My friend Wesley Verhoeve is a photographer- but he is so much more than that. An educator, a community builder, a newsletter writer- and more recently, creator of a new book, "Notice," which you can pre-order here until April 27th.

So, Wesley, its so nice to take the time to chat with you here. You do so much for the creative space, both as an artist and as a community builder. I'd love to talk about both efforts, but to begin, I'd love for you to describe your newsletter to our audience so they can dive right into that world. What is "Process" and what drives you to create it?

Process is my weekly newsletter about photography and finding your voice. It comes out every Sunday. I share project and work, lessons learned, and it ranges from technical "how to" style letters to more philosophical issues where I dig into roadblocks and how to overcome them as visual storytellers. I also host a giveaway in each issue, ranging from cameras, to prints by artists I love, to film rolls courtesy of some of my favorite shops and brands, just another way to empower and inspire and give back.

I started the newsletter for reasons probably not dissimilar to you starting ALLSHIPS. I wanted a more intimate place to share work and develop relationships with fellow photographers and others who appreciate my work or just want to learn more about this endless craft of ours called photography. You and I have talked about this before but social media is only one channel and should probably not be our only one. I want to live in a house built on land that I own, not just rent from Facebook, if that makes sense.

That makes perfect sense, and that's a philosophy that absolutely is in the DNA of my efforts on this site as well.

I feel like we are exiting the "honeymoon" period of social media, and the realities of these platforms are rearing their heads. Its an interesting thing to navigate as we renegotiate our relationship with the internet.

Another philosophy that interests me in this realm is the idea that the best way to learn is to teach. What are some examples of things you have learned through your efforts to provide knowledge to others through "Process?"

Absolutely, I think there is still very much a place for social media but we have to be smart and healthy and most of all aware of it. For example, we can't let algorithms control what kind of work we make, which is something that can easily happen when we "do it for the gram", if you will.

One of my goals is to become a better writer and communicator. Giving myself a deadline and an expecting audience means I am more motivated to write because I told a group of very nice people I would send them a weekly note. The feedback I get from my readers is incredibly rewarding, whether it's young photographers picking up what I am putting down in terms of photo challenges, or folks who reply to a letter saying it helped them break through something that had them stuck.

And to your question, I absolutely find that, as an introverted person who can be a bit too in my own head, writing out things I learn or thoughts I am working through is incredibly helpful in terms of crystalizing and clarifying my thoughts on various topics.

Yeah, your audience is very engaged in the process, so to speak. I got a lot of nice notes after we spoke. Clearly they find tremendous value in your efforts.

How did you first arrive at photography as an interest? What about the medium attracts your curiosity?

That happened very early on. My dad is a photographer and was already when I was born. When I was a little kid, maybe like 6, I would join him on his photo walks and he'd hand me a camera to snap away with. He really stimulated my interest in photography, without any kind of pressure, just letting me learn through osmosis.

I actually think photography gives me a tool to channel and guide my curiosity. Everything I am curious about, from strangers in the street to cultures in different countries to literally anyone who is passionate about anything, my camera gives me a passport to safely travel into each of these worlds with. It's my reason, my excuse, my tool, my translator.

Yes I love that flipped take. I refer to my camera as the "master key," if you know how to use it, you can unlock any door.

Exactly!

Pushing deeper into your interests, what about film / expired film / old stocks is so appealing to you? I feel like you are fascinated by the chemistry of this space, I'd love to hear more about that.

I think it's a matter of being attracted to mystery and puzzles. When I shoot with a digital camera I basically know what will happen as soon as I press the shutter button. And if I happen to be wrong, I'll know right away because it'll show up on my LCD screen and I can adjust if I was wrong.

Diving into regular film photography adds a challenge. You don't see what the result is until later on, so that raises the stakes in terms of how you choose how you choose to meter your scene, how you develop the film, etc. It's a little bit more of a puzzle but in most ways it still relates heavily to what you may have learned shooting digitally because it's based on the same principles. When I shoot expired film it throws a huge monkey wrench into my process because suddenly you add a bunch of unknowns into your decision making process.

When was the film made, do we know how this film was stored since then, how does this particular film stock age, are the shadows affected or more so the highlights? How should I develop this particular film?

It becomes a much more complicated puzzle. With almost no certainty in how things will work out. It's very enjoyable for me, in part because I keep roll notes for all film I shoot, including the expired film, and since I've been shooting for a minute I am getting better and better at intuiting which stock from which year needs which treatment.

It doesn't mean I am always right of course, but I am more right than I used to be, and that's really photography for me in a nutshell: a never-ending quest of learning.

Wonderful answer and insights, thank you for that. Creativity, or a creative career rather, can seem like a swim upstream in our society, in the sense that many people will tell you as you grow up to make a safer bet.

What is your advice to people early on their creative journey, and has the internet changed the equation for people interested in pursuing visual arts?

I am sure the internet has changed a lot about the equation but I don't have any pre-internet experience really so I might not be the best person to ask.

My main piece of advice is one that was best worded to me by photographer and jewelry maker Coreen Simpson who told me that the best thing you can do it to self-assign yourself work. Rather than waiting and emailing to try to get a client to pay you to shoot a certain story, just go out and shoot it and publish it yourself and send it around to people who may be interested in hiring you based on that work.

People can usually only imagine hiring you for work they have already seen you do, whether its for others or just for yourself. So if you want to be an event photographer, go to events and shoot them, put them online, share them with the organization, and eventually that will pay off. And the same goes for if you want to be a portrait photographer or any kind of photographer.

I experienced this myself, even though I didn't plan it out this way, when I started my very first self-assigned project. It's called One of Many and it's a collection of long-form photo essays about the creative communities of twelve cities in the US. I focused specifically on cities that at the time weren't getting a lot of attention because all eyes have always been on NYC and LA as the perceived centers of culture. In each city I interviewed and photographed a diverse set of around 50 creatives and I was really just following my own curiosity.

When I started publishing the project online it picked up some steam and got covered by the creative press and eventually as I kept hammering away at the project I would receive emails from companies or publications who liked my style of environmental portraiture of creative people and they asked me to do the same for them. It's good to note that this wasn't instant, I think it took a year from when I first started publishing One of Many.

Wow what a beautiful response. Thank you so much for the time today, I know I learned a lot myself and I'm grateful to be able to share this with my audience here.

So I know you have a book coming out soon, can you give us the overview and tell us where we can find it?

Yes absolutely. So as you probably gathered from the previous answers I have predominantly been a portrait photographer. Pre-covid I traveled a lot, roaming the streets of cities all over the world to meet strangers, engage them in a conversation, and take their portrait. Often times I would end up casting people this way for my commercial client projects as well. Starting in 2019 I took the international route with this and I started spending 2-3 months at a time in different cities like Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Berlin, Mexico City, etc. It was an amazing and inspiring time.

Once I got to Vancouver BC for a similar period, the world changed in ways we are all too familiar with. COVID hit, borders closed, Vancouver went into lockdown. Suddenly my whole thing of running around a city talking to strangers became impossible for obvious reasons. So there I was. All client gigs canceled, no traveling, no one on the street, and stuck in a city I was not familiar with at all. Thankfully Vancouver is a beautiful and fascinating city, even the quiet suburban neighborhood I was staying in.

With all my "normals" kind of gone, I had to establish some new routines to keep me sane and creative, so I decided to go on a daily photo walk in my Vancouver neighborhood. Instead of running around fast, I started walking slowly, and instead of seeking out people I started paying attention to the tiny bits of beautiful all around my neighborhood.

I subconsciously was training myself to get better at noticing things, which is where the title of the book comes from: Notice. From the shadow cast on a garage door by a basketball net, to the way I would see certain flowers change as I passed by them everyday, I starting noticing and documenting every day.

To cut a long story slightly shorter, I ended up going on this daily photo walk for 123 days in a row for two or three hours a day, which later turned out to be about 800 miles (or 1200km) of walking, all in this same neighborhood, which sounds kind of insane after the fact. One of the main lessons this project has taught me is that if we take small steps towards a goal consistently every day, it can really add up.

I didn't know I was making a book as I was doing it. I just started it as a therapeutic ritual for myself, but as the days added up I started wondering, hmm these are such different photos from my other work but I really like them, maybe this could end up being a cool print series. Then as days became weeks I though, hmm maybe it can be a zine, and weeks turned into months and I wondered if I might have enough for a book. And here we are, my first monograph out soon!

It is published on New Style, my new publishing imprint that I have co-founded with Dan Rubin (@danrubin). You can find the pre-order right here.

The preorder runs until April 27th and any book ordered by then will get a free bonus Behind the Scenes journal documenting the making of the book.

Wonderful, thank you Wesley. To the reader, make sure to connect with Wesley Verhoeve via his Instagram, and subscribe to his incredible newsletter, Process.