Brenda Milis began working with photography as an art historian, receiving her B.A. at UC Berkeley and studying photo history on fellowship in the graduate division of Northwestern University. Getting her start in photo editing at Jane magazine, Brenda eventually helped launch Style.com, then moved to Santa Fe, NM to work as a photo editor at Outside magazine. She is currently the Director of Photography at Men’s Health magazine. Shoots she has produced have won various awards and been featured in American Photography, SPD and the PDN photo annual.
Brenda Milis, Director of Photography, Men's Health/Photo by Ayla Christman
Reuel Golden: Describe your typical working day.
Brenda Milis: I am a fanatical list maker and it helps me keep all the elements of my day running smoothly because I work on a lot of different projects every day. To give a quick overview, a typical day at work for me consists of making art plans (concepting and then deciding on appropriate photographer to shoot concept); working on budgets, asking editors for stories/articles I really need more information on; a lot of back and forth with publicists vis a vis celebrity shoot dates, concepts and photographer approval; working closely with both my photo department and the art department; looking at as much photography in as many places as possible.
RG: How do you come up with the photography concepts for the stories that appear in Men’s Health? How do you plan the issue? [click to continue…]
Mike Davis is a freelance photo editor with a resume that reads as a list of photographer dream jobs; National Geographic, The White House, The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. Now as an independent photo editor, Davis offers his services to photographers, publications and organizations. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us. This is part one of our interview, check in tomorrow for the second installment.
Johnny Simon: Describe what your history as a photo editor.
Mike Davis: Oh boy, I’ve worked in the some of the best places, most recently at the Oregonian here in Portland. Before then as the White House picture editor, not to mention Copley Newspapers in Northern Illinois where we won 29 awards in one year, including first and second place newspaper photography of the year in both editing and shooting awards. A magical environment. I’ve been a design director at the Detroit Free-Press and a picture editor at National Geographic Magazine and the Albuquerque Tribune when it was winning Best Use of Photography of the Year. I’ve been lucky. Virtually everywhere I’ve worked was among the best in the country for photography. [click to continue…]
Yesterday we published the first half of our interview with Andrew Spear, a young and promising freelance photographer who shoots regularly for publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, despite still being a college student living in a rural college town. As learned from yesterday, his remote location has been more of a benefit than a hindrance. [click to continue…]
Andrew Spear is a freelance photographer living in Southeast Ohio. What’s intriguing is without any sort of internship , Andrew has already established himself in a crowded industry, all while still being a full time student. At only 21 years old and a month from graduating from the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University, he’s already photographed assignments for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and AARP Bulletin. He was kind of enough to answer some questions about the work he does and how being a successful photographer is about being close to where the pictures, not the publications are. Here is part 1 of our interview, check in tomorrow for the second half. [click to continue…]
Becoming a better photographer can be as simple as being one’s self. Bryan Derballa, a New York photographer by way of California and North Carolina, is just that. His blog Lovebryan, is a collaborative project that he uses to bridge the gap between his new home Brooklyn, and his previous ones. The best part is that it’s rarely about the photography. Instead, it touches on the important things that lie in front of the lens, not behind it. Bryan was kind enough to answer some questions for us about where Lovebryan came from, it’s purpose and his own feelings on collaboration.
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© Noah Devereaux
Noah Devereaux, a Brooklyn based freelance photographer, has been walking the streets, iPhone in hand, with the intent to “capture the colors, forms, details, and textures that come together to make New York City” A former daily photojournalist, Devereaux keeps his daily visual journal, Phone It In, full of fun, colorful snippets that showcase the everyday beauty of New York City. We at The Photoletarait had some questions about his work and he was more than happy to answer them [click to continue…]
In early December, Brigham Young University photography student J. Michael Wiltbank put up his photography show, pairing “BYU students who identify themselves as homosexual and a person that supports them.” The pairings appeared without labels, as Wiltbank felt captioning would “create separation and division;” in this sense, the project’s ambiguity is part of it’s mission of inclusiveness. It’s artist statement reads:
“Civilization is the process in which one gradually increases the number of people included in the term ‘we’ or ‘us’ and at the same time decreases those labeled ‘you’ or ‘them’ until that category has no one left in it.”
— Howard Winters
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