We came across David Egan’s work in his recent show at our favorite Lower Haight photo space, 4×5 Gallery. We felt David’s photographs conveyed a beautiful sense of stillness and untold stories, and so we contacted him for a short interview on the images in The Long Way Around.
Kim Sikora: Can you talk about your recent work?
David Egan: In the summer of 2012, I drove across the United States from San Francisco, CA to my child hood home in Fort Washington, MD and I brought my large format camera and 140 sheets of Kodak Portra 400 4×5 film along for the ride. In the beginning, the trip was just a way to get out and make photographs. As I made my way across the US, I found myself photographing the land, architecture, objects, and random strangers that I encountered. … The vision is about transformation. The project is titled The Long Way Around. This series of photographs is my search for places, people, and things that demonstrate the shift in the American landscape and my own personal search and transition. This shift specifically is a change in the appearance of the United States, things across America look identical.
KS: What kinds of situations or environments inspire you?
DE: I find everyday situations and places to be intriguing if captured within the right frame of time. I photograph real environments. I am often inspired by objects and places that offer feelings of nostalgia and hints of the past.
KS: You have a solo show currently on view at 4×5 Gallery. Can you describe some of your editing decisions in what you included in the show?
DE: Working with Gordon Szeto and Hung Tran of 4×5 Gallery, we edited images from my series The Long Way Around to work in a cohesive manner for their gallery space. The show contains 15 total images all of which are landscape photographs. We originally had discussed having portraits in the show as well but I personally decided to exclude them from this showing. Editing work is always a tough process as I find myself wanting certain images for personal reasons and it can be difficult to be objective at times.
KS: How has your imagery changed in the past few years?
DE: I have been fascinated with the changing landscapes in the US for awhile now but my work has certainly evolved and progressed over the past few years. It was not until 2009 that I truly got serious about making photographs and enrolled in graduate school to pursue an MFA in photography which I completed in 2012. I am very much of the mindset that hard work and dedication gets you places so I just continue to work on my photography. I study a lot of photographic history as well as currents trends within the art but nothing compares to getting out there and just learning on the job.
KS: Is there a new project you’re working on you’d like to tell us about?
DE: There is a new project that I am just starting to work on but it is in the very beginning stages. The series focuses on the theme of winter and my nostalgic feelings and memories.
Check out David’s website to see the portraits from The Long Way Around, alongside some of his other photographic work.