Joseph Podlesnik, interviewed by Frederic Mittelstedt
F.M.: What does professional demeanor mean to you, and how does it affect how you approach your work?
J.P.: "Professional" means commitment, whether one's aspirations are primarily commercial or personal or both. Commitment - meaning exploring one's craft, learning what one can about the tools, concepts, processes, and even the promotion of one's work.
F.M.: Do you have a specialization in the type of work you do or in how you approach your subjects? If so, how did you develop it?
J.P.: If I specialize, it might be what photographer William Eggleston called a kind of ‘democratization’ of photography and images, meaning essentially that most or all things are photographable. I try to approach subjects with curiosity, of course with some learned mental photo schema or templates in mind, but when opportunities arise to find subject or compositional alternatives to this, I try to stay open to them.
F.M.: Please describe your journey, from the time you realized you enjoyed photography to the present.
J.P.: I've had 35mm film cameras (Canon and Minolta) from the late 70's to the 90’s, but never learned darkroom processes; I always took my film rolls to the lab. My photos then, I think, were documentative and what might be thought of as prosaic; later some were used as references for paintings. As an undergrad, I enrolled in film courses, so I have some familiarity with cinema. Later, when I was an art educator, I used photography - certain photographs - to teach my students design principles (photographs which I felt possessed a strong design sense, and design which helped support some of the content/meaning in the images). Eventually I started taking my own photographs, attempting to capture visual organization in the frame, inspired by the photo design samples I had been using in my design classes. In 2010, I created a Facebook album titled "Compendium of Photographic Possibility", which I consider to be my “photo school" of sorts, a collection of photographs of many different types and genres, hoping to inspire myself and others. In my evolution as a photographer, I've explored portraiture projects (loosely) and other projects (one titled "Dumb Space", another titled, "The Veil and the Thicket"). For now, I think photographers Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Stephen Shore, Saul Leiter, William Eggleston, Lewis Baltz, Nan Goldin, Eliot Erwitt, painters Edward Hopper, Peter Doig, Israel Hershberg, and theorists on photography John Berger, John Szarkowski and James Elkins, have had influences on my work.
F.M.: What do you envision as the next phase of your journey, or what else do you aspire to do?
J.P.: Good question. I'm not sure of that right now. I'll keep taking photographs, till those ideas, those phases, evolve....
F.M.: What advice do you have for someone in my situation, who is interested in a few different genres but is unsure of which to pursue?
J.P.: Keep taking photographs (or as photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen says, “Stay on the bus.”). Be sure to see your photographs in a way that engineers call a "feedback loop", that is, learn from the photographs you take, let the photograph suggest ideas to you, suggest to you changes you might make… have a dialog with your images and go from there. Explore formalism in your work, maybe strict formalism for a while, just to see how it feels, then try relaxing with more casual imagery...at some point there might also be more overt social aspects to your work, too. Lots to consider…
F.M.: In your experience, what methods of self-promotion have proven to be the most successful?
J.P.: I use Facebook and Instagram primarily, with some use of LinkedIn. I also self-publish photo books through Blurb. I submit to and participate in exhibitions as well.
F.M.: Can you describe the methods you employed to get your books published?
J.P.: As mentioned, up to this point, until I find third-party publishers, I use Blurb for self-publishing photo books. The prices are modest, and one can design and layout one's own books.
F.M.: You've been described as a multi-faceted visual artist. I consider myself the same. But years ago, while trying to promote myself as an illustrator and graphic designer, an art director advised me to choose one niche, specialize in that, and not try to be multi-faceted. What are your thoughts on that?
J.P.: I suppose it may be easier for name recognition (or "brand"/style recognition) if one is known for one type/style/medium/subject specialization, but if brand recognition isn't at the top of one's list of priorities, then being multifaceted is less of an issue for oneself, I think.
F.M.: Lastly, and slightly tangential, do you have any advice for an artist who is gifted in drawing but has fallen out of love with it and lost the enjoyment of doing it?
J.P.: Another good question. I'm in that camp, too. I would say: have a sketchbook with you and draw whenever you're moved to do so. Also, if you haven't studied Kimon Nicolaides' book The Natural Way to Draw, I would recommend reading it and doing the exercises. I've had the book for decades on my bookshelf but only recently delved into it, after teaching drawing (online) for the University of Southern Mississippi, and am glad I did. His take on drawing might bring you back into it.