A portion of this Interview by Michael Behlen was originally published in the 2017 PRYME Edition Annual Journal.

I originally discovered and published Polly Chandler’s series You Build It Up, You Wreck It Down in 2017 when I produced the PRYME Editions 2017 Annual Journal. After revisiting her series again, now in 2020, I couldn’t help but realize that she has created a body of work that by all accounts, is absolutely timeless and deserves further recognition.

Chandler is a 21st-century medium, channeling the deep gravelly voice of singer-songwriter Tom Waits into surreal one-image narratives that Christopher Nolan would be jealous of. Her dramatic black and white interpretations of his songs, created on Polaroid Type 55 film and a large-format view camera, explore heartbreak, isolation, and our quest for meaning as we navigate through the trenches of our darkest thoughts and dreams.

Like Waits, Chandler’s art has a mystical ability to touch our emotional nerve endings like white-hot coal that scorches our minds in a metaphorical wildfire, leaving only a vague hangover of melancholy left to hold on to. Her work, like the songs of the Beatnik inspired singer, are both incredibly specific. yet wonderfully vague, allowing the viewer to interpret and infuse their own meaning based on their own memories and current state of being. One of her best examples of this is her selectively focused image titled “And If You I Have To Go Will You Remember Me”, taken from If I Have To Go. This chilling image shows a man frozen in time surrounded by cold dead concrete, staring at the warm light just around the corner. He has glimpses of what his immediate future holds but we will never know if he makes it through. However, maybe this is just my decipherment of her unique photographic code.

Chandler spent over a decade creating her series You Build It Up, You Wreck It Down and every single image is worth seeing and spending time with. Each photograph represents a moment in time of the artist's life that helped her process a confusing changing world with the chemicals of instant film. She shared with us that “There are those occurrences that sit with us and settle into who we are. Some are more forceful than others. I am seeking to explore those identifiable instances that seem to slow time, and through my photographs, share the understanding of these moments.”

Before you dive into our interview with her and view more of her series, go listen to this playlist of Tom Waits to get into her headspace behind the creation of these images. If you choose to skip that, listen to what she had to say about her series and then go back and listen to this playlist: “These images are perhaps my interpretation of the essence of the song, and how it represents an experience in my life. I will pluck out a single line, usually, that I can relate to and visualize it into my interpretation of my remembered reality.”

INTERVIEW

Michael Behlen: Our original interview first took place in 2017. What has changed in your world? How has 2020 been to you?

Polly Chandler: Since the start of the Pandemic, time has revealed itself to be full of trickery. At times life inside a pandemic moves in long lulls of confusion, endless stretches of introspection and boredom interspersed with sudden, loud, spurts of information and fear. In the end I'm left unsure of who or what to trust. The years prior to 2020 was a similar series of moments for me, sometimes seemingly meaningless and sometimes quietly prolific. But undoubtedly, overwhelming.

MB: Do you have any Type 55 left and are you still making work for this series?

PC: I rarely photograph anymore, even though I have plenty of my favorite film stock, Polaroid Type 55. When I discovered photography years ago, it was as if I found my voice. I find it difficult to articulate or express myself verbally, and traditional photography allowed me to cultivate my imagination, creativity, and storytelling in a way that other folks could relate to, creating a connection between me and the observer. I love trying to puzzle together a complex and intricate narrative into one single film-frame. My photographs are small vignettes into my life experiences and my emotional journey. I'm looking for a connection through my work. If I managed to move anyone, or evoke some sort of emotion in my photographs, then I've succeeded.

MB: How has the landscape of the photography world changed for you since the last time we spoke?

PC: In this time of technology I fear there aren't many places left for an aging, analog film-lover. I can appreciate the massive benefits of the tech-era, but mostly I feel there are so many "voices" talking at once, that it's impossible to hear anything at all but noise. Curiosity and dedication to skill seems to be replaced by filters, apps and instant gratification. But maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am wrong.

But, again, as we progress into a digital-only world, I find myself less and less inspired. Everything is starting to sound and look the same. Autotune, Facetune, Photoshop etc. Trying to share art in the world today feels like trying to sing Amazing Grace in the middle of a riot. Nobody is listening, and if someone did happen to hear, does it even matter? A little voice inside me suspects it does matter.

But, for now, I'll simply try to quiet my mind while the world seems to spin out of control. And maybe when the dust settles, just maybe, I'll have a hankerin' to pick up my large format camera, dust off the ol' imagination and get back to work. So, at the risk of sounding like an aging hippie, sitting in my yard yelling at the kids to stay off the grass and turn their music down... well, if you don't mind, it is loud and your shoe is on my flowerbed. *shakes fist at the sky”.

MB: Will you share with us your history with photography? What drew you to use instant photography as a medium?

PC: I double majored in both Graphic Design and Studio Art in Undergraduate School in the mid-90’s. I happen to take “Photography For Design Majors” my very last semester and realized I had found my passion. I moved to St. Louis for a couple of years while in my early 20s working in the Marketing and Graphic Design department at Wild Oats Market (Whole Foods greatest competitor in the 90s until it was bought out by Wild Oats), but realized I wasn’t happy working in that field and went back to southern Illinois, where I not only grew up, but got my undergraduate degrees. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, but I did know I wanted to go to Graduate School. So, I took a class in the Photography Department, which is separate from the Fine Arts at SIU. And realized I couldn’t stay away from photography. I registered myself as a “Non-Declared Grad Student” (yes, that was actually a thing then), and began working my butt off in the photography department proving I would be a great candidate for the Master’s Program in Photography. One year later, I was accepted.

MB: When did you begin shooting instant film, was their an experience or ‘aha” moment?

PC: To be honest, I had 3 jobs, and as you may know, a lot of theory classes where you write 10-20 papers, all the while also photographing, processing film, printing in the traditional darkroom, and then meeting with your Graduate Committee, along with a full class load. There was no “aha” moment, I used Type 55 because it was easy. But after awhile, I began to fall in love with all of its qualities (50 ISO, the thin negative, the fact that I could proof my 4X5 negatives as I photographed in the field, etc.). It didn’t take long for it to become my film of choice! Y

MB: You work almost exclusively with expired Polaroid Type 55 black and white film. When did you first begin using this combination for your personal work? What other camera(s) and films do you use? When you are not shooting expired Polaroid film, what film are you shooting and why?

PC: The ONLY reason I’m shooting expired Polaroid 55 is because they discontinued it. I was using it years before they got rid of it. When I figured out they were going to stop producing it, I took out a credit card and charged $11,000 worth of it when it was still only $50/box. That’s the film I am still using to this day, as I have an entire fridge full of film. I would have never chosen to use expired 55, it was taken out of my hands. I also use Polaroid type 665 or Ilford sheet film, every once in awhile.

MB: What would you recommend to youth who want to enter the art world on a professional level? Would you recommend that they pursue a formal education or that they teach themselves?

PC: I think that because of the abundance of “smart cameras” and smart phones, most people are already calling themselves photographers. My question to those who say that is “Can you use your digital SLR manually?” If the answer is No, then I don’t consider them to have put in the work to call themselves a “pro”. I also am leery of just how sloppy most of the work I see now is. What I’m finding as an instructor, is that the day of the “Decisive Moment’ is gone. In other words, understanding the technical aspect of your equipment, and having crafted that until it’s like the back of your hand, so that you’re free to quickly adjust what you need to on your camera (metering, shutter speed, etc.) in the field, and can make a creative choice without even having to struggle with the technology. I liken the over-use of Photoshop to photography, as Auto Tune is to music. You no longer have to be able to “sing” in photography anymore, you can fake it.

MB: The work you have produced in “You Build It Up, You Wreck It Down” is centered around the theme of rendering your experiences, emotions and quest for purpose, through your understanding of Tom Wait’s music. Have you always been inspired by music in your creation of photographs? What are the parallels (or opposites) from what you get out of music and shooting photography?

PC: No, this project was the first body of work where I was inspired by someone else’s art. I had just left the House of Representatives as a Staff Photographer, and went for a walk listening to Tom Waits. “What’s He Building In There” was playing, and I could literally “see” the imagery he was singing. So, from there sprang the project “You Build It Up, You Wreck It Down”. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding as though “it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car”.

MB: How does Wait’s distinctive music style influence your creation of this series? Was it 100% lyric based or based on the mood and tone of his songs?

PC: I’d been listening to Waits on and off for years, but wasn’t necessarily an avid fan, his voice takes some getting used to. It was his lyrics that were initially, and have continued to be, the impetus behind that series.

MB: What inspired you to start this project? How did it change or evolve while you were shooting and completing it? Would you even consider this project to be “finished”?

PC: Again, the inspiration literally came to me on a walk while listening to a song of his, and from there came to life. I’ve worked on it on and off for many years now. And, no, I don’t consider it finished. I’m not sure when it will be, actually!

MB: How has the project changed you while shooting it? What have you learned about yourself in the process of creating it? Were there any surprises along the way?

PC: That’s a very difficult question to answer specifically, as I’ve been working on for nearly 10 years. So, of course it’s changed as I’ve worked on it, but I don’t have a one-liner to explain it, nor am I entirely sure how it has changed. Sometimes the answers come in their own time. There are always surprises in making photography! If they ever stop, I think I’ll be finished with the medium.

MB: When looking at your photos from your series we get a sense of surrealism with dark undertones. What are you trying to tell the viewer with your images? Is it up to us to determine the story you are telling from our own perspective?

PC: In, not just the Tom Waits project, but the “Emotional Narratives” I make, all of the subjects in the images are “stand-ins” for me. All of the images are autobiographical. That doesn’t mean they are linear. Sometimes I’ll make an image, whether for the TW project, or just because I felt the compulsion to make it, where I often don’t know the “reasoning” behind it. Sometimes it takes time for even me to figure out what it represented. I can look back at an image later, think about what I was going through or experiencing in my life, and it will click as to why I made the image. While others are very much planned. It just depends.

MB: Ideally all photographers would plan their photography in the way you do, with such foresight and focus. What can you tell us about your photographic workflow from idea creation, to location scouting, to the final execution?

PC: Particularly since the film I use is no longer made, I definitely sketch ideas, then I’ll location scout (sometimes using my iPhone to snap a shot of a location), then make notes and more sketches until it fits with the right moment in my life, or the right subject is available to pose for me. I keep a journal of printed lyrics from Tom Waits, and I often sketch in the sidelines.

MB: Since 2009, you have been an adjunct instructor at the Art Institute of Austin, and you teach courses ranging from classic darkroom techniques to Photoshop manipulation. How has your experience been teaching photography to students? Do you see any trends emerging from classes of photographers rising through the ranks that exit your classroom?

PC: I’ve seen enrollment go from 250 students in the photography program to only 38 now. It’s the digital camera, and the smart phone. People now believe anyone can be a photographer. I believe what’s happening in tandem, is that the general non-photographer population cares less and less about image-quality, as well as the photography market is being flooded with self-pronounced photographers. In my opinion, the craft, knowledge and quality of photography is being so washed out with the sheer numbers of imagery people post. I believe it to be a dying art/ vocation.

MB: As I am sure you debate in the classroom, what are you views on the classic debate of “Analog Vs. Digital?” Do your students feel differently? Do you foresee a shift in the art world when it comes embracing the instant-analog medium? Not in a “hipster” way, but treating it as a more “serious” art form?

PC: That debate is pretty dead. About 90% of the students I teach have never even seen a negative. All they know is digital photography. I don’t bother trying to debate it; they don’t “get” it. I have had students call a wet-darkroom contact sheet “creepy”. I have a theory that pop-culture has appropriated film photography into the horror culture. There are horror films now, one called “Polaroid”, “Camera Obscura,” etc. It drives me nuts, but there seems to nothing I can do about it.

MB: From 2004-2008, you were the staff photographer for the Texas House of Representatives. This must have been an experience! Can you tell us about how you came to have this position? What did you take away from this position that helped you grow as a creative photographer?

PC: That was a great job, although it’s not as glamorous as it sounds. We, as the photographers for the Representatives, mostly took group shots of constituents, headshots of the Reps, photographed on the house floor while they debated. What I took away from it was that there are many niches in the photography world, but that I needed to let that job go in order to preserve my passion for making my own work. After a 9-5pm, 40-hour week position of photographing for an institution, I began to lose any interest in making my own work. So, I left in order to get back to why I loved photography. But, the trade off was I have to live much more meagerly now. I can’t say it helped my creativity, it helped me realize what I was cut out for, and what I wasn’t.

MB: Did you ever have the opportunity to shoot the legislature on instant film? If so, what did they think about your analog process and the resulting images?

PC: No. Not at all. As Staff, we used the film they gave us. Session is so fast-paced; there was no time to pull out my own camera. And even if there had been, the State would have owned the images I made. So, no. We shot film at the House of Representatives for 3 of the 4 years I worked there anyway, for archival purposes. So I did work with film, but none of it do I own.

MB: You have already achieved so much in your photographic career in the last 20 years. Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

PC: I’m not sure I’ve been photographing 20 years quite yet. To be honest, I’m having “creative block”. What’s happening lately in the photographic world is, after making my film work, which can take up to 5 hours, after all that blood sweat, and tears, I get questions like, “What app did you use?” or “Where did you buy your borders?” In other words, the craft, the difficulty that makes me respect anyone who works in a craft that takes talent and hard work, is lost in this world of instant imagery. I am beginning to feel there’s no purpose in making my work anymore. I made it in order connect with people. But not just that, to show that I understand a difficult process and show what I can do with it. Now that B&W photography is considered nostalgic or “creepy,” and no one understands how much hard work goes into large format photography. I’m wondering what is the point? I am not sure if I’m done with it or not, but it’s been two years since I made a large format photograph.

MB: Are there any other artistic disciplines that interest you that you would like to pursue, even if not full-time?

PC: I read a lot, so writing has been more of an interest lately. Honestly, I’m struggling with the grief I feel for the loss of the respect, the well-honed craftsmanship of film photography, and I need to let that pass before I figure out what is next for me.

GALLERY

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Polly Chandler grew up in Southern Illinois and graduated with an MFA in photography from Southern Illinois University. She has exhibited her work nationally and her photographs have been published in magazines such as Photo District News, American Photo and B&W Magazine. About her body of work, she says "There are those occurrences that sit with us and settle into who we are. Some are more forceful than others. I am seeking to explore those identifiable instances that seem to slow time, and through my photographs, share the understanding of these moments."

Connect with Polly Chandler on her Website!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Behlen is an instant film addict and the founder and publisher of Analog Forever Magazine. For the last 6 years, Behlen has become an obsessive community organizer in the film photography world, including launching the independent publishing projects PRYME Magazine and PRYME Editions, two enterprises dedicated to the art of instant film. Through these endeavors, he has featured and published 200+ artists from around the globe via his print and online publications.

He has self-published two Polaroid photobooks -“Searching for Stillness, Vol. 1” and “I Was a Pioneer,” literally a boxed set of his instant film work. His latest book, Searching for Stillness Vol II was published in 2020 by Static Age. He has been published, been interviewed, and been reviewed in a quantity of magazines and online publications, from F-Stop and Blur Magazine to the Analog Talk Podcast. He loves the magic sensuality of instant film: its saturated, surreal colors; the unpredictability of the medium; it’s addictive qualities as you watch it develop. He spends his time shooting instant film and backpacking in the California wilderness, usually a combination of the two.

Connect with Michael Behlen on his Website and on Instagram!

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