Curriculum
Vitae / Resumé
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INTERVIEW for TEMPTER magazine
From: Justin Carter <justin@>
To: stefano g <stefpics@>
Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 14:46
Subject: Re: Hello
Hey Stefano,
Here are some interview questions: Thank you so much for doing this.
1. I promise the whole interview will not revolove
around this, but when I found your photography, I found it while browsing
sonicyouth.com, where they had a link to your website. How did you
meet or become friends with the band?
i met sy in 1992 in milano - italy - i was just a random fan taking
pictures for local zines - i was walking one long walk one summer
beautiful sat afternoon and i ran into sonic youth at some newsstand
by the duomo. i was very shy but i just said hello or something in
broken english...
they were on a promo tour for dirty and had the weekend off. they
were looking for a good restaurant and i took them to giacomo's. we
had really good lobster pasta the next day i picked them up in my
small car and we just went places and took pictures.
then it is a long story - they toured quite a bit in europe and i
started my civil service cuz i refused the army draft and i was stuck
in a boring unfriendly foggy small town in a foster shelter for troubled
teenagers. i had some days off from state duty and i went with a friend
to see sy in marseille - it was great cuz i loved the city i made
some friends i went back to visit now and then ( you know marseille
is not as touristy as the rest of the côte d'azur - it's a dirty
place like ny and it's got great beaches inexpensive oysters + kir
royal s + european football tradition + north african influences -
somehow a sort of weird mix between paris and sicily) .
after the gig sy asked me if i would get on their bus and go to paris
and i said - yeah - and woke up in montmartre and it was a different
world - took the train back to italy 2 days later - and more months
of civil service - kids at school - broken windows -lonely walks.
i just wanted to visit ny after being stuck in a small provincial
town where there was nothing to do but go to some bar on wednesdays
and drink a pint of guinness and watch the ac milan champions league
games. at least it was the era of van basten and gullit - really good
team - good games - some sort of era now gone.
i had a girlfriend in milan but in the beginning she wasnt the passionate
type that would come and visit but a very few times -
so whatever -november - i went to ny 3 months - kim + thurston offered
me hospitality and then i rented lee's wife - leah - old apt on e7th
st bet b and c -
that was the winter of 93 /94 and it was the coldest winter i ever
lived - the east village wasnt as gentrified as it is now - i used
to see these fat black guys next door selling heroin to all these
punks - i was kinda still very young and sheltered - i felt ny was
bigger than me - but i wasnt overwhelmed by it although sometimes
intimidated i was rather feeling fascinated - a stranger's home -
i went back to italy locked into a relationship with my gf that started
then being passionate when things turned stale uninspiring eventually
bad - like fighting and depending on each other.
our sex life stopped until she cheated on me or me on her - got into
some romantic affair with this girl that lived here - a strange coincidence
-a long story of parallel paths.
it was good but i was really too naive and unexperienced - the one-weekend-lover
was independent and i am sure she had more control on her life and
men than i ever did on mine and women.
so my old life collapsed my relationship with my gf ended ) and started
a new phase.
once in ny french weekend lover girl totally dumped me - i just got
her in a weak moment when she needed some romantic supportive confused
boy...\
this time in ny i was more aware - i actually started to learn things
-i started to overcome shyness.
sonic yout just started echo canon and i documented that - it felt
like being at home away from home...
i got a snapshot camera - i learned to love what i thought i would
never love.
then it was back and forth between milan and nyc till march 2000 when
i knew it was a one way trip - i felt it -
but you know after seeing so many people come and go in ny - i feel
life here is just so volatile.
2. You have also photographed Blonde Redhead, Chan
Marshall, Peaches, among many others I am sure, are they all personal
friends of yours, or do they hire you to do photos of them?
peaches - i just ran into her at some party and we were friendly to
each other but friendship is deeper than just some docial friendliness.
but the others you've mentioned i would call them friends - and sometimes
i have been asked to take pictures for their albums and projects.
whoever inspires me is someone i sorta want to document - anyhow no
matter if i have been assigned to for a specific project or something.
probably many of the pics i like the most are those that havent been
published .
i believe in documenting what would be lost in memory if not.
i wouldnt be here without the friendship support love and help of
sonic youth, chan marshall, amedeo from blonde redhead - to mention
who you mentioned - and a few other great friends that tought me in
the good times or helped me in the hard times.
3. Most of your pictures look like they are taken
in NYC? Do you live there or do you just work there?
well i couldnt take it anymore of living in milan - and whatever came
from ny inspired me -
- people i've met brought me to ny, somehow indirectly ...
i learnt a lot here - from people or just for looking at life on the
street.
it is always a struggle here and it is hard to get a sense of stability
and belonging - but i guess everytime i get back from somewhere i
feel i belong here more than anywhere i have been so far-
from other places- i miss the nature though - i like california, i
like tropical islands, south dakota, i like norther europe, south
of france, queensland - i like to travel - i like to have access to
places - but i guess it is just a matter of having time and enough
$$$ - i wish someone could send me out there some where with a budget
to travel observe document with images - that is my dream -
show to people other people's lives -4. How long have you been a photographer?
When did you know this is what you
want to do?
my dad got my younger yuppie brother a camera for his b'day - i liked
that object/its potential - so i was given my dad's old nikon F2 after
a few months.
i was taking pictures when i was 7 with a kodak instamatic... square
pics ... but whatever i am self taught in everything. everything i
had to study in a institutionalized way i hated - no good art schools
in italy anyway - i went to med school and that was a mindfuck for
my sanity... and for my un-happiness
5. Did you go to school for photography, or was
it just a hobby that developed into a full time job?
no photo school - photography full part time job that so far allows
me to live a fancy life free from material wealth.
6. What is your favorite photograph you have taken?
1 photo does not mean much to me - i like bodies of work - i like
documentation - i like to show how people live - or how women can
be beautiful even if they feel unattractive but they are so attractive
no matter . too many american women deny their beauty by saying "
I AM FAT!!!! I AM FAT!!!" but they are not fat - probably their
boyfriends were into porn as teenagers and keep telling them to get
bigger boobs skinnier tummies and painful bikini waxes -
i dont like porn it doesnt turn me on -to me looks like some med school
twisted book. psychiatry meets gynecology.
beauty lies elsewhere - i like people that age like a good red wine
-
not like corn-syrup-sweetened sodas or aspartame mind fuck ups.
7. Who or what is your favorite subject(s) to photograph?
i like what/whoever inspires me -
people that tell me stories - people that have some sort of aura -
unexpected beauty - playful innocent sexuality - senses.
8. Aside from photographing musicians you also
do alot of cityscapes and photos of random people. How do you determine
what you are going to do day by day?
i don't determine it - life / reality determines itself - i just happen
to be there and look at things - just try to be open and sensitive
and innocent as i was when i looked at things for the first time as
a child -
selection and perspective is what gets determined when i take photos.
9. In the digital age we are in now, which medium
do you prefer, digital or print photography?
i like digital now - it is my new toy .
an ibook with a cd wallet and/or an external HD weights less than
1000s contact sheets in cardboard boxes - i like independence - the
idea of being self sufficient in a small island - so traditional BW
or digital - something i can do anywhere - not too many facilities
to depend on.
i luv to print color but i can only do it in NY - in milan i had no
option - i hated the way pro labs printed my stuff there and pay too
much for that.
digital is good enough now - and it is cheaper and it is DIY from
start to end - it's like punk rock somehow.
i feel any medium is ok - just if you feel it as your own -
with digital i can afford to focus more on the subjects rather than
worry about costs - archiving issues.
you gotta develop yr style anyway - no matter of what you use.
10. Which medium do you find easier?
whatever i like- whatever feels good in my hands and i can learn in
a day.
11. What kind of cameras do you use?
yashica t4 /nikon slrs/olympus C5050/5000/olympus stylus.
12. Alot of photographers i know are also in to
filmmaking, is that something you also enjoy?
i'd like to do documentaries - i need $$$ to get some equip and see
if i wouldnt too cheesy at doing that. it's too easy to fall into
cheesiness doing motionpictures - the line between being emotional
and being sentimental is a fine dangerous line.
13. (if yes to #12) What kind of films do you make?
not yet really - nothing i can call film -
maybe mini videotapes in a near future - hopefully - if i can get
a new ibook and some good small miniDV cam
14. Are there any photographers out there right
now who's work you enjoy?
helmut newton the portrait stuff/ don mccullin vietnam - england stuff
/robert frank/william egglestone/richard avedon - in the american
west stuff/jurgen teller when not too glossy -
fuck! there is no women photographers in this list.
if i think of women photographers i feel too many are too fashion-y
or too arty in a conceptual sense -
i appreciate nan goldin but i have a problem with the hopelessness
of her photographs . joy is only a moment not an exit. too much heroin
too much self destruction too much death - i like the potential of
happiness - not the aesthetics of permanent gloom/doom.
i love the paintings of alice neel - she really inspired me when i
saw her show at the whitney - i had no idea who she was - but i got
struck -
if she used a camera she would had been one of my favorite photographers
- i liked she did whatever she felt against the trends - i like the
honesty the forwardness the intensity and the intimacy of her work.
i just ran into my friend hanna liden - she is a young photographer
from sweden - she inspires me - she is young and i see all these opposites
in her - the sadness and joy of life - i can relate to her work -
cuz it is honest and she shoots better than i did when i was at her
very young age -
sometimes i see her passed out at parties and it looks more poetic
than decadent...
i talked with her about the lack of women in big names of photography
-
there is too much hidden anger toward men in many women photographers
whose work i see here and there - but i dont like to see at life at
the world and at art as a clash a confrontation between social groups/races/genders
. if my ancestors were sexist i cant be blamed - as the grandchildren
of the nazis cant be blamed for killing the jews the gypyes the slavs.
i like people - i like who is different than me - i am drawn to who
i can learn from - to whom can learn from me. smiles that make me
smile. people that shake my uptightness.
15. What are your favorite records you are currently
listening to?
roberta flack 1st take - led zeppelin later stuff - sonic youth murray
st - cat power you are free (only once so far) - neil young this and
that - leonard cohen - the stones moonlight mile - miss you - sway
and whatever else - alice coltrane - bob marley waiting in vain -
the who baba o'riley - spacemen 3 from some random juke box - pil
- poptones - scott walker montague terrace - neu the trippy drony
17 min song. kinks lola-victoria-days
16. Where can people view and purchase your photographs
in person? (If at all)?
they can go to my site and email me - i am a bad business person.
not in the evil sense though!
17. Is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself?
i want to be happy and run away from boredom - find love so i can
be funny and not too intense - then i can finish all the books i started
to read - travel and enjoy life - snorkle - scubadive - grill parties
- roadtrips - a green card so i can be bi-continental, be more open
as age makes me wiser. adventurous stability.
Stefano, Thank you so much for doing this. And
if you would like to put any of
your photographs in the magazine let me know or send them to this
address
Justin Carter
1714 W Pierce Ave 1st Floor
Chicago, IL 60622
USA
Thanks,
=====
Justin Carter
Tempter Magazine, Editor In Chief
P.O. Box
Chicago, IL 60622
http://tempter.org
http://justincarter.tempter.org