Interview with Lenny Foster

Producer/ Professor -Anna Miller

Editor: Ryleigh Current-Rhone /Photographer: Claire Rodgers / Interviewer/Author: Jakob McKinney

Lenny Foster is a local photographer currently living in St. Augustine. He is a new resident to St. Augustine and has been here for less than two years. He owns and operates out of Gallery One-Forty-Four, located on King Street. He is originally from Washinton D.C. He was a sales manager at a car dealership and stated that was he was working extremely long hours and needed a healthy way to cope with that and that was when he first found the art of Photography. He stated that he got into photography as newly sober person of about five years, to help find something else to do besides work and AA. Photography is one of them most important things that helped keep Lenny sober. He bought a used camera and started taking photos. What really got him going and into photography was taking a video production course at Montgomery community college. That allowed him the knowledge to start looking at things such as composition and lighting. At the Baltimore Museum of Art, he saw a Monet exhibit and seeing those pieces had a huge inspiration on Lenny. After this he went out into the garden and started crying because his shell had been cracked open, due to looking at things in an artistic way. He says that gets more inspiration from painters. Lenny is a very spiritual person crediting all of his work and achievements to God. Along with being sober one of the most important things he is grateful for is the ability to see and see through a creative lens. He states that he doesn’t always know what his pieces mean or will mean until after he is done, and then sometimes the meaning is revealed to him. However, he encourages people to come up with their own interpretations of his works. Over his career, he has lived in places such as Taos, New Mexico. While in Taos, he owned and operated his own gallery, The Living Light Photography Gallery. He started getting into photography as a business to find a new source of income in a slow Taos job market. Since 1997, He has had numerous pieces of his in gallery's, has been on talk shows, and has done many signings for his books.

Question 1: How do you incorporate the rule of thirds into your photography?

Answer 1: Well, I do quite a bit. I don’t know if I have a sample here, but… I use my camera a lot like you would probably use your video camera. Often, I'll just stand and take this stag picture. But often I'm looking through the viewfinder and I'm moving till the scene or the composition is recognizable and kind of speaks. This! then I’ll shoot. Sometimes I have to do multiples, but these are examples of the rule you’re speaking of... So, I'm looking as I'm moving and seeing how that rule would apply. One of my favorites, I have a few like this, where I have a narrow strip of land, or I have some seascapes where it may be just a narrow strip of sky and then there’s sand then there's you know where the ocean meets the shore and where waves break. So, I may shoot it a couple different ways to see [which is] most pleasing images that have a really wonderful impact… See here, it creates a more pleasing aesthetic, you know with the bottom third in the primary focus. So, I think about it. Sometimes it's consciously, sometimes out of repetition it comes natural… to try to compose that way.

Question 2: As an artist how do you approach the laws about copyright and how do you feel about them?

Answer 2: haven’t. You know, you could be neurotic about having your stuff stolen, you know, you could be neurotic about anything, but I'm not so focused on that. You know, I'm sure. You know, once you do, once you create something is copyrighted. That's kind of automatic. I haven’t registered with the Library of Congress. That's a different thing. I have yet to do that but if someone wants something bad enough, and they want to take it, you know. If I see it and then see they're like making money, but that's a different issue. But people take stuff all the time right now. I have so much else going on to focus on that I can’t be too concerned about that. It's much easier of course with photography then or video that it where you can music than it would be for painting. 

Question 3: How do you incorporate social media in to work in terms of getting feedback, selling work, and communications with your audience?

Answer 3: You know, it makes all the difference in the world. I look at it- and my son laughs at me- I look at it as going fishing every day, you know, social media is a free way to show, display your work and also to test. Like every day I'm putting up at least one image on the two main platforms- I use Facebook and Instagram and there’s a couple others I just discovered. I'm posting stuff that I’m moved by or just created or I'm wondering how it's going to be received and... so I also use it as, like, a test mark. So I may post at a fairly new image that had not been seen and I'll see how much interaction I get from that. A lot of people that know me or collectors, they are constantly looking to see what I might put up on any given day. What is crucial in my business is not having a great deal of walk in and I just won't sit here and just wait for somebody. I would just dry up on the vine. You know, I have to be in the Gallery. [I] have to be constantly engaging with every possible avenue to try to do business.

Question 4: How do work with the fact that everyone can be a photographer in our current world?

Answer 4: It was more of a factor when I was a photographer for hire. You know, when I was doing weddings and doing family stuff and kind of low end commercial work for, like, bed and breakfasts. They needed promotional work or a restaurant. But mainly the family events… In a wedding, Bar Mitzvahs, First Holy Communions in the last 3 years or so, everyone was a photographer. [They’d] be jumping in my way with their phones and I’d have to just elbow my way to get some space. And for some potential clients, they thought, “Well, I'll get my friends to take pictures with their phones”. And you can get a decent picture and you can email it or text it. But as far as having a high quality image, it's not the same.

Question 5: Is there any point in your life that you can point to being a inspiration for your photography and who was your main influence in photography?

Answer 5: I was a sales manager at this car dealership just working crazy hours and I needed a healthy way to deal with that. You know, I was a newly sober guy, I was probably sober like 5 years and so I needed something to do, you know, so I bought a used camera and started taking pictures. I think what got me going was taking a video production class at the Montgomery Community College so that got me to looking. So I started playing around with the camera and I went to the Baltimore Museum of Art and I saw for the first time one of the great masters of painters, Monet. I saw a Monet exhibit and, you know, seeing the masterful piece up close, it is a powerful thing. So I remember I went outside in the garden and I just I just started crying and I couldn't figure out why something that show kind of crack me open, you know to think about having. Looking at things are looking at life in an artistic way and being a creative person. So that was like a main jumping off point for me, but in as far as Inspirations, you know, I probably get more inspiration from painters.

Question 6: How would you describe your style of photography?

Answer 6: Years ago, when I moved to Taos, I was working various part-time jobs before I went full-time in photography, which wasn't a big plan of mine it just kind of happened because of the rate of pay in Taos. I moved out to Taos from D.C., so that I could have a different way of live and when I saw the average hourly wage in Taos, I was like, oh shit, I've got to do something. I've got to create something, and I was into the pictures and I was like I need to figure out a way to sell more pictures and I did that but in working in the store, I was doing these cards and I had probably 10 accounts and in town a different stores as well as selling cards and I remember I was wasn't sure of the quality of my work or where was going or if I could pursue a full-time life as a photographer and I didn't know the value or worth of my work and I was kind of bummed because that point I didn’t have like a signature style. That was still developing and remember I told that to this artist Ed Morgan who I really admire. He was a nationally known, he did this wonderful embossing images paper cast in Boston with gold leaf and paint and I was like, Ed I don't know where this is going, I don’t have a Style or if the work is it. He said “Man, you don't need to know.” He says, “just keep taking pictures.” and I was like Ed, that's too damn simple, but it was one of the greatest pieces of advice that I had ever gotten at that point. That was the key in just focusing on what I like to do, what I like to see, what I love to create, that one helped me to get better and two that helped me develop a style. Not long after that a turning point, was when I read something that spoke to me, how to make images that had more impact and the key for that particular writer-photographer was to get closer and for me that changed everything. I started not so much looking at a really broad perspective, it was the intimate details of whatever why there was a flower where was still live, where there was an inanimate object, whether it was a portrait, Biscayne series, which is very popular. The work started taking on its own noticeable style. So, people that are familiar with my work nationally when they see something, they kind of know that it's mine.

Question 7: How do you approach lighting and when to use added light?

Answer 7: Well, I think for me the training and the way I operate probably comes from years of photographing events, where you show up and you don't know the how it's going to be. That’s where the Jazz man in me comes out, improvisation comes in you come upon it a situation that you hired to do or you just shooting for pleasure or whatever and the situation is the situation and you said okay in a matter of seconds or minutes, how can I work with this and you just do that. Like today is a beautiful, I mean, there's clouds or some texture in the sky. You know like the beach would be cool. I just work with whatever's there and try to do that. I don't add light I may add a reflector. In some situations, I see things that I go, okay, I'm going to come back at this time of day. Or I'm going to come back when it's overcast or I'm going to come back when it's sunny, you know, if it's a local thing, then you can do that. Or in some situations you can go in the spring, this would be a good place to be or I'm going to come back in the winter, or this would be great to shoot in the winter. Because the light is different of course at sea level than it is at 7,500 feet where I just came from. The quality of the light is different and, in the seasons, or in the time of year, the quality light is different and you kind of get to know.

Question 8: Do you feel that you and your work relate to modern photography?

Answer 8: Well, I look at a lot of work. I'm probably more of an old-school kind of guy and classic imagery. I'm not much on ultra-modern or overly worked work. Super-duper, saturated razor sharp, or the trend of the day. I just focus on what I notice and what I'm inspired by. And fortunately, I shot a lot of years on film. So even with my digital camera, I tend to approach it like I'm using film where I'm not shooting 500 pictures. [For] one, I don't want to edit 500 pictures if I go out and shoot on a day. So I try to compose and act as though I'm using film and I have a limited number. And I try to think in terms of just keeping the quality up not creating or thinking about postproduction. [Obviously there’s some work] worked out in Photoshop, what have you, to enhance an image but they don't look drastically different than what I saw and what I saw in my mind when I was creating.

Question 9: How do you decide how and when to make use certain edits and filters?

Answer 9: The guy who does my printing does most of the post-production work. I'll do a little minor stuff to get a sense of how I might want to see it. A number of the work may fall in a particular category either in a body of work or images that I'm creating may fall into a body of work or particular style. So there is a look like the Magnolias behind you pretty much you're going to have that feel and look to them when I'm doing most of it in black-and-white. This new bit color when I just put up yesterday, which I love. I'll have a handful that are colored, but they'll have a certain look and feel to them and since I've been shooting for a while, I have developed bodies of work in a number of pieces in each body of work. The work tends to fall in those categories and I try to keep some consistency. Like you look at these toned flowers are pretty much the same tonal range as these still lives. I have very still life, but most of them are colored but these are kind of pastel-like. The Healing Hands tend to be more vibrant. There's some that are subdued, like in black and whites. So often I would know when I see it and shoot it how I want to go. When working with the people that do the post-production for me, they may have some input. They’ll say “I know you wanted to see it like this, but we also thought of this”.

Question 10: What was the inspiration for “Healing Hands”?

Answer 10: I went to a week-long healing ceremony in Senegal West Africa and this particular ritual has taken place for like thirty something years, every year around April. My sister had been, while she was working on her master's and then her doctorate, she had been a couple times to these ceremonies and she took me along and I just started shooting- this was my first trip abroad to shoot- and I just started shooting and I noticed when I came back, but I didn't realize a week long ceremony was [so] powerful.

Question 11: What is the most significant difference in making art and selling art on the west coast vs the east coast? Is there a difference in photography market?

Answer 11: People would come specifically to Taos to look for art. So that was kind of like an art Mecca and because of my longevity and the quality of the work and location, it was easy to do business. The only reason I left was because of my aging folks. And I think maybe overall because people will come in looking for art, they were more art conscious, more art savvy, more art educated, more art focus. Here, it's more of a vacation. The art gallery scene is not as strong as it was out there. So… and I'm just in my second year, so I'm still developing a local and regional following. You know, I still do a lot of business with… clients from out west, southwest. Clients from northeast, north, northwest. Just driving to build a base of a regional friends and collectors. I saw that the going is a bit slower here. And I think overall, like I said, it's not necessarily an art crowd that comes here. So it's probably a little bit more education involved in explaining to people the processes required to work and in understanding the quality of the work. And that this photographic art is fine art. It's not something on the lower tier. 

Question 12: Are most of your customers that come into your King St. gallery window shoppers, or do people come in specially to talk to you about custom projects?

Answer 12: Well, we haven't had a steady enough, heavy enough flow for me to really determine. You know, it’s kind of funny. There are people who live close by, they work close by and go back and forth, but the majority don't actually look, let alone stop in. They don't even turn their head. They're walking down the street on their phones or they're making a beeline between the dorm to school or a beeline between the Winery in The Distillery, or the chocolate place. You know, so this location is not in the heart of downtown where they would be more traffic. But even with that people discover, you know… And then I have people that are specifically looking for me. Either they've read something or they've driven by at some point. Then we make a deal. So it’s kind of a variety of foxes. There's no set. I can't say that 50% of my sales are from walk-ins and 50 are from online. I do a lot of online business so that's probably the majority at the moment, but the longer I'm here, I would expect that I'd get a more steady flow of people coming in.

Question 13: I see in your projects, especially the healing hands portfolio, that you use many symbols. What part does semiotics play in your photography?

Answer 13: Well… my folks are a deeply religious, spiritual people. And in a kind way too, you know, they aren't you know, determined bible thumpers. They have a softer belief in faith, and so growing up with these symbols in the Baptist Church… although we don't walk the same walk, I am very deeply affected and influenced by that and moving to the Southwest in Taos, in particular, were just kind of known as like this spiritual vortex, a lot of people from different walks and faiths and traditions come through there. So I've been exposed to a lot and that's why a lot of the imagery in the hands, you know speaks to that or what I perceive to be spirit in everything even in as I said inanimate objects like these chairs, these Deacon chairs. This colorful one with little church in the Bahamas. A lot of it I'm conscious of, sometimes I don't see things, sometimes things are revealed. Once the image is worked up and print it where it may have a deeper spiritual meaning or stronger symbol. Typically the 3 for me are beauty, spirit, and love. You know, I think that will probably be the common theme no matter what body at work you're looking at. For me, you know, I'm seeking peace. This is a freaking chaotic world and my beautiful, creative mind can get that way too. So I'm seeking to surround myself and to repeatedly look at those things that bring about calmness, love, spirit, beauty.

Question 14: Your work varies from bright colors to the stark contrast of black and white. Can you talk about the choices that lead you to these aesthetics?

Answer 14: Well, you know for some major factor is the subject matter. If something is vibrant and active and colorful, I will probably tend to keep it that way. Although I may shoot both, you know, I may shoot something with a digital camera and leave it color and I may shoot something with my digital camera and convert to black and white or I may use my medium format film camera if I want two different looks or if I'm not sure. But a lot is determined by the situation and setting and lighting. Like I don't know how many people were like this, but when it gets gray, I get excited. When it's overcast, I’m like yeah! And it also depends on my mood. More recently and sadly, you know, I've been photographing, and my mother died in October, I've been photographing her hats. She's a church lady and I don't know about how many hats she had. I'm going to go through them one by one. I photographed of one this morning. And so and I photographed one the other day. And if my mood is one of more meditative or calmer or somber I shoot ,too, to change my mood, you know, the film, the photographic medium format camera. It's a much slower process. The more meditative process and more quiet process and you can see that's what I tend to focus on is the simplicity of calmness, the spirit of beauty.

Question 15: There are clear distinction is your photos of nature vs man, a classic binary opposition. Can you talk about pairing animals and naked humans together, and what that signifies?

Answer 15: have a body of work of nudes I have a couple in this book. I haven't shown. Yeah, I have a lot of them and what I'm getting to be sometimes the bodies of work will collide. 

Like the image that you are probably speaking of is the woman she has, is a combination of a few different things, she has the owl wings on the back, on her back and she's embracing a horses neck, is called the last goodbye. It's a very sorrowful image. Sometimes, in a lot of cases, in other photos they are like a diary for me, like a journal. I tend to shoot no matter what's going on in my life, sometimes some of the most beautiful images come from a really hard place and when I'm in the middle of a hard place I’m greatly inspired by agony or ecstasy. Sometimes I'm just inspired to instinctually create something and maybe not fully understanding what it's about. I’m probably from the standpoint of like shoot it now and then figure it out later. If you don't know where it's going or where it's leading or what it's all about. And does it doesn't have to be you know it can just be like “Wow, this is a nice image!” If it requires a lot of its explanation, for me it’s not good. 

Question 16: Do you have any upcoming work that you can share with us and any inspiration you can give to up and coming artists?

Answer 16: I submitted a body of work to the Guggenheim foundation for a grant. Every year they put out a call for entries, people enter in September, somewhere around 2000 to 3000 people apply every year. They select 169 people for the grant, you propose a project for the grant, and with the grant money you're not restricted to using the money just on that project you can use it for whatever. I ended up moving to downtown to Lincolnville MLK a year-and-a-half ago and I knew little about the history of St. Augustine the history in general but the African history African American history and civil rights history, which is fascinating, and I was like oh my God, I had no idea. So I started riding my bike around to these different places, like the Accord Civil Rights Museum has these Accord Freedom Trail stops, with placards in front of historical places of homes and so I started riding my bike in the evening and that was my night school I was getting an education what took place on these streets and I got the idea of taking shoes and placing them in certain places and then writing a little narrative. So that's the project then committed to the Guggenheim and I call it where we stand.