Feature Shoot

Claudius Schulze currently lives in Antwerpen, Belgium and Istanbul, Turkey. You can likely find Claudius on a photo stalk elsewhere in the world when he’s not training his once-feral black cat. With his love of a fresh falafel sandwich, he especially enjoys photographing in the Middle East. He has lived in Amman, Jordan, studied Political and Islamic Science in Hamburg, and at the Sabanci University in Istanbul he studied graphic representations of violence in mainstream photojournalism. Claudius is fluent in German and English and has proficiency in Dutch, Arabic, and Turkish. Some of his editorial clients include Neon (Stern magazine), Brigitte Woman, Chrismon, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, taz, and Süddeutsche Zeitung. He is represented by the Hamburg-based Agentur Bilderberg.

Toby de Silva was born in England in 1972 and studied photography at Falmouth School of Art followed a few years later by an MA in Fine Art Photography at the University of Westminster. Based between London and Tokyo he travels extensively to document the bizarre, the macabre, the sublime, the hideous and the humorous. Of this series, The Perfect Place to Die, he says, ‘Situated at the base of sacred Mount Fuji, the dark, grotesque and eerily silent forest of Aokigahara has for many years been Japans most notorious suicide destination. Often depicted in Japanese literature as haunted and deathly, it was described in Waturu Tsurumi’s The Complete Manual of Suicide as ‘The Perfect Place To Die’. The 3500 hectare forest is founded upon volcanic rock, which juts and plummets with uncertainly in all directions and is littered with the personal effects, clothing and mechanisms of suicide of its many victims, along with bouquets of flowers, shrines and food offerings left in their memory. It annually yields in excess of 60 corpses, many of which are removed in the regular body hunts which infamously leave behind the miles of colored tape which are used as guides to mark out the areas that have been surveyed and to direct recovery teams to the newly discovered remains’.

Francesco Giusti lives and works in Rome, Italy. He recently won 1st Prize in the Viewbook Photostory competition for his documentary series, SAPE. Of this series, he says, ‘In Congo-Brazzaville SAPE is an old passion that has never stopped, not even during war years. At the arrival of the French in Congo at the beginning of 9oo, the myth of elegance was born among young people working for the settlers. In 1922, Andre Grenard Matsoua, well-known for his resistance to the settlers, was the first Congolese to come back from Paris well dressed like a true French “Monsieur”, and greatly admired by all his fellow citizens. Today’s members of the SAPE consider themselves as artists and are respected and admired by the whole community. The members of the SAPE take a touch of glamor into their humble environment with their refined style and faultless clothes. Everyone has his own repertory of gestures, marking him from all the others. Elegance is not the only important character. In fact, a true member of the SAPE is a gentleman and a pacifist. Every weekend the members of the SAPE, with their eccentric and amusing nicknames, gather in bars and fashionable dancing halls and parade in the streets among amused children and the applause of passers-by. These extemporized and spontaneous parades are the expression of a urban culture looking for new reference parameters and codes such as non-violence and elegance. They reflect the wish of young people in particular not to be left apart by society’.

Brad DeCecco lives in Brooklyn, grew up in Massachusetts and photographs rock stars, ranchers, and athletes around the world. His environmental portrait work earned him the PDN 30 award for the 30 Best Emerging Photographers of 2007. He has also directed and worked as cinematographer on both documentary and commercial projects. Communication Arts recognized his work in 2007 with the Jury Prize for Cinematography. Last year, his first foray into music videos, Red, premiered as a selection for Music on Main at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. His first feature length documentary film, Serpent in the Rock, will premiere in 2011. Some of his clients include The Washington Post Magazine, Lexus, Time, Popular Mechanics, People, Smithsonian, ESPN and Universal Records.

What made you decide to start this project and how much time was spent at the Love Ranch Brothel?
‘The nine hour drive from Las Vegas to Elko, Nevada is a desolate 500 mile stretch. I was heading to an interview for a documentary and decided to push across the entire state in one day. Hours passed where I saw nothing but sand, sagebrush and sky. A few hours into the drive, I saw a large, hand-pained sign with blinking red lights and a giant arrow that stood in stark contrast to the uninhabited landscape. As I approached, I could see the sign read “The Shady Lady Ranch.” In a hurry to make it to Elko, I made a mental note to find out what this was later.

‘I learned that “Ranch” is the term used by the legal brothels in Nevada. Far from herding cattle or horses, these houses range from a single wide trailer with a few bedrooms to full-service spas with suites, pools and grand pianos. I was immediately interested in exploring these environments through the lens. My personal work tends to focus on American sub-cultures that are out of public view.

‘Most of the owners were welcoming and invited me to come and shoot. I decided with the access I had gained, it would be an amazing opportunity to create a unique body of work. Most of the articles and photos I could find about the ranches in my research were either base and grotesque, talking condescendingly about the girls and the details of their services, or blatantly sensationalistic. I wanted to explore this world with a humanistic and personal subjectivity that produced an honest and informed portrayal of the lives of the women working there and the staff that takes care of them and the customers. I’ve spent a total of three weeks at four different ranches over the last eighteen months. I’ve spent the most time at The Love Ranch so far, however’.

How did you obtain access to the brothel and what was your level of access?
‘My friend Molly is a writer at a Las Vegas newspaper and she’s done stories about the brothels. I called the owners myself that she knew and sent them samples of my work and an outline of what I intended to shoot and I got a great response. The only restrictions I had were: no photos of clients unless they specifically wanted to or asked me, and no photos of any girls who didn’t want to participate. Once the girls and staff witnessed my work ethic and my respectful and inconspicuous manner, everything went smoothly’.

Were the girls wary of having their photograph taken? How did they react to you initially?
‘About half of the women I speak with want to participate in the book. Many of them are mothers or have other jobs and have concerns about family, friends and co-workers identifying them. They come from around the world. On my last trip alone, I shot girls from Seattle, LA, Indiana, New York, Colombia, Germany, Mongolia and London.

‘The first day at a new house is usually tentative. Understandably everyone is hesitant with me at first but without fail, I strike up a few conversations, shoot some portraits and by the end of the day, word has traveled around the house that I’m enthusiastically doing good work … and that I’m not a freak. By day two everyone is totally warm and engaging, even if they don’t want to be photographed. I’ve been told several times of their eagerness at being portrayed not as sex workers, but just as they are-people who’ve often traveled great distances to work at a job in rural Nevada’.

?You captured the girls in their normal day to day life, which appears rather normal. Was this something that you expected to find?
‘I honestly had no idea what to expect, which is what I love about personal work. Each brothel has it’s own rich visual aesthetic so I try to capture the girl’s lives as they unfold against these unique backdrops. I think a major reason for this project’s success is it’s deliberate honesty. Since it’s self-generated, I have as much time as I want to shoot. It’s nice to have the time to get to know everyone and contemplate what scenario will best communicate what I want to convey.

‘I did a lot of more formal sittings to get familiar with everyone but it was the moments in between that struck me-when I’d walk through the kitchen or pass through the parlor where everyone was hanging out doing crossword puzzles and reading. Like the shot of Sunny drinking coffee in the kitchen.

‘I was on my way to get something from the car and I saw her there and I was like “Wait! Stay there, I have to go get lights and my camera”. The more conversations I had with them, the more I realized that most people think of them simply as prostitutes. But they spend hours on Facebook, make toast, go shopping and watch TV hungover — the same mundane crap that we all do. I’ve been really amazed at people’s surprise at seeing this side of their lives.’

What are your intentions for this series and is this an ongoing project?
‘I plan on going back once or twice more. I’m currently looking for a publisher to put this out as a book. I’ve collected some pretty awesome stories that will serve as small bits of text as well. I’d also like to have a show with these images at some point’.

You recently bought Jet Blue’s “Free and Unlimited” travel voucher for anywhere Jet Blue flies and sent out an email to Photo Editors where you offered your services with almost no travel expenses involved. How did this go over and can you talk about some of the more interesting assignments you received on the back of this?
‘I got a great response to this promo. I shot two stories in Tampa, Florida for Cigar Aficionado about the last factory that hand makes cigars in America, I went to North Carolina and Missouri for a story about the best jobs to have in a recession for Money Magazine, I was in Austin, Texas to profile an organic pancake mix company and I shot a few days of a documentary in rural Ohio. And then I took my one free week and went back to the brothels’.

Photo by Will Sanders

Photo by Angela Datre

Photo by Chad Coleman

Photo by Allison V Smith

Photo by Sage Sohier

Photo by Emily Nathan

Brian Lesteberg attended the Minneapolis College of Art in Design, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Photography. He currently lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Some of his clients include The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, and Time. Of this series, Raised to Hunt, he says, ‘My father raised me to be a hunter. Every fall, since my twelfth birthday, we’ve followed the migratory birds that descend from Canada to central North Dakota. Approaching manhood, I’ve become more aware of nature’s vulnerability, especially as I master field dressing wild game for evening meals. Exhausting and exhilarating, the time I spend with my father in the field has become a ritual as steady as the migrations they depend on. My photographs are witness to this ritual and its place in the layered order of the natural world’. His work is currently being shown at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Seventeen-year-old Leila Berney was born in Geneva, Switzerland. She currently lives in Sydney where she has just graduated high school. She uses Canon EOS 400D and does not yet have Photoshop, but she does have creativity, great ideas and concepts to unleash, and a passion for photography.

Kirsten Wilmink recently graduated from the ArtEZ AKI Academy of Visual Arts in Photographic Design and is continuing her studies at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. As a cross media designer Wilmink’s main focus is staged photography. Her graduation project, The Truth About Germans, depicts stereotypes and the existing prejudices about German people in which she used her own family members as models. Of her work she says, ‘With drinking beer and eating bratwurst with potato salad the family Meier from Meppen spends its daily life. Just like every other German family, they are always in a bad mood, members of the local football and shooting club and proud owners of a garden plot. Internationally they are well-known for their narrow-minded petty bourgeois mentality and their very special dress style: socks, Birkenstock sandals and traditional Bavarian Lederhosen’. Her work is currently on view at Cabinodd Collections in Amsterdam.

Jason Gould’s passion for sports photography goes back to 1985 when he was building snowboard jumps with friends and photographing each other launching skyward. After attending college at UNH Jason spent his twenties traveling and competing internationally as a road cyclist. In 1999 Jason traded in his life on the bike race circuit to move back to NYC and start focusing on a career in photography. In the ten years since, Jason progressed from cyclist to photographer, he has been shooting for clients such as Adidas, Cannondale, Foot Locker, Gatorade, Jetblue, Nike, and Reebok, and editorially for Bicycling, Runners World, Seed, Slam, Trace, Ware, and Wad, among others. Most weekends of the year you can find him in a whitewater kayak somewhere in the northeast, all too often upside down.

How did you first become aware of Street Soccer USA and what made you start documenting homeless soccer players?
‘My agent came across an article in the NY Times about homeless soccer and we both felt like it could be a great idea for a personal project. I went to meet the team from NYC and the director of the program and they were excited to invite me along to photograph them in Washington DC at the National Championships and then on to Milan Italy for the World Cup’.

You’ve mainly concentrated on shooting the men on the field and the surrounding area. Have you thought about photographing them in their environments as well?
‘For me, the project is about sport more than what goes on away from the soccer pitch for these players. The focus of most of my work is based in sports and I think it’s great to be able to photograph these guys in the context of athletics, which I believe brings out the best in all of us. I think the arena of athletics is a great equalizer of people. I look at these guys as athletes first and foremost but, of course, I can’t help but have a little added respect for them because I know they face very serious challenges on a day to day basis that most of my other subjects never have to contend with’.

You’ve shot matches at Chelsea Piers (NYC), the 16-city national homeless soccer championship in Washington, DC, and the Homeless Soccer World Cup in Italy. Have you followed one team throughout this experience and what changes over time have you seen in the men that you’ve photographed?
‘The team that went to Italy was a selection of the best players from the National tournament in DC, players from all over the US. I can’t say that I had enough time with them to notice changes but I did get the sense from everyone that they were all very good-hearted people who were genuinely aspiring to better their lives. They seemed to really enjoy the camaraderie of being part of a team and working together towards a goal. I think it was a dream come true to be able to travel to Milan and compete with athletes from around the world for all the players involved. No matter what country they were from and there were 45 countries represented there was an immense amount of respect for each other because they all have shared such similar life experiences. It was clear that there was a deep connection among all the players in that they were all survivors before they were lucky enough to be athletes’.

While photographing The World Cup in Italy, you stayed in a tent with some of the players. Can you tell us about this experience?
‘All of the athletes (about 500) were put up in a tent city on a military base some distance from the arena. Each country had its own tent and decorated it with their countries flag. The commute back and forth from camp to the arena was about an hour each way involving walking, a subway ride and a bus. It was a lot to do twice a day for guys that were playing their hearts out in the hot sun. I heard a comment from a player one day when he was joking around with a teammate. He said: “I went from being homeless to living in a concentration camp”, with a smile on his face. From what I have been told, some of the other countries that have hosted the World Cup event have offered more comfortable living arrangements but everyone made the best of it. Needless to say, it had its challenges’.

What goals or expectations did you have for the series from the start? Was this assignment personal or commissioned?
‘This was a personal assignment from the get go. My goals are always the same: to make beautiful photos that capture the qualities of athletes that we all aspire to possess — grace, pride, power, heart, focus, and humility, to name a few. I’m really happy with the images that came from this story. It was a very positive experience I feel very fortunate to have been able to be part of’.