Interview with Morgan Kazanjian

Morgan Kazanjian is a fourth year photography BFA student at Mason Gross School of Art. 

I first met Morgan last spring for our Junior Reviews. There was a mix up with the review schedule so we both showed up expecting to be reviewed, now a year later we just so happen to meet up again, this time for an interview. 

1. Me: So, you're a fourth year I take it?, I remember you from last year. What is your major?

Morgan: Yeah, I'm a fourth year, and I'm an art major too.

2. Me: Well how did you get into photo?

Morgan: I started taking photo classes in high school when I was a sophomore, my high school had a darkroom and everything. 

3. Me: When did you decide that photo was for you?

Morgan: I got really into film photography in high school and thats when I really discovered thats what I enjoyed doing.

4. Me: After deciding that you wanted to pursue a career in photography, was it hard to get your parents on board with the idea?

Morgan: Yeah, well,  it was kind of a struggle deciding if thats what I want to go to school for because my parents were all like "What are you gonna do with an art degree?"

5. Me: Well, what made you come to Mason Gross?

Morgan: Honestly, I applied to Mason Gross and NYU and I got rejected so I came here. 

6. Me: What photographers are you inspired by?

Morgan: Todd Hido, who definitely influenced my most recent work.

7. Me: What artists other than photographers inspire you?

Morgan: My favorite artists in general are the painters Georgio de Chirico and Van Gogh.

8. Me: So what were you thinking about with your latest series?

Morgan: I was thinking about gogauns spirit of the dead watching painting and how gender roles are sort of shaped by time and place and how in general there tends to be a submissive female role and a dominate male role and how people create their identities, now-a-days versus how they did centuries ago or in other cultures.

9. Me: Do you consider yourself a feminist artist?

Morgan: I don't consider myself a feminist artist or photographer at all.

10. Me: This is an interesting series, why did you choose penis' to photograph?

Morgan: I was thinking about the concept of mens genitalia and how it sort of drives who they are so it's more about the concept of what's being photographed than the actual photograph.

11. Me: Why did you choose to do so many different penis' with only the penis' showing within the frame?

Morgan: I was thinking of conceptual photography and the work of the Bechers and how they would photograph one item, but different versions of it with the same composition and everything.

12. Me: And are these too bodies of work connected in any way? I know you said you're not a feminist artist, but the two series' do seem to have a common thread.

Morgan: No, not at all. I know next to each other they look like they are, but they're two totally different pieces. 

13. Me: Well what was your idea behind this piece?

Morgan: I was on the train almost every weekend and I would go by the same spot and after a while I wanted to record them somehow because when your on  the train it sort of feels like every spot doesn't have it's own identity, so I went to photograph.

14. Me: Were you curious to see what it was like still as a posed to moving?

Morgan: I was just curious to see how the space could change.

15. Once there how did the space change for you?

Morgan: They're sort of like an anonymous space which i find interesting.  

16. Me: I'm sure that project took a lot of time!, was it hard for you to do?

Morgan: Uhm, it wasn't that difficult, but I usually only get on and off twice so there was a difference.

17. Me: So what sparked the idea to photograph these locations?

Morgan: I was so bored by the space and I had to keep seeing them being on the train all the time  and I felt like I wanted to make them slightly less boring by photographing them. 

18.Me: What are you doing with this image? Is it the start of a series?

Morgan: Well I'm exploring my moms life through photography. I was originally going to do it at home, but it all changed after she had to go to the hospital.

19. Me: Are you still going to continue the series?

Morgan: Yeah, I'm still photographing my mom, just in the hospital.

20. Me: So do you have any idea for what you're going to be doing for thesis?

Morgan: Uhm, well, so far I sort of think I want to get into religion for thesis.

Weekly Journal

Trying to Collect My Ideas

This week I was reading The Photograph as Contemporary Art and came across some artists that I thought presented some interesting work. 

These works are by Zarina Bhimji. Even though her work is more politically based (which is not what I'm going for) I thought her work was interesting and I started trying to think about why I think they're so interesting. The color is great and so is the lighting as far as I'm concerned, but there's an abandoned feeling I get from them that I absolutely love. I love that I can feel the loss without fully knowing the context.

Some other work I was looking at this week was Wim Wenders.

This image caught my eye and made me think about what I'm going to do with my own work. I was thinking of maybe messing with subject and background a bit as an experiment for this week.

This past week I worked in the darkroom trying to get more familiar for color printing. Some long term plans of mine are to ask Tony if I can take out one of the 4 by 5 view cameras and take pictures and then print them by projecting the image on the floor in the darkroom. I hope I can get a good size print from that, but that is my plan for later. Right now I'm trying to think of where and how I will shoot. This week was pretty frustrating in terms of progression. Right now I'm trying to kind of take my time and let my ideas naturally develop, but sitting there too much makes me reconsider my idea in the first place. I ask myself why I choose to shoot what I shoot. I don't always have the best answer, i can't really explain why I'm drawn to one thing over another, but I'm going to keep at it damnit! 

Some interesting work I ran into this week:

Banksy

I have to say that I love Banksy's work, and the idea of photographing work and therefore making art out of art, but I particularly like this image because the work is not limited to just the wall, but engages the space.

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is a photographer that I'm familiar with (Justine Kurland worked with him for a time) but I came across this image and I loved the open space, color and light. I think it kind of captures that feeling that of solitude, the experience that one shares with oneself in the middle of the night when their alone or whatever, there's a feeling that one gets that is never shared. It's totally different if it is shared. 

Tom Hunter

He has this drama about his work thats not crazy over the top like Crewdson, but just works for the image. They're dramatic and objective...very nice. The color in his work is really great too. 

weekly Diary

What I'm interested in doing with my work and what has inspired me in the past: 

One of the main ways I became interested in art was through Van Gogh's work, and the main artist that got me into photography was Henri Cartier-Bresson. Van Gogh's chairs I especially liked because I never thought to use an object to make a portrait. That made me start to think about the relationship between people and objects and objects and space. I loved the way Henri Cartier-Bresson showed space. To me he showed space and time in a poetic, but yet in a very real way. I loved that just the fact that the image was a photograph and therefore taken from life that it added the element of time (which I'm kind of obsessed with). When I take my pictures I think about time and existence and capturing it, either by the remnants of what was and who was there or just by the idea that it is there, and how an object lives in a space. 

Some of my work, older to most recent:

With this series I was trying to capture the silence of the night and also I was interested in doorways, stairs or anywhere that was normally busy with people during the day so I could photograph it without people so that the space and light could be the only things talking in the image.

With this series I wanted to convey an absence using the objects and space. I tried to use things that are pretty personal like shoes and chairs or an article of clothing to give a sense of someone that used to occupy the space and the empty wall to further push the feeling of emptiness and absence. 

This was a project I did where I made two images based on another artists work. These two images are based on Justine Kurland's work. After being introduced to Justine Kurland's work I really started rethinking my work and also how I look at work. I could not for the life of me fully understand the work, and especially, why I was so COMPLETELY taken by it. 

Some samples of her work:

Seeing her work changed the way I thought about my work because for me it was taking an element that I was looking to develop when working traditionally and transferring it over to the more modern conceptual work that I wanted to jump into. I want to make conceptual art without forgetting aesthetics. Kurland (I feel) makes successful conceptual work without the loss of aesthetic quality. In fact it is the very composition and tone in her work that pushes the concept behind it. I want to make well composed conceptual pieces, I think there a lot of conceptual pieces that could be stronger if aesthetics were used to further the conceptual aspect of the piece and that is one of my major hopes of achievement with my work (uhh...but I'm not there yet).

  

                                            

This are a few images from my latest series. I'm really starting to explore the relationship or dialog between object and space. To me there is something that happens between the two that talks about life or existence and time. Just the fact that it is a photography makes it stolen time.  I'm pretty obsessed with those things and I really want to push this idea in my work.

After some advice from Jim, I started watching Antonioni's films, or at least clips from his films just to get a sense of how he presents space. This clip is particularly interesting because of the frame and relationship between space and object which I'm interested in and want to explore in my own work. 

Here are my favorite photos by Michael Eastman. One image is from his Vanishing America series, the rest are from his Cuba series.

This image is from his Vanishing America series. What interests me most about his work is the relationship between object and space. 

A dialog opens up between the space and the object. 

I think its important to see the two images above together because the first shows the present and the past of Cuba together and the second leaves it open for the viewer to image the past and the present. I find the latter(just the chairs w/o the laundry) to be more interesting because it's less to the point. I think theirs two ways that I like to do work like this. When it's an object in a man-made environment I feel like the conversation between the two is about time and the individual lives of those that did or are occupying the space, but when it's an object in a natural environment I feel as though the dialog is about time and lives, but on a more grand scale. The timeline is longer and it's a society or humanity as a whole that is being discussed. 

I think these are two interesting ways that Michael Eastman uses a facade as a space to me. The ajar door separates it from the facade making the object the ajar door and the space the facade which is kind of switching it because for me its the space in the doorway (not really the door even) that is the object, and the object(the building) the space because it surrounds the object. 

This is an image by William Christenberry. This is a great example of how the dialog changes when there is an object in a man-made space and in nature. 

This is some more interesting work I've been looking at. This image is by Sa Schloff. What brings life to the space here is the light and what makes this image interesting is that the conversation between the object (the light) and the space (the room) is intertwined that the two can't really be separated, their almost one. It's as if their conversation is being played out visually. 

A book that I'm really getting into now is The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton. This book is pretty interesting because it answers a lot of my questions about contemporary art while introducing me to a lot of new artists.

Right now I'm actually experimenting with color film which I'm really excited about because I hate noise but love grain and would prefer to work in film, but want color images that I can edit in photoshop, so developing and scanning my negatives is my next line of duty for this week and if all goes well and I like how it looks I'll be starting my next series in color film! :)

work from last year 2010