ETWM INTERVIEW NO. 2 : JOEL TETTAMANTI
Joel Tettamanti is a photographer from Switzerland who travels a lot. In fact he did this interview from a plane.
Where in the world are you now?
I am in a plane back from Xiamen China heading to Amsterdam. On the screen, I can see that I am above the Oural mountains. Chelyabinsk is the city under…
Where would you be if cost and logistics weren’t an issue?
Of course, like mostly all photographers / artists / creative people. I always struggle with costs matters and logistics. But they are not a real problem for me, as I have to be flexible and change my agenda all the time.
I am very often “on the road”, so there is no real need for me to be in a fix place, I could live in another place than Switzerland, the logistic changes wouldn’t be huge.
But, I must admit, that I would love to live in Budapest or San Francisco one day.
You’re clearly drawn to making photographs of landscapes and architecture, not that you’re exclusively a landscape photographer, but what draws you to photographing the inanimate and would you say you prefer it to human subject matter?
Yes, you are right. I am very much interested in the not moving. I shoot people a bit like objects or buildings. Maybe it’s linked to my technique (a large format analog camera) or to my attitude. Probably both. For many years, I was avoiding any contact with the people (regarding pictures). Tried to be strongly focused on the “built” things.
Now, I have evolved a bit. I shoot more and more people. Like in my latest works in Nepal or Bangladesh for example .
But finally, shooting portraits tells you a lot about places. Some are easy for shooting portraits / people and some places are not.
That’s the kind of analyses that I like to make. The attitude of the people is not the same everywhere in the world, their relationship with the pictures, the portraits, the pose, the use, the copyrights… is constantly different.
Travelling is clearly very important to you, what draws you to making work in other countries?
I grew up in travelling. My parents have spent many years in Africa, where I was born and grew up for a while. It is a kind of natural thing to me to travel. To discover the world. Actually, I believe that I studied this kind of job because it was just logical to me. I owe a lot to my parents, they have showed me something strong, they always told me that there is another world, that the far and the local can be interesting.
Are you making these photographs to show others, or is there a more personal need to comment on the places you visit?
My kind of “object museum” project is first of all personal. I travel / shoot here and there to bring something back, as I can’t bring back home a real landscape in Greenland, a house in Japan, a bridge in Bangladesh or a cowboy from Wyoming…
But of course, if there was no public for that, I d maybe be a bit more lazy. The assignment, the job is something very motivating.It can be for for a show or a publication. I do actually need that input to give me the first kick. But once I am on the site, I clearly produce my own work, without any compromise. Same technique, same attitude, same passion…
I don’t know if I am the right person to give explanations or comments about the images. The facts can be explained. Like for whom I did it (assignment or personal), what were the conditions, the problems that occurred, the good and the bad things that happened, etc.
There is a fascinating photograph of you in your ‘contact’ section wielding what appears to be a large format field camera, with a flash mounted on your head and two large reflectors hanging from your rucksack. Could you tell us anything about this set up and how this photograph came about?
Haha!
This image is pure fiction. It’s a friend Tomas Rousset who made it. He did all the concept and set up. The camera is similar to what I use, but it’s not mine, and the lightning are not how I use them. He did these pictures for the Swiss bakers that wanted to say thank you to 100 swiss people. I was a kind of surprised being part of it, as my bank account is pretty low…
What project(s) are you currently working on?
I have been working on many projects. I travelled sooo much recently.
But I hope that my work is clear enough to show that I have one goal, one quest… and that I pretty much never changed it since 12 years now.
Who or what is inspiring you at the moment?
The world
What does this year have in store for you?
My way of living is without any plan. I am free and can go here and there any time. I just hope that I can go surfing this summer.
Excuse me, but I can’t give a proper answer to your question, as I simply don’t know where I ll be next week.
Your ultimate survival tool?I don’t have any.
Samuel Bradley picked up a job for Who’s Jack,shooting a editorial on Sadie Frost and he got me on-board to lend a hand. This was a good few months ago and I haven’t heard if it’s been released or not but enjoy.
Client- Who’s Jack
Photographer- Samuel Bradley
Digital Operator/Assistant- Daniel Cope
Location- Primrose Hill
This is available to order here. Thanks to Dan for assisting me. Sadie was awesome, I would have loved to have worked with her back in the day. The woman knows how to respond to a camera.
I’ve been working on a new project for the past few months. Busting my foot and being on crutches put it on hold for a while but I’m back on it now. I look forward to showing more of the photographs.
SUBMISSIONS
We are now accepting submissions for Volume 2 as well as for upcoming projects we’ll be working on. We ask only that you consider the style of our blog and the kind of photographs we post and have printed in our first release before sending work.
You can submit here in the new flickr group or via email.
Please send jpegs at no larger than 700px width and 72dpi to
stryder@escapetowhichmountain.com
We will respond as soon as possible.
Please share this with anyone you think may be interested.
(Above photograph by Rick Anderson who’s work you can see in ETWM VOLUME 1)
E.T.W.M. Volume 1 is now available.
Presenting the very first publication from ‘Escape To Which Mountain?’ Available now in our WEB STORE.
Containing work by
ALEX CATT
ANTHONY MILLS
JAMES. J. GARDINER
JAMES RAWLINGS
JOSH GREET
LEO COX
RICK ANDERSON
SAMUEL BRADLEY
SAM. A. HARRIS+ texts
Each copy is checked, enclosed within a small individual hand made dust jacket and then hand stamped with the volume number written in.
Shipped in sturdy brown, card-backed envelopes worldwide.£10.00 + shipping (costs vary depending on destination)
A5 PORTRAIT
76 PAGES
FULL COLOUR
140gsm UNCOATED OFF WHITE RECYCLED COVER
STAPLE BOUND
I put a lot of work into this project which has been in the making for a while now. You can now purchase it. Some great people have put their time and effort in and it’s full of amazing work. Go and follow the blog for more updates and pictures and please reblog.
198d:
I recently put together a zine featuring students work from my course at Brighton University to raise funds for our degree show in June.
A5, 36 page full colour zine, printed on off white recycled stock. Featuring the work of 33 different artists, including new work from me, Alex Catt and Harry Mitchell.
It’s available to buy here. Do us a favour and pick one up! Any re-blogs would be greatly appreciated.
If anyone would be kind enough to buy one of these zines you would be helping us out greatly! / reblog, yo
Help these guys raise some money for their exhibition!
Taylor S/S12 basic black pullover hood
Photography - Samuel Bradley
Styling - Becca Allen
Quick blog update, here’s some work I did for Taylor SS12, follow their tumblr for interesting daily fashion bits and bobs. I’ll put up a post with more photos and perhaps a small write up soon. I also shot the new Canterbury album artwork yesterday which is looking pretty dam cool, and this week I’ll be shooting Ghost Poet for IDOL magazine which will be awesome. The guy is one of the coolest looking people I’ve ever seen and makes really really good music.
Other stuff coming up includes the new Broken Teeth Range, a brand new publication with my work in coming out this weekend, plus I just started interning at MACK books, helping out with all things Steidl, Mack and Map. I’ll be there for a little while until I can no longer afford the luxury of interning and have to fill my days with more financially viable ventures.
Finally I’ve been on crutches for the past 3-4 weeks now, still working hard but having a bit of a tough time of it, but I’m healing up nicely and soon I might even be able to get on a skateboard again. Okay perhaps not soon, maybe a little longer to go before that can happen. But I’m mobile enough to continue with a bit of personal work I’ve been doing to round off my degree (I graduate in a couple of months) which involves antique guns, deer and the odd bit of tweed. In a couple of weeks I might start posting up some scans.
In conclusion I’m very busy but in high spirits. I felt I needed to put out a slightly longer blog post to combat the endless cat slideshow that is tumblr, perhaps you’ll be so baffled by such a lengthy ream of text, you’ll be tricked into reading it. Back to work, thanks for listening and following.
(Source: blog.samuelbradley.com)
Hello everyone. The first volume of Escape To Which Mountain is currently being printed and will be on sale soon. Copies will be £10 + shipping and contain 78 pages of photography, illustration and some writing for good measure. We will inform you when you can order a copy. Happy Trails!
If you missed out on a copy of my last zine, then please get one of these, in fact get on anyway. I have a small body of work in it and a lot of wonderful people have contributed their time and effort to this publication, I can’t wait to see it in physical form.
TERRI FOR TAYLOR