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Spraygraphic Interview with Photographer Nicole Akstein
By Spraygraphic | July 26, 2010
Spraygraphic Interview with Photographer Nicole Akstein
SG: Please tell us about yourself. Where do you currently live and work?
NA: Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia to Brazilian immigrants, I had a multicultural upbringing. I had an innate interest in photography at an early age and started taking pictures when I was 12 years old. I eventually attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC, receiving my BFA in Photography in 2007. During the following years, I freelanced for publications such as The Village Voice, Atlanta Magazine, and Blender Magazine. I exhibited my work at several venues and in group shows, but had my first solo gallery showing in 2008. Often working in a conceptual vein, my images tend to be made in controlled environments, staged in attempt to provoke an underlying dynamic taking place. Currently based in Atlanta, I continue to work on personal projects and occasional freelance opportunities, while teaching art locally and abroad.
I like to travel, and in addition to shooting on trips, I tend to volunteer teaching art and/or photography (specifically to children or young adults). I spent 7 months last year in Brazil teaching photography at a non-profit organization and have a blog that has some of my own photography, information about the experience and day to day life, and student photography. All of which can be seen at www.nicoleakstein.blogspot.com. My upcoming plans are to travel to rural northern India (between New Delhi and Nepal border) for 5 months to teach art and at a the Pushp Niketan School. I hope to save enough money to gather plastic 35mm cameras and film for a photography project with the children there.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
NA: My medium is photography, primarily with analog, however, I often incorporate video and installation as well.
SG: What kind of equipment do you use?
NA: Mamiya RZ 6 X 7, Q-Flash (when needed)
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
NA: The ideas come from a personal place, something I am going through in my personal life. I try to focus on the issues that challenge me at the time in order to create images that may be the most uncomfortable to make.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something or simply uninspired?
NA: I see films, research new artists, go to shows, and read as much as possible on concepts I feel could spark inspiration.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
NA: Pedro Almodovar’s films, Laurel Nakadate’s video series, Tierney Gearon, Justine Kurland, Kiki Smith, Cindy Sherman, Harry Callahan, and Elinor Carucci.
SG: What do you look for when you are picking models/subjects to work with? Is it a physical feature? Personality? Photogenic? etc…
NA: I don’t look for the subject. The subjects find themselves in the work, if that makes any sense.
SG: Do you bring your camera with you everywhere with you or do you leave it home when you go out on the town?
NA: No. I shoot mostly with my RZ and because of its size and weight, I really only take it out when going on a shoot. I tend to keep my daily life separate from the work. I’m not the type of photographer that takes their camera everywhere.. I prefer to take things in and when I’m ready to shoot, I take from inspiration and planning.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
NA: Serenbe Photography Center, Palmetto, GA; The Opal Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Meet Waradise, East Village, NYC; SlowExposures, Zebulon, GA; Visual Arts Gallery, Chelsea, NYC; West Egg, Atlanta, GA; NEXT Hair Salon, Atlanta, GA; Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, GA.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
NA: I am having a joint show, Home + Land, this upcoming October featuring work I shot in Brazil and a friend of mine’s work shot in Africa at The Gallery Cafe in Atlanta, GA.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
To be sent abroad to shoot for humanitarian research; develop relationships while living amongst residents and collaborating on long-term photographic projects that can possibly benefit local communities.
SG: What is your favorite color?.
NA: Blue.
SG: Who is your favorite photographer? And Why?
NA: It’s never been just one. It changes every so often, but I’d have to say that it is currently Tierney Gearon — for her genuinely honest, bold and unapologetic images.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
NA: Wish I had more of an exciting answer for this one, but I’m in between books — not currently reading anything in particular this week. Next week may be a different story.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
NA: On the couch with my dog Stella.. or at the beach when I get the chance.
SG: Any final words of advice?
NA: My advice to anyone about anything, that has always worked for me and is actually so simple it’s sometimes hard to achieve, is to do what you love and you will be happy.
Statement for Images:
The two bodies of work that I have included are Sylvania; No. 37 and Mother, Mae. Sylvania; No. 37, is a completed two-year project that stemmed from a visit to a mobile home community in Neptune, New Jersey where I met Mike and Garry. The work attempts to challenge concepts surrounding gender roles, relationships, and voyeurism. Mother, Mae is currently a one-year work in progress and my newest project involving my mother. However the subject of the images, my mother rather consciously represents a woman, a state of mind, a spirit, and the passing of time. In essence, the images are less biographical and more indicative towards notions of age, beauty, relationships, and the human condition.
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
Video link of her show, Sylvania; No. 37: http://www.herbertleejones.com/sylvania/
Sites that feature her work:
http://www.fjordphoto.org/
http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/
http://jpgmag.com/people/nakstein
http://triangletriangle.com/post/80916290/nicole-akstein
http://www.shanelavalette.com/journal/2007/08/11/nicole-akstein-sylvania/
http://jkaranka.tumblr.com/post/84050091/whileseated-my-pal-nicole-akstein-on
http://www.artistswanted.org/nakstein
Reviews from recent shows: http://www.accessatlanta.com/entertainment/content/printedition/2008/10/16/altart.html
http://www.accessatlanta.com/decatur/content/stories/2008/05/15/altart.html
http://www.gallerystokes.com/115BarronFox/BarronFoxpress2.html
Topics: Artist Interviews, Featured Members, Photography, Spraygraphic, Women Art | 1 Comment »
Paul Heaston’s Paintings and Drawings
By Spraygraphic | July 25, 2010
Paul Heaston’s Paintings and Drawings
Topics: Paintings, Pencil Drawings | No Comments »
Spraygraphic Featured Artist: Gerhard Human
By Spraygraphic | July 24, 2010
Spraygraphic Featured Member: Gerhard Human
Gerhard Human is a talented artist from Cape Town, South Africa. His Creative Project Section have some great Animation art projects. Check out Gerhard Human’s profile.
Topics: Featured Members, Ilustration | No Comments »
Bayrol Jimenez Drawings
By Spraygraphic | July 24, 2010
Topics: Ilustration, Pencil Drawings, Spraygraphic | No Comments »
Spraygraphic Interview with Photographer Bea Fremderman
By Spraygraphic | July 23, 2010
Spraygraphic Interview with Photographer Bea Fremderman
SG: Please tell us about yourself. Where do you currently live and work?
BF: I’m Bea Fremderman, I currently live and work in Chicago.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
BF: I primarily work with new media and the still image.
SG: What kind of equipment do you use?
BF: I shoot with film cameras—Contax TVS or T3—postproduction is all digital, this includes scanning, printing or any kind of manipulation done to the image.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
BF: My working process begins with text. A lot of my more recent projects have been responses to essays or concepts I am thinking about when reading theory.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something or simply uninspired?
BF: Move forward.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
BF: Well currently I am reading about the cosmos evolution and a book by Hannah Arendt who is a Marxist influenced critic that writes about modernity and how philosophy and technology has shaped contemporary culture, religion, etc.
SG: What do you look for when you are picking models/subjects to work with? Is it a physical feature? Personality? Photogenic? etc…
BF: If people are included in my work it’s usually for their specific gestural quality they are representing in the image that compliments the entire photographic series. I don’t think of myself shooting “models” necessarily for my photographs. In a photograph people become mere objects because the tangibility of the photograph—holding the print—lends itself to a sterilization of all physical subjects portrayed—this is the intangible quality of the photographic image. For example, a person photographed becomes just as relevant as an abstraction photographed—their physicality in the real world is no longer at question, the representative language that the subject forms is what is analyzed and then deconstructed for meaning.
SG: Do you bring your camera with you everywhere with you or do you leave it home when you go out on the town?
BF: I bring my camera everywhere.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
BF: I have been shown in Puerto Rico, New York, Chicago, San Diego, LA, Montreal, Florida, Oregon and Mexico.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
BF: Right now the next solo show is in Winnipeg at C+Gallery in late September.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
BF: Oh god…I am so not there yet.
SG: What is your favorite color?.
BF: Whatever my mood ring says…but really, I have no idea. Teal is pretty I guess. Purple is cool.
SG: Who is your favorite photographer? And Why?
BF: I admire a lot of artists, not just photographers. But if we are sticking to photography, I would have to say Wolfgang Tillmans’ work has always been a contemporary favorite of mine because of his visually beautiful and narratively complicated photographic installations.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
BF: Hannah Arendt Between Past and Future
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
BF: The pool probably.
SG: Any final words of advice?
BF: Work hard, play hard.
Topics: Artist Interviews | No Comments »
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