Thursday, September 19th
On The Road - Journal Entry No. 2
My introductory conversation with Alexander Getty took place after our first night of camping at the Spiral Jetty. As you would assume, I was irritable and unsure; he on the other hand was incredibly positive and overtly friendly. He saw me struggling to figure out how to get a large, fluffy red sleeping bag into the small fabric container it came from and immediately offered a lending hand. Helping me roll up my sleeping bag, he briefly discussed himself and the work that he came on this trip to do. The conversation lasted about 10 minutes, but it was enough for me to deduce the core of his character. Alexander Getty is a passionate photographer and an incredibly caring individual. Those two traits combined enabled us to have our very own photography teacher, amazing photographs to document our journey, and a great friend. He often assists us in selecting the perfect aperture, angles to shoot, and in my case- kindly housed my impossible project film in an iced cooler and gave me advice on how to best preserve it.
His positive personality was so infectious that along the way many of us had to consider the dreaded thought, “What will we do without Alex Getty?”. He’s only leaving for four days and then rejoining the trip, but our seeming dependency on him guarantees that his presence will definitely be missed. We act as if he’s our father going away on a business trip. Although he’s around the same age as most of us, he carries himself like an intelligent and experienced adult. His wisdom and kindness allude to a history of different events that helped shape him into the commendable man he is today. Interviewing him on the road, I found that the allusion is his actual reality.
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Q + A W/ ALEXANDER GETTY
PHOTOGRAPHER - SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Sarah Mendelsohn: Alright, Alex, so how did you first develop an interest in photography?
Alexander Getty: I think it was through my mother. She was an avid photographer, and she would always build small dark rooms in every home that we had. We moved house a lot because she would flip them. As my parents climbed the housing ladder, we also climbed the dark room ladder and created more of them. I just always saw them around my home; when she judged that I was of age, she taught me how to develop and shoot. This was in the early 90’s.
SM: How old were you?
AG: I was probably nine.
SM: Oh, wow. So you started very young.
AG: Yeah, I always liked building stuff. I had workshops that I made in all these houses, so I was always good with creating things and building it all. I was one of those kids who played with little planes and things like that. Photography was very similar because you could really build something; you got to use tools and it was fun. If you do one thing, something happens. It made perfect sense to me. I think from a young age it was just always really fun for me.
SM: So you started with analog photography? Digital wasn’t a popular thing back then.
AG: No. It didn’t exist.
SM: You use digital now, obviously.
AG: I use both.
SM: But what is your preference?
AG: Analog. I would like to always use film for anything I’m showing. For work, I use digital because it’s faster, cheaper, and actually, honestly it’s better.
SM: Why is it better?
AG: It’s better because you can make mistakes and in work, I can’t deliver a mistake to a client. I can make mistakes on the job and still deliver a really good package whereas for personal stuff, I really don’t care.
SM: Well, since the 90s, everything has gone digital. Today, people are saying everyone’s a photographer with their cellphone. You’ve seen that change.
AG: Yeah, I have. I actually think that’s a byproduct of film. If you look at cellphones and all of the filters that we have now, all they’re doing is emulating film. At the end of the day, I think it’s just the renaissance of film which has lead to the cellphone camera. I don’t know what the statistic is of how many people actually filter their photos, but let’s just be honest - most people do. I’m not afraid that phones are going to put people like me out of business because it’s still completely different. It’s instant.
“I actually think that’s a byproduct of film. If you look at cellphones and all of the filters that we have now, all they’re doing is emulating film. At the end of the day, I think it’s just the renaissance of film which has lead to the cellphone camera. I don’t know what the statistic is of how many people actually filter their photos, but let’s just be honest - most people do. I’m not afraid that phones are going to put people like me out of business because it’s still completely different. It’s instant.”
It’s actually very hard to answer that question. I don’t think of photography like that. I usually shoot and then I develop and then I don’t even look at the photographs for a few months. I like doing that because I like looking at them fresh without that kind of impulse to see them immediately, whereas on a phone I can’t wait to post it on Instagram or Facebook. It’s so much fun. Those are completely different ends of the spectrum. So, I think there’s a place for each, which is really handy because hopefully it means that I’ll have work for a while.
SM: Yeah, I found it interesting- I was reading up on the history of magazines and publications. They were predominantly illustrations before photography was introduced in the 1930s. Now you rarely see illustration in magazines. I feel like in the same way, people are not using film as much anymore. Do you think that people will ever stop using film?
AG: Yeah, I do. A hundred percent, I really do. I think there’s enough accelerating technology out there to put film out of business in the next 10 years. You can emulate it and sensors in cameras are getting so good. If we had this conversation in five years time, I think it would be completely different. I know a handful of photographers who stockpile film, me included. I have a fridge dedicated to it. It’s kind of sad, but that’s the end of it. Once it’s all gone and the production ends, it’s not cost effective anymore.
SM: Yeah. Did you go to school for photography?
AG: I didn’t. I really got into it when I was in high school. I went to a high school with a strong art program and a dark room. You could concentrate in photography and that’s all I did for five years. I spent everyday in the dark room and I spent days and days shooting. I actually received my first digital camera as a gift. My dad went on a business trip and a bank gave it to him. It was one of the first ever-digital cameras. It was amazing, but it was so primitive that you couldn’t use it for anything. I still had to shoot film and I’m so glad that they were so primitive because without that, background I wouldn’t have the understanding that I do today.
I did a lot then and then I went to college in Birmingham for a year and dropped out. I was doing Italian studies, which was like a last ditch effort to get into college. It was the last class they had open and I was like whatever, I’ll take it. I did that and I didn’t take it seriously. I probably should have just taken time off in between high school and college. Then I decided to move to the States. My dad said, ‘You know what? If you’re going to move to the States, you go there on one condition and that is that you get a job.’ I said, ‘No problem, how about I do an internship for you?’ He agreed and I worked for his company, which is a stock imaging company. I worked for three months and then got friendly with my boss.
I’m so happy I had him as a mentor in my life; I actually credit him with a lot. He ended up hiring me and he said it wasn’t because I was the CEO’s son, which I don’t care if it was or wasn’t. It was great. I worked there for three years and I learned a lot. I assisted a lot of shoots and I learned the commercial business of photography. It was absolutely brilliant. At the same time, I went to college. I applied to SVA (School of Visual Arts). I threw together a quick photography portfolio and I got into the school on a fast track thanks to my boss. Good mentors are really good people; they really believe in you. After two and a half years, I dropped out of there, too, but I did a lot of photography. I was an advertising major, but I focused mainly on photography.
SM: You said he was a good mentor. What did he teach you that was so valuable to you?
AG: He taught me life lessons. He taught me that if you want something, you need to take it. I was a very shy kid. For example, if there was one spot to be taken in a college and there was a kid who came from a poor neighborhood, I would just let him take it. He taught me that, that’s nice and all, but the fact of the matter is there are lots of spots and everybody deserves that chance. You should use the means that you have at your disposal to further your career and I think that he was right. I just think that’s the way life is. I think you need to do as much as you can and make the most of all of your connections. Sometimes it doesn’t work and sometimes it does. I didn’t know that when I was 19. I was very humble.
“You should use the means that you have at your disposal to further your career and I think that he was right. I just think that’s the way life is. I think you need to do as much as you can and make the most of all of your connections. Sometimes it doesn’t work and sometimes it does.”
SM: Are you still in touch with that mentor?
AG: Yes.
SM: Cool. So why did you decide to drop out of school?
AG: I got out of a very messy relationship and I was very depressed. That was one reason. During that long deconstruction of the relationship, my grades just went through the floor. I went from a 4.0 to a 2.0 and just struggled so much. I also made the mistake of valuing my job at Getty Images more than I did school. I shouldn’t have worked because I would go to school at 8 in the morning, go crosstown to 21st and Lex, and go to school. School was over at 4:30-5, at which point I would go straight to work. I started to work at 6 and ended at midnight and then we’d go out. So that was the mistake I made, but I was 19.
“During that long deconstruction of the relationship, my grades just went through the floor. I went from a 4.0 to a 2.0 and just struggled so much. I also made the mistake of valuing my job at Getty Images more than I did school.”
SM: True, that is very young. Did you feel that you learned more in the classroom or at Getty?
AG: I think the classroom taught me a lot about skills, but I think work taught me a lot about life. I had a lot of disagreements with my teachers. I’m a very linear thinker; I think very formulaically. That’s just the way I’ve always been for a few reasons. I have diabetes, and I’m very rigid about how I do things because I just have to be. I think that affects my thinking, and my teachers always wanted me to let go and express myself, but that just wasn’t me. I struggled with that, but in the workplace that was fine because formulaic thinking was actually a positive thing.
SM: So you dropped out of school and then what did you do after that?
AG: I dropped out of school and without telling anybody, I immediately packed up my apartment and moved to Los Angeles. My cousin harbored me for about five months, which was very nice of him. I didn’t have any family in New York or and I didn’t know many people there. I mean, I knew some people, but I’m very family centric. LA had a lot of family, and I needed that at that time, so I moved to start over again. My years in LA were a discovery period marked by multiple jobs in various industries.
“I didn’t have any family in New York or and I didn’t know many people there. I mean, I knew some people, but I’m very family centric. LA had a lot of family, and I needed that at that time, so I moved to start over again. My years in LA were a discovery period marked by multiple jobs in various industries.”
SM: You had a long-term job there, right? You told me about it before.
AG: It wasn’t very long term. I worked for an audio visual installer because I’m kind of a dork and I love building things. I would install home cinemas and build them. Then I started doing that on my own. I started a company with a friend of mine that went bust after a year and a half in tech support. We just didn’t work well together; he’s just a difficult person to work with, as am I.
SM: Why do you think you’re difficult to work with?
AG: Because I’m really stubborn. So I always work alone. I got a job through a connection working for a company up in Berkeley, California. I was the business development person for them, which really meant wearing a dozen different hats. They hired me because I lived in Hollywood and they wanted me to recruit talent for their company. That was just not me; I steer away from talent. I worked for them for a very miserable year. After that, I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve had so many bad jobs and I really want to do something I like. I really don’t care what people think anymore.’ So I went back to what always makes me happy, which is photography.
“After that, I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve had so many bad jobs and I really want to do something I like. I really don’t care what people think anymore.’ So I went back to what always makes me happy, which is photography.”
SM: So you went out on your own then?
AG: Yes, that was 2011.
SM: Was that a struggle to do?
AG: Yeah, it was. I had been with my girlfriend at the time for three and a half years. She was in grad school and I was jobless, so I felt terrible. I was determined to somehow make it. I was wondering which route I should take and I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll just do art photography and I’ll figure it out.’ I embarked on that and realized you really can’t just do that; you need to meet people and the way to do that is to meet them through working jobs. Very slowly, I found people who were willing to pay me nothing to do something. I did that for a long time. Everything started to pick up when I moved to San Francisco because San Francisco is a much more accepting city of young, new talents. It’s a small city with a small population of very educated people. It’s an amazing place, it really is, whereas LA was a big city of a huge population of very uneducated people who are swayed by Hollywood and entertainment. I find that really disgusting, so I never wanted to be a part of it.
“I was determined to somehow make it. I was wondering which route I should take and I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll just do art photography and I’ll figure it out.’ I embarked on that and realized you really can’t just do that; you need to meet people and the way to do that is to meet them through working jobs."
Very slowly, I found people who were willing to pay me nothing to do something. I did that for a long time. Everything started to pick up when I moved to San Francisco because San Francisco is a much more accepting city of young, new talents. It’s a small city with a small population of very educated people. It’s an amazing place.”
SM: So out of all the cities you’ve lived in, you really prefer San Francisco out of them all?
AG: Yes. It’s a great place.
SM: It wasn't until the other day that I realized your direct relation to Getty Images. Have you ever wanted to use that familial connection for work?
AG: No. I always wanted to do it on my own. It’s wrong to think that because I should use every opportunity I have.
SM: But you don’t want people to think that you’re just making it because of your family.
AG: Yeah. Hence, I don’t syndicate for them. I don’t do anything for them. I have my own company. It’s very humble and it’s very small, but I make do. I like it and it’s great. I could pretty much do whatever I want. I can make time to do a show if I want. I couldn’t participate on this trip if I was working for somebody else.
“Yeah. Hence, I don’t syndicate for them. I don’t do anything for them. I have my own company. It’s very humble and it’s very small, but I make do. I like it and it’s great. I could pretty much do whatever I want. I can make time to do a show if I want. I couldn’t participate on this trip if I was working for somebody else.”
SM: If anyone else wanted to be a photographer now, what advice would you give them?
AG: I would say shoot a lot. I notice that when I don’t shoot, nothing happens, so just keep shooting. Get involved with groups. I get involved with a lot of groups; I’m a part of the Adobe group in San Francisco and I spend a lot of time at their headquarters here. I help influence the way in which their software works. Their software is the life force of the business, it really is. Social networking has been helpful, in some respects. You have to dedicate a huge amount of time to it, but it’s been useful.
SM: You have a lot of fans on Facebook.
AG: Yeah, I do. I don’t know why. I think more than anything there have been some really great people in this field that I’ve met over the years. Some people have really big egos and that’s just the way they work. I’m sure if they were any other kind of professional, they would have the same kind of ego. Some people don’t. Take Adam; he has no ego, he’s a very good photographer who wants to share his fun and his passion. People like that really help the business. Through collaboration, you can do incredible things and anybody getting into this business should be open to it. Don’t hog anything. Enjoy yourself. Don’t take it too seriously. Taking photographs is not hard. The people are harder.
SM: Great advice. Last question. You’re leaving the trip tomorrow, right? What have you gained from this experience or enjoyed most?
AG: The people. I have met some of the most incredible people, so many like minded individuals, and I’ve had a hell of a fun time. I’ve seen some fantastic art. What’s not to like? It’s amazing.
SM: Is there any particular art work that we saw that inspired you in anyway?
AG: The Valley of Fire blew me away. It just makes sense to me. It’s geometric and I love that.
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Originally published on Promote & Preserve.