When did you start taking pictures? How did you become interested in photography?
I started taking pictures with my first camera–we were a picture taking family and I got a camera when I was very young. I was always interested in it, but it hasn’t always taken priority in my life. I just became interested in capturing things that I thought were interesting, that made me “feel”, that I felt needed to be remembered, at least by myself. I became more interested in it after my brother made it his career, and I became interested in capturing things for others, like doing event photos and capturing those hidden moments, and became more interested in manipulating photos and actually creating “pictures”.
Who/What inspired you to begin a career in photography?
Right now my career isn’t photography, unfortunately, though it definitely plays a large part in my life. I never formally studied photography in any way, so it isn’t something that I ‘planned’ to do the way I have planned other things. My brother is definitely an inspiration, and he was the first to show me that I could make money doing it. Then, a professor at my MFA program, Mike Madonick, pulled me aside and told me that I needed to start taking it seriously (among other things!) He took me to buy my first digital camera and I can’t thank him enough. The ball just rolled from there! I scanned Craigslist and other places for small jobs, and did favors for friends and word of mouth spreads that way.
Have you found/come up against any challenges being a photographer who happens to be a woman? If so, what are they and how have you worked through them?
You know, that’s an interesting question. And for the moment, I don’t think so. I think there are places where women photographers might have an easier time, like in wedding photography or other kinds of photography, where you might think a woman’s “sensibility” if there is such a thing, might be useful. A woman might be more comfortable waiting to go down the aisle with a female photographer with her as opposed to a man, but that’s really an unfounded generalization. But in the end, the photos speak for themselves. You either like them or you don’t! Any challenges that would arise that had to do with my being a woman, would probably be like any challenge that I face as woman. Meaning, it is always a challenge when you are denied something or are questioned or valued less because of something like your sex, gender, race, whatever. I think those are things we all face, and if you don’t like my work or don’t like something about me because I am a woman, then we probably don’t need to be having a conversation anyway,you know?
I have been looking for a 35mm camera that I can afford. What would you advise to a young photographer on a shoestring budget?
Wow. Tough. You got a credit card? Hah, just kidding! Seriously, I don’t want to encourage the use of plastic money. I financed my first digital 35mm SLR camera with the understanding that I was going to use it to pay back the money I spent, such as getting photo work, and that’s what I did. If you want a good digital 35mm camera, with interchangeable lenses, there are a lot of options. I like Canon cameras, and the best place to surf for those and others is a place like EBAY or even Craigslist, and used and refurbished stores like Calumet and B&H Photo/Video.
If you are just starting out, I wouldn’t toss thousands of dollars into this year’s new model. You can get a used one for a decent price. If you can test it out first, that’s good. Yard sales are a good place too. When I’m not shooting digital (and for the last 8 months I haven’t had a choice, my digital SLR camera has been in for repeated repairs) I shoot with a film 35mm Yashica super FX-3 from 1979 that I got from a yard sale for 10 bucks, and it is such a gem. It broke unfortunately, and I got another one on Ebay for 25 bucks. So you can get a nice little film camera for very cheap, and a lower end or older model digital 35mm SLR for a couple hundred, or a film SLR for under 200 dollars, used. Get creative. Hunt yard and tag sales, the pennysaver, ebay, local newspapers, and even websites that might offer refurbished or used models with a little bit more of a quality guarantee (Like B&H and Calumet). But do your research before you buy anything. When my 1979 Yashica broke, there wasn’t anyone around who could possibly repair it for a price that wasn’t ten times what I had paid for it. Things like that you have to be prepared for.
Who or what are your subjects in photography? What interest you as a photographer?
Occasionally I have stopped and taken pics of strangers, but my friends interest me a lot of the time, or people that I know and like. I like to try and get a good picture that captures them, what I know about them. I also love to capture them in moments when they aren’t really looking or paying attention to themselves. I call this “catching the ghost”. So much can be revealed about a person in that moment, and you just get this feeling when you see a photo like that. Sometimes it’s selfishly motivated. I want to take a picture that captures what I think or believe about a person, the way I find them beautiful or special, even if they don’t initially like the picture themselves. I am interested, in general, in emotional and evocative things. I have done a lot of landscapes for the beauty of it, but I also like very moody or ambiguous scenes. Sometimes I want something to look like “fashion” and other times, just a good portrait that captures a person or thing.I can say that in general, I am interested in things that fascinate, captivate, and enchant me. I can’t always say what those things are until they are staring me in the face. If I am getting paid to do something, then it’s not just about what interests me, but what interests the client.
Do you feel more creative with commercial or abstract photography?
Hm. Well, abstract can offer a lot of possibilities, but so can commercial. I don’t really discriminate. I think there is just as much room to be creative in something like wedding photography as there is in regular everyday or abstract photography. In fact, I think people prefer that their wedding photographs or event photos be creative. And frankly, if its not going to be somewhat creative, I probably won’t bother doing it. One of my main purposes for going to photography is to create.
What inspired your collection “&LOVE(YOU)TOPIECES”?
My friends inspired that collection, and my partner. I get a lot of enjoyment out of capturing my friends and loved ones because I think they are beautiful people with beautiful souls, and at the very least, I like to look back at the pictures and be reminded of that beauty. I really wanted to have fun with them and shoot them, and just hang out and create something that would be a tribute to all of their/our energy together.
What was the thought behind the “CAUSEASCENE” collection?
This was a project I did with a friend of mine, a very dear friend, who just wanted some pictures and we wanted to put on lots of makeup and have a good time and “cause a scene”. She’s that kind of girl. I wanted to catch her doing funny or crazy stuff like swishing her hair all around. It helped loosen her up, too, by doing that. But I also think she has a beautiful face, and I wanted to capture this amazing painterly quality she has about her.I think there are some moments where despite the fact that she’s tossing her head back and her hair is going all nuts, that you catch these delicate glimpses.
On your blog from the ghost town post there is a picture of what looks like a burned stove, how did you feel when you took that picture and do you have a different feeling looking back at it?
Looking back on it, I love that picture. I love it more with time–hah! Looking at it I think it’s really fantastic. I took it, literally, in a ghost town. And in ghost towns, there’s not much left. But I was so fascinated by the things that were left, and they were things that couldn’t be moved, and these huge incredibly heavy iron stoves were clearly the things that people couldn’t take with them or move elsewhere. There were houses that were in ruins and completely collapsed, but they had fallen down around the stove. And there are so many things about the stove that conjure up images. In a ghost town you can’t help but feel “ghosts”, that people used to live there and just up and left. And people always gather around the stove, the “hearth” of the house. It was so eerie to be there and see stoves like this, with their doors open as if a loaf of bread had just finished baking.
Does being a women influence your work in any way? If so, How?
I know it does, though I can’t quite give a reason or example how. I mean, being a woman kind of influences the way I live my life, similar to being a person of color. Nor would I want to live my life without those things influencing me. I don’t want to say that there is something particular to women, some kind of essential woman-ness, that specifically influences my work, because I don’t believe that. I do believe that the experiences I have had as a woman, or had or haven’t had because I am a woman, influence my work. I do know that I am influenced by and interested in traditional notions of beauty, especially feminine beauty, but am also interested in ways of distorting and twisting those notions, particularly when it comes to self portraits.
In researching about you I came across some of your poetry. Do you hold more weight in your photography than in your poetry? If so, Why?
The short answer is no. They both hold about the same weight, though poetry is what I do most regularly and full time. I am a fellow in an English Department, and so I teach creative writing and poetry. Writing and focusing on poetry is what I do most of the time. It’s not that photography is an escape from this, though I go back and forth between what I do more than the other. Because of equipment issues and other work issues, I actually haven’t shot much in the past year, though I am starting to get back in the groove now that my camera is (finally) fixed. There are times though, when I go do photography more than poetry and then it switches back. Even if I am not busy shooting, the photography and the poetry are inextricably linked. They both allow me to capitalize on what I do with most of my time–observe. Just like I shoot things that are emotionally evocative, or that enchant and interest me, I write about the same things. I often write about things that I have seen or photographed, and images are at the core of all my written work. The visual and the poetic can’t be separated for me, and I couldn’t have one in my life without the other.
Miranda Ploss is a 2010 GirlSpeak editor.
