Every now and again there are conversations that flow and sparkle; they seem laden with professional insights and creative gems. Our chat with photographer Mona Kuhn is one, and perhaps it’s Kuhn’s self-awareness, her quiet confidence, and an ability to articulate her motivations that make it so. There are few who will disagree that her visual stories, her portraits, nudes, landscapes, and photo essays are among the most assured in contemporary photography, and on this episode of the B&H; Photography Podcast we just revel in her good humor and willingness to share process. We speak a good deal about Kuhn’s new book Mona Kuhn: Works and how it distills twenty years of an evolving career without ever seeming like a “retrospective.”  We discuss editing strategies for this and previous books, how she created her intimate series, and why the sustained connections and relationships with her subjects are to Kuhn the most successful results of her extremely well-regarded work. As mentioned, she is very generous with her thoughts on photography, on how she used photo techniques to avoid the “gratuitous presence of the nude” and that the human figures she photographs are used to communicate “beyond just what you see.” She also references the work of Michael Disfarmer, how the square Hasselblad format forced her to be creative when photographing the “rectangular” human body. In the second half of the program, we cover aspects of her commissioned work and the satisfaction of being spontaneous in editorial work and of exercising the “problem-solving side of your brain” in the commercial sphere. We also discuss the differences between stories told in a book compared to a gallery, how she is comfortable on a monitor using Lightroom, but her book edits need to be printed and arranged physically to cull and order into “visual sentences.” Finally, Kuhn offers a very nuanced thought on the meaning of her personal images, encouraging “a dialogue of meanings” and noting that sometimes "quiet images last longer.” Join us for this delightful chat and have a look at Kuhn’s other new book, Study from TBW Books. Guest: Mona Kuhn Photograph © Mona Kuhn

Beautiful Exemptions - The Work of Mona Kuhn

Join us each week for a conversation with insightful and entertaining guests. From gear and technique to history, science and art, we discuss the topics most important to the contemporary photographer.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

  The dictionary defines culture as “the way of life for an entire society.” But sometimes larger forces create rifts  within the whole, inevitably leading to a confrontation between factions. A prime example of this cultural struggle is playing out today within the cities and villages of Ukraine, the focus of today’s episode.  Above photograph © Maxim Dondyuk   In this sixth installment of our monthly series, Picturing World Cultures, we speak with  Ukrainian photographer and visual artist Maxim Dondyuk, and his wife and artistic manager, Irina.   Our conversation stretches beyond the current conflict, to encompass other aspects of Ukrainian society. From Maxim’s early series on a country doctor’s final visits with patients (which drew inspiration from the work of W. Eugene Smith) to his in-depth coverage of Ukraine’s TB epidemic, we witness the evolution of his working methods and his dedication to long term documentary projects.   Step behind the scenes of a military camp for children run by Cossacks, and gain insight into the cultural split between pro-Russian and pro-European factions, which Maxim photographed for his book Culture of Confrontation.   As he writes in this book, “One culture tried to cling to old times, old ways of living. They were nostalgic for a past that meant a lot to them, to their parents, and grandparents. Yet there was another culture that felt completely differently. They looked ahead to forging something new, a different country.”   Join us for this frank discussion about how such conflicting forces take visual form in Maxim’s powerfully arresting images.  If you haven’t already listened, check out all the episodes of our Picturing World Cultures podcast series here.  Guests: Maxim & Irina Dondyuk Stay Connected: Maxim Dondyuk Website: https://maximdondyuk.com/ Maxim Dondyuk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maximdondyuk/  Maxim Dondyuk  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/maximdondyuk  Maxim Dondyuk  Twitter:  https://www.twitter.com/maximdondyuk Maxim Dondyuk Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_Dondyuk  Maxim Dondyuk‘s W. Eugene Smith Grant:  https://www.smithfund.org/2022-maxim-dondyuk

Picturing World Cultures: Maxim Dondyuk - Ukraine

 For anyone familiar with the photo industry, the mammoth lawsuit between The Andy Warhol Foundation and renowned music photographer Lynn Goldsmith should be no secret. This complex battle over the rights to her 1981 portrait of the artist formerly known as Prince lasted seven years and went all the way to the Supreme Court.     But do you know the circumstances behind her original portrait session with the famously reserved musician, and were you aware of all the misinformation about this case that was disseminated in both legal documents and the press?     Lynn is a longtime friend of the show, and  our 2017 episode about her extensive, long-term work with the band Kiss,  among other crazy stories, was a fan favorite. We invited her back  to discuss this case  in 2022, when the Supreme Court first agreed to hear  it, but heeding the advice of her legal counsel she wisely declined our offer at that time.      In May 2023, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in Lynn’s favor in a 7-2 decision, which has already been shown to benefit others seeking remedies for the misuse of their creative works.     Yet, while this landmark decision happened last year, the case itself was not officially resolved until very recently—Friday, March 15, 2024, to be exact—a day some might recognize as the Ides of March.     Now that the final resolution has been signed, sealed,  and delivered, we  felt it was a perfect opportunity for Lynn to give us  a recap of this  David vs Goliath  battle, with all its complexities  and underlying bias.   From details about the Fair Use doctrine, to the matter of copyright registration, to her thoughts about the current photographer community, to the importance of standing up for one’s rights, Lynn provides a clear and insightful assessment of one of the most traumatic and threatening experiences that any independent artist can face, as only she can.     To  her  very  core, Lynn believes creativity can make anything possible, an ideology  she sums up aptly at the end of our chat.     “I felt like some higher power picked me for this,” she says. “And that I had to make myself feel like a 1940s film with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, where there was going to be a happy ending, that everything would work out just fine, and that I was going to prevail.”    Guest: Lynn Goldsmith  Top shot © Lynn Goldsmith    Episode Timeline: 2:50: The backstory to Lynn Goldsmith’s 1981 photo session with Prince. 7:17: Shooting both color and black-and-white in the days of film, a separate camera for each option. 11:15: Vanity Fair’s 1984 use of Lynn’s black and white portrait for artist reference.   13:47: Lynn’s discovery of the original image use after Prince died in 2016.  19:50: The value of saving detailed records of licensing agreements for future reference. 23:14: The preemptive lawsuit the Andy Warhol Foundation filed against Lynn, and the misinformation contained in the Federal court filing. 32:15: Lynn discusses the Fair Use doctrine and the matter of copyright registration in relation to her case. 36:43: Episode Break 38:04: Meeting with the Andy Warhol Foundation and the deal on offer to resolve the lawsuit. 44:40: Lynn’s thoughts about the current photographer community and the importance of standing up for your rights. 48:09: The multiple rounds of the Prince portrait lawsuit, from the first Federal case to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court. 56:29: Uneven reporting about the lawsuit in the press, with the photo press being fearful to write anything, and the art press releasing misinformation without fact checks. 1:00:27: Behind the scenes at the Supreme Court hearing, the effects of the 7 – 2 decision, as well as Justice Kagan’s written opinion. 1:08:48: Lynn’s thoughts about generative AI.  Guest Bio: Lynn Goldsmith is a multi-awarded portrait photographer whose work has appeared on and in between the covers of top magazines worldwide. Her subjects have varied from entertainment to sports, film directors to authors, and from top celebrities to the ordinary man on the street. Her forty years of photography are both an investigation into the nature of the human spirit, as well as the natural wonders of our planet. As the author of 12 major photo books, Lynn’s images are also featured in numerous museum collections, yet her professional achievements are in no way limited to the world of photography. She is the youngest member ever accepted into the Director's Guild of America (DGA), where she achieved several firsts—from the first rock show on network television to the first music documentary released as a theatrical short, and more. In the mid-seventies, Lynn stopped directing to concentrate fully on photography.  By the early 80s, she departed from both photography and film, to become the first ‘optic-music’ artist. Using the a.k.a. Will Powers, she produced the album "Dancing for Mental Health" on Island Records. Her debut album won critical acclaim and her single, Kissing with Confidence, reached #3 on the British charts.  The wide range of Lynn's talents, skills and achievements are products of a belief she holds constant: Creativity is based on breaking limiting thought patterns, thus making anything possible.   Stay Connected:  Lynn Goldsmith’s Website: https://lynngoldsmith.com/menu.html  Rock and Roll Photo Gallery Website:  https://rockandrollphotogallery.com/  Lynn Goldsmith’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynngoldsmith/  Lynn Goldsmith’s Twitter:  https://twitter.com/goldsmithphoto  Lynn Goldsmith’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynngoldsmithartist/  Lynn Goldsmith’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lynn-goldsmith/  Lynn Goldsmith’s GoFundMe Campaign  Lynn Goldsmith’s Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Goldsmith Pelican 1510TP Carry-On Case: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1241003-REG/pelican_015100_0050_110_1510tp_carry_on_case_with.html

Lynn Goldsmith’s Prince Portrait and its Legacy in Case Law

  Professional tree planting is back breaking piecework—a combination of high intensity sport and industrial labor that requires both technical finesse and remarkable physical and mental endurance. Using techniques more often associated with high-performance athletes, experienced planters (commonly known as high-ballers) leap up and down through uneven and debris-strewn terrain, armed only with a shovel and 30-kg bags of seedlings on their backs. In recent years, tree planting has become a rite of passage among young Canadians not afraid of hard work and dirt under their fingernails.   As seasonal work, it attracts many students from Canada’s southern cities. Due to the brutal physical demands, most are under 30 years old. Out on the cut block inclement weather is common, and the swarms of biting insects are legendary. Working in—rather than on—the land for months on end, and sharing an isolated camp site creates a solid bond among planters. This has molded into a subculture of sorts, which is the subject of today’s show. My guest for this episode is Canadian photographer and filmmaker Rita Leistner. Rita documents communities living in extreme conditions, typically investing months or years in a project. After spending a decade as a tree planter during her youth, Rita returned to the forest in 2016 to document a new generation. In 2021, she released her results as an Art Trifecta, featuring large fine art photographs, a 256-page photo book, and the documentary feature film “Forest for the Trees.”  Equally in her element in forests and war zones, Rita’s photographs and her writings about photography, art, and war have been published, exhibited, and collected worldwide. She is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery for art, and by Green Planet Films for film.  Guest: Rita Leistner  Above photograph © Rita Leistner  For more information on our guests and the gear they use, see:  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/podcasts/photography/picturing-world-cultures-rita-leistner-canada  And if you haven’t already listened, check out all episodes from our Picturing World Cultures podcast series here.https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/promotion/picturing-world-cultures    Episode Timeline:   2:02: The backstory to Canadian tree planting as a business 5:21: Rita’s interest in photography and her early days as a tree planter. 12:43: Comparisons and contrasts between Rita’s early tree planting experiences and what she found when returning to the forest to document this subject. 18:21: A typical day in the life of a tree planter and the actual planting process 26:31: How Rita landed on her distinctive photographic style of capturing fast moving planters with a PhaseOne camera and Profoto lighting. 32:40: Rita talks about how the young planters responded to her sudden presence in the camp.  36:17: Rita’s lighting set up with Profoto B1 lights and coordinating with an assistant to carry all the gear.  41:56: Episode Break 43:10: Rita talks about power consumption, batteries, generators, workflow, and more when working in remote locations.   45:03: Inclement weather, dirt, and bugs when shooting both stills and video footage out in the wilderness. 48:41: The lighting details behind Rita’s enchanted forest nighttime images and timelapse footage. 53:38: How the work of tree planters is perceived by both the logging industry and environmentalists, and the effects this has on the planters themselves. 1:03:47: How Rita’s Tree Planter project has affected her sense of Canadian identity.  1:06:04: Rita Leistner answers our PWC Visual Questionnaire. Guest Bio: Rita Leistner  is a Canadian photographer and filmmaker who creates portraits of communities living in extreme conditions, typically investing months or years in a project. After spending a decade of her formative years as a tree planter in the Canadian wilderness, she returned to this theme to document a new generation of planters from 2016 to 2019. In 2021, she released the project as an Art Trifecta, featuring fine art photographs, a 256-page monograph, and the 91-minute documentary film Forest for the Trees.  Additionally, Rita has been captured by insurgents, assaulted, and shot at, and she has run into gunfire to get a photograph. She has published four books of photography including Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq (2005), widely considered one of the most influential anti-war books to come out of the Iraq conflict. Rita’s photographs and her writings about photography, art, and war have been published and exhibited worldwide, and are in major corporate and museum collections. From 2010 to 2016 she served as Associate Professor in the History of Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the University of Toronto. She is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery for art, and by Green Planet Films for film.   Stay Connected:  Rita Leistner Website:  http://ritaleistner.com/  Forest for the Trees Website:  https://www.forestforthetreesdocumentary.com/ Rita Leistner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritaleistner/  Rita Leistner Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ritaleistner/  Stephen Bulger Gallery Website:  https://www.bulgergallery.com/artists/45-rita-leistner/overview/  Green Planet Films Website:  https://greenplanetfilms.org/products/forest-for-the-trees?_pos=1&_sid=90a01a45d&_ss=r  Canadian photographer Lorraine Gilbert:  https://www.lorrainegilbert.com/

Picturing World Cultures: Rita Leistner - Canada

  Cozy up to a ringside seat for a behind-the-scenes tour of the wildest shows in sports entertainment, during our insightful chat about the still photos produced for World Wrestling Entertainment, (otherwise known as WWE).  In 2023 alone, the WWE photo team traveled the globe, covering close to 170 live events, and producing 2.6 million stills to serve the organization’s various platforms.   You might—incorrectly—assume that WWE’s still images are generated from video screengrabs. Well, this couldn’t be further from the truth.    In this week’s podcast, we get the full scoop about stills from WWE’s Vice President of photography, Brad Smith, and Senior Director of photography, Rich Freeda.  Among the many details we unpack: The learning curve required for shooting a WWE event, the importance of showing all aspects of the spectacle in pictures, and the delicate dance between still photographers and TV camerapeople, who are tethered together and both wearing headphones while capturing a show.  In addition to live event coverage, the photo team creates high-level studio portraits of WWE Superstars, which necessitates complex studio set ups at each venue. Given the relentless schedule of three live shows weekly, two of which are traveling, studio gear is circling the country all year long. As Rich Freeda puts it, “We could be a Consumer Reports testing lab.”  And when it comes to the type of photographers best suited to covering WWE shows, Brad Smith sums things up nicely. “[At first,] I instinctively thought, if we’re going to hire new people, they have to be sports photographers. And now I don’t think that at all. I’ll tell you who I’d rather have. I’d rather have a photographer who’s a tour photographer for Bon Jovi than somebody who’s the Yankee’s photographer, because they understand that event is the important thing.”  Psych yourself up for  WrestleMania 40  with our WWE episode from the  B&H; Photography Podcast!  Guests: Brad Smith and Rich Freeda   Above photograph  © Rich Freeda/WWE  For more information on our guests and the gear they use, see:   https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/podcasts/photography/still-photography-the-wwe-with-brad-smith-rich-freeda Stay Connected:  WWE Still Photography Page: https://www.wwe.com/photos  Brad Smith Website:  https://www.bradsmithcreative.com/  Brad Smith on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradpix/  Brad Smith on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Brad-Smith-Creative/  Brad Smith on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/nybradsmith  Rich Freeda Website: https://www.richardfreeda.com/collections  Rich Freeda on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richfreedaphoto/  Rich Freeda on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/richfreedaphoto  Rich Freeda WWE Profile: https://www.wwe.com/videos/the-photography-of-wrestlemania-with-rich-freeda-making-wwe

Still Photography & the WWE, with Brad Smith & Rich Freeda

Where will you be on April 8, 2024? If you don’t already know, you’d better figure it out fast, particularly if you’ve got an interest in observing—and ideally photographing—the awe-inspiring phenomenon of a total solar eclipse.   To get you up to speed on essential eclipse details, tune in to our chat with science writer Rebecca Boyle and Gabriel Biderman from B&H;’s Road Marketing team. Boyle shares tidbits about Earth’s silvery sister gleaned from research for her book Our Moon, while Gabe discusses preparations (and practice!) for your eclipse photo session, plus strategies for juggling multiple set-ups.   To celebrate the total eclipse back in 2017, B&H; teamed up with Atlas Obscura for a two-day festival in Eastern Oregon’s Snake River Valley. This year, the party’s expanding from two to four days! We end the episode with details about the 2024 Ecliptic Festival, held alongside the Valley of Vapors music festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas, smack in the Eclipse’s umbra.   Immerse yourself in this rare astronomical occurrence while rubbing shoulders with celebrated scientists, legendary musicians, artists and photographers galore, plus benefit from dedicated space—and tools—for star gazing and tracking the path to totality and back. The sky’s the limit!   Guests: Rebecca Boyle & Gabriel Biderman Top shot © Gabriel Biderman   For more information on our guests and the gear they use, see: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/podcasts/photography/ecliptic-visions-with-rebecca-boyle-gabriel-biderman-atlas-obscura-bh    Stay Connected: Atlas Obscura Ecliptic Festival: https://ecliptic.atlasobscura.com/ Atlas Obscura Website: https://www.atlasobscura.com/ Rebecca Boyle Website: https://rebeccaboyle.com/ Rebecca Boyle Our Moon book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611468/our-moon-by-rebecca-boyle/  Rebecca Boyle’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/by.rebecca.boyle/ Rebecca Boyle’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/rboyle31 Rebecca Boyle’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rboyle31/ Gabriel Biderman’s Website: https://www.ruinism.com/ National Parks at Night Website: https://www.nationalparksatnight.com/ National Parks at Night’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationalparksatnight/ National Parks at Night’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/natlpksatnight National Parks at Night’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationalparksatnight National Parks at Night’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NationalParksatNight

Beautiful Exemptions - The Work of Mona Kuhn

Download our free app to listen on your phone