Sunday, September 5, 2010

kristina interviews julie

and now it's my turn to answer kristina's questions...
photo by my sister monica (processing by me)
1. did you always have an interest in photography?

in some way, i have to say not really, tho' i always had an interest in being photographed (i even once went to a professional photographer to do a marilyn monroe photo shoot just for fun). as i've gotten older, i've gotten less interested in being photographed and more interested in photographing. my dad had a newspaper and used to develop the photos for it in a darkroom in our basement and i remember when i was a kid, i loved to help him with that. i suppose what i remember most are the red glow of the light you use and the smell of the chemicals. i really wish i'd actually LEARNED about it, because i'd love to do some of my own photo developing today. he also used a lot of polaroids and peeling those back and watching them become clearer fascinated me too. so i guess i've always loved photos and cameras, but it's only relatively recently that i became interested in photography and using all of those cameras i collected over the years just because i liked how they looked.

2. if you were going to learn a new language, which would you choose (and why)?

i've been mulling this one over at odd moments since you sent me these questions. there are several that come to mind, tho' what i probably should do is properly learn some of the ones of which i already have some knowledge (russian, danish, macedonian come to mind). you'll like the first one that came to mind - swedish, since half of my husband's family is swedish, they have been rather frustrated with me, having lived in scandinavia for more than a decade and truly being unable to follow a conversation taking place in skånsk. i can make out the topic that's being discussed, but i can't really contribute, even if i stay in danish as the language i speak.

other than that, arabic comes to mind as a language i'd like to learn. i decided to study russian because i was a child of the reagan era and thought all that cold war rhetoric was a lot of nonsense that could be avoided if more of us had knowledge of russian. i feel a bit the same about arabic. there must be a lot of moderate arabic speakers and it's just a few radicals giving them all a bad name. but i guess i wouldn't mind being able to read that for myself.

and lastly, i think the world will, in the not so distant future, become a place where chinese would be pretty useful.

3. what is your dream job?

i think about this a lot. i'm not certain if it really exists, as it would be a combination of a job where you have really inspiring encounters with bright and interesting people who make you think and grow, travel frequently to interesting places and make a difference in some way with what you do. i'd like it to be something that utilizes my talents and creativity - i'm good at bringing diverse groups of people together and making sparks fly (in a good way). but although i'm good with groups like that, i also like to work independently and need alone time in order for the input and energy i get from the group sessions to come to fruition. i need room to get on with my tasks and to not be told how to do them, but be allowed to find my own way.  i think in many ways, i've been quite fortunate to have jobs that in many ways were all these things, tho' sadly not at the moment.

4. film or digital?

digital, because i can correct my mistakes so much more quickly, tho' i have a growing fascination with film. however, i don't think i could have turned to film without digital, because i've learned so much from it that actually does translate to film - ISO, aperture, shutter speed.

5. what is it about apple products that makes them so desirable?

good design. speed. sexiness. intuitive. and it helps that it seems exclusive and not everyone has one. smugness. superiority. i feel like apple just gets me.

6. do you think that there are biological differences between men and women, that make women better suited to take care of children and men better at providing for the family?

if i'm honest, i actually do. simple physiology means that women carry the child and can feed the child initially, neither of which men can do. but can a man be just a nurturing and caring a parent as a woman? absolutely. once again the scandinavian model proves it beyond a doubt. men all over the world could learn from it. my husband is a way better, more caring and loving parent than i am. it's probably more sociology than biology, tho', that i'll admit.

7. which language(s) do you dream in?

english.

8. sunrise or sunset?

sunset. i'm not really that much of a morning person. tho' i was just thinking this morning about how the good thing about this time of year is that the sunrise gets later and later, so soon it won't seem so bad to go snap sunrise pictures, since they'll be happening after 7 a.m. but i just love the more golden, warm light of sunset.

9. what advice would you like to give to the 20-year-old you?

don't marry that doctor just so you don't have to explain why you're studying russian literature.

10. if you were to shoot a portrait, which famous person would you like to photograph and where?

this is another one that has stuck with me since you sent these questions....the image that pops into my mind again and again would be photographing obama at work in the oval office. but not a posed picture, one caught in a moment of concentration, from the side.

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coming up next: the results of our first film swap.

2 comments:

kristina said...

thanks julie for your answers! it's great to learn more about you :-)

Polly said...

I thought I know you two by now but it seems there is always something unexpected to be told... great interview, great questions