Amanda Charchian Interview
A great read; Photographer Amanda Charchian interviewed by Hillbilly Magazine.
Hillbilly : Do you remember taking your first photograph or picking up your first camera? What was its initial effect on you?
Amanda Charchian : This is an interesting question for me because I often think about the relationship between photography and memory and how each functions as a supportive pillar for the other. Perhaps because I am a self proclaimed goldfish, I’ve come to believe that I need photography, and that without it my life would be a series of glimpses into dreams, loosely tied together by fading imagery. My work is pulled down from my subconscious and grounded in a material form. This is precisely what gives my images a surreal nature. Thus, the immaterial link between my memory and the image creates a new entity: almost an entirely new memory.
Hillbilly : When did you realize photography was what you wanted to do with your life? Were you immersed in other interests as well?
Amanda Charchian : Without question, I am locked in eternal servitude to the investigation and creation of beauty and by no means does that devotion manifest itself in photography alone. In fact, I never wanted to be just be a photographer at all. When I was studying fine art, it was compulsory to take a photography course along with painting and sculpture. Like most art students I started out as a painter, but that never proved satisfying so I started painting fashion photographs on huge slabs of marble to connect photography, painting and traditional sculptural materials.
Then one of the photography teachers, Soo Kim (She makes very sculptural photographs that I absolutely adore. She shows at Angles Gallery in Los Angeles, who coincidentally is owned by my teenage-hood best friend’s family, The McAuliffes) encouraged me to take her fashion photography course. I never thought much of my photography, it seemed too easy. But I did welcome Soo’s challenge and there I found an outlet for my urge to let my interest in sculptural materials and set design find their way into my photographs.
To answer your question, my practice is multifarious as I am not just a photographer. In the last few years, I have made massive crystal sculptures, neon sculptures, films, music videos, painted photographs, collages, installations, bronze sculptures, marble paintings and sound pieces.
However, I have been most prolific in the platform of photography as itnis the easiest, fastest and most inexpensive part of my practice. But perhaps given the opportunity, that may change.
Read the rest of the interview here.
