I had the pleasure of interviewing a very talented photographer. Kirsty Mitchell from London, England is a lady who looks for beauty in the people & things around her. In just over half a year she has published just under 230 photographs on flickr and gained a steady following with in the flickr community.

A fellow photographer wrote this about her:

“This soulful photostream from Kirsty is full of incredible photographic gems! Brave, experimenting and evolving photographer – definitely one to watch!”
~ o.diaries

Photos

Kirsty, Some of  your photos have an old worldly or historic look to them. Was this style inspired by other photographers or a complete manifestation from your own experiments?

This has completely come from within me, and I would say almost entirely because I have spent the majority of my life studying art, art history, historical costume for film and theatre and finally fashion. I have always been fascinated by the light in the old masters paintings and is something I continue to try and reproduce in some of my pictures. I also have my mother to thank whose infectious imagination and endless storytelling only amplified these thoughts from a very early age! I grew up being allowed to express myself and throw myself in art without being steered in a more traditional direction, and I am so very grateful for that. Working in fashion I suppose there will always be the subconscious effects of being surrounded by modern fashion photography, and if I had to name one person who has inspired me it would definitely be the work of Tim Walker who is notorious for his elaborate shoots (pink elephants / abandoned Indian palaces etc!). I am well aware my stream flows through two very different styles…. Street photography and as you say this ‘other worldly’ side and I get a great amount of pleasure through both… but I think it would be fair to say that the latter is the side of me where I get to express myself the most. It would probably become the dominate style if it wasn’t for lack of models, and time.

Your latest photographs tend to have black as the dominate part of the image. Describe, how you feel towards using black in your images to tell a story?

As I mentioned earlier… I am fascinated by the light in old masters painting, and am naturally drawn to very dark imagery. I would describe my favorite style in art, fashion and photography as ‘dark romantic’… meaning the beautiful yet darker melancholy side to people. I see this in dream imagery as well as the darker side of street photography… the weakness in people, solitude in public places, and the strains of this life. I am never attracted to ‘commercial beauty’ or the freshness of youth, it’s always the faces that tell a story, the bodies that have been withered by the struggle. I also believe that the photographer’s state of mind is always reflected in their pictures and unfortunately this has been very true in the last two months for me. My mother is extremely ill with a brain tumor, and that has undoubtedly brought a new harder darkness into my pictures which I now readily except and understand. 

You have way over 20+ comments on most of your photographs. Tell us, which was the photograph that really got peoples attention and how did it make you feel?

I can remember it very clearly actually… the photograph was the first in my flickr set ‘make a wish’. It is a black and white picture I took of myself in an abandoned forest path. .. the path is so over grown that the trees meet above your head and create an almost vortex feel. I had just been given my first tripod and remote and decided to try and produce a body of work that conveyed the dream imagery I desperately wanted to capture. I had gone to the forest at dawn and spent the day taking a series of shots that I now hold very dear in my heart. I was very upset in my personal life at the time, and it became almost therapy for me… I did something I never would have done if it wasn’t for photography, It was a crazy thing to do, but I still can’t explain how amazing and alive I felt as a result of doing it. I was stung by nettles slipped over in the mud, was freezing cold and wet from the rain… but I laughed out loud and walked away feeling freer than I had done in years. When I began working on the set and saw the results of the first picture I had a very strong feeling about it, and just hoped that other people would see and feel the same way I did – it was everything I wanted, dark, slightly menacing, otherworldly, yet still a beautiful thing to look at…. And well, over night It went to the top of my stream for ‘most interesting’ and received more comments and favs than any other picture I had taken. It was also the first time I received comments from other photographers I who I held in very high regard… so in a silly amateur way… I felt like I had moved on a little and gained some respect from them…. And that obviously excited and spurred me on. 

Speaking of comments on your photos. Out of the many thousands of comments you have. Do you have any that really stick in your mind as “wow, I really connected with this person.”?

I would say that I have had some really special comments from people in the past that have meant a great deal… particularly the kindness and love from the flickr community over the set I produced about my mother (after I found out she was seriously ill).. many of which where strengthened by a large number of emails where people shared their own personal experiences – and I have made a number of very strong friendships on here though that. However when you talk about memorable comments I would have to go back to the beginning of my flickr stream when I had only been on for a month or so. One day I got a mix of funny, heart warming and genuine comments from a complete stranger that made me sit up and want to know more. They weren’t the usual ‘great shot’… there was empathy and humor… and that person has now become one of my best friends on flickr (falsalama). It was pure chance, and he has since become a doorway to other very talented and inspiring people for me, (Billy Gomez, tom hoops). There is a similar story with ‘bluechamelion’ …who also writes the most wonderful comments for me – but she found me through my blog on another site.

What level of photographer would you consider yourself?

That is very difficult indeed… on paper I would say I am an amateur…. I began taking my first pictures in late August last year, and have only been on flickr since last Nov. Despite photography A level at 18 (film and darkrooms!).. I have no experience to tell of. But I would say I have been pretty relentless over the last six months in particular, I take photos every single day, and feel I am developing pretty quickly. In my heart I would like the tag of ‘intermediate’!! but I’m no pro! I just take pics with my heart, I’m not technically minded although I am slowly teaching myself, and with the help for the amazing contacts I have made on flickr I am getting a better grip with every day that passes…. Visual imagery and design have been a part of my life for years, so I do feel more developed in that sense as apposed to someone who had literally just picked up a camera.

Do you currently sell photographic prints anywhere?

No (the shortest answer you’ve had!!)… I’ve never thought about it.

There are many photographers on both sides of the Digital vs Film war. Lets say you were invited to a debate on this subject and you had to pick a side. Which side would that be and what would be your opening statement on why you’ve chosen that side?

Well, like I said I originally trained in darkroom photography so I do have some experience of using film, and I can completely and utterly empathize with the notion that film is in many ways a far harder route to take – and certainly requires a greater amount of skill in comparison to Digital. So people that shoot with film I think are often purists who believe in the art of creating a fully crafted ‘true’ picture without endless photoshopping. BUT…. For me, I am 100% a digital girl – and the friends I have made on flickr tend to use the picture as a starting point and then take that to the next level with post editing – its more about creating a piece of art , I like to see it as the ‘in between’ of a photo and a painting… there is digital manipulation, but for me the right kind – the type that makes the image even more expressive and focused on the reasons behind it. It helps convey the message further and also become more personal. For me… it also allows me to create the dream imagery that is so important to me. So I don’t see it as a war… more of the right route for the type of photographer you are, and nothing more.

What is one place you haven’t gone yet with your photographs? A place still out of reach do to various reasons beyond your control.

For me I’m fascinated with the human body, in all forms really, and I would love to be able to work on a collection of nude studies. Understandably It very hard to find someone who is prepared to do this, and then be comfortable with it being uploaded onto the internet! So I would say that’s my biggest hurdle, and the one passion that I plan to tackle in the coming months.

Do you have your own photographs hanging in your own home? If, so how many?

Well I’ve just moved into a new house and will be having a large amount of building work done on it in the next few months. The plan is once it is all finished that I will be having a lot of my pictures framed and hung in all the rooms.!! So no numbers to give, but I’m really excited about doing something real with them, rather than them just sitting in the computer! I also sometimes give them as gifts to friends too, which gives me great pleasure.

If you can hope to leave one impression with your photographs what would that be?

For me, it would be that someone has understood and shared in the tiny fragments of magic I have tried to find through my photos- the notion of the hidden beauty that surrounds us all. I tried to explain this on my flickr profile page – Photography has changed the way I see the world, I see beauty in things I never even noticed before. It has made me more open, and aware of others, and allowed me to tap into a side of my imagination that I thought was lost many years ago.

So… maybe I would like them to feel that they shared the moment with me – whether it was climbing a tree at dawn with 12 balloons to show my mother how much she meant to me…. or the feeling they sat next to me, squashed between city workers when I took my commuter portraits – that’s the best I could wish for, an empathy for why I do this, and hopefully enjoyment In what I do.

Linkage:

• Kristy’s Flickr
• Kristy’s Blog
• Kristy’s Myspace