Photographer Interview:
Avion Pearce
BIO
Avion is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with the photographic image, based in Brooklyn, New York.
A world of imagined historical anecdotes and folklore is the world in which Avion places her work. Staging narrative scenes, using created environments, costumes and props, She attempts to fill in blanks left in western pictorial histories and texts . The characters of these narratives are immersed in the routines of the day to day, engaged in moments of tenderness, bliss, fury, melancholy and quiet introspection. The qualities of magical realism, traditions of historical documentation in institutions, and the family album influence her work.
Tell us a little about yourself? Where you’re from, where you’re based now?
I was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, grew up mostly in Long Island and I currently live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn .
Tell us a little about yourself beyond the what/where and bio info?
I am a dreamer and a schemer. I’m a first generation american born to two Guyanese parents, that upbringing has so much to do with my worldview. So much of my dreaming and longing and curiosity about images in relation to personal histories has come from growing up around the few images I have collected of my ancestors in Guyana.
How long have you been shooting for?
I started shooting when I was in middle school. Both of my parents took soooo many photos of my brother and I growing up. I ended up learning to shoot with my dad’s 35mm and I’ve been at it since.
How has your photography evolved since when you first started?
I began working with a camera without really thinking about it, I just loved the feeling of organizing the world around me for a photograph and then the excitement I felt after dropping off my film.
I was a writer before I picked up a camera and with time taking photographs became a new way of telling stories, another way of building narratives. Reading Beloved by Toni Morrison when I was 15 significantly informed my approach to storytelling visually. Magical realism plays an important role in the way that I think and work. I’m also extremely interested in queer historical narratives, and a gap in that sort of visual storytelling. Our history is such an important part of understanding who we are and that has moved me to make work about lost historical narratives.
“I hope people feel transported, encouraged to enter the images and also dream with me.”
Did you buy your first camera or was it a gift? Who gifted?
Lol does running away with my dad’s camera and not really asking count as a gift? I was given a Canon DSLR by someone I was dating around 2010, and I learned a lot on my own. After that the first camera I bought myself was a Mamiya c330 around 2015, I’ve used it for a lot of my work.
Does your environment influence you as a creative?
Yes and no. I would say that it didn’t at all before the past year or so. I mostly live in my own world and rely primarily on my imagination, what I’m reading, watching and studying for inspiration. Lately I’ve been missing the real world because of lockdown and I think that’s influencing the way that I’m making and thinking about making currently.
Any specific moment stand out where you knew you wanted to pursue photography?
I think at the moment where I realized I could articulate my own experience, imaginings and concerns into photographs. I realized that images have so much power in informing the way we see ourselves. When I was pretty young I used to thumb through fashion magazines that belonged to my aunt who is a really wonderful seamstress. I remember she had so many copies of W magazine and I was absolutely obsessed with the editorials I saw. This was the late 90s into the early 2000s, and there were these over the top spreads with so much color, attention to detail, elaborate sets and interesting locations. I didn’t know that was a world I could orchestrate myself but that was the very beginning of my understanding of one way that photography functions.
I also observed at that time that there weren’t very many people that looked like me in the images and I wanted to insert myself and others like me into the possibility of something so beautiful and grand. Photography wasn’t presented to me as a potential career growing up, but sometimes you unintentionally find the thing that just sticks and makes sense in a way that feels instinctual.
Are you a self taught photographer? Any tips you would like to pass down to beginners?
I was until I went back to school at Parsons School of Design to study photography in 2015. I would say - try everything, don’t second guess your vision/eye and anything you want to know to become better at your craft is accessible on the internet, through reading, if not through the guidance of others. Most importantly I would also say- do your research, look at a lot of work, look at things outside of your area of interest as well. Looking is such an important part of making.
What's one thing that you want to do with photography that you haven't done yet?
Straight documentary. I love it, I look at and admire the work of so many documentary photographers:
Graciela Iturbide, James Van Der Zee, Mary Ellen Mark, Gordon Parks, Ming Smith, Gregory Halpern, Deanna Lawson, Dana Lixenberg, Diane Arbus, Alessandra Sanguinetti the list goes on...
I’m really inspired by folks that can make reality just as magical as the imagined world.
We see some aesthetically pleasing accent pieces on your page. Do you draw inspiration from furniture?
Yes I would say so! I was a vintage buyer so there’s that love that pours over into my work. I was working on a project that is about two black women in the 30’s-40’s and I build my sets, style everything and the selection of furniture is an important part of placing them in that history. Objects carry history and energy as well, they can reveal so much about a space, the owner, a story.
Any changes you’d like to see in the creative industry?
DIVERSITY. I see changes happening in the past year or so, but I’d really like to see that grow and continue. At every level as well. I was a photographer’s assistant after school and I was often the only black woman in sight. That needs to change.
On Set…
Candid or posed?
A mixture. I always have an idea of what I want, I often sketch before I work. But I find that the natural movements of the person I’m shooting are sometimes just as, and if not more interesting, than what was planned.
Flash or no flash? Why?
Flash and no flash. I use a variety of light sources, hot lights, strobe, natural light. The mood and feeling I want to create help me to make those decisions.
Do you take part in styling your subjects? If so, how would you describe your style?
I do most of the styling in my photographs, and have occasionally (in commissioned work) been lucky to work with stylists that speak the same language. I would describe my style as romantic, sometimes nostalgic depending on the subject matter.
What mood/vibe do you like to create on set? And how do you do it?
When I’m really into a project, I love to live in the world I am making. Sounds, scents, light. It’s maybe why I prefer working with hot lights, once the light is molded the photographer, subject(s) and the space exist in that moment in a really beautiful way. It’s almost like theatre for me, I want to feel like I’m in it!
During the selection process what makes the final cut? What details do you usually look for in the images..
I feel like when I first get film back there are always the images that make me instantly very excited and the process feels very instinctual. I ask myself, did I capture the thing I was after in the way I wanted to? Did something unexpected happen? Is it working? Is it a failure? Can it be saved? That’s the beauty of film for me, is as much as I’ve gained an idea of what the images will look like through experience, there’s almost always some small element of surprise.
When it comes to photography what moves you to shoot?
I’ve always been interested in photography as evidence of various truths. Because as photographers we all work with the same materials essentially, the real world, that is altered by perspective.
Is there any particular element of shooting you’d like to tackle or explore that you haven’t?
Mmm I’d really like to get back into the dark room and experiment some more with the way I process my film and make print.
Upcoming projects we should keep an eye out for?
I’m working on a few! One is a continued portrait series of qtpoc, a project that mixes photo collage combined with landscape work, and I’m doing some video work as well that I’m excited about! Really just challenging myself to incorporate other mediums into what I’ve been making over the past years.
What would you like people to take away from your work?
I hope people feel transported, encouraged to enter the images and also dream with me. I hope they are engaged in thought about the significance of missing histories, the importance of doing your own research and in lieu of that making something up yourself.
Interview by 35s & 45s
03.29.21