B&H Photography Podcast B&H Photo & Video

Women photographers take center stage in this week’s show, in celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month. We reveal the blind spot of photo history in a chat about the book A World History of Women Photographers, with photo historian and co-author Luce Lebart and contributing writer Pauline Vermare.
Gracing the pages of this book’s 500-page heft are images and stories behind 300 women photographers, spanning both photo history and geographic reach. Listen in to learn about the exhaustive process Lebart and co-author Marie Robert undertook to find this range of talent and then commission essays from 160 women writers and curators. We also discuss how the position of women within photography has changed over time and across cultures. There are fresh discoveries to be made by even the most ardent photography devotees, as illustrated by the many photographer names and related resources we mention during the episode, also listed below in our show notes. 
Guests: Luce Lebart and Pauline Vermare
Top shot © The National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
Episode Timeline
 
4:17: Luce Lebart describes the editorial statement behind the book A World History of Women Photographers as a manifesto to complete a history that already exists.
 
10:14: Back stories about women working as picture editors, art directors, designers, and art buyers in photo industry trenches, with male photographers as hunter gathers in the field. 

13:32: The international network behind the research for this book. Which came first—the contributing writers or featured photographers?
 
21:21: The matter of women photographers who stayed in the shadow of a master or did not receive equal recognition as her spouse.
 
26:45: Avoiding the pitfall of a western centered approach in the geographical representation of photographers selected for the book
 
30:56: Additional book projects and databases of women photographers.
 
33:44: Episode break
 
34:38: Pauline Vermare describes differences between France and America in their respective approaches to photography.
 
38:36: Pauline discusses the Japanese women photographers she wrote about for the book.
 
45:00: American photographer Nancy Burson’s stature as a forerunner of current trends for AI generated photographs.
49:40: How A World History of Women Photographers encourages questions of readers, inspiring Pauline to create a forthcoming book on Japanese women photographers.
Guest Bios:
Luce Lebart is co-author, with Marie Robert, of A World History of Women Photographers. A photography historian and curator currently based in Paris, she is a researcher for the Archive of Modern Conflict, a collection and publishing house based between London and Toronto. Luce served as director of the Canadian Institute of Photography from 2016 to 2018, after spending five years directing the collections of the French Society of Photography in Paris.
Pauline Vermare is a French photography curator and historian based in New York. A contributing writer to A World History of Women Photographers, she was formerly the cultural director of Magnum Photos in New York, a curator at the International Center of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art. From 2002 to 2009, she worked at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, in Paris. 
Stay Connected:
A World History of Women Photographers English language edition: https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/a-world-history-of-women-photographers-hardcover
A World History of Women Photographers French edition: https://www.editionstextuel.com/livre/une-histoire-mondiale-des-femmes-photographes
Luce Lebart Website: https://lucelebart.org/
Luce Lebart Facebook: ?
Luce Lebart Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucelebart
Luce Lebart Twitter: https://twitter.com/lucelebart?lang=en
Mauvaises Herbes (Weeds) exhibit: https://www.cpif.net/
Photo Europea Photo Festival: https://www.fotografiaeuropea.it/fe2023/en/co

When was the last time you updated your website? Despite the popularity and traction of social media sites, having a stand-alone website to promote your work and build your brand is key to connecting with your given audience. In this week’s podcast, we explore the dynamics of building and maintaining a professional caliber website with insights from both sides of the coin. 
We start by chatting with website designer Alex Vita, who shares pet peeves as well as the best practices he’s honed over more than 13 years of work with photo industry clients. All will benefit from Alex’s insights on building a client-focused website as a way to build trust. After a break we get the artist’s perspective from the illustrious photographer, environmental activist, and creative whirlwind Benjamin Von Wong, who also happens to be one of Alex’s clients. Listen in as Ben and Alex discuss his web strategy and take a deep dive into the challenges of staying relevant and getting noticed in an oversaturated creative climate. We also dip into thoughts about how the evolution of AI is likely to change the future of the visual world, to make photographs the starting point for a conversation rather than its final purpose.
Guests: Alex Vita and Benjamin Von Wong
Top shot © Benjamin Von Wong
For more information on our guests and the gear they use, click here.
Episode Timeline
 
3:55: What role do stand-alone photography websites play in a world of viral social media sites?
 
12:16: Alex’s pet peeves in photography websites. Two general categories: poor content and poor user experience.
 
20:55: Bounce rates, Google analytics reports, and how to determine the success of your website.
 
26:17: What are the most important considerations for good SEO and how have best practices for SEO changed over time?
 
31:59: Alex’s recommendations for image size and compression for fast performance and readability on a wide range of devices—from mobile to retina screens.
 
35:55: Episode break
 
36:56: The varied roles that Ben Von Wong’s websites and web presence play in communicating his environmental message.
41:40: How Ben’s various microsites and social media presence helps with virality in marketing his work.
47:25: Ben’s position as an environmentalist in a world full of advertising and boosted content—Ethics and principals come first.
52:30: How the evolution of AI and integration with Chat GPT is about to change the future of the visual world.
1:02:33: Ben’s recommendations for what to look for when seeking to work with a web designer.
Guest Bios:
Alex Vita is a professional website designer, specialized in crafting sites for photographers and photo agencies. Working from his home base in Bucharest, Romania, Alex’s super-power is thinking outside the box to grasp the big picture, helping photographers to structure their web presence by prioritizing maximum impact.
Ben Von Wong is a Canadian artist, photographer, social influencer, and activist, best known for his hyper-realistic style, bridging photography and fantasy. His storytelling targets environmental issues such as ocean plastics, fashion pollution, and electronic waste, fueled by an extensive viral component that has generated more than 100 million views to date.  
Stay Connected:
Alex Vita’s Website: https://www.foregroundweb.com/
Alex Vita’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foregroundweb
Alex Vita’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foregroundweb/
Alex Vita’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/foregroundweb
Alex Vita’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@foregroundweb
 
Benjamin Von Wong’s Website: https://www.vonwong.com
Benjamin Von Wong’s Blog: https://blog.vonwong.com
Benjamin Von Wong’s Case Studies: https://unforgettablelabs.com
Benjamin Von Wong’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thevonwong
Benjamin Von Wong’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vonwong
Benjamin Von Wong’

We’re all about flower power on this week’s podcast, in celebration of Valentine’s Day. Joining us in discussion are photography curator Danae Panchaud, co-author of the recent book Flora Photographica, along with contributing photographer and audience favorite Abelardo Morell.
After describing the book’s genesis and scope, Danae delves into the extensive research process she and co-author William Ewing employed to sift through many thousands of photographs celebrating this wide-ranging subject. From sumptuous floral still lives to delicate blooms photographed in service of an activist cause to conceptual treatments depicting flowers as imposters of real life and beyond—this magnificent book offers fertile ground for consideration and debate.
After a break we continue the conversation with photographer Abelardo Morell, whose featured images from the series Flowers for Lisa evolved from a single photograph created as a gift for his wife to encompass a wide-ranging exploration of and homage to great artists of the past. 
As an alternative to a floral bouquet, we invite you to consider the enduring value in the gift of a photograph—or better yet an entire book of floral photography—to make a photoholic’s heart flutter.
Guests: Danae Panchaud and Abelardo Morell
Top shot © Abelardo Morell
For more information on our guests and the gear they use, see:
www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/podcasts
Episode Timeline
 
4:52: Danae Panchaud explains the research process for Flora Photographica and describes the joy in discovering the innovative methods photographers have used to explore this wide-ranging subject.
 
10:16: Distinctions between the new edition of Flora Photographica and an earlier volume by William Ewing sharing the same title, published in the 1990s.

13:53: The effects of digital tools and technologies on both the images themselves, and the research methods used to source images for the book.
 
16:31: Insights about Flora Photographica’s nine intriguing chapter titles: Roots, In Situ, Enquiry, Arrangement, Essence, Imposters, Hybrids, Fugue, and Reverie.
 
21:00: Incorporating floral pictures with political themes and conceptual work on floral subjects, and the use of captions to help convey these messages.
 
23:55: Using the element of surprise in picture selection and sequencing to highlight unexpected images and allow readers to discover new artists.
 
32:50: Episode break
 
34:20: Abe Morell’s first flower photograph was a double gift: A birthday gift for his wife and a gift for Abe to embark on a new challenge.
 
38:19: The benefits of working at home in the studio to use as a breeding ground for new ideas.
 
39:55: The incorporation of painting with photography, and Abe’s efforts to reinterpret and transform past works from art history.
42:34: How work on this photo series enhanced Abe’s perception of flowers as a common object.
Guest Bios:
Danae Panchaud is a photography curator, lecturer, and museum professional based in Switzerland. After studying photography at the widely acclaimed Vevey School of the Arts, she turned to curatorial practices at Geneva University of Art and Design. She has since held positions in the fields of contemporary art, design, and science at several Swiss institutions. From 2018 to 2021, she served as director and curator of Photoforum Pasquart in Biel. She was appointed director of the Centre de la Photographie Genève in 2021, where she explores the medium as a tool for constructing knowledge through both contemporary and historical photographs. Danae is actively involved in a number of Swiss associations for photography and the arts, currently serving as president of Spectrum – Photography in Switzerland.
 
Abelardo Morell is a repeat visitor to the podcast, having previously appeared in the show Abelardo Morell: Alchemist of Photography in 2022. Born in Havana, Cuba, Morell immigrated to the United

"Selecting photos is a different skill than making them,” explains renowned picture editor Mike Davis in this week’s podcast. This essential understanding forms the core of Davis’s new book Creating Visual Narratives Through Photography: A Fresh Approach to Making a Living as a Photographer.
Davis approaches this topic with a mix of clarity and candor, to offer deeply engaged yet highly accessible insights about making photos—and making sense of those photos—while also discussing the elusive art of selecting and sequencing pictures and other ways to create visual narratives.
Some of the key points covered in our chat include the visual vocabulary Davis assigns to photographs, his ideas about elevating pictures beyond simply informational content, how making multiple passes through a photo edit can help a photographer remove themselves from the experience of making the work, and his three different approaches to image sequencing.
Listeners will also gain a fresh understanding of ways in which both the art of creating visual narratives and the photo industry itself have evolved over time, to raise the bar on creative expression. In presenting this book, Davis’s goal echoes the response he has received from hundreds of photographers he’s helped to tell stories with their pictures, “I never would have thought of things that way, had we not had this engagement.”
Guests: Mike Davis
Photos © Mike Davis
Episode Timeline
3:26: Photography as a visual vocabulary, and distinctions between, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
6:25: What are informational photographs and how to make photos that rise above this basic level.
9:08: Davis’s definition of composition: the full realization of light, and color, and distance in conveying a 3-dimensional space.
18:33: How the photo industry and relationships between photographers and photo editors have changed over time.
30:42: Davis discusses his photos published in the book and shares thoughts about photographing with intention.
39:34: Episode break
44:18: Three approaches to image sequencing and how they work within the full spectrum ofrafting a narrative
46:17: Mike Davis’s most visually successful book project and a general timeframe for image sequencing.
48:06: Davis’s approach to working with photographers on sequencing a book.  
51:46: Davis describes his picture editing process using multiple passes through a set of photographs.
56:40: The primary audience and Davis’s ultimate goal in writing Creating Visual Narratives Through Photography: A Fresh Approach to Making a Living as a Photographer.
Guest Bio:
Mike Davis is a visual consultant, editor, author, photographer, and professor emeritus.
He has worked independently with hundreds of photographers as well as in staff positions for organizations as diverse as National Geographic, The White House, and several of America’s visually powerful newspapers.
Mike was twice named newspaper picture editor of the year, and he received The Sprague Award from The National Press Photographers Association, its highest honor.
He has edited more than 40 books as an independent consultant, judged a wide range of photography competitions and grant programs, lectured widely, and served as a member of various workshop and review faculty.
Most recently, Mike spent eight years as an endowed faculty member at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, where he taught visual storytelling courses and directed The Alexia Grants.
Stay Connected:
Mike Davis website: https://www.michaelddavis.com/
Mike Davis Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikedavis_mnpls/
Creating Visual Narratives Book: https://www.routledge.com/Creating-Visual-Narratives-Through-Photography-A-Fresh-Approach-to-Making/Davis/p/book/9781032262857
 
 
 

Creating and sustaining a successful photo career is no easy feat. To help aspiring young imagemakers acquire the needed creative concepts and business skills, two New York-based organizations—ASMP NY and BKC—have teamed up to offer the innovative mentorship, education, and industry immersion program The Bridge. Open to individuals from 18- to 26-years-old, The Bridge embraces diversity and offers opportunity to underserved communities, regardless of formal photography experience. Best of all, this four-month, real world program is free to accepted students.
We first learned about The Bridge during a chat with program co-founder Liam Alexander for the show ASMP-NY and the Future of Photo Trade Organizations in February 2022. Since the program’s second year recently wrapped with a gallery exhibition in Brooklyn, and plans are in the works to expand The Bridge to other ASMP chapters in 2023, we wanted to learn more about this valuable initiative in advance of the next application window this spring.
For this week’s podcast, we’re joined by Alexander, who sheds light on The Bridge program’s inner workings and educational goals during the first half of the show. After a break, we speak with 2022 Bridge graduate Eli Edwards, who describes what he learned through the program, and the resulting shift in the pictures he makes, as well as in his creative point of view. To discover how to futureproof your career and learn how to apply for this free program, make sure to listen in!
Guests: Liam Alexander and Eli Edwards
ASMP Bridge Program photo © Saad El Amin
For more information on our guests and the gear they use, see:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/podcasts/photography/celebrating-asmp-nys-mentorship-program-the-bridge
Episode Timeline
3:50: Application and selection process for The Bridge Mentorship, a program designed to fill the gap in existing educational models.
9:27: Introduction to The Bridge program partner BKC, and program co-founder Justin Lin.
17:13: The Bridge Program coursework: Developing Your Creative Point of View.
20:52: Bridge Mentorship Program Core Supporters: The ASMP Foundation, Sony, and Freelancers Union, and a widening network of additional supporters.
25:17: A five-year vision for the program: Producing the future of the photo industry every summer.
26:50: Episode break
27:24: 2022 Bridge Program participant Eli Edwards and his easy application through Instagram.
32:42: Effects of the program on Eli’s pictures and his new confidence in making project-based work.
36:40: Is YouTube University an effective tool for learning the ropes of photography?
40:56: How Eli’s shift from social media to photography changed his creative point of view, and some social media tips.
46:38: Ways to support The Bridge program and application window for the 2023 Bridge program mentorship.
Guest Bios:
Liam Alexander is a fine artist and creative director who seeks to catalyze social change through artistic expression. As the current president of ASMP New York, he co-founded the ASMP NY Bridge program in 2020 with Justin Lin of BKC. He has also been instrumental in building other community focused creative projects designed to educate and inspire, such as IThou at NYU’s Kimmel Galleries, The Exchange at Rush Arts, and #StrokeofGenius. Liam’s own work has been featured in gallery exhibitions and art fairs throughout the US, and at the second annual Toolkit Festival in Venice, Italy. His work has been published in magazines including Nylon and Rolling Stone, and he creates projects with major brands like Wix.com, Samsung, SAP, Renaissance Hotels, and the city of New York.
Eli Edwards is a photographer, videographer, writer, producer, and director. Born in Los Angeles, Eli currently resides in New York City, where he works as a freelance videographer and photographer for brands, events, and musical artists. He was a 2022 participant in the ASMP Bridge program, where he produced th

In some locales, the period between Christmas and the New Year is known as the Wild Nights, where mischief reigns in the darkest days of the northern hemisphere. We’re digging into this theme for our last show of 2022, in a chat with photographer and producer of this very podcast, Jill Waterman, who has been documenting New Year’s Eve traditions and exploits around the globe for the past 38 years. We first spoke with Jill about this project in the two-part show Legacy and Commitment in January 2022. Since she’s now a full-fledged member of the podcast team, we thought we’d investigate some of her more memorable experiences a bit further.
Jill is still shooting this series primarily with film, so our conversation ranges from the whys and wherefores of making that choice, to how the growth of the Internet became an essential research tool in the lead up to the Millennium and beyond. We also shed light on the elusive Austrian Perchten and Bulgarian Kukeri, and discuss parading Philadelphia Mummers, Bahamian Junkanoo figures, and Cape Town, South Africa’s legendary Minstrel Parade. To learn about the most rewarding aspect of Jill’s project and find out where she’ll be ringing in New Year’s Eve 2023, pull up a seat, pop some bubbly and listen in!
Guest: Jill Waterman
Photos © Jill Waterman
Episode Timeline
2:35: The beginnings of the New Year’s Eve Project
4:28: Evolution of the project and approach over time
5:34: Shooting black and white film instead of monochrome digital captures
8:12: Opportunities of the Millennium
9:04: The growth of the Internet as a research tool and discovering locations for New Year’s Eve rituals
10:00: Documenting “Perchtenlaufs” in Austria during the Wild Nights
10:59: Common themes in different cultures: Mummer’s Parade in Philadelphia; Junkanoo in Nassau, Bahamas; and the Minstrel Parade in Cape Town, South Africa
14:48: The spread of oral New Year’s traditions and rituals: Burning Effigies and New Year’s Widows in Quito, Ecuador
16:32: Bulgarian Kukeri and New Year’s parade to scare away evil spirits in Razlog
17:28: Advance planning before arrival and proceeding with boots on the ground
18:46: The value of spontaneity and capturing action in the moment
19:58: Working through anxiety, emotional spikes, and physical challenges
21:09: Assessing coverage and reviewing images after the fact
22:12: Underwhelming celebrations, and New Year’s Eve during COVID lockdown
25:50: Episode break
26:35: Jill’s analog camera kit: Nikon F3 HP, a 35-70 mm f/2.8 zoom and 24 mm f/2.8 prime lenses
27:45: Black and white films used—Ilford HP5, Delta 400, FP4, Delta 100—and diluted development to minimize contrast
29:23: The most rewarding aspect of the New Year’s Eve Project
30:41: Working through language differences and being open to communication
32:15: Experiencing the Pied Piper syndrome
32:45: Big crowds and safety issues on New Year’s Eve
35:36: This year’s destination, recent New York Foundation for the Arts award, and project links
Guest Bio: Born and raised in Massachusetts, Jill Waterman has been based in New York since 1985. Her personal work is centered in long-term photo projects, such as the ongoing New Year’s Eve Project and other aspects of her focus on night photography. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally and widely featured in press and media. Highlights include a 1997 arts documentary for Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin, Germany; a 2003 Today Show interview with Katie Couric; and a 2015 documentary for the web TV show Culture Connect. Waterman’s first book, the technical volume Night and Low Light Photography, was released by Amphoto books in August 2008. Her professional background includes a past career in image licensing, editorial positions in custom publishing, and her current role as creative producer for the B&H Photography Podcast.
Stay Connected:
New Year’s Eve Project Documentary: https://www.y