Zoe Strauss interview from January 2008

I originally conducted this interview with Philadelphia based photographer Zoe Strauss for the Megawords magazine website. Zoe's work is some of the most original and interesting work out there, so I thought it would be great to give the interview new life in the journal.

MEGAWORDS: One of the thing’s that always staggered me about your photography is the way the you’re able to establish an instant rapport—an instant connection—with people.  I feel sometimes you’ve just met them.
ZOE: Yeah. [A very loud motorcycle noise is heard outside the cafe.] Shut up, bastards! Could you have this in the interview?  Fuckin’ cocksuckers!  

Of course it’s in the interview!
Fuckin’ assholes!

So, is that something that you are consciously thinking about?  What’s the process—you see someone and you’re interested?  Or is it random?
It’s totally random.

Always?
Always? Well… yeah. It is. It’s totally random and it’s also completely unconscious. There’s no feeling of, ‘this person looks like this and I need to fit them into my work because thematically, or…’ It’s always this initial moment of meeting and then that’s the whole thing.

Does the initial contact happen with the camera or without the camera?
No, always with the camera.

Always with the camera?
It’s always when I’m working.  My meeting of someone is always, ‘Can I make your photo?’

Right. So, it’s that direct.
Yeah. That’s the introduction, always.

But the people are so comfortable. It’s astounding.
I honestly have no idea.

How long does the relationship last?  Is it just a minute?  Do you spend a day with them?
No.  The longest it generally ever is is if I invite myself into someone’s house, then it’s a little bit longer.  If it’s just meeting someone one the street, it’s a maximum ten minutes.

And that’s it?
That’s the whole thing.

Do you ever maintain the contact with the people?
For some of the people. There’s a couple people that I’ve gone back and photographed again.  And my initial meeting has gone the same as all the others— just meeting them as strangers.

Right—
And then I’ve got back and either photographed them again or just seen around the neighborhood or I know them again.  But for the most part that’s kind of an anomaly.

It’s always the initial meeting as a stranger but then sometimes I have contact with a couple different people.  Especially people where I’ve been in their home—that’s often the difference.

It’s a little more intimate.
Yeah.  It’s a little more intimate and I also want to make sure—I feel like that’s a very private, intimate thing that they’re allowing.  If it’s possible, it seems appropriate for me to kind of retain a little contact with someone if they want that—if they want that. But most people are, like, ‘Whatever.  The interaction’s done.’

 

It’s a little more intimate and I also want to make sure—I feel like that’s a very private, intimate thing that they’re allowing.  If it’s possible, it seems appropriate for me to kind of retain a little contact with someone if they want that—if they want that. But most people are, like, ‘Whatever.  The interaction’s done.’

 

Do people understand what you’re sort of doing with the photos?  Does that make sense?
I think yes.

Personally, that’s something that I often struggle—not struggle with—but question. Because it is this relationship you have with somebody and you take it from the world that they sort of exist in.  Then you put it into the world that we exist in.  They’re not always parallel.  Often they are complete opposites, you know?
Yeah.  Totally.  I think about it all the time.  In terms of portraits, it’s an image of a real person.  It’s not abstract.  It’s not, ‘This is representing blah blah blah.’  It’s a real person that I’ve had a real interaction with.  And almost always it’s someone I had a strong affection for that happened in that moment.  I think a lot of what it means when these images go out into the world and how they get shown—what it then means is—how people are reading this image—

So, when I’m talking to people and I’m making the photo, I always say—you know, it’s changed over the years.  I used to always just say, ‘I do this show under I-95.’
And that required a lot more explanation of, ‘I show this once a year outside.’  And now it’s kind of changed to, ‘I might show this in a gallery or it might be in a book.  And I do this outside installation, too.’  So, like, those things are things that people know immediately and they can understand. They’re aware that these things are going to be seen by a larger audience.

I always say I’m not sure where it’s gonna go but it could go out into the world and be seen by a lot of people or it might just stay in my house.  I have no idea. There’s sometimes when I feel like people are not really cognizant of it.  I don’t really show that.  I feel like that kind of—that kind of uncertainty and that kind of hesitation that shows in the photos.

They don’t understand, maybe?
Yeah, it’s either they don’t... Yeah, I feel like that’s true.  In that moment it needs to be a full and reciprocal moment that the photo might go out and into the world.  But I am just judging that myself.

It’s a judgement call.
I could be making that up in my head and I could be totally wrong.

Is everything you are shooting near your home in South Philly?
No.

Do you go to other places with the view in mind to take photographs?
Yeah.  Mainly, it’s South Philly, right—near my house.  But it’s also in other neighborhoods that I’ve either lived or known pretty intimately.

Would you come to my neighborhood and walk around?
Yeah—

Is that how you do it?
I would totally just walk around.  Or drive around!

Right, right—and just see how it turns out.
Yeah—

It’s really organic.
It’s always just, ‘I’ll see what’s going on here.’

I guess that’s like the photo of Christmas decorations in Kensington.
Actually, no-- someone emailed me.  They said you need to get to Trenton and then Somerset right away.  But I knew it from a couple years ago when Giant Santa was up. And I had forgotten.  I always want to go back to the Christmas house, so I was happy to get a reminder and then I went there.

Some people e-mail me, like, ‘Oh!  Here’s a funny sign blah blah blah.’  And I’m, like, ‘Welllll, I’m not driving to Pottsvile or whatever.’   But since I knew the house and I was, like, ‘I know Giant Santa’s up—‘

That’s one of my other questions.  It seems to be mostly—it’s like you’re documenting sort of human interaction.  And then it seems like you also will go to specific events—
Right—

And the signs—
Right—

So where do the signs fit in?  The signage?  And the buildings that don’t have people in it, necessarily. But it seems to be mostly—at least from my perspective—if it’s not people, then it’s some sort of focus on the sign or a particular object—not so much as a skyline or whatever.
Yeah, it’s not—

How does that fit in?  How is it related?  Is it related?
Oh, yeah.  I feel like all three are connected and they all need each other to have resonance.  They need to kind of bounce off of each other to really have the kind of epic scope that I’m looking for—or hope to achieve.  They all allow—they all mean—they all add meaning to each other.  And they kind of just allow you to move between photos and make your own meaning to it.  So, they matter a lot and you’re right.  The landscapes are generally architectural and, for the most part, they’re very flat.  Like, I have my—

 

I feel like all three are connected and they all need each other to have resonance.  They need to kind of bounce off of each other to really have the kind of epic scope that I’m looking for—or hope to achieve.  They all allow—they all mean—they all add meaning to each other.

 

Yeah, they’re very graphic.
Yeah, there’s a couple reasons for that but generally it’s just that’s the aesthetic that I like.  That’s what I like to look at and that’s what I like to make.  And that also fits into the idea of the connection and a kind of gridding and attachment of imagery.

I know this is a huge question to ask.  But what’s the mission?  What’s the epic plan?
[laughs]  That’s a good question! I have noooooooooo fucking idea!  I thought it was a good idea to just chart this out.  Woo!  Now, what was I thinking.  Crazy… talking crazy.  Umm…

Or, at least, where does it stand right now?
It stands—

I feel like it’s something that changes.
Yeah, yeah—but I feel like the plan has pretty much remained the same from the start. Which is—it’ll be the end of of ’95, which is in the 2010.  That’ll be when I kind of cull everything and that will be when this project is complete.

When did  the  I-95 start?
2000.

Also you just had a show in Seattle?
Yeah—it was in Bellevue, which is right outside of Seattle.

What was it like?
The place—it is a crazy place.  And it’s kind of a complex thing.  It’s a residency where you can go and live for three months and produce work and produce the show.  And then put it up.

Was that what you did?
I produced most of the work off-site.  I was the second person to do it and so it was a real short timeline and a real rush to get it done.  So, it was literally like this show was produced in three days.  Both the work was manufactured and produced and printed at Fast Signs Bellevue—which I loved, by the way.

So, it was kind of—it was interesting.  It was just one of the works-in-progress, kind of thinking about different ways of installing stuff and different ordering of photos.  And it was in the lobby of an apartment building.  It’s a really odd place and a really odd set-up but a great residency program—a great chance to go to the Northwest. And I love the exhibition director Abigail Guay-it was a residency and a great space to work in. I was really fortunate to be able to do it and I think its going to grow into an important residency.

What are your thoughts on the way you would present your work under I-95 and the Bellevue and the ICA?
I will go with this.  Well, I feel like everything comes back to I-95.  That’s a central project, always.  The other shows are all kind of just thinking about different ways of presenting the material that goes into the I-95 project—into the actual presentation. So, the one in Bellevue was a combination of larger format prints on vinyl that I’d been thinking about for a little bit.

Stuff that you couldn’t always do with 95.
Yeah, stuff that really doesn’t make sense in terms of that installation—but things that allow me to kind of help think about the ordering of photos more and, really, as times goes on to really tighten up the edit of 95 to the strongest it can possibly be. So, in a way they’re really all… Not that the shows aren’t—not that the shows aren’t complete.  But they’re almost all exercises in a way to figure out the best configuration for 95 that can happen.

How about levels of freedom?
It’s awesome.

Even at the ICA?
Um, it was a little, well—I’ve wanted to—yeah, actually, at the ICA it was okay.  It was actually pretty great.  They were very supportive of the work and I put up a photo that could have caused a lot of problems that faced the street.  And they were very supportive of it.

Which is awesome.
It was tremendous how supportive they were of the work and how they understood why I chose this image and went through a whole process of kind of making sure that this was—it wasn’t just being contentious-- it was genuinely something I thought was beneficial to this work and to the show.

When you did the show at the Bellevue you were sort of able to do whatever you wanted to, pretty much—
Yeah, it was pretty much what I wanted to do.  The show in Bellevue was less, uh, less complete than the ICA.  The ICA was really kind of complete with a lot of theoretical stuff going into it.  And the Bellevue show was more kind of thinking about the order of the photographs.

Have you ever felt you’ve been in a dangerous situation or felt in danger when you’re shooting with someone?
No.

Never?  Really?
There’s been once or twice when I’ve been in someone’s house and I felt a not-great vibe and I just leave.

Right—but it’s never gone further—
No.  There’s never been a time when I felt like I have to get out.  There’s never been anything more than just a feeling of discomfort.

It’s never escalated.
No.  And it’s almost always just on the street, so, it’s not, you know—there are times when I go into someone’s house.  There are ridiculous things where I go into someone’s house and be like, ‘Helloooooo.’  Which is kind of nuts, but, in the moment it always—it’s just relying on intuition which isn’t necessarily the greatest idea in the world.  [laughs]

It makes things interesting, for sure.  [laughs]
It’s really something else.

What’s next after 2010?
Jesus christ, if I had any fucking idea. I need to get started on figuring out my next long term plan and I’m just… I mean, there’s a couple things that I’ve been thinking about but there’s nothing that seems like it’s gonna be a decade-long body of work like this. And I don’t know if I need to have that.

Did you plan the ten years from the outset?
Yeah.  I felt like it had to be ten years.  I’m mentally ill. Why, fool?  Who am I fooling?

www.zoestrauss.com
www.zoestrauss.blogspot.com