Photographer Angela Strassheim's Musings on Large Format and Her Girlhood Project [RF Video of the Week]

Fine-art portrait photographer Angela Strassheim (who’s intrigued by such topics as childhood, family and coming-of-age) has a new exhibition focusing especially on transitional moments in girlhood called “Project Atrium: Angela Strassheim” at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville, comprising photos she recreated based on her own memories.

“I understand what it’s like to be a female at all these different phases of life; the male is still really important but it’s secondary,” she explains in the video. “And I think in this exhibition, you really see their influence, but they’re not the main focus.”

In more sense than one, the New York/Israel-based artist has mastered the art of persistence. She shoots her photos with a large-format 4 x 5 view camera — “big black cloth over your head” and all — playing around with the camera’s extremely versatile selective focus (she explains more about this in the video, and it’s pretty cool).

Strassheim often retakes photos over and over again until she has them right. “Many, many, many times it’s a picture in my head that I have to make,” she says, “and it can take years, sometimes, until it all comes together. And then all of a sudden one day, it’ll either be a place that I’m like, ‘Ah, that’s it!’ or a person. And then whichever comes first, I have to find the other counterpart, and that’s kind of what puts it into motion for me.”

“Project Atrium: Angela Strassheim” will be on view at the MOCA Jacksonville until March 1.

Check out more Videos of the Week, and email Libby Peterson with submissions.

Related Links

Brooke Shaden Talks Photography with Jason Groupp

A Photographer’s Very, Very Lucky Shot of Greg Louganis

Portrait Photographer Rémi Chapeaublanc’s “Gods & Beasts”