B&h Photography Podcast

Appropriately, this is our Mother's Day episode, and our title borrows Maya Angelou’s description of her mother from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Photographer Elinor Carucci struck us with some of her own perfect power during this week’s recording of the B&H Photography Podcast. I doubt much stands in her way, but there's a calm too—born of family support, nurtured by maturity, and assured with the confidence that comes from presenting yourself to the world, warts and all—in other words, from “putting yourself out there.” Our talk today is about her photography, particularly her fine art work as represented in her books, Closer, from 2002, and Mother, from 2013. Both works are an exploration of motherhood and family, the first centered on her own mother and, the later book, on herself as a mother, and her children. We do speak about her photographic style and technique, we talk about editing decisions, camera settings, lighting, macro lenses, and how to recreate “spontaneous” moments, but the heart