Who is Kristof RosenSeitz?
Steven Rose, Joanna Seitz and Kristof Wickman. We met while getting our Master’s degrees at Hunter College.
Tell us about what inspires you.
Fake fur, silver lamé, work boots, self-adhesive zippers and home-improvement stores.
Where did this image come from?
Snowglobes is an image generated during a performance installation at Lynch Tham last September. The piece, Interior Shampoo, was commissioned by the gallery as part of a retrospective of work by Guglielmo Achille Cavellini (1914 – 1990). For Interior Shampoo, Kristof and RoseNSeitz set into motion a virtual Rube Goldberg machine with the purpose of creating a beautiful pastoral still life. Performance components included: airbrush artist, dancers, fog, snow machine, ladder, photo back drop, lights, faux fur, wiggle board, fruits, lipstick, a lock of Cavellini’s hair, and pour-on latex rubber.
What are you working on next?
We are currently working on a pop-up, how-to manual on survival guides. And, we are looking for a venue to stage Interior Shampoo 2: Armor All.
www.dryfat.biz
www.stevenrosestudio.com
www.joannaseitz.com
www.kristofwickman.com
APRIL HUGHES AND MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH PRESENT
A SUSAN CIANCIOLO WORKSHOP
The Holiday Animal AND NATURE Workshop-STUFFED PILLOW AND EMBROIDERY
Saturday DECEMBER 14TH
1PM TO 4PM
$45 ADULTS
$25 KIDS
TEA AND CAKES SERVED
MATERIALS INCLUDED
TICKETS PURCHASED day of workshop or IN ADVANCE TO susan@susancianciolo.com PAYPAL
RSVP susancianciolostudio@gmail.com
Tell us about the inspiration for your piece.
I took this image while doing a solo drive through Nevada from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, Utah last winter. This image is from a town called Austin, Nevada, which is almost dead center in the middle of the state and located midway along the Lincoln Highway. Austin, Nevada was at one point a thriving gold mining town with a population of over 10,000. Today it is almost a ghost town with fewer than 200 inhabitants. In the winter it is a cold lonely, desolate place. The only other travelers I saw were a few weary truckers stopping through for the night.
During the past year, I’ve been exploring the many uses of plywood I find in the street and on the road. It started as a way to document the ever changing, always evolving, construction landscape of New York City. In the city, the sight of plywood usually means an old building or business is coming down and a new venture is going up. What started as an exploration of the landscape through plywood in the city spread to other parts of the country in my travels. I continue to shoot and look for plywood outside of the city, noticing that often it doesn’t symbolize a rebirth or sign of something new to come, but rather the decay of something neglected as it falls apart. Often times it is a band-aid for something that no longer exists as it originally did.
What’s been your most interesting shoot thus far & why?
This summer I spent 5 weeks shooting a documentary project in Guatemala with teens who lead extremely difficult impoverished lives under the constant threat of gang violence and gang recruitment. This project was particularly meaningful to me because I was able to raise awareness about the issues the youth of Guatemala are facing today on a global level and I made many friendships with a great group of kids. You can see some of my images from Guatemala here.
What are you working on next?
I’m headed down to Miami this week to shoot a story on illegal Brazilian butt lifts for Vice magazine. The story will be out this Spring.
www.benrosenzweig.com
Tell us about the inspiration for your piece.
Chamberlain, SD is an image from an ongoing series called Main Street. The project documents the many faces of the street that has become synonymous with an authentic American experience. From barren industrial stretches to gaudy suburban esplanades, Main Street offers a look at the American landscape. All images are photographed on actual Main Streets across the country.
I was drawn to this image initially because of the position of the truck in the open lot. Once I looked closer, I realized there were some great things happening with the color of the vehicles and houses. The melting mounds of snow mark the last signs of winter. The light from dusk added an almost vintage feel and the street looks as I imagined it may have looked 25 years ago.
What’s been your most interesting shoot thus far & why?
I like to spend days at a time on the road, driving and shooting. The trip that this image was made on took place in March of 2013. I drove from Seattle, WA to Chicago, IL over the course of 7 days. To travel America by car is one of my favorite things, and it’s during these trips that I am most inspired. The Seattle to Chicago leg is desolate at times and the late winter light has a way of quieting the landscape. I grew up in the Midwest and many of the towns on this route felt similar to home. It was a chance for me to explore new places while reflecting on where I come from.
What are you working on next?
I am continuing work on Main Street along with some smaller scale portrait projects. My next trip this winter will cover the Southwestern States. By its completion, Main Street will document all 50 States.
www.kevinbradyphotography.com
Tell us about the inspiration for your piece.
We are lucky to live in a world in which, we know nothing, think we know everything, and can still be constantly surprised by the beauty and creativity that nature can accomplish all on it’s own. Walking by myself in the cool winter air in upstate new york, what looks like a frosty bank next to a river can reveal hidden fairy kingdoms. and majestic palaces of ice. routinely in the winter I walk and search with camera in hand, looking for these hidden sculptures melded together by air, heat, condensation and water. I lay on my stomach and search through my lens, and these places are revealed to me. I call them dragon tears because I imagine if a dragon could cry, it’s tears would freeze and harden into shapes like this as they smattered on the ground. this temporary cavern of ice crystals and dragons tears, hidden under an ice bank, no more than 3 inches of the ground. lasted all of 1 or two days, but inspired me to capture it, in the moment, before it was gone forever.
What’s been your most interesting shoot thus far & why?
I spend most of my days on a computer, editing and animating for television commercials, any time I am graced with the chance to pick up my camera is the best time. every shoot the most interesting. To capture a moment in time, to trap a subjects existence in a quantum memory bubble, is what I live for.
What are you working on next?
I could tell you… but then I would tell everyone, and then never do it…
www.louiemetzner.com
The Snow Show opens this Friday night 6th Dec at Picture Farm. Details HERE
Tell us about the inspiration for your piece.
I shot this piece while on vacation with my boyfriend in Iowa, where I grew up. It was his first time visiting and as a result, we went out to explore, wandering into places I’d never been. The experience caused me to fall in love with my home state in a way I hadn’t before and Iset out to capture the simple pleasures and beauty of a heartland I’d previously always overlooked.
What’s been your most interesting shoot thus far & why?
The most interesting shoots for me are the ones that aren’t meant to be shoots. A gathering of friends, a beautiful location or a quiet walk generally leads me to my favorite work because there are no expectations and if I come away with anything at all, it’s a gift.
What are you working on next?
I am working on a mixed media piece called 100 Questions based on a deck of conversation cards produced by the School of Life in London. I anticipate the photos will involve people looking really uncomfortable due to awkward queries about how they go about loading their dishwasher.
www.alexisstember.com
Tell us about the inspiration for your piece.
Well, for the past few years, a friend of mine has been celebrating his birthday with an icy dip in the ocean out at Rockaway Beach. This year I was looking a lot at Bruce Davidson’s “Brooklyn Gang” photos around the time of the party, and they got me excited to try and capture the day on black and white film. Also, theres always this great nervous energy before you jump in the water. I really wanted to see that in the pictures.
What’s been your most interesting shoot thus far & why?
Definitely last year at a Lucha Libre match in Mexico City. First off, I had to sneak my Nikkormat in in my waistband (not exactly a bank heist but still exciting). What was so fun about it was shooting in the available light of the stadium. There was the bright light from the ring bleeding into the crowd, a dim glow coming off the neon signs encircling the stadium, the string lights on the vendor carts, the bare bulb in the men’s room (I decided not to shoot in the men’s room). All of it created this dark, moody environment that looked great in black and white. Anyway it’s really fun to shoot like that, it’s dark and you can’t see much and you’re just hoping it comes out half way decent, then you get a few keepers… That was a great night.
What are you working on next?
I was thinking about this during Thanksgiving actually. My parents moved to South Carolina not long ago, to an area that used to be called “The Dark Corner” in the days of prohibition. It’s a pretty infamous area down there, with some pretty interesting people. It’s also just some damn beautiful country. Maybe something down there.
www.patrickfrancisdougherty.com
www.familybandnyc.com
Tell us about the inspiration for your piece.
“Jungfrau Region” the Photograph, is a near facsimile of a topographic map of the Jungfrau Region located in the Bernese Oberlan in Switzerland. At first glance the Photograph is simply “retinal art”, as Duchamp would call it. The printed topographic textures, paired with the folds and bends of the physical map creates a pleasing, naturally random, and snowy soft texture that the eye can easily move across. A real nice picture, could go on a wall, nobody will find it too risky or offensive, just some tame black and white imagery, sure.
But what gives me the right to photograph a map and re-sell it as my own? I did not draw this map, nor did I print it. The map by itself is already a serious feat of the artistic and technical. Real science and research went into this map! For all intents and purposes I could have just used a flatbed scanner to reproduce this map, or better yet just frame the original map! Its equally impressive in color.
What about my photography makes this map different enough to call it my own? Sure, I took this photo near peak of the Jungfrau Mountain, but you as the viewer don’t know that, and even if I did, who cares? I didn’t take it with a weird artsy angle or as part of larger still life that I arranged thoughtfully with other related goods. This is simply a digital facsimile of a map, I just used a camera instead of a scanner. Sure I added some grain, converted it to black and white, even put in a fake light leak: all in an attempt to make it stylized and vintage to be more than just a scan of a cool map, to make it “mine”.
In doing that have I become an artist? Was that an artistic thing to do? Did I just plagiarize a product of the Swiss government? Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I know I’m not posing any new questions, perhaps I’m covering old ground as this is not too different than putting a toilet in a gallery, signing it and calling it art. The Dada movement started in Zurich, thats swiss. Maybe I could play the meta card: swiss map taken in Switzerland raising questions about what is art? I don’t have an MFA and got a D- in art history. Am I really that serious of a guy to even attach that kind of a discussion to my work?
I don’t have any answers to the questions I asked, nor did I intend to ask them at the time of taking the photo. I thought it looked cool, which is what motivates me to take most of my pictures. I get so easily wrapped up in my day to day technical grind as a commercial photographer worrying about skin tones, fill lights, lip color, retouching notes, etc, that I haven’t divulged past the technical side of my work in a long time: perhaps never. When I initially shot this photo I instantly liked it because of all the shapes and tones, and pretty textures, when I was given the opportunity to properly print and show it in a gallery setting, it made me really second guess myself and what I was doing, and that doubt has since pushed me forward. I have thoroughly enjoyed the internal discussion “Jungfrau Region”, the Photograph, has opened in my mind. It is not the deepest of thoughts but deeper than normally get about my photography.
What’s been your most interesting shoot thus far & why?
Kind of a loaded question! I have met some interesting celebrities when I used to assist, some of them were interesting. But even the biggest baddest celebs are still just normal people. I was responsible for a total on set disaster once: . I knocked over a v-flat at Philip Lim’s studio, it hit a huge glass vase that was full of really nice flowers (and water) on top of a REALLY nice table made out of mirrors and other expensive and fragile materials. Kanye was there, he just shook his head and looked down, almost to say “man that sucks” Alexa Chung was there too, she was cute, she didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Philip Lim seemed worried about the table, I was terrified. James Murphy was drinking champaign in the corner and gave me an empathic look. If you google “Ben Baker Alexa Chung Phillip Lim” you will see Kanye’s look of badass disappointment in my clumsiness, he is literally sitting there watching hole disaster strike moments after the image was taken. Was embarrassing to say the least.
So that was my most interesting story when was assisting. My most interesting shoot of my own has to be some the the Tests I have been shooting lately! I have found some really talented stylists and make up artist and Hair people and we get weird!!!! I have been hand dyeing backdrops (some hippy shit I know), really messing around with using set tools as props, making all the girls I shoot look like tom boys. Trying to broaden my scope of possibilities while narrowing in on my own voice.
I shoot a lot of super technical photography for look books, e-comm, and even still-life, its very regimented and precise, I like that a lot (a lot a lot). I’m really becoming totally confident in technical stuff, just comes second nature now, What I’m saying is that I’m going to get strange with my work this coming year!
I went to an air show in texas once, they had some crazy explosions and top quality people watching. There were huge explosions, I got a turkey leg.: http://www.firstnameryanlastnameslack.com/vietcong-at-temple-tx-airshow/
What are you working on next?
I’m working with the a local motorcycle club, DKMC, do do some wheelie photography! The way we are going to shoot it is secret, and has never been done before, so there is no reason why the photos won’t be mind bogglingly rad! I’m also working on selling my moped to get a dirt bike, so I can do wheelies with my motorcycle club buddies.
But I think the answer you really want is the next job I’m working on, which is some e-commerce work for a new women’s line, should be some babes. Life is good y’all.
www.rslack.com
www.firstnameryanlastnameslack.com
www.chillsnaps.com
Tell us about the inspiration for your piece.
I was on assignment to photograph a 150 mile ultramarathon in Antarctica. The shoot was exhausting and at one point I left the running course for a siesta at the end of the world. I woke up to find two Antarctic skuas performing an intimate dance a a few feet from my resting spot as though I wasn’t even there. Ever present penguins line the ridge in the background.
What’s been your most interesting shoot thus far & why?
Impossible to choose one, but shooting Ray Charles for two days is hard to beat. His joyful spirit was contagious and I will never forget standing next to him as he tinkered with the piano keys and tested lyrics.
What are you working on next?
Shooting an adventure race in Madagascar and publishing a book about ultra marathons.
www.zandymangoldnyc.com
To end the year, we’ve put together a collection of some of our favorite photographer friends to show us the beauty of surviving winter.
Featuring the fine, frigid works of Winona Barton Ballentine, Ports Bishop, Kevin Brady, Amanda Bruns, Tertius Bune, Cam Camarena, Patrick Dougherty, Harry Dutton, Nils Ericson, Vanessa Griggs, Zandy Mangold, Sasha Maslov, Jonathan Mehring, Louie Guy Metzner, Dominic Neitz, Melissa Nusbaum, Kristof RosenSeitz, Ben Rosenzweig, David Rosenzweig, Anna Schori, Ryan Slack, Alexis Stember, Pete Thompson, Adelaide Utman, Heather Waraska & Eric T. White.
