This is the second episode of the B&H Photography Podcast produced with the collaboration of Leica Camera, and we are pleased to welcome photographer Stella Johnson to the show.
It is the “in-between moments of life” that Johnson describes as the subject of her work; work that includes books and documentary series made in Cameroon, Greece, Nicaragua, and Mexico. In this easy-going conversation, we discuss the nature of her long-term projects, and the motivations that return her to the same places year after year. We also talk about composing with rangefinder cameras, being at the eye-level of your subject, and the weeks that go by without making pictures and the verbal and non-verbal communication necessary when you are invited as a photographer into a community or home, as Johnson has been.
For her personal documentary work, Johnson has relied on Leica M cameras and a 35mm focal length lens. We discuss this focal distance in terms of a personal comfort zone and one that even felt safer during pandemic time. She keeps her settings simple and concentrates on composition and the moment; she tends to find light and locations that she likes and wait for the images. Because Johnson’s compositions are so strong in black-and-white and her color work is minimal and adroit, we ask for her thoughts on how to work with both formats and if a fluidity between them is easy. Finally, in searching for a definition of documentary photography, we mulled over the effect of time, of returning to locations and subjects, of its distinction from photojournalism, as seeing “what life is like” and the stories of “just daily life.”
Guest: Stella Johnson
Photograph © Stella Johnson
Protect Your Copyright, with David Deal; Episode 1 of "The Disfarmer Case"
Photographing Australia’s 2020 Bushfire Season
Photography Wins! Sara Bennett and Joseph O. Holmes
To Be or Olivia Bee...
Space Odyssey - Photographing the James Webb Space Telescope, with Chris Gunn
Clyde Butcher - Photographing the Everglades and Selling Clocks
The B&H Photography Podcast – Memorable Moments from 2019
Nothing is Impossible: Imagined Reality, with Erik Johansson
Cameras of the Year, 2019
Celebrating Food Photography and "Eating Delancey"
Dynamic Portrait Lighting, with Alexis Cuarezma
Aperture Publications and the Contemporary PhotoBook
Shahidul Alam - Politics Cannot Be Separated from My Art
Technological Evolution in Sports Photography
A Stroll Through PhotoPlus 2019; the Panasonic Sweepstakes Winners
Vintage Dog Photography and the Museum of the Dog
Jeff Bridges - Actor, Musician, Photographer
Art Between Us -- Photography on the U.S.-Mexico Border
Adventure Photography with Chris Burkard
Day to Night, with Stephen and Bette Wilkes
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Spider-Man Crawlspace Podcast
Harlem Is Everywhere
The Week in Art
Frankenstein
Anne of Green Gables
The Art Angle
Robservations with Rob Liefeld