A Conversation about Photography: Kate Fichard

Writers have said that you need a routine to become a good one. And so the human being in general. To mark the importance of these two lines, we decided to start the year off right with a series of conversation about the most commun subjects, some kind of cultural analysis to enjoy now or in the future, that aim to left written the ideas of those who keep working to give away a magnificent gift to the world. Today’s matter: Photography, words by: Kate Fichard.

Can we start this interview talking about what else is happening right now in your life?

I am freshly back from the sea. I immerse myself in the bath of 2018 to implement projects and my wishes for realisation.

Do you have any idols?

Yes, I have admiration for some artists whose work inspires me and gives me the strength to create.

Have you met any of them? How was the experience? 

Not yet.

Do you remember what were your thoughts before starting to develop your career as a Photographer?

Before starting photography, I asked myself about which profession I wanted to pursue. I was attracted by studies of journalism, social sciences and humanities [or to be nose]. After getting my bachelor’s degree, an experience with a photographer abroad was a trigger to undertake photography studies. It was very natural, I did not ask questions, I was very excited to learn and to discover the photographic practice.

What is Photography for you? What’s your concept and vision around it?

Photography is a form of art, an expression of one’s emotions, ideas and imagination. It is also a very good or misleading media to convey messages.

What have you discovered over the years developing your career in Photography?

I discovered the reality of being a photographer. To live in it, you have to harmonize with your choices, accept the constraints of commercial work and your time spent. In parallel, dissociate your commercial work to artistic practice. One must always make and give the means to develop the artistic work.

There is also a constant evolution of photography with technology and the digital age that calls into question its practice, its value and its diffusion.

What’s your opinion on the take of Photography nowadays?

Photography is now accessible to everyone thanks to the phones and the power of social networks. It’s both crazy and interesting, because everyone can be a photographer. The advantage is that we could discover any form of beautiful photography, surprising or poor.

We are so numerous that it is not always easy to find our writing, our story and our trace.

As a writer myself, I know that we [writers and journalists] have to consider a few things in order to expose a piece; for some reason I think artists enjoy more freedom when creating and exhibiting their work. Is that true or you are always struggling with the idea of how people might react to your work?

The essential thing for an artist is to give himself the means to do, the creation of a project takes time to develop, to be wrong and to mature. During the preparation and creation phase, we are confronted at some point in time with a dialogue of constructive or negative criticisms. The most important thing for me is to have been at the end of its realisation, whatever its purpose and returns. Life is that experience.

The Chilean writer Isabel Allende said that you are a true writer once you have published your second book. I was wondering when a photographer can be considered a true photographer and not an amateur.

I have not published a book yet. It is my perspective this year with the Scarecrows series to make an edition. I think that we become a “real photographer” from the moment our work is recognized for its quality, visibility and demand.

What is your reference source that never stops giving you good ideas? Do you have any?

Books of course, exhibitions, movies, shows and Instagram.

For you, what’s discretion and what’s censorship?

The discretion is not to spread, the censorship is not to be able to express what seems for us legitimate to do.

What makes you cringe?

Strangely, technology scares me because it is beyond us. It changes the society and at the same time, it gives me the hope to make everything possible.

Experience can make you more flexible or more stubborn?

The experience that makes me flexible, free in a certain way, is the one where I end up with my freedom of projects with a good energy, a human support, a financing, an exhibition. The experience that makes me stumble is when I can not do it.

If you would have the chance to ask a very tricky question to a fellow photographer, what would that be?

What excites you behind the camera?