Kyle Cook
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Kyle Cook is currently a fourth year photography student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His work is diary-based and he tries to shoot what’s in front of him as much as possible. All of his work is personal. His primary influences are Ed Templeton, Ryan Mcginley, Barry Mcgee, Dash Snow, Arron Rose, and Gary Winogrand.
“Photography is a form of print making and I intend to exploit that. I do not want to follow the traditional form of presenting single images although some of them may be able to stand alone. I feel that by doing so that projects a specific opinion, thought, and view from the photograph placed on the viewer. By producing a large body of work with different sized images, allowing the viewer to travel from one image to the next but never in the same order as another viewer. The photographs can be exceptional or mundane but all equally part of a chaotic whole which we perceive as linear. I intend to follow a similar scheme as a musical symphony. A symphony is perceived by people as linear; when read as sheet music. When preformed it is a gathering of eloquent sounds, that all fall into place from many musicians, to be heard by hundreds of ears as one piece. Every note different, and each played slightly differently all joined to form something extraordinary. “
FJORD: I’m really interested in your idea of creating a “chaotic whole” comprised of disparate images that are both “mundane” and “spectacular”. What, in your opinion, makes an image mundane? What makes an image spectacular?
Kyle: I don’t necessarily think that an image’s subject matter has to be the driving force to make it spectacular. I have began to like images that are color casted, and beyond reproduction from a capturing standpoint. So I guess a spectacular image is something that sits with me, something I can stare at for a long time. And a mundane image is as important as a spectacular one because many of those amazing images might not seem so amazing if there is nothing to compare them to. One can not exist without the other. And this is how they all work together as a whole.
F: Why is it important that your point of view does not overpower the viewer if your work is diaristic?
K: I don’t want my point of view to overpower the viewer because a diary can relate to anyone regardless of how specific it is. I believe that everyone can find something that they could connect with on some level. Some work is really spelling it out for a viewer, and some might not, but it still usually has something to say. I think it would be really awesome if when I present my images together that someone could look at them and travel between them not looking at the same combination or path of images as the next viewer. I guess the work is diaristic but only because of the way it is created. I just wanted to incorporate photography in everything I do. One of my teachers here at the School of Visual Arts, brought up something interesting to me about how you could be a photographer your entire life, and still have only spent less than a day photographing. What he means by that is if you add up all of the times a photographer presses the shutter and creates another image that it is very few. Obviously there is much more involved in that, including preparation and waiting even for that moment sometimes to press the shutter. But I thought he had an interesting point. I thought that a photographer can document his/her entire life, and some stranger could look at it and still have no idea who I am. So my images are diaristic but not entirely fact.
F: You mentioned that presentation is a vital part of how you want viewers to experience your work. Do you feel that you have changed the style of work you do based on the way the internet has changed the way we view photography?
K: I mainly use my website as an easy way for people to just check out some of my photos and get an idea of what my work is about. I love looking at websites and it’s how I find out about so many photographers and current work. The website is definitely extremely effective for any kind of exposure as an emerging photographer. But I don’t think that my website could be what I want it to when it comes to final presentation. I think it’s fun to put photos in a space even if you’re not hanging them on a wall in any traditional sense. The online world of photography is an incredible way to view and connect with many other artists. I think that books are also a really rad way of getting stuff out there. I love the idea of having a book and being able to hold it even if its only a material form of what we see on many websites.
F: How do you gain inspiration for your work? Where do you look for ideas?
F: What are your favorite websites?
Visit Kyle Cook’s website here
