Interview; Slowing down with Daniella Zalcman.

Folkestone in Kent, England, a photographer peers into the viewfinder of her TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) camera. Through the viewfinder she frames an English R.A.F officer, Squadron Leader Wayne Ladd poses in front of his Spitfire. The American photographer releases the shutter and the moment is captured for eternity.

But who is this photographer? It could well be Margaret Bourke White, the first American female war photojournalist on assignment for Life magazine...it is in fact Daniella Zalcman, the scene described in the opening paragraph took place in 2013 and Wayne Ladd is a reenactor, his Spitfire a replica.

"Margaret! One of my all time heroes. I started photographing World War II reenactors when I first moved to the UK and couldn’t legally work while some paperwork came through. Two and a half years later, I’m still photographing them. I’m actually about to go have lunch with one of them right now — a former Royal Engineer whose father was in Normandy on D-Day."

R.A.F Squadron Leader Wayne Ladd in front of his Spitfire. 2013. © Daniella Zalcman

Originally from Washington D.C, "But went to college and became a real human in New York." Daniella is a London based photojournalist who regularly contributes to the Wall Street Journal as their British Imperialism correspondent. Her award winning work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, TIME, Sports Illustrated, and CNN, among others. Her photographs have been exhibited throughout the U.S. and Europe and are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

In an era of photography where 6 frames per second is the norm, where megapixels and sensor size are what matters and you can fit thousands of pictures on a single memory card. Daniella has taken a step back to a more sedate period of photography when in the 1940's and 1950's press photographers used medium format and only got 12 shots per roll of film. when my Dad started his career as a press photographer in the late 1950's his first professional camera was a plate camera! So even then 12 shots a roll was something of a luxury.

"I’d always loved photography, but I originally wanted to be a reporter. I was the editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper and joined my college newspaper the second I got to campus, but it wasn’t until my second year of college that I serendipitously started shooting."

Whilst studying for a B.A. in Architecture with concentrations in Photography and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Daniella spent some time as an Editorial Intern at Wired Magazine and as a Photography Intern at The New Yorker. Shortly after this Daniella got her first break into the New York photojournalism community.

"In September 2007, then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to speak at Columbia. The administration heavily restricted media access, and the NY Daily News wasn’t accredited. A photo editor called the Columbia undergraduate newspaper hoping to hire a student to shoot for them, and I picked up the phone. .. I was raised and trained by New York City tabloid photographers and editors — an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. It taught me to be incredibly hard-working, resourceful, quick on my feet, and generally tough as nails. Some of my fondest memories from breaking into the NYC photojournalism community are going on ride-alongs with legendary New York Daily News photographer Todd Maisel — multiple police scanners crackling, driving on the sidewalk on the way to breaking news scenes."

Daniella freelanced for the NY Daily News until 2010. "The Wall Street Journal started its own New York metro section in 2010, and a former editor from the NYDN was hired to help build the photo desk. I felt like I’d learned what I could from the Daily News and a few people I really cared about had left the paper, so I felt it was time to move on."

LGBT rights activist Sandra Ntebi in her home in Kampala. Uganda. 2013 © Daniella Zalcman

"Double Lives" the first part of a wider project called "Kuchus in Uganda" was Daniella's first major photo project. "I was in Uganda en route to South Sudan to cover its independence in 2011 and was looking for a story to work on in the week I had while I waited for my visa to come through. The man commonly referred to as Uganda’s first gay rights activist, David Kato, had been murdered a few months before, so I reached out to the LGBT community and began photographing their world."

Back in 2009 international scrutiny accompanied the Ugandan efforts to institute the death penalty for homosexuality, with British, Canadian, French, and American leaders expressing concerns for human rights. The bill was finally passed last year to the dismay of the international community. Following on from this Daniella is also working on a story (supported by The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting) on LGBTI asylum seekers from former British Colonies in the UK. As she writes in her project overview..."The UK left behind discriminatory penal codes in all of their African protectorates, criminalizing homosexuality in places where sexual orientation or gender identity had never before been stigmatized. Decades later, with the help of foreign evangelical preachers, anti-homosexuality laws are now the norm. But the UK continues to turn away Commonwealth asylum seekers in spite of that shared history and thorough documentation that their lives are in danger."

New York and London mashup. 2012. © Daniella Zalcman

In 2012 Daniella moved from New York to London, this brought about her next project which would be widely acclaimed across the world, "New York and London".

On her website Daniella says this of the project..."I created this series of double exposures to map the intersections between two sets of streets and skylines. The resulting images are part New York, part London, and collectively represent my vision of home." Is there an artistic influence behind NY+L I wondered..."I suppose, in that they’re the only images I’ve ever taken that could really be construed as fine art. I studied architecture in college and I think the New York + London series certainly is very architectural in spirit."

EchoSight mashup. 2013 © Daniella Zalcman/EchoSight

This project was the progenitor of the highly successful Echo/Sight project that she runs with fellow New Yorker and photographer Danny Ghitis whom she met at the 2009 Eddie Adams Workshop. "EchoSight was an extension of my New York + London project playing with multi-city double exposures — we added the collaborative element and it really took off from there." After a few months the pair realised that they couldn't sustain the daily posting's as they had been and decided to open the project up to other photographers from around the world, the first two guest photographers were Ed Kashi and Laura El-Tantawy, from there it has gone from strength to strength.

I asked Daniella what motivates her photographically..."Ah, these are all clichés, I think, but I’m most drawn to communities that are on the fringe of mainstream society — by choice or otherwise. I think journalism at its best gives a voice to those who have been marginalized and neglected and aims to tell their stories with empathy and dignity. I’m also drawn to stories that are connected to the legacies of western colonialism — particularly since I moved to the UK."

Daniella has been using medium format recently for her projects, I just had to ask why. "When I first started playing around with cameras in high school, they were all digital, and my first professional assignments were shot on digital cameras as well. I took one intro to photography class in college that was 35mm black and white film, partially because I thought it was important to understand the history of the craft of photography, and fell in love with film. Most of my projects these days are shot on medium format. I’m a much better photographer on 6x6. I think part of it is the inherent preciousness of film — it’s so easy to fire off a few hundred shots on digital and not stop to craft each frame. I’m much more deliberate and thoughtful with film, and I think it shows."

Daniella has admitted in the past to being addicted to vintage camera's, I asked her how many she has..."TOO MANY. It’s pretty bad. I do legitimately shoot with quite a few of them, is my excuse — mostly a Yashica D TLR, and many of the rest of them are casualties of trying to find the best medium format camera for me and my work. I went through a Hasselblad C (never again, with a shutter that fires like a machine gun), a Mamiya RB67 (too heavy), a Mamiya 6 (I’m terrible with rangefinders), and so on. TLRs are really perfect for me."

Which contemporary photographers does Daniella admire? "Oh this is always so hard. It’s constantly changing, and so many of the people I admire are people I consider colleagues and friends. Right now — Lynsey Addario, David Guttenfelder, Jerome Delay, Ed Ou. Robin Hammond. Need more women! Natalie Keyssar, Laura El Tantawy, Kirsten Luce. The list goes on and on."

Lisa Rapaso sits around the communal fire at the Long House. The fire is the center of communal activity in Runnymede. 2015 © Daniella Zalcman

Daniella's most recent project "How To Make The Wasteland Grow" has been focusing on the land activists who are living in a camp in Runnymede, Surrey. The residents of the Runnymede eco-village believe modern living is fundamentally broken and decided they wanted nothing to do with it. "The Diggers" - named after a group of land activists who took over or squatted on commons and fields during the English civil war, have lived on the four-acre plot of disused land, 30 miles west of London since 2012. They are currently fighting an eviction in the Royal Courts of Justice. Daniella stumbled upon the group at the start of this year, and, after a few phone calls, began to visit every week or so, spending time in the camp, helping out with chores around the camp, gaining trust. Daniella continues to visit the Runnymede community and is still working on this long term project.