Its with immense pleasure that im posting the interview with the fascinating and super talented photographer
Margaret Durow .
Margaret is a 20-year-old photographer from Wisconsin, she portraits dreamy landscape and captures emotional moments of her life and memories with friends. if i dare to say this but she is probably one of the most importante and adored photographers of the
"Flickr" generation not only for her work but also honesty and humility
Why and when did you decided to become a photographer ? I never decided to become a photographer. I had taken photos with my family, like on birthdays and such, and I always liked taking a lot of pictures of our pets.
Then when I was about 14 I had my first digital camera and started taking it everywhere to remember things happening with my friends.
Are you natural talented or just hard work ? I definitely work very hard – I’m always thinking about whatever I’m in the process of creating, and spend a lot of time on photo related things.
I’m also going to school and am not studying photography, so I always have a lot of work to do besides photos. It helps me to get away from photos for a while, I care so much about everything that I feel like only when I take a step back and not care too much that I can create something with the right feeling.
What inspires your work ? Did you had any mentors ? I am inspired by everything, especially my feelings, and these are what always push me to photograph
– trying to capture them in a photo so I can remember them. My feelings are most affected by light, music, the weather, my environment, my close friends and family, and water.
When do you know that a picture is finished ? When I look at it and I can feel how I felt at the time
Do you have a special sense that tell you "This is the right moment" ? No I don't think so, I just take pictures
Most of your pictures have this gloomy and dreamy world attached to them, do you recreate your dreams ? Yes I often do! Like I said, my photos are most inspired by my feelings and my dreams can make me feel things just as real life does, so I like to put those feelings into my photos.
For example, one of my recent photos of me lying in the snow with a pillow was inspired by a dream I had where I was laying in the snow and it felt crisp and cold yet amazing and fluffy like laying on a cloud.
From your perspective what makes your photography so special and appealing ? I think anyone can find an audience for what they do, and I'm so happy to have people tell me they like my work. I hope people like my work because they see that it is honest, important to me, and close to my heart.
I hope that maybe they make them feel something just by looking at them – maybe people can understand how I was feeling, and get that emotion for themselves, or maybe they experience a new emotion from the image.
There is a subconsequent tense and tragic event related with your pictures, does is reflect the way you see what surrounds you ? My whole life has been affected by having “back problems” / “medical condition.” My spine curved because of a vascular malformation entwined in it.
One of the most important parts of a body – the backbone, was so different in me than anyone around me. I could mostly do whatever I wanted growing up – I had to be careful of the mass inside my back, but I didn’t know my spine was curving until just after becoming a teenager.
By the time I was 17 I needed surgery to stop it from curving worse. The recovery was very long and hard. All these things were often very hard to go through, but it’s made me realize that everything is always up and down, and that I am so lucky for where I am now and everything that has brought me here.
Being so young and getting so much attention will this bring pressure on your future work ? Do you have any upcoming exhibitions ? When I take photos it is mostly for myself – to remember and look back later. If I continue to photograph because it is what I am inspired and driven to do, I don’t think attention will put too much pressure on me. My goals have never been to get the most attention or money and haven't tried to do this. Any attention I have gotten has been online, and it has come to me without me pushing my work on people. When I’m making new photos I hope they will like them, but I try not to be too affected by other people’s expectations.
I do not have any upcoming exhibitions.
What would be your favorite dead person to photograph ? John Muir
5 records you would take to the grave ? The Beatles – White Album
The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
The Black Lips - Let it Bloom
Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan
Bright Eyes - Fevers and Mirrors
