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The ICON :www.iconla.com: @theiconLA
I had a chance to talk to both LA artist here is what they had to say.
Joe Schmelzer:http://www.joeschmelzer.com/: @treasurbite
PixFeedLA: When did photography become apart of your career path?
Joe S: I pretty much knew I was going to be a photographer - after taking a photo class in junior high school. It all just clicked, and than that is the path that I chose and pursued. I then went on to earn by BFA at Rochester Institute of Technology (where I actually met David Vincent Wolf - who is doing the show with me.) So we have known each other over 20 years, then I also earned by MFA at California Institute of the Arts.
PixFeedLA:I hear you have a show coming up at the Icon in LA on the 18th. Does the work your show mirror your commercial work or is it more for a personal endeavor?
Joe S: The work in the show - at least my portion - is all new work - produced only this year (2012). I wouldn’t say it mirrors my commercial work - it is definitely more personal and quirky - which much more mirrors my personal work of the past. Many images were taken on the side on some travel assignments - but I think in the end the work definitely feels more autobiographical to me - but maintaining the compositional and color aspects of my personal work - and certainly the use of natural light and natural - if not, banal moments.
PixFeedLA: Tell me about your process in putting together a body of work.
Joe S: Putting together and editing work is just as much of the process as actually making the photographs. I guess I always have strived to make my personal work feel like some sort of non-linear narrative - with clues and moments of my life. Its always hard to know which pictures to show and how to present them - but it just works like a puzzle - and I keep shifting and changing them until it comes to together and feels right. The big difference is that without a client to please - all the ideas have to come from within - and as with most artists - am my own worst enemy and critic. Certainly will be interesting to see the response.
David Vincent Wolf: www.davidvincentwolf.com/:@allofthisforyou
PixFeedLA: When did photography become apart of your career path?
I started taking pictures when I was around 8 or 9. My dad gave me his old Yashica 126, and I set up still-lifes in the backyard using things I had collected.
The first elective I took in high school was Graphic Arts because I knew it was the earliest I could get my hands on a camera. I was fortunate enough to have an incredible photography teacher in high school, who encouraged me to experiment…. I ended up making prints in the darkroom using acetate overlays with original handwritten poetry on them to mask areas of the prints I was making…. For years, I’d think back on them and cringe, but now I realize how privileged I was to be able to do such a thing, and be encouraged in the process. I’d give nearly anything to see them again.
My oldest memories are tied to Polaroids my mom keeps in a shoebox…. I literally can’t remember anything before those pictures.
Through the years, every job I’ve held has had a photography component in varying degrees. Shooting, art directing, art buying… I’ve kind of done it all.
It will sound morbid to some - but I hope to photograph from my deathbed!
PixFeedLA:I hear you have a show coming up at the Icon in LA on the 18th. Does the work your show mirror your commercial work or is it more for a personal endeavor?
There are definite crossovers between the two, but ultimately, commercial work just isn’t as “pure” as fine art, because it has to serve a larger goal, which is: to make people buy shit.
When working for a client, my task is to give them what they need, and assuming a best case scenario: I get to do my thing.
With my personal work, I am free to do whatever I like…. so, I’m showing the work I love to make, in the hopes that I get hired to do “my thing,” as idiosyncratic as it may be.
Anyone with half a brain can throw someone in front of a seamless and shoot them… I’m not interested in making easy photographs.
I believe that beyond a certain level of technical proficiency, photography is nothing more than editing. When I shoot, I am cutting things away, and hopefully, what remains are moments of truth and beauty. That probably sounds ridiculous, but it’s how I genuinely feel.
I haven’t exhibited in Los Angeles before, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to show a single body of work, or show selections from several projects. I eventually opted for the latter in the hopes that it speaks to a larger audience. I picked some of my favorites over the past few years and used them as anchors, building the rest of the show around them.
My photographs let me say what my words can not. The best result I can hope for is that my work, in some small way, speaks to someone.
