For this edition of Life Behind a Lens I wanted to try something a little different. Rather than showcasing three unrelated photos covering a range of styles from the featured artist, I wanted to find something more cohesive; a body of work with a single purpose.
After a few messages back and forth with John Stathopoulus I knew I had found what I was looking for. He had recently been working on a project with his friend and shaper of wood Ashley Martin, and was eager to share. Scanning through the photos that John sent, it fascinated me how they fell into an interesting place between portraiture and product photography, a captivating series of man and his work.
I have enjoyed working with wood since I was a little kid and beyond photography, I find it to be one of the most interesting art forms. With John’s ability to tell a story through photographs and Ashley’s woodwork, I had to know more.
AMT: I love how the photos fall somewhere between portraiture and product photography, could you explain a little more of the thought process behind the shoot and how it came about?
JS: That’s a great way to put it. It was certainly a balance of the two styles when I was shooting with Ashley. I wanted to make some images that were intimate and gave the audience a sense of closeness with him; however, I wanted to be able to showcase his hard work as best I could. I know him as a good friend, and I wanted that feeling to carry through in the photographs.
AMT: My favorite shots are the ones where Ashley is laying down covered in his work. Could you talk a little bit more about the meaning of these photos and how the direction came about?
JS: I think those were my favorite shots as well. This goes right along with what I was just saying before. I was trying to be just as playful as I was commercial. I think the idea came about when we were looking for props around his apartment that could add some flair to product shots. If I remember correctly he mentioned something about having sawdust in his beard all the time and we both had a sort of “aha!” moment.
This was the reason I wanted to shoot him in his workspace, it helped show that he really is covered in his work. He has a modestly sized apartment, and he puts just about every inch of it to use for his craft.
AMT: Speaking of portraiture, I noticed that you have been focusing a lot more on taking pictures of humans recently. What inspired the jump to portrait photography? What kind of new challenges has it presented and how have you dealt with them?
JS: I think part of the reason I have been photographing people more is because it forces me to break through my layers of shyness. I have trouble socializing in general and I find a lot of parallels in the challenges of shooting portraits and street photography, and, say, going out to a bar where you may feel anxious around others. As cheesy as it may sound, sometimes I will just find myself wanting to share how interesting and cool people can be.
AMT: Is this the first photo project you have worked on? How is working on a cohesive group of photos different from/more challenging than shooting individual photos for pleasure?
JS: I shot a handful of photo stories in school for a visual ethnography course I was taking, but this was the first project I completed without any prompting and on my own accord. It’s also the only one I have really shared on the internet.
Working on a cohesive series of photographs is a pretty calculated thing for me in terms of what sorts of images I would like to produce. I have a general idea of what I would like to see, but there still is a good amount of wiggle room in the process. I would be shooting based off of this original idea, but tinker with it as I go. You can move lamps, open curtains, throw some props into the mix, etc.
Photo projects can be challenging in that you want to create a binding thread that spans the work, however, shooting an individual portrait has its own challenges. Realizing a scene has beautiful lighting or a nice background is certainly easy, but I try to train myself to think about ideal camera settings as much as possible, so that I won’t look back and think to myself “damn, I wish I had set the aperture a little wider” etc. At the same time, pointing and shooting is sometimes the name of the game.
AMT: Lastly, why do you choose to shoot film?
JS: Shooting 35mm film is what I started shooting on when I became serious in my interest to take photos. By chance I found an old Nikon SLR in my sister’s room that was collecting dust, and began spending all of my money buying film and developing them at the local CVS. Having to wait to see my results was a big part of why I have learned so much about photography.
Film also just has a pleasing aesthetic quality to it, both in image quality, and in process. I think a nicely scanned negative or slide can have a lot more life to it than a cold cut digital image.
Name: John Stathopoulos
Camera(s): Nikon N80, Pentax 67, Nishika N8000, Olympus Infinity Stylus
Film(s): Kodak Portra, Fuji Superia, Kodak Tri-X
The Web: Tumblr, Website & Instagram, Ash Woodworking Co.
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