Interview with Jessica Auer

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I met Jessica Auer at Concordia University a few years ago. She was then a teachers assistant for my introductory black and white photography class. Since, she has been a very active artist, finishing up her MFA and producing several exhibitions, while at the same time teaching photography at college level and being one of the founding members of the artist run gallery Les Territoires. She has now been appointed as a photography instructor at Concordia University and her career seems to be well under way. I had the chance to see her work and to hear her talk about it and it’s with great pleasure to present this interview that we did at the beginning of the year. We have discussed some of the issues of her project “Re-creational Spaces” and she gives us a glimpse of her method, preoccupations and technical approach.

Louis Perreault: First of all, could you tell us what brought you to the subject matter of Re-creational Spaces?

Jessica Auer: I have always been interested in photographing landscape and architecture. Before beginning to photograph for that series, I was making projects that were about the history of places and the transformation of spaces. Then a few things started to happen at the same time. I was thinking about how the places I had traveled to as a child had changed dramatically in the past 20 years, for example, some of the tourist towns in the rocky mountains and the National parks in the United States. I was also becoming obsessed about photographing Niagara Falls. Eventually, I gave up trying to make a series about Niagara Falls and started to put photographs of different places together and I felt that these single images functioned like chapters of a book. I wanted to make more chapters so I traveled to other places to do more research and make more pictures. It felt natural for me to go to Mexico and South America as well, because my mother is Latin American and I wanted to know more about some of these cultural sites and how they were being managed. Finally one can say that the subject of Re-creational Spaces is a critique of tourism, but it is more about really looking at tourist sites.

L.P: The sites that you photographed have been heavily documented through vernacular photography, postcards and promotional literature. What is the role of your images in such a vast and diversified documentation?

J.A: Yes, that was the most interesting challenge when I was approaching Niagara Falls, a place that almost everyone has seen through photographs. Many of the sites I chose to visit were selected from my memory of that place or from other photographs I was seeing in my research. Then I realized there is a relationship between the bank of images we see in the media and how they influence the collective memory of specific places. These repetitive photographs become iconographic and ubiquitous. I can’t entirely get away from capturing the same thing although it became fun to try and play with this double-edged sword. Finally, the truth is that the places I photographed have been documented through vernacular photography and commercial photography, but also for topographic surveys and by artists too, and that creates an interesting relationship. One of the roles my photographs play is to entice the viewer to recognize this relationship.

L.P: The sites photographed always shows a relation between natural authentic specificity and its cultural appropriation. Do you see your work as being political and socially involved?

J.A: I’m not motivated by the idea that my photographs are actually going to effect change in a radical way, but I do think that drawing attention to some of the concerns surrounding these sites is important. There are many issues being addressed here – the sustainability of sites, post-colonial attitudes towards landscape, cultural authenticity. My own views on these subjects are being informed from my personal experience. I hope that my audience will think about these issues too and relate them with their own personal experiences. We are all tourists at some point.

L.P: Landscape has a long history that certainly express itself differently in different parts of the world. In Canada, one could argue that it has been one the founding element in the development of our history, in our endeavor to understand our national identity and in the creation of an iconography through which we could identify ourselves. In this context, do you see your work as belonging to any historic lineage (regional, national, international)? Are you concerned with such historic discourses?

J.A: In Canada we have quite a diverse relationship with landscape partly because of our vast territory and resources, and because we are made up of diverse people – some very closely linked to the land and others not. We are also a very young country politically, so many people don’t consider Canadian history to have shaped our “identity”. I think all of these things are responsible for a general lack of a national identity in Canada. That doesn’t mean that landscape doesn’t have anything to do with our identity, it does, it just means that as a whole country we are not defined by it specifically. I don’t think there is really a Canadian style when it comes to landscape photography and if there is a Quebec style, I don’t think my work takes part in that lineage either. My work has been influenced by many international lineages, for example the German school of photography for their integration of concept and form, the American photographers who traveled widely and used colour as a seductive tool, and also by other artistic practices such as the British land artists who saw process and experience as part of the finished work.

L.P: You work in a very direct way. Your images are sharp and detailed, your prints are large in size and allow the viewer into the work. Your use of color gives us a sense of immediacy that let us believe we’re there with you, looking at the view; they gives the images a matter of factness that is at the same time seducing and breath taking. How important is this method for you? Do you see yourself possibly shooting differently, say wide open in black and white (!)?

J.A: For the series Re-creational Spaces, I think that this method is essential to the work. I like to confront the viewer with the immediacy of large-scale photographs and I find it important to give the viewer interesting details to look at. I want people to spend some time with each image – in the same way I wish them to spend time when they visit real places. Contemplation is very powerful and it is one of the great lessons I’ve learned from working with a view camera. More recently, I’ve been working with a medium format camera in a more intuitive way, but shooting wide-open is not really my style! I love colour photography however I’ve worked in black and white before and may work with it again but I wouldn’t make any promises!

L.P: You have been working on that project over a long period of time. How do you select your next destination? Do the images you have produced so far push you to go in a particular direction? Do you see your perspective on the work shifting or transforming?

J.A: Some of the sites are chosen in advance and I plan my trips around those locations, but I also encounter new places as I’m driving or shooting. If you examine the photographs as I have made them chronologically, you would notice that I tend to shift focus thematically or I oscillate between more landscape type images to more architectural. The most recent photographs were shot in Washington D.C. because I was interested in the relationship between the monuments and the crowds. The next trip is taking me to the American Southwest because I have always been intrigued with photography’s history in that area. Two years ago, I also noticed that some of the photographs didn’t really fit in this series because they were too subtle, so I started another series that I’ve been working on concurrently.

L.P: You are now a faculty member at Concordia University, where you have done most of your studies. What is the role of the academic context in your creative process?

J.A: I’m very privileged to be part of the faculty at Concordia. I always knew that I wanted to have an art practice that was balanced with teaching. Being around students who are constantly producing work is very motivating and it is nice to take part in such a strong community.

L.P: As an emerging photographer, what do you think is the key to the success of a young artist? What aspect of being an emerging artist do find the most difficult, and the most rewarding?

J.A: Now is the perfect time to be an emerging artist. There is a lot of attention being given to young artists by gallerists, curators and through on-line blogs. But there are a lot of artists out there so you have to get used to rejection as well. There are many highs and lows. Sometimes you have great ideas but no money. Then you get money but are so busy you have to work overtime to keep up. It depends how you measure success but I would say the best advice is to embrace your art practice as part of your daily life. Work like hell and take inspiration from all your small accomplishments.

— by Louis Perreault on January 26, 2010. Filed under Interview