ARTIST PROFILE: PHOTOGRAPHER MARLIE WINSLOW  

Name and Year: Marlie Winslow, Class of 2015 Hometown: Wrightsville Beach, NC Major: Undeclared, prospective Urban Studies and Visual Studies

 

How did you first get into photography and visual art in general? Like most kids, elementary school art class was my introduction. My best friend was a painting prodigy, and my teacher literally worshipped the dirty water cup that she worked from. Whether from lack of talent or my invisibility to the teacher, I actually didn’t like art class… but I was still a pretty introspective, independent kid, and I loved to write. It wasn’t until high school that I touched anything visual again. My sister actually began doing some photography, so I followed in her footsteps. Pretty soon, I bought a Nikon D40 for kicks, and it all kind of started from there.

 

How has your time at Penn affected your work? Before I came to Penn, I didn’t consider anything that I had as “work.” Most of the time, I still don’t feel that way. Penn threw me into a pool of ten thousand brilliant, young kids simultaneously searching to define themselves. Right then and there, I found a niche. I realized that my private process through photography was externalizing the curiosities and confusions of so many other people. Suddenly, I had an audience that I could attempt to speak to and understand. Yet, at its core, it has still remained a personal, iterative practice. I can’t express enough the influence of Fine Arts and Visual Studies professors who gave me technicality and academic approaches to complement my visual experiments. I also can’t express enough the influence of experiencing my first “real” winters. Being stir–crazy and cold leads to a lot of inspiration!

 

Who are your favorite artists, visual or otherwise? Who do you consider influences? My first favorite artists were actually poets: Frank O’Hara, Pablo Neruda, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Walt Whitman. I see a lot of parallels in poetry and photography… the sense of rhythm, the simplicity of their forms. My visual influences change month to month. My first favorite photographer was, of course, Annie Leibovitz. As of late, influences include Juno Calypso, Petra Collins, Horace Pippin, Tara Welch, Lady Filmer, Marianne Brandt, Ryan Handy.

 

Where do you find the inspiration for your work? My inspirations are as much “what” as they are “who.” I really don’t pull from one place. Much of it is totally spontaneous and accidental. One minute, I’ll be studying the light spectrum in class and the next I’ll be thinking of the iridescent fish I saw at the pet store or the glint of the car mirrors parked in front of Wawa or my childhood on Stokely Road with my brother. Sometimes, I just have moments where little things throughout my week connect. It could be totally bizarre, but it’ll make sense to me. My biggest motivators behind all of this are God and my brother, Brody, who give me the strength to find connection and beauty in everything.

 

What’s your process like? Walk us through it-—how do you go about completing a project? Well, after going through some kind of conceptual process like the one above, I really just grab my camera bag, borrow a tripod from Addams Hall and gather a bag of supplies. Honestly, the conceptual process could build for weeks. I hardly ever think of an idea and then, instantly, take the photo. Last time, I used a mattress bag to carry streamers, lightbulb kits, and a thread crab trap to DRL. It’s pretty funny to watch, actually. For unplanned photos, however, there really isn’t one go–to process. A good observer is always ready to shoot.

 

What are some of your current projects? Right now, I’m doing some photos for the WALK magazine for their next issue, which is really exciting. I also just recently turned in a series called “Wilderness” to the Infinity Art show on campus. In my own time, I’ve been focusing more on self–portraiture as inspired by photographers like David Talley and Madeline Masarik, both of whom create incredible portraits by only using themselves. There’s something very real about the self–portrait process… allowing yourself to be reduced to an object, while simultaneously being so super–human that you completely dictate the world around you in the photograph. And the most beautiful part, at the end of it all, is that I’m really just a 19–year–old pressing the self–timer button with chills from lying on the floor for too long.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’ve done? Most challenging? I’d have to say my favorite and most challenging project ever was the photo quilt that I made for my mom last summer from a picture of my brother. Basically, I had to break down the photo into pieces of fabric and piece the fabric back together out of hundreds of pieces to form the photograph. Although I’d never done something like it before, it was an extremely personal and interesting project. It was definitely a labor of love.

 

Where do you see yourself heading in the future with your work? What about post–graduation? My future is intentional unintentionality. I don’t want to put expectations or deadlines to it. Photography gives me an exhilarating, honest sense of self that pushes me to always question, always wonder, and always keep an open mind to the ever–changing circumstances of life. I’m blessed to have something that makes me feel so free, and I wouldn’t ever try to change it.

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