Ted Pushinsky

Ted Pushinsky

Ted Pushinsky

Ted Pushinsky

Nice interview with Ted Pushinsky from the good people at Alldayeveryday. Burn a hole in it.

You've shot all over the world - how much does a city affect what kind of photos you take? Like, do you think you would be the same photographer if you lived in NY or LA?

Being in a city (San Francisco or New York or Beijing or Kuala Lumpur) means being surrounded by hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. There was a fine TV show, The Naked City, and at the end of each episode the narrator would say, “There are eight million stories in the naked city; this has been one of them.” I fancied myself a writer, but I wasn’t any good. I can only hope that those millions of people around me give my photographs something consistent with the order of words in a novel by Dickens or Conrad or Dostoevsky.

How do you approach the people you are photographing? Do you go up and talk to them or do you prefer to remain inconspicuous?

I’m sneaky and fast. I started out making a living shooting modern dance and boxing and wrestling—shooting action. For the most part, I’m still shooting that way, which leaves no time for talking beforehand.