BEN SMITH

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187 - Bryan Schutmaat

Ben Smith

© Bryan Schutmaat

Bryan Schutmaat is an American photographer based in Austin, Texas whose work has been widely exhibited and published. He has won numerous awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the Aperture Portfolio Prize, and an Aaron Siskind Fellowship. Bryan’s prints are held in many collections, such as Baltimore Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Pier 24 Photography, Rijksmuseum, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. With his friend and fellow photographer Matthew Genitempo, he co-founded the imprint, Trespasser.


On episode 187, Bryan discusses, among other things:

  • How Grays The Mountain Sends was influenced by poet Richard Hugo and the landscape of Montana and the American west.

  • The connection between the state a person is from and the sterotype of what that means

  • Why the American west ‘breaks his heart’

  • How his dad shaped his view of the working class

  • Finding the commonalities between people and place

  • Good Goddamn and the freedom of switching to 35mm from large format

  • The close relationship between photography and poetry

  • Punk rock ethos as applied to Trespasser

  • His experience of the Hertford MFA program

  • The pros and cons of talking about your work as an artist

  • Vessels

  • NFTs

Referenced:

  • Richard Hugo

  • Wallace Stegner

  • Geoff Dyer

  • The 25th Hour

  • Townes van Zandt

  • Willie Nelson

  • Nelson Chan

  • Mike Mills

  • Spike Jonze

  • Minor Threat

  • Salad Days (documentary)

  • Matthew Genitempo

  • John Cassavettes

  • Five Easy Pieces

  • J Carrier

  • Tim Carpenter

  • Carl Wooley

  • Robert Lyons

  • Mary Fry

  • Alec Soth

  • Justine Kurland

  • Lois Connor

  • Robert Adams

  • Ingmar Bergman

  • Nomadland

  • The Thin Red Line

  • Saving Private Ryan

  • The Grapes of Wrath

  • Pablo Cabado

  • Leon Bridges

  • Abigail Varney

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This episode of the podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - the latest and greatest photobooks, expertly curated and delivered to you door with free shipping and no hassles.

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