The following is part of a series of interviews launched for Abstract and Surreal photography week in Project Educate 2008.

*lauren-rabbit is a talented photographer who takes a purist approach, only using film and preferring to shoot with a view camera. She achieves some stunning Dada and Surrealist effects all through in-camera or chemical darkroom manipulations. She even has printed books available of her work, the most recent endeavor being "Evidence," which is forthcoming.

Basics and Background

Name and location?
lauren e. simonutti, Baltimore, MD

How long have you been practicing photography?
Souped my first roll of film 24 years ago come September (I began study my junior year of high school) but I had taken pictures before that.

Do you have any formal training in the arts?
I started formal training in a high school which had an exceptional photography program then went to an art school and majored in photo.

What cameras are your personal must-haves on a shoot?
Must have is a 4x5 view camera.

How did you come to embrace the genres you prefer to work in?
I cannot really say, through trial and error I eliminated what I did not want and what remained was the essential.

Surrealism

Do you have a favorite Surrealist? If so, who and why?
Not one favourite surrealist, so many had strengths and weaknesses. I prefer DaDa to Surrealism but they are inextricably linked.

What does Surrealism mean to you in photography?
It is not something I think about, the pictures are what they want to be and they tend to lean in that direction.

Do you find influence from other mediums, like Surrealist painting?
I am particularly influenced by collage and assemblage- the juxtaposition of objects which would seem to have no immediate connection until they are placed together at which point one could not imagine them any other way.

What kind of in-camera manipulations do you perform to achieve Surreal effects and impact?
I use very long exposures, from 4 minutes to 6 hours, which capture not only the tableau in front of the lens but the movement of light (or a figure), the passage of time, the ticking of the clock; to give shadow the opportunity to become another character. All these players intermingling in what is traditionally presented as a static frame set their own stage and write their own endings.
They subvert.

What suggestions would you give other photographers about harnessing light to create a desired mood in their imagery?
Light is everything and the only thing. If the light is not right there is no shot. It should be considered a subject equal to or more important than any object or model in front of the camera.

Words of wisdom

What advice do you have for beginning photographers?
Learn photography as a discipline, understand the history, the process, the creation, discovery, technique. Know everything and follow every rule until they become second nature. Once you can do that you can then begin breaking them to suit your purpose.

What advice would you give to professional photographers in a rut?
I cannot think of anything of value here.

What advice would you, at present, give yourself 5 years ago if you could reach back in time?
Actually 5 years ago I began to understand things so I would leave her to her own devices. If I could go back 15 or 20 years I would tell myself to stop taking things so seriously, lose the angst.

What do you hope people find in your art? Or, what do you hope they definitely don't find in it?
I hope people see or divine stories from the pictures. I would not presume to say what I hope people do not find- I believe once you take the step of making your work public, presuming to intrude upon the time of others to show them what you do, you no longer have control over what your work means-and anything the viewer sees is correct.

Ego

Who is your favorite deviantART photographer and why?
I do not have a favourite. There is so much to see and so much unseen, so much change, there would be no way for me to say 'that's the one'.

What is your favorite image of your own, so far? Why?
In the time it has taken me to type this response my favourite image has changed half a dozen times.

What is your preferred subject (people, objects, places, etc) and why do you like to shoot that subject, whatever the style?
Still life, because it is the most malleable and I have an affinity for damaged things. They have a sweetness that records on film.

Favorite ice cream flavor?
Baskin Robbins Chocolate Chip Mint.

If you could be any other person, who would it be and why?
I have been though too much, too long to reach a modicum of peace with myself; I would never wish to jump into someone else and start that all over again.

Anything else you'd like to say?
Have a nice day.



#Abstractography is the dAmn headquarters for Abstract and Surreal week. Be sure to drop by this week to meet the artists interviewed in this series, myself, and many other abstract and surreal photographers here on deviantART!