JONATHAN CHERRY: What gets you up in the morning?
JOSHUA DUDLEY GREER: Marimba.
JC: Are there any emerging photographers inspiring you at the moment?
JDG: At the moment I’m trying to get away from looking so much at what other photographers are doing and focus on other sources of inspiration - writers, filmmakers, etc. I think the accessibility of emerging photography can be too much at times and I feel like I keep seeing the same kind of work again and again. It doesn’t mean it’s not good work, but most of it just feels unimportant to me right now.
JC: What is your current project all about?
JDG: For the past few years I’ve been focusing on Point Pleasant, a project that documents a military installation in rural West Virginia that manufactured and stored TNT during the second World War. After decommission, the land was repurposed into a wildlife management area despite evidence of massive environmental contamination. Today it’s a popular area for hunting and fishing and yet the bunkers are still being used to house explosive and hazardous materials. It’s a site that has been steeped in secrecy and misunderstanding and is home to a great deal of paranoia and mythology. My primary interest there is land use and the ways in which many of my interests in culture and history seem to converge.
JC: What draws you to shooting landscapes?
JDG: I appreciate photographs that allow the viewer to think and use their imagination rather than explicitly showing a particular event or situation. And as a person who is interested in history, I don’t often have access to the subjects I’m primarily interested in so the landscape provides me with some kind of connection to the events of the past. I’m also inherently an introvert, so exploring the land is often an excuse for me to be alone and be silent. It allows me the freedom to slow down and commune with something greater than myself.
JC: How do you find juggling personal & commercial work?
JDG: Well, commercial work has never really been a priority for me but as a teacher, I do have constant struggles between my personal work and my teaching. The two are inherently linked and they inform each other, but often my own photography can take a back seat to my everyday job. I think that’s normal, all of us have to work and make sacrifices - sometimes it’s easy, but other times it can be rather disheartening. I’m not someone who needs to make pictures everyday, I’ve never really been that kind of photographer. I like to do research and conceptualize and I can go for weeks without actually shooting as long as I’m involved in some sort of creative process that is getting me closer to my goals. But there are times when the weather is right and the last thing I want to do is go to class and that’s when it becomes difficult to keep your energy positive.
JC: What equipment do you use?
JDG: I have a Calumet C-1 8x10 that I’ve been using for 10 years and I also use a 4x5 Toyo field camera. The smaller format allows me to be much more agile and responsive to my subjects and the cost of 8x10 film can be a little prohibitive, so I’ve been weening myself off the big camera lately. It depends on what I’m trying to do and how I want the photographs to be seen; the 4x5 allows me to take some risks and make some different kinds of pictures, but the 8x10 allows me a ridiculous amount of control and description so when I really know what and how I want to say something, I go for that. I scan the 8x10 film through Silverfast on an Epson V700 flatbed scanner using anti-newton ring glass, which is a really time consuming and precarious process. My 4x5’s are scanned on a Flextight X5 which is much faster but doesn’t always give me the amount of control over the tonality and color that I want in my pictures. Photoshop CS4 is a part of my everyday life and while I do miss C-prints, all of my printing is now done on Epson printers.
JC: Any advice to recent photography graduates?
JDG: I’m not sure I’m in a position to be giving anyone advice, but I do know how hard it is to put yourself out there and be constantly rejected or overlooked. Most of the pictures we make aren’t any good and even if they are, we won’t get into a show or publish a book or win an award. It can be difficult to see other people finding success and making work that you don’t think is interesting while you continue to struggle, but that’s part of this life and it’s not for everyone. I think work should be a priority that dictates the majority of your actions and decisions in life. The single most important thing is to be making pictures that are personally meaningful to you and it takes honesty and investigation to discover what those things are. There are lots of good ideas floating around but they don’t necessarily belong to you and they’re not just going to fall into your lap. Keep your chin up and continue to do what you think is important, everything else is just decoration.
JC: Favourite tree
JDG: Shoe Tree, Nevada
