Jamie Campbell is a canadian photographer who splits his time between Montreal (where he is completing his MFA from Concordia University) and Toronto (where he likes to do most of his actual production). His work has been published internationally, and exhibited in both Canada and the U.S.  Jamie Campbell works with the themes of insecurity, burden, vulnerability and desperation, but does it with self-deprecation and humour and profound honesty, leaving you unsure of whether you want to hit him or hug him.

My photographic direction, or exploration, is centralized in the area of constructed dilemmas and fabricated scenarios emphasizing both the internal and external struggle of the human condition. Focusing within the realm of ambiguity arising from specific gesture, gaze, and interaction with location, my work creates fictional narratives that display introverted moments of vulnerability and the exhaustion wrought by defeat.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

Jaime: The internet has amplified an all around small-world-effect. And I am not too consciously aware of how it has affected my aesthetic style per say, but it has definitely had a drastic effect on my quality control and standards. Once something is posted on the internet it exists, and is accessible, on a world-wide level. It speaks on your behalf as an image-maker, so it best represent you with the utmost truth. It is almost as if the critique phase of the work-in-progress aspect of photography is vanishing, and only polished and completed work is floating around, because no one wants to be attached to something they are unsure about. I guess the internet has made me more critical about what I choose to present.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

J: Right now I am going through volumes 1 – 4 of Yves Naud’s U.F.O’s and Extra-Terrestrials In History (1978), and I am trying to extract real life scenarios that I can loosely base my new photographic work on. But mainly, I just project my own fictitious melodrama and banal life situations into the framework of my images. I suppose my inspiration is based on a constant fear of being uninspired. 

F: What are your favorite websites?

J: I just downloaded the new safari and it tracks your most viewed sites, or something like that. So some of my ‘top viewed sites’ as recorded today are:

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/ - the famous Conscientious

http://ca.yahoo.com/ - email

http://christopherboyne.blogspot.com/ - a good friends blog

http://www.youtube.com/ - you never know?

http://laurapannack.com/ - super pretty work

F: Do you have any suggestions to help new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you initially start to promote yourself and your work?

J: Very simply, embrace rejection and maintain presence.

I am still very much in the emerging stage, and there are so many resources and calls for submissions by various photography related outlets that anyone can apply to (via webzines, galleries, magazines, contests, etc). Opportunities, for the most part, don’t miraculously appear – it is really a matter of constant research, dedication, and the actual applying to such outlets -  which will then expose your work to the audiences that you didn’t necessarily have access to. Sometimes it pays off in a gratifying way, but for the most part it is a constant struggle (prepare yourself for that!).

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and in the future in general?

J: In a year I’ll be just starting to work on my final thesis project for the completion my MFA. It seems a bit too stressful to attempt to rationalize it, or conceive it in this paragraph of an answer. However, the only real assurance I have is the thought that it will be much better than any of my prior work.

www.jamiecampbellphotography.com

special thanks to anthony pereira for the bio contribution.

T.J. Proechel (1984) was born in St. Paul, MN and graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008. Proechel’s several bodies of work, including Sparrows Point, Dreamhouse and Baltimore each attempt to approach landscape photography in different ways. Proechel’s work has been shown nationally and featured in Locus Magazine.  Proechel recently completed a commissioned project for the Contemporary Museum of Baltimore, photographing local shop owners and their businesses. 

Over the last five months I’ve been working as a housing contractor in Minnesota. During that time I’ve been fixing up and maintaining foreclosed homes. The project Dream House is photographs of foreclosed homes in the Twin Cities. While doing this work, I’ve found myself in the midst of peoples cast off lives, personal items left behind. Often these items flesh out the people who occupied the homes before and their struggles. This project is about the current foreclosure American crisis, but is also about the fantasy of the ideal American life, the unrealistic sacrifices people make and the hardship which we endure to achieve it.  

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

T.J: In a way that’s an impossible question. I feel like my work has matured with the booming of photography’s web based presence and it’s incredibly hard for me to parse what particular influence it has had on the direction of my work. For the most part I’ve used the internet in incredibly uninteresting ways, simply to show and distribute work. Although I am going to re-launch my Proechel for Presidential website in the next few months, for my 2010 run for The President of Minnesota. 

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

T.J: I watch too many movies, read too many books, work too hard and try my best to do things that make me uncomfortable. I also have tendencies toward obsession. Right now, I can’t help but impulsively watch old presidential debates and speeches. Over the last year I’ve watched the West Wing series three times through, which most people find this disgusting - but I can’t help myself. I’ve also read several Presidential biographies over the last year on John Adams, FDR and Ronald Reagan. I think this year everyone has been concentrating a little more than normal on presidential politics, but at this point I’m starting to get a little worried about myself. 

F: What are your favorite websites?

T.J: Ahorn,  Rhizome, Politico, Photodreamboats, We Can’t Paint Network

F: Do you have any suggestions to help new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you initially start to promote yourself and your work?

T.J: First and foremost - like everyone and their mother says - make a lot of work. Make too much work - more work than you know what to do with. Follow that up by throwing away what sucks and keeping what’s mediocre and good. The only thing you can do is send it to people constantly and furiously. It doesn’t take much to send an e-mail and people who run blogs and photo feature websites like Fjord. If they don’t like the work you send them, make more work and send it out again. Keep doing that ’till it sticks. Eventually somebody will like something. But I don’t know any better than anybody else, but I’m just figuring it out as I go along. 

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and in the future in general?

T.J: As I said earlier I’m running for President of Minnesota in 2010, which will take up a lot of my time. I also have a couple of photo-based projects coming down the pike. 

http://tjproechel.com/

Ryan Pfluger recently completed his MFA at the School of Visual Arts and is a New York native. Ryan feels that there is a strong, vulnerable connection between the individual, their sense of self, their surroundings, and their bodies. Ryan currently lives in Brooklyn and is working on a new body of work photographing photo editors, curators and agents in NYC.  While not working on his personal work, he shoots for magazines like New York Times Magazine, The London Guardian and Details.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

RYAN: I’m extremely conscious of how much the internet has affected the way people look at art.  I’m not sure it has affected my photographic process, but it definitely has changed how accessible my work can be to editors and dealers and casual viewers. I constantly am scanning new work and putting it on my site or blog, which is how most people can see new images immediately.  It allows people not apt to go to a gallery access to images they may not otherwise see.  However, I do not necessarily like how digital photography has changed the role of photography.  I think it has made artists careless and not conscious of their decisions or editing process.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

R: I’m very drawn to straight portraiture and photographers of the 70’s like Peter Hujar and Arthur Tress.  I gain a lot of inspiration from movies and television as well.  I’m really interested in something called para-social interaction or para-social relationships.  This is what influences my work the most.  The idea of one-sided relationships in which one person knows a great deal about someone, but the other knows nothing.  I try and create images in which people feel they really know the people in my photographs.  I myself make photographs for the purpose of interacting with strangers due to my own social phobias.  So in the end, I guess it’s people that really give me inspiration.

F: What are some of your favorite websites?

R:  I’m a huge photo-blog reader.  Pretty much any photographer I enjoy to some capacity I’ll read their blogs.  I loved Rachel Hulin’s blog on photo-shelter which is no longer, but that was always a really good read.  I think Amy Stein does a great job with interesting information and great visuals.  I also will browse flickr and ffffound because sometimes there are some real gems to be found or at least something funny.

F: Do you have any suggestions to help out new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you first start to promote yourself and your work?

R: Persistence, Persistence, Persistence.  This business is all a waiting game except for a select lucky few.  You really need to constantly make your presence known.  Make a well edited book and precise email promotional material.  There are so many photographers now, that it will only become more and more difficult.  I started sending my book out immediately during the beginning of grad school.  Even if my work wasn’t exactly where I wanted it to be, I was letting people know who I am.  Planting the seed.  I think that if you are good at what you do, and you have a strong skin, you can go very far with your work.  Just have to have some patience in most cases.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and the future in general?

R: I think I’ll continue with my ideas of the role of photography as I’m doing with this project.  This one, which is evaluating the people who are making decisions in contemporary photography is very exciting for me.  The fact that photo editors and curators who are usually in the background, are allowing themselves to now be my subject is very interesting.  In the future I will continue doing projects that have the undertones of what photography is and how it is used.  I just hope that my work continues to make people think, that’s really what is most important to me.  Nowadays everyone wants instant gratification.  I really just want people to continue spending time with the work and reflecting on their own lives and relationships.

http://ryanpfluger.com/
http://ryanpfluger.blogspot.com/

My photographs explore the relationship between urban environments and the individuals that inhabit these spaces. This body of work comes from my one-month visit to China in Oct. 2007, where mass rural-to-urban migration has snowballed into dramatic changes for its cities. What was once a state controlled political system now caters to the liberal flow of capital exchange. I have tried to document these transitions by exploring the psychological effects as I understand them by pointing my lens on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai.

Staying in China for me was mixed with familiarity and surprise. These images are incomplete. I am a silent voyeur on the surface of a mass historic change, a phenomenon that perhaps only an audience can bring awareness to. I use out-dated photo paper and print in high contrast to create a feel that parallels the historic remnants and ongoing transformation of a society awakening to a mixture of dreams and nightmares. In these ambiguous fields shall my studies further dwell.

Wayne Liu spent the first five years of his life in Taiwan and is now based in New York City.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

WAYNE: I started photography just a few years before the digital boom, and in NYC, I have access to work in the b/w darkroom. So I’ve been slow to integrate photos digitally. After an edit, I use a digital camera to reproduce from the selected prints. I’d then make quick and cheap digital prints to sequence into a book dummy or two. Often I print many variations (in the darkroom) from one negative (lighter, darker, solarized…) and digitize them all, and then sequence them intuitively. Example from a slideshow made for a band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5exH6zt4I_4 After this slideshow attempt, I will make more book dummies, but I also plan incorporate digital slideshows, in as many variable sequences as I may find suitable. Its not so much an influence of the internet upon me, but I’ve noticed that in comparison to the total mess (in my studio space) of negatives and photos, I am relatively more organized when working with the computer. One may interpret this as the control freak mindset of the virtual medium…not sure.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

W: I was born in Taiwan in 1979, and grew up there and in the States. Shooting in China is a personnel confrontation to expose myself to my first familiar language, and yet find the ruptures of a foreign society and to try to intuit some sense from it. Otherwise, I enjoy browsing bookstores, reading and looking, and eating with friends in Chinatown where the food is cheap and smells close to the first solid digestions of my youth.

F: What are some of your favorite websites?

W: random list: Wikipedia, New York Public Library (for music reservation, etc.), MOMA and Film Anthology film schedules, Bookforum, Aldaily, Lightstalkers…

F: Do you have any suggestions to help out new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you first start to promote yourself and your work?

W: Finding a work flow that suits one’s desire. I enjoy the mess of the darkroom and prints laying all over my styrofoam bed; its just me. But to enjoy living with one’s work, as it were a pet or partner or a Dutch wife, seems to me crucial. And then being able to crash at a friend’s couch, forget about the crap that one’s made, to keep an emotional distance…and to go back as a house cleaner and reorganize and edit and send it out to space. And then work on some other work…something like this, at least for me.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and the future in general?

W: Inspired partly by a friend who collects tossed objects from the street, I have found a dead sparrow and pigeon and requested for salmon heads to document, in line with shooting faces (as death and/or life masks) of friends in and around my life currently. For big fun, I will continue to shoot some fashion- http://www.coutorture.com/1077277 , http://www.coutorture.com/1552316, I will go back to China to shoot further, and also to Taiwan to confront the ghosts of my adolescent years. Also somewhere in Eastern Europe, which in relation to China, presents a different aspect of post-Communist History.

For now, I plan to shoot film, print in the darkroom, but distribute (when necessary) digital files.

tinyvices.com: Wayne Liu
eleanormag.com: Wayne Liu
guernicamag.com : Wayne Liu

Soorin Kim is a photographer from Seoul, Korea. She was enrolled in the photography program at Parsons School for Design and has shot for Teen Vogue Korea, Ledebut Magazine and was an intern for photographer Ryan McGinley.

As I began to study photography, I always wondered why people have to and do change until the dying moment. Once, we were all innocent, young, and knew nothing about the world but were still happier than ever. Why can’t we always see the world around us with the innocent eye of a child?

When I started this project, I wanted to capture things from the perspective of an innocent mind. However, as I go through this project, many thoughts went through my mind. I thought about the mind of a six year old who is curious about everything around him or her and a premature innocent girl whose never experienced love. My project, ‘Save a Virgin,’ is the question that I ask to the world as I look to myself as a consciously changing, twenty-one year old young woman.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

SOORIN: As all know, the Internet has developed drastically over the last decade. It has made the sharing of my work easier, and also taught me how to learn from others’ work.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

S: I gain inspiration from my everyday life. Naturally, my work gets influenced by my life as well. For instance, my life in Korea, New York and New Jersey could never be the same because I get different feelings and different ideas depending on where I am, whom I meet, and what I see daily. In general, my recent interest is totally my cousins. They have always been the greatest model for my work since I was in middle school and we work great together. I try to expose their innocence, naturalness and free spirit. I dont think you should look out much for great ideas. Inspiration can come from anywhere, anytime.

F: Do you have any suggestions to help new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you initially start to promote yourself and your work?

S: I love the saying “God helps those who help themselves”. More than anything, you should know how to sell yourself and your work to get credit for it. Always be open to any criticism and suggestions, but keep your own standards and opinions as well. I showed my work to as many people as possible and listened to every single comment they had. I strive to become a very down-to-earth, friendly artist rather than a stubborn person who persists only in a singular way.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and in the future in general?

S: I cannot answer this question for sure. I consider myself still developing, learning and becoming better every single day as I try. However, one thing for sure is that my work will always speak about myself and be parallel to what my life looks like during that specific period of time. As a twenty-one year old college girl now, I wish for my work to look as fresh, crispy, colorful and fickle as I am!

http://soorinkim.com

Brandon Pavan was born in NJ where he currently resides. He started shooting in 2006 after a failed attempt at business school. He is currently enrolled in the photography program at Parsons School for Design.

Chasing is body of work based around emotional trips that occur throughout life. They are fleeting, intense and something that these photographs are attempting to embody as well as me trying to preserve. Images of love,paranoia as well as a journey into the dark and lighter side of the brain. “Chasing” is depicting emotion almost as piece of music where there are climax’s and cliffhangers,short and dense.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

BRANDON: I would say the internet affected the way that I work by inspiring the what I make and see. Almost everything that I hear, read and see is from the internet. I would also say that unconciously the Intenet has affected the way I present my work, but I think everything I make is always an extension of myself.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

B: I gain most of my inspiration from music and family/friends, pretty much anything that “speaks to me” on more than one level is where I draw my inspiration. Riding my bike inspires me, it gives me time to clear my head and think.

F: What are some of your favorite websites?

B: Mostly photo and design blogs. It’s great to see great, new photography; as well as a collective group of people who are motivated and passionate about their work. I also enjoy Velonews.com.

F: Do you have any suggestions to help out new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you first start to promote yourself and your work?

B: I find that my website is my greatest vehicle for getting my work out to people, as well as sending your work out wherever you can. It’s a great help to just send your work out to people and to be persistent.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and the future in general?

B: I see my work going in the same direction, yet progressing. As far as the upcoming year, some more work in China and at home. If all goes as planned, I would like to see it evolve into something that could get me work as an editorial photographer. I would love to just travel and shoot.

http://brandonpavan.com

Stéphane Obadia was born in 1972 in Lyon, France. In addition to being a photographer, he works in the fields of graphic design and music. He is currently living in France, preparing upcoming exhibitions in which he plans to combine his art-making and music practices.

Taking pictures helps me pay attention to the world around me.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

STÉPHANE: The internet hasn’t really changed the way I take photos or the kind of photographs I take, but at first, it has in fact motivated me to share and show my work. One thing I really appreciate with the internet, is the possibilty to discover unknown and amateur photographers. I am just as well interested in artistic photography, than in found photography, images collections, and everyday snapshots. I discovered an enormous amount of talented unknowns on the net. I like the way we influence each others without having to deal with reputation.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

S: I collect images, I collect phrases and sometime, for example, these phrases become photographs. Photos I take also give me ideas. It work both ways. Ideas are everywhere to be found and it’s important for me to look in everyday life. Photography is like a reminder of that. Photography helps me pay attention.

F: What are some of your favorite websites?

S: I don’t spend much time surfing the net these days. I also write texts and I compose music and together with photography, it takes a lot of time!

F: Do you have any suggestion to help out new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you first start to promote yourself and your work?

S: A few years ago, like many others, I started showing my work on Flickr, then met a few photographers around the world. I think meeting photographers you like and who have similar concerns is a good way to start.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and the future in general?

S: Right now I am working on a serie of ‘double portraits’ with my medium format camera. A series showing people, matching or not, but always carefully chosen to create something slightly narrative in the image. I’ve been asked to create images for record covers too. And I’m also thinking of ways to combine my photographic work with my text and with my music.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/firlgriend/

Chris Mottalini was born in 1978 and grew up in Buffalo, New York. He has a BS in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder (2000). His work was recently exhibited at The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago (“Building Pictures”) and was selected for the American Photo 24th Annual.

The following photographs are from a brand new series: Leif Eriksson Day. This project is a photographic interpretation of the remains of Leif Eriksson’s Viking settlement in northern Newfoundland, once a gateway to the mythical Viking New World. The images exist as photographic companions to the heroic, supernatural and violent events of The Vinland Sagas (a classical narrative of Viking exploration). They construct a portrait of the deserted camp as Norse ghost town, situated out of time and out of place in the modern North American wilderness.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

CHRIS: The Internet definitely makes it so much easier to get your work out there, through submissions, blogs, competitions, etc…more than anything, though, it has made me infinitely more easily distracted, as I always manage to think of something I have to read or find out about…hockey scores and hockey fights mostly.

I recently self-published a limited-edition series of three books (Winter City, The Mistake by the Lake and After You Left), exclusively using the Internet. It’s so easy and cheap and I want to make about twenty other books. I always hated those black portfolios anyway and now I don’t ever have to touch one of those things again. Thanks, Internet.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

P: My inspiration comes from all over the place. All of my projects are connected by similar ideas and themes (some less obvious than others), but getting there is usually pretty random. I try not to worry about what other photographers are up to. I usually stress myself out by trying to think of an idea for a new project and then I get to the point where I feel like I might not be able to come up with anything ever again and then I relax and then something usually just comes to me. Travel, solitude and books usually spark the creativity, though.

F: What are some of your favorite websites?

C: Well, a little website called swimmingholes.org is kind of amazing. I also enjoy hockeybuzz.com, which is for hockey-obsessed losers. Photo-wise, I’m really into the Library of Congress’ online photo catalog from which you can order all kinds of fascinating prints.

F: Do you have any suggestion to help out new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you first start to promote yourself and your work?

C: Just work your ass off, take pictures of what you want to take pictures of and don’t let ‘em get you down.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and the future in general?

C: I plan on photographing more soon-to-be demolished Paul Rudolph projects. I want to shoot as much as possible, publish a book, exhibit my work, etc. I just started working on a new project, The Rock of the Month Club, which is about rocks that I pay a geologist couple to send me. Oh yeah, I want to get famous so I can take my girlfriend to Cancun.

http://www.mottalini.com/

Born in Paris in 1980, François Coquerel has been photographing since 2006. He works regularly for Slash Magazine, Monocle, Le Magazine Littéraire, the BBC, Seed Magazine, Le Monde de l’Education, etc. His work has been shown in exhibitions in France, the United States, and Germany.

Fond of portraits and landscapes, his work deals with the contradictions between elements such as distance and closeness, detachment and expression, innocence and intensity. His approach to light, composition, colour and subject creates a unique style that he is commonly known for. His subjects are often placed in the center of the photograph, becoming the main focus and operative force behind his photographs.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

François: The Internet actually affected my work a lot. I’m based in Paris, but hardly work in France at the moment. My websites really help to find clients abroad, especially in the US. The thing is that with a world wide market, even if their is a lot of competition, it seems more and more important for me to dig and developp my own style. You’ll have more possibilities to find clients who appreciate your work. You’re not stuck in your small country. I think it really makes your work grow a bit faster.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

FC: There are ideas everywhere, and you can be inspired by a light for example. There is no special idea in my work; I don’t want to develop something intellectual or clever. It’s more about feelings and unconscious memory. I think that the best way for me to gain inspiration is to keep connected to the privacy of my self. This is the best way to stay open and receptive.

F: What are some of your favorite websites?

You mean on photography? Well, I really like yours. It’s always great when you find an amazing unknown photographer on flickr, too, for example. It happens if you’re ready to spend some time on your computer. Of course their are many personal websites that are really great, but I have to say I’m trying to focus on my own work these days, so I’m not spending a lot of time on the Internet.

F: Do you have any suggestion to help out new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you first start to promote yourself and your work?

FC: I am myself a young photographer, still learning how to promote myself, so I don’t know. It’s really difficult, especially when you start from nowhere like I did. I’m not that good at promotion, but I’m getting better. I guess a website is a good start, and entering different photo competitions, too…and winning them of course! The most important thing for me is to be open to other people, different arts, and finally find a kind of new family to work with. People you really trust and love. It’s all about meeting the right person at the right time. And it’s not a question of luck, it’s all about serendipity.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and the future in general?

My work is actually evolving a lot these days. Large format really gives me a new direction, too. I want to go on shooting portraits of course, but I’d like to develop more cinematographic photos, too, and start travelling a bit more with my cameras in order to build real series with a strong theme. I’m planning a trip through the US in October and November with a French artist (Caroline Breton) and an american singer (Rio en Medio). That’s really exciting, I just can’t wait to go.

http://www.francoiscoquerel.com/

Paul Salveson grew up in Northern Virginia right near Washington D.C. He studied photography at Bard college and graduated in 2006. Since then he has been living in the New York area. He has been working on photography and music for the last several years.

In my photographs, I aim to worship objects I encounter every day, and present them as rebuilt icons with ambiguous purposes. I utilize details in my environment, and frame them to create simplicity and unfamiliarity. The obsessive arrangement of the pieces of my world allows for a reinvention of their purpose and meaning. The process of my photography is suffused with ritual, centering around transformation and re-presentation. When I encounter a certain desirable situation, place, or object, I collect it either physically or mentally. The combining of these logged items results in an event which is photographed meticulously until a formal balance is met. Implicit, but consistent and unyielding rules dictate the composition of my works.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work? Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

PAUL: I have just started to put my work out on the internet. I recently set up a very simple web site. I think my work has developed mostly independently from the internet, but I have just had to start thinking about how to share my work this way. It hasn’t been such a stretch since I shoot digitally right now and mostly look at my work on a computer screen anyway. The hardest part for me has been making decisions about web site building. So far I think I am attracted to very simple websites without much extra distraction. That being said, I still have a lot of work to do on my web site.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?

P: Objects and environments I encounter in my life are my biggest inspirations. I collect objects I find interesting and eventually photograph them. I like to shoot in the suburbs, especially at my parent’s and relative’s houses. Many of my pictures were shot on holidays while visiting family. I also like to photograph food that I cook.

F: What are some of your favorite websites?

P: I like to watch cooking shows on Youtube. Also I like to look at what people are selling on Craigslist. I have been watching the olympics online recently.

F: Do you have any suggestion to help out new and emerging photographers gain exposure? How did you first start to promote yourself and your work?

P: I’m not sure i’ve figured this out myself yet. Your website is a great resource for open calls. I guess in my experience personal connections are the most important thing in getting your work out. Speaking to people face to face and showing your work to people in person is very important.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and the future in general?

P: The color work that I sent you is from a long ongoing project. I think I will keep shooting this way and the project will evolve along the way. I have a hard time shooting in “projects”. I just keep shooting and eventually it looks different than the older work. Recently I have also started doing high contrast black and white photographs inspired by role playing games and architecture. For this project the end result is a photocopy or laser print. I want to make an informal handmade book of this work.

http://www.paul-salveson.com/