There are many fabulous ways in life to begin again. We’ve all been through a reinvention of sorts with the recent pandemic and the way it disrupted our lives. I have found myself thinking about the arc of life and the idea of full circle. A circle symbolizes wholeness, the infinite, timelessness, and repetition. My new venture of co-hosting a photojournalism podcast is one recent example of my deja vu life experiences.
When I walked into the radio station at Loyola University, my first thought was “I’ve come full circle”. In college at University of Massachusetts I was a DJ, the only one who knew anything about bluegrass and roots music, so that was my niche, for an hour each week delving into the history and rhythm of American roots music.
Now, my hour a week in the recording studio at WLOY is focused on photography, a field I have spent the last 35 years working in and thinking about. Joe Giordano started this podcast, 10 Frames Per Second, with his co-host Elena Volkova in 2018, and recorded for two years before the aforementioned pandemic interrupted their recording schedule. When Joe invited me in 2023 to replace Elena, who had other commitments, I immediately accepted. The recording studio is a bit reminiscent of the darkroom, a sealed off room, a little dark, and very quiet until the producer turns on the microphones and starts recording and we are off, having a conversation and creating a record of the thoughts and experiences of our guests.
And we have had some amazing guests! Eugene Richards, Donna Ferrato, Tamir Kalifa, Eman Mohammed, Kristi Odem, Diana Mater, Devin Allen, Kaitlin Newman, Greta Pratt and Wendel White to mention a few.
10 Frames Per Second is billed as a podcast about photojournalism, by photojournalists but for everyone. We rarely talk about gear, we talk more about processes and projects.
Each Tuesday morning at 10AM, Joe and I head to the Loyola University campus and step into the recording studio with producer John Devecka. That’s when the magic happens, as we connect with our guest for the day, often someone Joe and I both respect and recognize as someone who represents professional achievement in the world of photography. We question and encourage our guests to spill the secrets of success in photography to our audience. Not simply financial success of course, but how do they create a vision, a body of work that is powerful, how do they encourage the people they photograph to collaborate, to break down their reticence, to let other people view their lives and circumstances? How did they begin this work? (It is interesting how many people gave credit to their parents.) How does the work they are doing affect their lives in the aftermath, especially if photographing war or other tragedies.
What led Gene Richards to the drug riddled streets of Philadelphia in the ‘90s, or to document the generational poverty of the 1960s in Arkansas? How did he get those people to open their door to him?
How did Donna Ferrato find herself witness to domestic violence, and what did she do about it?
Why did Diana Matar spend months driving across America documenting the dark and mostly empty corners of America where someone died at the hands of American law enforcement?
Why did Tamir Kalifa spend months with the parents and families of the children killed in Uvalde, Texas in the aftermath of the horrific school shooting there? How do you survive the weight of that grief?
How did Matt Moyer and Amy Toesning create such a poignant documentary of a boy growing up in Appalachia, surrounded by drug,alcohol and sexual abuse, and why did it take 7 years to make the film?
What was it like to cover the Key bridge collapse in Baltimore, and how does one humanize a story about the disappearance of a major piece of city infrastructure?
Why does Kristi Odem spend so much time photographing the tiny pika in Colorado?
For me these conversations are a privilege and a revelation. This group of people, photojournalists and documentarians, are people who care about stories depicting hardship, but also hope. They show the resilience of the people and places they photograph, but they also reveal their own resilience and tenacity in the course of the interview. Sharing their process for the podcast is a gift that I think generations of photographers will be able to tap into, and learn from. As photojournalists these individuals represent a group of people who are dedicated to witness the realities of war, climate change, political turmoil and disaster, but also the hardship of just living in this world at this particular time. Through the 10 Frames Per Second podcast we are able to listen in,see what they saw, hear what they thought, and learn what they learned. The images these photographers and documentarians make and the stories they tell are the first draft of our history and an indelible record of the reality of contemporary life.
INFO:
Ten frames per second (10fps.net), a podcast made by photojournalists, about photojournalists but for everyone, tapes shows every Tuesday at 10AM at Loyola University radio with John Devecka as our producer and Joe Giordano, who started the radio show/podcast, as co-host.
Often we talk to photographers and photojournalists who have a new book or project completed, sometimes we talk to photographers who have had a long and varied career, and other times as a followup to a particular news event. 10fps can be listened to on the website, or spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts. Typically the podcasts are about an hour long.
