Eugénie Frerichs, Untitled from the series SCORPIO — Eugénie Frerichs, Untitled from the series *SCORPIO*

Interview by Qimei Fu

Can you talk a little bit about the Scorpio Series?

SCORPIO is a project that imagines the world without water. It’s also about seeking, adaptation, resilience, and survival. I made the work in 2015-2016 while spending a lot of time in the deserts of southern California. I had been drawn to the desert because it was so foreign – being from the Pacific Northwest, the total absence of water was for me very unfamiliar. But after spending extended periods out there, I learned that life – albeit strange – was abundant, and those that survived in the desert were incredibly resilient and hardy. The work became an homage to that. To put up with conditions that aren’t precisely ideal for life – extreme temperatures, little to no water – and yet figuring out a way to make life work.

How did you start to do photography?

I first got into photography at the Colorado College, back in the 90s, where I studied dance and art history. I was doing some modeling for a local photographer and found myself more drawn to understanding the process of making pictures than to being in them. I became his assistant pretty soon after that, and I’ve worked in the photo industry in one form or another ever since.

What caused you back to school after so many years in the industry?

I decided to pursue an MFA in photography after working in the photo industry for over a decade. In that time, I had worked as a producer, a photo editor, an art director, a creative director, and a champion of many great photographers’ beautiful work. While I was always making my own pictures on the side, it was never the priority. Grad school was meant to be time for myself and my work. Of course, it didn’t work out that way. I ended up trying to balance a role as the director of photography at a global clothing brand while also being deep in school, and midway through, I sort of buckled from the weight. I took two years off from school before finally wrapping it up in 2018-2019. In hindsight, I’m very glad I took five years to complete a two-year MFA—my work felt more clear in the end. And someday, eventually, I’d like to teach. MFA’s are good for that, too.

What are you working on now?

This summer, I started my third project about water. SCORPIO was the first, imagining a world without it; WATER SALAD was the second, taking an obsessive look at my water consumption while living in a small town in southern California—this was the project I ended up completing for my MFA. The new project, GUSHER, is about water’s abundance, and I’m shooting it back home in Oregon.