Interview With Tamara Gurevich

by Sarah M. Clinton

Hello Readers!

Please take a moment to look at the beautiful cover of our newest volume – which you can find on the Books page of our site under the photos section.

We wanted to catch up with our cover artist, Tamara Gurevich, and ask her some questions about her photography. The interview went as follows:

S: How long have you been doing photography?
T: I've been playing around with cameras off and on since I was about 11. Only seriously for the last 5 years or so.

S: How did you get started?
T: As a kid my dad used to let me play with his SLR whenever we would travel and I loved it, but I was really frustrated because there would be a big disconnect between the picture I had in my head, and the photos that would come back from the developer. I stopped taking pictures for a while because of that. It wasn't until a trip to Israel when I was 15, where everything is intrinsically beautiful and a good shot came down to simple composition, that things really started to click.

S: What are your preferred types of photography and/or subjects?
T: I like medium format toy and instant photography a lot, but I mostly use 35mm digital for convenience. As for subjects, I am very inspired by urban landscapes. Portland has some wonderful artist neighborhoods where you can find a lot of great street art. Most of my favorite work came from trips to neighborhoods in New York City.

S: What emotion were you trying to capture with this photo?
T: Well, I took this photo in 2004 for a photo class, and I was thinking about creating visual contrast in the shot. I loved the way the contrast between individual particles of sand really come out with the black and white photography. That inspired me to bring in other textures. My friend's beautiful arms, and the ropes in the two different tones.

S: Where do you draw your inspiration from?
T: Good Light! Fashion and music and the city folk. One subject that is pretty much a constant is public art in industrial locations. I love to find a really beautiful piece of street art and photograph it in the context in which it has been placed.

S: Do you have any photography influences?
T:  I am a fan of John Rosenthal's B&W and David Lachapelle's brilliant color. But I tend to take my influences from other media than photography itself. I really like Ed Ruscha's work from the 70s. He took common urban fixtures like gas stations and put them into galleries.

S: How does it feel to have your photography on the cover of books?
T: It is a complete thrill to be included in this project.

S: You're also a filmmaker. Tell us about that?
T: Well, it can be a bit of a struggle finding work in a small market (Portland) instead of heading out to Los Angeles, but I have to say I love the sense of community I'm finding here. Right now I'm more interested in helping other filmmakers bring their vision to life, which puts me in the position to do a wide range of production jobs.

S: What is your goal for your photography and why?
T: Ideally, I’d love to be able to support myself someday with my art. Today my goal is simply to keep on looking for interesting moments to capture while I increase my range and ability.

S: What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue photography?
T: I'd recommend anyone who is trying to develop good picture taking skills to be a general patron of the arts. Visiting museums and galleries, looking at other artists’ work, educating your eye; learning where the medium has been is important.

S: What's your dream/ideal photo shoot like?
T: Wow, that's a hard one. One of the times I had the most fun on a shoot was when I was testing out some new equipment and had a friend sit down and chat with me while I took shots of her.  The shots came out like candids, and it was the first time I realized I could be into straight up portrait photography. I guess if you added some good lighting equipment into that scenario, I'd be nearing ideal shoot territory.

S: What's your typical photo shoot like?
T: I rarely have the budget for my own lights, or studio time.  As I result, I concentrate most of my attention on finding usable natural light. I love the spontaneity that comes with discovering a subject that has already found its own bit of beautiful natural light. I also like to have the sense that I am capturing a bit of the world as it actually is, rather than recreating it. Although that is not to say that if given the chance to use some good lighting equipment I wouldn't jump at the chance!

S: What would you say makes a perfect picture?
T: I'd say there is no perfect picture, but I certainly appreciate a tiny depth of field, crisp focus, and composition that makes you look twice.

S: If a camera fell in the darkness and there was no one there to see it, would it still make a flash?
T: Ouch! If it is a good camera, yes. But hopefully it's not my camera!

You can find more of Tamara's work at www.tamaragurevich.com.

Tamara also let us know that she's trying to get one of her photographs on a Jones Soda bottle! You can support our fellow artist by going to the following website and voting on her work!

www.jonessoda.com/gallery

Thank you for the excellent interview, Tamara, and for the great cover art! We're sure we'll see many more great things from you in the future!

That's it from the grape vine... stay tuned to get more information on upcoming contests!