Everyday Photography, Every Day
by M.H. Rubin and Suzanne Fritz-Hanson
Everyday Photography (Every Day)" is a weekly podcast where you get to listen in on a chat between a photographer (Rubin) and a regular human (Suzanne Fritz-Hanson) with an eye on making your pictures amazing and helping you enjoy your photography more. No technical stuff. No talk of gear or software. Just photography for the fun of it. Rubin brings a unique perspective to consumer media: a student of Jerry Uelsmann; an amateur photographer for 40 years; formerly of Lucasfilm, Netflix and Adobe; director of The Rubin Collection of Photography; and founder of Neomodern, he's long been passionate about advancing the language of photography. ** Enjoy show notes at www.neomodern.com/podcast
Episodes
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144: Debating "Photography" in an AI World
We get a bit emotional on these topics, but photography is changing, again, and this time I think we need to start changing our language and expectations around what makes a photo a photo. Is it analog vs digital? is it studio vs real world? is it something about the craft? can it involve AI?
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143: Jake and the Bridge
For six years, San Francisco photographer Jake Ricker has shown up at the Golden Gate Bridge almost every single day, shooting the people who pass through it on 35mm film. It's not a landscape project — Ricker treats the bridge as a stage for the "diverse human experiences" that unfold on it, an...
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142: Arthur Drooker, Staying Curious
Arthur Drooker spends his career photographing the quirky, overlooked corners of American culture — clown conventions, Bronies, Lincoln impersonators — treating them with documentary rigor but real affection, most notably in his project "Conventional Wisdom." He also works in more classical...
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141: Wallace Wilson and the Victims of Paradox
This episode is a personal, career-spanning look at Wallace "Wally" Wilson, a photographer whose surreal, staged black-and-white work — cats, ruins, dirigibles, Victorian-costumed toddlers — Rubin encountered as a kid growing up around the University of Florida's photography department in the...
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140: Can Composition Be Taught?
Today we're joined by John Lambert and William Loftus, successful tech professionals and excellent amateur photographers, who were recent students in Rubin's experimental "The Art of Composition -- Reimagined" workshop. The group discuss the difficult topic and what it means to be a photographer.
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139: Elliott Erwitt, with Rick Smolan
Following Elliott Erwitt's death in November 2023, Rubin and Suzanne sit down with photographer Rick Smolan — Erwitt's son-in-law and a returning guest from episode 86 — for a personal remembrance of the Magnum legend, best known for his wry, human (and canine) street photography, including…
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138: "Pure Seeing" and the New Years Episode
Where we catch up and review some travel photography, the definition of photography, the passing of the great Elliott Erwitt, the nature of composition and other various rants.
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137: The Great Debate: Pictorialism, Modernism and Generative AI
We're joined by professor and photographic artist Ed Bateman, from the University of Utah, to discuss Rubin's issues with "pure seeing" and the 100-years debate about how much modification can you do to a photo before you change it fundamentally.
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136: The Hat
We're back and catching up on workshops, lessons from the summer, Rubin's new camera and, of course, Suzanne's hat.
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135: The Very Personal Landscapes from Jason Pettit
Rubin and Suzanne sit down with emerging Canadian landscape photographer Jason Pettit to unpack how—after only a handful of years behind the camera—he’s already producing quietly powerful, introspective work. Pettit, who lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario, describes his photographs as...
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134: Ambiguity in Paris—More Fun with Nina Welch-Kling
Nina and Rubin meet in Paris and go shooting. Rubin's haiku book is finished and Nina's Duologues book is ready for pre-orders! It's a fun catch up with Welch-Kling! Nina and Rubin discuss their approaches to photography and techniques they use to create meaningful images. They discuss pairing or...
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133: Dall-E and You, with Dr. Aaron Hertzmann
The hottest topic in AI is the new "art" creation tool called Dall-E, and after a few weeks of falling down the rabbit hole playing in this new world, and considering the implications on photography (as well as illustration) our hosts invite domain expert Dr. Aaron Hertmann--from Adobe's research...
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132: Inside Photo Independent with Chris Davies
As Rubin explores the world of photo fairs, industry leader Chris Davies takes us into Photo Independent, Paris Photo and NFTs. A must-listen episode for photographers starting to sell their work.
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131: The Emotional Architecture of Elizabeth Daniels
On this Memorial Day Weekend show, Suzanne and Rubin get familiar with the twisting photographic journey of LA architectural photographer Elizabeth Daniels. From her unusual college application (which resonates for Rubin) involving Annie Liebowitz, to her friendships and mentorship from many of…
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130: Cartier-Bresson and the Real "Decisive Moment"
Suzanne and Rubin dig into the meaning of "the decisive moment" and how important the concept is for amateur photographers. And then they talk about sculpture.
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129: Impossible... with Edward Bateman
A spontaneous gathering with Anne Kelly (of PhotoEye) and photographer and professor Bateman. Ed Bateman teaches at the University of Utah and has been a long-time explorer of time, creativity, photographs and history.
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128: Our New Years Show on Photographic Purism
Our hosts catch up after a Covid holiday and dig into Rubin's struggles with "pure seeing" photography, as different from inorganic, studio, photographic creations.
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127: Discovering Light with Janet Sternburg
Sternburg's book of Los Angeles during the lockdown, "I've Been Walking," was just released in the US, so we sat down to hear about the moments that have lead here and her work.
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125: "Photographic Haiku" and Zen Arts for Creative Photographers
Rubin and Suzanne go over the application of Zen Arts to learning photography, particularly for beginners, and how his workshop has become one of the more popular online courses at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. There's an intersection of haiku and photography, that once understood, will...
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124: Leaning into Unpredictability: The Dreams of Susan Burnstine
She builds her cameras. She closes her eyes when she shoots. Susan Burnstine is processing her dreams into haunting and beautiful images--a fascinating photographer. Meet her.
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123: Inside Photo-Eye, with Anne Kelly
For over 40 years Photo-Eye has been an institution of the photographic arts. Their bookstore and gallery is the stuff of legend. We sat down with Anne Kelly to get the scoop on their history, finding new talent, NFTs (!) and the changing nature of photography.
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122: From Ski Bum to Celebrity Photographer: Hang with Jeff Lipsky
His roster of portraits is amazing--but his career path is inspiring. Meet Jeff Lipsky, who went from Telluride ski bum to Hollywood photographer.
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121: Patiently Shooting Celebs (like Prince!) with Deborah Feingold
Her classic portraits of stars like Madonna and Prince have been popular from The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, People to book covers and movie posters--spend some time meeting the delightful Deborah Feingold.
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120: Reid Callanan and the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Our first guest of the season is Reid Callanan, the founder and director of the distinguished Santa Fe Photo and Writing Workshops.
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119: Season Four Opener
Where Susan and Rubin catch up briefly on photography and geography, and Rubin debriefs on his first Zen Arts Workshops.
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118: The Tenacity of Chris Burkard, Wilderness Photographer
A self-described "blue collar" photographer, Burkard's photos are some of the most beautiful and amazing wilderness images we've ever seen. His work ethic is legend, as his dedication to the environment. His photos, films, books and course are all part of his mission to educate as many people as…
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117: Discovering Authenticity: Collecting with Michael Shapiro
For more than 40 years, Shapiro has been the dealer's dealer -- an expert on midcentury modernism (and partner to the Rubin family in developing our historic collection), we spend some time this episode discussing Robert Frank, Man Ray, Kertesz, Cartier-Bresson and the importance of prints.
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116: The Hopeful Photography of Norma I. Quintana
Norma is a fine art photographer whose home—including her art collection, her own analog work, and her camera collection—burned in the Napa fires of 2017. In this episode we discuss the fire and her intimate work.
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115: After the Fires
It's the start of Season 3 and we're warming up, catching up, talking about new projects and my Santa Fe Workshop class with Jason Langer. But yeah, also the fires around Santa Cruz and the real challenges of taking photos of this.
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114: The Quirky World of Maggie Taylor
Maggie Taylor is a fine art photographer who transitioned from creating real-world still-life collages into being a master of Photoshop photo montages. Her whimsical creations have been called surreal, but her humor makes them more "quirky".
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113: Catching Up: Kertesz, Home Projects
In which Suzanne and Rubin review their thoughts on Kertesz and her home project and generally catch up.
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112: Inside Kertesz, with Curator Robert Gurbo
Andre Kertesz had a long and multi-faceted career producing some of the most iconic, modern, and often enigmatic photos in history. His influence is profound, and it was a pleasure to sit down today with Robert Gurbo, curator of the Kertesz estate and domain expert on this fascinating photographer.
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111: The Power of Photography, with Gallerist Peter Fetterman
Peter Fetterman offers rich insights into photography collecting and being collected, and the sheer magic in great photographs. As one of the pre-eminent gallerists of photography for decades, his delightful personal tales about the artists is a joy. “What is a photo? I see an image… and i am...
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110: Projects in Quarantine
Here's a short episode where we go over a few projects you can do at home, with no supplies but a phone, and practice key skills that will make your pictures better.
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109: The Photographer of Santa Cruz, Shmuel Thaler
It's hard to think about photography in Santa Cruz without discovering Shmuel Thaler, the leading photojournalist at the Santa Cruz Sentinel. He's been documenting the community since the late 1980s: from earthquakes and fires, to surfers and dancers—the fabric and heart of the town.
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108: Masterskills from Jeff Carlson
Jeff Carlson has written an astonishing array of books over his career, explaining a range of creative and technical topics—perhaps 20 of them related to photography. His newest book on Luminar4 is out this week, so it seemed a great time to say hi and hear what driving him!
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107: The Duologues of Nina Kling
I'd never heard the term "rhyme" used so perfectly to describe a visual experience before... but the wonderful pairings NYC photographer Nina Kling are delightful, mysterious, and enormously satisfying.
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106: A Walk Down Memory Lane with Angelica Glass
Angelica Glass decided on a whim to walk the length of every street in the county of Santa Cruz. Over the course of five and a half years, she walked all of the 4,121 streets in the county. After that, she continued the project in the form of walking every trail in the county. She took photos on...
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105: Life in Captivity: Free Workshops on Photography
It's a bleak time for many, and insane stress for us all -- but there are a few advantages to being forced to stay in. Rubin has converted Neomodern.com from a retail business to a free program of projects to build people's photographic skills: not tech skills but creative ones. Using the content...
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104: Photography as a Zen Art
Rubin formally declares his upcoming book for beginners and pros -- finding a philosophical foundation for his disparate feelings about creative picture taking: the Zen Arts. There are lessons from haiku, kintsugi, enso, ikebana, bonsai and origami (and the principles of wabi-sabi) if you know…
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103: Zero-Prep Shoot, a Valentine's Special
In this episode Suzanne grills Rubin on a recent shoot he did that he described as unusually good--what would make one shoot notably different or better than the hundreds that have gone before? Rubin discusses his improvisational approach and digs into some of the issues of being a hetrosexual…
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102: The Six Types of Photographers
After Rubin's Petapixel essay went viral a few weeks ago, he's been digging into photographic fundamentals; Suzanne and Rubin dig into the ways we compose and how it interacts with our basic tendencies. The show is practically therapy.
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101: Natural Harmony with Foto Kammer
Our first anonymous guest, who has a day job in Silicon Valley, but has an alter ego, Foto-Kammer, who shoots luscious landscapes and nudes, and whose work explores the natural harmony of humans in the landscape.
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100: Shiva and her Nudes
After a career as a fine art nude model, Shiva Sharifi today photographs nude and boudoir as well as organizes workshops to introduce photographers to this specialty, coordinating models and students in great settings. She has a wealth of experiences on both sides of the camera in this domain.
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99: Creativity and the Creative Process
It's the 99th episode, and Suzanne and Rubin catch up on holiday events, the state of their photography, and Neomodern's current Kickstarter project for a new kind of photographer's frame.
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98: Mysterious Stories of "Everyman" Stephan Sheffield
It's our New Years Show and we're joined by photographer and professor Stephan Sheffield. He describes his whimsical and noirish "selfies" as "more fun than deep" -- still his "Everyman" photos are a curious exploration of photographic storytelling. He's also turned his photographic work into a...
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97: TWIP and Fred Van Johnson
For almost 8 years, "This Week in Photo" (TWIP) has been the go-to podcast for photo enthusiasts, lead by industry (and real) veteran Fred Van Johnson. Fred was not only a conflict photographer for the military, but later had stints at Yahoo, Apple and Adobe.
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96: Nate in the Wild
Nate Luebbe is a commercial photographer who specializes in the wilderness. He has made a career out of going hiking and skiing and camping—with his camera—and by all accounts, is living the life. How does a guy go from the beer industry to professional photographer, shooting auroras in Norway…
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95: The Rubin Opening: One Print Only
Suzanne gets a preview of a rare Rubin show, with prints from four of his favorite projects: Nudes, San Francisco, Tikun Olam, and Alcatraz Windows. And somewhere in the conversation they're joined by Lorna Rubin, mother, publisher, and conspirator in the creation of the Rubin Photographic...
About this show
Everyday Photography (Every Day)" is a weekly podcast where you get to listen in on a chat between a photographer (Rubin) and a regular human (Suzanne Fritz-Hanson) with an eye on making your pictures amazing and helping you enjoy your photography more. No technical stuff. No talk of gear or software. Just photography for the fun of it. Rubin brings a unique perspective to consumer media: a student of Jerry Uelsmann; an amateur photographer for 40 years; formerly of Lucasfilm, Netflix and Adobe; director of The Rubin Collection of Photography; and founder of Neomodern, he's long been passionate about advancing the language of photography. ** Enjoy show notes at www.neomodern.com/podcast
Hosted by
M.H. Rubin and Suzanne Fritz-Hanson