Shows
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyGideon Jacobs - On ImagesIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to writer and artist Gideon Jacobs. For the last few years, Gideon has been grappling with our relationship to images and technology, posing theories about its potential futures. Despite his beat not being politics, many of his most potent essays, in particular those for the LA Review of Books, use the root of politics to untangle the changing state of images and the ways in which reality is being reimagined through image production and strategy in dark and surreal ways. In this episode, we cover a lot of ground, trying to unravel how...
2025-11-0451 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyDonna Ferrato - On JusticeIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Donna Ferrato, a fearless photojournalist who has redefined how the world sees domestic violence through her groundbreaking work. Her seminal book Living With the Enemy [published by Aperture] sparked a global reckoning, exposing the hidden realities of abuse and igniting conversations that continue to drive change. In this conversation, Donna shares her radical approach to image making, what she went through to get her work seen, and her lifelong mission of wielding the camera as a tool for justice. In 2021, Donna received a grant from the Ma...
2025-10-2744 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLisa Barnard - On PerceptionIn this conversation Lisa Barnard talks to Gem Fletcher about her new exhibition, You Only Look Once, at c/o Berlin which considers perception in relation to both human and machine experience. She addresses the complexity of technological progress and the ecological resources on which its promises depend. Her research focuses on California, unfolding a multilayered, fragmented and nonlinear story that encompasses photographs, an immersive video installation, archival interventions, alternative printing strategies and AI-generated image analyses that weave together in the creation of a dense visual entanglement.Lisa Barnard is a British artist and lecturer whose p...
2025-10-2048 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLiz Johnson Artur - On Taking TimeI Will Keep You in Good Company, the latest book by Liz Johnson Artur brings together pages and fragments from over twenty years of her personal workbooks she has kept since the early 1990s. These books are a kind of private, experimental playground where she shaped her photographic language through layering, cutting, annotating, and assembling: a space for processing not only images, but life itself. Each page is a tactile surface, combining photographic prints on canvas, tracing paper, faxes, and photo stock with screen-prints, handwriting, and clipped texts. The result is a sensorial, intimate archive of moments lived and...
2025-09-151h 00
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyVince Aletti - On CollectingIn this episode Gem talks to writer and curator Vince Aletti about his most recent book Physique—which showcases rare photographic prints from the underground gay magazine of the same name—collated from his own private collection. Spanning the 1930s to the early 1960s, these photographs chronicle a hidden, coded world of homoerotic imagery. Physique reveals a forgotten chapter of American gay culture in which photographic prints served as a lifeline, connecting a community of men under threat while also providing solace, pleasure, and empowerment amid oppression. In their roving conversation, they talk about obsessions, Queer culture, FOMO, writing, the...
2025-09-071h 11
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCharlotte Jansen - On DiscoveryIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Charlotte Jansen, writer and Photo London curator. They discuss mechanics behind photography fairs, how she approaches the curatorial process and how this aspect of the industry can support the work of emerging artists. Charlotte Jansen is a British Sri Lankan author, journalist and critic based in London. She is the curator of Discovery at Photo London and writes on contemporary art and photography for The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New York Times, British Vogue and ELLE, among others. She is the author of Girl on Girl: Art and P...
2025-05-1236 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCarolyn Drake and Andres Gonzalez - On CollaborationIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to photographers and longtime partners Carolyn Drake and Andres Gonzalez about their collaborative project and book, “I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours,” published by Mack. For the last five years, the two artists have traversed the border between Mexico and the United States, working together for the first time and ruminating on ideas about human connection, migration and the mechanics of photography itself. In this conversation they talk about the reality of collaboration, and how as they studied the borderlands they were faced...
2025-04-2153 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAmak Mahmoodian - On DreamingIn this episode, Gem Fletcher speaks to Amak Mahmoodian about her latest body of work, ‘One Hundred and Twenty Minutes’, in which she examines dreaming for individuals living in exile. Working with 16 collaborators, Amak uses photography, poetry, drawing and video to explore the new lives created through dreams, as well as the ways in which dreaming enables individuals to return to a past that cannot be reached while awake. Amak Mahmoodian is a multidisciplinary artist and educator. She began her career as a research-based photographer in Iran in 2003 at the Art University of Tehran. Since 2010, she has b...
2025-04-071h 00
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyPaul Kooiker - On the ArchiveIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to artist Paul Kooiker. They discuss his process, unique way of seeing, his relationship to equipment, the archive, book making and sepia and how he thinks about the ecosystem around his practice. Paul Kooiker is an award winning artist based in Amsterdam. Disconnected from time and place, and transcending classic gender roles, his surreal images feel like film stills of stories we can only imagine. Paul’s practice is characterised by a conceptual and experimental approach to photography and for the past five years he created works that flirt with the...
2025-03-2449 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAlessia Glaviano - On RelevanceIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Alessia Glaviano, the Head of Global PhotoVogue and Director of the PhotoVogue Festival. They discuss relevance, why Alessia hates nostalgia, the importance of obsession and why artists need the freedom to be controversial. Since joining Vogue Italia in 2001, Glaviano rapidly ascended from Photo Editor to Visual Director, where she played a crucial role in shaping the visual identity of the publication. In early 2022, with the relaunch of PhotoVogue on a global scale, Glaviano’s role shifted to focus on leading PhotoVogue, collaborating with all editions of Vogue worldwide. Under Glav...
2025-03-0844 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyJack Davison - On CraftIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Jack Davison about craft, creative development and the importance of taking risks, all through the lens of his new project A is for Ant, a multifaceted experience which includes his debut short film, two photo books, a live touring performance, and workshops. Made in collaboration with Shona Heath and Matt Willey where each letter of the alphabet is represented by an animal - playfully characterised by both actors and live creatures and created in the inventive spirit of the Early modern avant-garde.British photographer Jack Davison's oeuvre effortlessly embraces di...
2025-01-0354 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCait Oppermann - On AutonomyIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Cait Opperman about her creative journey and her new full service production company Flowers. Born from her desire for greater autonomy and more direct and meaningful collaboration with her clients, Cait is creating a new model beyond the traditional photographer and agent dynamic. While she had a hunch that building Flowers would offer a more expansive way of working with less compromise, Cait also found it rekindled her personal connection to creativity in dynamic and unexpected ways. Cait Oppermann is a New York-based photographer, director and entrepreneur working in th...
2024-12-2350 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographySophie Hackett - On Vernacular PhotographyIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Sophie Hackett, the photography curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto about the power of vernacular photography. We discuss her recent book and exhibition on Casa Susana - The Story of the First Trans Network in the United States 1959-1968. These incredibly inspiring photographs trace an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men who found refuge in a house in the Catskills region of New York. The house, known as Casa Susanna, provided a safe place to express their true selves and live for a few days as they...
2024-12-1634 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyJesse Glazzard - On CommunityIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Photographer Jesse Glazzard renowned for making striking and intimate portraits anchored in his everyday life and wider community. Alongside his commercial and editorial work, Jesse’s passion projects immerse us in marginal, lesser-known worlds, such as a Trans boxing gyms, Queer camping and underground club nights. His photographs are informed by care and compassion and the impetus of his practice is on the importance of documentation, without necessarily showing the work right away. There is a sense of preserving his community, in a particular moment of history. Jesse Glazzard Is...
2024-12-1046 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyBrian Paul Lamotte - On Design as CollaborationIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to designer and educator Brian Paul Lamotte about reimagining the possibilities of form, production and distribution in art and photobooks. In a deep dive into the book making process we open up a conversation about the changing scope of publishing, the transformative experience of being entangled with an artist and their intentions and ultimately design as a form of collaboration. Brian Paul Lamotte (b. 1984, San Francisco, USA) is an independent graphic designer & publisher specializing in art and photography books. Educated in graphic design at London’s Central St. Martins, he esta...
2024-11-181h 21
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCharlie Engman - On AI ImagesIn this episode, Gem Fletcher welcomes back Charlie Engman to talk about Cursed, his new book of AI Images. Cursed stands as a testament to Charlie’s visionary role in the rapidly evolving and highly contentious field of AI, offering an immersive exploration of uncharted artistic territories and proposing a new paradigm for the future and possibilities of photography. During their roving conversation, AI Images act as a way to not just reflect upon Charlie’s work but also to interrogate the discourse around value, provenance, creativity and economics as well as other pressing issues which get...
2024-10-141h 10
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAlona Pardo - On MultiplicityIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to curator Alona Pardo about her rich practice rooted in multiplicity. Alona is one of those curators who knows how to truly capture the imagination of the audience, planting ideas in our minds that reverberate long after we have left her exhibitions. During the conversation, Alona talks about her process, interests and how her curatorial practice has evolved over time. Alona Pardo is Head of Programmes at the Arts Council Collection, UK, and was until recently a curator at Barbican Art Gallery in London for 15 years. With a focus on p...
2024-09-3045 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLaura Pannack - On LongevityIn this episode, Gem Fletcher delves into the unique approach of London-based photographic artist, Laura Pannack. Her practice, which is a blend of experimentation and research, is a deep exploration of the intricate relationship between subject and photographer. The work is rooted in intimate collaborations with individuals and communities, and it constantly pushes the boundaries of what photography can be. Laura Pannack, a London-based photographic artist, has made a significant impact in the field of portraiture and social documentary. Her work has been widely exhibited in prestigious institutions, including The National Portrait Gallery, Somerset House, T...
2024-09-1636 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyJermaine Francis - On RootsIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Jermaine Francis about his multifaceted practice. Jermaine’s work is both deeply personal while also speaking to the intersection of politics and culture in the UK, inviting us to explore the physical and psychological aspects of our space, unpacking themes of history, power, class and race in photography. Jermaine Francis is a London lens Based Artist, his practice works within, Documentary & Portraiture, archive in the format of personal driven Photo projects & Editorials, exploring the issues that arise from our interaction in the everyday environment. He has pub...
2024-09-0242 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyEleonora Agostini - Live at Peckham 24Welcome to one of five special episodes recorded live at Peckham 24. In this episode, I speak to Eleonora Agostini about her series, A Study On Waitressing, in which she assembles and re-presents photographs, archival imagery and footage, collage and text as a research method to analyse the theatricality of the everyday and the function of the body as a conduit between observer and observed. Peckham 24 exists to support the photographic community by providing artists with opportunities to exhibit, share and discuss new work - shining a spotlight on cutting-edge contemporary photography.
2024-07-2233 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyBindi Vora - Live at Peckham 24Welcome to one of five special episodes recorded live at Peckham 24. In this episode, I talk to Bindi Vora about the two projects she presented at Peckham 24, Mountain of Salt and Unravelling which both employ the use of found or archival images. During our conversation we talk about how the absence of images shapes our lives, what it means to work with archival material, the artist as detective, deciphering traces and threads and connecting stories together. How collage can offer something important that language can't reach and the importance of imagining new language to talk about art making.
2024-07-2242 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLina Geoushy - Live at Peckham 24Welcome to one of five special episodes recorded live at Peckham 24. In this episode, I talk to Lina Geoushy about her work Trailblazers, an inquiry into Egypt’s feminist history using self-portraiture, performance, and archival artifacts to reclaim and inscribe a counter-history. Responding to this dissonance in Egypts past and present, Lina has built an archive informed by a feminist impulse, amassing material from popular cultural material and combining that with performative self-portraiture that depicts trailblazing Egyptian feminists in the fields like art, science, law, activism and the military. Peckham 24 exists to support the photographic community by p...
2024-07-2235 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyÅsa Johannesson - Live at Peckham 24Welcome to one of five special episodes recorded live at Peckham 24. In this episode, we celebrate and unpack Åsa Johannesson book Queer Methodology for Photography, diving into her research into new approaches for making, thinking about writing about Queer photography. Through the book, Åsa proposes a new concept of the photographic image that focuses on materiality, voicing concerns beyond representation. Peckham 24 exists to support the photographic community by providing artists with opportunities to exhibit, share and discuss new work - shining a spotlight on cutting-edge contemporary photography.The theme for the 8th edition of...
2024-07-2243 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAlexander Coggin - Live at Peckham 24Welcome to one of five special episodes recorded live at Peckham 24. In this episode, I talk to Alexander Coggin about ‘Mike,’ a fifteen year photographic archive he made about his spouse Micheal. United by a spontaneity and informed by their background in theatre, Mike is a deeply intimate, yet playful exploration of Queer love told through over 300 photographs. Through ‘Mike,’ Alex offers a cross section of a lived history that encompasses the theatricality of the everyday to life's most vulnerable moments.Peckham 24 exists to support the photographic community by providing artists with opportunities to exhibit, share and discu...
2024-07-2241 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAshleigh Kane - On Art WritingIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Ashleigh Kane taking a peek behind the curtain into the life of an editor and writer. Together we talk about the role of writers within the creative ecosystem, how our relationships with artists start and develop over time, and what it takes to sustain a career in writing. Ashleigh Kane is a writer, editor, creative consultant, art buyer, host, and curator based in London, UK.She is the Arts & Photography Editor-at-Large at Dazed & Confused and previously held the title of Arts & Culture editor from 2014-2020. Ashleigh is also an a...
2024-07-0444 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyEmily Keegin - On Fuck Marry Kill PhotographyIn this episode, Gem Fletcher is in conversation with Photo Editor Emily Keegin about New Rules, a special collaboration with WePresent, the arts platform from WeTransfer. If you're not aware of them, WePresent is a platform that spotlights creatives from around the world and collaborates with artists on one-off special projects. Gem was invited by WePresent to edit New Rules, a guide about photography that speaks to our current moment, and through candid conversations, attempts to explore photography’s unfixed future.New Rules is a group portrait by photographers, curators and editors, many of...
2024-06-0347 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCarmen Winant - On Art & GroundworkIn this episode, Gem Fletcher talks to Carmen Winant about her latest book The Last Safe Abortion. Focusing on the near-fifty-year period in which abortion was legal in the United States (1973–2022), the project recognises the care, advocacy, and community-building of abortion workers. The photographs themselves are surprisingly regular: women answer the phone, sterilize medical equipment, throw staff birthday parties, offer workshops and schedule appointments. In centering the tender, quotidian, and routine acts that inform this healthcare work, Carmen works to counter the ways anti-choice activists have weaponised photography by proposing a visuality that attends to abortion care. We unpack the...
2024-05-1347 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyRoxana Marcoci - On CuratingIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to The Museum of Modern Art Photography Curator Roxana Marcoci. Using some of Roxana’s recent and upcoming exhibitions as jump off points, we explore everything from the ethical responsibility of curatorial practice to the evolving relationship between humans and technology. Roxanna talks about who inspires her, how her approach is guided by deep relationships and informed risk, and her rallying cry to all of us to be bolder in our artistic endeavours. Roxana Marcoci is the David Dechman Senior Curator and Acting Chief Curator of Photography at The Museum of M...
2024-03-1243 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLou Stoppard - On ExhibitionsIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to the curator and writer Lou Stoppard about Exteriors, her new exhibition at MEP Paris and a book of the same title published by MACK. The project takes the writing from Annie Ernaux’s Exteriors where Annie endeavoured to ‘describe reality through the eyes of a photographer.” Lou takes this work and asks the question Can you see a text? Can you read a photograph? And pairs Annie’s texts with images from the MEP’s collection to offer viewers a provocation on how to see the world anew. In this conversation, we discuss Lou’...
2024-02-2652 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyMinisode - Brea SoudersIn today's minisode, Gem Fletcher speaks to Brea Souders about her latest book Another Online Pervert, which charts her multi-year conversation with a female-programmed chatbot. The book published by Mack, combines excerpts from their conversation with images from her archive. It is highly charged, jumping between the playful and mundane to the dark and ruthless as she unpacks the complex relationship between humans and machines in a provocative publication that invites us to think about the future of our own humanity. The TMT minisodes are short, focused conversations with photographers on books, exhibitions, and special projects, f...
2023-12-2426 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyMinisode - Micaiah CarterIn this minisode, Gem Fletcher speaks to previous guest Micaiah Carter about his first monograph, What’s My Name. The book, published by Prestel, charts over a decade of Micaiah's work interlaced with images from his parent's archives dating back to the 1960s. His work, often celebratory in tone, is a true care practice for everyone he collaborates with. We dig into the emotional labour of making a book, what he discovered about himself and what he had to overcome to put himself out there to create a new American dream. The TMT minisodes are short, foc...
2023-12-2431 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyRene Matić - On Rude(ness)Gem Fletcher chats to Rene Matić about a moment of flux in their practice. They are looking differently at the world, their work and the relationships they hold close. There is a change of pace, intention and visual language brewing for the artist who has literally not stopped making since they picked up a camera five years ago. In the episode, they talk about their first solo show, Kiss them from me, at Chapter NY. They also dig into friendship, love, being with each other, tiredness, optimism, nationalism and patriotism and above all rudeness, which is a guiding principle o...
2023-12-2054 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAndi Galdi Vinko - On SurvivalAndi Galdi Vinko is an internationally acclaimed artist working in photography. Her work draws visual analogies between intensely personal and intimate experiences of motherhood and womanhood and universal human experiences of coming of age, ageing, loss, and the conflict between Western and Eastern European ideologies. In this episode, we talk about her award-winning book, Sorry I Gave Birth I Disappeared But Now I’m Back and everything that went into the project. We also talk about survival strategies and the experience of being a working parent and artist. Andi has been commissioned and published in magazines suc...
2023-12-041h 06
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographySinna Nasseri - On Starting OverIranian-American photographer Sinna Nasseri describes his ability to catapult viewers into every scene he captures as a "gonzo journalism curiosity." He brings the audience along with him, always thinking about what they want to see. As a self-taught photographer, the path was in no way easy, and he continues to craft a life that enables him to work but with the necessary sacrifices. In a surprising turn of events, 2020 became the year that put Sinna on the map. On the show, we talk about the highs and lows of building a career in the photo industry, what makes a...
2023-09-2552 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyVinca Petersen - On Subversive JoySince the 1990s, Vinca Petersen's work has remained an authentic voice of European counterculture, providing diaristic windows onto alternative spaces and lifestyles. A multidisciplinary artist who works in the area of social practice, Petersen's works emerge from a deep social and political engagement with underrepresented communities, giving them a voice and recognition. Her photographic oeuvre captures a period spanning 1990-2004, documenting the artist’s experiences as part of the free party and traveller community. The images juxtapose the sense of escapism and euphoria of this unique cultural moment with the oppressive political climate which outlawed the lifestyles of those re...
2023-09-1153 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyBalarama Heller - On SensationBalarama Heller's practice reimagines archetypal symbols found in the natural world. He explores primal symbols and patterns, both real and imagined, working towards a visual language of preverbal awareness. These symbols interact in a ceaseless cycle of creation and destruction, referencing the cosmological, mythological, and atomic scales. During our conversation, we talk about how his personal history informs his work, his research practice and how he is shifting away from direct observation to the most reduced and refined versions of his work. Balarama lives and works in New York City. Recent exhibitions include Sacred Place with A...
2023-08-2143 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographySheida Soleimani - On SubversionSheida Soleimani’s work explores intersections of art and activism. She melds sculpture, performance, film and photography to highlight critical perspectives on events across the Middle East, unpicking the complex power dynamics between the region and Western nations. Her work interrogates the dissemination of information in digital contexts, adapting found images from press and social media leaks to exist within alternative scenarios. In doing this, she’s rigorously interrogating the role of images in our lives and psychology, as well as the way they manifest as propaganda in geopolitics. During our conversation, we talk about proces...
2023-08-071h 01The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAlexandra Rose Howland - On StorytellingAlexandra Rose Howland's practice is invested in illustrating the difficult complexities of our existence. Through her work, she seeks to generate a more expansive understanding of how issues around conflict and the climate crisis are portrayed. She does this by resisting the historical notion of photography as a mode of direct representation created by a single author. Instead, she embraces image-making as a social practice, co-creating stories with her participants. Alexandra has lived in the Middle East over the last decade, creating work that aims to challenge and expand the ways that geopolitical events are communicated. H...
2023-07-0345 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyMyriam Boulos - On LiberationMyriam Boulos’s practice is rooted in community and resistance, exploring the complex ways our bodies metabolise trauma, assert resistance, seek pleasure and express layers of identity. During our conversation, we talk about Myriam’s projects through the lens of intimacy, survival, political agency, resistance and revolution and perhaps most importantly, consent. Myriam Boulos was born in 1992 in Lebanon. At the age of 16 she started to use her camera to question Beirut, its people, and her place among them. She graduated with a master degree in photography from L’Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts in 2015. Myriam t...
2023-06-0535 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyJacqueline Bates - On Photo DirectionThroughout her career, Photo Director Jacqueline Bates has harnessed the power of photography to give visual journalism new dimension. During our conversation, we talk about her new role at the New York Times Opinion section in which she’s publishing up to 90 stories a week. We discuss the blurring of art and editorial, how she works with emerging talent and we visit some of her most fascinating commissions. As you will hear throughout the episode, Jackie is deeply committed to her responsibility as a photo director, always in service of the story, while taking creative risks and expanding the no...
2023-05-2257 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyRhiannon Adam - On AbundanceIn this episode, Gem Fletcher speaks to photographer and artist Rhiannon Adam. Her work is heavily influenced by her nomadic childhood spent at sea, sailing around the world with her parents. Little photographic evidence of this period in her life exists, igniting an interest in the influence of photography on recall, the notion of the photograph as a physical object, and the image as an intersection between fact and fiction – themes that continue throughout her work. In 2015, supported by the BBC/Royal Geographical Society, Adam travelled to the remote island community of Pitcairn in the South Pac...
2023-05-081h 38The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographySteph Wilson - On ExperimentationIn this episode, Gem Fletcher speaks to London-based photographer Steph Wilson. For Steph, The body is such a vast universe of paradoxes that will never get old. Traversing the space between fine art and fashion, Steph cherishes humour and joy, while exploring the possibilities of our bodies. She is interested in the edges; the awkward, uncomfortable, ugly, shameful and challenging and takes these elements to assert new modes of beauty and being. Shooting commercial, editorial and personal work, her expansive practice has manifested into work for Gucci, Versace, Nike, Dazed & Confused and Vogue Italia. Follow Steph...
2022-12-2443 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyHarley Weir - On ProcessIn this episode, Gem Fletcher speaks to London-based photographer Harley Weir. In this episode we discuss how her approach to image making is one rooted in alchemy - creating space for the unexpected. She fuses materials together that challenge each other, evoking an immediate and arresting world, familiar to us and filled with emotion, yet suggestive of a darker and more compulsive set of psychic and material forces. Beyond her limitless talent, what's captivating about Harley is her honesty - about her process, the industry and what her practice enables her to do. Harley is a L...
2022-12-2441 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAudrey Blue - On LiberationGem Fletcher speaks to artist Audrey Blue (nee Gillespie) in the final episode of a three-part series in partnership with Seen Fifteen Gallery. The Troubles Generation - an ongoing curatorial project by Vivienne Gamble invites artists who grew up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles to shed new light on the impact of being brought up in an era of intense sectarian violence.Audrey Blue is a fine artist from Derry, Northern Ireland. Currently based in Belfast, her media includes analogue photography, painting and printmaking. Blue’s themes explore queerness, mortality and conflict with youth and an...
2022-12-0455 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyGareth McConnell - On SurvivalGem Fletcher speaks to photographer Gareth McConnell in the second episode of a three-part series in partnership with Seen Fifteen Gallery. The Troubles Generation - an ongoing curatorial project by Vivienne Gamble invites artists who grew up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles to shed new light on the impact of being brought up in an era of intense sectarian violence. Gareth McConnell is a London-based photographer with diverse interests and many styles of approach. His work as a fine artist has been given recognition in monographs, cover features, and articles including from Steidl/Photoworks, Frieze, a...
2022-12-0434 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyMartin Seeds - On ConflictIn this episode, Gem Fletcher speaks to photographer and educator Martin Seeds as part of a three-part series in partnership with Seen Fifteen Gallery. The Troubles Generation - an ongoing curatorial project by Vivienne Gamble invites artists who grew up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles to shed new light on the impact of being brought up in an era of intense sectarian violence. Originally from Belfast, Martin Seed’s practice is shaped by his relationship with his Northern Irish homeland. Personal narratives, the relationship to place, politics, conflict, sameness and difference, diaspora and myth are und...
2022-12-0444 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyTami Aftab - On Starting OutIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats with photographer Tami Aftab. They dive into The Dog’s In The Car - a powerful and intimate collaboration between Tami Aftab and her father Tony, about his short-term memory loss and how it shapes his life and that of the wider family. Since graduating during the pandemic, Tami has worked tirelessly to cement herself as one to watch. During the conversation, we discuss how she works, the pressures of starting out, money, productivity, social media and grappling with the tension between ambition and patience. Tami Afta...
2022-10-2736 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyZora J Murff - On LiberationIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats with artist and educator Zora J. Murff. They deep dive into Zora’s latest book True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis), a manual for coming to terms with the historical and contemporary realities of America’s divisive structures of privilege and caste. Since leaving social work to pursue photography over a decade ago, Zora’s work has consistently grappled with the complicit entanglement of the medium in the histories of spectacle, commodification, and race, often contextualizing his own photographs with found and appropriated images and commissioned texts. True Colors continues that work, expand...
2022-10-0651 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyJess Dugan - On StrategyIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats with artist Jess T. Dugan. They discuss what it takes to cultivate and maintain an artistic practice, what Jess learned from their own journey, and how the mantra "meet everyone, learn everything," fuelled their approach to both crafting a practice and a business. We cover so much from developing relationships, holding space for reflection, building a community around your work, and what true representation means. Jess is an artist whose work explores issues of identity through photography, video, and writing. Their work has been widely exhibited and is in the p...
2022-09-221h 05The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyElisa Medde - On CriticismIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats with editor, writer and curator Elisa Medde. They discuss how an issue of Foam Magazine comes together in addition to a range of issues currently affecting the photo industry. They talk about systems, value, visual literacy, new talent, nurture and the importance of friction and criticism.Elisa is Editor-in-Chief of Foam Magazine, Amsterdam, where she has based a large part of her activities since 2012. With a background in Art History, Iconology and Photographic Studies, Elisa’s research reflects on the relationship between image, communication and power structures. She has been a...
2022-09-081h 10The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyElle Perez - On CommunityIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to artist and professor Elle Pérez. Elle generously lets us into their world from the early but formative days as a Bronx punk to the ways in which their art has shifted strategies and metaphors and now explores the subtle and visceral moments of emotion and power. We talk about the profound love and intimacy that is the lifeblood of their art and how threads and relationships between types of images and modes of working bring about new gestures.Elle Pérez has had solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1, 47 Ca...
2022-05-121h 07The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAnastasia Samoylova - On EcosystemsIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to artist Anastasia Samoylova who moves between observational photography, studio practice and installation. By utilizing tools and strategies related to digital media and commercial photography, her work explores notions of environmentalism, consumerism and the picturesque. Her new book Floridas: Anastasia Samoylova & Walker Evans was published by Steidl in 2022. In 2020-2021 her ongoing project FloodZone was presented in solo exhibitions at the Chrysler Museum of Art; HistoryMiami Museum; Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa; and The Print Center Philadelphia. The book of the project was published by Steidl in 2019. I...
2022-04-2153 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCampbell Addy - On GrowthIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to photographer and director Campbell Addy. They come together to discuss Cambell’s first monograph Feeling Seen published by Prestel. Much has happened since the pair recorded the first episode back in 2018. This is a truly special episode that speaks to what it means to be a young artist, how to navigate fashion and advertising and not lose yourself, what it means to meet the people who helped form you as an artist and how community shapes everything. Campbell has worked with editorial outlets Vogue, Financial Times, Dazed, Luncheon Ma...
2022-04-141h 02The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyRory Hamovit - On PracticeIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to the artist Rory Hamovit. Rory uses his work as a site to interrogate and explore notions of masculinity, queerness, performance and history. Rory understands what it takes to really commit to a studio practice - to embrace introspection and humour - to cultivate a space that is unrestrained and playful. His work is about craftsmanship on multiple plains from the physicality of building and making, to always questioning and reframing. He inserts vulnerability as a strategy for world-building. Rory recently graduated with his MFA from Yale School of Art.
2022-04-0742 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyKarla Hiraldo Voleau - On PerformanceIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to the artist Karla Hiraldo Voleau. Karla’s work revolves around identity, vulnerability, love, gender roles and the mechanisms in human relationships. Using a hybrid model of performance, photography and text, she blurs the lines between fiction and reality. Her practice is one that is constantly in community with strangers, grappling with aspects of humanity that we can all relate to, or struggle with. Karla graduated from ECAL (Switzerland), with an MA in Photography in 2018. Her work was featured at the Rencontres d’Arles 2017 & 2019, the Fotomuseum of Winterthur, or the BIP Photo festival of L...
2022-03-2446 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCharlotte Cotton - On the UngraspableIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to the curator, writer and creative consultant Charlotte Cotton. Charlotte has explored photographic culture for over twenty years and held positions including curator of photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, head of programming at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and curator-in-residence at Katonah Museum of Art, NY; International Center of Photography, NY; and California Museum of Photography. Her book, The Photograph as Contemporary Art, is published in ten languages and has been a key te...
2022-03-101h 08The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyYing Ang - On RageIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to photographer and gallery director Ying Ang. Ying’s work is about active and conscious looking. She grapples with political and social issues that often alter the landscape of our mind in challenging, isolating and revelatory ways. Through unflinching exploration that traverses the boundaries of process, materiality and self, she crafts remarkable works fueled by the type of interior rage that we have seen harnessed as political fuel in so many social movements throughout history. Her recent book, The Quickening: A memoir on matrescence, explores the transformation and lived exp...
2022-01-0653 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyEfrem Zelony-Mindell - On CuratingIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to curator, writer and artist Efrem Zelony-Mindell. Efrem embraces new ways of thinking, creating and talking about photography and art. Their work invites us to trash the rule book, abandon the systems that only serve a small group and insist on reimagining new modalities of creativity through the fundamental act of being together. Efrem’s practice is one that is truly in sync with the messy reality of life and they show us time and time again how facing the unknown or the challenging can be so generative. Their rece...
2021-12-1649 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyDonavon Smallwood - On Starting OutIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to artist Donavon Smallwood who uses the camera as a means of exploring humankind. Through intimate images that transcend surface, he cultivates a deeper sense of consciousness. Despite only shooting for a few years, Donavon has crafted his own visual language, one rooted in a community and a connection with the divine. In Languor, his first book - an ode to NYC’s Central park - he accentuates the beauty and stillness of nature as well as creating some powerful encounters with strangers. With the pandemic and the history of S...
2021-12-0228 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyBrea Souders - On Chance In this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to artist Brea Souders. Brea is known for disrupting our assumptions of what photography is. She does this through a multifaceted practice that defies categorisation. She is constantly shifting tools, processes and strategies, creating images that are unfamiliar and unfixed. In Eleven Years, her first monograph published by Saint Lucy Books, six bodies of work evoke a sense of wonder while grappling with the enduring challenge of climate change, technology, trauma and belonging. Here, we experience the decisions that form her distinct visual language from fleeting materiality, a s...
2021-11-1837 minThe Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyEmily Keegin - On Photo Direction In this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to Emily Keegin, Freelance Photo Director. She has created images for The Fader, No Man’s Land, Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, IBM and many more. As a prominent editor, she understands how the physical, human and cognitive need to blend to make a great photograph. Emily is constantly thinking about how images come into being and how they influence what we see, think and believe. During the pandemic, she began to share her research and reflections on Instagram - an enlightening experience for anyone fascinated by photography's omnipresent role...
2021-11-0441 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyRose Marie Cromwell - On RelationshipsGem Fletcher chats to Rose Marie Cromwell. The Miami-based artist whose work is rooted in the language of documentary photography but subverts many of its tropes by creating tension between the real and the fabricated, the autobiographical and the political to convey lyrical stories about contemporary life, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. While her photographs critically address issues of politics, economic injustice, and environmentalism, she takes a sidelong approach, revealing how these powerful forces subtly manifest in the built environment or the human body. Though they depict everyday objects and commonplace scenes, her photographs often verge on...
2021-07-0848 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCoco Capitán - On ImaginingGem Fletcher chats to Coco Capitán, known for her genre-defying work that straddles fashion and fine art. Coco is known for her hybrid practice that is constantly evolving. She has crafted an incredible career across fashion and art in which she uses photography, painting, writing, design to animate her ideas which are often rooted in personal experiences. She is a committed exhibition and bookmaker and has shown her work around the world. Her practice is one that is truly intuitive and lives free from the boundaries of genre and expectations. In this episode, we discuss how...
2021-06-1648 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCatherine Opie - On BelongingGem Fletcher chats to Catherine Opie. Known for her powerfully dynamic photography that examines the ideals and norms surrounding the culturally constructed American dream and American identity. She first gained recognition in the 1990s for her series of studio portraits titled Being and Having, in which she photographed gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals drawn from her circle of friends and artists. Opie has travelled extensively across the country exploring the diversity of America’s communities and landscapes, documenting quintessential American subjects—high school football players and the 2008 presidential inauguration—while also continuing to display America’s subcultures through formal portrait...
2021-05-2752 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCharlie Engman - On ContextGem Fletcher chats to Charlie Engman. Charlie originally trained as a movement artist as well as studying Japanese and Korean Studies before arriving at photography as a form of visual notation. Now working between commercial and fine art, he is focused on pushing the scope and visual possibility of the world around him. His first monograph, MOM, a collection of images of his mother made over the course of a decade, was recently published and explores ideas of categories, roles, power dynamics, performativity, the expectations and codes of society as well as the relationship they share as collaborators and...
2021-03-1845 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLesley A. Martin - On PublishingIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to Lesley A. Martin, creative director of Aperture. She has edited over one hundred books including collaborations with Zanele Muholi, La Toya Ruby Frazier, Richard Mosse, Hank Willis Thomas, Rinko Kawauchi, Antwaun Sargent, and Sara Cwynar to name just a few. She is also the publisher of The PhotoBook Review, a newsprint journal dedicated to the evolving conversation surrounding the photobook. Her writing on photography has been published in Aperture, Ojo de Pez, FOAM, and IMA magazine, among other publications, and in 2012, she co-founded the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards. She is currently a visiting...
2021-03-0444 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyEkow Eshun - On CurationIn this episode, Gem Fletcher chats to writer and curator Ekow Eshun. His writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Granta, Wired and Aperture. He is Chair of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, overseeing London’s most significant public art programme, and the former director of the ICA. In this conversation, we discuss how his upbringing in London informed his creative work. We discuss what he is looking for in emerging artists and his devotion to Black culture. We unpack his latest book Africa State of Mind that gathers tog...
2021-02-1838 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLaia Abril - On MethodologyGem chats to Laia Abril. Laia is a research-based artist working with photography, text, video and sound. She began her career at the iconic Colors Magazine, which left an indelible mark on how she thinks about process, authorship and collaboration. Now, her art practice is centred on creating a dialogue about hidden realities related to sexuality and gender inequality. In this episode, we talk about her long term project, A History of Misogyny. Chapter 1 - On Abortion is a gut-wrenching exploration of the repercussions of not having access to abortion and her latest chapter On R...
2021-02-051h 09
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyQuil Lemons - On CreativityGem chats to Quil Lemons, a New York-based artist who has really crafted a distinct visual language which interrogates ideas around masculinity, queerness, race and beauty. His first body of work ‘GlitterBoy’, a tender portrait series of Black men and boys adorned in glitter, examined the shifting notions of gender and beauty as they relate to masculinity in the black community. The project laid the foundation for his bold and daring work that straddles art and fashion.“I got into photography to preserve my existence, to document my family and what it means to be a black A...
2021-01-2153 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyFarah Al Qasimi - On DiscoveryGem chats to Farah Al Qasimi. While her primary line of inquiry examines postcolonial structures of power, gender and taste in the Gulf Arab states, what galvanises the work is her unique ability to embed meaning into visual aesthetics. Farah describes her aesthetic approach as 'so muchness'. Her frames overflow with a heady mix of print, objects and domestic interiors amplified by the tension between harsh lighting and an acidic colour palette. Together they transport us into her psyche, an intimate imagining of her world.In this conversation, we talk about her journey, her process and...
2021-01-0756 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on Photography2020 SpecialIn this special episode, Gem Fletcher celebrates some of the personal projects, assignments and exhibitions that have been her highlights from the year. Despite the tough reality of 2020, some incredible work has been made, published and exhibited, some of which Gem has already talked about this season and many more which will be discussed in Season 4 that kicks off in January 2021. In this episode, she is in conversation with Alona Pardo, Silvia Rosi, Maggie Shannon, Camila Falquez and Sarah Allen about the research, ideas and development that went into their projects. The work in this episode re...
2020-12-291h 26
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographySara Urbaez - On Photo EditingGem chats to Sara Urbaez, a photo editor with extensive experience in both brand and editorial spaces. Sara extensive career has seen her work in photo departments at Apple, Airbnb, Wired, Art+ Auction and Modern Painters.Motivated by photography’s long history of preventing cultures from representing themselves and the dire lack of diverse storytelling in the industry, Sara founded Listo – a platform devoted to dismantling colonial tendencies in photography. Listo is profoundly celebratory and thoughtful in its approach building curiosity through interviews, group shows and industry talks.In this conversation we talk abou...
2020-12-1041 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyDiana Markosian - On TransformationGem chats to Diana Markosian, known for her intimate approach to storytelling using photography and film. Her projects have taken her to some of the most remote corners of the world, where she has created work that is both conceptual and documentary. Her images can be found in publications like National Geographic Magazine, The New Yorker and The New York Times. She holds a Masters of Science from Columbia University in New York. In this conversation we talk about her journey, her process, what photography means to her and her first monograph Santa Barbara recently p...
2020-11-261h 01
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAnnie Collinge - On IdeasRecorded remotely on 16th October 2020, Gem chats to photographer Annie Collinge who moves between the world of art and fashion, creativity and commerce in a way that stays true to her ethos and intentions as a photographer. Based in London, she uses photography as a tool for transformation, for imagining a kind of illusion in the everyday. Encountering her work is to happen upon something miraculous unexpectedly - often a playful fantasy that is joyful yet carries a dark undertone. In this conversation Annie talks about the stories, objects and events in her life that i...
2020-11-1954 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyPhilip Montgomery - On Documentary Recorded remotely on 5th September 2020, Gem chats to photographer Philip Montgomery. Renown for his urgent documentary work that focuses on the American experience, his work examines the social issues of our time, utilising observational strategies of documentary and aesthetic approaches of fine art. Based in New York City, he is a graduate of the Photojournalism and Documentary Program at the International Center of Photography. His work been exhibited around the world and is included in the 2020 Foam Talent Exhibition in Berlin.In this Conversation, Philip shares his journey into the industry and how his i...
2020-10-2255 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyDavid Brandon Geeting - On Process Recorded remotely on 4th September 2020, Gem chats to photographer David Brandon Geeting, a photographer renown for his disruptive approach to still life and visual aesthetics. Masterfully playing with ideas of taste, worth, reality and truth, David challenges our expectations of photography, especially those within the commercial and editorial space. David's 2019 monograph Neighbourhood Stroll is a collection of photographs taken outside in his neighbourhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Void of humans, the work dissects what they’ve left behind, and feels more post-apocalyptic than it does present-day. His work has been published in two other monographs including Infinite Power (2015), a wh...
2020-10-0848 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyDr Jennifer Good - On EthicsRecorded remotely on 7th September 2020, Gem Fletcher chats to Dr Jennifer Good, writer, researcher and educator. Known for her fascinating research on the relationship between photography and trauma. She has written several books and writes for a variety of photography magazines and journals. As the Joint Course Leader on the BA & MA Photojournalism and Documentary course at the London College of Communication, Jen works closely with students on discovering and honing personal ethics through deeply interrogating their own views, politics and experiences, both conscious and subconscious which then in turn informs the work they make.In...
2020-09-2448 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCarmen Winant - On LiberationRecorded remotely on 26th July 2020, Gem Fletcher chats with renowned artist, writer and educator Carmen Winant. Her expansive art practice uses text and image to question the patriarchal framework that surrounds women’s bodies. She confronts, unveils and reimagines within her practice to empower agency and liberation. Through the collection and aggregation of found imagery, she examines the limitations of photography to transmute the human experience in all its complexity. My birth, her renowned work that constitutes 2000 images from books, pamphlets and magazines about birth was selected for MOMA's New Photography exhibition in 2018. Carmen also published an evolution of th...
2020-08-271h 03
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyChristopher Anderson - On Evolution Recorded remotely on 24th April 2020 during lockdown, Gem chats to renowned photographer Christopher Anderson, who continues to have a fascinating journey through the industry. He’s created world-renowned photojournalism, some of the most disarming magazine covers of the last two decades as well as a series of fascinating photo books about a range of different subjects from his children to documenting the NYPD in the wake of 9/11. He first gained recognition for his pictures in 1999 when he boarded a handmade, wooden boat with Haitian refugees trying to sail to America. The boat named the Believe In God, san...
2020-08-061h 01
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAlec Soth - On PortraitureRecorded remotely on 9th April 2020 during lockdown, Gem chats to renowned photographer Alec Soth, best known for his iconic work Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004). A series of 47 images of people and places which evolved from road trips along the Mississippi River. The project brings together Alec’s documentary style and poetic sensibility capturing the spirit of the community he encountered. 16 years on and he is one of the most celebrated image-makers of our time. He went on to publish over twenty-five books including NIAGARA (2006), Broken Manual (2010), Songbook (2015) and I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating (2019). He has had over fift...
2020-07-2347 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyShaniqwa Jarvis - On StorytellingRecorded remotely on 31st May 2020 during lockdown, Gem chats to leading photographer and artist Shaniqwa Jarvis, best known for her fusion of modern fashion aesthetics with sensitive and emotional portraiture. Her approach captures vivid reality across a wide range of subjects, each frame imbued with profound optimism. In this conversation, we explore how Shaniqwa found photography, how she entered the creative industry at the turn of the century and all she had to overcome to be the iconic artist she is today. She pressed on through an industry that still to this day is rife with s...
2020-07-091h 00
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyGeorgie Wileman - On EmotionGeorgie Wileman is a portrait and Documentary photographer focusing on social injustice. Her work highlights our internalised lives, the struggles we live with mentally, physically and emotionally.What may appear dark at first glance is more about enlightenment. Georgie’s photography seeks to educate audiences on urgent human struggles that often go unseen, while in turn enabling her subjects to feel validated in their suffering.Gem Fletcher talks to Georgie Wileman about her process and what it takes to capture such vivid emotions.@georgiewilemangeorgiewileman.co...
2020-06-2539 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyMicaiah Carter - On CollaborationMicaiah Carter's stylised photographs have graced magazines, screens and billboards capturing icons, past and present with his unique blend of 90’s maximalism and 70’s hues.He is clear about his intentions as an image-maker – wanting the work to be a quality platform for the representation of people of colour that hasn’t been seen before. What I love about his photographs is how they emanate a powerful hybrid of joy and resilience.Gem Fletcher chats to Micaiah Carter about collaboration, identity and popular culture.This conversation was recorded in November 2019.ht...
2020-06-2248 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLeonard Suryajaya - on ResilienceLeonard Suryajaya uses his work to speak profoundly to the challenges of being an outsider, and the deep complexity of navigating identities. He embeds his life experiences into every facet of his work, testing the boundaries of intimacy, community and identity. His subjects, often family, friends and lovers, work in a kind of absurd theatre within the frame.Viewing Suryajaya’s work is an emotional experience. The photographs are disarming, intense and even over stimulating at times. The chaos he conjures feels entirely appropriate for our times. As our world continues to be in flux, his im...
2020-05-2137 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyArielle Bobb-Willis - On AdversityBorn and raised in New York City, with pit stops in South Carolina and New Orleans, photographer Arielle Bobb-Willis has been using the camera for nearly a decade as a tool of empowerment. Battling with depression from an early age, Bobb-Willis found solace behind the lens and has developed a visual language that speaks to the complexities of life: the beautiful, the strange, belonging, isolation, and connection. Inspired by masters like Jacob Lawrence and Benny Andrews, Bobb-Willis applies a ‘painterly’ touch to her photography by documenting people in compromising and disjointed positions as to highlight these complexities.To...
2020-05-0735 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyEva O'Leary - On ProcessEva O’Leary has been producing photographs in and around her hometown of Central Pennsylvania, ironically nicknamed Happy Valley. Gaining access to college parties, dorm rooms, and proms and other social spaces of those in the midst of pivotal coming of age moments, O’Leary examines individual vulnerability in these transitional times. Her work explores intimate moments to deftly confront power dynamics as it falls along gendered lines, especially within the lives of adolescents.Eva’s work navigates structural and social systems that perpetuate ideologies of fantasy, power and control within American society, specifically focused on the im...
2020-04-2345 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyChris Maggio - On InterventionChris Maggio is a photographer living in NYC with 8.6 million of his closest friends. Often exploring the quotidian details of American cities and their tourism, his documentary practice sits at the intersection of both observational and staged photography.He examines the humanity and hidden complexities of humour in everyday life. His hybrid practice crosses documentary, fashion, portraiture all laced with his signature intervention. While his work feels loose and organic, every inch of the frame is deeply considered. He’s interested in challenging truth in a playful yet profound way.Gem Fletcher talks to...
2020-04-0936 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyDevyn Galindo - On ActivismDevyn Galindo is fearlessly nomadic, honest and observant, with an eye toward the gently radical. Having grown up between California and Texas, she between Los Angeles and New York, keeping time to explore and the South.Devyn documents the lives of her friends emerging from the Chicanx scene in Los Angeles. Exploring her own identity as a queer artist during the current political climate has become an obsession that led to their first publication, We Are Still Here, which launched in November 2016.Devyn Galindo talks to Gem Fletcher about representation, activism, motivation and the r...
2020-03-2621 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAntwaun Sargent - On RepresentationAntuwan Sargent is an art critic, writer and curator. He has contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, and more, as well as essays to multiple museum publications. His first book, “The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion” (Aperture) is out now. In the book, Antwaun addresses a radical transformation taking place in fashion and art today. The presentation of black figures and black runway and cover models in the media and art has been one marker of increasingly inclusive fashion and art communities. More critically, however, the contemporary visual vocabulary around and the body has be...
2020-02-2040 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyMichelle Groskopf - On VulnerabilityMichelle Groskopf is a street and editorial photographer based in Los Angeles. Her street photography has been exhibited around the world, including Korea, London, NY and LA, and has been featured in the New Yorker’s photo booth, Creative Review, Lenscratch, The British Journal of Photography, Ain’t Bad and more.Her client list includes The NY Times, Apple, New York Magazine, California Sunday, Wired, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek and Refinery29.Michelle Groskopf talks to Gem Fletcher about vulnerability, taking risks, the new wave of street photographers and how she navigates the challenges of edit...
2020-02-0634 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyKimberly Drew - On AccessibilityKimberly Drew is a writer, curator, and activist. She received her B.A. Smith College in Art History and African-American Studies. She first experienced the art world as an intern in the Director’s Office of The Studio Museum in Harlem. Her time at the Studio Museum inspired her to start the Tumblr blog Black Contemporary Art, sparking her interest in social media. Her writing has appeared in Vogue, Glamour, W, Teen Vogue, and Lenny Letter and she has executed Instagram takeovers for Prada, The White House, and Instagram. Drew recently left her role as the So...
2020-01-2346 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyPrarthna Singh - On LocationPrarthna Singh's work explores female identity in contemporary India, within the intersection of gender and nation. Particularly drawn to stories that stand at the conflux of radical vulnerability and power; her images highlight India’s transition and contrast while exploring a dual dichotomy between feminine identity and strength. These female narratives are constructed within India’s own traditions, poised between fragility and abundance. After completing her BFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, Prarthna lived and worked in New York. Returning to India was a deliberate decision; she is currently based out of Bombay.Pr...
2020-01-0944 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCharlotte Jansen - On GazeCharlotte Jansen is a British Sri Lankan author and arts and culture journalist. Since 2015, she has held the position of Editor-at-Large at Elephant magazine. She has written for The Guardian, The Financial Times, ELLE UK, Vice, The British Journal of Photography and Wallpaper*, among others. In 2017, she published her first book, Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze. The critically-acclaimed publication will be released as a paperback edition in Autumn 2019. She is also a contributing author on the painter Lucy Jones (Elephant Publishing, May 2019) and the artist Mary McCartney (Paris Nude, Heni, February 2019).
2019-07-2534 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAlys Tomlinson - On AwardsAlys Tomlinson grew up in Brighton, UK and studied photography at Central Saint Martins. She recently completed an MA in Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. Her projects are often research-led and she is most interested in the relationship between people and place, exploring themes of environment, belonging and identity.Her major body of work ‘Ex-Voto’ (2016-2018) explores Christian pilgrimage sites in Lourdes (France), Ballyvourney (Ireland) and Grabarka (Poland). Often placed anonymously and hidden from view, ex-voto are left by pilgrims as expressions of hope and gratitude, creating a tangible narrative between faith, person and the landscap...
2019-07-1142 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyLydia Pang - On CommissioningAfter eight years in London including a five-year stint at M&C Saatchi and time with Anomaly, Lydia Pang moved to New York and now works as a Creative Director for Refinery29. She defines herself as a Frankenstein Creative, born out of an international outlook and the changing industry - the job she has created for herself is made up of many roles. She has made it her mission to support new voices and given many photographers their first big job. She’s an advocate for constant learning, discovery and evolution no matter where you are in your career an...
2019-06-2750 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyJack Davison & Agnes Lloyd-Platt - On FeedbackJack Davison studied English Literature at Warwick University but spent most of the time experimenting with cameras. Since the age of 14 he has continuously photographed those around him. He lives in London and works for numerous publications including New York Times Magazine, M Le Monde, Luncheon, Double & British Vogue, but spends most of his time shooting for his on-going personal work. He had his first solo exhibition, Revisiting Pictures, at the Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam in 2016.Agnes Lloyd-Platt is a fashion and beauty photographer and her work is characterised by positivity, colour, character and a graphic sensibility. Touch...
2019-06-1338 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCampbell Addy - On VisionCampbell Addy is a London based photographer & filmmaker. His work is narrative and emotional in nature, with a focus on a unique casting and under-represented faces. In addition to his photographic and directorial career Campbell has launched Nii Journal, a biannual arts and culture publication as well as Nii Agency, a modelling agency dedicated to representing interesting faces and celebrating diversity."I think my generation struggles because no one posts their fails. It’s vital to keep your head in the game, keep your blinders on and stay focused."Campbell Addy talks to Ge...
2019-05-3043 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAlexander Coggin - On Authorship American Photographer Alexander Coggin has an extraordinary eye for the unusual, the unexpected and the unlikely. A trained actor, his theatrical education influences his image-making – championing character and blurring the space between perception and reality. “We all have within us the capability to make work that is very specific to our value systems, our upbringing, our visual references, our interests and desires, and if you really pay attention to yourself, you will make work that looks like nobody else’s.”Alexander Coggin talks to Gem Fletcher about his autodidactic pathway to photography and the import...
2019-05-151h 02
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyAlice Mann - On GazeBorn in Cape Town, South Africa in 1991, Alice Mann is a South African photographic artist based in London who’s intimate portraiture essays explore notions of picture making as an act of collaboration. She aims to create images that empower her subjects and creates projects over extended periods, which enables her to create images that allow for engaged and nuanced representations.“I’m interested in working more to collaborate with my subjects than narrate their stories.”Alice Mann talks to Gem Fletcher about her powerful project 'Drummies' and how she navigates her responsibility as an im...
2019-05-0128 min
The Messy Truth - Conversations on PhotographyCatherine Hyland - On AssistingCatherine Hyland is a photographer living and working in London. Her photography centres around people and their connection to the land they inhabit. Primarily landscape based, her work is rooted in notions of fabricated memory, grids, enclosures and national identity. Her work highlights humanity’s attempts to tame and transform nature, both past and present.“Even now I much prefer to be the student than the teacher. I have such a thirst to learn”Cat talks to Gem Fletcher about her development as an artist and how she fed her constant desire to learn...
2019-04-0840 min