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Alexandra Tursi: Could you tell us about the stories behind the images you are sharing?
William Wacker: This portfolio was shot during a nine-month tour of Japan, Indonesia and South Korea. I really prefer to allow the images to tell their own story, even if that narrative may be polyphonous.
The story behind the portfolio has to do with my wanderlust. I had a friend teaching in South Korea, so my girlfriend and I decided to spend a year teaching there. The Korean visa is tied to the school where you teach; so native English speakers sometimes get treated like cattle over there. It’s a really degrading type of ownership.
After a tumultuous few months, we politely told our boss to f-off and traveled to Bali and lived for a bit in Japan. Bali was incredible and reminded me a lot of India, which is by far my favorite location thus far. Japan was equally incredible, but in a very cement-clad, consumerist way. Anyway, I am trying to put together a portfolio or book that could go along with Michaud’s “A Barbarian in Asia.”
AT: What do you need in your studio before you set to work?
WW: Oh...a studio...I can't wait. I am currently living out of my truck and on couches and in basements between Portland and the bay area of California, so I suppose I really only need my computer, my camera and my lovely Olympia SM9 typewriter. Other-than-that, I love myself some coffee and really need to feel somewhat organized. As Flaubert says: "Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."
AT: What is the creative process like for you?
WW: It varies based on medium. I only really feel comfortable when I have a lot going on. As long as my brain is working in all capacities, I feel content. Most of the time I can't recall actually creating a piece. I see it a year later and realize that I don't even remember fashioning it.
AT: What technical considerations did you employ in your photography?
WW: I usually shoot from the hip, so I really just try to adjust my light meter as best as possible. The rest is Photoshop, although I try to keep the integrity of the photo without any unnecessary enhancement.
AT: What are you currently working on?
WW: I am currently working on adding some type of narrative element to a suite of abstract watercolors I have been experimenting with. I have been working with watercolors for quite some time now. I used Gerhard Richter's watercolors as a beginning point about half of a decade ago, and I tried to push the medium to its utmost extremes regarding opacity, color, layering, etc. Now, I want to create a narrative within the abstraction I have attained.
I am also working on a number of fiction projects including a novella, an adapted play and some short stories. Without giving too much away, I am taking two character's dialogue from a movie and plugging it into one of my favorite two-character plays. My novella chronicles my extraordinarily bizarre experiences working in the mortgage industry and witnessing the genesis of our current economic situation; think “Boiler Room” meets “Lonesome Jim.”
AT: Have you ever made an artistic pilgrimage? If so, where did you go and why?
WW: I have not. Or, I do everyday. I try always to create something. Every second is ripe with opportunity for a story.
AT: Who are three other photographers you think are readers should check out?
WW: I was particularly taken with a contact sheet by Seiichi Furuya. It was taken during his wife's suicide while he and his son were watching a parade on the television. It is quite haunting.
AT: Name a book that has inspired your work as an artist.
WW: Some of my favorites: Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss, The Impossible by Georges Bataille, The End of the Affair by Graham Greene and The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell. Other than that, I love Leanne Shapton's new book, and I have been piously listening to the band Man Man while painting.
AT: If you had the time, what else would you do?
WW: I kind of want to watch the first season of True Blood. My girlfriend loves vampire movies, so I should probably try to set aside a weekend for that.
Interviews: Wendy Tetsu | Major Jackson | William L. Wacker | Joan Curran | Favianna Rodriguez and Josh MacPhee | John Huddleston | Jason Middlebrook | Francesca Gavin | Jane South | Ash LaRose | Stephen Carter | Kim Frohsin | Carolita Johnson
