JONATHAN CHERRY: What did you have for breakfast today?

MEGAN KATHLEEN MCISAAC: Leftover steel-cut oats & quinoa with seaweed, yams, ginger, and white miso. I also drank four cups of hojicha. 

JC: Are there any emerging practitioners who are inspiring you at the moment?

MKM: I wish I could say I was more up to date on other emerging photographers right now… I don’t know what to say. I really enjoy all of Jody Rogacs photographs, she just continuously finds the most wonderful light. 

JC: What draws you to working in black and white?

MKM: I like to use both colour and black and white film, almost evenly. Black and white simply teaches me not to rely on colour, to look deeper into whatever I’m photographing because I don’t have as many distractions when looking at the print later on. It’s cyclical for me, in the past I’ve usually shot colour only for months and then spent the next however many months using black and white. It simplifies things for me, cleanses and refreshes the way I see things. 

JC: In your opinion what makes a successful portrait?

MKM: In my opinion… well, when I make a portrait (both in a studio or on location) I really try to shake everything off. Shake off what I know and shake off what portraits have inspired me, and just try and be as present as possible. For that to come through in a portrait, that I am, or was, present with the person or animal I was photographing, is most often when I feel I’ve made one that I’ve considered successful. when looking at photographs made by others, I don’t really have any guidelines or any sort of check-list for it to be inspiring. It all depends on so many levels. 

JC: What is your current body of work all about?

MKM: To be honest, I havent been making as many photographs as I would like to be right now. I’m in a transitioning period and am about to leave portland, where I’ve been living for the past three years. My partner and I have been working on our R.V., a 1977 toyota dolphin, for the past couple of months and we’re gearing up to leave portland together next month, for life on the road. I feel like I am just entering the beginning of a new body of work, all relative to this. I would love to spend my time on the road making photographs with the intentions of including them in my first book that I want to produce in the next couple of years. I have so many ideas of what to expect, but who knows what will happen, who we’ll meet, what we’ll see, and what I’ll be photographing… 

JC: What does photography mean to you?

MKM: A large part of what photography means to me is about the relationships I have and make with people, animals, and places too. Also, the notion that I can share how I see things with anyone else still amazes me. I’ve always been fascinated with how we all see things, even basic colours, differently. 

JC: What is next?

MKM: Just to get on the road and start traveling. Heading south to stay with the sun and make photographs day in and day out.

JC: Other thoughts?

MKM: If you live in any of the southwestern states, keep an eye on my blog for when we’ll be near you and hopefully we can meet up.