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Join the Mentor Series this summer as we light up New York City! Understand how luminosity can shape the mood and color of the photographs you create, as Nikon professional photographers Lucas Gilman and David Tejada assist you in finding the best angles, interpreting natural light sources, utilizing reflectors, and understanding how to control light to convey a desired atmosphere — all while capturing unique New York City images in both controlled and spontaneous shooting situations. Beautiful iconic Central Park will serve as the perfect venue to learn how to use natural light and consider light modifiers to enhance your portraits. Under the Brooklyn Bridge will provide us a shooting location from twilight to dark, as we throw light on our subject and allow the city skyline to shine in the background. We will also take to the streets in Times Square to create images that convey the hustle and bustle of “The Crossroads of the World” at night. The neon will illuminate your frame as you capture the dazzling fast-paced city nightlife unfolding in front of your lens. Visual inspiration here is endless and the chance to learn this most important skill from these industry leaders is invaluable. Their best advice and simple explanations, along with the photo ops afforded in the Big Apple, will clearly take your photography to the next level. Sign up today!

Welcome to Glacier National Park, where an endless landscape of rugged peaks, pristine waters and untouched wildlife has been preserved for thousands of years. In September we return to the Big Sky Country of Montana to explore the scenic wonders of one of our nation’s most cherished national parks. Join Mentor Series and Nikon professional photographers Reed Hoffmann, Wolfgang Kaehler and Layne Kennedy to learn the ultimate photo tips and techniques for capturing all the beauty that Montana and Glacier National Park has to offer. Master the art of sunrise photography when you experience the fi rst colors of the day refl ected in the waters of Two Medicine Lake. The “ah” moment will be that iconic shot of tiny Wild Goose Island on St. Mary Lake, a breathtaking scene at sunrise. We will travel along the Going-To-The-Sun Road, an engineering marvel completed in 1932. A key stop will be Logan Pass, sitting atop the Continental Divide which promises sightings of marmots, mountain goats and bighorn sheep. From here we’ll embark on a hike to Hidden Lake overlook. A visit to the Triple “D” Game Farm provides an opportunity to get up-close with a few of the animals in their native environment. Add on an afternoon at Flathead Lake Lodge, a classic dude ranch brimming with photos ops for cowboy/horse action. You will not want to miss the grandeur and beauty that Montana and Glacier National Park have to offer.

NYC SPEEDLIGHT WORKSHOP

JULY 12-14, 2013

MONTANASEPTEMBER 13-18, 2013

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FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, the Mentor Series has taken photo enthusiasts todestinations across the country and around the world. With top Nikon professional photographers accompanying participants every day and teaching them how and what to shoot, there’s nothing like a Mentor Series trek. You and your photography will never be the same!

From the glint of golden temples to the flash of city lights and saffron-colored robes, focus your lens on the vibrant colors and iconic scenery of Thailand. Join the Mentor Series and Nikon professional photographers David Tejada and Reed Hoffmann as we travel to the majestic cities of Bangkok, Chiang Rai, and Chiang Mai. In Bangkok, we begin our tour with a visit to the Grand Palace, a complex of courtyards, gardens, and buildings adorned in gold leaf and colored glass, followed by a visit to the giant reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. Photograph local merchants selling fresh fruit, vegetables, and orchid blossoms from boats overflowing with produce in the crowded canals of the Floating Market at Damnoen Saduak. We continue on to Northern Thailand, where the kingdom borders Laos at the Mekong River, offering views of lush jungle, elephant farms, hill tribe villages, and tea plantations in Chiang Rai. Visit the northern city of Chiang Mai, with its characteristic teak and gold temples. Photograph hillside temples at sunset, visit a tiger sanctuary, and attend morning prayer sessions with local Buddhist monks. Spend an afternoon with the elephants as our mentors offer tips and techniques for capturing these impressive creatures up close. This year, with Mentor Series at your side, experience the exquisite natural beauty of Thailand!

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Beneath a canopy of clouds, the impressive Arenal Volcano stands in the distance and a verdant world of tropical forests, twisting canyons, and cascading waterfalls awaits. Join Nikon professional photographers Lucas Gilman and Reed Hoffmann to experience the beauty of Costa Rica and explore the benefi ts of using video to tell a story using Nikon’s latest HD-SLRs. At Arenal Natura Ecological Park, we will turn our cameras to frogs, birds, reptiles, and other rare species to capture the array of brilliant colors present here. Press the “record” button to gather a world of sounds unique to this region. Consider your mentors’ best advice as they assist you in capturing the simple movements of graceful butterfl ies or representing the vibrant, yet peaceful ambience of the cloud forest. Secure your camera gear and sail above the treetops on a zip-line, and navigate through the lush tropical forest on a series of hanging bridges. Practice the camera movement techniques you’re learning along the way as you record the action of a brave adventurist rappelling down a river canyon over brilliant waterfalls and into the tropical waters beyond. Learning basic HD editing techniques and the considerations to be taken when motion and sound are added to your travel journal will leave you prepared to narrate a richer, fuller story.

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July/August 2013

Cover: ©

Brandon S

tanto

n. T

his

page, fr

om

top: ©

Mic

hael L

ew

is; ©

Brandon S

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Features

28 Almost Famous What happens when a photographer steps out

from behind the lens and into the scenario

with his celebrated subjects.

BY Michael lewis

36 The People’s Photographer Brandon Stanton may be the most famous street

shooter working today. How did he turn his Humans

of New York into a million-fan phenomenon?

BY Michael Kaplan

44 Full Immersion When photographers go in deep, diving into places,

cultures, and experiences far outside their own, the

results can make a career. Here are three emerging

pros whose big projects changed their lives.

BY lori FredricKson

On the Cover For Humans of

New York, Brandon

Stanton not only

photographs

strangers, he speaks

with them—and the

quotes he runs with

the images, like

the one from this

woman, are crucial

to the project’s

success.

36

This page, right, from top: Jessica Walter,

photographed for Entertainment Weekly by Michael

Lewis (2005); couple at the Jazz Age Festival on

Governors Island in New York, by Brandon Stanton.

Next page, from top: personal work by Travis

Rathbone; a Mursi tribesman by Maynard Switzer.

28

JuLY/AuguST 2013 AMeriCANpHoToMAg.CoM 3

SubScriptionS: American Photo (ISSN 1046-8986) (USPS 526-930), July/August, Volume 24, No. 4. 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: IMEX, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. For reprints e-mail [email protected].

4 aMeriCaNpHoToMag.CoM JuLY/auguST 2013

July/August 2013

Departments8 EDITOR’S NOTE

Faces EverywhereBehind the scenes with portrait photographer

patrick James Miller. By MiriaM Leuchter

Focus11 ONE TO WATCH

The Alchemist Travis rathbone walks the cutting edge of design

with his studio still lifes. By FrankLin MeLendez

16 WORk IN PROGRESS

River Runs Deepin ethiopia’s lower omo Valley, Maynard Switzer is

capturing a culture in peril. By Jack crager

18 BOOkS

Ends of the EarthSebastião Salgado’s environmental epic, James

Houston’s fashion faces, and more. By Jack crager

22 ON THE WALL

Sexual Evolutioneastman House explores gender, ed ruscha explores

L.a., MoMa explores genres. By Lindsay coMstock

26 DIGITAL DOMAIN

Doc WatchDocumentary filmmakers take on some major figures

in photography. By Judith geLMan Myers

gear55 HANDS ON

Beyond Manual The first autofocus lenses from Carl Zeiss mount only

on Fujifilm and Sony iLCs. By stan horaczek

56 NEW STUFF

The GoodsHot new tools from Canon, Nikon, Wacom, and more.

58 TECH TRENDS

Big Sensors, Small CamerasWith apS-C chips now in more compacts, serious

shooters enjoy lots of choices. By PhiLiP ryan

66 PARTING SHOT

It’s a Man’s Worldphotographer Jasper White opens a door on

australian hobby sheds. By JiLL c. shoMer

From

top: ©

Travis

rath

bone; ©

Maynard S

wit

zer

11

16

Enjoy the Photowalker’s Guide experience onmanfrottoschoolofxcellence.com

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8 americanphotomag.com July/august 2013

editor’s note

auling a bulging garment bag and wear-

ing what i hoped was enough makeup

but feared was too much, i arrived at

the tribeca studio that patrick James miller was

using for our portrait shoot late, overheated, and

nervous. i’m not used to posing for a camera. But

my art department colleagues and i had decided

i was long overdue for a new headshot for this

column, and i wanted an excuse to go behind the

scenes with this up-and-coming pro whose work

i admire. so here i was, as ready as i’d ever be.

miller started out as a painter and graphic

designer, but a college summer-abroad program

in grenada, spain, opened his eyes to another

talent—he came back with 40 rolls of film and

a passion for photography. “it felt natural,” he

recalls. “i wanted to learn all about it.” that was

a decade ago. Back at uc–santa Barbara, he

studied with photographer richard ross and as-

sisted Brad swonetz, a busy southern california

pro; more assisting gigs followed. (he interviewed

another mentor and former boss, misha gravenor,

for our april 2013 American Photo on Campus; find

it at americanphotomag.com/miller-mentor.) he

moved to new york nearly three years ago, and

he’s been shooting editorial and commercial

portraits pretty much nonstop since then.

most of the time miller shoots on location, of-

ten with no idea what that location will look like

until he sees it. he finds that challenge—in fact,

most photographic challenges—exciting. recount-

ing the time he had less than two hours’ notice to

photograph robert Deniro and Bradley cooper,

and only a few minutes with each of them, he

relives the adrenaline rush. But, he adds, “every

job always brings some element of adventure.”

Why portraits? “people fascinate me,” miller

EverywhereFaces

h

editor’s note

July/august 2013 americanphotomag.com 9

© p

atr

ick J

am

es m

ille

r (

2)

Left: Miriam Leuchter on

the photo studio set, by

Patrick James Miller; right:

the photographer’s self-

portrait.

MiriaM Leuchter, editor-in-chief

says. “meeting interesting people and seeing

how they live—learning their stories and what

they think about—i feel very fortunate to get

to do this for work.”

he’s not alone. as we were putting together all

of the stories in this issue of the magazine, i saw

a distinct trend emerge: you’re holding a por-

trait issue. From humans of new york creator

Brandon stanton to celebrity shooter michael

lewis to the three emerging pros who found

their calling in projects that took them deep into

other cultures, all of our featured photographers

this summer train their cameras on people and

their environments. even in the departments,

portraits predominate.

Back at the studio, miller put me under a trio

of lights, including a 6-foot softbox. (indeed, his

way with light was one reason i wanted to work

with him.) he immediately put me at ease—as he

told me later, more important than the lighting

“is to have that connection with the subject and

get their trust in you and what you’re trying to

accomplish.” you can see just how much fun i had

on the shoot in the photograph on the opposite

page. as for my new headshot, we’ll unveil it in

this space in the next issue of the magazine.

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© T

ravis

Rath

bone

till-life photographer Travis Rathbone has

established a signature style by redefining

the limits of objects. His visual experiments

push commonplace items into new realms: submerged

in foreign substances, frozen in motion, exploded into

larger-than-life compositions. The 28-year-old New

York City transplant, already in demand only a few

years into his career, has little time to reboot and

refresh between projects. After two weeks of intense

shooting in San Francisco for client Jawbone through

the agency fuseproject, he’s just gotten off a red-eye

back to the East Coast, the latest leg of a studio

marathon with barely a breather in sight. “It’s been

a crazy two years,” Rathbone says, “but I won’t

complain about it.”

Then again, it’s this type of all-consuming focus

—verging on hubris—that prompted the California

native to strike out on his own and start an inde-

pendent studio at the ripe age of 21. “I was working

at a digital imaging lab, but promoting my own

work as much as possible,” Rathbone recalls.

Another photographer had backed out of “a tiny

S

the people behind the pics Work in Progress 16 Books 18 on the Wall 22 digital domain 26

JulY/AuguST 2013 AmERICANpHoTomAg.Com 11

With an eye for cutting-edge treatments, Travis Rathbone rethinks the art of the still life By Franklin Melendez

the alchemistone to Watch

above: one of travis

Rathbone’s stylistic

mash-ups, shot for 944

Magazine in 2008.

one to Watch

© T

ravis

Rath

bone

12 AmERICANpHoTomAg.Com JulY/AuguST 2013

a surrealistic shot from

travis Rathbone’s personal

work, 2010.

still-life shoot last-minute, and I was asked to fill

in. So I called in sick to work. I shot the image;

they liked it and shortly thereafter offered me

another two-week project. Without much more

planning, I stupidly went back to my boss at the

lab and quit on the spot.”

But Rathbone did have a few aces up his sleeve.

After graduating from Santa Barbara’s Brooks

Institute in 2006, the young lensman sharpened

his vision assisting established names including

David laChapelle in los Angeles and Craig Cutler

in New York. “one of the few things I asked for

with early jobs was to use the studio facilities on

the weekends if they weren’t booked,” he says. “I

really took advantage of that. I shot and shot and

shot. looking back, my work wasn’t great but it

was getting better. And I would show it to anyone

who would look.”

©2

013

Ca

no

n U

.S.A

., In

c. C

an

on

an

d E

OS a

re r

eg

iste

red

tra

de

ma

rks

of

Ca

no

n In

c. A

ll R

igh

ts R

ese

rve

d. Im

ag

e a

nd

eff

ec

ts s

imu

late

d.

IT’S AMAZING WHAT COMES OUT IN THE DARK.See it all with the EOS 5D Mark III. Equipped with our most innovative low light

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© T

ravis

Rath

bone (

2);

portr

ait

by C

arrie

Brew

er

AmERICANpHoTomAg.Com JulY/AuguST 2013

The diligence eventually paid off. Rathbone

cites as one big break a January 2012 cover for

Money magazine. “You don’t see a lot of still lifes

on national covers anymore,” he says. “I always

wondered if that was something I would ever get

to do.” Sixteen cover shoots in 2012 alone settles

that question. Rathbone’s ever-growing roster of

clients includes Glamour and New York magazines

and macy’s, Adidas, and Victoria’s Secret.

Behind his success lies a novel approach.

Rathbone transforms his studio into a testing

laboratory where he can explore materials with

the assiduity of a sculptor. “I love stuff,” he says,

“but simply taking a beautiful picture is not that

impressive. I’m always looking for different effects.

I was at a dinner once, and we ordered some sort

of fancy dessert, which was prepared tableside

using liquid nitrogen for all of us to see. I left that

dinner thinking, ‘What on earth can I do with

liquid nitrogen?’” Rathbone took to the studio

for a battery of tests on various substances; it

culminated in a personal series of frozen make-

up. “Since then magazines like Men’s Journal and

Women’s Health have had me replicate the tech-

nique for different stories,” he says.

Rathbone’s inquisitiveness remains a driv-

ing force. “one of my art directors brought this

weird chemical to my attention,” he says. “It’s a

hydrophobic substance and I just saw a bunch of

YouTube videos of what it can do. It wasn’t par-

ticularly beautiful, but it was unique. There must

be something I can do with this.” aP

close-Up

travis rathbonetravisrathbone.comLives In New York CityStudied At Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, CA Awards SPD merit awards for Field & Stream and Money Clients Include Adidas, Barnes & Noble, BBDO, Field & Stream, Men’s Journal, Glamour, New York, Popular Photography, Prevention, Victoria’s Secret In the Bag Hasselblad 503CW and H series: “They are work-horse cameras that have been put to the test for years,” he says. “I also use the Mamiya Leaf Aptus-II 12 80MP digital back.”New Tool “Something that saves hours of time in post is soft ware called Helicon Focus, which puts focus planes together and saves a retoucher from having to do it.”

From top: Rathbone

made this cosmetics diptych

as part of a personal-work

project in 2012; personal

work, 2007.

14

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16 July/August 2013 AmericAnphotomAg.com

fter apprenticing with the legendary

richard Avedon, maynard switzer set up

shop as a commercial photographer. “i was

shooting fashion and beauty,” he says, “but i always

found myself, if we went to shoot someplace, more

interested in the culture of the people than any-

thing else.” switzer was also an avid bicyclist, and in

the late ’90s he had a cycling accident that resulted

in a serious head injury. “that sort of kept me out

of the studio,” he recalls, “because my doctors sug-

gested that i not work around flashing lights for a

year. so due to a combination of things—good and

bad—that was it. i called my agent and said, ‘no

more fashion; no more beauty.’”

in 1999 switzer followed his muse to take up

travel and documentary photography, using natural

light to shoot beauty of a different sort throughout

the world—from central Asia to china, from cuba

to Africa. though he divides his time between new

york city and toronto, he’s often on the road—and

A

In eastern Africa, Maynard Switzer discovers a clash of cultures—and a serious threat to one of them By JACK CRAGER

River Runs Deepespecially drawn to cultures whose way of life is on

the brink of extinction. “A lot of these places are

disappearing around the world, quite fast,” he says.

switzer discovered one such vanishing culture in

2012 while doing research before a trip to ethiopia,

which is split and fed by the mighty omo river. “in

the lower omo Valley, the ethiopian government is

building a giant dam called the gibe iii and forcing

all these tribes in that area off their land,” switzer

says. “they’re leasing out huge tracts of land to

companies—malaysian, indian, italian, Korean—for

massive farms to grow cash crops such as palm oil

and cotton. these need a tremendous amount of

irrigation, so they want to dam up the omo river.

And for the ethiopian tribes who live there—more

than 200,000 people—the river is their life source:

the natives rely on it to flood every year so they

can grow their own food and feed their cattle.”

Further, switzer learned, many of these tribes

have called this land home for centuries. According

WoRk in pRogRess

Above: In one of Maynard

Switzer’s images from the

village of Kayna in the

lower Omo Valley, members

of the Hamer tribe perform

a dance called Evangadi

as part of the bull-jumping

ritual that welcomes a boy

into manhood.

July/August 2013 AmericAnphotomAg.com 17

© m

aynard s

wit

zer (

3);

portr

ait

by e

rin

sw

itzer

to survival international, a group that advocates

for the rights of tribal people worldwide, the ethio-

pian government “has started to evict Bodi, Kwegu,

and mursi people from their land into resettlement

areas.” the organization reports beatings and jail-

ings of people who have fought back and even rapes

and killings by military patrols.

such reports intensified switzer’s interest in the

omo Valley. earlier this year, he spent a month

documenting the region’s indigenous tribes, and he

plans to return in october. “my goal is to capture a

vanishing culture,” he says, “and to bring some light

to what’s going to be lost if all this takes place. i

think as you get into the politics, your work evolves

into things that you might not have thought about.”

yet most of switzer’s omo Valley portraits do

not depict confrontations. “i’m not a war photogra-

pher,” he notes. “there are enough people who do

that. i’ve been in some dicey situations, but i’m not

looking to get my head blown off.”

Above left: A portrait of

a woman and her child

from the Dassanech

tribe, in the village of

Borkonech in the lower

Omo Valley. She is

wearing a headdress of

sorghum branches and

standing in front of her

hut made of branches,

tree bark, and pieces

of tin. Above right:

In the village of Hiloha,

a Mursi tribesman and

his children gather his

cattle to take into the

fields for grazing. For

the Mursi, cattle both

provide milk and serve

as currency.

still, the tension between the tribes and government

soldiers—and between rival tribes themselves—creates

the need for safety precautions. “in some of the places

we stay, we have to pay for a guy to guard our tent with

an AK-47,” says switzer. “some of the tribes are a little

bit more aggressive; it depends on where you go.”

he also hires local guides to facilitate travels and

communication. “i think portraits are much better if

they show people in their environment, rather than,

say, a set-up shot,” he says. “there should be something

about who this person is and the way they live. i like to

capture people doing their natural things, oblivious of

me. so a guide will talk to them and explain.”

switzer hopes to help tilt the geopolitical balance in

the region: A public outcry has actually slowed the prog-

ress of the gibe iii dam’s construction. survival inter-

national reports that, although more than 50 percent of

the dam has been built, several banks and governments

have withdrawn funding in recent years. switzer says

the region’s fate “is sort of in limbo right now. human-

rights groups are screaming and yelling about this, too,

so i don’t know what’s going to happen. But it means an

enormous amount of money to the ethiopian govern-

ment—they have to get the water to irrigate these

lands. in doing it, they’re losing this tremendous culture

of all these tribes. And once it’s gone, it’s gone.” AP

CLOSE-UP

Maynard Switzermaynardswitzer.com

Lives In New York and Toronto

Studied At Art Center College of

Design, Pasadena, CA

Mentors Guy Bourdin, Richard

Avedon: “From Avedon I learned

how important movement is to

an image and having a close rapport with whomever you work with.”

Clients Include Afar, National Geographic Traveler, Geo; Nikon World

In the Bag Two Nikon D800 bodies; Nikkor lenses (15mm, 28mm,

35mm, 50mm, 85mm) and zooms (14–24mm, 24–70mm, 70–200mm);

MacBook Air with two solid-state external drives; Nikon Speedlight

SB-700 and SB-800 flashes. “Available light is my favorite,” Switzer

says, “but there are times I use flash and try to make it blend with

the natural light. I don’t often use a tripod because I move around

a lot. This I think comes from shooting fashion: I like to have people

moving and you have to be able to move with them.”

Sebastião Salgado’s black-and-white survey of a world before modernity leaves it behind By Jack crager

Ends of the EarthGenesis

By Sebastião Salgado Nazraeli Taschen $70

Widely hailed as a master photographer, Salgado

has also been criticized for aestheticizing human

suffering in his many finely wrought images of

starving refugees, manmade disasters, and the like.

In Genesis, though, his painterly style addresses

more sublime scenery: pristine corners of the

world that are virtually untouched by modernity.

“I wanted to examine how humanity and nature

have long coexisted in what we now call ecological

balance,” Salgado writes in his foreword. Culminat-

ing an eight-year global exploration, this book is

what Salgado terms “a visual ode to the majesty

and fragility of Earth.” But, he adds, “it is also a

warning of all that we risk losing.”

Much of the survey focuses on landscapes and

wildlife rather than humans. It ranges from ice-

Top: “Southern right whale,

Patagonia, Argentina,”

2004, from the “Planet

South” section of Salgado’s

Genesis.

18 aMErICanphotoMag.CoM july/auguSt 2013

BOOKS

© 2

013 S

ebasti

ão S

alg

ado/a

mazonas Im

ages

bergs and penguins in antarctica to volcanos and

caribou in the arctic, from wind-sculpted african

deserts to dense foliage in amazon rain forests.

Viewers may recognize many shots—of wildebeests

and zebras, sea lions and whales—that Salgado has

published and shown. yet behind this 520-page tome

is a grand ambition: to cover the remaining natural

Earth comprehensively, much of it from the air.

the human cultures we do see retain ancient

ways of life. In isolated lands like new guinea,

Salgado documents indigenous tribes in ritual

ceremonies, hunter-gatherer lifestyles, and mini-

mal attire. In the arctic, he follows hardy sledders

herding reindeer on the frozen tundra. “I wanted to

capture a vanishing world, a part of humanity that

is on the verge of disappearing,” he explains, “yet in

many ways still lives in harmony with nature.” and

he succeeds, in glorious black and white.

©2013 Canon U.S.A., Inc. Canon and EOS are registered trademarks of

Canon Inc. in the United States. All rights reserved.

At Canon, we see image-making as

a personal endeavor surrounded by

a vibrant, supportive community.

We’re here to help you develop your

skills, build your network and fuel

your inspiration.

SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS: With Canon Live Learning, receive top-level

instruction, gain technical knowledge and check out the latest EOS gear

first hand. Our intimate seminars and workshops are held in a number of

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CANON AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: The Canon Digital Learning Center is a free

online resource for enthusiasts and professionals alike. Instructional content

includes tutorials, downloadable guides and interviews with the pros.

USA.CANON.COM/EDUCATION

20 aMErICanphotoMag.CoM july/auguSt 2013

Clo

ckw

ise from

top left

: ©

jam

es h

ousto

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2013 n

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s a

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2013 r

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auchi

BOOKS

WhiteWash By Nicholas Alan Cope powerHouse $65

Cope’s study of los angeles architecture zeroes in on the

stark geometric patterns of the city’s modernist struc-

tures. Marshaling intense SoCal sunlight and hyper-

contrast black and white, he turns the buildings’ bold

lines and shapes into otherworldly art—as sterile and

devoid of human life as architectural models. “this is a

sort of idealized survey of the city,” he notes. “Whitewash

is los angeles at its most stripped down and honest.”

natural BeautyBy James Houston Damani $50

In this project commercial pho-

tographer houston combines two

abiding interests: gorgeous people

and the environment. Drawing

on his rolodex, the beauty and

fashion shooter depicts models

and celebrities including Emma Watson, Christy

turlington, adrian grenier, and Elle Macpherson.

to raise awareness and funds for environmental

issues, he will donate proceeds to global green

uSa. his images blend radiant skin tones with

surprising backdrops and bursts of color—some

more naturalistic than others.

ametsuchi: PhotoGraPhs By rinko kaWauchi Aperture $80

a fine-art photographer whose work often explores

the minutiae of everyday life, Kawauchi broadens

her canvas here; the title Ametsuchi is a japanese-

character amalgam of “heaven and earth.” Many

of her landscapes depict zigzagging fire patterns—

from yakihata farming, a traditional controlled-

burn method—that are more deliberate than they

seem. Some shots depict tiny

human figures dwarfed by vast

natural backdrops. other

images show distant constella-

tions, Buddhist rituals, cavernous

mountain lakes, symmetrical

and amorphous patterns found

in nature—all indicating a

search for order and beauty in

a chaotic, mysterious world.

Clockwise from top left: A study in color from James

Houston’s Natural Beauty; Nicholas Alan Cope’s

“Culver City, August, 2009”; a shot of a controlled burn

made during yakihata farming, by Rinko Kawauchi.

22 americanphotomag.com JULy/aUgUSt 2013

© c

ig h

arvey

on the wall

A visual survey of gender studies shows how the paradigms are a-changing By Lindsay ComstoCk

Sexual Evolution“Gingham Dress with

Apple,” circa 2003, by

British photographer

Cig Harvey, from The

Gender Show at George

Eastman House.

the Gender show

George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, June 8 – Sept. 29

eastmanhouse.org

as gender roles have evolved over time, the way we

think of male, female, and androgynous

characteristics has also been transformed. this

group exhibition (which includes this magazine’s

features editor, Debbie grossman) traces the chang-

ing portrayal of gender identities in photography,

from traditional depictions to subversive expressions

of rebellion. With 130 photographs spanning more

than 170 years, the show features work by legends—

including Julia margaret cameron, edward

Steichen, richard avedon, robert Frank, andy

Warhol, and cindy Sherman—who have been

pivotal in advancing the art of portraiture. the

collection reflects not only evolving aesthetics but

also the ever-changing cultural landscape. and it

depicts many famous faces—such as Sarah Bern-

hardt, marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks,

Joan crawford, greta garbo, marilyn monroe, and

paul newman—making for one sexy survey.

STAYING STILL IS NO

LONGER AN OPTION.

GO HYBRID WITH

THE LUMIX GH3.

No longer satisfi ed with just “pictures,” your clients expect content that includes a mixture of stills, video and audio.

The Lumix GH3 gets you in on the burgeoning Hybrid market with simple creative controls that make it easy to switch

from stills to video on the fl y. Advanced AF tracking and pro-level rack focusing let you easily follow the action while

stunning HD video with built-in recording options delivers the professional results you demand. See what Hybrid can

do for you — watch the video: www.panasonic.com/hybrid

Get your career in motion with Lumix G — the ultimate in Hybrid photography.

“I’m getting so many new clients

since I started shooting Hybrid

products with my Lumix.”

- Suzette Allen

Hybrid Professional Photographer

24 americanphotomag.com JULy/aUgUSt 2013

ed rusCha

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, through Sept. 29 getty.edu

the work of interdisciplinary artist ed ruscha conjures the time

of Mad Men in the city of angels. ruscha epitomizes the pop

art movement in his paintings, drawings, and films; he has also

created highly graphic photo series and large-format art books

(16 of them, made between 1963 and 1978) that are influential in

their own right. his pictures study commonplace relics of the L.a.

cityscape—apartment buildings, gas stations, a strip of the pacific

coast highway—with a combination of humor and bold simplicity,

transforming seemingly prosaic imagery into a distinctive style, a

signature of mid-century american photography.

a different kind of order: the iCP triennial EInternational Center of Photography,

New York, NY, through Sept. 8

icp.org

This triennial highlights the work

of 28 artists whose creative intent

mirrors current international eco-

nomic, political, and social activity:

in a state of flux. With an emphasis on digital image-making and online social

networking, the exhibition features not only photography but also film,

video, and interactive media.

Also Showing

Clockwise from top: Allan Sekula’s “Koreatown, Los Angeles” from the

series Fish Story, Chapter One, April 1992, at MoMA; Lucas Foglia’s

“Homeschooling Chalkboard, Tennessee,” 2008, at ICP; Ed Ruscha’s

“Standard, Amarillo, Texas,” 1962, at the Getty Museum. clo

ckw

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top: ©

2013

allan S

ekula

; ©

Lucas

Foglia; ©

ed r

usc

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dawoud BeyMuseum of Contemporary Art North Miami, North Miami, FL, through Sept. 8

mocanomi.org

Chicago-based photographer Bey has devoted his portraiture and docu-

mentary work to exploring the lives of young people and marginalized

members of society. This survey of the artist’s oeuvre includes his seminal

series Harlem USA—a five-year study of the New York neighborhood and its

characters—as well as other street photography and formal portraiture.

Common Ground: new american street PhotographyDRKRM, Los Angeles, CA, July 6–27 drkrm.com

Featured here are five photographers whose eyes are fixed on the street:

Richard Bram, who shoots in a classic style with his Leica range finder; Chuck

Patch, whose black-and-white work centers on New Orleans; Bryan Form-

hals, who uses medium format and blogs about street photography; and

Jack Simon and Andrew Blake, who flavor their images with comedic irony.

What they share is an emphasis of found imagery over stylized creations.

Photogravure: master Prints from the CollectionPhiladelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, through Aug. 11 philamuseum.org

This exhibition culls 55 prints from a period between the 1880s and 1910s,

when the process of photogravure—a type of printmaking combining

photography and engraving—was being honed by pictorialist photogra-

phers, as well as prints from the 1930s by such artists as Man Ray. It also

includes prints by contemporary photographers, including Lorna Simpson,

who have revived the vintage medium.

XL: 19 new aCquisitions in PhotoGraPhy

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, through Jan. 6, 2014 moma.org

in an industry of constant reinvention and technological innova-

tion, photographers continually vie to see and to freeze moments

in a way that no one has attempted before. in that spirit, this

group exhibition explores some of the most novel concepts in

photography today. the sprawling show fills five galleries in the

museum and features photographs by 19 contemporary artists.

primarily multifaceted or serial works, the imagery spans genera-

tions, cultures, media, and genres, from darkroom experiments

such as photograms and photomontages to political commentary

on labor history and globalization. among the artists are famil-

iar american pioneers—robert Frank, Stephen Shore, taryn

Simon—and a multinational cadre of conceptualists, including

yto Barrada, Birgit Jürgenssen, Bela Koláeová, and oscar muñoz.

comprising recent moma acquisitions not previously displayed

at the museum, this exhibition spotlights the burgeoning role of

photography in contemporary art.

˘ ˘

SAVE 15% through 9/1/2013 @ www.GetSeV.com/AMPHOTOsome restrictions apply

THE DIFFERENCE IS INSIDE

Recent films reveal the people and stories behind the greatest contemporary images By Judith Gelman myers

Photographers have often popped up as colorful

protagonists in the movies, from Rear Window

to Blow-Up to Apocalypse Now. More recent

documentaries of real-life photo legends reveal the

actual imagination and skill that go into capturing

great pictures. For lessons in craft and courage,

watch these now.

DIGITAL DOMAIN


DocWatch

GreGory Crewdson: Brief enCounters

Directed by Ben Shapiro

Zeitgeist Films $23 (DVD)

When gregory crewdson’s marriage started to fall

apart, he began to have dreams in which he was

floating; these nighttime images prompted a series

of overhead photographs shot from a crane. the

son of a psychoanalyst, crewdson is attuned to

the relationship between his art and his subcon-

scious—a theme deftly explored by Ben shapiro

in Brief Encounters. shapiro met crewdson while

shooting a pBs documentary on his early work

and became so enamored of the photographer’s

m.o. that he followed him around for the next 10

years. What emerges is a portrait of a man com-

mitted to obsessive control over the exterior and

utter surrender to the interior.

How to Make a Book witH steidl

Directed by Gereon Wetzel and Joerg Adolph

Kino Lorber $23 (DVD)

the title conjures images of printing presses,

binderies, and vats of ink—but in this intriguing

doc, steidl refers not to the publishing company

but to the man. gerhard steidl is revealed through

his relationships with the master photographers

whose work he brings to the world. We see steidl

quizzing robert Frank (in german) about his

early days with alexey Brodovitch; forcing günter

grass to perfect his hand-drawn cover art for the

50th anniversary of Tin Drum; debating ed ruscha

over whether to compromise on On the Road (they

didn’t). We even get a revealing demonstration of

how Joel sternfeld used an illegal iphone app to get

the forbidden shots used in his book iDubai.

tHe MexiCan suitCase

Directed by Trisha Ziff

212Berlin Films $10 (available on Netflix and iTunes)

artifacts beget questions: Who made them? What

do they signify? once found, to whom do they right-

fully belong? the artifacts in The Mexican Suitcase

included some 4,500 negatives of the spanish civil

War made by robert capa, David “chim” seymour,

and gerda taro. thought to have disappeared,

they’re now at the international center of photog-

raphy, thanks in part to director trisha Ziff. But

Ziff ventures beyond the story of the negatives’

journey to new york to explore their significance

as historical documents, especially for the men and

women exiled during the war. in doing so, she ad-

dresses the contribution that a single photograph—

let alone thousands—can make to the quest for

knowledge and, through that, justice.

wHiCH way is tHe front line froM Here?

tHe life and tiMe of tiM HetHerinGton

Directed by Sebastian Junger

HBO Documentary Films (available on HBO GO)

image maker and humanitarian tim hetherington

epitomized the role of concerned war photographer.

“We forget the people imaged are individuals, with

their own stories and individual lives,” he explains.

as he revealed their ravaged lives with his rollei-

flex during his 10 years in the field, hetherington

got to know his liberian subjects’ stories so well

that he even put down his camera to serve as their

teacher and mentor. after he resumed shooting, he

and author/director sebastian Junger spent a year

in afghanistan with a platoon of american soldiers;

their resulting film, Restrepo, was nominated for

an academy award. six weeks after attending

the oscar ceremonies, hetherington was killed by

mortar fire in libya. Which Way is Junger’s deeply

felt tribute to his documentary partner.

G

Above: Gregory Crewdson’s

“Untitled (Ophelia),” is

fea tured in the documentary

Brief Encounters and is

used in the poster art for

the film.

© g

regory c

rew

dson

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On the Job


ALMOSTFAMOUSA celebrity photographer tells how he makes the shot, then gets in it. by MICHAEL LEWIS

30 AmericAnphotomAg.com July/August 2013

© m

ichael l

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4)

good portrait seduces the viewer. When

i set up a photograph, i ask myself: “is

the viewer going to buy it?” that window

is real, light’s streaming through, it looks amaz-

ing—but of course i made it primarily because it

was easier than finding it. you’re always making

choices about how to control the environment,

whether you’re on a set or not. it’s a challenge to

reveal much about a subject in a single frame. it’s

almost impossible, though, not to reveal some-

thing about yourself. portraits can tell you a lot

about a photographer.

When i started working commercially my

subjects were mostly solos—until i jumped into

the frame myself. the first time i did that i was

photographing David hasselhoff. it was actually my

assistant, Brian Delaney, who said, “hey, you gotta

get in this!” At that time i was pretty new to shoot-

ing celebrities, and hasselhoff took to the idea quite

warmly. the proof sheet is very playful, with him

resting his elbow on my head, that kind of thing.

not long after that i just started stepping into these

things without always telling people. i started doing

it with all my shoots, celebrities or not. And people

Above and bottom right:

Jonathan Goldsmith,

aka The World’s Most

Interesting Man, at Bar

and Books, New York City,

Cigar Aficionado, 2010.

Opposite and top right: Tina

Fey at Roseland Ballroom,

Esquire, 2004. Previous

spread: Paul Rudd (right)

with the photographer

during a shoot for

Entertainment Weekly,

New York City, 2003.

have mostly been oK with it. over the years i just

started to quickly explain, “hey, i do this with all

my shoots.” But i do feel very self-conscious, as if i’m

wasting their time. i realize that they know it’s just

for me, this thing i do, and they don’t mind. still, i

cut it off after two or three shots out of respect for

the person’s time.

i don’t really know how other photographers

deal with celebrities. i never really assisted anybody

who did what i do. many of my subjects thank me

because apparently i give a lot of direction. i walk

them through the shoot. i’m very quick, too, even

for the 15 minutes you typically get with a celebrity.

But if they dig you, you can push that 15 minutes to

A

On the Job


20. i just constantly push; i think every photogra-

pher must say “just one more” at least 100 times.

But there’s a point where you realize you’ve bled

the subject; they’re done. it’s got little to do with the

number of frames you shoot. there’s this moment

when i feel like the subject is saying, “Doesn’t this

asshole have it yet? how many shots are you going

to take here?” And i just sense them pulling back. i

think every photographer must feel that moment.

people have been pushing me toward integrat-

ing my jumping into the frame in my editorial

portraits into my self-portraits, which are a long-

term, personal project and actually the work i’m

really proud of. in a way, the jumping-in pictures

are at least as realistic as my mundane-looking

self-portraits. the self-portraits are the most poi-

gnant; you really see a regular guy who was single

for a very long time. they’re so ordinary, but he’s

also alone. And it makes a very loud silence.

i can see some similarity in tone between my

self-portraits and my editorial photos, especially

the ones where i put myself in the frame. But the

intent of each is very different. the on-set photos

are for fun; they’re like getting visual autographs.

the self-portraits i consider a serious body of

work, and i’m thinking they’ll stay separate, even

though as my life has changed, i’ve included my

partner and our son in them.

Aesthetically, it’s all just me; i don’t know any

other way. put it this way: i’m always amazed when

you go into a coffee shop and they have bad coffee.

or if you run a bakery and your cookies suck. that

blows my mind. if this is what you do, you’d better

do it with absolute dedication.

so that’s how i think about my work. this is

© m

ichael l

ew

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2)


On the Job

This spread: Questlove (The

Roots, Late Night with Jimmy

Fallon bandleader) at Mama’s,

NYC, for Blender, 2006.

what i do, and i do it in a certain way, according

to what i like and the ideas i developed all the way

back in grad school (i studied fine art at the san

Francisco Art institute). if you look at my self-

portraits and my editorial portraits, they share a

certain feeling. And over time they’ve changed. the

photographs of Questlove and the World’s most

interesting man are similar, but the latter i think

are more relaxed, have a different kind of energy

that i’ve acquired in recent years.

styles come and go. i finally have been doing this

long enough that i’m starting to see many cycle

through again. like the crazy digital oversharpen-

ing—how photoshopped things look. that’s kind of

come and gone. right now things are very bright,

poppy. people don’t think of me when they think of

that as much. you just have to do what you do well.

there’s a part of me that idealistically wants

to be authentic. But that’s also realistic: if you’re

not authentic—wow, man, there’s a lot of talented

people out there. so it’s good business to be authen-

tic. And basically just be proud of your pictures.

Bob Dylan wrote a few albums when he was

younger—his whole career is stellar, but there was

a stretch around 1965, ’66, when he made his most

powerful albums in a very short period of time.

And he was asked once, “Does it upset you to think

that you’ll never be able to write Blonde on Blonde

and Highway 61 Revisited again?” And he said some-

thing like, “Well, you can’t do something forever.

i did it once; i can do other things now.” you can

only do what feels true to you at the time.

i tend not to shoot celebrities any differently

than i do anyone else, and i think that can help

build rapport and in the end get a good picture.

early on in my career, when i was first in l.A.,

you were judged a lot (and still are) by who you’ve

photographed, and i think i resisted that. the self-

portraits helped me level the playing field, too, be-

cause i was photographing myself in ways that did

not do me any favors. When i was doing online dat-

ing, girls would say, “hey, if you’re a photographer,

you must have a website.” my mother was mortified

at some of the pictures i had on there, especially the

earlier ones. i would really let my belly just hang

out. But i was very proud of these pictures. they

helped me see just how much everybody is the same.

Jack Black was one of my first shoots when i

was new to l.A. i was working, but i was new. Jack

Black was a pretty new guy, too. Beyond tenacious

D he hadn’t done much yet. he came over to my

apartment for a shoot for Detour magazine, which

gave me great access to people and great photo

spreads but had no money. so i always shot in my

little one-bedroom apartment. i lived in Beech-

wood, below the hollywood sign, where there was


On the Job

Above: Lewis and Melissa

McCarthy, at the Four

Seasons Hotel in Beverly

Hills during a shoot for

the New York Times,

April 2013.

© m

ichael l

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2)

the kitten jumped on the counter while Jack Black

was shaving. it made an awesome picture.

later that night i got a call from his publicist,

who was a powerful dude in hollywood. publicists

are a huge thing in this industry. they are power-

ful people here, and magazines are somewhat at

their mercy. they want the celebrity in the maga-

zine, so they more or less conform to the image the

publicist and his client are trying to project at any

a little stretch where you could pretend it was

new york for like a microsecond.

comedians can be dark people, and he was kind

of pensive. At one point he was in the bathroom in

his underwear, his gut’s hanging out—very much

like the self-portraits i was doing at the time—not

the most complimentary physically, but it was

good, and it was funny. And i had a little kitten,

who’s still with me to this day—he’s 13 now. And


Below: Jack Black and

Lewis at the Gramercy

Hotel, during a shoot

for Entertainment

Weekly, 2003.

given time. he didn’t want that picture to run. i

gave him my word that i wouldn’t run it. And he

wasn’t happy with that. he wanted the negative.

And i’m like, “Dude, i’m giving you my word”—

i always stick with my word. then a couple days

later Rolling Stone comes out: tenacious D on all

fours wearing a diaper getting spanked with a gui-

tar by Kyle gass (the other guy in tenacious D). i

couldn’t believe it.

cut to about eight years later, Jack Black’s on

top of his game and i’m called in to shoot him for

the cover of Entertainment Weekly. so i printed

that photograph and brought it to the shoot. And

they liked it a lot. everybody felt good that day. We

all had stepped up in our careers.

tina Fey was terrific to work with. she was the

ideal subject: smart, witty, totally into it. the whole

shoot was very collaborative. she came up with

one shot where she’s writing in lipstick on the men’s

room mirror. it meant a lot to her at the time.

After 12 years in new york, we just moved back

to l.A. about eight months ago—with a 15-month-

old. so things have been different from when i was

shooting Jack Black in my apartment. ironically,

recently i’ve been shooting a lot for the New York

Times. they put very good people in front of my

camera. And they’re throwing me everybody.

i’m proud of the editorial photos i make. it was

always important to me that my art school bud-

dies would look at my website and think, “man,

lewis is still making totally cool fucking pictures.”

i always wanted to kind of keep it cool. And it is an

interesting thing for me, looking back, to still be

photographing these portraits and realizing that

no, i haven’t sold out.

—As told to Meg Ryan Heery

The People’s P

I

Brandon Stanton’s mix of images, text, empathy, and social media has made him the most famous street photographer working today—and his Humans of New York a pop-culture phenomenon. By Michael kaplan

© B

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t is a cool May afternoon in Manhattan’s

Chelsea neighborhood. Brandon Stanton, the

street-photography phenomenon who in just

two and a half years has amassed about a million

followers (between Facebook and Tumblr) for his

Humans of New York project, prowls a stretch of West

14th Street. Dressed in beat-up chinos and a gray ther-

mal shirt, Canon EOS 5D Mark III (with a 50mm f/1.2

lens) clutched in his hand, he searches out subjects that

the Bill Cunninghams of the world might pass by. Asked

to describe his ideal subject, Stanton, 29, can’t articulate

what he looks for. “I don’t have a pattern,” he says. “But

if you could discover a pattern, it’s probably kids and old

people”—with a bunch of other types in between.

Stanton estimates that he walks six miles per

day and one mile per subject. His pace quickens

when he spots three female African American

chefs wearing toques and whites. He approaches

them gently, collapses his lanky six-foot-four-inch

frame, and morphs into an innocent New Yorker

who’s looking for a quick exchange of positive

energy and easy collaboration.

Once they agree to be photographed, he subtly

positions them on a stoop, crouches down, reels

off a few shots. Next comes the critical task of

getting a quote that will accompany the photo

when it appears online. He begins with an obvi-

ous question: What’s the worst thing you ever

saw happen in the kitchen? “A guy’s face caught

on fire.” Next comes the not-so-obvious follow-up.

Stanton wonders whether they laughed. “We did,”

one chef volunteers, “after he went to the hospital

and we knew he was OK.”

Since 2010, Stanton has posted some 5,000

36 AMErICANpHOTOMAg.COM JulY/AuguST 2013

JulY/AuguST 2013 AMErICANpHOTOMAg.COM 37

Photographerphotos to his website. He’s appeared on the Today

show and has a Humans of New York book coming out

from St. Martin’s press in the fall. That publication

is probably the least interesting and most traditional

medium for Stanton’s work. With Humans of New

York, he has done nothing less than create a fresh

form of photography that capitalizes on the connec-

tive possibilities of social media. In doing so he may

represent the future of photography itself. He is his

own editor, curator, and publisher, and his audience

is larger than any traditional medium could allow.

Stanton’s wide-reaching success heralds a new era

when what matters to the viewer is having a direct

connection with the artist and his work. His audience

doesn’t care about credentials or credits, or the fact

that he only started shooting regularly a few years

back. Thanks to his prolific digital output, he’s quickly

evolved into one of the world’s more popular photog-

raphers, corralling nearly three times the Facebook

likes of, for instance, Annie leibovitz.

Among the schoolkids of gotham he maintains

rock-star status—as evidenced by the dozen or so

teenagers I see approaching him, including one boy

in a red sweatshirt who shakily asks, “Can I hug

you?” Stanton’s analog humanity in a world gone

madly digital has clearly struck a nerve.

Stanton’s daily quest to chronicle five or six

interesting lives began as a hobby in 2010, when he

was trading options in Chicago. The job became a

grind and he unwound on the weekends by taking

pictures downtown. After getting laid off, Stanton

decided to focus on the single thing he loved doing:

photographing interesting strangers on the street.

The surprising but revelatory captions—such as one

from a hookah-smoking fellow who declared, “Egypt

is like a mango”—grew out of conversations with his

subjects. His aha moment came after he posted an

image of a green-haired woman dressed in green.

“It wasn’t a great photo; the lighting wasn’t good

and I botched the composition,” he recalls. “But she

There’s never

been a well-known

photographer quite

like Stanton, who has

connected directly

with his audience

to create one of the

most-viewed ongoing

photo projects

ever. To see the

full captions for

all these pictures,

look for them on

humansofnew

york.com.


© B

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4)

said to me, ‘I used to be a different color every day.

Then one day I tried green and it was a really good

day. I’ve been green every day for 15 years.’ I put

the photo up, added the caption, and it became the

most popular photo I ever posted.”

Quotes became integral, visits to the site

increased dramatically, and Stanton’s confidence

lifted. “The first thousand fans you gain by the

quality of your work,” he says, adding that he

went from zero to 3,000 in one year and 3,000

to 300,000 in the next. “You reach a point where

people give you a chance because so many other

people are following you. Once I started getting

10 or 15 new fans per day, I knew I’d go to a

million. I’m a hard-ass worker. I knew I could

work harder than anyone else.”

These days he routinely receives (and declines)

corporate gigs, and offers for promotional deals

roll in (he turned down Canon’s social-media arm

because they wanted him to promote a camera he

doesn’t use). He did one gratis deal for Facebook—

the company Stanton says played a major role in

HONY’s existence. “Facebook changed my life,” he

explains, adding that discussing it actually makes

him emotional. “Everything has been possible for

HONY because social-media platforms showed an

interest in this new art form and found an audi-

ence for it. HONY would have a hard time flour-

Above: “That was Sunday in

Harlem,” Stanton says. “She

had just gotten out of church

and I noticed symmetry in

her colors and that mural.

Surprisingly, she agreed to

do it. The older the subject,

the less you can move them

around. The fact that she

agreed to stand there for me

was satisfying.”


Right, from top: “I’m always trying to feature a person’s

most interesting part. I want to show my audience

something unique. This was that situation,” Stanton says.

“That was one of my first times shooting Fashion

Week. Lincoln Center is a great white expanse without

a lot of options. But around the corner was a grate

that I thought could be a good backdrop. I took this

early on, back when everything in New York looked

interesting to me.”

Of this basketball court scene, he says, “This is just a

guy, hanging out with his friends, wearing a mask, on

the Lower East Side. I asked him if I could take his

picture. It’s an awesome shot, with the guys playing

basketball behind him.”

The People’s Photographer


ishing under search engine optimization, which

helps you find things you know you are looking for.

Social media helps you find things you didn’t know

you were looking for.”

Stubbornly independent, Stanton says that he

has no problems with making money. But it has to

be on his terms. He sold some prints to generate

income and sold some more to help raise $250,000

for Hurricane Sandy relief. After DKNY used

his images without permission, Stanton passed

Clockwise from top left: “That was on Governors

Island during the Jazz Age Festival,” Stanton recalls.

“This was more of a scenery shot, where I found a

location before I found my subjects. So many people

were walking around in 1920s garb that I had a lot to

choose from.”

Of the man in a dress, he says, “I was on my way to

the airport and my camera was in my bag when I

noticed this drag queen performing in Chelsea. This

sort of thing does not happen often. Usually people

are standing or walking. When action is going on, I

don’t ask first. I just snap the picture. If you’re rolling

around in the middle of the street, I don’t need to get

permission.”

“This lady is a known figure in the East Village. I asked

her if I could get a photo. She said, ‘If you can get it

without me having to stop walking.’”

“She has flower tattoos, which I found to be an

interesting detail. I was like, ‘Oh, cool legs. Can I take

your picture?’ If you have something like that, you’re

happy when people notice it.”

“It was snowing one day and I went to Brooklyn to get

blue-collar workers going about their jobs. Then I found

that guy walking in the snow with hot dogs. I did not

stay to eat one myself.”

“That’s a mural in Alphabet City. I saw those four

characters and thought it would make an awesome

shot. They were skeptical at first, but in the end they

wound up holding hands.”


© B

randon S

tanto

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6)



© B

randon S

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4)

up the opportunity to sue or settle and received

good-guy status for life by having the company

make a $25,000 donation to the YMCA in Brook-

lyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where he

works out every day.

Stanton hopes that he’s creating his own genre

of photography—he didn’t even know who Di-

ane Arbus and garry Winogrand were before he

started shooting. When he thinks about success,

he thinks about spending half the year traveling

to world capitals and photographing his Humans

there. “I want the money to facilitate what I am

doing; I don’t want what I am doing to facilitate

the accumulation of money,” he says. “I have very

little overhead, I love taking these pictures, and it’s

what I would do if I had all the money in the world.

So why do I need the money?”

In Chelsea, Stanton spots an old man in a red

windbreaker standing unsteadily next to a traffic

light. Stanton charms him into posing, then asks

him to name his greatest struggle. “getting across

this road is going to be pretty tough,” he says.

That’s when Stanton lies down in the street and

photographs the man making it to the other side.

Stanton quickly finds his next subject: a bearded

man holding a walking stick. After his shot, the

photographer bounds back and reports, “He asked

me if I wanted to hear the world’s greatest haiku.”

Then Stanton adds something that encapsulates

the small truths of Humans of New York. “It was

solid. But all that mattered is that he thought it

was the greatest.”ap



HONY is so popular, it’s no surpise that copycats

around the globe have sprung up.

Humans ofOther Places

Maybe Brandon Stanton makes it look too easy. Or

else people fall in love with his efforts to convey a

city’s character through portraits of its people and

long to be a part of it any way they can. Whatever

the case, his Humans of New York has inspired

over a dozen other Humans sites, stretching from

philadelphia to New Delhi to Melbourne. While

Stanton is at best ambivalent about the copycats,

he appreciates that his work has inspired them.

“Artistically, I want to encourage everybody,” he

says. “It’s against the spirit and ethos of this proj-

ect to prevent people from doing what they like.”

Stanton doesn’t endorse any of the other Humans

sites and says he doesn’t look at them these days.

Here are some of the more interesting imitators.

Each of them has a Facebook following.

portraits of Boston This series stays true to the

HONY style with interviews and questions, and its

photographer averages several posts a day.

Souls of San Francisco The Souls site has a

different name but a similar format, and it features

close-up portraits more than environmentals.

humans of Stuy This smaller group focuses on

students at Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School,

where Stanton is beloved.

humans of Tel aviv This spinoff shows off the

Israeli city’s diversity and reality on the streets.

humans of Tehran Open for submissions, this

Humans site gives viewers a glimpse into the

everyday lives of Iranians. With 14,266 likes, it

emerged after Stanton traveled to Iran himself.

Facebook is blocked there; Stanton has 25,000

Iranian fans anyway.

Clockwise from top

left: “I shot this near

Union Square on

Halloween. I thought

it was a really cool

shot. I had never

before seen a costume

like it. It didn’t look

store bought.”

“That one was taken

during Fashion Week.

The three models

in the background

were posing for other

photographers and I

posed this girl in front

of them. She was there

with her parents. She

may or may not have

been a model, but

everybody wants their

kid to get noticed at

Fashion Week.”

“I was walking on the

Upper East Side, and I

saw a fire on a rooftop.

I snapped the photo

of this guy, but life

saving rope is what

makes the picture.”

“Generally, the

grandparents on the

Upper East Side are

the coolest looking

grandparents in the

world. They’re super

fashionable and I’ve

photographed a ton of

them.”

This page: Buckmaster,

Rawlins, Wyoming (2011).

Opposite: Gold Mine, Lead,

South Dakota (2011); both

by Bryan Schutmaat.

44 aMericanphotoMag.coM juLy/august 2013

Full ImmersionWhen a photographer plunges deep into a subject, the result can be a stunning, career-making body of work. We found three such projects by people whose names we think will soon become familiar. These shooters go above and beyond to show us worlds that, without these pictures, we would never have otherwise known. By LorI FredrIckson


Bryan SchutmaatDuring a year in Bozeman, Montana, Bryan schut-

maat, now based in Brooklyn, new york, became

fascinated by the nearby mining town of Butte; he

has captured the area on and off throughout the six

years since. his Grays the Mountain Sends, begun in

late 2010, was influenced by literature set in the re-

gion by richard Ford, William Kittredge, raymond

carver, and especially poet richard hugo. “hugo’s

poems were often inspired by real-life towns he

called ‘triggering towns,’ and so i began visiting

them, searching for material just as he did,” schut-

maat says. Like the poet, he would look for im-

ages based on what hugo termed the “truth of his

feelings”—a sense that continued as he went farther

north and south of hugo’s known territory.

schutmaat searched for places with an industri-

al history, loosely planning routes from one mining

town to the next. But most of the time he just set

off on the road, stopping at sites that spoke to him.

“i wandered in and out of these towns in a con-

stant state of observation,” he says. he also stopped

in countless bars and diners, and his conversations

with strangers increasingly led him to make por-

traits, both on the spot and in miners’ homes.

his most memorable visit was with a former

miner named chuck. “We ended up sharing a bottle

of whiskey as he told me about his years mining

and driving a bulldozer in Butte, about drinking

and getting into trouble,” schutmaat says. chuck

also told schutmaat about the loss of his son, killed

in a construction accident. it reminded schutmaat

of his own loss: “During the whole time i was shoot-

ing the project i found myself thinking of my father,

and his dreams, and the way he would have gotten

along with so many of the guys i was meeting.”

While he remains in touch with a few of his sub-

jects, including chuck, most were brief moments in

a journey covering thousands of miles and span-

ning more than 50 towns and as many wilderness

areas. his photos will be on view at the catherine

edelman gallery in chicago this fall and the new-

space center for photography in portland, oregon,

in the spring of 2014. however far his work ranges,

schutmaat is still inspired by his initial hero. “rich-

ard hugo was, in a sense, my copilot,” he says.

Full Immersion

Clockwise from top

left: Abandoned House,

Philipsburg, Montana

(2010); Ping Pong

Table, Anaconda,

Montana (2010);

Ralph, Moorcroft,

Wyoming (2011);

Alpine Lake, Gallatin

National Forest,

Montana (2011).

this

spread a

nd p

revio

us:

Bryan s

chutm

aat

(6)


Above: A murmuration of

black birds swarms over

a harvested field near

Mound Bayou, Mississippi

(2010).

© B

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5)

Brandon ThibodeauxBrandon thibodeaux had a more than glancing un-

derstanding of the Mississippi Delta’s complicated

history when he began photographing it. he grew

up in a nearby part of texas, and as a journalism

student at the university of north texas in 2006

he focused on agricultural economies. But he didn’t

travel there until 2009. and though by then he

was a freelance photographer, he’d come simply to

escape Dallas for a while. “in one way i was looking

to apply my knowledge from school,” he says. “But

that aside, the Delta was the quietest place i could

think of to ride my bike, meet people, and do what

i did on a daily basis back home.”

then a new acquaintance invited him to sunday

lunch at the home of the coffey family in the town

of Duncan. this became the crux of a long-term

photography project and sparked what thibodeaux

now considers some of his most important rela-

tionships. the coffeys are well known throughout

the neighboring towns, and thibodeaux found

Full Immersion

juLy/august 2013 aMericanphotoMag.coM 49

Clockwise from top left:

Alex beside his new

car (2010); grain silos

beneath the night sky in

Duncan (2011); a young

girl dressed as an angel

following the First Baptist

Church of Mound Bayou’s

Christmas Eve celebration

(2010); a church outside

the town of Bo Bo (2011).

them incredibly warm and welcoming in a way that

he hadn’t yet experienced much in Dallas. “their

candidness, and their openness for me to be there,

like i was part of the family, was almost astonish-

ingly immediate,” he says. “at that particular time,

it was incredibly meaningful to me.”

over that lunch and the ones that followed, the

photographer opened up in conversations about

music, religion, and relationships. he became a sort

of confidant even as he remained an outsider to the

community. he photographed the family the day

they met, and his camera has since come along on

many sunday lunches, during which the coffeys

have introduced him to friends. as he turned this

growing portfolio into a longer documentary proj-

ect, mentioning the coffey name helped him meet

strangers in towns such as alligator and Bo Bo.

the resulting series, When the Morning Comes,

took root over four years; he is now developing

it into a book. he hopes that by introducing the

faces and names of those who live in the Delta’s

agricultural towns—human lives, rather than mere

demographics—he might highlight their economic

ordeals. Most of all, his work is a tribute to the

years thibodeaux has spent talking with strangers

who, when he needed it, welcomed him in.


On the Job

Above: Tiffany in the

living room of her home

in Duncan, Mississippi,

September 13, 2009.

this

page: ©

Brandon t

hib

odeaux. o

pposi

te: ©

erik

a L

arse

n.

juLy/august 2013 aMericanphotoMag.coM 51

Full Immersion

Erika Larsen“My original plan was to photograph nomadic

communities in south america,” Larsen says.

having had an interest in human migration since

the beginning of her photography career, she

decided nine years ago to commit herself long-

term to a project that would allow her to experi-

ence how these cultures really live.

But Larsen’s early ventures into the southern

hemisphere weren’t the right fit, in part due to

language barriers and the need for guides. then,

while researching nomadic groups elsewhere, she

learned of the sami people, of the arctic region

from northern scandinavia to northern russia.

While historically known for herding reindeer, in

the past few decades the group has largely been

urbanized into scandinavian culture. about 10 per-

cent still live within saamis (villages where herd-

ers live in season), bringing caribou back and forth

between winter and summer pastures each year.

Larsen’s introduction came by way of a family

from saltoluokta, sweden, in 2007. over a few weeks’

stay with that family, she realized this was a sub-

ject she wanted to explore more deeply. and having

Above: Two young

girls from Kautokeino,

Norway, dressed for

a confirmation party

(2009).

© e

rik

a L

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5)

Clockwise from above:

Snow shoes made of

reindeer skin (2009);

the Gaup family from

Kautokeino, Norway

(2010); Elle Marja Gaup

(2011); Lena Susanne

Gaup with her horse

Tarzan (2011); Nils

Peder Gaup (2010).

Full Immersion

always been a believer in complete immersion, she

moved to Kautokeino, norway, where she lived as a

family’s housekeeper for more than two years.

she looks back on her earlier images, many of

which are collected in her book Sami: Walking With

Reindeer (published in partnership with emphas.is),

as some of the most valuable for their detached view

as a spectator. “everything, at the beginning, was

fresh and unfamiliar,” she says.

Larsen was in Kautokeino for nearly a year

before she had earned enough money to sustain a

longer visit by selling photos to various publications

in the u.s. at the end of the first year, she received

a Fulbright fellowship to study the northern sami

language at a local university.

Learning the language gave her access to older,

non-english-speaking sami. and it allowed her to

understand conversations when she took part in

the reindeer migration herding, which takes up to

six weeks each in the fall and spring. these jour-

neys gave her some of her most important lessons

in how and why to capture certain documentary

images. “i would photograph reindeer in close-up,

but i began to notice that sami herders were inter-

ested in studying them from far off, to anticipate

their migration,” Larsen says. her observations

began to shape how she photographed.

Larsen concluded her photographic work on the

series in 2011; she says her relationships with the

people she pictured have grown rather than faded

in the years since. Discussing her experiences,

Larsen easily falls into the description of customs

and traditions in sami terms. “i don’t think i’ll

ever get the sami out of me,” she jokes. “it’s part of

my life now.” AP

arl Zeiss has gone out on a limb with its

new Touit lenses, and not just by naming

them after a small parrot. The vener-

able optics maker has for the first time created

a series of autofocus lenses, and they’re designed

for interchangeable-lens compact cameras with

APS-C-sized sensors in the Fujifilm X-mount and

Sony E-mount systems. (For this review, I shot

extensively with the 12mm f/2.8 Distagon T* and

the 32mm f/1.8 Planar T* on Sony’s Alpha NEX-

7.) While there is a lot to like about the lenses,

not least the optics themselves, these first entries

in the line are certainly not without growing—or

maybe shrinking—pains.

For Zeiss, optical performance is clearly the

primary focus. The 32mm lens (equivalent to a

“normal” 48mm in full-frame terms) is extremely

sharp, even when used wide open. It’s the kind of

sharpness that makes you smile as you admire

your subject’s eyelashes at 100 percent magnifica-

tion. The 12mm lens (an ultrawide 18mm full-

frame equivalent) is similarly sharp and, while it

still produces some unavoidable distortion, this

does not seem nearly as aggressive as other lenses

with comparable fields of view.

Nearly circular diaphragms make for smooth

and attractive bokeh—even the circular specular

highlights look pleasing. From a contrast stand-

point, Touit lenses seem a little flatter than some

JULY/AUgUST 2013 AmErICANPhoTomAg.Com 55

noteworthy

specs

C

Hands on

Zeiss releases its first autofocus lenses— and they’re for ILCs By stan horaczek

what photographers need THe Goods 56 TecH Trend 58

of their DSLr-lens counterparts, but I count that

as a positive, since they produce a clean digital

image that fares extremely well during processing.

The limitations of these lenses become immedi-

ately apparent when you look at autofocus. Focusing

is slow, and the 32mm has a tendency to hunt to the

point where shooting fast action becomes frustrat-

ing. The 12mm lens is faster to focus, but in many

situations it feels slower than the camera’s standard

kit lens. The AF motors are loud enough that us-

ing them during video mode renders the camera’s

onboard audio recording mostly useless (it’s always

better to use an external mic with video, anyway).

And lack of optical image stabilization—which would

be nice but can reduce sharpness overall—is also a

negative when it comes to shooting motion.

Things do improve substantially in manual

focus. The movement is driven by electronics, so

it can’t perfectly replicate the feel of a traditional

mF lens, but the focusing action is responsive and

accurate enough, even for fine adjustments. The

focus ring is made of smooth, grippy rubber, which

may take a little getting used to, but the overall

manual-focus experience is gratifying.

While many Zeiss DSLr lenses skew larger

than their competition, the Touits are compact

and surprisingly light. Their metal bodies feel as if

they’ll last for years; their lens hoods, though plas-

tic, have an appealing burliness; and the T* coating

minimizes reflections beautifully. These new optics

really provide everything you’d expect from a Zeiss

lens in a much smaller package. ap

FOCAL LENGTH 12mm and

32mm

APERTURE RANGE f/2.8–22 and

f/1.8–22, respectively

MOUNTS Fujifim X, Sony E

LENGTH Up to 3.4 in. (86 mm)

and 3.0 in. (76 mm), respec-

tively, depending on mount

FILTER SIZE 67mm and 52mm,

respectively

CLOSE-FOCUSING DISTANCE

7.1 in. (18 cm) and 11.8 in.

(30 cm), respectively

BUY IT $1,250 and $900,

respectively; lenses.zeiss.com

going Beyond Manual


the goodsThe best new stuff for work—and playBy the editors of american photo

LoNG ANd LoNGer

Canon EF 200–400mm f/4L IS USM Extender

1.4X Designed for pro sports and wildlife

photographers, this pricey super-telephoto

zoom has an extra twist: a built-in extender

that instantly boosts its range to 280–560mm,

albeit at a dimmer f/5.6, on a full-frame DSLR

such as the Canon EOS-1D X or 5D Mark III; on

Canon’s APS-C-sized sensor bodies, such as the

7D, it reaches the equivalent of nearly 900mm.

This allows shooters trying to capture swiftly

moving subjects or working in dusty or damp

environments to avoid having to change lenses

in the field. Sure, it’s fairly big (up to 14.4 inches)

and heavy (nearly 9 pounds), but if it saves having

to pack an even bigger 600mm f/4, who cares?

BUY IT $11,800; usa.canon.com

sMooth MoVer

Manfrotto MVH500A This pan-tilt model, one of

Manfrotto’s two new 500-series fluid heads for

DSLR video, has a 60mm half-ball tripod mount,

for quicker leveling without having to readjust the

legs. The light and compact head supports rigs of

up to 11 pounds (5 kilograms), and its elongated

quick-release plate slides for more precise

balance. BUY IT $200; manfrotto.us

LooK Before PriNtiNG

LG IPS ColorPrime 27EA83 Any photographer who wants finished images to turn

out just so needs the right monitor. This new 27-inch LED monitor from LG

boasts 2560x1440-pixel (WQHD) resolution; the Super In-Plane Switching (IPS)

technology affords a wide viewing angle and more even distribution of images

than traditional monitors. Other useful features for photographers and

retouchers: 10-bit color display and the ability to swivel the screen 90 degrees

into portrait mode. BUY IT $1,000; lg.com/us/monitors

oPeN Widest

Sigma 18–35mm f/1.8 DC HSM With a big maximum

aperture of f/1.8, this new wide-angle for APS-C-

sensor DSLRs is the brightest constant-aperture

zoom on the market. It scales to a full-frame

equivalent of about 30–56mm on Canon and

27–53mm on Nikon and Sigma mounts. The lens

works with Sigma’s new USB dock, through which

photographers can update the firmware and

adjust focus parameters. BUY IT Price not yet

available; sigmaphoto.com

softWAre By

sUBsCriPtioN

Adobe Creative Cloud When Adobe announced this

spring that it would abandon perpetually licensed

sales of its vital Creative Suite software in favor

of the subscription-only Creative Cloud service,

howls of outrage erupted around the Internet.

Photographers who have “owned” Photoshop

for years are understandably nervous about the

shift, which will mean that they may need to make

sure their CC subscription is live before opening

some of their own fi les. But as details emerged, the

benefi ts for many devoted users (especially those

who plan to buy new versions ad infi nitum) became

clear: Updates will be implemented immediately

and automatically, and it comes with 20GB of cloud

storage for access to projects from anywhere.

BUY IT $20/month, Photoshop only, or $50/month,

full suite (current CS users should check for

upgrade discounts); adobe.com

ANNiVersAry hoMAGe

Olympus Pen E-P5 For this update of its Pen line of Micro Four Thirds interchangeable-lens compacts,

Olympus took a step back—to the 1960s. Its style is drawn from the original Pen F of 50 years ago, but

the new Pen E-P5 boasts decidedly 21st-century specs. With the same 16.1MP Live MOS sensor and

TruePic VI processing that’s in Olympus’s excellent OM-D E-M5, the new camera captures bursts of up

to 9 frames per second (with continuous autofocus off) and boasts an action-freezing top mechanical-

shutter speed of 1/8000 sec. The pop-up fl ash can be used to trigger off-camera units, and in auto

mode the camera allows remote view, focusing, and fi ring via Android and iOS devices—Wi-Fi and GPS

are built in. Alas, no viewfi nder; the new 2.36 million–dot VF-4 electronic viewfi nder shown here is sold

separately or bundled in a kit with the camera and a 17mm (34mm full-frame equivalent) f/1.8 M.Zuiko

Digital lens. BUY IT $1,000, body only, or $1,450 with lens and EVF; getolympus.com

July/august 2013 americanphotomag.com 57

ChANGe yoUr PersPeCtiVe

Rokinon Tilt-Shift 24mm f/3.5 ED AS USC Even in this

fake-it-with-software era, tilt-shift lenses let SLR

shooters correct perspective, maximize depth

of fi eld, narrow focus down to a thin band, turn

a cityscape into what looks like a miniature, and

even avoid catching a refl ected self-portrait.

Now Rokinon gives bargain hunters something to

love, too, with a new tilt-shift lens that retails for

about half the price of big-name glass. It’s still an

investment, but for some t/s fans, this full-framer,

which scales up to the equivalent of about 38mm

on Canon APS-C bodies and 36mm on Nikon, may

be just the ticket. BUY IT $1,000; rokinon.com

After-the-fACt foCUsiNG

Arqball FocusTwist With this iOS app, you can refocus

a photo after shooting it with an Apple iPhone or

iPad. For best results, choose an object that sits

close to the camera (3 to 4 inches) and another

about 5 feet away. Over about two seconds, the

camera takes dozens of shots with different focal

points, and then software stitches them together.

Afterward, just tap the spot that you want to

come into focus. BUY IT $2; focustwist.com

BoX WoNder

Ilford Obscura Pinhole Camera Who needs a lens,

anyway? This new camera uses a 0.3mm pinhole

in stainless steel to expose images on 4x5 sheet

fi lm or photo-sensitive paper. A magnetic shutter

controls exposure, and a tripod socket makes

mounting easy. The full kit includes the camera;

10 sheets each of 4x5-inch Ilford Delta 100

Professional fi lm, Ilford Multigrade IV RC paper,

and Harman Direct Positive paper; sight-line and

decorative stickers; and a three-tray, light-tight

sheet-fi lm box. Users will still need a fi lm-changing

bag—and a darkroom. BUY IT $99; ilfordphoto.com

58 AMERIcANPhOTOMAG.cOM JuLy/AuGuST 2013

Tech Trends

BIG SENSORS,SMALL CAMERAS

Let’s face facts. Most photographers, pro-

fessional and enthusiast alike, ache for

a compact camera that can deliver truly

top-notch imaging—no matter how much gear

they’re willing to haul around or how often they

take snapshots with their smartphones. What

they’ll pay to satisfy that yearning was put to the

test last winter, when Sony came out with the

cyber-shot RX1, the fi rst full-frame, fi xed-lens

compact camera, which retails for about $2,800.

Now we’re seeing a fresh batch of compacts

that have APS-c-sized sensors and smaller price

tags to match. Nikon and Pentax Ricoh released

strong new entries last spring, and two pioneers

of the APS-c compact category recently updated

their catalogs, Sigma with the DP3 Merrill and

Fujifi lm with the X100s. Add to that Leica’s new

X2, Nikon’s coolpix A, and Ricoh’s revamped GR,

and that’s seven compacts with APS-c or larger

sensors. (See the table on page 62 for a rundown

of all the models.) Is it time, at last, to buy?

Tale of the Tape

The fi rst major difference among these cameras:

their lenses. The Nikon coolpix A, Ricoh GR, and

Sigma DP1 Merrill all capture the approximate

fi eld of view of a 28mm full-frame lens and a

reasonably fast maximum aperture of f/2.8. That’s

Above: Four of the seven

current compacts with APS-

C-sized sensors, clockwise

from top—Leica X2, Ricoh

GR, Fujifi lm X100s, and

Nikon Coolpix A.

A new crop of high-performance digital compacts all promise great images on the go. How is a photographer to choose?BY PHILIP RYAN

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Tech Trends

great for street photography, landscapes, and ca-

sual architectural work. Plus, for everyday snap-

shots, a wide lens can make it easier to fit people

into group photos and can make a huge difference

when shooting in tight spaces.

If 28mm feels too wide for you, look to the Fuji-

film X100s, Leica X2, or Sony RX1, all of which

provide the rough equivalent of a 35mm field of

view. This is the traditional focal length for street

photography, and rangefinder aficionados swear

by it. It also introduces less distortion than 28mm

lenses will. Of course, images from a wider-angle

lens can always be cropped. The Ricoh GR has a

mode that automatically crops down to a 35mm

field of view, but in doing so it tosses away enough

sensor coverage to bring down the effective pixel

count to 10.2 megapixels from its native 16.2MP.

Sigma’s DP2 Merrill and DP3 Merrill round

out the pack. The former sports a lens with a

45mm equivalent field of view, while the latter

provides a unique 75mm equivalent. Fans of the

so-called normal focal length, 50mm, will come

closest with the DP2—some photographers argue

that its 45mm more closely matches the field

of view of the human eye. Portrait shooters will

appreciate the DP3’s longer focal length, which

can lend a flatteringly compressed depth that’s

popular among photographers of people.

For the most part, these cameras are built

to keep up with advanced shooters. The bodies,

though some are covered in plastic, are metal at

their core. All of them have shutters that can al-

low durations as short as 1/2000 second. For the

Sigmas and the Nikon, this is the fastest shutter

speed available. Both the Sony and Fujifilm can

go to 1/4000 second, but only at f/5.6 and smaller

apertures with the Sony and f/8 or smaller with

the Fujifilm; the Ricoh allows 1/4000 second at

any lens aperture.

All of these cameras can capture images in

RAW format. Again, Fujifilm adds a twist, with

ISOs 100, 12,800, and 25,600 restricted to JPEG

capture. None of the Sigmas offer higher than

ISO 6400 in any file format. Nikon and Sony bring

14-bit RAW capture to the plate, while the others

capture at 12-bit.

The Main Event

It all comes down to feel. If you can’t comfortably

get the shot, the size of the sensor doesn’t matter.

Fujifilm obviously targets rangefinder fans with

its X100s. It mimics not only the look of those clas-

sic cameras but their shooting experience as well.

The shutter button can accept the threaded cable

release that many street photographers use to trip

the shutter during surreptitious shooting. Even

better is the hybrid viewfinder. In optical mode,

this provides a bright-frame-like overlay that even

corrects for parallax when on the near end of the

focusing range. A distance scale helps you focus

Top and center: The Coolpix A’s physical controls will

feel familiar to Nikon shooters; the hotshoe takes an

optional optical viewfinder. Bottom: Fujifilm’s X100s is

the only one of these cameras with a built-in finder.


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CAMERAS COMPAREDQuick takes on all of the APS-C-sensor compacts—and the one full-framer

Ricoh GR

Fujifilm X100s

Leica X2

Sigma DP2 Merrill

Sigma DP3 Merrill

Sony

RX1Cyber-shot

Nikon Coolpix A

Sigma DP1Merrill

Camera Pros Cons Buy ItSensorLens(full-frame equiv.)

The best price and most discreet style in the category; fast and intuitive control system

Image quality extremely high through ISO 1600; good noise control until ISO 3200; takes Speedlights

The Foveon sensor’s three-layer design produces smooth transi-tions between colors in all three Sigma cameras

Best image quality of the lot through ISO 400; excellent hybrid viewfinder built in

Extremely high image quality through ISO 800; image stabiliza-tion for slow shutter speeds

Image quality extremely high through ISO 800; good manual focusing; dual menu system

Full-frame sensor and fast lens create best image quality and shallower depth of field

Long focal length for portraits and close-ups, gives a more flattering look

18.3mm f/2.8 (28mm)

18.5mm f/2.8 (28mm)

19mm f/2.8 (28.5mm)

23mm f/2 (34.5mm)

24mm f/2.8 (36mm)

30mm f/2.8 (45mm)

35mm f/2

50mm f/2.8 (75mm)

16.2MP CMOS

16.2MP CMOS

46MP (15.3MP x 3-layer) Foveon

16.3MP CMOS

16.1MP CMOS


24.3MPfull-frame CMOS


Image quality at its best is only through ISO 400; by ISO 1600, noise interferes

AF slows in low light and close-ups; some oddball controls; pricey ($380) optical viewfinder

Slow in-camera JPEG processing and huge file sizes make it much better to shoot in RAW

No RAW capture at the highest and lowest ISOs; noise becomes a problem at ISO 1600

No video capture; somewhat sluggish AF; significantly higher price than other APS-C models

Same sensor and image proces-sor as other DP Merrills, so pros and cons are the same

Expensive and relatively big; external electronic viewfinder is a costly option

Telephoto lens can be limiting; other pros/cons same as the rest of the DP Merrills

$800 pentax imaging.com

$1,000 nikonusa.com

$1,000 sigma photo.com

$1,300 fujifilm usa.com

$2,000 us.leica -camera.com


$2,800 sonydigital imaging.com


manually and indicates depth of field—useful for

anyone trying the “f/8 and be there” approach.

If you want to shoot macro or if conditions are

sufficiently dim, you can flip a switch on the front

of the body and it’ll change to a 2.36 million–dot

EVF. Autofocusing proves fast in bright or medium

light—as is true of the rest of these cameras.

Nikon’s coolpix A has the feel of the most pow-

erful compact camera you’ve ever used. In bright

light, it focuses quickly, but it slows noticeably

in dim light and tends to hunt excessively when

shooting in macro mode. It boasts two assignable

function buttons, but there are limits to what can

be assigned to each button (a common drawback

in Nikon’s lower-level DSLRs).

Leica’s X2 improves upon some of the finer

points of the X1. Focusing is faster, though still

a bit sluggish compared with most of the other

cameras in this category. It’s the only compact

here to include image stabilization, but otherwise

it doesn’t distinguish itself, handsome design and

iconic red dot notwith-

standing. The quality

of its imaging is in line

with the other APS-c-

sensor compacts.

Sigma’s DP Merrill

series cameras differ

from one another

solely in their lenses.

Autofocusing with all

of them is somewhat

slower than with

other compacts in this

class. Their well-designed dual control-panel-style

menus make changing settings much faster and

easier. But where the Sigmas really shine is in the

beautiful detail they can produce while deliver-

ing ultra-smooth tonal transitions. Their Foveon

sensors produce enormous RAW files that make

in-camera JPEG processing impractical, but with

care and the right subject matter these might be

Ricoh’s GR, the least ex-

pensive on this list, also has

the most discreet style; its

sensor is much larger than

the ones in the earlier GR

Digital line of compacts.


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Tech Trends

the only cameras in this category that can

seriously compete with the amount of detail

delivered by the full-frame Sony. That said,

many photographers might not want to deal

with RAW conversion when using a cam-

era like this, but if you’re OK with a slower,

more deliberate shooting pace and process-

ing after the fact, then the DP Merrills

deserve consideration, especially if you don’t

want a wide-angle lens.

Ricoh’s GR looks almost exactly like the

GR1 film camera the company introduced

decades ago. Despite its Spartan style, it

provides a wonderful shooting experience.

A small rocker on the back gives immediate

access to exposure compensation (no holding

buttons and twirling dials here), and each of

its multiple assignable function buttons can

accept any of 26 settings. Speedy autofocus

in both regular and macro modes, close fo-

cusing to less than 12 inches in regular mode,

and finely detailed images left us wondering

if we’d want to spend the extra money on the

Nikon, its closest competitor. At $800, the

GR is the bargain of the bunch.

Then there’s Sony’s RX1. Shooting with

this little tank has a more luxurious feel

than any other compact—more a rangefinder,

though without the signature framing and

focusing experience of those cameras (or of

the Fujifilm X100s, for that matter). There’s

a precision and elegance to the camera that

didn’t come through with any of the others

in this category. Add to that the highest level

of imaging to ever come out of a camera this

size, and you’ll soon find that you’ve almost

forgotten how much it costs.

The Winners: Photographers

If you ignore price, the Sony RX1 steals the

show. It’s the most pleasurable to use and

Above: Sigma’s DP1

Merrill has the widest

focal length of the DP

Merrill line; shown

from the side, the

physical size of its lens

becomes clear. Left:

Sony’s Cyber-shot RX1

is only slightly larger.

delivers the best images of the bunch. If you pay

attention to price most of all, the Ricoh GR is the

easy winner. It delivers a wonderful shooting expe-

rience along with images that rival anything you’ll

get from any of the APS-c-sensor compacts.

Fufjifilm’s X100s will appeal most to street

shooters and deliver the most image detail next

to the Sony. Sigma’s DP Merrills, meanwhile, ap-

pease the cult following of Foveon enthusiasts, and

if you’re not chasing action shots and plan to shoot

RAW anyway, they can produce images of stagger-

ing beauty. you just have to pick a focal length.

Nikon shooters will feel immediately at home

with the coolpix A’s DSLR-like menus and fa-

miliar buttons. This compact offers a simple path

to excellent pictures with remarkably low-noise

JPEG images all the way up to ISO 3200. None

of the others, save the RX1, can control noise in

JPEGs as well as the Nikon.

It’s hard to point to one winner in this bunch.

Special photographic requirements aside, we

don’t think any of these cameras will disappoint.

And if you needed proof that the best of times for

high-quality digital compact cameras is at hand,

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sensor, the Sony RX1 delivers the highest image quality

in the category—at the highest price.


© J

asp

er W

hit

e; in

set

courte

sy o

f r

ust

in

Five years ago, london-based photographer

Jasper White went to a new year’s eve

party held in a shed in rural australia.

his brother-in-law, pete Walker, was from

the area and explained that the sheds—large,

freestanding units the size of a garage or guest

cottage in the u.s.—were ubiquitous in many of

the small towns in the outback.

Kept exclusively by men, the sheds are part of

an old-fashioned, small-town australian cultural

tradition: the women have their space in the home,

and the men keep a separate retreat to indulge

their hobbies. like an adolescent’s bedroom, sheds

are deeply personal and intensely maintained.

of course, similar man caves—in basements,

spare rooms, and garages—are common all over the

world. When the photographer was a child in the

united Kingdom, his father, a scientist, had a shed;

he blew it up while experimenting with rockets.

Because White’s work at home frequently

explored the relationships people have with

territories and space, these masculine structures

fascinated him. “each shed becomes an extreme

focal point of human individuality in a barren

wasteland,” he says. he began a long period of

traveling to the australian outback to meet the

locals and photograph their various sheds. more

than 80 of White’s shed images are now being

collected into a book, and a small selection were

shown at gallery nine5 in new york in 2012.

Depending on the township, australian sheds

might house steam engines, airplanes, full bars,

even a dance club. the one shown here houses the

prized possession of a car enthusiast named rustin

(who goes by his first name only): a beautifully

maintained 1971 Bathurst rt charger. AP

PARTING SHOT

From top: A shed in rural

Australia, photographed

in 2011 by Jasper White;

shed owner Rustin and his

daughter.

Photographer Jasper White explores hobby sheds

in the Australian outback By Jill c. ShomeRIt’s a Man’s World

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artists take their imaging to the next level.

Participating photographers and filmmakers will be chosen

from the readers of Popular Photography and American Photo,

so visit imagingedge.com for details on how you can be

among the lucky ones who get to test drive

some great Sony products!

TEST DRIVE

step right up

Photos (C) Michael J. McNamara

PROMOTION

Some planning, and a lot of luck!Every day we’re bombarded by hordes of images in ads, and TV

commercials, on signs and websites, and even attached to the emails

in our smartphones! Most don’t catch our eye, but the great ones rise

above the mediocre-image crowd and beg for an explanation as to how

they were created—and who created them.

In this column, we’ll start by selecting and showcasing amazing images

taken by our readers with Sony cameras.Visit imagingedge.com for details

on how to be selected. Then, we’ll delve deeply into a behind-the-scenes

look at how the image was created—from the original concept that

inspired the photographer to the actual equipment and techniques

used to capture and polish the final image.

“ I could

not

believe I

nailed it!”

right place, right time

INSTANT SHAREPROMOTION

Photo (C) Michael J. McNamara

GEAR +GADGETS

Never before have there been so many imaging

products aimed at so many kinds of photographers

and fi lmmakers. The digital world today is about

mobility, sharing, and video production, as well as

cameras and lenses. Gear + Gadgets will showcase

an exciting cross-section of imaging products,

focusing on Sony cameras, lenses, and accessories.

These are the tools designed to help people

become better photographers, and to empower

professionals who want to build their own photo

business and the services they can provide to

potential clients. These tools will help photographers

of all skill levels get their imagery out into the

world, and to enable them to transition into

the fi eld of video, where they can expand

their creative horizons.

get a grip

PROMOTION

Photo (C) Michael J. McNamara

Documents

American PHOTO 2013-07-08