Interview of  Plasticbionic - french creative director and graphic designer based in Nantes.

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Who are you ?

My name is Julien Brisson, I’m art director/graphic designer since 8 years and I work under the Plasticbionic name.
I make advertising, art direction, branding & identity, concept development, 3d , hand made, print, web design.

Can you explain us your career ?

I began by creating some flyers for a techno collective during my formation in decorative arts school. Graduate of a BTS visual communication at LISAA Nantes, I joined Fly Designers studio in 2005 as art director for five years. Since 2010 I work in freelance and collaborated at McCann San Francisco and Serial Cut Madrid. Today we are 2 and we collaborate with different people (illustrator, motion designers, web designers, coders,…)

How can you define your style ?

Hard to define. I search everyday my style :) and i hope never find it.

Your 3d works are so realistic and your real physical creations can look like CGI, so we often can’t see the difference. Can you tell us more about your creation process ? and how do you get this result ?

I like this confusion. So it’s a recurring element in my work. I search the inspiration in all the artistic fields (music, art, architecture, cooking, museums, exhibition, street …) . I try to be in perpetual research.
We like 3d works and Hand Made projects and we search to have a realist render for each projects. We love trying explore various horizons and mix differents techniques, playing with shapes, colors, types,…

What are your favorite projects ? why ?

We like collaborate with others people and mix the skills of each.
We like to work with the customer in the same way. Create fun concept. Fun is important. Innovating and taking risks to get the job done.
We try to have the same feeling for each projects – Big or small company – The aim, taking pleasure.

You’ve been art director at Fly Designers studio for five years. Can you tell us more about this experience ?

It was very beautiful years. I met friends, with whom I still collaborate (Moon, David Pelle, Dansuncoinsidense, Joshua Catalano,…) and we works sometimes with the studio on few projects.
Look like a family.

What are your current projects ?

We have some project in packaging, photography, illustration,…I work on my new website portfolio. Hope to show you soon.

Give us a song you like.

Sebastien Tellier – Look

What’s next for you ?

Lot of ideas for personal project.
Move in Berlin, for the work and the pleasure.

Do you have one advise for young creatives ?

Work, Hard, Always, and never stop to be curious.

What are you going to do just after having answered to this final question ?

Coffee and cigarette.

Thanks Julien !

> last project, really nice website design : like-there-is-no-tomorrow.com

+ plasticbionic.com

+ cargo.plasticbionic.com

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Interview of  Lars Wästfelt - photographer from Stockholm,  Sweden.

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Hi Lars, where are you right now ?

At my office in Stockholm and working on various web projects.

First off, can you introduce yourself ?

I’m a designer who have been photographing since I was a teenager. And I guess my photography have evolved in a positive manner since I became a father. And also partly due to flickr and all inspiration I find there.

The photos of your family are really touching. Is it easy to shoot your daughters on film ?

Thanks! Easy or not, to me it’s the only way to do it. I’ve tried a DSLR and rejected it… so, first and foremost, it’s fun to shoot film!

Can you tell us more about your Zeiss Ikon ?

Well, to me it’s world best camera, full stop. It does what a camera should do in the simplest way. The finder is greater than great and once you learned to focus you can do it easy in any light condition. I started my “rangefinder career” with a 35 mm and added a 25 mm and 50 mm later on. Today I use my 25 mm most of the time. Sometimes think a fast 28 would be perfect.

Do you use other cameras ?

Seldom. I have some beautiful cameras in the wardrobe, like Ricoh GR1, Canon T90 and a Mamiya 6.

How’s the life in Stockholm ?

Finally spring is here – so life is on top! :-)

Give us some photographers you like.

Carlito Schilirò, Anastasiya Lazurenko, Lukasz Wierzbowski, Mariana Pacho López, Hideaki Hamada, Valentina Castro, Sarah Kate Vuona among many, many others!

Have you already began to teach to your daughters how to use an analog camera ?

Not exactly, they try to shoot sometimes, but I don’t push them – yet :-)

What are you going to do after having answered this last question ?

Ride my bike home to our suburb and have dinner with my girls!

Thanks a lot Lars.

+ flickr.com/photos/lawa

Tell us something about this picture

This photograph was taken last October, when me an my friends enjoyed the last “Golden Days”. The location is an old quarry. The camera was a Pentax Spotmatic and a fuji superia 200 film.

and something about you

My Name is Hannes Lippert an I am from Berlin, Germany. I work as an self-employed 3D Artist. I always take a camera with me. I love photography on film so i don’t use digital techniques. I love the roughnes of pictures taken with analogue cameras. I startetd with photography about 3 years ago. A friend rent me his old camera. After a while I was fixed. Since this time photography has become a passion. In 2012 I decided to release one book with the best pics of one period annually.
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on flickr - on cargo

Interview of  Miles Bowers - photographer born “in Missoula, Montana in the fall of 92″, now living at Eugene, Oregon.

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How is the life at Eugene ?

It’s pretty good here, the winters are long and sad but that’s okay. It gets great at this time of year when the sun comes out all the aging hippies and anarchists come out of their dens. It’s a good place to be young, but also a small pond.

What’s your photographic equipment ?

I shoot 35mm on a nikon F5 and a little minolta, nothing very fancy. I’m in the process of building a Mamiya 635 and once its complete I plan on pretty much only shooting medium format because develop almost all of my film in the darkroom now.

What’s your intention you when take photos ?

What a hard question to answer. I guess it’s just the way that I chose to show my world to other people. I love it when I can learn something about somebody’s perspective by reading what they write or seeing what they create. I’ve tried other mediums but photos are just what work for me. My pictures are a reflection of my life and my life consists of the people I’ve met and the places I’ve been. It’s nothing more than that, but to me that’s whats honest.

Where have you took this picture ? Is there anyone living in there ? [see below]

This photo was taken at Derelict Homestead in Eastern Oregon, I don’t believe anybody lives there anymore. There are all sorts of great abandoned houses in that part of Oregon.

To finish, tell us something (anything) about you.

I develop my film with the blood of my enemies

Thanks for your answers Miles!

+ cargocollective.com/milesbowers

+ flickr.com/photos/milesfbowers

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PS – Do you still have this sweater ?

I don’t know what happened to that one!

Interview of  Margot Gabel - photographer born in Strasbourg, France in 1991, now living in Paris.

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What inspired you when you were a child ?

Mostly dinosaurs.. I wanted to be an archaeologist ! And I had a deep fascination for black & white analog photographs shooted by my father, I loved watching albums he did when he was in Art School.

What’s your equipement ?

I have many many cameras.. But I mainly use a common Canon AE-1 with the beautiful lense of my father, a Canon 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C It’s an old lense, but the result is still amazing !
Sometimes, I try to have fun with polaroid films, or cheap compact analog cameras too.

Do you remember your best trip ?

Totally ! It was a train trip through Holland. We discovered the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea.. It was just wind, sand, and absolute serenity during one week. I shooted some expired films there, but it’s much better to be on the real dunes !

Give us a photographer you really like and a song you want to listen now.

Ian Ruhter definitely. This guy has an insane project, he wander through deepest USA with a camera truck ( yes, a giant darkroom with wheels ! ) He uses the magical technique of wet collodion ( watch this : vimeo.com/39578584 )
&  a song ? mmh, ” Partyman” by Prince ahah ! I want to dance right now.

Where would you want to go to take photos ?

Everywhere I’m not gone yet ! And more seriously, I dream to shoot in the cenotes in Yucatan ! These places are sacred underground water caves, it’s crazy, dangerous and beautiful..: goo.gl/oMCIx

Tell us something about this picture [see below]

Oh.. A crazy night.. We found ourselves in a village festival with a immense fire of joy, we were a little drunk.. & I try to shoot but I think I made a mishandling when I load the film into the camera, so two pictures were superimposed ( one with the fire with people and the second one with incandescent ashes )

What’s next for you ?

Get my diploma in Gobelins school in June.. and then. I don’t know.. I love the unknown.
But I would like to continue in La Cambre art school in Belgium to do more analog photography, and especially, get back to handmade development !

Merci Margot !

+ flickr.com/photos/-mrgt-

+ mrgt.tumblr.com

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Interview of  Roland Lebrun - photographer born in Brussels, Belgium in 1982.

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Can you describe your style ?

It’s been evolving a lot since I started, but now i think it’s kind of documentary and coldish, but with too much prettyness. I don’t really know or want to describe my style. When i’m in photo mode, I see things that I find interesting. I shoot them and then treat the image to make it work, but it’s very subjective.

How did you get into photography ?

My father had an interest in photography when he was younger. He tried to pass it to me. I went to a few week-long camps, something like “english & photography”. I even had a small lab in the attic at my parents house. But then I forgot about it for a long time, until I could get my first digital camera. I started taking pictures of my friends at parties, and then some random stuff I was putting on my “photoblog” back in 2002 or 2003 I guess… After i got my degree in multimedia arts, I did 3 more years in a great photography art school called Le75.

What do you want to share with your photos ? What’s your intention ?

Most of the times I see things that get my attention. It’s a combination of factors: light, objects, traces, oddities. Sometimes people, but i’m less comfortable with people. I take picture of these things to make them my own, interpret them, and share them.

Can you tell us more about one of your work, “La Mort de Paule” ? [see some pictures of this the serie in the following]

Paule was the sister of my late grandfather. She lived in Nimes, in France. She spent her life in a wheelchair, and her apartment was equipped so that she could live her daily life on her own. She had a very strong character and I visited her often. Then, a few years ago, I spent 3 months in Arles, doing an Erasmus at ENSP (national photography school). It was a strange time for me, it was hard to get to know people there. So I spent a lot of time not going to school and traveling around doing landscape photography. At the same time, Paule was actually doing pretty bad and she died while I was in Arles. I visited her to say goodbye. Then we had to empty her apartment, so before I spent some time there photographing it. So this series is about me trying to make sense of my time down there, what happened with Paule and trying to connect to what I know, and eventually failed to do that.

What’s your equipment ?

Right now i’m using my iPhone 5 only. Shooting, processing and posting from it. I love the simplicity of it, and yet I don’t think the results are poor compared to my older pictures. And it actually motivated me to do some photography again. I hadn’t touched a camera in a couple of years. I was walking in the woods with my family and I shot this fallen tree trunk in b&w using instagram, and I went “hey, this looks good. I should do more.” Right now i’m using instagram as a platform even though I think it is more casual pictures oriented. The new flickr app also was right in time and made me use the service again. There are a lot of great photographers on there, and I see a trend in the people I’m following. Lots of them hadn’t posted for a while and are coming back.

Since I started doing photography I used about all the cameras types you can think of: digital pocked, dslr, slr, hasselblad, mamiya6, rollei, lomo, large format cameras, pinhole, etc… they’re all fun

Do you have current projects or plans for the future ?

I plan to live more of my photography, doing architecture photography and some commission work. I want to publish my work in ebooks, I think it’s an interesting way to publish and distribute pictures.

What are you going to do just after answered to this final question ?

I’ll go back to playing with my 2 year old girl.

Merci Roland !

+ rolandlebrun.be

+ flickr.com/photos/rool

+ rolandlebrun.tumblr.com

Interview of  Anna Verlet Shelton - photographer born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1975.  Since then, she has lived in Florida, Ohio, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Oregon.

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What cross your mind when you see a little habitation lost in the middle of the nature ?

The cycle of life and our futile attempts to control our environment.

Where are you right now?

Hard at work in my office at a coffee magazine in Portland, Oregon.

How can you define your style ? and what’s your equipment ?

I take most of my pictures while on road trips. I need that open space. I use an Olympus XA rangefinder.

How is the place you live ? Are you far from nature ?

I’ve been in Portland almost 12 years now. It’s changing at a rapid place with newcomers moving here from all over. Progress has it advantages and disadvantages, but overall the people here are up to pretty interesting things. As for nature, any direction may take you to the mountains, valleys, ocean, high desert or rain forests.

Give us a song you want to listen right now.

“Take Good Care of Yourself” by Chris Darrow.

What part has photography played in your life ?

Quite a big part over the last 6 or 7 years. It’s with me all the time, heightening experiences and preserving memories. I think about it every day in some capacity.

Tell us the background of this picture [see below]

This photo was taken in Tygh Valley, Oregon, on an old abandoned rodeo. We were working on a movie out there, and the wild horses on the property galloped by us every day at sunrise and sunset. It was a spectacular thing not only to see, but to hear.

What are you doing for a living ?

I’ve usually working 2 or even 3 gigs sometimes. I work for a coffee and tea magazine, a record store and until just recently as a psychiatrist’s assistant.

What do you think about the suburbs ?

I don’t think about them that often nor do I go out of my way to visit those areas. I guess they make me a little claustrophobic.

Do you have any advice for us ? As fellow photographers ?

Do what you love for as long as it feels right and never out of a sense of obligation. If interest starts to wane, try something else. Usually our passions need some time to rest, but rarely do they disappear.

Do you have current projects or plans for the future ?

I’m working on a collection for a book, though I’ve been saying that for a few years now. As for the future, I stopped making plans awhile ago. I may steer ideas and wishes a certain way, but I like to give them plenty of room to expand and diverge.

What are you going to do after having answered this final question ?

I’m going to eat a banana and some walnuts.

Thanks a lot Anna.

+ flickr.com/photos/zipco-and-cal

+ annavshelton.tumblr.com

Tell us something about this picture

The photo was taken on the way back from a trip to the beach in Mexico. There are lots of alters like that on the highway- I later found out that bandits use them as a way to get tourists to pull over to the side of the road before mugging them or stealing their cars.

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Molly Mare- photographer living in in Flagstaff, Arizona  / on flickr