INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN KOSOFF
Utah Lake
1. Brian, please tell us a little-bit about yourself.
I was born in New York City and raised in Brooklyn, NY. I currently live in Portland Oregon.
2. What does photography mean to you?
Photography is my way of sharing my perspective and observations with others. For me, and many artists, it’s an obsession, there’s a compulsion to produce the work.
3. Was there anything specific that you can remember that made you want to become a photographer?
As in the case of almost all photographers it started as a hobby for me. I found the process of going out for the purpose of producing photographs and then viewing the end result to be very satisfying. It was the first interest that I seriously committed to and the deeper my commitment the greater the satisfaction.
Obstacle
4. What inspires you?
Seeing great work produced by other artists, musicians and writers and understanding the level of commitment and effort they have made to master their craft and to continually produce new work.
I am also inspired by nature itself, viewing scenes that I feel compelled to capture and share.
5. What makes the good picture stand out from the average?
I think an image needs to be visually compelling, an interesting relationship between the elements within and with light. I think there needs to be wit, a brilliant observation or a unique moment. I also like to see a story in a scene, often it’s a metaphor or symbolic of something more significant.
6. Among your works, which one is your favourite? Why?
This is a difficult question to answer because it changes all the time. There are images that are favourites because they’ve been a part of my life for a long time or are favourites because of the experience at the moment of capture. And then there are images that are favourites because I saw something there that few would see there and that I made into something more than what was readily visible. I’ll give you three favourites in response.
A current favourite is one of my night images, “Posts”. It’s the kind of scene that people might just pass by, but right from the start, I saw an interesting relationship between the empty turbine posts and what I knew the stars would look like. The one turbine with blades looks like a flower among reeds and I felt the contrast of the curves of the hills and the hard lines of the posts would be visually exciting.
Another favourite is “Refinery, Fidalgo Bay” which is a photograph of an oil refinery but I felt the stream of smoke was a good analogy for a mushroom cloud and that the burning of fossil fuels is an existential threat to us all.
And lastly “Three Crosses” is a favourite because it’s my homage to all of those classic Crucifixion scenes in paintings, so critical to the very development of European painting. The reality is of course just three telephone poles, but their relationship and the hills behind them just projected the symbolism of Crucifixion scenes to me.
Posts 2016, California, USA
7. What kind of gear do you use?
Virtually all of my black and white work is film based, with just a few exceptions. I mostly shoot medium format film, but the cameras use that film in different proportions. Most of the work is using 6×7 cm cameras or 6×12 cm cameras. I have refined my technique over the years to allow me to make quite large prints from those film sizes.
For colour work, I have started to use digital cameras. Their image quality has gotten very high and continues to improve and it’s allowed me to start working in color after a very long absence, but for B&W I still prefer the qualities of film.
8. What was your very first camera?
My very firs camera was likely a Kodak Brownie or a Kodak Instamatic, however, my first real camera was a 35mm Minolta SRT 201.
9. Did you go to school to study photography?
I attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City. My major was photography but my secondary interest was sculpture. However, as I had assisted professional photographers before attending SVA I ultimately dropped out in my second year in order to continue assisting as I felt it was a better learning experience for me. The irony being that about 6 years later I was teaching at SVA.
Refinery, Fidago Bay
10. How long have you been a photographer?
That depends on how you define “photographer”. I first became passionate about photography when I was fifteen, I started assisting advertising and editorial photographers at seventeen, started shooting editorial assignments around nineteen and had my own studio at twenty-one where I produced photographs for advertising and magazines. So I guess between thirty-nine and forty-five years depending on what point you choose to start at.
11. How much do you research your subjects before photographing them?
A lot. I look into the weather history, the geology and geography, the Sun and Moon positions, tides, hazards (predators, flooding, etc) and anything else that might seem pertinent to the locations I am considering. I like to be prepared and I like to have a clear idea of the type of images I might be producing before I even get there. This extreme deliberation is a result of my having worked on assignment for so long, wherein you are always required to come back with images that exceed the requirements of the assignment no matter what the circumstance.
12. Could you please tell us something about your technique and creating process?
It’s very deliberate. I am constantly testing my equipment and materials and trying to squeeze as much quality out of them as possible, while at the same time knowing them so well as to make their use intuitive.
I research the locations I intend to explore well before I get there, then I will literally drive up and down every single road, every accessible trail, every nook and cranny in hopes of coming across “the scene”.
The likelihood of coming across “the scene” at just the right moment is small, it happens, but you can’t count on luck when it comes to the timing. So what I’ll do is scout the scene, that means find the best angle and determine the composition and lens required, take compass readings, check Sun, Moon and star positioning, take note of the geology (do nearby mountains create lighting issues, will a body of water produce early morning mist?), I’ll take note of the plant life (i.e. might this scene work better in autumn when the leaves change?) and look for any hazards or problems that might need to be mitigated. And after all of that, I’ll then determine when I need to come back to this scene when it has the greatest possibility of interesting conditions.
13. What do you do in your life besides photography?
Not much! Photography is very time consuming, between the travel, the film and print processing, all the testing of equipment and materials, the research on locations, preparing work for exhibitions and even the time required to pack prints for shipping, I don’t have much free time.
What little free time I have is spent with my wife, who on occasion accompanies me on my shoots. I try to find time to play piano but that’s gotten very difficult and my skills at the keyboard have suffered (not a real loss to society there however).
Three Crosses
14. Why your work is special?
I think that is a question better asked of those who view it.
15. What are you working on at the moment?
Many things. I have several series that are ongoing and which never have an actual completion date. I will continue to produce my black and white landscapes and my night series of landscapes.
I have several colour series that are continuous projects, and which are very different than what I do in black and white. Two of these projects “Warning Signs” and “End of the Road” being a result of all the time I spend driving the back roads of America, the former being a statement on my part about the proliferation of firearms in America.
16. A funny moment that happened to you on one of the days when you were shooting?
I was shooting in Newfoundland, and I was heading out on a trail at dusk. I had done my homework and I knew what time sunset was and at what point I’d need to turn back before it got too dark. I also knew that Newfoundland has a population of black bears and that hiking alone at dusk is not a safe thing but it’s an essential part of what I need to do. As always I carried bear spray, an industrial strength pepper spray that is the most effective method of protecting one from a bear attack. (One hopes!)
The trail itself was tight and enclosed on both sides by very thick and prickly foliage. It was pretty easy walking, although very twisty in places and combined with the thick brush around it I had little ability to see what lies ahead.
After a few miles, I came across a sight of some concern, bear scat in the middle of the trail. This is not something you want to come across alone on a trail as the sun starts to set. I pulled the bear spray from my pocket, removed the safety on it, designed to prevent accidental spraying, and held it in my hand, finger on the trigger and ready to go. I continued along the path in a heightened state of alarm.
About 200 yards from the scat, as I turned a blind corner a huge dark form rose up no more than 15 feet from me. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to feeling great relief when I realized it wasn’t a bear but instead was a bull moose. But the relief was short lived when I had a second realization; this is rutting season and this nearly 7 foot tall, 1500 pound bull moose is likely in his rut which makes him very dangerous and aggressive.
Boats at Night, Scotland
I looked at him intently and try to determine if his weight shifts in my direction. At the first sign of this my intent was to spray and pray, well more accurately spray and then dive into the dense and sharp brush and hope he doesn’t follow. The brush would surely do me some damage, but considering the options, it was an easy choice. But then it happened. And when I say then it happened I mean nothing happened. I’m starting to guess at this point that the moose was as happy that I wasn’t a bear as I was as happy that he wasn’t a bear.
For a moment we’re just looking at each other, being happy. But we still have a small issue, this trail is really tight and I don’t think he has the turning radius to just turn around, which means one of us might be in the way and the smaller usually has to make way for the bigger. But then it happens, and when I say then it happens this time something does happen. The moose proceeds to make an elegant three-point turn and pretty soon he’s turned completely around and is now walking away from me.
This was a surprising lack of aggression on the part of this moose. But after hiking another few hundred yards I discovered why he was so chill, I could see he already had a girlfriend.
17. Where can you see yourself and your photography in 10 years?
Still photographing landscape but adding still life into the mix and whatever other projects present themselves to me.