My friend and fellow photographer, Cheri (@deepsoulphotography) has been interviewing photographers that have been an inspiration to her through the years. Somehow she asked me to me part of the series, although I think I have learned way more from her than she has from me! I was very honored by her request and of course I said yes.
In the interview we talked about how I got into photography, how I find inspiration, and how I am handling the quarantine among many other topics. Below is a excerpt of the interview. To read the full interview head over to her beautiful blog. She has also already interviewed amazing photographers, so you can check those out as well while you are there 🙂
AN INTERVIEW WITH MY FRIEND LAURA!
Today is a special treat! 🙂 You get to sit in on a conversation that I had recently with my good friend, Laura Evans. I haven’t known Laura for even a year yet, and yet it feels like we have been friends for years! We bonded quickly over our shared love of photography, and our willingness to try new things and be “all in” with our photography. I was wanting to work on a personal project, and I asked Laura if she would model for me, and she said yes, and within a week, I think, we were off on a two day trip (along with our other wonderful photography friend, Amy!) into the mountains to start the project! And it was so much fun! The three of us collaborated so well together, and played off of each other’s ideas, and just had a blast! I can’t wait to get to do it again when things open up again…someday!
This interview is kind of a long one, cause we really got talking, and took a few rabbit trails but we had a great conversation, and Laura shared some great ideas about how she works, that I think you will find really helpful and interesting!
So, without further ado, here is Laura!
THE INTERVIEW:
C: Hi Laura! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview! I guess we could start with telling people a bit about how we know each other. I was trying to think how we met initially and I actually can’t remember!
L: We met at the women’s retreat.
C: Oh yes! I know we had seen each other many times, but I couldn’t remember the first time we actually had a conversation. So we met at a women’s retreat and we connected, mainly about photography, at first, I think. And very quickly, we started talking about projects and all sorts of fun things that we could do together and separately. It was very fun.
L: Yes, I think we were both at a point, we both wanted to explore different things than just the photography we’d always done and I think for us together, even though we were not necessarily exploring the same things, there was the idea of getting out of our comfort zone and exploring new things.
C: Yes! And I love that, that we work in very different genres…there is some overlap, obviously, but the things that you’re doing, and the things that I’m doing are quite different, but like you say, we have this connection over ideas and exploration and trying new things and just encouraging each other in those things, which has been really fun for me.
L: Yes, for me too.
C: So, how long have you been doing photography and how did you get into photography to start with?
L: I’ve been thinking about that. I started doing photography about nine years ago. I got my first camera when I was going to come here to Kyrgyzstan to visit. I had no background in photography up until that point, but it was very intriguing. My friends had a camera that I would use when I was at their house. So it was just before our first visit to Kyrgyzstan in 2011, to visit, that I bought my first camera, and I brought it to Kyrgyzstan. And so I just explored, cause I didn’t know anything, but that was the beginning.
I think that there are quite a few creatives in my family, they’ve just done it as a hobby, but it’s definitely there…doing photography, playing instruments, and I remember when I was pretty little…my uncle had taken a black and white picture of a tiny little church in Spain in a little village, and the sun was shining through, and I just remember being amazed, at how powerful a simple photograph could be. That has always stayed with me, and I think that motivated me to get into photography.
C: I think that’s how it starts for a lot of people…that we see something that we kind of go, “Wow”, or “That’s incredible!” and we think, “I want to do that!” Or we see something and it evokes emotion and we want to do that too.