snapshot: quick questions with Lauren Peralta

Lauren Peralta is known for her self portraits.  She’s also known for her tattoo. So much so, in fact, that her tattoo is plastered all over the Internet, often without any kind of credit given to the photographer. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to ask her a few questions. She’s also a talented young photographer who has a good idea about her craft and the aesthetic framework in which she operates.  Of course, having been doing this for five years, she could hardly be considered a novice.

To Get What I Want by Lauren Peralta

Greg Turner: How did you get into photography?
Lauren Peralta: Throughout high school I was seriously into oil painting and never thought of photography as an art form I’d be into. I started playing with photoshop and a 1.3 megapixel digital camera that my stepfather had laying around the house just for kicks. When I turned 16, my grandmother saw some of my  pictures and took me out to buy me my first DSLR, just to play around with. It ended up turning into a love affair  with photography, and I couldn’t put the damn thing down for 3 months straight. I started neglecting my painting, and  eventually no longer cared for it. Without taking any photography classes, I applied to art school to major in  photography. I am now a BFA Photography major at SUNY New Paltz. It’s history from there.

GT: What keeps you going?
LP: Everything. The stress, my happiness, love, anger, hatred, numbness, my family, my friends, beautiful things,  ugly things, autumn, loneliness, heartbreak, disgust, relief, release…There is nothing in my life that doesn’t  inspire me to keep taking photos. I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. Even my worst photographs – they don’t deter me  from doing this. They spur me on to create something to better convey what I want you to see. I want you to see what  I see. I think it’s completely remarkable that photography allows the viewer to catch a glimpse into what my eyes have
seen, and how I saw it.

GT: How do you think where you’re from, where you grew up, and
where you are affect your art?
LP: I came from a pretty weird family situation. The split between my family acted as a catalyst for some pretty heavy  artwork in the early stages of my camera work. There are a lot of demons in my head, and a lot of it comes from being 16 and incredibly vulnerable and unstable, not having something permanent and loving to come home to. On top of
that, the second phase of my photography comes from the loss of my first love, as is the case with many young  photographers. When your heart is stolen from you and smashed on the floor, you don’t have much left to give… and I gave it all.

The one thing I did have was my camera, and it saved me from falling to pieces. As for where I am  now… I’m in a good place. My photos have consequently taken on a message of feminine strength and pride. There is  always a sense of vulnerability mixed in with it, because there always IS that small part of me that could possibly be broken, as is the case with anyone. But I’ve learned too much to falter, and I believe that shows in my recent work  as of this past winter.

GT: What do you think separates your self-portraits from your
other photographs?
LP: Well, to be quite honest… in most cases a model simply can’t convey exactly what is in my head. I don’t tend to do  fashion work, or photos for the hell of it. My photos are very emotionally driven. I can tell a model all I want to  pose how I want her/him, but only I know what’s in my head. Generally I am just able to convey what I feel better in a  self portrait because it’s ME. That’s how I feel. That comment, however, was a remark based on flickr popularity.

It bothers me when photos I’m really proud of don’t get as much attention as some of my “not as good” self portraits.  While my self shots tend to convey more emotion, they AREN’T always technically well done, and I’m not always happy with  the way they come out. I post them anyway, and they get an overwhelming response because just because I’m the model. That leaves me with less faith in people to be honest with me about whether or not my work was successful. But hey,  people like what they like, right?

2:15 am by Lauren Peralta

And so she strives. She strives to put the things in her mind out into the world. And she strives to be known and recognized and to do good work. And her fans will cheer her on and folks will steal her images and people will comment on the tattoo, not the photograph.

It’s why I’m not showing it.