Photographer Interview – Stephen Gray (xgray)

angles by Stephen Gray

When I started this version of my blog, one of my ideas was to do a series of interviews with photographers whose work I’ve liked, especially those that have made me think differently about photography.

Stephen Gray, xgray on Flickr, has totally altered the way I think about photography.  His work forces me to see the world around me differently, and completely changed the way I think about composition.   Shadows and negative space also figure prominently in his work, and it is his photos with brilliant sunlight and deep shadows cutting across the frame that most capture my imagination.  xgray is also a master of the found scene and taking simple, mundane objects and making the viewer look at them in a different way. This is also the first photographer whose work I have seen and then consciously tried to emulate. I’m sure that if I can learn to see the world like he does, which is very much how the camera sees it, I will be a better photographer.

I sent him a few questions and his answers are below, along with  a handful of my favorite images he’s produced.

You can see more shots that I feel best represent what I find fascinating about Stephen Gray’s work in a Flickr gallery I created here and you can find my (so far limited) experimentation with doing work like this here.

Tell me a little bit about yourself and how long have you been taking photographs, how you got into it and what first drew you to photography? Do you work professionally or is photography more of a hobby?

I’ve always had cameras around, but have been serious about my photography for probably the past five or six years. In general I’m a very visually oriented person.

As a child I had a great interest in art and drawing. One of the earliest things I can recall wanting to be when I grew up was an artist (the other thing was a general. So yeah, you could say my interests were “varied”.), but at some point I got away from that and ended up, as an adult, working on computer software and websites. Of course, my visual nature has drew me to web and interface design work.

The only other creative outlet I’ve really had is writing. I used to write a lot, typically a very descriptive spontaneous prose type of style. I really enjoyed describing scenes and events from memory in great sensory detail. Conjuring the images and writing them down, but at some point I hit a wall with that and couldn’t go any further. I guess it was a form of writer’s block. Around this time (2002) two things happened. I developed an interest in Zen Buddhism and I got my first digital camera. Now instead of breaking the world down into text, using the camera I would just see it as it exists.

Your photos reveal a fairly unique way of seeing the world. Do you see your surroundings like this all the time, or only through the camera? How did you develop this sort of vision and what other photographers, if any, led you in this direction? What, if anything, are you trying to show the world with your work?

afternoon by Stephen Gray

I feel that looking at the world through a viewfinder, whether I have a camera with me or not, is really the key to capturing the images that I do. So I’d definitely say I see the world this way all the time. (When I don’t have a camera with me I’ll often say “click” out loud when I see a photo I can’t take–drives the wife nuts.)

The world is full of art–we’re basically surrounded by it–and in that sense I find myself most attracted to the mundane, overlooked, or taken for granted visual gems that exist all around us. So for me, my photography is about going out and drawing a rectangle around some piece of the world and saying, “here, look at this. This is art. This is just as important as anything else.” My tendency towards minimal compositions is part of this as well. I feel the nothing in the frame is just as important as the something. For example empty blue sky and a piece of roof is just as much a photo of a church as a nicely composed tilt-shift-lens’d architectural photo.

Having no formal art background, I must admit I was somewhat ignorant of the art-history of photography before getting involved in it myself. I still feel like an outsider when it comes to the photo-art scene, but then my attitude has always been more of the old punk rock “start a band first and learn how to play guitar later” school of doing things. (Which is actually how I got into software as well, but that’s another story.)

I do have photographers and artists I really admire and find inspiring, but any influence on my style is reverse-engineered. What I mean by that is they’re not influences in the sense that my style was affected by them before-hand, but rather I see myself in their work and thus feel validated by it. I’m also just as likely to be blown away by a photo I see on Flickr as I am by a masterpiece in a museum and that happens a lot, because I spend a lot of time everyday looking at photos. So it’s really hard for me to zero in on one photographer or style, because I’m really a sponge and some of the photographers I find most inspiring have styles that are nothing like my own. They just make me want to get out there, shoot, and find new things to show people.

Many of your photos have the appearance of being a found scene. Do you carry a camera with you at all times and stumble upon these moments, or do you make specific time to go out looking for them?

the trash-recycling gap by Stephen Gray

I guess it’s a little of both.

My photos are pretty much all found scenes. It’s rare for me to construct or alter a scene and when I do, I rarely like the results. Once I’ve moved something, it always looks moved–to me, at least. So yes, I always have at least one camera with me just in case I come across something. Today, I have two (film and digital) in my bag and on some days I have as many as four cameras with me–which might sound kinda crazy to some people. I also don’t drive anymore, so I walk a lot around town which affords me a lot of opportunity to stumble across photos and I try to make time before/after work and during lunch to go out looking for photos.

suspended by Stephen Gray

Tell me a little bit about “the fixture”

One thing that becomes obvious when you view my work over time is that I develop lots of photographic obsessions with specific objects or scenes of various kinds. At this point the most obvious of which is what I’ve come to just refer to as the fixture. The fixture is a light suspended in a stairwell of a building on campus. (It’s location is kind of a low-grade secret for me at this point. You can find it, but I don’t talk about it’s location anymore myself as I’ve already had someone try to re-create my view of it.) As with many of these obsessions, it’s something I came across by accident the first time and it’s really just ballooned from there. The light in that stairwell varies widely with time of day and time of the year and the weather outside. This means the view of the fixture is always slightly different. So now I have taken it upon myself to shoot it with every combination of camera, lens, and even film that I have at regular, but slightly random intervals to catch as much difference as I can. I really like to do a show or book of just prints of the fixture one of these days. So as long as I have access to it, I’ll continue producing new views of the fixture.

I’ve been following your tweets and was entertained the other day to see you post something about getting asked why or whether you were taking a picture of “nothing.” Do you get that a lot?

Photographic rubber-necking, as I’ve come to call it is fairly common and amuses me to no end. Usually people will just look at whatever I was shooting. Trying to be nonchalant while trying to figure out what I was taking a photo of as they walk by. I think for many the idea taking a photo of something not obviously photogenic is still pretty confusing. Sometimes people will stop and ask what I was taking a photo of or even why, but most folks probably just write me off as yet another local eccentric. I have found that older people are more likely to stop and ask–especially why.

Recently I was shooting in a location I re-visit often and there’s an older woman standing nearby. She could see me, but could not see what I was looking at. So after I take the photo and start to walk off, she walks over to where I was and calls to me, “there’s nothing there?!” To which I answer, “exactly.” Then she adds, as she walks away (maybe more to herself than me), “I thought there was someone there.” Perhaps in her mind, no person equals no photo. Probably a common point of view held by people whose idea of photography has been shaped by the marketing. (think: “the Kodak moment”)

My favorite such encounter was a couple years ago, similar situation, I’m shooting something–let’s say a wall–and there’s an older gentleman sitting on a bench nearby reading a paper.

Him: (confused) What’re you taking a photo of?
Me: The wall
Him: Why?
Me: I like it.
Him: It’s ugly!
Me: I know. That’s why I like it.
Him: (returning to his paper) I wouldn’t take no photo of an ugly old wall.

Probably thought I was crazy or just being frivolous.

(And before anyone thinks I’m picking on older folks, my mother–who is 78 has no art background–seemed to get what I was doing immediately when I first showed her my photos years ago.)

Of course, this being the digital age, I have had someone I didn’t know recognize me from the online world. In this case I was indeed taking a photo of a chair (kind of a trademark thing for me) on campus and a guy stopped and said, “hey, you’re xgray–right? I’ve seen you on Flickr.”

no by Stephen Gray

Is there anything you particularly want to accomplish as a photographer?

In a world awash in photographers–both pro and amateur–and photographs and tightening media budgets, I harbor no delusions about having a hugely lucrative photography career. (Of course, I don’t bemoan that fact as is so often the case in online forums.) Financially, I’d like to make enough money to cover my costs. Anything beyond that would be cake.

Artistically, I just want the chance to show people my work to more and more people. To find my audience.

Do you have any particular opinion on photo titles? You give most (all?) of your photographs titles. Is this just a matter of personal preference or do you feel that all photos require them? I tend not to title mine, but my minimalism photos certainly do seem to demand them more.

Leaving photos untitled is fine, but anyone who refers to an untitled photo is basically titling it themselves. So the way I see it, my work is going to be titled whether it’s by me or by others and in that case I might as well do it myself. As for my own titling scheme, other than occasionally attempting to be clever, my titles are usually short and descriptive of the subject or what I’m trying to show or evoke.

church by Stephen Gray

Is there a style of photography you want to explore more, or what direction do you see your work moving in the future?

I really don’t know what direction my work will move in the future. I think it’s really just a case of allowing evolution to run its course. Looking back at my past work, it’s certainly worked for me so far. Certain aspects of my photography has changed over the years and I can also see certain–in keeping with the metaphor–mutations that stuck around and developed into new photographic ideas and other that simply didn’t take hold or ran their course.

As for what I’d like to explore. I find that the photographs I’m most drawn to these days contain people and I would like to incorporate people into my work. How I would do that, I’m not exactly sure or at least the opportunity hasn’t arisen yet. I also have a couple ideas for more documentary type projects that I’d like to explore, given the necessary time and funds. (Forgive me for not describing them, but I’m working on some grant proposals and don’t want to jinx myself just yet.)

from the shadows by Stephen Gray

Photographers seem to sort themselves into the categories of “shoots mostly people” or “rarely shoots people” You seem to be in the latter group. Is this a conscious choice or more just how things worked out? Do you dislike working with people as subjects or just find that they don’t offer the sorts of visual scenes you want to capture and show?

I like people, so I think it’s just the way things have worked out. I’m somewhat introverted by nature, which makes me jealous of anyone who goes out and takes awesome street portraits of complete strangers. Also, as I mentioned, I’d really like to work with people more and actually I often do in the sense that in my non-artistic pursuits I shoot events, portraits, etc., but I rarely share them with my artistic audience. A few weeks ago I shot a Jiu Jitsu tournament and a full card of MMA bouts. Not something most viewers of my fine art photos would probably expect. Up to now, I’ve always tried to keep the two worlds somewhat separate.

For me the real distinction between types of photographers are those who shoot mostly for themselves and those who shoot mostly for others. In that regard, I’m definitely in the first group. I guess that’s also why I still have a day job.

switched on by Stephen Gray