1) First off, What got you started in photography? And who are among your biggest influences?
Well I initially began photographing at age 12 when my father lent me his 35mm Nikomat camera. I took classes at school and helped start a photo magazine there, and became consumed with photography, spending my lunchtimes in the darkroom. The obsession never went away. My influences change all the time, but there are few standards that I always come back to: Sally Mann, Rineke Dijkstra, Hellen van Meene, John Singer Sargent, Gerhard Richter, Alex Soth, and Tina Barney. And lately I’ve been really into Katy Grannan’s and Jocelyn Lee’s portraits.
2) Your project, 35 Years, seems like a very personal and intimate portrayal of your parents’ relationship. What were your intentions coming into this project? What did you expect to get out of it?
That project came out of a tumultuous time in my family. At the time I think I expected to make a photo essay that would help me to deal with what was going on around me in a controlled way. Today, 5 years later, I see it in a much different light. I think I must have been wanting to piece things back together, yet also show the truth of the matter and was struggling with that duality. As far of what I wanted to get out of it I really didn’t have any expectations. I suppose in the simplest terms I wanted to complete a project since I was in school at the time and seeing photography in a new way, in project form. This project was helpful for me to process my emotions around my parents relationship, and I’m very grateful to my parents for being so open and willing with me.
3) I see another of your projects, a(part)/together, as a counter-point to 35 Years. The methodology of your process is similar, yet it seems more of a generalized survey of a different aspect of relationships; it focuses on attachment, rather than detachment. Is this something you were conscious of during the making of these photos? What is your relationship to those you portray?
It’s interesting that you mention attachment and detachment, nicely seen, and no I wasn’t totally conscious of that. I see that project as a reflection of my own relationship at the time, and the relationship I am still in. I was experiencing a very healthy and loving relationship with my boyfriend, and wanted to express this concept of the relationship as a subject. The project is indeed about attachment and about the point where people come together and overlap, like in a Venn diagram. So yes, in a way it is quite opposite of 35 Years, but the subject of relationships is still at the heart of it.
4) What do you have in store for 2011, photographically or otherwise?
I want to continue with my unfinished projects and hope to bring some of them to a place of completion, or at least close to that, projects never feel totally done. 35 Years is going to be published in Esquire Russia in March and I am very excited to have that work be seen by people in another country. I will have work in some group shows, and who knows what else.
5) Last but not least, what’s your favorite color?
Hmmm, I love coral.
Text by Gregory E. Jones
© All copyright remains with photographer Katie Shapiro