In the spirit of aiming to create news articles with substance and not just a collection of thumbs, this month's PhotoLust news article contains interviews with PhotoLust's Unknown Photographers during the month of October.

Enjoy reading about the inspiration and approach to art of five very different photographers...



Wraithcat

How long have you been taking photographs for?
I started photographing about two years ago when I got into an art school. Though only during the last year I've started taking it more seriously.

What is your favourite subject matter?
I like to use people in my photographs. Emotions and atmosphere are important to me and if I succeed in taking a photo that mediates them, it's great. Also different kind of light and colours are always a fascinating subject.

What inspires you?
Other photographers mostly. I love to see unique photographers that have their own particular style to take pictures. Everyday stuff can also be really inspiring, all the little details you find from your environment, people, a special lighting somewhere or weather. So, life in general I guess.

What equipment do you use?
Most of the older photos in my gallery are taken with Canon PowerShot A620, but now I also have Canon EOS 350D.





PhilipLim

How long have you been taking photographs for?
I have always been near a camera or at least near the photographic process. My father had just opened a photographic studio in the British crown colony of Mauritius one year before I was born. My parents had escaped from famine in China as well as from the Japanese invaders in 1937! We were living on the premises. I have a very vague recollection of living in the glass ceilinged natural light studio. My mother used to hide the bedding in a cabinet during the day. My mother told me about a very early incident concerning my father and the photography business. One evening, my father was busy retouching a glass plate negative. I was in my mother's arms. I was very curious and wanted to know what he was doing with his easel-like contraption. When my mother approached my father to tell him something, I suddenly found myself within reach of the contraption. I reached out and pulled the whole thing towards me. Bang! The whole thing collapsed; the supporting glass plate and the electric bulb exploded into hundreds of shards while the glass plate negative fell to the concrete floor! I don't remember any scolding from my father!
Some months later, I was intrigued by a nearby table on which was placed an accordion-bellow camera, probably left in my father's care for repairs. I don't know what got into me! I took it and placed it in the water-rinse where hundreds of photos were being washed!. The folding camera floated for a while before sinking to the bottom!
Much later, when I was about six years old, I entered a special dry darkroom where there were dozens of boxes on a shelf. I opened a few of them. There were glass plates in them but they did not look like those my father used when he was retouching There was a kind of milky emulsion on one side of each glass plate! Later, I learnt that I had a fogged a few days of my father's work. Those glass plates were exposed, the images still latent and awaiting processing!
As you see, though I was born in a photographic studio, nothing at that time predicted a photographic careeer!
I took my first picture with a Kodak box camera when I was nine years old. When I was thirteen years old, I started taking pictures with my father's IIIf Leica. But what interested me more was the black and white darkroom where images appeared magically. Later on, I played a bit with a Linhof Technika III 4X5 camera. I learnt about lens-mount rises and swings etc. I became familiar with the photographic process.
In 1957 my father sent me to study in China. I had a Leica M3 and had access to the school's darkroom but I did not take a single artistic picture during the entire 4 year stay. I suppose that we were so engrossed in the Socialist dogma that all artistic thoughts and concepts were repressed!

What is your favourite subject matter?
My favourite subject matters are lanscapes and portraits. Lately, I kept finding myself more and more attracted towards the people and their drama.

What inspires you?
The whole gamut of human emotions is very inspirational to me!

What equipment do you use?
I used to utilize a Leica M2, a Rolleiflex fitted with an 80 mm Planar lens and a Hasselblad fitted with a 150 mm Sonnar lens.
Some 2 years ago I entered the digital realm at first with a Canon S50 5 megapixels cameca. Soon afterwatds, I bought a Konica-Minolda Dimage A200 fitted with a 28 to 200 lens. This camera had an image stabilizer in it and I could take handheld pictures at 1/4 of a second!
I find that the camera is not really important. It is the person holding the camera that is more important! On seing my pictures, people and friends ask me tthe following question: "Did you use a silver-based camera or a digital one? "I used my heart!" was my reply.





Dunuo-Coeptus

How long have you been taking photographs for?
Ive been somewhat into photography for 3 or 4 years, but have taken it seriously for about a year now. I've freelanced here and there, but work right now for a University Newspaper.

What is your favourite subject matter?
Stylewise, Im definitely leaning towards photojournalism. "Art" photography doesnt appeal to me much, or at least, I havent found any inspiration there. There are definitely some great people out there, but theres also alot of crap. To me photojournalism is truth. It transcends the medium of a simple photo. A great photo is more than just pixels or chemicals and paper, whether it be a moment of life from the street, an event, a war, a wedding . . . whatever.

What inspires you?
I guess inspiration comes from a few places. Probably the biggest for me is looking at other photography. Looking at work from the greats, the HCB's, Capas, Smiths, Salgados, Nachtweys etc, it expands my mind. I see these great photos and put myself in the frame, see where I would have been, what I would have done. Every time I pick up a camera I try to do better. The other source, is just taking a walk. Probably sounds corny, but walking around is where photos happen. I aspire to travel, but just so I can walk around new places. And coffee. Thats a big part too. There are just so many photos out there we have to try harder to do something meaningful with them. If even one of my frames makes someone look twice I consider it a sucess. If I get payed, thats nice too.

What equipment do you use?
I use big expensive digital crap for work but I dont own any of it. I shoot film for myself. Ive got a canonet which I love, but just got replaced by a Leica M which should be flying to me at this minute. And a nikon F3 which gets kicked around. Its my bad weather camera. I have a D50, but I never really use it any more. Digi is nice, but it just feels empty somehow. Its inexplainable. For me shooting film is like the photography version of listening to vinyl.





OceanKiss20

How long have you been taking photographs for?
I used to take them when I was little all the time but it was never anything serious just something fun to do. I started taking it seriously about four years ago.

What is your favourite subject matter?
Definately people. No matter how many times you photograph one person you will never be able to capture everything there is to know about them.

What inspires you?
Emotions and inanimate objects inspire some of my concepts but I'd have to say that mostly music inspires me. I'll hear a certain song a picture images in my head that go with it.

What equipment do you use?
I am what you would call a starving artist and don't have enough money to purchase my own equipment. However, the career school I attend does have some very nice cameras and lighting set-ups to use. Lately I've been using a Canon 10D but I've also used a EOS Rebel and I am in love with them both.





WinterRose31

How long have you been taking photographs for?
I've been interested in photography since I got my first camera for my 14th birthday. With the cost of film and developing, I was limited on the amount of pictures I could take or the amount of experimenting I could do. Last June, I got my digital camera and now I feel free to try different ideas whenever I think of them.

What is your favourite subject matter?
People. I love taking pictures of kids mainly, because they're so much more open and natural.

What inspires you? Other people on DA.
I love just browsing through the photographs on here. It makes me want to pick up my camera and start shooting.

What equipment do you use?
My Kodak Easyshare camera and occasionally my tripod. I hope eventually to get a better camera, preferably a DSLR, but for now my Kodak works well for me.