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Ten Things About Lú_
Daily Ink
Stored in: Ten Things About ...
Posted On: February 10 2007
By: Brittney Bush
Photo © Lú_
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Lú_? I wouldn't be surprised if twelve people gave twelve different answers to that question, for Stephanie Fysh is a mistress of many trades. She has as eager a following for her images of architecture as she does for her creatively erotic self-portraits. And in "Rooms With Woman," Stephanie took a single concept and spun it into an acclaimed set of twenty-four images AND an article here on Utata.org. Now the images have been selected for a prestigious exhibition. Read more about this, and other Lú_ News, below.
The Utata Five
What is the camera and setup you use most often?
I'm currently working with a Nikon D70S, most often with the 18-70mm kit lens. I also sometimes use an SB600 strobe, often on a stand into or through an umbrella.
Describe your photographic style in one word.
Erotic.
If you could only leave one photograph on Flickr, which would it be?
That's *such* a hard question -- kinda makes me wish I had fewer photos posted! I suppose I'd have to go with "Saturday night, North Bay, room #2." I really felt like I got it right there. But tomorrow it'll probably be a skyscraper, which is actually the same thing.
Name another Utatan whose work you really admire.
I'm currently in love with rutebegabunny's (Rebecca Fanning's) work. She has a wonderful sense of composition, and a strong understanding of her tools, including just what her film will do.
Your house is burning down. In the kitchen are an otter, a goose, and a cake. You only have time to save one of them. Which do you choose?
Well, I can't eat cake, so someone else will have to save it. And geese can be nasty things. But otters are cute, so I'll have to take the otter. I'm not nice enough to save all three just out of ... niceness.
The Lú_ Five
On your portfolio site, you describe your work as "an
exploration of the relationship between the physical
structures we build, the culture we weave, and the selves
we construct within the physical and cultural spaces
through which we move." How intimate do you feel the
connection between people and their places is? Are some
more detached than others? Are some worlds more fluid and
some selves more changeable?
I believe that we are, fundamentally, material beings -- we are stuff, inside (soul, mind) and out. We shape our material surroundings (the things we build), and we also have to be within them, so that they shape us. The culture comes into this as an intermediary, including between us and ourselves: how much will we permit ourselves to take control of our own shaping (we can, if we dare, if we choose), and therefore of the shape of the world? Most of us live instead in separated realms: we separate soul, mind, and body, and pick one over the others; we separate ourselves (the living) from our surroundings (the non-living), and pick one over the other; we separate the "natural" from the man-made, and you know which one most pick. I'm ultimately an optimist: I believe in the grand capacity of humankind, in our ability to build a glorious and beautiful world, and glorious and beautiful selves. It's a sensual thing, this is, and potentially freeing. I like to think that I could nudge the world a bit that way. Docere, delectare, movere -- it's a very old conception of the function of art, and not terribly fashionable.
Is your fondness for photographing architecture
inherently related to the stories it tells and the uses it
has, or do you admire buildings on their own, for their
form or lines or color?
I adore buildings for what they are, and for how they make me feel. Good architecture raises the spirit. Those guys who believed in those functions of art -- docere, delectare, movere -- built cathedrals designed to literally raise the spirit high. Skyscrapers do that for me, but so does rich surface texture or a doorway that balances just so or a moment in a building that surprises. When I'm photographing architecture, I'm really trying to capture the feeling that that structure gave me. That and to get those parallel lines parallel. Architects, they hate when the parallel lines aren't.
You get a lot of comparisons to Patti Smith in your
comment streams. How do you feel about this? Do you
consciously imitate Patti? Are you two secretly cousins?
I swear, I've never tried to look like or be like anybody else! I was quite caught off guard at first by the apparent compulsion out there to tell me who I look like, but now I just laugh. And I'm very glad that it's someone more interesting than me, and not, say, Britney Spears.
I got a letter today from a long-lost cousin. I'll have to ask her if she's secretly Patti Smith.
You've had several photos published, and your work was
part of a series of Toronto postcards. What has been your
proudest photography-related moment?
One I haven't really talked about yet: my submission for a room of photographic work was selected (apparently from a lot of submissions) to be part of a curated exhibition called Photo Fiction, within the larger CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival '07 theme of The Constructed Image. You're all invited, of course! I'll be at the bar calming my nerves.
Do Canadians really have sex with their socks on?
Yes. Doesn't everybody?
2 comments on this Ink
On February 11, 2007, Phillip Chee said ...
I am so glad I had the opportunity to meet Stephanie last August. I'm sorry I didn't have more time to chat with her. I will definitely be making a trip to Toronto to check her CONTACT exhibition. Way to go, Stephanie!
On February 11, 2007, Catherine Jamieson said ...
Indeed. Good luck with the CONTACT exhibit - and congratulations!
Otherwise, in Ten Things About ...:
- Previously: Ten Things About David Bridger
Utata Ink is a daily publication edited by Bryan Partington (striatic). Photos used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and obtained via the flickr API unless otherwise noted. To make a contribution to Ink, please visit Ink Me.
