The one half of Cherry Co. interviewed by ModelsRule.com The Ch of Cherry Co., Chandler Easley...
The one half of Cherry Co. interviewed by ModelsRule.com
The Ch of Cherry Co., Chandler Easley interviewed by ModelsRule.com
What compels you most about the art of photography?
I don’t think the “art of photography” compels me. The process certainly interests me as almost all of my work is on film and i’m very interested in how I create my photographs composing, constructing, and capturing images, but as for the “art of photography” I’m not even sure what that’s suppose to mean.
But what interests me about photography? A number things, the idea that photographs are constructed documents of culture, society, the world, etc. is probably number one. Photographs become these time capsules, both in short and long term respects, of your own constructions of the world. Be that with fashion and your sense of style or model’s look and figure. Most of us aren’t styled by Riccardo Tisci’s or shooting the Abbey Lee’s of the world, but I think that in many cases makes it a stronger statement. Or images reflections of or on culture or humanity, etc. I don’t think photographs provide a great deal of truth but good photographs certainly have a depth and insight to them that I enjoy a great deal.
What photographer has most inspired you / do you remember the first photograph you fell in love with?
There’s not a single photographer that’s most inspired me. I know too many good photographers both simply knowing their work or actually knowing them. But photographers who were early influences; Jennifer Greenburg, Jeff Wall, Philip-Lorca Dicorcia, Thomas Demand, Brian Ulrich, Alec Soth, Tayrn Simon, Hank Willis Thomas, and Andreas Gursky just off hand were some of the biggest. Today that’s certainly broadened even more, in regard to fashion, again off hand; Juergen Teller, Yasamusa Yonehara and Guy Bourdin. I’m probably forgetting some people but all these people are for the most part infinitely more famous than me, so I doubt they’ll mind.
As for a single photograph, when I was in undergrad in Chicago and the MCA was showing Andreas Gursky’s “Chicago Board of Trade” I would go look at it after school probably 2-3 times a week. To be frank I don’t think I’m in love with the photograph itself, just the scale and place in the world. I suppose billboards might be larger in many cases, but it’s still monolithic and a world class print mounted, framed in hardwood, and behind plexiglass. The idea of it’s place in the world and value interests me. In a even 50 years most photographs on billboards will at best be historical documents in books on photography or advertising. That exact print will still be in the MCA’s holdings, that conceptually enamors me.
What is one word that describes you best?
Apt
Describe your work, style, and interests to our readers, in your own words and personal narrative?
My work of late is fashion driven. Although my background is contemporary art and I still make work I think functions only in that respect, new work is a work in progress that I don’t really openly discuss. As for the bulk of my fashion work; it’s a deskilled neutrally framed sort of contemporary approach to the fashion portrait. They’re very constructed photographs. That comes from my background in contemporary art, where a great deal of my photographs are “sketched” in my head compositionally and then simply replicated in the real world as best as the limitations of reality allows. It’s very much about co-opting the style of photographer like Richardson and Teller who are about capturing moments and then constructing moments, that while vastly different than theirs I believe have their own innate value.
Other bodies like the polaroid grids are about deconstructing the form and a real handle of perspective or manipulation of it.
Related interests include fashion as aesthetic, swiss modernism, and contemporary art. High fashion as “branded identity” interests me a great deal. The clothes themselves other than their part in constructing that are of little interest, I wear AA tees and zip-up hoodies almost everyday, even I could afford the brands I visually enjoy, I doubt I would buy or wear them. I’m a graphic designer as well as a photographer and swiss modernism is where it begins and evolves from there for me. And contemporary and modern art, both photograph and otherwise influence both my photography and design, without a number of famous artists I wouldn’t be at the same place I am today.
What is your favorite band?
I don’t know who my favorite musician is but at shoots I usually play Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs or Kanye. No one ever complains about either.
Favorite painter?
Ellsworth Kelly
Favorite Restaurant or Hot Spot?
I like brunch at the MCA. Shine Deli on 23rd st. And this random Chinese restaurant Golden Empire in West Harlem that oddly enough reminds me of a Chinese restaurant I went to often as a child.
Favorite thing to do on a Friday night?
Get work done. I don’t get many interruptions and can work in peace on Friday nights. Rick Ross has BMF, “blowing money fast”, my friend James Watts, coined the term OMF “old man fridays”. Even though I’m only 25, I have better things to do. As well you have to understand I’m a fashion photographer I meet infinitely more attractive women “at work” than I could at any bar/club I could regularly afford.
What are some web links to your work and also just anything of interest to you right now?
My website is about 4 months out of date, which at this point is a pretty decent step. But regardless www.ChandlerEasley.com and Cherry Collaborative is my art, design, and photography collaborative. www.CherryCo.Jp
via @CherryCollab
