Interview with Gooseberries photographer Sterling Andrews

On April 4th Los Angeles-based photographer Sterling Andrews releases her photo collection Gooseberries, and this Thursday April 2nd is the launch party at The Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock.

Gooseberries is a sort of mass-produced portfolio that features photographs of some of Los Angeles' finest indie rock. The pictures are beautiful.

Photographing musical artists outside of a performance context is not unlike taking audio recordings of paintings. Adapting the message of a musician to a purely visual medium while maintaining the integrity of the artist-subject is no small task, and with these photos Andrews has done it marvelously. By inserting the bands in semi-real fantasy worlds with subtle and twisted cues to the fully-real world we inhabit, she takes the observer on the same kind of emotional journey that one takes on when they listen to song; you can really explore these images.

I had the pleasure of attending parts of the Le Switch and Death to Anders photoshoots for Gooseberries and am happy to present to you a brief interview with Sterling Andrews herself.


What's a Gooseberry?




I sat-in on a couple photoshoots... you're so congenial in conversation but then use such a firm, dictorial tone once the shoot begins. What's behind your method of barking orders? How does it help you shape the photo?

Method? I don't know that it's a method, really. I just knew what I wanted to see, and I tend to work really fast, so maybe that came off as 'barking orders.' But I try to keep it fun; we work for twenty minutes or so, have a drink, work for another twenty minutes... by the time the shoot ends, everyone's tipsy and warm and silly and they just go with it.

How did you find all these great props? How did you match the props to the bands?

People give me strange things all the time ("I have this dress from 1927 that I found in my grandmother's closet - do you want it?") and I borrow things from friends and family members who collect weird objects. My friend Michael has this amazing house in Calabasas that's brimming with antiques and bizarre finds from around the world. He's helped me out quite a bit.


All of these photos have a very cohesive, fantasy-like theme with them. What inspired that and what were the challenges in achieving it?

I'd been looking at a lot of poster art from the turn of the century - works from artists like Orazi and Mucha - and I've always been fascinated by the robust, inert portraiture that was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Of course, posing people in positions that are so stiff and static can be a bit uncomfortable, so I make sure there's good music playing, and we take breaks and have drinks every so often.


Lastly, what do you hope people take away from the book?

I feel as if the importance of the tactile experience is waning in the digital age; remember what it was like to buy a record and tear it open to reveal photos or fold-outs or fun surprises included in the packaging? This project is sort of an ode to that. I didn't want to make just another coffee table book; Gooseberries is a collection of loose prints in a gatefold LP sleeve, and the included DVD is mounted on a hand-painted vinyl 12". Open it up, pull it apart, have fun with it; that's what it's for!

Gooseberries Launch Party

Thursday, April 2nd
Afternoons (11:15)
Golden Gram (10:15)
Le Switch (9:15)
One Trick Pony (8:15)

The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
2225 Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041
Doors at 7:30
21+
NO COVER
RSVP: info@eeniemeenie.com