David CassOctober 26, 2020

Q&A with Amy Friend

David CassOctober 26, 2020

“What does a photograph mean? What is its purpose? The answers to those seemingly simple questions hold possibility and that fascinates me…”

A La Luz interviews Canadian artist Amy Friend

Through her unique and expertly honed visuals, artist Amy Friend transports us to a multi-layered and often dream-like world, rich with feeling. Her work expresses a fascination in the world around us and the places we inhabit. With the dual aim of deepening our own understanding of the topics the artist explores (including themes of environmental change) and getting to the roots of her often highly personal practice, we conducted the following interview.

Q Where did everything start for you – what led to your practice of today?

A I like to imagine it all started when I was quite young.

As a kid I grew up on the outskirts of Windsor, Ontario, Canada (a border town to Detroit, Michigan in the USA). At the foot of my street was a beach positioned where Lake St. Clair meets the Detroit River. Each of these bodies of water are fed by Lake Huron and Lake Erie; I point this out, because I was surrounded by the Great Lakes and water was a consistent part of my life.

I was raised in a small, predominately immigrant neighbourhood and my Italian, Scottish and Norwegian roots played a clear role in the formation of my identity. Along with these roots came abundant stories from the past.

As I grew up, I realized that a creative thread ran through the family and I was interested in the arts at a very young age. My Italian grandfather built a completely round house that I spent much of my childhood in. It was a fascinating place with plenty of space for the imagination.

When I look back at my practice these elements combine and influence my work. I often respond to personal experience, and familial materials have served as a springboard for my ideas and methodologies.

I began as a painter but once I worked with analogue, and eventually digital photography, I was hooked. With that said, the hands-on aspect of creative work is an important element of my studio processes and I often take away or add to the photographic surface.

Q The element of nostalgia is laced through each of your projects, further enforced by your use of found vintage photographs: could you tell us more about how themes of memory and the past – known or unknown – enter into your work?

A That is a good question and I cannot help but think about the abundant memories my family shared through their stories. I also spent time in my grandmother’s (Nonna) attic and was fascinated with the accumulated possessions. As immigrants, and through their experience living through the Great Depression, they saved everything. These possessions were my playthings in early life and later became a focus of interest in my practice. As my family began to age and leave this earth, these possessions held mysteries I didn’t think about until it was too late. The known and unknown seem to float about in my mind constantly.

My interest in old photos and vernacular photography began after Nonna shared with me several older family photo albums. We sat together and talked at length. She had never shared these images before, and I wondered and still wonder why? Those shared conversations resonate with me. They instilled a curiosity about photography and its capabilities. What does a photograph mean? What is its purpose? The answers to those seemingly simple questions hold possibility and that fascinates me.

I began working with vernacular photos as a means of thinking beyond my personal and familial connections. A rich trove of photographic language is embedded in those “everyday” images and once I began collecting them, I realized their importance. They seem both capable of speaking about life and leaving a space for silence in their meaning.

Q The way you process photography seems to be intentionally present in the final result of your work, particularly in a new (as yet unpublished) series of sea-salt soaked prints, two of which are shown below. Could you tell us more about how process is, seemingly, an integral part of your completed work?

A I have never really been interested in what I call a “concrete photograph”. What I mean by this is, I do not aim to use the camera to record a direct copy of reality, per se. I love the potential of a photo, and it is in this potential, this disruption, that I concentrate. I never intended to make work this way; it is one of those things that just happens. I have attempted to shoot photographs and leave them untouched, but I constantly feel like something is missing.

I align my approach with thoughts I have about the failure of a photograph to express certain things and on the other hand, it is the photo that speaks in specific ways due to the very nature of the medium. It is tethered between the real and unreal. I can say without a doubt that the medium itself, its alchemical nature, its magic, draws me in. The fact that a photo is always a representation of the past provides space for me to use my interventions as a way for me, or us, to reconsider what we see.

Much of my process references the materials used in photographic creation. In the Dare alla Luce series I use light as a literal and metaphoric tool used to express my ideas. In the ongoing sea-salt series you reference, I took photos of different waterscapes over the timeframe of many years. As I brought these images together, I could not help but think about the experience of water. This is when I began collecting sea water that I dried on the surface of the printed photos. Each process I employ is instigated by the photographs themselves.

Q As a whole, the environment – the sea, the land, the sky – is present throughout your work; and water features frequently. Can you tell us about the role of the natural world in your work?

A My connection to what I believe is a deeper part of existence, resides in our relationship with the natural world. I am beginning to understand that I have always felt this way, and I explore this through my work repeatedly. I am not alone is stating that I find our connection to the natural world resolutely healing. It is a place to rest, to experience wonder, it is a sanctuary from the ridiculous hustle of life.

In the instability of our lives, the natural world is a 'constant'. Now, the irony of that statement cannot be ignored as there is nothing constant about the environment in any respect. Its role and place in our lives shapeshifts depending on who we are, where we live, what we need and what we believe. I cannot ignore how we (the world) has abused, ignored and changed our environment, and yet, it is revered and remains a place of wonder. These thoughts find their way into the images I make.

Q We’re keen to know more about your Multi-verse series…

A I have worked with older, found, vernacular photography in the Multi-verse series and previous bodies of work, but for the Multi-verse imagery I was specifically interested in utilizing photos from a cross section of locations and points in history. I also included a selection of my own photographs that I shot as a means of playing with notions of time and the repetition of events in our world, both positive and negative.

The series was instigated though the contemplation of my childhood photographs. I began to think about their singularity. Many world events took place in my life that simply did not find a way into these family albums. Initially, I began to search for vernacular photos that connected to the timeframe of the photos in these albums. I thought about how our relationship to the world is nuanced by what we experience and understand about world events. And clearly, much more was happening than I saw in my own family albums. For example, I have photos in the album of birthdays and family camping trips that were taken while the Vietnam War was raging. I have no relationship to this war specifically, but when I found these images, I questioned the parallel realities of experience that make us understand the world as we do. The positive images that flooded my family albums were in some way void of larger world issues.

I also used found photos to reference political and societal events that are happening today. For example, Behind the Curtain is a direct reference to immigrant children being taken away from their families under the Trump administration. Alongside these images are some photos I shot more recently. One is, Wayfinding in Cold Light, it is a portrait of a young family member who is making their way through the world now. The title alludes to this journey.

Political cruelty, war, environmental issues are constantly revolving in and out of our lived lives. Realities of experience cross over and through time, they blend and repeat. It is through an interrogation of the images I locate and create that the work comes to fruition.

Q The works Waters Rising and Flood & Light really speak to us. In the former, your clever manipulation of the photograph appears to represent inundation; while Flood & Light seems to depict a disappearing coastline. There’s a subtle violence to the tearing involved in these works. To what extent should these be considered activist artworks?

A They are meant to question, and yes, interrogate. My titles act as a guide for the viewer to consider. I used the terminology “flood” and “light” as a reference to the tools of photography, in this case a floodlight, which illuminates what we can’t see. I play with those words, and beckon the viewer to see the flood, to “see the light” and to pay attention. The destructive rips and tears aim to mimic our own destruction of the world. I felt that the photo needed to be altered to coerce the viewer to look beyond the beauty in photos we come across.

Sometimes when I search for vernacular images, they shape my processes. The piece, Waters Rising, was created after seeing a concerningly large quantity of found photos recording floods. My use of this image was intended to demonstrate the repeated or rather continuing environmental issues we face.

Q Your practice seems to be inspired by wide-ranging disciplines – including painting. Could you tell us what are your key sources of inspiration?

A I am inspired as a magpie might be. I have found inspiration in songs by Nick Cave and Lhasa de Sela, in the novel The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger), when travelling, over fireside conversations, in the stars and in the mud, in Roberta Solnit’s description of the colour blue, in the art of others, in hearing stories and more stories, in meeting people, and in silence.

I’m also inspired by doing. Process is paramount and I think about the notion of play in my work. I began as a painter and still hold dear the idea of touch and what is mutable; I consider this in the materials I bring to my processes. I find photography to be intrinsically transient, and yet it remains static. I love dichotomies. I respond to subjects and materials I work with and think about what it means to alter and change and shift expectations. I add paint and cut away at photos... I propose questions… What happens when you steep images in salt and let them dry? I work with the accidents and experiments to let the unscripted shape meaning with me, both as activator and observer.

**There was nothing like that night, remember it?**

Amy Friend has exhibited nationally and internationally at Paris Photo with In Camera Galerie (France), Gexto Photofestival (Spain), ASPA (Sardinia), Dong Gang Photography Museum (South Korea), Guate Photo (Guatemala), Mosteiro de Tibães at the Encontros Da Imagem (Portugal), Jackson Fine Art (Altanta, USA), Rodman Hall (Ontario, Canada), Photoville (New York, USA), Onassis Cultural Center (Greece), and at the Abbaye De Silvacane, La Roque D'Antheron (France). In 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019 Friend was selected as one of the top 50 photographs in the juried Critical Mass International Photography Competition. A monograph of her work, Stardust, was published through L’Artiere Publishers (Italy). Friend’s work has also been recognised and supported through several grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Visit Amy's Website