Interview ~ Vince Samford
Interview with Vince Samford
By Sean McGahey
25 June 2007
Vince Samford is 29 years old, married with no kids, and lives in Chicago, IL. He has a bachelor's degree in business from Eastern Illinois University (graduated 1999). He's originally from a small town of 600 people in a farming community in southern Illinois, and lived in Chicago for 7.5 years (moved here after college graduation). He's not a professional photographer, and works for a computer technology company doing business to business inside sales and has been there since college graduation. Photography has been a hobby since college; however only in the past couple of years he has begun to get more serious about it. Vince bought his first DSLR in 2005 when he started to get more serious about photography.
SM - Did your parents encourage you to become a photographer/artist?
VS - No, not at all. My parents were very supportive of me pursuing a career in business. When I was growing up, I didn't have an interest in photography, but mainly that was because I hadn't given much thought to the artistic side of photography. My experiences with photography growing up was more along the lines of having my picture taken at every holiday. The phrases "let me take two in case the first one doesn't come out", and "I have 8 more pictures on this roll, why don't you go stand over by {insert an object here} and I'll use the rest of them up".
SM - Are other members of your family creative?
VS - Somewhat, although not really artistically speaking. Creative in terms of how to accomplish something by coming up with a solution for a problem.
SM - What is your favourite style of photography?
VS - That's hard to say. I'm new enough to the photography world that I don't think I've found a definite without a doubt "favorite". I'm very drawn to fine art and portraiture styles, however. My interests recently are anything with people in it. Starting out with no experience, I didn't know the first thing about taking pictures of people and making them look good. So everything I shot was of objects, not people. In showing my work to friends, I remember one mentioning that my pictures were good but saying "I've gotta have people to really make a picture become interesting for me" and that has stuck with me. So much can be conveyed when looking at a picture of someone and the image can mean different things to different viewers. Whereas a photo of a rusty bicycle, which can certainly be a great picture and I will still take that picture, only has so much emotional depth to it. So lately, I'm more interested in the human element.
SM - What/who are you influenced by?
VS - I'm influenced by all sorts of things, too numerous and wide spread to narrow down. I focus on pictures in magazines a lot for inspiration, though. Also I am influenced by other photographers on Flickr (my flickr site is www.flickr.com/photos/vincsam ). I love Flickr. One particular member who's work I've recently discovered, "Merkley" www.flickr.com/photos/merkley ), is filling me with ideas for the future.
SM - Work wise, what are you trying to achieve?
VS - I can't really say that I've got a specific goal in mind. Some photographers seek to document their lives, or the lives of others. Photography is something I enjoy, so at this early stage in my photography endeavour, I'm just enjoying myself with it. I love the feeling of getting
that one or two awesome shots out of a series, so for me, that's what I'm trying to achieve.
SM - Do you think that a photographer is an artist or "photographer"
VS - I think that a photographer can be both, depending on what he or she puts into it. Take wedding photography for example. Wedding photography is probably the biggest single photography "industry" in the U.S. It's easy for a wedding photographer to just be a photographer and capture the cliche shots of the wedding day. However I think that some photographers can take it a step further and go beyond those cliche shots and look for the artistic side of things. I think that is what differentiates the two, it's all about the mindset of the person behind the camera, whether he or she is looking for the artistic angle or not.
SM - Do you have any self-censorship? What are the most difficult subjects to represent?
VS - I'm very aware of my surroundings and where I'm at when I am shooting a subject, so my self-censorship is limited to my paranoia of not wanting to offend anyone by taking photos wherever I may be. The most difficult subject to represent is genuine emotion. Trying to get a subject to avoid putting on a "photo front".
SM - Have some of your pictures ever been censored?
VS - No
SM - Is there ever any pressure put on you about your work?
VS - Only by myself, since I'm not a professional.
SM - What obstacles, if any, have you encountered along the way?
VS - The main obstacles I've encountered are my own limitations with learning the craft.
SM - What's your favourite part of being a photographer/Artist?
VS - My favorite part would be when I realize that I really have taken some good pictures. When I set out with a specific idea in mind, and come back and review the results and see that my idea came to fruition, that's a great feeling to know that I did something "right"!
SM - Do you think there should be limits to the photographer's freedom of expression? Is there only one freedom of expression or are there several ones?
VS - I don't think that freedom of expression should be limited. But I do think that at a certain point, a photographer may not necessarily be expressing anything but a lack of good taste.
SM - Everyone experiences a "creative block," is there a method you use to get creative again?
VS - Just to look for inspiration online, mainly in Flickr or on other photographers websites.
SM - Can you give us a run down of work you've done before?
VS - Everything that I have done has been for personal projects to this point. I have done some engagement photos for some people, and also have shot some pictures for friends of their children, but I haven't done anything professional at this point.
SM - Are you working on anything special that you might want to share with us ... just a teaser?
VM - Right now I'm working on a series I'm calling Photog(red)phy (borrowing the idea for the name from Bono's Red Campaign). It's certainly not ground breaking, nor is it making any sort of statement, but it's simply a series of photo where the color red is the main eye catching element. I'm hoping shortly to begin a series that I'll be calling "Turning Heads" which will
seek to document, by a series of staged photographs, those little peeks that men always take out of the corner of their eye as an attractive woman passes by. I'd also like to do a series of long shutter speed shots to emphasize motion. That's just an idea in the back of my mind at this point, though.
SM - Do you use "old school" equipment or do you use the new digital cameras?
VS - Digital. I use Canon equipment and also use a Mac and a PC with Photoshop CS3.
SM - How long does it take for you to produce a series of pictures?
VS - Well, this Photog(red)phy series is my first venture into putting together a series. I'm not exactly sure when it will be officially "done" so I'll let you know!
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