Interview with Jason Fulford

1) Your images looks like found circumstance and chance encounters

with the bizarre, portrayed in a banal way can you speak to your way

of looking at the world around you?

(see 4 and 5)

2) Do you ever re-shoot?

I'll shoot something a few different ways, but I don't go back and re-shoot.

3) I read somewhere that you compared shooting to building a

vocabulary and editing to writing. Could you say more about your

process in these terms? What do you read? How do those texts inform

your visual vocabulary and influence your work?

I'm not sure if I can analyze the influence on my work, but I can tell you

that I love when a writer takes on a serious subject with a sense of humor

-- Sergei Dovlatov, Victor Pelevin, Kafka, Kierkegaard, Lydia Davis. I

also love absurdist writers like Daniil Kharms and Robert Walser. I love

the layers in Robbe-Grillet and Perec and Thomas Mann. I love the

curiosity you feel when you read Darwin's journals. Flannery O'Connor is

in her own category.

4) From where do you draw your influences? What other mediums

influence your work?

Well, music is another big one. The Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Fall. King

Tubby. Raymond Fairchild, Japanese garage bands. Pylon, LiLiPUT, Michael

Hurley, Raymond Scott, Hasil Adkins. A few years ago I was interested in

polyphony, so Ligeti, Webern, Nancarrow. The influences all seem to

overlap in different ways. I guess if you could find those points where

they overlap, then you could analyze the effect.

5) What is the most beneficial thing you have done for your practice?

Have you made sacrifices for your practice?

I'm happiest when I'm inspired, so I travel and read. I talk to my friends

and students about their work, so there's a dialog. I eat three meals a

day. I try to use my brain in different ways

6) What do you do when you get stuck?

It's a classic crossword puzzle problem. One thing that works is to put

down whatever you're stuck on and do something else for a while, then come

back to it. If I'm stuck on some personal work, I'll stop and work on a

J&L book, or build something out of wood, or letterpress, or do a magazine

assignment, or plant something, or clean the bathroom.

7) How would your describe the affects of over-saturation of images on

art photography, for example, the internet? Do you feel this affects

you much as a working artist?

Sometimes it's a little depressing -- why does the world need any more

pictures? Then I remember how important and subtle context can be, and I

feel better about it.

8) Do you ever feel dictated by the art world?

No.

9) Do you have any advice for young artists of today?

We're all so different. I mean we all care about different things. It's

hard to generalize. I guess I'd say customize your life as much as you

can.

Jason Fulford / J&L