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Polliwog magazine is a photography zine that happens every once in a while. Our magazine contains the stuff of young talents, not necessarily in age, but in the number of steps they took in the art world.

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Polliwog Magazine is created and curated by Rebecca Rijsdijk. Polliblog is being maintained by Rebecca Rijsdijk and Lauren Hillebrandt.

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Interview Erin Jane Nelson

I took a small interview with one of my favorites, Erin Jane Nelson. She studies photography in New York City, but is currently on an exchange in Sweden. Her photos are intimate, dreamy and sometimes a little weird. Erin Jane, we love you. So.. read, enjoy, get inspired, smile, take a cup of tea. Voila!

 

INTERVIEW WITH ERIN JANE NELSON BY LAUREN HILLEBRANDT

   Who’s your favorite photographer

I get asked this a lot and it’s really hard for me to remember from day to day. There is different kind of work I like for different kinds of reasons. For instance, I love Lee Friedlander’s self portraits and shadow works, but much of his other photography annoys me. I love Gabriel Orozco’s photographs because he uses photos as little notes for his larger practice which is primarily sculpture. Sometimes, it’s just some weird little book of illustrative photographs that I like. One time I had this cultish meditation hippie book printed from the 70’s and it was all these huge full page grainy black and white pictures of faces and bodies in meditation and yoga positions. It was so so beautiful and looked like Ryan McGinley photos or something like that. So, in general, I’m more interested in photo work that is just simply seeing and not some big orchestration or production, like Gregory Crewdson or someone like that.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I read a lot. Well, not even that I’m reading for hours everyday, but when I read it’s not like brushing through a novel for fun, I am sitting there with furrowed eyebrows and a pencil taking notes and circling and writing in the margins. So, texts are a huge part of my thought process. I also really respond to drastic situations like being in a super-urban or super-rural or super-isolated place. Also: science, animals, food, movies, talking walks, riding my bike, not being able to sleep, waking up. The normal stuff, probably.

What do your photo’s say about you?

You’d have to ask someone else! Hah. I’m not sure. Whenever I meet someone who really has liked my photos for a while, I almost feel a little cheekish and nervous at first because I’m not sure if people realize that I’m not as serious or strange as my images (maybe I am, I don’t know…). But mostly, I try not to think about what the images say about me, but what the images are saying about the situations they are documenting. I hope people aren’t thinking about me as an author as much as they are thinking about the ideas within the images.

Your photo’s seem to be a document of your life: very intimate, unusual but daily looking situations, kind of like a diary. Is that the way you look at your photos, like a document of your life? Or are you creating a fiction life, more ideal from what it is in reality?

 Well, I go to school for this stuff, can you believe it?! No, but actually this is a really good question. I have always been of the belief that the most sincere way to make work about a political or conceptual idea is to start within your everyday. A lot of times people will find a really estranged subject, something obscure that they feel a great deal of sentiment about and then they pursue the shit out of this other, seperate thing. For me, this process has never worked. I have to just be actively making images on my own account without rules and from there I can string together really sincere trends because I do have very strong ideas about gender, politics, psychology, etc. So, yes I think they are both: extremely diaristic, but also a really specific editing of my reality which ommits so much of the ugliness and banality of living in the 21st century that they do build a certain level of fiction.

You study in New York. What place outside America would you go to right now if I gave you some (or a lot of) money?

Well, surprise! I’ve been living in Sweden for the last several months on exchange for a semester in Malmö. Of course, this was just the best situation available for me. Scandinavia is so strange! I used to be fascinated with it as a kid (I did this huge project on Norway, for instance) but I’m glad I am experiencing first hand now because I’m over the fantasy. If I had to pick a new place to visit, it would be nearly impossible. I’m interested in New Zealand but only because they have a lot of farms and beautiful landscapes. I’m really into the idea of farms and open spaces right now. My list of worldy interests is impossible to begin to think about. But, I’d probably go to some extreme corner of the world rather than some cosmipolitan cultural center. I’m sick of those, to be honest.

Film or digital?

Well, when I started making pictures five years ago, I started with film. Only film. I still shoot with that same camera and have only changed my choice of film a couple times. I love my 35mm camera. it’s clunky and manual so I can really still feel the impact of taking a picture, it has a sound and a feel and a weight. I also have a digital slr, but I have only used it for a couple of pictures. I’m not oposed to digital but until someone literally forces me to change my equipment that has basically become my second arm, I’m sticking with film.

How do you start taking a picture? Are you searching for a certain feeling or thought?

I’ve been simultaneously super interested in science and art my whole life. I would keep notebooks as a kid with drawings, poems, and science experiments (like writing a description of the kind of clouds outside everyday). I was really in love with the idea of learning the whole darkroom and chemical process of photography which is how I learned in high school. We started with shoebox pinhole cameras and worked up to black and white 35mm film. My first projects with the medium were mostly scientific with the pinhole, playing with chemistry and different ways of creating positives etc. Once I got that out of my system, it just became a great tool for me. I don’t like the idea of “going shooting” I just like to have this little arsenal of my camera with me all the time. Maybe it’s still scientific, but more psychology than chemistry!

 What would you like to accomplish (after your graduation)?

 To be honest, lately I’ve been thinking of pursuing some of my other interests for a little while: science, ecology etc. Who knows what I’ll end up DOING but I don’t think I’ll be ready to step out the door and jump into some career path once I graduate. I’ve already accomplished a lot of things I never imagined I would with photography, so I’m going to continue letting the accomplishments come as surprises rather than as some pre-determined goal. Maybe I’d like to learn how to be an excellent gardener, who knows.

Thanks Erin Jane! www.erinjanenelson.com