AUSTRALIA - THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF KIM GUTHRIE

Kim Guthrie is an artist from Queensland who takes curious photos of the ordinary people he meets and the banal places he finds himself in. They're the kind of photos that are going to be really fascinating to look back on in 20 years because they are a real snapshot of suburban Australian existence. He sent us his new book, called EXTRAordinary, and it made us want to ask him a few more questions about the ins and outs of him and his work.

Vice: Kim, excuse us for saying, but you don't look to be as young as most of the people who usually send us photos. Have you always taken pictures or is it a newly acquired interest?
Kim: Age is all in your head. I'm an explorer and I've always kept my sense of wonder about the world. I first started taking photographs when I did a course in 1976, at what was then called, Frankston Technical College. I've always had an interest in photography and fell instantly in love with the work of Diane Arbus when I attended a show of her work at the NGV, way back around then.

And you released a book of your photos at one stage?
Yes the book was called The Beautiful People + Love The World and I released it in 2005. It was buying my first digital SLR that really accelerated my awareness of, and interest in my own photography. Up until that point I always took lots of photographs, but purely to document boring stuff like the history of the property I share with my partner (the painter Lisa Adams) or simply of my travels.

You also went to VCA (Victorian College of the Arts) right?
Yeah, I majored in painting. To paraphrase Barry Humphries, "I was self-educated, attended the VCA". I used to refer to the place as a sheltered workshop. It was full of misfits — and I'm talking about both the staff and the students. At the time I was also serving my apprenticeship in what would later become full scale heroin addiction. So, I guess in a way I was developing my "style" (the one that retarded my development as an artist for quite some years). I got off that shit some 20 odd years ago, thankfully. I guess over the years I've experimented a lot, first with painting then sculpture but I'm a slow learner and it took a long time for the penny to drop that photography, the very thing I'd always been doing was the most interesting to me. Because it's real it's part of me, it's who I am. It's not about schools of thought or concepts it's just honest pictures of stuff.

That's definitely how your pictures come across. What camera do you like to shoot on?
At the moment I'm using a Canon 5D digital SLR with a Canon EF 28 - 135 mm 1:3.5 -5.6 IS lens.

A lot of your photos appear to be candid shots of the random people you come across in the street. Do you generally find them willing subjects?
That's definitely part of the process of my work; persuasion. I find people who appeal to me personally, for all sorts of reasons, and approach them. Sometimes I miss shots because I don't feel brave enough to ask someone if I can take their photo. It is extremely rare that I will take a shot without consent but I'm too spontaneous and anti-establishment to be bothered with carrying a stack of model release forms with me, so I get around this by making sure my subjects are totally engaged, staring down the barrel of the lens so there's absolutely no chance they weren't compliant. You have released a new book called EXTRAordinary.
Yes, it's a selection of images of ordinary people and places – a celebration of ordinariness really. Anti-paparazzi, anti-celebrity, it's about the notion that everyone is as valuable as the next guy and deserves recognition. I purposely try to choose subjects that would be ignored by others, although some may look like attention seekers they're not famous or anyone special, just ordinary folk. Some people mistakenly think I'm poking fun at the obese or down at heel but this couldn't be further from the truth. I just think these people are often ignored and I empathise with them. There is some irony in the images but rather than being mean, it's just an observation of the world filtered through my point of view. Every image I take is another installment, in one big continuing self-portrait.

I feel like the kind of photos you're taking will gain interest with time. I think people will be shocked to look back on some of your shots.
I'm glad you said that because that's what I hope for my work. Kevin Wilson (in his foreword to my first book) flatteringly referred to it as being similar to the work of the great German photographer August Sander (most famous for his series of images 'People of the Twentieth Century').

And what does the future hold for you? Any places or people you're particularly keen to shoot?
I'm an artist, so I'll continue doing my work and hopefully getting better at it? There are many people and places I want to photograph, I just haven't met them yet. And that's really exciting! To find out how you can get a personally signed copy of EXTRAordinary direct from the artist, go to iphotographstuff@skymesh.net.au
http://iphotographstuff.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kimguthrie