• Leon recommends the Arena Photographers’ website.
• Jim recommends the Comfort Zones exhibition at Dimbola Lodge on the Isle of Wight.
• Ed recommends Truprint for 35mm C41 process and print in the UK.

Susan wanted me to publish this link to explain her crude comment about Alec Soth. She thought it best to clarify her comment for fear that his wife will hunt her down. The reference to his body of work called ‘Niagra’. Which was shot at Niagra Falls hotels. Susan’s next solo show at Wallspace in Seattle, WA runs from March 4 to April 5. Artist reception is Thursday March 6 and she will be there so go along and say hi.

 Ed’s picks were:

• Motherland by Simon Roberts
• Agfa Ultra 100 colour film (discontinued)

Gordon’s picks were:

• Flesh & Blood by Anne Beattie and Andy Grundberg
• Portraits by Bill Burke
• The Short Story & Photography, collected short stories
• Polkamotion
  

Susan’s picks were:

• Shooting Blind
• Polly Chandler
• Mona Kuhn images and books.

Damion’s pick was:

• www.plrds.com

Renowned LA-based photographer, Aline Smithson, joined regulars Ed and Susan for the first podcast of 2008. Susan and Aline were fresh back from the excitement of Photo LA and Review LA, so there’s a lot of talk about that. The discussion topic for this episode was, “What’s The Most Difficult Thing We Face As Photographers”, so we kicked that around a bit too.

[N.B. Sorry that the sound quality is slightly worse than usual. Skype wasn’t on our side when we recorded the show]

• Aline’s pick is the new Photofile book, Man Ray (ISBN 0500410658).
• Her recommendation from Photo LA is Finnish photographer, Pentti Sammallahti. Link to the work here and here.
• Susan’s picks are Nine Francois and the 3 winners of the New Orleans Photo Alliance show, Toy Stories (photos below).
• Ed’s pick is Matt Stuart’s wonderful street photography

Winning entries in The New Orleans Photo Alliance show, Toy Stories:

1. Best In Show: Matthew Yates, ‘Sold Mah Soul’.
   More of Matt’s images @flickr
2. Honorable mention: Warren Harold, ‘Boy Behind Fence’.
3. Honorable mention: Rosana Salonia, ‘Little Man’.

(Click on images for larger versions)

We changed the format a little for the third show and moved more into “discussion” territory. Listening back to it this morning I actually think it worked out pretty well although there are a few pauses because we’re occasionally having to actually think before we speak.

• Damion’s pick is Martin Parr by Val Williams; a retrospective of Martin Parr’s work up 2000.
• Susan’s pick’s were the documentary film, Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids - watch it on YouTube - and Photo LA.
• Don’s pick was Portfolio magazine from the UK.
• Ed’s pick was printing out paper (POP). Click here for a UK stockist.
• Leon’s pick was Leros by Alex Majoli and the Spirit of the Season exhibition at The Independent Photographers Gallery, Battle East Sussex.
• Don recommends the work of David Dare Parker and A Photo Editor blog.

Having seven people on the Skype call was always going to be a bit ambitious and it’s fair to say we were plagued by technical difficulties as a result. Susan and Don didn’t have enough equipment for two people to share her laptop so they used the in-built mic and speakers. A gold star to Skorj for getting up at 5AM with a nasty temperature just to make to show. The badger reference was part of an ongoing back story started by Ailsa and finished by Damion. It was funny as hell, but it got left on the cutting room floor; buy us a drink and we’ll tell you all about it.

Show Notes:

• Leon’s picks are From Seeing to Showing (Creative Photography Workshop) and John Blakemore’s Black and White Photography Workshop.
• Ed’s pick is Century: One Hundred Years of Human Progress, Regression, Suffering and Hope 1899-1999.
• Susan’s pick is the movie War Photographer featuring James Nachtwey.
• Damion’s pick is Comfort Zones by Jim Green.
• Skorj’s pick is Magnetic Fields by Toshiro Oshima.
• Ailsa’s pick is Taryn Simon: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar.
• Don’s pick is The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer.
• Here’s the website of the toycamera competition that Susan’s judging.
• Links for the ToLNe and Golden Half (and Golden Half results and here) cameras that Skorj discussed.
• Damion’s one-off t-shirt design is based on this album sleeve.

Here’s the tasty Filmwasters.com merch design (courtesy of Sean Rohde and Skorj). As discussed, you can log onto your fave Print on Demand (PoD) provider (CafePress, Printfection, Zazzle, Spreadshirt, etc), upload this design, and have it applied to anything of your choice. Fun for you, and no profit for the Filmwasters, just those pesky PoD people… Click on the thumbnail to view or download the high res version:

Show Notes:

• Leon’s pick is Easter Island by Michael Kenna.
• Ed’s pick is The Victor Weeps by Fazal Sheikh.
• Susan’s pick is James Fee: 1993-2000 by James Fee & the Josef Koudelka anthology.
• Ailsa’s pick is Henry Wessel by Henry Wessel.
• The 2 websites for the Harrachov Exchange are here and here.
• The Simon Norfolk lecture that blew Ed away is linked to here.
• For non-Americans here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry for Hollywood Squares.
• Leon explained that he’d recently returned from a trip. Here’s what he got up to.

Photos by Ailsa taken at the Harrachov Exchange. Click on each one to see a larger version: