Milica Stefanovic

Where are you from/based now?

I am from Belgrade, Serbia.


What is your background in photography? What got you started?

My father was a photographer, so it came naturally. I grew up messing around with his cameras. At an early age he got me a point and shoot camera so I could take pictures of my friends from school and of us during family vacations. I always enjoyed taking photographs, but I believe that in a last couple of years I've been much more passionately into it than I ever was before.


What equipment do you use?

I use Kiev 4 and Olympus mju II. Two of my favorite cameras.


What are your feelings on film vs digital?

I go for film. I love the slower process of getting to the results. That excitement from getting the film developed and then rushing home to see what's captured is one of the best feeling and little "rituals" for me. Also the number of frames prevents you from clicking the button randomly. It makes you think for a bit before you decide to photograph something.


What is your creative process, are all your pictures spontaneous?

Most of my photographs are spontaneous, yes. I let myself to be led by intuition and then, in time, create a story from my images.


What do you look for when making pictures?

I am definitely trying to make a statement of some sort, something rather intimate and psychological. I see it as an ability to capture something, so I try to present my point of view of the things that I am seeing.
I tend to make pictures that are quite tense and dark. I like that. I feel they describe me the best. However, I can't say that I have absolutely found my own photographic language, but I am getting to it, I hope.


Who or what inspires you?

Music always inspires me; my favorite painters such as Anselm Kiefer, Leon Golub, Zoran Music, and photographers John Pfahl, Thomas de Sweertvaegher and Marina Richter.


Are you working on a project at the moment?

I am more focused on painting and drawing right now, but I am always taking pictures :)

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Shiri Lee Webb

Where are you from/based now?

I am from North West London, now based in North East London.


What is your background in photography?

My father was a photographer and was keen on getting me into it in my teens. I don’t think I shot anything too great but I learnt quite quickly how to use an analogue camera and work with aperture and shutter speeds. I really did enjoy it. I went on to study Photography at University, that was a joy at times and a pain at others. The theory and history modules were where I thrived, and also working in the darkroom alone for days was an honest achievement. I’m still working in the field of Photography but it doesn’t directly link to my own work.


How did you get started?

I just made a Flickr account one day and decided to share my work. From that point onwards I have made some wonderful friends, seen some awe-inspiring work and have had the opportunity to connect with a wide community of photographers and artists.


What equipment do you use?

I’m very simple. A tiny MJU II point and shoot camera is my best friend. Next is a Canon rangefinder and a Nikon SLR from my father, and another which had been to the Vietnam war and back but it’s so heavy. It’s just 35mm for me.


What are your feelings on film vs digital?

What is your creative process?

Oh, I don’t think there’s much of a competition between them. Film is film and digital is digital. Although they both produce a photograph as a final product they will always be different in their technology and science. I will always love the grainy and rich quality of a film photograph but I also absolutely respect digital photography in its pace and as practical tool for work.

My creative process functions purely on a visual basis. I see something I think looks great, I photograph it and wait for the results. It doesn’t always look how I expect and it doesn’t always evoke the same feeling. Many of photographs end up become referential documents of things I once saw and cherished.


Are all your shot spontaneous?

Yes ! But in the future I would like to work on more projects that might involve some planning. For my degree show with the British shrubs series, I spent an awful long time trying to over-analyse my work and the process became so contrived - I wasn't happy at all with the end product. A year or so before I photographed the portraits of a group of eccentric men and women who attended an accordion club in Bulwell. They practiced in an acid green room and had so much devotion to their instruments. It was brilliant.


Who or what inspires you?

I cannot pin it down to one specific thing. Life inspires me, that is what creates the energy in a photograph. It is everything that I encounter daily, it is what represents me and I hope that that comes through in my work. And I would be nowhere without light and light at different stages of the day, light through trees, light at dawn through the blinds, patterns of light on the wall.


Are you working on a project at the moment?


See above !

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Aaron Canipe

Where are you from/based now?

Hickory, North Carolina.


What is your background in photography? How did you get started?

I recently graduated from the Corcoran College of Art + Design with a BFA in photography. I think my first real experiences with the power of photography were during the first half of high school. I used to walk down to the creek by my house, set up my camera and tripod, and experiment with long exposures of the falling water, and later, trails of car lights in my neighborhood. It was those moments of quiet, almost magical transformations of the real world that kept me using photography and that’s stayed with me ever since.


What equipment do you use?

Lately I’ve been using a Pentax 6x7 medium format camera.


What are your feelings on film vs digital?

There’s a definite shift to digital processes. That’s just the way the world is going. That’s not to say I think digital is better than film or vice versa; whatever works for the individual photographer is the best way to work. And ultimately, what matters is what’s presented on the wall, or in a book, or another venue.


What is your creative process? Are all your shot spontaneous?

I’m always thinking about making pictures and I think it’s important to stay vigilant for these types of things. A part of that mindset is to bring a camera along wherever I go, or a notebook to make notes about where I see a picture. And another part of my process is returning to the same area or part of town again and again and seeing something new. In that sense, my pictures are spontaneous — getting lost and letting go are exciting things and you get a lot of gifts that way. But it’s also important after an amount of time to look through work, and finding what you’re trying to get at.


Who or what inspires you?

Looking at a lot of work in books and in online presentations is always inspiring, not to mention running the blog and publishing company Empty Stretch with two friends of mine. Somehow for me, literature keeps my creative process going more than anything.


What drives you to keep taking pictures?

Keeping a dialogue through images and words with my friends is a driving force behind making work. Mainly it’s searching that keeps me taking pictures. Where I live has a large influence on my work — I’m fascinated at what’s perceived as Southern culture and how that idea is changing into the 21st century.


Are you working on a project at the moment?

I’ve always got about five ideas in my head for a project. The biggest of those might be my project about living in Hickory. On each summer break since I began college I’ve been taking pictures in my hometown and since I’ve graduated I feel like I’ve got a pretty solid body of work about this part of North Carolina. The work now entails going through hundreds of rolls of film, making edits, and putting together a sequence that makes sense. It’s an exciting and daunting task.

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