TCF Ep. 506 - Gus Powell

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Cameras, Art, Photoshop, Visual Arts, Career, Interviews, Photographers, Arts, Photography, Photo, Digital

4.8 • 749 Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gus Powell was born in New York City in 1974 and attended Oberlin College where he majored in comparative religion. In 2003 he was selected to be in PDNs 30 under 30 issue and also published his first monograph, The Company of Strangers (J&L Books). His work has been exhibited internationally, including a solo show at The Museum of The City of New York and group exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Houston and FOAM, NL. His photographs have been published in Aperture, Harpers, Vogue, M le mag – Le Monde, Wired, Fortune, W, and he has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine for a decade. He is a member of the street photographers’ collective In-Public and is faculty in the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department at the School of Visual Arts, NY. His work is included in the books Bystander: A World History of Street Photography and Street Photography Now. Powell’s second monograph, titled The Lonely Ones (J&L Books, 2015) was celebrated as one of the best photography books of the year, and was reprinted as a trilingual edition in 2017. Powell is currently at work on a book tilted Family Car Trouble (TBW Books, 2019) and his ongoing street work series titled Mise en Scène. He is represented by Sasha Wolf Projects (NY), Lee Marks Fine Art (IN), and Micamera (Milano). Photographer Links: Gus Powell Elizabeth Bick Brian Karlsson Charalampos Kydonakis Education Resources: Momenta Photographic Workshops Focus on the Story Workshop - Washington DC Candid Frame Resources The Candid Frame Newsletter The Candid Frame Alexa Skill Making Photographs: Developing a Personal Visual Workflow The Candid Frame Flickr Pool The Candid Frame YouTube Channel Download the free Candid Frame app for your favorite smart device. Click below to download for iOS. Click below to download for Android Support the work we do at The Candid Frame with contributing to our Patreon effort. You can do this by visiting or visiting the website and clicking on the Patreon button. You can also provide a one-time donation via . You can follow Ibarionex on and .

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's often said that today everybody is a photographer.
0:12.0	And while it's certainly true that people take more pictures today than ever, I don't agree that this makes everyone a photographer.
0:20.0	Everyone is also typing more, be it on their phone or tablet or computer, but that doesn't
0:24.9	mean they're a writer, even with autocorrect enabled.
0:28.8	Pressing a button may create a picture, but it's what happens afterwards that defines
0:35.2	the work and the person that created it.
0:39.7	While social media has its role,
0:46.8	it still prints, exhibitions, and books that allow the photographer to clearly define why their work is worthy of attention. Though photographer Gus Powell is known for his street photography,
0:53.6	it's been his books that have
0:54.9	established him as a unique voice in today's photographic world.
0:59.9	He's willing to experiment and even challenge what a book of photography should and can be,
1:06.9	resulting in titles that do more than just showcase his work.
1:10.6	You can't just take your 35 super strong pictures and turn them into something.
1:16.6	In some ways, it's overpowering.
1:18.6	A symphony that's full of tubas is exhausting.
1:21.6	But when a tuba lands, you know, when the kettle drum gets hit, the symbol clashed, that's an exciting moment.
1:30.3	So thinking about things in a musical sense, thinking about things that have a beginning,
1:35.0	a middle, and an end, and that what if the most important part of this book is the connective
1:43.6	tissue, you know, the thing that joins the pictures together.
1:46.6	We'll talk to Gus about how studying comparative religions in college informed his photography
1:51.9	and how he came to embrace the genre of street photography. This is Ibadian X and welcome back
1:59.6	to the Candid Frame.
	...

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