Prime Lenses

This week I’m in London to speak to Mathieu Bitton, a photographer I’ve admired for some time and was lucky enough to meet in Germany earlier this year. He took time out from his work on tour with Dave Chappelle to talk to me about his love of vintage lenses and his home city of Paris as depicted in his new book, Paris Blues.More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

This week I was able to sneak in an extra episode, talking about the new Hektor lenses from Leitz Cine. Seth was gracious enough to sit down with me for a little bonus episode. More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

Like many folks I like to talk to on the show, Bil Brown is a multi-media artist. He studied writing and poetry but things changed for him when he saw a Leica round Allen Ginsberg’s neck. I was initially interested in how Bil’s commercial and political work coexisted but as you’ll hear, like me he loves to just dive in and our conversation is very wide ranging covering composition, motivation, gear, it’s a whole thing. This one’s densely packed and we keep returning to why we make photos and I really enjoyed it.More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

This week my guest is Laurence Bouchard, a British photographer based in Tokyo. He captures the rain soaked streets in incredible detail, his images are also most graphic illustration as much as they are photos and I wanted to speak to him about he approaches the futuristic city he calls home, what it was like to be in a short film shot on vintage glass, and whether he’s fully acclimatised now he’s 20 years into his time in Japan.More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

Pete Souza is a former Whitehouse photographer, serving during the latter part of the Reagan Presidency, but was better known to me as the head of photography for the Obama Whitehouse where he and his team made an archive of almost two million images, made history by capturing the first official presidential portrait on a digital camera, and captured moments big and small for posterity. Pete has also had an interesting post presidency, as a private citizen he is outspoken and uses his images to highlight issues he’s worried about in the current political climate.More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

My guest today is Goughie, a photographer and YouTuber in the UK who shoots a variety of photo projects on his various systems to share with his audience online. From posting to a small number of folks back in 2019, he has grown his following and as you’ll hear, I think has a healthy balance to his work online. It’s in service of the photos he wants to make, not the other way around.More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

My guests today are Charys Schuler and Marwan El Mozayen from Silvergrain Classics. In an age of AI and digital consumption on ever increasing numbers of screens, they are charting a path in the opposite direction. Analogue photography of all kinds is celebrated every quarter in their beautiful magazine which they produce in Germany and send around the world. They are also half of a new company Silver Bridges, helping to bring back the wonderful Widelux camera, a favourite of many photographers and in particular loved by Jeff Bridges, yes, that Jeff Bridges.More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

This is a midweek mini episode to go along with the newsletter this week. I’m speaking with a few friends about upcoming projects. Hope you enjoy it! Guests - Tom Oldham & @hann_onfilmMore about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

Welcome to a slightly different format this week as my guests are Joel Meyerowitz, Maggie Barrett, Manon Ouimet and Jacob Perlmutter. They are the creative team behind Two Strangers Trying not to Kill Each Other, a documentary following the life of Maggie and Joel, two artists reckoning with aging, their relationship with one another and their work. A chance encounter with Jacob and Manon in the Café in Wetzlar resulted in an invitation to London to record with all four of them to talk about making the film. As you’ll hear they have formed a strong creative partnership and although the film wrapped some time ago they continue to work on projects together. More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

Mynxxi White is a photographer and filmmaker from New York City. Specialising in celebrity portrait and commercial work she started out as a makeup artist and then creative director but was frustrated by some of her collaborators to the point that nearly 10 years ago she picked up the camera herself and hasn’t looked back. We missed each other in Germany earlier this year so I’m thrilled that we got to sit down and talk about our shared love of image making, the work she’s looking to take on next and the lens she needed to shut all the boys up when she walked into a room.More about this show:A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.