f/22 - Photographer Interviews by VSCO

In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze and Zach Hodges sit down with photographer Joe Greer in Nashville. As a broke college student he saved for a month to buy an iPhone 4 just to get on Instagram, then spent every free hour shooting the Pacific Northwest. A curator job at VSCO followed, ten months he still calls his art school, spent studying Alex Webb and William Eggleston and sorting tens of thousands of photographs a day. Then a Portland church cut his position right before Christmas in 2016, and going freelance meant seven months without a single reply.
New York broke it open. Armed with a Leica M6, he got hooked on street photography and kept posting it even as it cost him followers. That way of seeing became his calling card, and brands including Leica, Bandit Running, and Gatorade started hiring him for exactly it while his agent Ernesto handled the business. He walks through NYC I Love You, built from 150 undeveloped rolls when COVID emptied the streets, and India Volume 1, the 156 photos drawn from seven years of trips and designed by Mouthwash Studios. He breaks down critical focus over zone focus, why he takes far more bad photos than good ones, and why he refuses to stay in one lane. No off switch, no plan to retire, and every frame he has ever shared was edited in VSCO.
This episode explores
Building your own photo education from books, documentaries, and the greats
Turning personal work into the thing brands hire you for
What a rep actually does, and why giving up 20% is worth it
Walking onto a commercial set without a shot list
Critical focus versus zone focus, and what a real hit rate takes
Why bad photos and refusing to niche down keep a career alive
Follow Joe:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ioegreer/
Website: https://www.ioe.photography/
Chapters:
00:00 A Florida Kid, an iPhone, and the Leica That Changed Everything
01:40 From Florida to shooting the Pacific Northwest on an iPhone
02:21 Discovering #VSCOcam and falling for photography
04:35 Getting hired at VSCO, his art school
06:53 How curating thousands of photos sharpened his eye
08:13 Teaching yourself from photo books and the greats
10:10 Two desert-island books, Meyerowitz and Robert Frank
11:36 Hunger, hardship, and the drive to go pro
12:47 Let go before Christmas, the leap to freelance
13:53 Moving to NYC and getting hooked on the streets
14:55 The wedding-gift Canon and buying a Leica M6
16:20 Getting repped, what a photo agent actually does
18:48 Turning a street eye into commercial work
22:02 Why he shoots without a shot list
24:49 Taking the risk when street photography wasn't cool
27:06 Books over likes, what makes a great photograph
28:44 NYC I Love You, a love letter on 150 rolls of film
29:56 India, the Google trip that started seven years of work
31:37 The XPan, black and white, and The Art of Devotion
33:01 Sequencing the book and letting go of favorites
35:23 The secret to a high hit rate, critical focus
37:51 Zone focus versus critical focus, explained
39:29 Take more bad photos
42:35 Advice, consistency, sharing, and press publish
45:13 Don't niche down, photograph what you love
47:38 No off switch, no retirement
48:44 Where to find Joe, and why it's all edited in VSCO

#JoeGreer #StreetPhotography #FilmPhotography #LeicaM6 #35mm #PhotoBooks #IndiaPhotography #ShootFilm #F22Series #VSCO

In this episode of f/22, Zach Hodges sits down in Las Vegas with Susan Stripling, a wedding photographer of 24 years who has never had another job. She lives in New York, she is a Canon Explorer of Light and an Adorama ambassador, and she is a grand master at Icon. Ask how she is holding up after 24 years and the answer is caffeine and duct tape.
Susan is blunt about what the accolades actually do. Inside the industry they build relationships and they build a résumé. To a couple choosing a photographer they do nothing, because a prospective client cannot tell an Icon Grand Master from a mom who voted you best photographer in Jersey City.
Much of the conversation is about the business behind the pictures. She runs the studio out of one system, answers every inquiry herself, tracks every referral source, and pulls reports at the end of each year to see where the work came from and where it went. She raises prices in itty-bitty increments, sometimes holding the number and dropping the coverage from ten hours to eight, then waits a couple of bookings to see what it does before moving again. Price yourself too far above your referral sources and the referrals stop.
She is also honest about what wears on her. She gets bored. She gets burnt out. The venue looks the same and the timeline looks the same. What resets her is not a business fix, it is remembering that she has been there a hundred times and her clients have been there once. Her burnout at work tracks her burnout at home, so she goes and fills the rest of her life first.
Her advice for photographers starting out comes in two pieces, and the second one is the part most people skip.
This episode explores
Why awards build a résumé inside the industry and mean nothing to a prospective client
Running a wedding business end to end, from the first inquiry to year-end reporting
Raising prices in itty-bitty increments without pricing yourself out of your referrals
What changed for photographers starting out now, and why the job takes two skill sets
A theater background, theatrically motivated light, and the editorial flash resurgence
Getting bored at a venue you have shot a hundred times, and what actually fixes it
Why she started scuba diving and refuses to monetize the pictures
Thanks to Harlow Lighting for lighting in this episode.
Follow Susan:
susanstripling.com
Chapters:
00:00 Cold open
00:41 Welcome back to f/22 with Susan Stripling
02:07 Whether the awards actually help her business
03:11 Held together by caffeine and duct tape
04:15 A theater background and nodding to modern style
05:44 Word of mouth then, a marketing monster now
06:27 One system running the whole studio
07:53 Letting go of her own editing
08:41 A complicated relationship with AI
09:28 Moving prices in itty bitty increments
10:49 Getting bored at the venue you have shot 100 times
12:50 It's not personal, it's just business
Hashtags:
#SusanStripling #WeddingPhotography #WeddingPhotographer #NewYorkPhotographer #PhotographyBusiness #PhotographyPricing #EditorialLighting #F22Series #VSCO

In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze and Zach Hodges sit down with world-renowned photographer and artist Jeremy Cowart at his studio in Franklin, Tennessee, to talk about a career built on chasing ideas, embracing risk, and using creativity to help people.
Jeremy traces his unlikely path from painter to graphic designer to celebrity photographer. The journey started with a three-megapixel point-and-shoot and a Hollywood agent who called out of nowhere in 2005. He's candid about faking his way through his first big shoot (10 sets to light for Prison Break, having never used a light before), the imposter syndrome underneath it, and why he's always been drawn to the possibility of failure.
The conversation moves through his signature techniques, the multi-light LED wall rig, custom Capture One code, 60-second shoots, and the stop-motion approach he stumbled into on a Star Trek shoot. It all leads to the work he says matters most, his "If You're Breathing" project, where he makes art alongside people in extreme need and funds their stories through merch. Along the way, Jeremy gets honest about money, the feast-or-famine reality of a creative career, the surprising story of being hired by a global brand specifically to use AI, and why, after 20+ years, obsessive learning is what keeps him relevant.
This episode explores
- How to break into paid work (and landing a rep)
- Why embracing risk and failure beats waiting until you're "ready"
- Building a signature style and a clear creative perspective
- The truth about money and feast-or-famine income
- Using AI as a tool without losing the art
- Why social impact work can be the most fulfilling work of all

Jeremy Cowart
Website: https://www.jeremycowart.com/

Big thanks to @harlowecreators for beautiful lighting for this episode.

Chapters:
00:00 "I Faked My Way Through My First Big Gig"
00:36 Welcome Back to f/22, Franklin, Tennessee
01:40 From Painter to Photographer
03:02 A 3-Megapixel Canon & Shooting Musician Friends
04:46 "I Got a D in Photography"
06:30 How He Started Getting Paid Work
08:04 Landing a Hollywood Agent in 2005
10:12 Imposter Syndrome & Faking the Prison Break Shoot
14:56 The "If You're Breathing" Project
18:07 Projecting a Mother's Words Into Her Daughter's Eye
20:23 Building the Projection & LED Wall Setup
24:22 The 60-Second Photo Shoots
27:26 Discovering Stop Motion on a Star Trek Shoot
29:15 Why Social Impact Work Matters Most
33:42 The Financial Reality, Feast or Famine
35:21 Obsessively Learn, The Carpenter Analogy
38:24 Talking AI, the Good and the Bad
43:04 Hired to Use AI for a Global Brand
45:10 Keep It About the Work, Not the Gear
47:33 Where to Find Jeremy
#JeremyCowart #PhotographyCareer #CelebrityPhotographer #PortraitPhotography #CreativeEntrepreneur #PhotographyBusiness #AIandPhotography #SocialImpact #F22Series #VSCO #PhotographyCommunity

In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze sits down with Bay Area photographer and filmmaker David Godinez in San Francisco to talk about the realities of turning photography into a career.

David shares how he got started, why photography is just his starting point, and how his work has evolved into video and post-production. The conversation focuses on the often-overlooked side of the craft: business. From pricing your work to shifting your mindset, David breaks down what it actually takes to go from hobbyist to professional.

📌 This episode explores:

• The mindset shift from artist to business owner
• Why pricing your work is so difficult (and so important)
• How to approach the transition into video
• When to hire vs. learn new skills
• Building a sustainable creative career  

Follow David:

David Godinez
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidrgoda/
Website: https://www.davidgodinez.com/

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Chapters:

00:00 “You’re Not an Artist, You’re a Business”
00:23 Introduction in San Francisco
01:02 How David Got Into Photography
02:13 Why Photography Is Just the Starting Point
02:16 Early Days of Video & YouTube
03:26 The Shift from Photo to Video
04:47 Should Photographers Take on Video?
05:40 Learning by Hiring People Better Than You
06:22 The Hard Transition to Going Pro
06:36 Why Most Photographers Undervalue Their Work
07:07 Artist vs. Business Mindset
08:03 Why Business Skills Aren’t Taught
08:30 Learning Through Community
09:08 The Reality of Pricing & Overhead
09:29 Why Pricing Transparency Matters
10:31 The Problem with Undercutting
10:54 The “Oakland Strong” Documentary
12:17 From Local Project to Film Festival Run
13:21 Where to Find David’s Work

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Hashtags:

#PhotographyBusiness #FreelancePhotographer #PhotographyCareer #CreativeEntrepreneur #Videography #F22Series #VSCO #PhotographyCommunity

In this episode of f/22, Zach Hodges sits down with Oakland photographers Pablo Circa and Essi Westerman at VSCO headquarters to talk about creating their very first gallery exhibition: Street Stories: Oakland in Focus.

What started as an idea during a lonely season turned into a community-powered show featuring 42 photographers and dozens of handwritten “written portraits” collected from people across Oakland. Pablo and Essi break down the full journey—from concept and open call to curation, printing, framing, and opening night overwhelm.

They share what it actually takes to make a group exhibition happen, how they narrowed 100+ submissions down to 42 images, and why they chose feeling over technical perfection. They also reflect on collaboration as “jazz,” building something rooted in love for their city, and creating space for Oakland to be seen beyond the headlines.

📌 This episode explores:

• How to create your first photography gallery show
• Turning a creative idea into a physical exhibition
• Curating 100+ submissions down to a cohesive body of work
• Pairing photographs with handwritten community stories
• Building connection through art and collaboration

Follow Pablo & Essi:

Pablo Circa
Website: https://www.pablocirca.com/

Essi Westerman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/essiwesterman/

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Chapters: 

00:00 Introducing Street Stories: Oakland in Focus
02:25 The Idea Behind Their First Gallery
05:10 From Injury to Photography
08:54 Building the Concept
12:11 “Follow the Feeling”
15:27 The Open Call & 100+ Submissions
18:02 Curating by Intuition, Not Technical Perfection
22:55 Adding Handwritten Community Stories
29:00 Opening Night in Oakland
34:05 Collaboration as Jazz
36:20 What They’d Do Differently

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Hashtags: 
#PhotographyExhibition #GalleryShow #Oakland #StreetPhotography #PhotoCommunity #Curation #FirstExhibition #F22Series