I’m heading to the Australian bush to finish my project, Lonely Wind, Roaring Sky. Want to know anything about doing field research for a book project? Making photographs for a book? Traveling as part of an art practice? Meeting people and working with them as collaborators and photographic subjects?
In my last post, I dove into the historical archive of photographs of the Australian bush in order to spend some time thinking through the complexity of this space and its colonial legacy. I’m wrestling with the classic problem of the politics of representation. Let’s talk about this. Have you struggled with this in your work? Have you seen photographs or writing on the topic that has moved you? What is our responsibility as photographers?
And feel free to ask about anything at all. The floor is yours. Get those questions to me starting now and through Wednesday. I'll post responses to them Friday morning 9am-11am EST (New York time).
Hi Adam, thank you so much for your newsletter series. It's been great to learn about your process and you've changed how I think about my own approach to documentary photography. (Great interview on A Small Voice podcast too!)
My question: how to you approach reviewing work when you are on the road? Do you look through (or even thoroughly edit) the new work that you're shooting as you go along? Perhaps to look for emergent themes or to see if you have images that communicate key information/emotions? In my experience, some people like to review as they go, so they have a picture of how the project is coming together and others just dump the images then move on, proceeding on intuition alone.
Hi Oliver, thank you, I’m happy to hear you find this useful. I do download and review my files regularly when I am on the road, if not every day, every few days, depending on the work schedule. I do a broad edit and review, and I find this helpful because it guides the process and I can see what is working, and hopefully understand what photographs I will look for on the following day that will compliment the feel and tone of the story, and compliment the photographs I have already made that feel successful. But I don’t over edit and choose final images. It’s really a broad stroke review. I prefer to have some distance to the photography before I edit properly. When I return from an assignment, or a shoot, if the client's schedule permits, I try to have a few days away from the work, and go back with fresh eyes and try and edit the work without the emotional attachment to the moment. Although, I am working with film for my Australia book, and I also love this process of not seeing any photographs for weeks or months, and just moving through it intuitively. But my Australia work is a personal project of course. There is a time and place for both methods.
Hi Adam, thank you for such an in depth response! I'm in that waiting stage at the moment... I got back (to the UK) from a trip to Mexico a couple of weeks ago, and it's taking all my self control to hold the pics in 'quarantine' for another week so that I can get a bit of distance on them! It's interesting how time can really change your perspective on the selects from a project. I'm going over a subset of work I made over the last five years to make a new folio for my site, and my new personal selects are looking very different from the selects I made for the clients at the time.
Hi Sonia, it’s a real mix. I use analogue equipment for some things, and digital for others. My digital cameras have full frame 2:3 sensors. I wish I could afford a large format digital, do they even make them? In a lot of my previous posts I list the equipment at the bottom in the technical write up.
hi Adam:) thankyou for your reply. just a thought, perhaps one of the large format digitals might be open to sponsoring you with the use of a large digital format camera for a month to explore... a thought! I'll check out your equip tags.
Might be worth checking out the Fujifilm GFX line of medium format digital cameras. While still expensive, they are considerably cheaper than their Phase One, Hasselblad or Leica equivalents. I think that the cheapest ones are similar in price to a top of the line Canon/Nikon/Sony body. I've heard nothing but good things about them
Yes the medium format digitals are great, I have used them a few times. A good compromise until the technology advances to large format digital that are accessible and affordable.
Hi Adam, thanks again for your Ask Me Anything post. Would love to hear about your approach meeting people (photographic subjects) and working with them as collaborators - how do you manage release forms with collaborators, do they have ownership rights of the work, payment etc? etc
Hi Sonia, when working as a journalist I don't get release forms signed and the subjects don't have any ownership over the photographs, or their royalties when used in a journalistic or artistic context. But a release form is required if the photographs are used in a commercial context.
I did recently make a series of collaborative portraits with migrants in Mexico, and because they triggered the shutter, I did get the subjects to sign a release granting me full rights to use the work. Although in this instance I did grant to migrants 50% rights to resales of the photographs. You can see this work here - https://adamferguson.substack.com/p/collaborative-portraits-with-migrants
thank you again for your reply. inregard to the 50% rights to resales of the photographs does this mean if there is a sale on any of the photographs, the collaborator receives 50% of the sale share over a lifetime? best
Hi Adam, thanks for offering your experience and knowledge.
Do you have any practical advice for first time conflict photojournalism? Is a press pass required or recommended and how can this be obtained by a freelancer not associated with a news agency? Are fixers essentials and if so, is there a reliable online source available to make these arrangements? I appreciate your thoughts!
Hi Talbert, of course! It really depends on the country and the conflict. But to generalize - most countries require a media visa, and then a local press pass can be issued from the government media office in the country. If you are working for a media organisation, they should provide a press pass. Although I would not advise going to a conflict area without the backing of an organization. You also need to think about insurance and your security. I completed a hostile environments training course before I started working in Afghanistan, the first aid training is essential. Fixers have made all my work possible, you really need someone on the ground who knows the security situation and that can help you navigate. Where are you thinking of going?
Hi Adam, thanks for your valuable insights and for taking the time to reply. I am still trying to fully understand the necessary bureaucratic and safety requirements as you highlighted. Are you able to direct me to a hostile environments training course? The three main countries / regions that I am compelled to understand deeper currently are Libya, Yemen and Nagorno-Karabahk.
I am struggling at the moment to ask vulnerable people for their portrait. I work with First Nation Peoples (day job) and would love to take their portrait. However, the idea of asking makes me very uncomfortable. Morally it doesn't sit well with me as they are quite vulnerable. The line between taking advantage and providing an insight is a fine one for me. How do you approach and ask someone for their portrait when they are vulnerable?
Hi Kat, I’m happy to hear you struggle with this, this sense of morality is important. Photographing vulnerable people is precarious if the process is exploitive. The question for you is - why do you want to photograph them and what story are you trying to tell? What do the people have to gain by participating? Try to answer questions and justify the work you intend.
When I am working with vulnerable people I try to be collaborative. You might find this post (below) I wrote helpful. It's important to listen, and ask people how they would like to sit for a photograph. Try and give people as much agency in the process as possible.
As a side note - I remember feeling shy when I started working as a documentary photographer - there was a comfort level that I needed to break through when interacting with people. This came when I realized that if I am in someone's space, attempting to tell their story with their consent, it’s my responsibility to tell that story as best I can. Sometimes that means embarrassing yourself, or taking up too much space, or collaborating with people to do unusual things. But if your there under the premise of photographing, that photo has to serve the people with as much blood, sweat, tears and integrity that you have to give.
Sense of Place and Politics of place are great fodder, and how we make images that allude to and ask questions about these things is endlessly fascinating to me. How do you attempt to image the notion of country ? And here in Tasmania the idea of contested land. Does your research inform what you go looking for, or does it help you recognise and image when you see it , either before of after you have made it ?
Hey Matt, as a white Australian I don’t think I can imagine, or photograph, a notion of ‘country’. The term ‘country’, if I am correct in understanding how you used it in your question, is specific to Indigenous ‘country’. My connection to the land doesn't have the depth of Indigenous Australians, and it's not my place to be presumptuous. But I can attempt to photograph my own understanding and experience of Australia, and that experience, like your experience, is still a valid story to tell about Australia.
I totally agree Adam, with what you are saying re the indigenous depth of connection to country. There is an idea down here amongst writers that Tasmanian is in many ways a different country to Australia. Some days I agreed with that some days I don’t.
I think you should check out recently published book called Making Australian History by Anna Clarke. A quote from the back cover 'each new wave of historians asks its own questions and produces its own narratives of the past'. To me that means that History is shaped by todays societal issues and morals which change over time to there is no fixed history, but a fluid one.
Incredible - thank you for the recommendation. I love that quote, it's so true. And it makes me remember that each of our stories is important to the arc of our collective understanding and its evolution.
Road trip food - excellent question. I always have a cooler in the car and pack tomato, cheese and avocado so I can make sandwiches on the side of the road.
Yes, I've definitely struggled with this in my work, especially in terms of the power dynamics of race and class. I feel like it made me run away from that kind of work for a while because the problem felt overwhelming and I didn't have the tools to answer some of the questions I had about myself and the work I was doing.
For questions, Adam, what helps you find the "definitive image" for a story or part of a story when editing?
Thanks for writing Chris. I say keep struggling and don’t let it deter you. Part of the process of making any important or relevant story is to struggle with identity and politics in the way you tell it. Acknowledge your own power and bias, and understand that position. I think if you can do that you’ll know what's appropriate.
The definitive image. I am looking for the confluence of an idea, a story and an imagined world. An image that alludes to a larger truth, but does not offer it in a two dimensional way. I like images that make me wonder beyond their frame. This to be is the most intriguing thing about photography, it has the power to ask an audience to consider more than what the photograph depicts. Choosing that photo is an intuitive process. I always edit in a contact sheet. I find that the most powerful frame jumps out from the rest. If I edit by skipping from one enlarged photo to the next, I get confused and the process is ambiguous.
Question: Why is this the title of the book? At first I believed it to be a book of poetry from the Scottish poet named Adam Ferguson. He's incredibly famous on the internet. But it turned out not to be so. Tell me how you arrived at such a name then? Also, big fan of your owkr.
Dear Zackary, to be honest, Silent Wind, Roaring Sky is a working title. But I do like it and who knows it might stick. I wanted to come up with something that feels poetic and I am indeed inspired by the Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson who may or may not be a distant relative. Anyways, I wanted to come up with a name that presented a conflict of idea. In the bush the sky is really silent, and wind roars, but after enough time out there, they can adopt each other's characters. It’s surreal. But I am open to title suggestions if you want to brainstorm with me? Besos, Adam
Firstly thanks so much for your articles, they are a great insight into your working process, and also a great read.
My question is, how easy (or challenging) was it for you to get yourself 'into' the photo industry? Are there differences between trying to break in with Australia having a smaller working footprint, compared to say the USA? I ask as I'm trying to break into simply just assisting here in Sydney, and apart from emailing the relevant agencies, it seems to be a tricky one to get into! Any advice or insights you may have would be great to hear.
Hi Owen, thanks for commenting. It depends on which photography industry we are talking about. If you’re assisting, I presume you mean advertising work. In which case I believe Sydney has a healthy commercial scene. It's still very competitive and difficult to break into of course, but there is work to aim for. If you're having trouble getting commissions, the key is to start making your own work more seriously. My motto is make the work you want to be hired to make. Personal bodies of work are crucial to building a career in photography.
If your question isn't about advertising work, and we are chatting about documentary work or photojournalism, the answer is different. I think it's very hard to build a career in Australia, there just aren't the publications like there are in the US and Europe. I left Australia early in my career so I could build a freelance career internationally. I couldn't see a pathway forward in Australia because there were very few staff jobs and not enough publications to support a freelance career.
I also wish to be transparent here and say it's very hard to sustain a freelance photojournalism career in the US now also. The assignments are very thinly distributed among a plethora of photographers, and the editorial world isn't as robust as it used to be. Most of the professional photographers I know have adopted a hybrid career - working in advertising as well as doing editorial commissions, working as artists but also accepting commissions. Doing books, NFTs, whatever they can to make it work. But it’s tough, there is no doubt about that.
Thanks for the insights Adam. It's reassuring to know that there is work going around, albeit tricky to get a foot in the door, and keeping it there! It certainly seems that a hybrid type of career is the way to go, but thats not necessarily a bad thing in my scenario.
There's a heap more questions I'd love to dig into, but I realise you have a a whole lot of other people to reply to as well.
Best of luck in the bush, and thanks again for answering my Q!
Hey Cales, fascinating story, I have no idea what is happening in the Australian desert. I’ll keep an eye out for UFO’s when I am driving across the country this year. That footage and testimony from the US Navy pilots off the coast of California was astounding evidence of something we don’t have the technology to explain. It makes me wonder.
Hi Adam, thank you so much for your newsletter series. It's been great to learn about your process and you've changed how I think about my own approach to documentary photography. (Great interview on A Small Voice podcast too!)
My question: how to you approach reviewing work when you are on the road? Do you look through (or even thoroughly edit) the new work that you're shooting as you go along? Perhaps to look for emergent themes or to see if you have images that communicate key information/emotions? In my experience, some people like to review as they go, so they have a picture of how the project is coming together and others just dump the images then move on, proceeding on intuition alone.
Hi Oliver, thank you, I’m happy to hear you find this useful. I do download and review my files regularly when I am on the road, if not every day, every few days, depending on the work schedule. I do a broad edit and review, and I find this helpful because it guides the process and I can see what is working, and hopefully understand what photographs I will look for on the following day that will compliment the feel and tone of the story, and compliment the photographs I have already made that feel successful. But I don’t over edit and choose final images. It’s really a broad stroke review. I prefer to have some distance to the photography before I edit properly. When I return from an assignment, or a shoot, if the client's schedule permits, I try to have a few days away from the work, and go back with fresh eyes and try and edit the work without the emotional attachment to the moment. Although, I am working with film for my Australia book, and I also love this process of not seeing any photographs for weeks or months, and just moving through it intuitively. But my Australia work is a personal project of course. There is a time and place for both methods.
Hi Adam, thank you for such an in depth response! I'm in that waiting stage at the moment... I got back (to the UK) from a trip to Mexico a couple of weeks ago, and it's taking all my self control to hold the pics in 'quarantine' for another week so that I can get a bit of distance on them! It's interesting how time can really change your perspective on the selects from a project. I'm going over a subset of work I made over the last five years to make a new folio for my site, and my new personal selects are looking very different from the selects I made for the clients at the time.
Do you use digital camera or film camera? what your favourite large format digital camera?
Hi Sonia, it’s a real mix. I use analogue equipment for some things, and digital for others. My digital cameras have full frame 2:3 sensors. I wish I could afford a large format digital, do they even make them? In a lot of my previous posts I list the equipment at the bottom in the technical write up.
hi Adam:) thankyou for your reply. just a thought, perhaps one of the large format digitals might be open to sponsoring you with the use of a large digital format camera for a month to explore... a thought! I'll check out your equip tags.
Might be worth checking out the Fujifilm GFX line of medium format digital cameras. While still expensive, they are considerably cheaper than their Phase One, Hasselblad or Leica equivalents. I think that the cheapest ones are similar in price to a top of the line Canon/Nikon/Sony body. I've heard nothing but good things about them
Yes the medium format digitals are great, I have used them a few times. A good compromise until the technology advances to large format digital that are accessible and affordable.
which medium format camera/s have you loved working with?
The Fujifilm GFX, although I didn't love it enough to use it over my D850. I'll buy one the day they are a true 6x7 sensor.
Hi Adam, thanks again for your Ask Me Anything post. Would love to hear about your approach meeting people (photographic subjects) and working with them as collaborators - how do you manage release forms with collaborators, do they have ownership rights of the work, payment etc? etc
Hi Sonia, when working as a journalist I don't get release forms signed and the subjects don't have any ownership over the photographs, or their royalties when used in a journalistic or artistic context. But a release form is required if the photographs are used in a commercial context.
I did recently make a series of collaborative portraits with migrants in Mexico, and because they triggered the shutter, I did get the subjects to sign a release granting me full rights to use the work. Although in this instance I did grant to migrants 50% rights to resales of the photographs. You can see this work here - https://adamferguson.substack.com/p/collaborative-portraits-with-migrants
thank you again for your reply. inregard to the 50% rights to resales of the photographs does this mean if there is a sale on any of the photographs, the collaborator receives 50% of the sale share over a lifetime? best
Yes, on the portraits of migrants.
Hi Adam, thanks for offering your experience and knowledge.
Do you have any practical advice for first time conflict photojournalism? Is a press pass required or recommended and how can this be obtained by a freelancer not associated with a news agency? Are fixers essentials and if so, is there a reliable online source available to make these arrangements? I appreciate your thoughts!
Regards,
Talbert
Hi Talbert, of course! It really depends on the country and the conflict. But to generalize - most countries require a media visa, and then a local press pass can be issued from the government media office in the country. If you are working for a media organisation, they should provide a press pass. Although I would not advise going to a conflict area without the backing of an organization. You also need to think about insurance and your security. I completed a hostile environments training course before I started working in Afghanistan, the first aid training is essential. Fixers have made all my work possible, you really need someone on the ground who knows the security situation and that can help you navigate. Where are you thinking of going?
Hi Adam, thanks for your valuable insights and for taking the time to reply. I am still trying to fully understand the necessary bureaucratic and safety requirements as you highlighted. Are you able to direct me to a hostile environments training course? The three main countries / regions that I am compelled to understand deeper currently are Libya, Yemen and Nagorno-Karabahk.
Hi Talbert, check this link - https://rorypecktrust.org/freelance-assistance/training-fund/ The Rory Peck fund helps freelanscers ad you can apply for a bursury to help with the costs of the training.
I am struggling at the moment to ask vulnerable people for their portrait. I work with First Nation Peoples (day job) and would love to take their portrait. However, the idea of asking makes me very uncomfortable. Morally it doesn't sit well with me as they are quite vulnerable. The line between taking advantage and providing an insight is a fine one for me. How do you approach and ask someone for their portrait when they are vulnerable?
Hi Kat, I’m happy to hear you struggle with this, this sense of morality is important. Photographing vulnerable people is precarious if the process is exploitive. The question for you is - why do you want to photograph them and what story are you trying to tell? What do the people have to gain by participating? Try to answer questions and justify the work you intend.
When I am working with vulnerable people I try to be collaborative. You might find this post (below) I wrote helpful. It's important to listen, and ask people how they would like to sit for a photograph. Try and give people as much agency in the process as possible.
https://adamferguson.substack.com/p/a-portrait-of-trauma
As a side note - I remember feeling shy when I started working as a documentary photographer - there was a comfort level that I needed to break through when interacting with people. This came when I realized that if I am in someone's space, attempting to tell their story with their consent, it’s my responsibility to tell that story as best I can. Sometimes that means embarrassing yourself, or taking up too much space, or collaborating with people to do unusual things. But if your there under the premise of photographing, that photo has to serve the people with as much blood, sweat, tears and integrity that you have to give.
Hey Adam,
Sense of Place and Politics of place are great fodder, and how we make images that allude to and ask questions about these things is endlessly fascinating to me. How do you attempt to image the notion of country ? And here in Tasmania the idea of contested land. Does your research inform what you go looking for, or does it help you recognise and image when you see it , either before of after you have made it ?
Cheers, Matt
Hey Matt, as a white Australian I don’t think I can imagine, or photograph, a notion of ‘country’. The term ‘country’, if I am correct in understanding how you used it in your question, is specific to Indigenous ‘country’. My connection to the land doesn't have the depth of Indigenous Australians, and it's not my place to be presumptuous. But I can attempt to photograph my own understanding and experience of Australia, and that experience, like your experience, is still a valid story to tell about Australia.
I totally agree Adam, with what you are saying re the indigenous depth of connection to country. There is an idea down here amongst writers that Tasmanian is in many ways a different country to Australia. Some days I agreed with that some days I don’t.
I think you should check out recently published book called Making Australian History by Anna Clarke. A quote from the back cover 'each new wave of historians asks its own questions and produces its own narratives of the past'. To me that means that History is shaped by todays societal issues and morals which change over time to there is no fixed history, but a fluid one.
As a question, what is your go to road trip food?
What's your favourite road trip food?
Incredible - thank you for the recommendation. I love that quote, it's so true. And it makes me remember that each of our stories is important to the arc of our collective understanding and its evolution.
Road trip food - excellent question. I always have a cooler in the car and pack tomato, cheese and avocado so I can make sandwiches on the side of the road.
Yes, I've definitely struggled with this in my work, especially in terms of the power dynamics of race and class. I feel like it made me run away from that kind of work for a while because the problem felt overwhelming and I didn't have the tools to answer some of the questions I had about myself and the work I was doing.
For questions, Adam, what helps you find the "definitive image" for a story or part of a story when editing?
Thanks for writing Chris. I say keep struggling and don’t let it deter you. Part of the process of making any important or relevant story is to struggle with identity and politics in the way you tell it. Acknowledge your own power and bias, and understand that position. I think if you can do that you’ll know what's appropriate.
The definitive image. I am looking for the confluence of an idea, a story and an imagined world. An image that alludes to a larger truth, but does not offer it in a two dimensional way. I like images that make me wonder beyond their frame. This to be is the most intriguing thing about photography, it has the power to ask an audience to consider more than what the photograph depicts. Choosing that photo is an intuitive process. I always edit in a contact sheet. I find that the most powerful frame jumps out from the rest. If I edit by skipping from one enlarged photo to the next, I get confused and the process is ambiguous.
Question: Why is this the title of the book? At first I believed it to be a book of poetry from the Scottish poet named Adam Ferguson. He's incredibly famous on the internet. But it turned out not to be so. Tell me how you arrived at such a name then? Also, big fan of your owkr.
Dear Zackary, to be honest, Silent Wind, Roaring Sky is a working title. But I do like it and who knows it might stick. I wanted to come up with something that feels poetic and I am indeed inspired by the Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson who may or may not be a distant relative. Anyways, I wanted to come up with a name that presented a conflict of idea. In the bush the sky is really silent, and wind roars, but after enough time out there, they can adopt each other's characters. It’s surreal. But I am open to title suggestions if you want to brainstorm with me? Besos, Adam
Hi Adam,
Firstly thanks so much for your articles, they are a great insight into your working process, and also a great read.
My question is, how easy (or challenging) was it for you to get yourself 'into' the photo industry? Are there differences between trying to break in with Australia having a smaller working footprint, compared to say the USA? I ask as I'm trying to break into simply just assisting here in Sydney, and apart from emailing the relevant agencies, it seems to be a tricky one to get into! Any advice or insights you may have would be great to hear.
Sincerely,
Owen Hall
Hi Owen, thanks for commenting. It depends on which photography industry we are talking about. If you’re assisting, I presume you mean advertising work. In which case I believe Sydney has a healthy commercial scene. It's still very competitive and difficult to break into of course, but there is work to aim for. If you're having trouble getting commissions, the key is to start making your own work more seriously. My motto is make the work you want to be hired to make. Personal bodies of work are crucial to building a career in photography.
If your question isn't about advertising work, and we are chatting about documentary work or photojournalism, the answer is different. I think it's very hard to build a career in Australia, there just aren't the publications like there are in the US and Europe. I left Australia early in my career so I could build a freelance career internationally. I couldn't see a pathway forward in Australia because there were very few staff jobs and not enough publications to support a freelance career.
I also wish to be transparent here and say it's very hard to sustain a freelance photojournalism career in the US now also. The assignments are very thinly distributed among a plethora of photographers, and the editorial world isn't as robust as it used to be. Most of the professional photographers I know have adopted a hybrid career - working in advertising as well as doing editorial commissions, working as artists but also accepting commissions. Doing books, NFTs, whatever they can to make it work. But it’s tough, there is no doubt about that.
Thanks for the insights Adam. It's reassuring to know that there is work going around, albeit tricky to get a foot in the door, and keeping it there! It certainly seems that a hybrid type of career is the way to go, but thats not necessarily a bad thing in my scenario.
There's a heap more questions I'd love to dig into, but I realise you have a a whole lot of other people to reply to as well.
Best of luck in the bush, and thanks again for answering my Q!
Hey man, not sure this is completely on-topic, but it might be from a photography perspective... Q: what on earth is going on in the Australian desert? Ross Coulthardt has been trying to work it out... https://www.amazon.ca/Plain-Sight-Investigation-Impossible-Science/dp/B09B7VPP93/
Surely this is the biggest story of our time! (feel free to delete if it's way off topic!)
Hey Cales, fascinating story, I have no idea what is happening in the Australian desert. I’ll keep an eye out for UFO’s when I am driving across the country this year. That footage and testimony from the US Navy pilots off the coast of California was astounding evidence of something we don’t have the technology to explain. It makes me wonder.