PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice

by Sasha Wolf (Introduction)

How does a photographic project or series evolve? How important are “style” and “genre”? What comes first―the photographs or a concept?

PhotoWork is a collection of interviews by forty photographers about their approach to making photographs and, more importantly, a sustained body of work. Curator and lecturer Sasha Wolf was inspired to seek out and assemble responses to these questions after hearing from countless young photographers about how they often feel adrift in their own practice, wondering if they are doing it the “right” way. The responses, from both established and newly emerging photographers, reveal there is no single path. Their advice is wildly divergent, generous, and Justine Kurland discusses the importance of allowing a narrative to unravel; Doug DuBois reflects on the process of growing into one’s own work; Dawoud Bey evokes musicians such as Miles Davis as his inspiration for never wanting to become “my own oldies show.” The book is structured through a Proust-like questionnaire, in which individuals are each asked the same set of questions, creating a typology of responses that allows for an intriguing compare and contrast.

Including Robert Adams, Dawoud Bey, Alejandro Cartagena, Elinor Carucci, John Chiara, Kelli Connell, Lois Conner, Matthew Connors, Siân Davey, Doug DuBois, John Edmonds, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Paul Graham, Katy Grannan, Gregory Halpern, Curran Hatleberg, Todd Hido, Rinko Kawauchi, Peter Kayafas, Justine Kurland, Gillian Laub, John Lehr, Dana Lixenberg, Andrew Moore, Abelardo Morell, Zora Murff, Catherine Opie, Ed Panar, Matthew Pillsbury, Kristine Potter, Gus Powell, Richard Renaldi, Sasha Rudensky, Lise Sarfati, Bryan Schutmaat, Manjari Sharma, Dayanita Singh, Tiffany Smith, Alec Soth, Mark Steinmetz, and Vanessa Winship

Genres: Photography, Art

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 22, 2019

About the author

Sasha Wolf AKA Sierra Wolf

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting set of interviews, but it does become a bit repetitive. It appears from this sample of photographers that process and practice fall into four or five tracks, with minor variations. This could be a function of the way questions were asked of the photographers chosen to participate (quite a few seem to identify with the "documentary" category). And it can be reassuring: there's more than one way to do this and I'm not so strange after all.

But it may also be that I should have used the book differently, more as a reference to dip into (how does my favourite photographer approach new work?) rather than as a volume to read from cover to cover.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of interviewing, or rather, surveying forty different photographers covering a wide range of practice, although all of them are in the fine art category, is something I found very appealing. (I'm embarrassed to admit that there were at least 20 people here whose work I was unfamiliar with.) That said, the format, consisting of the same set of questions asked of each an every one is so constricting, the questions themselves often terribly unfocused (e.g. questions about "style," vs. "voice," vs. "genre," all without any kind of definition) leads to all kinds of variant interpretations, and stultifyingly predictable answers. I read the book with my ipad next to me so that I could look at images by each of the photographers as I read their answers (the book has no illustrations) and the ability to see the work and read the photographers’ answers to the survey questions was illuminating. I continually wished there had been some mechanism to dig deeper into the more interesting responses, particularly given the frequency of similar, sometimes identical responses to the questions (genre? Me? I don't have no stinkin' genre!) but with that said, there were striking variations in many of the responses, particularly regarding the conception of how bodies of work are created, the role of intuition in the photographer's practice, and the varying levels of pre-meditation in their approach to work. For a photographer looking for self-examination, you could do worse than sit down and answer these questions yourself.

[Ben Chant · Rating 5 out of 5]

have already returned to this and sasha’s podcast a ton. very good read

[dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un "questionario di Proust" rivolto a 40 fotografi (più o meno noti, prettamente americani). Ricerca utile a qualsiasi fotografo impegnato in un percorso di ricerca e scoperta dei propri metodi e mezzi (e in generale a chiunque sia interessato a confrontarsi con metodi e strumenti di pratica artistica). Un bel trampolino di lancio, anzitutto per scoprire l'opera dei fotografi intervistati, oltre che per confrontarsi con diversi modi operandi.

[Laredo Montoneri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but at some point repetitive. Some questions asked are too close to each other

[Lucy Blumenfield]

loved this and excited to revisit