| Leah Oates: Please describe how you became an artist and specifically a photographer, and what your family background is. Cara Phillips: My journey to photography was a little more complex than many people who come out of MFA programs. I moved to New York in my early twenties, and spent several years working in luxury department stores as a make-up artist. In the fall of 2001, I returned to finish my bachelor’s degree without having any idea what I wanted to do with my life. Obviously the events of that time period had a profound effect on everyone. In my case the role of photography in the aftermath of 9/11 played a pivotal role in shaping my future career…. |
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Cara Phillips, interviewed by Leah Oates
Leah Oates: Please describe how you became an artist and specifically a photographer, and what your family background is.
Cara Phillips: My journey to photography was a little more complex than many people who come out of MFA programs. I moved to New York in my early twenties, and spent several years working in luxury department stores as a make-up artist. In the fall of 2001, I returned to finish my bachelor’s degree without having any idea what I wanted to do with my life. Obviously the events of that time period had a profound effect on everyone. In my case the role of photography in the aftermath of 9/11 played a pivotal role in shaping my future career, even if I didn’t know it at the time. I was fortunate to be studying at Sarah Lawrence College, which just happened to have one of the most influential living photographers teaching there. In 2003 I managed to get myself into Joel Sternfeld’s color photography class, and I have never looked back.
In retrospect, photography had already played a large role in my life. My mother was an avid photography lover throughout my childhood, and I worked in front of a camera from age eight until 15 as a child model. Each summer I would depart from suburban Michigan and head to New York to do catalogs, plays, and commercials.
LO: Your work deals with the body, and how it is altered by nature and by others and how humans are continually in search of the perfect body. Please explain the themes you are exploring and how your work came to focus on the body.
CP: Well, clearly my personal background has had an influence on what I photograph. You cannot be immersed in the beauty industry without it leaving a mark. I lived in a micro-culture that placed enormous value on physical appearance before I ever picked up a camera. Once I decided to take photographs, I became intrigued with the idea of recording these “places of beauty.” There is something very powerful in the idea that a person, place, or machine can bestow the gift of beauty. People will pay quite a bit of money to fix their perceived flaws. I found it very challenging to capture that dynamic visually, so that was a big part of my interest—the translation of personal emotion, political message, and cultural critique, to the final art object.
LO: How do you conceptualize your work? Some artists have ideas and work quickly, and others are more methodical and precise. How do your ideas and work progress?
CP: I am quite a slow poke. Last year I had the great pleasure of hearing Elinor Carucci speak about her work at Aperture, and it was liberating to hear that she often sits on her work for two or three years before even beginning to edit.
I suppose I am more of an intellectual photographer, in the sense that I do a great deal of reading and research on my subject before I begin any production. I actually see the visual component of the work as secondary. Once I understand what I want to explore or convey, then I work backwards to find the correct visual strategy to communicate. The conceptual method is just more effective for me, much as I admire the Robert Frank “shoot everything and find the project in the edit” style.
LO: Do you think that more female artists focus on the body than male artists? There are historical reasons for this as the female body has, and is still being objectified in art and the media. Is there still a reason for female artists to focus on the body as female artists are less marginalized within the art world?
CP: This is a very interesting and challenging question. In terms of the first part of the question, I guess it depends on how to define, “focus on the body.” There are far more male photographers shooting female nudes. And there are a large number of women artists doing self-portraiture and exploring physical intimacy in photography. Does that make one gender more concerned with the “body?” I guess to me as long as female bodies continue to be both objects in the art world and commodities in culture, artists will explore the issue, female and male.
I do not think my work is insular—which work concerned with the marginalization of women in the art world tends to be—it is much more about larger cultural issues. Perhaps the problem is that issues of the “body,” are not given the same respect and attention in culture because they are seen as “women’s issues.” If I were to concern myself with say, photographing shipping containers and explore issues surrounding trade and outsourcing of jobs, would that be a more valid subject matter? That said, if there were no more standards of beauty, and if women were equal in the world, then I suppose I would not make these pictures.
LO: You and Amy Elkins created Women in Photography (WIPNYC), which showcases female photographers. Why did you create this site, who have you shown, and how do you see the site developing into the future?
CP: Women in Photography was created to be an archive of the work of women artists. The goal is to mix the work of emerging, mid-career, and established photographers. The art world is extremely hierarchical, and this tends to keep female artists from creating dialogue from one generation to the next. We wanted to offer another option. So far we have shown a diverse and talented group including: Lisa Kereszi, Miranda Litchenstein, Elinor Carucci, Lynne Cohen, Erica Larsen, Kelli Connell, Robin Schwartz, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Victoria Sambunaris, and many others.
LO: What advice would you give to artists/photographers who are just starting out, and who want to get their work into shows or fairs?
CP: Don’t give up. Be patient, be thankful, follow up, and work hard. And then work harder. I think the best lesson is the willingness to take criticism. Joel told me at one point that I should show my work to as many people as I could and get feedback. However, in the beginning I was devastated every time people said things like “this is a good start,” after three years of working. But in retrospect they were absolutely right. You will know when the work is ready, but it takes a lot of time, feedback, and a willingness to admit your mistakes and move on. Because the difference between getting from 97 percent there to 100 percent there, is actually the hardest part. And never underestimate the importance of helping others. I would probably had a much harder time without the success of WIPNYC. Being able to do good things for other artists, even when I was struggling, really helped me have a healthy attitude about my own career.
LO: What are you working on now, and what shows do you have coming up?
CP: Right now I am just starting to bring my Ultraviolet Beauties series into the world. Several pieces were in a group exhibit from January 7 to March 8 at Hous Projects in New York. Images from Singular Beauty will be included in a group show at Colby-Sawyer College, New Hampshire this winter. There are some things brewing for the New York art fairs. And I am starting a body of work that is in the research stage at the moment.
