Archie McLeish allcitiesarebeautiful.com • Celebrating Contemporary Documentary Photography • #allcitiesarebeautiful

Interview • 066 PH

Archie McLeish

New York City, New York, USA

Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?

Archie McLeish from Brixton, London and currently working as an Art director in New York in the field of exhibition design and new technology. Outside of that I am a photographer/image maker or something in between?

What is your relationship with photography and how did you get into it?

Photography has been a slow burner for me. I hadn’t really seen it as the «thing» I do, more a side aspect, or a tool to document what I actually do. But, I began to realise the thing I love to do is actually the documenting and the photography itself and how it enables and pushes me to encounter more.

What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?

It’s both, but predominantly intuition and situational. There are occasions when I see something but need to revisit for some reason or another; want it in a certain light, someone parks their car in front, I want to add something or I just plain fuck it up and the photo is blurry or could be better. But I also find, like with anything, you sometimes need to grind out a result and not just wait for the right moment or right light.

What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

There's never really an explicit narrative, but I like to show a place void of people but with traces of life and use. I like to plainly document certain places and show what they reveal about life and where it's destined.

Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?

The list is so long—as i'm living in the US currently i want to see all I can—but would take a trip to Alamogordo any day. I love New Mexico—The light and landscape is astonishing, I love the low flat buildings and the dusty tones, White Sands is otherworldly. Kyoto is high on the list too.

What is your personal relationship to cities and how do you perceive them as places in general?

Cities are beautiful to me, I love the built environment. They are always the bookends to any trip. I like being in and around people and the different ways we choose to build our worlds. I’m fascinated by architectural elements and the geographical nuances to them.

What is the driving force behind creation?

A few things, the excitement in seeing other peoples work, frustration probably in wanting to «get better», perhaps the competition in it too.

Which project did you never finish?

There are so many, I always have the root of an idea and start it, but nearly always get distracted with other projects. Really, I'm terrible at working in a series. However, The one project I always wished I did stick at was taking pictures in video games. I love open world games and the craft which goes into them, how cities are created in much the same way as our real built environment, scores of teams and individuals adding objects, geometry and textures.

I built up a good few hundred photos from GTA, Last of us, RDR2 shooting in the same way I would normally, drifting from street to street with a loose destination in mind, then reset my Playstation because it was old and wouldn't play Horizon Zero Dawn smoothly and lost them all.

What is that «one thing» you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?

I don’t really have much regret about places that have gone, I'm alright with change, whenever I see demolition videos of power plants or tower blocks I wish I had been there at that moment.

That said, there was a massive estate in Elephant & Castle in London. An archetypal «estate». Big and sprawling It was quite prolific and felt quite impenetrable, lots of raised walkways and hidden passageways. I would go there often to explore and generally climb on roofs. I took pictures, but not really of anything, or at least with no intention or reason.

I’d like to photograph that place today, more because these kinds of houses are becoming relics, and fading away, which I find a real loss, both socially and stylistically. Other than that, the way I interpret that question is more how I am gone for good. There are so many places I have travelled to or visited in the world, which I thought I’d see again, or come back to at a different hour of the day on a trip but never did. Places in Oaxaca for sure.

If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?

I’ve come to understand that I am pretty much unable to focus on one thing and need to learn different practices and styles. For instance, if I saw some beautiful hand lettering or ceramics, I’d need to do it for myself, and do it fairly well. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but can also be just pure procrastination. So I’d probably just say, pick that one thing that brings you joy and treat it as your craft, keep dabbling with others but reign it in a little. I don’t have a good answer for going forward in time, I'm terrible at planning—maybe just telling my future self to come back and tell me what to do—or just the future Lottery numbers..?

What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?

I’m not that conscious of the terms, or at least don’t get hung up on it. I guess take a photo—as that's how I interpret the camera—as taking from the world.

What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?

It usually involves some kind of chaos. Cinco de mayo in Mexico; fireworks and mezcal, lightning storms in New Mexico etc., I might not always produce the best image, but the camera is the thing that took me there in one way or another.

If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?

I work predominantly in exhibition design and 3D visualisation—so that—but I can always sink endless amounts of time into rendering random objects and sculptures in 3D.

How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?

Quiet and empty—dusty and open—deserted—dreamlike and optimistic tethered to mundane objects and surfaces.

What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?

I haven't been getting out much recently, I'm just raiding old memory cards for something I may have passed up or missed on first review. I’m also forcing myself to take different kinds of pictures indoors—which I’ve always been a little intimidated by—but enjoying confronting.

Thank you, Archie!

Editorial Notes:

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Photography: Archie McLeish (2020)
Location: New York City, New York, USA

Links: Website, Instagram

allcitiesarebeautiful.com • Celebrating Contemporary Documentary Photography • #allcitiesarebeautiful