Contemporary Photographer Series - Kristine Potter

from the series The Gray Line © Kristine Potter

Kristine Potter (b. 1977) holds degrees in Art History and Photography from the University of Georgia, as well as an MFA in Photography from Yale University. Her photographs have been exhibited at the Georgia Museum of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, and the Hagedorn Foundation Gallery. In 2014, she was an artist-in-residence at Light Work and is currently represented by Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York. She was recently interviewed by Bradley Marshall for our Contemporary Photographer Series (CPS). 

You not only hold a BFA in photography, but a BA in art history. Were you always interested in photography? If not, what was the turning point that prompted your return for a BFA? Would you say that a degree in art history made the transition into finding artistic direction any easier?

I earned both of my undergraduate degrees at the University of Georgia. Truth be told, I skipped around majors a bit - trying on this and that for a while. I even studied Japanese for two years. (No, I don't speak it anymore. Two years was barely enough to order at a restaurant.)

At any rate, I settled very comfortably into the Art History program and was working at museums. To complete the degree, I had to take some studio courses - which I think is a really important requirement. All art historians and art world professionals could benefit from learning how things are made. I ended up in a Photo I course and everything changed for me. I had always "liked" photography in whatever way I knew how to use it as a kid. But I sat down in class the first day and my teacher was (by luck of the draw) Mark Steinmetz. He showed us a slide show of his work and the photographers he admired: Atget, Kertesz, Brassai, Cartier-Bresson, and of course, Garry Winogrand. I was immediately taken with the idea that photographs possessed a very particular visual language, and I was able to connect that language with the history of art. For me it was a rich and symbiotic experience to pursue both degrees. I found myself progressively less interested in writing about dead artists and more inclined to be a maker. I finished both degrees concurrently, and packed my bags and moved to Paris, France; the former home to many of my newly-established heroes.

The term "subjective documentary" was used to describe your work in a recent piece for Light Work; do you think that a sense of you as the photographer needs to be present when viewing your work? What are your thoughts on the term "documentary" in a contemporary sense?

I've always appreciated the language of the document but I've never really believed in its ability to exist, author-less. There are just too many decisions to be made when you hold up a camera - what's in the frame, what's out, what's in focus, what's not, etc. It changes the nature of reality, as if reality were one fixed idea. I've struggled with the notion of the subjective documentary style being attached to my work. But at the end of the day, yes - I believe my picture making points back at myself as much as what is in front of me. It seems pertinent to consider my presence. Perhaps Walker Evans expressed it best:

"What I believe is really good in the so-called documentary approach to photography is the addition of lyricism. This quality is usually produced unconsciously and even unintentionally and accidentally by the cameraman."

from the series The Gray Line © Kristine Potter

The space in your work is often complicated and disorienting. Often times your human subjects (if any at all) must be discerned from the monochromatic intricacies of their surroundings. My question for is do you find the black and white aesthetic an essential component of your work?

For the moment, yes. I'm still quite invested in the monochromatic print and all of the wonderful ways in which it can be manipulated and visually manipulative. I have a workflow that includes shooting on color 4x5 film, scanning it and then converting it (often in laborious ways) to black and white. This technique is perhaps becoming more normalized within a RAW format, digital workflow, but for me it began with film and it offered me ways of translating color to black and white that dramatically changed the space of a picture. For the West Point work, I really used it to amp up the idea of camouflage. With the Manifest work, it has become a key way of visually addressing the incredible intensity of the light in the mountains and the disorienting experience of getting deep in that landscape.

from the series The Gray Line © Kristine Potter

Your most recent body of work, Manifest, is a menageries of male characters and landscape studies made in the American Southwest. What made you turn toward this looser, more enigmatic range of subject matter in contrast to the somewhat tight focus of military cadets in The Gray Line?

I think I wanted something "Wild." The Gray Line was about parsing out nuance from a very rigid structure. Separating the cadets form the corps was critical in letting them become "human" and individual again. However, as much as they let down their guard during the photographing sessions, I still found them to be incredibly polite and in a way, obedient. It was like part of their genetic makeup. After that body of work, I really just wanted to loosen everything up. I wanted to look at masculinity from a full pendulum swing away. The men I photographed out West are not tied to a set of rules. In fact, they are very likely out there because they don't like rules. Individuality reigns and the experience for me was much more adventurous. The landscape work flowed naturally in between my portrait work. I was out in the middle of nowhere and there were far more dusty paths and thickets than men to photograph. I began to see the landscape as a psychological stand-in for the men I was otherwise in search of. 

from the series Manifest © Kristine Potter

What compels you to deal with people as subject matter and how do you go about finding your next subject? Also, what advice can you give to someone on photographing people while remaining challenging or inventive?

I'm interested in the human drama and the psychological and emotive experiences we have. And simply, I'm interested in connecting with people - which the camera (however briefly) allows me to do. 

How do I find people? It depends. With the Manifest work, I basically hung out in this very small town on the western slope of Colorado and would just solicit interesting men to work with me. Sometimes they introduced me to other potential subjects and so on from there. When I see someone I want to work with, I don't hesitate. I go right up and try to explain that I'm a photographer and I'd like to make their picture. Too many regrets arise when you psyche yourself out and get scared to act. My advice is to be as fearless as possible. "Stranger Danger" is a real thing, and while I don't think we should ignore our better instincts to leave certain people alone, I do think our society has taught us to be afraid of people we don't know or who are (gasp!) different from us. So first thing is first - you can't make a good portrait if you don't get your camera in front of an interesting person. After that - I'm not sure what to advise. A certain level of instruction balanced with a certain level of patience and observation seem key. Being a good conversationalist will help. Flattery most often helps. But just being sincerely interested might be the key to it all.

from the series Manifest © Kristine Potter