Documentary and Fashion Photography

**Supporting Emerging Artists: A Conversation with Alec Hoffman and Adam**

As a photographer and YouTube personality, I've had the pleasure of receiving numerous submissions from talented artists and photographers. Today, I'm excited to share with you two exceptional pieces that showcase the work of Alec Hoffman and Adam.

Alec's book, "804," is a personal project that chronicles his life in Richmond, Virginia. As a current graphic design student at VCU, Hoffman has only been exploring film photography since January 2022, making this book a unique and exciting addition to his body of work. The book features a collection of photographs that capture the beauty and tension of everyday life in Richmond.

"I'm really proud of this book," Alec wrote in an accompanying note. "I've only been doing film photography for a short time, but I was excited to experiment with capturing my own city and neighborhood." The photographs in the book are striking, showcasing the natural light and candid moments that can be found in even the most mundane settings.

What's particularly notable about Alec's work is its accessibility. As someone who has only been shooting film photography for a short time, he faced many of the same challenges that I did when I first started exploring this medium – finding ways to work with limited resources and making the most of familiar surroundings. His book is a testament to the idea that you don't need to travel or have access to exotic locations or perfect lighting conditions to create beautiful photographs.

The other submission I'd like to highlight is Adam's zine, "Housebound." This personal project was created during the COVID-19 lockdown, which had a profound impact on Adam's life and perspective. The photographs in the book capture the beauty and tension of his domestic space, exploring the relationships between light and shadow within the confines of his home.

"I documented the beauty and tension of the varying relationships of light within the home," Adam wrote. "The days became weeks which became months and in what felt like an eternity were captured for an eternity." This book is a powerful example of how challenging circumstances can inspire creativity, and I'm grateful to Adam for sharing his unique perspective with us.

One thing that struck me about both of these submissions is the way they showcase the importance of practice and perseverance. As artists, we often wait for the "perfect" moment or inspiration to strike – but what if that never comes? How can we create meaningful work in the face of uncertainty or adversity? Both Alec and Adam have demonstrated that with dedication and a willingness to experiment, you can produce exceptional photographs despite these challenges.

I also want to highlight how both of these submissions reflect a shift in the way we approach our daily lives as artists. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many of us to reevaluate our habits and routines, and it's fascinating to see how this shift is manifesting itself in the work that people are creating. As Adam notes, "the days became weeks which became months" – and yet, despite these challenges, they found ways to create and produce art.

These two submissions are a testament to the power of creativity and community. I'm grateful for artists like Alec and Adam who share their work with me, allowing me to connect with you, my audience, in new and meaningful ways. If you have any questions or would like to see more work from emerging artists, be sure to leave them in the comments section below.

**A Conversation about Photography and Creativity**

As I reflect on these two submissions, I'm reminded of the importance of connecting with others who share our passions. As photographers and creators, we often find ourselves at the forefront of artistic innovation – but how can we support each other and encourage one another to push the boundaries of what's possible?

For me, this conversation about photography and creativity is an ongoing dialogue that I'm eager to continue. By sharing work from emerging artists like Alec and Adam, I hope to inspire you to explore your own creative pursuits and connect with others who share your interests.

In a world where social media platforms can sometimes feel overwhelming or isolating, it's more important than ever to cultivate meaningful relationships with the people who share our passions. Whether you're an artist, photographer, writer, or simply someone with a creative spark, I encourage you to reach out and connect with others in your community.

Together, we can create something truly special – a world of beauty, creativity, and connection that's worth waiting for.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is brought to you by squarespace okay welcome back everyone it is friday and on fridays i do this little thing where i do mail time i get packages from viewers like you and this is the video where i share them with everyone so without further ado let's get to the mail so before we get started here i want to make a comment about mail time in general so the other day i was talking to somebody who's seen a lot of the mail videos and he made a comment he said you know one of the things that's very impressive is the quality of the work that you choose to show on there and i corrected him on that because i really don't choose to show anything and it's really interesting how this kind of shakes out when i do these videos literally i've got unopened mail stacked up ready to go and i tend to grab a couple of these and i'm gonna do a video so literally i've grabbed five or so random packages and they just kind of come out how they come out my feeling is is that if somebody has gone to the trouble to make a book a zine make prints whatever it is they send to me then they deserve to have it shared and it just so happens that the quality of work on all these is really good you probably have already noticed this but i just wanted to point that out once again on that note our first book here comes to us from olivier desmond i hope i'm saying your name right it is a little book called tsukiji and olivier writes dear ted i hope this letter finds you well i've been following your youtube channel for years i wanted to send you a copy of my new book tokyo's fame tsujiki fish market closed its doors on october 6 2018 after an 83-year run i was able to gain special access to the inner market on that day to document this historic event the resulting book tsujiki shot over a period of two years to 2018 offers a look at this culturally significant uniquely japanese market and neighborhood 54 black and white photographs are featured alongside essays by food sake tokyo author and washington post contributor yukari sakamoto i hope you enjoy it it's limited to 120 copies there are about 20 copies left in case any of your viewers are interested in getting one keep up the great work all the best olivier okay a few things that i want to say first off olivier your book is beautiful also what an awesome topic this is a culturally significant fish market there is a believe a documentary i have not seen it yet that may be available on netflix if you guys want to check it out and if you want a copy of this book highly recommended it's beautifully published well printed i will put a link in the show description below so check it out and olivia you should be proud this is awesome all right next up is this little zine which comes to us from james pritchard who lives in london and he writes hi ted love the channel always a great source of information and inspiration to me i thought i would send you this zine made from a love of soho and the incredible range of street fashion that you can find there hope you enjoy all the best james james this is a beautiful collection of fashion portraits you should be very proud this actually makes me miss soho and london quite a bit in fact i was just thinking i haven't been to the uk and it's probably been 10 years now so that's something that probably needs to be rectified soon but uh anyway awesome work all right so next up is a zine called small town post offices north dakota this comes to us from mike hess who writes ted i have been a fan of your youtube channel for a few years i really enjoy that you talk about actual photography so many other channels focused on the equipment the arctic's backseat thank you mike i wanted to show my appreciation by sending you a copy of a zine that i made last year this is my first try at one and i look forward to making more at the beginning of covid i had time off of work i decided to explore small towns around where i live and document the local post offices i felt that while we were getting more isolated because of the pandemic we were relying on the mail to reach the outside world more things that we used to go down the street to get we now needed to order from amazon the only way to get them was to have the mailmen deliver them it was about that time that the us postal service itself became a political pawn and i wanted to make sure that there was a record of them in case they started closing i purposely tried to exclude anyone from being in the photos to give the feel of abandonment as i scoured google maps looking for what i wanted to shoot i sought out the locations in a mid-century aesthetic it seems that there was a huge number built during the 1950s and 1960s and i did shoot many of them that didn't follow that rule but the exercise was fun on the technical side i used mamia c3 alfred fp4 plus and kodak portra 160. i like the idea of shooting a camera and black and white film that was from the same air as the post office's thanks again i hope you enjoy it mike so first of all i love the concept and mike if this is your first pass at a zine i can't wait to see what you do down the road this is very nicely done excellent work you know it's fascinating to me how many zines i actually get in mail time and the reason i say that is because they are a labor of love i mean it takes time to put these together they're certainly passion projects and something that you've got to follow a concept and be aware of and really put a lot of effort into so i really just want to say that because i appreciate the work that people do in these now i did ask you guys a couple videos back on the mail time videos if you guys wanted to see me do any material on making your own zine and making that more accessible to more people and you guys have left me some great comments and i'm going to get to some stuff i'm not ready to announce it just yet but i promise i do have a project in the works that i think will be a lot of fun so i'll get to that probably in the next month or two here but uh anyway i do have two more to share but i want to real quick give a shout out to our sponsor today who are the awesome folks over at squarespace.com listen you need a website and we all know how much work that is to build and maintain but it doesn't have to be squarespace is by far the easiest way to build your online presence it's also the best way to grow a business that works for you without having to write a single line of code do you just need a simple portfolio or a blog to showcase your work well squarespace is perfect featuring a drag and drop interface it's intuitive it allows you to build galleries quickly and update your site with ease are you running a business well squarespace gives you additional tools for things like appointment scheduling private member areas social media tools and even advanced email marketing do you sell products or services well squarespace has you covered with complete tools to power your store from merchandising to check out so that you can sell ship and build your customer base you can even sell classes or manage appointments through your website and with squarespace extensions you can easily sync with third parties to manage optimize and enhance your website from social media integration to seo squarespace gives you all the tools you need to grow a business that works for you so head over to squarespace and sign up for the free trial start with one of their award-winning templates and see what you can create and just how good you're going to look when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com aop and i can save you an additional 10 off your first purchase of a website or domain just use offer code aop on checkout so give it a try and see if squarespace is right for you and i want to give a special shout out and thank you to squarespace for sponsoring this video can i just say that i love handwritten notes i'm just saying i also love zine so this is a good combination anyway this is a little zine that comes to us from alec hoffman who writes hey ted someone from the photograph crew discord server wanted to buy a copy of my new photo book and have it sent to you for your photo book videos this book is titled 804 and covers the life of richmond virginia i am a current graphic design student at vcu and i've only been doing film photography since january of 2022 so it's pretty new to me the copy i sent you i forgot to add a page with my name and info this book is by me alec hoffman thank you for clearing that up alec beautiful work all right next up is this book called housebound which comes to us from adam and adam writes ted hello from toronto canada has a small token of gratitude for everything you do in the photography community i have enclosed my first zine housebound the photographs included in housebound were taken during the covet 19 lockdown between march and july 2020. along with countless others i have had to deal with my own sense of confinement and isolation once a place of comfort home had now become a workplace of frustration a space of virtual celebrations a gem a restaurant of limited means but it also developed into the focus of my lens as it replaced the street out of the constraints of the domestic setting the natural light and the candidness of the mundane i documented the beauty and tension of the varying relationships of light within the home the days became weeks which became months and in what felt like an eternity were captured for an eternity thanks again and wishing you all the best adam alright so first of all adam excellent work you should be very proud of this there's a couple things that i want to say about it first of all congratulations because you have just conquered one of the most difficult subjects in photography and you've made something really nice with it and by that i mean the familiar surroundings the day-to-day the things that we're most familiar with you know in all of my years personally shooting as a photographer and in doing this youtube channel one of the things that i hear the most and i think the same thing is that the hardest things to photograph are your immediate surroundings like your own city your own home your own neighborhood and i think that a lot of this is psychological because i assume because i'm so familiar with everything and i've seen it and i don't really know what to do that's creatively inspiring with it that i assume everyone else is going to think that too you know we all think that we need to travel or we need to go somewhere exotic or the light has to be just right or we need the perfect model or we need the perfect studio setup and the reality is is none of that is true and i think that's evidenced in adam's little book here so awesome work the other thing that i want to say about this that's just fascinating to me not just because of this book because it's come up in several times and things that people sent me i've also noticed how many people started youtube channels during lockdown the other day it's really kind of cool when you think about it and i kind of knew this would happen but it's really interesting to see the people who have stuck through that you know that was a time especially early on when a lot of us were dealing with lockdowns or you know places weren't open or whatever your situation was it did feel isolating and it did feel really strange and it felt i remember it felt very quiet and i've shared on this channel a lot that i dealt with some depression issues during that time it was really kind of scary but at the same time i remember being there thinking okay things come along we're experiencing this tectonic shift in the way that we all perform our day-to-day and the way that we think about things the way we approach our work whether that's our hobby work or whether that's our vocation it is all just changed and it's really interesting to see how people and this is the part that i was excited about at the time it well it was hard to get excited about the time but i knew it would come as we're starting to see now the fruits of the labor from all that and so it's just really interesting to see how that shift is going to manifest itself going forward and what i hope is that it showed people like our friend adam here that you can create good work in those situations and don't wait for a magic moment necessarily to create and practice and be in that habit and shoot and create work and do cool things i think that's the big takeaway here anyway awesome work today guys um i love doing these videos they're really a cool way for me to connect with you guys as an audience so i really appreciate the work that you guys send in if you have any questions leave them in the comments until the next video i'll catch you later see yathis video is brought to you by squarespace okay welcome back everyone it is friday and on fridays i do this little thing where i do mail time i get packages from viewers like you and this is the video where i share them with everyone so without further ado let's get to the mail so before we get started here i want to make a comment about mail time in general so the other day i was talking to somebody who's seen a lot of the mail videos and he made a comment he said you know one of the things that's very impressive is the quality of the work that you choose to show on there and i corrected him on that because i really don't choose to show anything and it's really interesting how this kind of shakes out when i do these videos literally i've got unopened mail stacked up ready to go and i tend to grab a couple of these and i'm gonna do a video so literally i've grabbed five or so random packages and they just kind of come out how they come out my feeling is is that if somebody has gone to the trouble to make a book a zine make prints whatever it is they send to me then they deserve to have it shared and it just so happens that the quality of work on all these is really good you probably have already noticed this but i just wanted to point that out once again on that note our first book here comes to us from olivier desmond i hope i'm saying your name right it is a little book called tsukiji and olivier writes dear ted i hope this letter finds you well i've been following your youtube channel for years i wanted to send you a copy of my new book tokyo's fame tsujiki fish market closed its doors on october 6 2018 after an 83-year run i was able to gain special access to the inner market on that day to document this historic event the resulting book tsujiki shot over a period of two years to 2018 offers a look at this culturally significant uniquely japanese market and neighborhood 54 black and white photographs are featured alongside essays by food sake tokyo author and washington post contributor yukari sakamoto i hope you enjoy it it's limited to 120 copies there are about 20 copies left in case any of your viewers are interested in getting one keep up the great work all the best olivier okay a few things that i want to say first off olivier your book is beautiful also what an awesome topic this is a culturally significant fish market there is a believe a documentary i have not seen it yet that may be available on netflix if you guys want to check it out and if you want a copy of this book highly recommended it's beautifully published well printed i will put a link in the show description below so check it out and olivia you should be proud this is awesome all right next up is this little zine which comes to us from james pritchard who lives in london and he writes hi ted love the channel always a great source of information and inspiration to me i thought i would send you this zine made from a love of soho and the incredible range of street fashion that you can find there hope you enjoy all the best james james this is a beautiful collection of fashion portraits you should be very proud this actually makes me miss soho and london quite a bit in fact i was just thinking i haven't been to the uk and it's probably been 10 years now so that's something that probably needs to be rectified soon but uh anyway awesome work all right so next up is a zine called small town post offices north dakota this comes to us from mike hess who writes ted i have been a fan of your youtube channel for a few years i really enjoy that you talk about actual photography so many other channels focused on the equipment the arctic's backseat thank you mike i wanted to show my appreciation by sending you a copy of a zine that i made last year this is my first try at one and i look forward to making more at the beginning of covid i had time off of work i decided to explore small towns around where i live and document the local post offices i felt that while we were getting more isolated because of the pandemic we were relying on the mail to reach the outside world more things that we used to go down the street to get we now needed to order from amazon the only way to get them was to have the mailmen deliver them it was about that time that the us postal service itself became a political pawn and i wanted to make sure that there was a record of them in case they started closing i purposely tried to exclude anyone from being in the photos to give the feel of abandonment as i scoured google maps looking for what i wanted to shoot i sought out the locations in a mid-century aesthetic it seems that there was a huge number built during the 1950s and 1960s and i did shoot many of them that didn't follow that rule but the exercise was fun on the technical side i used mamia c3 alfred fp4 plus and kodak portra 160. i like the idea of shooting a camera and black and white film that was from the same air as the post office's thanks again i hope you enjoy it mike so first of all i love the concept and mike if this is your first pass at a zine i can't wait to see what you do down the road this is very nicely done excellent work you know it's fascinating to me how many zines i actually get in mail time and the reason i say that is because they are a labor of love i mean it takes time to put these together they're certainly passion projects and something that you've got to follow a concept and be aware of and really put a lot of effort into so i really just want to say that because i appreciate the work that people do in these now i did ask you guys a couple videos back on the mail time videos if you guys wanted to see me do any material on making your own zine and making that more accessible to more people and you guys have left me some great comments and i'm going to get to some stuff i'm not ready to announce it just yet but i promise i do have a project in the works that i think will be a lot of fun so i'll get to that probably in the next month or two here but uh anyway i do have two more to share but i want to real quick give a shout out to our sponsor today who are the awesome folks over at squarespace.com listen you need a website and we all know how much work that is to build and maintain but it doesn't have to be squarespace is by far the easiest way to build your online presence it's also the best way to grow a business that works for you without having to write a single line of code do you just need a simple portfolio or a blog to showcase your work well squarespace is perfect featuring a drag and drop interface it's intuitive it allows you to build galleries quickly and update your site with ease are you running a business well squarespace gives you additional tools for things like appointment scheduling private member areas social media tools and even advanced email marketing do you sell products or services well squarespace has you covered with complete tools to power your store from merchandising to check out so that you can sell ship and build your customer base you can even sell classes or manage appointments through your website and with squarespace extensions you can easily sync with third parties to manage optimize and enhance your website from social media integration to seo squarespace gives you all the tools you need to grow a business that works for you so head over to squarespace and sign up for the free trial start with one of their award-winning templates and see what you can create and just how good you're going to look when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com aop and i can save you an additional 10 off your first purchase of a website or domain just use offer code aop on checkout so give it a try and see if squarespace is right for you and i want to give a special shout out and thank you to squarespace for sponsoring this video can i just say that i love handwritten notes i'm just saying i also love zine so this is a good combination anyway this is a little zine that comes to us from alec hoffman who writes hey ted someone from the photograph crew discord server wanted to buy a copy of my new photo book and have it sent to you for your photo book videos this book is titled 804 and covers the life of richmond virginia i am a current graphic design student at vcu and i've only been doing film photography since january of 2022 so it's pretty new to me the copy i sent you i forgot to add a page with my name and info this book is by me alec hoffman thank you for clearing that up alec beautiful work all right next up is this book called housebound which comes to us from adam and adam writes ted hello from toronto canada has a small token of gratitude for everything you do in the photography community i have enclosed my first zine housebound the photographs included in housebound were taken during the covet 19 lockdown between march and july 2020. along with countless others i have had to deal with my own sense of confinement and isolation once a place of comfort home had now become a workplace of frustration a space of virtual celebrations a gem a restaurant of limited means but it also developed into the focus of my lens as it replaced the street out of the constraints of the domestic setting the natural light and the candidness of the mundane i documented the beauty and tension of the varying relationships of light within the home the days became weeks which became months and in what felt like an eternity were captured for an eternity thanks again and wishing you all the best adam alright so first of all adam excellent work you should be very proud of this there's a couple things that i want to say about it first of all congratulations because you have just conquered one of the most difficult subjects in photography and you've made something really nice with it and by that i mean the familiar surroundings the day-to-day the things that we're most familiar with you know in all of my years personally shooting as a photographer and in doing this youtube channel one of the things that i hear the most and i think the same thing is that the hardest things to photograph are your immediate surroundings like your own city your own home your own neighborhood and i think that a lot of this is psychological because i assume because i'm so familiar with everything and i've seen it and i don't really know what to do that's creatively inspiring with it that i assume everyone else is going to think that too you know we all think that we need to travel or we need to go somewhere exotic or the light has to be just right or we need the perfect model or we need the perfect studio setup and the reality is is none of that is true and i think that's evidenced in adam's little book here so awesome work the other thing that i want to say about this that's just fascinating to me not just because of this book because it's come up in several times and things that people sent me i've also noticed how many people started youtube channels during lockdown the other day it's really kind of cool when you think about it and i kind of knew this would happen but it's really interesting to see the people who have stuck through that you know that was a time especially early on when a lot of us were dealing with lockdowns or you know places weren't open or whatever your situation was it did feel isolating and it did feel really strange and it felt i remember it felt very quiet and i've shared on this channel a lot that i dealt with some depression issues during that time it was really kind of scary but at the same time i remember being there thinking okay things come along we're experiencing this tectonic shift in the way that we all perform our day-to-day and the way that we think about things the way we approach our work whether that's our hobby work or whether that's our vocation it is all just changed and it's really interesting to see how people and this is the part that i was excited about at the time it well it was hard to get excited about the time but i knew it would come as we're starting to see now the fruits of the labor from all that and so it's just really interesting to see how that shift is going to manifest itself going forward and what i hope is that it showed people like our friend adam here that you can create good work in those situations and don't wait for a magic moment necessarily to create and practice and be in that habit and shoot and create work and do cool things i think that's the big takeaway here anyway awesome work today guys um i love doing these videos they're really a cool way for me to connect with you guys as an audience so i really appreciate the work that you guys send in if you have any questions leave them in the comments until the next video i'll catch you later see ya\n"