Maura Sullivan
To put it bluntly - I love mysterious images, so it's no mystery that I love the photographs of Maura Sullivan. A straight and to the point statement that is the polar opposite of the images I am referring to. Nothing is happening in her pictures that is obvious. Maura is an excellent storyteller in that she weaves some intriguing ideas into your consciousness. Still, she then leaves the subtleties of the circumstances for you to decide the narrative's ultimate fate being presented. You get to make up your conclusions based upon your own life experiences - for better or worse. I love that about these photographs. I love that about not always ascertaining what lies in the shadows or lurks around the corner. There is just such great excitement in that! I get riddled with nervous energy looking through her work, and it keeps me coming back to experience it over and over again.
We live in an age where we simply pull out our phone and ask Google to give us the answer to any question we may ever have. Feeling the antithesis of this by not having access to the answers is refreshing for once. Remember posing a question to a group of friends, and no one knew the answer, and then you let it bug you until you let it go? There's a certain sense of freedom in that. We don't always have to know what's going on or what something means. Maura Sullivan keeps that feeling alive and draws us into her photographs one uncertain moment at a time.
With these observations, I thought I would ask her for some answers - not from her photographs, but her process. That's why we are here after all, right? In doing so, I also mention that we now have the opportunity to witness her images in the form of Things We Remember, her first monograph. It is through these beautiful black and white scenes that I chose to inquire how and why she works the way she does. Thankfully she was all in on this and happy to help us understand what goes into the production of making such captivating work. Please don't tell us everything, though, Maura.
Bio -
MAURA SULLIVAN was born in 1971 in Hartford Connecticut. She graduated from Syracuse University (B.F.A.) in 1993 and has also attended the International School of Photography. Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and has been widely exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Argentina, The Netherlands, Poland, and Turkey. She was the recipient of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award in 2011. Galleries representing Sullivan’s work include PG Art Gallery (Istanbul), Kahmann Gallery (Amsterdam), and June Bateman Fine Arts (NYC). Her photographs have been published in Art Forum, Black+White Photography, Shots Magazine, Private International Review of Photographs and Text, Fotoritim, and New York Magazine. Her photographs have also appeared in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. Sullivan lives and works in New York City.
Interview -
Michael Kirchoff: Every photographer experiences that spark that drives them into the direction of image-making. How did the visual arts come into your life?
Maura Sullivan: Growing up the youngest of 15 children, I was surrounded by every era of art, music and film. Our back yard often worked as a theatre for creating small plays and filming Super-8 movies. Walking through the house was like flipping through different television channels. Each room, held its own magic. In the basement, my brothers jammed on their guitars nodding to large purple velvet Jimi Hendrix posters and oceans of waterbeds rocking around them. In the dining room, my sisters zipped through bolts of fabric on their sewing machines creating elaborate ball gowns, jumpsuits, and shoulder-padded bat winged wonders inspired by Italian fashion magazines. In the kitchen one of my many great aunts would be sitting there eating potato chips telling stories between bites in a stage whisper. Down the hall my oldest sister’s room doubled as a museum/library that we were invited on occasion to view her impressive doll collection, rare books and other family heirlooms and antiques. But my favorite place to be was hidden under the dining room table or the couch, watching movies from a strange perspective or drawing and writing stories for hours.
MK: Is there anything from your past that you feel has had a dramatic influence on how you create images today?
MS: I had just started experimenting in photography. I was shooting my niece in the backyard of her house. The light wasn’t quite right on her face so I shifted the camera to her feet. Her white stockings glowed in the sunlight as her feet stood firmly planted in the grass. I took a single frame. Later in the darkroom I noticed the way she held her hands and the subtle tilt of her body made her appear both stuck to the ground and weightless at the same time. It was the beginning of something interesting.
MK: What is it that makes for a successful photograph?
MS: I think what makes a successful photograph is finding the light.
MK: It appears that black and white photographs are the norm for you. Why is that?
MS: There is something so pure and simple about black and white photography that I love. By removing all the distractions of color, you can focus more on the composition, forget what year it was taken and cut right to the emotion.
MK: On the technical side of things, what are the tools you are using to make your images? Are you a film, digital, or both kind of photographer? Does it really matter what you use?
MS: I really don’t think it matters what kind of camera you have as long as you are creating images you like. Over the years, I’ve collected quite a few film and digital cameras but I still prefer my old 35mm Nikon Nikormat F1. My oldest sister gave it to me so I have a very sentimental attachment to it. I love the whole process of analog photography. Loading the film, the accidents, the grain and the time it takes to wait and dream for an image to appear.
MK: Once you’ve achieved finding your particular style or voice, do you ever feel the need to break out and follow a different path?
MS: I think I have less of a need to break out and try a new path but rather a desire to try something new to strengthen the path I am already on.
I think it’s really important to push yourself outside your comfort zone and to allow yourself to fail just so you can learn. For a while I had this obsession about experimenting with street photography. My phone was a great tool to do this because it was low risk. I could just delete it if I didn’t like it. I thought it would be the ultimate challenge to seek out touristy destinations in New York and try to make a decent picture. It was just so fascinating to study all these different faces in the crowd. Walking through Times Square, I often felt like I was invisible.
MK: Your photographs are such magical stories in of themselves. Do you find it better to construct your images in a mindful way or work more intuitively?
MS: I love the surprise of working intuitively. Sometimes all I need is a single object to inspire a story, a sentence from a favorite book or a new face to time travel with. I also love shooting in places that hold history, finding vintage clothing with textures and patterns and memories. The magic is mixing up all of these elements and allowing them to draw their own image.
MK: So many of your images look as though they were pulled from a motion picture that occupies a deeply psychological space. What role does psychology play in your work?
MS: Psychological exploration in imagery has always fascinated me. I like the idea of the viewer participating in the picture and experiencing the moment with me.
Some of my favorite film makers and writers who do this so beautifully are -
Ingmar Bergman, Andre Tarkovsky, Alexander Sokurov, Alice Rohrwacher, Vladimir Nabokov, Flannery O’Conner, John Cheever and Alice Munro.
MK: And speaking of film work, is there any interest in applying your aesthetic to a motion-based project? It seems like this would be a natural progression. Or perhaps you already have?
MS: I would love to make a film. Several years ago I started working on a film project with a dear friend of mine. We never finished it. It has all the magic of youth. No concern over budget, a huge cast, a million different locations, there is even a war. It’s one of my goals to finish it even just so I can start something new.
MK: What mental preparations do you make to execute a particular shoot or project that you are excited about? Do you ever look back and find that nothing you had planned is what was done, yet you feel completely satisfied with the outcome?
MS: I love when you arrive at something totally different than what you thought you were looking for. There is so much magic in the failures, the unexplained accidents that you can never replicate, when the weather shifts, people do what you asked them not to do or a stranger walks into the frame.
MK: I think I need to mention your new book released via Skeleton Key Press, Things We Remember. Congratulations are in order! It appears to be a very thoughtfully sequenced series of photographs that makes perfect use of your storytelling talents. How did this project come about and how was the experience in putting it all together?
MS: Thank you! It was a great honor to work with Russell Joslin and Skeleton Key Press to create Things We Remember. I met Russell at a portfolio review several years ago in New York. At the time, he was the editor of Shots Magazine. He was the first to publish my work. We became good friends over the years often sharing work with each other. So I was delighted when he asked if I wanted to collaborate on a book. Since most of our friendship was through letters it felt very natural to communicate long distance. It really helped that Russell was very familiar with my work since he was there almost from the beginning. Russell was very patient throughout the entire process as we worked, and reworked the edit only to come back close to where we started. Sometimes we both thought it would have been great to be able to sit together to manually lay out the prints on the floor but working remotely had it’s advantages too. It was actually nice to have the time to think in between our conversations. I am very grateful for our friendship and proud of the book.
MK: In speaking to future generations of photographers, do you have any words of wisdom to those setting out to make their mark in the photographic world?
MS: Share your work as much as you can. Study other photographer’s work. Take classes, it’s a great way to meet interesting people. Realize that not everyone is going to love your work and that’s ok. It might just mean you are doing something good.
MK: How do you see your work progressing into the future? Do you have anything new you are currently working on that we should be on the lookout for?
MS: Lately I’ve been turning more inward. I am happy to continue my slow and steady climb. I know I am in it for the long haul. I continue to be fascinated traveling into the past and exploring visual storytelling. Relationships and the psychological elements of emotions will always fascinate me. In the near future, I would love to direct a film to further these ideas.
You can find more of Maura’s work on her website here.
You can pick up your own copy of Things We Remember at Skeleton Key Press here.
All photographs from Things We Remember, ©Maura Sullivan
