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Andy Adams

Andy Adams, founder of the FlakPhoto Digest, joined the Friday 8 O'Clock Buzz to discuss the upcoming Photo Midwest Biennial Exhibition in Madison. Adams is passionate about the art of photography, but he doesn't believe that the explosion of cell phone cameras is a threat to the field. Instead, he embraces the idea that more photos lead to more creativity. Adams’ substack newsletter, FlakPhoto Digest, is one of the most creative publications about photography today. The Photo Midwest Biennial Exhibition will open this weekend, with events including workshops, gallery tours, and artist talks. As Adams points out, photography is more than just capturing an image; it's about telling a story and connecting with the viewer--it's about teaching people how to see without a camera. This exhibition promises to be a one-of-a-kind experience for the photo makers and photo curious around the midwest. Image Credit: Kevin J. Miyazaki

Broadcast on:: 27 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Hi, I'm Andy Moore your Friday host of eight o'clock buzz thanks for spending your mornings with us We love bringing you this blend of art and music and news and politics and and more in return We asked that you spend a little to support this show and it's easy. Go to w or t fm. Dot orga Donate a picture is worth a thousand words and we're going to say far more than that now about a gathering this weekend in madison Called the photo midwest biennial Exhibition some would say that phone photography is really in the art picture taking Not our first guest Andy Adams is far more forgiving than that and he says basically and i'm serious I love your attitude about this. These are basically the more photos of merrier is that fair definitely definitely it's exactly the kind of artful generosity He shows in his sub stack newsletter based in madison flak photo digests It's a newsletter that one prominent photo critic calls quote one of the most active and creative publications on photography Full of visual pleasures and insightful thoughts. Andy Adams joins us now good morning. Andy good morning, buddy. Happy birthday Thank you very much. It's it's so much fun talking to other andes on this show you Um, okay that critic used the word visual pleasures. Um, I I love that. That's a great description of a good photo What I put you on the spot here. What do you believe are the ingredients that separate a good picture from a great one Oh, wow. Good question. Uh, I mean, of course, it's completely subjective, right? Uh, I like what I like you like what you like for me Uh, the kicker is always composition. What's happening inside that frame, right? Yes, when you make a picture You're selecting a choice to put inside the box everything else gets cut outside the box, right? Yeah, and the way that you frame that picture that's where that that's where subjectivity comes in That's where point of view comes in. That's where personality comes in I love I love those ingredients because what you've just done in another way of thinking about it is you've given the viewer Um, a reminder and somewhat of a checklist that if it's in the center of the frame That's just a piece of of the of the larger expression. Correct. Absolutely and all the better if it's not in the center of the frame, right? I mean all the more interesting maybe yes, um, I you just returned from Paris if i'm not mistaken Oh, we were there for a few hours. Yes. Oh, I thought you were there for a while We were in france for two weeks like in the kiernese and exploring in around France. Um, yes in your experience to people in europe Have and this might be stereotypical on my part and I apologize if it is But do do people in europe have a different kind of appreciation or sensibility for photography? Wow, I mean, I would I would assume the answer is yes, right because I think that uh Every place is unique and therefore perspectives are shaped by the place that one is based Um, but I don't know that it's Especially given the nature of the internet these days where everything is so flattened and we're all kind of looking at things across the world I don't know that the european sensibility is uniquely different than the american hard to say Do you remember This might be impossible. Um So that's why I kind of like the question. But do you remember? the the first photo that you saw that started calling you into the field Or you know, oh my story is little is kind of interesting because you know at this point What I what I really enjoyed doing is curating and writing about what I guess I call art photography. Yeah, right? Um, it's photo appreciation for um, image making that we would consider an art form But in fact my earliest exposure no pun intended to photography was my mother's snapshots It was really just learning to be fascinated with the culture of picture-making generally My mom was we always joke that I always joke that she was the ken burns a scrapbooking because she was making pictures of us all the time and putting These pictures in these family albums that she was meticulously organized. So for me My fascination with photography actually Wasn't one particular art photograph that didn't it was it was really the practice of Seeing the world as a picture and and making pictures as a way to experience the world Well, we're making pictures differently. I suggested this in my introduction And I talked about how generous you are and which really surprises me Well, but you're not a you know a fancy Snobby guy, but but still I was pleased and surprised in a quiet way When I came to know that Your forgiveness I keep using that word of cell phone photography In fact, I chuckled to myself. I normally bike, but I was running late this morning as you well saw at and I chuckled to myself at the four-way stop out here on bedford What did you see me? I saw you with your cell phone taking a picture and I I just I thought that was sweet And in an absolutely reinforced this attitude that I've shared Outing you as being someone that thinks cell phone photography is okay. Um, tell us Excuse me. It's my birthday so I can bark up an armadillo. I suppose That was a world record throat clearing. I am sorry you had to endure that Andy and everyone on the world wide web What is the contribution if that's the right word of of? The impact on on the larger environment of photography now that everyone has a cell phone and and everyone is making pictures Well, okay. So arguably at least in my view photography is probably more popular in 2024 than it's been in the history of the media And by that, I mean we probably there are more pictures made today than ever before There are more people I think looking at and engaging with pictures Then there have been previously and most importantly there are more people making pictures that are circulating everywhere And of course the the easy thing to do is to be dismissive of all of it and to say that there's too many And I've been dealing with that for 15 years but um, you know the reality actually is that I think it's a good thing to learn, you know, the beauty I think it was dorothea lying. That said um Photography is a way to teach you it's like the camera is a way to teach you how to see the world without a camera I'm paraphrasing. Yes, but that's beautiful. I think yes and with more people making pictures I personally I think it's a way to heighten one's perception of the world and a way to sort of notice the things that we might ordinarily not notice and Personally, I find that quite beautiful. Um, I also think I don't remember who said it But there's a phrase I picked up years ago the best camera is the one that you have with you, right? and um For most of us that's a cell phone camera. That's iPhone or android or whatever it is you happen to carry I mean if I make pictures practically every day and I make them with my phone camera and um You know, I personally see nothing wrong with that I think photography is a big tent and the more of the merrier. Well, um, you know, you talk about making um Your mother making snapshot scrapbooks And now we're talking about the snapshots that we're all doing with our cell phone let's think about that for a second because when The proliferation and I mean that capital P of the photos I'll just hold my phone up right here that I have in here. I read a fascinating story by a scholar sociologist who said that cell phone at photography Um, when you take a picture, it's stereotypically Known as a way to capture a moment that you want to remember The point that he made that I thought was kind of astonishing was that yet because There's so many photos being taken on your phone It contributes to you forgetting the moment because you say ah, I have it in my pocket. Um, uh, uh, and What do you think of that? Do you buy that? I don't personally buy it. That's not my experience I actually think that the act of image like making pictures of the places that I am visiting or the things I'm experiencing For me personally it it kind of fixes those pictures in my mind as well as you know on the digital sensor in my google photos account I actually think I remember the experiences oftentimes because I remember the picture I made at the place That I'm where I was. Okay. Yes. Um, I think though what that scholar might be getting at which is I think a real hazard of the moment we're in is um I mean you might you might agree like attention is a is a hard thing to To hold on to generally speaking and given that photography has become electric given that most folks Most of us view photography on social media news feeds I think the the the tendency is to just not pay close enough attention to the things that we're seeing the ever-lapping nature Of of of an electronic a digital photo. Um, I think this guy would argue Or the absence of it, um, reminds me of of many recording musicians that I know who know that when they're you know Not on analog in a studio and they're at a digital. There's infinite space It takes them out of the moment, but when By comparison, um, some say because you're paying for every inch of that analog tape and when it's done it's done You're more in the moment. I don't know these are You know, well, we're talking about the act of creation here in this particular example But you know you bring up an idea And this is part of why this festival weekend is important and why Why I think it's important that we continue to do things like this because The nature of photography for most of us is ephemeral, right? It doesn't last it disappears. We pay attention to it for a millisecond And then perhaps we stop thinking about it all together. And if we're not careful, um, you know We might lose the physical thingness of photography in our lives, but that's something that You know is still very much alive in the practice of art photography in particular is the culture of printmaking, right? The culture of analog photography experience and that's you know, that's what we're doing downtown this weekend That's the whole point of of staging exhibitions of creating a print collection that was By default the mode of picture making in the 1980s when I was coming up when my mom was making pictures on 35 millimeter film And you had to go down to the drug store to pick them up, right? That's gone away, but but the appreciation of the artisanal craft of photography actually has not gone away And in fact, I think is more alive than it's ever been Um, let's get to this weekend But I'm going to tell the listeners if they're just hopping in we're talking with Andy Adams He's the editor of the sub stack newsletter flag photo and he's overseen this weekend's photo midwest biannual exhibition Photo midwest dot org for more information on events and he was the biannual part of that show me Yeah, so, um, the biannual exhibition is a juried exhibition produced by a dane county photography organization called photo midwest Uh, you just mentioned their website photo midwest dot org So, uh, this group has been organizing, uh an exhibition every other year for gosh 20 years Um, and the way that it works is they invite a nationally recognized juror from somewhere elsewhere in the country to come in and to jury Uh selection of of images from photographers living in this part of the world the american wet midwest the 12 or 13 states that Qualifies this part of the country this year. Um, for the first time Uh, we are we are basically staging presenting that exhibition Downtown at the arts and literature laboratory on living system street and the capitol east corridor And um, what we're doing this year. Well, I should mention this year's juror is a guy named chris graves photographer friend from new york cities flying in this afternoon Chris juried a beautiful show uh composed of some I don't know 68 photographs I just was down at the gallery yesterday checking it out. It looks fantastic Um, and uh, he'll be down in madison tonight at the opening reception for the for the biannual Uh, and to give some remarks, I think around 7 30, but what we've done In addition to the work I do with flak photo I'm also on the curatorial team at the arts and literature laboratory and we got this idea jolan ruda and I the um, the visual arts component of the arts and lit lab team We got this idea that we could expand on what photo midwest does with their biannual exhibition By building some additional exhibitions and programming into it And so what we're doing is uh taking over the entirety of the building with photography exhibitions We have uh, the photo midwest biannual and the two main galleries on the first floor And then i've curated a solo show upstairs from an illinois based photographer named rishad taylor And i've also curated another show uh in the project space on the first floor Uh called the flak photo midwest flat file. So for the first time We have taken over the entire art lit lab building with photography and then in addition to that We are also staging a day of photography lectures tomorrow saturday september 28th So we're bringing photographers in from minnesota chicago and then chris is giving a keynote from new york uh Kind of unprecedented really exciting The start of a program that we're planning to continue to roll out moving forward Really trying to build a more of a photography buzz here in town than has previously been the case Well, it sure sounds like you've loaded the cannon up for this weekend and and if i understand this correctly Um, the momentum that you'll be building organizationally with flak's partnership with art lit lab and photo midwest Um, talk about that and and about how this momentum has a very good chance of enduring with speakers series and and and films To come uh, later in the year and next year Yeah, thanks for asking. So, you know, this is our opening weekend our kickoff weekend and um, we're really excited about that But it's not all that we're doing so as part of this fall festival cycle the uh, the fall exhibitions Are open now they will be on view at art lit lab through november 9th Between now and then we are also staging a number of other photography events on october 9th We're partnering with the wisconsin book festival to stage an afternoon of photobook talks We have three photographer uh photography book authors coming into town on october 19th And then uh in addition to that, uh, you might know jim krell the uh film programmer here in madison Jim and i met at uw madison many years ago We uh are teaming up to launch a documentary film series at art lit lab as well And we're going to kick that off with three photography themed documentaries in october November and december down at the art lit lab And then uh finally right before they show closes on november 2nd We're bringing uh that other photographer i mentioned rishad taylor to town to give a lecture on saturday november 2 And all of this is sort of the the prelude to What i believe will be an ongoing, uh rolling program, uh, speaker series Basically what we want to do is expand, uh the photography program at art lit lab So that's a three pronged, uh mission from our perspective. It's continuing to stage photography exhibition So you can celebrate that physical thingness of photography that art appreciation of the printed photograph A speaker series where we're going to bring artists to town and also to showcase artists from the midwest region where we all live Photographers who have work to share in stories to tell not just for photographers But for art appreciators of all stripes for the public at large and then uh we're going to continue to grow that film series Because i think motion pictures are another interesting visual form That uh that needs that needs new spaces to be championed Given the changing nature of the immediate ecosystem So we're very excited about all of it and really look forward to doing it downtown Andy Adams is the editor of the sub tech newsletter flak photo and and he has we've been uh hearing He's he's organized a very enriching sounding photo midwest by any exhibition Taking place here in mattison together with with with with up with his partners um if it in in closing um Andy Why is why is photography important? Why does it matter? Well I think it matters to everyone for some of the reasons that I said at the top of the interview It is a way to appreciate the world It's a way to see the world for um For practitioners. It's a way to tell stories and show things that might go unnoticed But on a personal level, this is something i've really started to realize from myself Since I make pictures every day as a I think of it as a kind of practice And personally, I think photography i've come to this realization. It's actually I think it's good for you It helps you notice the world around you. I think it's it's good. It it holds your attention your ability to see The world really very clearly and I think that that pays Intellectual and emotional dividends. I really I really think it's it's about more than just making pretty pictures It's about learning the place that you live in. It's about seeing the world anew with fresh eyes wherever you happen to be You are a terrific ambassador um Learned ambassador and your comments just there Remind me of um my preparation to speak later in the hour with um Dr, uh, ritchie davisson. Yeah about Mindfulness of photography. Yes, absolutely seen seeing it's much of the picture that is life And as you can possibly see andy adam's thanks for joining us this morning And and good luck with uh with the symposium and all of the events this weekend. Thank you Thanks for having me Andy adam's as I as I spoke two moments ago as the editor of the sub-stack newsletter flak Photo and the photo midwest by any exhibition starts at the artlet lab tonight 6pm photo midwest.org for more information on events there okay?