The Messy Truth - Conversations on Photography

Gem chats to Quil Lemons, a New York-based artist who has really crafted a distinct visual language which interrogates ideas around masculinity, queerness, race and beauty. His first body of work ‘GlitterBoy’, a tender portrait series of Black men and boys adorned in glitter, examined the shifting notions of gender and beauty as they relate to masculinity in the black community. The project laid the foundation for his bold and daring work that straddles art and fashion.

“I got into photography to preserve my existence, to document my family and what it means to be a black American. I think we are going through a really special moment in America when it comes to image-making when you get to see so many black photographers and creators get to rectify the lack of documentation and cement our existence in American history. It's wild to see history be written in real-time. I think about The New Black Vanguard and how my grandmother is pictured in the same book as Beyonce, celebrating a new form of black beauty.”

In this conversation we talk about everything from family, community, personal style, art making, speaking out, shooting in a pandemic and how he blurs the lines between art and fashion. 

Follow Quil on Instagram @quillemons on Instagram and visit https://quillemons.com to see her work. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gem chats to Farah Al Qasimi. While her primary line of inquiry examines postcolonial structures of power, gender and taste in the Gulf Arab states, what galvanises the work is her unique ability to embed meaning into visual aesthetics. Farah describes her aesthetic approach as 'so muchness'. Her frames overflow with a heady mix of print, objects and domestic interiors amplified by the tension between harsh lighting and an acidic colour palette. Together they transport us into her psyche, an intimate imagining of her world.

In this conversation, we talk about her journey, her process and what photography means to her. We talk about her recent exhibition Funhouse at Helena Anrather in New York, it’s genesis and how it speaks to key themes within her practice. We talk about performativity, paying attention to your own sensitivity’s and how they can be guiding principles in making work. We discuss how she uses the world as raw material, rather than a direct subject. In doing this she builds worlds in which geography does not matter in order to access a psychic space that defies language.

Farah Al Qasimi (b.1991, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; lives and works in Brooklyn and Dubai) works in photography, video, and performance. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai; the San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco; the CCS Bard Galleries at the Hessel Museum of Art, New York; Helena Anrather, New York; The Third Line, Dubai; The List Visual Arts Center at MIT, Cambridge; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto; and the Houston Center for Photography, Houston.

Follow Farah on Instagram @frequentlyaskedquestion on Instagram and visit https://farahalqasimi.com/ to see her work. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special episode, Gem Fletcher celebrates some of the personal projects, assignments and exhibitions that have been her highlights from the year. Despite the tough reality of 2020, some incredible work has been made, published and exhibited, some of which Gem has already talked about this season and many more which will be discussed in Season 4 that kicks off in January 2021. 

In this episode, she is in conversation with Alona Pardo, Silvia Rosi, Maggie Shannon, Camila Falquez and Sarah Allen about the research, ideas and development that went into their projects. The work in this episode rethinks what photography can do and the more progressive ways it can operate.

Projects covered:

‘Masculinities: Liberation through Photography’ curated by Alona Pardo for The Barbican

Exhibition and Guided Tour with Alona Pardo

‘Visions of Black Style’ by artist Silvia Rosi for The New Yorker

‘Extreme Pain, but also, Extreme Joy’ photographed by Maggie Shannon published by The New York Times.

‘Zanele Muholi’ curated by Sarah Allen for Tate Modern.

Exhibition, Zanele Muholi Interview and From a Place of Love Film in collaboration with Tate Exchange.

Being in History by Camila Falquez

Follow today's guests: 

Alona Pardo @alona_pardo

Silvia Rosi @slyrosi

Maggie Shannon @maggiehshannon

Sarah Allen @sarah___allen

Camila Falquez @camilafalquez

Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gem chats to Sara Urbaez, a photo editor with extensive experience in both brand and editorial spaces. Sara extensive career has seen her work in photo departments at Apple, Airbnb, Wired, Art+ Auction and Modern Painters.

Motivated by photography’s long history of preventing cultures from representing themselves and the dire lack of diverse storytelling in the industry, Sara founded Listo – a platform devoted to dismantling colonial tendencies in photography. Listo is profoundly celebratory and thoughtful in its approach building curiosity through interviews, group shows and industry talks.

In this conversation we talk about her journey into Photo Editing, her process and what she looks for in a pitch. We also discuss how she navigated the industry and was a fierce advocate for diversity in storytelling. We talk about the importance of speaking out and the liberation that comes from building your own world. We talk about her new curatorial platform Listo, its genesis, mission and plans for the future.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gem chats to Diana Markosian, known for her intimate approach to storytelling using photography and film. Her projects have taken her to some of the most remote corners of the world, where she has created work that is both conceptual and documentary. Her images can be found in publications like National Geographic Magazine, The New Yorker and The New York Times. She holds a Masters of Science from Columbia University in New York.

In this conversation we talk about her journey, her process, what photography means to her and her first monograph Santa Barbara recently published by Aperture which she describes as a time machine. The project is deeply personal, recreating the story of her family’s journey from post-Soviet Russia to the U.S. in the 1990s. We also discuss the dynamic participatory aspect to her approach and how the camera is in many ways a therapeutic tool for her – using it to navigate emotion, trauma, and growth - both her own and that of strangers that she encounters on assignments. Diana is a master of connecting deeply with a story – For her, to be a photographer is to be vulnerable

Diana is fundraising for the Armenia Fund. You can support them at www.armeniafund.org

Follow Diana on Instagram @markosian on Instagram and visit www.dianamarkosian.com to see her work.Her work is represented by Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris, France and Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, California. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded remotely on 16th October 2020, Gem chats to photographer Annie Collinge who moves between the world of art and fashion, creativity and commerce in a way that stays true to her ethos and intentions as a photographer. Based in London, she uses photography as a tool for transformation, for imagining a kind of illusion in the everyday. Encountering her work is to happen upon something miraculous unexpectedly - often a playful fantasy that is joyful yet carries a dark undertone.

In this conversation Annie talks about the stories, objects and events in her life that inform her work and creative process. We talk about the idea being central to her photographs and her meticulous and almost obsessive dedication to bringing her vision to life. We discuss collaboration, creative life and motherhood, the importance of knowing yourself and how you work best and what it takes to make a fantasy seem real.

Follow Annie on Instagram @anniecollinge on Instagram and visit www.anniecollinge.org to see her work. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram and Twitter. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded remotely on 5th September 2020, Gem chats to photographer Philip Montgomery. Renown for his urgent documentary work that focuses on the American experience, his work examines the social issues of our time, utilising observational strategies of documentary and aesthetic approaches of fine art. Based in New York City, he is a graduate of the Photojournalism and Documentary Program at the International Center of Photography. His work been exhibited around the world and is included in the 2020 Foam Talent Exhibition in Berlin.

In this Conversation, Philip shares his journey into the industry and how his ideas and approach to documentary work have evolved throughout his career. We talk about how he connects with the people he photographs, how he works in moments of crisis or unrest and how he seeks to serve the reader. We discuss his approach to lighting, which brings a celestial quality, activating the audience and drawing attention to pervasive details, which might otherwise go unseen. We talk about his upcoming book and the experience of documenting the Covid-19 Pandemic in New York earlier this year.

As the pandemic took hold, Philip was asked to be on an open-ended assignment for the New York Times Magazine, working on their Covid-19 coverage in New York, which was quickly becoming an epicentre of the outbreak. Philip spent two months visually mapping a city deeply affected, from restaurant owners forced into uncertainty, to makeshift testing centres. Yet, the critical story lay behind the doors of the public hospital system. The scenes he captured are urgent, overwhelming and bear witness to the enormity of the situation. What unites these photographs is Philip's unique ability to find moments of stillness in chaos.

Follow Philip on Instagram @philipmontgomery on Instagram and visit philipmontgomery.com to see his work. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram and Twitter. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded remotely on 4th September 2020, Gem chats to photographer David Brandon Geeting, a photographer renown for his disruptive approach to still life and visual aesthetics. Masterfully playing with ideas of taste, worth, reality and truth, David challenges our expectations of photography, especially those within the commercial and editorial space. David's 2019 monograph Neighbourhood Stroll is a collection of photographs taken outside in his neighbourhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Void of humans, the work dissects what they’ve left behind, and feels more post-apocalyptic than it does present-day. His work has been published in two other monographs including Infinite Power (2015), a whimsical compilation of imagery that he describes as ‘a collection of nothing’, and 2016’s S.K.N.P (South Korean Nature Photography), which sees him investigating relationships between the natural and urban.

In this Conversation, David shares his journey in the industry so far, from how he got started and discovered an interest in objects to how he protects his authorship while working commercially. We talk about the space between intention and intuition and how he navigates both external and personal pressure. We reflect upon his monograph Neighbourhood Stroll and how the work channels new ideas in the light of the events of 2020. David reflects upon the epic shifts of 2020 and how they have impacted how he wants to create work in the future.

Follow David on Instagram @davidbrandongeeting on Instagram and visit dbg.nyc to see his work. David is represented by East. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram and Twitter. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded remotely on 7th September 2020, Gem Fletcher chats to Dr Jennifer Good, writer, researcher and educator. Known for her fascinating research on the relationship between photography and trauma. She has written several books and writes for a variety of photography magazines and journals. As the Joint Course Leader on the BA & MA Photojournalism and Documentary course at the London College of Communication, Jen works closely with students on discovering and honing personal ethics through deeply interrogating their own views, politics and experiences, both conscious and subconscious which then in turn informs the work they make.

In this conversation, Jennifer talks about her reflections on what photography is and how it functions in the modern world. We talk about her career path, her research practice and how her study of photography and trauma has evolved. We explore her role as an educator and the work she is doing with student to support a decolonisation of their practice. We talk about visual literacy, ethics, the falsehood of objectivity, and how we all inherit the history of the violence of the camera.

Follow Jennifer on Instagram @jenjgood on Instagram. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram and Twitter. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded remotely on 26th July 2020, Gem Fletcher chats with renowned artist, writer and educator Carmen Winant. Her expansive art practice uses text and image to question the patriarchal framework that surrounds women’s bodies. She confronts, unveils and reimagines within her practice to empower agency and liberation. Through the collection and aggregation of found imagery, she examines the limitations of photography to transmute the human experience in all its complexity. My birth, her renowned work that constitutes 2000 images from books, pamphlets and magazines about birth was selected for MOMA's New Photography exhibition in 2018. Carmen also published an evolution of the project in book form with SPBH.

In this conversation, Carmen shares the evolution of her art practice and the challenges she faced defining her work methodologies outside the expectations and traditions of the art world. We talk about how she pivoted away from taking photographs to building worlds using specific and nuanced found imagery. We discuss ways of working and how Carmen seeks to collapse the space between the process and the final product. She takes us behind the scenes on her latest book ‘Notes on Fundamental Joy; seeking the elimination of oppression through the social and political transformation of the patriarchy that otherwise threatens to bury us’. The project is an experimental work that sits at the cross-section of an artists' project and historical document, drawing from archival images borne out of the Ovulars, a series of darkroom/photography workshops held in various feminist & lesbian separatist communes of the early 80s across the Pacific Northwest. We talk about radical optimism, feminism and the psychological and physical act of art-making.

Follow Carmen on Instagram @carmen.winant on Instagram and visit carmenwinant.com to see her work. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram and Twitter. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.