CO2 emissions from China are increasing faster than from any other country in the world.

Coal workers waiting for a job in downtown Taiyuan.

Immune Media's Questions for Christian Als:

1.  In the China Loves Coal series, I feel like i'm being presented with things, (like "Here is X.  Here is Y.") rather than involved or present.  It's very different not only in content- but also compositionally and stylistically- from other stories...say, Haiti, for example).  Do you agree? If so, was it purposeful? 

That might be right. China Loves Coal was extremely difficult to document. To work on a controversial issue in a country like China is quite a challenge. Nobody is particulary interested in having this kind of photo essay displaying the mess and the poor working conditions the miners endure everyday. So it is not really possible to be present or get too involved when working on a story like this. The one time I ventured into the working area of an illegal mine in Shanxi Province, I was chased away by drunk, mad miners with shovels!!

But I like the series very much even though it is not the way I normally shoot a story. It kind of shows my working conditions as well as what is possible when documenting an issue like this. Stylistically it differs because of that. Also I decided to turn the whole body of work into 6x7 in post production, and that adds to the wholly different feeling.

Work like Gaza or Haiti are newsy and in that case I see it as my duty to try and document the events unfolding as truly and straight as can be. I would never try to postulate in news stories, but in stories like China Loves Coal, I feel I can “raise my voice” just a bit. If I have this voice in my work, what do I want to say? This is a serious issue for millions of human beings in China, and I want to show the world that the economic miracle going on in China these years have a flipside. The consequenses are huge, and they hit hardest for the poorest citizens of China.

2.  What's the first time you ever got paid for doing photography?

That was a wedding ;-)  I needed money to purchase [photo] equipment, so I shot a wedding reportage-style in black and white and they loved it and paid me quite a bit of money.

I actually shot about ten weddings during the time of education.  Same concept every time; black and white reportage from early morning till the dance at midnight. Because of the many hours, it paid quite well.  No compromises, "my thing" or I turned them away. Made quite a lot of money that way, but now I don't have the time or the desire to do it anymore.

I learned a lot from those weddings, and would do it again- People handling, getting the vital moments and putting the whole thing together in a tight edit. Giving the couple a document for them to hold in the future. "No compromise" is the way you can make a wedding interesting to shoot. If you go into any shoot with the idea of the next great shot could be just around the corner, you can make super images at a wedding or anywhere else. I recommend all new photographers to do it....

3.  How much photoshop is too much?

Difficult to answer, I guess I have my own guidelines and often it is as much a feeling as anything else. There certainly is a fine line between underworked and heavily overworked post production. I use Photoshop to enhance the feeling in the image, to add contrast and to crop. That is basically what I do. But I guess I do it to an extent, where some think it is pretty overworked.

It comes down to culture and what you are used to in the country where you live. To me, American photographers tend to Photoshop less than, say Italian or Danish photographers do. In general it should come down to the images should look natural and not stand in the way of the content of the story being told.

4.  Now that everyone's a photographer, will professionals survive?

I see a business in a dire state at the moment. Has been for quite a while. Actually the whole industry hasn’t been all too healthy for some years now. I have been a professional since 2004, and over these years it has only gotten worse. But surely there is a way in if you are determined, talented and willing to make your living standards at a simple level. In other words, don’t do photojournalism for the money!

In these hard times, it is important, more than ever, that photojournalists see themselves as storytellers. Everyone can push the button and take a picture, but not everyone have the talent to show the world new ways of thinking or are able to open the window to the world, to things you didn’t even know exists.

There will always be concerned photographers and if they can’t get their work published in the traditional media, they will find other ways of getting in touch with the concerned part of the public; galleries, blogs, through NGO’s or something totally new. You can find your audience out there, for sure.

5.  Would you rather :::  Drink 1 liter of water from the Sushui River or eat 50g of coal?

No matter what river in China, I would opt for the coal, because at least I would then know what I put into my body.  I have seen what happens to the Chinese people who drink directly out of Songhua River, as documented in my work The River Runs Black – deadly!  I would go for the coal; I believe I inhaled more than 50g of coal in the ten days I travelled through Shanxi Province for China Loves Coal, and I believe I have survived without complications from that:-)

6.  In image #18, I don't see any clothing anywhere near that guy.  Where are his pants?

His pants lie a few meters from him, at the top of the stairs leading down to the water. It is a scene seen quite often in China. Especially the elder Chinese population still do what they always did- washing themselves on their way home from work in a local water source, a river, a lake. Nothing strange about this, but it looks a little bizarre, especially when you know the level of chemicals in this particular river in the heavily polluted Shanxi Province.

Immune Media's Questions for Michael Wolf


1.  What was the original purpose of the Transparent City series?  Did the purpose change as you were shooting / editing it?  What did you learn in the process?

For more than 4 years, I had been working in Hong Kong on the Architecture of Density series. I was curious if my style of architectural photography—no sky and no horizon, where the eye is not allowed an escape from the photograph and the buildings seem to go on forever—could be applied to buildings in other cities.  

In Chicago, I learned that location is everything.  It was crucial that I get onto rooftops, and in Chicago I had a great researcher at US Equities, the company which sponsored my artist in residency.  My Hong Kong work is all about surface, Chicago was about transparency.

The idea for Transparent City Details came towards the end of the residency. I was not satisfied with "just" photographs of architecture, and wanted to add another layer of meaning to the project.  I experimented with tiny crops of details I saw in my files  (50-60kb of a 112mb file), which I then blew up to 48x60 inch prints.

'What I found, actually, is how boring everyday life is. When I thought about it, one of the fantasies that I had was that I would get up onto these rooftops every night—for four or five or six hours—and I would look into hundreds of windows, and I would see all these thrilling things going on. But, ultimately, all I saw was either people sitting and reading or people sitting in front of a computer. In the condominiums, it was people sitting in front of big flat-screen TVs eating dinner—and there were a lot of people alone.

It was like an Edward Hopper painting. In fact, I was greatly influenced by Hopper, taking these photographs—even walking along the streets at night and looking into restaurants. It was almost a cliché. You’d see these Nighthawk-like scenes at eleven at night—two people sitting at a table discussing things or a waiter wiping a table—and so Hopper’s paintings were in my mind while taking these. But it was a little sad to see, night after night, in all these buildings, that it was really just single people between the ages of twenty-five and forty, tired after work, sitting on the sofa watching TV. I was a bit disillusioned. I thought it would be more exciting than that.'

The idea was to print both the details and the architecture very large and hang them side by side—the closer one got to the pixelated details, the less one recognized, and with the architecture, it was exactly the opposite - the closer on got to the print, the more one saw.  So I was playing with qualities inherent in the medium of photography.

2.  I'd describe your work as straightforward...in that there's often a strong linear component, or a play on symmetry.  The work seems often to be shot from eye level, from straight on...even your portraits (not to mention the "Le Petit Journal' and 'Propaganda' stuff).  What's up with that?

I find that in my photographs of architecture, a high level of precision underscores the effect that the image has on the viewer.  Ideally, I want people to react viscerally to my images, don't want the distractions of crooked lines. The sharpness is also important - one should be able to see every pencil or even paperclip lying  on a desk, if possible.  It takes a long time to digest a 48x60 inch photo as there is so much going on in the image.  

3.  What's the first time you ever got paid for doing photography?

Before I earned my living as an artist, I worked as an editorial photographer.  The first reportage which I was paid for was in 1976 for a piece I did about pigeon racing in the Ruhr area of Germany.

4.  How much Photoshop is too much?

Difficult to say—in photojournalism the boundaries between what one can and can't do are very clear.  But in art, everything is possible.  

5.  Now that everyone's a photographer, will professionals survive?

Of course the profession will survive. In the art world, the concept/idea is extremely important, especially if one works in the medium of photography.  Nowadays everyone can use a camera, but not everyone has an original idea.

6.  Would you rather live in a home that's a human aquarium (glass surround with no curtains or blinds), or live in a  home with no windows?  Why?

I happen to live in a home which is a human aquarium and love it.  I often sit for hours at my window in my apartment on the 14th floor in Hong Kong and look out into the sea of windows surrounding me.  When I go to bed, I close the curtains.

7.  So much of your work seems to have to do with the relationship of humans to structures.  Yes?  No?  Why?

I live in Hong Kong—which is an extremely dense and hyperactive city.  My work reflects my feelings and thoughts about the place where I live.  The overall theme of my work is "life in cities."   At parties I tell people exactly that - that I photograph "life in cities."

Rebel plants a second bullet in the head of a gator that kept moving after being hauled into the boat. Each gator is then tagged before being piled in the bottom of the boat.

A baited hook hangs low to the water of Shell Island, Louisiana where commercial gator hunters Julius and Rebel are part way through the annual alligator hunting season. The state of Louisiana is home to the largest alligator population in the United States, estimated to be almost 2 million. Alligators are North America's largest reptiles and are considered a renewable resource in an industry that has thrived in America's deep south for centuries. The first large alligator harvests occurred during the early 1800s. The alligator farming industry in Louisiana alone annually harvests 140,000-170,000 gators which are valued at over $12,000,000.



Immune Media's Questions for Matt Eich:


1. How did the Trouble in the Water story come to be?  How did you “get in” with Julius and Rebel?  You seem to be able to achieve unique access to interesting persons and cultures (for example, your A Place to Die story, and Mamou Mardi Gras).  How?

Trouble the Water, as happens with some of the best things in life, fell right into my lap. A friend from school named Kevin Martin is now a picture editor in Baton Rouge and he got wind of the story through a photographer at the paper named Mark Saltz who has hunted alligators recreationally for years. Kevin went with him one time and afterwards called me up saying, "You have got to come check this out."

I had just moved to Virginia a few months prior and was itching to start a new project and to get some time in the Deep South. It was a rare moment when there was some spare change lying around so I just went. Julius and Rebel were acquaintances of Saltz's, though it wasn't until later that I found out that it wasn't really a cordial relationship between them. Most of my favorite projects have been accidents, things that I don't over-think or research to death (in the beginning at least).

I've found that across the board people will eventually respond to me if I am open, honest and persistent. I try to be very aware of how I project myself when meeting people but I'm not very good at barreling into a place and making images. I prefer to watch and wait. By being open I mean to base your interactions on the same principals that apply to normal human relationships. It is a two-way street - be willing to share as much with someone about your life as you want them to share about theirs.

A Place to Die is another example of a story springing from a happy accident. I photographed a kid at a dirt bike race and was later contacted by his mother who worked at a prison. We talked, struck it off and eventually the question of access to the prison arose and she was willing and able to help out. I guess the moral is to always be looking, always be open - every person has a story or is linked to one.

2. What's the first time you ever got paid for doing photography?

When I was probably 13, I was paid around $50 to license some nature photographs I had taken by a really small nature magazine called Creation Illustrated. It probably only had a circulation of a couple thousand. I'm sure my mom still has a copy of that somewhere.

I wrote a "how-to" article for Birds and Blooms Magazine when I was 14 and was paid for that...It was about how to photograph your backyard garden.

I shot my first wedding when I was 17, got paid $450, and had a miserable time.

Despite these experiences in my mind my first "real assignment" wasn't until May 2006 when I got a call from The FADER to shoot a couple gigs in Los Angeles while I was interning at The Orange County-Register.

3. How much Photoshop is too much?

To me if it alters the content or meaning of a photograph it is too much. The longer I shoot the less I find myself using Photoshop and the more subtle I want it to be. Looking back on the way I toned pictures early in college is frightening at times. It's not necessarily that's too heavy-handed, it just feels like it calls attention to itself. I'd prefer for the image to speak louder than the process or techniques used.

4. Now that everyone's a photographer, will professionals survive?

For a long time now it has been possible for amateur photographers to make really fantastic images. Technology is great that way. I'd have to guess it has always been easier to make pictures than to make a living at it. We just have to adapt and survive.

The question is- How can you take the vision that is uniquely yours and apply it to different markets? That way ad jobs, editorial assignments, art commissions and weddings all become a way of funding whatever it is you care about.  LUCEO is actively working to support our members through a Project Fund where we all contribute a percentage of our earnings to support significant bodies of work. The idea being very simple- in tough times we learn to band together in order to keep working on projects that mean something to us.

At this point in my life I can't imagine doing anything else and I don't have a fallback plan. I have a wife and daughter depending on me to make ends meet so that is enough motivation to make me feel that failure isn't an option.

5. Would you rather have your favorite arm bitten off by an alligator, or be forced to go alligator hunting 3 days a week for the rest of your life?

Well sh#t, if we're talking limbs I'd be inclined to go alligator hunting 3 days a week for the rest of my life. I suppose if that got monotonous after a few years, I could just let an alligator chew off my arm then and get it over with.

6. One thing that seems to differentiate you from other photographers is that you have a number of ongoing, long-term projects for which there is often no discernable “client.”  How come?

I like the creative freedom that comes from choosing a topic interests me and adapting my approach to suit the subject matter...for my own work, the stories I will put myself into for years at a time, I relish not having too many cooks in the kitchen. This gives me more room to fail, learn and grow. While this approach certainly hasn't made me any richer, it keeps me from wasting too much time waiting for people to bite on my ideas.

As a project, Trouble the Water is still really fresh, I've only had 4 total days of shooting so far. While some clients keep saying they are interested in the story none have offered to pony up the cash. The only money made from the story thus far is one image from the project was recently licensed by a small German magazine (and I could really use that check so I can go back to Louisiana!)

(At this point, the interviewer, Lee Emmert, is compelled to confess that he, personally, is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Born and raised, parents still live there, goes back every Christmas, etc, and that the sight of alligators is strangely comforting to him.  (Well, live alligators, anyway)).

Blood mixes with mud stirred up from the bottom by the boat motor and fighting alligator.

Immune Media's Questions for David Zimmerman


1.  Why deserts?

I am primarily interested in altered or impacted landscapes and those that are threatened by natural or manmade events.

It is a great paradox of human existence that we must exploit the resources of the planet to exist. My work in these places is largely an attempt to understand the balance between human need and the consequences of unrelenting depletion of the planet's resources. Vast areas of desert lands are under enormous pressure by development and recreational use.

The sometimes tranquil, sometimes fierce nature of the desert, and my own response and interaction with these environments inspired the first set of photographs. Beyond witnessing the sheer beauty and magnitude of the landscape, I began to feel a sense of the fragile balance of man's presence on the land. The desert can be haunting; in the dark, in the heat or in a storm, I feel my own vulnerability.

Living in cities much of my life, questions of my own exposure in the natural world rarely occurred and the impact of my actions seemed negligible, as I was one of many millions. This is where the second part of the project began, with questions of how we relate to and impact the natural world by our actions. Symbolic of the damage being done, abstract images of tracks and the short film “desert” reveal a very different perspective. Empowered by a sense of entitlement and immunity, untold millions consider their actions to have little or no impact on the land.

The American southwest desert environment is a total ecosystem that is extremely fragile, easily scarred, and slowly healed… and its resources, including certain rare and endangered species of wildlife, plants, and fishes, and numerous archeological and historic sites, are seriously threatened by air pollution, inadequate Federal management authority, and pressures of increased use, particularly recreational use, which are certain to intensify because of the rapidly growing population of the American southwest. My documentation of these remarkable deserts continues in an effort to influence preservation through public awareness, opinion and action

2.  Most of your work seems to have something to do with humans and our environment.  Do you have environmentatlist intentions?

I'm in Louisiana right now to see and to photograph the Gulf coast landscape and the impact of the disastrous BP Deepwater oil spill. I often spend a month or more at a location and frequently make return trips over a period of years to see the changes that have occurred. While the oil spill remains largely at sea and may remain so, the impact of it will remain for decades.

My studio in Taos is build to LEED certified standards for sustainablility.  Both my studio and home are entirely solar powered, use catchment water as they only water source,  and passive solar heated.

3.  What's the first time you ever got paid for doing photography?

I've been photographing since I was 17. I lived overseas for a few years at that time; France, Spain, Egypt, Israel- photographing people and landscapes.  When I returned to the U.S. I did occasional small town newspaper assignments to help pay for my personal work.  I also worked in a camera store in my home town of Milwaukee when I was in my early 20's. It was there I met a girl who was doing these outdoor art fairs, showing her artwork and she suggested I try it. It was at one of these fairs where I sold my first 8x10 print of an image I shot in Paris, for $15 (matted). I've now been married to that girl for 31 years.

4.  How much Photoshop is too much?

The answer really only applies to my own work, and that is, if I can see it, it's too much. Most of my own digital work is not much more than traditional darkroom work. I enjoy seeing work by others though which may disregard convention entirely and use Photoshop or other tools to create images not previously possible. I think the idea that photography needs to be "straight" is no longer relevant as it once may have been. I also believe that the technique behind a great image is initially invisible.

My own reaction to a great image which has used lots of Photoshop (or pinhole or IR or reversed or....) is, that's a wonderful image; it makes me feel, or think or it taught me something. Whereas, if an image seems to have no soul, just technique, it leaves me flat. No amount of technique, alone, will make a great image.

5.  Now that everyone's a photographer, will professionals survive?

In some ways, the proliferation of digital everything is raising the bar. I think professionals will survive not just by making better photographs but also by being smarter about how they market themselves. While it's true that magazines are closing due to lost ad revenue, and many buyers look to micro stock for their images, professionals can rise above it all by creating new images for todays new markets and new markets to come. The fine art photography market for example is comparatively new, and flourishing.

6.  Would you rather have a pet gila monster, western diamondback, or scorpion?

I'm set. My Jack Russell Terrier shares traits with all of them.

7.  How/why is it that the Desert images are "monochromatic"?  Why do they differ in that way from Desert II?

Much of the desert landscape I work in is somewhat monochromatic to begin with; white/yellow sands and frequently night or storm skies.   The monochromatic nature of the photographs seems a better representation of what I saw, and felt.

There is an almost other-worldly character to the desert landscape. Walking in to these places, often 5 to 10 miles, I begin to feel quite insignificant in the scheme of things, and vulnerable; disconnected from from my normal world and comfort zone. These things in a way are what directed my decision to reduce the color of the scene, and reducing the color I feel, also reduces the viewer's familiarity (no pretty blue skies or beach sand) and may suggest the mystery which I experience.

My feeling about the desert ll images is quite different. On the surface they may be quite attractive, and viewed only for what they are - tire tracks in the sand, well, that's not so bad and the wind will carry them away. But I feel they're symbolic of a much greater and real problem, and that is the rush to the deserts to build houses and malls and roads and recreational destinations. And so, the colors are as real as the issue.

8.  How in the world did you get the often disorienting views we see in Desert II?
The Desert ll series photographs were photographed from the ground, often looking up or down at 100 foot sand dunes. The deserts from both series are from all over the southwest. Tonapah & Amargosa, NV, Imperial Sand Dunes, CA, White Sands, NM, Hot Wells, AZ and others. I travel in a small camper van and try to stay as close as possible to the locations. Much of the land is BLM and I can often stay near the site. It's almost always 5-10 miles of walking, and so beyond the usual gear, water and cover are essential.

-

Brown VanDura with Tan Stripes Campground in Deming, NM Winter 2009



Immune Media's Questions for Joe Stevens:



The VAN project...you've been at it ad hoc for years.  How do you go about it?  How do you do it?

I go out to find them. It’s like a safari. I’ve got a pretty good idea of where vans are by now. I drive around in places where I think they’ll be, but of course that’s not always the case. It’s a very Zen-type of driving experience because you have no real destination. It’s relaxing. Sometimes I’m able to find something I like, sometimes not. For this project I use a Hasselblad with an 80mm lens, 6x6cm, 120 film. It feels more documentary. It keeps the lines parallel and does not introduce distortion or the subjective qualities a smaller lens/film format would.

What's the first time you ever got paid for doing photography?

Not exactly paid but a woman gave me a brand-new N90s to shoot some sports images for her in around 1994. That was a pretty high-end 35mm camera back then. Cleaning out my closet recently I came across it and decided it was time to let it go. It brought about fifty-bucks on Craigslist.

How much Photoshop is too much?

Heavily manipulated images aren’t really my thing. For years I just printed my color images by hand and that worked well enough. I think my darkroom days are over now. But either way the goal is the same, it's just now I have different tools to get me there.

Now that everyone's a photographer, will professionals survive?

There’s a difference between a person who has imagination, style and a sense of how to communicate visually and somebody who just knows how to press a button. Even a dog can take a picture.

Would you rather:
-sleep every night in the back of a Ram Prospector with Tri-Tone Stripes
or
-have a bmx bike outfitted with a massive stereo system as your only means of transportation
for the rest of your life?

Joe didn't answer this question... "as it seemed a bit jokey."

What’s the value of photographic pieces like this?

Ed Ruscha once said he would drive around with the dial on his car radio set halfway between two stations. I think he said one was jazz and the other was like, Latino top-40. And as he drove the reception would phase in and out creating this chance-based experience of completely disparate things randomly intersecting and creating an audio backdrop for his drive. Sometimes what you get is total dischord.  But other times it’s this serendipitous poetry. I think about that a lot.

Why vans?  Why do people drive ‘em?  What’s do van-owner’s have in common?

That’s the territory I’m trying to explore. I suppose the answer will come with each individual’s reading of the images. Clearly there is pride which comes with owning something which is unusual and one of the last of its kind. In cases where the vehicle has been customized by the owner it presents a glimpse into that individual’s personality and evidence of the human compulsion to turn something which was stamped out on an assembly line into something which is more strongly indicative who we are. Whether or not we might describe it as such, each of us makes hundreds of art-direction choices every day. This project asks whether something as seemingly mundane as choosing a parking spot is actually one of them.

What interests me is examining the juxtaposition between the van’s aesthetic and that of the surrounding architectural and natural elements, and the notion of whether that has occurred consciously, subconsciously or as a result of pure chance. Sometimes I look for situations where it suggests that perhaps the driver chose this arrangement on purpose or maybe somehow the van parked its van-self. 

Yellow Dodge with Tri-Tone Stripes Near Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA Spring 2007

Yellow Dodge with Orange Stripes Centinela Boulevard, Los Angeles CA Winter 2009

Sebastes Pinniger
Coney Island Aquarium, New York


Immune Media's Questions for Chiara Goia:

Are you a zoo-goer?  How many have you been to and how did this project come about; incidentally or with intent?

I have been to about 10-12 zoos and to 3 or 4 aquariums so far. I hate zoos and I have never been a zoo-goer; I am in pain when I am in front of an animal kept in captivity. I cannot justify the existence of most zoos.
I had the idea to start the series after I found myself at the Coney Island Aquarium.  I had a very interesting experience and I took the very first picture of the project (the 2 fish swimming in the green pool). I got very fascinated by that and thought I should have gone back and visit zoos as well…trying to keep the same point of view and sort of surrealism. I wanted to say things without putting them right in front of the viewer. I wanted to suggest, hoping people would have second thoughts after seeing the images.
I did go to several zoos in the beginning, in order to shape up the project. Then for a few months after, I went to all the zoos in different cities I had to travel to for other reasons.  Those were working trips but there was also the “excuse” of having to continue and grow my project.

What's the first time you ever got paid for doing photography?

I think it was in 2005, before I went to school. An Italian magazine bought a picture of an Indian plastic surgeon I took and asked me to make a small article as well.  It ended up being so tiny…the picture at postage-stamp size and article trimmed to a quarter of it’s length, but I was very happy anyway!

How much Photoshop is too much?

If it’s a very strong image, Photoshop [can] kill it and put the attention to another element.  I mean when photographers use Photoshop too heavily to lighten up people's faces or darken skies for example…before doing that, and image often might be more natural and harmonious.


Now that everyone's a photographer, will professionals survive?

I think real professionals will survive…[Those] who work hard and have a stylistic and moral integrity, and make very high quality and consistent work; those who have a very personal point of view.
It’s not enough anymore to just “report” things, we must all have a specific point of view and immerse ourselves into what we do, not only technically and physically but also emotionally.

Would you rather have plain concrete walls in your cage, or have fake "environments" painted on the wall?

It’s a difficult question!  I think I would choose plain concrete and then make images in my mind, paint or draw them myself. At least I would have something to do during the day…

I would describe your work as "painterly"...particularly images like the "Living in Memory" series #3, 14, 18.   Also, all your images are square.  Can you provide us insight as to how this is achieved (technically) and what choices you’re making (photographically)?

I think it’s a mix of light, film and pre-visualization.
I am shooting film (medium format square cameras- Hasselblad and a Mamiya 6) and scanning. Scanning and then digitizing pictures is not a reason [to just shoot] the same things in digital. It is 2 totally different worlds and to me it is still worth shooting film. I love the feel to it, the way it looks and the whole process that's behind it. For me it contributes to make my photos unique.
Photoshop I think it’s an instrument to amalgamate these things and to give the last touch to it, but used very cautiously.  Of course shooting digital has its own advantages and I do use it....but rarely for my personal projects.

Dichoceros Bicornis
Bronx Zoo, New York

Chelodina Longicollis
Bronx Zoo, New York

Immune Media's Questions for Sven Creutzmann:

The expressions of the field workers are very unique.  Were the portraits in the sugarcane
series "directed"?

For me the unwritten subtitle of the machetero essay is: "Don't move, stay right where you are!"  None
of the images is staged, directed or set up.  I walked among them, and when I saw something interesting,
I just told (actually I almost yelled ;-) at the worker: "No te muevas...Quédate así mismo," and so they
did, amazingly stoic.  I did not tell them what to do, how or where to look. This way we obtain an intimate
look into the faces and eyes that reflect reality.

Can you describe the first time you ever got paid for doing photography?

I was still an amateur and had a pro friend who couldn't cover an assignment for DPA (German press agency)
because he had a date with a girl he had been after for awhile. So I shot the assignment for him and gave
him the film the next morning. The pictures got widely published with his credit, because of course his bosses
at DPA couldn't know that he had not taken the photos. [My friend] paid me the corresponding money.

How much Photoshop is too much?

I am just referring to journalism now: Everything that was allowed to do in the darkroom, is okay to do in
Photoshop. Taking away or adding elements, though, is a no-no. I find the discussions nowadays a bit weird:
Editors ask for raw files and compare them with the Photoshopped image-

Did anybody ever ask Sebastiao Salgado to turn in his negatives?
Did anybody ever ask Nachtwey to print his black & white prints only on grade 3 paper?
Do we want to erase Eugene Smith's photos from our photographic memory because he did a lot of work in the
darkroom; would the pictures have had the impact they had if he had not done this?

So I think that these darkroom techniques, that we always have accepted back then (and still do), should be as
well accepted today for color / digital photography.

Everyone's a photographer these days.  Will photography survive as a profession?

A professional lives on their conceptual photography. He/she thinks, plans, and makes strategic moves to realize
his/her vision. He/she dedicates his/her brain, his/her heart and every fiber of the body to that vision.  The
amateur cannot and will not do that, and thus cannot do a story for Newsweek or Stern; no amateur will be
assigned to cover the President's inauguration.

But: Of course, any amateur can, on occasion, take better pictures than a pro.  It has always been like that.
In workshops I have often seen amateurs "outshoot" the pros.  But making good photos here and there does
not mean that one can make a living on it or do it "on demand."  Being a pro and surviving as such is not only
making good pictures, it's also about commitment to a lifestyle and it is, despite all the adventures we see and
live, a lot of sacrifice.

Would you rather the US lift its travel embargo to Cuba, or travel back in time to ride alongside Che
Guevara on his year-long 1951 motorcycle trip across South America?

Even though I love to ride motorbikes,  I'd rather have the US lift the embargo (not only the travel ban)...a much
more interesting story would develop.  It would mean substantially more income for Cuba...the government would
relax and lower its defenses...now in the position to have to prove to its people it's capable of dealing with the
difficult issues (since it can no longer blame the US embargo for every deficiency).

Plus, if I could travel back in time, I'd prefer for it to be so I could cover Castro's rebels fight in the very beginning
of the revolution, back in 1956.

What's one thing you've learned from your time in cuba, or, one thing you've learned from the Cuban
people?

Enjoy every moment of the Here and Now. Don't get stuck in thinking too much about the tomorrow.  (Though I
have to admit-  that even though I understand the benefits of this way of thinking, making it my own reality is a
rather hard piece of work).