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Simone Cappa: Please describe your background and how you became an artist. |
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Stephan Gilliam, interviewed by Simone Cappa
Simone Cappa: Please describe your background and how you became an artist.
Stephan Gilliam: How I got into photography is really a funny story, at least to me. I took a class in high school, just a short, one-term kind of class. That was before digital so it was all film, which was fun. Going into the darkroom and developing my photos was really cool, but that was about it.
Some years later, seeing how I grew up in a family of musicians, I also became one, and that’s what I did for many years and loved it. Had a great band out of Austin, Texas, “Empty” the band name. Got to travel a lot and meet a lot of great people and see a lot of cool places. While on the road I would have a little point-and-shoot with me and just shoot whatever I thought I would want to remember about that part of my trip at that time. I got photos of lions at a gas station in Louisiana off the highway! Anyway, my band ended up going the way of the dodo and I found myself not really wanting to have that kind of a letdown again and I thought to myself, “If I’m going to fail at something let it be something I’m the one in control of.” I kicked around Louisiana for about a year, and while I was there I met a woman named Cynthia who as I later found out was totally off her rocker, a total nut job, but she was a damn good photographer who saw some of what I have shot from the road, and said I should try my hand at it all the way. So I said, “Fuck it! Why not?” I started teaching myself everything I could learn—lighting, how to really use a camera. Then I just started applying my eye to it, trying not to try too hard, meaning if I get too tech about it, it will loose its raw form which is catching what we really see stripped down and just out there. Now I didn’t do this without help. I had some really great friends pushing me along the way. My best friend Kelly McNulty really helped me out. She really believed in me and thought I was really good at what I did. So over the course of about four years she pushed and pulled me through to where I am. Kelly also got bit by the shutterbug and now does portrait photography in Modesto, California. I really think without her help and friendship I never would have taken the risks that I did and worked as hard to learn all I wanted. I owe her everything!
SC: Your work often deals with the individual in public and private moments. This series deals with voyeurism, but on a deeper level, deals with human nature. Comment further on this…
SG: Well, I like to find the beauty in everyone no matter what the outside, and in some cases the ugly. I guess I just want to catch who the person really is.
SC: How has living in New York City affected your work, and what do you think about urban settings and social interaction in New York City?
SG: It’s changed in a big way. The people here are like no others anywhere else I have ever lived, which has been a few places. I find just about everyone I meet to be amazing—cool jobs, great stories, and a real sense of who they are or at least who they want to be.
SC: It is interesting you say “who they want to be.” What do you mean by this? New York is a city where many come to be something they were not previously. Do you think this relates to the concept of photography—creating a different “better” version of oneself?
SG: What I mean is a lot of people come out to New York to be an actor or model or well, hell, a photographer, writer, and so on. A lot of who I have met are those who are on their way to becoming those things. Some are closer than others, but all want their dream!
SC: What is the next body of work about?
SG: I keep picking at this idea about how I think we, myself included, have come to rely way too much on technology. Cell phones and laptops—it’s like they own us and not the other way around. I sit on the Q train to Brooklyn and all I see is everyone face down in their phones. I want to show images of how we are slaves to these things.
SC: Who are your favorite artists and why?
SG: That’s a hard one. I like so many for many reasons. There’s an 18-year-old girl in England who takes some amazing photos who I really like. Her name is Jade, don’t know the last name. And then there’s David Lachapelle, Phillip Warner of Lithium Picnic, who I really like. All for different reasons. Jade has great photos all done on a Canon Rebel XTi. See, all along I kept thinking, “God, I need to get the best everything I can to get the best photos I can.” Then this girl comes along with her little camera and shows me, “Ummm, no you don’t.” Now it may not seem like a big deal to most, but Phillip Warner and I have written back and forth a few times. I like how he does great work. But the fact that he is so reachable and willing to help without ego and help me is really fucking cool to me. Lachapelle, well, he’s just the shit and is kind of the place I want to get to. His images are just awesome. He does what he wants and people let him. All the color and crazy he puts on film, it’s what I reach for.
SC: Any advice for artists newly arrived in New York City?
SG: Get a good job as soon as you get here!
SC: Have you had any major exhibitions of your work?
SG: No, but I hope to soon.
SC: Many of your portraits feature an individual subject staring directly at the camera lens. Do you feel the works are aggressive and confronting the viewer with something? Talk about your personal relationships with your subjects? How, if at all, do they affect your portrayal of them on camera?
SG: The photos shown here are of a former girlfriend of mine who I loved completely. At the time I was shooting them it was just simple face shots, just little tweaks here and there. Now that we are no longer together and I look at them I feel sad and happy all at the same time. I see every part of who she was—all the little things that I miss and then don’t miss. So now when I shoot, I try to get to know the model a little if I don’t already. It helps me find that photo of them that tells me, “I am a human with all the sadness and happiness that this whole world has.”
SC: Are you more interested in capturing the real, raw individual hidden from the public or the “best” version of themselves, the one they want to have the outside world see?
SG: Both really, but the hidden face is always the best. I think that we all have this face we put on that we show the outside world and a lot of times we forget who we are and try to live up to this face. I want the world to see the real face—see pain, happiness, sadness—even if it just a simple face shot. But at the same time, the dressed up face is also fun to shoot as well. The “pretend” us, or me or you, can be a blast to shoot!
SC: How faithful is your art to photography? Do you see yourself exploring other mediums?
SG: I really would like to try my hand at a multimedia kind of thing. I have an idea to put images to an album by one of my favorite bands, Our Lady Peace. They have a CD Spiritual Machines that was inspired by the book of the same title by Ray Kurzweil. I would like to put what I see when I hear this CD into images and then blend it all together with audio and video then loop it.
