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Q1 Please you introduce yourself. Where are you originally from? How did you get involved in Photography?
My name is Christian, and I am a 34-year-old photographer born and raised in Wisconsin, in the American Midwest.
My first creative interest was music. My father is a musician, and I grew up watching him perform. I played guitar in rock bands in high school and college.
I became interested in photography after I finished college and moved to New York City. I began visiting galleries and exploring the city with my camera.
I am a self-taught artist. My early development as a photographer was a personal, natural and organic process. I learned by shooting, and continually analyzing and editing my photographs.
I started shooting six or seven years ago. I used to pin drugstore prints on the walls of my apartment, arranging my own private at-home exhibitions. |
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Q4 Your subjects are often something or somewhere in the suburb of America that we completely overlook in the everyday life. What’s inspiring your work today?
My interest in normal, everyday American life is inspired by my own personal experience. I lived in a very small American town until I was 25 years old, so I feel intimately familiar with small-town, "Middle American" life. |
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I particularly enjoy the process of exploration and discovery in my photography. I get a kick out of finding unique, beautiful, funny moments in everyday places.
I also find some pleasure in capturing things in hidden places, or literally in the middle of nowhere. I like to look for things that are literally hidden, or in some cases just hidden in plain sight.
Q5 I heard you worked for Mr. William Eggleston, could tell us little bit about it? What did you learn the most from him?
Yes, I worked with William Eggleston for a few years. I felt an affinity with William’s work, and it was an opportunity for me to explore Memphis, a different part of the country; to learn about the life of a successful, working artist; and to circumvent the more traditional path of an art school education.
Working with William in Memphis was an intimate, unique experience and for this reason I value it as much or more than any art school education. |
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Q9 Could you tell us about the projects that you are working on right now?
My current project, "Out There," was first inspired by a true crime story that took place many years ago in Nebraska, in the Great Plains. But I have really only been using this story as a road map, and making my own interpretations along the way.
I am traveling the same path across the state as a murderer, and photographing places and things that seem to have some emotional or visual relation to the heavy themes of this story, a partially hidden narrative of beauty, confusion, death, escape and love...
Q10 Any last words?
Thank you. |
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Photographer Christian Patterson's work is inspired by beautiful everyday 'Middle American' life. Christian changes the everyday scenes to art. He explores the unique, beautiful and funny moments, and often captures in hidden places or in the middle of nowhere.
Currently he is working on this interesting project called, 'Out There' which is inspired by a true crime story in Nebraska many years ago. He travels the same roads as a murderer and photographing places and things that seem to have some emotional or visual relation to this story.
Christian is planning to attend the music-themed group exhibition called "Noise: Young American Photographers," which is traveling to Milan, Paris and Berlin this year. |
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Q2 What are your favorite places to take photographs? Do you travel a lot?
My early photography relied heavily on travel and exposure to new places. It is much easier to be wide-eyed in new and unfamiliar places. I have traveled to a majority of American states over the past several years.
More recently, I have found myself working on projects that deal less with travel, and more with different aspects of the same place, be it an individual city or state.
I anticipate that my approach will continue to evolve and change. I feel that I am slowly becoming less focused on specific places, and more thoughtful about larger concepts that apply everywhere.
Q3 Can you describe how you approach to working on your new series? Do you usually have a theme before you start to working on it?
I used to be very resistant to the idea of shooting with a specific, pre-defined theme in mind. |
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| My first project, "Sound Affects," was shot without a theme in mind. Again, it was a very natural, organic process. As time passed, I began to realize that many of the images dealt with music, both literally and conceptually, and how music's presence affects us in our perceptions and everyday life. |
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Q6 What do you emphasize most in your work?
The beauty and wonder of everyday life, as I see it, as it is informed by my personal experiences and feelings.
Q7 Do you have any favorite camera or equipment to work with? Do you ever use digital or use black & white?
I have experimented with many different films and cameras, but I tend to shoot almost exclusively with medium format (6 x 9 and 6 x 7) and, most recently, a large format (4 x 5) camera.
I have some ideas for incorporating different film and camera formats into my next project, and possibly including non-photographic work, as well.
I don’t feel that digital photography has matured as a medium, and it doesn't look as good to me as film. When it does, I will consider using it. |
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Q8 Please tell us about the upcoming exhibition schedule in 2007.
I have been fortunate to exhibit "Sound Affects" at my two galleries, Yancey Richardson in New York and Robert Koch in San Francisco. Selections from this project are part of a music-themed group exhibition called "Noise: Young American Photographers," which is traveling to Milan, Paris and Berlin this year. |
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