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Ashley Carr (GB)
(1) Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?
My name is Ashley Carr. I'm a photographer living in Birmingham, United Kingdom. I earn my living as a photographer shooting interiors and structures for clients. I don't shoot weddings or portraits of pets (only because I haven’t been asked.....well, I've done the odd wedding for friends). Most of my time is spent on personal projects.
(2) What is your relationship with photography and how did you get into it?
I've been working as a full-time photographer for nearly 20 years. I never had any thoughts of becoming a photographer until one day an employer put a camera in my hands and said, »Right, you're our photographer". The rest kind of just happened, and photography became my career. Although it's been my job for 20 years, my relationship with photography probably started at the age of 16. My father gave me his camera kit when I started art college, and I also built a darkroom at my parents’ house. So I've been using a camera and printing for just over 30 years. I work on personal projects as well as commissioned work.
(3) What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?
I'd say a combination of both intuition and planning. I have a few projects I shoot for when I'm out specifically to make photos. These projects provide a loose framework or context in which I make the work. Working within this framework, I can rely on my intuition to look for photos.
(4) What is the story you want your pictures to tell?
I'm not sure I want, or expect, them to tell a story in a narrative sense. I'd like them to convey a mood or a sense of place. I also don't expect a single image to do this. I like working in series, I'm drawn to archives, and prefer what a group of images can convey as opposed to a single image. For me, a well-sequenced set of images achieves far more than any single image can, especially given the subject matter I'm most drawn to.
(5) Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?
It would have to be Taipei in Taiwan. I spent 10 days there at the start of the year and instantly felt attracted to both the city and its people. It left a very big impression on me, and I've spent far too much time since I left working out how I can get back there. I was drawn to the mix of old and new architecture, two things I often try to combine in my work. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what inspired me so much about Taipei, but whatever it is, I'm hooked!
(6) What is your personal relationship to cities and how do you perceive them as places in general?
Having lived in a city all my life, I sometimes find it difficult to detach myself from that environment. You take the amenities for granted, as having these becomes the norm. This is partly the reason that my longest project to date centred around my home city, as I wanted to try and detach myself from the associations I have in an effort to see it more objectively. At the stage I am in my life now, it's more a love/hate relationship. I love the vibrancy and energy that comes from city living, but I'm also feeling the need for a little breathing space. I do not enjoy the traffic!
(7) What is the driving force behind creation?
I'm not sure really. For me, it's always felt very natural. I loved drawing from an early age, and this led me to study Fine Art at university. I trained as a painter and pretty much spent all of my education focused on that. Creating just feels like an intrinsic part of me, like walking, eating, or breathing. I never struggle with inspiration. My biggest problem is having too many ideas for projects. I have to be really disciplined if I want to stay on course.
(8) Which project did you never finish?
A lot! I do work on lots of projects, knowing that some will fall away and others will continue. This approach works well for me. It's a process of natural selection, the trick being to know when a project isn’t going anywhere and being able to drop it before it consumes too much time.
(9) What is that «one thing» you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?
My youth. When I was young, photography only served as a way to gather source material for my painting. I attached no worth to photography past that. I do wish I had the relationship with photography that I do now.
(10) If you could travel back / forth in time, what advice would you give your younger / older self?
As mentioned above, I'd urge my younger self to document the great time I had growing up. If I dwell on it too much, I get quite sad that I have no visual record of those times.
(11) What do you prefer saying: To «take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?
I tend to use make more than take, but I'll happily use both. When I used photography as a tool for my painting, it would be more take. Now that I'm a lot more considered about my work, it feels more like I'm making a photograph. Also, shooting film and printing in my darkroom definitely feels more like I'm making something, in craft-based terms.
(12) What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?
The job that got me into photography as a career was with a research centre looking at how the interior design of cars contributed to injuries sustained by its occupants. I've seen some very gruesome scenes and situations. In my day job as a commercial photographer, I've been contacted to shoot a few strange things, as I'm sure most working photographers have. Nothing I'd discuss here anyway…
(13) If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?
Drawing, painting, lino, and woodblock printing. It all depends on what best fits the ideas I have. If photography didn’t feel like the best way to realise the ideas I currently have, I wouldn't hesitate in stopping it without a second thought. It works for me at the moment, and that's all that matters.
(14) How would you describe one of your pictures to a visually impaired person?
Quiet, simple, still. Walking through a space alone, a small detail here or there—a memory.
(15) What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?
I'm bringing my main project to a close, not because it’s at an end. I think it could easily be open-ended, but because there are other things I want to pursue. I'm sure I'll always add to that body of work as part of me enjoys architecture and how it makes me feel. I have several other projects that I've been working on alongside my main one, and it's time to let those come to the fore. One is quite conceptual and somewhat of a departure from the work I've become known for. I also feel it’s time to be a touch more expressive, a bit less formal in my approach. Or I might start painting again. Let's see how I feel tomorrow ;-)
Thank you, Ashley.
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Images
1–20 Ashley Carr, 2019–2020.
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