Mykle Parker
It’s been a minute since I’ve conducted any interviews strictly for Catalyst, but now I’m back. This timing worked out perfectly, for this one had me from the get-go. These are images that make no apologies. Some may consider them too much, but I think they are just right and help spell out a message people need to hear and understand further. Mykle Parker has covered the front lines of a movement and an issue that must be worked out for the betterment of all. Once you see the work and read these words, you’ll want to investigate further–and that’s when you’ll see a photographer who has developed a style of substance that most take a lifetime to achieve. And when it’s for a worthy cause, then all the better. Plus, this is work that makes me want to grab my own camera and run out the door to make photographs. It’s a sharp stick to your ass that’ll get you inspired and juiced up to do something that gets attention for all the right reasons.
Beyond this, there’s an openness and honesty to Mykle as a person, as well as the work itself. After conducting this interview, I feel like I get it all so much better now. Not that I didn’t before, but hearing what it’s like from the inside makes it all the richer for me. I think you’ll see what I mean once you absorb what’s presented here for you. I’m not saying anything specific because I want this to hit you like it did for me. You’ll also see why Mykle was handed the Me&Eve Grant from CENTER this year. The reasons are evident and well-earned.
So take from me; there is a lot to glean here. Enjoy the interview and take in the project. You’re just going to sit back afterward and say, “Wow!” This I know without a doubt.
Bio -
Mykle Parker is a documentary photographer who specializes in social justice and gender equity. I have been working on various long-term projects over the past 20 years that seek out stories and perspectives that are overlooked, clandestine, and unseen. My philosophy is that if we only record singular versions of events, we won’t have a full picture to inform us. With my work, I hope to record and document elements of "his-story” to ensure various narratives and perspectives are remembered in the future.
Interview -
Michael Kirchoff: Every photographer experiences that spark that drives them in the direction of image-making. How did you get your start, and what were your early influences?
Mykle Parker: I took a class when I went back to college, and the first three rolls of films I developed were completely blank. I was hooked because I couldn’t get it right in one try. The whole experience was tactile and meditative for me. I could be around people and learn, but not expected to interact. Contrary to what a lot of people think, I have social anxiety, but LOVE people. Except the assholes. They can go away.
As far as photographer influences, Lilian Bassman’s black and white fashion…the grain…the movement…the beauty of women without sexualization…simply poetic. And I have always loved Mark Seliger’s humor and sense of color, especially the 90’s era.
MK: Is there anything from your past that you feel has had a dramatic influence on how you create images today?
MP: Past, no. Present, yes. Honestly, my camera is how I process emotions. I dropped my son off for Freshman year last week. He was terrific when I suddenly left the car running, threw it in park, and hopped out to get my camera/flash from the back. He ground his teeth, and you can tell he is annoyed, but he gave me my space to process. We have this agreement that the pics I take of him are for me, and I won’t publish anything without his permission. My camera is like a shield that filters all the emotions I am feeling. The images I create are how I see the world in my head.
MK: What is your primary objective in photography?
MP: Oh, that’s like an onion. In the simplest terms, I want the people I photograph to feel seen and heard. Then I hope that the stories I have experienced and images I have created are found worthy enough to be preserved in museums for centuries to come.
I’m in a strange place. 52, going through decolonization, wanting to remain part of the story, yet acknowledging that as a white person, I need to be conscious of each step I take and respect the shift that needs to happen. And where do I fit in that? What is my role in that?
MK: Tell us about your project, Rage 4 Rights, recently awarded with the Me&Eve Grant by CENTER.
MP: July 4 is our Independence Day here in America. Ten days prior to it, Dobbs had overturned our right to safe and legal abortion. I saw a post for a protest and thought, there is no place else I’d rather be that day. I’ve been an activist all my adult life, so marching is nothing new.
Some of us aren’t just pissed. We are enraged at the audacity that other people have legal control over what can be done, or not done, physically to our bodies. The idea that people I have never met or will have to live with the impact of their decisions is utter nonsense.
The series is for the people who aren’t heard, who can’t be seen because of safety issues, who are furious and fed up but may not be able to represent that emotion in a visual/verbal manner. I want them to know they are not alone and that there are people out there who represent them, fighting for all of us.
MK: How will this grant amplify and expand your project? Is there a long-term goal for Rage 4 Rights?
MP: Oh my, it’s already amplified to another audience I didn’t have access to before. Also, we’re talking! These are things I was not able to achieve on my own. The topic itself is so hot that most people just toss the potato without looking too closely. I was even surprised when CENTER placed a warning advisory with the photos. I don’t think they are that extreme, which was eye-opening.
I also want to travel to other states like Florida and Texas to cover the issue there.
MK: The images of Rage 4 Rights are powerful, emotional, and brutally honest in their depiction of these protests from such a controversial group, and covering these events can have inherent dangers when emotions run high. There must be an exceptionally apropos story you have that helps to illuminate the feelings behind the cause. Would you care to share this?
MP: The funny thing is, Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights in Los Angeles is adamant about NOT engaging with ANY opposition when out protesting/marching. You don’t see it until someone tries to infiltrate, antagonize, and escalate the situation. Then there is an external team of people that come in and block them peacefully so the protesters can remain focused on the message. Which is the opposite of what most would think of a group that does bold protest like they do.
What I have seen this past year terrifies me, but not in the way you think. The strategies being used are subversive, tactical, and coordinated from a higher level than I have seen in the past 30 years. There was one event that took me weeks to deconstruct and articulate what happened.
RU4AR joined BAMM to support their protest on Hollywood and Vine. It’s about a block away from Capitol Records and has a scramble crosswalk. Opposing viewpoints were set up at the corners. There were several other protests occurring on Hollywood Blvd that day. Nothing unusual. I notice this one guy. I call him Wig Man. He’s dressed in a baseball hat, dark sunglasses, and what could be a long-haired wig…again, it’s LA, nothing unusual. He begins to come over at each red light and antagonize the Pro-Choice side. OK, fine. After many trips across the street, he progressively gets the Pro-Choice crowd to engage and begin to step out onto the street. Each time he stays just a little longer past the green light, leading them into the street after the light has turned and breaking the law. Finally, an older woman, I call her Veteran Protester, comes over and inserts herself dead center into the Pro-Choice crowd. She’s Pro-Life, got an itty bitty megaphone, and is antagonizing everyone around her. Without thought, they react and begin to feed into it. Any calm or focus they have has been worn away by Wig Man. They get her out, and more Pro-Life people come in. I notice the escalation and turn to the cop that was standing there, stating, “Tell me you have more police on the way”. Finally, more police show up and surround the Pro-Choice side. And only the Pro-Choice side because technically, the Pro-Choice side's breaking the law. It would be another ten minutes before the police spread out and put more officers at each corner. As I am across the street covering, it hits me. Wig Man is gone! He’s nowhere. Later, I get home and look through all my images. As soon as Veteran Protester came over into the crowd, Wig Man left. As if his job there was done.
Then there are the elected officials infiltrating local levels in a way I have never seen. School Boards, Sheriff, Police, Judicial…the protesters are getting arrested, put on notice for “up to a year,” then the laws get changed and the protesters are called back in for further prosecution. And these elected officials are just…rolling on over any rights we might have once had.
MK: In viewing your other projects, it is clear that your use of color, motion, and visual intimacy with your subjects are all a part of your overall aesthetic. Was there a vision for working in this way from the beginning, or was it a development over time that helped hone these exciting elements of your work?
MP: Wow, thanks. It’s a bit of both. The images you see are how I see the world in my head. My brain is like a stylized cinematic film that doesn’t stop.
On the flip side, when I learned photography, I had a Cannon AE-1 with a fixed 50mm, and I could only shoot at night without any additional lights. It forced me to look at things differently to complete the assignments. I would shoot 3200 film and push it to 120,000. Then use a #5 filter when developing 16 x 20 prints. I would be very up-close and intimate with the people or things I shot. The way I approached social work was the same.
MK: You’ve mentioned before that being an activist has been a part of your five careers thus far, culminating in your role as a photojournalist. How so? In addition, how can others make activism a part of their own daily lives?
MP: I don’t consider myself a photojournalist. Those peeps are uber-talented and hardcore with a whole different set of ethics. I futz a bit with the color, texture, and clarity too much!
I’m unique in the way that…I have been on all sides of non-profit/activism/treatment in the past 30 years; front lines as an employee directly working/advocating for clients in the LGBTQ and domestic violence community, volunteering with 75+ organizations, protesting /marching, opening a non-profit and sustaining it, creating curriculum that is used nationally, and spending four months in outpatient treatment for my eating disorder. So I get the world in a way that another photographer would not. The nuances, the bureaucracy, the precautions needed for confidentiality, the trauma they are experiencing, the difference between short and long-term programs, rolling seamlessly between crisis situations, boundaries, and receiving services as a client…I mean, I know it without even thinking, and once I am able to establish that with a client…we have a level of trust that allows me to explore and give them what they need without them worrying. I have seen a lot of bad shit, I have heard a lot of bad shit. I’m not a shiny newbie who thinks everything is going to be all unicorns and rainbows while I am working. It’s more like…haggard unicorns with occasional explosive diarrhea. It takes A LOT to shock me or freak me out at this point, and because of that, both staff and clients feel safe around me. Also, I’m not going to publish anything that will put someone at risk. Recently, one of the programs I work with posted that they were going to the beach. The father (abuser) saw the post, figured out his kid was there from another post the program made where the kid was visible (not anything I did), and went to the beach to wait that day. He kidnapped his son from there. It took three months before the mother was able to get him back.
MK: Over the years, the tools we use to make photographs have changed in dramatic ways, not to mention the vehicles we use to promote the final works we make. How do you keep up with these changes, and do you see there being any further significant change as lens-based media continues to progress?
MP: I don’t keep up. I love the craft for the challenge it had prior to digital. I was REALLY bitter when digital came on the scene. I’m kinda old school that way. “We can fix it in post” is not in my vocabulary. Also, I’m not a gadget geek. I do shoot with a digital camera now, but I can never remember what model. It’s the tool to do what I want at the moment. You gotta understand I will use a camera until it dies in the middle of a shoot. I’m the same way with cars, except they die in the middle of the intersection as I am turning left. Email is overwhelming, and I currently have 289 unread text messages. Yeah, I’m THAT person.
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?
MP: <insert endless cackling> My brain is calm in the chaos and challenge. You learn to prep, so it’s like washing your hands. But even the soap runs out sometimes, and you just…make it happen. I spent years immobilized by the stupid fear of failing. FAILING is the BEST!!!!!!! Like, really, let’s start celebrating “failures.” You only go up from that, right?
And it is rare that I am completely satisfied with my work. I need to work on that. This series is as close to that “satisfaction” I have so far.
MK: Was there a specific point in time when you felt that you had found your voice in photography and became satisfied with the direction of your work? Do you ever truly find yourself in a good place with your images, or are you always searching for more?
MP: I feel like my voice has become…clear in recent years. I’m not sure if any artist is ever “satisfied.” It is more that. I am moving in the right direction. I am happier with my work, but there is still something missing, and I don’t know what that is. So yes, I am always looking to push my work further and asking, What does that mean? Where do I fit? Will I ever fit while I am alive, or is this it?
MK: Thank you for your time and energy in sharing this work with us, Mykle. As a final topic, I’m interested in how you see your work progressing in the future. Do you have anything new you are currently working on that we should also be on the lookout for?
MP: Thank YOU! This is amazing.
It’s strange. My kid went off to college last week. This is day 5 of “not being responsible for anyone else but me” since I was like four. I honestly don’t know what the future holds. The dream is to be paid for shooting on long-term projects and have my work preserved in museum collections before I die. If anyone wants to hire me, let’s talk!
You can find more of Mykle’s work on their website here.
All photographs, ©Mykle Parker
