“Everyday Photography” Turns 100
100 episodes over the past year and the podcast “Everyday Photography, Every Day” continues to attract stellar guests across a broad range of photographic disciplines, and distinguish itself as a unique conversation in the field of photographic podcasts. I’m embarrassed to say it — but we started in the closet. Literally. The first few dozen episodes we recorded from a closet in my apartment — sitting on the floor, knee-to-knee. Surrounded by my jackets and towels. I’d worked in Hollywood for many years and I swear, the acoustics in the closet were like a $300/hour sound studio.
I had a lot of things I wanted to say about photography and a podcast seemed like a pretty good way to get that stuff off my chest. I had been a guest on a friend’s show and it introduced me to some of the technical details. So in late 2018 I started. Alone. I think there’s nothing more pathetic than a guy sitting on the floor of his closet recording his rants and calling it a podcast.I knew that wasn’t going to work: I sent out inquiries to my photographer pals, any of whom would have been great co-hosts, but it went nowhere. Then at a party I ran into an acquaintance, Suzanne Fritz-Hanson, and I told her what I was doing. “I could be your co-host,” she said. “I don’t know anything about photography, but I’d love to get better. You could teach me and that could be the show.” By October we were recording multiple episodes every week and having fun doing it. We decided to have guests as soon as we ran out of things to talk about, and maybe once we had a small audience.
But we never seemed to run out of things to say. We did sixty episodes before we began invited our first guest.
We moved out of the closet and down to the gallery at Neomodern. We sat in the window on weekend mornings are recorded the show facing Union Street; always fun to have people stand out there watching us chat. Our first guest was Russell Brown, the original evangelist and leading expert for Adobe Photoshop. (Russell likes to remind me that when the Knoll brothers first brought their prototype of Photoshop to Adobe, he was the one to review it and it was his recommendation to the CEO that ultimately lead to its acquisition.) Anyway, Russell began a roster of remarkable guests, all from a cool array across the photographic landscape. While our guests seem to fall in a couple general categories, it’s a little ridiculous putting them in buckets — they all generally span the range: Photojournalists, Fine Art Photographers, Instagram Stars, Commercial Photographers, Industry Experts.
Our single most popular episode, somewhat suprisingly, was #90 when we drilled into the gallery world and collecting photographs with Catherine Couturier. Perhaps no one will admit it, but all the episodes when we explore photographing nudes have been among our top shows (and the show notes — NSFW — are not-surprisingly well trafficked): #45 Photographing Nudes and the current release #103 The Zero-Prep Shoot. I was pleasantly surprised that another top episode was our conversation with Chris Lunt about the Zen Arts and their application to learning how to take better pictures, Episode #65.
My personal favorites, and also enormously popular, were the conversations with the articulate artists, #83 Jason Langer and #84 Mark Citret, both describe the creative process and their feelings about photography with such passion and clarity that it’s difficult not to immediately grab a camera and spend a day involved in that pursuit.
Even after 100 episodes Suzanne and I have managed to keep the conversation away from technical discourse — we never ask about f-stops or lighting, we don’t much care what kind of camera someone is using and we aren’t interested in career opportunities. The show focuses on the love for picture taking, and blends a deep appreciation for classical photography with the pragmatic interests of beginners. And with every guest, we ask what one word they might use to describe their work. It’s never an easy question, but the results are delightful conversations: Harmony, Passion, Haunted, Play, Private, Balance, Risk, Genuine, Seductive…
What is yours?
Listen to “Everyday Photography, Every Day” with new episodes released each weekend.
GUESTS
Photojournalists. Doug Menuez, David Burnett, Andrea Pritchard, Rick Smola
Fine Art Photographers: Bryant Austin, Stephen Sheffield, Kris Sanford, Jefferson Hayman, Rachael Dunville, Mark Citret, Jason Langer, Brooks Fletcher, Shelbie Dimond, Howie Schatz
Commercial Photographers: Nigel Barker, Asa Mathat, Shiva Sharifi, Ellian Raffoul
Instagram Stars: Jude Allen, Thomas Hawk, Fredrick Barnes, Nate Lubbe, Foto-Kammer
Industry Experts (Gallerists, Editors, Personalities): Russell Brown, Stephanie Heimann, Catherine Couturier, Chris Lunt, Fred Van Johnson, Jerry Downs
