Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.08.2012, Síða 42

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42 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 13 — 2012ART
"My father was a photographer,” Alas-
kan photographer Patrice Helmar tells
me while we look at the photos she
took at Mary Ellen Mark's workshop.
“He was like a visual anthropologist.
He had a camera store where I was
brought up, working in the shop. He
was primarily a portrait photographer,
yet also a photojournalist, so he kind
of did it all. And I learned from him and
the first cameras that I shot with were
kind of broken, from the shop. They
came from rich people who couldn’t
clean their cameras."
Photographer without a
cause
Looking at Patrice’s photos,
Reykjavík youth seen
through Alaskan eyes, I get
the feeling I'm seeing stills
from one of those raw and
honest teen films I love, like
'Fucking Åmål,' 'Donnie Darko'
or 'Dazed & Confused.' They have
the same honesty and intimacy about
them, which echoes the reasons she wanted to
learn from Mary: “Mary Ellen Mark was one of the
first female photographers that I saw,” she says.
“My dad had one of her books at the shop, and I
just loved how she captures real moments of daily
life in a beautiful way and the essence of people in
a patient and kind way. I think my father did that
too. I feel she is one of the best living photogra-
phers and I was really motivated to come here,
to learn from her; I feel if you want to learn, you
should learn from the best people,” she says. “It
was tough. I’m not rich. I worked a lot, but I think
it’s worth it to be here."
Unlike some of the other students, she didn't
have a particular assignment beforehand. "My
plan was to work as hard as I possibly could and to
get as many portraits and pictures as possible of
people living here,” she explains. “As an outsider
I have a different perspective, so for two weeks I
busted my arse and tried to get the best pictures
I could. And the teachers [Mark and Icelandic
photographer Einar Falur Ingólfsson] were really
incredible about telling me to get closer, telling
me how to frame the shots. They’re just excellent
editors, and it was very helpful to have someone to
telling you what to focus on, what to look for.”
Patrice says that she is most comfortable
shooting on the street, stressing that it’s important
as a photographer to get to know the subjects.
“I try to build some sort of relationship with the
people I photograph. I follow these people around
for about a week and a half," she says pointing
at one of the pictures, which exemplifies how
photography can be both the art of patience and
the art of luck. "These were very interesting. I just
met them by chance. And this guy was going to a
hospital; he was drunk and bleeding. I was out all
night long. This one was from a restroom at a bar,”
she says and praises her subjects: "Icelanders are
really friendly."
When she returns to Alaska, Patrice is going to
get her MFA. “But it’s really difficult to make a liv-
ing doing art full-time so I bartend and I teach and
take portraits and photograph weddings—what-
ever it takes to support the art I feel compelled to
make."
"Some of them hated me of course"
I've been chasing Mary Ellen Mark for a couple
of hours, between chatting with other students
and guests, many of them Icelandic photographers
I've worked with in the past. When I finally get her
to sit down for a few minutes she is exhausted, but
happy. “The work was great. It was a great class.
I hope we can do it again, but we must find some
way to subsidise it. We just squeezed this one
through. The tourist department and the cultural
department must help. We can bring in a lot of
tourists and photographers who want to come, but
we have to have some help from Iceland," she says.
“Definitely in this class, everybody did great
work. Some were more advanced as photogra-
phers than others, they continued what they had
been doing and they did beautiful work. Some
people were beginners, but they did great work
and you would never know that they were begin-
ners. Midway through, some of them hated me, of
course; they thought I was a bitch, treating them
like slaves, but they ended up taking great pictures
and that’s what it’s all about—if I were easy, I
wouldn’t be a good teacher."
- ÁSGEIR H INGóLFSSON
Patrice Helmar
www.patricehelmar.com
Teacher And Student A visit to Mary
Ellen Mark's photo workshop
“ Midway through,
some of them hated
me, of course; they
thought I was a bitch,
treating them like
slaves.”„
Studying photography with Mary Ellen Mark must be akin to taking rap lessons from Biggie
Smalls. Intimidating and humbling. And awesome. Would your ego be up for such a trip?