Pick a photographer, what would you ask them over coffee / tea/water/"zoom" &c

removed account4

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just like the title states, if you have an opportunity to have a cup of coffee/tea, glass of water, "zoom" &c with a photographer, famous, your favorite insta-influencer or whatever... who would it. be and what would you ask them? and why?
 

BrianShaw

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YOU... because you’re fascinating! The questions would be, photographically, what do you think I can do to be a decent photographer after my lifetime of trying. But most of all is just enjoy relaxing and chit-chatting.
 
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Peter Schrager

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Willam Klein would be fun....why did you choose to live in Paris instead of NYC?
what was the most relevant photographic experience in your life?
 

Rick A

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There are a couple of photogs that live near by, I would ask them to join me in a collaborative venture of an educational nature.
 

Sirius Glass

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I would invite two and see how they now viewed each other and whether their attitudes mellowed: Ansel Adams and William Mortensen.
 

Cholentpot

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My grandfather was an enthusiast photographer. He shot all sorts of stuff. While I knew him well I did not know this until after he passed.

I'd sit down with my Grandfather over a pot of borsht and a cup of tea and find out how much he knew about photography and where that darn Leica of his ended up.
 

Máx Arnold

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Hélène Binet. I would ask her How did she get such good reputation, how did she start shooting architectural projects back in the day when noone knew her and noone trusted her artwork. One thing is sure: You don't shoot the Friendship Center the first time you do get some work. You might start with your backyard Like Nièpce did with View from the window at Le Gras

And Sir John William Herschel. I'd sit down a whole afternoon between coffees and let him tell me how did he get to discover the action of light in plant juices (a.k.a. Anthotypes) and some well known Siderotypes (Cyanotype, Kallitype, Herschellotype aka Chrysotype), and the Hypo Fixer, and how much he helped Talbot with that.
 

Sirius Glass

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WeeGee
 

MattKing

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Just one!?
How about Jane Bown?
But even better, Jane Bown and Yousuf Karsh.
 

MattKing

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WeeGee and Stanley Kubrick together!
 

36cm2

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Brett Weston. It wouldn't be coffee or tea. It would be for a "snakebite" by the fire. And I would ask him to recount his favorite stories of women he had loved. Because I have a feeling that he would greatly enjoy himself sitting by the fire, having a snake bite and telling stories of women he had loved. That sly smile you see on him in old documentaries is probably infectious in person mid-tale.
 

miha

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jnantz said:
just like the title states, if you have an opportunity to have a cup of coffee/tea, glass of water, "zoom" &c with a photographer, famous, your favorite insta-influencer or whatever... who would it. be and what would you ask them? and why?
Click to expand...

This one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Pucher

I would ask him to explain how he did it as all the records have been lost and all the attempts to recreate the process failed miserably.
 

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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Well, I spent about a decade researching a photographer for my PhD. I went through archives, I interviewed people, I read all that was published about him, pored over his contact sheets, but I never got the chance to speak to him directly because he died the year I was admitted into the program. Here are some thoughts.

- It takes a long time for people to tell you interesting things. Initially, they will either consider they don't have much to say, or they simply won't understand what you want to know. So it's a kind of double blind, and it can lead to very awkward first contacts.
- If you're lucky to have a second contact, or to chance onto someone who also gets you quickly, you will learn interesting things, but it's mainly the canned version. Everybody has their canned biography/statement/views, the cassette you start whenever someone broaches a specific subject. Not a bad thing to have, you need it anyways.
- But the real interesting things happen once you have enough to talk about, and when that allows them to tell you something original. Which means that you, yourself, must be interesting to the person you're talking to. That's highly variable.
- Many artists are very quiet, not the wordy kind. Both the awkward and the cassette are to be expected. And that also goes when they talk to each other. Big-name-A won't be discussing the finer points of aesthetics when meeting other-Big-Name-B: it's most likely they will get plastered and talk shit. They will think clearly and deeply about ideas in the actual process of making something, and even then, there's a lot of automatism going on.
- Which isn't to say that they're illiterate or that they don't care about concepts and ideas. Au contraire, these matter a lot to them, but they won't always spend the same time talking about them than applying them. Some people are incredibly well-read, profoundly curious and original, but it might be a slog chatting them, especially if you're a stranger.

Do I regret not having chatted the photographer I worked on? Yes and no. Yes, because it would have been unique, but No because it could have been an utter, useless failure that would have discouraged me, and never allowed to complete and publish my research.
 

Nokton48

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Irving Penn and Reinhart Wolf

Ezra Stoller and Avedon
 

Pentode

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The two that spring readily to mind, both sadly passed, are Roger Hicks and Tom Abrahamsson. I'd like to have a coffee with either of them not because they were great photographers (and they were) but because they each were interested in things outside of photography. Both were very active members of the Rangefinder Forum and they were both very approachable, down-to-Earth people who could converse on a broad range of topics.
I never got to meet either of them in person but I'm sure a coffee with them would have led to conversations about photography, sure, but also other interesting things. I'd bet Feininger would be a hoot, too.
 

radiant

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What kind of superskills do Ibaniorex R. Perello has? He seem to have really nice chat with all of the photographers he is interviewing. Everyone seems to be pretty relaxed and open in his interviews.
 

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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vedostuu said:
What kind of superskills do Ibaniorex R. Perello has? He seem to have really nice chat with all of the photographers he is interviewing. Everyone seems to be pretty relaxed and open in his interviews.
Click to expand...

He chooses his interviewees wisely, and he's a pro, no secrets there. 10,000 hours of practice usually help...
 

David Brown

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Perfect. You took mine ...
 

macfred

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I would like to meet Sally Mann. We would have tea on the banks of the Shenandoah river and we will swim in the stream, the Blue Ridge Mountains above.
It will be sunny and we’ll cream each other with sunscreen. I will ask questions about taking portraits of her kids being happy, sad, playful, sick, bloodied, angry and naked.
I would love to talk about the shifting light of nostalgia and about sexuality and death.

Eduard "Ed" van der Elsken is an other photographer I’d like to meet in 'real life'. We would meet in 'De Koffieschenkerij', Ouderkerksplein, Amsterdam/ The Netherlands.
We’d have 'koffie verkeerd' and maybe some hash and go for an afternoon stroll through the 'Jordaan'. I will ask Ed about 'Love on the left bank‘ and Paris in the 1950’s.
We will talk about Nan Goldin, Edward Steichen and Wolfgang Tillmans.
 

Ariston

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There are a few photographers on this forum (past and present) that I would love to meet - who have been more impactful to my growth in knowledge than any famous photographer.
 

BradS

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Geez...just one? These photographers are on my mind today....mostly, I'd like to talk to them about motivation, disappointment and the people around them

Graham Nash
Linda McCartney

Jim Marshall

Dickey Chapelle
Larry Burrows

and, perhaps most of all, I'd like to meet and talk with all of the photographers and dark room rats "on staff" who worked on the yearbook at my high school the year I graduated.
 
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