© Elizabeth Weinberg/courtesy of the artist
On moodboard’s recent trip to New York I had the pleasure of meeting the extremely lovely and talented photographer Elizabeth Weinberg. I first came across some of her brilliant photos on her blog: http://www.burntsienna.nu/dishevel. The first images I saw were from a blog post titled “What a life I lead in the summer” which had me captivated and intrigued to see more. We met up for a chat and cocktails ....
© Elizabeth Weinberg/courtesy of the artist
Can you tell us about your background and how you got into photography?
I have always been an artist in terms of drawing, I wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up. I never did photography more than with a point and shoot camera until I was a freshman at Boston University in a graphic design program. We were doing lots of drawing, painting and sculpture. In the summer between freshman and sophomore years, I was on the BU photojournalism website browsing and I thought why don’t I just change my major, I’d always enjoyed taking photos, running to the lab and getting them developed, but it had never clicked in my head that it was something that I could actually do with my life. So I transferred to the communication school and the program was a photojournalism course so it was very newspaper heavy but I would bend the rules and take photos of my friends. I’m really into music so I would shoot bands and I worked for a music management company all throughout college so I had access to bands which normally was hard to get. I realised that although I could do the newspaper/documentary stuff I wanted to do more than that.
I got my first camera when I was eleven. I went to Florida to visit my grandparents and took some god awful photos. I graduated to a 35mm SLR for my 18th birthday and then medium format after I graduated college because it was all digital and 35mm black and white in school. I taught myself colour printing and how to use medium format. After I graduated I worked out of a bunch of photo labs and I didn’t quite know what my vision was. I knew I liked music and shooting portraits of people I knew and I realised editorial is pretty awesome and being in such close contact with bands I was able to go on tours and people would start asking me to take press photos and from there it snowballed.
What’s your current camera of choice?
I have a bunch! For shoots where it’s important that the client gets the images the next day, I use my Canon 5D as a day to day staple and I’ve gotten to the point where I know how to manipulate the images to look as much like film as possible. If I had the choice, I would shoot film. I really like using old manual cameras and I have this old Pentacon Six TL (square format). My big massive camera I like to use if I have time with a location is the Mamiya RB67. I also have a bunch of other 35mm cameras.
Can you tell us about your latest project or assignment?
The biggest personal project I’ve done recently was a trip to California for two weeks. I had some commercial ideas in mind; I wanted to get some more lifestyle shots and I happen to have some intrepid adventurous friends. We went up to Malibu to a lake where you can jump off a rope swing but when we got there, it was gone. I managed to get an underwater housing case for my camera and ended up doing a lot of underwater shots. I have a huge series now of underwater photos in different places.
Work wise I’ve been doing a lot of band portraits recently including a Swedish band called Love is All and indie rock band O'Death. It’s a challenge to do something fresh and not repetitive, so that’s keeping me on my toes. I’ve also done some fashion shoots for NYLON. I’m trying to inject some subtle humour into my portrait work. I shot Chromeo eating some pizza (New York Street food!) for a new British style magazine BUCK and Animal Collective for RE:UP. I got some great shots of them jumping on a bed like little kids.
Who inspires your work?
There are a few photographers that I think are incredible not only in terms of composition and lighting but also seem like cool people like Chris Buck. He’s just a genius and seems to have a very fun way of working. Another inspiration for music portraits is Autumn De Wilde; she seems is the go-to person for indie rock bands and has now branched out into music videos. It sounds cheesy but I get inspired by natural light, if the sun is in a certain place or the sky looks a certain way I feel that I have to take a picture of it. I also have so many friends who are illustrators or artists but in terms of photography I’m more inspired by events and wanting to capture things. I find the musicians and creative people inspiring and would love nothing more to go on tour with certain bands and that’s what I want to be around.
You mentioned you have a lot of artist friends, do you feel like you are part of a creative community?
I have a lot of friends who are in the creative field, be it writers or designers or video production or painters or photographers so we’re all creatively like minded so I’m lucky that way. It’s cool to do interesting things with them and those people end up being the subjects of my photos.
© Elizabeth Weinberg/courtesy of the artist
What’s the best thing about living and working in NY?
I moved here from Boston as well as many of my friends in 2005. Boston was great for school but I got to be 22 and realised I was one of the oldest people in my neighbourhood. I knew that if I wanted to do anything with my photography I needed to go to NY. I’m a night owl so I’m up late on the weekend, there are all these crazy corners to explore and I ride my bike everywhere. Just last week I went down to Coney Island Creek with one of my adventurous friends which is this inlet where there are boats and a submarine half submerged.
What venues do you frequent to see bands?
In terms of real venues, the Bowery Ballroom is one of my favourites. Musicians love to play there and people love to go there, it sounds great. My least favourite is Terminal Five – it’s all the way on the West side in a four story warehouse. In Brooklyn there are all these lofts that have been converted into places where bands can play, like Death by Audio and Silent Barn which are under the radar and they’re not commercialised. I prefer to see music at smaller places.
What are your favourite websites and blogs?
A photo editor, at first it seemed so bleak to me then soon realised it was a wealth of information and I started reading it. I also like Andrew Hetherington’s blog What’s the Jackanory?, Heather Morton – Art Buyer and Rachel Huilin’s blog formerly writer of Shoot the Blog for PhotoShelter. I’m trying to get into advertising so I’m reading An Art Producer’s Perspective. The list of personal photography blogs gets longer and longer. There’s a funny blog called Photoshop Disasters which is good fun. I also like I heart photograph and Be Capricious.
Elizabeth Weinberg has been published in NYLON, SPIN, GIANT Magazine and mass appeal. She is currently taking on commercial projects in addition to editorial and music portraits.
To find out more visit: www.elizabethweinberg.com where you can also access her blog: http://www.burntsienna.nu/dishevel/