Jeffery Saddoris

I woke up the other morning thinking about The Beatles, specifically the dramatic changes their work went through over the course of their career. From what I know of them, they began doing covers of other people’s material – mostly early American rock ‘n’ roll from artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley. Learning the songs of their heroes allowed them to use that material as starting points for their own songs. The early Beatles songs were — at least to me — straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll that became the blueprint for the pop songs of the day. They were simple but catchy, and they were packaged in a way that nobody had ever seen or heard before. As they became better and better musicians, they branched out into more complex arrangements — their songs became more “experimental“ for lack of a better word. Somewhere around Revolver, things started to get really interesting.

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I’m loving the Martin Scorsese Masterclass. I don’t know how long it will last but Masterclass is running a buy one get one special at the moment. So, you can get an all access pass for yourself and one for a friend or family member. I don’t have any sort of affiliation with Masterclass, I just have really been enjoying some of the classes they have available.

Also, a listener sent me a video by a photographer named Jamie Windsor who raises some interesting points around the ethics of street photography. The hinge pin of his argument against street photography centers around whether or not you can accurately represent a culture that you are not a part of. It’s an interesting question and honestly something I need a bit more time with. It may even be worth reaching out to Jamie for a conversation.

And lastly, if you like astronauts and pop culture, you’re going to love the work of painter Scott Listfield. Not only does he have terrific technique, there’s a great sense of both irony and humor to his work.

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

There’s a scene in the new remake of A Star is Born that’s been rattling around in my head since I saw the film. It’s the scene where Bradley Cooper’s character Jackson is talking to Lady Gaga’s character Ally about self-expression and finding her voice. Jackson says, “Look, talent comes everywhere, but having something to say and a way to say it so that people listen to it, that’s a whole other bag. And unless you get out there and you try to do it, you’ll never know. That’s just the truth. And if there’s one reason that we’re supposed to be here it’s to say something so that people want to hear it. So you gotta grab it. And you don’t apologize or worry about why they’re listening or how long they’re gonna be listening for. You just tell them what you want to say.”

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8 Artists on Painting is a terrific video which features interviews with artists including Michael Simpson, Cecily Brown, and David Hockney talking about painting and making art, whatever that means.

Painter David Salle talks about joining abstraction and figuration and language and not really knowing where a painting will end up when he begins.

Photographer Troy Colby explores the idea of what a father should be in his long term photo essay, The Fragility of Fatherhood

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

When I was a kid, there was a big department store chain called The May Company. It was sort of like a Macy’s and the one nearest our house was at an outdoor mall called the Eastland Center. In the lower level of The May Company, they had an art supply section and whenever I would go there with my mom, she would let me stay there in the art supply section while she went shopping. I still remember the smells of pencils and the oil paints and to this day, the smell of art supplies takes me right back there. They even had little pads of scratch paper so you could try out the different things. So I did. I was in heaven and I would just plop down in the middle of one of the aisles and doodle away until my mom came to get me. Sometimes, she would let me get one of the fancy drawing pencils without an eraser on the end so that I could continue my budding masterpieces at home.

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I read a story on TechCrunch about protections for freelancers in what they call the gig economy. Did you know that last year more than 1 out of 3 people worked as freelancers? That’s nearly 60 million people, and the numbers are growing. It’s a fascinating read.

LA-based photographer Elizabeth Weinberg recently did an AMA with booooooom.com readers and she talks about some of the strategies that worked for her when she was just starting her business. While it’s primarily focused on photography, I think a lot of it applies to illustrators, writers, really anyone trying to establish or grow your business as a freelancer.

Artpil and Maison have released their 30 Under 30 Women Photographers list and there is some stunning work on it and definitely a few I would like to reach out to as potential guests on Process Driven.

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

Kevin Mullins never planned on being a wedding photographer – or any kind of photographer really. His daily routine was a two and a half hour tube ride each way to an IT job in central London. One one particular ride home, he flipped open a magazine someone had left on the seat to an article about wedding photography. The candid black and white photos struck a chord with Kevin and when he got home to his wife, he told her that’s what he wanted to do. I’ll let Kevin fill in the details, but over the past decade, he has shot hundreds of weddings and he has developed a terrific documentary shooting style that allows him to forget about the obvious or more traditional shot list — the rings, the cake, the dress hanging in a tree or in front of a window — and instead focus on the smaller personal stories that make up the bigger story of the day. The end results are intimate and allow us as viewers of the pictures to feel more like we were part of the goings on, rather than simply watching them from the periphery.

CONNECT WITH KEVIN
Website: https://www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk
Instagram: @kevinmullinsphotography
Twitter: @kevin_mullins

MUSIC
Please Listen Carefully
 (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

At the end of 1999, I bought my first new car: a 2000 Chevy Blazer Sport in black, with a dark grey interior. I had never bought a new car before and the purchase process took months. Literally. I think I test drove every car available under $30,000 — multiple times. It got to the point where sales people at several local dealerships knew me by name. As it turned out, the local Chevy dealer was owned by the father of a guy I went to high school with, who ended up making me a great deal on the Blazer — I think in part so I would stop coming in to test drive his cars. Still, I loved that car and drove it for more than a decade before trading it in. When I decided to upgrade to a new mic, I tested more than 20 different mics — condensers, dynamics, even a couple ribbon mics — before landing on the ElectroVoice RE320 that I currently use. And then there’s my search for a new camera, which was a running joke for about five of the six years of doing On Taking Pictures. The point is, I do an exhaustive amount of research on the tools I buy. On the upside, once I finally get to a decision, I rarely have buyer’s remorse. Seller’s remorse is another story — specifically, a mint-condition Nikon F2AS with 50mm f/1.2 lens that I still don’t know why I sold.

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Freakonomics Radio recently did an episode called How to be Creative where they asked a bunch of academics, artists, musicians, scientists, and inventors: how do you define creativity?

Photographer Nick Brandt just launched a teaser for his next body of work called This Empty World, which as he writes “addresses the escalating destruction of the natural world at the hands of humankind.” It looks like another stunning body of work and I’m looking forward to getting the opportunity to talk to Nick about it.

I’ve recently finished the latest season of The Man in the High Castle and in watching was reminded how much I love the opening titles, which were done by a company called Elastic, who also did Westworld, The Crown, The Punisher and a ton of other really terrific work.

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

I have been fascinated by photojournalism and specifically combat or conflict photojournalism since first seeing the work of Larry Burrows when I was in high school. His photographs of Vietnam showed a side of war that I hadn’t seen before — not just the atrocities, but also the personal stories and the human cost of conflict. A few months back, Sean Tucker and I were having a conversation about conflict photography and he told me about a friend of his who had gone to Ukraine to photograph the war there after deciding that street photography wasn’t giving him the photographic experience he was looking for. His name is Ondřej Vachek, and after looking at his pictures and reading his accompanying essay called
The Forgotten War, I knew I wanted to talk to him about not only the experience itself, but also about some of the back story and choices that led up to it.

CONNECT WITH ONDREJ
Website: https://www.ondrejvachek.com/
YouTube: OndřejVachek
Instagram: @ondroidv

MUSIC
Please Listen Carefully
 (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

I first spoke to David duChemin in 2009 after reading his book
Within the Frame. Since then, we’ve recorded a number of conversations together and in addition to being a fan of both his words and his pictures, I’m proud to call him a friend. We begin the conversation talking about David’s new book
Pilgrims & Nomads — a body of work that has taken him nearly twelve years and multiple trips to Ethiopia and Northern Kenya to produce. As is often the case when David and I sit down, the conversation quickly seems to find its own rhythm and its own direction.

CONNECT WITH DAVID
Website: https://davidduchemin.com
Twitter: @david_duChemin
Instagram: @davidduchemin
Facebook: @visionisbetter

MUSIC
Please Listen Carefully
 (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Yesterday was our first day back from a 9-day working vacation in France and Germany and I’ve got to tell you, I still haven’t fully readjusted to East Coast time, but I wanted to talk a little about the trip while it was still fresh in my mind. I spent the bulk of the day yesterday taking a first pass at photos and making notes about the some of the experiences we had and how I would like to see them affecting me moving forward. Overall, I came back incredibly inspired, both in terms of conversations I’d like to record and some new directions and techniques I would like to explore in my own work, both photographically and in my paintings.

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Legendary conflict photojournalist Don McCullin has released a beautiful new book called The Landscape.

Designed in the USSR: 1950-1989 is a terrific look into the design of everyday life in the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War, from toys to propaganda.

The current issue of Egoïste magazine — volume 11, number 18 — features an absolutely gorgeous photo essay of Jessica Chastain by Ellen von Unwerth. I love that the magazine isn’t bound — it’s just a series of loose leaf pages in a cover.

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

I had a friend in college—let’s call him Michael—who was one of the most interesting people I had ever met up to that point in my life. He was the first person I’d met who had…almost an “aura” about him, for lack of a better word, along with several unique qualities that just made him fascinating to be around. He wasn’t what you would call a “goth” per se, but his appearance was striking. His hair would change often, both in color and style, he was typically clad in black, wore eyeliner, a variety of rings and bracelets, and even had black painted fingernails. I met Michael through a mutual friend in the theater department and what I found most interesting was that he didn’t seem to be playing a part or persona, this was just who he was at the time. One of the biggest influences Michael had on me was his taste in music. Michael played guitar in a band and introduced me to entire genres of music that I had never heard of before from bands like Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, Cocteau Twins, and Peter Murphy. Another friend at the time—a modern dancer named “Memo”—was actually friends with Peter and years later invited me to see him, along with Nine Inch Nails at a little club in Atlanta—but I’ll save that story for another time.

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One thing my dad and I had in common was our love of westerns. When I was little, many weekend afternoons were spent on the sofa watching the likes of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, and Clint Eastwood. Photographer Mark Parascandola visits some of the ghost towns that Hollywood built, and then abandoned, that dot the landscape of southwestern Spain.

Here’s an archive of just a small portion of the incredible design and layout work that Chris Ashworth has created for RayGun magazine.

GQ magazine recently sat down with Paul McCartney and asked him to break down some of some of his most iconic songs, both from The Beatles and from Wings. It’s interesting to hear how the songs came about and which ones still carry weight.

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

Next month, we will have been in this house for two years and it’s taken me all of that time to finally get around to beginning the build out of the two basement spaces that will ultimately become my studios — one for podcasting and digital media and the other for painting and printing. The previous owners of the house were both makers—he was a woodworker and an engineer and she was a painter. Together, they literally built the house in 1956 and in fact one of the downstairs spaces served as a wood shop where the living room built-ins and the kitchen cabinets were made. So there’s a history of making here and I knew before we even bought the house and moved in that I wanted at least one of the spaces downstairs as a studio, and I think I even told Adrianne that I would start building it out on day one. But here we are two years later and still no studio. What happened? I think like so many creative endeavors, it has something to do with fear, or what Steven Pressfield calls “Resistance.” And before I go much further, if you are a maker or a creator and have not read The War of Art, either pause this episode and go order yourself a copy or write yourself a note to pick one up after. It may take a couple readings to really get it, but once it sinks in, it will offer a ton of insight into the creative process and how self-doubt and fear can be debilitating until you get a handle on them.

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Filmmaker Brian Carlson made a terrific short film about lawnmower racing called 41x.

Lens Culture recently shared a brilliant photo essay by photographer Michael Christopher Brown called Yo Soy Fidel. In the essay, Brown follows the “Freedom Caravan” that carried Fidel Castro’s remains across Cuba after his death. It’s a gorgeous set of photographs.

One of my favorite artists, Shepard Fairey, just completed the largest piece of his career. It’s a 15 story mural of Johnny Cash that takes up the entire side of the Residence Inn hotel in Sacramento. The mural was inspired by a photograph by Jim Marshall of Cash at Folsom Prison and in this interview with Capital Public Radio, Fairey talks about how the piece came together.

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