I am an actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company in a parallel world.
I took a semester abroad in London in 1985, intending to study acting. I remember the first day, waiting in line to register for classes. There were two lines: the “acting” line and the “everything else” line. When it was my turn to register, I did an about-face from “acting” to “everything.” I guess I liked the drama of it all.
What moved me that registration morning was curiosity. If I had stayed on the “acting” line, I would have taken voice, movement, monologue, and scene study classes. And, it’s not that I knew all that, but I guess I was looking for something new, more diverse.
In the “everything” line, I signed up for Marketing (dropped that), The Writings of Shakespeare, Fringe Theater, and…Photography Darkroom. This list appealed to my curiosity: familiar things, but experientially, very different. I had performed Shakespeare but never studied it; I read about the fringe theater but never experienced it; I had taken black and white pictures for my high school yearbook but had never been in the darkroom.
With this choice, I changed the direction and path of my life. I still love acting and came back to it many years later in New York. I took classes at Upright Citizens Brigade, studying with Ian Roberts and Amy Poehler and even appearing briefly (at 7:56 on the left, beard) on their short-lived sketch comedy show on Comedy Central. I went on (again, briefly) to perform with the improv group 5-Car Pile Up in the West Village (no known photographs exist).
But photography had won the day for me back in London in 1985. The darkroom experience was magical and unforgettable. I started a career as a fine artist in San Francisco, then to New York as a gallerist and educator.
I continue to make lens-based work of my own and make the occasional improv appearance (pre-COVID).
As artists, we sometimes like to be sure of ourselves, stay close to what we know and are known for. But nothing new will come from this.
I know far too many artists making the same picture today that they made years ago.
But, if your curiosity stirs, try something less familiar. Change your picture format, dip your hands into media that you are less confident in. Change your subject.
This is not changing for change’s sake. But, it’s to answer a whisper that you’ve had for a while now…to try this thing out. This thing you’ve been curious about. You won’t be any good at it when you start, but it might just be the turn you need to make in your practice.
Thinking you will come upon something innovative while staying in the land of the familiar is putting the cart before the horse. Breakthroughs come by working in the unfamiliar and then figuring it out. The more defensive you are about what/how you’re doing what you do, the more you need to consider this change.
Better to try this now before you realize you’ve been walking in a circle.
Wishing you all a big bold step in 2022!
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Michael Foley opened his gallery in the fall of 2004 after fourteen years of working with notable photography galleries, including Fraenkel Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery, and Yancey Richardson Gallery.
In 2002, Foley continued his interest in educating and working with artists by serving on the School of Visual Arts and International Center of Photography faculty. He currently teaches and lectures on contemporary photography issues at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
In 2020, he founded The Photo Community, which offers classes and commentary on contemporary photography.
Foley lives and works on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with his wife, Maya.
Hi Michael,
Another timely post... Thank you!
I've always loved my photographic practice but over the past few years have integrated more mediums into my practice including drawing and sculptural "constructions" as a I call them. This has been an enlightening experience for both my work and myself specifically. It is sometimes difficult to make these pieces that fall outside my comfort zone of photography but in the end—when finished—make me just a bit more satisfied, most likely because it took a little bit more effort to get started.
With that said I have some dedicated time this week for myself and wanted to again work outside my comfort zone—so I made my way to the Japanese paper shop Hiromi Paper here in Culver City for the first time to see if anything inspired me. And wouldn't you know it, I found some wonderful handmade paper that I will use to integrate into my project "Longing for Amelia—The Historical and Mythological Landscape" about Amelia Earhart. I was thinking that maybe I'd be working with some alternative process photography type things this week but the alternative process will be watercolors and handmade paper.
Cheers to those bold new steps in 2022.
Happy New Year!
Matthew Arnold
I'm a new person here, but interesting that we have a shared background. I was a modern dancer in the 70s and got into theatre in Colorado and Boston and after leaving radio news in the late 80s went into PR consulting and then started a theatre company in Sacramento CA in '94 and took an original show to the Edinburgh Fringe in '96 - "Dancing with Desire: a Poetic Fandango with the Erotic and the Bawdy." I finally started getting serious with photography in '98 during a hiatus from being the artistic/managing director of Beyond the Proscenium Productions.
Now I mix all the media that I can ; ~ D
More tales on the blog - https://anntracy.blogspot.com/