Interiors

James Rajotte is a photographer living in Rochester, New York. After growing up in rural Pennsylvania, James studied Earth Sciences at Penn State University. He then worked as a photojournalist for several publications during and after his undergraduate education. Rajotte completed an MFA at the Visual Studies Workshop and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Photography at Rochester Institute of Technology and contributes regularly to publications such as the New York Times.

What made you start photographing East High School in Rochester, NY and how did you gain access?
‘My interest in photographing East came about as I was volunteering in a mentoring program in which students made short video productions with an anti-violent message. When I decided to photograph, I wrote a formal letter to the Superintendent and the Principal. After a bit of humming and hawing they made me East High School’s “official” photographer. They gave me a make-shift laminated pass and I became friendly with the security guards’.

What camera are you using?
‘Mamiya C220 is the camera that I used for this project. I borrowed it from an acquaintance’.

The photos in this series are devoid of people for the most part. Were you allowed to shoot the kids or was this a conscious decision?
‘At first, I was photographing students candidly and making portraits in 4×5. These were nice, but it was difficult to photograph students without commenting directly on socioeconomic status of East High School’s student body, and this is not what I wanted to do. I was however, interested in the dilapidated state of the school and the eerie familiarity that I felt. When I started looking at my pictures as symbols of a high school experience and not as documents about a particular school, something changed for me. I realized that people of a certain age and culture see themselves in these pictures, and that certain familiar objects and places contain – or at least call to mind – emotions that have not been felt in some time. The locker room for instance, is a place where traumatic things often occur. Just as important as the places, the objects that make up education – plastic chairs, fluorescent lights, miniature bags of Doritos, clocks and overhead projectors – all carry emotional weight’.

What is the most important thing you teach your students about photography?
‘I try to have my students to consider photography as asking questions about the world. I also teach them to find a healthy balance between craft and concept’.

With a degree in Geographic Information Science, why did you make the leap to photography and do you find your degree has had an impact on your work?
‘G.I.S. deals with communication, spatial relationships, semiotics and cognition; all things that have relevance in photography. The concepts that I studied as an undergraduate are starting to intersect more with my photographs. My most recent work is about a small town called Frenchville, PA, in which, the town’s geography has played a vital role in its existence, identity and inevitable demise’.

Karolina Karlic is a Los Angeles based photographer. Born in Wroclaw Poland, her family immigrated to Detroit in search of the American dream in 1986. Karlic’s work explores American culture from the complicated perspective of an immigrant growing up in urban Detroit. Her father fled communist Poland to find work in the American auto industry. Karlic watched her father’s hopes for his family crumble alongside the stock of Ford, General Motors, and Daimler Chrysler’s North American operations. As a non-native participant in American society, her work explores the culture of people’s desires and regrets. Karlic holds a BFA in Photography from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She has been published in the Water Stone Review, was a participant in Center 2007 (formerly known as Review Santa Fe) and most recently received the MN State Arts Board Initiative Grant, 2008. Her series, The Dee, Close to Home, and Dear Diary have been exhibited nationally at galleries including Franklin Art Works, Jen Bekman Gallery NYC, Intermedia Arts, Flanders Gallery, Wall Space-Seattle, and Juxtaposition Arts.

Do you get back to the Ukraine often or was this project completed in one lump of time?
“Close to Home” is a project that I shot during a month long visit to the Ukraine. I had been invited to assist Katherine Turczan ( represented by Yossi Millo) on her trip to her parents homeland. She has been photographing the Ukraine for probably over 14 years. Under the circumstances, I made images that reminded me of being home in Poland’.

What camera are you using?
‘I use a large format camera. All my work is done with a 4×5, scanned and then digitally output’.

When going back to the Ukraine to shoot this series, were you looking for something specific?
‘During this time in the Ukraine, I kept thinking that my family and relatives, who were only four hours away but because I was assisting, I couldn’t make the trip to see them. It was one of those, “so close yet so far away” situations. That’s how the title “Close to Home” came about. I did focus mostly on light. I think it became a metaphor as I worked around someone else’s shooting time. The colors of Eastern Europe became very relevant in context to the countries existence following the Orange Revolution’.

Can you tell us about the photo of the little girl with the doll?
‘During our time spent traveling in Ukraine and photographing we stayed in numerous locations and cities. A visit to Chernobyl, Sevastopol, Kiev, Yalta, ect, influenced my views on how much the country was really able to change. There is a complete split of High to Low class. This photo of the young girl with her doll was taken in Yalta. Yalta, and the Crimea have been fought over many times because of its tremendous beauty. The first part of that day I spent most of my time attracting men that I presume, were vacationing Russian mafia men. As we went out to shoot later in the day, I heard a scream and a cry. I turned around, walked up a village street and there this young girl was being beaten up by her brothers and other school boys who had teased her by stealing her doll. It just shows that a quick turn from the wealthy, lies poverty around the corner’.

Any new projects on the horizon that you can speak of?
‘Yes. I’m currently working and living in Los Angeles. I’ve always been involved with the auto industry as my father is an engineer in Detroit. What better place to attack that subject than Los Angeles’.

Dave Jordano was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948. He received a BFA in photography from the Center for Creative Studies in 1974. In 1977 he opened a commercial photography studio in Chicago and quickly established a client list that included, among others, Crate & Barrel, Starbucks Coffee, Sears, Nestle, Quaker and Kraft Foods. As an emerging fine art photographer, he was awarded an honorable mention in the Houston Center for Photography’s Long Term Fellowship Project in 2003 and received the Curator’s Choice Award the following year. His photographs are included in several private and public collections including the Federal Reserve Bank, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chilcago IL, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He lives and works in Chicago IL.

How long have you been documenting small African-American churches in Chicago, and what made you decide to embark on this project?
‘The project of documenting African American storefront churches came about quite by accident. I was working on another project just over the Illinois/Indiana border and my route took me over the Chicago Skyway Bridge. I would often look down onto a small plain industrial building that had a large hand painted sign above it’s door that read, “Cathedral of Divine Love Church.” I was impressed that this pastor felt that his little nondescript building was worthy of being called a cathedral. This notion stuck with me for quite some time and I just couldn’t shake it off. Finally, after several weeks of driving by the building, I decided to stop and introduce myself and ask if I could photograph the church. The pastor’s obvious remark was, “Services start in about an hour, you can come by after everyone has arrived.” My response was, “No, what I really had in mind was to photograph the church empty and that I was mainly interested in how he had decorated and set it up.” This threw up a cloud of suspicion as he thought my request was rather odd. I persisted, and after much discussion about my intentions, God, and religion, he granted me permission. I felt as if I had been the center of an inquisition, but rightly so. It was important that I had the trust of every pastor, that they knew my intentions were sincere, and that I had a great deal of respect for their church. I went back several times over the next month and made more photographs.

After that first experience, I sensed there was a profoundly independent, eccentric quality to each of these pastors and each of them in their own way were determined to create a church based on their own beliefs and faith. I wanted to document these spaces not only for their unique qualities but also because their importance within poor black urban neighborhoods were pillars of community stability and support. After I had photographed a number of churches, I put together a small portfolio that I would present to a pastor so that they would get a sense of the project. I continued to work on the project for three and one-half years, photographing about 65 churches. I finished working on the project in 2006. The Center for American Places, Columbia College, is publishing the work next year in a monograph titled “Articles of Faith” with an essay written by Carla Williams’.

The colors are so vibrant in these spaces. Do you have to look hard to find these environments or are they reasonably common in the churches you photograph?
‘Although I found each church interesting, on average most of the interiors shared a common look consisting of plain white walls, used wooden pews or a mixed set of chairs and red carpet. This was probably for economic reasons as most pastors have little money to work with. I never knew how a church was going to look until I entered and introduced myself. Knowing when to enter a church also became an issue. I didn’t want to enter and disrupt services so I would try and time my visits before services started or enter when things were just wrapping up. Sometimes I would quietly enter and someone would encourage me to come in and sit down. When services were over the pastor would introduce me as a new visitor to the church and I would explain my project to the members. Most times there were no more that 10-15 people present. Ironically, the most unadorned, simply decorated exterior facades revealed some of the most colorful interiors. I’d walk in and just be blown away by the beauty. The churches with the most color and decoration were often run by female pastors, or there was a women who was designated the “mother” of the church who was responsible for the decorating. Some of the simple, stripped down minimalist churches were also some of my favorites as well’.

Can you briefly tell us the story about the photo of the person wearing the orange suit?
‘This is a portrait of Pastor Anderson. He was the patriarch of a small church that had no more than 8 members, all of them relatives. His daughter had recently gotten married but they didn’t have any wedding photos so I offered to do a portrait of them. For this, I brought in a strobe & umbrella light, trying to make the whole affair a bigger deal. I took portraits of other members too but in the end I felt that all the extra equipment was a distraction that created a formality I wasn’t comfortable with. After I packed up all my equipment, I noticed him idly leaning against a table, the room was illuminated by only the light in the ceiling. It was the shot that I had been looking for all day. It took no more than a minute to shoot but his gaze had an eternal quality that was powerful. I went back a few months later to visit again but found the church had disbanded with no forwarding address. This was common with about 25% of the churches I photographed’.

As a successful commercial photographer, do you find that you work in a different mindset when shooting your personal/documentary work?
‘Yes and no. I often get comments that my fine art work is completely different from my commercial work, and people are both puzzled and impressed by that. The commercial work is done to make a living and the fine art work is done because you think you have something to say about the world in which you live in. I’ve never thought about interconnecting the two, only about keeping them separate. It’s the same reason why I have two different web sites, one for the commercial work and one for my fine art projects. I don’t want to attach any commercial connotation to the fine art work. It’s strictly meant for personal expression and issues that I feel are important to me. Having said that, I think the work ethic discipline that I acquired running a commercial studio has had a positive effect on my personal work. Working toward a goal, devising a plan, staying focused, and following through with a project is equally as important whether your running a business or shooting a personal/fine art project. But none of this, quite frankly, matters unless your passionate about what you do’.

You have been in the photography business for over 30 years, how do you feel that the industry has changed over time?
‘The biggest difference I see has been the digital revolution. Art directors have so much visual material at their disposal today that when I see a layout, it’s so completely executed that I’m often wondering what it is they want me to shoot. Their client has seen the finished concept and are often so enamored by the comp shot in the layout that they’re reluctant to deviate and try something else. They’ve already made a pre-conceived decision of what the ad will look like. Instead of the layout becoming a point of creative departure, it becomes a tool of increasing restriction. Basically, I liked it much better when art directors worked with pen and prisma markers instead of a Mac.

The other aspect is how fast digital technology is moving. I used the same 8 X 10 Sinar view camera for 25 years in my studio. It’s still in perfect condition and makes a great door stop today. In the past four years I’ve upgraded my digital camera system three times already and next year Hasselblad announced it’s coming out with their new 50MB digital capture back. I find these kinds of upgrading expenses difficult to deal with on any professional level but for most start-up photographers just beginning their careers and with the economic challenges we face today, it has to be particularly painful’.

Are you currently working on any new projects you can talk about?
‘Yes, I’m currently working on a project about rural Illinois, small towns specifically. To paraphrase my artist statement: “Illinois is a state long monopolized by mechanized agricultural farming, creating endless fields of corn and soybeans and leaving several hundred economically challenged older small towns dotting the landscape. Within this geographic and economic framework I’m searching for strong notions of individualistic expression that are tied directly to the land and its people. As someone who is admittedly an outsider, I’m trying to discover for myself the differences that separate my own perception of rural life and what I find to be that reality, whether real or imagined.” Much like the church project in its relationship and connection to Chicago, Illinois small rural towns make up a part of the economic and social fabric of the state that gives it its character’.

What kind of camera are you using for your documentary work?
‘I went from film to a digital format about 4 years ago. I use a Hasselblad H3DII medium format camera coupled with a 39MB capture back. I use this camera for both my commercial and personal work’.

Alison Malone is a photographer based in New York City. Her work examines the nuanced relationship between people and how they exist in the world. She is constantly exploring new ways to observe the significance of the everyday occurrences in people, places and objects that surround them while searching for the subtle threads that connect us all. Her current body of work is titled “The Daughters of Job”. It portrays a secret society of girls ranging in age from 10 to 20 years old that are the daughters and granddaughters of Freemasons. The images are concerned with the psychology of identity formation through traditional ritual and role-playing within a patriarchal organization. They observe the girls in the society and the spaces where these rites occur.

What does it mean to be a member of Job’s Daughters and how much time is dedicated to the society?
‘Being a member of Job’s Daughters can mean different things to different girls. The most common connection is that they are girls 10 to 20 years old that are related to a Master Mason, and they take an oath to keep the secrets of Jobs daughters and uphold the traditions with which the organization is based. Beyond that, it is a way for girls to connect to other girls with common interests but not be limited to a specific socioeconomic class, location, or religion. When I look at it from an outsider’s perspective I see girls balancing tradition with youth oriented activities (such as dances, camp, and social building skills). There is an element of theater or performance to the ritual work that is just amazing and there is a certain type of girl who just thrives on that. In this organization you don’t need to be the best athlete, come from the most money, or be the most popular girl in school. It is a chance for a girl to grow in a safe environment and be close to a new set of peers and get to know girls from all over the world, which to me is pretty amazing for a 13 or 14 year old’.

‘The time commitment is minimal but can become a lot depending on what a girl wants to participate in. There are local meetings twice a month, state functions twice a year, and one international meeting held in the summer. Most girls do the local meetings and go to camp (each state has a summer camp that goes for about a week and is so much fun). If a girl holds a state or international title such as Supreme Bethel Honored Queen, or Miss Pennsylvania Jobs Daughter) they will do a lot more traveling and spend a lot more time at various functions. You really get out of it what you put into it both time and energy wise. A lot of the girls that are in this will keep one or two friends (maybe more) for the rest of their lives. That’s a lot for meeting people when you are in junior and senior high school’.

Are most of the girls voluntarily part of the society, or is it something parents are heavily involved in (similar to sending kids to Catholic school)?
‘All the girls that I know in the organization are there by choice. Some chose it above all other activities in their social sphere and other girls have it as one of many groups that they are involved in outside of their school lives. The reason to join varies from girl to girl, but most of them chose it at an early age and are excited to emulate the paths of the older girls (so they go from choir or custodian positions to the “honored queen”, which is the girl that runs the group for a term of six months). A lot of them get involved because their fathers are Masons, their mother was a part of it when she was young, or their friends are involved in it and they find out they have the heritage requirements. There are parents involved, but on a limited level. Job’s Daughters really promotes itself and is a “girl run organization”. The girls plan and promote all of their activities, run finances, fundraise for charities, and build a community on their own’.

The portraits of girls are angelic. What was your intention of photographing them in this light?
‘There are many reasons that I chose to photograph the girls in this way. The first is the simple love I have of the straight photographic portrait and its ability to transmit the subtle nuances that come from an individual. When a portrait is made there is an opportunity for a delicate exchange between the photographer and the subject that creates a place to examine how one holds oneself in a moment’.

‘When making the images I meet with a girl and we establish an understanding of what the images are about. We talk about what it means to be in this society and what they get out of it. When I go to take make the picture I allow the room to be still and free from distraction (other people, music, etc). The girl decides how she wants to hold herself and I just watch the subtle changes in gesture that she makes as I am photographing. I watch the way she holds her hands, the way she raises or tucks her head, the level of confidence that she has in herself as she is being looked at by the camera. It is the in between moments that exist where our true sense of self comes out. I look for those glimpses that a girl gives and I try to allow that to be the story she tells us. All of the girls have seen my work and are aware of the general outcome of the images. I often talk about the days when there was not access to many pictures of a person (maybe only a painting of a person or a single photograph existed in that person’s life) and then I ask them to hold themselves in a way that they would want to be remembered if this was their only portrait.

‘One thing to remember is that this organization allows the girls to remove themselves from the outside world and to enter into a space that is imbued with tradition, rituals, and responsibilities that you can’t find in any other place. This transformation is a beautiful way for the girls to escape some of the distractions that modern adolescence lays on them and to rise into something that, for a moment, is much bigger than the individual itself. They become a part of something larger but still retain their individuality through their merits and they way they hold themselves. I hope to capture this ability to strive for larger things that each girl has, and to translate it into her portrait. In this moment they are not the awkward adolescents that we have all been, concerned with what clothes to wear and who is being invited to what party. They all begin as equals (which their white robes signify) and then they are distinguished by their positions in the bethel (honored queen, 1st messenger, guide, marshal, etc) that they earn by their merits’.

There is a noticeable sense of alignment about your photos. Is this making a greater statement about the organization/environments?
‘This project is about Masonic youth culture and it is all based in Freemasonry. The Masons are a group of men who have a meticulous dedication to order and a deep understanding of tradition and sacred geometry. The pictures can’t help but to have a relationship to formalism and accentuate the beauty that is found in organization of space and structures. I believe that by adhering to my own strict rules of photographic formalism I can help to translate the beauty that is found in the order in these sacred spaces and the people who are a part of the organizations. By creating a standard or structure that I hold my project to, I find that the little changes from girl to girl or space to space become filled with meaning without distraction. It just amazes me that you can take any space, be it a grand lodge hall or a basement, and give it meaning by putting intention to the objects found in it and the way they are arranged. I see the spaces functioning as a portrait of the organization. They all have their own personality and I love the relationship that is formed by looking at them as a group’.

Were there any stipulations put upon you as a photographer or activities/rooms you were not able to photograph?
‘I have been very fortunate with the access that I have been given while doing this project. Because I was a member of the organization during the 1990’s I am very familiar with what is considered “secret work” and what is accessible by anyone who wants to go to an “open meeting”. My project focuses on an anachronistic institution in American youth culture and the type of girl who chooses to join it and what she gets out of it. I never approached this project in a way that would exploit the girls or the organization, so that makes it much easier to negotiate what access I can have to what situation. I have spent a lot of time getting to know these groups of girls and I am interested in this thing that they are proud to be a part of. It’s this empathy that I have for the subject that the families respond to and is what makes them want to participate in the project. It is important to me to be very careful to keep all the parents and guardians aware of the types of pictures that are being made and I always get a model release so that there is a written understanding of what images are being used in what context. This project exists as photographs, audio interviews, a book, and now I am working on an installation component to this piece’.

‘Another reason I have been given this access is that the organization’s new membership numbers are dropping every year. A big factor is that people don’t even know it exists or they have a major misconception that it is a cult or some destructive element in youth culture. This project has become a way for the Masons to let people know about this organization in a new way. These spaces and regalia are not something that most people haven’t seen before. I love being able to share something that is so close to most people’s lives that they might have just overlooked. Most people have Masons in their families and don’t even know about it. I can’t tell you how many people have seen this project and then tell me that they just found out their mom, aunt or grandmother was a part of it. As with all of my work, I find it really important to see our everyday surroundings in a new way and add to the richness of our experience here by increasing our awareness of what is real and quite possibly just under our nose’.

Chicago-based Brian Ulrich’s photographs portraying contemporary consumer culture reside in major museum collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. He earned his MFA in photography at Columbia College Chicago and a BFA in photography at the University of Akron. It is this understanding of history that informs much of his work which today addresses issues social, political and historical.

I have been kicked out of many a store for photographing. What camera are you using and what is your approach once you are inside?
‘For many of the pictures in the Retail project I used a medium format SLR with a waist level viewfinder. Having a finder that you can look down into instead of holding it to your eye calls a lot attention to yourself as well as allows one to hold the camera still at much slower shutter speeds. Regardless of those things though, the majority of the time it takes a combination of patience and boldness. Strangely I don’t run into people having much of an issue with it. Most often I really don’t think people notice. If an employee does ask me not to take pictures I simply laugh and move on, I’m well aware that what I’m doing looks odd. Better to own up and hit walk across the street to the Kmart’.

‘I had such good luck with the medium format camera that I’ve also used a 4×5 as well. Again in these cases I think most people think I’m supposed to be there. I’ve had employees keep the store open late so I can finish a picture!’

Do you ask permission to photograph individuals or do you just go for it?
‘When I first started making photographs in the big box stores, I observed so many amazing moments. I simply had to figure out a way to make a picture of them that not only captured that psychological consumer moment (the Germans call it Konsumieren Rausch or Consumer Intoxication) but photographs that acted as portraits of specific people whom when looked at in a picture one might know or emphasize with. After some initial attempts to tag along on friends shopping trips and stage things, it became clear I simply had to tough it out a figure a way to get comfortable making the pictures I wanted to make. So I don’t ask or say much at all. I’m thinking about making the picture and not so much about what could go wrong. It seems to work best if I find a good setting and wait for someone to walk into it’.

‘Later with the Thrift store pictures and more recent projects I’m doing a lot more setup, much more formal portraiture. I like the combination of a candid picture and a more formal one. The process of working in both ways greatly informs the other’.

Have you noticed any similarities in the stores you have photographed in regards to marketing techniques (colors, displays, “tastings”) that may result in consumers over-spending?
‘What started as a small idea of seeing if I could find evidence of ‘patriotic shopping’ seven years ago has grown into a large investigation of consumer from the Big Box stores to Thrift stores and recycle shops to employee backrooms and lately art fairs and retail architecture. Most of what happens in these places is cheap gimmicks and illusions. What’s amazing is that most people really don’t see through it. We get so caught up in the hunt that we literally can’t see the forest’.

‘I believe it’s a strategy in some large stores like Ikea to actually so overwhelm the shopper that one feels tired, empty and slightly depressed; to circumvent this emptiness it might seem to make sense to a shopper to fill up on goods’.

‘The American Girl store in Chicago has teams of employees whose sole job is to fill any gap left by a purchased good. So if someone takes something off the shelf an employee radios to the back and another employee runs out with to fill the vacant shelf so it never appears that they are sold out of anything. I spent about 4 hours photographing in that store and I almost had a nervous breakdown’.

‘One of the chaotic places on earth!’

‘The Disney store is always quite clever about putting many goods out of reach from kids or parents. Complete spectacle. The photograph I have of the young girl in the Disney store always makes me think of the writer John Berger (Ways of Seeing)’.

I know you have been photographing retail for years now. Have you found that the attitudes and patterns of consumers have changed with the recent economy?
‘Yes and no. It does seem the only thing that will change Americans habits is circumstance. You can tell people over and over that driving a huge car is harmful and wasteful and they may even agree but most will only drive less if they can’t afford pay for gas’.

‘There may be less people out shopping these days but sadly no one is having the discussion over whether we do in fact need some of these things or what is the economic, and political fallout from building a society that is only as prosperous as it has money to buy things that are disposable and imported’.

‘My most recent project from this year has been exploring these issues moreso in terms of retail space. The stores themselves seem the real indicator that Late Capitalism is failing. The economic model of basing a nations’ well being on the GDP, Dow or profits of the smallest percentage of our country is one I believe terribly misguided. The abuse of that system leaves communities in neglect, unemployment rates rising and skyrocketing trade deficit’.

Is there a common mannerism or trait that you see in people who are in a consumer state of mind?
‘As I mentioned earlier, my good friend, writer and cultural anthropologist Matti Bunzl told me about the Konsumieren Rausch. It makes so much sense to me, and perhaps this is why so few notice or care about the camera, because the inebriated state of shopping is so overwhelming that little else matters. To sound highly cynical I would say the state is very selfish. Though not selfish in exactly a greedy way but an inward and withdrawn state in which the self is paramount’.

Gregory Krum was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and studied biology, sculpture and design at Portland State University. After a study abroad program in Italy with the University of Georgia he relocated to New York where he received his Master’s degree in studio art from New York University and the International Center for Photography. His work has been shown in venues such as the Armory Show, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Soren Christiansen Gallery in New Orleans and most recently Jen Bekman Gallery. He was awarded the Jack Goodman Scholarship for Art and Technology and his work has been written about and published in the Paris-based magazine Purple. In 2007 he was co-curator of an art exhibition entitled ‘The Wrong Store’ with Kantor/Feuer gallery in New York. Working within the genres of landscape and interior, Krum’s work explores diverse themes such as love, failure, commerce, and desire within a larger context of space and organization. His subjects have included dust, devotional offerings, seaside villages, and Parisian houseboats.

Many of your photographs have a trespassing feel to them. Is this intentional?
‘Sort of. Often there is a lot of effort to remove as much as possible any evidence of the camera, its optics or the feeling that someone was there taking a picture. For me, however, I wanted the camera to be very present. But it probably feels like trespassing because I generally was. It was not about asking for permission it was about ducking in, using a chair on a table as a tripod and making the picture while no one was looking’.

What inspired your Hard Times series?
‘I was really interested in two things at once, the sort of formal concern with the actual arrangement of objects and the palette of spaces and then exploring the delicate emotional stories carried within these interiors, especially ones that are caught off guard. This was the beginning of a search for the type of picture I wanted to make, but did not know what it should look like. I knew all the things I didn’t want it to be: cruel, heroic, sappy, clean, desolate, I was trying to find an antidote to the ironic and also to the documentary’.

It looks as though you have been working on this series for a number of years, are you constantly on the lookout for Interiors Considering Varying Degrees of Failure?
‘Yes, because it was not something that I could in any way create or research or even expect to find. It was not an investigation of, say, my friends’ homes, or a document of people living in a particular place. But for years I was really searching, although now I think the series is finished. The final pictures were made last summer in Sri Lanka, in a house that the writer Paul Bowles used to own. The current owner has a perfectly framed tattered flag, I guess from a previous boat or something named Hard Times’.

Do you carry your camera with you all the time or only when you have a specific project in mind?
‘I make most of my work while away from New York, so while traveling, I always have the camera with me. Recently, however, I have been focusing on more specific subjects, disparate things like dust in the air, a village in China, or devotional offerings in Indonesia, but all somehow related to the theme of arrangement and visual language. So now a lot of time is spent figuring out exactly what I will photograph and then I’ll go with the camera and do it’.