Multicolored Reflections of Self

Multicolored Reflections of Self

I interviewed Marjorie Williams, a local up-and-coming photographer. Marjorie’s show, Multicolored Reflections of Self, will be showing through the end of the month at the Holland Project.

ANA MCKAY: Who are you?

MARJORIE WILLIAMS: I’m a photographer. I’m 18 years old. I’ve been taking pictures for six years now, and I’ve always lived in Reno.

AM Why did you start doing photography?

MW: So, I started taking pictures when I first saw Instagram on my dad’s phone. I was like “Wow! Look at everything you can do with this.” And, so, I started taking pictures of flowers. And then soon after that I just started seeing what [pictures] other people were taking, and more portraits, and started doing that. That’s how I got into it, basically.

AM: So you’ve been working with a camera for quite a while, and I’ve seen your work at the Holland Project before. Is this your first solo show?

MW: Yeah, this is the first solo exhibition that I’ve ever done.

AM: I’ve noticed that you’ve been exhibiting portraiture for a while — so what makes the portraits in Multicolored Reflections of Self different?

MW: Well, usually I don’t do self portraits as much — usually they’re of other people. This time it’s just self portraits. And I think it was really different for me because I could control exactly how I wanted the poses to be and stuff, and it was a lot easier to figure out how to take the picture because I was the only person there. Laughs. And I think the other thing that really makes it different it’s more of, like, a meditation on myself, rather than just a documentation of other people.

AM: What is the specific process you use for creating self portraits?

MW: How I got started doing it was basically arranging mirrors in my house — so, in my bathroom, and like my living room, my bedroom — and then I would take the picture and angle it so that the camera’s not in the shot. And so, I can still handhold [the camera] and be right there and look at it, and at the same time it’s like a picture of me from far away. So that’s what I sort of like about it. And I would set up the lights with different colored gels, and that’s how I got the different colors. That’s basically the process.

AM: In what ways is self portraiture similar and different to photographing other people?

MW: It’s similar because I can still recognise my expressions and, like, identify what I would want different. And also because I can’t always control my face, so there’s still, like, some level of something that I can’t control, basically. But I think it’s different because there’s a lot more that you can do because you know your own boundaries when you’re taking a picture of yourself, so you can basically do whatever you want.

MW: It’s going to start Tuesday, November 14th and go until December 1st, and the opening reception is on November 17th from 5 to 7PM at the Holland Project.

— Ana McKay (originally aired on KWNK 97.7FM)