(This post originally ran on April 4, 2012. Soak up the Summer Re-Run goodness!)
1. Who Are You?
I am SAWK, alternately The Camera Coon . . . hear me roar?
2. What do you do?
This is an existentially loaded question! . . .
In the snooty, metaphysical sense, I think of myself as a collector of sorts – amassing and
accumulating moments and stories, capturing little bits of everything going on around me – and
compiling these people, objects, places, and things in new spots for everyone to look at – on film,
on discs, on walls, on scraps, online, in albums, in hands, in hearts.
Right now, though – in the regular, old, literal way – I work for a school, am about to get back on
the waitress train, and do photography all the time, everyday, on the side.
3. When/Where/How did you get your start?
It was summer, and a dark and stormy Pennsylvania night . . . wait, no, actually, it was just a
regular, somewhat humid Pennsylvania night, and my parents had given me a little Instamatic
110-film format camera. I used it to take lame photos of the pine trees in our backyard, and then
used it when we lived in New Mexico, and then kept using it and using it until I was a user.
4. How long have you been at it?
Taking photos since I was a bug-eyed, bespectacled, chubby-fingered ten-year-old in an
oversized 101 Dalmatians tee; studying photography since I got hooked on the darkroom
chemical smell at 16; and now trying to make a go at it for the last four years.
5. What is the most important thing we should know about you?
EXTREME CURIOSITY. As in, I have it.
6. Is there anyone else in your field that you particularly admire?
Yes! Gads of people! People who document the pretty and stark and aching life around us!
People who take that life and make fun of it! I LOVE THEM ALL.
7. What other types of art are you into?
Drawing and painting, always, even before photography. And pottery! – I miss the days of falling
asleep to the tactile sensation of my hands centering a lump of clay on the wheel.
8. You got any crazy hobbies or unique talents?
I see dead people . . . but truly, I have seen ghosts. Or one ghost multiple times . . . Anyway, is
fire-breathing a hobby or a talent? – I can’t do it, but I’m just wondering.
9. What’s your favorite vice?
Money laundering. Just kidding! – I abhor doing the laundry. In reality, probably butter. And
the food that you spread it on/bake it into. Also, butternut squash, Belgian endives in a nice,
sweetened vinegar, and food in general.
10. You eat food? What kind? Like to cook?
FOOOOOOOOOD. I love food, all kinds, and cooking and baking is therapy. Unfortunately, I just
learned I have celiac disease and am now a sad-face baker struggling through life without gluten.
BUT. One day I would like to have a little bakery café out here in the middle of nowhere where all
those RV-ers who travel Route 66 can stop, eat a hunk of crusty bread, and stare at my photos
on the walls while they munch. You may visit.
11. If someone was to write a craigslist missed connection about you, what would it say?
Dear She Who Walks the Loop at Dawn and Dusk and Other Times – Your favorite blue and
green multi-colored jacket is too short and has a hole in the shoulder. Your dogs seem unruly.
You often trip. Will you take my picture? . . .
12. Tell me about the last time a project blew up in your face?
8th grade, Mrs. Curtis’ physical science class. No one sustained serious chemical or Bunsen
burns of any kind. I also got a detention for chewing gum when she came to see what all the
commotion was about.
13. How do you make it over the creative hump/slump?
Usually by watching Law & Order or a BBC mini-series until I’m bleary-eyed, then going out to
take a walk along the windy, dusty loop road by my trailer. But, if I’m feeling particularly pissed
and productive, I will draw or photograph rubbish until my mood lifts and I catch something that
actually draws me.
(SAWK can be found traipsing about and around her trailer in the desert of New Mexico, or virtually at her website, blog, or fledgling Etsy shop! . . . Come and visit – her trailer is your trailer, her puppies are your puppies. She is available for weddings and events, portraits, freelance and documentary work, or for general company and conversation. For information about services, prices, and prints, squawk at SAWK at sawk@sawkphotography.com)
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