photography Archives - Tampa Review

An Interview with Featured Artist Angela Xu

June 1, 2014 by utpress Leave a Comment

Cynthia Reeser (Tampa Review Online): Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. It’s a pleasure to be able to talk with you about your work. Visiting your website, I’m reminded of the breadth and scope of work you do (and that of your husband and artistic partner, Peter Tieryas Liu). Could you talk about your work as an artist, and all the forms you work in?

Angela Xu: I’ve never thought of myself as an artist per se. In my mind, Shakespeare is as much an artist as the famous sushi chef, Jiro, as well as the random graffiti you see on the walls of the urban nightmare of cities, exemplified by Banksy. While Van Gogh is an artist in the traditional sense, as is Picasso, I admire both mostly for their passion bordering on the psychotic. You have to be that crazy to be able to view things from an atypical, almost bizarre perspective. Their influence on art history correlates to the madness with which they viewed the world and the ways they exposed a vision audiences had never contemplated before. In many ways, I think of myself as a recorder, and it’s the interpretation that I focus mostly on—the angles. A subject will look completely different if I shoot her from a lower angle versus a higher angle or a wide shot, which might reveal decay or decadence. Artistry revolves around perspective, and I don’t try to limit myself in terms of forms, though I enjoy photography. The collaborations with my husband are a completely different beast as we try to find a thematic bridge in visual cues that he can then accompany with text. At the same time, pacing is important because too much text bogs down the visual flow of imagery, so it’s a constant balancing act. I also enjoy expressing myself through paintings, calligraphy, and music. I understand delineations in terms of making it easier to categorize someone. But I like to experiment and push the canvas where I play so that it’s more about the “angle” I’m trying to show rather than the medium itself.

CR: One of the most striking things, to me, about your photography is the focus on people; your photographs show them simply going about their daily lives, but the wide variety of emotional nuance you’re able to capture is notable because there is so much honesty in it. Is this something you aim for in your photography?

AX: Absolutely. Every face is like a thousand paintings in constant flux. I just visited La Jolla, and the sunset there was so beautiful. A golden haze sprayed out from sunset on the sea waves, and there was an incredible beach with hundreds of sea lions. I took a ton of pictures. They were like paintings. But I guarantee you, if you put up the most beautiful picture of scenery in the world, and right next to it, have an interesting-looking person, everyone will be drawn toward the portrait of the person. Maybe it’s the herd instinct in us or we’re just gregarious by nature, but people are what make life and art so interesting. The ultimate punishment in Eden wouldn’t have been banishment from the garden, but from each other—complete isolation. We need others. At the same time, in my photography, I really try to capture those moments where everything is laid bare. People can’t fake it though (unless you’re just an amazing actress). Their whole life is a form of art. When I photograph, I’m trying to capture frames from the living picture. I’m a curator of emotion. How many struggles, how many loves, how many tears have vanished undocumented. I want to capture as many of those moments as I can. Both Rembrandt and Robert Henri are inspirations in that sense. In their paintings, versus other pictures during that same time period, there’s an unmistakable attitude they capture. I want to lay bare the humanity of those I record, even if just for a fleeting second. In the case of these photos in Xi’an, I wondered about their lives, their tragedies, and their triumphs. Who were they? That question drove the thousands of photographs I took that day.

CR: What do you feel good photography should do for the viewer?

AX: That depends a lot on how the viewer defines “good.” For me personally, I look for something I’ve never seen before or something around me I’ve never noticed. Then again, the photography could be something I see daily, just in a way I’d never experienced before. It should shock, disturb, even be provocative, but that’s general, as even pornography can encompass those three.

The tricky part is that a lot of it depends on mood, too. Sometimes, I’ll want to see dramatic photos, and other times, I’m happy with pictures of cute puppies. In that sense, I feel anything that makes you emote is a good photograph. However, if you want it to transcend individual meaning, there has to be some kind of message in the photo. If a photo can tell a story that supersedes race, time, region, and even place, it’ll haunt and resonate far beyond the initial viewing. That’s why I think the photo of “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” still has so much poignancy—because of all it represents decades later.

One of the most interesting shifts in our approach to photography now is that with the spread of digital photography, it’s hard for there to be a single image that represents a moment, as you can take millions with your digital camera and your phone. Even if the image isn’t perfect, a couple waves of the magic wand and cropping tools in Photoshop, and voila, you’re creating reality edited to your desired parameters. The difficult part is, you can’t doctor emotion on a person’s face. Like Heisenberg’s Equilibrium, when a subject knows they’re being photographed, they immediately change and react to the camera. For me, one of the biggest challenges is capturing people in a natural pose so that it’s authentic without being intrusive. I try to photograph the images that are most interesting to me. Sometimes I succeed, most times I don’t. My hope is that the ones I do end up liking the most are the ones audiences will react to.

CR: Do you have an artist’s philosophy?

AX: Picasso’s quote, “Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth,” is something I espouse. At the same time, can art and truth ever cohabitate? Art is by nature subjective, an interpretation of something external. Even math is quantified art constrained by the numerical points that form the sums of its equations. So I have to wonder if truth is something we should strive for as artists. I’m not talking objective truths, nor ethical questions of right and wrong, when it comes to the matter of truth. I mean the nature of reality as interpreted by art. Some of the best art I’ve seen rejects the truth and encourages escapism. Others strive solely for truth and are soporific as a result. I once spent several hours in a garden observing a colony of ants. They were extremely busy with their job, rushing back and forth, waving their antennae, communicating with each other. From above, there was an esoteric beauty in their movements, a symmetry inspiring a sense of wonder. Again, angles. If I were an ant, I would probably be miserable, slaving away day after day as a mindless drone. In my art and photography, I want to explore those angles and make a connection to those who see their reality from different perspectives. I want all our truths to connect. Somewhere in those threads is my philosophy. Somewhere there is my lie Photoshopped as truth, or is it the other way around?

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Visit Angela Xu on the web at: http://www.tieryasxu.com/

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Angela Xu is an international photographer who enjoys taking photos of the obscure. Her work has been published at places like Calyx, Juked, Prick of the Spindle, and Redivider. She is the art editor atEntropy Magazine.

Cynthia Reeser is the Founder and Publisher of Aqueous Books, and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Prick of the Spindle literary journal. She has published more than 100 reviews in print and online, as well as poetry and fiction in print and online journals. Her short stories are anthologized in the Daughters of Icarus Anthology (Pink Narcissus Press, 2013), and in Follow the Blood: Tales Inspired by The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew (Sundog Lit, 2013). Cynthia is currently working on a literary short story collection inspired by fairy tale lore. Also a senior editor for two association management companies, she lives and works in the Birmingham area and attends the University of Tampa in pursuit of her MFA in Creative Writing (fiction). Visit her on the web at www.cynthiareeser.com.

An Interview with Featured Artist Jéanpaul Ferro

April 1, 2014 by utpress Leave a Comment

By Cynthia Reeser with Jéanpaul Ferro

Diamonds

Cynthia Reeser (Tampa Review Online): You are a writer as well as a photographer, and I’d like to start by asking you about your influences for photography. Could you talk about that some?

Jéanpaul Ferro: I have been writing novels, short fiction, and poetry for a long time—it’s going on thirty years now. While I have had several books of poetry and short fiction published, I am solely concentrating on my novels going forward.

I look at my photography in much the same way I do my writing. It’s those upper echelon photographers who inspire me. My greatest influence is the surrealism of the great Tom Chambers. Tom is a master at taking photographs and digitally combining and alternating them into a seamless, surreal photograph. There is no one who is doing what Tom is doing right now.

While I never alter my photographs, I try to find surreal images. I call them “found photographs”—images that are there every day, that are somewhat surreal—things we pass by sometimes without noticing, but which, in actuality, are extraordinary. Elliot Erwitt and Martin Parr are two of my other big influences, although my photographs tend to have a much darker side then their photography does.

CR: Do you draw from the same well of inspiration when you’re taking pictures as you do when writing, or does photography entail something of a different process for you?

Winter in Rhode Island

JF: With writing you have so many different elements that have to come together to make a whole. To create a novel you need the genesis of an idea, and then larger-than-life characters, different settings and scenes, dialogue, a plot, an arc to the novel, and so many different obstacles. Creating a novel is sort of like putting a giant jigsaw puzzle together. Poems and short stories are simply smaller puzzles. And you usually get inspired to write them from your own personal experience of loss or joy.

With photography you get inspired by something unexpected. It’s harder to get a great photograph if you go out looking for one. Even if you do go out seeking a certain shot, you need to frame that photo differently from other photographers to make it capture the imagination. In writing, there is a lot of planning before the final outcome. In photography, while there is some timing and planning involved, much of the time it is simply being at the right spot at the right time and always being ready to find something special you can capture on film. Many times the photographs find me. I just have to be ready, willing, and able.

Essendo Morti

CR: Would you say that there is something that you strive for in your photographic work?

JF: I always strive to make the viewer feel something with a photograph. It can be a feeling of loss, a feeling of awe or hopelessness, or simply something that makes you smile. I never want to hit people over the head with something. I just want something of beauty.

CR: Do you have an artist’s philosophy regarding photography?

JF: I do have an artist’s philosophy regarding photography. It should be like a painting. A moment in time captured that will soon fade away. The way light falls in a shot, or the way an inanimate object twists or turns, or the way the shadows fall upon it. The shot should evoke some sort of haunting quality. A great photograph should be a landscape, a portrait come to life, a 3-D painting, if you will. If a photograph doesn’t move you, and those who view it, then you’ve failed as an artist. At least, that’s my philosophy.

CR: In your opinion, what should photography do for the viewer?

JF: A photograph should be like a Bob Dylan song: it should make you think. A good photograph should make you linger on it for a while. See all the different angles and the small sightlines that are there. It should grab you by the throat and make you question it—for good or for bad.

Small Things

CR: Is there a point at which your photography and your writing intersect, or are they more separate from one another?

JF: Strangely, I find many of my photographs wind up reflecting something I’ve already written. I’ve had about twenty of my photographs featured in a literary journal or magazine with one of my short stories or poems. It’s strange how that works out. I’m sure it is something subconscious. But I think writers and photographers both have the same sort of eye. I feel photography, fiction, and poetry are inherently interlinked, more than most people would think. Every photograph is a short story or a poem, and vice-versa. It’s just how the universe works.

Here’s what’s next for Jéanpaul Ferro . . .

Jéanpaul is finishing up his latest novel, Midnight City, a raucous look at the haunting underbelly of Hollywood and the factory machine of L.A.

Visit Jéanpaul Ferro on the web at: www.jeanpaulferro.com

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Jéanpaul Ferro is a novelist, short fiction author, and poet from Providence, Rhode Island. A nine-time Pushcart Prize nominee, his work has appeared on National Public Radio and in Contemporary American Voices, Tulane Review, Columbia Review, Emerson Review, Connecticut Review, Cleveland Review, Cortland Review, Portland Monthly, Arts & Understanding Magazine, Saltsburg Review, Hawaii Review, and others. He is the author of All the Good Promises (Plowman Press, 1994); Becoming X (BlazeVOX [books], 2008); You Know Too Much About Flying Saucers (Thumbscrew Press, 2009); Hemispheres (Maverick Duck Press, 2009); Essendo Morti – Being Dead (Goldfish Press, 2009), which was nominated for the 2010 Griffin Prize in Poetry; and Jazz (Honest Publishing, 2011), nominated for both the 2012 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize and the 2012 Griffin Prize in Poetry. He is represented by the Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency. Visit him online at www.jeanpaulferro.com.

An Interview with Featured Artist Eleanor Leonne Bennett

February 1, 2014 by utpress Leave a Comment

By Cynthia Reeser with Eleanor Leonne Bennett

Cynthia Reeser (TRon): Some photographers are purists when it comes to digital manipulation of their work. Do you use photo editing software or is that something you avoid?

Eleanor Bennett: I only use IrfanView and Windows Photo Gallery, so for me, post-processing is very minimal. At the same time, I don’t want to have a camera of such high specs that it ruins the fun of attempting any post-processing at all. The more expensive cameras I see seem to mean the less you have to do once you upload [the images]. I’m not sure how much I am behind that because I like to edit after I come home from taking pictures to see how I can edit an image in a few steps to bring out its best. That and also having multiple versions of the same image that you are able to make look quite different. A completely unedited back-up is a good thing to have in reserve.

CR: How do you approach your work—do you begin with themes or concepts in mind, or do you prefer less structure when doing a photo shoot?

EB: My self-portraits are most often planned, with the greater majority of my work being little random moments. Thematically, a lot of these random moments add up to a portfolio with more emotional resonance. There are many images of mine that work well together that were taken years apart. I prefer less structure ideally, but I can work well with both environments.

CR: You are a very young photographer who has already experienced a good deal of success. Could you talk about your career development to date?

EB: I first used my mum’s camera to capture images of wildlife in my garden. I was making a nature notebook for a competition. I unfortunately lost the competition, but I enjoyed taking photos so much I decided to continue and began taking images of everything that interested me. Just after this time, National Geographic was bought for me, and I saw the competition for the See the Bigger Picture campaign. After I entered, my little photo of a horsefly was accepted to be exhibited around the globe. I was only thirteen, and [winning] made my confidence take a massive leap. From age thirteen, I haven’t stopped entering awards and adding to my accolades. Today I can say that I am a published writer, artist, photographer, and poet, and I think in another few years, I will have many more abilities under my belt.

CR: What are you working toward in your career, and where do you ultimately hope to end up?

EB: I hope to win more awards that bear environmental significance. I hope to get gallery representation and an artist agent. I would like to host and curate gallery shows on the awareness of a multitude of different issues. I hope to end up with a reputation of being adventurous, and not tired or dull.

CR: What advice do you have for other budding photographers who are looking to break into the industry or work as professional photographers?

EB: Just hold out when people try to dismiss you for your age. Don’t be afraid to put whatever is personal out there in regards to your experiences. It often makes people realize you are emotionally valid when you have something to declare. In the face of criticism, be someone to be proud of and steer far away from logical fallacies and knee-jerk reactions.

CR: That is brilliant advice, Eleanor. I’m so glad you could be a part of the Tampa Review Online this issue!

Here’s what’s next for Eleanor Bennett…

Eleanor Bennett’s collection of twenty-five images is exhibiting with The Photographic Angle for their Splash of Colour exhibition, and was showcased all through 2013, nationwide in the UK. Her Photographic Angle exhibition dates for 2014 (UK) are:

25th Jan 2014 to 29th Jan 2014 Glaxo Smithkline (North Site), Greenford Road, Middx, UB6 0HE
1st Feb 2014 to 5th Feb 2014 Kings House & Queens House, Kymberley Road, Harrow, HA1 1YR
8th Feb 2014 to 12th Feb 2014 Building B5, 4 Roundwood Avenue, Stockley Park, UB111BQ
30th Apr 2014 to 4th May 2014 Forum One, Solent Business Park,Parkway, Whiteley, PO15 7PA
7th May 2014 to 11th May 2014 Hamlyn House & Hill House, 21 Highgate Hill, N19 5LP
14th May 2014 to 18th May 2014 Quayside Tower, Broad Street, B12HF
21st May 2014 to 25th May 2014 382-386, 388-390 & 414-428 Midsummer Boulevard, MK9 2EA
28th May 2014 to 1st Jun 2014 12-13 Bruton Street, W1J 6QA
4th Jun 2014 to 8th Jun 2014 Bray House, Westcott Way, SL6 3QH

Visit Eleanor Bennett on the web at: www.eleanorleonnebennett.com

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Eleanor Leonne Bennett is an internationally award winning photographer and visual artist. She is the CIWEM Young Environmental Photographer of The Year 2013 and has also won first places with National Geographic, The World Photography Organisation, Nature’s Best Photography, and The National Trust, to name but a few. Eleanor’s photography has been published in The Telegraph, The Guardian, The British Journal of Psychiatry, Life Force Magazine, British Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and as the cover of books and magazines extensively throughout the world. Her art is globally exhibited, having been shown in New York, Paris, London, Rome, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Washington, Canada, Spain, Japan, and Australia, amongst many other locations. She was also the only person from the UK to have her work displayed in the National Geographic and Airbus run, See The Bigger Picture global exhibition tour with the United Nations International Year Of Biodiversity 2010. In 2012 her work received coverage on ABC Television. Her written work has had permanent showcase on the official company blog of Zenfolio. In 2012 she was especially invited by the founder of the Book Creators Circle to contribute an article to highlight the importance of the Day of the Imprisoned Writer.