M: Hello Beryl Fine! Tell me, why do you take photographs?
B: I take photos to remind the world of the beauty that surrounds us. Life can get so intense, it’s nice to be reminded of that.
M : Anyone and everyone can take a picture, what, in your opinion, makes a photograph a work of art?
B: It varies on the intent of the photographer. Art is at a point where nonconformity and working within a space, without boundaries, is customary. If the photographer has intent and takes on a concept or an idea that they are trying to communicate, than that effort in itself makes the photo a work of art.
M: Some of your work and some of the subjects you depict might be considered ugly (trash heaps, urinals, Billy Bob Thornton) by the average person. Is it your intention to redefine what is beautiful and what is grotesque through these images?
B: Yes, I think that narcissism and vanity are rather grotesque. While much of our culture praises beauty in taking on one traditionally accepted shape- I hope that my photos bring to light the idea that beauty, no matter its’ shape, can be just as appreciated. My world growing up was very much influenced by media-driven notions of beauty. I had to completely step out of that way of that thinking to challenge it.
M: Curiosity seems to be the hallmark of a good or a great photographer. What secrets do you wish to unfold in regards to your work?
B: Usually that comes down to the people I’m shooting. Most of what I think people find so curious about my subjects is that they are “abnormal” and that they live a typically atypical existence. The truth is that they are abnormal and atypical and that is what’s truly intriguing about them. Their reality is what keeps people fascinated. When people look at my subjects they see the stuff fiction is made of but actually these individuals just simply live in reality. The only secret that I want to share is their reality.
M: I love that you do not particularly glamorize your subject matter; your work tells the truth straight up and often sans gloss. Is there a statement on modern beauty that you’re making or is it simply an aesthetic preference?
B: Modern beauty has mutated into this pretense of surgically, digitally exaggerated features. It’s a bit intense… I just wanna explore imperfection and reality for a moment.
M: Why bike messengers?
B: Bike messengers are icons; completely independent, ruthless street rogues. I thought that it would be interesting to take them out of their urban city backdrop, juxtaposed with a stark white, seamless backdrop (much like Avadon) so that we can see them as they actually are.
M: Is beauty ordinary?
B: I think so.
M: Many Native American cultures believed that a photograph can imprison the soul. What if they’re right and you have unknowingly condemned legions of innocent people to wallow in an eternally frozen afterlife!?!
B: Damn, well that would be a bummer but meh…
M: Name one image in your memory, if you will, a transcendant or romantic flash in time that you do not have a photograph of but wish that you did…
B: Dude, that shit haunts me. Those moments constantly appear and than I just let them fade away…
http://berylfine.com
Tags: banzai, beautiful decay, beryl fine, bike messengers, camera skin, modern photography, muffinhead, vice magazine, www.berylfine.com
