Inside the artist's mind: DerrickT in Spotlight Seven

Turn off the TV, put the kids to bed and take the phone off the hook. Then give yourself 20 or 30 minutes to read & really comprehend DerrickT's interview in Spotlight Seven, the 40th in the series. We've had some amazing photographers featured over the past 2 years, and I can honestly say that none of the interviews have been as complex, layered and insightful as DerrickT's.


The Artist

When you have some serious time to learn about DerrickT's photography, his process and his thoughts, wander over to his blog. Dig deeper and explore his videos, or just go along for the ride as he Tumbles across the web discovering great images. But for now, I just want to convince you to read his interview and view the photos in the pool.



I can't do the interview justice even with this extended format. So I'll just give a preview, and share half of his response to the first question. Read slowly, and try to appreciate the depth of information that Derrick shares in his layered response.

1) Tell us about one of your flickr sets named The Human Condition. There seems to be a lot of covering and manipulation of the face, what's that all about?
I have always been fascinated with the human condition, in a variety of facets, predominately since I was a teenager, when I started observing and pondering fellow high school students (strange, but true). Since then, there has been an invariable evolution in regards to it, as there is with most anything. One that ponders and contemplates the nature of things and what they subsequently mean often finds oneself wanting to know more, or at least to know as much as possible. I have always been a visionary, primarily starting with words and language, and from there I began experimenting with other "mediums" to see what I could "discover" and create. Thankfully the combination's tend to work wonderfully for me. Obscurity has always been of interest, too, which I feel is a part of the human condition itself; what worlds, labyrinths and galaxies are going on within people's minds, free-flowing thoughts as well as those that are circumspect, what is plaited within the brain. Not to designate the psychological aspects of it all, because I am just as much interested in the emotional and physical aspects of the human condition, as well.

That's really just a taste of what smoothdude & DerrickT have in store for you this week. It's an amazing interview, and worth every second to read. And explore his photos-- a true original on Flickr, you won't be disappointed if you spend hours digging through his work.



Link

Featured Gallery #14: Holga Portraits curated by Brad Ross

Long-time Flickr friend and all-around awesome photographer Brad Ross brings us gallery #14 in the increasingly-hard-to-count-using-finger-alone featured gallery series. Brad was actual our pre-launch featured artist for Spotlight Seven, way back in early 2008. You should check that out after you visit this gallery.

For his theme, Brad has narrowed his selection Holga portraits. Holgas are an old toy camera from China that have attracted quite the following over the past decade, and Brad has done a great job finding shots the demonstrate the uniqueness of the medium. Make sure to visit the gallery to see all 10 shots, and wander on over to his New Jersey Wedding Photography website to learn about this week's curator. Here are a couple of Brad's selections.






Gallery.

Spotlight Seven features Rémi Tinel (aka Ray maï)

The long-running Spotlight Seven series returns from an extended hiatus this week with a feature about Rémi Tinel, known as Ray maï on Flickr. Ray has been a photographer since he was a child, but really took up interest when he got his first compact digital camera. An avid portrait photographer, many of his photos feature the very young and very old, for reasons that might be a little surprising. An excerpt from his interview with smoothdude.

4) Your portraiture seems to focus on the very young and the very old. What draws you to those two ends of the the spectrum.
Well, I try to make interesting pictures, different than what the others photographers usually show, otherwise, there is no sense to practice photography. I look after emotional pictures, and directly, it leads me to children, because they like overall to play with the camera, it is game for them, and then to rather old people, as we can read their life (suffering, happiness) in their glances. Generally, they’re also the most eager to be a model.

Here are a few selections from Ray's feature. It was really hard to choose my favorite, because each one is engaging in its own way. Make sure you read the entire interview and view Ray's 10 selected portraits-- I highly recommend viewing them full-screen as a slideshow.









www.flickr.com/groups/spotlight_seven/discuss/72157622631...


Spotlight Seven is a regular interview and photo series, featuring 10 portraits from one photographer and accompanied by a 10 question interview. With over 30 features so far, a wonderful breadth of portraits is available from photographers worldwide, each with a style his or her own. Each exhibit is curated either by talented New York City photographer Daniel Krieger (aka smoothdude) or one of the artists previously featured in the group. Sponsored by the 6 Million People project, Spotlight Seven has created its own presence on Flickr as the home of sign of its finest portrait photography. To make sure you never miss a feature, sign up for the newsletter, bookmark the blog or just check the group regularly.

Spotlight Seve Week 38 features CiaoChessa (Monica Shulman)

www.flickr.com/groups/spotlight_seven/discuss/72157620656...

Spotlight Seven is now on it's 38th installment, and this week's exhibit features CiaoChessa (Monica Shulman). Monica is a lawyer-turned-photographer residing in New York City, and maintains both a website and a blog. We were lucky to have the 6 Million People's top contributor, Denmark resident Itzick.



In addition to her outstanding portraits, Monica also creates wonderful seascapes and landscapes. Almost never without a camera for fear of missing that one great moment, Monica shares some of her experience shooting in New York City and around the world in this excerpt:

6) Looking in your stream I can see that you took pictures in different parts of the world. Are people on the street reacting differently in different countries? Can you give us some examples?
I find that there are two kinds of people: those who LOVE to have their photo taken and those who do not.

In New York you never know what you're going to get but I'm obviously always careful and respectful of people. I prefer candid shots but if the person notices me and puts their hand up or looks away or shakes their head, then I put my camera down. Many years ago, when I was still shooting primarily film, I saw this elderly woman on the street on 5th Avenue in NY. She was wearing the most colorful outfit that I've ever seen and her eyes were all made up with black eyeliner. I took her photo and she started screaming at me in the middle of 5th Avenue. I realized that she might be mentally ill and my photo was not meant to be disrespectful in any way but I wasn't about to explain this to her and it's not like I could delete the image from my camera...I just thought she was so...interesting and unique. She was small and old but she chased me across the street and I ran into the Disney Store of all places. She didn't follow me in. Years later when I look at that print I miss shooting film and I still laugh to myself about how I ran away from a woman on 5th Avenue. That's an extreme example but people in New York either don't care about you and your camera or they chase you down. I found that the same goes for cities in Europe and South America.

The only place I've traveled where I felt like it was exclusively one way - that people seemed to be indifferent about having their photo taken and that some of them actually embrace it - is in Southeast Asia. I was in Thailand and Cambodia and my experience was that the people were so relaxed and did not mind having their photo taken at all. But, basically, I think it's a person by person basis...

There's much more in the interview, so be sure to give it a read and enjoy all 10 of the photos selected for this week's exhibit. If you have any comments or questions or plaudits, please add your comments in the interview thread. Ciao!



www.flickr.com/groups/spotlight_seven/discuss/72157620656...

Spotlight Seven features falsalama in Week 37-- we're back from hiatus!

Spotlight Seven returns after a several month break, and we are lucky to feature the amazing black & white portraits of falsalama. Falsalama got his start in photography when he made a pinhole camera as a Cub Scout in England. He's come a long way since then, taking amazing portraits of people from Laos to Tokyo, China and many other spots around the globe.



Here's a brief excerpt from this week's interview:

3) Your flickr stream is mostly made up of portraits, is that your favorite subject photographically? Why?
Yes portraiture has always been a favourite of mine.
I am fascinated by how, in these frozen moments, the subject can engage the viewer and deliver a message, and encourage a kind of self reflective contemplation. Moments more difficult to appreciate when life is playing at full speed.

While scrolling through falsalama's profile page, I was struck by some of the testimonials, particularly this one from WasabiNoise:
"If I have to describe falsalama in a few words I must to say : enthusiasm and goodness. You can see it in each photo that he makes, how he catch the feelings of the nihonjins with his portraits, every new photo is really amazing and I'm very glad to enjoy with his work in Flickr."

Please check out the rest of falsalama's photos & interview in Spotlight Seven this week.

Perfect expression for the wide-angle portrait

From Flickr friend Mike Calanan, Salt Lake City photographer.

Celia on Bloom Street

Celia Ammerman is a contestant on the hit show "America's Top Model," also known as ANTM. Can she win it?

Dave

Dave, originally uploaded by Jeff__M.

Dave

So I went out storm chasing a little this afternoon, and then went over to the studio with Surrounded By Light. I've never really messed with studio strobes before, but I got a few decent shots. It didn't help that the strobes wouldn't meter with my camera, so it was all pretty much trial and error.

View On Black

Uploaded by Jeff__M on 20 Apr 09, 8.14PM PDT.

lyv Studio

lyv Studio, originally uploaded by evanlavine.

From the great portraits thread.

Top notch

, originally uploaded by JonathanR..

From the great photo thread. Spotted by D40 student.

Innocence

Innocence, originally uploaded by Lindsaymp.

From the pool.

The smoothdude soul-revealing portrait of the week

Week 1: Ososment



We're starting a new feature here at 6 Million People, the smoothdude soul-revealing portrait of the week. Since the very talented smoothdude is now a full-time New York City photographer, I ordered him to make sure he takes at least one soul-revealing portrait each week. I'm going to choose one of his photos each week, post it here, and smoothdude will explain a little bit about what went into the photo.

The title of the thread is a bit of a lark, but it's true to itself. Daniel is a great portrait photographer, and that's what caught my eye when I first came across his work on Flickr. Since then, smoothdude has gone from being a very talented part-time photographer to being a full-time photographer with another full-time job. I asked him what happened to all those soul-revealing portraits, and he told me, in his inimitable fashion, "I got to pay the bills!"

Well, he's still got to pay the bills. But as a full-time photographer, he's going to have a lot more time to capture these great portraits which, while probably not paying the bills, have helped established smoothdude's reputation as a great photographer.

New Jersey Wedding Photographer Brad Ross

Brad is a good Flickr friend, and was actually the first artist we featured on Spotlight Seven. He was a good photographer then, and he's grown into an even better photographer over the past year.



The photography community is a close knit one and today, I’d like to share a few photographs from one of the leaders in NJ Wedding photography, Brad Ross. Brad is a talented photographer with a photojournalistic approach that helps to chronicle everyone’s emotions, from Bride and Groom to family and friends. He is like a fly on the wall in that he sees everything without ever getting in the way. When you look at Brad's portfolio, you’ll have no doubt that he is among the finest wedding photographers in NY and NJ. Give him a call if you’re in the NJ area and need a good photographer. To learn more about Brad, check out his Flickrstream, his website or his blog. But better book him now, because with crazy good photos like this, his calendar is sure to fill up fast!

Angry

Angry, originally uploaded by Alvarictus.

This was spotted by D40 student. Nice find.

Justin Moore finishing the Catalina Marathon

Justin Moore finishing the Catalina Marathon, originally uploaded by jakerome.

I ran & photographed the Catalina Marathon for the 3rd time this year, and managed to get some nice photos of many finishers and other runners during the race. Check out the full race report linked above for the full details.

Film is not dead

, originally uploaded by Fabulous Muscles.

Great photo. Nothing else to add.

Thousand Portraits

This is the true face of Britain. That's the promise of the Thousand Portraits project from Carlo and Eamon. And they deliver on the promise. I'll let them describe the project:

Our project is a true portrait of Britain created by photographing 1,000 people. We stopped everyone who crossed our path on the streets of London, excluding nobody, asking the same question more than fifteen hundred times. In a moment where recession is the main subject of every discussion, it was striking to come across such positive attitude.

Now, these are not 1000 ordinary portraits. I've known Eamon on Flickr for a long time, and he was the premier artist in the Spotlight Seven group when he went by 'stpiduko'. Now known as Fabulous Muscles on Flickr, Twitter and his blog, the one constant has been his exceptional photography. Eamon is a film aficionado, and along with Carlo, they shot all 1000 portraits using a Nikon F90X with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. That worked out to about 1 photo every 40 seconds, according to his blog entry.



Eamon has been a part of the 6 Million People project for a long time, and quickly become one of the most prolific contributors when he added all 1000 portraits from that weekend and a few dozen more-- he doesn't stop! There are so many ways to view these photos. See them in Carlo's set, in Eamon's set, or in a video. The video is actually viewable in three different spots-- full-length on Vimeo or Youtube, or an abridged version is available right on Flickr.



The other half of the Thousand Portraits team is Carlo Nicora, a stubborn, idealistic, passionate polyhedric person. Or something like that. An Italian trasnplant reassembling his life in England, Carlo can easily be found on Twitter and Flickr as well. I've just discovered Carlo's work, and based on what I've seen so far, it will be a joy to explore it. What's really amazing is that these guys have made ALL 1000 portraits freely available for any non-commercial use, so you can use these photos to make your own videos, or to tell your own story, or for anything else. So on behalf of myself, the other members of the Six Million People project, Flickrites worldwide and photo lovers everywhere, I'd like to thank Carlo & Eamon for putting together a fantastic project and for sharing it with the world. Thanks guys! Now enjoy the video.

Man Mountain

Man Mountain, originally uploaded by Jonas | www.jonaspeterson.com.

Jonas, formerly known as Pixelboy, is an the most exceptionally talented Swedish-born Australian copywriter turned photographer that the world has ever known. But that really understates it. A true Flickr original, Jonas is no doubt the finest wedding photographer in Brisbane, Australia. Check out his stuff on Flickr-- he has a style all his own, but more than that, he can take great photos in many different styles. Spend a few hours getting lost in his work.

Come back, canalan.

Come back, canalan., originally uploaded by Chiapetta.

A plea for calanan to return to one or more of the DMUs.

life in black and white...jordon sleeping... pic no. 2

life in black and white...jordon sleeping... pic no. 2, originally uploaded by warmshoulder49.

The Sir:poseyal favorite of the week