Creative: Jeff Dunas & Paris Chong Interview

I met Jeff Dunas in 1997 when I moved to Los Angeles to work for Kodak Professional. I was having trouble getting face time with some of the major players in the city, so I began a letter-writing campaign, but there was a catch. I wrote letters to the photographers as if we had been friends for years, even though I didn’t know any of them. After the third or fourth letter, I got a call from Jeff asking how we knew each other. “We don’t,” I replied. I could hear someone in the background laughing. He invited me over and we’ve been friends since.

Jeff is one of the most unique creatures in the history of photography.

Master darkroom printer, master digital printer, archivist, book publisher, book collector, commercial photographer, editorial photographer, documentary photographer, portrait photographer, founder of Palm Springs Photo Festival, and guy who knows his history. I mean, really knows it. I once showed Jeff what I thought were final darkroom prints, only to have him start talking about my “work prints,” and how I could make them into something useful if I used the techniques he mentioned. Ten minutes later, I had to stop him and say, “Jeff, I don’t know any of these techniques.” (Split filter…who knew?)

I don’t really know Paris Chong, although we’ve met several times. Anyone who knows Leica knows Paris. I shot Leica for twenty-five years, but during that time, I only knew one person at the company, and never managed to meet her. Strange but true. I did get to visit Leica Gallery before I departed Los Angeles, and I’ve been to Leica galleries and stores all over the world. A photographer who had a show at the LA gallery just emailed me this morning, and another who had a show at the Seattle store emailed me yesterday, so our circles are overlapping.

There are a lot of bullshit interviews in the online world. Nice people, but irrelevant information about all the things that don’t matter. This one is worth your time, but you also need to pay attention and listen to the small details. You will learn a lot from someone who’s been there and done that.

From the film info:

Paris Chong welcomes back renowned photographer Jeff Dunas, who dives into the photographic books he produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily from his archive. These projects include a small, limited-edition book with publisher Nazraeli called Highway 61 to Honeyboy*, a Renaissance garden book, and a collection of his American pictures. He discusses the changing landscape of photo book publishing, particularly the unique crowd-sourced model used by Michelle from Minor Matters, who also designed his earlier book, *State of the Blues.

Dunas also reflects on his early career, including his widely known nude photography for Playboy while in his late teens. Dunas shares his deep connection to Leica cameras, which he has used since the early eighties, noting he still owns an M3 and M7. He highlights his attachment to the M9 Monochrome, calling it “perfect” for black and white work—like shooting an M6 with Tri-X film. He contrasts the slow, deliberate process of shooting with film (the psychological importance of a 36-picture limit) and the mastery of the darkroom with the current, faster pace of digital photography. He likens his new hobby of making sourdough bread to the focused, scientific process of working in a darkroom.

The conversation also covers the Palm Springs Photo Festival, which Dunas co-founded and ran for 17 years. He proudly defines its portfolio reviews not as critique sessions, but as a crucial “job fair,” connecting emerging photographers with industry people who could hire, publish, or exhibit their work. While the festival itself is currently on hold due to the high costs of maintaining its high-quality faculty, the reviews continue online.

Finally, Jeff discusses his successful “Palm Springs Photo Festival podcast,” which he started in 2020 to maintain a sense of community during the pandemic. You can find Jeff Dunas’s work on his website, dunes.com.

Show Notes: http://www.theparischongshow.com/episodes/jeff-dunas-passion-projects-publishing-art-books-palm-springs-photo-festival-leica Chapters: (00:00:00) Intro (00:00:51) Jeff Dunas (00:01:19) A Few New Books (00:05:07) Paris’s First Art Book (00:08:28) Famous For Nudes (00:11:25) Super Rare Books (00:15:26) Palm Springs Photo Festival (00:18:48) Marker 12 (00:22:45) Leica Store (00:25:24) Other Hobbies (00:32:25) Didn’t Know You Had A Daughter (00:36:26) Landscape – Palisades Fire Talk (00:39:04) What’s Next? (00:46:33) Outro 🎵 Music by ⁠Andrew Raiher⁠ https://andrewraiher.com/ 📸 Shot & Edited at ⁠Visible Audio Studios https://www.visibleaudiostudios.com