Smartphone manufacturers have been touting their moon photography smarts for years (sometimes with dubious results), but with its upcoming X100 series Vivo seems to be focusing on the flip side — photographing the sun. We should get a better idea of what that means when the Vivo X100 and X100 Pro launch on November 13th in China.
Co-organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) and Center for Creative Photography (CCP) in collaboration with the School of Art, University of Arizona, Wonders and Witness: Contemporary Photography from Korea represents the joint effort of these institutions to share the achievements of Korean photography with a broader audience.
Contemporary Korean society can be called a culmination of social consequences caused by rapid modernization, urbanization, and westernization. It carries pervasive sensibilities such as modern desire, anxiety, mystery, and frustration. In this context, photography emerges as a significant and potent medium capable of documenting the scenes of our daily life and society, bearing witness to their dynamic and precarious changes. The photographs showcased in this exhibition invite us to question and contemplate various issues prevalent in contemporary Korean life and society, including urbanization, individual and community dynamics, family matters, identity, and economic shifts.
It can be said that the works are grounded on the belief of the photographic possibility of documentation, yet with a subjective and artistic interpretation. The photographs portray a scene as an observation of the world around us. At the same time, they attempt to capture invisible sensibilities that continuously linger in the photographed moment. In this regard, the works of these 12 photographers serve not only as social commentary but also as acute witnesses to the affective conditions of society.
Hopefully, these works will give rise to captivating and unforeseen narratives, resonating with the wider audience at the Center for Creative Photography. The photographed moments, where artistic intention and magical serendipity coexist, possess the capacity to engage viewers’ imaginations and interpretations, ultimately harnessing the profound power of photography, replete with wonders and witness.
The exhibition is accompanied by the International Symposium on Korean Photography, held at the CCP auditorium. The schedule is as below.
Saturday, November 18: The first day of the symposium includes two panel discussions and a roundtable with various esteemed speakers, including Dr. Park Pyongjong, Professor, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea; Dr. Kim Youngmin, Professor, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea; Dr. Kim Jeehey, Assistant Professor, University of Arizona; Kim Namin, Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Linde Lehtinen, Curator of Photography, Huntington Library; and Zhao Yechen, Assistant Curator of Photography, Art Institute of Chicago.
Sunday, November 19: The last day features highly anticipated panel discussion at 1:10pm with photographers featured in the Wonders and Witness exhibition. Speakers include Gwon Doyeon, Kim Oksun, Oh Heinkuhn, and Yoon JeongMee.
Register for the symposium here.
Branding is more than just a logo, it is the vision and delivery of your business, which, in photography, is very important. Whether you are a wedding, newborn, portrait, or product photographer, having the right branding is a key element to getting great clients through the door and optimizing your services. In this video by boudoir photographer Michael Sasser, he takes us through some great tips and tricks.
Your brand can help you determine who you are as a photographer and what type of clients you want to attract. Sasser shares his new workbook, which can help you identify answers to some of the key questions he asks of you and also gives you the tips you need to make steps towards those goals.
Having a clear idea of your brand allows you to optimize your website, email traffic, social media, and even how you present yourself on the day of the shoot. It becomes an identity and a mission statement you live by and provides great comfort to your clients.
This video is certainly a great insight into some of the questions and answers you should be looking at while wanting to create your brand, and Sasser has done a great job putting this together.
For photographers who currently run successful businesses, what tips and advice would you give to those starting their careers?
Actor and photographer Norman Reedus has seen much success with the spinoff of The Walking Dead featuring his character Daryl Dixon. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premiered on AMC and AMC+ in October 2023 to rave reviews from critics and viewers. The series is set and filmed in France, giving it a much different tone than anything else in TWDU. Reedus will host a new exhibit of his photography in France in November.
The series is titled “In Transit” and will be held at the Mark Hachem Gallery on the move at Galerie Joseph in Paris, France, beginning with a VIP preview on November 9 with the show on view until November 17.
This new series of photographs taken by Norman Reedus spans from the 90s to the present. As a photographer, Reedus has a keen eye that sees things others would simply pass by. He often captures macabre images in such a way that they become beautiful.
The show description:
His new photographic work, spanning from the ’90s, a bygone and legendary era, to the present day, delves into the complexity of the human soul through portraits and unique locations. It is an initiatory quest, a road trip between dreams and reality, in transit towards a new transcendence. A journey resembling a waking dream into the depths of his soul, between the conscious and the unconscious.
Beyond this transformative journey, he invites the audience to connect with the evolution of his creative work, exploring the intricacies of his introspections and his deep self.
If you want to purchase photography by Reedus, check out his site, bigbaldgallery, and sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss out.
New to the site is the Dark Vibes merch collection emblazoned with the BBH logo in cool violet and vibrant lime green. Currently, the new re-imaged logo is available on hoodies, tote bags, and zip hoodies.
Follow Undead Walking on Twitter and sign up for the once-daily Undead Walking newsletter to avoid missing out on everything in The Walking Dead universe.
Photo Essay by Ernesto González Díaz
HAVANA TIMES – The park photographed is Cordova Park in the Havana neighborhood of El Sevillano. The photos were taken around 10 at night and under a persistent drizzle that can be seen in some of the images.
Night photography is necessarily long exposure due to the low lighting in the scene. In dimly lit environments, such as the one I photographed, the shutter speed or exposure time can range between 4 and 8 seconds. It is practically essential to use a tripod or rest the camera on some solid and preferably flat surface to prevent the photo from being blurred. It is also suggested to use the timer as the pressure exerted when pressing the shutter can generate some jitter.
See more photo features here on Havana Times.
Canon connoisseurs, Nikon aficionados, Sony enthusiasts and all are welcome to join Montclair State University’s very own photography club.
Founded in early February 2021 by then-sophomore molecular biology major Marissa Di Fulco, the club was made to fill the gap in the thousands of organizations Montclair State had to offer at the time. She realized, as she looked through the list of organizations, that there was no established community where students who share her same passion and appreciation for photography could come together. She laid the foundations for a club that would go on to feature amazing photographers.
Two members of the photo club work together to solve a technical problem. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
No matter what kind of camera you have, whether it is a full body with the latest sensors or just the camera on your phone, you are welcome to come learn more about the art of photography and share your creative visions with other members. The club is a safe space where anyone can participate: rookies, pros and anyone in between.
At first, meetings started over Zoom on Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. where members had the opportunity to learn from professionals like Mike Peters, the university photographer of Montclair State. As time went on during the fall semester, members of the club found themselves a new home: Calcia Hall room 131.
The photography club hosted its first gallery exhibit on Dec. 1, courtesy of their board led by president Di Fulco. Instead of exclusively taking the pictures, she and the rest of the board worked to have the K. Schnitzer Gallery. Students were encouraged to submit pictures that they took, regardless of if it was on a professional camera or the camera on their phone, and they were displayed in the gallery for all to see. Galleries have become a consistent part of the club’s schedule, and more will be on the way.
In addition to these galleries, the club also hosts “Feature Friday,” a weekly Instagram post where a club member’s photos are showcased. One of these features have even included The Montclarion’s very own director of photography, Karsten Englander.
Earlier this month, the club hosted a meeting where members could take pictures on film cameras and develop those pictures.
Developed film rolls sit on a light table. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
Maggie Evans, a senior communications and media studies major and the current club president, commented on how the club provides more accessibility to other photography mediums like film photography.
Maggie Evans, president of the photography club, poses with two thumbs up. Photo courtesy of Angel Santos
“It’s always a really cool process to take film pictures and develop them. We’re trying to make [film] more popular again for people to like see how fun it actually is,” Evans said. “I know it’s hard to get your own chemicals obviously and like have your own darkroom, so we want it to be available to everybody who it can be.”
Nina Andrews, a junior psychology major, is the treasurer of the club and commented on resource availability in the cage, Montclair State’s very own state-of-the-art center for all film and radio production needs. She also mentioned that the process of developing film alone is its own unique process and opportunity to use resources available on campus.
Nina Andrews, treasurer of the photography club, smiles for the camera. Photo courtesy of Angel Santos
“We have limited materials in the cage just because of all the classes that we’re renting out too and that’s the main priority but we are able in the club to like take advantage of what we have left,” Andrews said. “You don’t get that opportunity to have that creative process when you’re sending your film out or like your disposable cameras. This is another way to take advantage of what we have on campus.”
A member of the photography club reaches to take their developed photo from the photo tray. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
On Wednesday, Oct. 25, as part of the photography club’s weekly meeting, they provided members with the opportunity to take pictures using an unconventional medium: a paint can. Each paint can was equipped with a small hole on the surface, covered by a piece of tape. Inside the paint can was a piece of photo paper, where the picture was produced. Members stepped outside of the building and found locations around the Montclair State campus to take photos of. In order to take the picture, they placed the paint can on a stable surface and removed the piece of tape for 30 seconds, allowing the photo paper to be exposed to light. After the 30 seconds were up, they covered the hole with the tape and returned to the room to begin processing.
Evans places her paint can on a window sill and peels the tape off of the hole. Photo courtesy of Angel Santos
In order to process the image, members entered the darkroom, a processing area where there is no light in order to safely develop the image on film or paper. Members then placed their photo papers into a photo tray, which contained certain chemicals to allow the picture to develop. After a few minutes, members were able to take their pictures out and see what they had produced.
The film hangs while it develops. Photo courtesy of Angel Santos
Markell Robinson, vice president of the club, is a senior film and television major. He encourages people to practice casual photography and take pictures to capture different moments of their everyday lives, even if it’s just on their phones.
Markell Robinson, vice president of the club, speaks with a club member. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
“I do think that more people should practice casual photography, it’s a good way to capture your everyday being,” Robinson said. “I usually do not take pictures every day, but I just recently got a point and shoot camera so I can start just taking pictures everywhere I go. In 10 years from now, you’re not gonna be able to really look back and see what you did in college but I think if you take those pictures every day, you’ll appreciate them in the long run.”
Dan Dreisbach, a junior visual communication design major, is the secretary of the club. He emphasized the importance of a photographer’s relationship with their subject.
Dan Dreisbach, secretary of the club, poses in front of a whiteboard decorated with information on taking photos with a film camera. Photo courtesy of Angel Santos.
“For photography, especially portrait photography, you have a relationship with your subject,” Dreisbach said. “I know me personally I’m very awkward in front of the camera. So part of taking pictures of somebody is making them feel comfortable, getting to know your subject, like knowing what they think they like about themselves or what they don’t like and trying to capture the best part of what they like.”
To learn more about the club or if you have any questions, reach out to @msu.photoclub on Instagram.
I’ve been using filters for my photography for more than ten years, and for the last five, I have used filters made by Kase. Just recently, I switched my filter system to what I think is the perfect filter kit for landscape and architecture photography. In this article, you’ll find a detailed review of it.
A few years ago, if you had asked me which filters to get for landscape photography, I’d have answered: The Kase K9 Kit with a set of ND and GND filters. GND filters have always been essential in my photography, but since I switched to the Canon EOS R5 three years ago, I find myself using those less and less.
They still make capturing high-dynamic range scenes easier than relying solely on exposure bracketing. For many years, I would combine both techniques. But the dynamic range modern cameras can capture already gives a good starting point in most situations, so I no longer need GND filters that often.
It is why I decided to switch to a more compact filter kit. Especially during my travels, the GND filters took up too much space in my camera bag. With the Kase KW Revolution Kit, I could reduce the footprint of my filters.
As you already learned in this FStoppers article, this set of color-coded magnetic filters contains a polarizer, an ND9, an ND64, and an ND1000 filter. Included are also two adapters: a normal screw-in magnetic adapter and a tiny inlaid ring that vanishes inside your lens’ filter thread. The filters magnetically snap into either of those adapters. The magnets are strong enough for combining several filters, as you can see in the feature video. And while it’s possible to use your regular lens cap with these filters, you can also use the included magnetic filter cap.
The magnetic KW Revolution Filters use high-quality Wolverine glass as the filters I used with the K9 Kit. Those were already great, with nearly no color cast and excellent sharpness. But once I got the Revolution filters, I did some additional tests, stacking up to three filters in front of my Canon RF 100-500mm lens while shooting at 500mm.
Note that in the side by side comparisons below, moving the slider to the left will always reveal the photo with the Kase filters attached.
With low-quality filters, you will notice a degradation in detail and sharpness, especially when shooting with a long lens. But as you can see in the 100% crop comparison below, even with two filters – a polarizer and an ND9 – there is no noticeable degradation in image quality. Only when I used three filters, a UV, a polarizer, and an ND64, could I see a minimal reduction in sharpness. I show this comparison in the feature video.
The filters show close to no color cast. In the comparison above, you see a slight warming through the polarizer. It comes mainly from the polarization and the removal of the reflections of the blue sky. It will hardly be a problem, especially if you’re shooting raw.
I also tested the ND1000 filter. See the comparison above. Here, I don’t notice any color cast. As you can see in the following comparison, using a UV and an ND9 also produces no color cast.
The weather here in Germany hasn’t been good since I got the filters. I haven’t yet taken a photo with the sun in the frame. But I did a little night photo test shoot in my garden to check how the filters influence the capturing of artificial lights in a photo. What you might notice with low-quality filters when shooting cityscapes at night are little lens flares around the city lights.
Thankfully, such lens flares are well-controlled with the KW Revolution filters. The two photos look identical. I used a magnetic UV filter from Kase with the ND9 from the Revolution Kit for this test. You will also not notice any color cast.
The vignetting topic is a bit more complicated because it depends a lot on the lens you’re using and at which focal length you are photographing. I use a Canon RF 15-35mm lens with an 82mm filter thread. But I still got the 95mm Kase KW Revolution Kit. With these larger filters, I can stack two filters even when shooting at 15mm without vignetting. On the Kase Germany homepage, I found a table with recommended filter sizes for different lenses.
When getting a filter set that is larger than the filter thread of your lens, you also need another adapter. Kase offers different step-up rings. I got an 82-95mm adapter and a 77-95mm adapter for the two lenses I use. It also means I cannot use the small inlaid adapters, which is fine but something to consider.
You can join me in the feature video as I show how I use the filters for woodland and river photography. It’s the perfect use case for the KW Revolution polarizer and typically also for the ND9. On this day, it was already quite dark in the forest, and I didn’t need an ND filter.
The ND filters will be important at the coast. They let you achieve longer exposure times even before sunset to capture a sense of movement in the water.
I’d call the ND1000 the fine art filter. You can use it to completely smooth out water and movement to create minimalistic photos. Or you can use it to remove people from a city. If there are just a few people moving through the frame, they vanish in such a long exposure. For crowds, you can achieve a ghost-like effect.
The Kase KW Revolution Pro filters are great for landscape and architecture photography. They are all I need for nearly all my photo shoots. In some situations, I would still like to have a GND filter at hand. But unlike a polarizer or an ND filter, a GND is no longer a necessity for me. You should also decide if that’s the case for you. If you still find yourself using GND filters a lot, then switching to this more compact kit might not be the right move and the K9 Kit might be a better option. But when it comes to ease of use and size of the filters, the KW Revolution filters are hard to beat.
The beauty of working with flash is that you can walk into any lighting situation and shape it to your creative vision and needs, and that frees you from relying on the sun to cooperate and to dictate your shoot’s timing and location. Perhaps no scenario is more challenging than harsh midday light. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to use off-camera flash to work with that harsh light to create compelling portraits.
Coming to you from Jiggie Alejandrino, this excellent video tutorial will show you two different ways to tackle difficult, hard light using off-camera flash, including high-speed sync and ND filters. No doubt, midday sun is something that is avoided by most photographers, as it generally produces harsh, unflattering light, but being able to work with any sort of ambient light is the mark of a professional, and you will find it far more creatively freeing. On top of that, that harsh light can create dramatic contrasts across the landscape that can add a lot of visual interest to the frame. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Alejandrino.
If you would like to continue learning about how to light a portrait, be sure to check out “Illuminating The Face: Lighting for Headshots and Portraits With Peter Hurley!”
Andy Summers is best known as a guitarist for the English rock band The Police, popular in the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. But he has also been a passionate and award-winning photographer from the film days through the digital transition to today. Summers has published five books on his photography, the latest from teNeues is A Series of Glances, and has had his work shown at over 60 exhibitions worldwide.
“Well, color wasn’t really regarded very seriously then as art photography,” Summers tells PetaPixel on a phone call. “Color started moving a bit in the early 70s with William Eggleston. And a couple of others followed him, like Joel Meyerowitz, whose work was taken seriously as art photography.
“So, photography was black and white, and almost everybody shot black and white. And, of course, I had grown up with all those black-and-white films [movies]. So, it’s, of course, where I went. Color was regarded as secondary, but that’s not true anymore. So that was the atmosphere I grew up in. I went to B&W, thousands of rolls of [Kodak] Tri-X.
“Yeah, maybe a few shots [in the book], I used, sometimes shooting at night, I would use [Ilford] Delta 3200.
Lest you get the idea that Summers is a B&W purist, that is untrue. He has a whole set of color photos and is even thinking about a future book on his color photography.
“In my years with The Police, I was in a tax exile — I lived in Ireland,” he says. “I did set up a darkroom. And worked at it for a while. And I liked to know that side of it. I was fanatical enough about photography outside of music to want to learn about darkroom processes. And I set one up and had a go at it for a while.
“But decided that it wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to be in a darkroom. Honestly, I’m glad to have tried it. I’m gonna let somebody else…I had one guy in London, an American guy I took my films to in Covent Garden [a shopping and entertainment hub in London’s West End].
“There’s probably some digital [in A Series of Glances]. I didn’t start digital until 2012. My first digital camera was a Leica. I’ve got Leica M10 cameras now – both black and white [M10 Monochrom] and color.
“I don’t like grain [referring to film photography]. A lot of photographers like it, [especially] photographers from older days. I like to have blur and distortion in the pictures. We’re always trying to push the edge of photography, you know, in your [photographic] statements… It’s an art form, so you can bend the rules.
We wanted to know the difference between shooting film and digital from Summers, who has done his fair share of both.
“I don’t think it’s about digital or film?” fires back Summers. “I think it’s about the eye and the mind. That’s what photography is about. It’s not about the camera or film. It’s about how you visualize, how you think about art. So those sorts of questions are interesting if you’re a nerd, but to me, they’re not. I’m quite happy using these Leica digital cameras, and I think [they] have made me better. They’ve made me a better photographer.
Summers typically shoots at 400 ISO on film and digital.
“I would rate [Kodak] 400 Tri-X at 800 or 1600 ISO and do things like that as well,” clarifies Summers.
“But of course, you know it’s digital. If you feel like, ‘Oh, I need more latitude on the F-stops,’ then you can push the ASA [ASA is a scale created by the American Standards Association, but it is no longer used. Now, most film is labeled by ISO, created in 1987 by the International Organization for Standardization] all the way up to 6400 on [Leica] M10.
“And with digital, if you go after a much higher ASA, it’s much less noticeable than film. So, I think you have a much, much more latitude with it. So, yeah, it’s a good thing.
“I don’t shoot film anymore. Okay. I’m sort of at it, returning to it, but it is a very, it’s a big deal. To shoot film and develop it is a real hassle. I was recently in Amsterdam with a kid who insisted on shooting film, but the trouble he had with developing and all the rest of it! It’s also costly now.
“I have a whole system of how I work with my photography. I have an assistant … returned from a trip and gave him ten cards. He loads them into our database, gives them to me, and I load them into my computer. I have a 27-inch computer which I work on and select the very best out of them.
“And then he takes them back, cuts it down to just the best shots, returns them to me, and then they go into another system [where the images are keyworded]. All [the images] fall into categories, so it’s easy for me to go through and find things.
“I’m not a landscape photographer or a fashion photographer. I hate fashion photography. I’m influenced by photographers like Ralph Gibson, Robert Frank, and Lee Friedlander and filmmakers like [François] Truffaut and [Ingmar] Bergman and [Federico] Fellini. That’s where the sensibility is for me.
“It’s just like music. You work in the media, and you come to find your own voice. I like abstraction, blur, distortion, and all these things because I come from a musical sensibility. And I think that works very well with photography.
“There’s great parallels for me. Because I practice both disciplines, you can bring the terms of one of the practices to the other. Why not? I feel like being a guitar player, or musician, is a significant advantage because I have a whole other set of ways of thinking that maybe other developers who aren’t like passionate musicians, they don’t have it.”
Photography and music are always in Summers’ mind, almost like he has a permanent headset.
“When I listen to sounds in a city like Manhattan, New York, and I walk around, my eyes are turned on, and I’m always thinking. I was just there for a week in New York City. So great, thrilling, this is different than where I live [Los Angeles]. I’m always looking and thinking, throwing a rectangular frame on, as I’m looking at everything.”
Outside the US, Summers has photographed the most in China.
“I went to China eight times,” he proudly exclaims. “A few years ago, I went to see the Naxi Orchestra play in their own little theatre in Li Jiang. So that was pretty interesting. I traveled all over, and I went to Tibet.
“I noticed yesterday I was looking at something to do in the studio, and there’s an overwhelming number of shots I did in China because it was so visually stimulating to me.
“One thing I noticed about China as opposed to, say, someplace like Morocco. [When you raise your camera] the Chinese don’t even blink an eye. They smile at you and don’t mind the camera at all. It’s really weird. It’s a cultural thing. In other cultures you go, they object.
“Sometimes I’m just traveling. Sometimes, I like to travel just to do photography. Yeah, I was in India. I wasn’t always on tour in China– I was just there. And, of course, I always have a guitar with me because I have to always play, but I wasn’t doing any actual concerts.”
Summers was not the official photographer for The Police, but he had the best vantage point being part of the band.
“I had the great and singular opportunity to be traveling in the world’s most famous band for a few years and photographing it always from the inside. Nobody asked me to do what I did, but I did it.
In the film days, X-rays were the biggest worry for photographers taking multiple flights.
“It was of great concern to me,” says the photographer. “I went on one of the trips and must have been before they came out with the first Leica digital, and I was still on film. I was traveling around China, and I had traveled all over Asia.
“I think I came in from somewhere like Laos or Cambodia, and they put my bag through the X-ray, and I was so freaked out. That was the only time that happened to me. I had 90 rolls of film, and only a couple were sort of destroyed. Mostly, they were okay. They were all in those X-Ray [lead-lined] bags. I was pretty paranoid about it.
In 2019, Leica introduced the $14,995 Andy Summers Leica M Monochrom. It also included a Leica Summicron-M f/2 35mm ASPH lens, a Fender guitar-inspired camera strap, and an Oberwerth leather black system bag. It was limited to 50 sets worldwide.
“I think I’ve got three of them or something like that,” says the Leica photographer. “I can’t remember. They are upstairs in an attic. They are precious. I’m really happy to have them, but I don’t sit around staring at them.
“By the time they came out with the camera, I was already on to the M10. I wish they’d made it as an M10. But I was very happy to have it done. It was a nice thing, and it sold out pretty quickly.
Read also: Lenny Kravitz Designed a $24K Leica with Faux Python Skin
“I’ve just spent two months on the road photographing, and I’ll be going on a musical tour for the rest of the year in America. And, of course, It’ll provide me with many photography opportunities. So, I’m looking forward to getting into that because I haven’t gone touring in America for a long time.
Summers has been touring South America in the last few months, including Brazil and Ecuador.
“I’ve been going to Brazil every year, sometimes a few times here since 1995. And I play South Brazil as my other home is there. I’m very used to being in Rio de Janeiro.
“I’ve done many things in Brazil, and also, Argentina, Chile everywhere. This last tour was Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, and Paraguay. And we have to go back to finish it in Mexico.”
Summers backs up his files on the road to four or five devices, including a small MacBook Pro.
He knows photographers are shooting in color and then converting to B&W. So, we asked him if he could/would do the same.
“I’m thinking about it,” he speaks with some hesitation in his voice. “And it’s the first time I’ve ever thought about that. Black and white is sort of sacred to me, but we’re living in different times.
“When I go this year, I normally would take an M10 mono and an M10 color, but I must always have a backup camera in case anything goes wrong. I might [just] take two color cameras, but I’m thinking about it.
Summers has traveled streets around the world but is not a street photographer.
“I don’t like street photography,” he says. “I’m not looking for like the essence of street. I’m just not interested. That’s not a sensibility at all.
Is Summers a documentary photographer?
“No, I’m an art photographer. That’s what I’m interested in. I don’t really see doing documentary.”
The Leica Museum ran a Summers’ show called A Certain Strangeness, also the title of one of his books. Summers feels that the phrase describes the quality of a photograph to open the eyes.
“They have a certain way, always trying to find something, you know, oblique, a visual image that will catch [the eye] that is not a cliche. No ordinary [photograph] is gonna strike the viewer’s sensibility. A strange juxtaposition of elements in the photograph [can] make a much more interesting photograph.
Summers is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is in the Guitar Player Hall of Fame, has the keys to New York City, has won five Grammy awards, and has been awarded the Chevalier De L’Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture in France.
“I don’t even think about it,” says Summers, brushing it aside. “I have so many awards and rewards and all that over the years. Getting these things is nice, but my life’s not based on that. The only thing that counts is doing the work.
So, what is the connection between music and photography?
“That’s a very big question,” says the musical photographer. “There are certain elements like line, balance, frame, juxtaposition of the elements and, you know, bass, treble, middle chords, harmony, melodic lines. It’s the same thing in photography; you’re looking for all those same elements, except they are visual rather than aural. That’s the difference, but you can see how they translate from one to the other.
The title of Summers’ latest book is A Series of Glances, and we wanted to know if he is glancing through his viewfinder.
“Yes, you are glancing all the time,” says Summers. “And then you hold the glance, so it becomes [an image]. A glance implies it’s very quick, but some photography is done quickly. Like the camera tells you to do it at 1/125 of a second, and you must think that fast.
Summers’ photos have a dreamlike quality.
“Yeah, I think so,” says Summers in agreement. “I think you’re looking for another sort of reality that you could point [out]. You have the ability not to distort reality but to collect photographs, sequence them, and present another sort of reality that becomes personal and maybe more interesting to people.
“Most photographers that influenced me are American,” says England-born guitarist Summers. “A lot of them from New York. I mean, you’ve got people like I’m trying to think of, Bill Brandt, in England. Obviously, Cartier Bresson is the kind of person you start with when you first get into it.
“I spent a lot of time in New York and became very close friends with Ralph Gibson [who recommended a Leica M4-2 Best Premium Rangefinder Camera, which Summers often used]. And I thought his photography was wonderful and very musical. I then got into other people like Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Duane Michals.
Summers never uses flash and even hates the look of it.
“Some people [photographers] make a success of it. But I tend to associate flash with celebrity photography, and I don’t like flash. And most of the photographers I like don’t use flash.
“It’s absolutely disgusting [the firing of flash at a performer.] And I’ve been on the [receiving] end of that so many millions of times because I do concerts. Photographers are allowed to do [shoot] the first three songs, and you get a bunch of guys sitting/standing in front of the stage taking really bad photographs and often with flash. It’s horrible. When you’re on stage trying to play well for an audience, that flash is very disturbing.
Summers does admit that if you were using slow films like Kodachrome 64, you had to resort to flash.
In the future, Summers will keep photographing and refining his work. He is also planning on pulling out all the color work.
“Thinking about it, these things come to you slowly. You assemble things and then work your way through it, just like making music. I’m finishing up a new album now, and I’ve also got all this color photography on the computer in my studio.
“And so, I will start slowly arranging it into a sequence. After all the years of black and white, I’m challenging myself to see if I could do a whole book of color. So, that’s a little step for me!”
We asked Summers how he got started in photography.
“From boredom, “instantly replies the guitarist. “Years ago, I was always on tour and stuck in hotels. Like everybody else, I’d always take pictures with various cameras. But I was so involved with music that I did not take up photography as a serious pursuit.”
“I was also surrounded by photographers. We were so popular, so I told myself, ‘I am going to get a very good camera and become a photographer. I’m gonna study it,’ just like that. But, you know, I had no idea what it would really take, but the seed was there.
Summers asked a photographer in New York to help him get a camera, and she took him to B&H Photo.
“I bought a Nikon FE [1978-1983]. Oh, I’ve used that camera. Beautiful, beautiful,” says Summers fondly. [Me too! I enjoyed midnight long exposures of the Mount Everest region and the FE producing well-exposed Ektachrome 100 slides on aperture priority, selecting shutter speeds of 45 minutes plus.]
“Once I got it, it became a real passion for me. I always had cameras, and my brother was sort of an avid photographer. And when I was about 14, I got a job on the beach in England [Bournemouth in the south] in my hometown as a sort of summer photographer with some weird box camera photographing tourists and I did that for a couple of summers. I was 15,16, 17.
“I was going to a cinema in my hometown called the Continental Cinema, which showed all these fantastic European arthouse films, and I was going to those all the time. That was a big part of my sensibilities at a young age.
“I was completely involved with playing the guitar and American jazz, but I was also watching all these European arthouse films, and it didn’t make me take up photography then, although I sort of idly thought I should be a film director. But I was such an obsessive guitarist that that didn’t happen then.
“But all those films, all the black and white ones, absolutely infiltrated my consciousness. So, when I did get around to it a few years later, it was like seeds being sown, and it wasn’t coming from an empty place. That kind of stuff had a big impact on me. And so, therefore, it seems obvious that when I got the camera [it] sounded good, and I’m gonna get good at this. It came naturally.
When we spoke to noted academy award-winning cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins in May 2023, he told us a similar story of growing up in Bournemouth, photographing tourists on the beach as a summer job, and seeing arthouse films. But Deakins, in the late 60s and early 70s, was before Summers’ time.
“He must have been a few years before me, but yeah, that’s amazing.,” says Summers. “As I said, I thought I’d be a film director. I was 16 years old, 17 or whatever.”
“So, you see, it was all sort of there. But the guitar itself is such an obsessive instrument that I ended up doing. It kind of worked out at the end, right?”
You can see more of Andy Summers’ work on his website and Instagram.
A Series of Glances from teNeues is currently shipping.
About the author: Phil Mistry is a photographer and teacher based in Atlanta, GA. He started one of the first digital camera classes in New York City at The International Center of Photography in the 90s. He was the director and teacher for Sony/Popular Photography magazine’s Digital Days Workshops. You can reach him here.
Image credits: All photos by Andy Summers and used courtesy of teNeues.
