Brittonie Fletcher

by Ariel Radock

Fill In The Blank Gallery: You utilize many different types of methods of photography varying from albumen prints, large format, anaglyph, and most recently daguerreotypes. Which technique do you prefer to work with and why?

Brittonie Fletcher: In general I am a process based person. The way I prefer to work is whatever I am currently learning. I love the struggle of trying to figure something out. If something seems hard I want to do it. In that same sense, when I see lots of photographers tending to a certain style my immediate reaction is to do the opposite. With all that in mind, I try to keep the medium appropriate for which ever project I'm working on.

FIB: Where do you develop your photographs?

BF: You mean the chemistry? I used to do it at school, now it has become a bathroom operation.

As for concepts—that is an entirely different question. I am constantly working, typically on a few different projects simultaneously. I become fixated on some thing, this generally leads to months or years mulling and obsessing until I've completed some work about it. I do spend a lot of time looking back in history for inspiration.There are many periods that feature amazing feats in both the arts and sciences. My favorites are the Islamic Golden Age, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment. Seeing what people were able to discover and put to practice never fails to stimulate me. During each of these periods advances were made involving chemistry and optics, which I can't help being a nerd about.

FIB: Do you ever feel like a mad scientist while working with and developing these various processes?

BF: Oh yes. The first time I got my hands on some silver nitrate was for the purpose of making albumen prints. I had never done any printing aside from standard silver gelatin at that time. I wore goggles and gloves but still managed to get the stuff everywhere. I am expressive, even in production. I came out of the darkroom and the monitor asked me if I had been eating the stuff! Apparently I had little spots on my face. In the photo department at MassArt some students used to refer to the alternative processes area as "Brittonie's Lair". I have always had some pride about that. It is exciting to use dangerous chemicals. Right now I am making bathtub daguerreotypes. Of course, I'm using the becquerrel process right now. My roommates would have a collective fit if I was cooking mercury. When I was a kid, I had a chemistry set and was always frustrated that I couldn't make explosions or anything reactive. I suppose I am making up for it now. All I need is a lab coat.

FIB: Do you feel that there is a strong correlation between art and science?

BF: Absolutely!!! Right now I'm reading "Proust Was a NeuroScientist." The book lines up various artists and systematically parallels their work with scientific discoveries made years later. I find the comparisons in the book both stimulating and comforting.There is a long history marrying art and science- DaVinci is a perfect example. What he was doing was trying to learn, about the world and in the process he created art. It works both ways. Over the past year or so I have been especially inspired by Boston photographers who melded science and art; Doc Edgerton, Bernice Abbot, and Harriet Casdin-Silver. This phenomenon of scientific art is witnessed across many mediums transgressing literal to fantastical applications. Scientists and artists seem to be after the same questions and answers; just as science is made of theories, a work of art is never really finished. We can always further our research and improve upon our work.

FIB: When exhibiting your work how important is the final installation and the viewer’s experience to you?

BF: I will spend hours upon days upon weeks mulling over tiny details of things people might not ever notice. I am sometimes disappointed at the lack of effort I see at shows. Really good work can be diminutized by too much framing or too little care/thought. Thumb tacks through work is a gigantic pet peeve of mine. It sends me the message that the artist doesn't care about their work.

FIB: Do you have a specific agenda in mind while taking a picture?

BF: It depends. I work in a variety of ways- photographing is a constant part of my life and variety is the spice of life. A lot of it depends on my mood. I tend to over analyze and really enjoy the tangential thought patterns while exploring a concept. Sometimes my work is just documentation, I have always enjoyed the diaristic qualities of photography. I suppose my main concern is simply trying to make something I like to look at.

FIB: Where do you store your photographs and negatives?

BF: I have many negative storage cases. I have experienced the absolute trauma of losing some film and files. I have been researching fire safes. At the moment I am trying to avoid making prints if I don't have a use for them. I am moving for graduate school in September and don't want to risk ruining or losing them in the move.

FIB: Your work has brought you to many different countries. What equipment do you take with you when you travel? What advice do you have for others as to what supplies to bring?

BF: I'm Traveling to the Middle East for the month of March: one bag- camera equipment goes first, then whatever else I can fit. I always bring my 4x5 and a minimum of 100 sheets. I have had to ration my film.I like to have a backup camera (I cringe as I write this) having a decent digital camera is really a great way to travel. You don't have to worry about film being ruined by the x-ray, pay for processing, you can retake and delete. Especially if you want to obsessively document everything.

When photographing strangers: people see western tourists and assume that you have a lot of money. Carry around lose change if you want to shoot people in the street, they will want to be compensated.

Take safety measures. The last trip two men came up behind me late at night and ripped my digital camera bag off of me. I bet they were upset when all they got was some postcards and a plastic camera.

FIB: Have you ever experienced any negative reactions while taking someone’s picture without their permission?

BF: Probably? I don't do it often, not on the street too much and when I do I like to be sly about it. I love the yashika t3 for that purpose, it has a super scope which enables nonchalant photographing. I digress.. negative reactions? Yes, from friends... shouting "why do you always have to take pictures?!?!" or "No, No, NO!!!!" and squealing and running away.

FIB: How do you proceed to locate and obtain grants, scholarships, and gallery shows?

BF: This is the work part of work. Long hours of searching the web, filtering through the many lists I am on for calls, hoping I have the cash for the fee and so on. I love to write, but not academically. Grant writing is very stressful, too often I am scrambling to make the deadline. I am very lucky. I am surrounded by a great community of friends and artists. I really value that. We forward calls and grant postings to each other frequently.

FIB: In this day and age where anything can be uploaded online in an instance and anonymous individuals may appropriate your work for other uses, how do you ensure the protection of your work i.e. copywriting?

BF: This is a sticky issue. Appropriated art is really popular right now. There is no way to really 100% protect your work. One can officially have work sent to copy write but I believe that is an expensive and time consuming process. Flickr is pretty good about making it very hard for someone to obtain images if that is the artist's intent. Another method is to utilize flash although I find flash websites more of an annoyance. With screen capture though, I'm not really sure what one can do aside from abstinence from uploading.

FIB: What qualities do you look for in a photograph?

BF: I work a little too intuitively to answer this properly. Good photographs produce a physical reaction. I like strong composition and texture, yes definitely texture.

FIB: What special characteristics do you believe your work possesses?

BF: I'm not sure I know how to answer this question. Honesty.

FIB: Kant’s theory of the relationship between phenomenons and noumenons can be applied to photography as well as many other occasions. Noumenons represent what is in our imagination (a reflection of phenomenons) while phenomenons are something that can be experienced by the senses. The moment that a picture is taken is ephemeral and yet there is proof that the moment occurred through the documentation of photographs. How can a photographer capture a moment and retain its true essence? Do you believe it is possible?

BF: Short answer, no.

The question of truth and photography has been battled since infancy. I love the philosophical argument. It's a question of sematics and semiotics. What is truth? How about sign, symbol and index? A moment is so much more than a visual—for instance Magritte's "Treachery of Images" even he stated, the image "does not satisfy emmotionally." I've been thinking about this subject a lot. A photograph of my cat, no matter how amazing, cannot express or capture the complete. No one can know the sound of her purring, the tactile of fur, or the way she smells. It would be a photo of a cat, but it would not be my cat. We can make attempts to convey specific aspects of moments beyond that of the image. I'd like to think we have the ability to derive meaning and feeling though it will always be twisted. There is the initial experiece which happend in a time and space, with a speciffic set of surroundings. The phograph has removed part of the moment. We have cropped it, and pointed at some fraction but now we have only that to react to. What are we missing on the outside of the frame? That moment is elsewhere. Our personal truths are only as real as we put faith into them—think of them as false idols.

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