One of the hardest things about being an artist — beyond the actual making of the art — is deciding how to value the work we make. For many of us — and I’m putting myself squarely in the middle on this — the art I make is very personal, even though visually it may not seem like it. And, if I’m being honest, it’s not just the art, but the design, the podcasts, the books, basically anything that I’m applying any sort of purposeful effort into is personal. And isn’t that the way it should be? I know this might be a corny reference but saying that just now reminded me of a movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan called You’ve Got Mail. Meg plays Kathleen, the owner of this little book shop in New York and Tom plays Joe, the owner of a big box book chain that ends up forcing Kathleen to close her shop, which coincidentally belonged to her mother. Anyway, at one point in the movie Joe apologizes to Kathleen for driving her out of business, saying that it was nothing personal. Kathleen, says something like “What is that supposed to mean? All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway? Whatever else anything is, it oughta begin by being personal.” And that’s pretty much how I feel about the things that I make. The things I make are personal, they’re not just products. And all of this is part of a recent conversation with Jon Wilkening that began with a deceptively simple question.

 

CONNECT

You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @jefferysaddoris. Or you can email me at [email protected]. You can find Jon on Twitter and Instagram @jonwilkening or on his website at jonwilkening.com.

Music in this episode:

Reconciled by Sean Williams

Faster featuring Helios Armor by Skygaze

All of the music featured in this episode is licensed from Artlist, which is a terrific music licensing platform for YouTubers and filmmakers. Use the following link to get two additional months of Artlist free when you sign up: https://bit.ly/JS_Artlist

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Like many of you, I could not be happier to finally be rid of the raging dumpster fire that was 2020. I know the next year will be anything but easy, but I am cautiously optimistic that 2021 will be filled with new possibilities and chances to do things a little differently than last year. I started doing yoga about a month ago and Adrianne reminded me that there’s a concept in yoga about setting an intention at the beginning of a practice and while I’m not a fan of resolutions per se, I wanted to share a few things…

If you were an On Taking Pictures listener, you know how all over the place some of the conversations with Bill Wadman and me tended to get and this one is no exception. We talk a little about gear, a little about process and a little about whatever tangent we happen to feel like following. In other words, just a normal chat between friends who have literally hundreds of hours of recorded conversations behind them.

SHOW NOTES

Sound Devices MixPre - https://www.sounddevices.com/mixpre/

RØDECaster Pro - https://www.rode.com/rodecasterpro/

Apple Big Sur - https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur/

Gary Yost - http://www.garyyost.com

Oculus - https://www.oculus.com/

CONNECT

Connect with Bill: Website | Instagram | Twitter

Connect with me on Instagram and Twitter @jefferysaddoris or on my website at jefferysaddoris.com. If you’ve got questions or feedback, email me at [email protected].

Music in this episode:

Five to One by Steve Poloni

All of the music featured in this episode is licensed from Artlist.io, which is a terrific music licensing platform for YouTubers and filmmakers. Use the following link to get two additional months of Artlist.io free when you sign up: https://bit.ly/JS_Artlist

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Affiliate Link Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links for which I earn a small commission if you make a purchase (at no additional cost to you). If I’m including an affiliate link, it’s for something I actually believe in.

I was talking to Sean Tucker the other day and I don’t remember what prompted it, but he asked me whether I’d seen some of the recent work our friend Maarten Rots was sharing on Instagram. I told him that I had and that it was terrific. “But do you know how he’s doing it?” Sean gave me a brief description of what was going on in the pictures and after going back and looking at Maarten’s feed again, I realized because his work flows together so beautifully, the “how” of the more recent pictures didn’t raise any sort of…

There are only a handful of photographers whose work is instantly recognizable and fewer still who have become a genre unto themselves. I was first introduced to the pictures of Gregory Crewdson through a body of work called Beneath the Roses. I felt instantly connected to that world he so meticulously crafted and I’ve been a huge admirer of his work ever since.

In 2016, I had the opportunity to sit down with Gregory for a conversation about his body of work called Cathedral of the Pines. It was a terrific experience for me, not just because Gregory is one of my favorite photographers, but because it provided a glimpse behind the curtain to a photographic world that I find both moving and familiar. In 2018, Gregory began making photographs for his newest body of work. An Eclipse of Moths continues his exploration of themes like brokenness and isolation as well as a profound connection to light and the encroachment of the natural world. To some that world may seem bleak, especially on first glance — but a deeper look will reveal a narrative that is hopeful and rich with possibility.

As we sat down to talk about An Eclipse of Moths, I began by asking him about the geography he revisits again and again and whether his pictures could be made anywhere else or is the place he now calls home a necessary part of his expression as an artist.

 

SHOW NOTES

An Eclipse of Moths (with music by Jeff Tweedy) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYhGYZCc_hk

An Eclipse of Moths (Aperture book) - https://aperture.org/books/gregory-crewdson-an-eclipse-of-moths/

Process Driven 05: Gregory Crewdson - https://jefferysaddoris.com/everything/processdriven-05/

CNN Arts Feature - https://www.cnn.com/style/article/gregory-crewdson-photography-eclipse-of-moths/index.html

IMAGE DETAILS

GREGORY CREWDSON

Funerary Back Lot, 2018 - 2019

Digital Pigment Print

56 1/4 x 94 7/8 inches / 142.9 x 241 cm (unframed)

Edition of 4, with 2 APs

© Gregory Crewdson. Courtesy Gagosian

CONNECT WITH GREGORY:

Website: https://gagosian.com/artists/gregory-crewdson/

Instagram: @crewdsonstudio

Twitter: @crewdsonstudio

 

Music in this episode:

Please Listen Carefully by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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A few months ago I was out on a morning walk with Adrianne and got a call from a familiar voice. Since then we’ve spoken a few times and thought why not roll tape on one and see where it goes. Today seemed as good a day as any to do just that. Here’s a brand new conversation between me and Bill Wadman.

SHOW NOTES

Beetlejuice - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094721/

Schitt's Creek - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3526078/

Ted Lasso - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/

Films to be Buried With - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/films-to-be-buried-with-with-brett-goldstein/id1408585620

Hackers - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/

A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen - https://amzn.to/2GpqCK2

Depeche Mode by Anton Corbijn - https://bit.ly/3kVmnop

Obey Giant - https://obeygiant.com/

Rocky 4 Training Montage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_9FyTiq3SA

Burt Young - https://burtyoungofficial.com/

CONNECT

Connect with Bill: Website | Instagram | Twitter

Connect with me on Instagram and Twitter @jefferysaddoris or on my website at jefferysaddoris.com. If you’ve got questions or feedback, email me at [email protected].

 

Music in this episode:

Five to One by Steve Poloni

All of the music featured in this episode is licensed from Artlist.io, which is a terrific music licensing platform for YouTubers and filmmakers. Use the following link to get two additional months of Artlist.io free when you sign up: https://bit.ly/JS_Artlist

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If you’re listening to this show, or any of my shows really, chances are you are a maker of some sort. And if you are, I bet on at least a few occasions over the past several months, you’ve had one of those days. The days where at best it’s hard to stay focused on the making and at worst you’re asking yourself why the fuck you should even get out of bed. And you know what? Either way, it’s okay. I know that when I’m in that place it’s really hard to hear it let alone believe it, but I’m gonna say it again, so listen closely. It’s okay. It’s okay that you haven’t created your magnum opus in the midst of a global pandemic. It’s okay that the myriad of natural and man-made dumpster fires burning around the world are pulling your focus and attention away from taking pictures or making paintings or writing that novel. It’s okay.

CORRECTION: Rumours is the eleventh album by Fleetwood Mac, not the tenth as I stated in the episode.

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SHOW NOTES

On Taking Pictures 43: Artistic Monkhood - https://5by5.tv/otp/43

SADDORIS LIVE - https://youtube.com/jefferysaddoris

Process Driven 25: Ondřej Vachek - https://jefferysaddoris.com/everything/processdriven-25/

Fleetwood Mac: Rumors - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumours_(album)

Jackson Pollock - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock

Vivian Maier - http://www.vivianmaier.com/

If you enjoy listening to Process Driven, please consider leaving a review or a rating wherever you listen to help others discover the show.

Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

 

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I don’t remember how it came up but I was talking to Sean Tucker a while back and we ended up talking about different photographers that we had found recently and he asked me whether I’d seen the work of Maria Lax. Maria is a Finnish photographer based in London who had published a book called Some Kind of Heavenly Fire. Honestly the title alone was enough to pique my interest but what I found beyond it was a fantastic set of images that were inspired by a book her grandfather wrote documenting a series of encounters with UFOs by the locals of the small Finnish town where she grew up. I’ve always had a fascination with UFOs so I was interested straight away and the work beautifully straddles the line between reality and possibility. Maria takes a little X-Files, a bit of Twin Peaks, and maybe even a dash of Todd Hido and turns it into something uniquely her own—and that combination of style and vision is there in both her personal and her commercial work, which is no easy feat.

I’d like to thank Tom Booth Woodger at Setanta Books for not only arranging an introduction to Maria but also for providing me a copy of her wonderful book Some Kind of Heavenly Fire.

SHOW NOTES

Connect with Maria: Website | Instagram

Some Kind of Heavenly Fire

Setanta Books

 

Music in this episode: Please Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

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Buy a copy of my book: Photography by the Letter

I spend a lot of time thinking about materials and objects as they relate to art and art making and I spend a fair bit of time talking about it with Jon. In this conversation, we’re talking about some of our first memories of art and of objects that we somehow recognized as “special.” We also talk about the how the contrast between the refinement of Europe and the chaos of India in Jon’s childhood contributed to and maybe even directly informed the type of work he produces decades later. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google…

This is an experiment. Growing up, I can’t remember not having a radio in one form or another. The first one I remember was a big walnut console with a turn table and a television that we had in our house in either San Dimas or Azusa — that part’s a little fuzzy but it had to be the early 70s. I also remember a little Panasonic clock radio my mom had on her night stand — and this was probably when I was in third or fourth grade — and the main reason I remember it is because it had those little black and white flippy numbers. I got my first stereo in junior high — I don’t remember which year — but I do remember that the first record I ever got was Robin Williams Reality… What a Concept.

As I got older and started listening to the radio more often, I started to recognize the DJs in addition to the music. The first one I remember was probably Wolfman Jack because he was just such a character. Because we were in LA, there were a ton of DJs to listen to — Rick Dees on KIIS FM, Richard Blade and Rodney Bingenheimer on KROQ, Mark and Brian on KLOS, and of course The Dr. Demento Show, which think was on KMET. Howard Stern was in there too, but honestly I was never really a huge fan. I like him much better now, especially because he’s a really terrific interviewer. Oh, and there was also Joe Frank on KCRW but, honestly, we could spend hours on him, so I think I’ll save that one. Feel free to ask me about it if you’re curious.

To listen to all twelve installments of SADDORIS LIVE, visit my YouTube channel.

 

Music in this episode:

"Noite de Novembro" by Himalayha (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

"After the Border" by InSpectr (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

"Imagery Intelligence" by Metre (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

 

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Tell Your Friends & Share Episodes Online: You can even share a favorite show clip using the terrific Recast feature. I’ve made a video showing you how: Create Custom Audiograms with Recast by Simplecast - YouTube

Buy a copy of my book: Photography by the Letter