Photo Work: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice

by Sasha Wolf

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 a wide range of photographers about their approach to making photographs and, more important, 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 delightful: 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.

Q&A-style interviews by 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.

Sasha Wolf represents emerging and midcareer fine-art photographers as a private practice, following a decade of running Sasha Wolf Gallery. Prior to her work in the fine-art photography world, Wolf was a writer, director, and producer in the film and television industries. Her short film Joe (1997) was nominated for the Palme d’Or du court métrage at Cannes.

Genres: Photography, Art

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2019

About the author

Sasha Wolf AKA Sierra Wolf

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to stop reading for dummies books

[Melanie Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a geek for writing about process and craft, and this book is one of my new favorite craft books. The variety of responses to the 12-question questionnaire is engaging and inspiring. These professional artists were often generous and forthcoming with insights into their creative process and the editing and collating of their work into projects and themes.

The design of this book--from the cover to the one-page bios from each photographer--was appealing and compelling as well.

There are no photographs in this book, which I see as a plus. The emphasis here is on introspection and delving into the minds and decisions of the artists and their resulting work. It's quite easy to Google the interviewee's work after reading each interview. Sasha Wolf's Introduction was an informative and inviting glimpse into the interviews' themes.

I'd heartily recommend this book of interviews to fine-arts photographers of numerous subjects and styles, students, educators, and readers who are interested in peeking behind the curtain to understand the intuitive and intellectual thought processes and decisions that go into making a collection of photos, whether for a show or a book, as well as individual images.

I could imagine this book as a fantastic supplementary text for intermediate-level photography classes or for students putting together a thesis collection or show in BA or MFA programs. There's a lot of great advice to glean here.

I'll keep this one handy to revisit as I make more of my own photos and photo series, and I'll certainly recommend it to my own students. I want to check out more of Aperture's literary offerings after reading this collection.

[AB Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I picked it up, I didn't put it down until I was done. It's a great book, offering wonderful insights into how the same question can be approached and interpreted so differently. I found it fascinating that photographers with similar methods and ideals can produce photographic works that are completely different from my own.

I plan to pick this up again and read it. It's a wonderful book for artists and photographers who have moved beyond the stage of learning techniques and gear, and who want to delve deeper into what the photographic process truly means to other photographers.

[Isabell Janssen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved, loved, loved, this book! Although some answers might have been a bit repetitive, there havenen so many nuggets of wisdom in this book. As a self-taught photographer this book really helped in expending my understanding of names in the work field and made me dive into many new collections and bodies of work. Would recommend to anyone, especially if you’re interesting a “documentary-style” photography, although that term might be way tooo small to narrow these amazing photographers in.

[Joe Fusaro · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand the concept of asking everyone the same questions. It just doesn’t make for an exciting read. Learned about some new photographers I knew little about, but just couldn’t enjoy what seemed like very similar answers after getting halfway through. .

[Catherine Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book filled with many resources and quotes or one liners that I know I will come back to.

[Kevin Bjorke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review at botzilla dot com including a study guide... Oddly missing!

[Trish Fibs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love hearing people's art processes and thoughts and this book did it so well. Definitely a photography favorite.