Exclusive Interview with Lee Jeffries

British photographer Lee Jeffries started photographing homeless people in the streets after meeting with a young homeless girl in the streets of London.

This encounter changed his artistic approach forever. We asked him a few questions about his life and work.

All About Photo: When did you realize you wanted to be a photographer?

Lee Jeffries: I'm an accountant actually. Photography is something I do when I'm not doing that.

AAP: Where did you study photography?

LJ: Self taught. No formal qualifications whatsoever.

AAP: Do you have a mentor?

LJ: Nope.

AAP: How long have you been a photographer?

LJ: About 5 years now.

AAP: Do you remember your first shot? What was it?

LJ: My first street photograph was a young girl homeless girl in London. The story is all around the net now. My first real photograph was the woman praying in Rome. That's where the artistry began.

AAP: What or who inspires you?

LJ: Emotion. People. Empathy for the suffering of others.

AAP: How could you describe your style?

LJ: My own. If it looks good to me then I'm more than happy. Much more than that though...i have to feel an image. I throw it out if I dont.

AAP: What kind of gear do you use? Camera, lens, digital, film?

LJ:Digital. Old beat up Canon 5d mark 1.

AAP: Do you spend a lot of time editing your images?

LJ: Some take 5 minutes...some take longer...much longer. Depends on my mood. If I'm particularly into an image emotionally I will linger for hours listening to classical music over all the details.

AAP: Favorite(s) photographer(s)?

LJ: James Nachtwey, Stephan Vanfleteren.

AAP: What advice would you give a young photographer?

LJ: Concentrate on shooting an image. There is no substitute for emotion. A $5,000 camera wont save an image nor will hours in PS. You have to capture something from the outset. always get that bit right.

AAP: What mistake should a young photographer avoid?

LJ: Not trusting their instincts.

AAP: An idea, a sentence, a project you would like to share?

LJ: Just completed a year long project for Terrence Malick.

AAP: Your best memory has a photographer?

LJ: Every time I meet somebody on the street. nothing beats being out there.

AAP: If you could have taken the photographs of someone else who would it be?

LJ: My fave image from anyone, anywhere: Katarina Smuraga. Emotion. Genuine or not it has me totally convinced and shakes me to the core each time I view it. I often linger for hours into those watery eyes.

AAP: Anything else you would like to share?

LJ: Exhibition opens in Rome on 18th October at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere.

Ralph Gibson: Secret of Light

By Ralph Gibson

Publisher : Kehrer Verlag

2023 | 240 pages

Ralph Gibson (b. 1939) is one of the most interesting and versatile photographers of our time. His great international reputation is based on his exceptional work, which is exhibited and collected by leading museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris and the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. The publication accompanying the exhibition Ralph Gibson. Secret of Light brings together key series from the F. C. Gundlach Collection, Hamburg, as well as the photographer’s collection and describes his artistic development from the 1960s to the present. Gibson tirelessly explores and breaks new ground in photography. The playful use and design with light are an essential part of his unmistakable signature, which is reflected in his multi-layered and complex oeuvre.

All About Ralph Gibson

Eye Mama: Poetic Truths of Home and Motherhood

By Karni Arieli and photographers worldwide

Publisher : Teneues

2023 | 224 pages

The Eye Mama book is a photographic portfolio showcasing the mama narrative and the mama gaze, what female and non-binary photographers see when they look at, and into the home.
Based on the Eye Mama Project, a photography platform sharing a curated feed by photographers worldwide who identify as mamas, the Eye Mama book brings together more than 150 images to render what is so often invisible―caregiving, mothering, family and the post-motherhood self― visible.
Eye mama was created by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker and photographer Karni Arieli during the pandemic, when everyone around the world was in lockdown and spending more time in the home, often consumed by caregiving. The visual movement centres around the “mama gaze”, an introspective look at home and care by female and non-binary visual artists.
This iconic book of photographs brings together the images from this movement, experiencing the light and dark of care and parenthood, the beauty of close-up details, love and hardship, and most importantly, the personal poetic truths of these mamas and artists.

Dafydd Jones: England: The Last Hurrah

By Dafydd Jones:

Publisher : Acc Art Books

2023 | 144 pages

Throughout the 1980s, award-winning photographer Dafydd Jones was granted access to some of England's most exclusive upper-class events. Now, the author of Oxford: The Last Hurrah presents this irreverent and intimate portrait of birthday parties and charity balls, Eton picnics and private school celebrations.
With the crack of a hunting rifle and a spray of champagne, these photos give an almost cinematic account of high-society England at its most riotous and its most vulnerable. Against the backdrop of Thatcher's Britain, globalization, the Falklands War, rising stocks and dwindling inherited fortunes, Jones reveals the inner lives of the established elite as they party long into the night-time of their fading world.

Arthur Tress: Rambles, Dreams, and Shadows

By Arthur Tress

Publisher : J. Paul Getty Museum

2023 | 264 pages

This richly illustrated volume is the first critical look at the early career of Arthur Tress, a key proponent of magical realism and staged photography.
Arthur Tress (b. 1940) is a singular figure in the landscape of postwar American photography. His seminal series, The Dream Collector, depicts Tress’s interests in dreams, nightmares, fantasies, and the unconscious and established him as one of the foremost proponents of magical realism at a time when few others were doing staged photography.
This volume presents the first critical look at Tress’s early career, contextualizing the highly imaginative, fantastic work he became known for while also examining his other interrelated series: Appalachia: People and Places; Open Space in the Inner City; Shadow; and Theater of the Mind. James A. Ganz, Mazie M. Harris, and Paul Martineau plumb Tress’s work and archives, studying ephemera, personal correspondence, unpublished notes, diaries, contact sheets, and more to uncover how he went from earning his living as a social documentarian in Appalachia to producing surreal work of “imaginative fiction.” This abundantly illustrated volume imparts a fuller understanding of Tress’s career and the New York photographic scene of the 1960s and 1970s.
This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from October 31, 2023, to February 18, 2024.

Exclusive Interview with Lee Jeffries

Lee Jeffries

Selected Books