This is a reprint of an interview about my photography conducted for the Gavin’s Underground blog for City Weekly newspaper in connection with the Utah Art’s Festival, May Gallery Stroll. The full article is located here.
GalleryUAF held a triple artist show for May, the last one before September as the staff now prepare for the Arts Fest and shut down the gallery for the next few months after. This month we talk with two very different photographers, Scott Page and Chris Madsen, and painter Michelle Condrat about their works and thoughts on local art, all with photos for you to check out over here.
Scott Page
Gavin: Hey Scott, first thing, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Scott: I own and operate an online store selling kitchen products at Canning Pantry. I was an environmental consultant for seventeen years before starting my online business in 2003.
Gavin: What first got you interested in photography, and what were some of your early inspirations?
Scott: I became interested in photography when I discovered my older sisters old Kodak Brownie camera. I was fascinated with the ability of the little brown box camera to capture images. After getting back the images from those initial attempts at photography, I began doing extra chores to earn enough money for an old Instamatic camera and film. My interest continued and I later convinced my dad that I needed the Time-Life photography series of books to further my young education. I was perhaps ten years old, yet I devoured each book in the series that came in the mail about every other month. I was also heavily influenced by the photojournalism magazine Life, which came weekly to our house, displaying the horrors of the Vietnam war. One of my early influences was Ernst Haas who did several photo essays in Life, which highlighted his motion study work. His influence can be seen in my similar work.
Gavin: You’re currently earning your Bachelors in Photography from Utah State. What made you choose USU, and what was their program like for you?
Scott: I have not yet completed my Bachelors program in photography but will graduate in 2012. After seventeen years as an environmental consultant, and seven years running my own business, I decided to return to school to formally study the photography passion that developed just after I learned to tie my own shoes.
Gavin: Your body of work seems to incorporate different forms, you snap landscapes and motion shots, but you’ve also tired self-portraits and bodily figures. Why spread yourself across different genres and experiment as opposed to focusing on a single type and become an expert?
Scott: I’m still discovering the artist within and exploring different avenues of creative output. While becoming an expert in one area may be the way to greater success, I’m doing this for fun and personal growth and do not feel the need concentrate on one area. I do plan to attend graduate school with a plan to pursue a third career as an exhibiting artist and photography teacher. Graduate school will be the place to refine and narrow my creative focus. Right now, I’m just having a blast photographing whatever interests me at the time.
Gavin: Of all the different themes you’ve experimented with, which one do you enjoy working with the most, and what keeps drawing you back to it?
Scott: I certainly love black and white film photography. Specifically, using this material on images of rural and urban decay. I’m intrigued with showing the evidence of people; the effects of their previous presence and subsequent abandonment of places, objects, and buildings as people move on to bigger, better, shinier and newer things. Perhaps it is a way for me to explore the feelings of abandonment and loneliness that I’ve felt in my own life. The focus of my current UAF show is motion studies which are considerably different from the still and quiet images of decay and abandonment. My enjoyment and interest in these types of images that show energy and movement are also likely related to my experiences in early life. My father became paralyzed from contracting polio when he was young and was on crutches throughout my life. As a boy, in ignorance I feared getting polio too and had nightmares and anxiety attacks about being unable to move or run. My motion studies are perhaps a way to explore and confront these early experiences.
Gavin: For your own personal choice, do you prefer traditional film or digital, and why?
Scott: That’s a tough question. If I’m doing color work, it will most likely be digital. But there is a whole history and romance surrounding traditional photography methods that are hard to leave behind. Wet darkroom black and white prints have a rich luminous handmade quality that is hard to duplicate digitally. That said, digital offers levels of control that are difficult or impossible to achieve via the traditional methods. Layering or composting in Photoshop enables the photographer to create images that directly reference the artists imagination. I believe that both digital and traditional materials each have their own unique qualities and that working with a hybrid workflow often provides the most unique look with the highest level of control.
Gavin: What kind of equipment do you choose to shoot with for your main body of work?
Scott: Again, a tough question. I shoot 35mm film or digital and both medium and large format film cameras. The project I’m working on dictates the equipment. I recently did a 10-day urban shoot on the streets of Toronto and New York City. I only used a 4×5 film camera for this work and was able to capture some truly beautiful images that smaller formats would have made difficult or impossible to achieve.
Gavin: Usually most photographers tend to pack up and head to a major city to display and make their mark, but you’ve chosen to stay in Hyrum. What made you decide to stay?
Scott: The internet has really made it easier for photographers to show their work in major markets. Not only can you showcase your work on your own website or on the picture sharing sites, but there are online databases of artist calls-for-entry, where you can submit work on a regional, national, or international basis. I started entering these juried shows just over a year ago and have had the opportunity to show my work in markets from California to New York. It is true that artists close to large population bases, have access to large buying markets. But the economy has become worldwide and artists now have many more opportunities to become involved in that world market.
Gavin: Have you given any thought to starting your own professional photography business, or are you mainly sticking to doing it as an art as opposed to job?
Scott: I have no interest in pursing a commercial photography business. I’m 50 years old and simply don’t have the years left to build a client base. Portraiture is perhaps the fastest route to a photography business, but my interest in that type of work is fairly small. I’d love to teach photography and continue to pursue exhibition opportunities. For myself, I believe that is the path to keep photography fun and exciting.
Gavin: Tell us about the new works you have on display for this Stroll.
Scott: If you look at the motion work of Ernst Haas, you will see the influence that master had on me as a ten or twelve year old. One of the unique properties of still photography is that it has the ability so show a span of time in a single instant. Photographs usually show us a frozen “existence” that occurred in a small fraction of a second; say from around 1/60 to 1/250 of a second or so. But an interesting world beyond our normal perception exists at the two extreme ends of shutter speeds. Both high-speed and slow-speed photograph offers imagery outside of our normal visual perception. For this exhibition, I’ve chosen to work with slow shutter speeds, often from around 1 second to 1/15 of a second. While capture objects in motion, these slow shutter speeds compress movement into a interesting display of swirling color and captured energy. I often seek out amusement parks and carnivals for colorful and fun subject matter for this type of work. A couple of the photographs are large format film based works taken in New York City. These depict the energy and movement of a large city, but unlike the moving subjects in the carnival ride photos, motion and energy is implied through movement of the camera during double exposures.
Gavin: What are your thoughts about being displayed at GalleryUAF along with Michelle and Chris?
Scott: I’m really excited about displaying at GalleryUAF and particularly alongside the work of Michelle Condrat. I’m not sure how she feels about her work, but I feel that is some ways, it is the “painting” equivalent of my motion work, applied to the landscape instead of the amusement park. Her work has a vibrant “aliveness” and energy in the landscape that I feel is similar to the output of subatomic energy (of which we are all products of) that I’m trying to capture with children zooming in circles on a carnival ride.
Gavin: Going local for a bit, what are your thoughts on our art scene, both good and bad?
Scott: Utah has a really strong art scene for a western small-population State. Our university museums and community art centers offer good opportunities for artists and the public interested in looking at or learning about art. The Park City art scene and Sundance Film scene is particularly strong. Even the wonderful Central Utah Art Center in little Ephraim has gotten some national press. I do sometimes feel that the local art scene is a bit heavy on the landscapes, portraits and religious-based work, but that is not surprising given the sentiments of the population. It is unlikely that my male and female nude work will find many exhibition opportunities in Utah.
Gavin: Is there anything you believe could be done to make it more prominent?
Scott: Given our population size, Utah is pretty visible to the world due to Park City and Sundance. However, our museums are fairly small and spread out in multiple venues between the LDS Church properties, university museums, Park City galleries, and various local museums and galleries. A single, central, large high-class museum would be great to promote art in Utah but is probably unlikely to happen.
Gavin: What’s your take on Gallery Stroll as a whole and how its doing today?
Scott: This is my first real participation in the Salt Lake Gallery Stroll so I have no experience to base a comment on.
Gavin: What can we expect from you over the rest of the year?
Scott: At the end of May, I’m headed to Austria, Italy, Hungary, and the Czech Republic for forty days of daily photography. I’m hoping to return with some exciting imagery that I can share with Utah. This fall, Utah State University will have an exhibition of work generated by the group of students participating in this central European trip.
Gavin: Is there anything you’d like to plug or promote?
Scott: The Central Utah Art Center in Ephraim has some wonderful national exhibitors and they have an art bus that travels from Salt Lake to their gallery openings. Those who love art should check it out. You can see more of my work at my website.
