Artist’s links: Saccades Feature, Flickr
Featured Artist: Jordan Tiberio
Name: Jordan Tiberio
Age: 19
Hometown: Rochester, New York.
Current town: Manhattan, New York.
Film and/or Digital: Both!
First camera: Canon Rebel XS
Current camera: Canon 5D Mark II
How long have you been taking photographs?
I’ve been taking photographs for the purpose of making art since January of my sophomore year of high school. Before then, I had always stolen my mother’s point-and-shoot camera to explore. I ended up breaking it, though, and had to buy my own camera since her new one was off limits. (Sorry, Mom!).
Thoughts about first images ever taken, describe them?
The first images I took are very personal to me, and I sometimes think they’re the most meaningful out of everything I’ve shot. My best friend helped launch my interest in photography a month or so after I bought my camera. She came over to my house one afternoon and asked if I’d take pictures of her running around in the snow with a sun dress on. At the time, I was 16 and hadn’t seen much photography, so I thought the idea was awesome! Needless to say, that photo shoot is one of the most memorable, since the neighbors called to tell my parents about what was going on in our backyard.
From then on, out for about a year, she and I went on photo expeditions almost every weekend, exploring our hometown. She’s also a very creative individual, so being able to collaborate on shoots with her–her being the model, me the photographer–was really special for me. I was very comfortable shooting with her, so it helped me gain confidence in my work, especially when it came to asking others if I could photograph them.
What do you see when you look at your work now?
I don’t see as much documentation of my life in my current work, but more creativity than when I first started out. I’ve started to draw from my imagination much more than the reality around me. I find the odd in the ordinary, and create my own ethereal world with photography. I want the viewer to feel as if they’re in one of those fever dreams where the images they see are very bizarre, yet beautiful. I don’t always like to explain what I’m trying to convey through my photographs because I’d rather the viewer come up with their own story for it. If my photography can be an experience for someone or inspire someone to create a beautiful world of their own than one of my missions is accomplished.
What do you hope others will see in your work, if anything? Their experience?
I answered a bit of this question in the previous question’s answer, but I don’t only hope to inspire others to create. I also wish others will see what I do as a way to hold onto past times and start to do the same with their lives. One of my fondest memories of growing up was looking through a big box of Polaroids my grandmother has in her house of my mom and her siblings, and an even bigger boxes my mom has collected of her own images of my sisters and I as young kids.
With the introduction of digital photography, the amount of physical photographs I’m able to hold and look at has dwindled down to a small number. I started photography when I was a sophomore in high school, and, sadly, can’t remember many times before that year when I or someone else had taken a photograph of me. My mom has photographs of herself from her childhood to adolescence, while I feel like there are periods of my life where nothing physical exists to show someone how I looked at a certain age. Without photographs, it’s hard for me to even remember those years of my life.
In our generation, we use websites to share our memories; we rely on megapixels to show off these places we’ve been and these people we’ve met. But who is to say these websites we share on and these megapixels we post will be around forever? No one! Lately I’ve started printing out at least one copy at a time of every image I’ve created. The Internet helped my photography reach other people, but the Internet can very well make the art I’ve created disappear. It’s sad for me to see this generation explain our lives through images on a computer screen. I want to be able to have images to share with the people I meet in the future, and the children I have when that time comes along.
Photography has been my way to document my life so that my memories will not fade away, so I hope that through my work (or even just by reading this!) others will start printing their megapixels, or start saving those memories through photography if they haven’t already!
What do you look for in an image? What makes a great photograph for you?
Coming to art school has really changed my perspective on photography, and I’ve gained much more knowledge on the subject. I didn’t take much of a photography class in high school, so the photography critiques at college have helped me understand what makes and breaks a picture. When I first started taking photographs, I was really horrible with composition. I centered everything and wouldn’t dare veer from that. The rule of thirds was not a term in my vocabulary! But now a strong composition is something I really look for in a photograph. There are so many small mistakes people can make when taking a picture (which I’ve done plenty of in the past!) that lessen the impact an image has, like cropping off limbs in awkward areas or having a background that doesn’t mesh well with the subject.
Color is another important part of an image to me. Both in my color and photoshop class this year I have learned about how color effects an image, and how to color correct an image so it is more realistic. I used to nonchalantly edit my photographs with whatever color I thought made it look the best, but now, looking back, I don’t know what I was thinking! Color can be a hard thing to master, but I believe it’s something one must understand in order to create effective art.
Favorite artists?
Wendy Bevan, Guy Bourdin, Tim Walker, Ellen Rogers, Lauren E. Simonutti, Viktoria Sorochinski, Irving Penn, Stephen Shore . . .
Favorite places online?
Show Studio, Tumblr (I can’t deny that!), Rookie, Flickr, anywhere with new and exciting art for me to see!
Favorite photographs:
Irving Penn, Summer Sleep; Sally Mann, Body Farm series; Wendy Bevan, Italian Marie Claire Circus series; Olivia Bee, Portrait of Emily; Alexis Mire, Aquarius; Ellen Rogers, Untitled; Alison Scarpulla, Untitled; Everything Guy Bourdin; Viktoria Sorochinski, the third image in the Anna & Eve series; and Michael Wolf, Tokyo Compression. Such a hard list–choosing ten images is harder than it may sound!
And young photographers who most inspire you now?
Always Olivia Bee, Amanda Jasnowski, Alexis Mire, Alison Scarpulla, Natalie Kucken, Lauren Poor, Tara Niami, the list is endless!
Artist’s playlist: 24 tracks from Active Child, Lissie, Feist & Ben Gibbard, Geographer ft. Kacey Johansing, Grimes, Craft Spells, Why?, Bon Iver & St. Vincent, Son Lux, Quadron, Wild Nothing, Portugal. The Man, Washed Out, Youth Lagoon, POLICA, Supertramp, St. Vincent, Beach Fossils, The Antlers, Slow Club, Lightspeed Champion, SBTRKT, Best Coast, Modest Mouse, here: Featured Artist: Jordan Tiberio.
You’ve been contributing to Saccades Project since January 2010. What’s changed the most about your work since then?
Wow, 2010 seems like it was just yesterday! My photography back then was definitely full of more spontaneity. Like I mentioned, my photography used to be a documentation of my best friend in various locations around our hometown. We’d ride our bikes everywhere and stop along the way to take photographs until the sun set. Now, I’m a lot more organized when it comes to my current work. I carry around a blank book with me where ever I go to write down ideas as they come to me, and I also plan out in detail certain shots I want to shoot.
When I look back at the work I was making two years ago, I see more of a series than I create with what I’m doing now. The photographs of my best friend all seemed to go together to make a story of us growing up together, but now I feel like I’ve lost a bit of that consistency. Living in New York City, with galleries as my next-door neighbors, has inspired me incredibly to start working in series once again.
And you’ve just started working with nudes. Talk about that?
I’ve always wanted to work with the nude body, but have never had the courage to ask someone to take off their clothes for a photograph! The nudes I recently did were of a close friend of mine who was more than willing to let me take nude photographs of her. I shot those images for a class assignment where we had to work with the body in interesting positions. It was so much fun for me to pose her and create different shapes with the bodies that we all have and see every day. I find the human body to be an extremely beautiful thing and hope to do more nude work in the near future.
Where do you want to take your photography, or vice versa?
I have more aspirations and goals as an artist now than ever before, and cannot wait to (hopefully!) take the art world by storm with my imagination. But really I want to take my work anywhere that I’m allowed or offered to take it! I don’t go a day without thinking about what to do next–I am constantly inspired. Being able to travel and see more than the east coast of the United States is in my dreams, and I plan to make that happen for myself within the next few years.
There is so much unknown out there for me to see and document. I hope to return to my original ways of exploring and taking photographs through out the process, but with a new, more mature brain in my head. I have faith that this love of mine will keep me stable in the future, and I plan to keep this positive attitude about art since I can’t see how I’d go about life without it. What a horrible thought!
New Work: Marija Kovač
April 25, 2012 in New Work
Marija Kovač was our Featured Artist on October 15, 2011. And she’s just wonderful.
New Work: Traysaun Cooley-Dennis
April 21, 2012 in New Work
Always happy to share new work from Traysaun.
Featured Artist: Ben Giles
Name: Ben Giles
Age: 19
Hometown: Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk, England)
Current town: Bury St Edmunds
Film and/or Digital?
Film, definitely. It just has a quality that a lot of digital photography doesn’t have; there are lots of reasons, but it mainly just looks nicer.
First camera: Disposables, Olympus 35 Sp, and I had a novelty cruise Ship camera.
Current camera: I’m sticking with the Olympus. It’s just grown on me, it’s so simple, and it has a rainbow strap.
How long have you been taking photographs?
I’ve been taking photos for a few years and cutting them up and collaging them even longer. The recent creations have all happened in the last year; it just became incredibly compulsive, and I like to think I got better as time went on.
Thoughts about first images ever taken, describe them?
I honestly can’t remember the first images ever taken; it was a hazy time around then. I remember them not being too serious, though. I remember taking an image of some penguins in the zoo, and one jumped in and the water splashed and the flash reflection all contributed to it looking like a galaxy–that’s the one I remember that I’ve always kept.
What do you see when you look at your work now?
Looking at my work can be hard. Sometimes I’m proud, sometimes I think it’s utter rubbish, sometimes I think it’s just average. Sometimes I’ll look at a piece and see something in there, a story and fragment and alternate reality; sometimes I just see paper stuck together or lots of lines I have drawn. Creating is a compulsion and sometimes I can get carried and be swept along in this snowball of creation and not realize where I have ended up. I don’t always stop and look at my own work until maybe a week later or even longer. Often I’ll fall into this dream-like state where I’ll just keep producing really quickly without a moment’s thought and without consciously knowing it’s there, in front of me.
Other times, I ponder for an hour and give up: I can be completely contradictory. Often cutting up a book is horrible, yet feels good, like a serial killer claiming its next victim or when you crumble up a flower in your hands. It’s this destruction, yet something new and recycled has been born out of it: I like that feeling, when a book ends up wearing its insides outside.
What do you hope others will see in your work, if anything? Their experience?
Escapism. I want people to look at a piece and see fragments of alternate worlds, hidden stories, obvious juxtapositions or ideas and other ones that are more subtle. I want people to look and feel with my artwork, to connect with an image and form their own meaning; I’m not telling people what to see.
Storm and Stress have been a big influence on my work, the band trip and stumble over themselves, each space between each note holds endless possibilities in the direction it will take next, the different parallel lives it could take. The music is just a blueprint to another song, and I like to think of my artwork as a blueprint to somebody’s memory or dream or thought: it’s a blueprint for the viewer to make their own decisions with and each one will be different. The band describe their music as a book without words or a pornography where nobody takes their clothes off. I want people think of my work as portals where these things can actually happen, an event, a crack in the walls.
My next project is using wax and flowers to fossilize them like evidence from a fringe incident recently added to a museum, to integrate these 2D pieces into something much more real. The aim with the work is to provide them with an experience rather than anything specific.
What do you look for in an image? What makes a great photograph for you?
It just has to feel right–you just know when something is a great image. Other times, I can just see straight away what I want to do with it and how I want to edit it and use it for something. I think colour is important to me and the atmosphere, but it’s so hard to say–I really don’t know, you can just tell. I rarely look for images, apart from hunting in Geographic’s (which is full of amazing photographs and photographers), they tend to just find me.
Favorite artists?
John Stezaker, Picasso, Escher, Brzeska. Steve Reich, Ian Williams, Zach Hill, Storm and Stress, Nick Van Woert.
Favorite places online?
Youtube, Tumblr, Bandcamp, Wikipedia. Also that beercan/bacon website was pretty entertaining, along with incredibox.
Favorite pieces of artwork or photographs.
Sugar Free, Abraham Lincoln and “Julius Caeser” by Nick Van Woert have inspired me a lot recently.
Photographs that recently inspired you?
Lukasz Wierzbowski, Bambina Broccoli, Alison Scarpulla, Fletcher Chancey,
Artist’s Playlist:
Just love this. Reminds me of a Specific Memory that I don’t want to lose. Battles are probably my favorite band still together, this is a live video of them playing B + T. Don Caballero are my favorite band ever, Ian Williams my favorite guitarist ever, and this is them live on their last tour before they crashed the van after hating each other for a couple of years, everyone should watch this Seattle playlist. I think this song is perfect, it’s my favorite of all time, another Ian Williams track. Best drummer in the world ever. Full playlist, 10 tracks by Jon Brion, Battles, Don Caballero, Storm & Stress, Hella, Islet, LITE, Chevreuil and Giraffes? Giraffes!, here: Featured Artist: Ben Giles.
All videos courtesy Ben Giles.
Talk about your video work?
The videos were a series where I wanted to give people feelings or memories that didn’t belong to them. I wanted people to come away not understanding a narrative that wasn’t there, but as if they had just remembered a memory that had been hidden away. It’s like a force, I want the videos to just make people feel. Certain videos had basic structures, such as Johannesburg, which was unraveling backwards like a snail’s shell, or a tornado, slowly imploding into nothingness, sucking up memories while an elderly person is on their deathbed. While others are simply collections of moving imagery that I want people to relate to without really understanding why.
And science fiction?
Films such as Alien, Blade Runner, Clockwork Orange, Moon and Children of Men have all influenced me. As a kid, anything with spaceships, lazer guns, war, cowboys, Indians, they would always be on, and I was transfixed. My sister hated me for hogging the TV and watching these things. Star Wars was my favorite as a kid, when the newer films came out, I went and saw them all in the cinema and bought the light sabers and everything. I never read comic books, though, and it’s actually something I regret.
So as far as various mediums, which comes most naturally to you?
Drawing was my main medium for a long time, and then collage just came naturally from that. At the moment, I would say it is. I think once I’ve done what I feel is enough collage, I will focus on something else. And I think that time is very soon: I’m in the process of sculpture and painting more. I’ve been doing collage for around seven months now and I think this is as far as I want to take it. I don’t want to repeat myself, but I’m happy with what I’ve created in that time. At first, I was awful at collage, but after a few weeks, it just became natural to me, as I hope sculpture or painting will become natural to me in a year or so.
Featured Artist: Jillian Marleen Becker
Name: Jillian Marleen Becker
Age: 21
Hometown: A village near Hannover
Current town: Hannover, Germany
Film and/or Digital: Film
First camera: Some compact camera that my grandparents gave to me as a child.
Current camera: Zenit-B and Minolta x-300 are the ones I use most at the moment. I have a Kodak Retinette and an Olympus mju II that I grab every now and then. I want to get more involved with my beautiful medium format camera Kiev 60 and some other cameras, like the Taxona and Minox I got but haven’t used yet.
How long have you been taking photographs?
About 6 years ago I started taking self-portraits with a cheap digital camera as a way to express my emotions without needing to speak, but I’ve been taking photographs more seriously for maybe two years. That’s also when I started using analog cameras, which is where which I found my true passion. The atmosphere that you can create with film and also the so-called “mistakes,” such as light leaks, scratches, etc, are features I absolutely adore.
Thoughts about first images ever taken, describe them?
I was a little child, so I can’t remember, but it might have been some of my beautiful budgie who passed away far too early.
What do you see when you look at your work now?
A lot of changes, growth. I’ve improved my technical skills and even though that part of photography is the least important to me, it’s good to see that I’ve become more confident at handling my cameras. Besides that, I discovered more what I really want to capture–at first I just tried out what I could do, now I have certain ideas of what mood I want to create, which people I find interesting to work with and so on. An urge for capturing moods and feelings that uncover the soul on a deeper level while stripping down the masks of daily lives, has always been present in my existence. Even as a child, I always looked for ways to express my essence with whatever medium, such as writing poems, painting and singing.
Actually, photography started off as a self-therapy for me, but now it’s so much more–it also means communicating and spending time with people who I like being with and who inspire me, the feeling you get from a harmonious, intimate and creative photo session is incredible–it’s like being in love in a way. It is love.
What do you hope others will see, if anything? Their experience?
Whatever you feel, whatever you see, whatever it does to you. It gives me so much when people can relate to my photos in their own personal way, if the images stir up a memory, a thought or provoke emotion. I want to look beyond the eyes of the people I photograph and also make others realize that intensity of the soul. There is nothing more wonderful than when a person is touched by an image and tells me so. I like to share these universes of dreams and inner states.
What do you look for in an image? What makes a great photograph for you?
Honesty and sensitivity is very important. I like beauty that shows more than a pretty surface–I want to feel the aura of someone or something when I look at a photograph. I adore images that speak of poetry, mystery, like an unrevealed dream. Dark, hidden, raw or tender–whatever feels pure and deep in a way, whatever does it to me, it’s not so predictable. I do get hooked on rather sad portraits, maybe mainly because it just touches me more than a happy face, and I have a lot of sadness within me, myself . . ..
Favorite artists?
Fiona Apple is my goddess, and Jeff Buckley my god. I admire Katie Jane Garside and the filmmaker Hans Weingärtner who has got such a beautiful mind and makes so sensitive films about themes that interest and move me a lot. Just to mention a few names, but there are so many artists I’m into and find inspiring that I don’t really want to reduce it like this.
Favorite places online?
I visit flickr daily, but the mass of beautiful and unique photos is overwhelming that I sometimes wish not to be born in the decade of virtuality. I also spend time on ebay, searching for old cameras and film to use. And of course there’s a lot beautiful music and inspiration to be found on Youtube. I like finding new photography blogs and enjoy reading interviews with other artists as well.
Favorite photographs: Will Lucas, Laura Makabresku, Alex Mazurov, Julie Lansom, Murat Alper Develioglu, Burcum Baygut, Jo Palindrome, elcorazón, Heiner Luepke, bredde.
Young photographers who most inspire you now?
Sina Kauri, Laura Makabresku, Sophie Fontaine, Heiner Lüpke, dear caffeine, Kristamas Klousch (just to mention a few names).
Artist’s Playlist: 24 tracks by Castanets, Sea Oleena, finn., Gravenhurst, First Aid Kit, Chris Garneau, Shannon Wright & Yann Tiersen, Fiona Apple, CocoRosie, Two Gallants, Jackson C. Frank, David Lemaitre, Nouvelle Vague, Scout Niblett, Sibylle Baier, Charlie Winston, Ruby Throat, Lisa Germano, Tommy Emmanuel, Alessis Ark, Fiona Apple & Elvis Costello, here: Featured Artist: Jillian Marleen Becker.
There’s one model you work with a great deal. Would you talk about that relationship?
I met the girl who became my muse in the beginning of 2011, and we had our first photo session in the spring. I remember being amazed by her powerful, pure and sensitive face that expressed emotions so naturally, but we only met few times afterwards until October and didn’t take any photos in between. Then we had the most mind-blowing session. It was a precious coincidence that we ended up in a magical attic that was like a playing field of dreams and strange moods, dust and absence. It was the first time I experienced the power of light and darkness in such intensity. The photos and moments created became fundamental and a huge inspiration for the kind of photography I wanted to keep on following.
The really interesting part was that we hardly knew each other, but we understood exactly what we want, without having to speak about it much. I believe this connection is very rare and can develop even so much more. It’s beautiful because we both value the sharing and creating immensely and found a source of expressing and studying ourselves within. I believe that only with the depth of the two of us colliding, the images can become as authentic and close as they are to me.
Where do you want to take your photography?
Oh, that’s a tough question. You know, photography has become my most treasured love besides writing and singing, my escape that makes me feel alive and really adds to the meaning of living immensely. I really can’t imagine doing without it anymore; it has blessed me with so many beautiful moments and incredible people, and has enabled me to learn a lot about myself as well. So that, in total, is worth more than I could ask for, and I just want to continue with what I love. Besides that, I feel it’s reaching a level beyond a hobby or private passion. I’m getting hungry to gain more experience, have exhibits and collaborate with other photographers whose work I feel close to.
I could imagine working for magazines that match my aesthetics and to get into projects as a freelance photographer. I finally feel that I am meant to follow my creative passions in a more eager way and I guess the next consequence is to take the huge step in admitting to myself that I am far too sensitive and full of deep feelings to live an average life.
