INTERVIEWS
How do you describe yourself as a photographer?
That is a difficult question without sounding presumptuous....if I had
to say it succinctly I would call myself a master photographer of the
old school, or a photographer's photographer....to me my art, my
trade and passion which I have been pursuing since 1965 is as much a
part of me as are my eyes, my hands and feet...
When did you start photography?
My father had a 'fancy' camera which he brought back from a trip to Japan in or about 1961..it was a Yashica Lynx 1000, he didn't know how to use it and I started taking photos of flowers and people with it...
and I won a third prize in the New York World Telegram & Sun competition with a photo of a rose...
For you, is photography a matter of capturing a specific moment or about creating interpreting reality artistically?
I would say both....it really totally depends upon circumstances, the moment, the subject or idea you are wanting to capture at the moment and so on, but at the very best it is both capturing and creating/interpreting at the same moment and that is when you know you are on the right track, you feel it and it is a real electric charge.
What things inspire you in photography--where do you get your ideas?
Everything inpsires me, it is a queston of light at some moments and others just new ways of seeing the same thing over and over but wanting to make it better and better and to capture the poetry of the subject whatever it may be....I never get tired of photographing anything, it is always new and fresh..it is constantly rediscovering the
world around me and attempting to capture the vision to share with others.
Why would someone, or why do you, want to photograph vanishing cultures and places?
Simply because they facinate me, and they are in general such rich subjects, with so much to capture, so much material of all types and textures and it is life as it should be and once was for all of us and so romantic in my eyes I guess.
How do you approach leading an in-field workshop?
Openly and trying to be in tune with the surroundings and the people who are in the group, and improvising as we go...
Do you have any photographic hereos [like brassai or weston, etal.]?
No heros really...many photographers I respect and admire but no one idol!!
Where do you live now and why?
I live in France because my son is here, because it was the only place I could buy a huge house with 100% financing and realise a dream of having a huge house, several with space to create.
Can you think of a particular assignment where you realized that you had made it, that you had arrived as a photographer?
I don't think I have ever truly felt that I have actually yet arrived, that will only happen when I feel I am recognised for my work by the international photographic and artistic community, but when I was shooting fashion for various top French magazines I felt that anything was possible at that moment...you are in power for a short time...with
all the models, stylists, makeup people, assistants etc, plus the public looking on, you are definitely in the limelight and it is fun..
Do you have a run-and-gun approach to photography or are you a detailed pre-planner?
Neither, sometimes I plan, but often I go with the flow...meaning I feel out where I am put out my antenna and then react to my surroundings and take what is offered visually...
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
If all goes well, I see mysel working full time, doing workshops, exhibitions and working full time on my art, which is mixed media and scultpure with more books coming out..
What kind of advice do you give to young photographers who want to come into the business?
That is easy, don't become a photographer today...it is not a way to make a steady living, do it for your pleasure, with the advent of digital, and computers almost anyone can take a decent photo and with photoshop can make the photo even better, which totally negates the pro photographer...it is a dying profession and will be left to a few artists just like painting... or do weddings and do it differently and you can make a steady living...
Barcroft Media, Thomas Midlane, April,2015
Interview for ZOOM magazine: February 2012-02-02
You went from States to Paris. Why just Paris?
I went to Paris as a starting point in 1989…..things in the states had come to a standstill….it was extremely hard to find work so I thought let me try Europe, it is where I started my life, having been born in Prague! So I said let me immigrate back to Europe and try my luck….Paris was meant to be a first stop..I had a girl friend there who invited me to stay with her so I had a free place to stay while I tried to get established but it took me 2 whole years before I started to work….I had no idea it would be so hard and then I was stuck without money so I stayed and tried to make the best of it.
From your point of you, how the photography market is evolved till now?
That is a good question and not one I am very happy with to be quite honest. In my opinion on the plus side photography has come into its own and people buy it and look at it much more these days, especially in the big cities in the various countries…but in the provincial areas it is still considered to be a trade and not looked at as an art form…also the advent of the digital camera, the computer and photoshop in some ways as well as revolutionizing the technique of photography has also denegrated it and homogenized it….in making it available to every man woman and child who can carry a camera in their hands, or a cell phone with camera…..it has totally cheapened, lessened the respect people had for photographers and the trade…..everyone today is a photogrpaher or thinks they are and that is very hard to swallow…..today huge photo agences buy photos from tourists for $50 dollars who just came back from a holiday in the sun…..also I find that mediocrity has become the norm and not the exception….excellence and a fine eye don’t seem to register any more….so lots of great work gets lost in the shuffle for easy images….also money has become so tight that magazines don’t hire professional photographers anymore for travel assignments when they can just buy cheap images which are readily available everywhere…..and finally the art market of photography is ridiculous…I see prints for sale for exhorbitant sums of money that in my opinion are nothing….work that first year students in an art school do for excercise….so I am not happy at all with the current market!
What about your series ‘Cowboys’? When, where, how long, what you wanted to show, what kind of relationship did you establish with them? Are they still living there? What does the horse mean for them?
Intersting story…as a boy I was fascinated with cowboys….which I learned about them from watching the early television programs….The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Hopalong Cassidy, The Rifleman, Have Gun Will Travel and The Cisco Kind….so many years later in New York City I met some Texans who invited me to visit them in Texas….that was in 1980….I went to visit them and they took me around to a few ranches where they had herds of cattle and that was the beginning of the idea of my documenting this way of life, the myth and the reality of it….and yes they still exist today…..I always loved down to earth peoples..people who worked with their hands, with nature or animals or materials…..real people in my opinion who live in harmony in their environments….so I wanted to show the world the life of the American cowboy…their life their clothing and their environment which I loved..it was one of the best times of my life…at first they gave me a hard time, a Yankee from New York, a green horn, so they put me on a wild horse and waited to see if I would fall off and I didn’t so I guess I won their respect eventually…I had to play diplomat/ambassador tro make up for all the bad photographers who had come through and exploited them, took photos and then never sent them any at all, I made sure to repsect them and all of them got prints of the photos I took of them….at one point I was going to title my book ‘Sailors of The Plains’ because I once was a sailor, and I found that the horse was like the saiboat on an ocean of grass and earth as opposed to the real boat on the ocean of water….a cowboy can not survive without his horse to get him around..and a horse is more reliable than a truck or motorcycle…it can go practically anywhere and it is also a friend and companion with whom you can form a real relationship just like with a good dog but better since the horse can carry you and even save your life….
…then you fell in love with black and white nudes… what happened?
I was in love with black and white nudes before the cowboy book, it was my first book…I was a teacher/professor of a course titled ‘photographing the nude’ at the New School/Parsons in New York for almost 7 years….so after my first book came out in 1981 I then did the cowboy book which came out in 1982…and have always done nudes, but not teaching gave me less opportunity to shoot live models….so it has been a slower process but I am still shooting nudes and a few years ago started more intensively to shoot nudes again……
What about your working relashionship with Madonna?
Madonna was a model for two of my classes while I was teaching at the New School/Parsons…she was the most lovely female model I had the pleasure of shooting back then….many of the figure models at the time were ordinary women with ordinary bodies, not real beauties to speak of..so she was an exception at the time…she was very cooperative, quiet and took direction well!
What would you like to teach to young and emergent photographers actually?
Another good question…I think primarily how to see, not just look…to be more disciplined in their approaches and not take short cuts, and not to use photoshop immediately…..I think like learning to become a doctor they need to learn everything from the bottom up…meaning also how to use real film, how to develop it and to make their own prints in the darkroom…I think then they will have a greater understanding of the medium and a greater respect as well….and finally be able to move on and do real work not just copy or take the easy way out…there is so much nonsense out there..so many images that mean nothing at all….
What are your future plans and wishes?
I would like to produce more books of my work… have several finished projects sitting here waiting for the right publisher to come along…..I also would like to do more teaching and workshops and lectures…I have all this experience which I would love to share with an interested public and of course exhibit more and to get some commissioned work that is always exciting and challenging…..
Commentaire suite à la conférence au Musée Européen de la Photo à Paris
Le 13 Janvier 2016
"Cette rencontre avec Martin H.M. Schreiber a été placée sous le triple signe de la richesse, de l’émotion et de l’authenticité. Richesse de thèmes : le nu, les chevaux, Prague, les cowboys, Madonna, les personnalités qu’il a rencontrées, des photos de mode, d’animaux, ses sculptures.
Ce diable d’homme sait tout faire : même se mettre en scène sous les traits d’un personnage magrittien, d’un sauvage etc.
L’émotion, comme la beauté, est dans l’œil de celui qui regarde et tout intéresse Schreiber, tout est photo. Il a la patience d’attendre une heure que la lumière du soleil éclaire le personnage d’un tableau dont un jeune homme, assis dans un café, reprend involontairement l’attitude. Il mettra autant de passion à photographier une fleur, une femme, une abeille, des enfants jouant dans la neige ou des objets de vide-grenier. Il saura nous toucher également.
Quant à l’authenticité, l’homme, charismatique, commente avec humour et simplicité le making of de ses photos, le sens de ses sculptures. D’une élégance naturelle, il prend le pouvoir dès qu’il se dresse face à l’écran pour nous transmettre sa passion et oui, on l’imagine chevaucher avec les cowboys, traverser le monde et même trouver l’insolite et l’inimaginable en bas de chez lui. Merci Monsieur Martin H.M. Schreiber pour cette belle soirée !"
Marie Gallicher