©Raymond Meeks

Photography and cinema make different claims on the viewer’s time. The medium of the photobook is related to both, but also introduces its own notion of a timeline. The filmmaker Adam Meeks, son of the photographer Raymond Meeks, grew up immersed in photobooks – not only the objects, but the process of their making. Now, father and son, both LTP faculty, talk about Raymond’s new book, The Inhabitants (Mack, 2023), and the related upcoming show, Immersion at ICP in New York, and about their time together in France as Raymond was making the work. They unpack a certain tension that arose between them during that time regarding their differing approaches, perspectives, and ways of working. They also talk about their teaching philosophies – what they gain from teaching, and what they hope to offer.

The complete recored conversation will be published on photobooksatpenumbrafoundation.org in October 2023. Follow @photobookrpogram and @penubrafoundation on Instagram for updates. For now, please enjoy an excerpt of their conversation:

Adam Meeks is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His short film Union County premiered in competition at the 70th Berlinale, and continued on to screen at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, Maryland Film Festival, and numerous others. It was also featured on Le Cinéma Club, Short of the Week, NoBudge, and as a Vimeo Staff Pick. His short personal documentary Bitterroot premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and is currently on the festival circuit. He is a 2023 Film Independent Screenwriting Lab Fellow, a 2021 Yaddo Artist-in-Residence, and a 2019 Creative Culture Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center. He currently works as the Senior Video Producer at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and is in development on his first feature film – an expansion of Union County. 

Follow Adam on Instagram @adammeeks

Raymond Meeks (Ohio, 1963) has been recognized for his books and pictures centered on memory and place, the way in which a landscape can shape an individual and, in the abstract, how a place possesses you in its absence.  His books have been described as a field or vertical plane for examining interior co-existences, as life moves in circles and moments and events—often years apart—unravel and overlap, informing new meanings.

Raymond Meeks lives and works in the Hudson Valley (New York).  His work is represented in numerous private and public collections.  He is the sixth laureate of Immersion, a French-American photography commission sponsored by Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. Exhibitions from this commission are scheduled for New York (ICP September, 2023) and Paris (Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson September, 2024). The Inhabitants, a book made in collaboration with writer George Weld, will be published in August 2023 by MACK

Raymond Meeks is a 2020 recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Photography and was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2022.

Follow Raymond on Instagram @raymondmeeks

LTP Photobook Program is a year-long online course which combines seminars, critiques with guest artists, and one-on-one sessions. Working with several instructors throughout the program, while also receiving assignments and feedback from guest critics, participants will have both continuity and variety of support. The learning process is based on regular production of physical maquettes, which helps participants deepen their understanding of the book form and allow them to continue redefining it for themselves. Reading and writing assignments, as well as individualized exercises throughout the year will develop the skills and knowledge necessary for a photobook maker. While the objective of the course is to have, at the end of the year, an artist book or a physical maquette to present to publishers or to self-publish, participants also establish a practice and a community to support them going forward. The course is presented in collaboration with the Penumbra Foundation in New York City, and Image Threads Collective.

Applications for the 2024 session of the Penumbra Foundation / Image Threads LTP are open until October 6th, 2023. It is free to apply. Learn more and apply here.

Follow LTP on Instagram @photobookprogram

Penumbra Foundation is a non profit organization that brings together the Art and Science of Photography through education, research, outreach, public and residency programs. Its goal is to be a comprehensive resource for photographers at any level, artists, students, professionals, historians, researchers, conservators and curators.

Follow the Penumbra Foundation on Instagram @penumbrafoundation

Image Threads Collective brings together artists, teachers, and bookmakers who are passionate about photographic projects and books, for the mutual exchange of ideas and critical feedback. They partner with students and working artists to produce collaborative workshops, public exhibitions, and long-term mentoring relationships. They are committed to working with and for the communities who host their programming.

Follow Image Threads Collective on Instagram @imagethreads