The Phoblographer

All images by Jonathan Bielaski. Used with permission

Environmental portraits are a very involved type of portraiture that is a very slow and methodical process requiring interviews and understanding of who the person is. In the end, it requires the photographer to deliver a product that tells something specific about who the subject is.

Jonathan Bielaski has been doing this for years, and knew that he wanted to be a photographer from a very young age. He is based in Toronto, Canada and some of his clients include, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and TFC), Sports Illustrated, Billboard Magazine, T+D Magazine, Bard Valley Dates, California Peach and Pear Growers, Home Depot, Lucas Oil, Hydro One, Ontario Pork, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, University of Waterloo, Sheridan, Laurier and the list goes on.

With a portfolio like that, we talked to him about the involving process of showing personality in a portrait.

Phoblographer:: Tell us about how you got into photography.

JB: I got into photography naturally; my dad was a master print maker and my mom a graphic designer. I was surrounded by images 24/7. They both tried to raise me to do something other than the arts but it was just part of me, I knew I wanted to create images at a very young age. By the time I was in high school I was assisting on commercial jobs and had a studio to start taking my own images. From there lots of hard work and persistence led to where I am now.

Phoblographer: What first attracted you to shooting portraits then environmental portraits?

JB: When I started out in photography I did not enjoy making portraits and was attracted to still life photography, I now know that it was my attraction to lighting and with shooting these types of images I could master light and its effects. But something was missing–when I was photographing custom motorcycles and custom made products the story about the makers became a huge interest to me. Who they were and where they lived or worked fascinated me. I wanted to capture them in their workspace. People have a story as well as their space, together they complete a visual story and you can capture who they are and what they do in a signal frame.

PB: Environmental portrait photography often is a process involving an interview, getting to know the person a bit, and then applying creativity to the scene. Do you have certain questions that you always ask before shooting?

JB: With making any portrait I do–I like to sit down with the subject and learn about them: what they do, where they come from and where they want to go. I ask them to take me though a typical day, show me some of there favorite places and tools. I really try to get to know them. Sometimes this is done on the same day of the shoot and sometimes it is done beforehand, but the best thing that I have learned to do is listen. By listening, you learn and find the small details that makes them who they are.

Phoblographer: To you, what makes for the perfect environmental portrait?

JB: To me a perfect environmental portrait is a portrait that tells a story, you are learning something about the person in the portrait with out the use of words. The background and foreground are just as important as the person in telling the story but they are the supporting cast and the person is the lead roll. On their own they could make good images but together they make a great image.

“.the best thing that I have learned to do is listen. By listening, you learn and find the small details that makes them who they are.”

Phoblographer: These people obviously aren’t professional models; so posing them can be tough sometimes. How do you work with these folks to make them look their best?

JB: During my shoots we are always having a conversation and I try to make them forget about the camera. This is a huge help. If they are talking about something they love it comes through. You need to know how to relate to them so research anything and every...

If you’ve joined the L Mount Alliance and want a one-stop-shop for all of your lens needs, this guide is for you.

A few eyebrows were raised when Panasonic, Leica, and Sigma joined forces to create the L Mount Alliance. This would be Panasonic’s first foray into the Full-Frame market, Sigma could have a platform they could call their own, and Leica could potentially get their lenses into more hands. The platform got off to a slow start, but now things are rocking and rolling, and a good collection of lenses are now available. We have created the L Mount Alliance lens buyer’s guide for those who have joined the L mount ranks. Here you’ll find all of our current L mount lens reviews and any future lens reviews for the platform too.

We’ve spent a lot of time testing these L Mount Alliance lenses in all sorts of conditions. Today, we’re sharing our findings for every single lens we’ve reviewed so far in an extensive guide that isn’t sponsored by any member of the L Mount Alliance. We simply wanted to put together an easy-to-find and simple-to-read guide for our readers. With that said, we have full editorial authority over what’s said in this guide. So if you’re interested in investing in the L Mount Alliance platform either through Leica, Panasonic, or Sigma, our guide will help you make better purchasing decisions.

The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear that we’ve fully reviewed. If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Table of Contents

Sigma 20mm f1.4 DG HSM Art

Sigma 24mm f3.5 DG DN Contemporary

Leica 28mm f2 Summicron SL

Sigma 30mm f1.4 DC DN Contemporary

Leica 35mm f2 Summicron SL APO

Sigma 35mm f2 DG DN Contemporary

Sigma 35mm f1.2 Art DG DN

Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG HSM

Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG DN Art

Sigma 45mm f2.8 DG DN Contemporary

Leica SL 50mm f1.4 Summilux

Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG HSM Art

Leica SL 50mm f2 Summicron

Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S

Panasonic 50mm f1.4 Lumix S Pro

Sigma 56mm f1.4 DC DN Contemporary

Sigma 65mm f2 DG DN Contemporary

Leica 75mm f2 SL

Panasonic 85mm f1.8

Sigma 85mm f1.4 DG DN Art

Leica 90mm f2 SL

Sigma 105mm f2.8 DG DN Macro Art

Sigma 14-24mm f2.8 DG DN Art

Leica 16-35mm f3.5-4.5 SL

Panasonic 16-35mm f4 PRO

Panasonic LUMIX S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6

Leica 24-70mm f2.8 SL

Panasonic 24-70mm f2.8 LUMIX Pro

Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 DG DN Art

Leica SL 24-90mm f2.8-4

Panasonic Lumix S 24-105mm f4 Macro OIS

Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 Contemporary

Panasonic 70-200mm f2.8 Lumix S Pro

Panasonic 70-200mm f4 OIS Lumix S Pro

Sigma 100-400mm f5-6.3 DG DN OS Contemporary

Sigma 20mm f1.4 DG HSM Art

In our review, we said:

“The Sigma 20mm f1.4 DG HSM Art lens is sharp, contrasty, saturated, and overall delivers incredible image quality that you really can’t sit there and complain about. It’s a beautiful lens that will find its home amongst architecture photographers, street photographers, and landscape photographers. As I’m writing this review, I keep thinking about how sad I am to send it back to Sigma since the review is over.”

Buy now: $899

Sigma 24mm f3.5 DG DN Contemporary

In our review, we state:

“The Sigma 24mm f3.5 DG DN Contemporary is a good lens. Overall, it’s not a bad product. Indeed, no one makes a bad product these days. But there’s nothing special about it that would make me reach for it. For L mount, it’s your only affordable wide-angle option at the moment. For the Sony E mount, you’ve got Tamron’s 24mm f2.8. Below is a quick informal comparison between the Tamron and the Sigma. The Sigma phot...

All images by Daniel Schaefer. Used with permission.

If you’re not familiar with who photographer Daniel Schaefer is, then what you should know first and foremost is that he is probably one of the most driven, self-motivated and determined photographers under the age of 30 that I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. He’s been featured on Japan Camera Hunter and also here on the site before. Daniel has worked for Leica and so many other companies in the industry; he demonstrates the drive that it takes to survive in the creative world.

For the past couple of years, he’s been shooting, studying and honing his craft in the photography space. He’s also become significantly better at portraiture.

To book a portrait session or one on one custom tailored workshop with Daniel, visit his website.

Phoblographer: Talk to us about how you got into photography?

Daniel: I come from an artistically diverse family–musicians, writers, filmmakers and photographers alike. My father spent a good deal of his life as a working photographer, and my uncle Frank Schaefer is a professional photographer and studio lighting specialist, so luckily when my interest blossomed I had more than enough access to the equipment that I might need.

Through all of high school I was a theater student in an incredibly rigorous program, 5-6 hours a day studying musical and dramatic theater. In 11th grade my teacher asked the class if anyone could take headshots of the rest of the class for a show program, and knowing I could borrow a camera from my father, I volunteered.

The next day I came to school with a Nikon D70 and 50mm lens, shot all the headshots enjoying the experience thoroughly, and afterwards spent the day wandering around school and my neighborhood taking more and more pictures, really enjoying the newfound outlet.

The next day I left the camera at home, and every ten seconds was thinking to myself “Oh that would be a cool shot” “Oh THAT would be a cool shot!” so after that, I carried the camera around my neck every day, and I haven’t left the house without it slung at my side since.

Phoblographer: What got you into portraiture?

Daniel: I’ve always enjoyed the sense of inherent narrative that portraiture can allow a photographer. By the very nature of a person being included in the frame the viewer begins to contextualize; creating a story in their own mind of what is occurring within that frame. I always enjoy loading as many little details into the image to help steer the viewer into the intended story that the subject and I are trying to tell.

Phoblographer: Where do you typically get your creative vision from?

Daniel: For my portrait work especially, I enjoy collaborating with the subject involved in order to create images that have a narrative that they enjoy as much as I do. I have very cinematic tastes, and like to charge the images in a way where it almost feels like something in frame should be moving. For these images especially the collaboration is key to the creativity, whether or not the story we’re trying to tell is truthful, almost documentary in nature, or is more narratively fiction driven, I want the images to feel authentic to the subject.

Phoblographer: Every portrait photographer has a method of some sort. So while you’re getting ready to create a portrait, what are some of the most common things going through your head that help make a portrait really part of your photographic identity?

“By the very nature of a person being included in the frame the viewer begins to contextualize; creating a story in their own mind of what is occurring within that frame.”

Daniel: I find the most identifiable aspects of my style come in my use of light and color, I grew up an absolute addict to the noir genre, so much of my work is subtly influenced by sort of Neo-Noir styling. As far as in the moment goes, I like to keep things vocal with my subjects, talking things through almost constantly. I love little physical details, and take a lot of inspir...

The fox that has the soaked tail

All images by Youngho Kang. Used with permission.

Photographer Youngho Kang has one of the most beautiful stories that we’ve ever heard on how he started out as a photographer. His college girlfriend asked him to shoot photos of her, and he did it as an escape from his anxiety and to simply spend time with her. But the images were so good that they were pitched to ad agencies. Based in South Korea and born in 1970, he was a commercial photographer turned Fine Art photographer that got the nickname “The Dancing Photographer.” This is because he communicates with his subjects through dancing or with music in the background and acting as a conductor.

In 2009, he started the 99 Variations project, which is a complicated series of self portraits featuring him facing into a mirror and dressed as many different characters. But even more interestingly, Youngho tells us that there is no retouching to the images.

We talked to Youngho about the project; which we find incredibly fascinating.

Phoblographer Talk to us about how you got into photography.

A modest king walks across the river

Youngho: Photography came to me in a very natural way, I did not intend to be a photographer. During the time that I studied in the University, my major was French Literature, which is humanities as well as a liberal art. This major was of no good use when trying to get a hold of a job that offers a good salary, which in turn caused me great anxiety about my future. It was during my time at the University that I met with my then girlfriend, I soon fell in love with her and it did not take long for me to realize that she was my best means of escaping the anxiety I was dealing with concerning my reality. She wanted to pursue a career as an actress but did not have proper portrait images, and of all thinkable people she chose to ask me.

This did for me, in all honesty, mean that I could spend more time with my girlfriend so I accepted. I did however all the time think to myself that I actually had never done photography before. When taking her portrait photos I made sure to choose the right music to create a good mood for her as well as engage with her through directing by performing dance-like movements. The final images turned out to be better than expected and by chance a marketing director from a fashion company saw my images and advised me to have my images applied to various advertising companies, which turned out being the best thing to do.

Phoblographer: Where did the idea for the 99 variations project come from?

A skinny pig

Youngho: After having started doing photography in the very natural manner that I had, the next natural advancement turned out being to do commercial work. As a commercial photographer I met with a variety of celebrities as well as advertising companies, and a whole lot of them really liked my shooting style. “The Dancing Photographer” is what I came to be known as. What also made me stand out was my ability to create a sense of story-telling within the images, which was of interest to them. This gave me a chance of getting a lot of assignments, within my portraits they could always sense a sort of hidden expression, deeply hidden. So the commercial works were with me for a little more than 10 years, it was by this time that I was starting to comprehend that the commercial sphere had limitations within itself that I could not be completely at ease within.

“She wanted to pursue a career as an actress but did not have proper portrait images, and of all thinkable people she chose to ask me.”

Instead, I began attempting to find other means of creative expression. Peering into myself, there was an understanding that it would be a natural change. What then happened was all a matter of a natural process, since I yearned to express myself and my idea of art “A continuous effort and passion that only I can do” and there was a desire for me to specialize my shooting style to liken it with dancing, and a...

Ever wanted to know what life is like inside the competitive world of mixed martial arts? Kevin Lynch is about to show you.

Brutal. Violent. Archaic. These were just a few of the adjectives used to describe the world of mixed martial arts (MMA). At the time of its inception, the bloody battles of the UFC were widely frowned upon. Many wanted it banned. However, 26 years later, it is now one of the biggest and most respected organizations in all sports. In 2002, photographer Kevin Lynch became involved with the UFC. Documenting both the action and the fighters, he would go on to create one of the most influential books in combat sports, Octagon.

“.it didn’t take long before this UFC virus infected me as well,” he says as he speaks of how the sport got him hooked. During his first 10 years with the company, he got to know much more than the fighters. He connected with the humans living behind the aggressive, intimidating barrier so commonly associated with the mixed martial arts. Kevin was with them before the fight – camera in hand – and after the fight, for what would become a sub-series titled, Before and After.

Kevin kindly took the time to share more with us abut what life was like as a photographer in a world that was once greatly unaccepted.

Note: Some images in this piece show acts of violence and blood, which some readers may find disturbing.

Phoblographer: When you first worked with the UFC, it was at a time when, due to its graphic violence, it wasn’t widely accepted. Personally, what were your first impressions of MMA when you started shooting it?

Chuck Liddell.

KL: My first encounter with the world of MMA and the Ultimate Fighting Championship was in 2002. I was contracted by the UFC to create images of Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock for their upcoming UFC40 event. The new ownership was looking for innovative publicity and marketing ideas to enhance the public perception of their product and broaden their audience. They hired a New York-based AD Agency that had a marketing background in creating publicity and advertising concepts for WWE promotion. (Wrestlers expressing angry threatening faces and fingers into the camera, theatrics, etc.)

The UFC40 billboard concept layouts had mirrored a similar approach. After witnessing my first UFC fight up-close on the Octagon I realized that this approach was falsely misrepresenting the fighters, therefore, the integrity of the sport, and it could potentially alienate their fans and scare off new audiences. While I was standing on the Octagon to take pictures of the event I was perplexed by the sell-out crowd’s adrenalin rush, however, the whole concept quickly grew on me.

Matt Hughes.

“My goal was to honestly portray the beauty without glorifying violence.”

An Ultimate Fighter could be characterized as a person who has the ability to suppress logic and reason and allow the will to surface. These fighters are part of a brotherhood; the dojo is their church, indoctrinating the beliefs of honor, bravery, courage, and loyalty. The UFC fan idolizes and lives vicariously through them. I saw the potential of a great book project, a subject matter offering so many layers and interesting perspectives; quite the juicy stuff for a photographer to capitalize on. I originally presented to Dana White five concepts for the Octagon Book Project:

Concept One: Before & After

Barb Honchak.

“Before & After” images of the fighters at the event. Right before they go out and right after they return to their locker rooms. The three to five rounds, fifteen to twenty-five minutes transform a fighter emotionally, physically, economically, and spiritually. I also created an Octagon shaped light converted from a Profoto Ring-lite to emulate an Octagon shape into the fighter’s eyes for extreme close-ups.

Concept Two: Octagon locker room action

The idea was to have unfettered access at the event, which included having all-access to the Octagon and locker rooms, etc. This approach documents the event upfron...

The Panasonic 12-60mm f2.8-4 Power OIS lens is a pretty good option, but is it a professional one?

When the Panasonic 12-60mm f2.8-4 Power OIS was announced with a number of other variable aperture lenses, I was very confused. Why would Panasonic make a lineup of lenses with variable apertures and target them at professional photographers? Many pros want constant aperture lenses. Granted, these lenses are a bit longer than most professional zoom lenses, and as I saw over a period of time, the performance is also really up there. The Panasonic 12-60mm f2.8-4 Power OIS is weather sealed, sharp, fast to focus, provides quite a bit of extra (and much needed) stabilization, and feels great in the hand. When it comes to working with Micro Four Thirds, it also means you generally never need to stop the lenses down due to depth of field.

With all this in mind, I’m still not quite certain that I understand the lens.

Table of Contents

Pros and Cons

Gear Used

Tech Specs

Ergonomics

Build Quality

Ease of Use

Autofocus

Image Quality

Conclusions

Pros and Cons

Pros

Weather sealing

Fast focusing

Image stabilization

Sharp image quality

Cons

I wish it were constant aperture. That would be some really true innovation.

Gear Used

Tech Specs

Specs taken from Adorama

24-120mm 35mm camera lens equivalent

Durable splash and dustproof-sealed body

integrated LUMIX Power Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S) and LUMIX Dual I.S. camera compatibility

The perfect choice for exceptional photo and videocapture

Lens Mount: Lens Mount: Micro Four Thirds

Mirrorless: Zoom: Focal Length: 12-60mm

Maximum Aperture: Maximum Aperture: f/3.5-5.6

Special Features: Aspherical, Weather Resistant

Image Stabilization: Image Stabilization: Yes (OIS)

Lens Type: Wide Angle Zoom Lens

Ergonomics

With the Panasonic 12-60mm f2.8-4 Power OIS you’ve got a number of controls and options. There is the zoom ring, the focusing ring and then you’ve got the clear markings on the body.

When the Panasonic 12-60mm f2.8-4 Power OIS is at its widest, the lens is also at its most compact. When zoomed in all the way, it nearly doubles in size. Throw the lens hood on there too and it more than doubles. Crazy, huh?

On its side there are two main control switches; one is for autofocus and the other is for OIS control. When throwing the lens/camera in my bag and going to shoot, I never had an issue with the switches accidentally being deactivated from a setting I didn’t previously want.

Build Quality

The Panasonic 12-60mm f2.8-4 Power OIS has weather sealing built in. That’s a nice addition. On top of that, the exterior feels really nice in the hands despite its smooth finish. There are grooves on the focus and zoom rings which surely do help with gripping the lens in something like a rainstorm. I’m confident that, when it comes to the build quality, it will exceed the expectations of many professional photographers if they don’t care about the variable aperture.

Ease of Use

The Panasonic 12-60mm f2.8-4 Power OIS has two switches on it: AF/MF and OIS: that’s about it. You have nothing more to worry about when using it except that the aperture will change through the range. Keep this in mind if you’re in Aperture Priority. If you’re shooting in manual mode, then compensate accordingly. Otherwise, just affix it to the camera body and let it shoot.

Autofocus

On both the Panasonic GH5s and Olympus EPL9, the Panasonic 12-60mm f2.8-4 Power OIS focused quickly. In some cases, this lens focused more accurately and faster than some of Olympus’s own lenses. It was rare that I couldn’t rely on this lens’ autofocus capabilities. To that end, I should state that for fast moving objects it was still able to keep up due to the depth of field when shooting wide open at f2.8. Having the DOF equivalent of f5.6 on a full frame camera will surely help.

Image Quality

During my tests, I was rather surprised by what the lens is capable of. It’s super sharp and I’ve got no qualms here. I also really enjoy the colors, the l...

All images by João Guedes. Used Under A Creative Commons License.

Vancouver BC based photographer João Guedes specializes is shooting portraits and lifestyle imagery, but his personal side-project, The Diaries, is a beautiful blend of lifestyle, boudoir, and cinematography that brings you into the lives of these women. It is an intimate project; one that combines all of Guedes’ experience with posing, lighting, and layering to create these beautifully crafted images.

Guedes focuses each shoot on a new woman, in a new location, in places all over the world as he travels. This particular shoot, featuring a young woman named Annaliese, features her in a variety of poses throughout a worn rustic apartment. The soft highlights and warmth gives the shoot a feeling that is as intimate as the content itself.

You can find a great collection of he beautiful imagery over on his Behance profile, here.

All images by Neal Auch. Used with permission.

Thought-provoking photography projects also tend to be bold and disruptive, and this work of Canadian photographer Neal Auch certainly fits the bill. By combining conceptual photography with the styling of 17th century Dutch still life painting, he makes a strong case for his ideas on mortality. He describes his work as seeking to “engage with mortality headlong and encourages reflection on the fragility of life” done in the age-old tradition of memento mori. While death and mortality are some of the most widely explored topics in various creative disciplines, we don’t always see them interpreted as both beautiful and macabre. In this body of work, art, philosophy, and sentiment converge to inspire us to confront the fragility of life in imagery we most likely have never imagined.

A vanitas style still life arrangement with dead duck, chicken feet, and extinguished candle. The piece serves as a reflection on human mortality and the transience of all things.

Describe yourself as a photographer.

I’m a Canadian photographer working primarily with arrangements of dead animal parts loosely styled after 17th century Dutch still life paintings. My work is very much influenced by the idea of memento mori (the medieval practice of reflecting on the certainty of death).

Why did you get into photography? How long have you been shooting? What made you want to get into your genre?

My artistic interests are fairly broad and I’ve dabbled in various media and genres over the years, including excursions into visual art, experimental music, and transgressive literature. I adopted photography as a primary creative outlet around 2015 because it felt like the most natural outlet for my creative urges. My photography ended up gaining more traction than any of my previous artistic endeavors and so I happily moved into doing photography full time. At the moment I’m mostly focused on still life photography, although I’ve also dabbled in macro abstraction and portraiture.

A still life composition with pig foot and intestines.

A macabre still life arrangment of pomegranates, silverware, dead mice (both fetal and adult), and various organ meats.

Tell us about the project that you’re pitching, or your portfolio.

The only certainty in life is that, eventually, it will end. Awareness of mortality is arguably at the very core of what it means to be human; death is the “worm at the core,“ as William James put it. In spite of the centrality of death to the human condition, much of our contemporary discourse around the subject seems polarized between sensationalism and silence. My work seeks to engage with mortality headlong and encourages reflection on the fragility of life, following from the long tradition of memento mori (Latin: “remember to die”) in art and philosophy.

All still life compositions include, to some extent, a lament about the transience of all things. While those old 17th century “Golden Age” Dutch paintings of flowers and fruit baskets can look quaint by contemporary standards, viewers at the time would have understood such works as a reminder that life, like the fruit and the flowers, will soon be gone. My own still life works are based around the idea of blending iconography of 17th century Dutch still life paintings with my own horror-film-inspired visual aesthetic.

A macabre still life arrangment of pomegranates, silverware, dead mice (both fetal and adult), and various organ meats.

A macabre still life arrangment with apples and organ meats.

Tell us about your creative vision when you create and take photos, and your processes both mentally and mechanically. What’s typically going through your mind when you create images?

In my work I’m very interested in appropriating the key iconographic elements of still life and memento mori art, while presenting these in a more macabre and confrontational manner. So most of the visual motifs that show up in my work are borrowed directly from the his...

All images and words by Neal Auch. Used with permission.

I’m a fine art photographer living in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Most of my recent work concerns the commodification of suffering, and the ethics of eating animals. My work explores these themes by presenting animal organ meats that are intended for human consumption in an unfamiliar context where I hope that the underlying ugliness of our food system is exposed.

I took a somewhat chaotic trajectory to get to where I am now. My background is in pure mathematics, and I spent the better part of a decade in academia, doing rather esoteric research. Those kinds of jobs are almost all short-term contracts, so I moved around a lot. The frequent moves took a toll on my personal life, and my passion for the work I was doing waned. I hit a breaking point a few years ago, while I was living in the UK, and I rather abruptly abandoned my post there to come back home to Canada and settle into a more stable life with my spouse. To make ends meet I did contract work for a while and, in my spare time, I made a lot of art and I did a lot of introspection about what I wanted to do with my life. I stumbled into photography at this point and fell in love with the process. Since then I’ve devoted pretty much all of my creative energy to taking pictures.

I think that my work is somewhat unique amongst photographers. I look at a lot of photography and I tend to find that similar subjects, themes and compositions get used over and over again. While there’s nothing wrong with this kind of repetition — it often leads to beautiful imagery — I sometimes find myself wanting to look at something more unusual and distinctive. I hope that my work may be of interest to others who feel similarly, whether or not they share my interest in veganism.

What motivated you to go out and create the specific series or set of images that you’re submitting to us?

Like most of us, I was raised with a bucolic image of life on a farm: cows grazing green pastures while chickens scramble about the barn and pigs wallow lazily in mud pits. This image, however pleasant, is a fantasy that exists only in children’s books, and on the graphics that adorn processed food packages. The reality is that contemporary factory farms rely on cruelty and torture on an industrial scale. Most of the animals we consume will have lived lives of intense suffering: confined in windowless sheds, densely-packed into cages where the spread of disease and parasites is rampant, fed additive-laced foods that bear little resemblance to a natural diet, and subject to various surgical mutilations.

It is all too easy to forget about the cruelty and suffering that underlies the animal products we interact with daily, through our meals, clothes, and furniture. My work on the commodification of animal suffering focuses on meat products that are intended for human consumption; I buy everything that I work with at the butcher. My aim is to present these food products in an unfamiliar context, where the ugliness and cruelty of the industrialized farming system becomes manifest.

Talk to us about where you draw inspiration from.

In terms of visual aesthetic I am more inspired by painters than photographers. I’m drawn to the works of Goya, Bosh, Cezanne, Caravaggio, and a lot of Dutch still life paintings from the 17th century. My all-time favourite photographer is probably Diane Arbus; her work has definitely helped to impress upon me the importance of having a compelling subject matter. I’m also a big fan of Joel Peter Witkin, Jan Saudek, and Anders Petersen.

Talk to us about the gear that you use.

All of the work on my website was shot on a Nikon DSLR with either a 35mm F1.8 or a 50mm F1.8 lense. (My close-up work is also shot using a combination of these two lenses, plus extension tubes. For each close-up I take 10-20 raw captures and do focus-stacking in post-production to enhance the depth of field.) I use continuous lights and softboxes are my prefered...

A photographer is coming under fire for a photobook he plans to publish.

Nude photography is a polarizing topic. Whether it’s arguing about objectification or questioning a photographer’s motives, nude photography is seldom free from negativity. In the latest case, photographer David Paul Larson is being accused of acting inappropriately, even if what he’s doing falls in line with the law. He’s looking to publish a photobook which contains images of him and models he has worked with in the past. While his subjects consented to the photos, some models are not happy with the photographer publishing them. This brings us back to the topic of law vs. ethics pertaining to photography.

Nude Model Agreement

While we’ve not seen a copy of the actual contract between the photographer and the nude model in this instance, we can explain what’s meant by an agreement in perpetuity.

The fact the photographer is using the images and the nude model is not threatening legal action suggests that full use of the images was given to the photographer at the point of the agreement. The model was likely paid for the work, but had no ownership or power over how the images are used. By perpetuity, it means the agreement is not void after an agreed date. Instead, the terms are in place indefinitely.

In this case, the photographer is well within his legal right to use the images for his photobook. Unfortunately, the model, despite not wanting to be included, has no legal right to prevent the photos from being published.

But, is the photographer acting ethically?

Respect for the Human

In any business agreement, it’s very easy to see people as transactions rather than humans. This may seem fine in the moment; it allows people to work effectively without letting human emotions get in the way of a project. But years later, as in this case, things can become complicated.

Young people are often attracted to the model lifestyle. It can pay well and opens the door to many lucrative opportunities. However, some people, over time, evolve. They can fall out of love with parts of their past, especially if it involved some form of nude modeling. Looking to move on, they would rather that part of their life was largely forgotten. Photographers using images that models regret were taken is a harsh reminder of decisions the models had rather not made.

Despite having a contract, it is possible for the photographer to see the human side of the situation. He is negligent of the mental state of the individual or the impact publishing the photo may have. He should, in my opinion, show empathy and agree not to use the photo.

Is that frustrating? Of course it is. We have had several models contact us here at The Phoblographer asking us to remove images they were once happy with being published. Regardless of what we feel, our priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of models we have featured in the past. So, we comply and remove the image at their request.

A person’s mental health and emotional security are more important than the use of a single photo.

Think Twice About Lasting Contracts

Whether you’re a photographer or a nude model, an agreement in perpetuity may seem attractive at the time. They tend to mean a higher fee, which we appreciate is difficult to turn down. But times change, and so do your values and outlook on the world. What may seem like a good decision at the time, may not be one in 10 years.

Instead, negotiate contracts that have an expiration date. Some companies may pressure you into a lasting agreement, and if that’s the case, don’t work with them. A company that’s unwilling to be flexible has no care or interest in you as a person – they’re unethical and a stain on the industry.

What do you think? Is the photographer acting accordingly, or should he show some flexibility? Let us know in the comments below.

All images in this article are screenshots.