filmwasters.com: podcast

Ed, Leon & Damion are joined by Ailsa McWhinnie – photographer, freelance journalist, author, former editor of Black & White Photography magazine and mad Brighton & Hove Albion fan. There’s a lot of photo talk and one spectacular sneeze. Ed’s fave street photographer, Matt Stuart, gets another look in as does the Arena Group, Jobo & Fujifilm. It’s been a long time since the last podcast. Apologies for that, but we’re doing our best to make up for the gap by producing two in as many weeks. The same cast will reconvene for a second episode in a week’s time. Faves/picks/recommendations this time round are as follows: Ailsa’s latest book, Travel Photography Masterclass: Joe Cornish, Charlie Waite, David Ward and Others is available for pre-order. Ailsa sung the praise of the book, On Being a Photographer: A Practical Guide by David Hurn & the late, great Bill Jay. Leon recommends the wonderful portraits that Vicky Slater produces (see examples above) & the street photography of Nick Turpin. Ed raved about the recent publication of what seems to be the collected works of the wonderful, Fazal Sheikh. Damion recommended two Birmingham-based photographers: Vanley Burke (short bio here) and George Hallett.

The inaugural video podcast from the Filmwasters.com team is a bit of a shambolic, light-hearted affair, but the 18 minutes goes by pretty quickly all the same. We take you round the Mass Photo Gathering protest in London’s Trafalgar Square (23rd Jan), then onto the excellent exhibition of 19th Century Photography at the British Library and finish things off with a tutorial about staining Polaroid peel-apart film with instant coffee. Featuring Ed Wenn, Leon Taylor, Damion Rice, Salvo Toscano & Woody the Lurcher. ::This download is provided in iPhone/iPod compatible M4V format. If there is demand we can provide other formats too so please get in touch::

Despite our best efforts to the contrary Episode 12 is an all English, all-male affair with Filmwasters hosts, Ed Wenn, Damion Rice & Leon Taylor taking one of their favourite documentary photographers, the much-travelled Colin Summers, through his podcasting paces. Also getting in on the act – albeit briefly – is Leon’s pet hound, Woody, who we suspect is also a big Colin Summers fan. This episode was supposed to be a photo journalism special, but inevitably things drifted off-topic pretty quickly and Leon had a time of it trying to edit together something even vaguely cohesive. Fear not though, there’s a lot of good, sensible stuff here in amongst the jokes and the general photography-related chatter. In particular documentary photography is covered in some depth; including a discussion of Colin’s current series, This Is England. We also discuss the sad passing of Bill Jay, a giant of photographic commentary whose work has made a big impression on us on lots of levels. Visit his site to find out why. Faves/picks/recommendations this time round are as follows: Colin recommends Robin Bell’s Silver Footprint exhibition at the Independent Photographers Gallery in Sussex, UK until June 20th. Leon recommends Tim Rudman’s excellent exhibition, The Colourful World of Black and White, which is on at the Lightbox gallery in Woking, UK until July 26th. Ed raved about an oldish book he discovered on a friend’s shelf recently, a Time-Life publication from 1980 glorying in the title, Photographing Children. Damion had two picks. The first is Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip a book from 1935 by Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov, Erika Wolf, Aleksandr Rodchenko and Anne O. Fisher. His second pick is the project currently being undertaken by our good friend, Gordon Stettinius, to publicize, document and research the life and work of Gita Lenz.

This is the first in a new series of podcasts where Leon interviews photographers to discuss something new they’ve recently been trying out or have done.  Leon’s style is analoguos to a kind of tortoise compared with Ed’s peppy hare-style (he’s bald … geddit?!?). Andrea Ingram: Nairn Stroll In this episode, Leon talks with Andrea Ingram about her recent exhbition at the An Lanntair Arts Centre on the Isle of Lewis, and her new Blurb Book amongst other things related to her photography.  Apologies for the poor sound quality – the Outer Hebrides doesn’t have the greatest broadband link-up so Skype quality wasnt perfect – it improves as the recording goes on, so stick with it if you can. Andrea’s Fave Photographers discussed: James Ravilious Jack Thingy (Spencer, actually) Alex Titarenko Andrew Sanderson Leonard Misonne Callum Angus Mackay Willie Fulton (ok, not photography, but great pics none-the-less) Also: Fraction Magazine

Martin Parr, Tom Stoddart, Andrew Nadolski & Ken Keen were the heavyweight guest speakers at this year’s Arena Seminar. Our man, Leon, was there drinking it all in & Ed won’t let him get some sleep until he’s told us all about it. A slightly shorter-than-normal podcast this time round at 45 minutes and only two participants, but we’re hoping (desperately!!) that the content will more than make up for a slightly low-key episode. A couple more interesting links for Ken Keen: Recent article from ePhotozine http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Seeing-without-sight-11077 Radio interview in Real Audio format from 2006 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/intouch_20060725.shtml

There was just time to squeeze in a final podcast before 2008 drew to a close. Ed was joined by founder Filmwaster and much decorated fine art photographer, Susan Burnstine from LA, commercial and fine art photographer (and toycamera god) Don Brice from Adelaide and debutante FW podcast panellist, Cameron Stephen, a health service professional, photography obsessive and photo and video blogger from Melbourne. Topics under discussion this time round were the ins and outs of hanging your work in a non-gallery space, photo journalism, Cameron’s photography-related online videos, a catch up with Susan and Don regarding what they’ve been up to this year and the usual recommendations section from all panel members. Other highlights include: Cameron giving a master class in how to not organise things properly when showing work in a cafe. Don prompting Ed to lead a deeply technical discussion on the magic of Polaroid peel-apart films during which he used the word, “thing”, far too often and mixed up his 5×4, 54, 55 and 665 like there’s no tomorrow. Yes, folks it’s good to be in the presence of such a knowledgeable commentator! Cameron’s Picks: The Andreas Gursky exhibition at the National gallery of Victoria. The work of Rennie Ellis, the award winning Australian photographer and writer. Susan’s Picks: PHOTONOLA is Susan’s BEST OF PICK of 2008. It’s a month long celebratioon of Photography in New Orleans coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance. It included a auction/gala, workshops, reviews, seminars and exhibitions across the city. Susan discovered her talent of 2008 at the “Emerge” workshop she ran at PhotoNola; Sam Portera. And another 08 treat was getting to see Louviere and Vanessa’s Solo show, Instinct & Extinct at A Gallery For Fine Photography in New  Orleans. Jeff Louviere & Vanessa Brown Susan’s LAST THOUGHT BEST PICK OF 2008 has to be Gordon Stettinius‘ self portrait series; currently only viewable online via facebook. Ed’s Picks: The Maurice Broomfield exhibition at London’s HOST Gallery. Knock Three Times by Chris Coekin. “Through photographs and archive material, Coekin explores the cultural roots and identity of the Working Men’s Club and examines the complexity of working class culture, as well as ideas of masculinity, relationships and the work ethic.” Don’s Picks: foto8 magazine; recommended reading from the UK The Australian Photo Journalist; a great book published annually with top PJ from around the world. Support photo journalists and buy!! The forthcoming Ballarat FotoBiennale 09; a big, month-long photo get-together in Australia in ’09.

Episode 8 of the Filmwasters.com podcast sees the gang holed up at Leon’s house after a night out in Canterbury (sorry Skype, we didn’t need you this time), but the proximity of the others still didn’t help Ed’s “mad intro skillz” which were as poor as always. Also worth mentioning at the start that the bald fool left his phone on during recording and that 3 or 4 times during the show it made its presence felt – sorry about that. Onto the show itself: first off there’s a 6 minute long discussion about the Filmwasters.com site including a well-deserved plug for our very own, Susan Burnstine’s wonderful short film on Fine Art TV  (go watch it immediately) and info about some forthcoming collaborations. After that we warm to the subject of Leon and his ‘home build’ camera project followed by him and Damion reviewing fine art photography magazines, Foam Magazine and AG . Ed brings things back to basics with a discussion about 3D (or stereo) photography and the success of his recent purchases from Loreo. Cameron Stephen’s 3D image mentioned in the podcast can be seen here. Also, because we were in the countryside cockerel can be heard crowing throughout. Damion recommends Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004 Ed recommends the Arena portfolios book Leon recommends the Martin Pye Wedding Photographer website NB – The original upload of this podcast contained an incomplete MP3 file. This has now been fixed and the whole podcast is available to play or download.  Apologies for the confusion that this will have caused.

We’re back, and before the end of the summer too! Thrown together at the last minute after we’d missed a previous date, Gordon Stettinius, joins regulars Ed Wenn and Susan Burnstine in the virtual Filmwasters pub. Talk ranges from faux diary entries, found photos with a sting in the tail, how Gordon’s mum coped with his decapitation, whether Ed’s parents used to get high by smoking prawns, lots of hair talk, how Susan doesn’t like to talk about it…any of it…until it’s finished (but that she will soon start using a proper glass lens!). Somewhere in the mix there’s a whole host of photo talk too. Susan recommends the movies, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and What Remains. Gordon recommends the Mary Ellen Mark prom series. Ed recommends Ghosts In The Landscape by Craig J. Barber. Ed got something slightly wrong during the podcast. The alleged portrait of Mayakovsky is not one of him wearing a workers’ Constructivist uniform designed by Rodchenko. The suit photo is one of Rodchenko himself, whereas the famous Mayakovsky portrait is a little less surreal.

Last minute, locals-only podcast for April/May 2008. Jim Green and Leon Taylor both have genuinely exciting news concerning their photographic careers. Ed doesn’t have a photograhic career, but he has discovered the wonders of the Truprint postal dev ‘n’ print service. In addition to that there’s much discussion about what people really write in comments books at exhibition, other postal dev ‘n’ print services that we’ve known and loved, getting Tesco to do xpro without even knowing what they’re doing and about how putting heroin in the butter gets your tea party off to a rocking start. Leon recommends the Arena Photographers’ website. Jim recommends the Comfort Zones exhibition at Dimbola Lodge on the Isle of Wight. Ed recommends Truprint for 35mm C41 process and print in the UK.

Cutting it very fine again for inclusion as a February episode. Damn the calendar and the shortened month…it took me by surprise. Episode 5 sees us back to full strength with regulars Ed, Susan, Damion, Leon and Ailsa joined by longtime friend of the extended family, Mr Gordon Stettinius, a man who always has a refreshing perspective on things. This show is a little looser than the others mainly because there was a lot more drinking going on than usual and a lot more off-mic Internet chat causing a lot of distractions and giggles. The discussion topic for this month is, “Photographing People” and while we had a good go, we didn’t even really dent it. Damion was calling in from a hotel with a lower-than-normal bandwidth connection so he sounds like a Dalek a lot of the time.Never mind; some people find that sexy. Susan wanted me to publish this link to explain her crude comment about Alec Soth. She thought it best to clarify her comment for fear that his wife will hunt her down. The reference to his body of work called ‘Niagra’. Which was shot at Niagra Falls hotels. Susan’s next solo show at Wallspace in Seattle, WA runs from March 4 to April 5. Artist reception is Thursday March 6 and she will be there so go along and say hi. Ed’s picks were: Motherland by Simon Roberts Agfa Ultra 100 colour film (discontinued) Gordon’s picks were: Flesh & Blood by Anne Beattie and Andy Grundberg Portraits by Bill Burke The Short Story & Photography, collected short stories Polkamotion Susan’s picks were: Shooting Blind Polly Chandler Mona Kuhn images and books. Damion’s pick was: www.plrds.com

Phew! We just made it online before January finally ran out of days, but we’re still averaging one show per month. Renowned LA-based photographer, Aline Smithson, joined regulars Ed and Susan for the first podcast of 2008. Susan and Aline were fresh back from the excitement of Photo LA and Review LA, so there’s a lot of talk about that. The discussion topic for this episode was, “What’s The Most Difficult Thing We Face As Photographers”, so we kicked that around a bit too. [N.B. Sorry that the sound quality is slightly worse than usual. Skype wasn’t on our side when we recorded the show] Aline’s pick is the new Photofile book, Man Ray (ISBN 0500410658). Her recommendation from Photo LA is Finnish photographer, Pentti Sammallahti. Link to the work here and here. Susan’s picks are Nine Francois and the 3 winners of the New Orleans Photo Alliance show, Toy Stories (photos below). Ed’s pick is Matt Stuart’s wonderful street photography Winning entries in The New Orleans Photo Alliance show, Toy Stories: Best In Show: Matthew Yates, ‘Sold Mah Soul’. More of Matt’s images @flickr Honorable mention: Warren Harold, ‘Boy Behind Fence’. Honorable mention: Rosana Salonia, ‘Little Man’. (Click on images for larger versions)

With Ed Wenn, Susan Burnstine, Damion Rice, Leon Taylor and Don Brice. We recorded this puppy according to the standard schedule (i.e. at the end of November), but then life conspired to prevent me from editing and uploading it until now. Aaargh! A million apologies to listeners and panellists alike for the inexcusable delay….I’m just glad I made it before Christmas and I hope that those of you who have a few days off over the next week or so will find some spare time to check out this latest episode. We changed the format a little for the third show and moved more into “discussion” territory. Listening back to it this morning I actually think it worked out pretty well although there are a few pauses because we’re occasionally having to actually think before we speak. Damion’s pick is Martin Parr by Val Williams; a retrospective of Martin Parr’s work up 2000. Susan’s pick’s were the documentary film, Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids – watch it on YouTube – and Photo LA. Don’s pick was Portfolio magazine from the UK. Ed’s pick was printing out paper (POP). Click here for a UK stockist. Leon’s pick was Leros by Alex Majoli and the Spirit of the Season exhibition at The Independent Photographers Gallery, Battle East Sussex. Don recommends the work of David Dare Parker and A Photo Editor blog.

Welcome to the second episode of monthly netcasts from the Filmwasters. Joining all 5 founder-wasters: Ed Wenn, Susan Burnstine , Damion Rice, Skorj and Leon Taylor are Ailsa McWhinnie and Don Brice. Ailsa is a freelance photographer and writer who always has something interesting to say; we were happy to welcome her back for another appearence on the FW netcast. Don is a long-time ‘net buddy’ of ours ever since we met up with him over on toycamera.com. He’s one of the foremost TC photographers around, in addition to being an all-round inspiration and we’re thrilled to have him contribute to what we hope won’t be his last FW netcast. In additon there’s some news about Filmwasters merch, info on what everyone’s been up to since last time and a pick or two from the gang of what’s caught their eye recently. Having seven people on the Skype call was always going to be a bit ambitious and it’s fair to say we were plagued by technical difficulties as a result. Susan and Don didn’t have enough equipment for two people to share her laptop so they used the in-built mic and speakers. A gold star to Skorj for getting up at 5AM with a nasty temperature just to make to show. The badger reference was part of an ongoing back story started by Ailsa and finished by Damion. It was funny as hell, but it got left on the cutting room floor; buy us a drink and we’ll tell you all about it. Show Notes: Leon’s picks are From Seeing to Showing (Creative Photography Workshop) and John Blakemore’s Black and White Photography Workshop. Ed’s pick is Century: One Hundred Years of Human Progress, Regression, Suffering and Hope 1899-1999. Susan’s pick is the movie War Photographer featuring James Nachtwey. Damion’s pick is Comfort Zones by Jim Green. Skorj’s pick is Magnetic Fields by Toshiro Oshima. Ailsa’s pick is Taryn Simon: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar. Don’s pick is The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer. Here’s the website of the toycamera competition that Susan’s judging. Links for the ToLNe and Golden Half (and Golden Half results and here) cameras that Skorj discussed. Damion’s one-off t-shirt design is based on this album sleeve. Here’s the tasty Filmwasters.com merch design (courtesy of Sean Rohde and Skorj). As discussed, you can log onto your fave Print on Demand (PoD) provider (CafePress, Printfection, Zazzle, Spreadshirt, etc), upload this design, and have it applied to anything of your choice. Fun for you, and no profit for the Filmwasters, just those pesky PoD people… Click on the thumbnail to view or download the high res version:

Welcome to the first – slightly self-conscious – episode in what we hope will be a long-running series of monthly netcasts/podcasts from the Filmwasters. Joining founder-wasters Ed Wenn, Susan Burnstine and Leon Taylor for Episode 1 is Ailsa McWhinnie. Ailsa was founding editor of the highly respected mass circulation magazine, Black & White Photography, but recently resigned her post there to strike out on a freelance career. We invited her along to see what she’s been getting up to since hanging up her editor’s whip and to find out at first hand just how hard it is to face up to life without a steady flow of free photography books. In addition to that there’s a discussion about why we wanted to do a Filmwasters netcast in the first place, some info from everyone else on what they’re up to at the moment as well as a pick or two from the gang of work that’s caught their eye recently. Show Notes: Leon’s pick is Easter Island by Michael Kenna. Ed’s pick is The Victor Weeps by Fazal Sheikh. Susan’s pick is James Fee: 1993-2000 by James Fee & the Josef Koudelka anthology. Ailsa’s pick is Henry Wessel by Henry Wessel. The 2 websites for the Harrachov Exchange are here and here. The Simon Norfolk lecture that blew Ed away is linked to here. For non-Americans here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry for Hollywood Squares. Leon explained that he’d recently returned from a trip. Here’s what he got up to. Photos by Ailsa taken at the Harrachov Exchange. Click on each one to see a larger version: