MEET THE ARTISTS:
Erik Tanner
WHERE DID YOU GROW UP: I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas but central Florida is very much my home. I feel like Buzzfeed gives Florida a bad rap but once you get past all that, living there is an existence that puts being outdoors in high regard. At least that’s how it was for me.
WHEN DID YOU FIRST BECOME INTERESTED IN PHOTOGRAPHY: I dabbled with photography in high school. To be honest it was the easiest class to sneak out of and I was pretty disinterested in sticking around. About a year into college I picked it back up. For me it was very much a time of reevaluation, both of myself and my environment. I saw it as a means to peel back layers of different ways of living as it’s a medium that really forces you to get in close to whatever it is you’re interested in.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU: Really, so many things. Right now, the films of Alain Resnais, Federico Fellini and Pawel Pawlikowski. The paintings of Joan Miro, Paul Cadmus and Lucian Freud. The photographs of August Sander, George Platt Lynes and of course Irving Penn.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE IMAGE THAT YOU'VE TAKEN: I feel like I’m still learning so much and am hungry to explore new ideas so I find it hard to reflect on old work in any meaningful way. There are of course many images I care about but I am most attached to the idea of what comes next.
WHAT ARE ONE OR TWO OF YOUR FAVORITE MOMENTS FROM PAST SHOOTS: Over the last year there have been a few shoots that really reinforced different modes of working. With Josh Brolin, we built this performance out of the idea of feeling repressed and how that can make you unravel. We were working quickly and it was extremely impulsive. At the end of the shoot it was sort of like regaining consciousness to see what we had made. On the opposite end is Steve Perry. He came to my studio clearly carrying weight. We worked slow and spoke of loss and remembrance. It was one of those times where it was equal parts photoshoot and group therapy session.
IF YOU WEREN'T A PHOTOGRAPHER WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING INSTEAD: Most of my life up until college when I realized I didn’t have the patience to get through a heavy curriculum of microbiology, I was set on being an Oceanographer. Perhaps that.
WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE HISTORICAL FIGURE: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
WHAT SONG GETS STUCK IN YOUR HEAD MOST OFTEN: It’s honestly been following me around since I was a child. “Lemon Tree” by Fools Garden.
WHAT IS YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL: Oliver Sacks, or maybe a baby hippo according to a friend.
IF YOU COULD ONLY EAT ONE FOOD FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE: If I simultaneously could eat one thing and was ready to give up on myself, pot pie.
WHAT IS THE ONE ITEM OF CLOTHING THAT YOU WEAR MOST OFTEN: Black jeans.
WHAT WOULD THE TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY BE: Dilettante.
WHEN'S THE LAST TIME YOU LAUGHED SO HARD IT HURT: For whatever reason, face-in-a-hole kills me in the worst possible way. Don’t ask me why.
WHAT IS YOUR SECRET TALENT: Pretty decent at table tennis.
WHAT IS YOUR GO TO DANCE MOVE: The wallflower.
WHAT IS THE STRANGEST THING IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR: Multiple jugs of apple cider vinegar. Not that weird to some.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WAY TO UNWIND AFTER A BUSY DAY: If i’m proper worn out, I just watch The Office - I’ve seen every episode more times than I can count. At this point it’s like a security blanket.
