Michael Ast – Interview
September 22, 2012
Michael Ast is a photographer who we became aware of through our Flickr group who subsequently made contact through our Facebook. After spending some time exploring Michael’s portfolio we were intrigued by his use of experimental techniques and his often poetic approach to photographing the everday…Keep reading to find out more.
Where do you currently reside and where did you get your first inspirations to pick up a camera?
I live in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, between Philadelphia and New York City.
I didn’t pick up a camera until I was 20 years old. My creative ambitions were centered around music growing up, playing guitar, studying jazz guitar and playing in passionate, but unsuccessful rock bands. A lot of the attraction came in the form of improvisation. To this day I love getting fellow musician friends together and launching into the unknown.
Self-Expression became apparent to me in my early teens. Playing music was quite fulfilling and I practiced hard at it for years. Eventually I became intrigued by fiction writers and poets, and began to take a stab at writing. It was clear, fairly quickly, that I was no writer; however, despite my obvious failures I wrote a lot of poetry and tried to combine the two passions of music and writing into crafting songs. Then a friend in college, who I owe the world to, showed me a book of war photography. The stark black and white images it contained grabbed me right at the throat! Within a week I had bought my first roll of black and white film and loaded it into a shitty Pentax point and shoot camera. The pictures were terrible, but making the pictures was extremely exciting, loaded with anticipation of the visual outcome.
I would go on to study journalism at Boston University and settled on photojournalism as my concentration. The elements of improvisation, the story telling and self-expression seemed natural to me when looking through the camera. Always intrigued by all the limitless information around us – the good, the bad, the ugly, I sort of felt it my duty to expose and define what I saw, and learn about myself from what I saw. Photography allows all that. It is an obsession and healthy addiction, which keeps life exciting at every waking moment.
Do you work as a photographer?
What is your role within the photographic industry?
What is your role within the photographic industry?
I worked as a freelance photojournalist for a half dozen, shooting for a variety of daily newspapers in suburban Philadelphia. Then I worked as a commercial photographer for an advertising company for another half dozen years. After 12 years, the black sheep in me joined the family manufacturing business as the strains of beginning a family (I have a 5 year-old daughter and a 3 year-old son) took hold. My father started a sheet metal fabrication business in 1967, which still thrives today. I do the grind there, but I always tell people, my day begins when I leave the office each evening. Though I don’t earn my income currently as a photographer, I have been photographing and formulating bodies of work at an ever-increasing pace. I’m beginning to sell my work online through my website. Both prints and etchings I make are for sale.
You have some experimental etching processes amongst your portfolio,
could you please tell us a little more about the process and why it has captured your attention?
I began experimenting with printmaking in 2008, something I’ve always been eager to learn. Whenever I saw prints derived from the intaglio printing process, I was totally enamored and encapsulated. I just loved printed images made with a combination of ink and rag papers. I was ecstatic when I learned of the photopolymer etching process. The procedure involves exposing film positives to light-sensitive plates, which are then exposed to ultra-violet light. In turn I’m able to etch my photographs into metal-backed plates. The values of printmaking can then be applied, mixing inks, pushing that ink into the etched lines and rolling the inked plates through a traditional press onto a variety of papers.
The essential attribute from delving into the etching world has been its influence on my shooting. I have seemingly begun making much more expressive images with a bit of desired ethereality, which I never quite could attain before when shooting.
I was slow, like many to embrace the digital world. Printmaking allows me to enjoy the tangibility of what I loved so much working in the darkroom for years. Making the etchings keeps the creative process hands-on, while incorporating digital tools such as Photoshop to output the positives. It’s a fairly time-consuming process, but I get lost in its extraordinary potential of the printed image.
The last 4 years shooting while dabbling with printmaking and have been invaluable. I finally feel a contentedness with the images I am making. They resonate with an internal honesty that I never quite felt before.
What inspires you to keep shooting?
I come from the school of photographers who embrace the vernacular. I never tire of the scenes, objects and people I encounter each day. In order to keep life exciting, you must embrace your environs and utilize them in such a way to keep you stimulated. I don’t know any other way to live.
When you’re born with a creative drive, it’s an inherent impossibility to just shrug things off. Photography keeps me eternally attentive. I also stay energized and inspired as I work the images into coherent bodies of work.
I like to make things. I still play my guitar, bang on my drums, write songs, I even do a fair amount of collage work to satisfy the creative urge. But photography can go with me anywhere. And so it does, everyday.
Are you working on any current projects or do you have any future plans, exhibitions or events?
Yes, I am currently designing my first book, tentatively titled “Trying to Find the Ocean“, which I’m aiming to have self-published by the end of this year. I shot extensively in Baltimore and a few other locales from 2010-2012 precisely for the book format. I’m working with a reputable printer and binder, who contributes heavily to the print and publishing world of fine art and commercial photography.
An international group exhibition titled “Souvenirs., which I was chosen to create thematic images for, just ended in Spain after traveling there for a year. My plan is to follow up the book with an exhibition in 2013
For more of Michael’s work go to Michaelast.com or his profile on GetThePicture
If you want to get in touch with us at OGA, drop us a message and say hello!
Onegiantarm@gmx.co.uk or Facebook
Great interview Michael… keep on pushing yourself. You’ve put out some amazing work.
Jan
Great to read this interview Michael and I look forward to your book.
Michele