Fabian Unternährer is 28 and still a hopeless dreamer, trying to wake up.
MOSSLESS: You won Prix Photo 2009! How do you feel?
FABIAN UNTERNÄHRER: I feel awesome, guess I’m on the right track. Well, maybe I’m even more happy and thankful having great buddies and the most wonderful girlfriend around me, love ya!
ML: Was the title for your series “Just Passengers” inspired by a song?
FU: Actually I was inspired by a book named Siddhartha from Herman Hesse. It’s about a sage who went through endless ups and downs searching for enlightement, finally he’s ending up learning from the river, working as a ferryman. The river being everywhere, in the past as well as in the future, now, just passing by, as everything else and as everything will do forever.
So if it would have been inspired by music, then by Electrelane.
ML: Who is your main inspiration for your photography?
FU: Life as it is and to name a person who has explained the approach and the meaning of art as I think makes most sense, then it shall be Andrei Tarkovsky, a true legend!
ML: I really want to go to Iceland this coming summer. How long should I stay there, what should I see?
FU: At first make sure having been in a hot pot, wander or drive around, grab a pony tail or shake hands with some elb, enjoy the genius artscene in Reykjavik, try to say something in their language (good luck), wish to hear the band Sigur Ros or Múm live, go to the north and watch the night, eat fish with butter and dark bread, drink some black tea; but mostly of all enjoy the silence and the virginity of mother nature; so stay as long as you can!
12:00 pm • 21 November 2009
Jacob Wolf Miller is 20 and some of the things he wants most in life are an Australian/German shepherd and a mk2 Volkswagen GTI 16v.
MOSSLESS: What do you shoot with?
JACOB WOLF MILLER: I don’t shoot with any one camera. I shoot a lot of 35mm for fun, I have various point and shoots and SLRs for this task. For school projects and such I feel like they have to be serious, so I usually shoot medium format. I borrow my roommate’s RB67 a lot.
ML: What’s your Trees series about?
JWM: I shot these photos two years ago in the heat of my square, centered stage. I still have centeritis, but I’ve long since ditched square format. At the time I saw a lot of beautiful images of nice looking trees, I was much more interested however in all the disfigured trees that weren’t getting as much attention.
ML: What’s your favourite photo that you’ve taken?
JWM: Oh wow, this is hard. Every good photo I take is my favorite until I take another one that I am pleased with. The first image in my “Summer ‘09” group of photos on my website would have to be a recent fave (can also be seen here). It is a picture of my friend David that I shot this summer, while staying in Rochester. David is from the area, so he didn’t go home for the summer like most everyone else. He caught many a beast on our adventures, I probably have a photo of almost every creature he caught.
ML: What’s your favourite photo someone else has taken?
JWM: This is even harder then picking one of my own favorite photos. I have this really cool black and white photograph that I bought at a flea market when visiting Philadelphia a few months ago. It is of a flipped car on the side of the highway. There are people all around it, everyone seems relatively calm though. I’m going to guess that the image was shot in the 70’s by the look of the other cars in the picture. This photo is mounted on a board, and I have it leaning against the wall on my desk. I figure if I can look at this photo whenever I’m on my computer, which is often, then it must be at least one of my favorites.
12:00 pm • 19 November 2009
Dave Geeting is 20 and trapped inside the body of an 80-year old man.
MOSSLESS: How do you tell your stories?
DAVE GEETING: I make photographs really primitively. I get up and leave and don’t think about anything. I don’t remember taking half of my pictures. When I get film back from the lab every few days I don’t really try to make sense of it. I’d rather keep my subconscious separate from that part of my brain that ruins all those little secrets. I make strange edits of shit that I saw that week. I enjoy talking about my work to an extent but I’d rather let the images speak for themselves. It confuses the shit out of me. I want it to confuse the shit out of you.
ML: What do you shoot with?
DG: People are always kind of surprised by this, but I primarily use a 35mm Canon Rebel with some goofy generic 28mm lens that wasn’t even made by Canon. I acquired this thing from my brother’s ex-girlfriend when my old camera got stolen. She rules. I’d say about 30% of the photos I took this past summer/autumn were taken with this hilarious Fujifilm point & shoot that I bought off of craigslist for $10. This thing is so mom-and-dad. It’s so innocent and dumb. Since then I have decided to step up my game a bit; I just bought a Yashica T4 and it’s been treating me really well. Does anyone know what Carl Zeiss looks like? Is his portrait tattoo-worthy?
ML: How’s Williamsburg?
DG: Williamsburg is like Disneyworld if Disneyworld was sucked of all its charm and everyone was completely jaded and 15 years older and thought they knew about art and fashion. I live on the south side though, right next to the bridge. It’s not as wack. Actually I lied, it’s pretty wack. Except for the 24-hour bodega next to my house which has a badass beer selection and incredible sandwiches. Last year I lived in the basement of a loft building in Bushwick with 4 other dudes and all kinds of roaches and monsters. I was high for months on end and never saw the light of day. I consider this an upgrade.
ML: Bobby Doherty was passed out when I met you guys at your place two months ago. How many internet photo celebrities do you know?
DG: Is this a real question? I’m not about to name drop all my friends. I’m not gonna be that guy. Bobby and I have been friends way before anyone followed our fake lives on the internet. I think that’s the case with most of the people I am associated with. Lately there have been a few instances where the Internet hands me some new real-life friends and travel opportunities. I’m okay with that. Yeah, I think it’s weird, but I’m okay with that.
12:00 pm • 17 November 2009
Marko Tardito is 45 and was born in Torino on a sunny day.
MOSSLESS: How do you go about taking your photos?
MARKO TARDITO: I prefer going in uncontaminated nature, but this depends on the project I’m following or the job I have to do. I love to shoot in the sunlight (in the golden hours).
ML: What’s the fashion photography world like?
MT: Fashion is a very difficult world. It changes a lot, but this doesn’t mean you have to follow the tendencies. I think you have to stay on your mood and style, and put a lot of passion in what you do. There is a feeling between you and what you choose to shoot.
ML: What’s your Afrika Project about?
MT: Afrika Project is a journey in the land of Africa. It is a book, and soon an exhibition.
ML: How’s Paris?
MT: Paris is nice, it’s a lovely town, but I think I have to move around more, to see what’s in some other places like London and Berlin, but also Brazil and China…
12:02 pm • 15 November 2009
Maciek Pozoga is 26 lives in paris, and lately can’t decide whether he should watch funny or intense cheerless movies when he’s feeling blue on sundays.
MOSSLESS: What’s your favorite place Vice Magazine sent you?
MACIEK POZOGA: My first real reportage was spending a couple of weeks in the poorest city of France (Berhen-Lès-Forbachs) for the ‘poverty issue’. Not sure if it was my “favorite place”, but it was very interesting and a great opportunity to practice documentary photography. Like you’re concretely confronted to the problems linked to reportage. Asking yourself what you want to tell, in which ways, what should be shown, what shouldn’t, cause obviously there is no such thing as recording reality in an objective way. Some people were pretty harsh to us (like some kids threw stones at us, one even spit at me), but most of em were very friendly and curious of what we were doing here. They would always tell us “Why on earth would you talk about our city, it’s shitty and boring”, or stuff like that. In the end I think my pictures were pretty much reflecting the ‘truth’ of what was going on there, as we stayed almost 2 weeks.
ML: When did you first start contributing to the magazine?
MP: My first contribution to the magazine were two Music-portraits (Article, Itw, Picture) about friends of mine from Bordeaux, we had to pretend we didn’t know each others for the interview and one of em is doing electronic music, so I had to write something about his music even though I don’t know shit about techno music. Eventually the editor thought my pictures were more interesting than the articles, so that’s when I really started taking more pictures.
ML: You’ve made some awesome gig posters and album covers (link). What came first, illustration or photography?
MP: Illustration came first, I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, I used to draw turtles with their head inside their shell, and sometime some of em would have their head outside. But I never considered illustration as a job, cause it’s almost impossible for me to work on demand, I’m only able to draw for friends or bands I really dig. I feel photography is not the same, it can be less personal, it’s like you can shoot from inside the shell if you’re using a zoom ^^
ML: If you weren’t shooting photos or drawing, what would you be doing?
MP: I guess pretty much the same, except that we wouldn’t record it. Hanging around, talking shit, drinking, hiking, flirting… I never felt the need to record anyhting, I always thought things were more beautiful as ephemeral, as memories and that taking picture or filming were ruining it. Suddenly the fantasy we could have about moments we had would become cold and concrete, like dead-alive instead of just dead. But eventually I found out we could also do it the other way, and fantasise the world taking pictures, instead of just embellishing stories afterward drinking a pint, which is more exciting.
12:00 pm • 13 November 2009
