JONATHAN CHERRY: Which contemporary artists influences your photographic practice?

STEPHEN TAMIESIE: Robert Adams and Joel Sternfeld have provided a lot of direction for my photography. Both of their work is at the top of my list for influence. More recently, the work Ed Burtynski, Sze Tsung Leong and Pieter Hugo has all been significant. Hugo’s The Hyena & Other Men has a wonderful blend of bizarreness and fascination that I really admire. Nadav Kander’s color palette continues to inspire me as well.

One common thread I see with these photographers and others whose work inspires me is their ability to communicate a certain quietness in their images. I think a lot of this is attributed to the particular environments and subject matter being photographed, but when a photographer recognizes this quality in a scene it inspires me.

JC: Would you give us some background to the series ‘Places’ and the reasoning behind it?

ST: Places is a series of photographs presented from a visitors perspective passing through the landscape. It’s such a broad range of work that I almost hesitate to call it a series. However, most of the images share similarities – commonplace surroundings photographed from the viewpoint of a traveler. And when one travels, ordinary places often hold a strangely foreign quality to them. I think the detached character of these environments is the crux of the series. My intent is to convey this outsider’s viewpoint in these photographs.

JC: Above is an image which I found from your series ‘Places’. What is it all about?

ST: This image was taken in November 2008 in Santa Barbara, Ca. A fire had just destroyed a number of homes and devastated much of the area’s landscape. Once the fire was extinguished, I was able to enter the burn area and allowed to photograph on many of the destroyed properties. This was an incredibly surreal experience. Many multi-million dollar estates had been completely burned to the ground. On one property I found a motorcycle resting against a large rock in the shade of a tree. All that remained of the machine was a metal skeleton, the rubber and plastic portions having been burned away. The sight resembled the carcass of an animal that recognized it could not escape its fate and came to rest underneath a tree until it died. The bike had a burnt, desolate appearance and blended into the landscape so well that it seemed to have been lying there for years instead of only a few days. In some ways I felt that this small scene encapsulated the emotions that many homeowners must have felt fleeing their houses, knowing the magnitude of their loss but forced to reconcile their vulnerability to the fire’s power. This photograph is also poignant to me having once lived in the house next door to this property, which was now a pile of rubble.

JC: Are you a photographer who values the experience of photographing very highly?

ST: Definitely, otherwise I’d use my time for something else. The experience of taking a photograph is incredibly rewarding, but can also be very frustrating. Like any creative outlet, I think it’s important to continue working through the frustrations and I’ve realized that it’s healthy to take breaks when feeling uninspired. I’ve also found that limiting the amount of expectations I have when creating work allows me to enjoy photography more. If I’m expecting too much from a project or assignment I find that I am constantly disappointed. It’s important to plan things out (especially for commercial work), but sometimes it’s good to create without always knowing what one is looking for. I’m often surprised with the quality of photographs I make with this mentality.

JC: What project are you working on at the moment? and have you got anything in the pipe line?

ST: Recently I’ve been working on a few showings and commercial jobs as well as a personal project, which I just finished photographing. The personal project involves the Virgin Mary and a large group of people meeting in the California desert, I’ll leave it at that. I hope to have this series edited by early 2010. I’ve also begun researching a project about the international shipping industry which I will begin this winter.