The Lounge Week Three: Robyn Cumming

I’ve been watching Robyn Cumming for quite awhile- back to her undergraduate days at Ryerson (she has since completed her MFA at York). But it was last May when I saw a show of hers and thought, if only I had a forum to tell my AD’s about great photography that’s showing around the city. That was the point of conception for this Blog and it was an important show for Robyn too.

Little Legs shows a huge leap forward for Robyn. Although it’s heavily choreographed, these photographs are much more subtle and impactful than her earlier work. I found it really exciting to watch this necessary progression happen in real time; as I followed along, the potential became realized.

So, needless to say, when Photo-Editor-about-town Liz Ikiriko suggested Robyn as a Lounge candidate, I was all for it. I encouraged Liz to ask Robyn some questions about her craft.

How did you come up with the ideas behind the Little Legs series? Did you pull together memories/moments that you wanted to try and illuminate or are they all fictitiously created?

Little Legs was actually the first time that I did not have the whole series planned beforehand. Up until that point I had known exactly what the work was about and the kinds of images I planned to make before I began shooting the first one. With Little Legs I just began constructing images more intuitively based on really broad ideas rooted in sensation and intensity and crisis and loss. At the time I had just lost my father and I became intrigued by the feelings and sensations one experiences when navigating through despair.

At the same time I was relating this to the aura of particular objects and places. Things that I was attracted/repelled by for reasons I could not necessarily articulate. Things that, when encountered, could conjure these moments of intensity that were perhaps rooted in nostalgia or memory.

So the images are influenced by the past and the strange impossibilities we seem to encounter… moments that seem unreal; but they are all fictitious in that they are not moments that physically existed. Ultimately I would describe them as recreations of my own encounters with moments of intensity. They are my attempt to universalize those moments…and make them accesible.

What is your process for creating a body of work? Did you have all the images planned out prior to shooting or do you work more organically?

In this case I was planning one image at a time without any real idea of how the final series was going to come together. This actually unsettled me a bit. I had not shot this way before and I felt like I was giving up some form of control. In the end this made my work better…leaving some moments to chance.

I prepare most of my images first by finding locations, purchasing props and costumes, seeking out models and often making sketches of how I envision the composition. I may perform test shoots beforehand to try different types of lighting. I don’t believe I have ever walked into an existing situation and thought “oh, this is something!” and pulled out my camera to shoot it. Everything I shoot is constructed. This is not to say that my images are not rooted in truth…I believe my most basic intention is to describe reality in some form or another.

Do you find a consistency of theme/subject throughout your work? What ideas do you tend to gravitate towards?

Oh yes, there is definitely a pull towards certain themes…a certain psychology. Though it depends on the viewer. I am drawn to the performative aspect of people in general and how we connect or fail to connect with other people as well as ourselves….our thoughts…what we feel. That general lack of awareness is of interest to me. And so my images become these strange pauses, like a deep breath. Perhaps an in-between moment when we are all completely ourselves and that is odd and frightening and melancholy and funny. I like the disparity of those things together.

Also wondering what’s next for you. Any shows for Little Legs? Any other projects in the works? I think you were just profiled on Magenta TV- has Magenta and that piece in particular had any impact on your work?

I am currently working on a series that will show during Contact in May at Xexe Gallery. It is an extension of the series “Oh, Mother” that is currently showing at the Harbourfront Centre. Little Legs is currently on exhibition with work by the Sanchez brothers and Janieta Eyre at the Macdonald Stewart Art Gallery in Guelph.

There are a few cool thingies in the works right now. Sex TV will be featuring me as one of the photographers in a new series they are shooting (nothing sexy on my part) which tapes at the end of March.

Also, Bravo is shooting a documentary on me and my career as a photographer which will air as part of a 6 part series in the Fall. They will be following me around for the next couple of months shooting footage of the creation of my new work, my editorial work, my teaching and my opening in May. This is something exciting.

The Magenta TV bit just went up recently and I have had good feedback but am still very much getting used to seeing and hearing myself on camera. I am too self aware for this sort of thing…it is all very strange to me. But I enjoy it…that strangeness.

As I said, I think Robyn has come in to her own with this series. There was always something interesting about Robyn’s student work but I think she has learned to trust herself enough in the moment to let some things happen spontaneously and not crowd the frame with overpowering props and light. The result is a lovely mix of strange set-ups with real emotion and beauty.

Tomorrow we’re going to continue talking with Robyn about her Editorial work and, in what seems to be an ongoing theme, guage her interest in Commerical assignments.