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

MARYANNE CASASANTA: Granola, a couple of apricots, an orange and coffee.

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

MC: So many, it would be a mouthful! I am inspired by artists who don’t limit themselves, surprise me with their playfulness and are not solely aligning their vision with what is currently fashionable. I am always impressed by peers who can stimulate and challenge me, besides creating a thing of impressive beauty.

JC: Who are your photography heroes?

MC: Writers who have written extensively on the topic of photography have left a significant impression on me. I often refer back to Susan Sontag, Janet Malcolm, Roland Barthes or Walter Benjamin when I want to think more deeply about the process. Their examinations of the medium are so dense and complex. I gravitate towards the challenge of investigating new ideas and am interested in the task of forging connections between various concepts. Something about having these close to the surface of my conscious keeps me on alert for opportunities to visually explore them while I’m out shooting.

JC: How highly do you value the actual experience of photographing?

MC: I see myself as a visual artist who works with photography, so for me, the act of taking a picture has multiple meanings. When I am composing a photograph, I often see the camera as an extension of my body and question where I stop and the camera begins, especially for projects where I am both the photographer and the subject. Many of my photos function as documents of my installations, performances and geographical interventions. They exist as either a photograph or as a proof of something I did or made, which depending on the viewer, can alter its dimension.  The experience of setting up and taking a picture is one of my favorite things to think about. 

JC: What is your current project all about? 

MC: My current project is called, Peace Bards. It consists of a small handmade wooden hexagonal box that contains 12 hex cards. The images on the hexagonal cards depict shapes and structures that I have sought out in natural environments. To be frank, I don’t know what this project is really meant to accomplish. A bard is a poetic oral tradition, a form of storytelling. I sense that this project has something to do with seeking out a space of peace and the featured scenes are like that of perhaps a fortune telling card, little narratives onto themselves or a longer narration that can be loosely strung together to teach or remind one of something. At least that is my currrent interpretation. I don’t want to think too hard about it at the moment but just let the meaning reveal itself to me in time and have the object organically manifest.

JC: What is in store for you photographically over the next 6 months?

MC: Hopefully some more collaborative efforts, not only with other artists and photographers but also musicians and designers. I’ve been thinking about revisiting older projects to see if after some time they can be transformed into a more defined work of art. At some point, I’d like to take a break and just be a participant for awhile rather than a voyeur.

JC: What does photography mean to you?

MC: It would be difficult for me to clearly summerize what photography means to me. I find photography to be very enigmatic and seductive. The experience of reviewing old photos is a dangerous one, because one can easily lose themselves in romanticizing that captured moment and project an interpretation of the event while distorting its actual reality. Photography is powerful in confusing memory, but sometimes it can also reveal realities over time. I think the role of a photographer is to anticipate the unexpected, which is really exciting because every time you go out to shoot, there is so much open potential. Besides taking my own pictures, I enjoy working with found photographs and appreciate the idea of the photo as a relic for nostalgia or as an art object that can be reinterpreted.