Caleb interviews Steph: Part One

This entry kicks off a never-ending series of interviews between Steph and I about our lives as artists and anything else we feel like asking each other. I think her first answers to my questions are fantastic— makes me nervous about answering the questions she asked me!

Aside from paying the bills, what is your greatest fear as an artist starting her career?
I’m sometimes afraid that my work won’t mean anything to anyone. That I won’t get across my point, or that it just won’t make a splash or leave any lasting effect anywhere. I think about this a lot mainly with my documentary work. It’s not easy to put together and shoot and edit a project that is really, incredibly good. I put so much effort and time into this work, and similarly my subjects are so willing to collaborate and just have so many stories to tell… I always come away feeling like I owe them so much, and I’m afraid with each project that I won’t be able to do them justice. To me, that would be such a huge loss. But on the days where I’m thinking more positively, I believe the key is to stick with it, keep learning, be willing to change or try new things, and basically just put in the time.

An article in The Independent a few weeks ago got me thinking, again, about the gender gap in the art world. How do you feel about being a female artist in a male-dominated art world?
That article made me laugh, by the way. I guess I feel the same way as any other thing I’ve done that’s been male-dominated, which is indignant. In my life I’ve always tended to end up in situations where I’m working mostly with men. For example, I used to paint houses with a crew of guys, and I used to work in computer technology, although it was at a women’s college so the atmosphere wasn’t what you might expect elsewhere, but the field was certainly slanted one way. Photography is just another job to add to that list. I’m ready for it, and definitely not ignoring any possible gender gaps.

One question I’ve been trying to answer for myself lately, is whether different genders use photography differently. If photography is about communication, and girls and boys are taught to communicate differently from an early age on, then yes, we often do use it differently. That isn’t to say that anyone can look at any photo or series and know the gender of who took it, but that in the art world, certain ideas and forms of communication are valued over others, and that translates into whose works is shown and bought and written about, and where and for how much, etc.

In terms of how I feel personally, I’m mostly concerned with how our work is judged. In some of my classes in school I definitely observed the photos taken by guys being critiqued based solely on technique and skill, and photos taken by women being critiqued based on the personal connection or emotional content. If that serves as any kind of microcosm for the art world, then many of us have a huge barrier we’re going to have to chop down along the way. I feel like my critiques were always very fair, but I’m also the kind of person who’ll demand that if I feel I’m not getting it, and not everyone has been trained to really see the often subtle forms of sexism at play.

Basically I don’t think art world values are going to change without the values of society in general getting a massive overhaul as well, but I do think there’s a lot that can be done to make some changes. For example, projects like Women in Photography and Nymphoto, and events like the Women in Photojournalism Conference bring together and promote the work of women in a way that aims to make women photographers stronger as a group, and to do what the industry isn’t doing in terms of addressing gender issues in the field. Organizations like En Foco do similar work, but around the issue of highlighting photographers of color. Supporting projects like these are key to making some change.

Today I read a series of posts in one of the Lightstalkers discussion forums about whether projects like these are worth anything. Some of the posts made me really sad, to see that so many people misunderstand that outspoken and proactive women photographers who join together are actually trying to make our field stronger as a whole by addressing existing gender gaps, and not actually just trying to portray women as victims. I don’t understand why anyone would argue with something like that. These projects started for a reason, and while some artists or photographers may believe they haven’t felt the affect of a gender gap in their career, that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist at all.

Whose work are you geeking out about right now?

Definitely Larry Towell and his new book, The World From My Front Porch. I’m a huge fan of his, so a culmination of his work from photos of his family at home to his documentation of Palestine, El Salvador, New Orleans, etc, is just awesome to have and see all together, and it really fits well. I also appreciate the theme that runs through his work, of land/landlessness and identity – it’s completely apparent in his images and gives his work so much meaning. I really respect photographers who are so driven by an issue or theme or question that they spend years and years documenting it, even in various forms.

Photo © Steph Plourde-Simard

Rosa and her bear