Judith Joy Ross

this is an interview with one of my all time favorite portrait photographers, Judith Joy Ross.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S29dwdrMEh4

while i have seen most of her work, i had never seen her face or heard her voice before discovering this interview.  she looks and sounds exactly like she should... honest, open, a bit gruff, down to earth, real... just like her portraits.

i'm sharing this interview for several reasons.  i wanted to introduce you to the work of an artist i have long admired.  i first learned of Ross when i stumbled upon this image, i don't know where.

these three girls, all of them, are me in my early teen years... shy, modest,  a bit uncomfortable and gangly in their developing bodies, they are traveling in a protective gang into the big, intoxicating adult world just opening up to them.  i absolutely love this image.

in this interview Ross acknowledges the influence of the German portrait photographer August Sander on her work.  in fact, she boldly states she was copying him when she first began to photograph.  since i was recently writing about finding inspiration in the work of others, i find this honesty refreshing.  as she also says, a quick look at her early work makes it quite apparent she was influenced by Sanders.  but, as in all great art, she goes beyond Sanders, takes her portraits to a different place and puts her unique Judith Joy Ross mark on each image.

there is a profound difference between a portrait by Ross and a portrait by Sanders.  for me, it's the heart, the sense of a real connection between Ross and her subjects that i do not get from Sanders.  while i greatly admire Sanders work... it is technically magnificent... his portraits feel to me like a Bernd and Hilla Becher typology, nothing more than human water towers... cold, analytical and sterile.  Ross's portraits breathe.

this summer i took a big plunge and forced myself out of my safe, secure, comfortable cocoon of nature photography and embarked on a long term portrait project.  whew... i said it.  this is very, very challenging and scary for me.  i am painfully shy, so the notion of photographing actual living, breathing people, even ones i know and love, puts me into a cold sweat.  but, i'm going to do it.  and i'm going to do it with my large format camera.  i will keep you informed on how it's going.  but, for the time being, believe you me, i will be drawing huge gulps of inspiration from the work of Ross.