In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze and Zach Hodges sit down with photographer Joe Greer in Nashville. As a broke college student he saved for a month to buy an iPhone 4 just to get on Instagram, then spent every free hour shooting the Pacific Northwest. A curator job at VSCO followed, ten months he still calls his art school, spent studying Alex Webb and William Eggleston and sorting tens of thousands of photographs a day. Then a Portland church cut his position right before Christmas in 2016, and going freelance meant seven months without a single reply. New York broke it open. Armed with a Leica M6, he got hooked on street photography and kept posting it even as it cost him followers. That way of seeing became his calling card, and brands including Leica, Bandit Running, and Gatorade started hiring him for exactly it while his agent Ernesto handled the business. He walks through NYC I Love You, built from 150 undeveloped rolls when COVID emptied the streets, and India Volume 1, the 156 photos drawn from seven years of trips and designed by Mouthwash Studios. He breaks down critical focus over zone focus, why he takes far more bad photos than good ones, and why he refuses to stay in one lane. No off switch, no plan to retire, and every frame he has ever shared was edited in VSCO. This episode explores Building your own photo education from books, documentaries, and the greatsTurning personal work into the thing brands hire you forWhat a rep actually does, and why giving up 20% is worth itWalking onto a commercial set without a shot listCritical focus versus zone focus, and what a real hit rate takesWhy bad photos and refusing to niche down keep a career aliveFollow Joe: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ioegreer/ Website: https://www.ioe.photography/ Chapters: 00:00 A Florida Kid, an iPhone, and the Leica That Changed Everything 01:40 From Florida to shooting the Pacific Northwest on an iPhone 02:21 Discovering #VSCOcam and falling for photography 04:35 Getting hired at VSCO, his art school 06:53 How curating thousands of photos sharpened his eye 08:13 Teaching yourself from photo books and the greats 10:10 Two desert-island books, Meyerowitz and Robert Frank 11:36 Hunger, hardship, and the drive to go pro 12:47 Let go before Christmas, the leap to freelance 13:53 Moving to NYC and getting hooked on the streets 14:55 The wedding-gift Canon and buying a Leica M6 16:20 Getting repped, what a photo agent actually does 18:48 Turning a street eye into commercial work 22:02 Why he shoots without a shot list 24:49 Taking the risk when street photography wasn't cool 27:06 Books over likes, what makes a great photograph 28:44 NYC I Love You, a love letter on 150 rolls of film 29:56 India, the Google trip that started seven years of work 31:37 The XPan, black and white, and The Art of Devotion 33:01 Sequencing the book and letting go of favorites 35:23 The secret to a high hit rate, critical focus 37:51 Zone focus versus critical focus, explained 39:29 Take more bad photos 42:35 Advice, consistency, sharing, and press publish 45:13 Don't niche down, photograph what you love 47:38 No off switch, no retirement 48:44 Where to find Joe, and why it's all edited in VSCO #JoeGreer #StreetPhotography #FilmPhotography #LeicaM6 #35mm #PhotoBooks #IndiaPhotography #ShootFilm #F22Series #VSCO
