The Sunday interview: 5 questions for Kenneth Nelson

Today I will present Kenneth Nelson the author of Living Life Photographically. Kenneth is a Brooklyn grown photographer, a graduate of Pratt Institute.

1. Why photography?

Because I was told to do so by an important and influential teacher. Let me explain. An after school program, that stretched into a summer school program. At the age of 11-12 (I don’t recall exactly), I'm deciding what I'd probably like to be when I grow up. What in the world am I supposed to know at that age about my life’s future? Nada! What am I gonna do with the rest of my life? Hell if I knew then. So, I listen to the my parents and teachers. They softly guide me into the possible possibilities my life’s course can take. Horticulture? Firefighter? Police Officer? Something to do with public transportation? Finance/Stock Market? Yep, some people from the neighborhood began considering jobs that young.

One particular teacher happened to be a photo enthusiast. I don't recall exactly where in the exact time frame, but somewhere about, the teacher shows us a makeshift darkroom fashioned from an unused classroom (about 15x15 ft.). In the corner to the right from the opened door, a table within an enlarger and other material. To its left, another table with processing trays. After a few minutes of setting up, the teacher turns off the lights, exposes a sheet of paper, places it into the processing tray. Bam! The silver halide converts to metallic silver, an image begins to appear in the development tray. Magique! I'm hooked! That's it! I'm done! I'm not quite sure why I was enthralled. I understood it to be science. I believe it was a process of reduction. Up to that point, I’m see this as being the most exciting thing my life to that point. The darkroom.

Over the summer, and over the years, we’d take field trips using various family type cameras. Polaroids, 110 and 126 Instamatics. Process and print the photos at summer school. Voila!

Since then, I’ve leveraged every thought, hope, dream, and cost of learning, etc on this path of photography.

2. What is your favorite gear? (camera, lens)

Depends on a specific time period due changes in photographic technology over time. These all hold treasured places as the gear I used over my lifetime so far. I’ve added links so those who have never used any of these items, can get an idea of what they actually looked like.

First camera I ever bought with my own earnings. Ricoh TLS401 with standard 50/55mm lens (https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Ricoh_TLS_401). Got it from a friend who was also an amateur photographer.

The camera I owned for the longest time, Nikon FE w/50mm 1.8, literally my whole adult life (https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Nikon_FE).

The first medium format camera I bought was the Koni-Omega 200 w/90mm 3.5 a few years after the Nikon FE (https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Koni-Omega)

Then, the camera that I’ve used the most. Having taken the most photographs with, the Mamiya 7 & 7II w/80mm lens. They're also the camera that I’ve owned continuously over the course of nearly twenty years (https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Mamiya_7).

I’ve owned three digital cameras since the dawn of the digital photography evolution (not including cell phones). Leica M10 w/Zeiss Biogon 2.8 would be it (https://leica-camera.com/en-US/photography/cameras/m/m10-black?srsltid=AfmBOooGKVXjP-IQ2HACCV6CXCPxAY_PZQNcS4F8izvQAPmsN8otzsHY).

3. What are your favourite subjects to photograph?

Frankly, I don’t figure to have any favourite subjects. Maybe that’s my Achilles heel. I’ve thought about it over the years. Photographed many genres, except wildlife and studio fashion (ugh). I’ve thought about squeezing myself into the street photography genre. To some degree I fall into that category, doing so can pigeon-hole people’s perspective. The more I thought about myself as a photographer throughout the practice, the more I think about it in generalized terms. So, if I had to put myself into a category, I’d call what I am a “generalist.” Having dabbled in studio still life, street, portraiture, landscape, abstract, documentary, cityscapes, events.

4. Can you name a few of your favourite photographers?

In the early days, when beginning to learn, I thought I’d turn out to be a fashion photographer. So the photographers I admired were those. In no particular order.

Victor Skrebneski https://skrebneski.com/

Robert Farber https://www.farber.com/

Others:

Artist, Patrick Nagel https://patricknagel.com/

Photojournalist, Moneta Sleet Jr. https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-50186270

The following who I learned more about in high school and college: Imogen Cunningham, Duane Michals, Ansel Adams, Robert Mapplethorpe. I could list dozens more. For brevity, I’ll stop here.

5. What can Substack community expect from you/your publication in the future?

When I began in December 2023, I wondered if I was able to productively publish two newsletters a week. I realized a better balance would be one slideshow and one essay if publishing twice weekly. I believe it to be a good balance. I’ll look to recalibrate, if need be with the one-hundredth slideshow (currently at No.065).

I know viewers oftentimes just want to see the photographs (me too!). I’ll also continue with “Daily Randoms” in Substack Notes - images randomly plucked from the archive without considerable forethought. As I perused other photo-based Substack publications, there were stories, interviews and anecdotes I believe are expertly produced by others. So, I’ll continue to let my rather deep archive continue to guide me going forward.