HOARD MAGAZINE JUNE 2004
Kate Steciw and Camilla Meshiea met 5 years ago at Smith College, in a photo class. They had to share a camera since there weren't enough to go around. Their first shoot together was a bizarre, debaucherous affair involving hot dogs. They never stopped working together thereafter.
HOARD: Talk about your collaborative process. How do you work together as team photographers?
CAMILLA: I think it's rather unnatural how we work. We're like parasitic twins; very little dialogue is exchanged in the actual shooting process. As far as the conceptualizing process, I think the dissonance between us is where we become valuable to one another. We have an affinity that transcends usual relationships; Kate makes up for my deficiencies, she, on the other hand, has it all.
KATE: Our process is entirely collaborative from start to finish. We function, for the most part, like a well-oiled machine. At this point it is almost as if we are one person. Everything that happens during a project is amplified. This can be good or bad for obvious reasons. Camilla is the artistic conscience I never had.
HOARD: Sex. Say something about it. How is it conveyed in your work? Because I do see it there, don't I?
CAMILLA: I think I'm a repressed pervert. The reason you're not sure what you're seeing is because I'm not sure what I'm seeing.
KATE: I respond sexually to most things exciting, scary, comforting, tiring, beautiful, etc…I think its some kind of neurological problem; I'm sure this is captured on film by the all seeing eye of our large format camera.
HOARD: What inspires you?
KATE and CAMILLA: Assholes, scary people, adventures, screwing, vanity, crying, feeling stupid, sociology, phrenology, barbarians, genetic engineers, mad scientists, creeps.
HOARD: Where y'all from?
CAMILLA: I'm from London, England. Kate is from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
KATE: I am from the little town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Camilla is from another world entirely.
HOARD: In general terms, what are you trying to do with portraiture. What's the fascination with faces?
CAMILLA: I'm obsessed with heads. I think faces are the weirdest region of the body, weirder than genitalia or lungs.
KATE: Faces portray and/or betray our inner most thoughts and desires. We, as in all people, are constantly reading them. Camilla and I like to question the viewer's ability to read faces. We have a kind of control of a person's face in our pictures that is thrilling to us; though it may not be totally apparent to a viewer.
HOARD: Tell me something about working with the models. What is that like for you? Do you enjoy interacting with them? Or, are they just props for the photos?
CAMILLA: I hate interacting with the models, even when they're friends. I don't like talking to them or directing them or anything like that. Sometimes I'll tell them what the premise of the piece is, as a vague form of guidance, but that's about it. I usually just pick fuzz off of them and half-heartedly clap my hands and say "beautiful!" I've been told off a few times for not being more effusive.
KATE: Camilla refuses to interact with them entirely, leaving me to make awkward conversation about things like where they live and what they do for fun. I usually enjoy this because, for some reason, my manner makes them more uncomfortable than they already are which, for the most part, works to our advantage.
HOARD: Name some photographers or artists whose work you love and admire.
CAMILLA: I have a soft spot for Matthew Barney. I was really excited by a guy named Ernesto Caivano at the Whitney biennial. There's this dude called Fanny Kandell, who does some wild shit with post-it notes. Marlene McCarty gives me palpitations.
KATE: Hannah Corbett, David Bowie, Lionel Richie, Constance Faulk, David Lynch, Heidi Norton, ACDC, Guy Bourdin, Matthew Hollis, Sheree Hovsepian, Jeff Koons, Jane Critchlow, Craig Doty, Angela Rasmussen, and, of course, the magnificent Rachel Leifer.
HOARD: Define beauty.
CAMILLA: Beauty is terrifying. It scares the shit out of me, makes me wet myself. It'll usually make me cry. I want to squeeze it to death.
KATE: There are so many beautiful things in every day that are beautiful in a million different ways, I really wouldn't know where to begin. Camilla and I are often moved to tears…no, really!
HOARD: What else besides photography?
CAMILLA: I also write. I have two books in the making, but who knows what'll ever happen with that. I'm going to make a blockbuster movie about Palestine one day. We make video, in a larger collaboration with Fabulass Productions. Once every 3 years, I make a bust of someone I love out of that awesome no-kiln-needed clay.
KATE: Photography is my only medium of artistic expression. Though, I dabble in oils. [ END ]
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Kate and Camilla are based in Brooklyn, New York. For more information, and to view an extensive portfolio of work, please click HERE
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