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Interview with Chip Simons Recently, TGP contributor Sarah Coleman caught up with innovative and imaginative photograher Chip Simons for an interview Article rating: 9.60

>>Click here to read Chip Simons' Ten Tips for making creative images...

TGP: What made you a photographer?

CS: A few different things. Beyond 60's psychedelia, pop culture, Beatles movies, landing on the moon, tv shows, riding motorcycles, technology, being the baby in a family of four, and growing up in Florida, New York City and Gettysburg, a few things stand out. I’ve always had an emotional attachment to animals and objects, and a tendency to anthropomorphize them. One of my earliest memories is of being left in a crib in our family’s garage (where it was cooler) and feeling that it was ok - I wasn’t alone, I had all my “friends” surrounding me in the form of go-carts, bikes, tires, croquet sets and badminton rackets. This condition continued in my “I am a dog” series and even today, my “Postcards” series has a lot to do with giving dialog to objects like hay bales.

Another key event was that I started photographing for my school newspaper. In directing people, I had to overcome my shyness, and then suddenly I was “the photographer” and was a mini-celebrity with all the girls. This gave me an identity and really helped my ego. Up to that point I hadn’t been much of a participant in school.

TGP: What kind of formal training do you have?

CS: I went to  Kutztown State College for a year, and then the University of New Mexico, but the school was very non-technical. Instead, they focused on teaching students to conceptualize and develop as artists. That was a good thing in some ways, but not in others. When I arrived in New York five days after I graduated in June 1982, I had no idea how to do anything technically. I taught myself lighting by putting bulbs inside old soup cans and wok lids, and setting up a mirror with flashlights to study how I looked. I'd been shooting for four years before someone explained to me how to filter for skin tones and make people look better.

TGP: Who's influenced you?

CS: Magritte, obviously, for the surreal elements: he was a big favorite when I was in college. So was Guy Bourdin, the French conceptual fashion photographer. I like Avedon, Arbus, Sander,  Otterbridge, Hiro – but I was also inspired by Edgerton, Curtis, Brady, and various artsy-fartsy photographers I was exposed to by Beaumont Newhall and the University of New Mexico teachers. People like Barrow, Widmer, Hahn and Noggel.

TGP: You have such a unique and quirky vision – what's it like working collaboratively with art editors and directors, and having to compromise?

CS: It varies. Art editors are usually ok: they hire you because they're excited about your vision, but then they have someone else breathing down their neck who might not be so enthusiastic. What I find strange is that I'll get hired for a job, and they'll say, “We don't want anything shot with a fisheye lens, or thrown out of focus, or with funny colors, or with any weird concepts.” And you've got to wonder why they hired me in the first place, if they don't want anything like the stuff I’ve done before and am best at.

TGP: How do those jobs work out for you?

CS: Something always works out. I like working commercially because it's a challenge to respond to the limitations and come up with something good. You know, if they said to me, “You can't use any lights, you have to blindfold yourself and you're not allowed to use a camera” – well, I'd figure it out somehow!

TGP: Have any editors balked when you've come back from a portrait shoot with something really left-field, like your portrait of the software entrepreneur Michael Dell that was an out-of-focus silhouette, or the image of writer Peter Benchley that was lit blue and shot from behind?

CS: No, they've gone with the flow. I treat people how they treat me, and not everyone is nice about having their portrait taken. If I go to shoot a bigwig like Ted Turner and he acts pompous, I'm not going to shoot him in a way that makes him look really cool. Mostly, I've just found that my images get cropped a lot. What's that about? I always think that if you served a cherry pie to a bunch of art editors, most would eat the middle and then complain that there was no crust. Then, the next day they’d want a different flavored pie.

TGP: What's some of your favorite equipment?

CS: I love my Nikon D3 for its technical side, but I mostly can't stand the design of any of the new digital 35mm cameras. Who wants to put their eye up to a little hole in the back of two bricks taped together? I only look through the viewfinder if I have to, which is about 10 percent of the time. My favorite film camera is my Mamiya RZ67: it's like a 25-pound point and shoot. I use it a lot for landscape shots, and it takes incredibly beautiful images. Of course, some of my lighting equipment has been key. To shoot my Black Period series, I used a giant Ellenchrome quadrabox, which gave the objects a slightly otherworldly glow, along with a Chimera softbox with fabric grids. For the dog series, I used Metz  60 ct's  with gels. But it's not necessary to have fancy equipment. I could light a shot with gear from Home Depot.

TGP: You're back in New York after years on a remote farm in New Mexico. How has the photo scene changed since you were away?

CS: It's changed beyond recognition. The market for editorial photography has really dried up, and so has the market for traditional stock photography. The volume of stock that Getty's taking has dropped by 50 percent in the last few years. It's a scary time to be a photographer. Styles have changed, too: a lot of magazines have moved beyond the wide-angle, colored strobe look that I was known for. That's fine as far as I'm concerned, because I don't just want to imitate myself. It's important to keep moving.

TGP: Where do you think photography is headed?

CS: I think it’s heading into a strange phase. We’re moving away from the photographer as the trendsetter and toward the photo editor as a visionary and trendsetter. Millions of people are posting millions of images, and someone needs to make sense of it all. This isn’t photo-editing in the traditional way in which we’ve thought of it. Artists should edit themselves.

TGP: Is it inspiring to be back in the city?

CS: It's fun, but shocking, to be around lots of people instead of looking at lots of stars at night. But it's also boring in some ways. I can't get on my motorcycle and speed off into the forest, or walk my dogs in the forest, or soak in a hot tub. Doing big photography jobs is difficult, because I have to figure out how I can get all my equipment up and down stairs without anything getting stolen. It’s logistically a lot harder operating out of a dark little cave, and not my beautiful giant adobe photo studio and farm.  Of course, it's a good city for a foodie.

TGP: What's next for you?

CS: I moved back to New York City because I need to reinvent myself and relaunch my career, and this is where the action is. I need to meet the people to help me get my images selling in ways that will work in these new times. I need to adapt – and I have no choice but to reinvent myself. I'm going to be working on a new portfolio of images, and I want to make some little movies, 3 or 4-second movies made out of stills. I have 300 ideas written down, just waiting for me to get to them.

TGP: Lots of your work seems tailor-made for book projects: I can see a Chip Simons book of dog portraits, for example, or weird visual puns. Why haven't you published any books?

CS: I'd like to know the answer to that too! I think people don't take humor seriously. I’m not a snob, I’m not famous, and I’m not "in" like the latest fashion accessory. I'm Mr. Promotion, I'm always handing out cards and sending people stuff. But beyond that, I think celebrity sells books. Madonna has a photo book; I don't.

TGP: I'm sure it will happen – but if you weren't a photographer, what would you be?

CS: I could be someone who invents wacky mechanical things. Or I'd like to run a resort where people could go skiing and mountain biking, and learn to cook. What else does anyone need in life? I think bikes, motorbikes and dogs are the coollest things in the world. But, really, it all comes down to love in the end.

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