ART VOLUME ONE PRESENTS:
A Conversation with Samantha West.
AV: Where were you born & raised?
SW: I was born & raised in the concrete jungle of New York City.
It is quite a magical place to grow up as a child.
I have memories of swinging high into the sky in the playground, going to see the ballet, puppet shows outside of Lincoln Center, & carousel rides in Central Park.
The smell of the Natural History Museum is still the same now as it was twenty years ago.
As wee children, my brother & I were constantly searching for the “sheep” in Sheep’s Meadow whilst gripping grape and orange sodas…
Haven’t found them yet…
AV: Very lovely memories & imagery Sam, you must be a very loved daughter.
Wow! The smell of the Natural History Museum! Yes!
I too, have these olfactory experiences where the insides of certain buildings have a very distinct & memorable odor.
All of us I am sure have these ‘odor memories‘..
I have distinct memories of temples in Thailand & cathedrals in Europe ingrained in my mind- & on certain days, I swear I can smell the insides of these old temples & cathedrals in the wind, in my fresh linens, or when opening an old book.
SW: Smells are just so powerful, yes. Just today I was sitting on a crammed bus going downtown when a woman came on & sat in front of me.
The perfume she was wearing took me back to my younger days at warp speed.
I wish I could catalog it properly and remember why it was so familiar, but sometimes the sensation itself is enough.
I also like how my museum memory, triggered your memories of cathedrals and temples.
Museums, cathedrals and temples are almost all ‘on’ in the same way, for me. Beautiful sacred structures & a place of worship in one way or another, whether it be art or concepts of ‘God’.
AV: An olofactory catalog yes!!! A book, record, of scents.. Sheep’s Meadow in Central park has quite a history!! I had no idea! They used to keep sheep there in a building that is now part of Tavern on The Green….
I am giggling as I imagine you & your brother as little children with soda’s in tow looking for the sheep…
SW: NYC does have such a brilliant history; wild, urban, & urbane.
AV: When did you first pick up a camera?
SW: A couple of years ago my Mum found the first ever photograph I took when I was about two years old.
It was of my parents’ legs, but damn it- those legs were centered & even.
AV: At two!! I cannot imagine anything more charming than you at 2, snapping away.
I would love to see the photograph of your parents’ legs! &, do you still posses all your photographs taken when tiny?
SW: I do have them. All my photographs are packed in boxes and tucked away in Connecticut.
Going through old photos is a strange sensation. I recently threw many photographs away from my teenage years. Sometimes it is a wonderful way to cleanse if that makes any sense…
AV: Yes, I understand, moving on from elements of our past, that we have grown out of, important to do every now & then, transformation, process & learning.
What was your early school experience of photography?
SW: I feel so blessed to have grown up having the support of all my art teachers, at my school.
I spent 13 years at Chapin, an all girls school on the Upper East Side.
I wasn’t the most brilliant scientist or mathematician, but I could do a mean portrait in pencil.
I rediscovered photography in 7th grade & once again, began to fall in love with the medium.
The darkroom was a safe place and soothing.
It allowed me to be alone, I could stay late after school working, the room was pungent with chemical odors, but virtually noiseless…
I always found it to be a haven.
AV: You have such a fluid & warm way of expressing your experiences, I really love how calm & observant you are in your self expression & your creative relationships with others.
I think you were becoming conscious of & in touch with your organic prowess as a young photographer.
Obviously you have excellent spatial skills!!
You can do a mean portrait!! Oh yes, my- my- my….. Indelibly your- eye, Sam.
I’ve seen plenty of Photography, or perhaps I’ve not seen enough, It’s next to impossible, for me to compare your eye.
As far as uniqueness & quality of- work, Annie Liebowitz, or Arbus, who I love- come to mind.
I want to experience a dark room! More dark room stories!
What was it like at Chapin, an all girl’s school?
SW: It was immense & incredibly bizarre. Really. I had no problem going to a single sex school.
I wore a uniform every day for 13 years. I think in many ways I still wear a uniform! The small classes developed some beautiful friendships.
The school was incredibly demanding & tough, & the hours working were bloody harsh. It was all well worth it though as I look back on it now. Particularly when I went to university, I realized how great of an education I received there.
I would never change it. Of course, after many years away, you tend to focus on the positive & forget the stress, sadness, pressure & insane work load, but such is life, no?!
AV: Yes, we do, must- evolve..
Do you have any other photographers, or artists in your family?
SW: Both my mum & dad are incredibly talented.
They are so visual- creatively, that I cannot help but be influenced by them. My father is an architect & landscape designer.
He is a master at both pen & watercolor sketches.
My mum is also wonderfully talented, but not only with paper or canvas.
She used to sew us costumes and clothes, whatever our heart desired. She always encouraged imagination & individuality.
AV: I share some things in common with you- with having creative parents!
I would love- to see the work of your father & mother.
It’s obvious you can take a photo of anyone, do you think you have a ‘type’ elements you look for in a sitter or model?
SW: If anything, my ‘type’ is women.
They inspire me more than anything else, but it is also because I feel instantly comfortable shooting the female face & form.
Put me in front of a handsome boy-I get nervous & sweaty palmed, but that challenge is also so much fun.
Regardless, I will always prefer to shoot real people rather professional models.
I suppose that is why I haven’t really done that much fashion.
I find it hard to relate to these stick thin, mind-blowing beautiful women.
I don’t see myself in them.
I don’t see many people in them, period.
They are not true to life.
On one hand it is amazing to photograph someone who knows what to do in front of the camera, but I prefer a little discomfort, some mistakes on my part and theirs (the sitter’s).
I believe when that starts to happen, you can see something genuine come across in an image.
AV: You have such ability at capturing essence, yes!
You captivate & bring so much power & sensuality to the female form!
It is also interesting to note, that I find it rather hard to, how can I put it- ‘objectify‘ your sitters, I get reverent & exploratory as to who the subject is.
The lives they live.
It’s a refreshing & a new invitation to depth, personality & character.
Yes, it is funny how no matter how capable we are of observing tensions with the opposite sex, that sometimes this happens!
You face the challenge of photographing males very well Sam.
& your methods, ‘true to life’ symbiosis, as well as understandably tense moments of ‘discomfort’ & ‘mistakes’ achieves something genuine & magnetic.
Raw.
I am delighted at your preference to shoot real people, this is where our gravity lays, in lives lived away from one-dimensional representations.
I as well do not see myself in a six foot 90 pound female.
Nor do I want to, I think because I just love to be strong.
We lack representations of strong women & if there would ever be an ideal for anyone to approach, for me it is- a strong woman.
I’d also have to agree with your preference because I think that the beauty of the everyday, & with all the fascinating people I pass, the remarkable & complex, lays in them. Not in an individual who works- as a representation of corporate profit margins, outsourcing & manipulation of the public at large. Corporate images are simply- too limited!
& of course ‘Style’ is important, it has always been important, whether you are Senegalese or Chinese or Maori.
Style is self expression, it is personal, cultural, creative, particular to each individual & I don’t think something that can be bought or purchased.
Why we have allowed fashion to turn into an overwhelming, yet ironically limiting beast, which has monopolized our social & cultural values & vocabulary, upsets me.
Basically, its become a prolonged mass anathema of ones right to manifest & express ones identity-mental & emotional presence. &, this makes ‘dressing’ such a bore, crutch & prison sometimes.
Even ‘Goth’ people have to pay a hefty sum for the status that comes with their particular wardrobing, which in the end is not particularly different from those who invest a great deal in achieving a ‘Ralph Lauren’ look. They are equally commodifying & both RL & Goth clothes, are made in China.
But these contradictions & questions also make it a prime time to deviate from all popular notions of dress. Yes?
This is why I mostly wear used ethnic clothing, Asian, African, Mexican, Czech, Indian, Senegalese, Abaya Caftans & thrift, it’s my way of addressing my sense of creative self & identity in our world..
We seem to be making some progress in observing the far reaching & negative impacts of our obsessions with beauty, with the ‘Red’ campaign, Patagonia & these half naked ‘Dove’ spokes models, organic products, etc…
But, if one really wants to think of free trade & sustainability as a reality & serious issue facing our world, I think we truly need to be more aware of & continue to change our concepts, values & markets of what ‘Fashion’, ‘Style’ & ‘Beauty’ is.
&, what the ‘material’- means.
What do you think?
SW: I agree with much of what you said.
I must say that I really adore fashion.
I grew up reading Vogue, it gives me great pleasure to sit in a magazine shop & flip through publications. There really is a lot of art & beauty to much of fashion photography these days, but in the end, it just doesn’t turn me on in the same way that these real beauties around me do, not yet at least!
& honestly, if I had the body to wear these clothes I would most likely be much more involved and even obsessed with fashion and models, but growing up bigger & taller than the rest of womankind forever changed me.
All those Dove Campaigns or even the “greening” of beauty and fashion is complete bullshit in my eyes. On the surface it is positive, but do some research into those companies & they are all owned by major brands who tell you to love yourself, but then sell another product to help you “lose weight fast” etc….
It is a marketing scam, it is political.
At 25, I am much happier with myself then when I was a girl, but it is a constant struggle, no?
That is why it is so important to me that those that I photograph feel handsome or beautiful. I want them to feel special & amazing & ravishing, because it is- how I see them. It really, is.
I appreciate the fact that you see sensuality & power, it is what I aim for. I want to change the perception that our generation has these days that nudity equals porn/sex/fucking.
My goal is not a political one, rather, I want to reinvent & rejuvenate the art & aesthetics that have inspired me. Variety is key in life!
AV: Yes, & what profound observations Sam! I agree with your observations!! Variety is a momentous & necessary, wonderfully changing & rational ideal. Let’s not get ahead of or limit ourselves when learning about & representing the human body, or it’s psyche, yes. Enough!
What cameras do you use & why?
SW: My camera choices are purely dictated by my finances at the moment.
I shoot with a Canon 20D, which I have had for about nine months.
Its lovely and amazing.
I think I know how to take a great picture, but I know nothing about cameras and the ‘techie’ aspect of digital photography.
A little bit of ignorance and naiveté never hurt anyone’s art, but I do feel like it is my responsibility these days to do a bit more research and actually know what I am doing. Ha!
AV: You take a great- picture!!! &, I think at this point you are one with any camera you use!
I as well get these epiphanies that I need to delve deeper into certain mediums, research.
You have some of the best digital I’ve seen, you achieve the depth of film-, your subjects are in motion, there is great presence in your subjects.
AV: Do you prefer film or digital?
SW: Film is beautiful & magic.
The quality of digital can’t begin to compare unless you have thousands upon thousands of dollars to spend on a camera…
With film, I loved the process of waiting and seeing what you had taken on the roll.
Its like going on a date with a stranger, you don’t know what you are going to get until you arrive and start talking.
Digital has helped me hone in on my own specific style.
It basically allowed me to take unlimited amounts of photographs without fearing the final bill of developing costs.
I love the immediacy of it all.
More than anything, I love being able to go home, upload onto my computer & spending hours editing right away…
AV: So you prefer Film, but have grown & developed with the advantages of both Film & Digital?
&, In the future, which do you think you would prefer for the majority of your photography work?
SW: No, I don’t prefer film, I really really love digital, but I would love to delve back into film again.
I love them equally. Anything that takes a photograph I love! I would love to be able to purchase some old Polaroid cameras, buy loads of film & just shoot, I would love to experiment with medium format photography.
But more and more, I just adore digital. It is just so much fun.
&, I must say, some of the greatest compliments I have received are those asking what film I shoot with. That is a real honor. I love the dimension and depth film gives, and if I am somewhat able to replicate that with digital, I am more than pleased!
AV: I am not surprised that you are asked what film you shoot with, by all appearances they seem shot with film.
Has being a born & raised New Yorker, as well as living in NYC influenced your eye?
SW: It has yes.
I used to say it was the city’s vibrancy & chaos that influenced me, but now I realize that it has more to do with the fact that it allows me to have a sense of anonymity.
You can day dream on the bus or subway.
You can stare at people & find the most interesting characters.
There are so many stories going on around you, you can’t help but have them seep into your psyche…
AV: Wow that is pure poetry, right there, Sam. I am transported to NYC, which I have yet to visit..
I know this might sound corny but Gershwin’s Blue Rhapsody completely infiltrated my head, actually one of my most favorite songs. Psyche……….. !
SW: I need to download that song!
The city is an agoraphobics dream in many ways. You can hide in your own home & the world you have created & then jump into an ocean of people whenever you feel brave enough…
AV: Wow…… Wonderful. I imagine I’d pull a Houdini in NYC! I can vanish, you can vanish, it is amazingly populated like this. Yes?!
You have great taste in music & have worked with some incredible musicians.
What music do you follow? &, does music play a big role in your life?
SW: CocoRosie I adore.
Bianca & Sierra were the first people I shot professionally.
They took a chance with me & I am eternally grateful for that.
They are incredibly strange and beautiful souls, & it is such a pleasure to photograph them every time I do.
I was terrified to photograph them, but it was one of those situations were through the awkwardness there was a sense of ease and a meeting of minds, which I think resulted in some wonderful images.
I have also shot Sierra & Bianca Casady individually.
Nico Muhly is a great friend of mine & a former neighbor.
He is an amazing young talented composer who is garnering much acclaim & a great supporter of mine.
I also recently shot a New York band called Aloke.
They are four incredibly talented men & terribly handsome to boot. They were so much fun to shoot. I really believe that if you have a connection you can’t help but create something beautiful.
I like to think I have damn good taste in music!
I just went through my music for you… Being asked what you listen to is one of the worst and hardest questions ever, but I will try to attack it.
I heart Dolly Parton & want to meet her so very much. The Beatles have my soul forever, of course CocoRosie makes me cry, Billie Holiday is for singing along to anytime of day, Moon Dog is absolutely brilliant and so ahead of his time, James Brown makes me shake my bum, Smog/Bill Callahan makes me want to be in love (I will fall for any man who can sing like him).
I just discovered Dead Heart Bloom. His voice & guitar are beautiful, beautiful, & you can download both of his albums for free!
Also, my friend Little Million is a gem- a shout out to him! &, I can’t forget Brian Eno, Bowie, The Clash & Serge Gainsbourg… Oh oh I feel guilty leaving out so many!!!!
AV: You really mix it up & know your music! HAH! Greatness. Sierra & Bianca of CocoRosie, are amazing & you capture them beautifully, their music, color, creativity & lyricism.
Your working with musicians does not surprise me in the least, photography, music & the arts go hand in hand.
Of course you are in demand, because you are innately gifted with translating song to image & vice versa. I want to see you make portraits of David Byrne, my hero, yup Mr Byrne. Thinking of how great that would be!
SW: Oh my gosh, I would love to! I adore him & I adore The Talking Heads. My parents have a great story of going to a dinner party in the 70’s and hearing the Talking Heads practicing through the wall in the next room.
He seems like such a fascinating man. I really started to appreciate him after I heard an interview he did on NPR’s Studio 360. I believe he was talking about his various projects including a book he did on chairs. He seems completely quirky and intelligent & possesses a great sense of humor. So the answer is, yes.
AV: I’d love to see you make a portrait of him!! & one of Thom Yorke too!!
Who are your greatest influences & who’s work do you admire the most & why?
SW: I couldn’t even begin to give you a list.
Every day I will go on Google images & search words of phrases that I come up with, & those can result in some incredible pictures.
If I see a photograph that I love, whether it be in a magazine, at a museum or in a book, I try to write down the artist & look them up later.
I have thousands of images I have collected over the past two years that are my inspiration.
But here are a few things that I adore -vintage porn & nudes.
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers movies.
Errol Flynn (my first crush), old, eccentric, & nutty people (most of whom are my parent’s friends), cooking, horses & unicorns, mermaids, fairy tale illustrations from the victorian era, hindu deities, the stories of well traveled friends.
I love Guy Bourdin, John Singer Sargent, Todd Hido, Jeremy Lipking, Weegee, Bruce Davidson, William Klein,
Tamara Di Lempicka, Rothko & Irving Penn.
AV: Wow, you really have a healthy sense of variety, history, color & vitality in your influences.
I love some extraordinary & slightly nutty people as well!! Some of my greatest friends are wonderfully balanced creative eccentrics.
Bourdin is nicely adult & wonderfully macabre, but in a very fun murder mystery ‘David Lynch‘ way. Weegee!!! I never- heard of!!! Oh thanks Sam.
He’s my favorite of your favorite photographers.
I am certain I must have seen his images- but now I shall dive into all his works.
I love Eikoh Hosoe– his work with the infamous master of Butoh, Kazuo Ohno– also Tatsumi Hijikata is an absolute anomaly!
Rhizome Lee, is a pretty damned good, Butoh Dancer.
Eikoh’s photos of Butoh dancing & Ohno transport me to places that make a great deal- of sense to me.
Eadweard Muybridge, I’ve always loved.
SW: It is always so much fun to throw favorite artists back & forth between people.
It is really the best way to learn and grow!
Sharing pictures, names, inspirations, books, poetry.
It is often a better way of learning and expanding your mind than school!
AV: Yes!
Who- are the artists that “transport you to places that make sense to you”?
SW: Julia Margaret Cameron is one of them.
I immediately recognized myself in the faces of the women she photographed.
These sad and beautiful masculine/feminine faced women that don’t really seem to belong, or they are someplace else in their eyes and minds, someplace very far away.
It might sound rather morbid, but its true!
Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema is one of my favorites. I think the work that tends to transport me most is romantic and fantastical.
I love the Pre- Raphaelite movement – Dante Rosetti & John Edward Millais.
They are tragic & stunning, but never weak. They all seems fiercely intelligent & aware. There is a story in their eyes…
AV: Heroic, Sam!
I love Cameron’s work, yes- they are quite determined & aware, some of them distant, yes.
Who would you love to get to sit for you?!?
SW: Good lord, I was thinking about this the other night, & the first name that popped into my head was Oprah.
In all seriousness, I really don’t know.
That is a difficult difficult question and I feel like the answer will always change as I get older…
AV: If you made a portrait of Oprah, I am certain she would become accessible in a way never seen before.
I don’t watch TV, but I know she does do this amazing juggling act to support causes she believes in.
I respect how she handled the assaults which happened at one of her schools in Africa recently. She immediately confronted how serious it was & she was & is still is- under much scrutiny.
She is a very powerful woman, who makes intense efforts to be involved in & take responsibility for the power she has obtained. & she opens doors for many.
So let’s see it Ms. West!!!! Hello Oprah!!!
Sit for Sam West! I & many would love to see it!!
Bring the Big Apple to the Windy City & your face will beam in a new light- of worldliness with Sam’s eye!
SW: I actually don’t watch her show either, I don’t really watch TV, but I just adore her.
I really respect her. Again, I was trying to think who else I would like to shoot, but it is a difficult question. I do know that I would love to photograph you. You are on the top of my list with your mermaid hair….
AV: Hah!
Well, I tell you, if & when I get published- I’ll take you up on this very gracious offer.. A modest, but authentically penetrating B & W. Wow, I cannot even start to imagine…
I also dream of a Cracknell Portrait. That is too greedy..
He loves your work.
If I had each of you shoot me, my goodness, yes, please! Miraculous!
& TV watching is starting to rapidly go down.
Right when they invent those clunky Plasma TV’s ha ha ha.
Where is a place in the world that you have not been to yet, Sam, that you would love to shoot & why?
SW: I want to go to two places.
1. Iceland, because Faeries do exist there.
My heart is drawn to that country & I need to find out why.
2. India, because similar to Iceland there is something that seems so magic about the country & people.
I am sure I have a romanticized vision of both, but I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing…
AV: You have a sense of romance that is unique, appealing & approachable.
A rawness, enthusiasm, creativity & logic, that is real.
&, a purpose that brings so much talent together & an ethic that supplies us with a better world & view of it.
Iceland & India have the kinds of transformations that a heart & mind like yours hungers for & offers all, in great supply.
SW: You make me blush and smile all at once. I cannot wait to go to both of those places, but beggars can’t be choosers. If there is a plane that takes me out of the country in the near future, whatever the destination ends up being. I will be more than happy.
AV: I’d like to talk about Kicki- she is your best friend, as well your model. What an electric young woman! How did you meet her?? Her charisma, identity & fabulousness are such huge magnets for you- which you reveal to us.
SW: I met Krissy a long time ago, probably three or four years ago by now, maybe more… It was not until we both moved to Chinatown that we just clicked.
She and I were meant to be friends, that I know…
Long haired blond mermaids we are, although she doesn’t like getting her head underwater and I live for it…
We are in many ways very similar but also opposites.
I really respect her freedom and openness, her humor and intelligence.
She loves magic & spirits & faeiries the same way I do.
She looks at the stars & sun & moon, she thinks about nature & past lives & has a brilliant & open mind.
She has such a big heart & a beautiful combination of fear and fearlessness.
I really think she was the one who inspired me to start taking nudes.
To seek out those who want to share & expose themselves.
I really hope that she is pleased with the way I capture her, I think we are really honest with each other and that comes across in the images. I just want to do her justice.
Honestly, it might be our shared, creepy pizza addiction that keeps us together…. That & our naughty sense of humor..
AV: You are adventuresses, sisters, family! There is an innocence, strength & organicism to the body that we often ignore & abuse, but you allow us to see it again. The bond you describe, is the essence- of true friendship.
Your work with her is so new & profound, because- you are able to chime in to a willingness to unravel & share the tender beauty & inherent strength of human vulnerability.
Such images, are quite rare, Sam. It is an art & the results are great artworks.
Pizza!Ha ha ha.
AV: You have a show coming up at 222 Gallery? How exciting is that Sam!
Can you give us details?
SW: I am so so thrilled.
It is my first show & a solo one at that! I am so grateful, to Philip Otto and 222 Gallery for giving me this opportunity.
Putting one’s work out there in the public is so daunting.
There is a strange safety to posting online, whether it be on Flicker or my website, but to have it large- and hanging on a wall framed is another thing entirely!
The first show will be in LA opening March 7, 2008.
The show will be held at the Alife store at 451 North Fairfax Avenue, downtown LA.
The Los Angeles show- will consist of 5-6 large format photographs.
The images will be focused around the series of girls I have been shooting as of late. Strong, sensual, lively nudes!
The girls did it for me because, in my view LA is about sensuality, color.
&, the Philly show will be late summer or early fall, but I think it will be a bit more varied in terms of work.
I have yet to see the space, but I am super excited to!
I think it will come to me once I have a chance to view the layout. The larger gallery space will allow for loads more prints, so that is invigorating and overwhelming all at once, but baby steps, baby steps. I am taking it one day at a time.
I can barely believe that this show in Los Angeles is happening. It won’t be concrete to me until those prints are hanging on the wall- in front of my eyes.
Philip Otto is so lovely. He is a wonderful person to talk to, & really open to ideas. It is such a pleasure to spend time with someone who is constantly thinking & reinventing, someone who is innovative and excited about life.
The last time I saw him he took me out for Chocolate cake & a Cappuccino… Need I say more?!
AV: It will be an incredible show!!!
Yes, there is nothing like our friendships &- when we work with other artists.
When we know that we have achieved a true connect, consistency, mutual respect & curiosity, everyone involved grows & develops profoundly.
You both, have a great deal of experience working with other artists. It is incredibly inspiring to work with you both amidst all this possibility, talent, creativity & innovation.
In your work, you allow us to experience a certainty of depth, which allows us to openly experience our past, present & future, in such tangible ways Sam.
Your visual imagery asks us, to consider, discover, ourselves. All one can ask for from you at this point, is to make it, endless.
AV: &, lastly would you like to show in Chicago?
SW: Of course I would!
I want to hit up every major city in the entire universe!
AV: Thank you so much, for talking with us Samantha.
More of Samantha West’s work is at her website & at her online Flicker album.
Samantha West was interviewed for ART VOLUME ONE,
by, Chicago artist & writer Amy M Denes.
ART VOLUME I 
