Antone Dolezal

Antone Dolezal is a New Mexico based photographer and writer. He is a member of the new media collective Finite Foto, and his writing has appeared in various photographic publications including photo-eye Magazine and Fraction. Antone received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Santa Fe in 2006.

View more of Antone's work here

Ashley Kauschinger: I feel your work holds a close relationship to the FSA and that generation of photographers. Do you feel linked to that time in photography? 

Antone Dolezal: My personal connection to the FSA generation doesn’t go very far. When I first started Ghost Town back in 2009 I looked through a good deal of FSA photographs that documented the Dust Bowl as a reference and jumping off point. James Agee and Walker Evans’ Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was an influential book in that it helped get the wheels turning with how I would approach telling a story about the Panhandle of Oklahoma, a place once devastated by the Dust Bowl and geographically referred to as No Man’s Land.

With that said, this project isn’t really a documentation, but a fictitious exploration into the myth of No Man’s Land. Within the last few hundred years it is a place that has violently changed hands numerous times between Mexican and American Cowboys, Native Americans and Eastern European Immigrants. The communities have witnessed severe drought and rebirth, poverty and prosperity. I wanted to incorporate this history, while also creating a place that came from my own imagination -- inspired from old stories and songs written about this land. It’s a lonely and spooky expanse and if you stay out there long enough that past reminisce has a definite way of presenting itself… so for me it became a perfect place for creation.

AK: Do you have a personal connection to the panhandle of Oklahoma?

AD: I feel a strong connection to The Great Plains in general. I grew up in North Eastern Oklahoma, just before you get into the Ozark Hills and I still love going back and exploring the old run-down towns and landscapes of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. There is a strong tradition of oral storytelling, folklore and bawdy humor in that part of the country, and it’s been a powerful influence on how I express the places I photograph.

AK: Your images seem to create a conversation with the land-- what it has seen, created, destroyed, lived through. What does this land experience presently? Does anyone live or work in the places you photograph? 

AD: Yeah, I’m really glad you pointed that out. Even though I chose to leave out any portraiture in this series, Ghost Town is very much about the interaction of people within the landscape and the relics and memories that are left behind. There is mixture of decay and rebirth throughout the whole project and my hope is that while some of the images display a certain sense of loneliness and despair, there is also the notion of a definite resilience within the landscape.

Other than a few communities, most of No Man’s Land is pretty desolate today. Even with all of the open space between towns, I’m still mesmerized by what I find out there. I was driving through about a month ago – in the middle of nowhere -- and watched two huge Dromedary Camels barreling across the plain. I have never seen anything like it and was blown away! The light was perfect, and was beautiful in a very post-apocalyptic sort of way.

AK: What myths, tall tales, movies, books, songs, artists have influenced you? 

AD: Looking at a lot of photography has been the biggest influence with regards to informing my own work. I worked at Photo-eye Books for three years and literally buried myself in images. I left that job with a completely different understanding and appreciation for the history of photography. One of my good friends in Santa Fe, Melanie McWhorter, shared a working space with me and she taught me more about the medium than I would have ever learned by going to graduate school. My work and knowledge really developed during my time there.

Outside of Ghost Town, I am working on a collaborative project with Arizona based photographer Lara Shipley titled The Devil’s Promenade. It’s a project that explores a specific folklore legend in the Ozarks. What drew Lara and I there were tales of a mysterious light that appears on chance nights far outside of the small town of Hornet, MS. Locals call it the Spooklight and it has become this tall-tale that for many symbolizes the local community’s desire for redemption and fear of slipping into darkness. It’s a wild story and we have taken on the task of photographing and interviewing people who have first hand accounts of interactions with the light and the myths that surround it. While universal and familiar, we found that this story has played a significant role in shaping the identity of this place.

Working so closely with Lara on this project has really challenged my own notions of how to approach a story as complicated as the one we are attempting to tell. I think it is a project neither of us could do on our own, and speaking for myself, this project has taken me way out of my comfort zone and I am a much stronger artist after partaking in this collaboration. It’s influenced my other work tremendously.

AK: What is your process of self-promotion? How do you create a balance of making work and promoting it? 

AD: It’s funny, for the most part I just try to keep close friends and let Karma and hard work run its course. The photo community in Santa Fe has really pushed me to develop my work and ideas and has supported me in countless ways. My friend David Bram of Fraction Magazine saw the Ghost Town work a few years ago and invited me to show it through Fraction. It really wasn’t ready and I was a little self-conscious of it at the time, but the response was fantastic and it gave me a strong self-confidence to continue with this project.  Since then I’ve been quietly working on shooting, editing and asking advice from people whose opinions I respect, which has eventually led to being invited to have a solo exhibition and public lecture of Ghost Town at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Seeing the work up on the wall helped me to realize it was time to start promoting it, so I have submitted to a few online sources and galleries that I really like and think the work fits into and next fall I hope to attend the photoNOLA portfolio reviews, which will be the first time presenting my work in the review setting. Other than that I’ll be out on the road for most of the spring and summer to work on my other projects! 

Daniel W. Coburn

Daniel W. Coburn recieved his BFA with an emphasis in photography from Washburn University where he was the recipient of numerous honors including the Charles and Margaret Pollak Award. He is currently an instructor and graduate student studying photography at the University of New Mexico. His writings and photographs appear regularly in regional and national publications including Fraction Magazine and Photo-Eye Magazine. 

I feel a significant connection to Dan W. Coburn's series Next of Kin. It conjures up deep rooted emotions regrading family connections, memory and childhood.  I am honored to share his thoughts and work in this week's post! 

To learn more about Daniel, visit his website: www.danielwcoburn.com 

Ashley Kauschinger: Next of Kin is an intimate portrayal of family relationships. Do you think the dynamic you have with your family has changed through the creation of this work and did your model/photographer relationship differ from your family relationship? 

Daniel W. Coburn: I feel like I am much closer to my family now because I have worked with them under some stressful circumstances.  Many of the photographs that you see in "Next of Kin" represent a culmination of memories and experiences I have had with family members over the course of my journey into adulthood.  In recreating these memories I give specific directions to these people that are very close to me and sometimes put them in awkward poses or subject them to a compromising environment.  When photographing my parents, this means reversing the parent/child power dynamic.  This complicates our relationship and usually leads to confrontation.  It's been a trying experience but has led to some interesting conversations that have improved the way we communicate.  I feel this approach and process is much different than it would be if I were photographing a stranger of even a close friend.  

 

I understand the intricacies and mythology of these people, and this unique environment.  I am the only person that could deliver these images and I try to do it with honesty and compassion.

AK: What attracted you to exploring your memories of childhood and what do you think you learned about yourself by exploring it? 

DWC: I am in my mid thirties now and I am beginning to discover that my memory is unreliable.  I believe that memories are malleable and are vulnerable to change.  Our recollection of events is altered by life experience and our own motives of self-preservation.  Taking these photographs helps me transform a thought or memory into something tangible and that is very important to me in this stage of my life.

AK: Each of your images has its own narrative that contributes to the series overall narrative. What goes through your mind when composing a narrative? 

DWC: I think very much about which family member I am photographing and try to describe what makes them a powerful force in my own existence. What is there strongest trait? What is expected? What is unexpected?  For instance, the photograph of my mother in the pool. I feel like that is an effective portrait because it speaks to my mother’s personality, which can be both sinister and fragile. Many of the photographs happen through natural observation.  I will see my dad in the yard doing chores and I will somehow find a photograph in that. Other times, my images are totally previsualized and they often exist as a series of sketches or drawings before I ever pick up the camera.

AK: You write for Fraction Magazine and Photo-eye Magazine. How did you get involved in writing about photography and find your way to these publications? 

DWC: I enjoy being a lively participant in the discourse on photography.  Not only through my work, but also through critical examination of my contemporaries.  Fraction Magazine is doing great things for emerging photographers and knew that I wanted to be a part of it.  I met David Bram (founder of Fraction Magazine) at Review Santa Fe a couple of years ago.  I asked David if I could contribute and he gave me the opportunity to write book reviews.  I had already been writing for Fraction when I met the good people at Photo-Eye magazine.  They liked what I was doing and gave me the opportunity to write.  It's been great working with other people that are passionate about photography and equally vigorous about supporting good work.

AK: What is your process of self-promotion? How do you create a balance between making work and promoting it? Several galleries represent you. How do you feel this has changed how you self promote, and how do you think gallery representation has benefited you? 

DWC: I would say that I spend about thirty percent of my time making work and the other seventy percent promoting.  The act of creation is the most exciting part of my career as an artist, but it’s also very important that my work reaches the public.  I actively promote my work to the press, to publishers, and to gallery directors.  I spend a lot of my time making phone calls, setting up meetings, and attending portfolio reviews. Galleries have been important to my success as an artist but the gallery scene can be a difficult territory to navigate.  I have found a couple of dealers that are enthusiastic about my work and have had success promoting it to their clients.  As a result, I have had my work placed in public, private, and museum collection internationally.

Thank you, Daniel. Your interview is an insightful contribution!

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