Joel Truckenbrod – Photo Talk #11
This week’s interview is with Joel Truckenbrod. His website is www.joeltruckenbrod.com
I first got to know about his work through a forum in NPN where people were discussing his ebook: a photo project, a body of work on Banning State Park in Minnesota. What was intriguing to me was that Joel was offering this ebook as a free limited time download in pdf form. You can go to his website here to download it. I went ahead, downloaded this, got my afternoon coffee on a Friday and spent a happy couple of hours browsing and immersing myself in Banning SP.
His topic, his dedication in coming out with a portfolio, and then publishing it online, the way his photographs spoke to me, all inspired me to contact Joel and ask him a few questions.
This is what Joel has to say.
Foam Patterns, Photograph by Joel Truckenbrod, All Rights Reserved
SU: Tell me a little more about yourself. How did you get into photography?
JT: Well, I am a twenty-seven year old amateur photographer who currently resides in the twin cities area of Minnesota. Virtually all of my life I have been heavily involved in both art and various outdoor activities. My photography is ultimately an amalgamation of these two pursuits. The camera was introduced to me by a close friend during a mountain biking trip in northern Minnesota. We had decided to camp for a night at Cascade River State Park, located on Lake Superior, along Minnesota’s North Shore. Knowing of this planned stay in advance, he encouraged me to bring a camera with if at all possible. My brother borrowed me a manual Minolta SLR that he owned. Unassumingly, I brought it along. While we did go mountain biking from what I recall, I more vividly remember the time spent wandering up the river in the park, photographing anything and everything that caught my eye. Needless to say, I found the experience of exploring nature with a camera to be extremely compelling. I certainly didn’t know what I was doing at the time, but the act of arranging elements in the viewfinder was really exciting.
High Water Rapids, Kettle River, Photograph by Joel Truckenbrod, All Rights Reserved
SU:Your photography is predominantly landscapes. Can you tell us why are you attracted to landscape photography?
JT: Photographing regional landscapes has been the result of simply being honest with myself about what inspires me. I’ve tried my hand at other genres of photography, sometimes with a feeling of obligation, but landscape photography always call me back. Nature is where I feel the most connected, where I can recharge, and where I feel I have the most to say. These places offer a connection to past, present and future, well beyond the workings of man and our social constructions. Photographing landscapes offers a way to make connections; to experience something larger than oneself and come back with some record of that experience. It’s a subject that is amazingly diverse, constantly changing and full of surprises. You never know what’s going to happen, or what you’re going to find. There’s always something new to learn. It’s really rich.
Large flowered Trillium Bloom, Photograph by Joel Truckenbrod, All Rights Reserved
SU: You very recently published a digital portfolio titled “Banning State Park – A Photographic portfolio”. Why Banning State Park? Can you talk about this project and its conception?
JT: Banning State Park is located in east central Minnesota, about an hour and a half from where I live. The park is primarily comprised of dense woodlands, but it also contains a scenic river, as well as a number of creeks. It’s a rather uncelebrated place, certainly not a photographic hot spot. During the summer of 2006, about a year and a half after I had begun seriously pursuing photography, I decided to do a project on the park. My goal was to convey the essence of the park in 70-80 photographs. Most of my favorite landscape photographers tend to work in a focused, regional manner. This project simply took that ideal to the extreme. It gave me a tight set of parameters to work within, as well as a clear objective to pursue. I wanted to discover what it really meant to know a place well. This project was a way to push myself beyond the obvious.
I chose Banning over other possible locations for two primary reasons. The first is simply proximity. In other words, the park was close enough that I could economically drive over for the weekend, or even a day to photograph. Given the nature of the project, I knew I would have to return frequently in order achieve what I had envisioned. The second reason is a bit more complex. Banning is a park that I have always enjoyed. Many parts of the park remind me of where I grew up, and of when I used to go romp around the woods and wetlands as a child. Yet there are also enough differences in terrain and natural diversity within the park to hold my photographic interest. Intuitively I felt I would have enough subject material, it was also a place where I honestly felt inspired.
Snow, Red Pines, Photograph by Joel Truckenbrod, All Rights Reserved
SU: You have worked for more than 3 years in bringing this portfolio to light. Can you talk about what it took to complete this? Can you give any advice to other photographers contemplating photo projects of their own?
JT: It should probably be clarified that although the entirety of the project was created over a three year time span, the vast majority of the work was done between August of 2007 and June of 2008. I photographed many other places during those three years, almost all of the other images in my current portfolio were created within that same three year window. A large part of the reason it took so long to get the project fully underway, had to do with my lack of familiarity with my large format camera. Large format photography is significantly more complex and time consuming than working with a 35mm camera, and I had only been photographing for about a year and a half when I got the idea for the project, thus it took me a bit of time to climb over the proverbial learning curve.
In terms of what it takes to complete such a project, I would say that it simply comes down to making the choice to do it and then sticking with it! I’ve talked to numerous photographers who have expressed an interest in creating a cohesive body of work, but the majority don’t take that most important step of walking out the door and making it happen. In my experience, time spent working is directly correlated with the quality and quantity of images created. Time and effort are the closest things I’ve found to a silver bullet. Additionally, one needs to listen to their heart and follow their instincts. It has to be something you genuinely are interested in and want to do.
The majority of the images in the portfolio were created while I was a full time college student (finishing my second degree), and working twenty hours a week. It was a very busy time, but if I was able to make it happen, I think most people working a 9-5 job certainly could as well. All this said, I do think it’s extremely important to create a clear set of criteria from which to start, as well as a deadline. If one doesn’t know what they are trying to achieve, or when they should be finished, it’s highly likely that they won’t work effectively; Let alone even start the project. Photographers need to be proactive in setting their goals and priorities. As we all know, life is busy and there always is something else that can get in the way if one lets it.
Sandstone Arches, Hells Gate Rapids, Photograph by Joel Truckenbrod, All Rights Reserved
SU: Why did you decide to publish this portfolio digitally as a limited time free pdf download? Can you talk about the technical aspects that went into making this digitally?
JT: This project was really done as a personal exercise. In other words, my objective was to grow as a photographer rather than derive monetary gain from the project. As such, PDF publication gave me a cost effective way of sharing the project with others while still offering a high quality viewing experience. I’ve enjoyed the PDF ‘folios created by LensWork magazine publisher Brooks Jensen, and found PDF to be an excellent way of sharing bodies of work. PDF is very book-like in how it functions, plus it’s relatively secure. Personally, I’m very pleased that I have been able to offer my portfolio of images in this manner. It’s been a great way to share the images with others and get quality feedback.
Technically, it was fairly simple to create. Adobe Photoshop CS3 was used for virtually all of the work. I know Adobe InDesign is favored by quite a few people; however, I don’t have it. Instead, I manually made templates (12×12 @ 300 dpi) and dropped in 8×10 @ 300 dpi sharpened images. I then made the PDF by simply going to “File-Automate-PDF Presentation” in Photoshop. I created a “presentation”, told it not to downsample the images, but to save them as medium compressed jpegs. I also was able to turn off printing and editing in order to copy protect it a bit. Photoshop then assembled the PDF and that was it – pretty slick. I then opened up the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, removed any metadata and resaved. I opted for using larger files since it allows viewers to zoom in on the images to some extent if they want. Most of the images in the PDF hold up pretty well to 150% zoom. Obviously the trade off is that it’s a larger file to download; I felt it was worth it though.
Late October Sunset, Photograph by Joel Truckenbrod, All Rights Reserved
SU: Any recommendations? (like Photographers, Photo techniques, Music, Books, quotes, food..anything?)
JT: There’s a lot I could talk about here, but I’ll just stick with one solid recommendation. I mentioned Brooks Jensen earlier in the interview, and I would very highly recommend his LensWork podcasts. The podcasts focus on the art making aspects of photography rather than the purely technical; they’re absolutely loaded with great thoughts and ideas. You can find them here: http://www.lenswork.com/lensworkpodcast1-1.htm
SU: What are your future plans regarding this body of work? Can you mention how people interested in your work can contact you?
JT: Currently I’m exploring regionally based publication opportunities. I always enjoy interacting with other photographers and welcome questions anyone might have. I can be reached via the contact sheet on my website or directly via my email address: joel@joeltruckenbrod.com.
Thanks Joel!
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