Project: The Butterfly Project

Cocoon No.1 © Aryn Kresol

With this series, I am exploring the mental perception of the body by experimenting with its physical relation to itself. Visual or mental perception changes, just as the physical form. By literally intertwining the same form multiple times, I am able to create a new surface, a new body. This new development serves to emphasize the transformation of how one perceives one's own body as mental and physical growth is experienced. Awakening references an awareness of the body, a mental experience of one's physical self. We are not as we are but we are how we perceive ourselves to be.

-Aryn Kresol



Awakening No. 1 © Aryn Kresol



Awakening No. 3 © Aryn Kresol



Awakening No. 5 © Aryn Kresol


To see more from The Butterfly Project, visit arynkresol.blogspot.com.

Q&A: Aline Smithson

Favorite Condiment © Aline Smithson


I had the tremendous pleasure of interviewing photographer Aline Smithson. Smithson resides on the "Left Coast" of the United States. She is productive both in the practice and the study of photography, as is evident by viewing her website and very active photo blog Lenscratch. Her variety in subject matter is telling of her hyper curiosity for life. Her enthusiastic exploration of photography and photographers is a true inspiration for those interested in the medium.


Aryn Kresol: The extent of work on your website is quite impressive. You seem to be very purposeful about the ideas you pursue. Does most of your work initially come from preconceived ideas or do you find yourself producing work without a predetermined purpose and find one along the way?

Aline Smithson: I work both ways, usually starting from an idea and then I shoot a couple of images and if it feels right, I continue. Sometimes I'll spontaneously produce an image, find resonance in what I've done, and continue the exploration. It's all pretty organic, but I do think it helps to have an intention...as a project evolves, there is a voice in my head that constantly discusses what I am doing and that helps me flush out my intention.


The Secret Language, from In Case of Rain © Aline Smithson

Aryn Kresol: As the daughter of a librarian and the patron of a library currently in economic crisis, I have a connection with your In Case of Rain series. Do you find connections with other photographer's work and can you give an example of such a connection?

Aline Smithson: Honestly, I feel more connected to painters, especially James McNeil Whistler - not just for his portraits, but for his gestural landscapes and influences from Japanese imagery. I have a wall of inspirational images over my desk and many are postcards of paintings, postcards of hand painted Japanese photographs, or vernacular images by unknown photographers.
Lately I have been drawn to personal work dealing with family--Phil Todelano's work, Days with My Father, Doug DuBois, Tierney Gearon, Elizabeth Fleming, Jack Radcliffe. I recently wrote essays on this subject for Fraction Magazine and Too Much Chocolate.

Aryn Kresol: In the same vein, are there any photographers who have had a profound impact on your photographic life?

Aline Smithson: In my Fashion Editor life, definitely Mario Testino. He was a complete pleasure to work with and had such enthusiasm about his work and it taught me a lot about working with people. That kind of personality is infectious and makes everyone excited to create a singular vision as a team. Patrick Demarchelier and Arthur Elgort were pretty great to work with too--and though I didn't work with them, Guy Bourdin, Penn, and Avedon were visual influences.
I think when I was beginning my own photography career, I was most influenced by Matt Mahurin and Keith Carter (I only shot in black and white for many years). Matt Mahurin's work gave me permission to create and print images that were dark--I've always been drawn to ominous and quirky images, and his really resonated with me. For years, I had Matt's photographs of Marilyn Manson (from a story in Rolling Stone) over my desk, sort of as an inspiration for creating work that was "off". Keith Carter resonated with me because he approached his subjects with such compassion and dignity. My current favorites are Jan von Holleben who celebrates life and children with a disregard of traditional approaches and Oliver J. Laude for his quirky and humorous approach to his work.

Aryn Kresol: Do you consider yourself an artist or a photographer? Or both? What, for you, is the distinction between the two?

Aline Smithson: My eduction was as an artist, though when I reflect on my influences in college, they were definitely artist's that used photography. John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, and William Wegman were artist/photographers that I admired. When I was in college, no one considered being just a photographer. As an artist, you had permission to use all mediums--lithography combining photography, painting combining photography, or just straight photography--but it was art based. At this point, I consider myself both, though if someone asks what I do for a living, I just say I'm a photographer.


People I Don't Know #5 © Aline Smithson

Aryn Kresol: The People I Don't Know series most definitely speaks of your personal style; within it the viewer can see reoccurring compositions and lighting attractions. Is this a tendency that you are conscious of when you are photographing or is it intuitive?

Aline Smithson: That was an early series and I discovered the importance of light as an element that evoked more complex images. Since I didn't have any formal photography education, or a community to exchange ideas with, there was much on-the-spot learning. Working through that series did, indeed, create a consciousness about how I wanted to present the images--though very little was planned in advance. I just looked for ways to connect the images when I was in the moment.


Life, from In Case of Rain © Aline Smithson

Aryn Kresol: You expressed interest in photographs that accompany articles, books, and such. Are you interested in the text? Or do you solely read the photographs?

Aline Smithson: Honestly, I always look at the photographs first, but I will read the story or the essay if it is of interest. If you are going to create images to accompany text, you should be reading the text! I am interested in image that begin to tell a story, but don't give away the ending, that are intriguing enough to make you want to read the text. I have to admit, I've purchased books because of the cover image.

Aryn Kresol: Does more of your work come from external influences or from internal curiosities?

Aline Smithson: Both, though probably more from external influences. I'm a visual learner and person. My husband will often have to remind me to stop looking at strangers for too long--I am so fascinated with life and people. I'm always taking in the world and thinking about what I'm looking at. I often take those external influences and make them internal curiosities.


Moving Through Life © Aline Smithson

Aryn Kresol: Do you still shoot with film? Mainly or Solely? If you do work digitally, do you feel a difference between the works you produce traditionally to that which you produce digitally?

Aline Smithson: I only shoot with film. And my cameras are pretty old--I use a Rolleiflex from the 1950s and a Hasselblad that could be from the 1980s. It just feels right. I have noticed that my students who shoot digital don't take the time or make an effort to slow down and really think about what they are producing...and the other thing I've noticed, is that many digital photographers have never made prints--I find that unbelievable. The darkroom, and the artistry behind printing, is an important part to committing to the image and elevating it to another level. I don't shoot as much random imagery these days, due to the cost of developing film, and that's where digital images would help. I do own a digital camera and have never used it.


Fur © Aline Smithson

Aryn Kresol: As a photographer and a mother, your children are at times present in your work. Do your children enjoy being photographed, or is it something that they tolerate?

Aline Smithson: My daughter has always been a willing partner--though I did a series of her wearing an enormous gold Thai hat in various locations, and had to pay her $1 per shoot! My son begrudgingly allows me to photograph him, but i know he's happy with the images--especially since he made the cover of a magazine. I am grateful to have chronicled their lives through my art.


My immense thanks to Aline for her generous answers!

Photography Show: Aryn Kresol.

My first photography show, Chris French Presents: Annie Rudolph, Aryn Kresol, Carrie Allen took place on Friday, October 2nd and Saturday, October 3rd at Vixen Productions in Rockford, Illinois. A big thank you to all those who made it out to see the work! We had an amazing team: Annie Rudolph, Carrie Allen, Chris French, Lonnie Iske [of Vixen Productions], and myself. We worked really hard to put together a fantastic show and it was wonderful to be able to share it. The space looked beautiful! Here is just an over view of the layout* of my pieces:





The days and evenings were spectacular. I met a lot of new and interesting people who have a shared love of art and photography; among them local photographer Pablo Korona and artist Robbie Martin, who I am going to be doing some work for in the near future. I was also able to spend some time talking about work and the show with my former photography instructor from Rock Valley College and mentor, Randy Paul-Petersen.







Chris French Presents: Success! [from left] Annie Rudolph, Lonnie Iske, Chris French, Aryn Kresol, Carrie Allen.


We are planning to put on another photography show for Rockford ArtScene, Spring 2010!

*To see this full post, including images of the complete layout, please visit my blog.

Bio: Aryn Kresol

© Aryn Kresol

This is not about where I have come from or where I am going. This is about where I am. I am currently studying and practicing photography at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. I am scheduled to graduate with my Bachelor’s in May of 2011. Photography is what I have wanted since I was old enough to know what real wanting is. Well, one of the two things. Photographically speaking, I have no commercial ambitions. I draw inspiration from looking at the works of others and from literature. I have been in a long-term love affair with words. I am my mother’s child. The youngest of four. I like swings and skittles but have never had both at the same time. I would rather be hurt by the truth than be told a lie. I do not want to forget to see beauty in everything. I do not necessarily believe that every thing happens for a reason but I do believe that every thing that is meant to happen will. I am currently celebrating my first (independent from school) photography show, which is taking place on Friday, October 2nd and Saturday, October 3rd in Rockford, IL. Information can be found on my blog Here and I will be updating with images and news from the show.

Q&A: Michael Wilson

Ben Taylor © Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson is a music, portrait and fine art photographer whose clients include Warner Bros. Records, Sony Music and Elektra Records. He's a photographer's photographer, shooting with older film cameras in a variety of formats, and working long hours in his basement darkroom. To top it off, he's one of the nicest, humblest photographers around. In preparation for their assignment to shoot a cd cover, we looked at Michael's work online and at 3 of his early monographs of personal work. Then the class asked Michael these questions:

Kayla Newman: How did you start shooting cd covers?

Michael Wilson: There are probably two basic things that led to my start in making pictures for music packaging. The first being that I had enjoyed making portraits of musicians. I had always been very interested in music, and in the people who make it so when I began making portraits (as a student in college) I was quite naturally drawn to make pictures of musicians who were in my world at that time... friends and acquaintances mostly. The second was a growing awareness of the potential life for the kind of photographs that I loved and was desirous to make in the world of record packaging. As a music fan, I used to spend lots of spare time at record stores reading album covers to see who was playing on which records, who produced the record, etc... I was also very aware of the record covers... and looking at who made the photographs or who did the design. I would occasionally see records with really beautiful photography... photography that was rooted in the kind of photography that made me fall in love with pictures in the first place, and inside I'd be jumping out of my skin thinking, "I wish I could make pictures like that for music like this." At this time in my life, I was 7 years out of college, 4 years of which I'd spent in a job as a photographer's assistant/darkroom technician at a text book publisher which had an in-house photography department. The grind of doing the kind of work that we churned had gone a long way to my becoming not very interested in photography. By contrast, when I saw a Robert Frank photograph on a "New Lost City Rambler's" record, or a beautiful Simon Larbalestier photograph on a "Pixies" cover, or a Stephen Shore photograph on some record that I knew nothing about, I would remember that I really did want to make pictures. In 1989, with the encouragement of a good friend and the help of my wife, I sent off a handmade book of about 10 or 12 portraits that I liked to a woman whose name I knew only from reading the backs of record jackets... her name was Jeri Heiden and she worked at Warner Brothers Records in LA. Other than that all I knew about her was that her name was listed as Art Director on a surprisingly high percentage of the records that I saw that caught my eye as being really beautiful. It was truly one of those "nothing to lose" moments and I've come to realize that no matter how old we are or where we are in our lives... realizing that we have 'nothing to lose' is a great gift. Anyway, I received a nice note from her a few weeks later and I was very happy and I thought that was the end of that. A short time later, I got a call from a manager of a band (which was from Milwaukee area, by the way) called the BoDeans and Jeri Heiden had given him my name and suggested that I do a shoot with the band as they were going to be close to Cincinnati on tour. I did and the pictures wound up being used in their package. A few months after this, I made a trip to Los Angeles and met with Jeri Heiden in person (she was the head of the art department at Warner Bros. at that time). That meeting led to the use of a personal photograph of mine becoming the cover for the Replacements "All Shook Down" record and Jeri also hired me to shoot the band in Minneapolis. That project probably did more than any other single thing to help get me started making pictures for music.

























Lyle Lovett © Michael Wilson

Kathryn Kmet: When preparing for a musician photo shoot, does the musician tell you what they want out of the book you create, or do they trust you to create it on your artistic judgment?

Michael Wilson: Only very, very rarely have I been given direction going into a shoot and on those occasions the direction has more to do with things like, "make sure it is not too serious " or, "... you know that this artist hates to be photographed." Fortunately, most all of the time that I'm hired to photograph for a project I've been given the trust and free rein to make the pictures that I want to make. In most cases, the project is discussed beforehand with either the artist or the management, or someone at the record company so that I understand the "feel" of the record and so that they know how I go about my work. But beyond that it is usually me doing my best to make the most interesting and honest pictures that I can make.

Jenny Scheinman © Michael Wilson

Andrea Payne: How do you go about making the environment you’re shooting in comfortable for your client? How do you make them relax in front of you?

Michael Wilson: I don't know that I have any formula for this, but I do approach the portrait as a conversation and as such I follow those same instincts, behaviors and courtesies that that would lead to a (hopefully) meaningful conversation with that person or group of people. My being forthright and honest and vulnerable going into the portrait 'conversation' is where I hope to start. I'm not the kind of photographer who has a lot of ideas ahead of time or one who pre-visualizes what I'd like to come away with... so I am almost totally dependent on the subject trusting me enough to open up and welcome me in to whatever it is they might have to share. I really do think of it the same way that you think of meeting any person who you may know very little about and trying to have an honest/meaningful conversation. It takes a bit of time and it is certainly not without akward and uncomfortable moments... moments when I feel totally lost. When I feel that way, I usually will come right out and say so. Quite often that helps. I also keep in mind how much I dislike being in front of a camera -- try to understand some of the discomfort and reluctance that the subject might be feeling.























Bill Frisell © Michael Wilson

Aryn Kresol: Was your utilization of the square format influential to you photographing album covers, or did your work on covers influence your choice of format. In other words, which preceded which?

Michael Wilson: My interest in the square format came before any interest in or awareness of record covers. I became very taken with using a twin lens, square format camera when I first started making portraits in college. I had always been somewhat shy and had difficulty looking at people in the eye and when I discovered the twin lens camera I loved that I could be standing there, basically staring down at my feet, but I was looking into the ground glass of the camera and having this connection with whoever it was standing in front of the lens. As crazy as that sounds, that is where my interest in the square format started. The square certainly does lend itself to the shape of the covers, however.

Georgia Lloyd: For your album photographs, are you in charge of deciding how to design the cover, or are you only in control of the actual photograph to be used on the cover? How do you manage your framing based on this?

Michael Wilson: I have no control in the design of the covers that I work on and I don't want to control the design. I love great design, but I am not a designer. I am not thinking about the eventual design of the project or how my pictures will fit into that design when I am photographing, I just make pictures and let the designer sort out the mess.






















Mose Allison © Michael Wilson

Georgia Lloyd: Many of your album covers are monochrome rather than color. What is this reason behind this decision? Is it purely personal aesthetic, or does it serve more purpose than that?

Michael Wilson: The work I've been most interested in during my life as a photographer has always been the b/w work. Certainly, I do think that there is a distillation or intensifying reduction that occurs when the world is seen without color and this distillation can lend a special weight to b/w work which I love and look for. The more practical reason for the predominance in my work is that I've always been most interested in the work with which I've had the most intersection. By that I mean, when I develop b/w film in my basement, I see the film when I hang it up to dry, I see it again when I cut it and sleeve it, I see it again when I make the contact sheets and then I study those contact sheets quite hard. By the time I get around to making prints (or scans as it is these days) I've had a lot of intersection with the work... I feel like it is mine. I feel attached to the work. I remember when I used to shoot color transparency for assignments, I would drop the film off at the lab, pick it up the next day or so, and then have to send it off to the client right away... and my work flow was such that I really did not spend very much time with those pictures. Sometimes I'd see something color in print and not even realize that it was mine.

Sarah Moore: Do you think a degree in photography is necessary to succeed as a professional photographer?

Michael Wilson: I don't think so...(but stay in school anyway). Quite honestly, I feel very much at a loss when I'm asked questions such as this about what it takes to succeed as a professional photographer. I think that each person will have to determine the definition of success for themselves. If "succeeding as a professional photographer" means making a comfortable living, making good money, it might be wise to spend as much time around photographers and groups of photographers who have developed business models and practices that have proven successful for them... photographers who are making good money. I've been making my living as a freelance photographer since 1987 and I still feel at a loss as to how to succeed as a professional photographer. I feel incredibly fortunate (and grateful) that I have been able to make a living making pictures but the reality is that there are a lot of people looking for the same jobs and I can't imagine that this trend will change. At the end of the day, I guess my opinion is that to succeed as a professional photographer you will have to either love succeeding in your profession as a business person or you will have to just plain love making pictures... whether or not you make money.






















New Orleans © Michael Wilson

Aimee Keil: Does your personal and your professional work ever merge, or are they completely separate?

Michael Wilson: I think that my personal and professional work do merge... they are by no means completely separate. The same instinctive love of pictures, love of seeing is what drives any picture... any strong, meaningful picture, whether the initial impulse to make the picture comes from my personal interest or whether the initial impulse was that I'd been hired to make pictures for a project, it is the same love of seeing that will make either picture work. That being said, there are those times when I've been asked to make pictures of things or people or events that I have very little feeling for... when there is little more than professional obligation at work in the work it usually shows... and I usually don't want to look at it very long.

Rose Tarman: It seems many of the opportunities in your life have come about serendipitously. Do you have any particular advice for an in-progress photographer that has high hopes for the future?

Michael Wilson: As far as advice relative to a career in photography, I would go back to the ideas that I was clawing at in attempting to answer Sarah Moore' s question about what it takes to succeed as a professional photographer. The most specific and particular advice I can think to give anyone who is giving serious consideration to photography as a major part of their life is to look at as many pictures as you can... especially look at the pictures that have been made by people who have spent their lives making pictures for the love of making pictures. When you find work that moves you, be grateful and lap it up. There is probably something in that work that was motivated by the very same things that are at work in you. Make pictures whether people want you to make pictures or not... whether people pay you for your pictures or not. My experience has been that I cannot rightly determine photography's place in my life by thinking about it -- it has been by making pictures that I've come to find out photography's place in my life.

© Aryn Kresol.

Garry Winogrand said "I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed." This statement very much reflects my own motivation behind this piece. When an idea occurs to me, I have to pursue it. Even if it turns out unfruitful, the process is still a means to quell the compulsion. Often times, as photographers, we have a certain vision (at least with pre-considered pieces) of what we want a photograph to look like. And often times, the resulting photograph is not how we first envisioned. This was not one of those times.
The construction was fairly simple: between the camera and subject, a piece of glass. Onto this piece of glass, the subject released a stream of water creating the ripples and distortion you see here. The glass acts as a barrier but also a part of the space - a place for visual engagement and interaction, not just for the subject of the photograph but for the viewer as well.
When this idea occurred to me, it was a tiny voice in my head asking, "I wonder if...". The question crept its way into my head and the only means of answering was to pursue it. I was pleased when the final image coincided with what I had previously envisioned. Ask me now what I learned when I photographed this and I will answer that I learned what this looks like photographed.

Great Shot: Michals

This Photograph Is My Proof © Duane Michals

Duane Michals is a photographer and a writer. As a person who draws as much inspiration from literature as I do from photography, I find his work to be greatly inspiring. An "artist formerly known as a photographer," Michals desires to go beyond description and present through photographs how he thinks and feels about the world, not as it is seen. In this image, This Photograph Is My Proof, Michals supplies the viewer with a nostalgic image, one of a man and woman paired with the following handwritten text: "This photograph is my proof. There was that afternoon, when things were still good between us, and she embraced me, and we were so happy. It did happen, she did love me. Look, see for yourself!" I find this image and conjoining message to be deeply moving because it makes me think of myself in familiar circumstances; it takes me beyond just seeing the photograph and to actually feeling what those words mean. It is great because it has multiple layers. The photograph itself acts as a facade of happiness, while the message that Michals conveys is one of nostalgia, sadness, and doubt.

If you are interested in learning more about Duane Michals and how he feels about his work, I would highly recommend watching this video interview that can be found at: www.pixchannel.com. There are also interviews with other great photographers such as Ruth Bernhard, Arnold Newman, Jerry Uelsmann, Elliot Erwitt, and more.

.Spiraculo. © Aryn Kresol

I set out this passed summer not only to widen my understanding of pinhole photography but to also broaden my experience by photographing a subject I have done well to avoid: landscape. I wanted to challenge myself with the task of focusing on a subject that I did not find all that interesting (at least in terms of what I like to photograph). When it comes to landscape photography, I thought, I could appreciate it for what it is, but it was not for me. And even so, in my mind when I started photographing this summer, I set out with the intention of photographing Nothing. Over the passed year I have become increasingly interested in minimalist style photography. And I have spent time looking at photographers such as Michael Kenna, and it was only after I started photographing to that desire that I became familiar with the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto of the same style. As it turns out, I fell in love - not only with the pinhole way, but with the beauty and sophistication of simplicity.