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I look to
everything I see and take in for inspiration. I am open to curiosity
leading and showing me what ultimately becomes my truth and perspective
about the world around me. This feeds my ideas. I keep notebooks around
to scratch down and remember them, and then I weed through them,
sometimes spending hours expanding an idea and sometimes discarding
them outright. Then I just sort of gravitate to what is really
interesting me most, almost in a subconscious, psychologically framed
way. It will be a situation where I can’t stop
thinking about the idea and then one thing leads to the next – I’m
making phone calls and setting up interviews. I find myself between
shelves of books, reading and jotting down notes in what becomes a
neurotransmitter’s field of dreams. I’m writing down questions as fast
as they come to me. And then the concept really begins to take shape. I
can start to envision how a photograph might look. And then sometimes I
just see images that I want to make, or something is happening in front
of me, and I react. I don’t do any of this and I just shoot. Either
way, feeding my brain nutritional information to grow ideas or one just
shooting right on up, it leads to photographs being made.
Typically, especially with personal work, I shoot alone or with my
partner/assistant, Buck, who is a computer programmer by trade, or with
my close friend, Penny, who is a regular sitter. Very rarely do I bring
a stranger to the shoot – Buck or Penny have usually met the person or
been a subject of conversation between the sitter and myself, there’s a
familiarity and it keeps the space open and intimate. So much of what I
do works on an unspoken level – it’s small considerations for the
person that encourage them to be comfortable and to let their guard
down. I bring them beverages, they have a comfortable chair and their
own space – if I’m on a location shoot, I am extra aware of the
environment and the equipment. And I speak candidly and directly with
them. A photo shoot with me is more like a therapy session than
anything else. This is necessary for me empathize with the person and
glimpse into their life. I ask questions once I’ve positioned the
person and we establish a mood – sort of an agreement of how much the
sitter is willing to show and how much will they reveal – and then I
shoot.
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