“Founded in Paris by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton in 1953, The Paris Review began with a simple editorial mission: “Dear reader,” William Styron wrote in a letter in the inaugural issue, “The Paris Review hopes to emphasize creative work—fiction and poetry—not to the exclusion of criticism, but with the aim in mind of merely removing criticism from the dominating place it holds in most literary magazines and putting it pretty much where it belongs, i.e., somewhere near the back of the book. I think The Paris Review should welcome these people into its pages: the good writers and good poets, the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders. So long as they’re good.”

In addition to the focus on original creative work, the founding editors found another alternative to criticism—letting the authors talk about their work themselves. The Review’s Writers at Work interview series offers authors a rare opportunity to discuss their life and art at length; they have responded with some of the most revealing self-portraits in literature. Among the interviewees are William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov, Joan Didion, Seamus Heaney, Ian McEwan, and Lorrie Moore. In the words of one critic, it is “one of the single most persistent acts of cultural conservation in the history of the world.”

Bookmark this fantastic resource. You’ll return again and again.

Read The Paris Review interviews here.

Read my conversations with photographers here.

Category: Conversations
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Milton Esterow presents Ansel Adam’s last interview.

Read it here.

Read my conversations with photographers here.

 

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Gary Braasch has photographed climate change more extensively than any other photographer. His book Earth Under Fire is a definitive work on the subject.

Find out about Gary Braasch here.
Find out about Earth Under Fire here.

Gary and I have been talking at length on many subjects. Here’s the second installment of our conversations.

John Paul Caponigro

What recommendations do you have for the average citizen to start taking a more active role with respect to these issues?  What would you suggest to other photographers to increase the effectiveness of their advocacy efforts?

Gary Braasch

The people I met on my climate change documentary project really mean something to me.  Beyond all the scientists and local guides, at this point those who mean the most are the ones who are living with the change but did not cause it …  Read more

Category: Conversations, Environment, Photographers
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Gary Braasch has photographed climate change more extensively than any other photographer. His book Earth Under Fire is a definitive work on the subject.

Find out about Gary Braasch here.
Find out about Earth Under Fire here.

Gary and I have been talking at length on many subjects. Here’s the first installment of our conversations.

John Paul Caponigro

Tell me about climate change.  And tell me about your book – Earth Under Fire.

Gary Braasch

In June 1997 I was stuck in a cold tent on the Alaska tundra with fellow nature photographer Gerry Ellis.  We had come to photograph caribou and other tundra animals, but for these weeks, anyway, we saw very little.  But while we read our books in the tent and talked of life and photography, we also chatted about the major issues in nature and conservation.  What were we going to do in coming years: what locations, what species, what issues were going to be the most important to photograph?.  And also, who was going to hire, publish and pay us for this? Read more

Category: Conversations, Environment, Photographers
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