Ready for Mistakes

In this episode of Ready for Mistakes, I speak with Tristan Martinez, who’s originally a Chicago-based photographer originally from Los Angeles. Tristan’s work dominantly uses flash and rich color to make his subjects pop in the image, but also add a candid yet larger-than-life feeling to his imagery. Tristan graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in December 2020, has self-published a few bodies of work including Heads, I Used to be Pretty, and Knee Sweat.

Follow my social media @jeffsmudde and view my portfolio at jeffsmudde.com.

Updating things as it has been a while since the last episode. But good news! The next guest is coming soon.

Danny DeRusso is a photographer based in northern New York, or upstate, but that often gets perceived as anything north of NYC. Danny is a music photographer primarily, and does personal work on the road with bands and in his free time when he's not, well, with bands. Danny has done work for Hot Mulligan, Boston Manor, Jetty Bones, Knuckle Puck, and, of course, his hometown heroes, Young Culture

Mike Harkovich, AKA, Frank Atlas, is a photographer based in the Chicago area working dominantly in street, social documentary and photojournalism.

An update regarding the status of Ready for Mistakes, as well as an update on my photographic practices during quarantine.

In this episode of Ready for Mistakes, Jeff speaks with an old classmate of

his from Illinois State University, Cedric Wilder. Wilder is a graphic

designer and photographer in central Illinois, working within music,

portraiture and vernacular photography.

Wilder graduated from ISU’s graphic design program in 2018 and is currently

a staff designer at Jimmy Johns. Outside of his job, he approached

photography in a casual sense, whether it’s in his in-home studio or out

and about in the city. His freelance work is primarily with musicians,

ranging from concerts and festivals to promos and album artwork.

Anthony Hamilton, MFA candidate at Illinois State University, is an artist

working in multiple media including photography, video, illustration,

animation, and more. Hamilton focuses on the idea of vernacular themes in

photography, and the idea of photography as a way of map-making.

Hamilton has been making a collaborative project with Molly Markow, a

recent MFA graduate from ISU, through the website A New Nothing. The

project was exhibited in ISU’s Student Annual in 2019.

In his video work, he approaches it with the thought in mind that peoples’

attention-spans are much shorter for art. His videos are typically shorter

than three minutes and involve a kind-of cyclical, emotion-influenced

narrative, latently keeping the viewer longer than they may be aware.