© Will Steacy• Name, location
Will Steacy, New York City
• Is photography your day job? If not, do you want it to be?
Yes, but I always got my hands dirty in many other things...I don't sleep.
• Can you remember/describe the first print you ever made? Why photography? Why do you do this?
Growing up I had a darkroom in my basement from 6th grade on, so in terms of first prints it's all a bit fuzzy, but in middle school and high school I used to go to hardcore shows every weekend and take pictures of the bands and print that stuff up in my basement. I would send them in to all the hardcore zines and they ended up in a couple. That meant the world to me back then. My father is a lifelong newspaper man and so is his father, and my father back in the day at one point used to take pictures for a newspaper and while his is on the editorial side now, he was always taking photographs. So as a kid I was always exposed to that and I have had a camera in my hand since I was 6 years old, a darkroom in my basement since 6th grade, etc, etc. I always hated school and wanted to drop out since 1st grade, how I actually went on to college I don't know, but in 11th grade I had a month long internship with a photographer and didn't go to school for that month and instead took pictures or was in the darkroom printing all day, and I still remember the moment when I was fixing a print and had the feeling like, this is what I fucking want to do, I will be a happy man if I can spend the rest of my life doing this. But of course mid afternoon daydreams as 16 year old (you dont want to know what else I would daydream about...) and being 28 now and somehow making this life happen, a lot has happened and its a lot of hard work living this day dream.
© Will Steacy• How did your project develop?
It originally began as a collaboration with a writer. I was interested in what happens when words and images are blended together and how the two play off each other and they become a whole other medium. We traveled together on and off for almost a year and our experiences were recorded in two different forms, words and photographs, and of course felt by two different people, and I was interested in that tension where one experience or happening was seen and expressed with different eyes and how those play off each other.
© Will Steacy• It's early yet, but have you had any concrete opportunities arise from your participation in Critical Mass? Shows? Publications? Print sales? High fives at a party?
Nothing that I know of. But perhaps like in some 80s movie a hot chick out of nowhere with a shinning light on her will come up to me at a bar and be like, "Hey, I saw your pics in Critical Mass, they were awesome, you wanna get out of here and take a ride in my Ferrari, you can drive, and then we'll go back to my place, I have a fridge full of beer and a camera that has a sticky shutter, maybe you can help me loosen it up?" That would be a great night!
© Will Steacy• Who are your favorite photographers, images, websites, projects, or blogs, etc. that inspire?
Taryn Simon, David Simon and The Wire, Dorothea Lange, Paul Graham, Charles Bukowski, Mike Tyson, Franz Wright, De Kooning, PL DiCorcia, Joel Sternfeld, Robert Hass, Phil Perkis, Miles Davis, Hunter Thompson, New Orleans, Francois Truffant, Jim Morrison, Jack Johnson (the boxer), Walker Evans, Jacob Holdt, Blind Willie Johnson, Raymond Carver. As for blogs I'm always keeping up with We Can't Paint, Justin James Reed, Shane Lavalette, Tema Stauffer, Amy Elkins, Nina Corvallo, Brian Ulrich, Flax Photo and 40 Watt, of course, among others.
© Will Steacy• Do you have a favorite youtube video that you'd like to share? It doesn't have to be photo-related.
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