The work of Emer Gillespie proves that tired adage that art is life and life can make for truly beautiful art. The Irish photographer, who received her Masters in Photography from the London College of Communications in 2009, captures scenes of her own life in her colourful photographs. Gillespie’s daughter, Laoisha, is her favorite subject and self-admitted muse—even inspiring Gillespie’s most recent project, Picture You, Picture Me, which is made up of touching diptychs portraying the mother-daughter duo. This past summer, her work was exhibited at the Foley Gallery as part of the 2011 Summer Show Project, Altered States. More recently, Gillespie was able to display her work on her home turf in a solo-show at the RúaRed Gallery in Dublin. Gillespie’s photos are poignant without being cloyingly sweet, encapsulating and elevating the art of the everyday. In an e-mail interview with Gillespie in October, we discussed her artistic process, putting her personal life on camera, and what projects are in the works.
Carolyn Faden: You have your Masters in Photography from the London College of Communications. How does an educational background in photography affect how you approach your artwork?
Emer Gillespie: My degree is actually in Fine Art and Textile Design, so for me attaining my MA in Photography was a massive learning curve. I think during an MA you delve deeper into the theoretical structure of your project work and analyse your practice in greater detail.
CF: How did you decide you wanted to pursue photography?
EG: During my degree shows it became more and more apparent that Photography was taking over! For my honours degree show it was mainly photography and I wove the projection screens for the video work. I think I knew then where my passion lay and so I moved to England from Ireland to pursue a postgrad in Photography.
CF: How would you define your artistic process? Is it a process? Is it something that involves meticulous planning or is it more spontaneous?
EG: It’s a mixture if both. I think you can kill your creativity when you plan too much, but you also need an initial idea that excites you, that you can’t wait to explore. Sometimes you begin at one point and along the way you discover something that grabs you and pulls you down another more exciting direction. That’s what happened with the project Picture You, Picture Me. It evolved from Laoisha asking to take a picture of me first before I took a photo of her. Gradually all these double portraits started appearing and my attention started to focus on that. These images were exciting me more than the project I was working on and still continue to excite me when I take out the camera for one of our sessions.
CF: Many of your photos are of your daughter. Would you say she is your favorite subject?
EG: She is my muse. I was a single parent (not a lone parent) from when she was one. I think this created a special bond between us and generally she is pretty magical. She is my guilty pleasure and I adore shooting her, but I think I need to take a break from shooting her… people will think I’m obsessed!
CF: Many of your photos provide viewers with a glimpse into your life. What is the relationship between your art and your personal life?
EG: Cheesy as it may sound, but life is art and for me my life and my relationships inspire my work. I find some of the simplest things around me truly beautiful, and get excited by mundane subjects. It can be quite surreal focussing on your own personal life to produce a body of work, but also quite exciting and informative.
CF: You frequently use diptychs in your work—such as in “Two Homes” and “Picture You, Picture Me.” Why do you choose to present some of your photos in pairs?
EG: I enjoy the narrative that evolves from pairing images. Placing one image beside another can change its meaning completely where you’re asking the viewer to think a little more about the images and the relationship between them. It’s also project specific though. Coincidently my last two major projects worked because they were in diptych format, but it’s not something that I would pigeonhole all future projects into necessarily if it didn’t suit.
CF: What kind of camera do you use? Do you have a favorite camera or type of film?
EG: I generally shoot medium format; 6x7. I use the Mamiya 7 and the Mamiya RB67. I love the RB as it’s what I shoot Picture You, Picture Me on and adore peering into the viewfinder and seeing an image I’m excited by. I generally go for punchy colour film and so have shot most of my work on Porta VC, until they replaced it with straight Portra. I still have some VC though, which will be carefully used!
CF: What are some of your photographic inspirations—whether they be other photographers, artists or films? What informs your work?
EG: Inspiration can come in all forms. Conversations, news articles, Family, random images on the internet, flyers… I love all art forms and try to visit as many gallery and art festivals as possible, my favourite being the Venice Biennale. I think it is important as an artist to stay informed and be inspired by others work. Artists that inspire me include William Eggleston (the father of colour!), Sophie Calle, Tierney Gearon, Julie Blackmon, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Takashi Yasumura, Louise Bourgeois, Fischli & Weiss… I could go on and on!
CF: Since you started pursuing photography professionally, have you noticed any changes or shifts in your artwork?
EG: There is massive difference in my work I think from when I was in art college to now. I have grown as an artist from changing mediums to theoretically researching for project work more
CF: Do you have any exhibitions or projects that you are currently working on?
EG: I have been totally engrossed in preparing for a solo show in Dublin, Ireland that just opened a couple of weeks ago entitled Home Naratives. Laoisha and I got the camera back out and created more work for Picture You, Picture Me which was really great. It’s the first time I have shown the entire body of work which was nerve wrecking, but thoroughly enjoyable. Two Homes was also up installed in the corner of the gallery, as it has been before. The installation of two homes is important to me for people to understand the project visually. It’s the first solo show of my work in Ireland for a few years, so I was delighted to be able to bring the new work back home.
I also exhibit with a group of photographers up in London called Shifting Perspectives, so I plan on making new work for an exhibition with them next year. All the photographers in the group have a child with Downs Syndrome so the work generally promotes awareness.
There are other projects floating around my head at the moment, so I just need to find some time. Life, responsibilities, jobs and family are taking over at the moment, but then sometimes it’s ok to put your camera down and let real life take over!
