Olivia C. Tonin

Where are you from/based now?

I'm from Montreal, but I've been living around upstate NY for a few years. I'm planning on moving on again pretty soon, though.

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

I can't remember ever not taking pictures. At first it was just rolls and rolls of pictures of my cats in different situations; then I branched out to clouds and landscapes, my friends, family vacations
etc., but it was always about documenting. It's been like, 15 years and I still take pictures of my cat all the time. I studied film in school, but never photography.


What equipment do you use?

A Pentax Spotmatic, Yashica MF-2 and Minolta AF101R, and I recently bought a Nikon 1 which is really fun to use. I like toy cameras a lot also and I had one that was like, Disney princess themed I think, point and shoot I got at Salvation Army for a dollar that I used to take some of the best pictures of my life. I'm still working through a 50' bulk roll of Fuji 160 that is long past it's expiration date.


What are your feelings on film vs digital?

I like and use them both pretty equally… I'll shoot film for a while until I get sick of beating myself up over not getting a shot I was really excited about, then I'll switch to digital until I get annoyed with how sterile and impersonal it seems. I've been shooting digital for about a year now, and I've just switched back over to film this past week.


Do you have a creative process? Are your shots mostly spontaneous?

Probably all of the portraits I've shot are spontaneous, and all the still lifes have been rearranged and reshot a bunch of times, even if they're on film.


Who or what gives you inspiration?

Coincidences, déjà vu, good timing, symmetry, orbs… I don't know, it's hard to explain like, I try to document real life but through depicting situations where something weird happened. I don't believe
in the supernatural or anything but I like to pretend I do when framing pictures. I want to show something kind of unnatural, but it has to occur naturally and not be too staged.


Is there a particular photographer, site, set of images or a photo
book that you keep coming back to for inspiration?

I read through National Geographic magazine a lot. They have kind of a bad reputation for using misleading photography, but the quality of work is always amazing. I'm reading a book right now called Reading National Geographic which really takes them to task, but also details
the process of making and selecting photos for publication which in itself is really inspiring.


Are you working on a particular project at the moment?

Right now I'm just trying to take pictures of everything in this town I've ever meant to take pictures of but didn't.

Web
Flickr

Melchior Tersen

Where are you from/based now?

I live in the suburbs of Paris for 25 years.
I have always lived in the same place.


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

I learned to take pictures during concerts and being paparazzi front of the cinema.
I have no academic training, the internet and Flickr have helped me grow. The internet is an incredible tool for photography.


What equipment do you use?

I started photography using digital and after a while I came to use film.
Now I use a Mamyia rb 67, an Olympus OM 20 and a small compact.
I just bought a Fuji GA 645.


What are your feelings on digital vs. film?

There are several rasons I started using digital and then moved to film.
It was after looking at the pictures of Ryan McGinley, Terry Richardson, Tim Barber and Peter Sutherland that I asked about the silver.
From the moment I started to develop my films, my photos have changed dramatically. I pay every photo, every frame, much more attention. You learn a lot about  how to take photos. It would be very hard to go back to digital.

Do you have a creative process?

Most of my work is photojournalism, so I go to a place knowing that I have a chance to take pictures, but I do not know exactly what I'm photographing.
I'm not planning what I take, I am moving and I am involved in each photo, but more, I want to compose images.
This may not be the current fashion on tumblr to work this way as photojournalism is considered tacky.


Who or what inspires you?

There are many things I love but it does not necessarily inspire me in the photos.
Musical genre's inspire me a lot, mostly Hip-Hop and metal, but also electro, the world of clubs is something fascinating.
French culture in the broadest sense is something that I love.


Is there a particular photographer, the site, a series of images or a photo album that you return to for inspiration?

Recently, I read a book by Mary Hellen Mark at the library, I am very impressed with all the work she has done, it's amazing. I'm not a big fan of black and white in general, but level photojournalism, I think everyone agrees.
A recent series that I found amazing is the number of Pieter Hugo with hyenas, monkeys.
Lastly, I interested in people like JH Engstrom, Roe Ethridge and Torbjørn Rødland.
I want to understand why these guys works are so expensive in the gallery, I want to understand why they are credible when there are plenty of equally talented photographer who are not taken seriously.
But on the whole a photographer who touches me the most is Peter Sutherland, he has a job that is an avant-garde junction between many things, photography internet, fashion, contemporary art, photography galleries.
His work is symbolically very strong, he's someone who does not copy, but is a true creator.
A few years ago, I saw a show where he was selling pictures, if I had money, I would like to buy these photos. That problem of not having money


Are you working on a project right now?

I bought a new camera 6 x 4.5 so I'll learn to use it and it will surely give a new type of image. At the moment, I'm shooting fashion photos with cool stylist, it changes me, I like it.
It allows me to be free and to adhere to my own aesthetic universe.
I would like to do more.

Website
Flickr

Nathan Cyprys

Where are you from/based now?

I was born in Montreal, grew up in the suburbs of Ontario, and live and work in Toronto now.


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

I first became seriously interested in high-school when I had the chance to take a photography class. My dad let me use his SLR, and he explained shutter speeds and f-stops to me. Once we started playing around with chemicals and film in my first photography class I fell in love it it. I think the equipment and the process of it was a huge appeal to me at first, there was something romantic about hanging up prints to dry in the dark room.

I graduated with my BFA in Photography from the Ontario College of Art & Design in 2010.


What equipment do you use?

I often use a 4x5 press camera- mine has had the the rangefinder ripped off and hood on the back cut open. It's more of a lightweight field camera, and it folds up so I can travel with it easily. I also use a Fuji GS645S, which just had some repairs done to it. I'm really excited to start using it again. I also usually bring a 35mm with me any time I leave the house, lately an Olympus MJU or Canon ELAN.

What are your feelings on Film Vs Digital?

I enjoy shooting on film since it allows me to make prints that hold up really well when enlarged. I also really enjoy the colour rendition that film provides and it's ability to capture highlight and shadow detail. Digital certainly has its uses, and I think it has a certain stigma for "artist photographers", however I see that changing soon. It's perhaps not as big of a stigma as colour photography had before it broke out into galleries, but it's still there in certain circles. While digital doesn't entirely fit my work right now, I'm in no way opposed to it and do use it on occasion (a DSLR to me is especially useful for shooting HD video).

Do you have a creative process? Are your shots planned or spontaneous?

Some shots I'll sketch out, source people and materials and carefully plan lighting. Others can come together much quicker, which is sometimes nice since it allows for a bit more experimentation and play. For my landscape or documentary work I'll usually go out with an idea and aesthetic in mind, and do my best to track it down. With these two approaches in mind, the image making process sometimes feels like poetry and sometimes like hunting, respectively.

The spontaneity of a shot entirely depends on the project I'm developing at that time. If you can tell which camera I used for a shot, then you can tell how spontaneous it likely was. 4x5 is of course the slowest format I use, and 35mm the fastest, the rest falls in-between.


Who or what inspires you?

I recently read Diane Arbus' biography by Patricia Bosworth. Even though our work isn't very similar, I found her story quite inspiring.

Is there a particular photographer, site, set of images or a photo book that you keep coming back to for inspiration?

I believe the influence of photographers such as Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Mitch Epstein and Joel Meyerowitz is quite evident in my landscape work. I've been going back to Martin Parr's book/series The Last Resort a bit lately. I also probably spend too much time in front of the computer looking at pictures.


Are you working on a project at the moment?

I'm travelling to the Bahamas very soon. It will be my first time outside of North America, so I'm excited to bring my camera with me. I'm also hoping to release a zine soon, so follow me on Tumblr, Facebook, or keep in touch with my website to find out when it will be available.

Website
Blog