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I am very excited to announce my second interview. As a continuation of my post last week, i am so happy that photographer KayLynn Deveney graciously agreed to an interview. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
How long have you been a photographer?
My first real job as a photographer started in 1990.
What type of camera (s) do you use? Do you have a favorite film?
I use different cameras for different things. Most recently I have been using medium- format cameras. My project with Bert was photographed with two 6 x 6 cameras. First I used an old Bronica and then a Hasselblad. I really like Fuji film. I shoot mostly 400 ASA and 800 ASA so that I can handhold my medium-format camera in low light.
Describe your process in deciding on a photographic project.
It happens in different ways. Sometimes I see or read something that strikes a chord with me, seems significant in a big way, for all of us, and I want to see it or understand it better myself. Sometimes I start thinking about something because I, or someone in my family, experiences something new or interesting. Sometimes I become interested in a place and the way the history of that place has shaped the lives of the people currently living there. Sometimes I meet a person that I just find so compelling that I want to get to know them and introduce them to others.
Congratulations of the publishing of your new book, The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings. How did you go about getting the book published?
I had made a very small edition of the work as artist’s books. (Book god Don Glaister taught me how to bind them.) I took those books to a juried portfolio review event called Review Santa Fe. The first time I attended the event there was interest in the book but no offers. I continued to work on the project and later returned to Review Santa Fe with the book and with new images. The second time at Review Santa Fe I met Jennifer Thompson from Princeton Architectural Press. She responded to the work and asked me submit it their editorial review board. The board liked the work and they offered me a contract.
How much influence did you have on the design and layout of the book?
Thankfully, I had a lot of influence. I was so lucky to get the chance to work with editor Jennifer Thompson and designer Deb Wood at Princeton Architectural Press. They are both smart, subtle and elegant in their work. As I said, I had showed Jennifer the work as an artist’s book that I had designed. She then showed this artist’s book to Deb. Deb and Jennifer liked the basic design of the artist’s book and wanted to stay close to it. I edited and sequenced all the photos and their matching hand-written responses for the book. Deb came up with the concept for the great front and back covers (which I later asked Bert to write out for us.) She also did all-new typography for the book and designed the elegant text pages. We decided together to add white edges around the pages to help give the images some breathing room and to save them from losing image area in the gutter or at the fore edge. PAP gave me a credit inside the book for “assembling and developing” the work. It was truly a great relationship with a publisher.
I know some of the images from The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings were in the group exhibition "Relative Closeness: Portraits of Family and Friends" at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, IL. Are there any future plans to show the work?
Yes! No dates to announce yet but I will have details on my website at http://www.kaylynndeveney.com/.
Can you talk briefly about your decision to choose graduate school in the UK.
At the time I was considering going back to graduate school, I had a lot of questions about my own practice of photography and about the practice of documentary photography in general. I had been a newspaper photographer for eight years and had become increasingly bothered by notions about objectivity and detachment and how those qualities “should” be connected to documentary photography. So, accordingly, I was looking for a program that approached documentary work from a strong theoretical basis. In Wales I heard the term “subjective documentary” for the first time, and I was immediately interested. The more I talked with the instructors at the University of Wales, Newport, the more I felt I had found an environment that suited my perspective. I am interested in working on projects that are based in the actual but that also allow for my voice as author/photographer to be factored in. I am not objective. I am a product of all I have experienced. I prefer to acknowledge that upfront and then go on to tell the story from my first-person perspective. My work with Bert also offers his perspective on the story and I think that is a very important aspect of the work.
What are you photographic plans/projects for the near future?
I am focusing on finishing my dissertation right now. The dissertation explores the ways photographic diaries can serve as a venue to address common myths about our domestic lives. The context these diaries provide allows for a frank examination of our experiences at home.
I’m not sure what the next photographic project is. I am interested in how we tend to accumulate possessions as we grow older. I want to think about the “stuff” we have near the end of our lives and how that “stuff” makes us feel safe and comfortable and comes to define us to some extent. I’ve been thinking a lot about still lifes in painting and photography in connection with this idea. I’m also interested in the effects of the Chernobyl disaster and how they have changed the lives of all living things in the region.
What are some of your favorite daily rituals?
I don’t have many everyday rituals except getting clean, reading my e-mail, feeding the cat, and talking to my man and my parents on the phone.
What inspires you?
The sound of a small child swearing.
Who are some of your favorite artists?
Vermeer, Frida Kahlo, Mondigliani, Sophie Calle, Joan Fontcuberta, Larry Sultan, Teun Hocks, Miranda July, William Eggleston, Martin Parr, Anna Fox, Ana Casas Broda, Luis Gonzalez Palma, Mike and Doug Starn, Shana and Robert ParkeHarrison, Mitch Epstein, on and on.
What is your favorite breakfast?
Right now I’m going to go with banana pecan pancakes and a side of bacon.
My first real job as a photographer started in 1990.
What type of camera (s) do you use? Do you have a favorite film?
I use different cameras for different things. Most recently I have been using medium- format cameras. My project with Bert was photographed with two 6 x 6 cameras. First I used an old Bronica and then a Hasselblad. I really like Fuji film. I shoot mostly 400 ASA and 800 ASA so that I can handhold my medium-format camera in low light.
Describe your process in deciding on a photographic project.
It happens in different ways. Sometimes I see or read something that strikes a chord with me, seems significant in a big way, for all of us, and I want to see it or understand it better myself. Sometimes I start thinking about something because I, or someone in my family, experiences something new or interesting. Sometimes I become interested in a place and the way the history of that place has shaped the lives of the people currently living there. Sometimes I meet a person that I just find so compelling that I want to get to know them and introduce them to others.
Congratulations of the publishing of your new book, The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings. How did you go about getting the book published?
I had made a very small edition of the work as artist’s books. (Book god Don Glaister taught me how to bind them.) I took those books to a juried portfolio review event called Review Santa Fe. The first time I attended the event there was interest in the book but no offers. I continued to work on the project and later returned to Review Santa Fe with the book and with new images. The second time at Review Santa Fe I met Jennifer Thompson from Princeton Architectural Press. She responded to the work and asked me submit it their editorial review board. The board liked the work and they offered me a contract.
How much influence did you have on the design and layout of the book?
Thankfully, I had a lot of influence. I was so lucky to get the chance to work with editor Jennifer Thompson and designer Deb Wood at Princeton Architectural Press. They are both smart, subtle and elegant in their work. As I said, I had showed Jennifer the work as an artist’s book that I had designed. She then showed this artist’s book to Deb. Deb and Jennifer liked the basic design of the artist’s book and wanted to stay close to it. I edited and sequenced all the photos and their matching hand-written responses for the book. Deb came up with the concept for the great front and back covers (which I later asked Bert to write out for us.) She also did all-new typography for the book and designed the elegant text pages. We decided together to add white edges around the pages to help give the images some breathing room and to save them from losing image area in the gutter or at the fore edge. PAP gave me a credit inside the book for “assembling and developing” the work. It was truly a great relationship with a publisher.
I know some of the images from The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings were in the group exhibition "Relative Closeness: Portraits of Family and Friends" at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, IL. Are there any future plans to show the work?
Yes! No dates to announce yet but I will have details on my website at http://www.kaylynndeveney.com/.
Can you talk briefly about your decision to choose graduate school in the UK.
At the time I was considering going back to graduate school, I had a lot of questions about my own practice of photography and about the practice of documentary photography in general. I had been a newspaper photographer for eight years and had become increasingly bothered by notions about objectivity and detachment and how those qualities “should” be connected to documentary photography. So, accordingly, I was looking for a program that approached documentary work from a strong theoretical basis. In Wales I heard the term “subjective documentary” for the first time, and I was immediately interested. The more I talked with the instructors at the University of Wales, Newport, the more I felt I had found an environment that suited my perspective. I am interested in working on projects that are based in the actual but that also allow for my voice as author/photographer to be factored in. I am not objective. I am a product of all I have experienced. I prefer to acknowledge that upfront and then go on to tell the story from my first-person perspective. My work with Bert also offers his perspective on the story and I think that is a very important aspect of the work.
What are you photographic plans/projects for the near future?
I am focusing on finishing my dissertation right now. The dissertation explores the ways photographic diaries can serve as a venue to address common myths about our domestic lives. The context these diaries provide allows for a frank examination of our experiences at home.
I’m not sure what the next photographic project is. I am interested in how we tend to accumulate possessions as we grow older. I want to think about the “stuff” we have near the end of our lives and how that “stuff” makes us feel safe and comfortable and comes to define us to some extent. I’ve been thinking a lot about still lifes in painting and photography in connection with this idea. I’m also interested in the effects of the Chernobyl disaster and how they have changed the lives of all living things in the region.
What are some of your favorite daily rituals?
I don’t have many everyday rituals except getting clean, reading my e-mail, feeding the cat, and talking to my man and my parents on the phone.
What inspires you?
The sound of a small child swearing.
Who are some of your favorite artists?
Vermeer, Frida Kahlo, Mondigliani, Sophie Calle, Joan Fontcuberta, Larry Sultan, Teun Hocks, Miranda July, William Eggleston, Martin Parr, Anna Fox, Ana Casas Broda, Luis Gonzalez Palma, Mike and Doug Starn, Shana and Robert ParkeHarrison, Mitch Epstein, on and on.
What is your favorite breakfast?
Right now I’m going to go with banana pecan pancakes and a side of bacon.
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