Jesse interviews Katherine

Jesse VandenBergh

Peer Interview

Thesis

Katherine Meyerink interviewed by Jesse VandenBergh

Go to this URL to hear the audio 

file:///Users/jvision/Desktop/Katherine%20Interview.mp3

I sat down with Katherine as we looked at an array of photos she had taken over the years.

JV: All these night shots are from freshman year?

KM: I guess sophomore year from Photo II. It’s from when I started to learn color processing, so I tried to test what it would be like on film. It’s a lot harder, I found, with color film because the color balance is off because you have the right film for certain types of lightings so the lighting is two different colors. You get the murky yellow that’s between florescent and incandescent. I definitely wouldn’t do color film for it again, but I tried it. Black and white is definitely my favorite because it creates such dead space. The blacks are so rich.

JV: You said that the first two photos were from 2007. Do you still work in the same medium?

KM: Yeah I’m pretty much re-exploring that now. I’m reading a book right now called The Poetics of Space which is about the significance of spaces, like the home (reference to her photograph) so I’m hoping that’ll help me a little more. It talks about how the home is a shelter. I ‘m trying to figure out what it is I love about the home and what space is, so I’m trying to take as many pictures as possible to see what I like whether it be getting to know a person through their stuff or… I don’t even know.

JV: What inspired you to start doing that? What do you think initiated your interest in space and furniture?

KM: When I first started taking photographs I would go to Asbury Park and take pictures of all the decaying buildings.

JV: That’s a cool place to do that.

KM: Yeah, but now it’s getting nice so I don’t like it as much anymore. And then the whole furniture thing – the lighting was gorgeous. It was a used furniture store and I just like “this is beautiful.” There was something I liked but I wasn’t sure what it was and what I could do with it. Now I’m realizing that I could potentially have an idea here and I want to explore it.

JV: Do you have any photographers/artists in general who you like to emulate?

KM: Two years ago I found this woman Gail Albert Halaban. She was showing in New York and she did a whole series out of windows in NY. Like looking into people’s houses. She did individual portraits inside the house and then she did ‘looking out of a window’. It’s very voyeuristic and that inspired me.

JV: It’s almost like Rear Window-esque. I don’t know if you’ve seen that movie.

KM: Yeah, that’s part of her inspiration too; Hitchcock and stuff.

JV: So where do you see yourself for thesis and even beyond? What do you hope to do with taking pictures like this?

KM: I guess investigating memory and the significance of things in our lives. Another thing that I was doing is I cut holes into pictures. I wanted to cut essential things out of the photograph that were necessary to put it together to signify memory, and how you can edit facts, and re-edit them. That’s something I’d want to play with and it works the spaces I’m taking. I haven’t done it on big photos because I don’t want to ruin them, but I feel like I’m going to end up experimenting with that a little. I feel like I’m just trying to organize my thoughts right now. I have a bunch of ideas but they need to be solid and I feel like that’s what’s going to happen this year. I’m going to explore that and concentrate on it enough until I’ve come up with the perfect idea.

JV – When or why did you get into this particular vein of art dealing with memory and space, and is there a specific point in time if your childhood or any point in your life that you remember being the moment that got you into this?

KM: I wouldn’t that anything from my childhood really. Originally when I came to school I was going to double major in psychology, which really interests me. I took social psychology. It talked about memory and the way people learn about things. I think that sparked me on that whole idea. And then just trying to figure out what my work is about. Because I feel like I have a hard time with that. I can take a picture, but what is that picture about?

JV – And you also always find that when people look at your work they come up with new meaning that you never even…

KM – …Thought of, exactly. Which helps too. I just like space, I don’t know why (laughs).