A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers

Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world's most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of human industry on the planet. Edward's photographs are included in the collections of over 80 major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid; the Tate Modern in London, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.

Edward was born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage in St. Catharines, Ontario. He received his BAA in Photography/Media Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in 1982, and has since received both an Alumni Achievement Award (2004) and an Honorary Doctorate (2007) from his alma mater. He is still actively involved in the university community, and sits on the board of directors for The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre).

In 1985, Edward founded Toronto Image Works, a darkroom rental facility, custom photo laboratory, digital imaging, and new media computer-training centre catering to all levels of Toronto's art community.

Early exposure to the General Motors plant and watching ships go by in the Welland Canal in Edward’s hometown helped capture his imagination for the scale of human creation, and to formulate the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the collective impact we as a species are having on the surface of the planet — an inspection of the human systems we've imposed onto natural landscapes.

Exhibitions include: Anthropocene (2018) at the Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada (international touring exhibition); Water (2013) at the New Orleans Museum of Art and Contemporary Art Center in Louisiana (international touring exhibition); Oil (2009) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (five-year international touring show), China (toured internationally from 2005 - 2008); Manufactured Landscapes at the National Gallery of Canada (toured from 2003 - 2005); and Breaking Ground produced by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (toured from 1988 - 1992). Edward's visually compelling works are currently being exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the globe, including at London’s Saatchi Gallery where his largest solo exhibition to-date, entitled Extraction/Abstraction, is currently on show until 6th May 2024.

Edward’s distinctions include the inaugural TED Prize (which he shared with Bono and Robert Fischell), the title of Officer of the Order of Canada, and the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award for Art. In 2018 Edward was named Photo London's Master of Photography and the Mosaic Institute's Peace Patron. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Arts & Letters Award at the Canadian Association of New York’s annual Maple Leaf Ball and the 2019 Lucie Award for Achievement in Documentary Photography. In 2020 he was awarded a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship and in 2022 was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award by the World Photography Organization. Most recently he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and was named the 2022 recipient for the annual Pollution Probe Award. Edward currently holds eight honorary doctorate degrees and is represented by numerous international galleries all over the world.

In episode 224, Edward discusses, among other things:

• His transition from film to digital
• Staying positive by ‘moving through grief to land on meaning’
• Making compelling images and how scale creates ambiguity
• Defining the over-riding theme of his work early on
• The environmental impact of farming
• Whether he planned his career
• Why he started a lab to finance his photography
• And how being an entrepreneur feeds into his work as an artist
• Vertical Integration
• Examples of challenging...

Quietly contemplative yet intensely evocative, Hannah Starkey's photographs explore the physical and psychological connections between the individual and her everyday urban surroundings. Since the beginning of her career, the artist has worked predominantly with women as her subjects, collaborating closely with actresses as well as anonymous acquaintances she meets on-site to develop intricately textured scenes. Stark architectural backdrops and strong associations of color and imagery heighten the sensation of her compositions on both a formal and associative level, triggering personal interpretations and a deeper mediation on the experience of the visual world at large.

Born in Belfast in 1971, Hannah currently lives and works in London. She received a B.A. in Photography and Film from Napier University in Edinburgh in 1995 and an M.A. in Photography from Royal College of Art in London in 1997. She has received numerous awards and honors throughout her career, which include the Vogue Condé Nast Award (1997), the 3rd International Tokyo Photo Biennale’s Award for Excellence (1999), and the St. James Group Ltd Photography Prize (2002).

In 2000, she presented her first major solo exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. Other important solo presentations include Twenty-Nine Pictures at the Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre in Coventry, UK (2011) and Church of Light Altarpiece, a site-specific commission for St. Catherine’s Church in Frankfurt (2010). Her work has also been exhibited as part of important group presentations at Tate Liverpool, Huis Marseille Museum for Photography in Amsterdam, Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes, France, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, and the National Portrait Gallery in London, among other museums worldwide.

Hannah’s photographs are in the collections of the Tate in London, Huis Marseille Museum for Photography in Amsterdam, Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Italy, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and Centraal Museum in Utrecht.

In episode 102, Hannah discusses, among other things:

• The influence of cinema
• Not wanting to be highbrow
• Using a breadth of disciplines technique and languages
• Breaking down the barriers to different types of photography
• How her process usually works
• The commodification of women in advertising photography
• The influence of her mother and her upringing during The Troubles
• Some of her hopes for her own daughters

Referenced:

• Hackney Flashers

Gallery/Dealer

“I think if I can bring images out into the world that depict this energy, and - empowerment’s a tricky word but - this power that’s coming from this next generation, in one image, then that’s kinda my drive, that’s my motivation.”

Tom Stoddart is an award-winning British photojournalist whose work has appeared in many of the most pretigious international magazines and newspapers. He is widely regarded by editors and his peers as one of the world’s most experienced and respected photographers. His international frontline assignments have included almost every major conflict and natural disaster over four decades, from wars to earthquakes and from the fall of the Berlin Wall to pandemics. During a long and varied career he has witnessed such international events as the war in Lebanon, the election of President Nelson Mandela, the bloody siege of Sarajevo and the wars against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Tom’s photographic career began with the Berwick Advertiser, a local newspaper in his native North East of England, before his personal ambition to move up to the big league of the national press in Fleet Street, sent him to London where he quickly impressed picture editors on the foremost newspapers and magazines and won frontline assignments during the troubled 80s, culminating in Desert Storm, the first Gulf War in 1990.

In 1992 Tom was seriously injured in heavy fighting in Bosnia. After a year of recovery, he produced a powerful feature on the aftermath of the Mississippi floods and, later that year, a World Press Photo award-winning photo-essay on the harsh training regime of Chinese Olympic Child Gymnasts.

In 1997 Tony Blair gave Tom exclusive behind the scenes access to his election campaign as Labour swept to victory after 18 years of Conservative government in the UK. More recently he documented Prime Minister David Cameron’s daily life at 10 Downing Street. His acclaimed in-depth work on the HIV/AIDS pandemic blighting sub-Saharan Africa won the POY World Understanding Award in 2003. In the same year his pictures of British Royal Marines in combat, during hostilities in Iraq, was awarded the Larry Burrows Award for Exceptional War Photography. A year later his book iWITNESS was honoured as the best photography book published in the USA.

Tom is the recipient of Lifetime Achievement awards from this peers and his new book, Extraordinary Women: Images of Courage, Endurance and Defiance was be published in October 2020 by ACC Art Books and Iconic Images.

On episode 143, Tom discusses, among other things:

• Reflections on 50 years in the business
• His new book, Extraordinary Women
• Going back through decades of contact sheets
• The story behind two of his most iconic images - Meliha Varesanovic and Gordana Burazor
• His route to Fleet Street from the Berwick Advertiser
• The ambition to tell stories his way and the stripping down of equipment that changed his style
• Common traits of photojournalists
• Why photography students are not being well prepared for the industry
• Why he still believes in the power of the still image

Referenced:

• Robin Morgan, Iconic Images
• Dennis Hussey
• Don McFee
• John Downing
• Terry Fincher
• Chris Smith
• Sally Soames
• Ken Lennox
• Marie Colvin

Website | Instagram | Facebook

“It isn’t about you. You know, this isn’t art. It’s not about look at me, it’s about look at this.”

Poulomi Basu is a storyteller, artist and activist. Her name sounds like ‘follow me’ with a ‘P’.

She was raised by her mother in Calcutta, India and found early inspiration in the city’s rich cinematic history. After her father’s sudden death when Poulomi was 17, her mother told her to leave home as soon as her studies were complete so that she may follow her dreams and live a life of breadth and choices that was denied to her.

Since then, Poulomi prefers the path less trodden. She has slept in the wilderness under a cloudless sky staring at a million stars in search of a guerrilla army whose story strikes right at the very heart of modern India’s global ambitions, through to divided families eking out an Alaskan existence on the last rocky outpost of American soil.

Time and again, she has found herself amongst ordinary people who quietly challenge the prevailing orthodoxies of the world in which they live: rural women in armed conflict, a mother's pain for a son lost to ISIS, to the wonder of a near blind child reaching for the light.

Poulomi is forever in awe of the resilience shown by those in extraordinary circumstance, by those who are bent but not broken. Her work has become known for documenting the role of women in isolated communities and conflict zones and more generally for advocating for the rights of women.

Poulomi was featured alongside Hilary Clinton as one of the one of the 'Amazing women from around the world giving their best advice' by Refinery29. She was part of the VII Mentor Program. She is based between New Delhi, India and London, UK. She has covered issues across Asia, Europe and America. She is co-founder and director of Just Another Photo Festival, a festival that democratizes photography by taking photography to the people and forging new audiences.

In episode 101, Poulomi discusses, among other things:

• The severe anxiety disorder that struck her out of the blue.
• Her sometimes violent upbringing in a patriachal home.
• The influence of the cinema of Satyajit Ray and the French new wave.
• Blood Speaks - the ritual of chaupadi.
• Using Virtual Reality as part of her storytelling practice.
• The curious tale of how she won the foto evidence book award only to have it withdrawn.
• Her forthcoming book project Centralia .

Referenced:

• Satyajit Ray
• Lee Friedlander
• [Raghubir Sing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghubir_Singh_(photographer)
• Raghu Rai
• Souvid Datta
• David Bowie

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Bloodspeaks.org

“We should be bold and make experimental work. Without experimenting you can’t go to the next level, if you don’t take risks you’ll never make great work. And I firmly believe that.”

British-born photographer Tom Craig began his photographic journey as a reportage and documentary photographer, working for clients such as Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Independent newspaper, before a commission from Vogue magazine to shoot a fashion story came “like a bolt from the blue” and altered the course of his career irrevocably. Since then Tom has travelled all over the world for both editorial and commercial clients, largely defying categorization by any specific photographic genre. His projects have spanned portraiture, fashion, travel and advertising commissions in over a hundred countries and his work has featured in the world’s most high profile international publications, among them Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and The Sunday Times magazine, and in campaigns for Louis Vuitton, Alice Temperley, Mr. Porter, Persol and Oxfam.

Tom is also well known for his long and unique professional collaboration and close friendship with the writer A.A. Gill, which spanned 25 locations across the globe until it was brought to an untimely end by Gill’s death in 2016.

Tom has either won or been nominated three times for 'British Magazine Photographer of the Year’ three times, exhibited for five consecutive years at the National Portrait Gallery, served as Photographer-in-Residence for the Royal Geographical Society, was named The Telegraph "Travel Photographer of the Year”, participated in the prestigious World Press Master Class and was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's prize for a notable achievement in the art of photography by someone under 35.

On episode 130, Tom discusses, among other things:

• What he was up to before lockdown
• Having a ‘studio’ of people - the pros and cons
• Approaching photography as a business
• The notion of personal work
• Distillation, creating a voice and a language...
• ...And translating that into images
• How his commission from vogue came as a “bolt from the blue” changed everything
• Diversity and avoiding pidgeonholes
• Trying to live life to the full and expressing that photographically

Referenced:

• Arthur Elgort
• Irving Penn
• Diana Vreeland
• David Bailey
• Richard Avedon
• Rinko Kawauchi
• Martin Parr
• Josef Koudelka
• David La Chapelle
• Robert Capa
• Chris Steele Perkins
• Alex Shulman
• Bay Garnett
• Sophie Baudrand
• Garry Winogrand
• Aidan Sullivan
• Cheryl Newman

Website | Instagram | Twitter

“Have as much fun and enjoyment and engagment with all of it, as often as you can and as thoroughly as you can, and ultimately, hopefully, that will come across in the images. And if you can see even a modicum of that sentiment in the photographs that I’ve taken or in that Instagram feed, then that makes me really happy. Because that’s what I want. I want there to be a sense of life, a sense of light and a sense of joy in those pictures. ”