snapshot: quick questions with Kris Payne

Kris Payne is a photographer.  For real.  He’s also candid, blunt, and super friendly.

Take a wander through his website and pay particular attention to the “Disposable Coney” section in Series (one of my personal favorites). Then wander over to Hypostyle.net and saunter back and back through some amazing landscapes. Then go ahead and bookmark both. You’ll want to return.

Greg Turner: How did you get into photography?
Kris Payne: Just like everybody else: my Dad gave me a 35mm SLR. I took a bunch of pictures with it and then enrolled in some photo classes in college before dropping out and going to an all photo school. No sappy bullshit story about my grandfather’s lenses or some heavenly apparition.

G: Why do you think you’ve become so attracted to landscapes?
K: Have you seen the planet we live on? How can you not be attracted to them? The natural landforms we get to see on a daily basis are the most beautiful things on this planet, because they /are/ this planet. We’re naturally geared to be drawn to the forms: seas, mountains, deserts, forests, rivers, fjords, etc. There is so much beauty in what you can’t control. What’s interesting is that we are finding out that we do have control over our landscape, and we’re also finding this out much too late.

G: You seem to travel a lot, and I wonder how you think this might affect your work–this idea of being out in the world, away from home (if there even is a home for you).
K: The travel is the work. My goal isn’t to seek out landscapes that haven’t been shown, or some new and interesting angle. It’s quite the opposite, actually: by going in and showing the same thing that anyone can see, you begin to see more of the simple beauty. It’s very accessible. You don’t have to have an art degree to understand my work.

I would consider Brooklyn my home, for the time being. I’m not as transient as it would seem, even though I get itchy and need to be somewhere new (or even somewhere old). It’s also very healthy to get perspective every now and then and see your self and your place from another point of view.

G: What do you think are the benefits of going to an all-photo school? And do you think would be in a similar space if you hadn’t attended?
K: School is such a touchy subject. I’m technically a college dropout and am doing very well for myself, but that’s not to say I don’t value education. Knowledge is very key, but real world experience is such a better way to learn than most schools can (or ever will) offer, and that’s just reality. Benefits of going to an all photo school mean you’re surrounded by like-minded people who can encourage and challenge you, and your instructors aren’t also diverting attention to other aspects of education that they really don’t need to.

If I hadn’t had gone to the all photo school I did, I don’t think I’d be in New York right now, but I’d probably be in the same place, does that make sense? I don’t really think it was the school that put me anywhere, it was my own ambition, I just happened to go to school near New York. I got a really strong foundation at my school and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

G: Also, you mentioned our too-late realization of control over our environment. Does this put extra responsibility on your work?
K: What’s contradictory about my work is that fact that I don’t shoot digitally. I’m an advocate of recycling and taking care of your part to do better for the environment, but I spend copious amounts of money on having magic paper dipped in magic water for the sake of art.

There’s a new book out right now that deals with the problem landscape photographers face in dealing with vanishing landscapes (the title of the book). There is a sense of conservation among all landscape shooters, I mean, why wouldn’t we want to preserve that beauty for someone to look at later? What if my kids never get the chance to see a mountain, my parents may never see a glacier, but through my work maybe they can, and hopefully it’s powerful enough to spark something in them to see more of the world.

I was fortunate enough to find Kris’ work via a Tumblr confluence and then first contacted him about a lawn mower.  I’m really glad I did.