I’m totally fascinated by how dull and ordered our landscape can be. It’s so boring it’s interesting. I think that the way I photograph reflects that, everything parallel and lined up just so. It’s almost silly.
I shoot with a standard lens and print the full negative. I like a straightforward picture that describes its subject as simply as possible, so that it can speak for itself without a lot of my interpretation. So that definitely makes for a stark, austere photograph. I like to think that I’m not interfering at all with any personal creative juices but I think it’s impossible to avoid that.
The landscape of a city changes so much. When I’m old I want to be able to look back on my work and see and what things look like in the 2000s, full of things from 60s through till now. Mostly I take pictures in order to preserve things that I anticipate will not exist in the future. Things that are kind of relics, things that will be taken over soon by condos or a superstore or something. You could call these photographs documents or reportage if you wanted.
I love Montreal but haven’t grown any huge feeling of connected-ness yet. It doesn’t inspire me particularly, but it doesn’t un-inspire me either. I was really lost and depressed when I first moved here and that probably has something to do with how bleak everything looks.
But I definitely have a color scheme. This is why all the muted colors and overcast skies. Lots of photographers would agree; flat, even lighting is nice. Hard sunlight makes shadows and emphasizes things. Although lately I have been taking pictures of exactly this. What can I say? I don’t include people in my pictures much, I usually wait for them to get out of the way. I find it more a more interesting portrait to see where people live and what they eat and buy and throw out. Those are the kinds of pictures I like to make.
I do take pictures of the people I love and again it is a means of preservation. Portraiture is a challenge. People are a pain to photograph, always wanting to see pictures of themselves looking hot. I like to take pictures of people in the times in-between when they’re not really conscious of themselves, but that’s not always easy.
(Included in Half Empty #2)