Chad Coombs Interview

Friday, July 18th, 2008
by Greg

Photographer Chad Coombs shoots out of Saskatoon, Canada. I’m going to quote Chad’s flickr profile as his introduction because it best sums up why I interviewed him. 

“Photography for me, is something I have to do. It is my only way of showing what I see and how I feel.” ~ Chad.

So I’m very pleased to bring you the interview with the photographer who isn’t held down by they gravity of others; Mr. Chad Coombs.

Photos

Some of your photographs are of musicians; how does music inspire you to create images? 

Music itself sets a mood, it kind of stops there for me inspiration wise. It sets the theme and then I take over from there. I also use it in my editing process. For example, while editing self portraits I’m usually listening to something edgy, anything from; Marylin Manson, New York Dolls, to maybe mc5 or Brides of Destruction. Or when I’m editing a musician’s photo, I’ll listen to their music. That allows everything from contrast to toning to come from their mood. In turn the mood of the image transpires from the post process. 

How did you get started in shooting musicians?

They have mostly contacted me, however,  i have a couple of them that I have contacted. I dream of shooting for Rolling Stone. Saskatoon doesn’t have any celebrities, so I make due with what I have.  The musicians foot the bill in preparation for my dream. I treat every portrait shoot as if it were a Rolling Stone feature article.

Musicians also are easily capable of visualising a concept in their head, as well as understanding a creative mind and going with a process. They’re more open to takeing risks then your avegrage portrait sitter. That being said, some of them can be stubborn arses as well. It’s just how it goes. I have had nothing but luck with the musicians I have shot thus far. But I’m also real picky with who I work with; it’s all about how they approach me initially and wish to achieve a shoot.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you felt when your images first started to get noticed by the Flickr community?

[At first] it wasn’t anything but fun and bullshiting on a website with my images. But, it wasn’t until David Lachapelle’s studio manager in New York contacted me -after seeing one of my self portraits, in dedication to David’s original version- that I truly realized the actual power of Flickr and the internet. I’ve spent two weeks with the NY staff twice now in New York as well as shot Amanda Lepore [because of Flickr] as well. Absolutely amazing times in NY and some great friends from it all now too! I still just have fun with Flickr; rant my rants and bullshit my tales. Ha! I’ll always do that!

Tell us more about meeting and photographing Amanda Lepore & did you meet David?

Amanda Lepore is the most lady-like person iI have ever met; insanely polite, so courteous and an all around a pleasure to be around. It was easy to photograph her and a pleasure to photograph as well. I felt as though everything was like shooting a friend. She’s not merely an actual celebrity and muse, but more of one of my utmost favorite photographers.

David Lachapelle I did not meet as of yet, but this September I am visiting NY again. He is having an exhibition and I will have a chance to meet him through the staff I have become friends with. I also hope to shoot him for my Portrait Life Still series, if the opportunity arrises. This trip, I also am visiting the Richard Avedon Foundation after an invite I received from an email I sent them. I wish I can visit with two greatest photographers in our history, in my opinion. Unfortunately, Richard Avedon is not with us anymore.

Your wildlife photos have a less processed look to them; why is this?

I like animals how they are. I don’t feel a need to put my own story into them with the images. Animals reveal their emotions without a front, like people usually do. You can tell an animal’s emotion in its eyes. Anytime you look at one, no walls are put up. Very often I dream of being certain animals free in the wild. In a way, they tell me more of their stories in my images-allowing me to put them into my own, instead of the other way around. In contrast, I live through my portrait sitters, but I want the animals to live through their [existing] wild life, I guess. If that makes sense to anyone else but me. Ha!

How do you think the digital revolution change the face of photography?

I don’t believe it has changed anything at all. You had cloning back in the film days, but you just have to look for it. Richard Avedon did it and look at Albert Watson’s Mick Jagger - Jaguar double exposure. I do think it has created a fad in a way. All new things do. More people are using the new tools, more people are over doing those new tools (myself included in the past) and more people are being overwhelmed and convinced by the new tolls.

 The only thing I think is a problem with the digital revolution, is that people have forgotten that it’s about the content, not the effect. People forget to look past the things done to an image and then only see what’s on the surface. It’s like a candy wrapper with all the digital filters these days, no one takes the time to peel the wrapper and taste the inside. ‘Cause a lot of the candy out there tastes like shit, if you ask me. But that’s mainly i believe cause there’s so many people doing photography today, that means there’s more shit. But just the same, more AMAZING images being made every day.

Many of your photographs are very elaborate and look to be well thought out; do you draw or sketch out your ideas before hand?

I think about them and every detail right when the idea pops in mind. When I’m getting ready for a shoot I set it up before hand, lighting and everything. I stare at it like a sculpture. Sometimes up to an hour figuring out what’s missing, wrong or right. Some I do instantly, self portraits are usually within 12 hours start to finish, at least with everyone to date. Some shoots take more time, due to getting the right props or people to be within them. I searched across North America for the original plastic flamingos for a certain shot I did last year. That one took a month to get everything for. Some ideas, like a barbie series I wanna do, have been almost a year in my brain. I just don’t have the capability of organizing the sets yet, due to space. [Currently] I shoot in a small bedroom in the rental I live in.

How long does it take from concept to finish product for you to create one of your more elaborate photographs?

They differentiate a lot. The last supper I did last year took about seven hours, start to finish. That’s from the minute I left my house with idea, bought fast food (at i think nine different locations), came home, set it up, shot, edited and finished. Though, some are quick. The more I do them the easier I find it, so quicker they get. My Four Cow Men of the Lactocolics- a modern take on the Four Horse Men- I started at seven one Saturday night and finished at eight that next Sunday morning.  I’ve found energy drinks and Absinth makes time fly by and me makes me able to focus until I’m done.

Do you ever get creativity blocks and how do you deal with them?

I get them often.  I over think everything, lay in my studio for hours driving myself crazy. Walking around cursing to myself and saying I will never make it in the world if I cant come up with new never been done ideas. [To get over them] I usually focus on shooting some wildlife or scenery stuff. I usually end up depressed and removed from the world. After a week of that, I give up, stop thinking and some random thing - a commercial or wierd aspect of life will pop something into my brain and voila! An instant million more ideas. It’s a bipolar-ness of creativity, when I’m up, or when I’m down,Ii might as well stay home and not speak a word or see a person.

What impression do you want the viewer to take away from your work?

Richard Avedon said something that I will live by for the rest of my life. ”It’s to disturb, to make you think, to make you feel” My mission, you could say, is to invoke a feeling and cause a reaction. Some will be using the shock and awe, some will use subtle clues and hints. No matter what it is, I always try to have a story within my images. Some will argue its always my story within each image, all are actually self portraits when I’m not within the frames. But I guess thats why we have psychologists, to make up answers for questions that don’t need, let alone, even have answers. In my opinion, feelings are the only truth in the world as a whole. Nothing is true but what you feel. Everything else is opinions on your perspective of things, such as life, religions, political views, etc. There is no right or wrong even. So all I can do to have a truth, in any matter, is to bring emotion out in the viewer. It is up to the viewer, and his/her interpretation on the image, to determine the emotion and feeling they will walk away with. The best images have a lasting emotion and feeling that changes over time the more you think about it. Which is I try to make my details provide a lasting impression that changes with perception.

Linkage

• ChadCoombs.com ( Website Profile )
• Unscene ( Flickr Photostream )
• TheUnsceneArt ( MySpace )

Thank you, Chad for sharing. I hope you get to meet our idol David Lachapelle on your next visit. Let him know I want to interview him. =D