Scarlet Lion

The American documentary photographer and photojournalist, Glenna Gordon, talks on five photographers who influenced her work.

Image by Glenna Gordon.

I shot this short, no-frills interview in my office at The New School. The format is simple: The subject sits on a chair in my office while I point the iPhone at them. They decide what 5 things they want to talk to about. The first guest is Glenna Gordon, photographer and blogger based in Liberia. She happened to pass through New York City. Glenna decided to talk about her 5 favorite photographers.  First, Malick Sidibe; second three photographers from the PANOS Agency (Andrew McConnell, Robin-Hammond and Kieran-Dodds); then Tim Hetherington,  Krisanne Johnson; and, finally, Lynsey Adario.

Watch:

Some other notes: I did not want to add any props, so the video is accompanied by a list of references at the end of this post. I tried to make as little edits as possible. It was my first attempt.  I messed up the color at the end, but I’ll get this right over time. You may also get sea sick from the wobbly camera work (if you can call my holding a phone camera that).

For more on Glenna’s work, see here.

Further Reading

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.

Goodbye, Piassa

The demolition of an historic district in Addis Ababa shows a central contradiction of modernization: the desire to improve the country while devaluing its people and culture.