JONATHAN CHERRY: What did you have for breakfast this morning?

PETER HOFFMAN: Peanut butter on spelt toast, banana, water. Newspaper (I didn’t eat that though).

JC: Are there any emerging photographers inspiring your own practice at the moment?

PH: I’ve actually sort of made it a point not to look at a whole lot of photography lately. I’ve been looking at the work of different painters for a while now; since I never went to art school a lot of it is new to me. My friends always push me and I just discovered the work of Lauren Henkin, which I find to be pretty Zen and beautiful stuff.

JC: What is your work Geographical Derivatives all about?

PH: I’m still trying to figure this out as it’s a pretty large departure from my past work and I’m in the middle of producing it. For me, photography is about recontextualizing what we already and doing so in a way that the viewer may stop and give it a second thought. I’m trying to do this but with the addition of attempting to inject an emotional and visceral reaction that touches on certain complexities woven into that particular geographical space. I’m employing different methods to come up with the imagery, but it’s really as much about the process as it is about the resulting image. For the Fox River series, the process included burning the negatives (and losing a nice 6x9 neg in a fire wasn’t the easiest to stomach at first), for the Loop series, the process meant mashing multiple images together. The first results from these projects are usually a mess, but as I progress I begin photographing in ways that I feel would facilitate successful imagery given the process. The work is still pretty unpolished, but that’s fine, I want it to be that way. If I were a musician I’d consider these projects as a sort of collection of B-sides or remixes.

Also, I used to work full-time as a photojournalist. That job had a lot of rules concerning approach and use of imagery. I’m the sort of person that, if you tell me I can’t do something, I immediately question that and try to figure out a way around that (maybe this had something to do with me growing up a skateboarder). I still do photojournalism work and really believe in it, but I just wanted to step outside of that realm and see what I would do when no longer working within those guidelines.

JC: What draws you to landscape photography?

PH: The process is what I enjoy most, just being out there and studying the stillness. Again, I think so much of what we see is worth a second look, so to be able to do just get out and do that is really a blessing. I love making people’s portraits and even photographing the chaos of city streets, but at the same time I really started photographing seriously as a 20 yr old trying to capture the majesty of the New Zealand landscape with my little point and shoot. At the time I was just after pretty pictures and just making sure I wouldn’t forget all the isolated surf beaches I visited. A part of that experience will always stay with me, even now as I’m photographing a landscape that’s a lot less sexy and I’m looking for different things.

JC: What do you enjoy most about teaching photography?

PH: When I can help students successfully realize the image they had in their head, when they have that sort of “ahhh I get it!” moment, that’s really nice.

Also, depending on the class, sometimes I have people who haven’t really thought about photography on a level beyond the every day barrage of imagery. I had a high school student who saw a book of photographs depicting graffiti and was like “oh, you can take photos of that?” and proceeded to document her neighborhood looking for gang symbolism, which I think made her look at her world differently. Things like that are great, just when students begin to understand the value of both the process and the potential impact of the work. I really want people to understand the potential the medium has and I think that having a class where we continuously shoot and investigate strong work, people begin to understand it. Not to mention that my students help me keep a fresh perspective.

JC: What has 2011 got in store for you?

PH: Well, my best friend is getting married, so I need to figure out how to be a good best man. I’m hoping to get an old motorcycle and I’m also beginning to learn bookbinding which I think will help me realize my work in a new way. Besides that, I’ll make a lot of pictures. It’s bittersweet but I don’t see a whole lot of traveling right now, I feel like I need to be making work here in the Midwest. 2010 was really my first full year out of grad school, so this year is really about building on the work and client base I established last year. I do admit to being restless though so it’s not out of the question that things don’t pan out that way.

JC: What do you think the future of photography looks like?

PH: Photography is still a relatively young medium in my eyes so there will probably continue to be a lot of changes.

I think photography is being set free to become whatever people want it to be, and I’m really excited about that. I think its utility has gone down a bit due to the proliferation of digital cameras that think pretty well for themselves, so as a profession it’s really changing and some traditional roles are probably becoming less relevant unless you practice that role extremely well. This means that people whose passion lies with photography are going to have to make it do new things and look at it in new ways that go far beyond being able to make a correct exposure. Michael Wolf’s Google Street View images being recognized in World Press this year is sort of an “official” recognition of this fact, in my mind. The medium itself is becoming harder to define, and also maybe less relevant. Definitely exciting stuff.

JC: Any wise words to recent photography graduates?

PH: If you want to do it enough, you will find a way. I’m a pretty solid believer that you create your own life. In this line of work that means to just be true to yourself and to just keep pushing your work. Everyone takes his or her own path. When those days come where you just sort of stop and look around and think, “I can’t believe I get paid to do this” … remember that. That won’t be every day, but those days are worth so much. Stay appreciative, humble and hungry. There’s a lot of pissing and moaning in the photography world at times but when you boil it down we have a pretty amazing job and you can’t lose sight of that.

Also, your life outside of photography will ultimately dictate what sort of work you make a lot of the times anyways. Those friends you have who don’t care to talk about photography, they’re good people to have around … I mean it.

JC: Other thoughts?

PH: I’ll take this for a stab at shameless self-promo. I’m selling some prints to raise money for a local refugee assistance foundation that I actually photographed, but I’ve only got 4 left. I’d love to sell out. If you’re curious take a look here at collect.give

That, and thanks for taking the time to keep this site up and show the work of such a variety photographers. These venues are very much appreciated.