Photo Trips

Summary:

In this very personal interview with FotoTV, documentary photographer Jacob Aue Sobol talks about his career and details three of his most meaningful projects to date: “Sabine”, “I, Tokyo” and “The Gomez-Brito Family” of Guatemala.

Sobol’s striking pictures from the project Sabine resulted from his incredible experience living in Greenland and his personal love of Sabine. After his first trip to Greenland he returned home to Denmark only to find out after developing his film he had only photographed the clichés of Greenland, the way any person from Denmark would expect to see the Inuits of Greenland, so he went back determined to capture a more subjective view of the society and life there. It was on this second trip that Sobol’s photographic style and approach to photography changed forever. He fell in love with Sabine and began living with her and her family, hunting and fishing with them. Armed with a Contax compact camera to document everyday life and situations he experienced, he felt liberated, photographing only what was intimate to him and most of all it was Sabine. He was fascinated by the spontaneous way she expressed her happiness, and it was these moments he wanted to remember and keep.

Sobol advanced his photographic story-telling ability when he next went to Guatemala. There he learned Spanish to communicate with the people there, while living with an indigenous host family for a month to document their everyday life.

Moving along, Sobol details his experiences while living in Tokyo and his pictures are absolutely stunning, rich with intimacy and emotion, reflecting how he felt when he lived in Tokyo, and these images accurately interpret the closeness he had to the people he encountered while there.

Sobol has developed his own language within photography, using his mistakes to create something different. His work is more subjective than objective and more about confrontation than harmony, but always with the latent intention of sharing something that is very close to him. His photography is remarkable not because of his choice of camera, film or darkroom technique, but because of his personal approach and choice of subject matter and composition.

Summary:

Helmut Plamper, who has lived in Tuscany for about four years has invited FotoTV along to view some of the most beautiful scenic spots in and around Tuscany.

The photo-tour begins in majestic Montefelonico, which is near Montepulciano. Of particular interest here is the Hotel La Costa, which Plamper calls the “Photo Hotel,” because of its convenient location and the amazing panorama that can be photographed directly from the hotel window by good visibility.

Plamper explains that the wonderful landscape colors, tones of brown and green, not only result from the soil quality, but also from the artists of Tuscany. “They are artists that cultivate the fields with their tractors,” he quips. “And when the soil has been freshly plowed you see the dark soil, which results marvelously, in what the Americans term, “Pattern Shots.” You can’t find this great aspect anywhere as good as here in Tuscany.”

Tuscany has an abundance to offer, with its many photogenic scenes, and rolling landscape. Some of the other notable tour stops included, but were not limited to, Crete Senesi, Val Dorccia, Belvedere, and San Quirico.

On the road, San Quirico to Pienza, there is the admired Chapel Daveta Leta; it is a popular photo motif in Tuscany. Most impressive in the area are the many newly planted cypress trees. Plamper explains that a couple of decades prior there was a mass number of cypress tree deaths, due to a type of tree canker disease. And in the meantime many cypress trees have been reforested in an attempt to resurrect the original scene of Tuscany, to ensure magnificent cypress tree scenery that the people of Tuscany and photo-enthusiasts alike, love so well.

Plamper gives useful information on traveling to and from Tuscany, as well as insider tips, and ideal times to photograph specific areas and locations there, around the year.

Summary:

Members of Fotolia.com met in Berlin to learn from the famous microstock photographer Yuri Arcurs how “to shoot images that sell”.

Yuri Arcurs professionell career as a microstock photographer has started three years ago with pictures of his girlfriend Cecile, who is now one of his most selling models.

We have visited this workshop for you and in this movie Yuri will introduce his way of microstock photography.