Read on! Oh yeah- this is Nelson.

I love the way your heritage informs your imagery- with your photographs in China, your Feng Shui-inspired pictures, and especially your portraits. How has your identity shaped your practice, and do you have difficulty bridging the gap between the two cultures?

Heritage and identity definitely inform the work that I do, and to a certain degree, I can say that they are usually the underlying crux of where my imagery comes from. At first, I never considered these concepts to be a part of my vision; it wasn’t until after college when I started to figure it all out. The past 3 1/2 years were spent traveling between New Jersey, Hong Kong, and China; photographing an ongoing project about my family titled, ‘my Da Lu’. During this time I never felt more mentally alone and it was because of this that a sense of self-recognition occurred with the work that I was making.

from the project ‘my Da Lu’

from the project ‘my Da Lu’

from 'portraits in China'

from 'portraits in China'

Though there was always a cultural connection with what I was photographing, I wasn’t interested in bridging the gap of my two identities as Chinese/American. It took me a very long time to understand that it’s the ‘gap’ itself, where I exist, which interests me the most. Children of immigrant parents always end up having an identity crisis and it’s this tension that creates a yearning to belong to something. This sense of longing has become what heritage and identity mean in my work. Knowing that I will never be 100% to the right or left of this cross-cultural spectrum has given me a lot of comfort and inspiration. Studying the differences rather than the commonalities seems to be more interesting to me.

Your stark, face-on portraits are really wonderful. They remind me a bit of Richard Renaldi’s work. I’m especially drawn into the frame when you are shooting someone with whom you’ve had a relationship of some kind. How did you start making portraits, and what do they mean to you?

It’s funny you should say Richard Renaldi. I just had lunch with him and his partner Seth. In regards to the portraits of people who I have relationships with, the environment is always something that is important to me. Like how clothing can inform one’s own personality, their personal space does the same either physically in the picture or emotionally in the expression of the subject’s body or face. They become more comfortable with themselves and in turn, let me be a little more interactive with them. I’ve brought a few people to specific locations, but they are always of places that inform who they are to me.

from 'for the love of...'

from 'for the love of...'

from 'for the love of...'

from 'for the love of...'

I always took portraits because I’m attracted to people, but by nature, I’m an extremely shy photographer. A lot of times, the portraits were very fleeting. It wasn’t until I started shooting with a view camera that I was directly sitting down with my subject for a prolonged period of time. There are a lot of pictures I missed and wish I took; photography has introduced both regret and courage into my life quite well. The only way to combat my shyness is when regret is pounding stronger in my gut. I’ve compared making these portraits to asking someone out on a date. So I guess you can say that the portraits I take is the product of a feeling I decide to confront. I hope that answers your question.

Tell me a bit more about the Feng Shui series. These homes are all in violent areas? How did you find them and shoot them? They’re so stark, and make me want to know their stories…

My series, ‘Wind, Water, and Bullets’ came about from my mother, who is a practitioner of Feng Shui, and an article I read about a violent neighborhood on Staten Island. In this project, I wanted to talk about issues of violence in our society, but didn’t want to be extremely heavy handed or clichéd with my imagery. All the images were taken with an 8×10 view camera so that the owners of the homes knew what my intentions were. Smaller cameras can seem to feel a little sneaky.

from 'wind, water and bullets'

from 'wind, water and bullets'

from 'wind, water and bullets'

I met the owner of the first house I photographed at a friend’s wedding in Iowa. Their home was located in South Central, LA, where I was also staying as a guest. The house is alongside a park that turns into a very dangerous place at night. My first night sleeping there was filled with anxiety, but to feel this was imperative to the project, so I could understand the environment better. A bullet had entered one of the rooms in the upstairs portion of the house in the past. And shortly after I left LA, a nextdoor neighbor whom I had conversed with was shot and killed on the street. He was 24.

Void of artificial light, when looking at these interiors, I decided that I wanted to photograph towards the daylight that was entering through the windows. I want to use the flare of the sunlight to occupy the same space that a potential bullet could pass through. This created a certain dynamic between safety and danger in the photograph on a subconscious level.

What projects are you working on now, and what’s in store for you in the future? Are you able to make a living as a photographer at this point? Do you ever shoot for clients, or do you generally make personal projects?

I am still working on the current projects talked about above, but not shooting any new ones at the moment. I am however still making new pictures that don’t yet belong anywhere. My next move is to make a book dummy of ‘my Da Lu’ and figure it out as a sequence of images. I do not make a living off of being a photographer at this point, but I do make a living in the photography industry. I manage a fine art printing studio in Brooklyn, NY called Ken Allen Studios. I’m a highly skilled and competent craftsman specializing in inkjet printing. Before this, I was freelancing as a digital consultant/technician to artists. This past spring, I along with my friend Gerard Franciosa of My Own Color Lab, I carried out the scanning and digital post-production to photographer, Gina LeVay’s debut monograph from Power House Books, Sandhogs. Though I’m not opposed to photographing commercially and would welcome it, the most important thing for me is to continue working on personal projects.

from the project ‘my Da Lu’

from 'portraits in China'

Thanks, Nelson! See more of Nelson’s work, here.

I’ve known Mr. Israel primarily for his more Intimate work, so these are nice change of pace. Have a look.

from Promised Lands, Cannan

“Born into a traditional Sephardic Jewish family I was given a biblical name – Yakov Israel, both the names of Jacob, one of the biblical patriarchs.
As a child growing up in Israel, bible lessons took a major part of my primary school studies. The heroic stories captured my imagination and seemed like powerful fairy-tales. I remember daydreaming of the ancient Israelites escaping Egypt and wandering the desert for forty years in search Canaan, God’s Promised Land.

When I reached the volcanic terrain the biblical tales re-emerged.”

from Promised Lands, Cannan

from Promised Lands, Cannan

from, America

“17 years after I first landed at JFK airport to visit my family, who had immigrated to the US, I am standing in midtown east Manhattan watching the sunrise over Brooklyn and Queens. They all followed the American Dream in search of a better life, lived in Brooklyn, their new ‘Promised Land’, and worked in a locksmith shop in Queens.”

from, America

from, America

from, (Obscure) Landscapes

from, (Obscure) Landscapes

from, (Obscure) Landscapes

from, (Obscure) Landscapes

Lovely.

This ^ is Lincoln Barbour. He’s been a good reader of my blog for some time, and I’ve been a good reader of his.  When I went to check out his site recently I thought, holy cow, Lincoln’s been busy! So I thought we’d pick his brain about how he’s been structuring his career the last few years. I think Mr. Barbour has a lot of sound insights, and is doing a pretty great job with promotion. Also, he knows what he likes and what he wants to shoot. That’s a rather big part of the battle, I do think. OK, enough from me. Let’s have Lincoln speak:

Hey Lincoln- I’ve had a seriously long look through your site- your daily image posts are easy to get lost in. I’m intrigued that you take pictures of things that you love, as you say- “As a person, he is drawn to architecture, food, objects, and travel; for it’s these pursuits and creature comforts that make living worthwhile”- I love that approach. How are you able to pursue this wide range of imagery?

It’s been a long long journey to get to the point in my photography where I know what it is love to shoot. When I first started out, an older photographer friend of mine asked me, “What would you shoot if money didn’t matter?” I couldn’t answer him then, but I think I could today.

What really helped me get there was my photoblog. I posted to it almost every day for a year and I keep it going today (though posting less frequently now). Since I had to put something up for the world to see and judge, I really wanted each shot to be something I was proud of. I then started noticing what my eye was drawn to and that way of seeing started carrying over into my assignment work. This has helped me get a portfolio today that I really stand behind and can say this is me.

As for the subject matter, I looked at what I was shooting personally and then sought out what was the closest thing to it commercially. Architecture, travel, and still life (food/product) seemed a natural fit. And since there will always be new buildings, new restaurants, and new products that need to be photographed I felt like it was a good area to focus on. And, not only do I like shooting these subjects, but I also really like getting to meet the people who design and make such amazing things that make the world a better place.

Ultimately though, I choose not to really limit what I can do and pigeonhole myself. That way, as I evolve as a photographer, my work can keep reinventing itself and I won’t get bored of it. For example, I actually did a fashion shoot last year which was pretty fun and out of my comfort zone.

It seems like the last few years for you have been an important career-building time. Also, it seems that you’ve moved around a bit. What has your approach to your career been? How do you find clients, and what are your dream assignments?

I’ve been working for myself for seven years, and the last two years have been really excellent. In Virginia, I was just starting out and shot pretty much everything. My main client was a high end real estate firm, but I also shot events for a weekly paper, silos for an auto parts company, model portfolios– you name it.

When we moved to Portland, OR four yeas ago, I knew I needed to build a local client base because I wasn’t ready to promote myself nationally. Within the first few months of being here, I was assigned a feature for Portland Monthly and they’ve kept me busy ever since. More than half my portfolio is from assignments with them and some of the biggest jobs I’ve gotten have been because of something the art director saw that I shot for them. They’ve also introduced me to a lot of local clients and I have that base now.

Once I was confident in my portfolio, I started advertising on source sites like Workbook, AltPick, and CommArts Hotlist. This led to jobs for Jeld-Wen, UBS, Elle Décor, Domino, all the bigger brands in my client list. Nowadays though, it’s all about referral and word of mouth. So, I’ve been letting bloggers use my photos in trade for a link back to my site. It’s amazing how much traffic I get from these blogs. Not only that, but I’m pretty sure the commercial clients I want to shoot for read these blogs and see my name associated, so it helps build name recognition. I also do Google Adwords to build name recognition. I don’t expect any assignment from a click, but it’s good that my name pops up if you search for “Architectural Photographer” or “Product Photographer”.

I guess my dream assignment/client would be to shoot for Orient Express Hotels & Resorts. I would love to be flown all over the world to shoot their hotel rooms, the grounds and spaces, the food, and lifestyle details. I’m the perfect photographer for them because they would just need me, instead of three different photographers all with different styles.

If I really dig, I can find some pictures of yours shot on film, and I see that 4×5 of yours is not getting much use. What’s different about your approach to film and digital, and is it just cost that is keep you from shooting more film?

I shot 35mm black & white film in high school and afterwards as a hobby. When I quit being a web designer, I got a job for an architectural photographer and he was shooting 4×5 and 120 on a view camera. I had never seen either until that day. I didn’t even know there was tungsten film. It was a tremendous learning experience. The film he shot we’d scan on his drum scanner and do everything we could to make the scan look like the film. It was a pain in the ass and took forever. I could only scan 9 pieces of 6×9 or 4 sheets of 4×5 at time. A big job would take days to process. Nowadays, I can turnaround 12 shots in about 4 hours.

So commercially, I have to shoot digital. There’s just not enough time anymore. I take the same approach to digital as I do to film. I really try to get it in one shot and only resort to Photoshop if it’s one of those impossible to get otherwise images.

I did shoot some Polaroid recently for a Land Camera group show at OFFICE. It made me fall in love with film again. I miss the finiteness of film. With digital, it so flexible you never feel like it’s done. Film is film, end of story. I love that! My favorite camera is a Minolta Autocord twinlens from the ’60s. It’s got a beautiful sharp lens and super bright ground glass. I’m going to start carrying it around with me for personal trips. I just hope someone comes out with a light meter app for my iPhone soon. It’s been a long time since I had to judge my exposure on instinct.

Tell me about your collaboration with Wonderful Machine, if you can. How did that partnership come about, and has it been beneficial?

It’s still pretty new, but they are very helpful and drive a lot of traffic to my site. I was invited by them and almost passed. But, after doing some research, they seemed like the next Workbook and thought I should jump on it. There are a couple invite only source sites out there and I feel like Art Buyers will start looking for a filtered selection of photographers since there’s so much out there and everybody’s website looks decent nowadays. You need someone else to say your are good in order for you to be accepted by someone else (kind of like high school.)

The other nice thing about them is the inexpensive support services they offer. Whether it’s estimating, portfolio help, or even print or web design, I feel like I can count on them to be there for me.

What’s the most exciting recent gig you’ve had? Can you show us any outtakes?

Exciting is somewhat subjective, but I just shot this rad interior space for a design firm in Portland called Parliament. They have the coolest place to work ever. My favorite shot is the one with the grizzly bear skin rug wearing a real fedora from Lebanon. All the screen printed posters are original, too. Chris Erickson is the owner and he’s the nicest guy and a brilliant designer.

Also, if you want something a little more sexy for recent gigs, I shot some beer with a ring flash for Imbibe magazine.

How did you get started in the industry? Any particular career goals for ’09/10?

I basically got fed up with being a web designer. It rode out the first bubble burst and was ready to do something different. We hired a photographer for a client and I took him out to lunch one day. I wanted to know how he made it as a commercial photographer since I was already in the commercial art world. He gave me the overview and then offered me a job. Nine years later here I am.

My goal for this year is to shoot for Dwell magazine, shoot a national ad campaign, and win an award. I love Dwell and think my work would be a good fit for them. I’ve shot a little advertising, but I haven’t done a big multi-market campaign yet for a big ad agency. Something you’d see in magazines, bus stops, websites, etc. Finally, I’d love to win a contest (or even just be featured) in PDN or Communication Arts. It seems like people really start calling if you get in either of those.

–

Thanks, Lincoln! I had so much fun trawling your blog for vintage Lincoln images, that I need to just go nuts and post a few here.

Wow, you can get nice shooting space out west. Maybe I should re-think my environs. See more Lincoln, here!

It was with this in mind that I got in gear for my latest wall-decoration attempt, and harkened back to some familiar sources. Some time back I got extremely excited about the Library of Congress’ archive, where you can directly download high-res files, or order prints.

I wrote all about it here.

Then I recently was perusing Shorpy (which is pretty much a daily activity) and found myself with a crush on this picture:

—

Holy cow, I wanted to own that! Well– looks like Mr. Vachon shot for the FSA, so I figured the Library of Congress might have the negative.

First I searched for “john vachon” in the author field. No dice. Then, I search for “vaccination” in the subject line.

Huzzah! Score.

Whoa, this neg is yellllllow.

Photoshop time.

Ok, better.

Power up the trusty Epson R1900, and away we go.

VOILA! A picture on my wall*.  Extremely satisfying. Go here and search the Library’s offerings. I do not think you will regret it.

*and yes i know the print is a little dark, but ink cartridges don’t grow on trees.