Transcription Vintage Ty – Film Photography Vs. Digital + Shooting from the Hip

Video and Audio

Transcription

Anne Kelly  (00:00:12):

This is Art in the Raw I’m Anne Kelly. Your host, our guest today is Vintage TY. Ty is a, he’s a vintage dealer. Um, Art In The Raw. We don’t always have a co-host. We have kind of rotating co-hosts and we have one of those today. That would be Michael Kirchofff. If you’ve seen episode one or three, then you’ve met Michael, you haven’t seen episodes one and three. Michael is a fine art photographer. He is a commercial photographer and he is also involved in multiple magazines that involve photography and interviews. Thank you for joining us, Ty, thank you for joining us, Michael, where are you today? Ty?

Vintage Ty(00:00:55):

I’m in Seattle. I’m happy to be here. Um, we were talking before about how I don’t really get a lot of conversations with people with, uh, as heavy photography backgrounds as you guys have. So, uh, I’m excited to get into it.

Anne Kelly  (00:01:08):

And Michael, where are you?

Michael Kirchofff (00:01:10):

I am in smokey Los Angeles, California.

Anne Kelly  (00:01:15):

Is it getting any better?

Michael Kirchofff (00:01:16):

It is today. Got a lot better. So some of the local fires are getting contained, so

Anne Kelly  (00:01:22):

That’s good. I’ve never actually met Ty in person. I found him on YouTube. I thought I would reach out, see if he wanted to be part of this conversation. It’s kind of natural to want to put any type of photography into a genre and street photography is, is kind of the genre that comes to my mind. Do you see it that way, Ty?

Vintage Ty(00:01:45):

Um, yeah, I’ve been, I’ve been doing, I guess the, the two main types of photography that I’m, uh, interested in are street photography. Um, I guess urban photography, basically just going on really long walks and finding any interesting frames that I can, I, that may or may not involve people or dogs or

Anne Kelly  (00:02:06):

You were doing that before the current weird times that were in.

Vintage Ty(00:02:11):

Yeah, I got I’ve, I’ve kind of dabbled in photo stuff for many years, but I, I got really into it in the last, uh, few years. I’m just kind of an antsy person. So like I’ll work from home a lot. And, and I like to just go out, even before I got into photo stuff, I like to just go out and like put on a podcast and go on a long walk, through different parts of the city, get outside and like see people in places and get fresh air. So the, the photo stuff kind of just goes hand in hand with that. And it, it gives me just a little, it just gives me a little more drive and like, you never know what you’re gonna find. It’s kind of like, it’s kind of similar to thrifting that I do a lot too. Mm-hmm for, um, selling vintage stuff is there’s, there’s kind of a hunt involved so

Anne Kelly  (00:03:00):

I can see that yeah. Street photography. It goes back about, as far as photography goes back, I mean, street photography didn’t really become a major thing until the 1920s. When the 35 millimeter camera became well was invented. I believe so many, a little more accessible. It was a little harder to people did it, but it was a little harder to go out in the street with large format cameras. And, and maybe you’ve got something to add to that, Michael, but in your work, I, I feel like there’s kind of a particular focus in different things and maybe people you’re looking for, you see guys with big beer, you’re definitely on the hunt for tattoos to a certain extent is mm-hmm. Is that, are you just looking for anything that’s interesting to you or how does that

Vintage Ty(00:03:47):

Work? I guess there’s, there’s a lot of argument that I’ve read about, but I guess there’s a lot of different types of street photography. I guess what I gravitate mostly towards is it the people of America that I see out in like rural areas and suburbs that don’t very often get their photo taken mm-hmm and the, the ones that kind of remind me of like the guys who hung around the Elks lodge with my grandpa when I was a kid. So like, you know, biked dudes and just weathered, or I guess some of it sort of transition transitions in a way into like fashion photography, try to find people that sort of represent this like weird world of like urban sprawl and suburban living. And, I’ve been, I’ve been sort of trying a bunch of different things out in the last like few months. I, I mean, I like anything that tells a story. Mm-hmm

Anne Kelly  (00:04:48):

I’m glad you, you brought up fashion photography, cuz that’s actually something I was thinking about, um, in preparation for this being that you sell vintage, from what I can tell every thing from furniture to clothing, there’s a lot of photographs that you’ve made specifically to advertise your, your products. Some of those are, are really pretty interesting. And I was kind of wondering if fashion photography was something you were interested in considered was a goal.

Vintage Ty(00:05:19):

So if you, if you were to go on my Instagram, that was probably like 2016 or 17. I’ve been, I’ve been selling vintage stuff for a living since like 2011. And I bought a, like an entry level cannon rebel, SL two to take pictures of products to put ’em on Instagram, to like show the stuff I was buying or whatever. And I kind of immediately was like, right, we’re gonna make these like into some cool photo shoots. And so I got, I got kind of into just putting together like the stuff I had in the collection or just like cool stuff that went together or really into like I bought these studio lights and like got a backdrop and I would’ve people come over and put the stuff on it. I got really into it to the point where like I wasn’t even selling the stuff online per se.

Vintage Ty(00:06:02):

I was just excited about taking cool pictures with like these models and the stuff. But I haven’t really done that in a couple years. That was right before I started getting into the street photography stuff that I got a lot more interested in and I kind of had to stop doing it because as, at that point I had a lot of people that followed me for vintage stuff. Mm-hmm and I didn’t really wanna deal with going to the post office all the time cuz I sell stuff in stores here in Seattle. So whenever I would do that, I would get like a bunch of people that would DM and ask about like if the stuff was for sale, but uh, will

Anne Kelly  (00:06:34):

Will you ship us that table? And

Vintage Ty(00:06:36):

Yeah. And it was just like, that’s kind of like a whole nother job to like go to the post office all the time and yeah, go back and forth with people. But yeah, we set up a room in our house actually to do photo shoots and I’ve done a couple, um, with my girlfriend, but I want to do more think that’s kind of like what I would gravitate towards anyway. He just adds like some extra character and originally, and you know, I like sway jackets with fringe on ’em and that kinda thing <laugh>

Anne Kelly  (00:07:04):

Yeah. From what I’ve picked up, you, you, you you’ve definitely got a very cool style.

Michael Kirchofff (00:07:08):

I think I was just, I just wanted to, to add that, uh, I had been looking through your Instagram feed and seeing all of the different photographs that you’ve taken over time. It’s interesting to see that how you’ve already in a short amount of time, you’ve already kind of made a transition from straighting the items that you had for sale and you were basically kind of doing fashion and portraits and then you kind of then moved into doing pre photography. You also kind of transitioned into what, I guess, at least in the commercial of things we would refer to as lifestyle photography, uh, because you know what you’re selling as a, as somebody who sells vintage, especially vintage clothing, um, and like, and any of the other items that go with it, like you said, the cameras and things like that furniture, I mean that’s an entire lifestyle of its own. Um, you know, there are people that gravitate solely to that kind of look and feel in terms of their personal and home life. And as you’ve documented that you kind of, you maybe, maybe it was inadvertent and maybe it was intentional, but, um, it, it seemed like a really strong entry into doing some, something like lifestyle photography that kind of broadens the spectrum from street photography and portrait photography.

Vintage Ty(00:08:27):

I I’m having like light bulbs go off now cuz I’m, I, I, it’s hard to put into words cuz I, I am, I’m like attracted to all of this like imagery and, and, and symbolism and like all this stuff kind of surrounding of the antiques and vintage stuff and fashion and like stuff that I’m into. And I like, I love incorporating that into photos, like finding, you know, like someone walking by a, an old painting of like a weird looking bald Eagle with an American flag or people wearing something specific, but I’ve never, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term lifestyle photography, but I’ll be using that from now on. I like that a lot. I do. I don’t know. I guess it’s just like certain things, certain people are attracted to certain, um, things visually and that it kind of goes across the board, um, with that kinda

Michael Kirchofff (00:09:12):

Stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Well we’re always is like the music industry in, in, in terms of visual artists, we’re always kinda putting labels on things it’s, which is funny because in the commercial industry, having, having a style and a specialty is kind of job one in terms of branding yourself and a lot of people do very well with lifestyle photography. I mean, if you look at any of the ads that you see in magazine things, things like, things like that, where it’s a Coca-Cola ad or, or even something for computer software, they don’t just show the item. They’re showing the people using the item and they’re having a good time using it, look how exciting it is. And you know, it’s all about express and movement and style. I, I, that was the first thing I thought of when I looked at your street photography. I kind of there’s, there’s some, there’s a lot of that in there, but the first thing I thought of is it just seemed a lot more like you are, you’re showing the lifestyle that you are engaged in on a daily basis through which

Vintage Ty(00:10:14):

You did that. I think this is like a good example of why I was really hyped to talk to you guys because it’s easier for me to see the pictures and to take them and to know why it feels, why I feel the need to do it than it is to put it into words. So I that’s why I I’m glad that I’m talking to people with some like actual photo background that can kind of like verbalize it better than I can, but for sure. Yeah.

Anne Kelly  (00:10:37):

I was rewatching a video we did with one of our artists this morning, years ago, this photographer, Keith Carter. Who’s amazing. He was talking about if you, if you feel compelled to make the photograph, just make the photograph and, and don’t worry about why he said you’ve got the rest of your life to figure out why you’ve made it. And I mean, that’s, that’s almost very simple, full sounding advice, but there’s just something really beautiful to that. I

Vintage Ty(00:11:02):

Think I agree, kind of got into this, the street photography stuff sort of on accident where I, so I spend a lot of times I’ll spend like three or four days a week and I’ll drive around all day just going to like thrift stores and antique stores in the estate sales. And I always see these just wild looking people. Um, and so I started taking pictures, just using my phone and I just, like, I accidentally took a couple where the lighting was really good and like the framing was good and there was, I was more just like, I need to capture this person. And then as I went, I started to sort of learn like, oh, okay, well, if they’re next to a window, that’s gonna look a lot better. Or if they have, you know, complimentary colors, that’s gonna look a lot better. And then I was like, well, I want to, I want to get a nicer camera to do this. And then I started like reading about street photography and different street photographers and watching videos and stuff. So it was cool how I just kind of got into it, uh, naturally with a phone and some of, some of my favorite street photos. I I’ve taken with a phone too.

Anne Kelly  (00:12:05):

Well. I mean, they always say like, what, what is the best camera? It’s the camera you have with you? So sometimes it is your phone in, in this day and age and those cameras have gotten pretty amazing. <laugh> yeah. So was that was kind of, was your intro to photography photographing your inventory.

Vintage Ty(00:12:25):

Or I took, I took 35 millimeter film classes in high school and college mm-hmm <affirmative> in, I, I graduated high school in 2002 mm-hmm and I was re I was really interested in it while we were doing it, but I just never stuck with it. Uh, and I wish I did. And, and it’s, it’s funny because I’ve thought about it over the years, several times. And like I’ve been, I, I got into selling vintage to stuff pretty much by selling cameras. Oh cool. Cause I just thought vintage cameras were so cool. Yeah. And, but like over the years, I’ve thought about many times like, man, like this area is so cool. Like I, I want to do like a photo project on this and I just never like went through the steps to like pick up a camera and pick a out how to use it and learn, learn the, the exposure triangle again until like a few years ago. And I wish I did cuz I, I totally, probably would’ve gotten really into it, but yeah, I took classes in, in college and high school and I was, it was like my favorite class.

Anne Kelly  (00:13:30):

Cool. I love that. And, and you’re lucky you got to take dark room classes because anymore, and, and if there’s even a photography class in high school, they’ve done away with the dark room for the most part. So

Vintage Ty(00:13:43):

Yeah, I think, I think, uh, in high school that was kind of the tail end of when I think they got rid of ’em pretty much right after I left. And they also had a, they had a video production class too. They had like some crazy, I don’t even know what they were had a monitor. And then we had a big control station in there with these giant racks of equipment that somehow edited the tape. And I don’t think it was, I don’t know if it was digital, that was like 2002. So within the next few years it got a lot more con they had just like had bought new max and you could do it all on that. And we have me and my girlfriend built a little darker room in our basement

Anne Kelly  (00:14:17):

Oh, that’s awesome.

Vintage Ty(00:14:18):

So we kind of got back into it that, and it’s pretty, it’s pretty easy to find darkroom supplies because there’s

Anne Kelly  (00:14:24):

People are getting rid of ’em that’s, that’s one thing bill and I had talked about a lot taking photo classes in, in high school and playing in the dark room. And that’s kind of where the, where the magic came from being

Michael Kirchofff (00:14:36):

Trained with what <laugh> everybody considers now vintage cameras was just kinda, what was, that was just what was normal to us. There was no digital when I started. And it’s funny now that after all of these years, I still, at least in the, in the fine art realm of things, for me, everything still still surrounds analog processes. And predominantly for me, Polaroid, both new and old types of Polaroid. I mean, I still there’s vintage cameras sitting behind me that I use frequently. And, uh, and I think it’s interest thing that, I mean, it makes sense that somebody who is telling vintage items like yourself, it only seems natural that you would, uh, you know, you would kind of hone in on vintage cameras as a, as an interesting item and then kind pick that up and run with it. Do you, have you been doing more with that lately? Or you said you kind of just start to do with it again, but do you think you’ll do more of it

Vintage Ty(00:15:33):

With dark room?

Michael Kirchofff (00:15:35):

Yeah. Working in the dark room and shooting film and things like that.

Vintage Ty(00:15:39):

Yeah. I mean, I probably shoot one. We, we get, we only have black and white processing right now and I, I do love black and white photography. I probably only shoot like one out of 10 roles is black and white. Um, and I do shoot digital too. Depends on what mood I’m in that day. And I kind of, I feel like most, I feel like most people in the photo community that I, that I follow are kind of one or the other. And once, once people pick up film, like it’s sort of SAC religious to, to shoot digital, but I definitely get different things out of both. I mostly am shooting film just because I just love it. I love the way it looks. I love the process of it. I love, uh, I love that it slows me down and I’ll go out, I’ll go out for two or three hours and I’ll maybe come back with like a roll and a half versus two you hundred 50 pictures.

Vintage Ty(00:16:34):

<laugh>, you know, just the way you shoot it keeps me honed in and it keeps me focused and it keeps me like ready, um, digitally. So with film, I’m usually shooting with the Monta, which is sort of the, sort of the, like that’s sort of my main film camera along with this is a great camera for entry level, I think, or advanced they’re really easy to get. And they’re pretty cheap. It’s the cannon rebel. This is the rebel 2000. So it was sort of the entry level SLR body, but they’re a lot smaller. And because of the fact, the thing I like the most about it, it’s really lightweight because it’s a plastic body. Mm-hmm, you can get the body for like 30 bucks because they were just so widely distributed and you can go full manual. It has shutter priority, it has aperture priority and you can get this little 40 mil, 2.8 pancake lens.

Vintage Ty(00:17:34):

That’s like 125 bucks. That’s a great lens. And it basically makes this thing into like an advanced point and shoot that you can get for like, you know, 120 bucks total. I thrift him pretty often too, but I love this thing also for the fact that if I drop it or lose it, I’m not that worried about it. Right. Because I can replace it pretty easily. And then for digital, um, the Rico GR2, and this thing is like a powerhouse in a very small body. And I love this thing. I, I love the fact that it, it has, um, snap focus. So like a normal camera, like you half press the shutter to focus on whatever you’re looking at, but I, you can set so that when you full press it without doing a half press, it focuses immediately to a predetermined distance. So you can set it to like one meter, two meter, three meter four or whatever.

Vintage Ty(00:18:28):

So I’ll do, I’ll do that with street photography, kind of the same as like zone focusing, uh, on the manual camera. Um, but this thing is like, you can put it in your pocket and it has a, uh, what is it called? It ASPC size sensor on it, which cameras, the small don’t normally have, but I’ll shoot it stuff on this sometimes. And like my friends who are like pro photographers will be like, what camera was that on? <laugh>? And that’s like, the Best’s the best compliment when it’s like something that small I’m like, yeah. That’s that’s, that

Michael Kirchofff (00:19:02):

Is a great camera though. I’m familiar with it. I know a lot of people who use

Vintage Ty(00:19:05):

That camera. I want, I wanna get the, uh, the film version of it too, but oh yeah. Pretty expensive. That’s on my that’s on my list. Nice.

Anne Kelly  (00:19:15):

And so you get a lot of ’em when you’re thrifting.

Vintage Ty(00:19:19):

I get a lot of the cameras. I, I don’t get a lot of Rico GRS, thrifting. I, I, yeah, I sell, I sell a bunch of, uh, we, this store called the Fremont vintage mall down in Fremont. Mm-hmm, um, just sort of like rent out big spaces in there, but the locked case has some of the nicer ones. And like also I sell a bunch of like expired film and that kind of stuff in there too.

Anne Kelly  (00:19:39):

Oh, nice. I think if certain photographers knew that they’d be lining up cuz a lot of the expired film and paper, I don’t know if you have paper, but

Vintage Ty(00:19:49):

It’s it’s I have a bunch yeah.

Anne Kelly  (00:19:52):

To get,

Vintage Ty(00:19:54):

Yeah. I sort of made the stupid mistake of, I bought like 150 rolls of film from an estate from this guy who was a photographer back in the day. Uh, and I was like just kind of when I was getting into shooting film mm-hmm and I was like, sweet. Now I don’t have to buy film for like a long time time. And I didn’t, I didn’t know that the exposure was so variable when it comes to that stuff and that you’re supposed to overexpose it for like, you know, like one stop for every 10 years. So I had a lot of roles that came back with like photos that I really liked, but they were pretty muddy and mucky looking. And I was like, I don’t know, like people say they really like the expired look, but this looks kind of. I would have to kind of speak it in

Anne Kelly  (00:20:37):

Editing, trade that film with other photographers

Vintage Ty(00:20:41):

That, well, I decided that I kept a, I kept a handful of them and I, I decided to just sell the rest of ’em. Yeah. Uh, it it’s, I, I I’ve had better results with a manual camera where I can overexpose it. Mm-hmm um, but I didn’t know that. So I was shooting it like in a point and shoot, uh, like little just automatic point and shoot camera,

Anne Kelly  (00:21:04):

How we figure things out.

Vintage Ty(00:21:05):

Yeah. I’ve prob I wish I figured it out faster cuz I spent a lot of <laugh> <laugh>

Anne Kelly  (00:21:11):

Yeah. Yeah. What kinda cameras do you have behind you, Michael?

Michael Kirchofff (00:21:16):

Um, let’s see.

Anne Kelly  (00:21:18):

I’m always harassing him about what’s behind

Michael Kirchofff (00:21:20):

Him. I have my, I have my smallest point in shoot here and uh, it’s a grahflex, uh, crown graphic with outfitted with a Polaroid back.

Vintage Ty(00:21:35):

Is that, is that what’s uh, referred to as a press camera?

Michael Kirchofff (00:21:39):

Uh, it is. Yeah. So a lot of those, a lot of the photo journalists and early street photographers were using camera cameras, like, like this, um,

Vintage Ty(00:21:51):

They weren’t shooting like the, like in the thirties,

Michael Kirchofff (00:21:53):

Forties. Yeah. Thirties, forties. Um, and into the fifties, certainly. Um, and yeah, I mean you, it was a four by five camera and you would con you would, you wouldn’t carry around normally a Polaroid back. Cause it wasn’t around a film holder would have two sheets of film in it and you would shoot one, flip it, shoot the other. And then, you know, if you were shooting anything action oriented, that was all you’re gonna have time to do. So you had to get really fast with it. There’s uh, a guy by the name of Wegee who kind of made this camera famous for what it is in terms of, uh,

Vintage Ty(00:22:32):

He did, he did like actual like street photography, like out on the block and

Michael Kirchofff (00:22:38):

Out on the block. Yeah. Crime scenes

Anne Kelly  (00:22:41):

That does not fit into pocket. It’s hard to be on the, down low

Michael Kirchofff (00:22:45):

With that. Oh yeah. So then the, after in the sixties, that same company Grafle came up with a camera like this, it turned it’s a, um, instead of, uh, four by five it’s medium format, as I shoot so much Polaroid, this has a Polaroid back on it for shooting Polaroid PAC film, which isn’t made anymore, but I still have some and I still shoot it, but it’s, it was like the next step for the, is that it had, uh, interchangeable lenses that were pretty fast to change and then different size film backs that you could switch out. And it got used a lot, uh, like the Vietnam war. It was a lot of, uh, conflict photographers were starting to use these, um, which is funny because it’s, it has a lot of quirks, uh, and a lot of problems. So it, it takes some time to use. I don’t mind doing that because like you mentioned, shooting film kind of slows you down. So that’s fine. Like if it slows me down, that’s great. This is certainly a more camera than the other one. You’re not

Speaker 4 (00:23:45):

Trying to shoot sports photography

Michael Kirchofff (00:23:47):

With that. No, but I have found myself, you know, running as fast as possible from one point to another, to try to catch up to something, to try to grab a shot with that camera at full speed while looking at the lens, trying to, trying to, you know, set it, the shut, pull the dark slide. <laugh> all of those things, you know, it gets difficult, but I’ve been using it a lot for like the last, I don’t know, 12, 15 years. So I there’s a lot to it. I don’t have to, you know, think about, I’m

Vintage Ty(00:24:20):

Curious, I’ve never used a, a press camera before. Uh, I’m curious what are like the things that you like about it and what do you like

Michael Kirchofff (00:24:27):

To shoot with it? Um, I like, well, what’s really nice is you have choices of lenses. You have choices of film backs, especially with the, with the medium format, with the graflex XL. There will come a time where I won’t be shooting that with the Polaroid back anymore are because I will, I will run out of that Polaroid and any that might still be available will probably not work anymore. You know, so that there there’s, uh, an end point for me even being able to use that sort of thing. So I’ll be putting film backs on here and shooting like six by seven, six by nine format images with all lot of wide angle lenses. I like things to be kind of cinematic like this, this this camera has a 58 millimeter lens on it and shooting full frame Polaroid that will get me, you know, people always do like 35 millimeter equivalents just because it’s more readily understood.

Michael Kirchofff (00:25:28):

So that lens on that format is equivalent to about a 22 millimeter lens on your 35 millimeter camera. So it’s pretty wide. And then I have all this stuff. I know this is a similar camera called the Brooks wide, which is the same system called a graph lock system that holds the, the backs onto the camera body. Um, and this has a lens fixed on it. That’s 47 millimeters. So this is like a 20 millimeter lens equivalent. This is a zones focusing lens. Whereas this one is a range finder as, as is the four by five model. So the, they all have similarities and they all have differences. But the thing that I like is is that I, you know, I’ve just been using them a long time. I’m very familiar with them. So, you know, like the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Michael Kirchofff (00:26:23):

Yeah. So there’s, you know, a lot of that involved mechanics of it, I think are very attractive to me, opposed to digital, you know, like I’ve never been able to fix a digital camera by myself while out in the field. But, um, I don’t, I remember if I told a story to Anne previously or to, uh, different podcast or something, but I was on, I was in the middle of nowhere using this camera and the lens. This is with different lens, but the lens I had on it at the time stopped working and I had literally traveled 6,000 miles to get where I needed to go. And then the lens broke. I didn’t know what to do other than try to

Vintage Ty(00:27:00):

All right, we’re gonna use this one

Michael Kirchofff (00:27:01):

Now. Yeah, no, that, wasn’t what I wanted to do. I couldn’t do that. You know, I had the, I went there with that camera specifically. So anything else would, it wouldn’t have been the same picture to me. I mean, I did take pictures with my phone and I did take digital pictures with other cameras and things too, but the idea was to go there with that. And I took the lens and not really knowing what was wrong with it and I couldn’t figure it out. So I just put it back together again. And when I put it back together, again, it worked again and I finished, you know, I got some really amazing photographs that I had intended to make that entire time. And if it had been a digital camera that would never have happened,

Anne Kelly  (00:27:42):

Like having a car from the seventies versus a car from 2020, like forget about yeah. Trying to, like, I could maybe figure out how to fix the car from the seventies,

Michael Kirchofff (00:27:53):

But right. I dunno. Yeah. Those cars you can fix, but you know, like the vehicle I drive now, like I could change the oil and that’s about it.

Vintage Ty(00:28:02):

I think about a lot with, with camera choice. How are people going to perceive me and interact with me based on what the camera I have looks like. So there, there are some times where I want to blend in and I don’t want anyone to see me or think that I’m a photographer or I wanna look more like a tourist or someone who’s just taking like snaps, but there’s like, I have a couple of bigger older cameras. And I notice that when I use those people tend to be like, oh, this person’s a photographer. And they’re like making art and they’re out here, like with a purpose, right? Versus like, if I’m gonna ask someone for a, a street portrait or so it’s a lot different if I have like a little point and shoot camera versus something that looks more professional and is larger. And I’ve noticed that people interact with me a lot differently based on what the camera looks like that I have. So I kind of think about that sometimes too, with like what I’m gonna be doing and how I wanna be perceived and that

Anne Kelly  (00:29:03):

Kind of thing. And that was a question I, for you is, is if you were kind of shooting more candidly or if you did approach people and talk to them, but it sounds like maybe it just depends on the situation.

Vintage Ty(00:29:15):

It depends. I mean, with, with street photography in general, that’s sort of people’s number one thing when they get into it is like, how do I do this without being afraid of people are gonna react and I’m, I’m not like gonna front, like, I’m one of those dudes who just like, doesn’t give a and just anywhere I’m at, I’m taking photos, cuz it’s weird. Like if I’m, it’s, it’s a lot different if I’m downtown in Seattle in a rural area and there’s like four people in the, you know, like then it’s just like, it’s, it’s a whole different story, raising your camera up and framing someone, taking their picture and then seeing you do it. So there’s times where I feel more comfortable and times that I don’t, but I also, I shoot from the hip a lot and I’ve gotten pretty good at doing that.

Vintage Ty(00:30:03):

If I have a wide angle, if like a 28 millimeter lens, I’ve sort of gotten to where I know where my frame lines are. Uh, I initially started doing that because I was just too afraid to lift the camera up. But by doing that, I got good enough at it that I knew. I knew how to frame it and liked the way that it looked because it was shot from lower from like waist level. And it like reminded me of like someone shooting through like a, a TLR camera. Yeah. And so I, I felt like it just gave a perspective that was different than a lot of people. And so now I do I’ve, I’ve gotten, I, I sort of forced myself to get better at not having that be the determinant of where the shot was framed. And uh, if I feel like the bigger, the crowd is, the more comfortable I am, but definitely with, with the Minolta, I’ve gotten better at, at doing that. And it’s probably about 30% of the time. I still, if I’m doing street photography, I’ll shoot from the hip mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, if I’m like in a grocery store and I just see someone that I need to get a photo, you know, that kind of thing, I’m not gonna be a guy in the grocery store. Who’s like, you know, and I’ve had people get pissed.

Anne Kelly  (00:31:21):

Yeah. Oh don’t we all wanna take pictures in the grocery store. It’s like one of the more

Vintage Ty(00:31:27):

Interesting I did, I did, uh, I spent like a couple hours when we first went into quarantine mm-hmm and people were mobbing the grocery stores. I was like, this is an opportunity. Yeah. That’s not gonna probably come up again and I’m just gonna go out and see if I can get anything interesting. Mm-hmm and I was just kind of bored one day. And so I went out and I went to like four different grocery stores and sort of walked around for 30 minutes and I got a couple of cool shots of like, you know, there was just like full refrigerated, you know, glass sections that had like two cartons and milk left. Right. And I would just wait for somebody who was walking by that and kind of frame the empty shelves with like, you know, somebody who was herding with a full cart. And mm-hmm I got a few interesting photos out of that, but I like thinking about I like finding like just weird scenarios like that to

Anne Kelly  (00:32:20):

Right. Like you kind of expected that to be a weird scenario. Yeah. Uh, walking

Vintage Ty(00:32:24):

In, I got, I got one of like this old guy who had a, uh, what do you call like something a wizard would carry, uh, staff. Yeah. He had like a staff and he was walking through the store with like this leather hat on <laugh> like just empty shelves, empty shelves behind it. And I was like, oh, this is that’s the one I want I wanted <laugh>.

Anne Kelly  (00:32:49):

That’s why I’m here. <laugh> yeah.

Michael Kirchofff (00:32:53):

It’s funny. You actually, I, on your Instagram, I recently saw, uh, a series of, I think it was called you think you called it thrift store people. Is that right? Yeah. I thought that was, you know, similar, similar idea and it’s obviously, you know, you’re, that’s totally your wheelhouse. So that was an interesting series of images.

Anne Kelly  (00:33:13):

And that was probably just shot when you were thrifting, right?

Vintage Ty(00:33:16):

Yeah. Those were, those were from, yeah. Those were from, uh, first got taking pictures of interesting people and, and that sort of, I guess maybe will be a long term project for like a zine or something like that,

Anne Kelly  (00:33:31):

For sure. I mean, it makes sense your daily life, it’s what you’re doing anyways. So why not combine all the different things that you enjoy? Yeah, for

Vintage Ty(00:33:42):

Sure. And I, I bring, I bring a camera with me when I go thrifting and it just kind of get, I I’ve been doing the thrifting thing for a long time, since 2011 and it gets it, it can get kind of old, but it does give me an extra, like bit of motivation to bring my camera with me and think maybe a I’ll get like a good shot today while I’m out covering the thrift stores and stuff.

Anne Kelly  (00:34:04):

So how did you get into that? Just in terms of thinking that that was what you were gonna do for a living that that was your job?

Vintage Ty(00:34:11):

I never would’ve thought I could do that for a living. Honestly, I I’ve. I had a few odd jobs. Uh, I worked for the, when I finished college, I worked for the government for the department of veterans affairs and I like worked in an office for a year and I just did not want to be, uh, in an office. And so I kind of like, I saved some money up and I traveled a bunch and I, I was like ran out of money traveling for a couple years. And so I was back like here in Seattle, living at my parents’ house. And I was like sitting at the computer, brainstorming how I could get paid to travel, which is kind of like everyone’s sort of pipe dream mm-hmm. And I had also done like music production, like making beats and stuff like that for a long time.

Vintage Ty(00:34:59):

And I, I just thought of like, I was like, you know what, I bet you could get a job as a DJ on cruise ships. And so I just, I just like, spamed about all the cruise ship companies and applied. And I had like, sort of, DJ’ed a friend’s wedding before and through like the music production stuff. Like I knew how to like beat match and whatever. So I, I felt like I could do it. Yeah. Uh, and so I, I did that and I got hired to be a DJ on cruise ships and I maybe stretched the truth about my experience actually DJing <laugh>, but it’s kind of like, you know, on a cruise, like there’s sort of a mix of young and old people. So you place like some of the sixties, 70 stuff, few old ones, few new ones and that kind of thing.

Vintage Ty(00:35:48):

And so I did that for a couple years. Then I moved back to Seattle to get back to your question. Um, I got a little burnt out on that and I got to travel like all over the world, but I got back here and I was like, okay, now it’s time to like, find a job mm-hmm. So I was looking for a job and I had just moved back here and my sister took me to this like weekly outdoor market where people either sell like food or like crafts they made or vintage stuff mm-hmm and she was like, you should do this cuz you like, like thrifting and collecting records and like vintage clothes and stuff. And so I, I, I was like, yeah, hell yeah, I wanna do that. So I, I signed up for like the next week to like have a space there.

Vintage Ty(00:36:32):

And I went out and thrifted for like a week and just bought like stuff I thought was cool that first Sunday I made like 800 bucks and I was like, oh, I’m doing this every Sunday. Now this is like, <laugh> sure. And then I started renting booths in like vintage malls and antique malls where you started like pay them a commission and a flat fee to like have a space in their store, whatever. And I just quickly got, became my job of just like, I just had like five of these booths in different stores and I would just fill ’em up with like stuff I thought was cool. And I’ve been doing that ever since pretty much.

Anne Kelly  (00:37:10):

And how awesome is that?

Vintage Ty(00:37:12):

Um, I’m pretty hyped on it.

Anne Kelly  (00:37:14):

Yeah. Yeah. When you were a kid, um, was, was, did you have like that dream job when you were a kid? It probably wasn’t that,

Vintage Ty(00:37:24):

But I had no idea. Yeah. <laugh> I had no idea. I, I mean, I thought like I went to college and I got a degree in like business and economics and I just thought I was gonna be like a business person. I didn’t even know what that meant really, but <laugh> well, I mean, I don’t know. I guess I I’ve always had like,

Anne Kelly  (00:37:40):

But just not in

Vintage Ty(00:37:41):

The, yeah, I suppose, I suppose obvious I’ll say this, I’ll say this. I wish there was more like I went to public high school and I went to like a really good school and I just wish there was more exposure in education of like all the possible things you can do. Oh, you not to say that, like there should be someone who comes in and is like, you should be an antique vintage dealer. But, uh, I even in college, like I was just clueless about what careers there were and like what the day to day life was for those things. So I think that that’s like a really important thing and I’ll have friends that get jobs and I’m like, I didn’t even know that was a job. And right. That sounds sick.

Anne Kelly  (00:38:21):

You know, if you were like in high school now looking at yourself, would you even that selling vintage was even a career path? I mean, no.

Vintage Ty(00:38:32):

Yeah. I wish I, I wish I knew I could have done that earlier because then I wouldn’t have had to work jobs in college and I could have just been like selling stuff on the side. So,

Anne Kelly  (00:38:42):

Uh, we’ve been talking about your photos, but we haven’t seen any of your photos. You wanna pull some of

Vintage Ty(00:38:48):

Those up? Yeah, I’ll do a screen share.

Anne Kelly  (00:38:54):

Perfect.

Vintage Ty(00:38:57):

And it opened up to a weird one. <laugh> <laugh> good.

Anne Kelly  (00:39:02):

<laugh> it’s art in the

Vintage Ty(00:39:03):

Raw, this is just kind of a general that’s the, the thrift store album. So I just did a bunch of prints that I decided to, uh, I decided to order a bunch of prints and frame them because, cause I hear so many photographers say that that is a very important part of the process. And I, I am more inclined to go out and shoot new photos than I am to print them or try to show them somewhere or sell them somewhere. But I’m gonna do like a show in a cafe that’s sort of by my house in a couple months. Um, so I printed a sort of a bunch of my favorite, its from both like street photo stuff and sort of lifestyle, urban photography. And I did a bunch of prints that I’m also selling in the vintage stores that I sell in. But that’s what this folder is.

Vintage Ty(00:39:49):

This was, this was one of my favorites that we took on a trip to Europe. I took on a trip to Europe of it’s in the Lou and that’s great. It’s a, the guy has a shirt on that says it’s five O’ <laugh> and I thought it was just, <laugh> looking at this like epic classic painting with the headphones on that’s one of my favorites. That’s awesome. Yeah. Uh, this is probably the one that I got that people like the most, um, is that recent. This was from like six months or so ago. I don’t remember, but this, I shot out the car window and there was like, I was driving and I saw that there was like a car fire and the, the you ambulance or the fire truck had just pulled up and I was like, all right, there might be a photo here cuz fires always just like make a photo more epic.

Vintage Ty(00:40:46):

And so I was sitting there and the, the traffic was stopped for like the fire trucks in front of us. And so this guy was sort of the, the chief, he had to kind of walk up and walk the perimeter of it first to like check what the scenario was. And then he was walking away as the guys were coming up to put it out. But I thought it would just be like funny to show him like smirking and walking away from the fire and not doing anything. Yeah. Like what is that expression about? <laugh> he saw me, right. I, I got the shot right. As he noticed that I was taking his picture and he kind of gave me like a little like wink or whatever. Um, this was over at the university of Washington. I’m I’ve been trying to practice sort of like integrating architecture into, into stuff.

Vintage Ty(00:41:34):

Great. I love that one. This was, this was a cool one where, uh, this is like this beach that’s in walking distance in my house. And um, I think it’s a good example of when I’m I go on walks in my neighborhood within like a two mile radius a lot and it gets harder and harder to like find photos I haven’t taken before. So I guess this is kind of a street photo, but I walk by this beach all the time, taken the same photos a few times. And this was one of those days where there was just like something different happening. And these guys were having a boxing match all on the beach. Um, which I thought was I thought was pretty cool. This one is a upside down puddle that reminds me of a Pink Floyd album. But uh, I just really like the way that it turned

Anne Kelly  (00:42:26):

Out, Michael and I are pink Floyd fans.

Vintage Ty(00:42:29):

Yeah. Yeah. I will agree. This was a, on a trip in Florida and I had met up with a bunch of friends from college and we met Aaron from Los Angeles was I think he was just very excited to like get a break from working and to be on the beach. And we were like getting ready to fish and he was just laying down in this stream, but that’s one of my favorites saying this is a fold of, of, of stuff that I printed and I found it sort of difficult to ride the line between what type of pictures. I think people will want to buy as a print versus like a project I would wanna put together. And so maybe not as many of the street photos made it into this album. Uh, because I feel like that’s more, maybe I don’t know. I feel like that’s something that I would, if I did a show or like zine, that was just that stuff versus selling prints of my photography in my vintage store. Right. You know what I’m saying? I don’t know. It’s I feel like it’s

Anne Kelly  (00:43:36):

The audience that’s gonna be yeah. Work. And then also books is just a format books or zines sometimes that’s yeah. Kind of a different selection of work.

Vintage Ty(00:43:47):

This was in Italy. It’s the kind of photo that I really love. I don’t know why these military dudes were there. I think they just have like patrols in certain areas where there’s a lot of people, but I thought it was just like so sick that they were in front of the Chanel store. Yeah. And it just looks like some postapocalyptic advertisement where all the rich people are protected, but it was maybe it was a little foreshadowing for the last several months,

Anne Kelly  (00:44:10):

Yeah. 20, 20 fashion ad or yeah.

Vintage Ty(00:44:17):

They just need to cologne. Yeah. <laugh> you never know. This folder is more of the sort of street photography. This is the guy I was talking about in the grocery store with the staff. Oh yeah. See, he

Anne Kelly  (00:44:31):

Was prepared to, to fight you for that last thing at milk. <laugh>

Vintage Ty(00:44:38):

That’s great. I really wanted too. And I know a lot of people have done it before, but I really wanna spend a summer and do a whole project at the state fair mm-hmm <affirmative> cause I went there once and I was like, this is the kind of photography I want to do. Cuz there’s just so many interesting people and like weird stuff going on. Yeah. This was like these kids going to this sum booth. I don’t know what they were selling, but it says, are you going to heaven? Two question, test reveals, answer. Wow. <laugh> of, uh, I love taking photos of like the Trump crowd. I don’t necessarily love them, but I love taking

Michael Kirchofff (00:45:15):

Their photos. They’re a colorful bunch.

Anne Kelly  (00:45:17):

Yeah. Well I was gonna say, you know, being in Seattle and as bizarre as everything’s been on the streets in the last few months, have you been photographing as much?

Vintage Ty(00:45:30):

Um, I have been sort of off and on. Yeah. Um,

Anne Kelly  (00:45:34):

I mean, not just automatic changes, what the streets are gonna look like just from the simple aspect of masks

Vintage Ty(00:45:42):

To I, I find that like my motivation to like go out and shoot photos sort of comes in waves. Like I’ll, I’ll be really, really about it for like a couple weeks and I’ll want to go out like every day or every other day. Um, and then I’ll sort of feel satisfied and not shoot for a couple weeks or something aside from just like day to day, I’ll kind of bring my camera out and maybe get one or two pictures. I’m kind of like experimenting with different formats and different styles. And I’m okay with that. Like I’m, I’m, I’m really in love with just photography in general. And I feel pretty confident that it’s something I’m gonna wanna do for a long time. I’m interested in learning different things and trying different focal links and different lighting scenarios and

Anne Kelly  (00:46:26):

Well that’s key. I mean just the passion for the medium and being curious and experimenting and

Michael Kirchofff (00:46:33):

Yeah, that’s one of the great things about photography. It didn’t have to make it super serious all of the time and you can take breaks and you can, you know, you can walk away from it entirely for a period of time. If you want, you know, when you come back to it, you might come back with an entirely different mindset that brings out something entirely different in your work too. So yeah, there are no rules and that’s, what’s great about it. I can really see the shooting from the

Vintage Ty(00:46:57):

Hip. Yeah. This is kind of the shooting. This is, this is sort of the shooting from the hip album. <laugh>

Michael Kirchofff (00:47:02):

Yeah, yeah. I’ve done a little bit of that too with, uh, with a Holga as well. I don’t, you know, you just don’t look through the camera, you just kinda shoot

Vintage Ty(00:47:11):

Trying to shoot film and shoot street started doing that when I started doing free street photography with the Rico GR uh, which made it really easy to do that. Yeah. I don’t know. I, I do it. I still do it sometimes depending on the situation I think. Uh, but if I’m like downtown, I’m more comfortable now just getting the shot and it’s just sort of smile and keep walking usually tends to work. Okay. And people, most people don’t don’t care. Um, but if someone really doesn’t want whatever photo I took, like I, I’m not all deleted or

Michael Kirchofff (00:47:40):

I keep grabbing the mouse and like trying to describe <laugh> sorry. No, that’s okay. The image that’s in the top row. Second one, one from the right or second I’m sorry. Second one from the left. Yeah. This one next to the left of that. Yeah. So

Vintage Ty(00:47:55):

This was, uh, a kid that was on the fishing pier in, uh, one of the towns north of Seattle. And they were debating about jumping in and I was like, do a, I, I talked him into doing a flip, but I thought it would, I thought it would make an interesting picture if I sort of stood back and got it as he was on the way down through the fence. And you maybe couldn’t tell if he fell or what was happening.

Michael Kirchofff (00:48:24):

That’s what I was wondering. Yeah. Yeah.

Vintage Ty(00:48:26):

Yeah. But I, I like it. I like that. It looks like he might have slipped there. <laugh>

Michael Kirchofff (00:48:31):

Editing your photographs is like a whole nother art form. Right. And for sure, sometimes it’s hard for us to edit our own photographs. So you enlist the aid of people. Yeah.

Vintage Ty(00:48:42):

I, that was our, that was one of the things that I was gonna bring up is I suppose, editing. Like if I go out and shoot a few roles of film, I’m, I’m very comfortable going through those and picking, which are the half of those that I want to actually keep and which are the 10 out of those three roles that are like my favorite 10. But I think it’s really hard to separate and like remain unbiased from other people’s reactions. So like a photo that I might post that I felt so, so about that like everybody really likes kind of tricks my brain and like that’ll sort of kick around in there for a couple days. And then I’m like, yeah, I really like that photo. That’s one of my best photo. You know what I mean? Like, it’s hard for me to like separate other people’s reactions from what I think favorites are,

Anne Kelly  (00:49:30):

We have at the photograph. And it’s maybe not our best photograph. We have some connection to it and it’s hard to see that that’s, that’s the one that needs to be.

Vintage Ty(00:49:39):

Yeah, that’s

Michael Kirchofff (00:49:40):

True. Yeah. Your personal experience with the photograph is entirely different than what anybody else is going to. I remember

Anne Kelly  (00:49:46):

It smelled and you know, I mm-hmm whatever other detail else that other people aren’t gonna

Michael Kirchofff (00:49:53):

Experience, that’s why it’s good to know people like Anne, who can tell you exactly which ones are the best

Anne Kelly  (00:49:58):

Pictures. Well, or you Michael

Vintage Ty(00:50:00):

<laugh>. And I like to post pictures on like, I’ll go on Reddit and I’ll post in like the black and white, uh, subreddit and like get into those like specific genres where there’s like a, of people that are sort of all into like the same thing. Um, and I like that. I like that. It’s, it’s, it’s sort of anonymous in that sense. And if I want to sort of gauge people’s reaction, I’ll put it there and sort of see how many people like it and what people say about it. Or there’s really good. There’s a, there’s a post, uh, post-processing subreddit where you can sort of post the before and after of an edit and get constructive criticism. That’s usually pretty good. And

Anne Kelly  (00:50:40):

It’s like a super cool whole other way to get a portfolio review. Yeah,

Vintage Ty(00:50:45):

The general. Yeah. That’s cool.

Michael Kirchofff (00:50:47):

That would be fun to yeah. Put together an entire, like zine of images that were chosen and narrowed down by the people on Reddit. And you could just call it, edit by Reddit, Hey, maybe could be a show

Anne Kelly  (00:51:03):

For, uh, analog forever.

Michael Kirchofff (00:51:05):

Yeah. And if everybody hates it, you could say, well, it’s not my fault. <laugh> I didn’t pick em. Yeah. I didn’t pick them. It’s not my fault.

Anne Kelly  (00:51:14):

<laugh> once a month that you guys do now a call on analog forever.

Michael Kirchofff (00:51:19):

Usually around like the first or second of every month, we do a call for entry for an online exhibition. It’s free dinner and his put one together for us. And a lot of, a lot of people like him, people who are, you know, curators or, uh, museum directors or editors, you know, they, they help us out in choosing the best work for that particular month. And there’s usually a actually not usually, there’s always

Anne Kelly  (00:51:42):

A theme and it’s a good way to have your work seen as well. You go, okay, this is the jury, great way to work in front of a certain person.

Michael Kirchofff (00:51:50):

Or we’ve had a couple of people who have seen work on our online exhibitions, who then went and picked a couple of people out of the, out of the mix and kind of contacted them about, well, maybe we could, you know, represent you or maybe we could, you know, sell this particular photograph or we can use it in this magazine or something like that. Um, and then myself and a few of the other people at the magazine we’ve chosen images, uh, to be published and, and work to be, you know, bodies of work to be published, um, out of stuff that we’ve seen through the online exhibitions. It’s a good, it’s a good resource, you know, and we’re not alone. There’s a lot of them out there. So,

Anne Kelly  (00:52:28):

And I had a lot of fun during that. Um, one online exhibition I did for you guys on magic realism, just not having to worry about where people lived. There was a few international artists in that show and I didn’t have to worry about, oh, can this person actually print and frame and, and ship this thing here. So that that’s kind of liberating as well. Yeah, exactly. Well, the actual print is, is my favorite. The, the digital format’s become a big way to get, get the work out there right now.

Michael Kirchofff (00:53:02):

Yeah. That’s always the first step, right? Getting, being in into a digital format to be able to share it. But the real meat on the bones is a finished print, preferably you yourself, make and approve, you know, because it’s, it’s your best way to put your foot best foot forward. So

Anne Kelly  (00:53:20):

Fun question I’ve been enjoying asking everybody is, is what you collect. TY I know you, you kind of naturally end up collecting vintage things because I assume you go out and you’re shopping for things, and then there’s some things you just have to keep. How, how do you decide?

Vintage Ty(00:53:37):

Um, the stuff that I personally collect, a lot of the stuff on the shelf is kind of a good, like, I, I just like old, uh, I guess sort of tattoo imagery type of things. Like I’ve got the old gym beam, boxer guy. I’ve got the 1970s smiley face mug, uh, the old like TV, top black Panther. I like old, weird looking Mickey mouse stuff. <laugh> so like, it has to be old, old, and it has to be like wonky or like weird. Yeah. I have some more of that stuff upstairs, outta like mid century modern furniture. I like finding paintings that I like finding thrift store paintings. Both of these were, these are both probably this one’s from like the forties, I think. And this one’s from like 1910 in, but I like finding like cool old antique paintings that, uh, you don’t really know where they came from or who made them, but, but you like, ’em sort of a thing.

Vintage Ty(00:54:39):

Absolutely. And I also, I, I do collect, uh, I brought these out to show you guys collect weird cameras is, uh, probably not very good for street photography. This is the, uh, smart Smarties <laugh> candy and it takes one 10 film. Wow. And I just got, I just, I just bought out this like entire estate sale from this couple. They had been collect doing like just weird promotional items like that for years and years. And they had a house full of like Coca-Cola phones or like candy cameras or like marbro cowboy clock, like just, I have like a whole girl garage, like full of weird promotional stuff, but I got a bunch of cameras with it. That’s it? This is the Velveeta cream, uh, macaroni and cheese <laugh> camera.

Michael Kirchofff (00:55:41):

I love that. This

Vintage Ty(00:55:42):

Is the, do you guys have the bond mache or did you it’s a department store? No, I think it’s like a west coast thing, but anyway, Macy’s bought out the bond mache, but it’s like one of the Norstrom bond mache. It’s like one of the ones I grew up with, but this is the bond mache collab with Kermit, the frog, I love Kermit. Yeah. I like, I like strange cameras. I like, I just, any weird old camera that I find thrifting, I’m probably gonna buy and like try it and you know,

Anne Kelly  (00:56:14):

Yeah. If I ran into any of those cameras, I would have to buy them. I’ve

Michael Kirchofff (00:56:18):

Seen a lot of funky cameras in my time, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Velveeta cheese camera before. So that’s

Vintage Ty(00:56:23):

Pretty cool. The ones that like the, the kids I normally come across, like usually I’ve seen ’em before, but I, I, I just have a box full of these ones that are like that. Why is there a macaroni cheese camera? <laugh> they’re all like weird brands like that that are like, oh, to top that off. Like, I think thrifting is a good thing. It’s a good way to like, have less of an impact on the environment. And mm-hmm, <affirmative> not participate as much in fast fashion and overproduction of stuff, but I’ve just been like, I mean, I’ve been doing it for so long, but I’ve been making more of a concerted effort to just not buy as much new stuff. Would

Anne Kelly  (00:57:02):

You say there’s a, a favorite item on the, on the shelf behind you?

Vintage Ty(00:57:06):

My favorite item on the shelf is gonna be the oops, gold plated, John Wayne, just because I like cowboy, I just like cowboy. It’s gold. That’s my favorite. Nice. Also I also, I also was up, I’m really interested in collecting photography books and uh, like I’ll buy like a book or a zine if it’s like someone I know or someone I follow that puts something out. But a lot of like the good ones are just like really expensive mm-hmm <affirmative>. So I’ve been trying to, I always check the photo, the photography section in thrift stores. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and most, most of the time it’s kind of the same sort of like generic, uh, like hundred, most beautiful photos of Seattle or like that kind of a thing. But I’ve found like I’ve, I’ve been finding like some pretty cool ones and like, you’ll find like weird ones too.

Vintage Ty(00:58:03):

I, I guess, I guess aside from taking photo class in high school, like mostly I’ve been self taught, but I found this book, even though this book is from 15 years ago, it’s all about seeing different shapes, seeing different lines of composition, framing, how to balance different objects in a photo like this thrifting and thing. And I learned a lot from it and I felt like it was kinda like if you’re interested in something enough, like you don’t necessarily need to like go and take a class, like you can find resources to, to learn stuff, I guess. I don’t know.

Michael Kirchofff (00:58:37):

Oh, certainly. Yeah. But

Anne Kelly  (00:58:40):

Well, and, and you really should keep an eye on the, the photo books actions at thrift stores, because I would run into some gold in there finding,

Vintage Ty(00:58:47):

Uh, old photography magazines mm-hmm <affirmative> and I think it’s really interesting to just see what types of things were like trendy in like 1982 versus like 1965. And, uh, like what the camera advertisements looked like and that kinda, but I love buying those. I got a bunch of those too.

Michael Kirchofff (00:59:09):

Yeah. It’s funny to see things like trends, especially nowadays, if you compare something photographed and put into a magazine in 1980 versus now, a lot of people would say, well, that’s just like a, that’s a no-no in terms of the photography world. Now both from a, from a photography standpoint or more so from like a, a social standpoint, especially if you get into photographs of women or nudes or anything like that, you know, times change and you see a really dramatic difference when you look back, not even, you know, not even 30 years ago, just 10 years ago, things have changed

Anne Kelly  (00:59:45):

Quite a bit. Yeah. I didn’t really mean to do this, but photography magazine I’m on their subscription list. And, um, we moved the gallery recently and I realized I had like three years worth of photography magazine when I was cleaning out and recycling things. I made the, the decision to bring all of those home. So I’ve got three years worth of their magazines, which are pretty small on, on my bookshelf. And not that they’re, you know, they’re still pretty recent other interesting to look back on what the, what all the big shows were at that time. And

Michael Kirchofff (01:00:21):

That’s a whole time capsule right there.

Anne Kelly  (01:00:23):

One day, like you were saying, we might need to do a, a show on, on what else is in your flat files and, um, <laugh>

Michael Kirchofff (01:00:30):

Yeah.

Anne Kelly  (01:00:31):

And what’s in TY’s garage.

Michael Kirchofff (01:00:33):

<laugh> yeah, there you go. Oh my God. It’s gonna be a

Vintage Ty(01:00:38):

<laugh>. I, I could make a video on what’s in my garage. Yeah. I can make a few <laugh>. I mean, 99% of the time, when people look at photography, it’s on our phone. And most of the time on Instagram, I found it really interesting, both in printing stuff, a little bit larger and in looking at magazines, cuz I’ve just become so used to seeing things at the at size. Right. And I, I think about that when I’m shooting and I think a lot of times I feel like I have to get closer and the thing has to whatever the thing is, needs to be more in your face because it will grab your attention more. When you see it on a phone. I, I, I like to try to shoot for printing now more, I think, than I, than I used to

Anne Kelly  (01:01:29):

Nothing on Instagram where if it’s, if you’re looking at it as this tiny little square, the images that are usually are more successful, meaning get the most likes most. Yeah. Following are those really graphic images. Cause yeah, I can appreciate them before you click on it or make sure. And

Vintage Ty(01:01:46):

I definitely, I definitely, I fall victim to that know that like the more shocking stuff people are gonna like more line to walk is sort of like, am I just, am I posting like the that I wanna show people? And like the that I think is important or like, am I posting this? Cuz I know it’s gonna get all the or whatever. Right, right. And I kind of, I feel the push and pull of that for sure. <laugh>

Michael Kirchofff (01:02:10):

Certainly that social media pull, you know, you get that serotonin hit <laugh>,

Vintage Ty(01:02:17):

It’s a, it’s a weird world and it’s, it’s hard to not, it’s hard to not get into the, like the trendy stuff. And like I dabble, I definitely like dabble a little bit with like the analog classic car. Mm-hmm <affirmative> weird angles and good lighting stuff, which I do really like, but it also kind of pains me. But because it’s such, it’s kind of like become a cliche at this point. There’s just like so many people who have like whole accounts and like that’s all they do. And I, I, I, I like to do that stuff sort of as practice when there’s nothing else to shoot. Like if I see an El Camino, I’m getting at least a few angles on that thing. You, yeah. I don’t know. I, I guess as someone who’s newer to photography, I’ve kind of come to a place where like, I’m going to take the pictures that other people have taken and I’m going to do the cliche stuff cuz I need to see what it looks like. And I need to see like what it feels like. You just take a picture to see what it’s gonna look like as a picture, you know, mm-hmm <affirmative> and I feel like that stuff, it just builds and builds your, your, uh, processing ability to be able to see before you’ve even taken the shot, know how it’s gonna come out, how it’s gonna look sort of a thing.

Anne Kelly  (01:03:31):

Well, and the thing about photography is so many things have been done, but um, it’s all about doing it in a different way. So like you, I think you need to go take the pictures to see what they look like. Then it’s also helpful to know who came before you and who did what. And um, I think it’s always possible to do it in a different way. Like the genre of landscape photography, for sure. One of the more difficult genres, but I still run into people and am honored to meet people in this day and age that are coming up with something new within that. I don’t believe that it’s all been done. I mean a lot of things have been no. Yeah,

Michael Kirchofff (01:04:10):

Yeah.

Vintage Ty(01:04:11):

I don’t either. Another thing that I wanna like maybe make Zine about eventually is like when traveling in like a major tourist spot, when you’re at one of those bots where everyone is getting like the iconic picture of like the Eiffel tower, I like to go in front of the crowd and turn around and get the shot of all those people <laugh> and there’s like four 30 or 40 people, uh, getting that picture and like struggling for elbow space cabinet. I wanna do a zine. That’s that’s a, all the people taking the picture that everyone has to get a picture of or whatever. Right.

Michael Kirchofff (01:04:47):

Or they’re all yelling at you for being in the way of their picture <laugh>

Vintage Ty(01:04:52):

But they, I can walk by with the gr set to focus. And so I, I have a question about the, the Polaroid pack film. So did you just talk on that and you keep it in the refrigerator and it, it all still works or

Michael Kirchofff (01:05:07):

Yes and no. So they, it was a positive negative when you peeled it apart, you got a little black and white print mm-hmm <affirmative> and the part that used to throw away, you could actually tear off the paper ends and wash it in a solution. And that actually became a negative of the same size as the print. And you could scan or print those negatives, beautiful enlargements out of, and they had a really great total range. They did in three different formats, but it was also according to Polaroid, it was the most complicated, the most expensive and the most toxic product that they made. So when they started phasing out products in that pro line of films, that was the first one to go. And that was in 2007. And so that was the first one to go. So I did, I buy out a bunch of it.

Michael Kirchofff (01:05:57):

I, I didn’t really know at what level I was gonna continue shooting it. In fact, 2007 is probably when I started the biggest body of work I’ve ever made solely with that film. So, you know, I decided I decided to take it on and from that aspect at the worst possible time, but then I kept, I really responded so well to it. I’ve created several bodies that work with it and, and still using it today. In fact, I just was shooting some last week, fewer and fewer of them work, but you know, it’s not unusual to find a pack that was made in 2005. It still works today for my purposes and what I’ve trying to do with it. It’s kind of perfect. Um, um, so I buy a lot of it on eBay list. I have a lot of people know that I use it.

Michael Kirchofff (01:06:46):

So I get emails and phone calls from people and say, let’s say, Hey, this person has some, or this person wants to get rid of some or sell it. You know, some people will give me any kind of Polaroid because I know that that’s something that I’ve been, it’s something I’ve been shooting since I was a child. I don’t consider myself necessarily an expert at it. Cause I don’t consider myself an expert at anything. It’s just a photographic material that I relate to. And hopefully there are people out there who will help me find it, but that is happening less and less these days. So

Vintage Ty(01:07:18):

The print that ends up on the wall, do you typically get that from the negative that

Michael Kirchofff (01:07:23):

Comes? I typically, yeah. I typically get it from the negatives that I kind of rough up and manipulate in certain ways. Um, but there are, there is a small body of work. It’s not even on my website. I, I haven’t even put it on there yet. Um, cuz it’s kind of a work in progress, but it’s made up of the original print, the little black and white prints that have faded over time. So if they actually re require a long period of time to make each photograph,

Vintage Ty(01:07:52):

I’m curious what your camera is that you bring. If you’re like going on vacations somewhere.

Michael Kirchofff (01:07:59):

<laugh> if you talk to my girlfriend, it’s too many of them, but big press cameras. I mean, if I take less than four cameras, it’s probably nervous about it cause they never know what I’m gonna respond to. But, and there’s something to be said about just taking one camera and one lens and seeing what you can do with it. Um, usually I, I kind of like when you get to know the cameras and what they do when I’m going some places I kind of, I can kind of choose one that I think is gonna be the most appropriate and certain ones are more mobile than others and certain ones like wherever I go, like I’m always gonna have a whole good toy camera with me because if it breaks, so what if it gets stolen? So what if, you know, if I lose it, so what it would cost, you know, 20 bucks, you know, a roll of film costs more than the camera these days. So there’s an extra thing that I throw in and travel with. No matter where I

Anne Kelly  (01:08:51):

Go, I should have it out here with me, but I’ve got a glow in the AGA. It’s a limited

Michael Kirchofff (01:08:58):

What yeah. Why didn’t I know that I’m gonna see that next time. Yeah.

Anne Kelly  (01:09:09):

We’ll turn out the lights and uh,

Michael Kirchofff (01:09:13):

Out the work best for you with in creating what it is that you wanna do. You know, like if you’re going out to, to photograph in a busy city street, you’ll take what you think is going to get you the best results at that time. Or if you go portraits in the supermarket, you know, maybe that’s a different tool. So maybe,

Vintage Ty(01:09:36):

Maybe then it’s time for the, the

Michael Kirchofff (01:09:38):

Smart’s camp. Yeah. Maybe it’s something that’ll Eli and laugh at somebody, you know? Yeah.

Vintage Ty(01:09:44):

Actually <laugh> you might be onto something

Michael Kirchofff (01:09:48):

There. Yeah. I can see all of those dangling around your neck at any given time. <laugh> it could just as easily be the wrong camera at the right time. You just, it ends up giving you an effect causing a reaction that you didn’t expect, but it turns out to be something very positive. So you just don’t know, you know, like happy accidents that occur. Well, happy accidents. There, there aren’t really any rules, you know, free to do whatever you wanna do. And it fits your, then all the better

Anne Kelly  (01:10:18):

Question for both of you when we are able to travel again, where is the first place you wanna go anywhere in the world? We’re just dreaming.

Michael Kirchofff (01:10:29):

Boy. That’s hard.

Vintage Ty(01:10:31):

We’re we’re actually about to go on a road trip where we don’t, we’re going to meet up with we’re going to Arizona, like the grand canyon mm-hmm <affirmative>, but we don’t really plan on interacting with people along the way, but that’ll be fun, especially for shooting photos. Cuz you just stop every time you see something cool and go to all the little small towns and stuff like that. Traveling, traveling, I would like to go, I to go to Mexico city. Hmm. I’ve never been there and that’s on my high

Michael Kirchofff (01:11:02):

On my list. That would probably be a street photography utopia.

Vintage Ty(01:11:07):

Everyone. I know who’s gone there.

Michael Kirchofff (01:11:08):

Just loves it. Yeah. I’ve only traveled through, I haven’t never spent any time there, but it’s a busy place. <laugh> yeah. So I’m not sure where I would wanna go. I, I think the list of places that I’ve been is pretty great and the places that I want to go to is even here. And the strange thing that I realized recently during this lockdown is that all of this time that I’ve spent being at home or being local has been really great. And this is the least amount of travel that I’ve done in probably, I don’t know, 15, 16 years. And it’s been, it’s actually been oddly been kind of refreshing being able to kind of explore the possibilities I’ve had at home. But that I said, if I could get on a plane and fly someplace, some of my favorite places like, uh, Prague in the Czech Republic or St Petersburg and Russia, home, cultural metropolises, I always kind of gravitate to, you know, they there’s so much to see and do in places like that. At the same time, I could easily just walk up into the woods and be just as high. Right.

Anne Kelly  (01:12:14):

And, and maybe we’re all kind of exploring where we live. Again. I read something the other day, um, where they were looking at, you’d go to the airport and you’d check your bags and you’d get on the plane and you’d fly in a circle and then you’d land in the same place again, just because people missed the actual act of traveling, which is kind of crazy. Cuz isn’t that the part we all

Michael Kirchofff (01:12:36):

Thought we hated. Yeah. That’s always the part that I didn’t really

Anne Kelly  (01:12:39):

Care for. You never know what you’re gonna miss, I guess. Right. <laugh> I, I really think that creativity is, is key in survival in, in all times. That’s why it’s so great to chat with people like y’all so thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Thank you

Vintage Ty(01:12:56):

For having me. It was awesome talking with both of

Anne Kelly  (01:12:59):

You for sure. And, and let’s stay in touch everybody. Yeah, for sure. Are those out there watching? This is a brand new channel, so please do me a solid like comment, subscribe, follow art in the raw on Instagram and on Facebook. Great new content coming soon. Look forward to sharing that with you and thanks again, Michael. Thanks again, Ty. Have a good night, everybody.

Michael Kirchofff (01:13:24):

Thanks. It was great talking to both of you.

Speaker 5 (01:13:53):

Yeah.