Process 022 ☼ My 2021 Goal for Process + Your Favorite Hometown Photographers.
Giveaway: Jake Wangner's new book "alone, together"
Dear friends,
Today’s letter is a two-parter. I’ll start off by sharing my goal and hope for Process in 2021. Then I pass the mic to you, the Process community, and share your answers to last issues question: Which photographer has best documented your city?
For this week’s giveaway we have a special one. Friend of Process Jake Wangner returns with his new photography and poetry book “alone, together”.
PS This is an unusually long email due to the photos included, so your email program might cut it off. You can always see the full newsletter here if that is the case.
My Goal for Process in 2021
Starting Process was one of my favorite things about 2020. My original goal was to create a better and slower place to share my work, behind-the-scenes stories, and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. Little did I know it would turn out to be so much richer of an experience.
I had not foreseen that there would be so many thoughtful interactions with you, all of you equally passionate and curious about our beautiful craft. I had not anticipated being sent your zines and prints with notes referring back to Process as a (partial) inspiration for starting or completing a project. Thank you!
In the middle of a pandemic where we’re (hopefully) all being careful about meeting new people and being out in the world, it’s been a blessing to create a community with you, based around something we love and care about. This brings me to my goal for Process in 2021:
Inspire 1000 photographers to create a project that they’re proud of.
What kind of project? It can be anything from a zine to a self-assigned photo essay, a portrait series about your friends, your first small exhibit, an interview, a new portfolio, anything goes. As long as it’s a photo project you’re proud of.
Why 1000? Because it’s an absurd number and we live in absurd times so we might as well flip that into a positive and use our craft to grow and tell stories. (At the same time, there are almost 3000 of us in the Process community now. We can do this!)
What happens with these projects? At the end of 2021, I will curate a selection of projects from the Process community and highlight some of my favorites. I’m not exactly sure yet what this will look like. Maybe it’ll live online, maybe it’s a zine, we’ll see! There will be a prize for my top favorite project. Not sure yet what but it’ll be good and we have a year to figure it out.
In the mean time, if you’ve been inspired to start (or finish) a project by reading Process, let me know! Write me at hello@wesley.co, subject line “2021 Project”.
Your Favorite Hometown Photographers
Last week I asked you to share the name of a photographer who best documented your city and wow you came through! The list of names was long and wonderful, spanning many regions and eras.
Thanks to you I discovered a lot of amazing work that I wasn’t familiar with so it was only right that I compile a list to share with the entire Process community. In no order in particular:
New York City, USA
Andre D. Wagner (link)
Also mentioned: Daniel Arnold (link), Sylvia Plachy (link), Gordon Parks (link), Ruddy Roye (link), Donato DiCamillo (link), and Jamel Shabazz (link).
Cincinnati, USA
Frank Young (link)
Toronto, Canada
Avard Woolaver (link) and Philip Lee (link)
Cork City, Ireland
Kevin O'Farrell (link).
Process reader Niall O’Donovan shares: “The photographer I would like to bring to light is Kevin O'Farrell (link). He is a documentary photographer who lived and worked in Ireland. I grew up in Cork City, in the south of Ireland. Around 1992 when I left Ireland, O'Farrell made a incredible document showing the north side of Cork City, with it's desolate working-class neighbourhoods, where a large percentage of the people living were also unemployed.”
Charlottesville, USA
Ed Roseberry (link) and Eze Amos (link)
Birmingham, UK
Vanley Burke (link)
San Francisco, USA
Fred Lyon (link) and Troy Holden (link)
Los Angeles, USA
Texas Isaiah (link) and Gabriella Angotti-Jones (link)
Qatif/Damman, Saudi Arabia
Tasneem Al Sultan (link)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Horacio Coppola (link)
Barcelona, Spain
Francesc Català-Roca (link)
Nova Scotia and Edmonton, Canada
Matt Williams (link) and Mark Webber (link)
Vigo, Spain
Manuel García Castro aka Magar (link)
Vienna, Austria
Emil Mayer (link) (online photo book)
Process reader Bernhard Neumüller shares: ”Emil Mayer’s life tells a truly tragic and unknown story. Emil Mayer was part Jewish and died in June 1938 by commiting suicide along with his wife. Soon afterwards the Gestapo entered his apartment and basically destroyed his entire collection of photographs. Considering that most of his work was destroyed I think he could have been one of the greatest photographers ever to live. He also was a master Printer and even wrote a manual about the bromoil process, perfected it in his own way and was one of the greatest European Bromoilists at that time.”
Leiden and Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Sjoep de Jong (link) and Julie Hrudová (link)
Boston, USA
Brian McWilliams (link)
Mantova and Gonzaga, Italy
Luigi Ghirri (link) and Arrigo Giovannini (link)
Tokyo, Japan
Daido Moriyama (link)
Portsmouth, UK
Karl Bailey (link)
Devon, UK
Siân Davey (link)
Detroit, USA
Bill Rauhauser (link)
Moscow, Russia
Zalman Shklyar (link)
Newcastle -Upon-Tyne
Tish Murtha (link)
That’s it for this week. In next week’s issue I will share a body of work that I made inside of the Tokyo subway system during a three month period in 2019. It’s a project that taught me how to take photos without being able to see what I was doing.
Keep shooting and take good care of yourselves and others.
Wesley
Process Giveaway!
Way back in September of 2020, which feels about 6 years ago, my friend Jake Wangner was the first ever featured artist in a Process Giveaway. Today he returns with his beautiful photography and poetry book “alone, together”, which one of you gets to win.
To enter email me at hello@wesley.co (please don’t reply to this note but send a separate email) before 11pm EST on January 20th and answer the following question:
On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy using Instagram at the moment, and why? (1 = bad, 10 = good)
One winner will be randomly drawn and notified. This giveaway is for Process subscribers only. Subscribe by clicking the button below:
Make sure to show Jake some love on Instagram and check out his online shop.
Would you like to support Process? Great! Tell your friends about it. Just click below:
If you’re a new reader, browse the Process archives here.
Process is a weekly letter from Wesley Verhoeve.
Follow along at @wesley.
Happy birthday (week) Wesley! I found this Process strolling through your archives after being inspired by your latest Process "top 6". This one is full of new (to me) photographers, but also a reminder and encouragement for me to keep photographing my small town here in Sweden. I often long for more urban life having grown up in California and having lived in London, but I am realizing that there aren't many people documenting the town I do live in. I'm currently putting a zine together with photos solely from my adopted hometown, Örkelljunga.