Klsanderson

The resource image for this was one of the first photographs I took after getting a digital camera. The calla lilies were for a friend, who had just had a baby (part of the incentive for me getting the camera… must have baby pictures!) and I decided to shoot them against a black background. It was literally the first “good” photograph I’d ever taken… looking at the LCD, rather than through the viewfinder was a revelation “I can SEE!!”


I’m very fond of this image right now, because it came into being as I was unpacking boxes moving into my new apartment. I found a box of old old snapshots I’d taken while teaching and traveling in the late 1970’s (a terrible picture of this poor taxidermied bird… at the time, I was actually aiming at the whole bird!). Combined with an Italian fresco (the hat) and foxtail ferns (shot in Santa Barbara on vacation).

Memories and mementos combine, and lead to unexpected, unplanned results… and I love the process of not knowing where I’m going until I’m there.

Interview with Klsanderson

1: How long have you been involved in photography?
I’ve been pointing a digital camera at things for about 3 years.
I’ve been using photographs as inspiration for choreography, theater and teaching for 30 years.
I’ve been “on a roll” and having a wonderful time making digital images, since I started “flickr-ing” just over a year ago – (trying not to be an addict… one does need to sleep occasionally!)

2: Equipment you use?
Camera: Canon G3 – I shoot almost everything in RAW, so I can correct or drastically alter an image in RAW, while keeping the original intact
graphics tablet Wacom Intuos2
Epson Stylus PhotoRX500 scanner (all-in-one)
My images for the most part, use photography as one element in work created with layers of textures, found objects, collaged with scanned images, or manipulated in Photoshop (CS2), or any combination of these.

3: Mac or PC?
Oh yes indeed Mac (ever since my first MacSE and Photoshop 5.0!)

4: What inspires you?
Oh, now that’s a big question.
short answer… coffee (strong), and music (eclectic). Both set my imagination off and running.
longer (but incomplete) answer… I look/listen to what’s around me, and something ‘clicks’, that idea or object nudges something else into outline… and then it’s a scavenger hunt through memory, boxes, cellars, old photos, dictionaries, whatever comes to hand… like working out a puzzle, “does this fit… this, this, this?”
A stroll through my contacts’ images (and their “favorites”) will always give me a jump start… it is impossible not to be inspired and bouyed by so much energy, innovation, variety, and WOW-factor-creative-artistry-and-insights.

5: Preferred subject matter?
Objects. Light. Textures. Old things. Photographs.The things around the house, big and small. Theater of Friends… playing dress up. Anything that will hold still (I’m not so very adept at things that move). I usually use a tripod (not so very adept at steady hand).
And I get out and about to shoot on vacation a couple of times a year… then I’ll shoot anything!!

6: Name one thing you haven't caught with the camera that you REALLY want to capture.
Two things, really… crows in flight, or strutting about, up close and personal.
And portraits… a great portrait takes so much more photographic “chops” than I have right now (but I’m learning, trying, aspiring).

7: When in doubt about your art, who do you confide in?
I wrangle my friends (and I have great friends) to come over for a look… not so much “what should I do?” but “what do you see?”.

I used to gain wonderful insight into my choreography and theater work through feedback from audiences (“feeling” the audience during performance, and from articulate feedback after). Flickr feels like a dream-audience, an audience of respected friends, peers, mentors, fans, gadflies, gurus, cohorts, critics, and delightful strangers… I learn sooooo much from comments and correspondence.

8: Qualifications/training in anything? ie: Photoshop
Formal training in choreography, theater and costuming.
But none in photography or Photoshop. I’m ‘self-taught’. I’ve always been nerdy… I love Photoshop books, I read manuals, linger over tutorials. And I experiment… I mean after all, it’s not like I’m going to blow the house up experimenting with chemicals… it’s just pixels! (bear in mind, I have infinite respect for those who have the skills to make an image appear out of light, air, paper, and chemistry… it’s just beyond my ken).

9: Plans for the future?
I’m just moving to a larger apartment with a third floor room that I will be able to leave set up with costumes, props, drapes, lights etc… in the Spring I’ll be able to do more “set up” images, and to shoot my friends!

10: In one word, describe your photography.
Imagery