitals, rehab centers, and support groups.” She finds
the synergy with her subjects gratifying. “They’re
proud to be part of this series, and I’ve never had to
go out of my way to convince them,” she says. “They
might be bashful at first, but I would never publicize an image of someone who wasn’t comfortable
with the portrait I took of them.”
One guest at Klafter’s gallery show is Justin, an
albino fashion model who recently sat for a portrait
(page 5). What was that like? He pauses and grins.
“She knows what she wants,” he says, “and she’s not
afraid to ask for it. She’s firm. But it was fun.”
Klafter had asked Justin to pose in a pair of
briefs. “His body is beautiful,” she explains. Her own
self-portrait in the series is a nude, showing the
scars and imperfections resulting from her disease.
“I included myself because I wanted people to understand that photographing people this way is not
exploitative, but the opposite,” she says. “I want my
subjects to know that I’m willing to expose myself
as much as I’m asking them to reveal themselves.
My subjects are people whom I identify with.” AP
Opposite: Steve is a comedian who was born with
muscular dystrophy. He is
working on a comic web
series spreading awareness of disabilities with his
new show called Uplifting
Dystrophy. Above: Geri
is a disability awareness
advocate and speaker who
was born with diastrophic
dysplasia. Left: Klafter’s
award-winning portrait
“Dad and Me.”
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 7
WHAT REMAINS
Visual reminders of society’s
reverence for the dearly departed
MEMENTO MORI: THE DEAD AMONG US
By Paul Koudounaris
Thames & Hudson $60
Jerry Garcia would love this book: It celebrates
the rituals surrounding our preservation of the
dead with a healthy mix of ludicrousness and
mysticism. In scenes ranging from mysterious
bone caves in Asia to tragic-memorial ossuaries
in Cambodia to fashion displays of mummified
corpses in Italy, Koudounaris (an art historian
with a penchant for the macabre) documents the
many ways humans have historically honored
their loved ones by retaining and consecrating
their remains. A vivid chapter on the Fiesta de las
Ñatitas (celebration of decorated skulls) in Bolivia
brings the trend into the modern era. It’s a rather
morbid journey—but a fascinating one nonetheless.
8 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
BRUCE DAVIDSON: IN COLOR
By Bruce Davidson Steidl $85
Best known for black-and-white documentation of hardscrabble communities,
Davidson has also shot color editorial and commercial work for Vogue, National
Geographic, Life, and other publications throughout his 50-year career. This
book showcases his versatility as a visual stylist and wry social commentator.
This page, from top: © 2015 Dr. Paul Koudounaris; © Bruce Davidson. Opposite, clockwise from top: © The estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard; © 2014 Jeff Burton, courtesy of the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York; © René Peña.
B O O KS
&S H O W S
WILDLY STRANGE:
THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF
RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD
Blanton Museum of Art,
University of Texas, Austin, TX,
through June 21
hrc.utexas.edu
Meatyard was born in
an Illinois town called
Normal—a term that never
applied to him. His eerie
mise-en-scènes blended
occult symbolism, Zen
spiritualism, and reflections
on the ephemeral nature of
life—which piqued the interest of many writers, artists,
and other intellectuals
before the artist’s death at
age 46 in 1972. A trove of his
imagery and the papers of
his peers were acquired by
UT’s Harry Ransom Center,
which unveils a selection of
the work in this show.
Clockwise from far left:
“St. Munditia, Peterskirche,
Munich, Germany,” from
Memento Mori; “Untitled,
1967,” by Ralph Eugene Meatyard; Jeff Burton’s “Untitled
#107 (shower)”; René Peña’s
“Untitled, 2010”; Bruce Davidson’s “Vogue fashion, 1964.”
HE: THE HERGOTT SHEPARD
PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION
APERTURA: PHOTOGRAPHY IN CUBA TODAY
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI,
through June 21 chazen.wisc.edu
Featuring seven contemporary photographers, this
exhibition explores Cuba’s dynamic forces of change
as it segues into the Raúl Castro era and a relative
rapprochement with the West. Experimentalism
abounds, from José Manuel Fors’s mixed-media
montages to René Peña’s provocative self-portraits
(left), while remnants of Cuba’s ever-present past
emerge in Carlos Garaicoa’s sepia-toned scenes of
fragmented ruins and bullet-riddled walls.
University of Michigan Museum
of Art, Ann Arbor, MI, through
June 14 umma.umich.edu
Titled after a simple pronoun, this group show is
about human maleness—in
all its contradictory imperfection. Drawing from the
vast holdings of Los Angeles–based collectors Alan
Hergott and Curt Shepard,
the exhibition delves into
issues of male identity and
self-reflection, solidarity
and competition, and
sensuality in various forms.
The show features work by
renowned contemporary
photographers including
Doug Aitken, Rineke
Dijkstra, Nan Goldin,
Robert Mapplethorpe,
Catherine Opie, Herb Ritts,
Thomas Ruff, and Jeff Wall.
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 9
FI LTER
I
‘
CONNECT
WITH
OTHERS WHO
KNOW HOW
IT FEELS
TO BE NEW,
AND TRYING,
AND BROKE.
‘
n this series of advice
columns I’ve tried to
give you tips to help
you develop creatively,
strengthen your ability
to edit your own work, and process your
audience’s feedback. Now, as we get to the
end of your term—and for some of you,
the beginning of an on-your-own real life
and (gulp) real career—there are some
questions you may be asking yourself.
One question: “What now?”
It’s time to forget about the insulated
college experience and prepare yourself
for the next exhilarating (and terrifying)
phase of your progress. The critiques will
be over, the small group of supportive
peers and professors will disperse, and
thank heavens, you’ll have no more class
assignments. Yay—you’re on your own!
Not to worry. You’re ready. If you’ve
been paying attention.
One thing that most graduates don’t
realize is how the photo department experience has given you the exact tools you
will need to survive in the professional
photo world. And, no, it’s not your technical chops or your professors’ advice. All
of the theses, practicums, lectures, and
assignments actually obscure the most
important lesson: In order to succeed,
you must replicate that social experience.
Once you’re out in the world, the
structure, interaction, and engagement
that got you through these years of sinkor-swim professional development and
classroom competition will be enormously
useful. Here’s how to create a supportive
and creative professional environment
once you’ve left the academic nest:
• Cultivate a small group of photographer
friends to help you as you develop your
portfolio—people you can share your
project ideas with, your work in progress
(successes and failures), who will give
you honest feedback and suggestions. Go
to each other’s shows and events. Lend
them stuff. Help them to make their best
pictures, and they’ll do the same for you.
• This peer group can also help with
expenses. Pool your group’s resources to
save money. Go in on a studio rental for a
day, hire professional models, pay location
fees, rent an RV. Many professional services offer a discount to emergent photographers because they want your business later, when you have actual money.
You can also combine your resources for
printed materials such as promo cards,
<
ALLEGRA
WILDE
C O N T I N U E T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N :
twitter.com/APphotorealism
facebook.com/APphotorealism
10 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
print portfolios, and gallery catalogs.
Most printers discount for volume.
• Find professional mentors. These are
people you respect and who may work in
the discipline you are interested in. Galleries, ad agencies, magazines, and even
photo agents all have a vested professional interest in finding the next big thing.
So while you can benefit enormously from
their expertise, direction, and feedback—
you may be exactly the young artist they
are looking to champion.
• Go to photo events and festivals. Get
critiqued by experts, brush up on your
technical skills, and be inspired. Above all,
network. You never know who can help
you—try to meet everyone in the part of
the photo industry you want to work in.
• Self-assign. Always be shooting your
next project, or series, or photograph.
Give yourself deadlines and the discipline necessary to finish beautifully and
on time. Not being graded should not
eliminate the pressure for you to do your
best. (Because if you think about it, you
actually are still being graded.)
Keep these habits and you’ll transition
from calling yourself a student to calling
yourself a photographer. Indeed, we are
all on our own. But as someone who lives
and breathes photography and has made
a career in this fabulous industry, I promise you: The very best part of my work,
and what has made me successful, is the
support and friendship of other people as
passionate about photography as I am.
So go find those like-minded photographer friends, let them share the struggles,
failures, and successes with you. Connect
with others who know how it feels to be
new, and trying, and broke. Help each
other. You’ll all need a little less luck and
a little less money, and you all just might
make it on your own. AP
The cofounder and chief operations
officer of Eyeist, the online portfolio
review service (eyeist.com), Allegra Wilde
is a picture/visual strategist, creative
director, and consultant to artists,
photographers, and other art-based
businesses. She has served as an MFA
mentor for the Digital Photography
program at the School of Visual Arts
and as a visiting instructor at Art Center
College of Design, FIT, and many other
university photography programs,
where she has regularly critiqued
graduating students’ final portfolios.
© Riley Kern Studio
P H OTO
R E A L I S M
SIGMA UNIVERSITY
Photographic education keeps the
art of photography alive; it nurtures
creativity, unleashes imagination
and upholds the fact that images
are a meaningful art form and an
important part of our culture and
history.
The Sigma University is created and
designed to ensure that all students,
educators and schools have access
to the equipment they need to get
the most out of their education.
Through the University every Sigma
product is specially-priced, making
it easy and affordable to use high
performing, high quality equipment
during the learning process and long
after.
Our goal is to support the future of
photographic language and craft by
putting the best tools available in
the hands of those on this journey
and encouraging them to engage
with the world in a meaningful way.
Please check Sigma-University.com
for program details.
Sigma-University.com
SIGMA Corporation of America | 15 Fleetwood Court, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, U.S.A. | Tel: (631) 585-1144 | SigmaPhoto.com
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CROSSING INTO MOTION
What it takes to make video a major part
of your photography work BY LINDSAY COMSTOCK
n the digital era, video work is a
growth industry. It’s an inviting world
for still photographers—their current
gear provides the basic tools for making beautiful moving images, and many assignments
are beginning to require that shooters come back
with both stills and video. But capturing motion can
be a daunting task for someone who is used to freezing it. Becoming a filmmaker means developing a
knack for shaping narrative and recording audio.
How best to make the shift to moving images?
We spoke with Gillian Laub, a photojournalist who
has branched out into multimedia, and We Are The
Rhoads, a husband-and-wife duo who have brought
their lifestyle imagery and portraiture into the video
realm, to find out what it takes.
I
12 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
STORIED BEGINNINGS
New York City–based Gillian Laub quickly saw
that multimedia could help her tell complex
stories after her first motion project helped to
desegregate a historically divided prom in Montgomery County, Georgia.
The photojournalist, whose work often focuses
on people affected by geopolitical friction, war,
social injustice, and gender identity, decided to
incorporate motion into the story she was commissioned to tell about the racially segregated proms
for The New York Times Magazine in 2009. “I felt
frustrated because the still photographs weren’t
allowing me to tell the full and nuanced story,” she
recalls. “Teenagers in prom dresses can be very
visual, but it was challenging to be able to com-
Above: A photograph from
Gillian Laub’s “A Prom
Divided” for The New York
Times Magazine, May 21,
2009; the story grew into
a feature-length documentary for HBO.
© Gillian Laub (2)
municate the context in the still images alone, so I
learned slowly how to shoot video.”
Laub has gone on to produce several short films
and multimedia projects. She recently completed
a feature film for HBO, Southern Rites, which will
be released in May with a companion book. This
comes after making a mark as a still photographer:
Her work has appeared in numerous publications
such as The New York Times Magazine and Time,
and her first documentary monograph, Testimony
(Aperture, 2007)—exploring the effects of Middle
East conflict on Israeli Jews, Arabs, Palestinians,
and displaced Lebanese families—garnered her
Aperture’s Emerging Artist Award.
Still photography is a “solitary and intimate
practice,” she says. “The challenge of telling a story
through one image will always excite and drive me.
[But] seeing real life unfold in real time and hearing a person’s actual voice enables me to explore a
story in much greater depth.”
CREATIVE SYNERGY
For Los Angeles–based husband-and-wife photographic duo We Are The Rhoads, aka Sarah
and Chris Rhoads, image making is about “al-
Above: Nikki, from
Laub’s feature “A Perfect
Daughter” for People
magazine, 2013. The
assignment asked for both
photographs and video.
ways learning and always evolving and trying
new things,” says Sarah Rhoads. “We like to
think of ourselves as explorers. It’s important
to us to keep our childlike wonder and curiosity
about the world.”
The pair has shot editorial photography for
Kinfolk, Nylon, and Rolling Stone and commercial
work for clients including Sony, Converse, Levi
Strauss, and Ace Hotel. Their transition into
motion came about organically in 2011 with a
short film they created on spec for Kinfolk while
on a still-photo assignment. Published online, this
attracted the attention of a Sony art director, who
commissioned them for more video work, and the
practice took flight from there.
The pair, both age 30, met in college at Oklahoma
State University, where Chris was studying liberal
arts and moonlighting as a professional bass player
while Sarah was studying journalism. “Telling stories was always an interest for both of us—I began
with a pen and paper and Chris made music,” Sarah
says. The couple married and set up shop in Seattle
in 2009. They relocated in Los Angeles in 2014.
Their video work—typically produced for
clients for broadcast on television or web outlets
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 13
14 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
C R O SS I N G
I N TO
M OT I O N
like YouTube—projects an organic lifestyle, where nature,
beautiful handmade objects, friendship, and music are
key ingredients. “I think the world craves something real,
something that feels honest in the 21st century,” says
Sarah Rhoads, reflecting on both their aesthetic and the
shift in the industry as a whole from highly retouched to
more natural styling. “We are children of the Information
Age, and because of that, we’re all spending more of our
lives staring at a screen rather than looking at something
or someone rooted in reality.”
KEEPING IN STYLE
One of the creative challenges of crossing over is to keep a
consistent style across disparate media. We Are The Rhoads
maintain cohesion through natural-looking light, a muted
color palette, and authentic styling. “Whether it’s moving
images or still images, the process is very much rooted in
vision, composition, style, and theme,” Sarah Rhoads says.
“When we shoot a still assignment it informs our film
endeavors, and vice versa. We’re homing in on what we
want to say and finding interesting ways to do it visually.”
Laub says she learned a lot about the world of motion
under the guidance of photojournalist-cum-filmmaker
Shaul Schwartz (with whom she still works, for his production company Reel Peak Films). “Collaborating with him
was a wonderful learning experience,” Laub says of the
Southern Rites project. “We were working on a film, but with
still backgrounds, so it was like speaking a new language
together—only he had learned it years before me.”
To seamlessly blend still photographs and filmed interviews into compelling multimedia stories, she advises:
“Learn how to be a one-man band. I’ve struggled with
this—I am not a very ‘techy’ person. But it’s not about all
the bells and whistles and the great new equipment. It’s
about being able to know the equipment you have and
knowing how to use it alone.”
Laub, who did not have formal schooling in filmmaking,
likens her production process to “trial and lots of errors.”
But she notes that she benefitted from learning to shoot
video with the same cameras she uses for stills—the Canon
EOS 5D Mark II and Mark III—adding a zoom recorder
and lavalier microphones for capturing sound. “It made the
transition smoother,” she says. “But then, of course, [with
video] you have a lot more technical issues to deal with.”
SOUND & VISION
© Gillian Laub
A key challenge in multimedia work is incorporating sound
into a visual project. Laub’s documentary work often relies
on captured conversations and ambient sound. “The one
mistake I have made way too often—one that I’ve lost lots of
sleep over—is bad sound,” she says. “It doesn’t matter how
great your imagery is; if you have bad sound in motion you
are in trouble.” She adds that this can mean having to trash
many hours of work. “I have had to say goodbye to some of
my favorite footage because I messed up the sound.”
WATR’s video work, with its lifestyle themes and comLeft: “Aliza at The Memorial,” Tiberias, Israel,
October 2002, from Testimony. Laub’s early work
was exclusively still photography.
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 15
C R O SS I N G
I N TO
M OT I O N
mercial bent, is often overlaid with music or narration, which simplifies the process during capture and
enables control during the editing phase. “Sound is
often simply another tool to enhance an audience
experience of the story,” Sarah Rhoads says.
When their budget allows, the couple hires sound
designers and editors to help them shape motion
projects. Being entirely self-taught means “falling
on your face and getting back up, stumbling around
and eventually walking on your own,” Sarah says.
“Passion drove our need to be educated about our
world, and being self-taught has motivated us even
more to understand technique and to experiment.”
As with still photography, the couple count
“great light” among the assets of a successful film.
This means natural light for editorial, and for
commercial work with larger budgets, the creative
freedom of setting up artificial light. The primary
technical variance in their work comes from the
types of cameras they use. For digital still photos it’s a Phase One medium-format camera or a
Canon EOS 5D Mark III 35mm-format DSLR; for
analog photography (which they use for editorial
whenever it’s feasible), it’s Mamiya or Hasselblad
bodies; for video, it’s usually an Arri Alexa or a
RED Epic Dragon.
16 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
Above: A still assignment
for We Are The Rhoads
produced a shot of Father
John Misty’s Josh Tillman
that ran in Rolling Stone,
February 2015. Right:
WATR shot Hannah
Henderson (right) and her
kids Costa and Lennon
Moore (opposite) for
Kinfolk Issue 11, March
2014. The team produced
both photographs and video.
© We Are the Rhoads (3)
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 17
I N TO
M OT I O N
WHY MOTION?
While the world of print media has been contracting, the realm of digital storytelling is expanding,
according to Laub. “There is a need more than
ever for good video and multimedia content,” she
says. “[But] it’s important to work with skilled
editors whom you have good, open communication
with and who share your vision. This is a very close
relationship that is integral to the whole process.”
For this documentarian, incorporating motion
goes beyond pure demand for content; it allows
her to tell stories in greater depth. “I wouldn’t say
it’s more accurate—it’s just different,” Laub says.
“Sometimes one still image is all you need. That
can be powerful enough. But I like to hear people’s
stories, so interviews have always been an important
part of my process. The main difference now is that
I’m recording them.”
Chris and Sarah Rhoads advise photographers
and clients who are entertaining the idea of introducing motion into their mix to take it seriously
as a medium. “Moving into motion should be done
with intention,” Sarah says. “Because it will help
you share your vision better in that medium,
18 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
Above: WATR produced
“Room 68,” a project
including motion and stills,
for Relapse magazine,
Spring 2014.
or because you have something you want to say
through film—not just because you can.” Furthermore, she adds, “In this oversaturated era, there’s
a lot more ‘stuff ’ out there in cyberspace that
doesn’t consider the aesthetic value or the best
practices for the particular project. Filmmaking
should be done with just as much intention as
print requires.”
In the end, both camps agree that it’s all about
maintaining inspiration for one’s work and genuine
interest in the subject matter. “You have to make
your own luck in this business,” Sarah Rhoads says.
“No one’s going to hand you anything. You have to
make your own reality.”
Laub notes that motivation is crucial. “There are
so many things I am inspired by on a daily basis:
people, life, family, love, art, fear—it’s endless,” she
says. “I think the most valuable thing is to stay passionate. I don’t know if that’s a skill per se, but it’s
the most important aspect of one’s work.” AP
To see the videos that these photographers made
in concert with the images in this story, visit
AmericanPhotoMag.com/APOCvideo.
© We Are The Rhoads
C R O SS I N G
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20 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
MORE IS MORE
A conversation with
photographer Andrew
Yee about extreme
aesthetics, improvised
efficiency, and other
paradoxes in the
serious game of fashion
BY MEG RYAN
eramics is quite a lonely
life. You’re either working by yourself on a
pottery wheel or you’re
making weird, giant sculptures. I’m
probably more social and not a potter,” says Andrew Yee, reflecting on
his unusual route from ceramicist to
fashion photographer. “Photography
is very social. Especially in fashion.
It’s very difficult to create an image
by yourself.”
As the 33-year-old Honolulu native
retraces his steps from artsy highschooler in Hawaii to Ceramics major
at Marymount College in Los Angeles
to 2005 graduate of Parsons The New
School for Design in New York and to
Manhattan-based pro, it is apparent
that Yee is anything but solitary. Or
sedentary. Even when chatting on
the phone, he bounces from point to
point, every new idea a shiny object
worth pausing to consider before
moving on to the next, trusting that
whatever path he’s on will take him
someplace pleasant, or at least someplace interesting.
Wherever the conversation goes—
to the perils of travel in India (“We
flew 28 hours and drove for five,
and we were in customs for three
hours. It was insane!”) or unrealistically real models (“The best real girl,
meaning she spent two hours in hair
and makeup and she’s five-ten”) to
bloggers’ impact on American fashion
(“Bloggers have so much influence
now: They write about something and
suddenly it becomes the norm”)—Yee
steers back so often to the social and
collaborative aspects of photography
that it’s easy to get the sense that
© Andrew Yee (2)
“C
Above, from Harper’s Bazaar
Spain, 2014. Opposite,
from the Financial
Times’ magazine How
To Spend It, 2012.
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 21
M O R E
I S
M O R E
he’s simply not himself without someone to play in
his sandbox with.
His preferred collaborator is Damian Foxe,
the fashion director of the Financial Times’ magazine How To Spend It. Foxe produces a few dozen
fashion stories each year, and Yee shoots many of
them. Their partnership has yielded fashion stories
that are set in far-flung locales and characterized
by chewy, sensuous images chunky with texture
and pattern and wet with saturated color. A package set in India feasts on metallics, earthy textures,
and jewel tones; a shoot in rustic Utopia, Texas,
near San Antonio, captures so much environmental detail you can feel the tree bark scratching the
model’s translucent skin.
“The clothing is the main thing that brings us
all there, but the location often dictates the story,”
Yee says of the symbiosis of clothing, hair and
makeup, location, and personality that happens in
fashion shoots. “For example, obviously, we’re not
going to shoot cocktail dresses in India. You can
have all these grand ideas, and then sometimes
you see the model or the location or the weather
pours down on you, and you have to morph.”
Yee has a “more is more” aesthetic that’s well
suited to high fashion, an area he easily drifted
toward at Parsons, where he developed his style
shooting his fellow students’ projects. “I don’t
know how I got my aesthetic, really; maybe it’s my
personality,” he says. “But I hate, absolutely hate,
middle of the road. For me it’s either no makeup
and no hair and [the model] is completely broken,
or it’s a glitter face with tons of jewelry and a wig.
Any kind of realness in between just gets really
uncomfortable for me. Sometimes things need to
be a little different to be grabbing. If you’re going
to make a statement, make a statement.”
American fashion, however, sits squarely in the
middle of the road. “It’s at this state now where
it’s very realistic—almost street wear,” Yee says,
pointing to classic brands like Ralph Lauren.
“America is a powerhouse. It’s about sales and approachability. And we’re such a young country. We
don’t have all that history of fashion, the ridiculous corsets, and wigs, and royalty. We started out
with pilgrims. Basics.”
Yee says this isn’t a critique of American
fashion, just a different aspect of the business.
“A lot of American publications will look at my
work and say—I hear this all the time—‘It’s so
beautiful but it will scare our readers.’” A few years
ago, he says, the mismatch got under his skin.
“I had a moment where I thought I wasn’t really
with the times,” he says. “‘Am I just being extremely
difficult and crazy?’ I tried to [alter] my portfolio
for that market, and it just doesn’t work.”
So he shoots frequently for European publications: HTSI, Vogue UK, Elle Germany, Russian and
Spanish editions of Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar,
22 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
This spread, clockwise from
top: How To Spend It, 2012;
L’Officiel México, 2014 (2).
© Andrew Yee (3)
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 23
a long list of others. And that’s precisely his advice
to young photographers: Have an aesthetic. “Find
a vision for you that can be applied multiple ways,”
Yee says. “Because you’re going to get thrown into
job situations, especially in the fashion industry,
where you have one shot at it and if you mess that
shot up, 95 percent of the time they’re never going
to circle back to you.”
Yee admits, though, that even an unmistakably
unique and valuable look is not enough to navigate the twists and turns of the fashion industry.
“It’s really tricky,” he says. “There’s a lot of dealing with clients. My approach is just to tell myself,
24 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
From left: Syntax Editions,
2010; How To Spend It,
2011. Follow Yee’s
images on Instagram:
@andrewyeephoto.
‘Take it easy. It’s fashion. It’s a game. But it’s also
a business and you have to take it seriously. I still
struggle with making connections and going to
meetings, but it’s the nature of the beast.”
That’s why lurking beneath the surface of this
ebullient creative adventurer is a tough taskmaster who knows how to produce a shoot.
It’s a role he took to naturally as a production
assistant for photographers such as Michael
Thompson and Joshua Jordan before signing on
with Atelier Management in 2008.
In many ways, to Yee a shoot is an opportunity
to host a perfect party. At a shoot, he says, “often
© Andrew Yee (2)
M O R E
it’s just creative people sitting around having too
many coffees and too many cigarettes and nothing gets done. Essentially we’re creating an art
piece, and you need a lot to create a piece of art.
I know things take time. It also just needs to be
as efficient as possible.”
If you’re coming to a Yee production, he would
prefer that you come prepared. Know your craft
well, and if you’re a client, know what you want.
“I hate wishy-washy,” he says. “I understand that
we’re creating art and it does take trial and error.
When it comes from an unskilled place or an
inefficient place, where you’re trialing and error-
I S
M O R E
ing, trialing and erroring, and it’s going nowhere,
then it’s the worst.”
In the end, it’s still all about the people. “I have
shoot teams that I love working with and going
on amazing trips with,” Yee says. One such trip
was, in fact, Utopia. On that shoot for HTSI
(see page 3), all the parts worked: idyllic (if
sweltering) setting, capable model, skillful crew,
gracious hosts. “This [local] family just engulfed
us, like we were part of the family,” he says.
“They put us up in these lovely little cabins.
They cooked for us; we went to their barbecues.
It was nice to go and not be like, Fashion!” AP
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 25
THE CLASS OF 2015
This year’s finest photo majors are about to embark
on their careers. With work like this, they have a pretty
good shot. BY SARA CRAVATTS
KATHRYN HARRISON
Ringling College of Art
and Design
Kathryn Harrison bravely
turns inward and confronts
her deepest issues in order to
create thought-provoking and
moving images. Her series Half
in Two focuses on her complicated relationship with her
brother, Ray, as he struggles
with schizophrenia and drug
abuse. Harrison uses her
photography not only as a way
to produce pictures, but also
as a tool to grow closer to her
brother. “Photographing him
is a way to express my love for
him, and I’ve learned it’s also
his way to be there for me,” she
says. Harrison plans to take a
year off following graduation to
travel and work on her photography. She wants to apply to
graduate schools in the winter.
Above: “Thanksgiving at Mom’s, 2014,” from Kathryn Harrison’s series Half in Two.
26 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
CRISTINA BAUSSAN
© Cristina Baussan (2). Opposite: © Kathryn Harrison.
Syracuse University
Cristina Baussan produced her series Girl Culture
during a two-week trip to Cambodia in 2014 with
VII Agency’s summer program, led by photojournalist Gary Knight. Baussan immersed herself
in Cambodian life in order to explore the differences and similarities between the upbringing of
girls in that culture and her own. “Every day I
went out and approached different girls, engaging
with them in order to understand what elements
of their lives I wanted to represent in my photographs,” she said. After graduation, Baussan will
be moving to Haiti to start her career as a documentary photographer and filmmaker. “I am really
interested in exploring and pushing the boundaries
of photojournalism,” she says.
From top: “Monk Ceremony Preparations” and “Youthful Gaze,” from Cristina
Baussan’s series Girl Culture, made during a trip to Cambodia in 2014.
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 27
DAVID CAMPBELL
University of New Mexico
In an attempt to explore the way in which
traumas color our lives long after they have
occurred, Campbell photographed during quiet
moments of reflection. The photos are initiated
“by my reading aloud from text connected to
massive traumas with which I have a direct tie,”
he says. Campbell records these readings, and
then embeds the audio files directly into the code
of his images, “causing a disruption of the visual
language.” Campbell does not consider himself a
photographer per se, but rather sees his camera
as a tool with which to make art.
28 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
This spread, clockwise from above:
David Campbell’s “One Day,” from his
series Theia; Yuya Parker’s “Flying
Carrots,” from Food as Contemporary
Art; an image from Kyle Hofsass’s
series Maplewood, which chronicles
skateboarding culture.
KYLE HOFSASS
Rochester Institute of Technology
A skateboarder for as long as he has been a
photographer, Kyle Hofsass decided to combine
his two interests by embarking on his documentary project Maplewood in 2013. Hofsass branched
away from traditional sports photography and
instead focused on the essence of the subculture
that forms around skateboarding. “For me, one
of the most important aspects of the process has
been the development of trust and understanding
between myself and the people I skateboard with,”
Hofsass says. “That has been the glue that holds
the whole thing together.” Hofsass plans to pursue
a career in sports photography after graduation.
T H E
C L ASS
O F
2 0 1 5
YUYA PARKER
Art Center College of Design
From top: © Yuya Parker; © Kyle Hofsass. Opposite: © David Campbell.
In a quest to visually play with food, Yuya Parker created joyous
images that portray edible items in unconventional ways. Parker
began the series two years ago when he first picked up a camera
and began experimenting. What started as an image of flowers
growing out of a cookie turned into a bright series that continues
to grow and evolve. “I spend 90 percent of my process thinking of
new ideas,” Parker says. “I go to grocery stores, farmers markets,
and flower markets. I really enjoy the process.” While he doesn’t
have a specific next step in mind, Parker knows he wants to “keep
expressing joy and celebration of life through photography.”
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 29
SARAH ELIZABETH BORST
Savannah College of Art and Design
SARA CLARKEN
Virginia Commonwealth University
While she originally enrolled in art school to pursue fashion design, Sara
Clarken found herself more taken with the portrayal of clothing than the
clothing itself. “I was specifically drawn to being a part of the voice the garments have, creating worlds and narratives for [the clothes] to live in,” Clarken
says. She pulls inspiration from designer collections or locations to produce
her own shoots. “After graduation I plan on making the cross-country move
to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career in contemporary art, with hopes to
eventually return to school for my master’s in visual arts,” she says.
From top: Sarah Elizabeth Borst’s “Diana in the Powder Room,” from the
series 410 East Gaston; Sara Clarken’s “Untitled,” from the series Fashion.
30 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
From top: © Sarah Elizabeth Borst; © Sara Clarken
A chance encounter with a colorful personality in a health-food store led
Sarah Elizabeth Borst to begin her series 410 East Gaston, which explores the
fabulous life of a Southern woman, Diana Rogers. Borst took interest not
only in her subject’s life experiences but also in her belongings. “What I have
found the most intriguing about Diana’s life is her home, lovingly littered
with vintage dresses, fur coats, feathered hats, and perfectly curved martini
glasses,” she says. Borst will attend graduate school in the fall and has already
been accepted to several MFA programs. “I’m not sure if I’m a documentary
photographer or a portrait photographer,” she says. “I just know I am an image maker, and that I am pretty sure my life depends upon it.”
GEAR
WHAT PHOTOGRAPHERS NEED TOOLBOX 32
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MONITOR 3.5-inch, 920,000dot articulating LCD
VIEWFINDER 0.24-inch,
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DIMENSIONS 5.3 x 7.5 x 14.1
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WEIGHT About 3.6 lb (1.63 kg)
without lens
BUY IT $4,000 (body only);
pro.jvc.com
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
JVC’s new 4K cam reminds us why a camcorder should
be shaped like a camcorder BY PHILIP RYAN
ith 4K video invading more still cameras, and with so many image makers
building big video rigs around them, it’s
easy to forget why the camcorder body
design made so much sense. But JVC remembers.
This camcorder veteran, still a big brand in pro
video, has come out with a new interchangeablelens model that’s relatively affordable.
Built to suit news reporters in the field, the
GY-LS300 merges the Micro Four Thirds lens
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includes two XLR inputs with advanced controls
for high-quality sound. Dual card slots for SD memory let you record simultaneously to both cards or
automatically switch to the second card after filling
the first for continuous recording. It captures 4K
footage in the Ultra HD format (3840x2160) at
150Mbps and 4:2:2 Full HD at 50Mbps; both are
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a wide variety of editing software. It also lets you
select from a range of pixel counts, from 480x270
W
Above: Shown without a
lens and with its included
shotgun microphone, JVC’s
new GY-LS300 accepts
Micro Four Thirds lenses
directly and just about any
other glass via adapters.
up to 1440x1080, to record in H.264 at the same time
as a higher-resolution version—that way it’s easier
to email your work or post it online. You can also
record in AVCHD at 1920x1080 or 1440x1080.
For live streaming, the LS300 can work seamlessly with Ustream or YouTube, and it has a USB
port to add an LTE cellular hotspot for wireless
communication. Plus, its IP engine allows control
and monitoring through a tablet, smartphone, or
computer from a remote location.
While its Micro Four Thirds mount makes it
compatible with a nice array of lenses, you can mount
nearly any major-brand glass using an adapter. For
lenses that throw an image circle smaller than the
Super 35 sensor, the camera’s Variable Scan Mapping
maintains the native angle of view by using a portion
of the sensor to match each lens format, whether
Micro Four Thirds, Super 16, or some other standard.
All this in a body that’s light, ergonomically
designed, and easy to hold. It adds up to a serious
machine for serious video shooters. AP
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 31
TO O L B OX
FOR WORK AND PLAY
1
1 P I N T- S I Z E D P O W E R H O U S E
Samsung NX500 For this petite interchangeable-lens compact, Samsung packed
in many of the features of its flagship NX1—such as an autofocus system built into
the 28MP APS-C-size sensor and 4K video capability. Important differences: The
burst rate is lower (still fast, at 9 frames per second), and Samsung got rid of the
viewfinder—so you’ll have to rely on the tilting LCD to frame your shots. BUY IT $800
with Samsung 16–50mm f/3.5–5.6 Power Zoom ED OIS lens; samsung.com
2 STROBE TO GO
Profoto B2 250 AirTTL Like Profoto’s B1 500 AirTTL, the new B2 lets you control light
output wirelessly from your camera. But instead of an integrated battery, it uses
a traditional power pack that’s small enough to carry as you shoot and a compact
head that works on or off the camera. Flash output maxes out at 250 Ws, with a
9-stop range. It comes in two basic kits: the To-Go, with one head and battery, and
the Location, with two of each. BUY IT From $2,200; profoto.com
3 S T R E E T- S H O O T I N G G L A S S
Sony FE 28mm f/2 Sony’s wide-angle prime for its Alpha a7 series of full-frame
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cameras it scales up to the equivalent of 42mm, a useful “normal” focal length. The
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near-silence during autofocus, too. BUY IT $450; sonydigitalimaging.com
4 ANOTHER STROBE TO GO
Elinchrom ELB 400 Quadra This new location lighting kit, with its built-in Skyport
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recycle times have been cut by 20 percent; and the lithium-ion battery pushes
out 350 full-power pops per second. It comes in four different kits with a choice of
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5 BIG STEP UP
4
Nikon D7200 Ready to graduate to a more powerful DSLR? Nikon removed the
optical low-pass filter from the 24.2MP APS-C sensor to eke out more resolution.
You can capture bursts of 27 12-bit or 18 14-bit RAW images, or 100 JPEGs, at 6 fps.
The new 51-point autofocus system works in light as dim as –3 EV. And both NFC
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6 PUSHING THE LIMITS
SanDisk 200GB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I 200GB of memory may not seem like much
at first—many photographers keep 1TB of images stored on a portable hard drive.
But think of the size of this card: just 15mm on its longest side. It’s the type used
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could take you all summer to fill the thing up. BUY IT $400; sandisk.com
7 MAGNIFYING GLASS
Panasonic Lumix G Macro 30mm f/2.8 ASPH Mega O.I.S. For life-size close-ups,
nothing beats a dedicated macro lens. This 60mm full-frame equivalent for
Panasonic and Olympus Micro Four Thirds ILCs delivers with true 1:1 macro—
100 percent subject magnification. Internal-focusing with a quiet stepping
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focuses as close as 4.1 inches. BUY IT $400; panasonic.com
8 FUN FACTORY
Lomo’Instant Boston Edition Load this eye-catching camera with Fujifilm Instax
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Lomography’s instant-film camera now comes with an accessory called the
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gels for the built-in flash. BUY IT $170; lomography.com
32 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
7
GEAR
2
3
5
6
8
SUMMER 2015 AMERICANPHOTOMAG.COM 33
P E R S P EC T I V E
T
he photograph above by Larry Fink is an object
lesson in framing. “Do a little experiment with
this picture,” Fink writes in Larry Fink on
Composition and Improvisation (Aperture, 2014). “Cover
the little corner of the table in the bottom left with your
hand so that it’s no longer in the picture and look at what
happens. The picture flattens out. No longer do you see
the boxer embattled inside the context of the space . . .
[so] there is less tension.” Details like that are among the
lessons that Fink imparted as a mentor to photographer
34 AMERICAN PHOTO ON CAMPUS SUMMER 2015
Sophie Klafter (see page 5) when she studied at Bard
College. “Larry always pushed that the most important
quality in a photograph is for it to transcend the page
and make the viewer feel raw emotion and intimacy,”
Klafter says. “This is something he admires in my work
and I do in his. We’re both romantics.” Fink concurs:
“Sophie’s empathetic eye,” he says, “allows us to see her
subjects with both poetic nobility and strident commonality. She never dwells on the dark side, all the while
ironically acknowledging what is real.”—JACK CRAGER
Above: Larry Fink’s
“Blue Horizon,
Pennsylvania,
January 1990,”
from the book Boxing
(powerHouse, 1997).
© Larry Fink
IN THE LEFT CORNER
WORKHORSE
GY-LS300
THAT’S JVC
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Photo © 2015 Nico Padayhag FUJIFILM X-T1 Camera and XF18-55mm Lens, at 1/25 seconds at F/7.1, ISO 200
“Speed and precision are two qualities that are a must-have in my equipment.
When compositions line up and the perfect moment enters my lens, I need to be
able to rely on my camera to successfully capture it and the FUJIFILM X-T1 takes
the prize. Though I traditionally shoot with film, the built-in presets allow me to
explore scenarios with Provia Velvia, or Monochrome settings—a throwback feature
film photographers like myself can really appreciate. Lightweight and compact,
the X-T1 still holds its own against the larger DSLR cameras on the market.”
- Nico Padayhag / Student, San Francisco Art Institute
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