Caleb Interviews Steph, Part 3a

What are your thoughts on how multimedia fits into photojournalism and documentary work, what sort of effect it has on the work and how it might differ from still photography alone?  How does/might multimedia work fit into the documentary stuff you’re doing?
The biggest issues that come to mind for me are conflicting. I think using multimedia has huge potential and is a progressive step in telling the stories that documentary photographers and photojournalists want. I think it makes the work more accessible in a way, and can also add a lot of voice because you can include more of your subjects, or even more of yourself. But I’m wary about multimedia being appropriate for every body of work. I still believe strongly that there’s a lot of power in a single image or a collection of images that can be stared at, sat with, held/hung, etc, for as long as the viewer wants. I think some aspects of multimedia — mainly audio and video — take away a lot of the mystery or (critical/creative) thinking on the viewer’s part. So while there are certainly many stories I want to tell as a documentary photographer, and just lay flat out what I think and what my version of the story is, part of why I entered photography was to engage with people. And video isn’t always engaging — to me it’s more like telling. I think some of the most successful multimedia pieces I’ve seen take into account what information photos leave out (which makes them successful), and model that same sort of composition in the piece. They include some mystery, some awkwardness, some imagination. That’s what I want to see continue and that’s the only way I see it fitting into my own projects.

Where are you in the process of working on your farm documentary project?  Where do you see it headed in the future?

This is a tough question to answer right now, and I guess all I can really say is that I’m “shooting through it”. The farm is changing and so is my relationship to it. In the beginning when I started documenting it I talked about how I think a lot of people romanticize and idealize farming, and that it just isn’t always satisfying work. I set out in a way to disprove that but also to tell other stories as well, like about survival and following dreams and being close to land and animals. Now I look at where the farm is, further along in business, and how my father and his partner are doing, and I think to an extent even I’VE idealized it a bit.

It’s a really personal project to me because my family is involved, and I sometimes work on the farm now. And so I have insider information and background that I want to show in my images – stories I want to tell — and at the same time I struggle with it all and wonder if the photos I’ve made in the last 2 years are even representative at all of how I feel right now, with everything I’ve learned. And that feels like starting over. One thing I like a lot about long-term projects is that they are expected to change, and I also expect to be changed BY them. But right now I’m at a scary place where I don’t have any idea what I’d show if someone asked me to see the project tomorrow. I have a large collection of images, but ideas about my subject that have changed almost overnight.

I’ve said before that the project is about trying to find out if a specific way of life is possible in this world. If in the context of all the negative issues facing small farms today, some people can live off the land and have what they need and be happy. Or in the very least, survive. But now I question what it’ll mean if it doesn’t work out. If the toll it takes to make it as a small, natural farm ends up being too much. If it just can’t physically be done anymore. If my father’s health or sanity needs to come first. If it changes the relationship between the people doing the work. I clearly need to be flexible, and I love feeling so invested in both my project AND the farm in general, but I spend a lot more time thinking about it than I used to.

I’m trying my hardest to not predict the end and to just keep showing up and shooting with an open mind. With that said, working to pay the bills right now doesn’t allow me all the time I want to head up to NH and shoot for days at a time. I have to be more selective with my time right now and that’s a real pain. This is possibly something I should be looking for some kind of funding for.

Name 3 things you wish you had more time/resources to do right now.

1. This is very specific, but I really want to travel all over New Hampshire and Maine to photograph every single member of my family, and get to know each of them a bit better through the process. I’ve been recording and researching our family history for about 5 years now and have always had the desire to photograph everyone. I’m working out some logistics of this right now, but it’s going to go slower than I prefer to work. Mainly because of the time commitment and not having a car.
2. I want to spend more time on Twist of Fate Farm. I would move there if it would help the project, but I obviously can’t support myself right now while doing that.
3. With more resources I could spend more energy on becoming an amazing printer. While I’ve been shooting a lot, I’ve unfortunately been doing a lot of my editing on a computer screen, and that isn’t ideal for me. I enjoy editing my work with prints much more, and I’d also like to have the time and money to work on expertly printing my picks over and over again until I’m absolutely in love with them.

The other half of this interview coming soon…