Renell Medrano
The work on WePresent is so diverse and broad. Is there an overarching creative direction when it comes to the type of work that you seek to highlight?
I always ask myself how a project fits to our tagline, “unexpected stories about creativity.” This really helps me to challenge myself to see how, photographically, we can bring something to the audience that feels new. What’s great about this line is that it molds itself into two ways. The first is finding a story that feels new and fresh that we’d like to tell, for example we’ve recently featured Olgaç Bozalp . We talked to him about a personal project where he photographs his dad when they travel together, and we discussed the relationship between them. The second is focusing on the photographer as a creative doing unexpected things. For example, with Renell Medrano, we felt that she is a really exciting photographer and wanted to be able to work with her and support her on a totally new project.
We’ve worked with artists from 85 countries around the world, and we want to show the varied interpretations of what creativity means irrespective of where you live. I always keep in mind that we have to show lots of different styles of photography to appeal to lots of different people. That’s a great challenge to have as a visual curator because you have to push the boundaries of your own personal preference or taste to something that fits for a large audience. We want to help find something that’s unexpected that they wouldn’t usually see in their day-to-day lives.
Renell Medrano
Where else do you discover new photographers?
A mix of Instagram, photography publications like Splash and Grab, or PH Museum, and I look at what is being featured at photography festivals and platforms like Women Photograph and Thursday's Child to name a few!
How many people make up the team there?
Olgaç Bozalp
Can anyone pitch a project? Does it function much like a magazine in that you take pitches to the editors or does the photo team have some autonomy in pushing projects through?
Clémentine Schneidermann
2. We operate more like a traditional magazine. We come together as a team and discuss projects that have come in from a writer or photographer as well as pitching our own ideas. Generally then Holly [Fraser, Editor-in-chief] and Liv [TK, Story Editor], with the team, will select the projects we are excited about. On average, we have about 5 of these a month. Some stories that have come out of this are the plastic food story with Marco Arguello and Flo Ngala's about photographing Cardi B.
Flo Ngala
3. Each year we select around 4 photographers to work with on a personal project they’ve wanted to do, for example with Renell [Medrano] we did an exhibition in London in February showing her work. For this, I work with Holly and Suzanne and usually present photographers that I’m excited about to then see how we can work together. Some other work that’s come from this has been Catherine Hyland , Clémentine Schneidermann , and Tyler Mitchell .
In terms of photography and the team in general, we trust what everyone’s speciality is. If I’m really passionate about a project, I think the team would recognize that. I definitely have a lot of freedom to bring new ideas to commissions which I’m very fortunate to have. Similar to this, you have to trust the photographers you work with, and that freedom can give you the best work. Whether it’s a commission or personal project, I will always try and make the best page and story on WePresent, but I believe it’s not about having strict briefs that can take away from their creativity, I believe that you have to trust in the photographers style and their passion for the story which will make them much more excited about the project.
Tyler Mitchell
Sanne De Wilde/Noor
Why is showing creative work important to WeTransfer's overall brand identity?
I love the conversations between artists and curators, etc. Who is behind those choices? Are you choosing the folks for that or are those pitches as well?
I love the conversations between artists and curators, etc. Who is behind those choices? Are you choosing the folks for that or are those pitches as well?
I think we’ve always loved this format! We’ve seen that the connection between two people who have worked together or have admiration for one another creates a special interaction. I have to say my favorite project that we used this idea for was between Ryan McGinley and Kathy Ryan [Director of Photography, New York Times Magazine], reading through the piece you can understand Kathy’s deep knowledge of Ryan’s work linking it back to his childhood and how religion has a huge effect on his upbringing and therefore work. You can tell Ryan is open and honest with Kathy and I just found it such an inspiring conversation.
In the team we try and always bring this dynamic together or even sometimes ask for suggestions from the artist, as I think they know who understands their work or who has been around for big moments in their career.