[Photography] Interview with Harrison Zeiberg

[KELP JOURNAL] Harrison, you and I debated a bit about what photos to include in this show. We talked about themes and perspectives; that got me curious: of all your photographs, what made you pick these five to go together?

[HARRISON ZEIBERG] Most of the photos I’ve taken over the two years since I’ve taken up photography, although not all, have been of things or places that I more or less come across in my daily life. This started somewhat out of practicality since I have not traveled widely. As I went further into photography, I realized that you don’t need to travel hundreds of miles to find something beautiful. I realized that I can be a “real photographer” even if I only take photos of things I easily have access to. In that sense, I hope people change the way they look at things. Sunlight streaming through the trees or a wave crashing on rocks are not images or sights that are accessible to everyone, but they are currently to me, and I wanted to take the time to appreciate that. In that way, I hope people do the same. There is beauty everywhere around us, and if not beauty, at least something interesting to look at, we just have to look. That’s why I chose these photos, they all highlight a moment of beauty in nature, a moment that could easily have been overlooked, and thanks to a moment of free time and luck, I was able to not overlook them.

[KJ] What I love about them is the feeling of the power and expanse of nature. Each one is looking out, looking beyond. It gives me the feeling of being out in the elements, or in the case of the winter one, of wanting to be out in the elements. What techniques do you use to shape this intention in the photos? Perspective? Framing? Color? 

[HZ] I have to admit a certain lack of knowledge regarding the technical aspects of photography. I only took up photography after gaining interest after leading a photography exhibit project during my AmeriCorps Year of Service. I went into the project not knowing anything about photography, although many of my friends are photographers, and left with a new appreciation and interest in the art form. This is all to say that I take my photos off of instinct. When I have my camera on me I look around, try to find something interesting, and then try to think of a unique angle for the photo. Oftentimes, this may mean I’m left with rather blurry photos trying to get a closeup of a flower, or a photo of the completely wrong thing since I’m taking the photo from my waist, but thankfully my method has worked for me.

[KJ] Thinking of photographing landscapes, do you think that photographers, and by extension their photographs, help or hurt the landscapes we photograph? You hear many stories about people walking on delicate and endangered landscapes like salt flats or the thermal areas of places like Yellowstone. 

[HZ] With all art you have to have a certain level of respect for your subject. In the example you stated, I think it’s clear that those photographers are hurting the landscape, potentially not intentionally, but once you step on something you can’t not have stepped on it. On the other hand, there is something to say about people taking photographs to help preserve nature. In college, one of my majors was History, and without people taking photographs and recording events, we would understand not just our collective past but our present much less than we do now. A photographer can help a landscape by showing the world a specific location at a specific moment, and by also recording for posterity what something looked like, but we always need to be careful in our practices so that they do not become exploitative.

[KJ] I always love asking my multi-faceted creators some questions about the intertwining of their media. I am always so curious if they believe that one form influences another. Does your writing, for example, show up in the way or what you photograph?

[HZ] I don’t think the two forms explicitly interact with each other, but I do have a general interest in taking a new look at what could be overlooked. I mentioned this before, but most of the photographs I take are of things I have access to more or less in my daily life but are often overlooked by me. The writing I’ve done that I believe really has worked has often featured characters that are not necessarily in positions of power and are having to react to what the world has thrown at them. Looking at these together, I’d say I like using my creative energy to highlight a moment or a subject matter that may not get the attention I think it deserves.

[KJ] Another favorite question of mine is whether the form of a project is something you choose or does it choose you? Does something, for instance, begin as a piece of writing and become a photo, or does it begin as writing and stay writing?

[HZ] For me, if something starts as writing it stays as writing, and the same for photography. I get two very different things from each form. Writing is a long process, where you have to edit and sit with the stories, and try to make them work. Photography for me is different because it is immediate. A lot of my photos are of nature, and nature is always changing. If I took the photo a moment later of the wave breaking on the rocks, that’s a different photo. If I wait a moment longer on the train to take a photo of the fog and the trees, that’s a different photo. With that same photo, if you had been there the next day, you would have seen sunny fields with a range of mountains in the background. The photo I took on that day was only accessible to me on that day and in that moment. The immediacy of photography is a draw for me. In all of the photos I’ve submitted, I’ve never edited them except to make the photos a higher resolution. In writing, I often go through seven or eight drafts before I think it is ready to submit somewhere, and even then there are always edits after initially submitting something.

Harrison Zeiberg is a photographer and writer from Massachusetts. He is a recent graduate of Wheaton College (MA) and currently works at a non-profit in Boston. His previous creative credits include the Inlandia Review, the Washington Square Review LLC, the Gabby & Min Literary Review, Havik, and the New Works Virtual Festival 2020.