Click on (this link) to read a recent interview that Elin Spring did with me.
We talk about the gallery, the photography industry, and #selfies.

Portrait of Jason Landry. Courtesy Gary Samson.
Click on (this link) to read a recent interview that Elin Spring did with me.
We talk about the gallery, the photography industry, and #selfies.
Portrait of Jason Landry. Courtesy Gary Samson.
I love it when people send me photographs that they took with my book Instant Connections. I am very honored that you are reading it, and in one case, destroying it. Take a picture with the book this summer and send it to me. I’m sure you can find me via email or any of the number of social media sites I’m on.
Thank you Samuel Quinn for burning my book. This was an honor.
Visit Huffington Post to check out my story, Shards of Memory: David Prifti. It’s a review of the exhibition at The Griffin Museum of Photography.
If Pinterest is your jam, I’ll be pinning some writing, reading, and photography related images up there once in a while. You can follow along here: http://www.pinterest.com/panoptgallery/
It’s been a little more than a month since my book Instant Connections: Essays and Interviews on Photography was released. I have been pleasantly surprised by the comments that I have received––both emails from people that I know, and some that I do not know at all. When I read things like, “the things that you talk about in your book I am experiencing right now in my own life”––these words strengthen my belief that I was meant to write this book.
Although I would like the book to be for everyone, I know that it won’t be. I’ve heard that some people like the interviews better than the essays, while others said they didn’t care about my personal stories, and at least one person was bothered by my potty mouth. I didn’t think using the F-word 34 times in a book with 85,000 words was a big deal. I do hope however, that those who have read the book (cover to cover) found the importance of the word “connections”. The other thing that I hope you took away was that I tried to make the reading effortless and down to earth, as if we were having a conversation in a bar or in a coffee shop. Although I am a collector, gallery owner, writer/author and educator, I tried to speak to you from the same level––never above you.
Instant Connections may not have landed on the New York Times Bestseller List nor the Wall Street Journal List, but for a brief period it was #2 on Amazon’s list for Critical Theory > Photography books––I’ll take that, even through it IS NOT critical theory.
Usually books are cataloged in book stores under a certain type like non-fiction, or fiction, or essays, or interviews. These “types” are usually printed on the back cover of the book. One person suggested the other day that it should have been categorized under “cool shit”. I’ll take that as a compliment.
If you haven’t picked it up yet, I hope that you do.
Happy Holidays, from Me to You.
I’m very excited to be blogging for the Huffington Post! You will be able to find my posts in the Arts & Culture section where I will be writing primarily on the topic of photography. My first post is called: Why Art Galleries Are Important. Enjoy!
Some of my favorite Literary Journals use photography on their covers. I’ll take it one step further: some of my favorite literary journals also feature photographers in their issues. Around the horn on these covers you see photographs by Julie Blackmon, Amy Stein, Jenny Fine, Maggie Taylor, Abelardo Morell and Berenice Abbott––a fine mix of modern and contemporary photography.
At the AWP Writing Conference this past weekend, I visited with many of these journals who had booths at the conference and thanked them for using photography. They probably thought I was a little crazy for commenting on the covers and not the text inside, but I got to tell you, I sometimes do judge a book by its cover.
Here’s a list of Literary Journals and Magazines (sorry if I missed any of you). Submission guidelines for writing, art and photography can be found on their websites:
The Kenyon Review — Twitter = @kenyonreview
Hayden’s Ferry Review — Twitter = @haydensferryrev
Ecotone — Twitter = @EcotoneJournal
Ploughshares — Twitter = @pshares
Creative Non Fiction — Twitter = @cnfonline
Manor House Quarterly — Twitter = @MHQuarterly
The Paris Review — Twitter = @parisreview
Harvard Review — Twitter = @Harvard_Review
Indiana Review — Twitter = @IndianaReview
The Iowa Review — Twitter = @IowaReview
The Georgia Review — Twitter = @GeorgiaReview
The Missouri Review — Twitter = @Missouri_Review
The Southern Review — Twitter = @southern_review
Redivider — Twitter = @redividermag
N+1 — Twitter = @nplusonemag
Gulf Coast Journal — Twitter = @Gulf_Coast
The Virginia Quarterly Review — Twitter = @VQR
Lapham’s Quarterly — Twitter = @LaphamsQuart
Salt Hill Journal — Twitter = @salthilljournal
Book Arts…do you like books and art? Here’s something that blurs the line between reading and photography. This three-dimensional work of art is called Time To Play by Portland, Oregon based photographer Heidi Kirkpatrick. I’m very smitten by her unique and creative approaches to photography. In this piece, she has applied a film positive of two hands onto the open boards of a vintage children’s book. I love how the illustration seeps through the hands creating a tattooed effect.