Field Notes: Photographers on People, Practice, and Place

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Lynsey Weatherspoon grew up with a neighbor who was part of baseball history — he played for the Birmingham Black Barons. In 2014, Weatherspoon created a series of portraits called League of Negro Baseball Players, documenting players who returned for an annual celebration in Birmingham. Lynsey Weatherspoon’s work has been published in numerous news outlets, and has been exhibited in The African American Museum in Philadelphia, Photoville NYC, and galleries across the country. One of her ongoing projects is titled I see Myself in You. Weatherspoon speaks with Kate Medley about why she chose include self-portraits in the series, and the inspiration behind the project, which “delves into the intimate dimensions of Black queer identity and experiences.” Find more of Lynsey’s projects, including her podcast Trust Your Process here. Field Notes: Photographers on People, Practice, and Place is hosted by Kate Medley. This episode was produced by Luna Hu and Cole del Charco. Full credits Production by: Taemin Kim, Mirabela Kumar, Mikaela Voinov, Luna Hu, and Cole del Charco. Interviews are recorded at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies. Music this episode: Future Nostalgia by 1000 Handz is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License.

Born in Brooklyn and growing up in Manhattan as a first-generation Chinese American, Baldwin Lee experienced racism firsthand. Those experiences have shaped his photography, including a seven-year project documenting the American South focused on “Black Americans: at home, at work, and at play, in the street, and among nature.”  Baldwin Lee studied under Walker Evans and Minor White, before founding the University of Tennessee’s photography program in 1982. Lee tells Kate Medley why he decided to put down the camera. His first book, published in 2022, is titled Baldwin Lee.  Find Baldwin Lee’s work at his website, here. Full credits: Field Notes is hosted by Kate Medley. Production by: Taemin Kim, Mirabela Kumar, Mikaela Voinov, Luna Hu, and Cole del Charco. Interviews are recorded at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies. -- Music this episode: Future Nostalgia by 1000 Hands, CC Licence https://freemusicarchive.org/music/1000-handz/cc-by-free-to-use-synthwave-instrumentals/future-nostalgia/ 

Kate Medley speaks with Danielle Villasana, a photographer and photojournalist based in Houston, Texas. Villasana’s work has focused on human rights, including LGBTQ+ and migrant communities.

Welcome to Field Notes, where host Kate Medley interviews photojournalists and documentary photographers about people, practice, and place.