(James Turnley)
1. How did you get into photography?
AB - I'm Adam Briere. No, James started me on it.
JT - Freshman year in my anthropology class a photographer named James Rexroad came in and showed some documentary pictures... they blew my mind because I'd never seen pictures like his. I started taking pictures after that.
2. What about photography do you like so much?
AB - You know that line "imperfection is beauty"that all those chicks write about? Well that's what I really like about photography. I like how it makes you look at your environment differently. Things that you think might not normally be interesting, can be when photographed.
JT - Well first looking at pictures, my own and others is just interesting to me. I enjoy it like someone else would enjoy listening to music or watching a movie. You start picking up tastes and styles that you like looking at most, like genres of music. Second, it's just a distraction to everything else... looking and taking pictures just makes you forget about everything. You just become lost in the idea of getting better and making better pictures. I like that with this you constantly impove, you like your most recent pictures much better than the pictures you took a year ago and you know that you will make better pictures tomorrow than you did today.
(Adam Briere)
3. What keeps you photographing?
AB - The one good shot that I get out of 100.
JT - I guess partially out of sheer repetition. You start taking pictures a lot and it's hard to stop. You get your head thinking about what makes a good picture, and then you can't stop that. You start seeing pictures all the time.
4. What's your favorite technique to use?
AB - I love to use my hotshoe flash, which is the flash tha tyou put on top of your camera. It's more powerful and more intense than built in flashes, plus they are hard to use which makes them more fun.
JT - I guess one of my main things is I don't like zoom lenses. I like more wide angle, or regular "prime" lenses. I just like not having to think about zooming and instead use my feet.
5. What's your preferred medium to photograph?
AB - I'm all over the place, anything that catches my eye. Wildlife, an interesting sky, a good stare. Anything except for still lifes.
JT - It changes, which I think is good because it's good to try out different things. For the most part whatever catches my eye, which can have a lot to do with what photographers are influencing me. Recently I've like shooting color, and trying to find good color in life scenes... with our without people, and that comes from looking at a lot of color photographers, especially William Eggleston. I like quieter photographs a lot, ones that are more subtle in the ways they are interesting.
6. If you could photograph one place, where would it be?
AB - Kenya or Alaska. I really want to get into shooting wildlife.
JT - The midwest, like the great plains. I have visions of just miles of corn fields, with stormy skies.
7. If you could photograph one person, who would it be?
AB - I would photograph anyone with great eyes.
JT - My future wife someday, which is cheesy. Or my uncle back in the 60s.
(James Turnley)
8. How do you feel about editing your work?AB - I'm a naturalist so anything beyond brightness/contrast, I try not to dabble in.
JT - I think editing is fine with photoshop and I use it a lot as long as you are not afraid to say what you've done to the photo.
9. Film or Digital?
AB - I like the way film looks better than digital, but I like the ease of digital better than film.
JT - I like the look of film a lot better right now, but I sometimes use digital. I also like film because it makes me shoot slower and I like the feeling of getting a roll developed and not knowing exactly what is on it.
10. What's your photography philosophy?
AB - Charles Harbutt once said, "If you want to judge a good photograph, ask yourself: Is life like that? The answer must be yes and no, but mostly yes." I think about that whenever I photograph.
JT - I like this quote, "I know who I am. I don't do what I do in order to make somebody like me, or to prove something to someone, or to be the best. I do it for myself, for my own satisfaction. I want to find my limits, to see how far I can go. The maximum, that's what's always interested me - the maximum from me and the maximum from others." - Josef Koudelka. Just keep doing it while you have the passion for it.
(Adam Briere)
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