mullitover:

JONATHAN CHERRY: What gets you up in the morning?

ERICA MCKEEHEN: My bladder, or my alarm, which is the opening to the song Zoo Station by U2. The lines are I’m ready. I’m ready for the laughing gas. I’m ready. I’m ready for what’s next.

JC:  Are there any emerging photographers inspiring you at the moment?

EM: I consider most of my photographer friends and peers to be emerging, though I’m not sure when the term emerging no longer applies. In any case, they all inspire me. I am a recent graduate of Ohio University, home to so many talented photographers and artists. I look at their work and it fills me with so many conflicting feelings… I am jealous, sometimes, of their bravery and persistence to pursue some of the serious and heartfelt work that they do. I am also proud, inspired (as you asked), and excited for them and for all of us making images in the world. In college I studied more commercial work and was pretty interested in that until my senior year when I just wanted to photograph people, but I’ve always had intense respect and admiration for documentary and journalistic work. I have more guts than I used to, but I never could’ve done it as a student. I hope that my work shows some sort of middle ground between the two, but in the end, it’s all passion that comes across, and I am inspired whenever I see it in someone’s images. To really answer the question, my current favorite emerging photographers are Brad Vest who just won College Photographer of the Year for his documentary work in Ohio and West Virginia and Peter Hoffman (not sure if he’s “emerging” by anyway) who consistently makes just plain beautiful images. Both of them are fellow Ohio University graduates.

JC: What is your current project all about?

EM: I don’t really have one specific project in mind but I recently compiled some images taken during a brief stint as a night-life photographer for Studio Paris (apart of Club Paris in Chicago, IL). When you look at the images, the term night-life doesn’t really seem to fit, but I believe I was originally commissioned to photograph flash-filled images of attractive, rich Chicagoans drinking champagne in the city’s River North (somewhat elite) neighborhood. I spent 5 Friday nights walking around the club, from 9pm until 1am, photographing what I saw… slinking into the dark corners of the club rather than inviting guests to step in front of my lens. I don’t really know if I had any real intentions at the time (I was just trying to do a job in the only manner I knew how), but I can tell you that I felt isolated and strange each evening. Now I look at the photographs and I think those emotions are obvious.

JC: What draws you to making portraits?

EM: People are important. I wish I had a more elaborate reason, but I think that’s enough. My favorite photographer has been, and always will be, Anton Corbijn. He makes portraits and they’re beautiful and rich and memorable, but he does more than that. He establishes real relationships with his subjects and he lovingly sustains them. He is curious and invested at the same time. He has captured the same people over the course of years and years. I am curious too, and I cannot help but be invested, but the truth is that I love taking photographs of people in my life. It is a compulsive need and I feel that I have done a poor job satisfying it. The portraits I keep close to my heart are of family, friends, lovers, and anyone who has claimed a piece of my heart. I collect photographs of them to remind myself that these people are important… they have made my life rich. Not only do I want to take their portrait, but I owe it to them.

JC: How do you find juggling personal & commercial work?

EM: I make commercial work (or commissioned/editorial work, in my case) personal. When I shoot a wedding, I try to do so intimately. When I am shooting a gym or a salon or a spa, I try to maintain my sincerity and point-of-view. Even if it’s not my primary interest, there’s little I do that isn’t personal. That’s just how I’m made, or maybe I just like the consistency.

JC: Any advice to recent photography graduates?

EM: This is sort of like giving advice to myself: no matter what you have to do to sustain your passion, to pay your bills, and to put food on the table, as long as you want to be, you are a photographer. No one can say differently. It is difficult making money solely on your photographs. I have only been out of college for a year and a half and I moved to Chicago right after graduating with this idea that I could live off of my photography almost immediately. I decided long ago that I didn’t really want to (nor am I really built to) assist commercial shooters, and so early on I eliminated one of the only jobs completely relevant to my college degree. I just wanted to make the photographs I wanted to make and let my life happen. I am not saying it’s a total impossibility to live off of freelance, but in certain circumstances, it’s much more difficult than I ever imagined. The truth is I love photography but I am still unsure what place my photos have in the world, and, further, I am still not sure what I want to be “when I grow up.” I was always a career-driven perfectionist, so accepting that it’s not so easy has been huge for me. I have worked really hard to survive in the big city and have taken some unforeseen opportunities to make my life and my photography here possible. Do not care about being impressive. Or making a lot of money (hard for that to happen even if you are getting more jobs). Care about your work… care about shooting what is meaningful to you. Stay genuine.

JC: Favourite tree?

EM: Weeping willows, easily.