About The Photographer
Studio Gallery artist Gary Anthes is an award-winning photographer with an impressive portfolio and a passion for capturing life in motion. With quarantine orders and travel restrictions in place around the country, his artistic practice (generally centered around street photography and capturing moments of human interaction) has shifted. I asked him some questions to learn more about the man behind the camera; how he is continuing to make work through isolation? What advice does he have for other photographers at this time? Read on to learn more about Gary!
MoMA, PS1, New York., Aug. 2019
Q: As an artist who takes photos of the outside world, how has isolation altered your artistic practice? Have you continued to take photos in isolation, and of what?
A: Yes, I have definitely altered my practices. My new mantra is Think Local, Think Small. So instead of doing sweeping views of streets and landscapes I'm doing what I call meso-scale photography, which means subjects from a few inches to a few feet in size. These are things I can find in my house, in my back yard, or on walks around the neighborhood.
Beech Leaves No. 1, March 2020
Beech Leaves No. 2, May 2020
Q: What is your favorite subject to photograph and why? Has quarantine impacted your ability to photograph this subject, and how are you working around it?
A: My favorite subject pre-virus was street photography, including people inside buildings – museums, subways, shopping centers, and the like. That subject and approach is on hold now, of course. Instead, it's tree trunks, wood patterns on old barns, the shadows cast by sunlight coming in my window, raindrops falling on a pond, my dog, and so on. [See two attached examples, Beech Leaves.]
Coney Island, New York., Aug. 2019
Grand Central Terminal, New York., Aug. 2019
Hell's Kitchen, New York., Aug. 2019
Street Party, New York., Aug. 2019
Q: What are some of your favorite photos of your travels, and how has your perspective of them changed with recent events?
A: Above are four photos that I made last August in New York City. This has become my favorite place to do “street” photography, and it is incidentally where both my daughters live. It is also, of course, the place in the U.S. hardest hit by COVID-19. I look at these images and think, “Wow, how could the world have changed so much, so fast? Where are the people in these pictures now? Are they healthy? Are they sick, dying, dead? Have they lost their jobs? Will life in New York ever be the same again? If I ever get back to this kind of photography I think I will do it with a new reverence for life and the world we live in. Will that reverence and appreciation show up in my photographs? I don't know, but I hope so.
Image from photo collection Scandinavia, 2019.
Q: You have taken hundreds of unique, insightful photographs of places ranging from Italy to Japan to Scandinavia, and even right here in D.C. by the C&O Canal. When the world is safe enough, where would you like to travel to first to take photographs, and why?
A: I would like to reschedule a trip that I had planned for this spring to Santa Fe, N.M. I love going there for photography, because it and the surrounding canyon lands and Native American lands have everything I like to photograph – Pueblo and Spanish architectures, art galleries and museums, bleak but beautiful desert landscapes, clear blue skies over orange adobe structures, and on and on.
The artist at work with his camera. Image from Pictures at an Exhibition: Points of View.
Q: What words of wisdom/advice would you give to other photographers who are struggling at this time to make work?
A: My heart goes out to photographers who are trying to make a living at it, which fortunately I don't have to do. But for almost any photographer, I'd suggest:
Think Local, Think Small
Do something new, for example black and white photography if you have only done color, or portraits if you have never done portraits, or some new technique such as macro or high dynamic range (HDR) photography.
Go through every single image you have ever captured, even if it runs into the thousands. Analyze your own likes and dislikes, your strengths and weaknesses. Set aside sets of favorites in one or more specific subjects – boats, canyons, animals, flowers, beach/coastal scenes, etc. – or by some artistic element – such as geometric patterns, vivid colors, deep shadows, etc. – and make a book, album, or portfolio for a website or future gallery show out of them.
Pick a favorite picture, one that has special meaning for you, and write a poem or a little essay about it and send it to a friend or loved one. Then print it, frame it, and replace something on your wall that you have had for years and are tired of.
Wisdom: This, too, shall pass. Seriously.
From staff contributor Halley Stubis.