UNTAPPED TALENT: JODI BOATMAN

PHOTOGRAPHER JODI BOATMAN IS ON A MISSION: TO RECREATE HER CHILDHOOD MEMORIES THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY. VINNIE BAGGADONUTS CAPTURES A HALF-HOUR OF MISS BOATMAN'S TIME, AND DIGS A LITTLE DEEPER.
vinnie: I read your artist statement, and all I could think about was the movie Memento--
Jodi: --which I haven't seen yet.
v: You haven't seen that yet?
J: No.
v: When you see it, it will totally fuck your world up.
J: Yeah?
v: Because it kind of talks about what you were talking about in your artist statement, how you were trying to bring back or make your memories.
J: Well, I was thinking about how we preserve our memories. And photographs are really weird because on the one hand, they remind us of specific memories. They tell us what happened during a specific event. But on the other hand, they only really help us remember the things that are in that specific photograph. They lend to a more casual way of remembering things. Like, we don't really have to remember something because we have a photograph of it now. I'm photographing my grandmother's objects, and not her, because I really think objects tell you a story about a person. But I'm kind of having a problem with this body of work now, because my grandmother died. I can't really go anywhere with it anymore. I guess I'm going to try and start collecting the objects themselves. I've found objects like the ones she had in her house, and I'm trying to piece together all these objects that represent her. And I think we kind of do the same thing. We try and collect all these things from our childhood. Like collecting an Atari or Care Bears or whatever.
v: Yeah, just to keep reminding yourself of--
J: --what you were. What you had when you were a kid. Or even what you wanted. I never had an Atari, so I went out and bought one two years ago. I always wanted one.
v: So are you interested at all in taking pictures of objects from more recent events? Do you find yourself taking pictures of your friends' things now?
J: You know, I had this whole project I wanted to start, where I was going to ask people to find ten things that best represent them, and then photograph them in their house with those things. But I'm more interested in capturing events and places that I no longer have. I don't have access to my grandmother's house anymore. I don't have access to my childhood home. So, by having some physical objects around, it's like having access to those places again. I'm just really interested in these childhood memories, and these places that we can't get to anymore.
v: So before you got into all this, what were you shooting?
J: The same kind of thing, sort of. Trying to create the illusion of a person through objects and images. I was photographing these cat salt and pepper shakers, and printing them really, really big. And then I'd buy things for them to sort of create a narrative. So I'd have a huge picture of the guy cat, and the cat was a Communist, so the cat had a Karl Marx book, a blue-collar shirt and a blank journal. The girl cat had an empty powder container and an apron. And you could create really vague narratives based on these objects. So when I finally get my website done, I'm going to offer gifts to the people who want them, and they're going to be all these things I bought for my salt and pepper shakers. They could get a cat and a rhino, or something as their pair.
v: So creating a narrative with your pictures is more important to you than simply capturing and displaying an existing narrative?
J: Definitely. I think the collage or pastiche of all these objects together tells more of a story.
v: What kind of stuff were you looking at before you started taking these pictures? Stuff that may have influenced you?
J: Well, my biggest influence for a long time were the Beckers. And their work doesn't look anything at all like my photographs. They pick one thing and continue to photograph it to a point where it’s exhausted in their minds. I think it's really interesting to seek out specific objects and photograph only them. For a really long time I didn't like Uta Barth's work, but now--
v: --who's that?
J: Uta Barth. There's just something really interesting about her work. It's really simple. Really quiet. There's also a magazine called Source out of Ireland. They show really great work. But right now, I’m not really looking at anybody's work.
v: Is there any non-photography that you look at?
J: I've been reading Hellboy religiously. That sort of dark humor that he's (Hellboy creator Mike Mignola) got is really interesting. The way the characters interact with one another is very child-like. And I've been working on this writing project with my friend Eniko Hangay who lives in Hungary. We have a very similar way of seeing, and our interactions with each other are like Mike Mignola's characters. We can only email each other, so our communications are really basic. Actually, I think this writing project we're working on is pretty interesting. I just proposed it to this gallery in town called The Forum. It's this book of serious, beautiful photography, with some writing that we've done, and some graffiti,.. and some silly google eyes.
v: You've had a few exhibitions. Do you like working with galleries?
J: Yeah, because they’re really into what I’m doing. Really supportive of me and my work. Although applying to shows is a real nightmare. You apply to 15 shows, and you might get one. And you’re spending $20 a show just to apply.
v: Is that what lead to you getting published in some of the magazines your work was in?
J: No, that came from working at this place called Unica, which is a design store. I did some print ads for them; just photographing objects for them. And then I put my work on their website. Living Room Magazine called them and asked if they could borrow my work to be in a shoot. And then Dwell, it was just photographs of me and the people I work with in the magazine standing around a television. They picked well-designed furniture to be in a section of their magazine, and we were in it.
v: So after these appearances, did anybody call and say, "Hey, we want to buy some of your photographs.”?
J: No, unfortunately.
v: Is selling photography hard to do?
J: I think so. People get sort of snobbish and say, "Oh, you can make a ton of those." So I’ve decided to only make five of each of my images, at the size they're meant to be at.
v: Really?
J: Yeah, so there won't be a lot of them out there. You have to do that stuff, which I think is really annoying. Selling art just becomes this really weird business territory, which is so unlike what I think most people really want to do.
v: What do you mean by that?
J: Well, I'm sure there are a lot of people who really want to sell their work, and that's fine that they can be really business savvy. But if you're more interested in making it than selling it, it becomes this really weird territory--
v: --where you want to hire someone to just deal with all that stuff?
J: Yeah, I'd love to have a PR person.
v: So what's your ultimate goal with your work, then?
J: Obviously, it'd be nice to sell some stuff. I'd love to be in a position where I'm selling enough to facilitate the next piece, or the next series. I'll probably have to keep teaching for a while to keep doing that on my own. It'd be really cool to have lots of shows, and shows in New York, but that's a weird, pretentious goal. I don't want to be one of those people who says "I don't want to do this if I can't be famous." Really, I’d just like to keep making work.


VISIT JODI AND SEE HER WORK HERE.