• A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers

  • By: Ben Smith
  • Podcast

A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers

By: Ben Smith
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • Fortnightly in-depth interviews featuring a diverse range of talented, innovative, world-class photographers from established, award-winning and internationally exhibited stars to young and emerging talents discussing their lives, work and process with fellow photographer, Ben Smith. TO ACCESS THE FULL ACHIVE SIGN UP AS A MEMBER AT POD.FAN!
    © Ben Smith
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Art
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Episodes
  • 249 - Dina Livotsky

    249 - Dina Livotsky
    Jan 29 2025
    Dina Litovsky is a Ukrainian-born photographer living in New York City since 1991. Dina's imagery can be described as visual sociology. Her work explores the idea of leisure, often focusing on subcultures and social gatherings.Dina is a regular contributor to National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, New Yorker, GQ and New York Magazine. In 2020 Dina won the Nannen Prize, Germany's foremost award for documentary photography. Other awards include the PDN 30, New and Emerging Photographers to Watch; POYi; NPPA Best of Photojournalism, International Photography Awards and American Photography.Selected exhibitions include group and solo shows at the Museum of the City of New York; Noordelicht Festival, Netherlands; Annenberg Space for Photography, LA and the Anastasia Photo Gallery, NYC.In 2022 she started writing the Substack newsletter In The Flash, an ongoing dialogue about the art and craft of creating and thinking about images. In her weekly posts, she discuses the creative process, focusing on the WHY of photography — intent, meaning, and inspiration. She shares her insights into the world of a professional photographer as well as all the things that make her tick and inspire her to create, from photography to art to music.Dina holds a bachelor in psychology from NYU and an MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts, NY. In episode 248, Dina discusses, among other things:Moving to the U.S. from Ukraine at 12 years oldThe immigrant dream of her parents for her to study medicineThe formative experience of earning her first $40 for shooting a portraitWhy she couldn’t hold down a job in her early lifeComing out of wedding photography retirement to write a piece about itHow working on personal work was the key to getting good editorial clientsUntag This Photo and Bacherolette being the projects that got her attentionHow her background in psychology plays into the way she approaches shooting her projectsHer experience of being questioned in a classroom setting - why she does the newsletterHer post about why photographers should stop calling themselves artistsHer approach to Instagram and how she set out to build a huge audienceHow her Substack newsletter began with an invitation from MetaHer strategy around building community rather than earning incomeWhy working for exposure is photography’s bigges Ponzi schemeThe importance of pursuing personal workHer projects Fashion Week and MeatpackingWebsite | Instagram“I’m an introvert with a social phobia. So I would never draw attention to myself. But with a camera I could actually go where I wanted to go and photograph and confront people, with a shield. And so I think I was using it more as my own self therapy, like I wanted to be in the middle of the party, and I wanted to be on this dancefloor with the young women, but I couldn’t. And so with a camera I was there just photographing it.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • 248 - Ian Howorth

    248 - Ian Howorth
    Jan 15 2025

    Ian Howorth is a documentary photographer based in Brighton, UK. His work deals with themes of identity and culture. Through Setanta Books, Ian sold out his first book, Arcadia, in 2019 and published his second, A Country Kind of Silence, in 2023. Ian’s work has been featured in publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, It’s Nice That and Huck.


    In episode 248, Ian discusses, among other things:

    • Striving to spend as much time as possible not compromising
    • The benefits of having a full-time job
    • His Instagram strategy
    • His previous life as a videographer
    • An early fascination for film stock
    • Influence of cinema
    • The contrast between his trips to Peru and Cuba
    • His first book Arcadia
    • His origin story in which he lived in 9 homes across 3 countries
    • His adventurous dad’s influence on him (and his brothers)
    • Having to adapt to a move from Peru to Miami at 12
    • His relationship with England and the things he is drawn to photograph there
    • Combining documentary with fiction and not wanting to feel constricted
    • His second book A A Country Kind of Silence

    Referenced:

    • Zed Nelson
    • Phil Toledano
    • Robbie Lawrence
    • Max Miechoswski
    • Stephen Shore
    • William Eggleston
    • John Divola
    • Gregory Crewdson
    • Sean Tucker
    • Willam Verbeeck
    • National Film & Television School
    • Paris Texas
    • Tania Franco Klein
    • Bill Callaghan

    Website | Instagram

    “Wim Wenders and Robby Müller [In Paris Texas] happened to hit on something that made sense artistically but also looks beautiful aesthetically, and that for me is the perfect marriage. Not everyone can achieve it, but that to me became very important. I wasn’t doing that. I wasn’t smart enough to do that. But at the same time I knew the power of colour - I knew what it did, I understood my emotional response to it. And that was enough for me to pursue it at the time, and I would figure it out later.”

    • Perello Family's Go Fund Me page
    • Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.
    • For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.
    • Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.
    • Follow me on Instagram here.
    • Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • 247 - Ed Sykes

    247 - Ed Sykes
    Jan 1 2025

    Ed Sykes is a photographer and visual artist based in London.

    Ed’s practice focuses on landscape and changes to the environment as a result of natural processes and human activity. This approach is in conjunction with a re-working of photographic materials and a disruption of traditional photographic production. The processes and effects of climate change are often replicated during the image making process itself. The series 1000 Degrees used a blow torch to melt photographic negatives at a heat similar to the furnaces that propelled the Industrial Revolution. The work Hanging By A Thread pushed this same notion to the picture frames which were sourced secondhand and then the wooden surrounds were charred in a similar way to the subject matter of wildfires. Other approaches have involved sanding and abrasion echoing the effects of coastal erosion and also the use of soluble paper, the dissolution of an image in water, mimicking flood damage.

    Ed was the recipient of an Arts Council grant for the project Eco Matters and Sustainable Processes. This saw Ed travel along Britain’s east coast and to some of Europe’s fastest eroding coastlines, embedding a new creative approach to climate change, environment and the anthropocene. In 2021 he was nominated for Prix Pictet Award with1000 Degrees, a response to the historical, industrial exploitation of natural resources in UK.

    In episode 247, Ed discusses, among other things:

    • Early days on The Independent
    • Going to Somalia for ‘Operation Restore Hope’ and being disillusioned by it
    • Moving towards portraiture for magazines…
    • …and fashion
    • Having to take a day job and the feelings that brings up
    • Resetting, getting a 4x5 and doing it ‘without compromise’.
    • Environmental themes and concerns
    • Darkroom practice
    • His Arts Council grant to pursue the project Eco Matters and Sustainable Processes
    • Using plant-based developer and Agfa Record Rapid paper for the project Rock
    • Accepting and embracing mistakes as part of the creative process

    Referenced:

    • Brian Harris
    • Kalpesh Lathigra
    • James Nachtwhey
    • Paul Lowe
    • Chris Steele Perkins
    • Delilah Sykes
    • Rodrigo Arantia

    Website | Instagram

    “As a photographer, you want something that drives you on. You need to find something that is close to your heart. And if you have that, you’re gonna go the distance. You’re gonna persevere, you’re gonna get up at four in the morning with the slim chance of getting one picture, because it’s important to you.”

    • Perello Family's Go Fund Me page
    • Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.
    • For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.
    • Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.
    • Follow me on Instagram here.
    • Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 19 mins

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