I met Dave Potes, one of the co-founders of the photography collective Hamburger Eyes, at a small Irish pub in the East Village of New York City. We discussed his career, Hamburger Eyes, and the Lifestyle photography movement. Dave grew up in Hawaii and San Diego. His father tinkered with photography and gave Dave’s older brother Ray a camera, which led the younger Potes brother to follow suit. Dave’s first memories of photography are taking pictures of his father and the family, experimenting innocently. Many years later, Ray Potes started a small, independent black-and-white photography zine titled Hamburger Eyes, where Dave and their friends would print their own photographs juxtaposed against one another. The zine was centered on photographers living in San Francisco. After numerous write-ups in local newspapers and magazines, the zine and movement were quickly labeled “Lifestyle” photography, meaning that the photographers and subject matter seemed to be in their natural environment. Daniel St. George II: Do you want to be more of a commercial artist or a fine artist? Dave Potes: I’d like to go more fine art. Currently, for a day job I’m doing product photography, and that’s a cool thing too. I don’t mind funding my fine art work with some commercial jobs, and also it’d be cool to do a major commercial job. DSTII: The majority of your work and the work of your peers is shot in black and white. Is there a reason for this? DP: Yes and no. The yes and no being no, there is no reason. Actually no, let me take that back – yes. Yes, there is a reason: it’s the whole aesthetic. I will shoot color, but it’s different looking through the lens in comparison to black and white, where you see shadows and highlights. But I think the aesthetic is the film, and its grain is emotional to me. You can take that to color too... DSTII: Are you shooting on film, digital, or a mixture? DP: For all my own work I use film. If I’m doing commercial work, it’s all digital. DSTII: What were your first moments of you seriously considering yourself a photographer? And what made you make that jump from a hobbyist to a career? DP: I think it happened a couple of years ago. And what that meant to me is fully committing to it. Doing all the steps and motions of getting yourself out there, participating in art shows, working people. DSTII: How do you feel about the scene and how it’s changed? DP: Its accessible and convenient, which is why there are so many more photographers now. With film, people didn’t want to wait and do all the processes. Now, with digital, you can shoot it and boom, it’s done. There are still a lot of people using film. As far as a scene, I feel that especially right now with photography in the art world, people just want to come up fast. They want to be the shit right now. I feel it’s a process of finding yourself. As a photographer, you should have a strong sensibility and reason. DSTII: Do you feel like in urban cities, photographers are going to music events now to photograph, rather than what the true nature of Lifestyle photography is meant to be – taking pictures in their natural state of being? DP: I think yes and no. I feel like ... I’ll say yes, there are younger kids shooting now. I feel like we created an aesthetic that people want to mimic. And at the same time, we inspired people to take more photos. Culture is so image heavy right now. It’s super popular, and it’s hard to find your own voice. I want to shoot, but it seems like everyone is doing it. I walk down the streets and see things that would make a great photo but . . . DSTII: Living in San Francisco for a short period, and with the city being so “do it yourself,” I noticed that people don’t buy a lot of art. With that said, do you think the new influx of younger photographers flooding in makes it harder overall for people to establish themselves long term? DP: Things naturally evolve. There is a filtering process, I think, to be a fine artist – it’s a lifetime of work. The photographers that have become huge so early and so young? It has to do with timing. They still worked it and hustled it. It’s a hustle. You have to know when the opportunity is there and jump on it. DSTII: During the start of Hamburger Eyes, were you aware of similar photo movements in the past? DP: Most definitely. Ultimately, we are a photo gang or crew. And there were many before us. We haven’t done anything new – we are just reviving it. We aren’t claiming it; it’s been there. There’s just this huge gap. We want to revive that, continue that and celebrate it. DSTII: With Hamburger Eyes growing, do you see it going more commercial or remaining the way it is? DP: I’m hoping it keeps its integrity. I feel like we do keep our integrity. I don’t think we’ll get rich off it. DSTII: What is the difference between Lifestyle photography and Documentary photography? DP: Lifestyle is staged in a sense – they use it in editorial. It’s like getting two models together and just hanging out, then just shooting them with clothing on or something. Documentary, however, involves capturing a moment. by Daniel St. George II