American PHOTO 2013-07-08

JULY 12-14, 2013
Join the Mentor Series this summer as we light up New York

City! Understand how luminosity can shape the mood and color of
the photographs you create, as Nikon professional photographers
Lucas Gilman and David Tejada assist you in finding the best
angles, interpreting natural light sources, utilizing reflectors, and
understanding how to control light to convey a desired atmosphere
all while capturing unique New York City images in both controlled and
spontaneous shooting situations. Beautiful iconic Central Park will serve
as the perfect venue to learn how to use natural light and consider light
modifiers to enhance your portraits. Under the Brooklyn Bridge will
provide us a shooting location from twilight to dark, as we throw light on
our subject and allow the city skyline to shine in the background. We will
also take to the streets in Times Square to create images that convey
the hustle and bustle of The Crossroads of the World at night. The
neon will illuminate your frame as you capture the dazzling fast-paced
city nightlife unfolding in front of your lens. Visual inspiration here
is endless and the chance to learn this most important skill from these
industry leaders is invaluable. Their best advice and simple explanations,
along with the photo ops afforded in the Big Apple, will clearly take your
photography to the next level. Sign up today!
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SEPTEMBER 13-18, 2013

Welcome to Glacier National Park, where an endless landscape
of rugged peaks, pristine waters and untouched wildlife has been
preserved for thousands of years. In September we return to the Big
Sky Country of Montana to explore the scenic wonders of one of our
nations most cherished national parks. Join Mentor Series and Nikon
professional photographers Reed Hoffmann, Wolfgang Kaehler and
Layne Kennedy to learn the ultimate photo tips and techniques for
capturing all the beauty that Montana and Glacier National Park has to
offer. Master the art of sunrise photography when you experience the
rst colors of the day reected in the waters of Two Medicine Lake.
The ah moment will be that iconic shot of tiny Wild Goose Island on
St. Mary Lake, a breathtaking scene at sunrise. We will travel along the
Going-To-The-Sun Road, an engineering marvel completed in 1932. A
key stop will be Logan Pass, sitting atop the Continental Divide which
promises sightings of marmots, mountain goats and bighorn sheep.
From here well embark on a hike to Hidden Lake overlook. A visit to the
Triple D Game Farm provides an opportunity to get up-close with a
few of the animals in their native environment. Add on an afternoon at
Flathead Lake Lodge, a classic dude ranch brimming with photos ops
for cowboy/horse action. You will not want to miss the grandeur and
beauty that Montana and Glacier National Park have to offer.
With additional support from:

FOLLOW US ON
Mentor Series Worldwide Treks
Donnie Sexton
NYC SPEEDLIGHT WORKSHOP
Aleksandar Kolundzija
COSTA RICA
OCTOBER 16, 2013
Donnie Sexton
Visual Odyssey
FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, the Mentor Series has taken photo enthusiasts to
destinations across the country and around the world. With top Nikon professional
photographers accompanying participants every day and teaching them how and
what to shoot, theres nothing like a Mentor Series trek. You and your photography
will never be the same!
Beneath a canopy of clouds, the impressive Arenal Volcano stands in

the distance and a verdant world of tropical forests, twisting canyons,
and cascading waterfalls awaits. Join Nikon professional photographers
Lucas Gilman and Reed Hoffmann to experience the beauty of Costa
Rica and explore the benets of using video to tell a story using Nikons
latest HD-SLRs. At Arenal Natura Ecological Park, we will turn our
cameras to frogs, birds, reptiles, and other rare species to capture the
array of brilliant colors present here. Press the record button to gather
a world of sounds unique to this region. Consider your mentors best
advice as they assist you in capturing the simple movements of graceful
butteries or representing the vibrant, yet peaceful ambience of the cloud
forest. Secure your camera gear and sail above the treetops on a zipline, and navigate through the lush tropical forest on a series of hanging
bridges. Practice the camera movement techniques youre learning along
the way as you record the action of a brave adventurist rappelling down a
river canyon over brilliant waterfalls and into the tropical waters beyond.
Learning basic HD editing techniques and the considerations to be
taken when motion and sound are added to your travel journal will leave
you prepared to narrate a richer, fuller story.
THAILAND
NOVEMBER 110, 2013

From the glint of golden temples to the flash of city lights and saffroncolored robes, focus your lens on the vibrant colors and iconic scenery of
Thailand. Join the Mentor Series and Nikon professional photographers
David Tejada and Reed Hoffmann as we travel to the majestic cities
of Bangkok, Chiang Rai, and Chiang Mai. In Bangkok, we begin our
tour with a visit to the Grand Palace, a complex of courtyards, gardens,
and buildings adorned in gold leaf and colored glass, followed by a
visit to the giant reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. Photograph local
merchants selling fresh fruit, vegetables, and orchid blossoms from boats
overflowing with produce in the crowded canals of the Floating Market
at Damnoen Saduak. We continue on to Northern Thailand, where the
kingdom borders Laos at the Mekong River, offering views of lush jungle,
elephant farms, hill tribe villages, and tea plantations in Chiang Rai. Visit
the northern city of Chiang Mai, with its characteristic teak and gold
temples. Photograph hillside temples at sunset, visit a tiger sanctuary,
and attend morning prayer sessions with local Buddhist monks. Spend an
afternoon with the elephants as our mentors offer tips and techniques
for capturing these impressive creatures up close. This year, with Mentor
Series at your side, experience the exquisite natural beauty of Thailand!
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July/August 2013
Features
28 Almost Famous
What happens when a photographer steps out
from behind the lens and into the scenario
with his celebrated subjects.
28
BY Michael lewis
36 The Peoples Photographer

Brandon Stanton may be the most famous street
shooter working today. How did he turn his Humans
of New York into a million-fan phenomenon?
BY Michael Kaplan
44 Full Immersion
When photographers go in deep, diving into places,
cultures, and experiences far outside their own, the
results can make a career. Here are three emerging
pros whose big projects changed their lives.
BY lori FredricKson
Cover: Brandon Stanton. This page, from top: Michael Lewis; Brandon Stanton.
On the Cover
For Humans of
New York, Brandon
Stanton not only
photographs
strangers, he speaks
with themand the
quotes he runs with
the images, like
the one from this
woman, are crucial
to the projects
success.
36
This page, right, from top: Jessica Walter,

photographed for Entertainment Weekly by Michael
Lewis (2005); couple at the Jazz Age Festival on
Governors Island in New York, by Brandon Stanton.
Next page, from top: personal work by Travis
Rathbone; a Mursi tribesman by Maynard Switzer.
JuLY/AuguST 2013 AMeriCANpHoToMAg.CoM 3
July/August 2013
Departments
8 EDITORS NOTE
Faces Everywhere
Behind the scenes with portrait photographer
patrick James Miller. By MiriaM Leuchter
11
Focus
11 ONE TO WATCH
The Alchemist
Travis rathbone walks the cutting edge of design
with his studio still lifes. By FrankLin MeLendez
16 WORk IN PROGRESS
River Runs Deep

in ethiopias lower omo Valley, Maynard Switzer is
capturing a culture in peril. By Jack crager
18 BOOkS
Ends of the Earth

Sebastio Salgados environmental epic, James
Houstons fashion faces, and more. By Jack crager
22 ON THE WALL
Sexual Evolution
eastman House explores gender, ed ruscha explores
L.a., MoMa explores genres. By Lindsay coMstock
26 DIGITAL DOMAIN
Doc Watch
Documentary lmmakers take on some major gures
in photography. By Judith geLMan Myers
gear
55 HANDS ON
Beyond Manual
The rst autofocus lenses from Carl Zeiss mount only
on Fujilm and Sony iLCs. By stan horaczek
16
56 NEW STUFF
The Goods
Hot new tools from Canon, Nikon, Wacom, and more.
With apS-C chips now in more compacts, serious

shooters enjoy lots of choices. By PhiLiP ryan
66 PARTING SHOT
Its a Mans World

photographer Jasper White opens a door on
australian hobby sheds. By JiLL c. shoMer
SubScriptionS: American Photo (ISSN 1046-8986) (USPS 526-930), July/August, Volume 24, No. 4. American Photo is published bimonthly (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec)
by Bonnier Corporation, 2 Park Ave., New York, NY 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY 10016 and at additional mailing ofces. Authorized periodicals postage by the Post Ofce Department, Ottawa, Canada,
and for payment in cash. poStMAStEr: Send address changes to American Photo, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142; 386-246-0408; www.americanphotomag.com/cs. If the postal services alert us that your
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4 aMeriCaNpHoToMag.CoM JuLY/auguST 2013
From top: Travis rathbone; Maynard Switzer
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MIRIAM LEUCHTER

FEATURES EDITOR Debbie Grossman
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MANAGING EDITOR Jill C. Shomer
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8 americanphotomag.com July/august 2013
editors note
Faces
Everywhere
auling a bulging garment bag and wearing what i hoped was enough makeup
but feared was too much, i arrived at
the tribeca studio that patrick James miller was
using for our portrait shoot late, overheated, and
nervous. im not used to posing for a camera. But
my art department colleagues and i had decided
i was long overdue for a new headshot for this
column, and i wanted an excuse to go behind the
scenes with this up-and-coming pro whose work
i admire. so here i was, as ready as id ever be.
miller started out as a painter and graphic
designer, but a college summer-abroad program
in grenada, spain, opened his eyes to another
talenthe came back with 40 rolls of lm and
a passion for photography. it felt natural, he
recalls. i wanted to learn all about it. that was
a decade ago. Back at ucsanta Barbara, he
studied with photographer richard ross and assisted Brad swonetz, a busy southern california
pro; more assisting gigs followed. (he interviewed
another mentor and former boss, misha gravenor,
for our april 2013 American Photo on Campus; nd
it at americanphotomag.com/miller-mentor.) he
moved to new york nearly three years ago, and
hes been shooting editorial and commercial
portraits pretty much nonstop since then.
most of the time miller shoots on location, often with no idea what that location will look like
until he sees it. he nds that challengein fact,
most photographic challengesexciting. recounting the time he had less than two hours notice to
photograph robert Deniro and Bradley cooper,
and only a few minutes with each of them, he
relives the adrenaline rush. But, he adds, every
job always brings some element of adventure.
Why portraits? people fascinate me, miller
patrick James miller (2)
Left: Miriam Leuchter on

the photo studio set, by
Patrick James Miller; right:
the photographers selfportrait.
says. meeting interesting people and seeing

how they livelearning their stories and what
they think abouti feel very fortunate to get
to do this for work.
hes not alone. as we were putting together all
of the stories in this issue of the magazine, i saw
a distinct trend emerge: youre holding a portrait issue. From humans of new york creator
Brandon stanton to celebrity shooter michael
lewis to the three emerging pros who found
their calling in projects that took them deep into
other cultures, all of our featured photographers
this summer train their cameras on people and
their environments. even in the departments,
portraits predominate.
Back at the studio, miller put me under a trio
of lights, including a 6-foot softbox. (indeed, his
way with light was one reason i wanted to work
with him.) he immediately put me at easeas he
told me later, more important than the lighting
is to have that connection with the subject and
get their trust in you and what youre trying to
accomplish. you can see just how much fun i had
on the shoot in the photograph on the opposite
page. as for my new headshot, well unveil it in
this space in the next issue of the magazine.
MiriaM Leuchter, editor-in-chief
July/august 2013 americanphotomag.com 9
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the people behind the pics Work in Progress 16 Books 18 on the Wall 22 digital domain 26
one to Watch
the alchemist
With an eye for cutting-edge treatments, Travis Rathbone rethinks the art of the still life
till-life photographer Travis Rathbone has
established a signature style by redening
the limits of objects. His visual experiments
push commonplace items into new realms: submerged
in foreign substances, frozen in motion, exploded into
larger-than-life compositions. The 28-year-old New
York City transplant, already in demand only a few
years into his career, has little time to reboot and
refresh between projects. After two weeks of intense
shooting in San Francisco for client Jawbone through
the agency fuseproject, hes just gotten off a red-eye
Travis Rathbone
above: one of travis

Rathbones stylistic
mash-ups, shot for 944
Magazine in 2008.
By Franklin Melendez
back to the East Coast, the latest leg of a studio

marathon with barely a breather in sight. Its been
a crazy two years, Rathbone says, but I wont
complain about it.
Then again, its this type of all-consuming focus
verging on hubristhat prompted the California
native to strike out on his own and start an independent studio at the ripe age of 21. I was working
at a digital imaging lab, but promoting my own
work as much as possible, Rathbone recalls.
Another photographer had backed out of a tiny
JulY/AuguST 2013 AmERICANpHoTomAg.Com 11
one to Watch
still-life shoot last-minute, and I was asked to ll

in. So I called in sick to work. I shot the image;
they liked it and shortly thereafter offered me
another two-week project. Without much more
planning, I stupidly went back to my boss at the
lab and quit on the spot.
But Rathbone did have a few aces up his sleeve.
After graduating from Santa Barbaras Brooks
Institute in 2006, the young lensman sharpened
his vision assisting established names including

David laChapelle in los Angeles and Craig Cutler
in New York. one of the few things I asked for
with early jobs was to use the studio facilities on
the weekends if they werent booked, he says. I
really took advantage of that. I shot and shot and
shot. looking back, my work wasnt great but it
was getting better. And I would show it to anyone
who would look.
12 AmERICANpHoTomAg.Com JulY/AuguST 2013
Travis Rathbone
a surrealistic shot from

travis Rathbones personal
work, 2010.
2013 Canon U.S.A., Inc. Canon and EOS are registered trademarks of Canon Inc. All Rights Reserved. Image and effects simulated.
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close-Up
travis rathbone
From top: Rathbone

made this cosmetics diptych
as part of a personal-work
project in 2012; personal
work, 2007.
14 AmERICANpHoTomAg.Com JulY/AuguST 2013
travisrathbone.com
Lives In New York City
Studied At Brooks Institute
of Photography, Santa
Barbara, CA
Awards SPD merit awards for
Field & Stream and Money
Clients Include Adidas, Barnes
& Noble, BBDO, Field & Stream,
Mens Journal, Glamour, New
York, Popular Photography,
Prevention, Victorias Secret
In the Bag Hasselblad 503CW
and H series: They are workhorse cameras that have
been put to the test for years,
he says. I also use the
Mamiya Leaf Aptus-II 12 80MP
digital back.
New Tool Something that
saves hours of time in post is
software called Helicon
Focus, which puts focus planes
together and saves a retoucher
from having to do it.
Travis Rathbone (2); portrait by Carrie Brewer
The diligence eventually paid off. Rathbone

cites as one big break a January 2012 cover for
Money magazine. You dont see a lot of still lifes
on national covers anymore, he says. I always
wondered if that was something I would ever get
to do. Sixteen cover shoots in 2012 alone settles
that question. Rathbones ever-growing roster of
clients includes Glamour and New York magazines
and macys, Adidas, and Victorias Secret.
Behind his success lies a novel approach.
Rathbone transforms his studio into a testing
laboratory where he can explore materials with
the assiduity of a sculptor. I love stuff, he says,
but simply taking a beautiful picture is not that
impressive. Im always looking for different effects.
I was at a dinner once, and we ordered some sort
of fancy dessert, which was prepared tableside
using liquid nitrogen for all of us to see. I left that
dinner thinking, What on earth can I do with
liquid nitrogen? Rathbone took to the studio
for a battery of tests on various substances; it
culminated in a personal series of frozen makeup. Since then magazines like Mens Journal and
Womens Health have had me replicate the technique for different stories, he says.
Rathbones inquisitiveness remains a driving force. one of my art directors brought this
weird chemical to my attention, he says. Its a
hydrophobic substance and I just saw a bunch of
YouTube videos of what it can do. It wasnt particularly beautiful, but it was unique. There must
be something I can do with this. aP
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River Runs Deep

In eastern Africa, Maynard Switzer discovers a clash of culturesand a serious threat to one of them
fter apprenticing with the legendary
richard Avedon, maynard switzer set up
shop as a commercial photographer. i was
shooting fashion and beauty, he says, but i always
found myself, if we went to shoot someplace, more
interested in the culture of the people than anything else. switzer was also an avid bicyclist, and in
the late 90s he had a cycling accident that resulted
in a serious head injury. that sort of kept me out
of the studio, he recalls, because my doctors suggested that i not work around ashing lights for a
year. so due to a combination of thingsgood and
badthat was it. i called my agent and said, no
more fashion; no more beauty.
in 1999 switzer followed his muse to take up
travel and documentary photography, using natural
light to shoot beauty of a different sort throughout
the worldfrom central Asia to china, from cuba
to Africa. though he divides his time between new
york city and toronto, hes often on the roadand
16 July/August 2013 AmericAnphotomAg.com
Above: In one of Maynard

Switzers images from the
village of Kayna in the
lower Omo Valley, members
of the Hamer tribe perform
a dance called Evangadi
as part of the bull-jumping
ritual that welcomes a boy
into manhood.
By JACK CRAGER
especially drawn to cultures whose way of life is on

the brink of extinction. A lot of these places are
disappearing around the world, quite fast, he says.
switzer discovered one such vanishing culture in
2012 while doing research before a trip to ethiopia,
which is split and fed by the mighty omo river. in
the lower omo Valley, the ethiopian government is
building a giant dam called the gibe iii and forcing
all these tribes in that area off their land, switzer
says. theyre leasing out huge tracts of land to
companiesmalaysian, indian, italian, Koreanfor
massive farms to grow cash crops such as palm oil
and cotton. these need a tremendous amount of
irrigation, so they want to dam up the omo river.
And for the ethiopian tribes who live theremore
than 200,000 peoplethe river is their life source:
the natives rely on it to ood every year so they
can grow their own food and feed their cattle.
Further, switzer learned, many of these tribes
have called this land home for centuries. According
maynard switzer (3); portrait by erin switzer
still, the tension between the tribes and government

soldiersand between rival tribes themselvescreates
the need for safety precautions. in some of the places
we stay, we have to pay for a guy to guard our tent with
an AK-47, says switzer. some of the tribes are a little
bit more aggressive; it depends on where you go.
he also hires local guides to facilitate travels and
communication. i think portraits are much better if
they show people in their environment, rather than,
say, a set-up shot, he says. there should be something
about who this person is and the way they live. i like to
capture people doing their natural things, oblivious of
me. so a guide will talk to them and explain.
switzer hopes to help tilt the geopolitical balance in
the region: A public outcry has actually slowed the progress of the gibe iii dams construction. survival international reports that, although more than 50 percent of
the dam has been built, several banks and governments
have withdrawn funding in recent years. switzer says
the regions fate is sort of in limbo right now. humanrights groups are screaming and yelling about this, too,
so i dont know whats going to happen. But it means an
enormous amount of money to the ethiopian governmentthey have to get the water to irrigate these
lands. in doing it, theyre losing this tremendous culture
of all these tribes. And once its gone, its gone. AP
to survival international, a group that advocates

for the rights of tribal people worldwide, the ethiopian government has started to evict Bodi, Kwegu,
and mursi people from their land into resettlement
areas. the organization reports beatings and jailings of people who have fought back and even rapes
and killings by military patrols.
such reports intensied switzers interest in the
omo Valley. earlier this year, he spent a month
documenting the regions indigenous tribes, and he
plans to return in october. my goal is to capture a
vanishing culture, he says, and to bring some light
to whats going to be lost if all this takes place. i
think as you get into the politics, your work evolves
into things that you might not have thought about.
yet most of switzers omo Valley portraits do
not depict confrontations. im not a war photographer, he notes. there are enough people who do
that. ive been in some dicey situations, but im not
looking to get my head blown off.
Above left: A portrait of

a woman and her child
from the Dassanech
tribe, in the village of
Borkonech in the lower
Omo Valley. She is
wearing a headdress of
sorghum branches and
standing in front of her
hut made of branches,
tree bark, and pieces
of tin. Above right:
In the village of Hiloha,
a Mursi tribesman and
his children gather his
cattle to take into the
elds for grazing. For
the Mursi, cattle both
provide milk and serve
as currency.
CLOSE-UP
Maynard Switzer
maynardswitzer.com
Lives In New York and Toronto
Studied At Art Center College of
Design, Pasadena, CA
Mentors Guy Bourdin, Richard
Avedon: From Avedon I learned
how important movement is to
an image and having a close rapport with whomever you work with.
Clients Include Afar, National Geographic Traveler, Geo; Nikon World
In the Bag Two Nikon D800 bodies; Nikkor lenses (15mm, 28mm,
35mm, 50mm, 85mm) and zooms (1424mm, 2470mm, 70200mm);
MacBook Air with two solid-state external drives; Nikon Speedlight
SB-700 and SB-800 ashes. Available light is my favorite, Switzer
says, but there are times I use ash and try to make it blend with
the natural light. I dont often use a tripod because I move around
a lot. This I think comes from shooting fashion: I like to have people
moving and you have to be able to move with them.
July/August 2013 AmericAnphotomAg.com 17
BOOKS
Ends of the Earth

Genesis
By Sebastio Salgado Nazraeli Taschen $70
Widely hailed as a master photographer, Salgado
has also been criticized for aestheticizing human
suffering in his many nely wrought images of
starving refugees, manmade disasters, and the like.
In Genesis, though, his painterly style addresses
more sublime scenery: pristine corners of the
world that are virtually untouched by modernity.
I wanted to examine how humanity and nature
have long coexisted in what we now call ecological
balance, Salgado writes in his foreword. Culminating an eight-year global exploration, this book is
what Salgado terms a visual ode to the majesty
and fragility of Earth. But, he adds, it is also a
warning of all that we risk losing.
Much of the survey focuses on landscapes and
wildlife rather than humans. It ranges from ice18 aMErICanphotoMag.CoM july/auguSt 2013
Top: Southern right whale,

Patagonia, Argentina,
2004, from the Planet
South section of Salgados
Genesis.
By Jack crager
bergs and penguins in antarctica to volcanos and

caribou in the arctic, from wind-sculpted african
deserts to dense foliage in amazon rain forests.
Viewers may recognize many shotsof wildebeests
and zebras, sea lions and whalesthat Salgado has
published and shown. yet behind this 520-page tome
is a grand ambition: to cover the remaining natural
Earth comprehensively, much of it from the air.
the human cultures we do see retain ancient
ways of life. In isolated lands like new guinea,
Salgado documents indigenous tribes in ritual
ceremonies, hunter-gatherer lifestyles, and minimal attire. In the arctic, he follows hardy sledders
herding reindeer on the frozen tundra. I wanted to
capture a vanishing world, a part of humanity that
is on the verge of disappearing, he explains, yet in
many ways still lives in harmony with nature. and
he succeeds, in glorious black and white.
2013 Sebastio Salgado/amazonas Images
Sebastio Salgados black-and-white survey of a world before modernity leaves it behind
At Canon, we see image-making as

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Were here to help you develop your
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Canon Inc. in the United States. All rights reserved.
BOOKS
natural Beauty
ametsuchi: PhotoGraPhs By rinko kaWauchi
Aperture $80
a ne-art photographer whose work often explores
the minutiae of everyday life, Kawauchi broadens
her canvas here; the title Ametsuchi is a japanesecharacter amalgam of heaven and earth. Many
of her landscapes depict zigzagging re patterns
from yakihata farming, a traditional controlledburn methodthat are more deliberate than they
seem. Some shots depict tiny
human gures dwarfed by vast
natural backdrops. other
images show distant constellations, Buddhist rituals, cavernous
mountain lakes, symmetrical
and amorphous patterns found
in natureall indicating a
search for order and beauty in
a chaotic, mysterious world.
Clockwise from top left: A study in color from James
Houstons Natural Beauty; Nicholas Alan Copes
Culver City, August, 2009; a shot of a controlled burn
made during yakihata farming, by Rinko Kawauchi.
20 aMErICanphotoMag.CoM july/auguSt 2013
WhiteWash
By Nicholas Alan Cope powerHouse $65

Copes study of los angeles architecture zeroes in on the
stark geometric patterns of the citys modernist structures. Marshaling intense SoCal sunlight and hypercontrast black and white, he turns the buildings bold
lines and shapes into otherworldly artas sterile and
devoid of human life as architectural models. this is a
sort of idealized survey of the city, he notes. Whitewash
is los angeles at its most stripped down and honest.
Clockwise from top left: james houston, 2013 nicholas alan Cope, 2013 rinko Kawauchi
By James Houston Damani $50

In this project commercial photographer houston combines two
abiding interests: gorgeous people
and the environment. Drawing
on his rolodex, the beauty and
fashion shooter depicts models
and celebrities including Emma Watson, Christy
turlington, adrian grenier, and Elle Macpherson.
to raise awareness and funds for environmental
issues, he will donate proceeds to global green
uSa. his images blend radiant skin tones with
surprising backdrops and bursts of colorsome
more naturalistic than others.
on the wall
Sexual Evolution
the Gender show
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, June 8 Sept. 29
eastmanhouse.org
as gender roles have evolved over time, the way we

think of male, female, and androgynous
characteristics has also been transformed. this
group exhibition (which includes this magazines
features editor, Debbie grossman) traces the changing portrayal of gender identities in photography,
from traditional depictions to subversive expressions
of rebellion. With 130 photographs spanning more
22 americanphotomag.com JULy/aUgUSt 2013
Gingham Dress with

Apple, circa 2003, by
British photographer
Cig Harvey, from The
Gender Show at George
Eastman House.
By Lindsay ComstoCk
than 170 years, the show features work by legends

including Julia margaret cameron, edward
Steichen, richard avedon, robert Frank, andy
Warhol, and cindy Shermanwho have been
pivotal in advancing the art of portraiture. the
collection reects not only evolving aesthetics but
also the ever-changing cultural landscape. and it
depicts many famous facessuch as Sarah Bernhardt, marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks,
Joan crawford, greta garbo, marilyn monroe, and
paul newmanmaking for one sexy survey.
cig harvey
A visual survey of gender studies shows how the paradigms are a-changing
STAYING STILL IS NO
LONGER AN OPTION.
GO HYBRID WITH
THE LUMIX GH3.
Im getting so many new clients

since I started shooting Hybrid
products with my Lumix.
- Suzette Allen
Hybrid Professional Photographer
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The Lumix GH3 gets you in on the burgeoning Hybrid market with simple creative controls that make it easy to switch
from stills to video on the y. Advanced AF tracking and pro-level rack focusing let you easily follow the action while
stunning HD video with built-in recording options delivers the professional results you demand. See what Hybrid can
do for you watch the video: www.panasonic.com/hybrid
Get your career in motion with Lumix G the ultimate in Hybrid photography.
F XL: 19 new aCquisitions in PhotoGraPhy

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, through Jan. 6, 2014 moma.org
in an industry of constant reinvention and technological innovation, photographers continually vie to see and to freeze moments
in a way that no one has attempted before. in that spirit, this
group exhibition explores some of the most novel concepts in
photography today. the sprawling show lls ve galleries in the
museum and features photographs by 19 contemporary artists.
primarily multifaceted or serial works, the imagery spans generations, cultures, media, and genres, from darkroom experiments
such as photograms and photomontages to political commentary
on labor history and globalization. among the artists are familiar american pioneersrobert Frank, Stephen Shore, taryn
Simonand a multinational cadre of conceptualists, including
Koleov,
yto Barrada, Birgit Jrgenssen, Bela

and oscar muoz.
comprising recent moma acquisitions not previously displayed
at the museum, this exhibition spotlights the burgeoning role of
photography in contemporary art.
Also Showing
ed rusCha
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, through Sept. 29 getty.edu
the work of interdisciplinary artist ed ruscha conjures the time

of Mad Men in the city of angels. ruscha epitomizes the pop
art movement in his paintings, drawings, and lms; he has also
created highly graphic photo series and large-format art books
(16 of them, made between 1963 and 1978) that are inuential in
their own right. his pictures study commonplace relics of the L.a.
cityscapeapartment buildings, gas stations, a strip of the pacic
coast highwaywith a combination of humor and bold simplicity,
transforming seemingly prosaic imagery into a distinctive style, a
signature of mid-century american photography.
International Center of Photography,

New York, NY, through Sept. 8
icp.org
This triennial highlights the work
of 28 artists whose creative intent
mirrors current international economic, political, and social activity:
in a state of ux. With an emphasis on digital image-making and online social
networking, the exhibition features not only photography but also lm,
video, and interactive media.
dawoud Bey
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, North Miami, FL, through Sept. 8
mocanomi.org
Chicago-based photographer Bey has devoted his portraiture and documentary work to exploring the lives of young people and marginalized
members of society. This survey of the artists oeuvre includes his seminal
series Harlem USAa ve-year study of the New York neighborhood and its
charactersas well as other street photography and formal portraiture.
Common Ground: new american

street Photography
DRKRM, Los Angeles, CA, July 627 drkrm.com
Featured here are ve photographers whose eyes are xed on the street:
Richard Bram, who shoots in a classic style with his Leica rangender; Chuck
Patch, whose black-and-white work centers on New Orleans; Bryan Formhals, who uses medium format and blogs about street photography; and
Jack Simon and Andrew Blake, who avor their images with comedic irony.
What they share is an emphasis of found imagery over stylized creations.
Photogravure: master Prints

from the Collection
Clockwise from top: Allan Sekulas Koreatown, Los Angeles from the
series Fish Story, Chapter One, April 1992, at MoMA; Lucas Foglias
Homeschooling Chalkboard, Tennessee, 2008, at ICP; Ed Ruschas
Standard, Amarillo, Texas, 1962, at the Getty Museum.
24 americanphotomag.com JULy/aUgUSt 2013
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, through Aug. 11 philamuseum.org

This exhibition culls 55 prints from a period between the 1880s and 1910s,
when the process of photogravurea type of printmaking combining
photography and engravingwas being honed by pictorialist photographers, as well as prints from the 1930s by such artists as Man Ray. It also
includes prints by contemporary photographers, including Lorna Simpson,
who have revived the vintage medium.
clockwise from top: 2013 allan Sekula; Lucas Foglia; ed ruscha, the J. paul getty museum, Los angeles
a different kind
of order: the iCP
triennial E
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DIGITAL DOMAIN
Doc
Watch
Recent lms reveal the people and stories

behind the greatest contemporary images
By Judith Gelman myers
Photographers have often popped up as colorful

protagonists in the movies, from Rear Window
to Blow-Up to Apocalypse Now. More recent
documentaries of real-life photo legends reveal the
actual imagination and skill that go into capturing
great pictures. For lessons in craft and courage,
watch these now.
Directed by Ben Shapiro

Zeitgeist Films $23 (DVD)
When gregory crewdsons marriage started to fall
apart, he began to have dreams in which he was
oating; these nighttime images prompted a series
of overhead photographs shot from a crane. the
son of a psychoanalyst, crewdson is attuned to
the relationship between his art and his subconsciousa theme deftly explored by Ben shapiro
in Brief Encounters. shapiro met crewdson while
shooting a pBs documentary on his early work
and became so enamored of the photographers
m.o. that he followed him around for the next 10
years. What emerges is a portrait of a man committed to obsessive control over the exterior and
utter surrender to the interior.
Above: Gregory Crewdsons

Untitled (Ophelia), is
featured in the documentary
Brief Encounters and is
used in the poster art for
the lm.
wHiCH way is tHe front line froM Here?

tHe life and tiMe of tiM HetHerinGton
Directed by Sebastian Junger
HBO Documentary Films (available on HBO GO)
image maker and humanitarian tim hetherington
epitomized the role of concerned war photographer.
We forget the people imaged are individuals, with
their own stories and individual lives, he explains.
as he revealed their ravaged lives with his rolleiex during his 10 years in the eld, hetherington
got to know his liberian subjects stories so well
that he even put down his camera to serve as their
teacher and mentor. after he resumed shooting, he
and author/director sebastian Junger spent a year
in afghanistan with a platoon of american soldiers;
their resulting lm, Restrepo, was nominated for
an academy award. six weeks after attending
the oscar ceremonies, hetherington was killed by
mortar re in libya. Which Way is Jungers deeply
felt tribute to his documentary partner.
How to Make a Book witH steidl

Directed by Gereon Wetzel and Joerg Adolph
Kino Lorber $23 (DVD)
the title conjures images of printing presses,
binderies, and vats of inkbut in this intriguing
doc, steidl refers not to the publishing company
but to the man. gerhard steidl is revealed through
his relationships with the master photographers
whose work he brings to the world. We see steidl
quizzing robert Frank (in german) about his
early days with alexey Brodovitch; forcing gnter
grass to perfect his hand-drawn cover art for the
50th anniversary of Tin Drum; debating ed ruscha
over whether to compromise on On the Road (they
didnt). We even get a revealing demonstration of
how Joel sternfeld used an illegal iphone app to get
the forbidden shots used in his book iDubai.
tHe MexiCan suitCase

Directed by Trisha Ziff
212Berlin Films $10 (available on Netix and iTunes)
artifacts beget questions: Who made them? What
do they signify? once found, to whom do they rightfully belong? the artifacts in The Mexican Suitcase
included some 4,500 negatives of the spanish civil
War made by robert capa, David chim seymour,
and gerda taro. thought to have disappeared,
theyre now at the international center of photography, thanks in part to director trisha Ziff. But
Ziff ventures beyond the story of the negatives
journey to new york to explore their signicance
as historical documents, especially for the men and
women exiled during the war. in doing so, she addresses the contribution that a single photograph
let alone thousandscan make to the quest for
knowledge and, through that, justice.
gregory crewdson
GreGory Crewdson: Brief enCounters
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Michael Lewis
On the Job
ALMOST
FAMOUS
A celebrity photographer tells how he makes the shot,
then gets in it. by MICHAEL LEWIS
Above and bottom right:

Jonathan Goldsmith,
aka The Worlds Most
Interesting Man, at Bar
and Books, New York City,
Cigar Acionado, 2010.
Opposite and top right: Tina
Fey at Roseland Ballroom,
Esquire, 2004. Previous
spread: Paul Rudd (right)
with the photographer
during a shoot for
Entertainment Weekly,
New York City, 2003.
30 AmericAnphotomAg.com July/August 2013
have mostly been oK with it. over the years i just

started to quickly explain, hey, i do this with all
my shoots. But i do feel very self-conscious, as if im
wasting their time. i realize that they know its just
for me, this thing i do, and they dont mind. still, i
cut it off after two or three shots out of respect for
the persons time.
i dont really know how other photographers
deal with celebrities. i never really assisted anybody
who did what i do. many of my subjects thank me
because apparently i give a lot of direction. i walk
them through the shoot. im very quick, too, even
for the 15 minutes you typically get with a celebrity.
But if they dig you, you can push that 15 minutes to
michael lewis (4)
good portrait seduces the viewer. When

i set up a photograph, i ask myself: is
the viewer going to buy it? that window
is real, lights streaming through, it looks amazingbut of course i made it primarily because it
was easier than nding it. youre always making
choices about how to control the environment,
whether youre on a set or not. its a challenge to
reveal much about a subject in a single frame. its
almost impossible, though, not to reveal something about yourself. portraits can tell you a lot
about a photographer.
When i started working commercially my
subjects were mostly solosuntil i jumped into
the frame myself. the rst time i did that i was
photographing David hasselhoff. it was actually my
assistant, Brian Delaney, who said, hey, you gotta
get in this! At that time i was pretty new to shooting celebrities, and hasselhoff took to the idea quite
warmly. the proof sheet is very playful, with him
resting his elbow on my head, that kind of thing.
not long after that i just started stepping into these
things without always telling people. i started doing
it with all my shoots, celebrities or not. And people
On the Job
michael lewis (2)
20. i just constantly push; i think every photographer must say just one more at least 100 times.
But theres a point where you realize youve bled
the subject; theyre done. its got little to do with the
number of frames you shoot. theres this moment
when i feel like the subject is saying, Doesnt this
asshole have it yet? how many shots are you going
to take here? And i just sense them pulling back. i
think every photographer must feel that moment.
people have been pushing me toward integrating my jumping into the frame in my editorial
portraits into my self-portraits, which are a longterm, personal project and actually the work im
really proud of. in a way, the jumping-in pictures
are at least as realistic as my mundane-looking
self-portraits. the self-portraits are the most poignant; you really see a regular guy who was single
for a very long time. theyre so ordinary, but hes
also alone. And it makes a very loud silence.
i can see some similarity in tone between my
self-portraits and my editorial photos, especially
the ones where i put myself in the frame. But the
intent of each is very different. the on-set photos
are for fun; theyre like getting visual autographs.
the self-portraits i consider a serious body of
work, and im thinking theyll stay separate, even
though as my life has changed, ive included my
partner and our son in them.
Aesthetically, its all just me; i dont know any
other way. put it this way: im always amazed when
you go into a coffee shop and they have bad coffee.
or if you run a bakery and your cookies suck. that
blows my mind. if this is what you do, youd better
do it with absolute dedication.
so thats how i think about my work. this is
On the Job
what i do, and i do it in a certain way, according
to what i like and the ideas i developed all the way
back in grad school (i studied ne art at the san
Francisco Art institute). if you look at my selfportraits and my editorial portraits, they share a
certain feeling. And over time theyve changed. the
photographs of Questlove and the Worlds most
interesting man are similar, but the latter i think
are more relaxed, have a different kind of energy
that ive acquired in recent years.
styles come and go. i nally have been doing this
long enough that im starting to see many cycle
through again. like the crazy digital oversharpeninghow photoshopped things look. thats kind of
come and gone. right now things are very bright,
poppy. people dont think of me when they think of
that as much. you just have to do what you do well.
theres a part of me that idealistically wants
to be authentic. But thats also realistic: if youre
not authenticwow, man, theres a lot of talented
people out there. so its good business to be authentic. And basically just be proud of your pictures.
Bob Dylan wrote a few albums when he was
youngerhis whole career is stellar, but there was
a stretch around 1965, 66, when he made his most
powerful albums in a very short period of time.
And he was asked once, Does it upset you to think
that youll never be able to write Blonde on Blonde
and Highway 61 Revisited again? And he said something like, Well, you cant do something forever.
i did it once; i can do other things now. you can
only do what feels true to you at the time.
i tend not to shoot celebrities any differently
than i do anyone else, and i think that can help
build rapport and in the end get a good picture.
early on in my career, when i was rst in l.A.,
you were judged a lot (and still are) by who youve
photographed, and i think i resisted that. the selfportraits helped me level the playing eld, too, because i was photographing myself in ways that did
not do me any favors. When i was doing online dating, girls would say, hey, if youre a photographer,
you must have a website. my mother was mortied
at some of the pictures i had on there, especially the
earlier ones. i would really let my belly just hang
out. But i was very proud of these pictures. they
helped me see just how much everybody is the same.
Jack Black was one of my rst shoots when i
was new to l.A. i was working, but i was new. Jack
Black was a pretty new guy, too. Beyond tenacious
D he hadnt done much yet. he came over to my
apartment for a shoot for Detour magazine, which
gave me great access to people and great photo
spreads but had no money. so i always shot in my
little one-bedroom apartment. i lived in Beechwood, below the hollywood sign, where there was
This spread: Questlove (The
Roots, Late Night with Jimmy
Fallon bandleader) at Mamas,
NYC, for Blender, 2006.
a little stretch where you could pretend it was

new york for like a microsecond.
comedians can be dark people, and he was kind
of pensive. At one point he was in the bathroom in
his underwear, his guts hanging outvery much
like the self-portraits i was doing at the timenot
the most complimentary physically, but it was
good, and it was funny. And i had a little kitten,
whos still with me to this dayhes 13 now. And
Above: Lewis and Melissa

McCarthy, at the Four
Seasons Hotel in Beverly
Hills during a shoot for
the New York Times,
April 2013.
the kitten jumped on the counter while Jack Black

was shaving. it made an awesome picture.
later that night i got a call from his publicist,
who was a powerful dude in hollywood. publicists
are a huge thing in this industry. they are powerful people here, and magazines are somewhat at
their mercy. they want the celebrity in the magazine, so they more or less conform to the image the
publicist and his client are trying to project at any
michael lewis (2)
On the Job
given time. he didnt want that picture to run. i

gave him my word that i wouldnt run it. And he
wasnt happy with that. he wanted the negative.
And im like, Dude, im giving you my word
i always stick with my word. then a couple days
later Rolling Stone comes out: tenacious D on all
fours wearing a diaper getting spanked with a guitar by Kyle gass (the other guy in tenacious D). i
couldnt believe it.
cut to about eight years later, Jack Blacks on
top of his game and im called in to shoot him for
the cover of Entertainment Weekly. so i printed
that photograph and brought it to the shoot. And
they liked it a lot. everybody felt good that day. We
all had stepped up in our careers.
tina Fey was terric to work with. she was the
ideal subject: smart, witty, totally into it. the whole
shoot was very collaborative. she came up with
Below: Jack Black and

Lewis at the Gramercy
Hotel, during a shoot
for Entertainment
Weekly, 2003.
one shot where shes writing in lipstick on the mens

room mirror. it meant a lot to her at the time.
After 12 years in new york, we just moved back
to l.A. about eight months agowith a 15-monthold. so things have been different from when i was
shooting Jack Black in my apartment. ironically,
recently ive been shooting a lot for the New York
Times. they put very good people in front of my
camera. And theyre throwing me everybody.
im proud of the editorial photos i make. it was
always important to me that my art school buddies would look at my website and think, man,
lewis is still making totally cool fucking pictures.
i always wanted to kind of keep it cool. And it is an
interesting thing for me, looking back, to still be
photographing these portraits and realizing that
no, i havent sold out.
As told to Meg Ryan Heery
Brandon Stantons mix of images, text, empathy, and

social media has made him the most famous street
photographer working todayand his Humans of New
York a pop-culture phenomenon. By Michael kaplan
t is a cool May afternoon in Manhattans
Chelsea neighborhood. Brandon Stanton, the
street-photography phenomenon who in just
two and a half years has amassed about a million
followers (between Facebook and Tumblr) for his
Humans of New York project, prowls a stretch of West
14th Street. Dressed in beat-up chinos and a gray thermal shirt, Canon EOS 5D Mark III (with a 50mm f/1.2
lens) clutched in his hand, he searches out subjects that
the Bill Cunninghams of the world might pass by. Asked
to describe his ideal subject, Stanton, 29, cant articulate
what he looks for. I dont have a pattern, he says. But
if you could discover a pattern, its probably kids and old
peoplewith a bunch of other types in between.
36 AMErICANpHOTOMAg.COM JulY/AuguST 2013
Stanton estimates that he walks six miles per

day and one mile per subject. His pace quickens
when he spots three female African American
chefs wearing toques and whites. He approaches
them gently, collapses his lanky six-foot-four-inch
frame, and morphs into an innocent New Yorker
whos looking for a quick exchange of positive
energy and easy collaboration.
Once they agree to be photographed, he subtly
positions them on a stoop, crouches down, reels
off a few shots. Next comes the critical task of
getting a quote that will accompany the photo
when it appears online. He begins with an obvious question: Whats the worst thing you ever
saw happen in the kitchen? A guys face caught
on re. Next comes the not-so-obvious follow-up.
Stanton wonders whether they laughed. We did,
one chef volunteers, after he went to the hospital
and we knew he was OK.
Since 2010, Stanton has posted some 5,000
Brandon Stanton (8)
The Peoples
Photographer
photos to his website. Hes appeared on the Today
show and has a Humans of New York book coming out
from St. Martins press in the fall. That publication
is probably the least interesting and most traditional
medium for Stantons work. With Humans of New
York, he has done nothing less than create a fresh
form of photography that capitalizes on the connective possibilities of social media. In doing so he may
represent the future of photography itself. He is his
own editor, curator, and publisher, and his audience
is larger than any traditional medium could allow.
Stantons wide-reaching success heralds a new era
when what matters to the viewer is having a direct
connection with the artist and his work. His audience
doesnt care about credentials or credits, or the fact
that he only started shooting regularly a few years
back. Thanks to his prolic digital output, hes quickly
evolved into one of the worlds more popular photographers, corralling nearly three times the Facebook
likes of, for instance, Annie leibovitz.
Theres never
been a well-known
photographer quite
like Stanton, who has
connected directly
with his audience
to create one of the
most-viewed ongoing
photo projects
ever. To see the
full captions for
all these pictures,
look for them on
humansofnew
york.com.
Among the schoolkids of gotham he maintains

rock-star statusas evidenced by the dozen or so
teenagers I see approaching him, including one boy
in a red sweatshirt who shakily asks, Can I hug
you? Stantons analog humanity in a world gone
madly digital has clearly struck a nerve.
Stantons daily quest to chronicle ve or six
interesting lives began as a hobby in 2010, when he
was trading options in Chicago. The job became a
grind and he unwound on the weekends by taking
pictures downtown. After getting laid off, Stanton
decided to focus on the single thing he loved doing:
photographing interesting strangers on the street.
The surprising but revelatory captionssuch as one
from a hookah-smoking fellow who declared, Egypt
is like a mangogrew out of conversations with his
subjects. His aha moment came after he posted an
image of a green-haired woman dressed in green.
It wasnt a great photo; the lighting wasnt good
and I botched the composition, he recalls. But she
JulY/AuguST 2013 AMErICANpHOTOMAg.COM 37
Above: That was Sunday in

Harlem, Stanton says. She
had just gotten out of church
and I noticed symmetry in
her colors and that mural.
Surprisingly, she agreed to
do it. The older the subject,
the less you can move them
around. The fact that she
agreed to stand there for me
was satisfying.
million. Im a hard-ass worker. I knew I could

work harder than anyone else.
These days he routinely receives (and declines)
corporate gigs, and offers for promotional deals
roll in (he turned down Canons social-media arm
because they wanted him to promote a camera he
doesnt use). He did one gratis deal for Facebook
the company Stanton says played a major role in
HONYs existence. Facebook changed my life, he
explains, adding that discussing it actually makes
him emotional. Everything has been possible for
HONY because social-media platforms showed an
interest in this new art form and found an audience for it. HONY would have a hard time our-
Brandon Stanton (4)
said to me, I used to be a different color every day.

Then one day I tried green and it was a really good
day. Ive been green every day for 15 years. I put
the photo up, added the caption, and it became the
most popular photo I ever posted.
Quotes became integral, visits to the site
increased dramatically, and Stantons condence
lifted. The rst thousand fans you gain by the
quality of your work, he says, adding that he
went from zero to 3,000 in one year and 3,000
to 300,000 in the next. You reach a point where
people give you a chance because so many other
people are following you. Once I started getting
10 or 15 new fans per day, I knew Id go to a
The Peoples Photographer
Right, from top: Im always trying to feature a persons

most interesting part. I want to show my audience
something unique. This was that situation, Stanton says.
That was one of my rst times shooting Fashion
Week. Lincoln Center is a great white expanse without
a lot of options. But around the corner was a grate
that I thought could be a good backdrop. I took this
early on, back when everything in New York looked
interesting to me.
Of this basketball court scene, he says, This is just a
guy, hanging out with his friends, wearing a mask, on
the Lower East Side. I asked him if I could take his
picture. Its an awesome shot, with the guys playing
basketball behind him.
Clockwise from top left: That was on Governors

Island during the Jazz Age Festival, Stanton recalls.
This was more of a scenery shot, where I found a
location before I found my subjects. So many people
were walking around in 1920s garb that I had a lot to
choose from.
Of the man in a dress, he says, I was on my way to
the airport and my camera was in my bag when I
noticed this drag queen performing in Chelsea. This
sort of thing does not happen often. Usually people
are standing or walking. When action is going on, I
dont ask rst. I just snap the picture. If youre rolling
around in the middle of the street, I dont need to get
permission.
This lady is a known gure in the East Village. I asked
her if I could get a photo. She said, If you can get it
without me having to stop walking.
ishing under search engine optimization, which

helps you nd things you know you are looking for.
Social media helps you nd things you didnt know
you were looking for.
Stubbornly independent, Stanton says that he
has no problems with making money. But it has to
be on his terms. He sold some prints to generate
income and sold some more to help raise $250,000
for Hurricane Sandy relief. After DKNY used
his images without permission, Stanton passed
She has ower tattoos, which I found to be an

interesting detail. I was like, Oh, cool legs. Can I take
your picture? If you have something like that, youre
happy when people notice it.
It was snowing one day and I went to Brooklyn to get
blue-collar workers going about their jobs. Then I found
that guy walking in the snow with hot dogs. I did not
stay to eat one myself.
Thats a mural in Alphabet City. I saw those four
characters and thought it would make an awesome
shot. They were skeptical at rst, but in the end they
wound up holding hands.
Brandon Stanton (6)
Brandon Stanton (4)
up the opportunity to sue or settle and received

good-guy status for life by having the company
make a $25,000 donation to the YMCA in Brooklyns Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where he
works out every day.
Stanton hopes that hes creating his own genre
of photographyhe didnt even know who Diane Arbus and garry Winogrand were before he
started shooting. When he thinks about success,
he thinks about spending half the year traveling
to world capitals and photographing his Humans
there. I want the money to facilitate what I am
doing; I dont want what I am doing to facilitate
the accumulation of money, he says. I have very
little overhead, I love taking these pictures, and its
what I would do if I had all the money in the world.
So why do I need the money?
In Chelsea, Stanton spots an old man in a red
windbreaker standing unsteadily next to a trafc
light. Stanton charms him into posing, then asks
him to name his greatest struggle. getting across
this road is going to be pretty tough, he says.
Thats when Stanton lies down in the street and
photographs the man making it to the other side.
Stanton quickly nds his next subject: a bearded
man holding a walking stick. After his shot, the
photographer bounds back and reports, He asked
me if I wanted to hear the worlds greatest haiku.
Then Stanton adds something that encapsulates
the small truths of Humans of New York. It was
solid. But all that mattered is that he thought it
was the greatest.ap

Clockwise from top
left: I shot this near
Union Square on
Halloween. I thought
it was a really cool
shot. I had never
before seen a costume
like it. It didnt look
store bought.
That one was taken
during Fashion Week.
The three models
in the background
were posing for other
photographers and I
posed this girl in front
of them. She was there
with her parents. She
may or may not have
been a model, but
everybody wants their
kid to get noticed at
Fashion Week.
I was walking on the
Upper East Side, and I
saw a re on a rooftop.
I snapped the photo
of this guy, but life
saving rope is what
makes the picture.
Generally, the
grandparents on the
Upper East Side are
the coolest looking
grandparents in the
world. Theyre super
fashionable and Ive
photographed a ton of
them.
Humans of
Other Places
HONY is so popular, its no surpise that copycats
around the globe have sprung up.
Maybe Brandon Stanton makes it look too easy. Or
else people fall in love with his efforts to convey a
citys character through portraits of its people and
long to be a part of it any way they can. Whatever
the case, his Humans of New York has inspired
over a dozen other Humans sites, stretching from
philadelphia to New Delhi to Melbourne. While
Stanton is at best ambivalent about the copycats,
he appreciates that his work has inspired them.
Artistically, I want to encourage everybody, he
says. Its against the spirit and ethos of this project to prevent people from doing what they like.
Stanton doesnt endorse any of the other Humans
sites and says he doesnt look at them these days.
Here are some of the more interesting imitators.
Each of them has a Facebook following.
portraits of Boston This series stays true to the
HONY style with interviews and questions, and its
photographer averages several posts a day.
Souls of San Francisco The Souls site has a
different name but a similar format, and it features
close-up portraits more than environmentals.
humans of Stuy This smaller group focuses on
students at Manhattans Stuyvesant High School,
where Stanton is beloved.
humans of Tel aviv This spinoff shows off the
Israeli citys diversity and reality on the streets.
humans of Tehran Open for submissions, this
Humans site gives viewers a glimpse into the
everyday lives of Iranians. With 14,266 likes, it
emerged after Stanton traveled to Iran himself.
Facebook is blocked there; Stanton has 25,000
Iranian fans anyway.
This page: Buckmaster,

Rawlins, Wyoming (2011).
Opposite: Gold Mine, Lead,
South Dakota (2011); both
by Bryan Schutmaat.
44 aMericanphotoMag.coM juLy/august 2013
Full Immersion
When a photographer plunges deep into a subject, the result can be a stunning,
career-making body of work. We found three such projects by people whose names
we think will soon become familiar. These shooters go above and beyond to show us
worlds that, without these pictures, we would never have otherwise known.
By LorI FredrIckson
Bryan Schutmaat
During a year in Bozeman, Montana, Bryan schutmaat, now based in Brooklyn, new york, became
fascinated by the nearby mining town of Butte; he
has captured the area on and off throughout the six
years since. his Grays the Mountain Sends, begun in
late 2010, was inuenced by literature set in the region by richard Ford, William Kittredge, raymond
carver, and especially poet richard hugo. hugos
poems were often inspired by real-life towns he
called triggering towns, and so i began visiting
them, searching for material just as he did, schutmaat says. Like the poet, he would look for images based on what hugo termed the truth of his
feelingsa sense that continued as he went farther
north and south of hugos known territory.
schutmaat searched for places with an industrial history, loosely planning routes from one mining
town to the next. But most of the time he just set
off on the road, stopping at sites that spoke to him.
i wandered in and out of these towns in a constant state of observation, he says. he also stopped
in countless bars and diners, and his conversations

with strangers increasingly led him to make portraits, both on the spot and in miners homes.
his most memorable visit was with a former
miner named chuck. We ended up sharing a bottle
of whiskey as he told me about his years mining
and driving a bulldozer in Butte, about drinking
and getting into trouble, schutmaat says. chuck
also told schutmaat about the loss of his son, killed
in a construction accident. it reminded schutmaat
of his own loss: During the whole time i was shooting the project i found myself thinking of my father,
and his dreams, and the way he would have gotten
along with so many of the guys i was meeting.
While he remains in touch with a few of his subjects, including chuck, most were brief moments in
a journey covering thousands of miles and spanning more than 50 towns and as many wilderness
areas. his photos will be on view at the catherine
edelman gallery in chicago this fall and the newspace center for photography in portland, oregon,
in the spring of 2014. however far his work ranges,
schutmaat is still inspired by his initial hero. richard hugo was, in a sense, my copilot, he says.
Full Immersion
this spread and previous: Bryan schutmaat (6)
Clockwise from top

left: Abandoned House,
Philipsburg, Montana
(2010); Ping Pong
Table, Anaconda,
Montana (2010);
Ralph, Moorcroft,
Wyoming (2011);
Alpine Lake, Gallatin
National Forest,
Montana (2011).
Full Immersion
Brandon thibodeaux had a more than glancing understanding of the Mississippi Deltas complicated
history when he began photographing it. he grew
up in a nearby part of texas, and as a journalism
student at the university of north texas in 2006
he focused on agricultural economies. But he didnt
travel there until 2009. and though by then he
was a freelance photographer, hed come simply to
escape Dallas for a while. in one way i was looking
to apply my knowledge from school, he says. But
that aside, the Delta was the quietest place i could

think of to ride my bike, meet people, and do what
i did on a daily basis back home.
then a new acquaintance invited him to sunday
lunch at the home of the coffey family in the town
of Duncan. this became the crux of a long-term
photography project and sparked what thibodeaux
now considers some of his most important relationships. the coffeys are well known throughout
the neighboring towns, and thibodeaux found
Above: A murmuration of
black birds swarms over
a harvested eld near
Mound Bayou, Mississippi
(2010).
Brandon thibodeaux (5)
Brandon Thibodeaux
them incredibly warm and welcoming in a way that

he hadnt yet experienced much in Dallas. their
candidness, and their openness for me to be there,
like i was part of the family, was almost astonishingly immediate, he says. at that particular time,
it was incredibly meaningful to me.
over that lunch and the ones that followed, the
photographer opened up in conversations about
music, religion, and relationships. he became a sort
of condant even as he remained an outsider to the
community. he photographed the family the day
they met, and his camera has since come along on
many sunday lunches, during which the coffeys
have introduced him to friends. as he turned this

growing portfolio into a longer documentary project, mentioning the coffey name helped him meet
strangers in towns such as alligator and Bo Bo.
the resulting series, When the Morning Comes,
took root over four years; he is now developing
it into a book. he hopes that by introducing the
faces and names of those who live in the Deltas
agricultural townshuman lives, rather than mere
demographicshe might highlight their economic
ordeals. Most of all, his work is a tribute to the
years thibodeaux has spent talking with strangers
who, when he needed it, welcomed him in.
Clockwise from top left:

Alex beside his new
car (2010); grain silos
beneath the night sky in
Duncan (2011); a young
girl dressed as an angel
following the First Baptist
Church of Mound Bayous
Christmas Eve celebration
(2010); a church outside
the town of Bo Bo (2011).
juLy/august 2013 aMericanphotoMag.coM 49
Above: Tiffany in the

living room of her home
in Duncan, Mississippi,
September 13, 2009.
this page: Brandon thibodeaux. opposite: erika Larsen.
On the Job
Full Immersion
Erika Larsen
My original plan was to photograph nomadic
communities in south america, Larsen says.
having had an interest in human migration since
the beginning of her photography career, she
decided nine years ago to commit herself longterm to a project that would allow her to experience how these cultures really live.
But Larsens early ventures into the southern
hemisphere werent the right t, in part due to
language barriers and the need for guides. then,
while researching nomadic groups elsewhere, she

learned of the sami people, of the arctic region
from northern scandinavia to northern russia.
While historically known for herding reindeer, in
the past few decades the group has largely been
urbanized into scandinavian culture. about 10 percent still live within saamis (villages where herders live in season), bringing caribou back and forth
between winter and summer pastures each year.
Larsens introduction came by way of a family
from saltoluokta, sweden, in 2007. over a few weeks
stay with that family, she realized this was a subject she wanted to explore more deeply. and having
Above: Two young

girls from Kautokeino,
Norway, dressed for
a conrmation party
(2009).
juLy/august 2013 aMericanphotoMag.coM 51
Full Immersion
always been a believer in complete immersion, she
moved to Kautokeino, norway, where she lived as a
familys housekeeper for more than two years.
she looks back on her earlier images, many of
which are collected in her book Sami: Walking With
Reindeer (published in partnership with emphas.is),
as some of the most valuable for their detached view
as a spectator. everything, at the beginning, was
fresh and unfamiliar, she says.
Larsen was in Kautokeino for nearly a year
before she had earned enough money to sustain a
longer visit by selling photos to various publications
in the u.s. at the end of the rst year, she received
a Fulbright fellowship to study the northern sami
language at a local university.
Learning the language gave her access to older,
non-english-speaking sami. and it allowed her to
understand conversations when she took part in
the reindeer migration herding, which takes up to
six weeks each in the fall and spring. these journeys gave her some of her most important lessons
in how and why to capture certain documentary
images. i would photograph reindeer in close-up,
but i began to notice that sami herders were interested in studying them from far off, to anticipate
their migration, Larsen says. her observations
began to shape how she photographed.
Larsen concluded her photographic work on the
series in 2011; she says her relationships with the
people she pictured have grown rather than faded
in the years since. Discussing her experiences,
Larsen easily falls into the description of customs
and traditions in sami terms. i dont think ill
ever get the sami out of me, she jokes. its part of
my life now. AP
erika Larsen (5)
Clockwise from above:

Snow shoes made of
reindeer skin (2009);
the Gaup family from
Kautokeino, Norway
(2010); Elle Marja Gaup
(2011); Lena Susanne
Gaup with her horse
Tarzan (2011); Nils
Peder Gaup (2010).
Hands on
going
Beyond
Manual
what photographers need THe Goods 56 TecH Trend 58
Zeiss releases its rst autofocus lenses

and theyre for ILCs By stan horaczek
arl Zeiss has gone out on a limb with its
new Touit lenses, and not just by naming
them after a small parrot. The venerable optics maker has for the rst time created
a series of autofocus lenses, and theyre designed
for interchangeable-lens compact cameras with
APS-C-sized sensors in the Fujilm X-mount and
Sony E-mount systems. (For this review, I shot
extensively with the 12mm f/2.8 Distagon T* and
the 32mm f/1.8 Planar T* on Sonys Alpha NEX7.) While there is a lot to like about the lenses,
not least the optics themselves, these rst entries
in the line are certainly not without growingor
maybe shrinkingpains.
For Zeiss, optical performance is clearly the
primary focus. The 32mm lens (equivalent to a
normal 48mm in full-frame terms) is extremely
sharp, even when used wide open. Its the kind of
sharpness that makes you smile as you admire
your subjects eyelashes at 100 percent magnication. The 12mm lens (an ultrawide 18mm fullframe equivalent) is similarly sharp and, while it
still produces some unavoidable distortion, this
does not seem nearly as aggressive as other lenses
with comparable elds of view.
Nearly circular diaphragms make for smooth

and attractive bokeheven the circular specular
highlights look pleasing. From a contrast standpoint, Touit lenses seem a little atter than some
of their DSLr-lens counterparts, but I count that

as a positive, since they produce a clean digital
image that fares extremely well during processing.
The limitations of these lenses become immediately apparent when you look at autofocus. Focusing
is slow, and the 32mm has a tendency to hunt to the
point where shooting fast action becomes frustrating. The 12mm lens is faster to focus, but in many
situations it feels slower than the cameras standard
kit lens. The AF motors are loud enough that using them during video mode renders the cameras
onboard audio recording mostly useless (its always
better to use an external mic with video, anyway).
And lack of optical image stabilizationwhich would
be nice but can reduce sharpness overallis also a
negative when it comes to shooting motion.
Things do improve substantially in manual
focus. The movement is driven by electronics, so
it cant perfectly replicate the feel of a traditional
mF lens, but the focusing action is responsive and
accurate enough, even for ne adjustments. The
focus ring is made of smooth, grippy rubber, which
may take a little getting used to, but the overall
manual-focus experience is gratifying.
While many Zeiss DSLr lenses skew larger
than their competition, the Touits are compact
and surprisingly light. Their metal bodies feel as if
theyll last for years; their lens hoods, though plastic, have an appealing burliness; and the T* coating
minimizes reections beautifully. These new optics
really provide everything youd expect from a Zeiss
lens in a much smaller package. ap
noteworthy
specs
FOCAL LENGTH 12mm and
32mm
APERTURE RANGE f/2.822 and
f/1.822, respectively
MOUNTS Fujim X, Sony E
LENGTH Up to 3.4 in. (86 mm)
and 3.0 in. (76 mm), respectively, depending on mount
FILTER SIZE 67mm and 52mm,
respectively
CLOSE-FOCUSING DISTANCE
7.1 in. (18 cm) and 11.8 in.
(30 cm), respectively
BUY IT $1,250 and $900,
respectively; lenses.zeiss.com
JULY/AUgUST 2013 AmErICANPhoTomAg.Com 55
the goods
The best new stuff for workand play
By the editors of american photo
oPeN Widest
LoNG ANd LoNGer
Canon EF 200400mm f/4L IS USM Extender
1.4X Designed for pro sports and wildlife
photographers, this pricey super-telephoto
zoom has an extra twist: a built-in extender
that instantly boosts its range to 280560mm,
albeit at a dimmer f/5.6, on a full-frame DSLR
such as the Canon EOS-1D X or 5D Mark III; on
Canons APS-C-sized sensor bodies, such as the
7D, it reaches the equivalent of nearly 900mm.
This allows shooters trying to capture swiftly
moving subjects or working in dusty or damp
environments to avoid having to change lenses
in the eld. Sure, its fairly big (up to 14.4 inches)
and heavy (nearly 9 pounds), but if it saves having
to pack an even bigger 600mm f/4, who cares?
BUY IT $11,800; usa.canon.com
LooK Before PriNtiNG

LG IPS ColorPrime 27EA83 Any photographer who wants nished images to turn
out just so needs the right monitor. This new 27-inch LED monitor from LG
boasts 2560x1440-pixel (WQHD) resolution; the Super In-Plane Switching (IPS)
technology affords a wide viewing angle and more even distribution of images
than traditional monitors. Other useful features for photographers and
retouchers: 10-bit color display and the ability to swivel the screen 90 degrees
into portrait mode. BUY IT $1,000; lg.com/us/monitors
Sigma 1835mm f/1.8 DC HSM With a big maximum

aperture of f/1.8, this new wide-angle for APS-Csensor DSLRs is the brightest constant-aperture
zoom on the market. It scales to a full-frame
equivalent of about 3056mm on Canon and
2753mm on Nikon and Sigma mounts. The lens
works with Sigmas new USB dock, through which
photographers can update the rmware and
adjust focus parameters. BUY IT Price not yet
available; sigmaphoto.com
sMooth MoVer
Manfrotto MVH500A This pan-tilt model, one of
Manfrottos two new 500-series uid heads for
DSLR video, has a 60mm half-ball tripod mount,
for quicker leveling without having to readjust the
legs. The light and compact head supports rigs of
up to 11 pounds (5 kilograms), and its elongated
quick-release plate slides for more precise
balance. BUY IT $200; manfrotto.us
softWAre By
sUBsCriPtioN
ANNiVersAry hoMAGe
Olympus Pen E-P5 For this update of its Pen line of Micro Four Thirds interchangeable-lens compacts,
Olympus took a step backto the 1960s. Its style is drawn from the original Pen F of 50 years ago, but
the new Pen E-P5 boasts decidedly 21st-century specs. With the same 16.1MP Live MOS sensor and
TruePic VI processing thats in Olympuss excellent OM-D E-M5, the new camera captures bursts of up
to 9 frames per second (with continuous autofocus off) and boasts an action-freezing top mechanicalshutter speed of 1/8000 sec. The pop-up ash can be used to trigger off-camera units, and in auto
mode the camera allows remote view, focusing, and ring via Android and iOS devicesWi-Fi and GPS
are built in. Alas, no viewnder; the new 2.36 milliondot VF-4 electronic viewnder shown here is sold
separately or bundled in a kit with the camera and a 17mm (34mm full-frame equivalent) f/1.8 M.Zuiko
Digital lens. BUY IT $1,000, body only, or $1,450 with lens and EVF; getolympus.com
Adobe Creative Cloud When Adobe announced this

spring that it would abandon perpetually licensed
sales of its vital Creative Suite software in favor
of the subscription-only Creative Cloud service,
howls of outrage erupted around the Internet.
Photographers who have owned Photoshop
for years are understandably nervous about the
shift, which will mean that they may need to make
sure their CC subscription is live before opening
some of their own les. But as details emerged, the
benets for many devoted users (especially those
who plan to buy new versions ad innitum) became
clear: Updates will be implemented immediately
and automatically, and it comes with 20GB of cloud
storage for access to projects from anywhere.
BUY IT $20/month, Photoshop only, or $50/month,
full suite (current CS users should check for
upgrade discounts); adobe.com
ChANGe yoUr PersPeCtiVe

Rokinon Tilt-Shift 24mm f/3.5 ED AS USC Even in this
fake-it-with-software era, tilt-shift lenses let SLR
shooters correct perspective, maximize depth
of eld, narrow focus down to a thin band, turn
a cityscape into what looks like a miniature, and
even avoid catching a reected self-portrait.
Now Rokinon gives bargain hunters something to
love, too, with a new tilt-shift lens that retails for
about half the price of big-name glass. Its still an
investment, but for some t/s fans, this full-framer,
which scales up to the equivalent of about 38mm
on Canon APS-C bodies and 36mm on Nikon, may
be just the ticket. BUY IT $1,000; rokinon.com
After-the-fACt foCUsiNG
Arqball FocusTwist With this iOS app, you can refocus
a photo after shooting it with an Apple iPhone or
iPad. For best results, choose an object that sits
close to the camera (3 to 4 inches) and another
about 5 feet away. Over about two seconds, the
camera takes dozens of shots with different focal
points, and then software stitches them together.
Afterward, just tap the spot that you want to
come into focus. BUY IT $2; focustwist.com
BoX WoNder
Ilford Obscura Pinhole Camera Who needs a lens,
anyway? This new camera uses a 0.3mm pinhole
in stainless steel to expose images on 4x5 sheet
lm or photo-sensitive paper. A magnetic shutter
controls exposure, and a tripod socket makes
mounting easy. The full kit includes the camera;
10 sheets each of 4x5-inch Ilford Delta 100
Professional lm, Ilford Multigrade IV RC paper,
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July/august 2013 americanphotomag.com 57
Tech Trends
BIG SENSORS,
SMALL CAMERAS
A new crop of high-performance digital compacts all promise
great images on the go. How is a photographer to choose?
BY PHILIP RYAN
ets face facts. Most photographers, professional and enthusiast alike, ache for
a compact camera that can deliver truly
top-notch imagingno matter how much gear
theyre willing to haul around or how often they
take snapshots with their smartphones. What
theyll pay to satisfy that yearning was put to the
test last winter, when Sony came out with the
cyber-shot RX1, the rst full-frame, xed-lens
compact camera, which retails for about $2,800.
Now were seeing a fresh batch of compacts
that have APS-c-sized sensors and smaller price
tags to match. Nikon and Pentax Ricoh released
strong new entries last spring, and two pioneers
58 AMERIcANPhOTOMAG.cOM JuLy/AuGuST 2013
of the APS-c compact category recently updated

their catalogs, Sigma with the DP3 Merrill and
Fujilm with the X100s. Add to that Leicas new
X2, Nikons coolpix A, and Ricohs revamped GR,
and thats seven compacts with APS-c or larger
sensors. (See the table on page 62 for a rundown
of all the models.) Is it time, at last, to buy?
Tale of the Tape
The rst major difference among these cameras:
their lenses. The Nikon coolpix A, Ricoh GR, and
Sigma DP1 Merrill all capture the approximate
eld of view of a 28mm full-frame lens and a
reasonably fast maximum aperture of f/2.8. Thats
Above: Four of the seven

current compacts with APSC-sized sensors, clockwise
from topLeica X2, Ricoh
GR, Fujilm X100s, and
Nikon Coolpix A.
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Sigmas 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM
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Fast, quiet and sharp, the Sigma
85mm lens is everything a
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With a large 1.4 aperture, the
85mm is great in low light and
also creates beautiful bokeh
with a very shallow depth of
eld. When photographing
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is often the lens a photographer
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takes off.
For more information, visit sigmaphoto.com
Tech Trends
great for street photography, landscapes, and casual architectural work. Plus, for everyday snapshots, a wide lens can make it easier to t people
into group photos and can make a huge difference
when shooting in tight spaces.
If 28mm feels too wide for you, look to the Fujilm X100s, Leica X2, or Sony RX1, all of which
provide the rough equivalent of a 35mm eld of
view. This is the traditional focal length for street
photography, and rangender acionados swear
by it. It also introduces less distortion than 28mm
lenses will. Of course, images from a wider-angle
lens can always be cropped. The Ricoh GR has a
mode that automatically crops down to a 35mm
eld of view, but in doing so it tosses away enough
sensor coverage to bring down the effective pixel
count to 10.2 megapixels from its native 16.2MP.
Sigmas DP2 Merrill and DP3 Merrill round
out the pack. The former sports a lens with a
45mm equivalent eld of view, while the latter
provides a unique 75mm equivalent. Fans of the
so-called normal focal length, 50mm, will come
closest with the DP2some photographers argue
that its 45mm more closely matches the eld
of view of the human eye. Portrait shooters will
appreciate the DP3s longer focal length, which
can lend a atteringly compressed depth thats
popular among photographers of people.
For the most part, these cameras are built
to keep up with advanced shooters. The bodies,
though some are covered in plastic, are metal at
their core. All of them have shutters that can allow durations as short as 1/2000 second. For the
Sigmas and the Nikon, this is the fastest shutter
speed available. Both the Sony and Fujilm can
go to 1/4000 second, but only at f/5.6 and smaller
apertures with the Sony and f/8 or smaller with
the Fujilm; the Ricoh allows 1/4000 second at
any lens aperture.
All of these cameras can capture images in
RAW format. Again, Fujilm adds a twist, with
ISOs 100, 12,800, and 25,600 restricted to JPEG
capture. None of the Sigmas offer higher than
ISO 6400 in any le format. Nikon and Sony bring
14-bit RAW capture to the plate, while the others
capture at 12-bit.
The Main Event
It all comes down to feel. If you cant comfortably
get the shot, the size of the sensor doesnt matter.
Fujilm obviously targets rangender fans with
its X100s. It mimics not only the look of those classic cameras but their shooting experience as well.
The shutter button can accept the threaded cable
release that many street photographers use to trip
the shutter during surreptitious shooting. Even
better is the hybrid viewnder. In optical mode,
this provides a bright-frame-like overlay that even
corrects for parallax when on the near end of the
focusing range. A distance scale helps you focus
Top and center: The Coolpix As physical controls will

feel familiar to Nikon shooters; the hotshoe takes an
optional optical viewnder. Bottom: Fujilms X100s is
the only one of these cameras with a built-in nder.
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Tech Trends
CAMERAS COMPARED
Quick takes on all of the APS-C-sensor compactsand the one full-framer
Camera
Lens
Ricoh GR
Sensor
Pros
Cons
Buy It
18.3mm
f/2.8
(28mm)
16.2MP
CMOS
The best price and most discreet

style in the category; fast and
intuitive control system
Image quality at its best is only

through ISO 400; by ISO 1600,
noise interferes
$800
Nikon
Coolpix A
18.5mm
f/2.8
(28mm)
16.2MP
CMOS
Image quality extremely high

through ISO 1600; good noise
control until ISO 3200; takes
Speedlights
AF slows in low light and closeups; some oddball controls;

pricey ($380) optical viewnder
$1,000
Sigma DP1
Merrill
19mm
f/2.8
(28.5mm)
46MP
(15.3MP x
3-layer)
Foveon
The Foveon sensors three-layer

design produces smooth transitions between colors in all three
Sigma cameras
Slow in-camera JPEG processing

and huge le sizes make it much
better to shoot in RAW
$1,000
Fujilm
X100s
23mm
f/2
(34.5mm)
16.3MP
CMOS
Best image quality of the lot

through ISO 400; excellent hybrid
viewnder built in
No RAW capture at the highest

and lowest ISOs; noise becomes
a problem at ISO 1600
$1,300
Sony
35mm
f/2
24.3MP
full-frame
CMOS
Full-frame sensor and fast lens

create best image quality and
shallower depth of eld
Expensive and relatively big;

external electronic viewnder is
a costly option
$2,800
Leica X2
24mm
f/2.8
(36mm)
16.1MP
CMOS
Extremely high image quality

through ISO 800; image stabilization for slow shutter speeds
No video capture; somewhat

sluggish AF; signicantly higher
price than other APS-C models
$2,000
Sigma DP2
Merrill
30mm
f/2.8
(45mm)
46MP
(15.3MP
x 3-layer)
Foveon
Image quality extremely high

through ISO 800; good manual
focusing; dual menu system
Same sensor and image processor as other DP Merrills, so pros

and cons are the same
$1,000
Sigma DP3
Merrill
50mm
f/2.8
(75mm)
46MP
(15.3MP
x 3-layer)
Foveon
Long focal length for portraits

and close-ups, gives a more
attering look
Telephoto lens can be limiting;

other pros/cons same as the
rest of the DP Merrills
$1,000
Cyber-shot
(full-frame equiv.)
RX1
manually and indicates depth of elduseful for

anyone trying the f/8 and be there approach.
If you want to shoot macro or if conditions are
sufciently dim, you can ip a switch on the front
of the body and itll change to a 2.36 milliondot
EVF. Autofocusing proves fast in bright or medium
lightas is true of the rest of these cameras.
Nikons coolpix A has the feel of the most powerful compact camera youve ever used. In bright
light, it focuses quickly, but it slows noticeably
in dim light and tends to hunt excessively when
shooting in macro mode. It boasts two assignable
function buttons, but there are limits to what can
be assigned to each button (a common drawback
in Nikons lower-level DSLRs).
Leicas X2 improves upon some of the ner
points of the X1. Focusing is faster, though still
a bit sluggish compared with most of the other
cameras in this category. Its the only compact
here to include image stabilization, but otherwise
it doesnt distinguish itself, handsome design and
iconic red dot notwithstanding. The quality

of its imaging is in line
with the other APS-csensor compacts.
Sigmas DP Merrill
series cameras differ
from one another
solely in their lenses.
Autofocusing with all
of them is somewhat
slower than with
other compacts in this
class. Their well-designed dual control-panel-style
menus make changing settings much faster and
easier. But where the Sigmas really shine is in the
beautiful detail they can produce while delivering ultra-smooth tonal transitions. Their Foveon
sensors produce enormous RAW les that make
in-camera JPEG processing impractical, but with
care and the right subject matter these might be
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Ricohs GR, the least expensive on this list, also has

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FASHION
WEDDING
ARCHITECTURE
LANDSCAPE
ABSTRACT
PORTRAIT
Tech Trends
Above: Sigmas DP1

Merrill has the widest
focal length of the DP
Merrill line; shown
from the side, the
physical size of its lens
becomes clear. Left:
Sonys Cyber-shot RX1
is only slightly larger.
the only cameras in this category that can

seriously compete with the amount of detail
delivered by the full-frame Sony. That said,
many photographers might not want to deal
with RAW conversion when using a camera like this, but if youre OK with a slower,
more deliberate shooting pace and processing after the fact, then the DP Merrills
deserve consideration, especially if you dont
want a wide-angle lens.
Ricohs GR looks almost exactly like the
GR1 lm camera the company introduced
decades ago. Despite its Spartan style, it
provides a wonderful shooting experience.
A small rocker on the back gives immediate
access to exposure compensation (no holding
buttons and twirling dials here), and each of
its multiple assignable function buttons can
accept any of 26 settings. Speedy autofocus
in both regular and macro modes, close focusing to less than 12 inches in regular mode,
and nely detailed images left us wondering
if wed want to spend the extra money on the
Nikon, its closest competitor. At $800, the
GR is the bargain of the bunch.
Then theres Sonys RX1. Shooting with
this little tank has a more luxurious feel
than any other compactmore a rangender,
though without the signature framing and
focusing experience of those cameras (or of
the Fujilm X100s, for that matter). Theres
a precision and elegance to the camera that
didnt come through with any of the others
in this category. Add to that the highest level
of imaging to ever come out of a camera this
size, and youll soon nd that youve almost
forgotten how much it costs.
The Winners: Photographers
If you ignore price, the Sony RX1 steals the
show. Its the most pleasurable to use and
delivers the best images of the bunch. If you pay

attention to price most of all, the Ricoh GR is the
easy winner. It delivers a wonderful shooting experience along with images that rival anything youll
get from any of the APS-c-sensor compacts.
Fufjilms X100s will appeal most to street
shooters and deliver the most image detail next
to the Sony. Sigmas DP Merrills, meanwhile, appease the cult following of Foveon enthusiasts, and
if youre not chasing action shots and plan to shoot
RAW anyway, they can produce images of staggering beauty. you just have to pick a focal length.
Nikon shooters will feel immediately at home
with the coolpix As DSLR-like menus and familiar buttons. This compact offers a simple path
to excellent pictures with remarkably low-noise
JPEG images all the way up to ISO 3200. None
of the others, save the RX1, can control noise in
JPEGs as well as the Nikon.
Its hard to point to one winner in this bunch.
Special photographic requirements aside, we
dont think any of these cameras will disappoint.
And if you needed proof that the best of times for
high-quality digital compact cameras is at hand,
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PARTING SHOT
ive years ago, london-based photographer

Jasper White went to a new years eve
party held in a shed in rural australia.
his brother-in-law, pete Walker, was from
the area and explained that the shedslarge,
freestanding units the size of a garage or guest
cottage in the u.s.were ubiquitous in many of
the small towns in the outback.
Kept exclusively by men, the sheds are part of
an old-fashioned, small-town australian cultural
tradition: the women have their space in the home,
and the men keep a separate retreat to indulge
their hobbies. like an adolescents bedroom, sheds
are deeply personal and intensely maintained.
of course, similar man cavesin basements,
spare rooms, and garagesare common all over the
world. When the photographer was a child in the
united Kingdom, his father, a scientist, had a shed;
From top: A shed in rural

Australia, photographed
in 2011 by Jasper White;
shed owner Rustin and his
daughter.
Photographer Jasper White explores hobby sheds

in the Australian outback By Jill c. ShomeR
he blew it up while experimenting with rockets.
Because Whites work at home frequently
explored the relationships people have with
territories and space, these masculine structures
fascinated him. each shed becomes an extreme
focal point of human individuality in a barren
wasteland, he says. he began a long period of
traveling to the australian outback to meet the
locals and photograph their various sheds. more
than 80 of Whites shed images are now being
collected into a book, and a small selection were
shown at gallery nine5 in new york in 2012.
Depending on the township, australian sheds
might house steam engines, airplanes, full bars,
even a dance club. the one shown here houses the
prized possession of a car enthusiast named rustin
(who goes by his rst name only): a beautifully
maintained 1971 Bathurst rt charger. AP
Jasper White; inset courtesy of rustin
Its a Mans World
PROMOTION
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From the publishers of Popular Photography & American Photo
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For a new era in video and photography,
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enjoy this short introduction to Imaging Edge and
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a sneak peek at what else youll see beginning
with the September issue.
GEAR + GADGETS
Imaging Edge will explore the state of the art
in digital imaging and video, from technology
to creativity.
INSTRUCTION
Each issue will present readers with the latest
information on cameras, lenses, and other
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EXPERT INSPIRATION
Imaging Edge will also provide inspiration and
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Imaging Edge will be available with select editions
of the September issues of Popular Photography
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Expert, Instructional Video Series
Imaging Edge Blog
Online Digital Imaging Hub
Destination Weekend Workshops
To get your free rst issue of Imaging Edge and
learn more about the programs listed above, visit
IMAGINGEDGE.COM.
Cover photo (C) David McLain, Sony Artisan of Imagery.
TEST
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In each issue, this column will contain the honest feedback,
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the advanced features and controls that can help these
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Participating photographers and lmmakers will be chosen
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Some planning, and a lot of luck!

Every day were bombarded by hordes of images in ads, and TV
commercials, on signs and websites, and even attached to the emails
in our smartphones! Most dont catch our eye, but the great ones rise
above the mediocre-image crowd and beg for an explanation as to how
they were createdand who created them.
In this column, well start by selecting and showcasing amazing images
taken by our readers with Sony cameras.Visit imagingedge.com for details
on how to be selected. Then, well delve deeply into a behind-the-scenes
look at how the image was createdfrom the original concept that
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These are the tools designed to help people
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of all skill levels get their imagery out into the
world, and to enable them to transition into
the eld of video, where they can expand
their creative horizons.
Photo (C) Michael J. McNamara

American PHOTO 2013-07-08

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JULY 12-14, 2013

Join the Mentor Series this summer as we light up New York

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36 The Peoples Photographer

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With apS-C chips now in more compacts, serious

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Carl Zeiss SLR lenses

River Runs Deep

16 July/August 2013 AmericAnphotomAg.com

Above: In one of Maynard