introducing our collaborators, Jeremy Anderson and Jill Auville

Hello everyone,

we're going to start introducing the artists participating in our new exhibition, "collaborators".

This time we're not going to post any photos that we're showing before the opening so that we don't reveal too much too early, but if you'd like to see our photographers' work, follow the links to their portfolios.

Jeremy Anderson is an American analogue photographer based in Wisconsin who uses a variety of cameras, including Holga, Polaroid and 35mm. Here's what he says about his work:

"While I do have a pretty nice Nikon digital SLR, I rarely use it and shoot primarily film.  There’s something about film photography… an aesthetic… a nostalgia… an emotional connection… that seems to be missing with digital.  That emotional connection is what I strive to find with every shot I take.

I’m a self-taught photographer.  Before I even picked up a camera as a creative tool, I read book upon book of photography.  From the history of photography to famous photographers to the mechanics of cameras to shooting techniques and everything in between.  I studied photographers that I admired like Diane Arbus, Jill Auville, Andy Warhol, Jerry Uelsmann and Helen Levitt.

Then I picked up a Holga, ignored most everything I read and started shooting what I wanted, how I wanted."

You can find Jeremy's photographs on his page.

Jill Auville is a Swedish-born California-based photographer. She shoots mostly film, enjoys experimenting with instant film and is the proud owner of 124 cameras. Jill was recently interviewed by kwerfeldein magazine, you can find the entire interview in German here.

"I have lived most of my life without photography, because my plan was to become a painter... When I was little I drew all the time, non stop. Always doodling away at something. Crayons, pens, watercolors... I drew and I painted. 

I wasn't very good at it, in my opinion, which is perhaps why I have so many cameras today (and no crayons). The first camera I remember using was an Afga Afgamatic 100 way back in the mid-70s. I was a kid, and used it as a kid. All I took pictures of were sunsets and horses I have played on and off with photography since then, with emphasis on "playing", but I didn't really get into it until about 9 years ago, when I got a digital SLR. After a while however, digital started feeling too static and predictable... so I took a few (some say a lot of) steps back in the evolution of photography, and got myself a Polaroid 600 camera. 

Instant film to me is the perfect hybrid between old school photography and new school photography. You're shooting in an analog, organic film format, but you get the result instantly, like you do with digital. It is, if you ask me, the best of two worlds. Integral film is an easy format to experiment with. You can stain images by soaking them in liquids, emulsion lifts.. you can do all the things with one single image. Failed ones in particular.

Clean photography bores me, I find no joy in trying to attempt it or indeed even looking at it. No offense whatsoever to anyone pursuing such photography, it is however not for me. I, in general, feel more drawn to the missfortunate looking things in life, which is usually the subjects I shoot: like half burned, dead trees... dry, thorny thistles, rivers that have flooded, crows... the not so pretty things in life. The things that people pass by, and don't see. The dirt, the failed things"

You can see Jill's work on her page, in her portfolio and on Flickr, and you can find the books she published on blurb.