![]() ![]() So, one story is just editing and going through and seeing what fits.Įarlier, you talked about landscapes. I like work that is like a kind of time capsule. ![]() I’m inspired by different photo books that do that. So it’s like a mix of landscapes, and then body parts and some portraits. Well, I’m really inspired by home - family albums and things that seem like a snapshot but do tell a story. Was there anything that you were drawing inspiration from as far as using a space and using the work within the space to tell a narrative? So I would say in the last month, I’ve really had to focus and just do it. Some of them just don’t fit with this particular narrative. It’s the hardest thing, to go through tons of images. So I had a general idea, but I’d say in the last month, it’s been crunch time to figure out how everything flows together. To some extent, for the last year or so, I’ve been putting together images for a book. How long did it take you to go through the work that you’ve done to date and figure out what would and would not fit into this particular exhibit? I’ve also been printing photos and then painting on top of them. And I had that moment of thinking, what is this going to look like if I go and take some photos and get it developed and see what it looks like?Īnd how did it work out? It’s cool, right? I will say for myself, I found some high ASA black and white film that had expired years ago. All those things just lead to a hazy or dreamlike quality. And sometimes not having the right equipment or having an old camera or having a crack in the camera or picking up a piece of cloth and putting it over the lens or experimenting with expired film because it was cheaper. This whole time I’ve been taking photos has been, really, trial and error. I’ve never really had a set camera that I use or lights or anything. In terms of that softness - do you have a specific way that you achieve a certain look or a certain feel? Is it more of just an emotional thing or is it more technical, working with certain lighting, certain equipment, certain spaces, that kind of thing? My mom, for example, is an actress, so she loves having her photo taken. Usually people know my photos and they enjoy the style, the softness, the tenderness. There’s an intimacy that I think is very sacred. So I don’t like photographing people that don’t like to be photographed that’s why I could never do street photography. When you’re photographing someone, you’re taking their soul in a way. I think it’s really about trust, and it’s a sacred thing. In terms of the relationship between the photographer and the subject, how did being on one side of that inform your practice now, when you’re taking a photograph of somebody else and not yourself?īecause I had experience as a subject, I’m really sensitive to how other people feel - making sure they’re comfortable, making sure it’s enjoyable, and that the comfort is there, the trust is there. The things that I focus on are women, intimate snapshots of life, body parts - tender, intimate photos. It started very naturally I always felt drawn to photography. I quit modeling and I just decided to turn the camera on myself and take self-portraits, take photos of my friends, my mom. ![]() I didn’t really enjoy modeling, but I enjoyed working with photographers and the special relationship between the subject and the photographer. When I was 14, I was a fashion model I was used to being the subject. Johanna Stickland: I started taking photos about 13 years ago. InsideHook: What initially drew you to photography as a medium? And as a photographer, what are your preferred themes? *This interview has been edited for length and context. ![]() InsideHook chatted with Stickland about her art, her preferred materials and the making of PRISM. The show - and an accompanying book - serve as an overview of her work to date, zeroing in on the themes and motifs that Stickland finds most compelling. Her forthcoming show of photographs, PRISM, opens on July 20 at Brooklyn’s Thames Art Center. Her work has appeared in places like Juxapoz and Numero Magazine, as well as in the well-received 2018 group show The Female Lens: 9 Contemporary Female Photographers at London’s Huxley-Parlour Gallery. Stickland’s interest in photography began at a young age, when she was on the opposite side of the camera. Some of her photographic work draws on portraiture to capture an elusive quality in the subjects, while other images turn the human body into something intriguing yet unfamiliar - what she refers to as “tender, intimate photos.” She’s also pushed at the form of what photography can do, adding paint to images to heighten certain qualities and pursue an elevated sense of emotion. What makes for a compelling image? For artist Johanna Stickland, the answer to that question varies. ![]()
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